Reading

I have been on a real reading frenzy of late. I discovered a new SciFi author, Michael Flynn, and I am now digesting all of his books. I just read Eifelhiem. It is set in the middle ages in and concerns stranded interstellar aliens in a forest next to a village. The priest and villagers adopt and protect the aliens, who look somewhat evil and the aliens help them out of a few scrapes and then nurse them through the Plague years. It is a great story about the value of welcoming outsiders into the fold. I imagine Lou Dobbs, America's Mexican baiter, would not like this book.

Right after that I picked up a book Bobbi had purchased. It is called the "Pillars of Earth" by Ken Follett. (the first Oprah selection I have read) It also is set in the middle ages and revolves around the construction of a cathedral. It is not great literature but it held my interest because it showed the practicality of the church in those days and the cruelty and politics of the Kings and nobles.

I am now into Flynn's book called "In the Country of the Blind". It is about a secret cabal that manages the outcome of history via assasination and political intrigue. Kind of like bush and cheney have unwittingly done for this country's image in the world.

I read another one that was really good about earthlings finally getting serious faster than light drive and visiting a planet 30,000 light years away. It was a planet that had sent out messages asking, "Is anyone there?" So we visit the planet it came from and it inhabitants had stopped interstellar explorations because they couldn't find any answers to the meaning of life. They were spending all of their time watching reality TV shows.

Hilarious!

Something that is not funny is the fact is that Bobbi and I will not be able to vote in the Caucus on Tuesday. We had been scheduled to go to Washington, DC on Wednesday, but had to make it a day earlier this weekend. No problem I thought. We would just go vote early this week since it was to late to get an absentee ballot. Now the Democratic Party tells me there is no early voting. That sucks.