The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

Just finished reading the novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, by Charlie Huston, on my Kindle (Kindle 1, still; surely you already know that I anxiously await my Kindle 2). I liked this one for lots of reasons. It was pretty funny in a lot of places, mostly because the main character is an Olympic-class smartass most of the time, and his dialog was hilarious. There was enough action (not too much, and well told), some mystery, interesting characters, and the excellent little quirk of putting it all into the context of trauma cleaning and the people who do that kind of work. See? Now your curiosity is piqued. Go read it, you'll enjoy it.

Kindle 2!

This morning I pre-ordered Amazon's Kindle 2. As you know, I'm a huge fan of the original. The Kindle 2 is slated for release on 24 Feb, and I guess it will come soon after that. It's likely that I'll be at C-SHALS 2009 when it arrives (why does it always have to happen that way?).

Web Coolness

Did you ever hear a song on the radio and wish you knew what song it was, so you could add it to your music collection? That happens to me a lot, and I notice that pretty much every time it does the DJ neglects to tell me.

Here's how the Web comes to the rescue. When I hear a song that I feel I must have, but I don't know what it is, I hit 'J' on my Blackberry to dial Jott. Jott is an online transcription service; I call Jott and say some stuff to them, and they transcribe what I say into various electronic forms (emails, online lists, etc.). It kind of goes like, "Ring...Who do you want to Jott?" "Myself." "Beep." "The Office is on tonight -- watch it!" Then I get an email that says, "The Office is on tonight. Watch it," or I can see the text online.

Then I found out about Nabbit. Nabbit knows the radio stations I listen to, and what they're playing at any given time. If I visit Nabbit with my mobile browser, I see a list of all my radio station presets, and I just need to choose one to see what it's playing at the time.

Which is cool enough, but here's where it gets cooler: Jott and Nabbit are buds. So I can Jott like this: "Ring...Who do you want to Jott?" "Nabbit." "Nabbit. Is that correct?" "Yes." "Beep." "KCLC." Jott transcribes my "KCLC" (the call letters of the radio station playing the song I like), sends it to Nabbit, Nabbit looks it up for me, and I get the name and artist of the song. Pretty sweet, right?

Oooh, That's Sharp!

The lone entry on my 2008 Christmas list was a Global 24-cm chef's knife, and I was lucky enough to get it. I have to say, it is not like any other knife I've ever used. I'm just getting interested in cooking, really, and I don't have much experience -- this is my first real chef's knife. I now have all kinds of respect for Japanese steel. This knife's job is to part matter, and it does it incredibly well. And it does it without prejudice, happily parting human flesh along with anything else that gets in its way. You may surmise, and correctly, that I found this out the hard way. My chef's knife is like a lightsaber, and I guess "Slater" is not a Jedi name.

The Good Thief

Just finished reading The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, on my Kindle. A terrific book, I thought. An adventure story full of action, mystery, likable rogues, pretty nasty villains, and some imagery that I think will stay with me forever. Every single character was flawed, as all of us are, but it was easy to like the good guys and hope that they found what they were looking for. Read, and enjoy!

Letters of Mozart

Another book I read on my Kindle over my break was The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Vol. I. Turns out that for all his genius Mozart was a real guy, who caught colds and got in trouble from his dad and sometimes failed in doing the things we know him for today, almost 220 years after his death. A fun read -- I'm going to look for Vol. II.

Flood

While I was in California for the Holidays, I read the thriller Flood, by Andrew Vachss, on my Kindle, and was duly thrilled. I believe it was a free download, and boy was it ever worth the price. Nicely done for a first novel, maybe due at least in part to some of the author's real-life experience. I found it to be pretty engrossing throughout, although there was a sort of Gilligan's Island Reunion part toward the end that I found to be a little unlikely, where most of the characters (each of whom is a loner and a misfit in their own ways) get together to do a job. Enjoy!