Reviews and Comments

I liked the Sword of Damocles. This is the first book of Thorne I have read. While the plot may not have been the best of the Star Trek: Titan series, I may have been the best written. If I had read it years ago, I probably would have hated it, as the story is not linear. For example, the first chapter is the Epilogue. I was upset originally because I thought the author/editor was an idiot, it was only several chapters later that I realized that the "epilogue" took place well after Chapter 1 (though not actually after chapter 16). Similarly, it ended with a prologue. Quite a bit of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. I felt like I finally am starting to get a hold of who all these new characters are, mostly by Thorne writing most of the story from their perspective, with Riker and Troi being mostly background characters. I particularly fell in love with Commander Jaza, and I kept hoping for something more from him, but alas...

I never understood why it was titled Sword of Damocles.

Submitted Interlibrary loan request so I'll have it for my trip

Submitted Interlibrary loan request so I'll have it for my trip.

Most movies based on books are not as good as the book. This is why I usually recommend watching the movie first so that you can enjoy both of them. I have no idea how many times I have seen the 1978 animated film released by the Australian wing of Hanna-Barbara. It was a childhood favorite and I have grown to share it with my own kids, who were less than impressed. Perhaps it was just the shear number of times that ingrained its version such that listening to the original tale seemed lacking. I kept waiting for parts of the story that never actually came up, whether they were completely made up for the movie (if you can even call a 48 minutes VHS tape a movie) or were combinations of a number of the stories from the book into one separate story, to the point that I don't think I actually gave the proper chance to enjoy the expanded narrative this audio-book needed. Also what the book usually called the "check reign" the movie called the "bearing reign."

My own weird history aside the book is good. A 19th century story of "the autobiography of a horse" the story of one of England's finest ponies told from his colt-hood to the end of his life, nearly 15 years over the course of 5 audio discs. Each chapter was a more-or-less stand alone story, which would make it great for a few weeks of bed time stories, probably for kids age seven and up.

Black Beauty is famous for being a tale of animal welfare that inspired English kids to seek out better treatment of their parents' horses. It also was a story promoting teatoling and care of the working-class, particularly England's horse-drawn cab drivers.

All in all I recommend it, but maybe read the book first this time. 🤷‍♀️

Well, I couldn't find my copy of The Ford-Wyoming Drive-In so let us pull this off the shelf and dig into what's wrong with me instead.

The Ford-Wyoming Drive-In is one of my favorite places in the world, and this book up in my non-fiction books you already own queue, but for the life of me I can't find where I put it.

I Feel like I've already listened to this audiobook, but I can find no record of it on Bookwyrm nor LibraryThing. Maybe I only listened to his first book Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling? I also can't currently find the CDs, so maybe I already donated it to the little library at the beach?

I really liked The Rambling Kid even if it wasn't what I was expecting. When I heard "A novel about the IWW" I was hoping for a story where we won, where wobbles successfully seized the means of production whilst bringing about a new world inside the shell of the old, even if in only a small part of the world. Alas what I got was a story that very well could have been a true story. Ashleigh even made frequent references to the Wobblies sometimes being too high on expectations and theory perhaps too dogmatic, for what the working-class needed, all while being the best thing they had.

But the book wasn't all gloom and doom. We follow the life of Joe who goes from a boy in London, England, to a farmer in the Dakotas. Straight thru Ellis Island to the prairies of the Scandinavian immigrants. The farm goes bankrupt and off to the Twin Cities they go. Joe joins the Wobblies for a good time and a good job and then hops the trains like a hobo. He falls in love, possibly more than once. Charged with a crime he didn't commit and becomes a spokesman for the movement.

So all-in-all still good fun while also have quite a bit of true working-class grit. Recommended to any Fellow Worker, whether or not they've joined the One Big Union.

I certainly didn't like it as much this time as when I listened to the abridged version a decade ago. I suspect that has more to do with where I am than anything else. According to Kiyosaki it would be because I'm more stuck in the Rat Race now than I was then, even though I'm making 50% more active income now than i was then. I still have 0 passive income. He says I need to invest in real estate, but I now feel like landlords are the devil. He also says I can't say anything bad about his recommendations if I haven't tried them, so there's that.

Regardless I recommend Dave Ramsey over Kyosaki, even though I've never got passed baby step 3 because of the American Health Care system. You need to be to at least baby step 4 before you even consider Rich Dad, Poor Dad's advice.

Oh, there was the whole nightmares I had about mutual funds when reading this before bed thing too.