Arms race

Random quote of the day:


"The principal foundations that all states have, new ones as well as old or mixed, are good laws and good arms….There cannot be good laws where there are not good arms, and where there are good arms there must be good laws."

—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
(tr. Harry C. Mansfield)


ETA: I'm closing this to comments. Please argue gun control on your own blogs.




( Illustrated version. )

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

September's Books

Books Finished in September

1. Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu - new
2. One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost - TBR
3. Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin - TBR
4. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs - new

I've been carrying around that copy of Tehanu for years—through at least two house moves. I didn't want to be disappointed, so I kept putting off reading it, even almost recycled it a couple of times. Then one day, it was time. I wasn't disappointed. What I wanted to happen happened. The writing was spare, the emotions handled in a grown up way, the plot mostly revolving around characters finding a new way to live their life after the old ways no longer worked, or trying to find a life after terrible trauma. It didn't get really plottish until quite near the end, but I enjoyed it a great deal. And I was completely charmed by the middle-aged love story, the requiting of unrequited love begun early in life. Us geezers don't get nearly enough lurve in fantasy.

If you haven't read the first three books in The Earthsea Trilogy this book might not mean as much to you. As it was, reading it over a decade after I read the first three, I was remembering as I went, but Ms. Le Guin's skill was such that I never felt left in the dark.

Books Begun in September

1. One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost - TBR
2. Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin - TBR
3. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs - new
4. Draft Novel by Someone - n/a
5. On the Edge by Ilona Andrews - new

Books Purchased in September

1. Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook – B&N
2. Strange Brew, ed. by P.N. Elrod (anthology) - Amazon
3. Ariel by Steven R. Boyett - Amazon
4. The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass - Amazon
5. The Warlord’s Mistress by Juliet Landon – Amazon seller
6. The Roman’s Virgin Mistress by Michelle Styles – Amazon seller
7. California Indian Shamanism by Lowell John Bean – Amazon seller
8. A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole - B&N
9. On the Edge by Ilona Andrews – B&N

What a very strange collection of books this is. But then, I always buy a strange collection of books.

Something terrible is happening

Will Farrell gives us the unvarnished truth on the health care issue.