Reviews and Comments

If you are a Catholic, a Star Wars fan, a runner, someone concerned about mental health or a podcaster, I recommend this book.

Geekpriest is about the adventures of an unexpected priest from a rural town in the Netherlands. He tells the story of how he grew up a Catholic, and even most people in his Catholic school thought the church teachings where dumb, he wanted to become a comic book artist, but was drawn to the priesthood, against his parents' wishes.

He wrote a hand coded website about the rumors surrounding " Star Wars The Phantom Menace" even though his bishop didn't think it was something a good priest should be doing. Along the way he was able to make references to the Catholic faith seen in the Star Wars universe, and unbeknownst to himself later when attending a Star Wars release received reports from multiple people that he had led them (back) to the Church.

He shared his exercise podcasting, starting a podcasting network, blogs, all while struggling with the needs of his parish. I was most touched by this part. While in the 21st century most all of us now see our priests are fallen human than same as us, it's still a mystery that to too many looks like a super easy job they only work a few days a week. I was flabbergasted at his experience having to fight with the members of his parish council for the right to use the approved liturgical texts. I know Holland is known for some of the most disbelieving believers, home of the infamous "atheist priest" of the Dutch Reformed Church who "believers in a God that does not exist" but to see such inside the Catholic Church is still mind shattering to me. And he shares his struggles with mental health, and his recovery journey, related to him not meeting up to his own standards of what he should be as a "super priest."

After seeing the poverty in Uganda, he changed his lifestyle, stopped eating junk food, became a marathon runner and gave more to the global poor.

I had been wanting to watch Jurassic Park again lately, but with two young night owls it's hard to find a time I can watch a PG-13 movie. I thought listening to the audio book might scratch the itch. It actually made it worse as I wanted to note all the differences I heard if they matched my memory from seeing the film in the 90s or not.

The book was fantastic. Its a story we all know pretty well by now, but told so much better. The introduction includes a number of children on the Costa Rican mainland being bit by "lizards" a workman murdered by a raptor (which they tell the doctor was a digger accident, and the workman wakes up to say "raptor" which is interprited as being a cryptozoic creature, and then an American girl was bit by a lizard on a remote beach that caused all of the hullabalue that required the scientists to get involved.

without giving up too much more, the Story made a lot more scientific sense, having to learn things along the way like the T-Rex only sees you when you move, rather than them just knowing that. Park owner Mr. Hammond isn't a kind grandfather but a mad capitalist who will stop at nothing, and the ending is a lot more believable too.

The science behind the story appeared incredibly well researched. If it wasn't than Crichton does an incredible job of making it sound well researched which is almost as good. For someone who normally reads "light" science fiction, maybe science fantasy, this was a breathe of releif.

I received this book for free as part of LibraryThing's Early Review program an exchange for an honest review.

The book was cute. I really loved the IDEA of showing a foster kid in a new environment, his desire to have nothing to do with these new people, and in the end needing to work together and be nice to achieve a new goal.

The actual story (words) made no actual reference to the foster kid situation, it just sounded like a pirate story. When paired with the "for the parents" section before the story and the book's illustration the idea should be clear. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't seem to be enough to keep my four-year-old's attention, even though they looked great to me. She listened as she went along her playing way. I think it may have been better if the story started with a quick line about how Pedro could no longer live in the home he grew up in and had to move to live with a new foster family, or something like that, and then go about the pirate story, not sure.

Probably was one of my least favorite in Heinlein's "Scribner's Juniors" "series". Like the others it's really a stand-alone story amongst a series of similar tales. (Young adults leading scientific adventures).

This one is about two teenage twin boys finishing school and invited to a symposium by the "long range foundation" a private non-profit company that can focus on funding endeavors that don't have to make investors happy with quick returns, nor be at the will of fickel politicians, they can work on projects that will be years, decades or centuries before a return, if any occurs.

The project the LRF is now working on is to deal with the overpopulation of the planet. The 1954 written book is very concerned that in the future (maybe 200 years from now?) the world population is unsustainable with over 4.5 billion people (never mind that 75 years from when ti was written we are doing just find with 8 billion).

In order to explore what planets beyond or solar system may be suitable for habitation they need to find a way to communicate back to earth that is faster than the near light speeds of the ships. Ta-da the proof of telepathy that distance cannot substitute, primarily available between identical twins.

A little far-fetched but certainly interesting. I appreciate how Heinlein brings about theoretical ideas including those like over taxing large families etc.

Some of the story is pretty unbelievable though, like giant sea monster attacks in space, that could have been prevented with encoded messages from light years away being approved to be sent 2 days earlier.

The ending was anticlimactic to say the least, but all and all I still liked it.

I'm a Libertarian and a wrestling fan, so this should have been just up my alley. The wrestling stories where good, even if I had heard some of them before. I appreciated Kane's story about meeting Ron Paul with regards to him having been around famous people most of his life, but that was the only time he was ever actually nervous about meeting someone.

I was disappointed in the life in politics side of it. Kane talks about being influenced by von Misses and Harry Browne, not to mention Murray Rothbard, but then spends nearly a quarter of the book talking about how great Trump is. A politician that is the antithesis of libertarianism.

This audiobook was read by the author, but it may be the one time I would have rather someone else did it. Glenn stumbles over his own words and his reading voice is so different from his wrestling voice I actually had to double check it was him. As an author he also repeats himself. For example, two different locations in the book he talks about when he was courting his wife much of it was done while sitting at her daughter's hospital bedside.

I got this collection because it contained "With the Night mail" that I had been wanting to read for quite some time. To say I was unfulfilled would be an understatement. Allegedly one of the first science fiction stories, it's so filled with made up techno babble it was practically unreadable. Basically treating a blimp as it it where a ship and needing all the same parts, bilge pumps etc., described in detail, with a story that had no plot to speak of. The addition of letters to the editor and advertisements was interesting but detracted from the story.

The other stories I read from the collection weren't any better, making no sense and barley readable. It was only after reading a bit that I realized Kipling was the same guy who wrote the Jungle Book, which if it wasn't for LibraryThing I wouldn't have even remembered I'd read before, as it was equally poor. Unlike Jungle Book though, this one ended in my 1 star so bad I didn't finish it pile.