Friday, February 26, 2016

Bungalow Freaks in Little China

NonFiction

Freaks of Sideshow and Film by Mary Brett and Stevan Gould. Page 73 says, "Delina Ross is considered the most beautiful of all the bearded ladies." There is a piece about Sandy Allen.







Big Trouble in Little China: The Return of Lo Pan and How Jack Burton Became King of the Lords of Death. Comic book stories by John Carpenter.

Big Trouble in Little China: The Hell of the Midnight Road and The Ghosts of Storms.  More comic book stories by John Carpenter.

Bark House Style: sustainable designs from nature by Chris McCurry and Nan Chase. Lots of pretty pictures.

Bungalow Kitchens by Jane Powell and Linda Svendsen.  Even more pretty pictures.

Joe R. Lansdale? Again?

DVD

Spotlight starring [many actors]. Boston Globe reporters uncover and report on child abuse in the Catholic church.

Spotlight starring [the same actors]. Same thing but Blu-Ray version.

Audiobooks on CD

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. 15 hours on 12 CDs.

Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. 15.5 hours on 13 CDs. Lecturer traveling to London goes back in time to 1810. Read by Bronson Pinchot who "restores Greek Revival buildings."

Nomad by Matthew Mather. 9.5 hours on 8 CDs. Scientist has to figure out how to save the earth and get his family from Italy.

Joe R. Lansdale

Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale. Hap and Leonard bumble through with violence and guile. Lansdale did a interview on National Public Radio a few days ago

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Made Up Stories. With unrelated New Zealand commentary.

Fiction

Sweet Girl by Travis Mulhauser. Girl looks for her strung out mom in Northern Michigan but finds a baby in a freezing cabin. Dirt bag criminals pursue the girl and her new found ward.

If I Run by Terri Blackstock. Today's speaker at Rotary is a retired CS professor from UW-Eau Claire, his name is Wagner. He now takes on temporary teaching positions at other universities.

The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel. The speaker has taught at Canterbury University outside Christchurch in New Zealand. I chatted with Wagner a bit during lunch and he has taught there on two occasions.

Georgia by Dawn Tripp. Wagner also said he taught in China and had an appointment at Macalaster in Minneapolis. His semesters in NZ followed our winter season. So, he had winter, here, winter, there, and then winter here again. His wife declined to go immediately back so that they could have a summer.

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad. Wagner had a slide show as well. Lots of photos of hiking and kayaking. His wife volunteered at a nature center and had some neat photos of a Kiwi bird.

Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson. Wagner and Wife also visited Stewart Island at the Southern tip of the South Island. Wagner said Stewart Island has a population of 400 people, the island is 674 square miles.

The Cellar by Minette Walters. I asked if many tourists visited Stewart and Wagner said tourism was a main draw for the place. He and his wife would often stay in family hostels when traveling but that Stewart also has resorts.

The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield. There was one penguin photo in his slide show. Beer was expensive but the local wine was not.

Coconut Cowboy by Tim Dorsey. I asked about his accommodations in Christchurch. Wagner told me the University is very big on visiting faculty. They have about 70 instructors a year (a semester, maybe?) and send out 30 of their own.  Canterbury has a big endowment to cover the costs and visiting instructors are given a house or apartment for lodging, travel costs are covered, and they get a per diem payment.

Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lipton. Wagner chanced upon the appointment after seeing an email asking for applicants. The previously hired CS instructor bowed out after the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch. Wagner had a few photos of the City but his photos were mostly of the countryside.

Blackout by David Rosenfelt. There was no mention of Dunedin.

Monday, February 22, 2016

One Single DVD

DVD

A Walk in the Woods starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Kristen Schaal. Two older men hike the Appalachian Trail. Hilarity ensues.