The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Carl Sagan, 1995 The Demon-Haunted World is a fine compilation of skepticism for beginners. Structured as a series of related essays, the book explores the need for skeptical and critical thinking, offers some tips, and systematically takes down a few pseudo-sciences. Sagan reaches out to the reader, and in the nicest way imaginable, says: 'You're not a bad person, but here's why you really need to stop just blindly believing in things.' I personally found the book a little long, and with a bit too much time spent on UFOs. It was an important work when it came out, but only 15 years later it feels quaint to me to consider people who report UFOs as a large population, one needing to be engaged with. He also addresses faith healing, channeling, and other instances of magical thinking, but a sizable chunk of the book is spent debunking UFO sightings and alien abduction stories. There is a per...

This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View This week's question: Share your current fav television show! Tell us a bit about it... Okay, I'll split this into a few sections. Favorite live-action show that's currently airing: Castle Okay, so it's the only major network show currently airing that I'm watching regularly. But, how can I resist Nathon Fillion and super-adorable banter! It consistently amuses me. Favorite animated show that's currently airing: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes  (It's close, though. I'm anxiously awaiting a chance to see the Birds of Prey-ish episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold ) Avengers is an awesome, surprisingly complicated series, with great writing and great action. Plus they keep introducing obscure characters that I want to know more about. The theme song's pretty terrible, though. Favorite just aired thing:  Downton Abbey , a fantastic BBC costume drama that aired on...

Rogue Oracle Alayna Williams, 2010 New Release! Copy provided by the publisher for review. Premise: Tara is an oracle, with the talent to see the future in the cards. She uses her talent to help her work as a forensic psychologist. She'd worked for a government agency until the time she helped profile a serial killer who ended up attacking her. Since then she's been trying to stay out of Special Projects, but now her sometime lover has a new case that needs her special gifts. I hadn't read the previous book in this series ( Dark Oracle ), but I didn't feel lost at all. Kudos for books that can stand alone or work together. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was a quick read, and a page-turner. It says urban fantasy on the spine, but I might call it a paranormal crime thriller. It reminded me strongly of the Diana Tregarde books by Mercedes Lackey. There's horror and action, and romance as well, but romance is not the core of the book by a long shot. ...

Favorite Book This Week: American Vampire #12 All books were new in stores on 2/23/11 American Vampire #12 (Strange Frontier) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Danijel Zezelj This was a fun, dark one-off story, almost a break between the last few story-lines and the ones ahead. It's a flashback of sorts, filling in a bit more of Skinner Sweet's background. I loved it. I loved the set-up, I loved the plot, I loved the dialogue. About the only thing I didn't love was the cover, which I found somewhat bland. As for the art inside, I'm not in love with Zezelj's style, but it worked for this issue. Rafael Albuquerque seems set to return as main artist next issue for a WWII arc. I'm excited. X-Men Legacy #245 (Age of X Chapter 1) Written by Mike Carey Pencils: Clay Mann, Inks: Jay Leisten, Colored by Brian Reber I'm amused by this alternate/parallel/whatever take on the X-Men. I don't like the sheer number of characters in this issue, although ...

Hi all Yes, it's another meme, but I quite like lists, so... here we are. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish . This week's prompt is: Top Ten Book to Movie adaptations I'm trying to only choose works in which I've read the book AND seen the movie, and the adaptation is good, and both the book and movie are decent. (This eliminates things like The Great Mouse Detective , which is a great movie based on a boring book, or many of my favorite Bond movies, in which the book is great, the film is great, but the two have nothing to do with each other.) In No Particular Order, my picks are: 1: Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003) Is this one, or three? Whichever. While plenty was cut, and plenty was changed, this still stands as a fantastic adaptation. 2: Sherlock Holmes (Granada TV Series) Gorgeous, spectacular adaptations of Doyle's stories. No other version of Holmes on film makes me as happy, and most of why I love it is the...

Chronicles of the Black Company Glen Cook, 2007  (Originally published in three volumes, Copyright 1984, 84, 85) Premise: Fantasy warfare from a ground-level perspective. The story of the morally questionable mercenaries who make up The Black Company is told by the company physician and historian, known as Croaker. This volume compiles the first trilogy of Black Company books: The Black Company , Shadows Linger , and The White Rose . It's a fantastic read. Thank you to all my Seattle friends who recommended this book to me. It did take me a little bit to get used to the style at the start of the first one. The narrative opens with almost no explanation, just snippets of what's happening as the city The Company is working in begins to collapse around them into rioting factions. They make more than a few hard decisions in order to escape the situation, and take service with a new employer. And then the story really begins. This is an outstanding work, esp...

The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster, 1961 I loved The Phantom Tollbooth growing up. It was on my shelf of favorite books for a very long time. I loved the wordplay, I loved the characters, and as a reader and an intellectual child, I loved the message and the whole idea. Now, however, I read it, and it's good, but it feels just a little... thin. I get some of the jokes that passed over my head as a child, and they're corny or on the edge of pedantic. It's still a great book on a lot of levels. It's whimsical and charming. Honestly, I'd probably enjoy more of it if I hadn't read and re-read it to the point of memorization when I was young. Comparisons with Alice in Wonderland are very apt, both in tone and subject, as well as a sense that a person needs to be in a certain mood to really enjoy it. The world through which Milo travels is made up of metaphor, and is very surreal. “As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, ...