I was incredibly disappointed today. While procrastinating at work today and updating the author's entry in our database, rather than what I'm paid to do, I learned that Fr. Stolzman was accused of sexual abuse and child pornography. Even though he was acquitted it removes many of the warm feelings I had had whilst reading this book :-(
Reviews and Comments
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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Ji FU commented on The Pipe and Christ by William Stolzman
Ji FU reviewed Ben and me by Robert Lawson
Read it yourself and to your kids
5 stars
I first read this in 7th grade and it has ever since been my favorite book of all times. One of the only novels I've read multiple times. Just as good in 2020s as it was in the 1990s (and the 1930s when it was written). The story of a mouse named Amos that lives in Ben Franklin's hat and is indirectly responsible for all of the good things in his life, and all the bad things where when he ignored Amos.
Ji FU rated Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion: 1 star

Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion" is the world-changing book of Christian theology by John Calvin, the French pastor, reformer, and …
Ji FU reviewed V by A. C. Crispin
Great novelization that lives up 40 years later
5 stars
This book was the novelization of the original V miniseries, and its sequel miniseries "The Final battle." The 80s series I devoured on Netflix like a decade ago and recently did the same with the 21st century reboot on Tubi. When I wanted to read the novels I had planned on skipping the novelzation and going into the 1985 sequel as I already knew this story, but eventually went ahead anyway. I'm glad I did. So much of the story was unfamiliar to me that I needed to stay up way too late to find what happens next. I don't think I've ever finished 400 pages in less than a week before. I'm not sure if there were many changes from the TV Mini-series, or if it had just been that long that I'd forgotten. The most memorable scenes were still there, but the love for each other while fighting …
This book was the novelization of the original V miniseries, and its sequel miniseries "The Final battle." The 80s series I devoured on Netflix like a decade ago and recently did the same with the 21st century reboot on Tubi. When I wanted to read the novels I had planned on skipping the novelzation and going into the 1985 sequel as I already knew this story, but eventually went ahead anyway. I'm glad I did. So much of the story was unfamiliar to me that I needed to stay up way too late to find what happens next. I don't think I've ever finished 400 pages in less than a week before. I'm not sure if there were many changes from the TV Mini-series, or if it had just been that long that I'd forgotten. The most memorable scenes were still there, but the love for each other while fighting interstellar fascism is felt more deeply than I had expected. 5 stars highly recommend. Don't need to watch the show to appreciate but will be worth it either before or after.
Ji FU reviewed Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
A bit more unbelievable than the first
4 stars
Ready Player One is one of the greatest books I ever read. As such the sequel is likely disappoint. Cline's writing is still spell-binding and leads one wanting to turn the page. The sequel claims to start only a few days after the end of the previous, but so much of the world has changed, like Artimus now hating Z.
Cline tries to get the magic of Haladay's contest again in the quest for the siren's soul. But while Holiday's contest took years to complete, Anarch gives our protagonist only hours to get it done. The number of times that the characters feel free to joke and guess the outcome of an invent doesn't seem believable at a time they also are fighting for the survival of much of the human race with less than 12 hours to complete it.
That being said the story is still very good, and …
Ready Player One is one of the greatest books I ever read. As such the sequel is likely disappoint. Cline's writing is still spell-binding and leads one wanting to turn the page. The sequel claims to start only a few days after the end of the previous, but so much of the world has changed, like Artimus now hating Z.
Cline tries to get the magic of Haladay's contest again in the quest for the siren's soul. But while Holiday's contest took years to complete, Anarch gives our protagonist only hours to get it done. The number of times that the characters feel free to joke and guess the outcome of an invent doesn't seem believable at a time they also are fighting for the survival of much of the human race with less than 12 hours to complete it.
That being said the story is still very good, and the "continue" section (e.g. epiloge) gives a great hop for the atheist as to a chance for eternal life. I try not to get my self-righteous Christian hat on.
Regardless I highly recommend this, but only after you've read the first, and feel free to skip the movie.
Ji FU reviewed Mega Gossip by W.T. Kosmos
Not very good
1 star
I recieved this book for free from #LibraryThing early reviews in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, this book has pretty much nothing going for it. It's a juvenile novel about the dangers of social media. As awful as that sounds it's actually worse. Mega Gossip is their local social media platform on Puddoin Head island. And yet she's gong to get a million followers? There's also lots of jokes about poop. Probably be good for junior high boys, but I also don't see junior high boys reading a book with girls as the protagonists.

V by A. C. Crispin
Try To Resist
They arrived - tens of thousands of extraterrestrial beings - in huge spaceships the size of a …
You might like it?
2 stars
The illustrations were great. I liked that unlike traditional "Choose your own adventure" they weren't written in some weird second person perspective (e.g. "you took a step to the right and found a rock") and instead allowed you to make the decision of a particular third person the person of whom changes throughout the book depending on what makes sense for the story.
I found the story itself was kind of lame and I still couldn't get my 12-year-old interested in reading even though she's a huge Gravity Falls fan.
Ji FU started reading Mega Gossip by W.T. Kosmos
The new Deep Space Nine you didn't know you needed
5 stars
Wow! George has always been one of my favorite Star Trek authors but this blew me away.
The book begins seconds before the previous novel ended. U.S.S. Robinson exits the worm whole to find explosions galore and Sisko may never be the same again.
It's certainly an odd story though. 400 pages, only 24 chapters, but a prologue and an epilogue that make up 100 of those pages.
The Romulan praetor is committed to peace even when everything the Romulans have been doing leads the rest of the universe to believe otherwise, but she goes to great lengths to make it reality.
The leaps between the real world, the past, the wormhole are written so amazingly that something that should be incredibly confusing is even easier to follow than if it was in front of your face, and I have never had so may out loud physical emotional responses to …
Wow! George has always been one of my favorite Star Trek authors but this blew me away.
The book begins seconds before the previous novel ended. U.S.S. Robinson exits the worm whole to find explosions galore and Sisko may never be the same again.
It's certainly an odd story though. 400 pages, only 24 chapters, but a prologue and an epilogue that make up 100 of those pages.
The Romulan praetor is committed to peace even when everything the Romulans have been doing leads the rest of the universe to believe otherwise, but she goes to great lengths to make it reality.
The leaps between the real world, the past, the wormhole are written so amazingly that something that should be incredibly confusing is even easier to follow than if it was in front of your face, and I have never had so may out loud physical emotional responses to ANY book, let alone any Star Trek book.
Ji FU wants to read V by A. C. Crispin
First devoured the NBC Mini-Series/Mini-Series Sequel/V The Series on NEtflix like 10 years ago, watched the ABC Re-boot TV Series in less than 2 days last week on Tubi. Can't get my fix, so time to start on the books, was going to start on Book 2, but now that I've seen the reboot, I need a reminder of the OG so the novelization it is.
Ji FU reviewed Geekpriest by Roderick Vönhogen
Much better than I expected.
5 stars
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 …
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.
Ji FU wants to read The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey
Ji FU reviewed Understanding Basic Electricity by Irwin Math
Not what I was hoping for
3 stars
I received this book for free in return for an honest review through LibraryThings early review program. It was pretty OK. Nothing particularly insightful, I was hoping to be able to use it as a reference for my kids' 4-H project, but not really going to work for us.