Looking forward > Topics in stem / Future trends in life and education

1 Year or Less

• Learning analytics
• Mobile learning
• Online learning 
• Virtual and remote laboratories

2-3 years adoption

• 3D printing (I've also read 5-7 years)
• Games and Gamification
•  Immersive learning environments
• Wearable technology (yes! waiting for my clothes that automatically adjust for temperature!)

4-5 years adoption

•  Flexible displays 
• Internet of Things (Everything physical is tagged; everything is taggable; everything connects with technology think RFID, QR, etc. --  is it here already? some say yes)
• Machine learning (semantic web and beyond)
• Virtual assistants (Amazon's Mayday button and beyond)

Download and read the white paper from the New Media Consortium (NMC), the Centro Superior para la Enseñanza Virtual (CSEV), Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Control at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Education Society (IEEE). :
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2013-technology-outlook-for-STEM-education.pdf

Everything I know about work life, I learned in Dungeons & Dragons

Interesting post about Dungeons & Dragon play and how it relates to work:

One spell, used well, can be more powerful than an entire book full of spells. I first met Ivan when he showed up for a game in Steve's standard D&D world. Ivan drew up a first-level wizard character who had almost no hit-points and only one wimpy spell: cast an illusion. Whereupon Ivan's character cast an illusion of a 5th-level illusionist... and proceeded to run that powerful "5th level illusionist" through the rest of the game. Years later, Ivan played in a play-by-mail dungeon (yes, children, we did those things before e-mail) in which the DM permitted custom spells. Ivan's "swap" spell seemed Mostly Harmless: Transpose a 1" cube of anything with another 1" cube of anything. Whereupon Ivan set up a magical FedEx business (for very short messages) and a sideline of an assassin-business (swap a square inch of heart muscle with anything else; who could tell that murder was done?). This taught me to get everything possible out of the tools at my disposal. It also taught me to expand my notion of "What do I have, and what can I do with it?"

Game dynamics in the real world

I read this post about game dynamics in "real life" (aka not a game), which started a thought chain... In a nutshell, game dynamics in social media and in IRL (in real life, whatever that really means, I live mostly online... lol) appear in:

• Rewards and points to play, such as frequent flyer programs and Las Vegas casinos/resorts
  
• Facebook is a game because of its immediacy and real time updating
  
• Multilevel & local marketing on facebook and elsewhere
  
• Time management & productivity tools (facebook, lifehacker, etc.)
  

I would add:

• Networking/building alliances (linkedin, facebook, twitter, also, IRL, etc.)
  
• Task oriented duties / completion of a task (I see this as different from a tangible reward, because sometimes the reward is just a completed profile or a thank you)
• Learning
  
• Chance and probability (I know the Google "I'm feeling lucky" is not completely random, nor is the suggested friends on facebook)
  
• Exploration/Creative play

..and if I think long enough, I will come up with some more, I am sure.

For Zynga game users (you know, farmville, mafiawars, vampirewars, etc....)

Interesting article about the fallout over Zynga (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc., which all have huge communities on facebook) and its scam ads. Hmm, yet another reason to pay attention to what you click on and ALWAYS read the TOS. ;-)

"Zynga insists they are serious about cleaning up the industry. And today Pincus has announced that the company will remove all offer advertising from their games.

This isn’t a meaningless action. Offers account for 1/3 or so of Zynga’s rumored $250 million in revenue.

All offers will be removed by the end of today, says Pincus, “until we can control their inclusion and presentation ourselves.”

The blog post also discloses that Zynga is an investor in DoubleDing, an offer provider that competes with OfferPal and SuperRewards. DoubleDing was serving the mobile offers that popped back onto Zynga on Friday."

Read the Tech Crunch article here and the earlier article hahere.

Be careful out there folks.

Obsolete technologies: the losers

Today's post is all about obsolete technologies.

Contrary to the what?s next people, I do not believe libraries are going anywhere. I do think libraries will continue to evolve as community space and that more of our products and services will be digitally based (especially if kindle continues to catch on), but considering most libraries are free, we fit perfectly into the economy of free! Also, one of the trends what?snext is predicting for 2010 is back to basics, which includes a re-interest in analog. Sooo.... all of you people who suddenly decide you want to read a real book instead of your kindle? I know where you can find one or two, or several thousand. ;-)




PCWorld lists among its 40 losers (I'm not listing them all here):

1. Playing Video Games at the Arcade (I think there will still be arcades around for a while, but they will be big megaplexes aimed at families, kids parties, events, etc., which we have already started to see.)

2. Running out of Hard Drive Space (LOL, I wish this was obsolete and with cloud based services, it may very well be... but honestly, our devices like digital cameras create bigger files, so I will be surprised if I ever get to the point where I feel I will NEVER run out of space.... LOL)

10. Taking Polaroids (sigh, I keep hoping that someone will continue to make the film -- there is a market)

11. Waiting for pictures to develop (among the general photographers I can see film dying, but a niche community is already rallied behind film, just as LPs have continued to be popular.)

16. Enjoying complete privacy (sigh, unfortunately, I agree, that this is on the way out -- between GPS and cameras most everywhere, there are few places on earth that are truly private

18. Wearing a calculator watch (I would add, wearing any watch... Watches are done, except as either fashion statements or as worn by those who explicitly need a watch visible on their arm, such as divers....)

27. Holding up a lighter at a concert (if you've been to any concert in the last few years, what do you see? Cell phones, no lighters.... I can't believe this made the list of obsolete technologies, though)

29. Using proper grammar and pronunciation (As English is an evolving language, I am really not sure what this means. If it means standard grammar as was taught in the early part of the century, then yes, it is changing. Who uses dreamt anymore?)

31. Flipping on an incandescent light bulb (I surely hope we do not end up as a fluorescent world, fluorescent bulbs are terrible for people with migraines.)

38. Faxing (people still do that? LOL)


Off of the top of my head, here are the things that I see as going the way of the dinosaur: travel agents (but not tour guides), video rental stores, the mp3 player as mp3 player only (wifi/web enabled mp3 will stay for a good long while), digital video cameras (every digital camera will shoot video or every video camera will capture stills, so one device), watches (who wears a watch now besides people without a cell phone or those who need a device on their arm (divers, runners, etc.), and we'll continue to move to one mobile device for everything.

I do think, at least for a very long time (which in technology terms can be months -- LOL), that there will continue to be a division between professional level products and one device that does everything, but at a lesser quality. So while camera/video phones exist and will get better and better, the professional level products will continue to be more purpose driven (i.e., a camera is just a camera...) and offer higher quality. I do think there will be overlay in the prosumer and pro models, but it will be a long time (if ever) before we see professional video or stills from a phone.

New art, new writings, podcasts & video -- it's moonshine

The latest issue of moonshine, a magazine of the southern arts is available online (& free) at
http://www.moonshine.southerncreativity.com

-------------------------
A game of words -- a game of chance? What is love? Inspiration? Creativity? A reflection of ourselves? Our best selves? Our worst selves? This month we explore the many dimensions of being human from complex family dynamics to first love to the love of beauty and art... inspiration and creativity. The tie that binds --- Writings, music, paintings, photography... perhaps, by the light of the moon. Take a moment to find some inspiration in the work of Southern writers & artists.

Jasmine Rizer's Little Miss Straight-Edge Goes on Vacation (pt. 1) -- or is it? You can be the judge of that one! Lisa R. Taylor reflects on her family and shares Lies from my Grandmother (essay). Savannah writer Hunter Dasten presents 3 poems: A Ballerina's Dance (For Krysten Marie) (poetry); The Perfect Word; and Tightrope Walkers. Lost at Sea (poem) by Brenda Basham explores the depth of humanity, as does John S Moon who tells us about My True Love (poem). Georgia writer Niles Reddick shares Lead me Home (a novel excerpt), which focuses on the day-to-day, work relationships, and more. Despina Panagakos Yeargin asks The Questions of love, while McCabe Coolidge continues his series, Seven Questions with this question: Who do you think your guardian angel is? Thoughtful poetry from Russell Lee Hale I (a pair:Kiss Me Goodnight; Words Without), Sandy Vanderbleek (bite lip) and an enchanting tale of a roadtrip, Christopher Kupcho's Watermelon & Beer.

FROM THE STUDIO

Studio views features Sandra Babb's essay Powdered Pastels Demonstration (you'll never believe where she is painting now!!) and Jill Kettle interviews painter Durand Seay.

ON CREATIVITY AND THE CULTURE OF ART
Brenda Basham Dothage is having some Psychological Ponderings: Self-Esteem while Dorothy Birch explores A Season of Love -- I bet you will be surprised and delighted by this article, too -- but then, I'm not going to give away the secret!

ART & TECHNOLOGY
Donna Rosser aka the Barefoot Photographer shares her Digital photography basics while Robin Fay shares videos that she and her niece have made while exploring the latest underwater video cameras in Photography and Video to the Extreme.

REVIEWS
Our music review is a podcast by Hannah Leatherbury with Terrance Simien, music & more (podcast). Terrance performs his zydeco music and also reflects on his music and advice for other artists. Book reviews for February/March are Big Box Reuse by Julia Christensen, (book review by Jasmine Rizer), which explores what happens to the land and buildings after a bigbox retail store moves out.All the King's Horses and All the King's Friends by Ken Upright (book review by Rachel Anders) focuses on southern stories by regional storyteller, Ken Upright. Why I Came West: A Memoir by Rick Bass (book review by Heather Kline) is a memoir of travelling to the West. Andrew Shupling reviews the graphic novel Good as Lily by Derek Kirk Kim.

Check in with a Short Girl comix, book reviews, work from the Southerncreativity gallery (@ Flickr), art announcements & calls for entries.

Library news roundup: nexgen catalogs, institutional repositories, and more

Well, since I have so many little library related tidbits floating around in my reader, I'm just going to do a roundup:

• Over at the shifted librarian, she has a nice blog post about the new startup project, bibliocommons @ the Oakville, Ontario library, to build a library catalog interface from scratch. The interface includes things like reviews, tagging, faceted searching, etc. Looks very drupalesque to me.
• A few discussions about defining repository and of course, wikipedia's definition.
• Pew statistical study on blog reading: "' Do you ever read someone else's online journal or blog?'. In total, 33% of internet users (the equivalent of 24% of all adults) say they read blogs, with 11% of internet users doing so on a typical day. " I wonder how many people read blogs without knowing they are reading a blog.
• EDUCause's 7things you should know about Wii (I always think the 7things series are just great!) including an overview of what it is and how it works, why it is important, and how it can be used for teaching and learning.
• From Equinox's blog, Five public libraries and one academic moved to the opensource Evergreen library catalog software. Approximately 30 more migrations are in the works.
• Mobile! Mobile! Mobile! Honestly, if you're already tired of hearing about the iphone, just wait until Google's Android hits. On the move with mobile web; Semantic web, mobiles and libraries picking up the pace; the catalog in your hand; and just google iphone or android, for the billions of articles and blogposts about them. ;-)

twitting a twebinar

So, I'm in the middle of a twebinar called Game Changing Moves: Who Really Owns Your Brand?
Anyhow, so it's a webinar with a twitter element thrown in and I am taking a break. The topic is interesting (branding in the web2.0+ world), but I think this might be more multitasking than my brain can handle. I'm having a hard time watching the video feed, listening to the audio, and reading the ongoing companion stream of quickly appearing dialogue going on via twitter. Maybe, it's just because I have a headache.

it's all photoshop to me -- on film and reality

Well, I thought about pre-posting (aka future posting) a few entries, but then I decided against it. So, you all got a break from me, while I got break from computers and some days, even technology, well, except for my camera. ;-D

I did finally fully migrate from film to digital. I'm still not sure I buy into the whole "death of film" idea, but at some point the cost of developing, the lack of good film developers, and the lack of film, in some cases, contributed to my feeling that it was time to migrate. I used to buy film at the film shop near work, which catered to a wide variety of customers, but somewhat catered to art students, which meant stocking pro quality films lacking in the discount spots around town. However, the shop went out of business, leaving a huge hole in my choices.

I've had a digital camera since 1999 (don't ask how much it cost...), but I always preferred film for "real" photography. Sure, film can be altered. It can certainly be altered using Photoshop or some other digital imaging software after the fact, scratched, spliced, painted on, developed poorly, etc. However, the general 'realness' of film just seems better somehow.

The whole migration to digital photography has made me think about the "photoshop factor." Just about anyone can take a good photo these days -- and if they can't TAKE a good photo, they can probably MAKE a good photo. It used to be that photos read as 'real'. They were evidence of something -- an event, a place, a person, etc. Now that photo manipulation is so common place, it seems that the 'realness' of photography has gone out the window. Images are so routinely manipulated, that a 'real' image -- an actual photograph that is unique in some way is often read as photoshopped.

I wonder if one of the factors in the rise in video is partially due to the photoshop issue. If you see/do something UNBELIEVABLE, then would people be more likely to trust a photograph, which is just one instance in time and can be easily manipulated, or a video, which is a slice of time and not as easy to manipulate (at least, at this point in the game?)

True video offers other advantages: capturing more of the contextual as well as the audio.

Will photography be completely subsumed by video? It would seem like the answer is no, as I still know quite a few photographers who have polaroid cameras (and even use polaroid camera).

Oh, and here is a slideshow of my vacation photos. All shot with a canon xsi.

Voyager tutorials as interactive game (sort of)

If you've not seen the tutorial from the Univ. of Auckland before, it is kind of an interesting (and different!) approach to teaching users about Voyager -- very video gamesque, in as much as a tutorial probably can be. ;-)

It's not the most indepth, but looks to cover the basics.

Main table of contents, which also provides some story elements:

http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/instruct/tutorials/voyager/toc.html


Tutorials:
http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/instruct/tutorials/voyager/index.html

Library/Web 2.0 Workshops (Feebased; online)

Feebased; taught through Solinet

Xtreme Web Searching (Live Online)
2/12-2/13/2008, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?doc_id=4058&WKSHPID=26XWSLO

Becoming a Library Advocate (Live Online) - NEW!
2/12/2008, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?mode=preview&doc_id=4799&WKSHPID=26BALO

E-Resource Wrangling: An Introduction to ERMS (Live Online)
2/12/2008, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?mode=preview&doc_id=4595&WKSHPID=26ERMLO

Basic MARC Tagging for Serials (Live Online)
2/12-2/13/2008, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?mode=preview&doc_id=3937&WKSHPID=05BMTSLO

Instant Messaging for Communication, Reference, and Outreach in
Libraries
(Live Online)
2/13/2008, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?doc_id=3806&WKSHPID=26IMLO

Preservation of Photographic Materials (Live Online)
2/13/2008, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?mode=preview&doc_id=4474&WKSHPID=12PPMLO

Dreamweaver (Live Online)
2/15/2008, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Registration and Pricing Information:
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?doc_id=3818&WKSHPID=26DWLO

Virtually vague - secondlife, opensim, and other stuff

It's certainly easier to pretend to make art or to speak the truth than to actually do either.

--NPR, Are we not gamers?

Although my computer more than meets the requirements for secondlife, it's very jerky. Graphics card, maybe?

I've tried secondlife a few times now, the first time was when it was kind of the shiny new thing on the web. This latest time, I wandered around orientation island for a while, got really lost (I think I was standing in the middle of the ocean?) , got bored and gave up. Maybe it is that I didn't understand exactly how to interact with the software (needed an instruction session, I suppose) or perhaps, it is just that this format doesn't appeal to me.

In spite of all of the web stuff I do and have participated in, I don't consider myself a gamer. It really doesn't appeal to me (although I have played some games online or via a standalone machine -xbox, etc.). NPR has an interesting article about the diminishing distinction between gamer and non-gamer.

SecondLife feels very 'gamerly' to me. I also dislike the 'real' money involved. I don't fault SL for trying to make money - hey, it's their product! I am interested in the educational applications of secondlife. How are educational institutions using secondlife and other sim environments? Are these successful projects?

Are their implications to teaching, conducting research, or otherwise engaging students in SecondLife? Yes, says Michael Bugeja of the Chronicle.

When it comes to Second Life, we're not only talking about money. We're talking about whether you as a professor or administrator will be held accountable for introducing your students and/or employees to a virtual world that accepts little responsibility for anything that happens among avatars, including online harassment and assault.

Enter into the mix the opensource virtualworld product, OpenSim, aka OpenSL. Will educational institutions and organizations embrace opensource virtual worlds?

Will one day in the future, instead of typing into a search engine, I will virtually walk up to an information desk and ask for help? Will I be able to do that, or will I be stuck in search engine city?

Robin reads: PopCo, The codex, Deception point & I never promised you a rose garden

PopCo by Scarlett Thomas (FICTION):
A friend recommended this to me and I found this a very fun read. Alice Butler is a whiz at cryptography, crosswords, and also works for one of the world's leading toy manufacturers, PopCo, designing 'kid's spyware'. Having been selected for a special retreat which is actually to develop a new toy/marketing scheme for teenage girls, she quickly discovers that things are not always what they seem (to use a clichè). Hip, funny, insightful, with snappy pacing, and a few twists and turns throughout.

Codex by Lev Grossman (FICTION)
Well, I picked this up at a booksale. ;) Edward Wozny, a banker, somehow gets involved with the Duchess and Duke of Bowery to catalog their book collection and find a particular famous medieval book, which by many is considered to be nonexistent A Viage to the Contree of the Cimmerians, by a monk, Gervase of Langford. Along the way, he meets a literature grad student, Margaret Napier, who he meets/employs/becomes involved with in the quest to find the codex. He also becomes obsessed with a computer game momus. So, how does this all fit together? Well, the book overall has a dreamy state and it's like Edward is sleep walking through his life. The book is sort of odd coming of age story, or perhaps, more of person becoming awake. The ending is a little abrupt and feels hurried, but overall I enjoyed the book. I think the dreamy, sleepwalky quality makes the abrupt ending feel jarring, but perhaps that is the waking point. Also, I think you really need to enjoy reading about libraries and books to like this one.

Deception Point by Dan Brown (FICTION)
President Zachary Herney is up for relection and NASA has made several very public bad decisions and overspent its budget. The president has come to their aid many times, which is perfect fodder for his opponent, Senator Sedgwick Sexton, whose platform is children/education by privitizing space exploration. Into this situation, is tossed a meteor under the arctic circle which will prove the existence of extraterrestial life. The President taps Rachel Sexton, of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Sedgwick Sexton's daughter, to verify the data and findings. She travels to the Arctic circle where she only needs to verify that the information is correct. At this point, the story takes off. Is the meteor real or not? It is ultimately up to Rachel Sexton and another scientist affiliated with the project, oceanographer Michael Tolland, to bring the truth to the surface. Typical Dan Brown. I do think he provides enough momentum, details, and changes to keep his stories from feeling too redundant, but there is a definitely a pattern to these.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg (FICTION)
The story of a 16 year old (Deborah's) struggle to overcome mental illness, which causes her to create the internal mystical world of Yr, a world bound by rules and gods, with both beautiful and desolate scenary. I first read this when I was an early teenager (13ish), and I definitely appreciate it much more now. Gives an insight into the reality of mental illness through the patient's perspective and an interesting slice of mental health treatment and diagnosis in the 1950s. Beautifully written and truly a modern classic.

more on myspace

myspace and other online social networking things are kind of interesting, ya know? Although blogs/journals have an aspect of social networking, especially with the use of feeds, comments, and blogrolling/links tools, social networking online really started to take off with six degrees. The Six degrees community was loosely based on the kevin bacon game which is loosely based on the play six degrees of separation which is loosely based upon the theory of Small World Phenomon which was developed by Stanley Milgram. Basically, the everybody is related theory. ;) Six degrees the community was online from '97 to 2001 and sold for 120$ million US. Yes, million. Following the success of six degrees, Friendster (2002), LinkedIn, and finally myspace (2003). After what sounds like a falling out at Friendster over people posting pet info, dogster.com and catster.com started as offshoot of friendster.

Developing sort of at the same time but with a slightly different scope (online publishing vs. social networking) was the blog: xanga (1996), LiveJournal (1998), blogger(1999), Diaryland(1999).

I'm not sure I really like myspace, mostly because it seems so juvenile in a lot of ways. I was part of six degrees and friendster and I even participated in a six degrees study a few years ago which was very interesting. Basically, you were given the name of someone else in the study, and you had to try to find a way to send a message (predetermined from the researcher so that we all had the same message) without direct contact. You could only use friends, aquaintances, etc. and it all had to be done via email. I do not know if my message every made it to my intended target, I know that whoever had my name never got their message to me. Of course, when you take into account how many people actually vote, or do community service, or anything to better the world in anyway, well... the fact that the messages ended up in limbo, is probably to be expected.

Anyhow, a few interesting/odd things about myspace:
Teen posts suicide note on myspace

MySpace Celebrities
more about myspace as a culture

the myspace generation

social networking blog
wikipedia: six degrees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SixDegrees.com
wikipedia: six degrees of separation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
dogster
http://www.dogster.com/

Robin Reads: Metro Girl, The Rule of Four, and The Bronte Project

Well, out of these, I didn't really like any of them. ;) Two novels about literature, two thrillers/mysteries.

Let's start with The Rule of Four.

The Rule of Four: Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason (FICTION):
Lurching novel (literary thriller) about a renaissance era book which is supposedly impossible to deciper and filled with clues. Kind of like a renaissance Finnegans Wake? I'm not sure as I don't know alot about renaissance lit (my speciality was gothic/romantic). Touted as a thinking person's The DaVinci Code. I really wanted to like this but I barely finished it. Generally, the story is interesting and the plot twists are okay, the four main characters do complement each other, but it suffers too much from repetition. Having said that, I do think it is more intelligent than the DaVinci Code which is really not that original anyhow (as the key to the story is based upon Holy Blood, Holy Grail). The book spent 6 months on the NY Times best seller list. Also, there is an accompanying game: http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/theruleoffour/
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385337116/103-8377763-7365405?v=glance&n=283155

The Bronte Project: a novel of passion, desire, and good PR: Jennifer Vandever (FICTION):
Well, the first thing that is always a little odd is when you read about a character that umm... sort of sounds like you physically. It's kind of like reading about your sister doing something. ;) This novel is mostly a coming of age tale of a young graduate student 'the silent Victorian' who is writing her thesis on Bronte. Along the way, she is dumped by her longtime boyfriend and takes up with an assortment of odd characters. Generally, an easy read and it does ring rather true of the odd characters who seem to fill English Lit programs. Overall enjoyable, but nothing too spectacular. The ending seems at once too obvious and on the other hand, peculiar in terms of the rest of the story. Next up, I'm reading the DeKooning biography.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307236919/103-8377763-7365405?v=glance&n=283155


Metro Girl: Janet Evanovich (FICTION):
Alex Barney receives a mysterious phone call from her brother in Miami, drops everything and heads to find him. Along the way she means NASCAR guy (who really does call himself that), a stereotypical gay guy, a bunch of stereotypical Cuban American women (who work in a cigar factory), and let's see anymore stereotypes? Metro I think is supposed to refer to Alex as metrosexual in that 1)she goes by her last name Barney 2)she used to be a mechanic and 3)pink mini skirts? no, wait, there must have been something else.
Anyhow, I read it for the S. Florida scenery but I felt guilty about reading all of the stereotype stuff (or actually, the author presents the characters as stereotypes but then throws something in so that it can be a "nonstereotypical" representation... umm... I don't think that is how it works...) The mystery/story is ok, but the story is very uneven. There are some very serious elements to the story, which seem to just not make sense. At one point, Alex is knowingly driving around with a bomb in the back of her car. Yep. Honestly, I kept thinking/hoping this one would get better.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060584009/103-8377763-7365405?v=glance&n=283155

book reviews for : Angels & Demons, Twisted, the undomestic goddess, colors insulting to nature

I finally do have some nonfiction coming up on my reading list... and you can see that I've been doing ALOT of reading...

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown I enjoyed this one much better than the DaVinci Code, although reading these two so closely together I did see a formula. Here is the formula for those who might wonder: Famous symbologist/professor Robert Langdon receives a phone call from some large and very important institution/organization about a mysterious death. Upon his arrival, he meets a woman who is a scientist (Kind of the inverse of the sterotypical arts/humanity = femininity and science/math = male, although I wonder if that was planned or just a convenient way to get a love interest in the story...) They investigate and the follow alot of clues hidden in architecture, art, etc. to the point where an important person to the story is revealed as the villain. How important? Well, you will have to read the book. Along the way, Robert Langdon and his Scientist romantic interest, will espouse various theories about religion, science, and art. If you enjoy mysteries and reading about art or religious/scientific theories and conspiracies, you would probably enjoy these in spite of the formula.

Colors Insulting to Nature by Cintra Wilson A quirky coming of age tale of a girl who believes she is talented and wants to be a star, in spite of the fact that her 'talent' is questionable. Her mother is a train wreck of a stage mother (think if Divine were your mom) who starts her own theatre house, her brother becomes an agrophoric artist (and conversely famous), her father (a former rodeo cowboy) becomes a drag queen... still all's well that ends well to a certain extent. She wanders through a lot of personas and subcultures along her way to adulthood, and the heroine is not the most lovable character, but I think that is part of the charm. The novelist does step inside the story at times to propel the story along or comment. At times, this is a little disconcerting, but I think overall it works with this novel. I enjoyed this book immensely and I honesty think this book would make a great John Waters movie...

Twisted by Jonathan Kellerman Hollywood homicide detective Petra Connor (a regular character in Jonathan Kellerman novels), has to solve two different murders. One appears to be a gang drive by shooting after a hip hop concert. The second, a possible previously unrecognized serial killing spree, of murders where folks brains are bashed out (literally). Is there a pattern to the second murder case as her mathematical genius intern suggests or is it just imagined? I like Kellerman's mysteries/crime stories. I'm not exactly sure why except the characters are well written, and the stories are consistently good, and overall, his books do not feel quite as formulaic as some others in this genre.

The Undomestic Goddess: Books by Sophie Kinsella Samantha Sweeting should be on the top of her game. A lawyer at one of the most pretigious law firms in London, a nice flat, and all of the other trappings of success. She considers being overworked and scheduling her time in 6 minute intervals to be the sacrifice of being successful. On the day that she is to be made partner, a terrible financial & legal mistake is found by Samantha "I don't make mistakes" Sweeting. Freaking out, she walks out of her office and ends up in the country where she somehow ACCIDENTALLY accepts a job as a housekeeper in spite of the fact she has no idea of how to cook, iron, or anything else required... Will she stay? Will she be found out? In spite of the fact that this book became a little too.. umm... sweet for me towards the end, a solid read.

To see all of my reviews & synopsis, click here.