Category: Books / Novels / Writing
-
Review: Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel
Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno My rating: 3 of 5 stars Rogue One is a prequel to A New Hope. Catalyst is a filler book tying together the events of Revenge of the Sith movie with Rogue One. I have not yet seen the upcoming movie, but the given what…
-
Review: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise My rating: 5 of 5 stars Back in college, I was part of an anti-racism group. We worked with a local group and took their People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Tim mentioned them near the end of the book, which made…
-
Review: Robot Visions
Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov My rating: 3 of 5 stars I enjoyed the Asimov’s essays about robots, computers, and cyborgs. They are well done. The short stories at the front of the book are the same stories published in other books. There are a few new ones. So, if you do not mind re-reading…
-
Review: Loving Day
Loving Day by Mat Johnson My rating: 4 of 5 stars A satirical jab at identity. Like so main character and many supporting ones, I am mixed. Am I black? According to One Drop laws, absolutely yes. According to some black people, yes. According to other black people, not enough. There are similar mixed messages…
-
Review: Crash Go The Chariots: An Alternative To “Chariots Of The Gods”?
Crash Go The Chariots: An Alternative To “Chariots Of The Gods”? by Clifford A. Wilson My rating: 2 of 5 stars Wilson challenges the evidence presented in Chariots of The Gods. As scary as Chariots was, Crash seems to fall on its face in similar ways. Ad hominems and non-sequiturs abound. At the end, it…
-
Review: Chariots of The Gods
Chariots of The Gods by Erich von Däniken My rating: 1 of 5 stars Däniken makes the case that what humanity thought of as gods in the past are actually aliens. We are the result of their breeding programs. Ancient monuments too sophisticated for the peoples of their times were built using the technology of…
-
Review: Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley My rating: 5 of 5 stars This historical fiction novel covers this history of the a black family. How their ancestor started in Africa, was brought to America as a slave, and how the family fared under that despicable institution. Alex Haley learned the stories…
-
The TBR Long Tail
My “to be read” (TBR) list is long. Too long. Over a thousand books long. Part of the problem is Goodreads. I will hear about some book say on the radio, open up the app, find it and mark it TBR. Often enough, I will find that I already have. There are 207 TBR physical books…
-
Review: Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel My rating: 3 of 5 stars Found the writing pretty dry. Plenty of characters who go by their name, nickname, or title. So it was easy to lose track of what is happening when reading in little spurts, which probably set me back about 25% my normal pace just from…