My Mother’s Day gifts
Amber surprised me this morning with a card, and this adorable picture and bookmark. She's such a sweetie sometimes....
Another Dragon
This project is from Amber's (10) art class in school. It was hanging on a bulletin board in the main hall for a while and even from a distance I thought, "That looks like something Amber would do."...
Giveaway of The War Lovers by Evan Thomas
The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas
Here's the blurb:
On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor. Although there was no evidence that the Spanish were responsible, yellow newspapers such as William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal whipped Americans into frenzy by claiming that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship. Soon after, the blandly handsome and easily influenced President McKinley declared war, sending troops not only to Cuba but also to the Philippines, Spain's sprawling colony on the other side of the world.
As Evan Thomas reveals in his rip-roaring history of those times, the hunger for war had begun years earlier. Depressed by the "closing" of the Western frontier and embracing theories of social Darwinism, a group of warmongers that included a young Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge agitated loudly and incessantly that the United...
Quick note
I'm days late with this, but the winner of Flirting with Forever by Gwyn Cready is Jacquelyn. I hope you enjoy it! I'll just need your mailing address....
The Three Bears by Robert Southey
"The Three Bears" by Robert Southey
I always knew this story as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," but apparently in its earliest versions the bears' intruder is actually an old women. Southey's version is from 1837.
The story itself is familiar. A family of good-natured, trusting bears lives in a nice house in the woods. Each bear has his own chair, bowl of porridge and bed. One day when the three go for a walk in the woods while waiting for their porridge to cool, an ill-tempered, perhaps homeless, old woman enters their home, making sure no one is around to see her. She eats the little bear's porridge, breaks his chair and eventually falls asleep in his bed. That is where the bears discover her. The small bear cries out that someone has been sleeping in his bed and states she's still there. The old woman awakens and jumps out the...
Captain Bonny Morgan: The Cassandra Prophecy by Robert “Doc” Gowdy
Captain Bonny Morgan: The Cassandra Prophesy by Robert "Doc" Gowdy
While I was in the early chapters of this tale, I told my friends that it was like reading a sci-fi geek's lesbian fantasy. My friends, who are male by the way, said, well that's it then, that's the pinnacle, time to just stop awarding the Hugo and Nebula. Joking, of course.
Anyway, the farther I got into the book, the more I appreciated it. This space pirate adventure is engrossing, full of intrigue, secrets and fascinating characters. I'll grant you that the women, slaves, royalty and pirates alike are naked or close to it most of the time, but don't let that fool you. They are intelligent, powerful women.
This novel, the first in a planned trilogy, centers on the first steps to bringing down an evil empire. Captain Bonny Morgan, a beautiful, mysterious space pirate with some unusual abilities, has been commissioned to kidnap Princess Cossette, the Emperor's step-daughter, setting into...