Reviews and Comments

Ji FU

fu@millefeuilles.cloud

Joined 2 years, 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

This link opens in a pop-up window

reviewed Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki (Rich Dad)

Robert T. Kiyosaki: Rich Dad Poor Dad (Paperback, 2022, Plata Publishing)

Rich Dad Poor Dad... * Explodes the myth that you need to earn a high …

It gave me nightmares about mutal funds.

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 …

Gregorius Nyssenus, Kevin Corrigan: The Life of Saint Macrina (Hardcover, Greek language, 1989, Peregrine Publishing Co.)

Saint Macrina (327 - 370) was a major guiding force in the early development of …

Nothing particularly insightful.

No rating

St. Gregory of Nyssia writes a short biographical letter to his friend of the life of his sister St. Macrina. Most of what Mr. Corrigan wrote in the introduction is repeated in the tale. Her own tumor was healed by her mother when she did as was requested and the eye infection of an infant was healed after spending dinner with St. Macrina. It was somewhat unusual that after her husband died at a young age, she spent the rest of her mother's days never ought of her site. Nearly as much is written of her funeral as of her life.

reviewed Nebraska! by Dana Fuller Ross (Wagons West, #2)

Dana Fuller Ross: Nebraska! (EBook, 1979, Bantam)

Autumn, 1837. Driving onward - against the worst of man and nature - a legendary …

Romance, terror, and death seek out some outlandish characters in this tale of wagon train pioneers

Nebraska I didn't think was quite as good as Independence but good enough to read the next one.

We are introduced to a number of new characters, my favorite of which is Hosea, an escaped slave who maintains much of his African heritage including running rather than horseback riding, shooting poisoned darts, utilizing a strong leather shield, and killing with tiny clubs.

As unbelievable as that sounds much of the rest is at least plausible. The wagon train spends the winter in a understaffed Army fort. They battle natives, each tribe more vicious the further west they travel. Folks get sick and tired of buffalo meat.

I had @Voice for android read me the eBook. I still think this is my preferred way to consume such medium, but I somehow lost my place near the end, and didn't quite get it right, all of a sudden there …

Marcus Griffin: Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce (Hardcover, 1937, Reilly & Lee, Chicago)

Marcus Griffin’s Fall Guys (1937) was the best book available on the history of professional …

Exposing sports entertainment back when it looked like professional wrestling

I have trouble putting into words just how much I enjoyed this book. One of the few I had been looking forward to reading for years that lived up to my own hype.

Written in 1937, 11 years before the founding of the National Wrestling Alliance, Marcus Griffin set out to inform the public about the secret goings on in the world of professional wrestling, during a time that in many parts of the U.S. wrestling was more popular than baseball, and certainly other new forms of entertainment like pro football, and ice hockey. I wasn't, however, a "Hey, look these guys are fooling you!" it was more of a sneak behind the curtain, "Hey, look how neat this is."

I find it fascinating that so many people attended so many matches, most of which sound absolutely boring by today's standards, with hour+ of rolling around on the …

reviewed Orion's Hounds by Christopher L. Bennett (Star Trek: Titan, #3)

Christopher L. Bennett: Orion's Hounds (Hardcover, 2006, Pocket Books)

As the USS Titan ventures beyond the outermost reaches of known space, the telepaths in …

Let's go hunt big space monsters

I really liked this book. It centers around the star-jellies that we were first introduced in TNG S1E1 at Farpoint station. If you can I would recommend watching that again before you read this.

I felt they did really good exploring modern day political issuea, like gun control and hunting rights, in a way that TNG failed to do as if all human issues were already solved.

There are still too many characters to keep them all straight even 3 books in, and the premise of just how many giant space monsters this area of space has is a little unbelievable preventing this from getting 5 stars.

reviewed Valhalla by Tim Waggoner (Stargate: SG-1, #14)

Tim Waggoner, Fandemonium: Valhalla (2020, Fandemonium Books)

Upon the legendary fields of Valhalla, the spirts of Viking warriors do eternal battle in …

A great stand-alone Stargate story

I loved this book. One of the best SG-1 novels. Disappointed to learn this was the only won that Waggoner wrote. Jonas Quinn shows up for the first time in years. He's been working on a planetary defense system to protect Langara from the System Lords and wants Carters help reviewing their work. Carter is called away with Danniel Jackson and the rest to a planet known as Valhalla. They meet Vikings who after death on Earth have ended up here and each day battle each other and go home to get drunk and start again the next day with their comrades returning from the dead.

Quins story continues separately with their government forcing them to test the system way too early, and that goes about how you expect.

Meanwhile giant Vikings are attacking SG-1 when they find out what's really gong on after 500 years of fighting …

reviewed The Red King by Andy Mangels (Star Trek: Titan, #2)

Andy Mangels, Michael A. Martin: The Red King (Paperback, 2005, Pocket Books)

Investigating the disappearance of a secret Romulan fleet, the U.S.S. Titan, commanded by Captain William …

A fantastic plot that could have been written better.

I really liked the story of the Red King, the 2nd book in the '00s Star Trek: Titan series. Captain Will Riker's ship the U.S.S. Titan attempts to help the Romulans look for a fleet that disappeared near the bloom in space caused by Shinzon's weapon at the end of the movie Nemesis. Only to get sucked in along with the Romulans and a Klingon ship that was potroling the area due to their alliance with the newly indpendent Reamans, to the Small Magellanic Cloud past the edge of our galaxy. There they find a group of pilgrims of an indigeouns religion seeking a god whose wakening from slumbar will destroy their colonists worlds, and them too.

Its the first Star Trek book I recall reading that introduced new (to me) scientific theories including protounivereses and emerging space.

I liked how they brought together the scientific theory, the …

M. Daniel Carroll R.: The Bible and Borders (Paperback, 2020, Brazos Press)

With so many people around the globe migrating, how should Christians and the church respond? …

Loving our neighbor and welcoming the stranger should guide our actions on immigration.

I had really mixed feelings about this book. One the one hand it was incredibly well documented and spoke to where so many Christians are, including those currently or recently migrating. On the other hand whilst reading it was the first time I ever recall reading several pages and then realized I was thinking about something else completely the whole time I read it. I'm not sure how that's actually possible. It also has the same problem I see about many Christian works, even left leaning ones, that it just doesn't feel radical enough.

Carrol is a professor of Old Testament studies at a Christian university and it shows in his writing. Something like 3/4 of the book was the chapter on what the Old Testament says. That's unusual for a Christian book, but then again the Old Testament is 3/4 of the Bible.He shows all the people that …

Mary O. Daly: Creator and Creation (Paperback, Ye Hedge School)

Neither Darwinian nor Creationist, this discussion of the concepts related to creation ranges from the …

A homeschool text book I found theologically challenging

It took me like 8 months to finish this, not because it was long, less than 200 pages, nor because it was difficult, it is written with intention to be a homeschool text book. But for me it was extremely challenging. I've been an old earth creationist pretty much my whole life. I bought this thinking I would get more firepower to back up the earth is billions of years old, but only existed thousands of years. When i started it looked kike it to be just another "see Catholics can by evolutionists" . But i found was something forcing me to question some pretty strongly held belief. While I was all for the poking fun at young earth creationists and their "Dude, The Flood" answer for everything. But when she started pulling out the stops on the existence of a worldwide flood at all, and the problems of small …