"Will My Cat Eat My Eye Balls?: Big Questions From Tiny Mortals About Death" by Caitlin Doughty

Publisher:New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]
Edition:First edition.
ISBN: 9780393652703
Characteristics: xv, 222 pages :,illustrations ;,22 cm

"Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?" is Ms. Doughty's third book on the subject of death and all the ins and outs of it. Once again she does a wonderful job of bringing a typically unmentionable subject to the forefront. In this book she ventures out a little further and answers questions posed by children, some of which are very eye-opening.

In addition to the title question she answers questions such as "Will my body sit up or speak on its own after I die?", "Can I preserve my dead body in amber like a prehistoric novel?", ""Can we give Grandma a Viking funeral?" and "Can Someone donate blood after they die?" and 29 others.

Her sense of humour in answering these questions should definitely appeal to all young readers, and I'm sure most adults will get a chuckle as well.

For the who don't know Ms. Doughty is the author of two other books entitle "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" & "From Here to Eternity" the latter of which I reviewed previously (the first came out before I started doing reviews, but I will endeavour to add it shortly). She is also the creator of the "Ask a Mortician" web series, the founder of the Order of the Good Death, and she own and runs a funeral home in the Los Angeles area.

Looking forward to her next book, with eager anticipation.

"Ocean-Space" by Allen M. Steele

Publisher: Ace Books, New York, 2000
ISBN: 044100850X

Ocean Space is a book that deals with life in an undersea research facility, and the everyday things they have to put up with in order to survive in this element. The first good thing about this book is that Mr. Steele, gets the science right. He takes things like the requirements for the divers to decompress, the use of special gas mixtures to allow for saturation diving, and even the required close living quarters into account. As a former diver these details were extremely refreshing to see.

In many science-fiction books, the science components such as this are ignored by the authors. Why they do this is anybody's guess. It could be something as simple as them not understanding the concepts (and refusing to do research), or possibly even assuming that their audience won't notice and therefore it won't matter if they skimp on the research. Both are unforgivable in my opinion.

The story opens when one of the characters (in a manned submersible mining manganese nodules on the ocean floor) gets into trouble following an unexplained encounter in the deep ocean. This sets the pace of this novel which is quite fast. The pace gets pushed even higher when a second plot line is introduced about the exploration of deeps hydrothermal vents.

For the younger readers who read this there is a young lady who is on her first visit to the installation, although this isn't where she thought she was heading too, as they just said a vacation in Florida. This adds a fair bit of conflict, and humour to the narration. When you add to this a good dose of espionage, some personal conflicts, and stir you have a first rate story that will keep you reading.

"Fantasy World-Building: A Guide toDeveloping Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures" by Mark A. Nelson

Published: Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780486828657
Physical Details: vii, 151 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 28 cm

I read this book when I was looking for resource material about world-building. While Fantasy World-Building is a very interesting book that would be a fascinating resource for anyone who is into gaming design, and it would be a great for illustrators and graphic artists, however most of it wasn't able assist me with my research to any great extent.

The author discusses finding ideas, and how to borrow these ideas and concepts from history. He goes into detail with regard to habitat, climate, terrain, wildlife, and much more. I was however quite interested with regard to his insights on societies, and such.

I would recommend this book to anybody who is into illustration, gaming, or who would like to get into this field.

"Bathing Beauty: A Novel of Marie Prevost" by Laini Giles

Publisher:[United States] : Sepia Stories Publishing, [2019]

Edition:First edition.

Copyright Date:©2019

ISBN: 9780994734976 

Characteristics: 407 pages

"Bathing Beauty" is Laini Giles' third novel in the the Forgotten Actresses series and is once again a delight to read. It details the life of the silent screen actress Marie Prevost (born 1898) through her life to her death in 1937. Towards the end of her career she was in the process of breaking into sound pictures which were then becoming the big thing in Hollywood, but by this time she was by motion picture standards getting a little on the old side, and was having issues with her weight, alcoholism, and various medical issues such as reoccurring ulcers. As an aside it seems rather strange to me that Hollywood is still after almost a hundred years unwilling to accept people for who they are in the areas of age and appearance.

Ms. Prevost has 120 screen credits to her name according to IMDB, but unfortunately for a good number of these she wasn't given any screen credit, and a number of them were considered to be "shorts". In addition towards the latter part of her career she was given a number of supporting roles, which didn't help her career too much. 

I found this story to be very well written, and engrossing. It was written with style, and the amount of research Ms. Giles had to do (as I have mentioned before in my other reviews of her work) is simply astounding.

Laini Giles' other books in this series are "The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas" (reviewed on 2018-02-05), and "The It Girl and Me: A Novel of Clara Bow" (reviewed on 2018-04-23).

I'm very much looking forward to the next instalment in this series,  but so far haven't heard what it will be.

"Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking" by Samin Nosrat

Publisher:New York : Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Edition:First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Copyright Date:©2017

ISBN: 9781476753836 

Characteristics: 469 pages :,colour illustrations

"Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" is the ultimate cookbook for those who have been cooking for years and want to know how to improve their end product, as well as for those who are just curious why things do what they do in the kitchen. It is also be a great resource for those just starting out, as it takes you from the very basics by telling you what to do, and what to expect when you do it.

The author gives great insights into her experiences in various kitchens by describing what she learned, and what differences it made to her food, but also tells where she made mistakes, why she did it that way, and what she learned from these mistakes.

Chef Nosrat goes into great detail with regard to how salt, fat, acid and finally heat can be used in conjunction with each other as well as how they can be deleterious to each other when combined incorrectly.

This is a book that should be on every cooks shelf, and is one that definitely needs to be part of the curriculum in any decent cooking school.

"Circe" by Madeline Miller

Publisher:New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2018.

Edition:First edition.

ISBN: 9780316556347 

Characteristics: 393 pages

In "Circe" (pronounced 'Keer-Kay') Madeline Miller gives ask a look at the life of Circe, and what caused her banishment, how she adapted and lived the rest of her life. Many people know the basics of her tale from the Odyssey by Homer, but she is just one small part of that epic.

In the Odyssey she is painted as a very badass witch. She is taking out her revenge of how she's been treated in the world, who liked her solitude and gets her thrills by enslaving the crews of ship who visit her island and turning them into pigs.

In this book she a totally different picture is painted. Her actions are explained as she is the victim of Helios - her father - and other members of the Olympian divinity who were essentially needing a scapegoat (or so it seemed to me). And even though she was banished to the island of Aiaia she adapted well and lived a full life. It gives plausible explanations of how she learned to use her power, and showed her obsession with turning wayward sailors into pigs was a means of self defence, as she was a woman living alone, and the sailors had plans for solitary women.

In this book we also learn of her involvement with the birth of the Minotaur, her relations with her brother and two sisters as well as her relations with other members of the Olympians - all very strained to say the least.

Now, not being a authority on Greek history, and literature I can’t say how many liberties Ms. Miller took with her story, but I found it to be a very engrossing story that was well worth reading. She has another book “The Song of Achilles” which I’m hoping to read in the near future as it has been recommended to me as a fantastic novel.

I was first introduced to Madeline Miller's work via the podcast "Let's Talk About Myths, Baby" by Liv Albert, and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is interested in Greek and Roman mythology. The myths are told from a refreshing feminist perspective, and Ms. Albert doesn't pull any punches (especially when talking about Zeus).

"Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction" by Charles L. Adler

Publisher: Princeton University Press
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780691147154

I came across this book when I was perusing the stacks at the University of Alberta, in their creative writing section. Why I was there was to find information on world-building, what I found was this.

As anyone who has read a fair bit of science-fiction and/or fantasy will appreciate certain authors tend to make up rules for their universes that at times don't make a lot of sense. No I'm not picking solely on the fantasy authors, as with the exception of those authors who write hard science-fiction the vast majority of writers play rather loose with the rules of physics, and math. This is, in my opinion, a bit of a shame but not because they do it, but because they don't explain it well enough to make it acceptable to the reader. The reader is simply supposed to take what the author says at face value, and not question them. This in my not-so-humble opinion borders on sloppy writing & plotting.

This book looks at a number of different concepts that have been, and continue to be mainstays of typical science-fiction and fantasy and puts them under the scientific microscope to show what is wrong with them based on our current level of scientific knowledge, but the author also takes an open-ended approach to see what would have to change to allow this too happen.

Once example is teleportation which was a main plot point in Star Trek, the Harry Potter series, and many others. He examines why it won't work the way it is described (or more frequently not described) in many works, and why.  The first section looks at basic concepts such as giants, transfiguration, dragon and other beasties in the fantasy realm, primarily from a Harry Potter standpoint as that is what a lot of people use for a reference today. He then goes on in the rest of the book to look at the future of transportation, space travel, computers, space colonies, propulsion systems, faster-that-light travel, and much more.

This would be a great resource for any science-fiction or fantasy writer, as well as anyone to is into debunking various offbeat pseudo-scientific concepts. The sections on the space sciences would also be quite useful to anyone beginning to study astronomy or astrophysics as the concepts are presented clearly and concisely.

WARNING: There is math involved, but it is fairly basic, so most people shouldn't have too much trouble with it.

"The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith

Publisher:  New York : Mulholland Books, 2014.
Edition:      First North American edition.
ISBN:        9780316351980

The Silkworm is the second book in the series by Robert Galbraith about the private detective Cormoran Strike. As pretty much everyone knows by now Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling the author of the Harry Potter series, however unlike Harry Potter this series deals with reality not fantasy and is reminiscent of the gritty detective novels of the early 20th century.

The plot revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a relatively mediocre author, who supposedly headed to a writers retreat and is never seen again until he is discovered after more than a week grotesquely murdered. The blame for the murder could be placed on any number of people as his latest book was to be a tell-all about the British publishing scene - a book guaranteed to enflame an already bad situation.

The plotting of this novel is extremely intricate, and the characters are so well-developed that you would expect to see them walking down the street the next time you're out. Add to this the twists and turns of the story, and how Strike solves the murder with the help of his assistant Robin makes for an excellent read. Between this book and the first volume I can't think of another book that I haven't been able to stop reading. Even though it was 1 o'clock in the morning with work the next day.

Looking forward to #3.