A Modest Construct

My father, Eric, passed away yesterday at the age of 51.

I will be more or less completely useless for a while.

Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques

Publisher: Philomel

Year: 1994

Pages: 384

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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?

№43

It may behoove you to read the previous book in this series, Salamandastron

Martin the Warrior marks something of a turning point for the Redwall series: Jacques, for the first time, seems mindful that he…

You may recall that I’ve been to Cleveland before (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6); this year, I was there once again, for the same reason, namely the annual CampusEAI conference.

Our addition to the program this year was relatively recent occurrence, and so this conference came as a bit…

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Publisher: Anchor

Year: 1998

Pages: 416

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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?

№42

I was supposed to read Into Thin Air when I was a junior in high school, as one of a tripartite summer/fall curriculum about Man vs. Nature themes: the other two books were Junger’s…

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

Publisher: Vintage

Year: 2007

Pages: 368

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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?

№41

I can recall with tremendous clarity how surprised I was by Mark Haddon’s debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It wasn’t that the story was anything spectacular—it was…

I’ll be in Cleveland until Friday at this. Posts to follow(?).

The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil

Publisher: Penguin

Year: 2000

Pages: 400

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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?

№40

Part of the problem with books making predictions about the future is they only have two markets: (1), people who want to read predictions about the future, and (2) people who want to…

My sister’s baby girl, Isabella, was born at 9:43am this morning. 7lbs, 6oz., 20 inches long.

It should almost go without saying that young Bella is getting one of these from her soon-to-be-favorite uncle.

For no particular reason, here’s a picture:

If you haven’t already heard of the Duggar family from their show on the Discovery Channel, or from other various and sundry news reports that pop up every time Mr. & Mrs. Fecundity drop a new child into the world (every nine months), then let me sum it up for…