I noticed the post about the giveaway for the Spider and Jeanne Robinson books didn’t actually say who could enter. It has now been updated to say that it is open to anyone in the world. Since many of you probably already read the post a few days ago and won’t be going back to it, I just wanted to make a new one to let people know!

For anybody who didn’t catch my review of Variable Star almost a year and a half ago, I’m a big fan of Spider Robinson. Though I haven’t read as much of her work, Jeanne Robinson’s collaboration with Spider on the Stardance trilogy is also exceptional. Well, word is that Jeanne is fighting a rare form of cancer, and the couple is running low on cash. That link has several ways that you can help, but being the of-limited-resources types that […]

The Drowning Cityby Amanda Downum384pp (Paperback)My Rating: 5.5/10Amazon Rating: 5/5LibraryThing Rating: N/AGoodreads Rating: 3/5 The Drowning City is Amanda Downum’s debut novel and was just released on August 25. It is the first book in The Necromancer Chronicles series, and the next two books are scheduled to be published approximately a year apart (The Bone Palace in 2010 and Kingdoms of Dust in 2011). Ever since I saw the cover quote from one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Bear, I’ve […]

A brief technical supplement in support of our proposed new unit, the grrm. The grrm is a unit of change over time. Specifically, it measures the degree of warping of a shelf under a constant weight per distance over a given length of time. In terms of quality, more grrms represent a shelf that bends more under stress. In standardized units, 1 grrm can be described as: 1 degree of deflection under the weight of a full shelf of ASOIAF […]

Some of you may remember that a little while ago I mentioned I would be doing a review that is a bit different. CSN Office Furniture kindly offered to donate a bookcase for me to review and how could I refuse an offer like that? I asked them for recommendations for a bookcase that was sturdy since most of my shelves are bending under the weight of all my hardcover books. They recommended me cases made by Winsome or Sauder […]