Another Koontz: Odd Thomas

Since the last book I read by this author was so good, I decided to try another. This one my wife picked up at the library, entitled “Odd Thomas.” Odd Thomas is the name of the main character. He’s a young guy who works as a short order cook in a diner, in a small town in USA. He has a girlfriend, an apartment, and some buddies around town. He has no car, but rides a bicycle when he needs to. He’s pretty much an unremarkable, regular guy. What makes him remarkable is that he can see “dead people.” By that I mean the “spirits” of people who have died, and are still “hanging around” and not moving on to their final “place.” One of the dead people who happens to be hanging around this small town is Elvis.

Anyway, Odd seems to have a knack for solving murder mysteries because of his gift. He has somewhat of a reputation with the local police chief as a “helper.” Another buddy who lives in town is a published author, who wants Odd to get a gun. But, Odd says, “guns bother me.”

An interesting read so far…

Another Michael Crichton Fiction Masterpiece

As some of you know, I enjoy reading, especially good fiction. One author that I particularly like is Michael Crichton, of “Jurassic Park” fame. I think his book “State of Fear” is the best book I have read on the whole “global warming” – “climate change” controversy.

I am now reading his latest book called “Next” dealing with the whole bio-engineering, genetics and medical research ethics topic. Its fascinating how he weaves actual news and media reports into the plot and storyline. It makes his books even more interesting and educational.

He weaves a number of story-lines together throughout the book, jumping back and forth between them. It is hard to pick them up each time, but after you get used to it, it seems to be okay. The situations that characters get involved in seem very realistic and believable, which is part of Crichton’s point – this stuff is already happening and it isn’t some science fiction in the future. The fact that these issues are believable kinda scares you because you realize the incredible risks and chances we are taking as a society by not carefully facing into these issues as a matter of public policy. This is on top of the human greed and selfishness that complicates things further. Researchers motivated by the dollar, fame, power – just like the “bad “corporations, and “bad” politicians everybody likes to chastise. Well, the medical research community is no different. We’d better wake up!

I’d recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in this important topic.

McDonalds Sweet Tea?

A friend of mine named Steve Tanner heard a radio spot announcing “sweet tea” coming to McDonalds! He asked me to do a review of this new beverage for is website called Beverage Review.

You see, Steve knows that I am a “sweet tea” connoisseur given my birth and early years as a southern boy (South Carolina). My family adopted southern sweet tea as our family beverage and I grew up drinking it and making it. I have a secret sweet tea family recipe that I really like. We’ll have to see how the new McDonalds product stacks up to “Birkey Tea.”
Apparently McDonalds has already launched this product in the southeast states (including South Carolina). It is part of a new trend to offer more cold drink choices. See Article in Crain’s.

I visited the McDonalds on Lake Street in downtown Chicago today looking for the “sweet tea” – only to discover they don’t have it yet! Apparently it requires a new machine that has not been delivered yet… “Check back next week!”

So, as soon as I get my hands on this new product, I plan to consume it and write a review for Steve at Beverage Review.

The Husband

The Husband book coverMy wife heard about this book and then got it for me at the Public Library. “The Husband” is a fiction thriller by an author I had not read before… Dean Koontz. It was really good! It hooked you in right away and was tough to put down all the way through to the end. I like books like that.

What would you do if you got a phone call and someone said, “We have your wife. You can get her back for 2 million dollars in 48 hours from now. Otherwise, we kill her!”

This is a book about the kind of husband that I would want to be.

Welcome to the New BirkeyBlog Website!

I’ve redone my former birkeyblog website into a new one powered by WordPress. The old one was hosted under my Apple .MAC account using a software product called BlogStudio. This new WordPress site gives me a lot more control and access to cool new features that I’ll be adding over time.

Many of my old posts do not show up properly yet. I will be going through each one to clean up the code and make them work. Give me some time, and it will all be back, better than ever. I hope you like it!