Bay Tanner is a young widow and aspiring private in­ves­ti­ga­tor from wealthy South Carolina stock. When a hitherto unknown shirt-tail cousin (fifth half cousin, specif­i­cal­ly) bursts into Bay's life, she brings havoc in her train.

As one of the characters says, the plot sounds like a made-for-TV movie. Still, Bay is a feisty heroine and the background is not one that has been mined deeply.

We saw The Seafarer at the Seattle Rep this afternoon. Two brothers, Richard and Sharkey, share a house in north Dublin. There's little love lost between them. Richard, recently blinded, is con­trol­ling and wheedling. Sharkey is trying to stay off the gargle and it's not easy when Richard and his crony Ivan drink like fishes.

Sharkey's old rival, Nicky, arrives on Christmas Eve, bringing a stranger with him, Mr. Lockhart. They settle down to a game of poker and Sharkey privately learns that he's met the stranger once before. For Mr. Lockhart is the devil and he wants to collect the old …continue.

As promised yesterday, we saw the initial midnight showing of the Watchmen movie at the Pacific Science Center IMAX. And, lo, the geeks came in their numbers and they were greatly pleased. Some were dressed as Rorschach, one came as a smurf; no, I lie, he was Dr. Manhattan.

I summarized the plot in my review of the book. That still holds: the movie was largely faithful to the book. In many scenes, it was clear that the book had served as a storyboard. Too faithful in some ways at 165 minutes long. Some subplots were elim­i­nat­ed; no doubt they will resurface …continue.

I was Toast­mas­ter of the Day at this evening's meeting of Freely Speaking Toast­mas­ters. My theme was software de­vel­op­ment and I wanted to give the non-developer audience a taste for what it's like to write a program. I talked about writing a simple Sudoku game.

Yesterday, I read Pro­gram­ming Sudoku for background. I bought this book for Emma after reading about it on Scott Hansel­man's blog. It's targeted at beginning pro­gram­mers and walks them through building a Sudoku game and solver. I was hoping to get Emma more interested in pro­gram­ming—un­suc­cess­ful­ly. She found …continue.

Set in an alternate 1985 where costumed heroes are real—and outlawed—Watchmen follows six ad­ven­tur­ers. Rorschach, half-mad, continues his vigilante activities. Nite Owl is retired and a worrywart. The former Ozy­man­di­as—the world's smartest man—is now one of the richest. The Comedian is murdered at the very beginning; after the Keene Act passed, he was allowed to continue operating as a government enforcer. Dr. Manhattan was trans­formed into a superbeing in a nuclear accident in 1959; he is America's strategic weapon in the arms race with the …continue.

In the 1850s, three anti-slavery families settled next to each other in rural Kansas: the Grelliers, the Schapens, and the rich Fremantles. Seven gen­er­a­tions later, the last of the Fremantles is gone, the Grelliers are pro­gres­sive farmers, and the Schapens are bel­liger­ent fun­da­men­tal­ists. Gina Haring, a Wiccan lesbian from New York, housesits the Fremantle mansion, while she tries to pick up the pieces of her life. In­ad­ver­tent­ly, she triggers a cascade of changes. Most notably, the Grellier son, at odds with his anti-war mother, enlists and is killed in Iraq, sending her into a …continue.

Clint Eastwood directs himself as Walt Kowalski, a retired auto worker. Newly widowed, estranged from his sons, and haunted by his Korean War ex­pe­ri­ences, Walt is a bitter, racist old bastard.

He doesn't like the Hmong immigrants who live next door and he nearly shoots the teenage boy, Thao, when he catches Thao trying to steal his beloved 1972 Gran Torino. The theft was to be the reluctant Thao's gang initiation. The gang come by to punish Thao and Walt runs the “gooks” off his lawn at gunpoint. The Hmong neighbors start bringing over food and flowers in gratitude. Walt is confounded …continue.

Liam Neeson is Bryan Mills, a former CIA “pre­ven­ter” who re­luc­tant­ly lets his teenaged daughter visit Paris. Kim is abducted by an Albanian pros­ti­tu­tion ring and he sets out to rescue her. Non-stop mayhem and action ensue.

Taken works fairly ef­fec­tive­ly as an action movie in the Bourne mode. The plot moves fast enough that you don't have time to reflect upon the gaping holes or the improbable ef­fec­tive­ness and in­vin­ci­bil­i­ty of Mills.

Neeson carries the movie, convincing as the pissed-off hardass who'll go to any lengths to find his daughter.

Sequel to For a Few Demons More. Best read in sequence.

Rachel Morgan: witch and private in­ves­ti­ga­tor. An unknown enemy is summoning a demon every night to kill her. She learns some surprising things about her past and her place in the world.

Previous books were heavy on the action; here it kicks in very late and the book is very talky.

Moderately en­ter­tain­ing but weaker than earlier books in the series.

Another novel in the Dune franchise. Paul of Dune is an interquel, largely taking place in the decade between the events of Dune and of Dune Messiah.

Paul Atreides has become the Emperor of the known galaxy. A vicious jihad has burst across the empire in his name. His prescience tells him that it's absolutely necessary so that mankind can break out of the course that leads to stagnation and de­struc­tion. But billions have died and many more are yet to die. He is feared and hated. A …continue.