Friday, August 25, 2006

RIP Pluto


Well, it is official. Pluto, known previously as the smallest planet has now had its planetary status rebuked. For those of you wondering why this has happened, the reason is that the definition a planet was changed. Pluto doesn't revolve principally around the sun, but revolves around the planet Neptune (which the last time I checked IS still a planet). Now, in reference to the ex-farthest planet, we have been instructed to use the politically correct term ICY DWARF.

~~~

UPDATE: Pluto's new name is No. 134340. Not very personable....

Sunday, August 13, 2006

The Summons -- John Grisham



I absolutely love John Grisham's work. I haven't read a single book of his that I haven't liked. The only one I have found that didn't interest me was Bleachers, but it strayed from his normal genre, and I didn't read it.

This book is about a law professor at a Virginia college who goes home when his father, a small town judge, summons him to talk about what is to happen with his estate. When Ray Atlee (the professor, but there is no Mary Ann) returns, he finds his father lying dead on the couch in the study of his dilapidated old house. There is a will on the Judge's desk, that quite simply states that the estate is to be split between the judge's 2 sons, Ray, and his younger, drug infested reprobate brother. Ray is the executioner of the will, and takes care to get funeral arrangements underway. Separating the estate would be simple - sell the house, and split it, along with the $6000 in the Judge's only checking account. The judge had given most of his money to charity over the years. When Ray was in the study, he moved the couch, revealing a cabinet -- a cabinet containing 3 million dollars in cash. Immediately, he moved it out, but it was too late. Someone else knew about the cash.

I really enjoyed this book. It was not so much the typical Grisham -- lawyers and court battles, which I also enjoy, but this was a good change of pace. There is a link to Grisham's website on the right side of the screen, and you can read more about his books from there. I also found a site, SquareBooks, that sells signed Grisham books for reasonable fees.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

The Hard Way -- Lee Child


This book was interesting -- not in a thought provoking, brain filling way, but in an 'I want to read a mindless thriller type book, because I am bored' type way. I liked it pretty well, though. It was a mystery about a man named Jack Reacher. Lee Child writes novels with this same man as her protagonist everytime. This is the first of them I have read, but there are 10 predecessors. The basic plotline was that a mercenary's wife and child had been kidnapped, and he hired Reacher to do find her. As Reacher digs into the man's past, though, he finds that it is possible that this might not be a kidnapping of the man's wife and stepdaughter, but a plot, much like the one that had rid Lane (the mercenary) of his previous wife a few years before....