Category: Books

  • Review: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this short story collection about Maester Aemon’s brother when he was a squire for Sir Duncan the Tall. I think, perhaps, because these short stories didn’t have to do the heavy lifting for the main narrative…

  • Review: Dawnshard

    Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Disclaimer: I was a kickstarter on the campaign that provided an early copy of this novella a reward This was a great book. It is also fascinating in the sense that, as I was reading it I kept thinking that you could about 80% read…

  • Review: Bait

    Bait by Annie Nicholas My rating: 3 of 5 stars If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m not a huge romance person. This is my second romance, and coincidentally, also my second paranormal romance. But I’ve got acquired some romance books via giveaways, Humble Bundle, Story Bundle, and Amazon’s Kindle First…

  • Review: Little Women

    Little Women by Louisa May Alcott My rating: 3 of 5 stars Reading this book was very interesting. I don’t know what edition I happened to pick here, but the edition I read was a Barnes and Noble giveaway from years ago when I first got my Nook. As such, it had a nice, long…

  • Review: Thrilling Adventure Yarns

    Thrilling Adventure Yarns by Robert Greenberger My rating: 4 of 5 stars I participated in the Kickstarter for this anthology because of meeting Crazy 8 author Mary Fan at Farpoint. I’m quite glad I did because nearly all of these knocked it out of the park! And those that didn’t were still good stories that…

  • Review: Indian-ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family

    Indian-ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family by Priya Krishna My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s not quite as Indian as I’d hoped, but that’s not what it claimed to be. It actually is exactly as promised: an American-Indian fusion collection of recipes consisting mostly of recipes from the author’s mother. I…

  • Review: Ruby Wizardry: An Introduction to Programming for Kids

    Ruby Wizardry: An Introduction to Programming for Kids by Eric Weinstein My rating: 5 of 5 stars This year one of my goals was to learn a new programming language. Ruby is supposed to be pretty easy for beginners so I figured it’d probably end up being a snap for someone like me who’s been…

  • Review: The Jungle Book

    The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling My rating: 3 of 5 stars Like, I imagine, most Americans (or at least most Americans 40 and under – ie Millenials and Younger) my only exposure was to Disney’s The Jungle Book. I had no idea the original was a collection of short stories. I’d heard it was…

  • Review: The Gospel Reloaded

    The Gospel Reloaded by Seay Garrett My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was my second time reading this book. I got it back when I was getting a bunch of similar books – I have Gospel According to the Simpsons and Philosophy of Seinfeld books as well. For this particular one, I didn’t enjoy…

  • Review: Hippopotamister

    Hippopotamister by John Patrick Green My rating: 5 of 5 stars I interviewed John Patrick Green at Baltimore Comic-Con 3 years ago. You can watch it here! Although I liked the concept behind Hippopotamister, my oldest (the right age for it at the time) didn’t care for it. But now, one of my twins is…

  • Review: The Mongoliad: Book Three

    The Mongoliad: Book Three by Neal Stephenson My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book was a great cap to the long trilogy (although – put together I think it’s not longer than a Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive book). While the first third of the book continues to build things up, we’ve met just about…

  • Review: Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man

    Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man by Tim Allen My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is my second time reading this book. I first read this book in middle school because I really liked Home Improvement. Kind of reminds me of the joke Eddie Murphy tells in Delirious when he sees a…

  • Review: Spiced: Unlock the Power of Spices to Transform Your Cooking

    Spiced: Unlock the Power of Spices to Transform Your Cooking by America’s Test Kitchen My rating: 4 of 5 stars As usual for a book by America’s Test Kitchen, there’s a good combination of educational content and tasty recipes. I’ve already made a few recipes from this book, most recently the spiced ragu which had…

  • Review: Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 143

    Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 143 by Neil Clarke My rating: 2 of 5 stars This issue’s stories didn’t really work as well for me as the last few issues have. Thoughts per story: The veilonaut’s dream: explorers at a spatial discontinuity explore it for money. Partially a tale of exploitative labor and partly a tale of…

  • Review: InvestiGators

    InvestiGators by John Patrick Green My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read this to my four-year-olds and I found it to be a blast. Most of the word-play went over their heads. In fact, after finishing it with my four-year-olds, I recommended it to my 8-year-old. We’ll see what she thinks. This is definitely one…