65th Book Review Blog Carnival

biography

Clark Bjorke presents My Father at 100 posted at I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!, saying, "A memoir by Ron Reagan, who disagreed with his father on most things, but still loved him."

book reviews

Mike Bergin presents Review of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds posted at 10,000 Birds, saying, "A review of an incredibly innovative North American bird guide."

Emm presents Book Review: Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay posted at Emm Media, saying, "Against the backdrop of the Vel' d'Hiv roundups in Paris in 1942, Tatiana de Rosnay weaves a powerful story about the choices we make in the name of love."

KerrieS presents Review: THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, Alan Bradley posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "if you are looking for cozy crime fiction that is a little bit different, with a sleuth who is certainly different, then this may be just the ticket. Make sure you have time to savour the careful prose though. And listen carefully - you may hear me chortling!"

Scather presents Scathing Weekly: BOOK REVIEW: The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert posted at Scathing Weekly, saying, "Scathing Weekly celebrates a love of good books, with weekly scathes at those books that are in fact (contrary to popular belief) shitbox... *Footnotes Included!"

Zohar presents Book Review: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer posted at Man of la Book.

Jim Murdoch presents Mavis’s Shoe by Sue Reid Sexton posted at The Truth About Lies, saying, "A strong novel about the trauma of the Clydebank Blitz during the Second World War told through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl, Lenny Gillespie. Lenny survives the bombing, but in the chaos of that night she cannot find her mum and her wee sister, Mavis. Told in an urgent, true-grit voice, the story describes the devastation of the blitz as seen through Lenny's eyes"

Eric Gargiulo presents A Review of Stephanie Dray’s Book “Lily of the Nile” posted at CamelCluchBlog.Com, saying, "When we think of Queen Cleopatra VII, we usually think of Liz Taylor in her stunning performance as the famous Queen, or of a sexed-up, indulgent woman who died by a bite from an asp. However, we do ourselves a disservice to pigeon-hole the Queen into a box."

Zohar presents Book Review: Hero by Michael Korda posted at Man of la Book.

JHSEsq presents Book Review: Born Under a Lucky Moon posted at Colloquium, saying, "Born Under a Lucky Moon is the debut novel from a talented and very promising new author, Dana Precious. Based upon her own childhood spent in North Muskegon, Wisconsin, the story revolves around the wacky Thompson family, particularly daughter Jeannie. She wants to marry her handsome boyfriend, Aiden, but is afraid that introducing him to her family will scare him off. After all, that's why she and her first husband, her hometown sweetheart Walker, broke up . . . isn't it? Born Under a Lucky Moon is a hilarious, sweet, poignant story about loving home and the folks there no matter what because, after all, they are always going to love you right back."

KerrieS presents Review: WHERE MEMORIES LIE, Deborah Crombie posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "lived up to my expectations of a good read. I confused myself just a little by having read a later title last year. If you are starting out, then do read some of the earlier titles in order."

Zohar presents Book Review: The Trinty Six by Charles Cumming posted at Man of la Book.

Zohar presents Book Review and Giveaway: so much for that by Lionel Shriver posted at Man of la Book.

BWL presents Bank On Yourself Review posted at Christian Personal Finance, saying, "This is a review of Pamela Yallen's "Bank on Yourself"- a controversial strategy of using insurance in a non-traditional way."

books

Mikaela Cowles presents Osmosis Lies ? Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts posted at Baguette Taste - Wonder Bread Budget, saying, "I love books and I love food and sometimes I love them together. Here is one such time."

JHSEsq presents Book Review: Katie Up and Down the Hall posted at Colloquium, saying, "The cover photo is a bit deceiving because it could lead readers to believe that Katie Up and Down the Hall is just a story about a dog. It is so much more! It is the story of how the runt of the litter -- a bow-legged, blonde little cocker spaniel who was never destined to be a show dog -- won the hearts of a disparate group of New York City neighbors, herding them together and, ultimately, making them into a family. Dog lovers will relate. Readers who have never owned a dog may well find themselves at the local shelter looking to expand their family after reading Glenn Plaskin's sweet, soulful memoir about the family of which he unexpectedly but grateful became a member."

Arminius Michael presents Read Books Online Free: April 2010 posted at Read Books Online Free, saying, "Fiction novels library, featuring the latest in digital flip book technology, providing you a unique online reading experience."

children's books

Amy Broadmoore presents 9 Books About Children From Around the World posted at Delightful Children's Books, saying, "At Delightful Children's Books, I am posting booklists and reviews of the best picture books I can find about each continent. To begin this series of posts, I shared this booklist of ten picture books about children from around the world.

Read Around the World Booklists:
Maps
Children Around the World
South America
Africa
Europe
The Arctic
Asia
Australia"

non fiction

Will Edwards presents Science of Getting Rich: The Certain Way posted at Personal Development, saying, "There is no question that there are some important insights in the book and I would certainly encourage you to read it if you have not already, but perhaps, for me, the opening chapter, about the causes of wealth, was something I particularly needed to understand. What is it that causes wealth? It is a very good question because it is true that if you can replicate those causes, then – by the law of cause and effect – you can also replicate the effects; that is, of course, the ‘science’ part of the title."

Wakela Runen presents Review–An Apple A Day posted at Wakela's World, saying, "It is a wonderful book describing the origins and meaning of many different proverbs."

novel

Jeanne presents The Seduction of Water posted at Necromancy Never Pays, saying, "a novel about storytelling"

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Book Review Blog Carnival 42

The Book Review Blog Carnival is my little kingdom in the world of social networking. It has been around since September of 2008 and seems to be in good health with a fair chance it will live to see it's second birthday.


The forty second edition of the carnival is online today at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All. There are 23 entries, reviews of a wide variety of books. I would like to congratulate Ms. for doing a great job. Publishing, and editing, a blog carnival is a considerable amount of work.

You, too can become a contributor to the carnival if you have a blog and write book reviews. Just go to our blogcarnival.com page and follow the easy instructions. And don't forget to become fan of the Book Review Blog Carnival on Facebook.



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keywords: blogs, blogging, blog carnival, books, book reviews

41st Book Review Blog Carnival

Books with a cup of coffee . . is hosting this week's edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival. Naturally I have a review included, my review of Shane Harris' The Watchers.

The Book Review Blog Carnival appears, like Brigadoon, every other Sunday, on a different blog. If you write book reviews you can participate by submitting a link you your review through our page on blogcarnival.com.

Don't miss out! Join our Facebook fan page today.

Book Review Blog Carnival No.40

Welcome to the fortieth edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival. We have twenty one entries in this edition.

The Book Review Blog Carnival has a new Facebook fan page. You can keep up with announcements, upcoming carnivals and carnival news by becoming a fan. My hope is that both readers and participating bloggers will become fans. Trying to keep a mailing list of those who have participated and want to be apprised of carnival happenings has proven to be a herculean task. By using Facebook, you will be able to self manage your participation.

Submissions for upcoming carnivals can be made, as always, at our page on blogcarnival.com. The next edition will be published on April 11th at I Read . . . .

If you would like to be a carnival host on your blog, pleas contact me at the email address in the sidebar of this blog.

Children's Books Zoe Toft, at Playing by the book, listens to a recording of the original score by Sergei Prokofiev while reading Peter and the Wolf retold and illustrated by Ian Beck.
Crime Fiction KerrieS at Mysteries in Paradise brings us The Water's Edge by Norwegian author Karin Fossum., in which the Quuen of Nordic crime fiction tackles some tough issues.
Leaving Norway, KerrieS takes us to Botswana with A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley. This is Mr. Stanley's debut novel. Oh my, Michael Stanley is a they - Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip.
Missy Frye, who suffers from the Incurable Disease of Writing reviews Deliver Us From Evil by Robin Caroll. "A beautiful yet tough woman working in a beautiful yet tough setting, Brannon Callahan is a search and rescue helicopter pilot for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Strong faith and a decorated history of service have kept her one step ahead of on-the-job dangers, but there’s no precedent for what’s about to happen. After a blizzard takes down a small plane carrying U.S. Marshal Roark Holland (already haunted by a recent tragedy), Brannon must save him in more ways than one and safeguard the donor heart he’s transporting to a government witness on the edge of death. Otherwise the largest child trafficking ring in history—with shocking links from Thailand to Tennessee—will slip further away into darkness along the Appalachian Trail."
Fëanor reviews no less than fourteen crime novels, mostly written by European authors, in a post he calls Crime First Month at his blog, JUST A MON.
Novels Jim Murdoch wrote in installments about Too Many Magpies by Elizabeth Baines, on his blog, The Truth About Lies. Either the woman in the book who is having an affair with a man with bad teeth, or Jim Murdoch himself, is unstuck in time, like Billy Pilgrim.
Sumana, who is going to host our next carnival at her blog, I READ.... reviews Brick Lane by Monica Ali, a novel set in Bangladesh, which seems exotic to me but is near her home in Bengal.
Laurie Bluedorn, of Trivium Pursuit, read Bob, Son of Battle, a story aboot a wee dog and a wee laddie and a wee Scotsman, which is a bit of a tear jerker, at least in the part that Laurie quoted, and all written in dialect.
Jim, at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity just read the classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edin Lefevre , a novel about early twentieth century Wall Street.
Siobhan Curiouswas given Roberto Bolaño's The Skating Rink as a gift. She found it a difficult and rewarding read. See why at her blog, Classroom as Microcosm.
Elena reviews Crime and Punishment by Feyodor Dostoyevsky, or Why You Shouldn’t Smack Grandmas With Axes, at Russianize This.
Courage in Patience by Beth Fehlbaum is a novel about surviving child sexual abuse, and a must read, according to Adam at ZenTactics News Page.
Jim Murdoch writes about Herbert Morgan Waidson's translation of the 1842 novella, The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf, at The Truth About Lies.
Adnan Khalid at Eddy Straight From The Heart, read Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, which begins "I begin with the name of Allah, the most merciful. Once Upon a Time there was a prostitute...".
Science Fiction Elizabeth, of Imaginary Lands is nostalgic for the Star Trek Enterprise TV series and has reviewed a number of books written about the characters in that series, including Star Trek Enterprise: Last Full Measure.
Shannon Christman, The Minority Thinker doesn't like the ending of Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde . It is a book about a future distopia which bans most technology but retains eBay's feedback system and Fcebook's friending process. Chilling idea.
Graphic Novels Max Nolan reviews xxxHolic #1 on his blog, Let's review comics!. I was a bit worried about the title at first, but xxx apparently doesn't have the same connotation in Japanese.
Emm, at Addicted to Media, says that Fool’s Gold by The Dearne High is a revelation about the potential of graphic novels and of high school students.
History I reviewed Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England right here on this blog. I thought that it was a shame that Mortimer didn't include any hints how to get to medieval England. It's a bit misleading, in my opinion. I had my bags packed.
Self Improvement Fred Grazton presents what at first seems to be a parody of self help books, The Lazy Way to Success at Your Best Library. I've been doing that all my life, with mixed results. It would appear that Fred is the author of this book. Reviewing your own work, eh? I don't think Fred is as lazy as he lets on.
Other Stuff Mari Partyka blogs about listening to audio books on her iPod while running, in Reading My Way to an Ultramarathon at Bookworm with a View. Mari is not lazy at all.

Another Carnival Already!

Read Book Review Blog Carnival #38 at Best Book's Review and find yet more books to add to your to be read pile.

Book Review Blog Carnival

There are two new editions of the Book Review Blog Carnival published since I last mentioned it. Kitsch Slapped is hosting carnival #36 and #37 is at Mysteries in Paradise. North Dakota and South Austrailia!

If you review books you can participate in the Book Review Blog Carnival by submitting your blog posts here.

Happy Valentines Day

Book Review Blog Carnival the 33rd Edition

Due to a series of unfortunate events, not attributable to Lemony Snicket, I am posting the 33rd edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival here, on my own book review blog - a day late and a dollar short. While you are here you might want to click on the little MP3 player icon over in the sidebar and listen to the new recording I made of Jimmy Durante's song which I named this blog after. Please visit and leave comments on some of the many blogs that have submitted book reviews to this carnival.

Without further ado, here is the 33rd Book Review Blog Carnival.

fiction

Jim Murdoch at The Truth About Lies, has written a review of The Invisible City by Emili Rosales. Jim says "The narrator receives an old manuscript about an ambitious project dreamt up by King Charles III. The manuscript contains hints about a lost masterpiece by the Venetian painter Tiepolo, and the site of the Invisible City is where he used to play as a child. The Invisible City is a gripping historical mystery and a compelling examination of the forces of power and love."

KerrieS reviewed  Executive Lunch by Maria E. Schneider at MYSTERIES in PARADISE. "This is the first time I have reviewed a book you can only buy as an e-book. crime fiction, with a larger than life heroine Sedona O'Hala, offered the chance to try an executive lifestyle in return for catching some thieves."

KerrieS also reviewed If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE. "Crime fiction set in Berlin in 1934, in a Nazi Germany hoping to host the Olympics in 1936."

Stephen Shaw of Craving Books has reviewed The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood."The Year of the Flood" is fine literary speculative fiction." I can't read his review because I'm in the middle of reading the book - one of my silly rules.

Stephen Shaw compares In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke, to The Year of the Flood which he calls "Romantic and haunted."

A.F. Heart writes about Knockout by Catherine Coulter   at Mysteries and My Musings. "13th in the FBI Thriller series opens with FBI Agent Dillon Savich as a customer in a bank when it gets robbed. It is a gripping read from the first sentence with two plot lines."

A.F. Heart also reviewed Sand Sharks by Margaret Maron. "#15 in Deborah Knott Mysteries. While at a legal conference, Judge Knott finds the body of a fellow judge and investigates."

Nymeth reviewed In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, at things mean a lot."In the Time of Butterflies is a fictionalized account of the lives of the Mirabal sisters. In the 1950's, the sisters opposed the regime of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, and as a result three of the four were murdered."

Surbhi Bhatia reviewed A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce at The Viewspaper.

Surbhi Bhatia reviewed A Case of Exploding Mangoes also at The Viewspaper .

Siddharth Garud, at Indian Eagle's Diary, presents 2 States by Chetan Bhagat.

emancave reviewed The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind at e-ManCave.com.

Sarah at SmallWorld Reads reviews The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver posted. It's in my to be read pile. Guess I'll skip this one, too.

children's books

Jeanne of Necromancy Never Pays, host of our last carnival, reviewed The Box of Delights "This is a book for all ages, particularly good for reading out loud on dark December evenings."

non fiction

Serena presents New Rules for Mortgages at Taylor-Brown Real Estate Talks.

Sparky Bates read Predictably Irrational - by Dan Ariely and reviewed it at Accidental Reads.

Rick Sincere brings us some holiday cheer with Christmas Carols: The Odd and the New at Rick Sincere News and Thoughts, saying, "A review of "The Daily Telegraph Book of Carols," by Ian Bradley"

BWL found a great sounding title: How to Smell a Rat by Ken Fisher. Read about it at Christian Personal Finance.

jim presents Frequent Flyer Master at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Effortless Abundance reviewed The Soul Truth  bu Shiela and Marcus Gillette at Effortless Abundance.

Susan Gaissert wrote about The Accidental American on her blog at My Political Side. "This is an excellent book about immigration from the viewpoint of immigrants who exemplify the American dream and American values."


Jim Murdoch must be talking about me in his review of Whiffling in Liff or what to buy a constipated logophile for Xmas  at The Truth About Lies." Everyone who loves words loves books about all the weird and wonderful words there are out there that hardly ever get used: foreign expressions, colloquial terms, slang words, gobbledygook, technobabble, queer place names … and every year new books come out that collect these under various guises. A discussion of the work of Adam Jacot de Boinod with nods to Douglas Adams and the plethora of bathroom readers out there."

Terry Holliday reviewed Walking in This World - Starting Over by Julia Cameron at My Creativity Blog. Terry says "Terry Holliday begins a series of articles based on Julia Cameron's book titled, "Walking in This World". Terry challenges readers to work through all 12 weeks with her." Is she related to Bob Dole?

Rhiana read  Saving Ben by Dan E. Burns, PhD. Find out who Ben is at A Frugal Life - Just the Two of Us.

biography

Clark Bjorke, that's me, read Pops byTerry Teachout. My review is at I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!. I have included some YouTube clips of Satch, so plan to spend some time with it.

Rod reviewed Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open on his blog Tennis Chump."Andre Agassi's book chronicles his journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance in transforming himself from the kid who hates tennis to one of the game's greatest ambassadors - well worth a read."

Book Review Blog Carnival # 32 is Posted

Necromancy Never Pays is our host this week. Stop by and visit. There are lots of reviews of lots of books of every kind.

Book Review Blog Carnival # 29

I posted the first Book Review Blog Carnival on this blog on September 28th last year. Since then there has been a carnival every other Sunday without fail. Today's carnival is hosted by a newcomer, Kitsch Slapped, a tastefully presented blog about bad taste.

The next edition, #30, will be hosted at the mother ship, the Book Review Blog Carnival blog. If you write book reviews on your blog you may submit a review to the carnival at our page at Blogcarnival.com. I'm also looking for hosts for next year. Email me at the address in the sidebar to the left if you would like to host a carnival.

Book Review Blog Carnivals: Two for the price of one!

The 28th edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival was posted this morning at Books For Sale?. NathanKP has given us a lovely, clean, minimalist post, with 15 reviews from 15 various blogs.

I realized this afternoon that I never posted about the 27th carnival, which went up two weeks ago at At Home With Books. My apologies to Alyce, who worked very hard to build us a beautiful carnival and deserves recognition.

Naming Nature

The Clash Between Instinct and Science
Carol Kaesuk Yoon

Whatever editor though up that dumb subtitle should be sent back to the mail room for reeducation. There is no clash in this book between science and instinct. Instinct is not even mentioned. What there is, is an interesting discussion of the way that esoteric systems of classifying the plants and animals of the world, used in the in he academic pursuit of biology, have become far removed from the way we, regular people, recognize them.

Yoon, a biology graduate student turned science journalist, calls this ordinary view of the natural world the "umwelt" (oom-velt) which is a German word for the way we, or the different ways other creatures, perceive the world. A creature's umvelt depends on what kind of senses that creature has, where it lives in the world, what it looks for to eat and what eats it. A dog's unwelt, for instance, has a lot to do with how things smell and prominently features squirrels and the postman. In our case, how we think about the world is another major factor.

Naming Nature contains an entertaining history of the study of taxonomy, starting with Carolus Linnaeus, known to his friends as Carl. Linnaeus devised the system, familiar from high school, of dividing life into domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. He established the tradition of naming species with two Latin names, the binomial system. Linnaeus' system is an artificial construct which helps us to comprehend the relationships between different plants and animals. Yoon makes the mistake of equating Linnaeus' taxonomy with the taxonomies of any and all cultures, saying that we all organize nature in our minds in the same way, even though she, herself, gives several examples of cultures that classify animals in bizarrely different ways. Her argument for the universality of Linnaeus is weak. It's also beside the point.

As she proceeds with the history of taxonomy Yoons point becomes clear. Just as physics has wandered far from the common sense of Isaac Newton into the far out realms of relativity and quantum mechanics, taxonomy has found, through statistical analysis, DNA matching and cladistics, all of which Yoon talks about in some detail without any MEGLO (My Eyes Glaze Over) effect, that some of the common sense relationships we believe in, among plants and animals, don't really exits. She quite proudly announces the demise of fish as a teaser at the beginning of the book. Her later explanation of this, having to do with the lungfish having characteristics similar to a cow, seems a bit off the wall, but no matter. That salmon I had for dinner was not a fish. I believe her.

Yoon calls for a revival of the umwelt in our daily lives. Don't let those snooty scientists tell you that nature is a strange place inaccessible to ordinary mortals. Go out there with your Peterson's Field Guides and revel in it before it's too late. Good advice. I think I'll shut off my computer now and go outside.

Ed Note: I went back and corrected the spelling of "umvelt." See the comments below.

26th Book Review Blog Carnival

This week the 26th edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival is hosted by Pizza's Book Discussion. Come in and have a slice while you browse.



If you ever wrote a book review on your blog you can submit the post to an upcoming carnival at our page at Blogcarnival.com. I'm always looking for host blogs, too. Email me at the address in the sidebar if you are interested in hosting a carnival.

Book Review Blog Carnival #25

The twenty fifth Book Review Blog Carnival is available for your reading pleasure at This Girl's Bookshelf. Stop by and take a look at the 30 reviews listed. Be sure to leave a comment, even if it's just to say hello and please link to the carnival from your own blog if you have one. Help us spread the word.

The Element

Ken Robinson, Ph.D.
with Lou Aronica

According to a popular myth there is a calling for each one of us, something that we are so good at and love doing so much that it doesn't feel like work at all. Ken Robinson advocates for the existence of this perfect occupation. He calls it being in one's "element," and recommends looking for that element in our own lives and pursuing whatever calling it presents us. Unfortunately, Henry David Thoreau's often quoted "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" is more true now that when he wrote Walden in 1854.

Robinson never mentions this, but I believe that finding such an "element" for each and every person on Earth would be a good argument for the existence of a personal, omniscient and ever present God. Who else could organize the world in such a way that every single person would born with such a perfect fit to one or more pursuits? The evidence is not in favor of this hypothesis, though, as Thoreau has pointed out. Very few people ever find an "element."

Robinson uses examples, such as Paul McCartney, Julia Child and one of my favorite people, physicist Richard Feynman, to illustrate his thesis. Each of them did find something to do that was eminently suitable to his talents and each of them enjoyed his job immensely, not to mention making a pretty good piece of change at it. These very talented, very lucky people were able to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves and they all created careers for themselves doing what they loved doing. Most of us are just not that talented, or that lucky.

Dr. Robinson wants to encourage each of us to find our "element" and to help our children find theirs.I found his argument against the emphasis on standardized testing in schools, the core of "No Child Left Behind," to be highly cogent. As Robinson says, "I doubt there are many children who leap out of bed in the morning wondering what they can do to raise the reading score for their state." His basic thesis, however, I find to be messy, new age claptrap. Not that I am against people pursuing their dreams, but I think it's important to have a fallback position in case it doesn't work out.

After reading The Element I am ready to quit my job in order to pursue my dream of becoming a rock star. Or maybe not. He did mention being good at it.

The Twenty Third Book Review Blog Carnival

The twenty third edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival has been posted at Bart's Bookshelf. Bart has done a bang up job, even tracking down cover art for all 29 books reviewed by the carnival participants.

If you review books and would like to participate you may submit a review for the next carnival at Blog Carnival, which handles the submission process. Inkweaver Review will host the next carnival on August 16th.

The Pluto Files

The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet
Neil DeGrasse Tyson

The Pluto Files is a rather tongue in cheek look at the demotion of Pluto from it's status as a planet by the International Astronomical Union, written by the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York's Museum of Natural History.

In 2000, the freshly renovated Hayden Planetarium, under Tyson's direction, opened a new exhibit showing the relative sizes of the planets - excluding Pluto. The exhibit classified the planets as either Earth like - the inner group or gas giants, the outer group. Pluto, being very small and made mostly of ice, did not fit in either group, and was left out of the exhibit. This led to a large controversy, many angry letters from elementary school students and, eventually, a vote, in 2006 at a gathering of the IAU, to define the term planet in a way that excludes Pluto.

Tyson's reason for leaving Pluto out of the exhibit is that it is not a member of either class of planets, neither a rocky Earth like planet nor a gas giant. How can you have a class of one? he asks. Pluto is a very small object, smaller than our own moon. It's orbit is eccentric, dipping in closer to the sun than Neptune's for one part of each turn around the Sun and veering off from the plane of the ecliptic. Pluto is like a small child running around and between the legs of a group of adults.

Later, as other Pluto like objects have been found in what is now known as the Kuiper belt, named after Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper. At least one, Eris, is larger than Pluto. We now have a class of objects with several thousands of examples, of which Pluto and Eris are the largest known members. Are they both planets, then? No because the AIU had voted on a definition of a planet with three criteria: 1. that it orbits a star and not another object 2. That it has enough gravity to give it a spherical shape and 3. That it has cleaned up it's orbital zone of debris. Both Pluto and Eris, and also one Asteroid, Ceres, meet the first two of these criteria, but not the third.

This last criteria is problematical. The Earth is always being struck by meteorites, which are debris in it's orbital zone. Is the Earth not a planet? Just last weekend Jupiter was struck by a large object which has created an Earth sized impact disturbance in it's atmosphere, visible by amateur astronomers, arguably an object not previously cleared from Jupiter's orbital zone. It appears to me that this is an arbitrary criteria, with exceptions being made in order to include, really, any planets at all. Besides, since when is science subject to a vote?

I suggest that the orbit clearing criteria be abandoned as a bad job and be replaced to the requirement that a planet must have an atmosphere. this would restore Pluto to the status of a planet, possible Eris, too, and exclude Ceres. We would then have nine or ten planets and counting. Pluto has been redefined as a dwarf planet. OK, but a dwarf planet is still a planet.

Book Review Blog Carnival XXI

Welcome to the twenty first Book Review Blog Carnival. This carnival is published every other Sunday on a different blog. You my submit a book review post from your own blog, for the next carnival here.




We have a wide selection of book reviews this week, starting with:


Fiction:

On his blog The Truth About Lies, Jim Murdoch reviews Australian writer Gerald Murnane's new novel, The Plains, a dense story about a filmmaker who spends years researching a film on the seemingly featureless Australian outback and its people. In place of the salt-of-the-earth sheep farmers one might expect to inhabit central Australia the narrator encounters an idealised world filled with aesthetics and intellectuals; wealthy landowners divided into factions idly speculating on metaphysics; I don't believe there's a sheep in the whole book.

Jim Murdoch also wrote a review of The Very Thought of You by Rosie Allison. Jim says it's a story about love, but not a love story. Jim doesn't read love stories.

Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All has read the oldest book in this edition of the carnival, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, first published in 1764, a trailblazing work that practically makes itself its own parody .

Joy, writing in This Girl's Bookshelf compares the movie version of Chocolat the the book by Joanne Harris.

Nymeth reviewed Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai on her blog Things Mean A Lot. It is a coming of age story set in Sri Lanka.

Sandra read Doris Lessing's 1988 novel The Fifth Child for her blog Fresh Ink Books.

Sandra also reviewed Doris Lessings Ben In The World and Becoming Abagail by Nigerian writer Chris Abani. People who have time to read annoy me.


Science Fiction:

Jeanne, of Necromancy Never Pays, says that she has changed her mind about Joan Slonczewsk"s Daugher of Elysium, which she now sees as a far less optimistic than she thought when she read it after it's debut in 1993. Children will do that to you.


Romance:

Guest blogger Zarabeth writes about Miranda’s Big Mistake by Jill Mansell on Love Romance Passion.

Normal Girl's Guide to Great Books reviews Summer Blowout by Claire Cook., a summer read by the Author of Must Love Dogs.


Mystieries:

KerrieS reviews a Norwegian mystery novel, The Redeemer. by Jo Nesbo, on her blog, Mysteries In Paradise. I guess the existence of Norwegian mystery novels should not be a surprise to me or to Garrison Keillor.

KerrieS also read and wrote a review of Peril and End House by Agatha Christie. Poirot's 6th novel, and his biggest challenge yet. Even the great Hercule Poirot can be swayed by sentiment.

KerrieS must be on vacation, because she had time to read and write a third review, of Shadow by Karin Alvtegen. This one is a Swedish mystery novel.


Children' Books:

Nathan at Inkweaver Review
has written a review of Penny from Heaven, by Jennifer L. Holm, a Newbery Honor Award book about a young girl living in the 1950’s.

Non Fiction:

Global Implications begins a series of weekly book reviews on the subject of Iran with The Devil We Know by Robert Baer.

Serena Trowbridge enjoyed The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale, despite herself, and tells us why at Culture and Anarchy.

GrrlScientist wrote, in Living The Scientific Life, a review of Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land by Nina Burleigh. This book describes one of the greatest hoaxes of all time as the author follows the path of several ancient biblical artifacts from illegal archaeological digs in Israel through shady antiquities markets and even into the display cases of several famous museums around the world.

GrrlScientist also reviewed Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days by Vanessa Farquharson. Wow, I've been saving the environment all my life and didn't even know it.

Stephen Martile writes about Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, in his blog Freedom Education.. Steve bought this book in 2006. He must be well on is way to a huge fortune by now, don't you think?

Grant McCreary, of The Birdir's Library, reviews Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience
by Jeremy Mynott., a book that asks why and how people look at, and watch, birds.

Bruno Vigneault, of How To Make A Miracle Happen, watched the video version of What the Bleep Do We Know again. Those miracles are harder to make than it seemed at first.

In Science On Tap Arj has a few quibbles with astronomer/blogger Phil Plai's Death From The Skies, starting from it's cover design. I immediately recognized the cover as a parody of a 1950's science fiction movie poster. Arj calls it ""National Enquirer-like."

I submitted a review of my own, which is located just below this post, Street Gang is a history of Children's Television Workshop and Sesame Street.


Travel:

Thursday Bram will give away one copy of Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo by Beth Whitman, to a lucky person who leaves a comment on her review at Working Your Way Around The World.

The fifteenth Book Review Blog Carnival was posted this morning at Mysteries in Paradise. Kerrie did a marvelous job, which included weeding out a large number of spam post submissions, Editing all of our submissions and posting them in a coherent fashion. She also saved and sent me a list of every email address of ever person who submitted a post.

Which leads to the procedural change. I have been trying, with limited success, to keep a list of all participants in the carnival and their email addresses, in order to send news, calls for submissions and carnival posting notices out to you. I have decided that I will instead post those only on the Book Review Blog Carnival blog. I simply don't have the time to keep a mailing list in order.

What this means: If you are a participant in the Book Review Blog Carnival and want to know what is happening, please subscribe to the RSS feed, or at least stop by once and a while and take a look-see.

Participating bloggers are encouraged to post a link to the carnival at Mysteries in Paradise in their own blogs. Please help to spread the word and share your readers.

The sixteenth Book Review Blog Carnival will be hosted by Literary Menagerie on April 26th. Please submit your book review posts at the usual place, http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_5161.html.

Lucky Thirteen: The Book Review Blog Carnival

The thirteenth edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival can now be found at Bookish Ruth. Don't miss this big collection of well written reviews of books of every kind.

The photo above, of Basil Rathbone appearing as the Evil Duke in Jame's Thurber's Thirteen Clocks, appears courtesy of the LIFE Magazine photo archive at Google.

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell
Let me start by saying that is is not true that, if her great grandfather had not been processed through Ellis Island by a wiseacre, Sarah Vowell would be know today as Sara Aeiou. Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor the NPR weekend magazine show "This American Life," which is best known for bringing us such fine pieces of journalism as The Santaland Diaries. Her book does not disappoint.

The Wordy Shipmates is a short, concise, not at all wordy history of some of the Puritan founders of Massachusetts Bay colony. Starting with John Winthrop, who wrote and preached the sermon about "a city on a hill" that has been used and abused by John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to such good effect. We also have John Cotton, ancestor of the more well known Cotton Mather, Roger Williams, psychotically enthusiastic proponent of religious freedom and theological purity, who helped found Rhode Island, Anne Hutchinson, the voice of God on earth and co-founder of Providence and even Mary Dyer, follower of Hutchinson until she becomes a Quaker and martyr to religious freedom at the hand of Winthrop and his fellow Boston magistrates. It is quite a merry crew of brawling Calvinists which Vowell gives us with tongue firmly implanted in cheek.

The gist of the book is that these people are responsible for giving us the great city of Boston. They are the ones who let a cow loose to lay out the city's streets. I'm sure that the blame for the Big Dig can be laid at their feet as well. I can't find my way around Boston with a GPS. Thanks a lot, guys.

They are also responsible in large part for our tradition of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. That concept is one of Roger Williams' crazy ideas, which got him banished from Massachusetts and is written into the charter of Rhode Island. It eventually found itself written into the First Amendment. Way to go Roger!

I can't tell you (actually I am trying to do that) how much I enjoyed reading Sarah Vowell's tale of trial and error, murder, war, bigotry, more murder, mass murder and other fun stuff, which became the foundation of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the fine precedent they set for the founding of the United States. The Wordy Shipmates should be required reading for all American middle school students. It should be included in the lovingly crafted high stakes testing that will determine their future lives. It belongs right up there with the Thanksgiving episode of Happy Days.