Transformation by Carol Berg

Transformation (New York:  Roc-Penguin, 2000), was Carol Berg‘s first published book and the first of The Books of the Rai-kirah.  I found it easier to read than her other books that I’ve read so far because it is all told from the point of view of one character.

I can certainly see the similarities to her other books.  Berg’s pattern seems to be to put a character in a situation where he or she loses everything (family, friends, freedom, faith, etc.) and then regains it all–and maybe even more.

I’m looking forward to reading the other two books in the series:  Revelation and Restoration.

Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey

Home from the Sea (New York:  DAW Books, 2012) is Mercedes Lackey‘s seventh Elemental Masters novel.  It’s essentially a sequel to The Wizard of London, the fifth book in the series.  (Each book introduces new characters.)

I’ve enjoyed all the books in the series.  Most of them have been based on fairy tales, and Home from the Sea might be also, though probably fairy tales or legends from Wales, with which I’m not familiar.

At the beginning of the book, Nan and Sarah, who were children in the prequel, are returning to England from a trip to Africa, where they visited Sarah’s parents and met Amelia Peabody (22), Elizabeth Peters‘ popular Egyptologist and sleuth.

Video: “35) TWELFTH NIGHT_BBC SHAKESPEARE COLLECTION”

Video:  “35) TWELFTH NIGHT_BBC SHAKESPEARE COLLECTION“

Sky Dragons by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

I think that Sky Dragons (New York:  Ballantine Books, 2012) should be the last Dragonriders of Pern novel, particularly since Anne McCaffrey died last fall.  The more recent novels by McCaffrey and fils (numbers 9 through 16 in my list, which I’ve updated to include this latest novel) have simply not been as good as the original ones, particularly Dragonflight and Dragonquest.

Sky Dragons was hard to get into, particularly since there was no summary of the prequels in this part of the series.  In addition, the chapter titles did not include dates and locations as they have in most novels in the series.

Diigo Bookmarks: Week Ending July 21, 2012

• The Digital Literacy “best practices” Site

  tags: digital literacy education elearning teaching web2.0 resources tools

• Digital Literacy Resource

  Cornell University

  tags: digital literacy education elearning teaching web2.0 resources tools

• Digital Literacy Portal

  Welcome to the portal for Digital Literacy at the University of Illinois Libraries. Here you will find various tutorials, guides, and digital tools created to help you find, evaluate, and critically use information sources.

  tags: digital literacy education elearning teaching web2.0

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A Bone of Contention by Susanna Gregory

I enjoyed Susanna Gregory‘s second chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew, A Bone of Contention (New York:  St. Martin’s Press, 1997), more than the first chronicle, An Unholy Alliance, though the second book is as long and complicated as the first.  The second novel provides insight into the “town and gown” conflict in medieval Cambridge.

Song of the Beast by Carol Berg

Song of the Beast (New York:  Roc-Penguin, 2003, 2011) was one of the first books Carol Berg wrote, but it wasn’t published until after her Books of the Rai-Kirah (xiii), which I intend to read next.  I probably enjoyed Song of the Beast more than the books in Berg’s Bridge of D’Arnath series (Son of Avonar, Guardians of the Keep, The Soul Weaver, and Daughter of Ancients) because I was used to her technique of switching the point of view from one character to another.  What was odd in Song of the Beast was that the last two sections (Chapters 34 through 36 and Chapter 37) were told by the same character, but there is a title page with the character’s name (as there is every time the point of view changes) before Chapter 37 identical to the one before Chapter 34 (the previous one).

Diigo Bookmarks: Week Ending July 7, 2012

• AddThis

  The Largest Social Sharing and Targeting Platform

  tags: sharing web2.0 social socialnetworking widgets socialmedia

• ShareThis

  “Whether you want the simplest, most robust tools to turn your media social, or to find the right audience for your advertising message, ShareThis puts sharing to work for you. Use the most innovative social media and sharing platform for the Web, ShareThis.”

  tags: sharing web2.0 social socialnetworking widgets socialmedia

• RSS Dog

  Have an RSS feed you want displayed on your site? This tool is for you! (You can find plenty of feeds at syndic8.com). To use it, just input the RSS feed URL and configure the options and click the button. The code will be generated for you at the bottom of the page. Then just copy/paste that code into your website. EASY AND FREE!

  tags: tools free online widget RSS feeds

• RSSinclude

  “With the rssinclude.com RSS Reader Widget you can publish news feeds on your website, blog or facebook page quickly and easily!”

  tags: tools free online widget RSS feeds

• FeedWind

  FeedWind is a RSS feed widget. Simply copy & paste the snippet of code to embed into your web page. It’s free and ready to use without having to register!

  tags: tools free online widget RSS feeds

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry

I’ve read all of Steve Berry‘s printed books (not the ebooks).  Until I started reading it, I had expected The Columbus Affair (New York:  Ballantine Books, 2012) to be the latest in the Cotton Malone series.  It’s not.

The concept and plot are interesting, but I didn’t care for the characters.  None of them is really very likeable or heroic.

Blog Posts, Articles, and Reports To Read: June 2012

• “Hands-on with Google Docs’s new research tool“
• “Find facts and do research inside Google Documents“