Book review: Visibility by Boris Starling

Reasons I really liked this book:

1. It's a police procedural which turns into a spy thriller.
2. The love interest is a non-magical blind woman.
3. I can say I was reading this instead of watching the Oscars.
4. The non-magical blind woman uses a cane and is still fiery, intelligent, sexy, and has a sense of humor. . She also is not shy about telling the male protagonist when she doesn't need his help.
5. It's set in London during the Great Fog of 1952.
6. The intelligent and sexy non-magical blind woman has sex with the protagonist and doesn't die.
7. Rosalind Franklin shows up.
8. The visibility metaphor is used to very good effect without ever becoming a cliche about the relationship of vision versus blindness (ever notice how many books with words such as "blind" or "eyes" or "vision" int he title are extended cliches about blindness?).

Power felt fabric to power smart phones

Kes: I'm wondering if people will be able to purchase this fabric as lengths of material, since that would allow people to make some crazy stuff from it--a silly hat which also powers your phone or hand puppet-phone chargers would be pretty awesome.
http://www.dailybits.com/power-felt-fabric-to-charge-your-smartphone/

Wade Davis's round bookcase

Kes: to tell the truth, I'm having trouble visualizing this from the description--is it like 180 degrees (a half-sphere) of books, or is it more like being inside a cylinder of books?
http://freshome.com/2012/02/24/round-bookcase-hovering-above-davis-writing-studio/

Why I loved books but hated high school lit class

I was just looking at the list of books for the "Battle of the Books" literacy event
http://www.battleofthebooks.org/book-list/9th-12th-grades-2012.php
and I remembered why I hated high school lit class.

If you are a) an animal b) female or c) disabled, you are probably going to either die young or have a life of one misery after another.

Other high school favorites:
"A Rose for Miss Emily"
The female doesn't die young or suffer tragically but she is a homicidal maniac who kills her lover.
_Of Mice and Men_
The disabled guy is shot by his best friend after a married woman tries to seduce him and then claims to have been attacked.
"Double Indemnity"
A woman plots with her lover to kill her husband so she can collect on the husband's life insurance and then double-crosses the lover.
"Romeo and Juliet"
Okay, Juliet gets to have sex but dies young because the men in her life insist that they have a foolproof plan. Okay, at least that one taught me a valuable life lesson: never accept drinks from a guy who insists that what's in it can't hurt you.

I won't even get into Dickens and his born-to-be-passively-victimized orphans and born-to-die girls and women.

Way to present positive stories about women.
This is why I occasionally say I'm illiterate but I read a lot.

Kit Marlowe fangirl love

In the "New" books listing on Bookshare.org:
_The Cambridge Introduction to Christopher Marlowe_ (2012). Sqwee!

Catchy title for a Regency romance

The actual title is _Blame It On Bath_, but I think it should have been _What Happens in Bath..._.

Well, one thing is obvious

After the lively discussion on my LJ regarding that bookcase, it is crystal clear that my friends feel passionate on the subject of bookcase design.

And I adore every last geeky one of you.