Pennsylvania Council of the Blind publishes no-measure cookbook

From the NLS Sept./Oct. Braille Book Review

The Pennsylvania Council of the Blind has published a new cookbook for individuals whose physical or visual impairments make precise measurements difficult.
The True No-Measure Cook-book includes more than 225 recipes that call for ingredients in amounts of "one can" or "a handful," rather than requiring the
use of measuring spoons or cups.

The book is available in braille, large-print, Microsoft Word, and DAISY formats and may be ordered by contacting Sue Lichtenfels at (412) 429-1727 or
cookbook@pcb1.org.
A braille hard copy costs $25; all other formats cost $12.50.

Biography of U.S. Army's first blind active duty officer

Kes: This jus showed up on Braille Book Review, but it is also available from Bookshare.org

Hope Unseen: The Story of the U.S. Army's First Blind Active-Duty Officer         BR 19133
by Scotty Smiley
2 volumes
Account of U.S. Army Captain and Ranger Scotty Smiley, who after losing his sight during a suicide-bomber attack in Iraq, became the first active-duty
blind officer. Covers Smiley's post-injury accomplishments, including earning an MBA, winning an ESPY, climbing Mount Rainier, and teaching leadership at West Point. Discusses his faith. 2010.

My thoughs on Neal Stephenson's new novel _Reamde_

I downloaded _Reamde_ either Wednesday or Thursday, and I've been pretty much reading it continuosly since then. While it is another one thousand page tome, I found it to be fast-paced and enjoyable from start to finish.

I think Reamde_ may be Stephenson's most technically mature work so far: not only is it well-plotted and well-paced, but the story keeps going right up until the end (saving a very short but satisfying epilogue chapter), completely avoiding Stephenson's weakness--until now--of having very weak abrupt endings.

I don't really want to say too much about the story, since it has lots of surprises, but I will say that it is a cyberthriller which involves an online game, and all fo he characers are believably non-superhuman. Also, there's a believable disabled character and everybody keeps their scars at the end, as opposed to to the sort of story where everyone seems to have access to magic healing spells.

For the curious, Jaws unexpectedly but happily pronounces the title (which I think is correct) as "reamed," although Jaws pronounces "reamed" as "re-aimed."