aka @kingrat@sfba.social. I'm following a lot of bookwyrm accounts, since that seems to be the only way to get reviews from larger servers to this small server. I make a lot of Bookwyrm lists. I will like & boost a lot of reviews that come across my feed. I will follow most bookwyrm accounts back if they review & comment. Social reading should be social.
This link opens in a pop-up window
Richard Hanania has emerged as one of the most talked-about writers in the nation, and …
This is book 29 on the list of books from If Books Could Kill. I find it kind of hilarious that noone on Bookwyrm had read the book and 15 months after publication, it still wasn't in OpenLibrary under its actual title. Hanania's only traction off Twitter is Michael Hobbes podcast that rips the book.
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, …
I have read Atomic Habits, which is the 16th book on the list of books from If Books Could Kill. (Well, the audiobook that is.) Some of the tips seemed okay, but there was some obvious BS as well.
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo …
I'm putting together a list containing all the books from the If Books Could Kill podcast. Of the first 15, I've only read the first, Freakonomics. I gave it 4 stars, but that shows how gullible I can be.
Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that …
Liked the first book so much I'm starting the second immediately.
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a …
Henry Thompson had his leg broken attempting to steal a base, ending his baseball career in high school. Then he drives a car too fast and kills a buddy. Moves to New York from California with a girl only for her to get a traveling job and leave him in the dust. When the novel starts, Henry Thompson is a bartender in the middle of a bender, but actually living a decent life of a loser without real prospects. Then he gets beaten up by Russians, who it turns out are looking for Henry's neighbor next apartment over, who has skipped town leaving Henry to watch his cat. Stuck in the cat's carrier is a key and criminals want it.
I was hooked. Henry makes bad decisions, but not "go back into the chainsaw room in a horror film" bad. So Henry pinballs around the story between various criminal factions …
Henry Thompson had his leg broken attempting to steal a base, ending his baseball career in high school. Then he drives a car too fast and kills a buddy. Moves to New York from California with a girl only for her to get a traveling job and leave him in the dust. When the novel starts, Henry Thompson is a bartender in the middle of a bender, but actually living a decent life of a loser without real prospects. Then he gets beaten up by Russians, who it turns out are looking for Henry's neighbor next apartment over, who has skipped town leaving Henry to watch his cat. Stuck in the cat's carrier is a key and criminals want it.
I was hooked. Henry makes bad decisions, but not "go back into the chainsaw room in a horror film" bad. So Henry pinballs around the story between various criminal factions trying to get hold of the key, never making a choice that made me groan.
Despite being the kind of alcoholic jerk I would hate in real life, the story gives enough of a peek into his internal thoughts while trying to be decent that I liked him and wanted to see him make it.
And there's just enough hook in the story that I wanted to see how the conspiracy that envelops Henry came to be, and how it turns out for everyone. What's the key to? Will Henry remember where he put the key? Why are two groups of criminals looking for it? Is there anyone who can help Henry? Huston's well-crafted writing reveals just enough at the right times to keep me wanting to know what will happen next.
I'm going to attempt to put a content warning with a spoiler in a follow-up reply. Check that if certain kinds of violence make you squeamish.
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a …
This has hooked me.
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a …
Pulling one off my mountain of unread books.
After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …
The prose is merely functional. There's a lot of "As you know, Bob..." Using the wrong words. Using the wrong math.
And at 27%, i still don't care about the central mystery: a radiation filled lunar vehicle buried under regolith in the center of a forbidden zone. Apparently a secret landing on the moon in the 1980s. But there's no reason for me as a reader to care. The MC gets an itch to find out the story, but that's the only hook. The MC being curious is not transitive to the reader. There's no stakes.
After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …
I have no recollection of putting this on my hold list at the library. Now that I have it I'm going to give it a shot but something is screaming to me that this will be one I put down. It's SF but neither the author nor the book is on ISFDB. So I half expect to post a DNF message in a couple days.
You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you. Not always. Not completely, …
In typical Lee Child fashion, Reacher figures out the scheme ⅔ of the way through, but refuses to tell anyone else, including the reader. Until the conclusion. At that point he monologues the conspiracy at its perpetrator and we get to see how it all fits together.
Except it doesn't. There's a few plot holes that are never filled.
Also, one of the bad guys is someone 7-ish inches taller than Reacher. Because he's huge, he has a big house. The man builds a "regular" house but has everything scaled up 50% so he'll fit. But holy heck does the prose drone on about it through multiple chapters, like no one ever wandered the halls of a European castle with wide hallways and giant doors. No, this oversized house takes extra getting used to that of course only Reacher can adjust to in quick fashion. Pfft.
For centuries, the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet has beckoned to humankind. Now …
The first half-century of Mars colonization told from the perspective of a half dozen members of the first 100 colonists, each representing a faction or a school of thought. One there because they get off on hard work, one there for a personal political legacy, another there to make money for the capitalists, one for preservation & research, one for terraforming as fast as possible, one to create a new society, one who spearheads a Mars for Mars colonists movement…
Too dry and long for me to really enjoy it.
Humanity's war is eternal, spread across the galaxy and the ages. Humanity's best hope to …
Military S.F. in the Captive's War universe. Standard unit-bonds-and-drops-to-a-planet with the James S.A. Corey voice.
For centuries, the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet has beckoned to humankind. Now …
There's an extended argument between characters at this point about whether the scientist-colonists of Mars should follow the hierarchy devised by their governments (the US and Russia) or start fresh.
It occurs to me there's a ton of research into organizational structures, and the closest Robinson comes to including it is a reference to having psychologists evaluate people prior to allowing them to join the mission, and include the head psych on the mission. The managers in charge on board, Maya & Frank, aren't organizational experts. As a manager by trade, not having this expertise on board seems like an oversight.
There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he …
story about a young man who gets stuck in an ancient wood as it's protector in tree form. if you like faeries and dryads and stories about them, this may be for you. like stories about gods, it's not my thing.
Dark Lord Davi rules the kingdom, but she must now break the time loop that …
Have set Libby to notify me when the library has copies.