Where is William Kamkwamba Now?

I remember reading about William Kamkwamba once upon a while ago (more than a year ago, less than two, I think) about how he built a windmill from what we would consider to be spare parts, in his home country of Malawi, and how he brought his family electricity and running water, a luxury for Malawians. (Amazon.com's blurb says that only about 2 percent of the country can afford this luxury)

Anyway, William Kamkwamba, Amazon.com's book blog, Omnivoracious, checked in on William, and he's rebuilding more things and soon will go to Dartmouth's School of Engineering. He says that Dartmouth lends out power tools...and that made him smile. Frankly, that made me smile. How absolutely cool is that?

Best of luck to William, and may we hope that all engineering schools start lending out tools.

Where is William Kamkwamba Now?

New Spice in the Library!

I just ran across a video promoting libraries, done in the same style as the current and popular Old Spice commercial. (You'll recognize the style once you see the library tribute version, if you watch any TV at all.)

Not much to say about this except I love libraries, and I love books, and I love this library video. Kudos to the creators!

The Vampire Shrink

I recently purchased a book on a whim from the Amazon.com Kindle store, primarily because it was offered for $1.99. (Book publishers, take note--because of the low price, I also bought the sequel, which was offered for $3.99. Books on sale! Booyaah!) The title? "The Vampire Shrink" by Lynda Hilburn. I'll admit, I'm not terribly fond of the cover, but then I'm not fond of covers where the publisher gives me a photographic image of the hunky hero. (It hurts the powers of my imagination, it does!) And, I liked the cover even less once I met Devereaux, because hon, he sounds a lot hunkier than that picture portrays...hmmm. Anyway, back to the review...

I found the heroine, Kismet Knight, to be likable enough, and the concept--a psychologist specializing in treating "Vampire Wannabes"--to be unique. I thought that some of Kismet's snappy internal dialogue was a bit out of character, but I didn't find it so off-putting that I put down the book, and found it bothered me less toward the end, when the action took over more of the story. And the second book, "Dark Harvest" (remember the ebooks on sale...Booyaaah!) was better in that regard...much better, in my opinion, and I'll read a third book in this series when it's offered.

I did laugh at the heroine's reluctance to believe in real vampires, because, I mean, because who doesn't believe in them? ::laughing:: Just about every other novel and every third movie has a vampire somewhere in the cast, so vampires are definitely out and about in society--otherwise why would we think they're so cool?

Anyhoo, this series reminded me most of the Southern Vampire books by Charlaine Harris, which is a good thing in my book. Many vampire books on the market today are series romances, in that they follow a new couple of the week through their particular story in each new offering. I like that type of series, but I adore (let me say that again...I adore) book series that allow me to follow the same characters as they face new adventures, because then I can love the characters longer--they become like family, you know?

My rating for "The Vampire Shrink:" 4 stars.
My rating for the sequel, "Dark Harvest:" 4 1/2 stars.