I’ve been quiet this week because I’ve been busy. This has been my busiest week since starting my own law practice in March. Several new clients, a couple of novel fact patterns. All of it a wonderful challenge. No complaints here. But it does cut into the free blogging time.
Spinning to the End
Chris Moriarty’s Ghost Spin comes out on Tuesday, and so ends a trilogy spanning a decade of realtime. I have been waiting on this book for years. I will likely take Tuesday afternoon off.
I first read one of Chris’s books, Spin State, in 2003. She is one of the first authors I can remember emailing with. I honestly don’t think I’ve corresponded with her since the second book, Spin Control, came out, which would be in 2006. I think I was still in law school at the time, so that would be about right. All those conversations are likely lost, or slowly succumbing to bit rot in one of the hard drives in a box in the closet.
I probably read the sequel, Spin Control, that summer when I was interning for Judge Brown here in Bellefonte. I read a lot of memorable books that summer. Off the top of my head: Walter Jon Williams’ Dread Empire’s Fall series, Jack Williamson’s Terraforming Earth, and at least one by Charles Stross (probably Accelerando based on timing, a book I’d previously read as short stories in Asimov’s, and Glasshouse). I think I watched the first season or two of The Wire that summer, too. That’s a lot of really good storytelling crammed into a few short weeks.
There’s something about Chris’s writing that resonates with me. It is probably that she seems to have an analytical outlook that is similar to my own. My own writing does suffer for it, particularly when I’m trying to do something more flowery or flowing.
Incidentally, I’ve set up an Amazon.com bookstore with the books I mentioned above, as well as other books I consider important, favorites, or otherwise recommend. This is mostly for informational purposes, but I think it does kick back a few cents of the purchase price. (Just like the repairman’s house is in disrepair, the lawyer clicks through without reading.)
Faith Healers Kill Again
No Bail for PA Parents in Faith Healing Death
After their 2-year-old son died of untreated pneumonia in 2009, faith-healing advocates Herbert and Catherine Schaible promised a judge they would not let another sick child go without medical care.
But now they’ve lost an 8-month-old to what a prosecutor called “eerily similar” circumstances. And instead of another involuntary manslaughter charge, they’re now charged with third-degree murder.
I don’t see how anyone can profess faith in a supreme being who intervenes in their lives and then reject modern medicine. Are only miracles with trumpets and a choir acceptable? What makes these people think they’re so special that their god wouldn’t just send a doctor and antibiotics?