Saturday, July 2, 2011

. . . a Good Read


The 4th of July Holiday is upon us, which means that the relatives are set to arrive -- have arrived actually -- motoring up from Connecticut to spend the week with us and the kids.

I don't know about you and your in-laws but I am always happy to see Yvonne's mum and da -- I genuinely like my in-laws and I enjoy their company -- plus whenever they come up for a visit Yvie's mum always brings me a stack of books, and that is mostly a to-be-looked-forward-to event to be sure!

This time she delivered some most excellent entertainment in the form of:
  • Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate by M.C. Beaton (ISBN 0-312-20768-9) a mystery and one of the Agatha Raisin series.
  • American Son - A Portrait of John F. Kennedy Jr. by Richard Blow (ISBN 0-8050-7051-6) a biography.
  • Murder in the House by Margaret Truman (ISBN 0-679-77435-1) a mystery.
  • Rebel by Bernard Cornwell (ISBN 0-06-017713-6) historical fiction.
  • Spider in the Silk by Celestine Sibley (ISBN 0-06-017515-X) a mystery and part of the Kate Mulcay Series.
I often find it difficult not to grab a book and dive right in, because usually by the time they visit us I have already burned through the books from the previous visit and, unless there was a recent trip to the library or Hyannis, I don't have a "current" book to read.

At the moment thanks to the readers over at Game On the list of games pending play for review (and sitting in a stack on my desk) includes:
  • Alice: Madness Returns (Xbox 360)
  • Crysis-2 (Xbox 360)
  • Dissidia 012 (PSP)
  • Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360)
  • Dungeon Siege III (Xbox 360)
  • G.R.A.W. (Xbox 360) an oldie but it was requested
  • L.A. Noire (Xbox 360) -- the DLC as we already did the main game
  • Naughty Bear Gold Edition (Xbox 360)
  • Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360)
  • Trucks & Trailers Sim (PC)
Most of the books I have read from Cornwell consist of his Sharpe's Rifle sereis, which I was turned on to by Geof, but Beaton, Sibley, and Truman are all solid entertaining writers, so those will be good. Not too sure about the JFK Jr. bio -- the bloke who wrote it was one of the editors at George, so presumably he has some personal experiences to add to the mix in addition to the usual bio-matter...

The video games are something of an eclectic mixture - but that has more to do with the fact that we do not actually pick the games that we review for Game On, where unlike the vast majority of review sites we are guided entirely by the readers, who email us with their requests for games to be reviewed. I actually think that is a better system anyway since it is more responsive and serves the community rather than dictates to it.

It is not like I don't have anything to do, if you see what I mean? No, there is plenty to do, so I had better go get to it!

Happy 4th of July and 235th Birthday USA! I hope you have a safe and satisfying holiday and you don't lose any fingers, toes, or limbs when you play with your illegal fireworks!

Cheers!