The mattries37315 reading thread of 2023

Hello everyone and Happy New Year,

My first book of the year is The Life of Greece by Will Durant, which will be read at breaks at work.

I goal is to read at least 40 books this coming year and you can check out which books from my ever expanding shelves I hope to get through this year in my 2023 Reading Plan post linked below.

2023 Reading Plan

Happy new year and happy new thread!

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Thank you >2 haydninvienna: >3 Narilka:. Happy New Year to you and hope you read many books this year.

Happy New Year, and happy new thread!

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

Do you want the year changed to 2023 on the title?

Happy New Thread! May all your reading choices be good ones.

I see >7 Karlstar: is itching to fix your typo, if it was one!

It is always good to read your thoughtful posts on the books you've read. May you have much joy of reading this year.

>7 Karlstar: Yes, it would be nice not to see my proofreading failure all year.

Thank you >5 hfglen: >6 Bookmarque: >8 clamairy: >9 MrsLee:

>10 mattries37315: Karlstar seems to have disappeared, so I fixed it for you. (And I understand completely!)

Thank you >12 clamairy:

Happy new year! I hope it brings you lots of good books!

Thank you >14 Sakerfalcon:

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Thank you >16 majkia:

The Life of Greece by Will Durant

The foundations of European and thus “Western civilization” were founded on the shores of the Aegean Seas among the Hellenes on the western coast of Anatolia before returning to their brethren in the ‘old country.’ The Life of Greece is the second volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series in which the focus of the series turns to the western peninsula of the Eurasia landmass.

From the rise of the Minoans on Crete to the Roman conquest, Durant follows the ups and downs of Grecian civilization and culture. Covering a millennium and a half of time over an ever increasing amount of area were Greek-influence spread, Durant divided the book into five “eras” that he gave an overview of the history then how those events affect the development of government, art, religion, philosophy, science, and everything else connected with culture. Highlight throughout the volume was Durant’s explanation of various schools of philosophy that developed and their relation to religion over that time as well. If there is a negative, it would be the fact that the book is over 80 years old and some of Durant’s information in the Minoan and Mycenean areas has been contradicted by new finds.

The Life of Greece tells the rise and fall of the “foundational” European culture before it was eclipsed and built upon by a rising power from the West.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Life of Greece by Will Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading I, Claudius by Robert Graves.

>18 mattries37315: Thanks, that sounds interesting.

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

A dying man who survived to old age thanks to physical effects of an illness at a young age that made defective in the eyes of his family tells history about the deadly power politics of early Imperial Rome. I, Claudius by Robert Graves is a historical fiction written as an autobiography of the fourth Roman Emperor Claudius from his family background and birth to his elevation to the Imperial throne.

Covering over 80 years of events, though the first 34 are background leading to Claudius birth, Graves retells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty through the eyes of Claudius who until a brief consulship during his nephew’s reign was a nonentity in politics, becoming a real-life historian and thus is a perfect individual to give the story. Using the history of the period written by Suetonius and Tacitus as an outline, Graves fills in the drama by making an individual a political mastermind who uses poison to not only to allow the newborn Empire to become permanent but also to have her descendants come to rule it. Graves gives Claudius life with complaints about this family members, frustration by being pushed aside, and concern about his friends and relatives. The attention to detail in both history and creating a rounded individual as storyteller made this an enjoyable read.

I, Claudius is an historical fiction autobiography that brings the fourth Roman Emperor to life thanks Robert Graves’ attention to history and character writing.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of I, Claudius by Robert Graves, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Janesville by Amy Goldstein.

>20 mattries37315: I read that eons ago and it was wonderful. I keep meaning to re-read it.

Boats, Blisters, and Frostbite: The Story of Exploration Through the Ages by Jonathan J. Moore

Boats, Blisters, and Frostbite is about global exploration, though honestly it focused mainly on European exploration of the planet with some sections dedicated non-Europeans. This barely over 200-page book is filled with illustrations and text meant to inform, however when one of the first images appears to be an Australopithecine and is labeled as a Neanderthal that intent comes into question and later on in the book the author calls Neanderthals and Denisovans as proto-humans which my limited knowledge of the subject is incorrect as they are considered extinct human species. Even though human evolution isn’t the main topic, the carelessness in researching alone makes the reader question if what their reading is accurate especially as the author would put down that the Viking made it to Rhode Island when there is no actual evidence yet that is the case—I’m not saying it isn’t plausible. Frankly this book has legitimate facts that is surrounded by questionable stuff both written and illustrated that I would not recommend it to others.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Boats, Blisters, and Frostbite by Jonathan J. Moore, feel free to comment here or there.

>21 majkia: I saw the book in my used bookstore and thought, I liked that 70s adaptation that was re-aired on the History Channel in the last 90s why not give it a try.

>22 mattries37315: Thanks, I'll avoid that one!

>20 mattries37315: I need to reread I Claudius! I loved it when I read it a long time ago, so much so that I then went and read The twelve Caesars by Suetonius.

>20 mattries37315: Having read Suetonius first I could tell the inspiration, but Graves did a great job of making it from Claudius POV without making it just a retelling of history.

Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein

It was a town that was centered around one large production plant supported by other companies that supplied it, then one day the plant closed, and the town changed. Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein shows how the closing of a General Motors assembly plant affected one small Wisconsin town over five years as those laid off, their families, and others in the community.

Goldstein followed three families affected by the closing of the GM plant either directly or a supplier leaving town once the plant was gone as well as various individuals in the town including the town’s most famous resident, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Over the course of almost 300 pages people must deal with finding a new job whether they went back to school to retain or not, some must make decisions on if they want to continue to work for GM but states away and if so to commute or leave Janesville, children learn to help out their parents with multiple jobs with the unintended consequence of reducing state aid available to the family because policy changes and budget cuts by the new governor because their household income is too high, and a once close knit community is divided between the haves and have nots. As with all things dealing with real life, it’s not pretty, especially as everyone written about must deal with the emotional and mental affects of dealing with something they’d never thought about before.

Janesville: An American Story is a look at one section of the Midwest Rust Belt that have been devastated by economic factors out of their control and how a town tried to respond. Amy Goldstein is an excellent job showing a cross-section of the affected community and how they dealt with the fallout of a town’s largest employer closing.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

The year of 1689 saw two publications that would make John Locke influential force in political discussions for the next four plus centuries, but a third publication would set the stage for a new school of modern philosophy. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in which Locke argues against that the mind is born with innate ideas and is instead a blank slate that knowledge is gained through experience.

The work is divided into four books: Book I focuses on Locke’s main thesis in opposing the principle of innate ideas, Book II presents Locke’s argument that every idea is derived from experience either by sensation or reflection, Book III focuses on words and how man uses unique sounds to signify ideas then relate them to others, and Book IV focuses on knowledge in general—that it can be thought of as the sum of ideas and perceptions—and if there can be a limit to human knowledge. Over the 635 pages, Locke’s reasoning while thorough also verged on bloated arguments that would have diluted the overall piece. Of the entire essay, Book IV had the most interesting material as Locke focused on various issues but the one that stood out the most was his look into the existence of God and of Faith and Reason.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a thoughtful yet nearly bloated piece in which John Locke puts forth his thoughts on how we gain knowledge and how we should use it.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

After Scadrial’s brush with extinction three centuries before, the survivors rebuilt civilization with help but as life and society recovered and brought about good times a shadow slowly developed. The Alloy of Law is Brandon Sanderson’s return to the world of the Mistborn as a lawman returns to high society to take up his family’s position only to find crime and his former partner barging back into his life.

This story is a mishmash of fantasy and western genres with a dash of mystery and hint of conspiracy thriller thrown in as well. The main character of Waxillium Ladrian, better known as Wax, as a lawman-turned-money aristocrat who can’t stand seeing crime happen in front of him is an engaging individual that drives the narrative. The secondary characters of Wax’s partner Wayne and aspiring prosecutor Marasi Colms add a nice change of pace to the narrative and add to the worldbuilding as well. As there is a 300 year gap between this book and the original trilogy, Sanderson evolves the magic system of Scadrial by having individuals with mixed abilities but has made “Mistborn” now legendary which in fact is hinted at to be the subtle reason behind the main arc of this new set of books. Overall Sanderson reminds the reader of what has gone before without diminishing those characters while establishing a “new” present-day with new characters and situations that result in a fun narrative.

The Alloy of Law is a fun, quick read within the Cosmere as Brandon Sanderson shows what happened after the original Mistborn trilogy in an engaging way.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading Claudius the God by Robert Graves.

Claudius the God by Robert Graves

For most of his life a historian survived his murderous family to become the leader of one of the greatest empires in history, now he must rule. Claudius the God is Robert Graves historical fiction follow-up to I, Claudius as the now fourth Emperor of Rome continues his secret autobiography that focuses on his time as Caesar.

This sequel focuses on Claudius’ time as Emperor, primarily up to fall of his wife Messalina, except at the beginning when the life of Herod Agrippa so that Claudius could explain how Herod helped him become Emperor. Throughout the book Claudius tells how he wants to undo the damage his uncle and nephew have caused and fulfill Augustus dream of retiring and allowing the Republic to return. However after Claudius learns of his wife’s secret life and his near overthrow, he comes to the conclusion that Rome needs a worse emperor than Tiberius and Caligula combine for the Republic to the be restored. Like the first book, Graves presents Claudius as a believable person with high hopes that see them dashed against reality while also presenting a great first-person narrative that uses Suetonius and Tacitus as primary sources that gives the reader a look into Roman history without it being dry.

Claudius the God brings the life of the fourth Roman Emperor to it’s conclusion as Robert Graves once again gives the reader a great character to follow throughout the book.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Claudius the God by Robert Graves, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading Caesar and Christ by Will Durant.

Exploring Romans: A Devotional Commentary by George R. Knight

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Exploring Romans: A Devotional Commentary by George R. Knight, feel free to comment here or there.

>31 mattries37315: Good review, thanks.

>32 Karlstar: Thank you.

Caesar and Christ by Will Durant

A little village on an inconsequential river eventually expands to command the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe creating an economical and cultural exchange while their homeland disintegrated allowing their conquests to eventually rule over them in politics, culture, and religion. Caesar and Christ is the third volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series focusing on the rise of the Roman Empire and it’s conquest from within by Christianity.

As with the previous two volumes, Durant began the book with a prologue of sorts this time focusing on the Etruscans and other early Italians that would be subsumed by Rome. Covering roughly a millennium of time from the reputed founding of the city in 753 B.C. to the reign of Constantine, Durant covered all aspects of the development of Roman society from government to architecture to religion and philosophy to military conquest to societal and economical interplay. Once on the verge of the Christian era, Durant begins alluding to the conditions in Roman society and religion that would allow Christianity to grow before focusing on the development of Christianity from Jesus’ ministry to Constantine’s conversion. Though comprehensive in his material Durant’s phrasing was problematic due to his use of the ”Roman race” throughout the book, given the original publishing date was in 1944 this suggestion very outdated thinking about the development of human societies. Another important analysis from Durant’s description of the spread of Christianity was the Church’s absorption of practices from other religions that would come to the fore 1200 years later.

Caesar and Christ details the most impactful political and religious institutions that still resonate today in the West.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Caesar and Christ by Will Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin

There are few people alive today that experienced the onset of the Great Depression nor seeing reactions in real time or the in-depth analysis of financiers, pundits, government officials, and politicians however that isn’t the case for the beginning of the Great Recession. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin that provides an overview of the 2007-8 financial crisis from the aftermath of the sale of Bear Stearns to the creation of TARP.

The main figures throughout the book are Treasury Secretary Henry ‘Hank’ Paulson and his staff, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Tim Geithner though throughout the first half of the book the major secondary figure was Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld. While Sorkin covers all the threads of the slowly deteriorating of the economic environment, it’s Fuld and Lehman Brothers that is focus due to their bankruptcy leading to one of---if the most---tumultuous weeks on Wall Street, in Washington, and around the world in financial history. Let’s be clear, there are no heroes presented just people finding their worldviews getting a serious reality check as they stare into the abyss. Through Fuld is in no way a sympathetic individual, Sorkin’s writing does make him a tragic figure whose efforts to save his company were at times undermined by his own brash bravado to the point that in the end his subordinates cut him out of the increasingly futile efforts to save the company. Though originally written and published a little over a year after the dark days of September and October 2008, there is some fuzziness on the state of the world then when viewed 15 years later and the afterworld written for this 10th anniversary edition only shows a little of the long-term effects and aftershocks that are affecting the world today.

Too Big to Fail chronicles the inside story of how the financial system imploded even as Wall Street and Washington struggled to save it. Andrew Ross Sorkin portrays the situation in understandable terms and presents the participants as people struggling against a situation that undermines their preconceived notions without prejudice or favor.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson.

Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson

The city of Elendel is seething with angry workers, corrupt politicians, and crime syndicates running amok now throw in an insane immortal out of legend. Shadows of Self is the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series as legendary lawman Lord Waxillium “Wax” Ladrian, his sidekick Wayne, and future sister-in-law and new constable Marasi race to stop a conspiracy that has even the god Harmony concerned.

Over the course of almost 450 pages that cover an exhausting day and a half, Sanderson writes a racing narrative that sees Wax and Wayne come up against a creature of legend that has gone insane and meet characters the readers remember from the original trilogy who are themselves considered holy now. As the two and the constables of the 4th Octant race to save the city’s governor, who probably is corrupt, from assassination there are priests of various religions getting killed by imposters from competing religions ramping up tensions from overwork or no work and growing concern for food. Not since the fall of the Lord Ruler has there been this many people on the streets, but to save the day Wax confronts something that makes him question everything.

Shadows of Self is a quick-paced fantasy thriller that sees Brandon Sanderson take us the reader through a myriad of emotions and action scenes to a stunning conclusion.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading The High Country by John Jackson Miller.

>36 mattries37315: Will you proceed on to The Bands of Mourning?

>37 Karlstar: Yes...eventually, I (finally) have Sanderson book on it's way to my house (it's literally on the delivery vehicle which on the road as I type) and then if everything goes right I'll have another Sanderson book coming in April.

Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe

The Greek gods all to human in character but with fabulous cosmic power that is used to reward or punish human beings, now let’s retell their mythological stories in a 21st Century type setting. Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe follows the young goddess of spring Persephone who is newly arrived on Olympus and is figuring out how to fit in.

The central arc of this webcomic turned graphic novel is the story of Persephone and Hades, yet in this first volume that covers the first 25 chapters of Smythe’s work the two protagonists briefly met before going their own ways, so we learn about them. Beyond the central myth that begins, Smythe interweaves several other myths into the narrative from Eros and Psyche, the shadiness of Apollo, and other myths. Set in the 21st century in the mortal and various divine realms means that Smythe doesn’t shy away from the toxic relationships of various sorts, malicious drugging, and rape in just this first volume of her work.

Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe begins the story of Persephone and Hades in a 21st Century setting while keeping an anchor in it’s mythological roots.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe, feel free to comment here or there.

The High Country by John Jackson Miller

Before the famous five-year mission, but still exploring strange new worlds the USS Enterprise finds a world where the laws of physics don’t work and strands four of the crew including Captain Christopher Pike on the surface in this first tie-in novel for the newest live action Star Trek series. The High Country by John Jackson Miller takes place late in the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as Captain Pike, Number One, Spock, and Cadet Uhara are trapped on the planet Epheska on which no electricity works.

During a search for a missing vessel and testing a new type of shuttlecraft, Pike and crew encounter a planet in which the laws of physics appear to not apply and need to be transported to the surface of the planet as the shuttle crashes. Separated on the planet, the four crew members each encounter elements of the mysterious culture of numerous species including humans that were abducted from their home planets and deposited there to live on a planet that can’t have electronics to create the perfect society. Inevitably the crew of the Enterprise find out not everything is as it seems as Pike finds those who want to create machines, Spock eventually finds Vulcans who are the perfect society’s scourge in their independence from “the system”, Number One finds herself amongst the society’s leadership, and Uhara ultimately finds the reason what’s happening with the planet’s physics. The overall narrative and the Enterprise character depictions from Strange New Worlds are top notch, however the book does go into cliché with the society’s leader depiction slowly sliding towards authoritarian after apparently benign introduction and a childhood friend of Pike’s from current Earth who is on the planet and turns out to be a villain with a tragic past. Yet it was a fun, engaging read that made me satisfied with picking it up.

The High Country is the first of hopefully many tie-in novels connected with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as John Jackson Miller not only gets the vibe of the show and the characters but puts together a good story.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The High Country by John Jackson Miller, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reviewing Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

A young woman sees her noble-born go off to find a “proper” wife with his parents only to disappear at sea, so she decides to find him then the adventure begins. Tress of the Emerald Sea is a standalone Cosmere novel by Brandon Sanderson that sees the reader travel to a never-before-seen planet within his fantasy universe.

After Tress learns her best friend is in the clutches of the evil Sorceress she doesn’t give him up for dead, but goes to rescue him even though no commoner is permitted to leave her island home. After tricking her way onto a ship after a well thought out plan, Tress begins thinking about the next hurdle when things go awry, and the story takes off. This is the first book in which the Cosmere staple Hoid not only plays a significant role—even though he isn’t like we’ve usually seen him—but also narrates. The titular character is a great character to follow as she is both naïve but quick-witted to figure out how to stay alive on the spur of the moment, but as the story progresses wises up a tad. The various antagonists slowly escalate in danger to both Tress and those she befriends throughout the book, which ultimately helps teach her skills. The magic system and the unique environment are high tier Sanderson creations which are engaging as readers learn about things at the same time Tress does throughout the book. It’s hard really find an issue to criticize in this adult fairytale, but there is a reveal that I guessed right off mainly due to a friend’s nickname from my childhood though I wouldn’t be surprised if people got it as quickly as myself but for different reasons.

Tress of the Emerald Sea is a fun adult fairytale set within the Cosmere with quality worldbuilding that Brandon Sanderson is known for.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading Lincoln by Gore Vidal.

>41 mattries37315: I'm glad you enjoyed Tress! I found it to be a very pleasant read. I am curious to see your review of the Gore Vidal. I have been toying with the idea of listening to that.

>42 clamairy: The wait was worth it for Tress, hope Frugal Wizard will be as well. I finished Vidal on the 23rd, so look for a review this week.

The Mystery Knight: A Graphic Novel by George R.R. Martin

The graphic novel adaptation of the third of George R.R. Martin’s Dunk & Egg novellas not only stays true to the original story while also giving it a new dimension with fantastic renderings of all the characters, the locales, and the action. Drawn by artist Mike S. Miller based on the adaptation by Ben Avery, The Mystery Knight immediately builds upon the previous adventure of Ser Duncan (Dunk) the Tall and the future Aegon (Egg) V as they stumble upon conspiracy from an enemy from across the sea.

Avery adaptation and Miller’s art effectively brings the novella to life though to be honest some of the character designs while not off-putting or interesting, particularly a character that is attempting to kill Dunk due to jealousy. The appearance of the often-mentioned Lord Bloodraven is particularly amazing, not only the character’s artwork but the double page appearance with him front and center. There was a small change in the order of the story, but it worked well in the flow of the graphic novel and didn’t affect the overall work.

The graphic novel adaptation of The Mystery Knight is something every A Song of Ice and Fire fan should get their hands on.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Mystery Knight: A Graphic Novel by George R.R. Martin, feel free to comment here or there.

>44 mattries37315: Great, thanks, now I need that. :)

Lincoln by Gore Vidal

The man who divided a nation, who endured a political divided Cabinet, and lived in a divided house yet somehow got them united in some form or another before his death. Lincoln by Gore Vidal looks at Abraham Lincoln’s time in Washington from his secret arrival in late February to his death a little over four years later not from the titular character’s point-of-view by those around him.

Abraham Lincoln is the central character of this historical fiction novel that only has three paragraphs from his perspective in the whole 655 pages of text as Vidal’s cast of characters either interact with or reaction from afar to the man in the White House. Though the many valleys and the peaks of the Union war effort are mentioned, Vidal focuses on the political atmosphere within Washington D.C. from faction ridden Republican Cabinet and Congress to the pro-secessionist inhabitants of the capital. While Vidal pieces together an excellent narrative and interesting characters, he obviously stretches the historical facts or downright makes stuff up including reversing some character’s real-life opinions, so reader beware. The focus on Lincoln the man as told from the perspective of those around him is an intriguing premise and Vidal’s prose make it a good read.

Lincoln is a well-written historical fiction novel by Gore Vidal that shows the 16th President in the middle of a political maelstrom inside a civil war.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Lincoln by Gore Vidal, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading New Science by Giambattista Vico.

>46 mattries37315: I've been wondering about that particular book so thanks for the review, sounds like it is too much fiction for me and I'll stick to actual Lincoln histories.

>47 Karlstar: & >48 clamairy: I was wondering the same thing. I might move this to the 'maybe' list.

>47 Karlstar: Yeah, going in I decided to expect more fiction than history which turned out to be a good choice. If it had been more balanced with Vidal's quality of writing, it might have been rated it higher because it would have surprised me.

>48 clamairy: I'll be selling this back to my local used bookstore where I got it. A good read, but nothing I'm not tempted to re-read.

>44 mattries37315: I had to go back and re-read Mystery Knight (in the Warriors I collection. Great story, I'm looking forward to the Dunk and Egg tv series, though they'll have a lot to flesh out.

>50 Karlstar: Well the first season is only 6 episodes, so The Hedge Knight itself could cover most of those. Maekar and Egg's brothers will definitely be fleshed out more given they'll be seen later in the series, but Baelor will become more prominent and probably be the big name star for the season to give the series pizzazz given there will be no dragons. Given that it is live action could mean the recasting of Egg, though how many times will depend on how long a young Egg is necessary.

>51 mattries37315: & >50 Karlstar: I just hope they don't try to add any debauchery because they think the GoT fans will expect it. Keeping my fingers crossed.

>51 mattries37315: Good point, once they get done with an intro episode, Hedge Knight can easily fill one season.

>52 clamairy: Agreed! It is one of the things I like about the Dunk and Egg stories, they maintain the complicated politics without some of the less savory elements.

>52 clamairy: >53 Karlstar: Well there is whatever background on Aerion Brightflame could bring and you're forgetting that the bedding scene in The Mystery Knight that they could really go wild on.

>54 mattries37315: They could, if they wanted to repeat the scene from the Red Wedding. I guess I was focusing on scenes involving Ser Duncan.

>54 mattries37315: I guess it was the pervasiveness of such things in the series I objected to. I'm not prudish at all. It just got ridiculous.

New Science by Giambattista Vico

The Enlightenment was just starting to bud into existence, but an Italian scholar thought the “modern” thinking was ignoring the light of knowledge from classical antiquity and the Renaissance that he proposed had not been looked at properly. New Science by Giambattista Vico was meant to be the debut of a new scientific method that was better than the rationalism that was developing among the European intelligentsia, but what he helped developed was something completely different than his intent.

Using the mythology and histories from Greece, Rome, and other ancient civilizations Vico proposed a ‘history of philosophy narrated philosophically’ which would be a new variant of Renaissance humanism. However what Vico produced has been interpreted as ‘cycles of history’ by later philosophic thinkers or inspiring anthropologists and sociologists by using myths to figure out a culture’s historical memory and how language, knowledge, and society interact with one another. While Vico’s overall ideas were interesting and I could see how his ideas would later influence others in years and centuries to come, this wasn’t the best written book especially because the modern translator had to insert multiple corrections to Vico’s text because he had the wrong person referenced even though this was the third and last edition of his work. While I was intrigued while reading, if I had never seen this book, I would not have missed anything.

New Science is an interesting read, Giambattista Vico’s theories didn’t not have the exact impact he was hoping for, but they were influential.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of New Science by Giambattista Vico, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reading China: A New History by John King Fairbank & Merle Goldman.

China: A New History by John King Fairbank & Merle Goldman

Only Ancient Egypt and India rival the length and development of the four millennia long development of Chinese civilization, one that for centuries was more advanced than other locations on the Eurasian landmass until suddenly it wasn’t and challenged. China: A New History is the last work by noted historian John King Fairbanks with addition from Merle Goldman covering the post-Mao years to the beginning of the 21st century.

Covering a 4000-year-old civilization in a total of 455 pages of text, of which only 405 were written by Fairbanks, is a daunting history however Fairbanks quickly develops the threads and themes he will follow throughout the history of a nation and a culture. Barely over half the book is dedicated to the ‘Imperial’ period from the first appearances of the elements that would become then shape Chinese culture to the fall of the Qing dynasty and the rest of the book covering the 20th Century that saw the Republican, Nationalist, and Communist eras. Goldman’s last chapter and epilogue attempts to follow Fairbanks threads and themes though in her own words and style which meshed well. This is not a history the delves into important people until the arrival of Mao, yet those Fairbanks points out and gives significant page space to are connected to the threads and themes. The number of sources and closer we get to our own time means the speed of history slows down, which given the number of pages is understandable but there were some sections of Chinese history I which Fairbanks would have given more time to.

China: A New History is the masterpiece of noted historian John King Fairbanks with a well written addition by Merle Goldman bringing the nation’s history up to the 21st Century. Given the amount of time needed to be covered and the number of pages its down in, it’s a fantastic history.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of China: A New History by John King Fairbanks & Merle Goldman, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reviewing Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us by John Green.

Sasquatch: the apes among us by John Green

One of the famous ‘Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery’, he originally was a journalist looking into the situation in Bluff Creek when the first prints of a big foot gained media attention and soon became immersed in researching the existence of a upright-walking primate in North America. Sasquatch: the apes among us represents twenty years of research by John Green about the titular subject.

Green begins the book by reviewing how he got involved in investigating the premise of an upright-walking ape, his personal experiences throughout the years, and the evidence he was able to examine with his own eyes. Green then goes over all the reports throughout North America he has been given or found in old newspaper reports, some going back to the early 19th Century. The ends with Green going over trends in sightings and reports then in comparing sasquatches with humans and apes clearly pins them as animals and that one needs to be shot to confirm the species. The amount of evidence Green presents is both the best part and the one little negative, the later mostly because some of the reports blend into one another as the book goes on yet the sheer amount of the reports to even have the effect can be seen that this “phenomenon” is not isolated to one part of the continent.

Sasquatch: the apes among us has been reprinted multiple times since it’s original publication in 1978, even now 45 years later the amount of evidence John Green provided only after two decades at the time of research shows that there might be something up.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us by John Green, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be reviewing 1776 by David McCullough.

1776 by David McCullough

It is the year that some point to repeatedly to show off their patriotism but seem to forget that the nation almost died in the cradle mere months after the signing of the Declaration Independence. 1776 by David McCullough is a companion to his fantastic biography of John Adams but focusing on the military history of the start of the American Revolution.

McCullough covers the history of the American Revolution from the time Washington takes command of what would become the Continental Army around Boston through to the Battle of Princeton. Throughout McCullough analyzes decisions or indecisions in most cases of not only Washington, but Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox, and all the senior British commanders they faced; the missed opportunities of one side or the foolish decisions are not shied away from either side and show the bits of history that some would rather whitewash or ignore. For all the talk about the Declaration of Independence, the year 1776 is when the nation almost died, and McCullough brings that out at the end of the book as the hope survived with the Continental Army that stayed together not only with the leadership of Washington, Greene, and Knox but also the galvanizing effects of the Trenton-Princeton campaign on the men in the ranks who held together. For a general audience this is a very well written book, for those looking for more in-depth it’s fine.

1776 is a book of the early struggles for the newly birthed United States and the Continental Army for a general audience, the research and the prose of David McCullough effectively brings that to the reader.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of 1776 by David McCullough, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be next reviewing either And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie or The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson.

I thought 1776 was good, but I thought The British are Coming by Atkinson was better, but not by much, I gave 1776 9.5 and the other a rare 10.

Agreed >61 Karlstar:, on my blog I linked my review to Atkinson at "in-depth"

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson



There are many versions of medieval England as seen in various media, but what if those existed a short trip through a dimensional portal? The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson is a science fiction romp through a version of Anglo-Saxon England on the verge of a massive Viking invasion while dealing with an infestation of a Seattle-based mafia boss and his cronies.

In the only non-Cosmere related novel among the Kickstarter Secret Project, Sanderson combines an alternate version of early medieval England with trans-dimensional travel. The narrative follows a dimensional travel who didn’t take precautions for his travel and wakes up with amnesia after an explosive entrance then we follow him as he navigates his way through this different version of England while trying to figure out himself. As my first non-fantasy Sanderson book it was interesting to see if there were going to be any differences and frankly there weren’t as only the “rules” of the world were different, but the interesting characters and engaging narratives were the same high quality. The interludes of outtakes from the titular handbook were excellent worldbuilding devises while the bottom of the page doodles were nice little stories appeared independent of the main story but nice additions.

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson is a fun, interesting, very well written science fiction novel that any Sanderson fantasy fan who is looking to check out his science fiction work.



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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll be next reviewing And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

>63 mattries37315: I'm happy to hear you liked this one. I found it very entertaining.

Is this your first time reading this Christie? I believe this particular book has had its title changed several times.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

One of the greatest mystery writers of all time and she might have written the greatest mystery novel of all time. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie finds 10 strangers on an island and one by one they expose their darkest secrets then one by one die.

Ten people, some the readers barely get to know, make their way to Indian Island just off the coast of Devon to find their host gone and a gramophone record accuse them of various murders. Throughout the first 193 pages, the reader is left to figure out who is murdering people and how they’re getting it done and soon are joined by two Scotland Yard officials who can’t figure things out though they give the reader clues before the truth is revealed in the last 10 pages. As this is my first Christie novel, I didn’t know what to expect and given that I accidentally spoiled myself—the last page gives the murder away and faces the back inside cover which is awkward when you’re reading a book on work breaks and sometimes said book opens where you don’t want it—I didn’t know how she would do it. Overall, this was a great introduction to Christie and I enjoyed the story, don’t know if it’s the greatest of all-time but I plan on comparing this book with others soon.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is considered one of, if not the, greatest mystery novels ever. This was a page-turning read and I can see why it’s given such accolades.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson.

>64 clamairy: Yeah, this particular book has changed names numerous times in the UK but it's always had the same title in the U.S.

>65 mattries37315: I have seen claims that this is one of the three top best-selling Christie titles, the other two being Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Christie, in some ways, has been sadly under-rated as an author. I recently read or re-read Sad Cypress, one of the Poirot novels written during the 'forties', and thought her narrative structure in that was outstanding.

>65 mattries37315: You've had several good ones in a row. I hope you keep the streak up with Bands :)

>67 jillmwo: I'm going to read the books she's most known for. Besides "None", I've got "Orient Express", "Roger Ackroyd", and Endless Night still on my TBR pile. After those four, I'll decide if I want to buy some more from my local used bookstore. I'll try to keep Sad Cypress in mind.

>68 Narilka: Yep, I've been lucky. So far I'm over a third of way through Bands and I expect the streak to continue.

The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

In the Cosmere having interactions with a god is not uncommon depending on what planet you live on, but sometimes one just can’t stand meeting them and frankly don’t like them personally because of that god’s actions. The Bands of Mourning is the sixth Mistborn novel within Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere as Waxillium “Wax” Ladrian, Wayne, and Marasi travel to the south of the Elendel Basin to save a kendra as well as to save Wax’s sister from his villainous uncle.

In just over 500 pages Sanderson covers a lot of ground as the main characters travel, develop as characters, and learn about one another. Besides the long narrative of Wax versus his uncle and “the Set”, Sanderson adds nascent political intrigue outside the city of Elendel as well as expanding the world of Scadrial by showing the Sazed-Harmony is not a very good god by ignoring half the world’s population that is only surviving outside the Basin thanks to the creator of the titular Bands of Mourning that many are looking for. There are several twists throughout the novel, the main one was blatant mainly because Sanderson didn’t want to insult his readers and try misdirection however the twist at the very end has ramifications for the history of Scadrial and possibly the entire Cosmere going forward.

The Bands of Mourning sees not only Brandon Sanderson continuing the arcs of the second Misborn era and setting up a potentially fantastic conclusion, but also is a good narrative on its own.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Native Son by Richard Wright.

>70 mattries37315: I'm getting the feeling you weren't a big fan of this one.

>71 Karlstar: I liked it and my writing for the review probably would have come off as more positive if I had written this before getting into Native Son, however that book is tonally a 180 from Sanderson and coincided with something happening at work that affected but didn't involve me.

Native Son by Richard Wright

A native of poverty and having learned to survive on the streets gets a job for a rich family, has his luck changed? Native Son by Richard Wright tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in a poor area of 1930s Chicago South Side.

Even with an introductory warning, this novel begins in a harsh mood with unlikeable characters and doesn’t improve as the narrative continues and more characters appear. Bigger is a thug other thugs look down on, which while Wright’s intention doesn’t take away the fact the reader has to deal with this character for roughly 430 pages even with a few near misses of sympathy. Of Bigger’s two victims, his girlfriend Bessie is frankly the better character than Mary Dalton as the latter is a foolish white knight that talks in “code” believing every black person would know said code. The only character that is anyway decent is Bigger’s lawyer Boris Max that is the primary character in the third part of the book, even though he’s idealistic he’s smart enough to face reality by knowing Bigger has only 0.001% of staying alive and does everything he can against the odds to do so. Personally Max comes off as a surrogate for the author than Bigger does, which is why that particular character comes off as the best one in the book.

Native Son is a controversial yet well-known novel and is Richard Wright’s best fictional work, but as soon as I started reading it, I hated everyone in it.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Native Son by Richard Wright, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading A Promised Land by Barack Obama.

>73 mattries37315: I will be moving Native Son off the virtual TBR stack, then. I do hope you enjoy A Promised Land as much as I did.

>74 clamairy: Yeah, I had hoped when starting the book that if I didn't "get it" like Invisible Man it would be good enough that I would want to re-read it to actually get the full impact. But nope, couldn't stand it.

So far A Promised Land has been very good.

Three Cosmic Messages by Mark Finley

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Three Cosmic Messages by Mark Finley, feel free to comment here or there.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

A devastating economic environment, a politically divided nation that less than a decade before was united, and then there was everything else going on in the world; what a way to start off a very different presidential administration. A Promised Land is the first volume of Barack Obama’s memoir that covers his life leading up to the presidency to the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

An important thing to begin this review is that throughout the book this felt like it was from Obama’s voice and not a ghostwriter. This is important because since Obama details his life up to the presidency followed by his first two and a half years in office, the authenticity is needed especially as he explains his decision making once in office and his impressions of the individuals he interacted with. Frankly while I knew a lot of what happened during Obama’s administration because I paid attention to the news, I read this more for the “inside” details that he could provide and wasn’t disappointed. How Obama approached each major legislation or event of the first half of his first term was something I appreciated as he tackled it whole before moving out but was able to reference those events later to give context as the book progressed, the separate but interconnectedness was better than trying to blend everything together and hope the reader kept everything straight.

A Promised Land is a well-written look into a recent American presidential administration by the man who led it. Barack Obama’s voice comes across clearly throughout thus giving the reader great insight into events and background on how things went.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of A Promised Land by Barack Obama, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Age of Faith by Will Durant.

>77 mattries37315: I really enjoyed this one. I listened to the audio book read by the author. There was more humor than I was expecting, and he did a decent imitation of some of the people that he was quoting. I'm sure he held back a bit, but I felt like I ended up with a genuine idea of what kind of man he is, and I am looking forward to the second part.

I am very curious to see how much you enjoy the Will Durant. I think I have six of his (and Ariel Durant's) ancient hardcovers, but always found the size of them intimidating. I recently purchased The Age of Reason Begins as an audio book so I can dip my toe in the water.

>77 mattries37315: and >78 clamairy: My parents had all of the volumes of that Will and Ariel Durant series and I remember as a teenager dipping in and reading bits and pieces of The Age of Faith. (So it must have been fairly readable, even if I didn't feel I knew enough to attempt the whole thing.)

>79 jillmwo: That's encouraging!

>78 clamairy: >79 jillmwo: In '17, I grabbed the entire 11 books (in the ancient hardbacks) from my local used bookstore. I should have started reading them soon then last year.

>81 mattries37315: I just checked your ratings for the ones that you have you read. You don't seem to love them.

>82 clamairy: There are three reasons why I don't "love them love them". The first two are connected with being over half a century old which means there has been more findings found through archaeology, etc. and the second is the language and ideas he wrote especially equating a culture/civilization was a "race". The third is that Durant doesn't hid his classical Greece bias, so Rome and Christianity were snipped at for not equaling Greece's "quality of civilization" or "killing it".

Don't get me wrong, I'm finding the books great sources of information, some of which general histories today don't cover. Durant's analysis of the rise and development of Greek philosophical thought throughout "The Age of Greece" is the highlight of the book because I learned so much. However, I can't overlook the bad stuff.

>83 mattries37315: Thank you for your in-depth reply. I have no doubt much of what he wrote hasn't aged well. I just read bits of his biography on Wikipedia. I find it fascinating that he planned to be a Catholic priest for a long time, because it sounds as though he ended up an agnostic. I think I'll be bumping that audiobook up closer to the top of my queue.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson



Two individuals must deal with the spirits in two different ways as one must be creative to get their attention to ask for help while the other must search for them before they attack the residents of his city, but what if they switched places? Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is a standalone Cosmere novel by Brandon Sanderson that sees the action take place in a never-before-seen corner of his universe.

It all begins with a spirit asking for help from Yumi and teams her up with Painter, the problem they’re in each other’s bodies—well sort of—and must learn each other’s skills when dealing with spirits as well as figure out why the spirit needs help. Hoid narrates this standalone novel but does take part in the action until the book’s denouement, and because of this the prose was engaging and as always Sanderson’s climax is a highlight. However, there was something that just did not hook me as there were days I didn’t pick up the book because I didn’t feel the urge to keep reading until the last third of the book when it was hard to put down. Honestly, I can’t really figure out why as both titular characters were great and the worldbuilding was spot on, so it was either the romance subplot or maybe one of the characters must endure a monotonous routine every time they go to the other’s place. Whatever the issue I had influenced this review and thus relates only to myself.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter has two very well written characters, Sanderson quality worldbuilding, and a fantastic climax. Yet for whatever reason there was something in this standalone novel that just did not click with me.



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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

>85 mattries37315: Ahh that's too bad, though I've seen other reviews with a similar issue. Hopefully Secret Project 4 will connect with you better.

Blood Stain (Volume Four) by Linda Sejic

Elliot ‘Elly’ Torres has been hired officially as Vlad Stein’s assistant, she finally has a steady job but now both she and Vlad need to figure out how to communicate and work together. Blood Stain Volume Four begins the second arc in Linda Sejic’s webcomic series as Elly and Vlad not only figure out how to work together but also figure out how to get their own lives figured out as well.

The book focuses on the next stage of Elly and Vlad working relationship—something Serge stresses needs to be done before leaving with his girlfriend—which basically means communicating each other’s insecurities with the other. Sejic moves away from the comedic misunderstandings phase into grown-ups working together phase very well and allows the story to branch out, namely how Elly’s job is affecting her relationship with her boyfriend and family while we begin to see what Vlad’s professional life is like and keeping his primary job becomes the focus so Elly can keep being his assistant. As always Sejic’s art is amazing and while the focus of the humor shifts, there are still nice little gags like the Vlad-dragon that appear but in a new frame of reference.

Blood Stain Volume Four basically sees Linda Sejic showing the fallout from the previous story arc and shifting to the new one doing so very well.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Blood Stain (Volume Four) by Linda Sejic, feel free to comment here or there.

>86 Narilka: I hope so as well. Through some of the booktubers I follow on YouTube didn't have the high level of love for Project #2, but they loved Project #3 and a lot say it's their favorite over #1. Just a difference between everyone's literary taste buds.

My favorite is #1 so far. I enjoyed the others but not as much as Tress.

>89 Narilka: Tress is the one character I would mind seeing interact with an established character from a another series who world hops to her planet during an interlude or something.

The Age of Faith by Will Durant

The death of two men bookends the Middle Ages, one transformed the Roman Empire by injecting Christianity into the government and the other was the man who ended the reign of Latin in the literature of Italy to produce the greatest of medieval Christian books. The Age of Faith is the fourth volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series focusing on the end of the Western Roman Empire, the rise of Christian Europe, the zenith and slow decline of Byzantium, the birth and stagnation of Islamic civilization, and the continued resilience of Jewish faith and culture.

Unlike the previous volumes of the series, Durant does not need a prologue to introduce anything as the volume beings where the ends the death of Constantine. Over the course of a millennium from the death of the first Christian emperor to the death of Dante the champion of vernacular Italian and champion of the dream of a unified Italy. For Durant this millennium isn’t all about Christianity, but the rise and continuation of the Abrahamic religions so the rise of Islam and the blooming of Islamic civilization as well as the continuation of Judaism are significant portions of the volume and whose contributions would be interwoven into the medieval fabric in the 12th and 13th centuries. However, three-quarters of the volume shows how Christianity fought against, preserved, and built upon the classical heritage of Greece and Roman to form medieval Christendom in culture, science, art, and political theories. Yet, as with previous volumes Durant’s word usage can be problematic though as well as distaste for religion when comparing/contrasting it to philosophy even though he praises the sincerity of those that live their faith while showing the twists and turns of theological development that intertwined what those in power thought was orthodoxy in opposition to those who thought differently. Durant demonstrates that modern Europe is essentially still medieval either as it’s extension of classic antiquity that would birth the Renaissance or it’s civilized barbarity that would bring about a Reformation.

The Age of Faith was a millennium of decline, rebirth, preservation, innovation, of change and stability that was needed in Will Durant’s view before the coming of an “age of reason” that would bring about modernity.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Age of Faith by Will Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

He is a beast hunter given supernatural abilities at a young age to battle wild beasts and monsters, he is a witcher and his name is Geralt of Rivia. The Last Wish is the short story collection by Andrzej Sapkowski that follows the adventures of his creation Geralt and the world he lives in.

The seven stories are connected via “The Voice of Reason” which is used as a framing story as either the aftermath of the Sapkowski’s original short story, “The Witcher”, or as an introductory device for the other stories before ending the collection. All the stories a good, though the standouts are clearly “A Gain of Truth”, “A Question of Price”, and the collection’s titular story, “The Last Wish”. Geralt instantly comes across as interesting character that the reader would want to follow and over the course of the collection, the reader is introduced to other great characters that Geralt interact with some of which will be important later in Sapkowski’s larger saga. Using Slavic mythology given his Polish background, Sapkowski bring additional creatures to the reader attention that is usually more familiar with Western European fantasy tropes and Sapkowski’s use of twisting or subverting known fairy tales and tropes gives another dimension to his writing.

The Last Wish turned out to be a great way to be introduced to Andrzej Sapkowski’s world of The Witcher.

The Witcher (3.5/5)
A Grain of Truth (5/5)
The Lesser Evil (3/5)
A Question of Price (4.5/5)
The Edge of the World (3.5/5)
The Last Wish (4.5/5)
The Voice of Reason (3.5/5)

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton.

>92 mattries37315: This is a series I have been eying lately, I won't deny that part of the attraction is the lead character on the television series, even though I have never watched an episode. Another reason is my son's fanatical devotion to the video game, and the third is your mention that it includes Polish fairy tale elements.

So if I start, should I begin with the first story, or would it be better to get The Last Wish?

>92 mattries37315: This is the only book in the series I read, and I thought it was quite good. There was a very dry sense of humor, that was a bit more overt in the series.

>93 MrsLee: I watched much of the first season, and there is quite a bit of eye candy.

>93 MrsLee: The publisher says read The Last Wish then The Sword of Destiny as both short story collections were not only published first but also chronologically occur before "The Witcher Saga". Season of Swords is a prequel book and chronologically occurs somewhere in-between two of the stories in The Last Wish I believe, but a friend advised reading it after completing the Saga your first time through.

Hope I didn't overly complicate things.

>95 mattries37315: I bought the boxset of the series and that's the order they're packaged in.

>95 mattries37315: No, that is perfectly understandable. Thank you!

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

An Arab ambassador finds himself headed to the lands of the Northmen against his will to help fight an evil menace. Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton is a historical fiction retelling of the Old English poem Beowulf as seen through the eyes of real-life noted Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan.

Conceived to make the story of the hero Beowulf not boring, Crichton combined the real-life experiences of a historical traveler and imagined how he would have written an account of the original poem in his own style. Narrated as if a scientific commentary on an old manuscript, Crichton created an interesting take the well-known story as well as making the antagonists relic Neanderthals which at the time of the original publication were emerging from under the shadow of the Victorian description of “brutish primitives”. Given my reading of annotated history texts, I found this book right down my personal lane and the fact that I watched the adaptation, The 13th Warrior, meant that it would have had to be awful for me to dislike it.

Eaters of the Dead is a different way to look at the epic tale of Beowulf and was impressively written by Michael Crichton.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline.

>98 mattries37315: I'm not sure I had connected "The 13th Warrior" with "Beowulf" and I'm also not sure I knew it was inspired by a novel of Michael Crichton. He is a hit and miss author for me, but now that I've learned more about "Beowulf" I might explore the movie again and his book.

>99 MrsLee: An interesting fact about the movie, even though Crichton isn't credited he came in and rescued the film by replacing the director who is officially credited with the film.

>100 mattries37315: When I first watched the film, we thought it was pretty corny, but we loved Antonio Banderas, so kept watching. We ended up really liking it.

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline

Their world was connected through trade, diplomacy, and cultural cross-pollination but within a lifetime everything changed. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed sees Eric H. Cline unveil the prosperous Late Bronze Age of the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt and theorizes about how they disappeared from history or were weakened apparently out of nowhere.

Using a variety of disciplines, from archaeology to linguistics, Cline shows the reader the world of the Late Bronze Age and the cultures that dominated it and their relationships with one another in an ever-increasing interconnectedness. Yet as Cline goes on to show this interconnectedness was also it’s down fall as natural disasters, climate change, internal and external migration, and numerous other factors that could have been weathered individually created a “perfect storm” of events that caused the international system to collapse. Cline doesn’t shy away from engaging in the long-held belief that the “Sea Peoples” were responsible for the collapse but shows how those migrates were reacting to the world falling apart and either taking advantage or running away to find stability. Throughout 187 pages, Cline packs in a lot of facts and speculations besides the confirmed history on events that could point to the truth of Troy and maybe the Exodus, though his speculation on the latter is weaker than the former.

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed is a very fact dense book that is aimed for a general audience, but inquisitive and ready to get into nitty gritty of knowledge. Eric H. Cline knows his subject and is able to communicate it fairly well on page, but not as well as he comes across in lectures or presentations.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski.

>102 mattries37315: That one sounds very interesting, thanks!

Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a human given up as a child to be supernaturally mutated so as to fight monsters that endangered humanity, but he is a “dying” breed. Sword of Destiny is the second story collection by Andrzej Sapkowski that follows the adventures of Geralt in a chronological fashion that will lead to the main Witcher Saga.

The six stories in the collection are loosely linked in chronology and two are directly linked to one story in the previous collection that will bear directly on the upcoming Saga. Throughout the stories, Geralt becomes more complex, and his world gets bigger through a lot more human, as we see that the witchers overall had been doing their job very well. Yet it’s the last two stories that are directly linked with one another as the reader is introduced to Ciri, whose existence was hinted at in the previous volume. Half of the stories are very good with the beginning and final stories among them, though the best of the lot was “Eternal Flame”. Only one story was just fine and that was “A Shard of Ice” which features Geralt and his relationship with Yennifer and a major downgrade to their story in the previous volume. Overall Sapkowski gave Geralt more character and weaved together various story threads that the reader will be looking forward to seeing how they develop in the bigger Witcher Saga.

Sword of Destiny is a good collection of short stories with half of the stories very good and only that was “just fine”.

The Bounds of Reason (4/5)
A Shard of Ice (2.5/5)
Eternal Flame (4.5/5)
A Little Sacrifice (3/5)
The Sword of Destiny (3.5/5)
Something More (4/5)

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu.

>104 mattries37315: I was loaned the first book in the Witcher series and the third one, skipping over Sword of Destiny, sounds like that was a mistake. Will you be continuing in the series?

>105 Karlstar: I will be reading the entire series unless a book is so bad that it gets a 0.5 or 1 stars and I'll probably won't continue.

Exploring Galatians & Ephesians by George R. Knight

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Exploring Galatians & Ephesians by George R. Knight, feel free to comment here or there.

The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu

A French aristocrat spent his life looking at the laws of various people, though mostly those of his native country, to develop political theories related to different governments that would influence the coming “Age of Revolution”. The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu is a treatise on political theory that covers a large range of topics including law, social life, and the study of anthropology that would change the way people would look at the development of government.

In a little over 700 pages Montesquieu covers a lot of material but three major themes throughout this treatise that influenced readers of his time and up to the modern day. Those three themes were the classification of political systems and the “principles” that motivate them and that the lack of means they don’t endure, the political liberty that is defined as personal security especially that provided by system of dependable and moderate laws, and the development of political sociology in which geography and climate interact with particular cultures to produce a spirit of the people that influences their politics and laws. Based on these themes Montesquieu pleads for a constitutional system of government with separation of powers, the preservation of legality and civil liberties, and the end of slavery. At times the material Montesquieu covers could be somewhat tedious especially close to the end of the treatise as he covered the transition of French institutions from the Frankish conquest of Gaul to the medieval French monarchy. Yet even with that tediousness the reader gets the thoroughness in which Montesquieu dedicated a lifetime of study to produce this treatise, which influenced the American Founding Fathers, French republicans, and others around the world.

The Spirit of the Laws is the life’s work of Montesquieu, a pioneering work on comparative law, but a treatise on political theory that would be influential almost immediately after it’s publication and be relevant to this day.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Ephesians by John K. McVay

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Ephesians (3Q 2023 Bible Bookshelf) by John K. McVay, feel free to comment here or there.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

An orphan raised harshly by her non-blood related aunt, survived a harsh boarding school, became a governess only to be ogled by a man twice her age who is already married, and she’s not even alive two decades. Jane Eyre by Charlette Bronte is a first-person novel of a woman recounting her early life in Victorian England.

While I appreciated the first-person narrative and thought the story was fine, it was the clichés that took me out of this novel overall. Whether it was that the clichés are somewhat dated today or just didn’t hook me or the overall romance aspect just didn’t click thus making them fall flat I haven’t decided. Without any knowledge of what would happen in this book I guessed that Jane and Rochester’s first wedding wouldn’t go off, mainly because basically a third of the book was left. The Chekov’s gun that was Jane’s paternal uncle’s fortune was waiting to be dropped and the twist of Jane being saved by and later befriending her disinherited cousins resulted in a “meh”. After I finished, I didn’t feel like I wasted my time, but I have no interest in ever reading this book again as well.

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative romance that many put on par with one or more Jane Austen novels, however I would not.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Renaissance by Will Durant.

The Renaissance by Will Durant

The Italian Renaissance began in during the Middle Ages and with the Reformation in northern Europe ended the Middle Ages and brought about the beginnings of the Early Modern world that we live with today. The Renaissance is the fifth volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series as he explores the history, culture, and artistic achievements of the various Italian polities from Venice and Milan in the north to Florence and Rome in the center and Naples in the south and such individuals as Petrarch, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Titian.

Taking up the historical narrative where he left off in the previous volume, Durant presents a wide-ranging survey of nearly three centuries worth of events, individuals, and artistic accomplishments while putting them all in context with one another. Not since the volume focusing on Greece has Durant’s prose brought across his excitement for covering a subject, mostly because of his meticulous descriptions on the artistic accomplishments of so many individuals that includes not only the very well-known to those we might only read about in this volume. Yet those lesser-known individuals are given such a treatment by Durant that readers could quickly search for images of their work on the Internet today to see why he is so passionate about them. Given Durant’s issues with problematic language and his seeming contempt of religion in previous volumes, those issues didn’t really come up until close to the end of the volume with the emergence of the domination of the Italian peninsula by the Spanish at the conclusion of the Italian Wars with Valois France.

The Renaissance features the best aspects of Will Durant’s prose as he lovingly gushes over the accomplishments of nearly three centuries of Italian culture even as it was politically divided which would lead to its eventual subjection to foreign rule.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Renaissance by Will Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Story of Egypt by Joann Fletcher.

>111 mattries37315: Sounds interesting, might have to check that one out.

Texas Bigfoot: History, Legend, and Modern Encounters in the Lone Star State by Lyle Blackburn

For those who do not live in Texas, what comes to mind when it’s mentioned? Deserts, plateaus, maybe the southern edge of the Great Plains and its prairies? All places one doesn’t associate with Sasquatch/Bigfoot, but all those locations are in the western part of the state and the eastern part of the state is very wet and woody. Texas Bigfoot by Lyle Blackburn sees the author tackle the legendary stories and modern-day encounters of the Lone Star state.

In roughly 230 pages, Blackburn covers many encounters of Texas residents coming across evidence of some other bipedal inhabitant of their state. While most of the book focuses on the eastern portion of the state, which sees almost a dozen rivers either flow into the Gulf of Mexico or eventually into the Mississippi, Blackburn surprises with a few reported sightings in the far west of the state that are hard to explain away. Blackburn, a Texas native, had only touched a little of the state’s history of Sasquatch encounters in a previous publication and lightly into the northeast corner of the state when discussing Boggy Creek in his first book. While Blackburn retreads some territory, he overall focuses on incidents he had never written about before to keep this book unique and doesn’t overdue the drive-by sightings like in another publication. Given the author’s easy to read prose plus all the informative encounters, this was another great read.

Texas Bigfoot explores the history of Sasquatch in the Lone Star State that Lyle Blackburn brought together from old news reports, Bigfoot research groups, and personal investigations to allow readers to come to their own conclusions.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Texas Bigfoot by Lyle Blackburn, feel free to comment here or there.

>113 mattries37315: I didn't realize Bigfoot made it down to Texas, but it makes sense.

The Book of Daniel by Elias Brasil de Souza

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Book of Daniel by John K. McVay, feel free to comment here or there.

>114 MrsLee: I'll be honest until seeing Finding Bigfoot and really looking into the subject, I would not have either.

The Story of Egypt: The Civilization that Shaped the World by Joann Fletcher

It was a civilization that lasted so long that its last independent ruler lived closer to us today than when its most defining structural achievements were built. The Story of Egypt: The Civilization that Shaped the World by Joann Fletcher shows the cultural development around the Nile that led to political and religious institutions that stood alone for nearly four millennia until it was absorbed by multinational, culture reshaping empire.

One blurb on the book stated that Fletcher wrote a “revisionist history” of Ancient Egypt, with that mind the only thing that could truly be considered “revisionist” is that it turns out that half the Egyptians were women and there was more than one female pharaoh (Hatshepsut) before the Ptolemies—in fact at least ten. Throughout the book Fletcher essentially goes ruler to ruler so how the political and religious life of the nation changed or stayed the same throughout the centuries. Given Fletcher has only the records of the elite, it hard for her to cover the life of the ordinary people through as time progresses even ordinary people learned to write and as that happened, she would mention it. Where there is not academic consensus on the chronological front, Fletcher puts forward her interpretation which to me wouldn’t be considered revisionist as that would be more a theory from knowledgeable academic who is putting her two cents in as every other academic is doing. As stated above the “revisionist” issue revolved around how much women were involved in the political and religious life of the ruling class, Fletcher throughout the book laid out how royal women were integral to maintaining political and religious power and legitimacy for pharaohs. Along with that Fletcher brought a new interpretation into the led up and consequences of Akhenaten’s monotheistic revolution, which while I don’t consider revisionist was a new spin on things that I felt shined a new light on events. Throughout the book the quotes Fletcher used from other sources were in quotation marks but without any footnote or reference number so when you looked in the back for any information you must remember the wording of the quote to find the source which wasn’t very efficient. Fletcher’s references to early 20th-century Egyptologists that put the male-spin on Egyptian culture while not full snarky were close even though I understood the point she wanted to bring across, it could have been worded it differently to get the same thing across. Yet, these two things can’t truly harm the overall quality of this history of Ancient Egypt.

The Story of Egypt brings the millennia of a ancient nation’s history into a readable form. While Joann Fletcher looks at that history from another angle, it’s only “revisionist” if you can’t come at this book with an open mind.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Story of Egypt by Joann Fletcher, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume.

Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

One of the best-known modern philosophers wrote his masterpiece at a young age, it wasn’t well received at the time and to being important to Western philosophy, and so David Hume decided to do something to get his thoughts talked about. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two pieces that Hume wrote from sections of his most famous work to enlarge and make them well known thus putting his name out into the philosophical community.

The two Enquiries are essentially extracts and revisions of sections from his A Treatise of Human Nature, his anonymously published most important work that was not received well and very long. In all honestly, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding was to me were words that signified nothing. Every statement and argument Hume put forward neither interested me nor really was convincing and his section “On Miracles” was nothing more than a circular argument that just wasted my time. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals was not much better, while I understood Hume’s thinking, I just didn’t understand the reason for the entire piece existing and frankly the four Appendixes that were attached where the best part of what Hume wrote. The publishers decided to include A Dialogue in the book, and it was probably the best piece in the entire book as I took it as satire and if not, I don’t care because those 20 pages were better than the previous 326. Frankly I had hoped for Hume to contrast or compliment John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and while I felt Locke was a bit bloated, at least I cared about what he wrote unlike Hume.

Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two of David Hume’s work combined in the same book, I read them and felt like I wasted my time.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Games Do Count by Brian Kilmeade.

The Games Do Count: America's Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports by Brian Kilmeade

They are known for their accomplishments on stage, on screen, in the political arena, the newsroom, and the boardroom, not on the athletic field but that doesn’t mean they didn’t “suit up” as kids. The Games Do Count by Brian Kilmeade collects the reflections from over—or about—70 individuals, including the author, about their time playing sports as kids shaped their futures once their competitive time on the field came to an end.

Kilmeade’s inspiration for this book was a segment he began one Saturday afternoon for his shift on an all-sports radio station in Los Angeles for listeners to phone in and talk about their own sports experiences, resulting in a flood of calls for people reliving their memories growing up and more than a few saying how their time helped them later in life. A decade later, Kilmeade thought the concept would work by interviewing well-known actors, singers-musicians, politicians, and television personalities about how sports affected their non-playing professional careers. Published in the 00s, some of those interviewed aren’t well known today as they were then or whose time in the political spotlight is long gone as well as the fact that many had a connection with Fox News at the time due to Kilmeade co-hosting Fox and Friends, and a few from family or friends about those who had recently passed. Overall Kilmeade wrote some great early life sketches based on the interviews he conducted with Robin Williams and Bernie Mac standing out to me. Because it’s been almost twenty years since publication some of the individuals have passed away—the aforementioned Williams and Mac along with President George H.W. Bush—or some individuals have destroyed their own reputations and careers since along with some active athletes that were mentioned throughout the book namely Lance Armstrong.

The Games Do Count is a nice collection of briefs snapshots of the early years of famous individuals and how sports shaped who they became before they transitioned to their non-playing careers.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Games Do Count by Brian Kilmeade, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Endless Night by Agatha Christie.

Endless Night by Agatha Christie

A piece of land in rural Britain is said to be cursed due to a tribe of gypsies being forced from it for a house to be built that was the scene of several mysterious deaths, now there are new owners. Endless Night by Agatha Christie follows the account of Michael Rogers whose fateful encounter with said property momentarily brought happiness then pain.

The story is a first-person narrative from Michael’s point of view, which in the mystery genre means he solves the death which centers the mystery, is the killer of said mystery, or is set up as a patsy at the end. Throughout the book Christie gives subtle clues that only become apparent at the climax, yet from the beginning there was a sense of doom that lingered for the entire narrative. Yet it was this depressing feeling, which for me affected my view of the book as while I was interested in how it was going it in my enjoyment of the reading was frankly nonexistent. Frankly it was a good mystery and very well-written but that depressed feeling for some reason stayed with me even when not reading which made the overall experience negative for me.

Endless Night is one of Agatha Christie’s favorites of her own works and is critically acclaimed, while I acknowledge it’s a good story and well-written the overall experience wasn’t for me.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Endless Night by Agatha Christie, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Deceptions of World War II by William Breuer.

Deceptions of World War II by William Breuer

The most destructive war in history and like all wars there were deceptions used by both sides to gain an advantage on the battlefield. Deceptions of World War II by William B. Breuer goes over various incidents of espionage and military trickery before and during the global conflict.

Over the course of roughly 240 pages, Breuer relates stories and anecdotes of incidents of underhand dealings, spying, and military intrigue surrounding World War II from both sides of the conflict. While some of them were interesting and worth reading about, many couldn’t be classified the same. Obviously what one person thinks is a deception could be different from someone else’s but to me when I think of deceptions in the context of a military conflict dropping spies behind enemy lines—while important to a military’s overall strategy—isn’t on the same level as the operations to create a phantom army to mask Operation Overlord or Operation Mincemeat neither of which were even mentioned in this book. And either Breur or his editors left in tiny mistakes that were factually incorrect with one of the most egregious being a line that said the Chief of German military intelligence was working for the British. So, while a nice book to pass the time overall I wasn’t impressed.

Deceptions of World War II is a slender volume of stories and anecdotes about the cloak-and-dagger events of the global conflict, but to me a lot didn’t feel like “deceptions”.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Deceptions of World War II by William Breuer, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson.

>121 mattries37315: Thanks for the warning not to read that one.

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson



A man decided to agree to a request from his mentor and now he is on the run for his life while unable to fight even though he is a Knight Radiant. The Sunlit Man is a standalone Cosmere novel by Brandon Sanderson that sees a familiar face from Roshar finding himself mixed up with a culture in conflict on a weirdly Invested planet.

A man called Nomad, known to longtime Cosmere fans as Sigzil, arrives on the small planetoid of Canticle on the run from the Night Brigade who want him so they can find the bearer of the Dawnshard he had briefly held. Unfortunately for him the planet is small, and the sun’s light is so intense that it burns and melts the land as well as vaporizes humans. Sigzil soon finds himself caught up in an ongoing rebellion of humans from the floating city of Beacon from the tyrant Cinder King who rules over the large floating city of Union. For most of the novel, Sigzil is the narrator while a native character named Elegy gets a point-of-view near the climax to show all the action that is happening. As a result, the narrative is tight as the reader gets an idea about why Sigzil is so different than when we last saw him and in a far future era of the Cosmere so different than seen before. As usual Sanderson’s worldbuilding and his characters are fantastic while a thrilling climax to the story is just icing on the cake. Give the time period the story takes place in, Sanderson only drops hints about events in various series that have yet to be seen so while Sigzil as the main character is a spoiler that he’ll survive the upcoming fifth Stormlight book and space travel by various cultures there is no massive spoiler that will make anyone mad. It took me a while to read this book, mostly due to real life issues but once I was able to sit down and read the last half the book, it was done in just two days and just shows that when Sanderson is on his game the quality of the work keeps you very much engaged.

The Sunlit Man is a fast-paced novel that only seems to gain momentum as the pages turn with fantastic Sanderson worldbuilding and fleshing out a known secondary character given the spotlight while keeping as yet unseen events hidden from the reader.



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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Daniel 11 and the Divided Medieval Kingdoms by Perry F. Louden.

>122 Karlstar: You're welcome.

>123 mattries37315: Glad you enjoyed it :)

Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms by Perry F. Louden

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms by John K. McVay, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next by reading Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski.

>125 Narilka: So am I, just annoyed that I should have finished it quicker than I did.

>127 mattries37315: I know that feeling

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

The child is hunted because of her lineage and the power in her blood, yet she is under the protection of a man mutated to protect people from monster beasts. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski is the first novel of The Witcher series as the titular character Geralt of Rivia looks after Ciri, the child of destiny and heir of Cintra.

Set in the aftermath of a war of conquest a few years before, the story sees Geralt and Ciri—a politically neutral witcher and the fugitive princess of conquered Cintra—navigate the new political order was one looks to find those looking for his ward and eliminate them while learns not only to fight but her magical potential. The novel feels like a string of Sapkowski’s short stories that at first seemed to be linked towards a narrative climax, but suddenly in the middle of the book things just get fractured into different storylines and timeframes with no narrative cohesion nor a satisfying stopping point in the arcs begun in the book. Overall Sapkowski’s action scenes and world building are very good, but the biggest fault is the randomization of narratives that are just introduced haphazardly chronologically in the flow of the book.

Blood of Elves is an okay start of The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski as it has good action scenes and background worldbuilding, but its overall structure especially in the second half of the book muddies things.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next by reading Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

>129 mattries37315: I enjoyed the first Witcher book, but I did not feel the need to keep going. I think you nailed the main issue, which was the structure.

I am very curious to see what you think about Childhood's End. I loved this book when I read it in college, but I recently tried to reread it and had a lot of trouble getting into it.

>130 clamairy: Since I already have the other books I'm going to continue the series unless the quality goes down to a 1.5 star or below then I'll cut my loses.

I already know the general narrative of Childhood's End, so I'm approaching this to see if I like Clarke's writing to see if I should consider reading other books by him.

>131 mattries37315: Yes, that makes perfect sense. I only bought the first in the series as an ebook. I started watching the Netflix series and stalled somewhere in season 2.

I do hope you enjoy the Clarke. I am planning to try rereading that one again at some point.

>130 clamairy: I had the same feeling after I read the Witcher novel. Not bad at all, but not for me. I wondered if some of the problem was in translation.

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

The two most powerful nations on Earth are reaching for the stars when suddenly the stars reach down, and everyone waits. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke is one of the most important novels of “the golden age of science fiction” with its surprising twist and interesting ending.

Given the time the book was published and how Clarke projected the “future” timeframe that the story took place, it didn’t hurt the overall story. The benevolent alien contact trope, but with a unique hidden agenda twist was good as well. The surprise twist of the appearance of the aliens was cool, though the later explanation at the end about how their appearance was ingrained in human consciousness was disappointing though it went with the ending of the book. Clarke’s point-of-view characters were a bit flat just there to move the narrative along, which overall was fine. Yet it was Clarke’s prologue for the 1990 edition—which I read—unfortunately undermined the story even before I had begun that I wish that Clark had decided to make it an epilogue. Overall, I thought this novel was okay, I wasn’t dissuaded from reading other of Clarke’s works.

Childhood’s End is one of science fiction’s most important works from its golden age and put Arthur C. Clarke on the literary map.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next by reading Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides.

>134 mattries37315: Glad you enjoyed it. Will you be reading more Clarke then?

>135 Karlstar: Yes. I'll get Rendezvous with Rama and/or The Songs of Distant Earth at my local used book store and try them out.

>136 mattries37315:
I loved Rendezvous with Rama, found the sequel to be simply a repeat, and the subsequent sequels very disappointing. My advice would be read Rendezvous with Rama and leave it at that.

>136 mattries37315: Two good choices.

>137 pgmcc: I agree, they all blend together in my head.

>137 pgmcc: >138 Karlstar: Thanks for the heads up on the sequels, but I saw that all of them have a co-author and unless I read something by the co-author exclusively I wouldn't have touched them.

>139 mattries37315:
I suspect my disappointment was due to the co-author. When I see co-author’s beside big name authors I assume the co-author is using the big name to improve their visibility and that the co-author is probably the one who has done most of the writing. It is a red flag for me.

Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides

Following up his initial investigation into Bigfoot incidents and witnesses, a former police investigator expanded his search area in northern California as well as expanding out to Minnesota and Oklahoma. Tribal Bigfoot is David Paulides follow up to his first book, The Hoopa Project, in which he gathers more evidence and proposes a new theory about bigfoot today.

Expanding his research area to the northern California countries surrounding the Hoopa Valley, Paulides methodically examined the terrain and wildlife before looking for witness testimony for the viability of bigfoot in the area. Like his previous book Paulides spends most of his time going over the witness testimony—which are back up by affidavits—followed by his personal observations of the area where the incident(s) took place in each interview. Once again Paulides hired law enforcement forensic artist Harvey Pratt to draw sketches from the memories of witnesses he interviewed, and it is the result of these sketches and local Native American knowledge that Paulides made his big conclusion at the end of the book. Paulides believes that bigfoot isn’t an ape as some researchers believe but a homininan that can reproduce with humans which seems to be showing with the amount of a more human-looking bigfoot seen by witnesses than the ape-looking bigfoot of the Patterson-Gimlin footage. Like his previous book Paulides’ is a little dry in his style though his writing did improve as did his referencing between witness accounts.

Tribal Bigfoot continues David Paulides’ research into bigfoot in northern California as well as glance at Minnesota and Oklahoma. The book not only contains Paulides well done research, but also a theory that bigfoots and humans can produce offspring.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Tribal Bigfoot by David Paulides, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next by reading Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

The fallout from the first Nilfgaardian war is affecting politics and future war plans only for a certain white-haired individual to interfere. The Time of Contempt is the second Witcher novel by Andrzej Sapkowski sees Geralt, Yennifer, and Ciri come together at a conclave of magicians only for things to go to hell.

Throughout the book there is a sense that things are happening but the characters and thus the readers only see what’s happening to them until everything hits the fan. Sapkowski builds the events up slowly as the main characters come together on the Isle of Thanedd for a conclave of mages when two coups, one supported by the Nilfgaardians and the other by the Northern Kings who are planning covert action about the Nilfgaardians as well. The entire book feels more coherent than Sapkowski’s previous outing as the main narrative took over 60% of the book while aftermath took up the rest especially as Ciri makes an important decision near the end of the novel. Though there is a quick succession of point-of-view narratives across the continent, they are framed in a conversation between Dandelion and Geralt providing a better flow than the previous book. Thanks to a series by the YouTube channel Wizards and Warriors, I have a rough idea of the political and physical landscape of the continent which helped to understand where things were because there is no map which is the only thing that takes away from Sapkowski’s world building. Overall, this is a better book than the previous novel and makes me look forward to the rest of the series.

The Time of Contempt is an improvement on the opening novel but with the same great action and character development thus making me interested in where Andrzej Sapkowski takes things.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion by V.S. Naipaul

Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion by V.S Naipaul

A life-long bachelor a few years from retirement and without achievement in his career drastically changes everything in a few sudden bursts of inspiration. Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion is a novella by V.S. Naipaul detailing the how an average man achieved the one great achievement in his life.

The titular character is a middle management lifer in the late 1950s/early 1960s London with retirement slowly getting closer when he suddenly falls for a twice widowed woman and during a holiday finds inspiration to create a program for retirees for his company. Naipaul creates a mediocre man living an eccentrically self-regulated life that suddenly changes everything up not once but twice and sees how things turn out. The pacing is pretty good and the second characters alright, but Naipaul excelled in portraying his main character’s arc which was both triumphant—albeit all too brief—and sad all too predictable when you look at the whole novella.

Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion is only 126 pages long, but V.S Naipual shows the humdrum of a middling man whose one burst of inspiration is just a blip in his life.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion by V.S. Naipaul, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing The Buzz on Professional Wrestling by Scott Keith.

The Buzz on Professional Wrestling by Scott Keith

Coming in at roughly 217 pages in an oversized format, The Buzz on Professional Wrestling was published just weeks before the 90s Wrestling Boom ended and began a slow declined thanks to the WWE monopoly. After spending a little time on “wrestling 101” and a “history of wrestling” (up to 1984), author Scott Keith then dedicated the rest of the book to look at pro wrestling from 1984—and the start of the WWF Golden Age—to sometime in 2000, covering both WWF (now WWE) and WCW through biographical sketches of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Sting, Steve Austin, Goldberg, and many others. The first time I read this book all the way back in 2001, I thought this book was pretty good, however after 20+ years during which I learned a lot more from other sources I can say this book is awful. There are a lot of issues from poor editing and basically lying about things people supposedly did, namely Hulk Hogan—who has done a lot of shady stuff in the business and in real life not covered in this book—who it turns out did not do everything Keith accused him of. Basically, this book was a cash grab in The Buzz on series to get in on the wrestling boom but given how bad it was written I’m happy that it was published just before the wrestling business cooled off and no one was interested anymore.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Buzz on Professional Wrestling by Scott Keith, feel free to comment here or there.

This is my last book of the year, look out for my 2024 Reading Thread.