Posted in supernatural on October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Italy’s Padre Pio ‘faked his stigmata with acid’
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Padre Pio, Italy’s most-loved saint, faked his stigmata by pouring carbolic acid on his hands, according to a new book.
The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19th Century Italy, by the historian Sergio Luzzatto, draws on a document found in the Vatican’s archive.
Padre Pio [...]
Posted in Book Review, tagged police procedural on October 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The devil is in the details
Harry Bosch is a likeable guy. Tough without being perfect. Able to table his own emotions while getting a job done. He’s seen it all and still retains his humanity and integrity, although happiness has always eluded him. And most of the time, he has the courage to [...]
Posted in Book Review on October 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Determination
It frequently takes adversity to bring out the best in people, an aphorism brought to life in this based-on-truth story about an impoverished disabled woman struggling to raise her own daughter in 1960’s Mississippi. The plot line is melodramatic, but in a good way, and [...]
Posted in History on October 24, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Copper, in the form of copperas, vitriol, verdigris, and others, has been employed as mordanting and dyeing agent for more than 4000 years. It is particularly useful to assist the development of blues and greens, and is a good mordant for increasing color fastness.
Instead of buying copper sulfate or another form of chemical copper, go [...]
Posted in Book Review, tagged fiction on October 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Steph’s back!
For a while the Plum series languished in the same old same old rut. In Twelve Sharp, Stephanie’s got her groove back. The tension between Ranger and Stephanie, Morelli and Stephanie, and Morelli and Ranger quivers without declining into cliche, and Steph herself [...]
Posted in Book Review, tagged reading on October 21, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Some deaths in Venice
An audio version of a title apparently not in print format, Quietly in Their Sleep caught my eye on the shelves of the public library. I always enjoy Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti novels because she always tells a compelling story about good [...]
Posted in Book Review on October 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
By Kate Wilhelm
Just another murder mystery
It’s a bit puzzling why this “mystery” has received such stellar reviews on the various book websites. Wilhelm is a fairly competent writer, but judging from Deepest and several others of [...]
Posted in History on October 12, 2007 | 3 Comments »
The seal of the Vatican secret archives is shown on a replica document in which Pope Clement V absolved the Knights Templar of charges of heresy, in Rome October 9, 2007. A reproduction of the Latin-language minutes of trials against the Knights Templar in 1308, lost until its rediscovery in 2001, is being published by [...]
Posted in Book Review, tagged thriller on October 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
By Steve Berry
Yet another wanna-be
Ambitious but flimsy plot, stretched way too thin. Is Palestine the location of the ancient birthright of the Israelis, or was the translation of the ancient texts badly botched, perhaps intentionally? Stock characters: brash, talented, patriotic American agent; hero worshipping [...]
Posted in Arts and Culture on October 7, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Buccleuch Madonna with the Yarnwinder Recovered
In a statement released on October 5, 2007, Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch confirmed that his family’s version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna with the Yarnwinder (ca. 1501-07) had been recovered by authorities on the previous day. Police interrupted a meeting by raiding the central Glasgow offices of a [...]
