Reviews and Comments

Ji FU

fu@millefeuilles.cloud

Joined 2 years ago

Trying to find a better way to track books I want to read than a random spreadsheet. I had used readinglog.info which was provided by my local public library until they shut down the program. Luckily, I regularly backed it up via their CSV export. I've used Library Thing for years, but adding books for "To Read" really screwed up a lot of the other features of the website, like recommendations, etc. I really love Free Software & the Fediverse particularly. My primary social media account is on Friendica @fu@libranet.de for now everything I post here is automatically "re-tooted" there.

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Michael A. Martin: Taking Wing (Paperback, 2005, Pocket Books) 3 stars

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW STAR TREK ODYSSEY

After almost a decade of strife against …

Taking Wing wasn't the best Star Trek book out there.

3 stars

If you want to read this I highly recommend [re]watching Star Trek Nemesis. So much of what goes on in this story is related to that practically immediate predator in the Star Trek universe. The book focuses on the beginning of Riker's next part of his life journey after TNG as the captain of a new starship Titan. Much of the story is focused on his relationship with one Admiral Akaar and his judgment of Riker's new role with more than one person upset that he made his wife part of the senior officers.

I didn't realize how much say a Star Fleet captain gets a say in the makeup of his crew, but there was much emphasis about Titan, at Rikers' request, having the most diverse crew in star fleet history. About 30 characters are brand new to the universe, and many of them belong too species never seen …

reviewed Boundaries with Kids by Henry Cloud

Henry Cloud, John Sims Townsend: Boundaries with Kids (Paperback, 2001, Zondervan, Yates & Yates) 3 stars

What the award-winning Boundaries has done for adult relationships, Boundaries with Kids will do for …

It may be too soon to know if this book is good or not.

3 stars

I think this is one of those books that is going to take me a while to see if I actually liked it or not, depending on how well I remember its lessons, and how useful it is to implement them. It took me two months to get through a 223-page book, not a good sign in and of itself.

There feels like a lot good here, emphasizing not punishment, but boundaries with consequences. We don't need to yell at our kids, we don't need to make them feel bad. Kids are responsible for their own fun. Kids are NOT responsible for their parents' feelings, etc. Parents are responsible for setting boundaries and sticking to them. It is better not to have a boundary at all than to have a wishy-washy one that sometimes has consequences and sometimes doesn't.

At times I felt it was a bit too harsh. For …

Chris Bailey: The Productivity Project (AudiobookFormat, 2016, Midwest Tapes) 3 stars

After earning his business degree, Chris Bailey turned down several lucrative job offers to pursue …

Some young kid tries to tell us old folks how to be more productive.

2 stars

I was pretty disappointed with this audiobook, though I probably should not be surprised by that. Usually, I prefer audiobooks that are read by the author, but Chris Bailey's voice is very grating. It's hard to take what he says seriously about how much he has to get done, when all he has to get done is write about productivity. The guy is a recent college graduate and has never had an actual job like the one's he describes. I'd like to see how productive any of these "life hacks" are once he's a few years older and managing a house full of kids.

While the book had some attempts at redeeming qualities, the little action items he adds to the end of each chapter is nice to actually get motivated to do it, however I'm not going to be able to review that whilst I'm driving. I did pick …

Nick Offerman: Gumption (AudiobookFormat, 2015) 1 star

As a follow up to his autobiography, Paddle Your Own Canoe, the star of Parks …

An unfunny rich out of touch liberal

1 star

In Gumption Nick Offerman exposes that it was the writers on Parks & Rec. that made him funny. For a comedic actor he had very few jokes, I will tell them now so you don't have to read this book: 1.) I'm not saying he's not a free mason 2.) Oh look it is a black guy. 3.) Oh look it is a lady.

And some of those he says more than once.

In addition for a guy who goes on about how we need to see the best in both sides, that all of the politicians are all the same, for some reason he thinks Obama is different, he then goes on to spout Democrat talking points for the rest of the book: the second amendment is for hunting (much life your right to keep and bare a fishing pole); unless tax payers foot the bill for killing babies …

Nick Offerman: Gumption (AudiobookFormat, 2015) 1 star

As a follow up to his autobiography, Paddle Your Own Canoe, the star of Parks …

I'm only on disc 2 but so far I'm pretty disappointed. He's an atheist jerk. Offerman is pretty adamant that angels are mythical creatures like faires and Pegasus, that those who evangalize (he says try to convince people to join their religion) are breaking the spirit, though not the law, of the first amendment, and that Jesus hangs his head (when doing what he commissioned us to do as his last action in Matthew). Also he seems to be of the option the 2nd amendment is for protecting the right of hunting, like the right to keep and bare a fishing pole.

Marcus Sedgwick: Blood Red Snow White (Hardcover, 2017, Turtleback Books) 3 stars

Good but not great novel of one man's small part in revolutionary Russia.

3 stars

This book was pretty good, but one thing it is not is juvenile fiction: sex, murder, adultery, orgy, I don't want to expose my young adult to any of that. Thankfully it wasn't too graphic, though the description of the Tsar's son's hemophilia was more than enough to make me quesey and put the book down more than once.

The first part is told like a fairy tale. I'm usually not too big on symbolism, to the point I argued with my hush school English teacher that it didn't exist. Regardless it's quite clear the bear is the Russian people and Vlad and Leo are Trotsky and Lenin.

I almost thought that part was actually more interesting than the actual historical fiction part with English author Arthur Ransom and his Russian mistress. I was surprised that Ransom returned to England to be with his daughter for a time as in …

Audrey Niffenegger, William Hope, Laurel Lefkow: The Time Traveler's Wife (AudiobookFormat, 2008, HighBridge Audio) 2 stars

The Time Traveler's Wife is the debut novel by American author Audrey Niffenegger, published in …

Not very good

2 stars

I went into listening to this audiobook not really knowing a lot about it save its title and that it was popular enough to have been made into a movie.

This is not really a science fiction book at all, even though the title would lead you to believe. The Time Travel of the title is no Jules Verne character but a 21st century heart throb who has some kind of disease that forces him into other points in time without his ability to anything about. He can't take anything with him, so he always shows up naked, so he spends most of his time running and trying to find clothes. Somehow one of those naked adventures was to meet a 7 year old girl who would end up being his wife.

At the begining they author made it very clear that there are no multiverses, there is no possibility …