Category: Books

  • Review: The Manga Guide to Calculus

    The Manga Guide to Calculus by Hiroyuki Kojima My rating: 3 of 5 stars While the book didn’t happen to explain calculus in the way I best understand it, I think it did do a pretty good job of explaining it. More importantly, I think the book does an excellent job of explaining why calculus…

  • Review: The Manga Guide to Electricity

    The Manga Guide to Electricity by Kazuhiro Fujitaki My rating: 3 of 5 stars I think it was a cute way to get across the basic principles that govern electricity. I’d recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the way electricity works. It works fine for adults, but if you have a kid…

  • Review: Constellation Games

    Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m in a sweet spot now where there are a lot of authors that seem to be about the same age as me give or take a decade. So I’m starting to see more and more references I can relate to. The main character…

  • Review: Uglies

    Uglies by Scott Westerfeld My rating: 4 of 5 stars I finally caught up with all the others on my feed and read this book. I don’t know if it was part of some book club or if it just spiraled as each person I follow recommended it to each other. This is another book…

  • Review: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

    Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the first time I’ve read this book. Until now I’d only read The Hitchhiker’s Guide series. It definitely has a different tone to it while still being a very British and funny book at its core. That might have…

  • Review: Tithe

    Tithe by Holly Black My rating: 3 of 5 stars Another book from that Humble Bundle that had a bunch of Simon and Schuster YA books. This book was OK. Not my cup of tea, but not bad. As I said in my status updates, Ms Black is pretty good at subverting my expectations. I’ll…

  • Review: The Three-Body Problem

    The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin My rating: 4 of 5 stars It has been very interesting reading this book. As someone who started reading SF in the 80s, I’ve read my share of American Cold War SF. But I’ve never read a full length Chinese SF novel. As I’ve often commented, what’s interesting with…

  • Review: A Dance with Dragons

    A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin My rating: 4 of 5 stars So, I’m done….I’m caught up. What a journey this has been. If one of the previous books was about the fallout from the War of Five Kings upon the smallfolk of Westeros, this book was about the fallout among the prominent…

  • Review: Super Mario Bros. 3

    Super Mario Bros. 3 by Alyse Knorr My rating: 4 of 5 stars Even though I’m older than the author of this book, I have a different, though similar, relationship with this game. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up or because my parents were (at the…

  • Review: Bleeding Violet

    Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves My rating: 4 of 5 stars I bought this book as part of a Humble Bundle. This book wasn’t the reason I bought the bundle. I avoided it for a long time because the cover made it look like something I wasn’t going to enjoy – perhaps a romance or…

  • Review: Arcanum 101: Welcome New Students

    Arcanum 101: Welcome New Students by Mercedes Lackey My rating: 3 of 5 stars I kept going back and forth between 2 stars and 3. I’d probably consider it 2.5 stars, but that’s not an option and I felt like giving the book the benefit of the doubt. I purchased the book as part of…

  • Review: A Feast for Crows

    A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin My rating: 4 of 5 stars The previous book was mostly about how the war had affected the common folk. While some of that is still present in this book, this time it’s mostly about how the aftermath of the war affects the noble folks. Mostly they’re…

  • Review: Star Wars: Dark Empire II

    Star Wars: Dark Empire II by Tom Veitch My rating: 3 of 5 stars The story had some fun elements like a steampunk Jedi with a steampunk spaceship. But overall, it was a flat sequel that undid a lot of what mattered in the previous story without doing much the advance that main story. That’s…

  • Review: Ansible

    Ansible by Stant Litore My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like Wool, a series of short stories that slowly reveal more and more if this world. It’s hard to say too much without ruining the beauty of this story. Let’s just say that it is much more terrifying than I thought it would be from…

  • Review: Boss Fight Games Bible Adventures

    Bible Adventures by Gabe Durham My rating: 4 of 5 stars It was interesting to read about this game from someone that had a similar upbringing and encountered it for the the first time at church, as did I. It was always a weird thing to exist, especially since I didn’t know at the time…