Hosted by the Broke and Bookishthe topic forAugust 5 is Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read X where X is an undefined variable that can be: New Adult novels, historical fiction, a certain author, books about a certain topic, etc.
I am so fried that I don't think I can come up with ten books in one particular category so X will be a random variable as well.
1) For people who are interested in trying Terry Pratchett but have either been scared off by, or were unimpressed with, The Color of Magic - the first published Discworld book - there are a couple of other good ways to become introduced. First, rather than starting with Discworld 'proper' you can come in with the Tiffany Aching books which I believe are considered Young Adult books these days - the first is The Wee Free Men, followed by A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight. These take place in the same universe but the stories are self contained and separate from events in the wider world. You get a taste of the Disc without getting overwhelmed by the huge cast of characters in the main series. While there are a couple of cameos it won't affect your appreciation of the books if you don't have their backstory.
Another way of getting into Discworld is to skip a few books (I know, I know - I am one of those obsessives who wants to start with the first book too) and start with a slightly later book. Pratchett's writing style evolves significantly from say the first five published books and the later ones. As one of the best starting points to one of the most popular story arcs I would suggest Guards! Guards! which is the first novel about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. The writing is on even footing and you get introduced to several important characters in the Discworld universe.
A second approach is to read Wyrd Sisters the second book in the Witches story arc. Skipping Equal Rites won't be a problem, it is really different from the remaining witches books and since it was the third Discworld book Pratchett wrote it is still very similar to The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Ideally you would read the books in publication order and see how he evolved as an author, but if the first book is giving you trouble any of these suggestions should work to give you a better entry into Discworld.
2) Dorthy L Sayers' Lord Peter Mysteries - this is another author whose first book in a series is quite different in style and tone than their later books. Whose Body? can be a rough introduction and turn a person off to the rest of the books, which is shame. The characters are not fully formed yet, coming off more as caricatures than people and the tone is a bit confused. Rather than starting with the first published book, I find that it can be easier and more fun to start with Murder Must Advertise. While technically the tenth book, the story is extremely self-contained so that you get to know the major characters (excluding Harriet) without being overwhelmed by details. Another way in is to start with the first Harriet Vane book - Strong Poison, but Peter comes off as a little weird in that one - it might be better to get to know him first.
3) Barbara Michaels - these books are gothics or suspense with romance (not romantic suspense as currently conceived - the romance is there but not focus. Fans of Susanna Kearsley might like them. Technically speaking all of her books are stand alones, but some stand better than others. However there are few that link together and make for an interesting reading experience. In this vein I would suggest starting with Ammie, Come Home, which is followed by Shattered Silk, and Stitches in Time.
4) If you are interested in Sherlock Holmes, I would suggest starting with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and not A Study in Scarlet, which is a much rougher book in style.
Sigh, I have run out of time and brain cells so I will stop here.
Now that you have a better understanding of the Keystone Pipeline we can take a look at the Athabasca tar/oil sands. They are located in the Canadian Provence of Alberta (something that many US politicians apparently need to be reminded about - this is Canadian oil! Oh and for some singularly ill informed House members - Canada is a separate nation composed of ten provinces and three territories with its own government, economy and currency. It is not actually part of the United States.) ...
The deposits underlie boreal forest (technically the southern section of the taiga biome) and peat bogs (also called muskeg). One of the best places to see the land changes caused by mining is NASA's Earth Observatory World of Change story on the Athabasca. There is a slideshow of satellite images starting in 1984 through 2011, which allows you to see the changes in the terrain over time (plus an excellent writeup). I have the first and last of the images here, and added a couple of 2013 images taken from Google Earth.
Image from 1984 - NASA
Image from 2011 - NASA
Image from 2013 - Google Maps
Image from 2013 again but with a wider field of view - Google.
Note the new mine to the north that isn't visible in the other images.
Alberta has an interactive map up at http://osip.alberta.ca/map/ where you can click around and view project boundaries and the like. It links to project information too, but I found it pretty user unfriendly.
The Athabasca tar/oil sands oil is considered an 'unconventional' oil source - it isn't liquid that can be pumped out of the ground. Instead it is in the form of bitumen—a very thick and heavy form of oil (cyclo- or complex forms of hydrocarbon with >40 carbons), also called asphalt or in older texts asphaltum. Bitumen is practically solid to begin with and in the deposit it coats grains of sand and other minerals forming a deposit that bears more resemblance to coal than oil.
There are two ways that the bitumen is extracted. The first is open pit surface mining, like coal. Ground cover is removed, a pit is dug and oil sand is collected with draglines and bucket-wheel excavators or power shovel-and-truck operation. The processing is easier to understand if you watch this video ...
The second, which is used for deeper deposits, is called SAGD - Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage - where pairs of wells are drilled into the ground then have a horizontal leg though the formation. The upper well injects steam into the formation, heating the rock and causing the bitumen to start flowing down into the lower well, where it is pumped up. This type of extraction causes significantly less visible damage than surface mining. Again a video might help ...
Commercial production of oil from the Athabasca oil sands began in 1967, but didn't really swing into high gear until around 2003 as oil prices rose. This is actually visible in the NASA satellite images. Alberta contains about 173 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil, making the regions tar sands the world’s third-largest oil supply after Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela. Approximately 35 billion barrels of it is surface mineable - the rest must be recovered using in situ methods like SAGD.
The environmental affects of all this activity are still playing out before our eyes, with the First Nation peoples being disproportionately impacted. Many First Nations have had to
shift away from their traditional diets out of concerns over
contamination and their land, air and water resources are being harmed.
A study released last month
by the University of Manitoba found traditional foods, such as muskrat and moose, wild-caught in northern
Alberta have higher-than-normal levels of pollutants, icluding heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, that the study
associates with oil sands production. Researchers found arsenic levels were high enough in muskrat, duck and
moose that they were of concern for young children. Mercury levels were
also high for duck muscle, kidneys and livers as well as moose and
muskrat kidneys.
And now this is were we link back to the Keystone Pipeline. The bitumen extracted from the oil sands is diluted/thinned with light hydrocarbons like benzene to make dilbit (diluted bitumen) so that it can flow (sludge?) through a pipeline. Dilbit is much more acidic than normal crude oil and contains much higher levels of heavy metals and other contaminants. Because of these properties, dilbit spills are already justifiably notorious for being difficult to
impossible to clean up. You can get an idea of how bad dilbit is from this op-ed http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/opinion/the-dangers-of-diluted-bitumen-oil.html.
So the primary worry here, that we were meant to be exploring in class last semester, is that the dilbit that would flow through the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline extension, right over an Ogallala Aquifer recharge zone, and that a spill there would be something that we don't know how to clean up effective, damaging the water supply for roughly one-fifth of the wheat, corn, cotton and cattle produced in the United States (not to mention all those people living in the High Plains).
So - this oil is still going to market. The question is how - via pipelines ? Railcars ? Trucks?
There is a lot more that could be said, but I am going to leave this here. If you have been listening to the news you know that several other water issues have been making headlines lately. Eek!
So, I am sitting here in my lab running a test that I need to pay some attention to, but it isn't engaging enough to keep me from getting bored. There isn't much in the way of fun reading material, but digging around I found something I didn't know was in here ...
here is the beginning of Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey ...
Her eyes were so sore and swollen from weeping that she thought that by right she should have no tears left at all. She was so tired that she couldn't keep her mind focused on anything; it flitted from one thought to another, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate.
For non-fiction, well I am a little heavy on journal articles down here, but how about Visit Sunny Chernobyl and other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell ...
It began on a train. Vienna to Kiev, rocking back and forth in a cabin of the Kiev Express. There was a certain Agatha Christie-meets-Leonid Brezhnev charm to it. Long oriental rugs ran the length of its corridors, and the passenger compartments were outfitted with a faux wood-grain veneer and dark red seats that folded up to form bunks.
This bit from the prologue is nice too ...
We come in smooth, coasting, sliding between stands of reeds, water lapping against the metal sides of the rowboat. A host of dragonflies dances around is. They land on the dented edges of the boat, on the oar handles, on my hands.
For The Friday 56 hosted at Freda's Voicepage 56 of Phoenix and Ashes ...
"That will take time, I'm afraid," said Alderscroft, sounding apologetic. "I can wait," she replied gaily, with a delicate little laugh. "After all, a job worth doing is worth doing properly. Thank you, my lord. This is much preferable to investigating the occasional foreigner on a walking tour through Shakespeare country." That sweet little laugh grated on Maya's nerves.
And from Visit Sunny Chernobyl and other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places...
"Are we going to get close to one of these trucks ?" growled a main in the back.
Mindy smiled. "I'm going to try!" she said. But of what her trying consisted, we will never know.
The bus continued down the road, past a few nice pools of sludge, the occasional electric shovel dabbling in the muck, and a couple of flares.
Gas flares at the Suncor Oil Sands Mining Site. Image by Alex MacLean. Canada, 2014. (Source)
(Just FYI - they are touring one of the mining sites in the Athabasca tar sands area - I mentioned the Athabasca in Keystone Pipeline piece I wrote. Yeah, yeah, I really need to finish part 2 of that don't I).
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new
words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to
get creative!
Waiting on a conference call - so here are some random words from Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina that I wanted better images of in my mind.
... onto the pristine sailor collar of her middy blouse, and thence, gravity having its inevitable effect, down the blue seersucker of her uniform's skirt to the floor.
middy /ˈmidē
/ (plural middies)
1: informal A midshipman.
2: (also middy blouse) historical A woman’s or child’s loose blouse with a collar that is cut deep and square at the back and tapering to the front, resembling that worn by a sailor.
seersucker /ˈsi(ə)rˌsəkər/
A printed cotton or synthetic fabric that has a surface consisting of puckered and flat sections, typically in a striped pattern.
Origin: early 18th century: from Persian šir o šakar, literally 'milk and sugar', (by transference) 'striped cotton garment'.
So putting that together, it appears that the girls were wearing school uniforms that looked something like this (but sans the hat).
Over the ten-foot granite wall that separated the sheltered young ladies from the bustle of London, the rattle of carriages and jingle of harness could be heard on the road, along with the voices of passers-by and the occasional distinctive chug of a new steam landau.
Landau
originally a coachbuilding term for a for a type of four-wheeled, convertible carriage transferred over to automobile usage.
1909 Stanley Model R Roadster (source) Yes this really ran on steam - it was a Stanley Steamer
This is the closest thing that seems to still be a landau.
Robert E. Wilhelm's 1918 Model 735B 7-passenger Touring Stanley Steam Car (source) - but this is more like what I keep picturing. This isn't a landau - this is a roadster.
"Twelve new variations of the mazurka are the rage this Season, and we have all learned them."
mazurka
A lively Polish dance in triple time.
Origin: early 19th century: via German from Polish mazurka, denoting a woman of the province Mazovia.
I'm sorry but the thought of a ballroom full of that going on makes me want to giggle something fierce.
Ack I can't stand it !!! That ends in a preposition! +++ Divide by Cucumber Error +++
Ten Authors From Whom I Own the Most Books ?
Ten Authors Who Take Up Way Too Much of my Shelf Space!
Hummm ... so here I am sitting with my laptop, a WiFi connection and some spare time, and the question for this week really involves being at home able to burrow around in my bookshelves. Well, I will do the best I can ...
The top spot is easy ...
1) Terry Pratchett - we have 41 Discworld books (I have read all but the most recent - Raising Steam), plus I have Johnny and the Bomb (I have read all three but I only own one), The Dark Side of the Sun, Strata, Good Omens, The Long Earth, and Dodger. I am also pretty sure I have Truckers, Diggers and Wings kicking around somewhere too. That makes at least 50 books from one author. Good grief!
2) Dame Agatha Christie, probably - she wrote tons of books, I have read lots of them - but I am not sure exactly how many I own. For me Christie mysteries don't actually have a lot of re-read value so most of time I checked them out of the library. On the other hand, I acquire books like ships acquire barnacles so I know that I have several I picked up at book fairs and the like. I can picture a bunch of them on a shelf so I am pretty sure there are at least 20 of them.
3) This one is rather embarrassing ...Edgar Rice Burroughs ... not just the Tarzan books but also theBarsoom series (the ones that people think of as the John Carter of Mars books), the Pellucidar series (At the Earth's Core etc.), the Caspak series (aka The Land the Time Forgot), and at least of couple of the Venus series as well. There are at least 40 of them. I read these books like candy when I was in high school. It probably warped my brain.
4) Andre Norton - I read these like candy in high school too. I have a bunch of them. At least 32 based on the titles I can remember off the top of my head.
5) My husband has dozens and dozens of David Weber books - all of the Honor Harrington books and most, if not all of the related ones, the Safehold books and several others as well. There is a massive pile of them on the bookshelf upstairs - more than 30.
6) I know that I have at least 17 books by Donna Andrews - the Meg Langslow books and a couple of the Turing Hopper books as well.
7) Somewhere in contention might be Sue Grafton - I was reading her Kinsey Millhone books for ages but at some point I stopped. I know that she is up to W, but I have no idea where I left off - somewhere in the double digits. I know that I stopped reading Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books fairly early on - there is only so much stupid that I can take at once and frankly I didn't like either Joe or Ranger - the triangle business was a major turnoff for me - or Stephanie after a while (her learning curve went flat).
8) Humm ... I have 15 Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter books. These I have re-read several times.
9) Oh yes - somewhere in the house is a big pile of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. Like with Christie, I have absolutely no idea how many.
10) Of course! Barbara Mertz aka Elizabeth Peters aka Barbara Michaels- one author several names - lots of books. I have two of Barbara Mertz's nonfiction volumes about ancient Egypt (they are excellent, if a little dated, scholarship), I have at least 19 Michaels books and at least 29 of the Elizabeth Peters books.
So - authors with only 7 books or so, not even in contention. :)
Oh - if we include my son's collections - he had a bizillion Geronimo Stiltonbooks. Any time there was a book fair we acquired more and more of them. I have no idea how many he has now on the shelves waiting for his little sister to be ready for them.
I am sure that once I finish this I am suddenly going to realize that I forgot someone entirely. I wasn't counting Shakespeare - he would be on the list if you counted each play individually but I have most of them in a Riverside edition (though I confess to owning several loose volumes as well) - actually, thinking about it he probably is a contender.
This was tough going based on memory. I wonder how well I did.
I just noticed that some people are counting multiple copies. I think that is cheating so I am not counting them. Otherwise Jane Austen would probably be on this list - I think I have six copies of Pride and Prejudiced alone.
Another way of getting into Discworld is to skip a few books (I know, I know - I am one of those obsessives who wants to start with the first book too) and start with a slightly later book. Pratchett's writing style evolves significantly from say the first five published books and the later ones. As one of the best starting points to one of the most popular story arcs I would suggest Guards! Guards! which is the first novel about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. The writing is on even footing and you get introduced to several important characters in the Discworld universe. 
