Reviews and Comments

I loved Jurassic Park so I wanted to read Crichton's OG novel. I liked it but not nearly as much as Jurassic Park. I have a queasy stomach when it comes to descriptions about blood, and there was a lot of that in this book. If you want to read it, I recommend dead tree rather than audiobook. Other editions might be better, but the one I listened to there were minutes and minutes of the narrator painstakingly reading tables that I would have just skimmed over if I was actually reading it.

It's a 1960s near-future sci-fi thriller. The story comes down to a satellite falling form space onto a small Arizona town, and everyone in the town dying because of some space germs that were on it. The rest of the book goes into trying to figure it out, how to contain it, whether or not to just send a small nuke to Arizona to stop it from spreading further, etc.

Still only in part one, but already doesn't feel as good as the first one.

I'm not really quite sure what I thought this book was going to be. The intorduction was really good and I think is closer to what I was expecting, more of a story/history about Yiddish in the U.S. He speaks of how most linguists harrumph at the use of Yiddish in the States as an accent to the primary language, and with most Jews now living in either the U.S. or Isreal (where Hebrew, not Yiddish, is the default tongue) Yiddish as a language is dying. But the author thinks the way it has worked its way into the general lexicon is actually great. After the intro it becomes, more-or-less, a dictionary of Yiddish words that are heard in American (what the author calls Ameridish or Yinglish) and what they mean, occasionally with a history of its use, either in the old world or the new, and often with a story, that claims to be numerous, about its use. Very dry, not that funny. Eventually I stopped reading each one and just skimmed ahead to words I've actually used or heard others use.

I wanted to read this book for a long time. It sounds awesome, a kid born right at midnight as newly partitioned India officially is declared independent of Britian, and he eventually learns he has magic abilities that include the ability to communicate telepathically with all other kids that were born in the first hour since the country's birth. returnreturnIt, however, is not good. I find nothing redeeming about this story. Nothing happens in the entire first section of the book, to the point the protagonist's wife even goes about interrupting the story asking him to get to the good part. It's kind of meta, but not in the fun way. When we got to section II it kept feeling like it was just about to get good, just enough to keep my reading. Yet, nothing ever came interesting. I read some 400 pages before I gave up on it.

I think this is one of those books that is going to take me a while to see if I actually liked it or not, depending on how well I remember its lessons, and how useful it is to implement them. It took me two months to get through a 223-page book, not a good sign in and of itself. returnreturnThere feels like a lot good here, emphasizing not punishment, but boundaries with consequences. We don't need to yell at our kids, we don't need to make them feel bad. Kids are responsible for their own fun. Kids are NOT responsible for their parents' feelings, etc. Parents are responsible for setting boundaries and sticking to them. It is better not to have a boundary at all than to have a wishy-washy one that sometimes has consequences and sometimes doesn't. returnreturnAt times I felt it was a bit too harsh. For example, I think assumptions that entitlement is always bad sets one up for a life to be made a doormat. Claims that someone feels they have earned what their boss has, or being "envious of the upper class" is someone being a classist themselves. Why do they only call it class warfare when we fight back? I also didn't like their referral too frequently to "real life" as if the life of young people is somehow fake. They also seem to make some harsh assumptions that childhood always ends the day they turn 18. While many lessons are universal there was no reference to homeschooling and seemed to assume your kids go to public school.

Most movies based on books are not as good as the book. This is why I usually recommend watching the movie first so that you can enjoy both of them. I have no idea how many times I have seen the 1978 animated film released by the Australian wing of Hanna-Barbara. It was a childhood favorite and I have grown to share it with my own kids, who were less than impressed. Perhaps it was just the shear number of times that ingrained its version such that listening to the original tale seemed lacking. I kept waiting for parts of the story that never actually came up, whether they were completely made up for the movie (if you can even call a 48 minute VHS tape a movie) or were combinations of a number of the stories from the book into one separate story, to the point that I don't think I actually gave the proper chance to enjoy the expanded narrative this audio-book presented. Also what the book usually called the "check reign" the movie called the "bearing reign."returnreturnMy own weird history aside the book is good. A 19th century story of "the autobiography of a horse" the story of one of England's finest ponies told from his first-person perspective from colt-hood to near end of his life, nearly 15 years over the course of 5 audio discs. Each chapter was a more-or-less stand alone story, which would make it great for a few weeks of bed time stories to kids, probably ages 7 and up. returnreturnBlack Beauty is famous for being a tale of animal welfare that inspired English kids to seek out better treatment of their parents' horses. It also was a story promoting teatoling and care of the working-class, particularly England's horse-drawn cab drivers. returnreturnAll-in-all I recommend it, but maybe read the book first this time. 🤷‍♀️

A fantastic tale of Mister Rogers. I figured it would probably be a fluff piece about how we should be kind to each other and not preach religion. I was glad to learn I was wrong. Amy Hollingsworth is a preacher's wife, raised Catholic, but her husband is a Protestant (Pentacostal I think but I haven't been able to confirm that) pastor. returnreturnMister Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. His parents assumed he'd go to seminary, so he did, but was called by God to children's television and not the pulpit. He tried to the get the American Presbyterian Church to ordain him a pastor without a parish and assign him to children's television, possibly producing content for the denomination's Sunday Schools, but they did not. Eventually he did finish his studies whilst working on Mister Rogers Neighborhood, but he never did pastor a congregation. returnreturnI really appreciated how Fred Rogers was able to over the course of like three years of correspondence with Hollingsworth really show love to her and really introduce Christ to her in a way that even a Cradle Catholic Preacher's wife hadn't known. returnreturnI've heard the story of seeing people hit in the face with pies on T.V. leading Fred to feel he had to get involved to ensure such a powerful medium was used for betterment of humankind, and not such demeaningness. However I was most touched by his description of the Holy Spirit working between the T.V. and the television neighbor to comfort them and tell them exactly what they needed to hear. More than once, he described a way a viewer, kid or parent, described how when he said such-and-such on such-and-such episode and how it changed their life, yet he wouldn't remember ever having said that, and went back and verified it was never in the script, but God found a way regardless. returnreturnI highly recommend this book, particularly to believers in a time when many in The West are lost, both in and out of the Church.

Taking Wing wasn't the best Star Trek book out there. returnreturnIf you want to read this I highly recommend rewatching Star Trek Nemesis. So much of what goes on in this story is related to that practically immediate predator in the Star Trek universe. The book focuses on the beginning of Riker's next part of his life journey after TNG as the captain of a new starship Titan. Much of the story is focused on his relation ship with one Admiral Akaar and his judgment of Riker's new role with more than one person upset that he made his wife part of the senior officers. returnreturnI didn't realize how much say a Star Fleet captain gets a say in the makeup of his crew, but there was much emphasis about Titan, at Rikers' request, having the most diverse crew in star fleet history. About 30 character are brand new to the universe, and many of them belong too species never seen before on T.V., such as the ships surgeon Ree, a Pahkwa-thanh, who basically looks like a dinosaur, a raptor who eats raw meat only. It's a little hard to keep track of. Certainly not enough to be meaningful for this story. I know its the start of a new series but a good book should be well enough to stand on its own. returnreturnThe beginning is pretty good, and the ending is very good, but the middle is a real drag. The intricoes of Romulan politics isn't for everyone. If there was an easy way to get you to skip it I'd recommend. returnStill it's enough for me to put the next book in my library book queue. returnLets hope for more in Titan #2.

This book was pretty good, but one thing it is not is Juvenile fiction: sex, murder, adultery,orgy, i don't want to expose my young adult to any of that. Thankfully it wasn't too graphic, though the description of the Tsar's sons hemophilia was more than enough to make me queasy and put the book down more than once.returnreturnThe first part is told like a fairy tale, I'm usually not too big on symbolism, to the point I argued with my hush school English teacher that it didn't exist. Regardless it's quite clear the bear is the Russian people and vlad and Leo are Trotsky and Lenin.returnreturnI almost thought that part was actually more interesting than the actual historical fiction part with English author Arthur Ransom and his Russian mistress. I was surprised that Ransom returned to England to be with his daughter for a time after the fairy tale told of the foreigner with the briefcase having Russian air in his lungs for the rest of his life.returnreturnI still don't understand why he wanted to leave his wife Ivy, and I couldn't imagine my wife making my life so miserable that I would be willing to live thousands of miles from my daughter.returnreturnAll in all it was a nice quick read before bed a few nights and I would be willing to pick up a couple of the real Ransom's books.returnreturnI was disappointed in how little of the actual October revolution there was in almost 300 pages.

I went into listening to this audio-book not really knowing a lot about it save its title and that it was popular enough to have been made into a movie. returnreturnThis is not really a science fiction book at all, even though the title would lead you to believe. The Time Travel of the title is no Jules Verne character but a 21st century heart throb who has some kind of disease that forces him into other points in time without his ability to anything about. He can't take anything with him, so he always shows up naked, so he spends most of his time running and trying to find clothes. Somehow one of those naked adventures was to meet a 7 year old girl who would end up being his wife. returnreturnAt the beginning they author made it very clear that there are no multiverses, there is no possibility of screwing up the past or the future, stuff just happens. returnreturnThe worst part of it, however, is the overly descriptive passages about dead babies. Clair and Henry loose something like 5 different kids, eventually learning that they are time traveling out of Clair's womb without the needed connection to mom to survive. This is the main reason it took me months to finish it, because I kept having to turn it off due to how nauseated it made my stomach. returnreturnI liked the audio-book included two different narrators depending on whether the chapter was told from Henry or Clair's perspective.

I have read dozens of Heinlein's books and have like most of them. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most well known works and yet I'm just reading it now. I had put it off in part because the first few pages are pretty dry so when I picked it up in the library years ago, i put it right back. Secondly some of the stuff I had heard/read of it didn't sound great, sentient computers, line marriages and the like. But it was so much more than that. returnreturnThe story of the luna prison planet revolution and declaring their independence certainly used much of the language and imagery from the American revolution, including choosing the 4th of July as the date of their declaration, butt there is much more wound up. There are images from the Russian and French revolutions as well and this mid 21st century moon has more history in common with Australia than any other single Terran nation. returnreturnThe fact I read this during the height of the Isreal-Palestinian war of the 2020s and the #NoKings movement probably heightened my feelings at the time that revolution was inevitable, and I needed to leave my part of the world and find where I could be part of history. Thankfully my friend talked me off that cliff. Gravity is not in our favor and we have no rocks to throw. returnreturnLike any revolution the story has both the fighters/doers and the board room antagonizes. If you are looking for an action-adventure story this might have too much of the latter for you. I loved both. Radical ideas of how to select representatives I particularly enjoyed. returnreturnThat "sentient computer" was pretty much just AI that had been properly queried to plan a revolution told in 1960s computer jargon. It also was trying to get enough data to determine what was funny. Even in our protagonist thought Comrade Mike was his best friend. returnreturnI also felt that Lloyd James narration of the audio book was amazing.