Joss Whedon: The Biography by Amy Pascale My rating: 4 of 5 stars This biography is essentially a greatly expanded Joss Whedon IMDB.com filmography. Pascale carefully tells the behind the scenes stories about his career. I arrived late to the Whedonverse. Yes, the fandom has a name. Essentially, I saw Serenity in the movie theater,…
Allegiant by Veronica Roth My rating: 3 of 5 stars Seems odd, but I found this the best in the series. Things start to click into place. The (terrible, no good not even) scientific explanations made sense of things that had bothered me about the story. At first, the switching back and forth between Tris…
Insurgent by Veronica Roth My rating: 3 of 5 stars While I read Divergent for the Not Your Oprah’s Book Club, I had no intention of finishing the series. That stance changed when I decided I should watch the movie for Insurgent since my trainer talked about getting an extra part in it. Maybe his…
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins My rating: 3 of 5 stars Yeah, I am finally getting around to reading it and years of resisting pressure. I rarely read something while everyone else does. The Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, and Percy Jackson phenomenons where all for Generation Y while I am GenX. I cannot…
The Gatekeeper by Scott Ferrell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Scott is a friend from high school. We played D&D and terrorized our hometown. I wanted to read this because I figured it would incorporate elements from that experience. Maybe I would even recognize someone I know? Stories like this about the hero stuck…
The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby My rating: 2 of 5 stars Back in 2007, I went to Thanksgiving with Mom to the home of a Philosophy professor. The professor’s father discoursed on why United States presidents should only be intellectuals. His arguments made sense. Someone able to understand the options, determine risk, and plan…
Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh My rating: 5 of 5 stars A friend recommended this to me as the basis of Stargate. The concept of using a system of gates to reach other worlds certainly resembles Stargate. I like C.J.’s The Dreaming Tree, so this was obvious for me to try. I kept hoping…
Dataclysm: Who We Are by Christian Rudder My rating: 3 of 5 stars Maybe really 2.5 stars, but I rounded up. I have read the OkTrends blog since its inception. Human behavior fascinates me, so I take any opportunity to read on it. The We Experiment On Human Beings post ensnared my attention since it…
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is really the story of why and how IEX was created. Humans made bad decisions. So, to protect people from other people, we moved the operation of the stock market to being run by computers. The natural consequence…