Friday Finds

Friday Finds

Hosted by Should be Reading

Hey Guys,

Sorry for going AWOL on you this past two weeks. Due to some complications with my job I've been have trouble finding the time to write reviews or blog, but I'm hoping things will get less complicated soon and I'll be able to return to my regular schedule (I have a job interview on Sunday, wish me luck!).

In the meantime here are a couple of new books that I came across this past week along with some fun images and links.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

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The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett

The Ransomes had been burgled. "Robbed," Mrs. Ransome said. "Burgled," Mr. Ransome corrected. Premises were burgled; persons were robbed. Mr. Ransome was a solicitor by profession and thought words mattered. Though "burgled" was the wrong word too. Burglars select; they pick; they remove one item and ignore others. There is a limit to what burglars can take: they seldom take easy chairs, for example, and even more seldom settees. These burglars did. They took everything.

This swift-moving comic fable will surprise you with its concealed depths. When the sedate Ransomes return from the opera to find their Notting Hill flat stripped absolutely bare—down to the toilet paper off the roll (a hard-to-find shade of forget-me-not blue)—they face a dilemma: Who are they without the things they've spent a lifetime accumulating? Suddenly the world is full of unlimited and frightening possibility. But just as they begin adjusting to this giddy freedom, a newfound interest in sex, and a lack of comfy chairs, a surreal reversal of events causes them to question their assumptions yet again.

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I am not familiar with this author but after reading her praises on Kate Elliott's blog I because intrigues and decided that I'll have to try Wells' books for myself.

The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells

Moon has spent his life hiding what he is - a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save and himself... and his newfound kin.

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And from around the web..

The Guardian imagines how the story of the Three Little Pigs would be covered in modern times, on news stations, in newspaper headlines and in social media discussions. Once again this brought to my mind the last Jasper Fforde book that I read, The Big Over Easy, in which detective Jack Sprat tries to bring a case against the Three Little Pigs for murdering the wolf. I imagine Fforde must have gotten a big kick out of this video.

For those of you who can't decide if the zombie apocalypse is something to really worry about, this article in Cracked.com give you 5 scientific reasons why you should be afraid. 

5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen

#5. Brain Parasites  

Parasites that turn victims into mindless, zombie-like slaves are fairly common in nature. There's one called toxoplasmosa gondii that seems to devote its entire existence to being terrifying. This bug infects rats, but can only breed inside the intestines of a cat. The parasite knows it needs to get the rat inside the cat so the parasite takes over the rat's freaking brain, and intentionally makes it scurry toward where the cats hang out. The rat is being programmed to get itself eaten, and it doesn't even know.  

Of course, those are just rats, right?  

How it can result in zombies:  

Hey, did we mention that half the human population on Earth is infected with toxoplasmosa, and don't know it? Hey, maybe you're one of them. Flip a coin. Oh, also, they've done studies and shown that the infected see a change in their personality and have a higher chance of going batshit insane.

  Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: Humans and rats aren't all that different; thats why they use them to test our drugs. All it takes is a more evolved version of toxoplasmosa, one that could to do us what it does to the rats. 

So, imagine if half the world suddenly had no instinct for self-preservation or rational thought. Even less than they do now, we mean.

If you think you can stomach more of this, read the rest of the article here.