Here are the current top-most items on my perpetual bedside pile:
- Grass Beyond the Mountains by Richmond P. Hobson, Jr. This is the true story of the pioneering cattlemen that settled the wilderness interior of British Columbia in the 1930s. (This is the region that lies inland from Bella Coola). It is an amazing tale of gumption and perseverance. There is lot in this book about self-sufficiency that will appeal to preppers, as well as being an exciting tale of adventure. I’ve seen that there are a couple of sequels that Jim has promised to tack on to our next Amazon order. I really enjoyed this book. From it, I learned much about the relationship between a cowboy and his horses, and I’m looking forward to reading Hobson’s other books.
- I watched Tremors
. I had no patience for this movie. This is the sort of film that dumbs down young people. The two lead characters in the movie have a good work ethic but are not refined, well educated, or morally upright men. Keep this sort of men far away from our young women. I had Jim fast-forward to Burt Gummer’s Bunker so I could see how cool that was. Then we fast-forwarded to the end just to see how it ended. Burt’s well-stocked bunker, the wonderful example of he and his wife’s teamwork and his fabulous under-lever elephant gun which finally killed one of those awful fictional monsters, were the only redeeming factors in this movie. I do not recommend it. (Gentlemen: just remember this is a woman’s perspective of a “Guy Movie”. So please, no hate mail.)
- I’m just into the first few chapters of Lucifer’s Hammer
. This is a modern classic novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle describes a full-scale societal collapse caused by a comet striking the Pacific Ocean. (The “Hammerfall.”) The beginning chapters set the stage, introducing the characters, with much foreshadowing. It is a bit of a discipline to get through it, however the storyline has the makings for some very exciting reading later on. It really upsets me when I pick up a book and find a lot of immoral behavior within its pages. Its too bad that authors feel that they have to gratuitously include it in their books. The storyline would be just as good without it. I’ll let you know how the story plays out in my column next week.