The Nature of Things

For "Throwback Thursday," I'm continuing with the rerunning of my reviews of the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I read beginning in December of 2011. This is number three in the series, A Storm of Swords . ~~~ Monday, December 26, 2011 A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) by George R.R. Martin: A review This series just gets darker and darker. George R.R. Martin continues to show no compunction about killing off his characters. Of course, he's got about a million of them so there are plenty to spare! The clash of the kings continues in this volume. The five contenders for power in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros wage their wars across the face of the land and no one is safe or secure. Robb Stark still rules in the North and has not yet lost a battle. The execrable Joffrey Lannister still sits on the Iron Throne most recently occupied by his putative father, Robert Baratheon. Robert Baratheon's brother, Stannis, has ...

The Overlook by Michael Connelly My rating: 3 of 5 stars It begins with Harry Bosch, newly reassigned to Homicide Division of the LAPD, getting a call from his lieutenant in the middle of the night. A body has been found on the Mulholland overlook. It is a man who had been shot execution-style with two bullets to the back of the head. The body was found next to his car which had its trunk left open. On the floor of the trunk, indentations in the carpet showed that something very heavy and square had been positioned there, but whatever it was is now gone. Bosch and his new partner, Ignacio Ferras, are assigned to the case, but very soon the FBI shows up. It develops that the heavy thing which had been carried in the car's trunk was a lead "pig" which contained radioactive cesium. The murdered man was a medical physicist who worked with several hospitals that handled radioactive medical material. The investigation reveals that, at the last hospital he visited, he took the ...

Our two month long dry spell was broken over the weekend with a considerable amount of rain. We've gotten over six inches of rain so far and it is continuing.  The rain was welcomed by the thirsty garden and the gardener. It came too late for a few of my plants, which are going to have to be replaced, but it gives a second lease on life to many others. And then there are the tough plants that just keep on keeping on, rain or shine. Those are the plants I love.  Texas sage ( Leucophyllum frutescens ) has blooms that are triggered by rainfall. My plant is in full bloom now.  The 'Graham Thomas' rose is at its best in the autumn and it is getting a head start on the season. Blue plumbago just never quits. All the beautyberries are sporting a bumper crop of berries this late summer, including the white variety...  ...and the purple variety. The 'Pride of Barbados' ( Caesalpinia pulcherrima ) continues its long season of bloom. As do all the crape myrtles. Duranta erecta...

In a few days, we'll be able to enjoy August's full moon. Meantime, the Perseid meteor shower continues, even though its peak came on August 11, so our nights will be lit by heavenly magic of one kind or another. Richard Le Gallienne was an English poet of the last century who had a appreciation for the August moon, an appreciation which he expressed in this poem. August Moonlight by Richard Le Gallienne THE solemn light behind the barns,  The rising moon, the cricket's call,  The August night, and you and I—  What is the meaning of it all!  Has it a meaning, after all?  Or is it one of Nature's lies,  That net of beauty that she casts  Over Life's unsuspecting eyes?  That web of beauty that she weaves  For one strange purpose of her own,—  For this the painted butterfly,  For this the rose—for this alone!  Strange repetition of the rose,  And strange reiterated call  Of bird and insect, man and maid,—  Is that t...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Black Skimmer in flight over Galveston Bay. *~*~*~* Did you hear about the 400-year-old shark ? A new method of determining age in vertebrate animals has allowed scientists to determine that a female Greenland shark has reached that great age.  Grey, plump and growing to lengths of around five meters, the Greenland shark is one of the world’s largest carnivores. With a reported growth rate of less than one centimeter a year, they were already thought to be long-lived creatures, but just how long-lived was something of a mystery until now. *~*~*~* Another ancient species, now critically endangered, is facing yet another challenge. California Condors that feed on the dead carcasses of Pacific sea mammals may become poisoned by the mercury and other contaminants that have accumulated in the bodies of those mammals. Those contaminants can make it difficult if not impossible for the condors to reproduce. For a species whose ...

The Seed Collectors: A Novel by Scarlett Thomas My rating: 3 of 5 stars How do I even begin to try to sum up this book? First of all, it seems impossible to categorize, and if I can't easily fit it into one of my "reading boxes," how can I analyze my experience with it? It is literary fiction, but at some point, it slops over into mysticism and fantasy. It seems a bit like a cross between Kate Atkinson and Paulo Coelho. In the last third of the book, it is more Coelho than Atkinson and it sort of lost me there. This is the story of a family. A dysfunctional family - but then aren't all families dysfunctional to some degree? This one, however, is dysfunctional to the nth degree. This is the Gardener family. We meet the fourth and fifth generations of the clan descended from an English botanist and his Indian wife. The family tradition is that all children who do not carry the family name of Gardener will be named in honor of plants. Thus, we have Fleur, Plum, Ash, Bry...