victorian detectives

the dead witness a connoiseurs collection of victorian deective fiction by michael sims very good in that it is actually crime fiction written in the victorian and edwardian period and not the foggy cliche of the historical whodunit although soem are the usual anthology fodder such as dupin, holmes and father brown to lesser known tales of violet strange, max carrados uncle abner and november joe
the disappearing spoon yet another chemistry thrilling history telling the story of the periodic table but this one is readable and clearly written all the way from lead leprosy to childrens games with mercury and on to the only natural nuclear fission reactor in the world
stars wars clone wars siege a run of the mill star wars novel this time set in the last days of the republic the clone wars obi wan and anakin as jedi heroes parachuting behind enemy lines to destroy a secret weapon, very ordinary and trying to give depth to a cartoon only anakin's occasional sulks and tantrums indicate what is to come barely two years later
dino gangs the theoryby dr philip curie that dinsaurs were team players and pack hunters

royal storyboard

murder of the romanovs by andrew cook the ofter repeated tale of the simple autocrat his imperious wife, the four doll princesses and the sad little prince who led an existence of one long holiday and come the revolution hoping to be rescued by their royal relatives thy all got shot
lots of newly released photos and appendix records even has time for claimants and the other executed romanovs
planet word companion to a bbc TV series i never watched stephen fry is listed as author but only wrote the foreword well researched by content ranging from ape to advertising ,backslang to bahasa but hasn't the tale been told before
the telescope by richard dunn attractive pictorial pocket history the history of the telecope from spyglass to hubble good on the early period but mainly greenwich based
the sisters brothers by patrick de witt read this as a great western an odyssey fully told with a ghost town of western types full of cinematic images and story telling

medieval clocks and moon dials

it is in this time of year you can see the night sky looking at thr big full moon and remembered when everyone else used it in poetry i used it to tell the time using a moon dial phase clock i made from cardboard for anyone interested in such things this is a great site of resources

http://www.middleschoolscience.com/earth.htm check out make a plantisphere, big dipper star clock moon clock and astrolabe templates

I find using the big dipper star clock and noctunal above less useful as they only tell the time on the hour based on the month note you line up cassiopeia and the big and little dippers so they match what you see in the night sky and according to the position you can read the month and hour

the noctunal is something i alwys wanted but real ones are expensive and made of wood and ivory and do not make an easy template i eventually found a diagram of parts of a noctunal which i printed out on cardboard

the old boat the old story

read the mammoth book of historial crime fiction edited by mike ashley ranging from the bronze age to the 1920s it promised much and delivered part more novellas ten short stories some overplayed for example the roman investigators or medieval sherlock the most orignal was a tale of butch and sundance on a new york crime spree waiting for their boat to south america but this just left the dock story wise others even a sister fidelm story just potboiled to flagged conclusion

street fight in naples by peter robb a panorama of naples claimed to be a thousand year history bit mainly stuck in the 17th century bit fragmented and dull even in the story of the fisherman demologue Masaniello, who is just one of the charactors

the ascent of media from gilgamesh to google roger parry well structured and good history of media from writing on clay tablets to ebook but on the whole read like a website

city of fortune bt roger crowley (note books i read this week mostly by a roger just concidence) crowley is a venice specialist and this did not disappoint telling of early venice exploiting its connectins to the byzantine trade links , exploiting the decline and fall of the byzantines at the expense of its commerical rivals genoa and pisa in trade and war then venice coming up against an all powerful ottoman empire and the new world trade routes

pirates and friends

pirates of the seven seas angus konstam a lavishly illustrated AA guide to pirates from the ancient world to moden somalia vivid accurate and a brilliant illustrated guide with all the top ames inside from blackbeard henry morgan black bart roberts to ann bonny and female pirates of china and even finds place for privateers

wired for god charles foster the origins of human spirtuality and experience from wearig a god helmet to second hand shamanism tantric sex , magic mushrooms NDE and OBEs

corsets and clockwork steampunk romances some barely ticked along over absurdly overwound some good stories liked the ones about a cannibal fiend mermaid clockwork war crabs versus nazis , wild west airships
the sword of damascus another aeleric novel this one reads like a 25th anniversary rennion story with the 97 year old monk ex byzantine chancellor kidnapped by the caliphate to recreate the greek fire of his youth ,same plots same story lines