Category Archives: Books

Book Review: At Large and Small

Ann Fadiman. At Large and Small: Familiar Essays. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2007.
Bug Rating:
I freely admit to being an Anne Fadiman fan-girl. Ex Libris is easily one of my favorite books. The Spirit Catches You is an amazing book about culture, epilepsy, immigration, and they way we don’t communicate.  So, I was pretty sure [...]

Book Review: The War against the Chtorr

Bug Rating:
Synopsis: Long-winded Libertarians lead the fight against an extra-terrestrial insectish species in this 1983 sci-fi novel.
I had such high hopes for this book. Its cover promised all sorts of awesome. And then, I discovered the author wrote the Star Trek “Trouble with Tribbles” episode.
Cheezy cover! History of Tribbles! Silly rhyming title!  (War/Chtorr)
Alas, it was [...]

Anonymity, revisited

My post on blogging anonymously was surprisingly popular, so I thought I would mention this news tidbit: A British policeman was recently outed as the author of the blog Night Jack, a 2009 Orwell Prize award winner for writing excellence in political science.
The Night Jack blog was also hosted here at WordPress, and has now [...]

Frivolous Friday Poll

So…it’s Friday, and it’s supposed to be 70 degrees here in Michigan!! I have to work today, but I’m hopeful I can at least leave at 5pm and get some pea planting in before dark.
How about a little discussion while I’m gone?
Also, if you aren’t one of the cool kids following me on Twitter, you [...]

LOL book review

Mr. Bug and I went to the discount book store after a traumatic tax session this afternoon. One section that’s always good for a laugh is the “Romance Fantasy” aisle, which anyone else would call “Girl Porn.”  This is not a genre known for it’s subtlety, as I demonstrate by Exhibit A at the Right.
Ellora’s [...]

Book Review: A Perfect Red

A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.
Amy Butler Greenfield. HarperCollins, 2005.

Bug Rating:
I was really excited to find this book in my library, since I’ve written quite a bit about cochineal and it’s modern use as a food coloring.  The insect itself has a fascinating and complex history, and that’s [...]

Book Review: American Pests

American Pests: The loosing war on insects from Colonial times to DDT
Author: James McWilliams
Bug Rating:
I spent a VERY long time reading, and then re-reading this book. I really struggled with it, because some very unflattering things were said about entomologists that I learned to revere as pioneers in the field.
Did my reaction to the book [...]

Share the love day

So, Blogroll Amnesty Day was February 3rd, and in proper Bug Blog tradition, I missed it.  B.A.D. is a day “to salute all of the great smaller blogs that don’t get the recognition they deserve.”
Frankly, I think nearly all the blogs I read would be defined as “small,” including the Bug Blog. If you have [...]

Insect Comic Villains: Killer Moth!

I am always interested in the ways in which insects infiltrate into pop culture, and here’s another comic book villain from the Golden Age (1951): Killer Moth!
He had a rather strange fashion sense, rather like the Red Bee (covered earlier @ the Bug Blog.)
Um.
Striped purple, lime green, and pink tights? With an orange cape?
Call the [...]

Comic Heroes: The Red Bee

I’ve written before about various insect-themed comic heroes, and here’s a new one from 1956: The Red Bee.
He appears to be distinguished by….extremely poofy pink sleeves and striped tights. Hmm. 
The Red Bee was the alter ego of a District Attorney who kept his bees in his belt buckle. Yes. You read that correctly. I’m guessing [...]