The debut novel from Christopher Ransom,
The
Birthing House, is quite a blend
of tension, suspense, horror, and mystery. But mostly horror. For a debut
novel, it is quite good but, at times, difficult to follow.
Conrad Harrison heads out of Chicago,
travelling the wrong direction, and finds himself in Black Earth, Wisconsin.
It is there that he finds a stately old home that he absolutely must buy.
Without talking to his wife, he impulsively purchases the house and then
informs her of the purchase. The house feels right, as it was once a "birthing
house," where women would come from around the area to have their
babies. He sees this as a way to have a new beginning. Conrad proceeds
to move his wife and two dogs from California to Wisconsin. In addition
to dealing with the change in weather, recreational and entertainment opportunities,
and poor cell service, Conrad and Jo are trying to mend their relationship
and in his mind, this new house, this birthing house, will provide the
basis for a new beginning for the couple. That is made more difficult when
Jo accepts an eight week job in Detroit. Left alone, Conrad discovers that
the old house has some secrets - dark, terrible secrets. During his time
alone in his new home, Conrad comes to find that The Birthing House wants
something from him.
This is a very good debut novel from
Ransom. He builds the suspense like a seasoned author; Conrad keeps hearing
a newborn's cries, he sees shadowy figures in the house and in the yard,
and notices his wife in a photo album that came with the house. This is
a seriously creepy novel. Further, Ransom has created some very good characters,
and provides enough history for each that their motivations are plausible.
The novel moves quickly, drawing you into Conrad's world, which seems to
be bordering on madness. The early chapters are exceptional, however the
final few left me puzzled. While the novel seemed to be moving toward a
logical and satisfying conclusion, it left with me feeling as though I
missed something. Rereading the final chapters did not help, Ransom
seems to have purposely created a sleight of hand as I was left wondering
how the we came to that ending. It did not appear to make much sense. Even
with that, you can see that Ransom is an author that deserves your attention
and one that has a lot of potential.
Users cannot mentally handle local replicas?
Thu, Sep 2nd 2010 6:20p Gregg Eldred This is from the "What's New in Domino 8.5, 8.5.1, 8.5.2" document (emphasis mine):
If you've ever wished using Mail were free of delays, but don't have the mind space for creating and maintaining a local replica, the new managed replica feature might be for you. When you create or convert an existing local replica to a managed replica in Notes, or your Domino administrator sets it for you via a policy, Notes creates a local mail replica and marks it as a managed replica. The next time you ope [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
server
45
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen
Wed, Sep 1st 2010 11:50p Gregg Eldred The emergency medical technicians have
been called to a hotel in South Beach, responding to call concerning a
twenty-two year old female who has swallowed a "mix of vodka, Red
Bull, hydrocodone, birdseed, and stool softener." A rather typical
call for South Beach with the exception of the appearance of Bang Abbott,
an overweight, intrusive paparazzo. He wants to have exclusive right to
the pictures of the woman on the stretcher. However, when the EMT's wheel
out the woman, he realizes that this [read] Keywords:
207
Do You Know This Person?
Mon, Aug 30th 2010 8:20p Gregg Eldred Sorry, this is just too good not to share, and I actually received permission to post it. :-) [read] Keywords:
Backroads of Ohio: Your Guide to Ohios Most Scenic Backroad Adventures by Miriam Carey and Ian Adams
Wed, Aug 18th 2010 12:00p Gregg Eldred After reading several Backroads books on
other states, I decided that it was time to discover what the series had
to say and show about my home state of Ohio. Much like the other books
in the series, Backroads
of Ohio: Your Guide to Ohio's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures,
by Miriam Carey and Ian Adams, will appeal to residents of the state of
Ohio or those vacationing within its borders. For residents, this book
will provide you with short, interesting trips that would appeal to every
family mem [read] Keywords:
267
eWeek: Why Sharepoint 2010 Has Developers Excited
Wed, Aug 18th 2010 10:10a Gregg Eldred Microsoft's SharePoint 2010 may be one of the industry's most under-rated products, largely because it means so many different things to different people so no one group or demographic claims it over another. However, Microsoft has been adding more and more features to enable developers to better leverage SharePoint 2010. And as such, developers have responded, prompting SharePoint's popularity to rise among developers, according to Microsoft. SharePoint Server is one of the fastest-growing prod [read] Keywords: application
development
microsoft
office
server
sharepoint
workspace
112
MWLUG Logo in LEGO
Tue, Aug 17th 2010 11:51p Gregg Eldred Number Two Son's creation, 2 foot square. It's "sad" to report that he needed to purchase no new bricks. [read] Keywords:
American Craft Brewery Hops Across The Pond
Mon, Aug 16th 2010 11:50p Gregg Eldred This past weekend, I enjoyed a Stone Levitation, an excellent beer but one that seemed higher in IBUs than the quoted 45 (I'm certainly not complaining, a beer with high IBUs is perfect on a hot day, and Sunday, it was hot and humid). Now, from National Public Radio's Marketplace, I heard this today. One of the big guys in craft brewing, Stone Brewing out of Escondido, Calif., is looking to expand up and out of the U.S. market, into Europe -- a place known for a fiercely, shall we say, traditio [read] Keywords: wiki
