BVC Announces Signatures by James A. Hetley

Posted on January 27, 2015 by

Signatures by James A. HetleySignatures
by James A. Hetley

John Patterson thinks he damn well earned his pension. He survived more than twenty years as a police forensic wizard, tracking down and fighting the worst that criminal magic could throw at him. If he could only retire the nightmares, as well. Continue reading →

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Posted in Book View Cafe publications, detective fiction, eBooks, fantasy, New Releases | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

BVC Announces A Mindy Klasky Sampler

Posted on January 27, 2015 by

A Mindy Klasky Sampler

by Mindy Klasky

Passion: The Diamond Brides Series–nine tales of white-hot love set against the backdrop of the Raleigh Rockets baseball team. A May-December romance that scorches the sheets and the boardroom… A twice-jilted bride determined to throw away her “good-girl” status so she can have some fun… A girl next door who turns out to be much more… Short, hot contemporary romance novels, each with a guaranteed happy ever after. Continue reading →

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Annals of Pard: The Saga of the Mice, Continued

Posted on January 26, 2015 by

Ursula K. Le Guin, photo by Marian Wood KolischAnnals of Pard: The Saga of the Mice, Continued

by Ursula K. Le Guin

We were reading Penelope Fitzgerald’s Beginning of Spring aloud before dinner last night when Pard came trotting through the living room in an uncharacteristically feral way: body low to the ground, tail down, head poised, eyes all black pupil. And sure enough, a small mouse in his mouth. He put it down, let it go, recaught it, and trotted on back to the kitchen, the tiny black tail hanging out of his mouth. We went on grimly with Penelope. After a while Pard came back, mouseless, and looking clueless. He wandered off, and we decided, or hoped, he’d lost the mouse.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Animals, cats | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Puppygarten

Posted on January 26, 2015 by

“Oh, I know!” I told myself, all full of excited optimism, “I’ll blog about Baby Tristan’s learning process!”

tb.profile.297As usual, I didn’t take into account the fact that I’d be so caught up in the process itself that the blogging would take second place. Or third. Or fourth, because the other boys are still active, too! And oh wait, that dastardly Real Life. Oops! Well, here I am.

Tristan’s been with us three weeks now, making him eleven weeks old (on the 18th, when I’m first typing this). His nose has finished unfolding, taking him from baby-face to youngster-face. His hind end has more leg than he knows what to do with, his feet are huge, and his shoulders are trying to decide just how they’ll sit on his body. He’s still got baby belly, though! Continue reading →

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Thermoregulation 102

Posted on January 25, 2015 by

(Image from here.)

Before we spoke of the physical requirements of thermoregulation. Now we’re going to have fun: we’re going to see how animals solve these physics problems.

But it’s a big question and the possible scope is vast. So we’re just going to stay inside Kingdom Animalia and endothermy and work from there.

We’ll leave poikilotherms and plants for another day. (Plants thermoregulate as well but have a completely different set of constraints.) Continue reading →

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Story Excerpt Sunday: from Beyond Grimm edited by Deborah J. Ross

Posted on January 25, 2015 by

Beyond GrimmBeyond Grimm

Tales Newly Twisted

edited by Deborah J. Ross

Hair Raising

by Pati Nagle

Once upon a time there was a beautiful Maiden named Rapunzel, which means “radish.” Her name was given to her by the Evil Witch who kept her locked in a high tower. The Witch had a nasty sense of humor, or perhaps was merely envious of Rapunzel’s incredibly long, golden hair.

It was so long that Rapunzel had no need of carpeting in her room at the top of the tower. She could walk around barefoot on her own tresses and her feet would never get cold.

Being locked up, Rapunzel didn’t have much to do all day once she had finished brushing her hair (which only took an hour or two each morning). She spent the rest of her days sitting by the single window in her room, gazing out at the wide world and singing to amuse herself.

She liked to make up her own songs, but since she had spent her entire life in the tower, they were all incredibly boring. The best one, “Bird, Bird, Where Are You Flying?” was just barely better than insipid. The Witch gave Rapunzel a songbook out of desperation, to keep from being driven mad. Continue reading →

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“Paddington” – a Species-Inclusive Guest Film Review by Bear Stamey

Posted on January 24, 2015 by

BearAsPaddington(A note from Sara: When Bear saw an online preview of the new film “Paddingon,” he was very excited and insisted on writing this review for you.)

Woof, Woof! Oh, I guess Sara will translate: That means Hi, I’m happy to see you. As a special birthday present for Sara, I am writing her blog today! I am very excited about the new movie “Paddington” (almost as excited as when I see a squirrel), and I want to tell you why. You see, Paddington Bear and I look a lot alike, and we share a similar journey, and I’m glad he also has a happy-ending story.

Ooops, Sara reminds me that I should tell you there is something called Spoiler Alert I should put in here. (Is that like when I found that yummy dead bird in the back yard and rolled in it?) Continue reading →

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Posted in Animals, awards, Book View Cafe publications, cats, dogs, eBooks, Film, Humor, movies, Travel | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Exodus: A Very Short Review

Posted on January 23, 2015 by

by Brenda W. Clough

exodus Your true Biblical movie epic is rather rare on the movie screen these days. When they do appear they are tarted up with lots of additional violence, but no sex, so as to ensure painless Bible Belt marketing.

Exodus fits right into this template. If you put just the Bible account and nothing else onto the screen the movie would take all of ten minutes, so there are lots and lots of additional battles, CGI, sword fighting, and emotional development. And, as is the fashion these days, they went overboard on this in a big way. This movie is at least twenty minutes too long, sagging in the middle like a cake taken too soon out of the oven. I stood in the lobby of the theater with a nice old lady and we agreed that the Charlton Heston version was much more exciting. The Ten Commandments was one of the best movies of 1956; it’s not going to have to worry about being dethroned this year.

Continue reading →

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Praise — and Advice — for Millennials

Posted on January 22, 2015 by

I went to a wedding last weekend. Both the brides and most of the non-family guests were folks in their twenties — the millennial generation.

And once again I was reminded how much I like kids today. As a card-carrying member of the baby boom, I’m supposed to be hitting my curmudgeonly years, which traditionally involves complaining about the younger generation.

But while I can be a curmudgeon about many things – “Don’t use earbuds while jogging in the city, for God’s sake” – I’m impressed with most of the millennials I know and the new ones I meet.

In a lot of ways, they seem to be carrying on from where we hippies and radicals of the 60s and 70s left off – only they’re smarter and more sophisticated about it. Whether they’re going to grad school or law school or starting a new tech company or just working to get by while they figure out what’s really important, they are smart and creative. I also notice that the young women have a lot of self-confidence, while the young men interact well with women as people.

But I have reached an age that is supposed to be associated with wisdom, so naturally I cannot resist giving advice to younger folks. At the wedding, I found myself telling a couple of people “don’t accumulate stuff.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture, Lifestyle | Tagged , | 2 Comments

WWW Wednesday 1-21-2015

Posted on January 21, 2015 by

BVC members have picked up this meme from shouldbereading:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

Gloriously cheezy!

Gloriously cheezy!

Couple of days ago I picked up one of my limited edition hardcover Sumuru novels by Sax Rohmer, and now I’m bingeing on Sumuru! Here’s a classic cover for SINISTER MADONNA, from the original paperback.

Sumuru is far and away more satisfying than Fu Manchu, Rohmer’s more famous ongoing villain. Continue reading →

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Posted in Books and Reading | Tagged , , | 8 Comments