Andrew Einspruch's Blog, page 2

Cover Reveal: The Light Bearer

Hello fellow human!

I love doing cover reveals, in part because that means a book’s getting close to release. Without further do, I give you the cover for The Light Bearer, book three in the Western Lands and All That Really Matters series. Ta da!

Pretty cool, I think.

Many thanks once again to Stuart Bacheof Books Covered for the great work he’s done on the whole series.

And if you’d like to preorder it on Amazon, The Light Bearer, it’s ready for you there.

Bedside Table: July 17, 2019

Currently reading (listening to): Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I picked this one up because I saw it on a Bookbub list of favourite audio books. It’s a retelling of Cinderella with the title character a cyborg mechanic. I’ve only just started, so not much to say yet.

Last book finished: The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I really enjoyed this book, which I was reminded of from the same list above. The movie starred Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, and Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar. It’s about a young journalist who throws a Mississippi community into turmoil when she starts interviewing maids about working for white families. What was interesting to me was that, coincidentally, the previous book I’d finished was Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, and both of them used the same narrative format — chapters devoted to the perspective of three different female main characters.

On the pile: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’ve spoken a couple of times about how much I enjoy Gilbert’s books. This is her latest novel, which came out in June, and I’m looking forward to it. From the Amazon description: “It’s 1940 and good-time gal Vivian Morris has just been expelled from Vassar, but she doesn’t much mind. Her parents, on the other hand, are less than thrilled, so they dispatch their dawdling daughter to New York to live with her aunt Peg—the charismatic proprietor of a past-its-prime theater that is home to a quirky, cobbled-together family of thespians and showgirls (whom you will genuinely miss when the last page is turned).”

How about you? Currently reading? Last one read? On the pile? Drop me a note and let me know.

And if you like this kind of thing, you should follow me on Goodreads and Bookbub.

Video: How Art Arrived at Jackson Polladk

My brother Franklin is a fine arts artist, but even so art isn’t something I know a huge amount about. So I enjoy this sort of survey video that helps put art in context and shows how things went from X to Y. In this case, Nerdwriter goes from Manet to Pollock. The video is built from Google’s hi-res scans of famous artworks.

Bedside Table: July 7, 2019

Currently reading (listening to): Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. I read this years ago, and it is often cited by people as one of their favourite Pratchett books, so I thought I’d give it a go again.

Last book finished: Becoming by Michelle Obama. I think history is going to treat the Obamas very well. I listened to the audio book, which Michelle narrates herself, and it really adds to the experience of following her story from her early years into Chicago and all the way to the White House. I found it moving and compelling, and made me nostalgic for a time when there was a thoughtful, well-read, competent president in the White House.

On the pile: How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin. I’ve read most of Hugo-winning Jemisin’s books, and I think she’s a unique and stellar writer. It’s wonderful that a woman of colour has gotten such success and recognition in a genre dominate by white dudes for so long. How Long ’til Black Future Month is a collection of her short stories, and I’m looking forward to diving in.

How about you? Currently reading? Last one read? On the pile? Drop me a note and let me know.

And if you like this kind of thing, you should follow me on Goodreads and Bookbub.

Videos: Two slow-motion videos of animals

These videos are ours, one from me and one from my wife, Billie, of animals here at our animal sanctuary, A Place of Peace.

The first one I shot yesterday. I caught some cockatoos and galahs flying off, filming in slow motion. Besides looking cool, watch the video with the sound on, because the cockatoo caws slowed down sound like whale song.

The second one Billie shot of some of our happy goats running past her. Again, listen with the sound on for the goat snuffle at the end.

(You can find out more about our animal work at the Deep Peace Trust web site.)

 

Eight Things That Caught My Eye

I wanted to share with you eight things that caught my eye recently. I hope they catch yours as well. 

It seems that ‘ji32k7au4a83’ is a remarkably common password.
Norwegians use “Texas” as slang for “crazy.” This tickled my fancy, as I grew up in Texas.
The Forest Green Rovers are a carbon neutral, vegan soccer club. Excellent.
Giphy has an official archive of Prince gifs.
Here are some rules for online sanity.
If you do the math, Venus is not Earth’s closest neighbour. What!?
Bloomberg had a fabulous, nerdy coverfor an article on Facebookas an “apology machine.”
There’s an argument that says vegetables don’t exist.

Bedside Table: May 12, 2019

Currently reading (listening to): The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. I’m literally 14 seconds into this, so I have no opinion yet, but one of you wrote to me after receiving your copy of The Wombanditos and said it was your favourite book, so I’m giving it a shot.

Last book finished: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. Once upon a time, I would have told you this was my favourite book of all time. That was several decades ago, so it was interesting to revisit the story. Published in 1961, it’s a classic of sci-fi. Some of it *really* doesn’t hold up (like the flippant, rampant sexism, the free love, communal ethos, and the long passages of pontificating), but much of this story about a human raised on Mars still works. But if you’ve ever heard someone say, “I grok that” and wondered where “grok” came from, here’s your answer. Very much of its time, and I think it was very important to a lot of people, so it is interesting to come back to after so long and give it another go.

On the pile: The Path to Power by Robert A. Caro. Caro is an extraordinary writer. I listened to his amazing, Pulitzer-winning tome The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York about the man who became one of the most powerful people in the country by controlling public works projects.The Path to Power is the start of his massive, multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. I was three years old when Johnson became president, and I grew up in Texas, like him. He was an amazing, flawed, powerful politician, and I’m looking forward to learning more about him. The Path to Power is about his early years from the Texas Hill Country to being a force in New Deal Washington. Plus, if you’re an Audible listener like me, these books are loooong, and so, very good value for your credit (The Power Broker is 66 hours and The Path to Power is 40). 

How about you? Currently reading? Last one read? On the pile? Drop me a note and let me know.

Video: Grace Hopper – Nanoseconds

What is a nanosecond? As you’ll see, it’s 11.8 inches. That doesn’t make sense, you say? One’s time and one’s distance? Allow Grace Hopper to clarify.

Grace Hopperwas a national treasure. She was an American computer scientist, United States Navy rear admiral, and one of the world’s first programmers, having started programming in the 1940s. She’s credited with logging the first ever computer “bug” (there’s a photo of it in the linked-to Wikipedia page — a moth that got stuck in a relay) This video from (I’m guessing) the late 70s or early 80s shows her irreverence and humour. The woman was a technology hero, and it is well worth the two minutes of your time to see this incredible woman.

Thanks to Thorning Ceremony Readers

Thanks to everyone so far who’s checked out my latest book, the standalone prequel to the Western Lands and All That Really Matters called The Thorning Ceremony . Several of you have been kind enough to email and let me know how much you enjoyed it, so many thanks for that.

If you haven’t had a look yet, please do. The story takes place three years before the start of The Purple Haze, and Princess Eloise and Princess Johanna have some stuff to work out. Plus, there’s the small matter of the worst coming of age ceremony in all of the realms.

I think you’ll enjoy it.

Remember that if you’re in Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free.

If you click the cover pic below or the link above, it’ll take a you to a page that says Kindle, but if you click on through on the Kindle image, you’ll go through to the Amazon store of your choice where the KU and paperback version should be as well.

Bedside Table: April 28, 2019

Currently reading (listening to): The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I’m working my way through the stellar Stephen Fry recording’s of the Sherlock Holmes books. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the third book, and includes the Irene Adler story. The link goes to the full collection, which if you have Audible credits strikes me as a spectacular value as you get the whole set for just one. Or you can do what I did, and see if you can get it through your library via the BorrowBox app.

Last book finished: The Enemy by Lee Child. I enjoy the odd Jack Reacher book, and I thought this was better than most. A bit less biffo, and there’s some lovely writing about Reacher’s relationship with his ill mother. If you like something a bit thriller-ish, check it out.

On the pile: My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith. I don’t know anything about this book, but I’ve enjoyed other books by Smith (especially the cosy detective series featuring Precious Ramotswe that starts with The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency), so I thought I’d give this one a shot.

How about you? Currently reading? Last one read? On the pile? Drop me a note and let me know.