Kamali is Accepting Applications to be His Forever Family

Kamali and I attended an adoption event together this afternoon, and I took the opportunity to discuss his interests and career plans with him. He told me that his greatest ambition is to be a lapdog for someone in need of lots of cuddling and love. He's willing to watch tv with you, or provide extra warmth and comfort while you read. As any good, responsible dog should, he says he would be happy to walk his person several times a day.

Kamali also expressed an interest in learning tricks, believing it would be good mental and physical exercise for him and his person.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann (author), Peter Johnson (reader)

Highbridge Company, Abridged Edition, ISBN 9781565119789, August 2005

This is an abridged edition, which I normally avoid, but it's still a substantial and fascinating history of the pre-Columbus cultures of the Americas. The story is not told in a strict chronological manner, but Mann's writing and Johnson's reading make it easy to follow and understand.

One of the biggest surprises is the population and lifestyle of the Americas when Columbus arrived. Columbus, Pizarro, other Spanish explorers, the French and English explorers that first reached the northern east coast of North America, all reported, on the first explorations, large populations living in settled communities, practicing agriculture, with highly developed arts. It wasn't just the Aztecs and the Incas; it was most of the population of Central and South America, and much of the population of North America. The impression many of us grew with, that aside from the Aztecs and Incas most Indians were relatively primitive hunter-gatherers when Europeans arrived, is simply false.

Thoughts on the Tufts Canine & Feline Breeding & Genetics Conference

Photo by Rachel Doyle

I attended this year's Tufts cat & dog genetics conference at the Omni Parker House in Boston. It was a last-minute opportunity, when my friend Gina Spadafori had to cancel and transferred her registration to me.

It was two solid days, 8am to 5pm, with a lunch break and two short breaks, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. We sat in a room set up classroom style and listened to researchers and veterinarians talk about genetics research on cats and dogs, and the implications for breeding purebred and pedigreed dogs and cats, as well as behavior and health care for pet dogs and cats. Does that sound dull? It was fascinating!

Hunter, by Wil Wheaton

Monolith Press/Amazon Digital Editions, February 2011

Pyke is living in a grim, desperate world, a colony world that has been invaded by a conquering alien force. There's an active, determined resistance--and Pyke used to be part of it. Six months ago, though, he decided it was hopeless, and decided to join the winning side. He's working for the Gan, now, hunting down resistance fighters. And today, he's after one more rebel, a teenage girl who'll be an easy target. Won't she?

This is a short story, so there's not a lot of room for development, but Wheaton makes good use of it. We care about Pyke, his target, and their world. I hope we'll be seeing more of it.

Recommended.

Coyote, by Allen Steele

Ace, ISBN 9780441011162, November 2003

It's 2070, the political situation in the US is appalling and the economy is no prize either, but we're finally about to launch our first interstellar mission, to colonize an Earth-like world, Coyote, a moon orbiting a superjovian planet of 47 Ursae Majoris B, 46 lightyears from Earth. The governance of the colony is carefully planned to keep it under the repressive political thumb of the current right-wing powers that be.

Captain R. E. Lee, commander of the USS Alabama, and some of the other crew and colonists, have even more carefully planned a hijacking of Alabama, to leave most of the armed enforces of the political status quo at home.

A Winter Discovery, by Michael Baron

The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880274, November 2011

This is an absolute little gem of a story, and perfect for Christmas. It's a novelette, and would make a lovely read for a snowy evening with some hot chocolate to sip on while you read.

Reese Rubato is just shy of his sixth birthday, and looking forward to that happy day almost as much as Christmas itself. His mother died not long after his birth, and while his father has remarried and he loves his stepmom, Millie, he's starting to think more and more about his mother. What would it be like to celebrate Christmas with his real mom? Wouldn't it be even more special?

Birds of a Feather, by Jacqueline Winspear (author); Kim Hicks (narrator)

Sound Library, ISBN 9780792736653, June 2005

Maisie Dobbs' business is now thriving, with a better office, a reliable flow of clients, and Billy Beale now employed as her assistant. A new case has just come in. Three of Charlotte Waite's friends have died violent deaths recently, two of them murdered and one an apparent suicide. Charlotte has fled her father's house after a quarrel over these deaths, and he wants her found and returned home. Mr. Waite is a controlling, domineering man, but he's genuinely concerned about her safety.

Cinder and Ella, by Melissa Lemon--A Review

Cinder and Ella, by Melissa Lemon, Cedar Fort/Bonneville Books, ISBN 9781599559063, November 2011

This isn't the story of Cinderella, not even twist on the story. It is its own very neat little story, about the two sensible sisters in a very messed-up family, in a kingdom that has a very serious problem--its prince and heir to the throne.

Anything, by Michael Baron

The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880212, October 2011

Would you do anything for the person you love? Truly anything?

Ken Timian gets a chance to find out.

He's living with, and engaged to, Melissa Argent, daughter of a Marine Colonel, environmental activist, and the love of his life. They've been together two years, and in that time, she's made him not only happier than he's ever been, but a better person. She's brought him both a greater moral awareness, and a greater ability to relax, have fun, and be spontaneous. Melissa herself, though, doesn't have the same ability to be light and spontaneous, and is oddly sensitive about pictures from her high school years. It's a surprise to Ken when Melissa's mother mentions that she was a very talented and dedicated pianist--until high school.

Then their very peculiar favorite jeweler, Stephon, asks Ken what his dearest fantasy about Melissa is, and Ken, after some thought, that he'd love to know what Melissa was like during the thirty years of her life before they met. Stephon, it turns out, has a way to make this possible--to let Ken be a spectator at key moments in Melissa's earlier life.

Angel of Europa, by Allen Steele

Subterranean, Signed Limited Edition, ISBN 9781596064126, August 2011

Allen Steele is a fantastic storyteller.

I suppose I shouldn't really stop right there. This novelette is a very neatly plotted mystery that takes place in orbit around, and on the surface of, Europa. The International Jupiter Expedition has arrived at Jupiter already having suffered one casualty: their arbitrator, Otto Danzig, was nearly killed in an unexplained airlock accident, and has been in medical hibernation since they crossed Mars orbit. Now, though, the expedition has a worse problem: The bathyscaphe lowered into the Europan ocean has suffered an accident, the two scientists aboard have both been killed. Only the pilot, Evangeline Chatelain, survived and returned to the ship. She reports that a huge undersea creature rammed the bathyscaphe and breached the hull of the observation cabin, forcing her to jettison it in order to escape alive herself.

The problem is that no one believes her.