A professor on campus handed me a book the other day with the comment, “I hand this to promising students.” The title is God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams. The same Scott Adams that creates the weekly, Dilbert comic strip, but this book is totally different.
It is so different that the first book was only available in e-book format. Publishers were afraid a print source would not sell to the average Dilbert reader. Now, one can get it in print form thanks to positive word-of-mouth reviews.
Author Adams takes on the age old debate, science versus religion. If one is scientific in nature others around generalize that the person is less likely to believe in God. One of my heroes, Galileo, endured Catholic persecution because of this general attitude; although, he professed to embrace the Catholic Church and its teachings his entire life.
In the book the author presents a theory which I find comforting. It all begins with a conversation between delivery man and wise recipient. During the discussion, they both agree that God is omnipotent and knows the future. With this in mind, they begin to theorize that God might be bored. If he knows the future, nothing is left to chance.
What if God tries to destroy his omnipotence and start again from scratch? In order to do this they feel he will have to blow himself up and return to Earth in billions of little living cells. In essence, the Big Bang Theory, but here is the comforting part. God becomes a part of all of us, and the animals, and the plants, rocks, etc.
I need to stop here before I divulge the whole story. Oh, but I do so want to tell you more!
I see why the professor encourages his students to read this book. There is an in-your-face discussion on two subjects that tend to mix like oil and water. It is an encouraging conversation though, and one many students might be struggling with as they prove facts through scientific methods and mathematics.
One of the ongoing discussions through the story centers on mathematical probability. It is my conviction 50 percent of the readers will either love or hate this book. Adams’ follow up book is oddly titled, Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
God's Debris (copy)
Friday, August 22, 2008
USA vs. UK
ok cover?Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Jimmy's Stars (copy)
It was a crisp September morning when I had the uncontrollable urge to pop Victoria. I had truly had enough. Enough of the “my brothers are all Marines,” or “the real fighting is in the Pacific,” or “I bet one of my brothers did something heroic today.”
Yeah, yeah, the big blabber mouth, but then she turns to me and calls my brother a slacker! What! My brother is no slacker. Jimmy is a hero. When dad broke his leg, Jimmy stepped in and began to deliver the mail. It was our family’s only income, and Jimmy never missed a beat.
Being a blabber mouth, Victoria had no idea when to stop. She got all snobby and said, “Well, your dad’s been back to work for three months. I call that a S – L – A – K -…” I didn’t let her finish the spelling bee. I shut her up with a right to the source of blab, but missed and got the corner of her eye and nose instead.
In the long run, I got it back two-fold. See, Victoria is a rather big girl who can carry her weight with four older brothers. I don’t know what I was thinking other than she was wrong. Jimmy didn’t need some stinking war to prove his bravery. He is, and will always be, my hero.
It gave me a little secret pleasure knowing Victoria would have to walk around with a shiner like mine. I hope she saw stars. Four stars to be exact. One for every brother in the service, like the service flags that sprung up after Pearl Harbor.
Although, these stars kind of give me the creeps. You know the blue stars for each member serving in the forces and gold for those whom will not return, I consider them bad luck. I have a little routine I do when passing a flag hanging in a window or on a porch. I like to cross my fingers and spit in the gutter; although, my mother would die of shame if she saw me.
I was right about the bad luck. When I got back home, in the mailbox was an official letter from the Selective Service for a Mr. James Armstrong McKelvey. Jimmy was being drafted, and I had no say.
Author Mary Ann Rodman has written a timeless character in Ellie McKelvey. This 11-year-old gives an honest, through the eyes of one figuring it out, look into World War II. From the title, Jimmy’s Stars, one may guess the ending will require tissues.
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Bus Rolls in...
The First ever Kidz Book Buzz Blog Tour is underway featuring author Mary Ann Rodman. An up-and-coming author with five books on her resume: Jimmy's Stars, Yankee Girl, My Best Friend, with First Grade Stinks coming out next month, and Surprise Soup coming out in the Spring of 2009!
I first read Yankee Girl for a mock Newbery Award class in 2005. I enjoyed it tremendously and bought a copy for the Como Public Library. It is nice to have the perspective of a white female, student narrator relating the story of Mississippi's school integration. So many of the black students come away from a civil rights unit thinking all whites are racist. Through the narrator, they explore the thoughts of a girl not from there, dare-I-say, a Yankee!
Please visit other tour participants for reviews and book giveaways. The bus stops at these blogs: 01 Charger, A Childhood of Dreams, A Christian Worldview of Fiction, A Mom Speaks, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Book Review Maniac, By the Book Reviews, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, Homeschool Buzz, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Maw Books, Small World Reads, The Friendly Book Nook
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Want to hear a true Southern Voice?
I went to a workshop last October in which the leaders stressed creating ADA compliant blogs. I started at 11:00 this morning and here is the final result. The picture is a little too much, but podOmatic has only one widget. My goal is the small Odeo widget at the bottom of posts. I would love any help or tips y'all might want to send my way.
Wonder if you can edit my drawl out?!?
Friday, August 15, 2008
Cheers Y'all!
Don't bother just to be betterthan your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself. ~ William Faulkner
Congratulations to all southern readers.
I raise my glass to y'all!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
E-Booktalk (copy)
Driving into work this week, I happened to see the oddest thing. Among a group of school children waiting for the bus stood a scrawny child of eight or nine. Her small frame wobbled as she precariously balanced a backpack that looked like it contained four bowling balls. I imagine with a little help, one could empty the bowling balls and have her step in and zip it with ease allowing another child to carry her to school.
Ugh, the back trouble she will face as an adult has my librarian brain stirring. Thirty years from now, she might need exercise books to strengthen weakened muscles, books on spinal health, lists of chiropractics in the area, ratings on the best orthopedic shoes, diet books to keep excess weight off, and peeks into one of our Merck manuals.
What if we could combine all those textbooks into one handy, paperback-size wireless device? The time is approaching with the internet bookstore Amazon’s electronic book called Kindle.
I sound like a commercial, but at this juncture I am not advocating readers run to the nearest computer and order one. I, myself, have held out purchasing the rather expensive $360 e-reader that allows one to download a popular book for $9.99. I am really waiting on Santa.
Electronic books have been on the market for years. I first looked at software which allowed one to download a book onto her computer in 1999. Since that time, Sony has cornered the market with the eReader. The Sony eReader downloads pages through Portable Document Format (PDF) files for $12.95.
There are many reasons to be excited about Amazon’s Kindle. First, it is wireless. Not paid, subscription wireless, but walk anywhere cellular-phone wireless; plus, one need not buy a phone package to use. Second, the display monitor is not backlit like a computer. One actually has to treat Kindle like a real book by searching out a light source to read the text. Third, the size of the font can be changed to six different (one smaller and four larger than default) sizes. An older reader who enjoys large print books now has an unlimited selection from which to choose. Last, one can carry over 200 books within the 10.3 ounces a Kindle weighs.
As a librarian, I am delighted this product is on the market. Just think of all the backs and weary eyes Kindle will relieve. Oh, and the day textbooks become available, the world will change. All I can say is come on Christmas.
Have you tried Kindle?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Four More Days!
Awraight people! April at Cafe of Dreams won the autograph copy of Finn by Jon Clinch in the Name Your Blues contest with this entry Moody An Lovin Mama! Congrats Gurl!
The last time my hubby drew names for the pecans was July 11, so I'm way behind. Shame! I need to draw four names, and I thought I would go ahead and draw for this coming Friday's too.
- #46 Jmnlman at Strategist's Personal Library
- #12 Becky at Becky's Book Review
- #35 TX Mommy at Too Many to Count
- #37 Patti at Books Make Life Better
- #24 Mary at Bookfan
Congratulations Y'all!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Confederates in the Attic (copy)
Was it possible to fall asleep in 1997 and arise in 1865? Tony Horwitz stood frozen in awe by his second-story bedroom window. Rubbing the sleep away from his eyes, the dream persisted. Below, on his manicured Virginia lawn, Rebel forces seemed to be winning as the Yankees backed away from the sea of gray. Then, without the slightest warning, the spell was broken by a brash director yelling “Cut!”
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz, is the result of this early morning invasion. After winning the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1995, Horwitz moved to Waterford, Virginia, to focus on an unrelated book project. It was this spontaneous Civil War scene in his front yard that awakened distant boyhood dreams.
As a child, Horwitz delighted in spending time with his Poppa Isaac and the book of Civil War sketches. The obsession continued to grow as little Tony listened to his father read every night from a ten-volume set The Photographic History of the Civil War.
Horwitz writes, “For me, the fantastical creatures of Maurice Sendak [Where the Wild Things Are] held little magic compared to the man-boys of Mathew Brady who stared back across the century separating their lives from mine.”
Out amongst the morning revelers that day laid another man who grew up dreaming in blue and gray. Robert Lee Hodge, a waiter during peacetime, displayed a rare talent for rolling over and playing dead. Literally, Hodge was being paid by the movie company to do the “bloat,” a maneuver he learned through studying Mathew Brady’s famous Civil War photographs depicting death from battle aftermaths.
Horwitz recalls, “Hodge clutched his stomach and crumpled to the ground. His belly swelled grotesquely, his hands curled, his cheeks puffed out, his mouth contorted in a rictus of pain and astonishment. It was a flawless counterfeit of the bloated corpses photographed at Antietam and Gettysburg that I so often stared at as a child.”
It is the friendship between Horwitz and Hodge that provides comic relief throughout Confederates in the Attic. Readers will find the humor sustains their disbelief during the racism encountered as an uncivil war between black and white emerges.
