b.rox

One of my photos is being used in a book called I See… Xmas; I’m not actually sure which photo but I think it’s this one which is odd because it has nothing to do with Xmas.

It should be noted: These are not book reviews. I think of them more as reading notes. This is my journal, and I’d like to record some thoughts on each book I read. That’s all.

Title: The Speed of Dark
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Published: 2002
So here’s a book that I enjoyed despite some glaring deficiencies. It’s the tale of a young autistic man. He’s high-functioning with a genius aptitude for pattern recognition, so he’s gainfully employed. In fact he’s part of a whole unit of autistic employees at some high tech company. [...]

Title: Glasshouse
Author: Charles Stross
Published: 2006
There’s usually a point in most novels where I feel the hook, where I no longer feel the effort of pushing forward and making myself read, but suddenly (or not so suddenly) find myself being pulled forward, intrigued, under the spell. I’ve noticed this usually happens somewhere around the hundredth page, [...]

Just learned of the untimely passing of New Orleans’ own Robert Asprin, creator of Thieves’ World and Another Fine Myth and many other science fiction and fantasy works.

No school today, so quiet — and then the machinery.

Title: Infinite Jest
Author: David Foster Wallace
Published: 1996
David Foster Wallace, you’ve gotten the better of me.
I started reading Infinite Jest shortly before my daughter was born. I’ve continued to plug away at it for three months.

Title: Just a Couple of Days
Author: Tony Vigorito
Published: 2001
[Spoiler warning: This review reveals basic elements of the story.]

Title: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Author: Julie Phillips
Published: 2006
If you go to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, you can see a huge gorilla beating its breast. It’s stuffed of course. It was shot on Mount Karisimbi in the Belgian Congo in November of 1921.
Alice B. Sheldon [...]

Title: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Author: James Tiptree, Jr.
Published: 1969-1981

He wails voicelessly as conviction invades him, he who had believed in nothing before. All the agonies of Earth, uncanceled? Are broken ghosts limping forever from Stalingrad and Salamis, from Gettysburg and Thebes and Dunkirk and Khartoum? Do the butchers’ blows still fall at Ravensbruck and [...]

Title: Spin
Author: Robert Charles Wilson
Published: 2005
Imagine you’re a kid looking up at the night sky and all of a sudden the stars vanish. All of them, instantly, gone in the blink of an eye. That’s the opening gambit for Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, and I was hooked. Imagine growing up in a world with [...]

Title: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler
Author: E. L. Konigsburg
Published: 1967
This book was published the year I was born. I figure I was around ten or so when I read it on a trip to the Field Museum in Chicago with my father. The story of two young kids about my age [...]

“The media… is where democracies conduct their civil wars.” — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 2004

Just got a package of books from my friends in Montana, J & Day. It arrived here at the University ten days ago, but for some reason it was just sitting down in the post office. I wonder if they would ever have called me if I hadn’t called them? Anyway, now I’ve got some [...]

For the last century, almost all top political appointments [on the planet Earth] had been made by random computer selection from the pool of individuals who had the necessary qualifications. It had taken the human race several thousand years to realize that there were some jobs that should never be given to the people who [...]

Both elevators are out of commission for the last few days, so I’ve been using the emergency stairwell to get to and from my office on the 5th floor.

The air is mighty stale in there. Going down these stairs reminds me of a very grim story, “Descending,” by Thomas Disch.
Except… wait, that was about [...]

I know I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but I thought I’d plug it again because my copy just arrived in the mail. Now that I’ve actually seen the book I can vouch for its quality.
I’m talking about Signs of Life. It’s a book of photos taken in New Orleans and around the Gulf [...]

A photo of mine is featured in the new book, Signs of Life. It’s this one, taken on September 25, 2005 just a few blocks from my home in Mid-City New Orleans:

Profits from the sale of the book go to Common Ground Relief and Hands On Network.

I just got my copy of Katrina-ku: Storm Poems, a compilation of haiku poetry about you-know-what, to which I contributed a little technical assistance.

It’s a beautiful little book, quite sad but also quite funny. Get your copy — they’re cheap!

“So you are tired of your life, young man! All the more reason have you to live. Anyone can die. A murderer has moral force enough to jeer at his hangman. It is very easy to draw the last breath. It can be accomplished successfully by a child or a warrior. One pang of far [...]