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The Jevlir Caravansary

Category: Uncategorized

  • Seven (or more) Deadly Words

    . . . in book reviews. In this intriguing post, Bob Harris crafts a compelling list of words that all writers should eschew when they muse upon the content of a book they are about to review. Unfortunately, despite his best use of vocabulary, I found his post neither lyrical nor poignant. Try harder Bob!

    Now I’m going to search on each of those words. I suspect that their only occurrences on this blog will be in this post. I must admit, however, that I both tend to use excessively complex syntax, and often words that are more obscure than necessary. I also fall afoul of (should that be on the list?) some of the words noted in the comments.

    Update: I find two reviews on this blog that use one of these words, one for “compelling” and one for “intriguing.” You will find “craft” in an entry about picking up a book at a craft show. The remaining four don’t occur. I’ll have to try harder! Also, HT to evangelical outpost.

  • Upgraded to WordPress 2.5 – More to Come

    I’ve been neglecting this blog for a few days, but I do have some things to write about. You can expect a couple of posts today, and then another couple by Saturday.

    The testing of WordPress 2.5 went from RC1 to RC3, and then to installing the final edition. I did most of the testing elsewhere, though I played with the layout of the site and checked plugins.

    I’m pretty happy with the new version, though I disagree with some of the choices made in the layout of the administrative pages.

    Stand by for more. . . .

  • Finished Reading Nefertiti

    I posted a mini-blog about Nefertiti when I first found it.  I have finished and would now rate it a 3.

  • Creation in Death

    My wife got me started with these J. D. Robb books, and I really liked the latest one, Creation in Death. Interesting psychology. There is a certain similarity to the books in the series, though.

  • Nefertiti

    I just found this mystery set in ancient Egypt. It’s near the top of my reading list.

  • Sneaky Pie Brown

    I’ve been on a Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown run in reading. I’ve just finished Pawing through the Past, and I’m starting Sour Puss.

  • Welcome to Miniposts

    I’ve added the Miniposts2 plugin, and I’m going to use this for current reading comments and links to books I won’t review in full. Watch this space!

  • Book: Born in Death

    J. D. Robb continues the saga of Eve Dallas and Roark with this delightful action story with some mystery. I found myself guessing ahead correctly a bit too often, but the story moves well in any case.

    Eve finds herself handling two complex cases simultaneously. With the department insinuating that she might not be trustworthy because she’s dealing with substantial amounts of financial data that might get to Roark, who might use it for his own benefit, she and Roark decide to tackle the issue head on and challenge the department, the criminals, and some very powerful people.

    All of this is entwined with the preparations for Mavis to give birth with Roark and Eve serving as coaches. At some times, one wonders which will be more challenging, the criminal element or the baby element. Eve survives the attacks of criminals, but a baby shower seems more challenging.

    I confess that J. D. Robb grows on me as time goes on. She’s one of the rare contemporary authors that I truly enjoy.

  • Book: Childe Morgan

    It has been sometime since I have read a Deryni book. I find this kind of fantasy that’s informed by history quite enjoyable to read, though you’ll not find it on my “read everything that is published” lists.

    Childe Morgan rates quite high in terms of characterization (excellent), cultural background (excellent), and political intrigue (excellent). I must admit, however, that the pace of events, especially of any form of action is a bit slow for my tastes. I have to admit to a certain love for reading matter that has exciting events at regular intervals. This book builds the threads of a final confrontation throughout the book, moving slowly and painstakingly through details of the lives of the characters setting up their reactions to that final scene.

    Make no mistake, this is a good book, but I have to give it a rating of “3” because I will still read folks like David Weber and David Drake first.

  • Audacity Audio Software

    In my continuing quest to find excellent open source or freeware applications that I can recommend I ran across the audio editing program Audacity. Well, actually I needed a program to create some MP3 files for a podast (Running Toward the Goal) and after some searching I chose this one.

    In any case, I have thus far found it to be an excellent tool, and well worth considering before you either pay money for something you haven’t tests or use one of the random quality sound file editors that come with sound cards. I’m not very sophisticated with audio, but this has made it simple for me to do the type of basic editing I do, such as removing portions of a file to clean it up, converting the file from WAV to MP3 or the reverse, and so forth.

    I’ll be adding it to my recommendations for free software.