Reviews and Comments

Ji FU

fu@millefeuilles.cloud

Joined 1 year, 8 months 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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Elena Paravantes: Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners (Paperback, 2020, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated) 4 stars

With 100 recipes and practical advice, this is the only guide you'll need to get …

A potentially lifesaving cookbook.

4 stars

I don't normally review cookbooks, but this one was necessary. Earlier this year my doctor recommended I take up a primarily Mediterranean diet to help with my heart failure and obesity. I picked this cookbook up from the library because it sounded like a good place to start. This is the only book I ever liked so much that I purchased a copy before the library book was even due. So far, we have liked every recipe we've tried in the book, and in the 6 weeks I've been using it as my primary source of meals I've lost over 20 lbs., and my blood pressure has remained in check. I'm only giving 4 stars rather than 5 as Paravents isn't actually the best author. In particular in the introduction part, she talks about how to grocery shop and includes that when choosing whether to purchase something ask yourself if …

David R. George III: Revelation and Dust (DS9-Relaunch #28) (Paperback, 2013, Pocket Books) 2 stars

After the destruction of the original space station by a rogue faction of the Typhon …

Not George's best work

2 stars

While this is the 28th book in our continuing mission of the crew and station of Deep Space Nine since the T.V. Series finale it's also the first in the "side-quest" THE FALL series. As such David George III spends a lot of the first half of the book trying to bring new readers up to speed as well as detailing the new Deep Space Nine to all of us. He did so in an interesting fashion through a memorial service and a dedication, but it wasn't particularly thrilling and really easy to put down. Got a little better in the second half but it was odd explanation of getting around security by using a "projectile weapon" rather than a phaser and a weird, intertwined story of an experience inside the celestial temple.

I'll probably pick up the next one, but probably not soon.

Tim Sullivan: V, The Florida Project (Paperback, Pinnacle Books) No rating

Former pro-football star Jack Stern and his fiancee, biologist Sabrina Fontaine, are held captive in …

Although its book 5 in the series the library doesn't have books 2-4. And allegedly they aren't an interconnected story so you can read them in any order, like Fandemonium's Stargate SG-1 series

reviewed Ecodefense by Dave Foreman

Dave Foreman, Edward Abbey, Bill Haywood: Ecodefense (Paperback, 1993, Abbzug Pr) 4 stars

This book was banned in Australia, gazetted in 1992 as "refused classification" and a prohibited …

This book starts with a disclaimer that it is for entertainment purposes only. It is certainly entertaining.

4 stars

I really appreciated the editors'& authors position that defense of the planet should never put human life at risk. Ecodefense is one that is going in my "To Buy" list. But it is also one I really shouldn't have borrowed the library, and I will not purchase online, due to its subversive nature it would be better if there was no record associated with one's name and should be purchased with cash. Radical environmentalism has never really been my cup of tea, but I was hoping this book would give me some insight into sabotage as a political strategy for industrial unionization, particularly being co-edited by Bill Haywood. Well, this book was written decades after the death of Big Bill Haywood, so it certainly wasn't' the legendary labor organizer, and probably just a pseudonym. But it certainly had some good insight that could be used for all sorts of political …

reviewed Mox by Jon Moxley

Jon Moxley: Mox (Hardcover, 2021, Permuted Press) 3 stars

A vivid trip through the mind of the top professional wrestler in the business - …

He's no Mick Foley

3 stars

Jon Moxley has wanted to be Mick Foley his whole life. He talks in the book about loving Cactus Jack in WCW. And it continues with his attempt at being a New York Times bestselling author. And just like in everything else, Mox is good, but it's not "Have a Nice Day." It is very much a string of consciousness, and it very much could have used a ghost writer, or at least a better copy editor. The story isn't told chronologically. That jumps back and forth between incredibly interesting, and incredibly impossible to follow. Moxley also interlaces with recommendations for his favorite movies, and favorite music. Perhaps the best part is "Jokes Claudio told me" which my wife appreciated me telling her each day as I read them, sprinkled between storis of loss, of having sex and more F words than I've ever heard from a protagonist narrator. It's …

Kenneth Johnson: V: The Second Generation (Hardcover, 2007, Tor Books) 3 stars

Millions thrilled to Kenneth Johnson's hugely popular mini-series "V," an action filled drama of alien …

A decent direct sequel to the 83 Miniseries

3 stars

V: The Second Generation is an independent novel authored by Kenneth Johnson the producer of the original 1983 V Miniseries, the only part of the V "universe" that Johnson owned the IP rights to. Its written in a way that it should be able to stand on its own so if you've never read or watched anything in the V francise you should be fine to pick this up. However, if you have, I recommend re-watching the the original miniseries first. If you've watched "The Final Battle" or the '85 or '08 T.V. series, or read the earlier spin off books, it can be confusing following this. The Visitors never left Earth, the've been here for over 20 years and the lizard people have continued to control world affairs and are still stealing our liquid water and our second generation has grown up under their brainwashing "knowing" that the Visitors …

L. Neil Smith: The American Zone (Paperback) 4 stars

In the North American Confederacy . . . People are free—really free. Free to do …

Detective Win-bear must prove Americans arent' all bad, but will he die to do so?

No rating

The American Zone was a good way to end out the North American Confederate series. Nearly as good as the first. It really can stand on its own. Certainly no reason to read the rest of the series, particularly the barely even relavant books 3-8. That being said it is certainly a product of its time> Being written at the tale end of 2001 there is a more than mild obsession with terrorism and the possibility that the terrorist aren't who they seem but actually folks who want to create a laviethan state. I susepct that L. Neil Smith is, or at least was at the time, a so-called 9/11 truther. Regardless the story is entriguing. our hero Win-Bear is saved by his healer wife far more times than should be justified for any red-blood American. And even the open minded confederates start blaming the terror plots on immigrants, like …