Reviews and Comments

Star Wars Crucible was the last in the legends series before Disney came in and ruined everything. [return][return]As always for the Star Wars audiobooks the audio-phonic story telling was amazing. [return][return]The story felt a bit rushed, I think they could have done multiple books here. [return][return]Grand Master Luke heads off to help Hann and Leia when they haven't been heard from,and he hopes to hear from his son Ben Skywalker. [return][return]Hann plays a lot of Sabacc, and I kept wondering if anyone actually made a game for sale. An internet search leads me to believe several have. Denning has a way of telling of the love Hann has for Leia in a way that just makes my heart weep. [return][return]Much of the later part of the book takes place in this sort of reverse force black whole that had some...interesting subplots built into its existence. [return][return]All and all it is an ending to the Legends series, and it actually does sort of give an actual ending, though not the one the story leads you to think you'll get. It does seem a bit rushed, but I don't think the authors were actually ready to end it, but had been instructed to by the media giants associated, so they did the best they could. [return][return]Crucible isn't officially part of any other Legends series, so in theory you could read it on its own, you certainly don't have to have head everything leading up to it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it all on its own.

This book was well written, but it wasn't entirely believable. A 13th century female sarisan doctor to the dead is called to England to investigate the deaths of a number of children accused of being murdered by Jews.

Follows all the usual twists and turns of an episode of CSI.

The author seems to have an incredibly heretical view of the Church seemingly accusing every single priest and religious as being sexual deviants.

In addition, there is an unnecessarily graphic description of intercourse during the final chapters.

If I hadn't already purchased the sequel, I probably wouldn't bother reading it.

I have no idea why I thought I would like this audio book. [return][return]Totally awful far right-wing nationalist "adventure" in the heart of the war on terror

Bauer does a great job at keeping me wanting to turn the page. The transitions from one character's perspective to another are fantastically good. I'm always amazed how much a good author can do with just a double line break. These transitions would often start using pronouns without identify the talker allow the image to slowly fade in. While normally I would hate have such uncouth representation, Bauer does it in a way that it just felt right. [return][return]Survival of the fittest results around a mission between the SGC and a team of US Marines. O'Neil thinks he may have to retire when a training mission would have seen his team pass. Even showing the other side cheated isn't enough, because O'Neil feels in battle the enemy never plays by the rules. [return][return]How they cheated is even more disheartening than you could ever imagine. Simmons won't let the USAF run the SGC, and wants some NID to control even if it means signing a deal with the devil herself. [return][return]The only sub plot I didn't quite feel was necessary was Hammond having to run all over the USA eventually being saved by our disgraced Cornel. Also I don't quite get how Bra'tec just happens to have shown up just when he was needed to.

This is much more a reference book than one that is meant to be read cover to cover. My reading relates its value as a book I read cover to cover. As an American most of what I know of indulgences is related to the stories of Martin Luther and the malpractices he noted prior to starting the Protestant Reformation. It's good to some examples of modern day indulgences. I had known that they weren't gone as many have been taught and that nothing in the book has anything to so with money. I may try to get a copy to keep as reference only.

I have many books by Libertarians. I heard of this one and just had to add it to my queue. [return][return]Hospers was the first ever POTUS candidate for the Libertarian Party nominated in 1972. As of 2017 he is still the only of our nominees to have received an electoral college vote. But this book was going to be different it wasn't about pie-in-the-sky ideologies, nor solutions for communicating, or nuts-and-bolts politics. Nope this is a scholarly work on art. [return][return]And boy, I can tell you why folks thought he was gay. [return][return]I had hoped for some extensively trip. An LSD laddened libertarian adventure into finding meaning in art. All I got was a bunch of pie-in-the-sky scholarly nose-in-the-air crap about how we know art has value even though it doesn't meet the subjective value test for most folks. [return][return]It is a yawn for anyone who dosn't have a PhD in Art.

The book was a great collection of articles from a radical libertarian perspective. Thought provoking and somewhat controversial (a pretty good argument, that I don't know if I agree with, arguing that libertarianism is actually the truest form of socialism is one such example). I totally intend on purchasing a hard cover copy for reference, even though the entire text is available free of charge on the Internet. Especially good is the final chapter on the environment. This is something that Libertarian environmentalists frequently struggle with, and I think many good solutions are presented, and beyond the cliche "the market will handle it" and "property rights will save the environment" [return][return]However, as I "read" the audio book, as with all audio books I have downloaded for free, they are worth what you pay for them. Reading the citations in line makes it nearly impossible to listen to at times, in addition the reader's voice is incredibly annoying. Its like listening to Charlie Brown's teacher read great literature. Its good, but it would be so much better if someone else did it.

This book was pretty alright. I read it primarily because I have a friend of mine who is considering joining the Church, but is turned off by the idea of an official structure. As such I was going to recommend this book, but figured I should read it first, and it went to the front of my library book queue, usually a book waits 2-3 years from when I hear of it to when it gets read. Hierarchy has never been a problem for me. I've always appreciated formalized organizations and structures, leaders, even rulers. I guess that's why I'm not an anarchist. [return][return]Anyway, this book is focused primarily at those already in the Church, and the growing (at least in the 1980s) anti-papal movement among st Catholics. Very heavy with the Pope and not so much Bishops and Cardinals and the like. Its certainly not an evangelization tool; its very heavy in deep theology. I don't know if I'd recommend it to my friend or not I suppose I'll eave this here and let him make his own decision. [return][return]The first half of the book is very dry. Fr. Balthasar is a Jesuit and his commitment his orders peculiarities are shown. It goes through and highlights many of the problems that the papacy has had in the past, and Blathasar argues that they were needed to get where we are, even if not good in and of themselves. [return][return]It gets more interesting in the second half or final third of the book. Blathasar brings up time and again how the strength of the power of the organized structural Church allowed her to stand up against the State, when other churches and religions faltered with the rulers. That only through such structure was it possible to have maintained largely unchanged for 2,000 years. [return][return]There were lots and lots of foot notes and references. Since this was a library book I did not have time to check any of them, or even ready nearly any, due dates you know. If it owned the book I would have taken that time and likely would have enjoyed it more. Then again I didn't enjoy it enough to purchase my own copy at this time.

I had wanted to read this book written by the owner of the St. Paul Saints for quite some time. When I found it on audio book I couldn't pass it up. [return][return]This book was more amazing than I had hoped for. It is not just on the Saints but really about how to apply the same attitude that makes the St. Paul Saints the best entertainment dollar in the Twin Cities (even though they compete against superior products like the Minnesota Twins, and the Minnesota Wild) to YOUR work place. [return][return]Frequently I will recommend books I liked to friends/family, rarely I will go as far to purchase it myself. This one was so good that I actually purchased another copy of the audio book before I even finished it. [return][return]Its not just a self-help book either. It truly is great art. I argue that great art is that which provokes an emotional response, and this audio book had me laughing, and crying, more times than anything I have ever heard. [return][return]I just hope I can find the courage to make "Fun is Good" in my workplace, or find another if its rejected here.

The fifth book in the Mash series (the third Ghostwritten by Butterworth) is not as good as its predecessors. I now see what the Wikipedia editors claimed that the Butterworth stories are written primarily with a deadline in mind and have no character development or real plot. [return][return]Either way, still pretty funny. The whole "wait we had sex, wait no we didn't" routine was pretty enjoyable. [return][return]The humerou way that "woody" goes from being a clutz in the royal navy to the Duke is interesting, but again the story stops as soon as it gets going because a page limit is reached.

This book was quite interesting. It was written by some French folks, who like stereotypical Frenchies feel that the way they do things is the obvioius right way and everything else is wrong.

They guy over a brief history of smoking (that smoking was popular amongst white folks long before white folks discovered Tobacco, and that even Tobacco was popular in Asia before Europe). They went over how the government changed the tobacco industry in France, how different pipes are made, and how to care for yours, and why every pipe smoker NEEDS to smoke a pipe. It was interesting reading this from a 1950s perspective as well, arguments about whether or not Tobacco is bad for you, practically no references to plastic what's ever, including how to make your own tobacco pouch out of an inner tube.

REally makes me want to try some new things with my pipe, though not as much with the Tobacco as I had hoped. I think I would also be very interested in a similar title written in the 21st century.

This audio book was longer than it needed to be. I almost quit after the first 2 disc because she wasn't saying anything interesting/new/different.

However eventually she did get to the point about how much racism there is even in folks that don't think they are racists, including blacks themselves. One example being a video game where folks needed to quickly identify thugs with guns vs. bystanders with other items, and it was like 9/10 times that a black person was the one shot incorrectly and 3/10 white folks which should have been shot where not. [return][return]It is very evident that Micheele Alexander is a black Democrat writing for black Democrats. As such I'm not sure how to judge her end use. If what she missed was based on her target audience, or actually failures of her writing. [return][return]She did make the correlation between poverty and incarceration, beyond race. She did note that in the "age of colorblindness" the only way the overtly racists can act is via the state. That individual racism is not tolerated. She did not make the conclusion that a free market would solve these problems, heck she didn't even go as far as to ask for a legalization of drugs. [return][return]All in all I think Alexander has a ways to go with her personal development of political philosophy. To an extent it challenged some of my preconceived notions, but not enough to truly make a difference. It's still politicians looking for a way to exert power.

It's not so much a book one "starts reading" but a daily practice that I have resume.

When I got this I thought it was going to be about diversity within Christianity, but in fact it's about all religions. This should be interesting.