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2020 in Books
This year continued last year’s trend of Sequels, Sanderson, and Science Fiction Magazines. Every series I mentioned last year was a series I continued reading this year – The Expanse, The Asylum Tales, Red Rising, The Dresden Files, The Mogoliad, Wild Cards, and the Illumination Paradox. (The only exception was Red Rising – I’m done…
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Review: Twinmaker
Twinmaker by Sean Williams My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I started out with this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. It seemed to lean a bit heavily on the young adult plot with the love triangle aspect and the whole wanting to be Internet famous subplot. But it…
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Review: The Color of Magic
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars Dropping the rating from 4 stars (original) to 3 stars (second time through). This is my second time reading through this book. First time was somewhere between 10-15 years ago. Going through it again, I realized just how much Mr. Pratchett improved…
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Review: Rhythm of War
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another masterwork by Brandon Sanderson in his Cosmere. I will say that, at times, some of the story seemed to drag, particularly character growth of the main characters. But not only is this made up by the incredible payoff at the end (I…
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Review: The Red Church
The Red Church by Scott Nicholson My rating: 2 of 5 stars I got this book as part of a Humble Bundle years ago. It was my first occult horror, unless you count Dean Koontz books, which – now that I think about it – seems to share at least some genre space with this…
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Review: Snow Crash
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the second time I’ve read this book. This first time was something around 20 years ago and it was definitely a 5-star book to me at the time. I’d never read anything like it. Reading it in 2020 is very interseting. Some…
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Review: Apex Magazine Promo Issue 2020
Apex Magazine Promo Issue 2020 by Jason Sizemore My rating: 4 of 5 stars A mini issue to get folks ready for the relaunch of Apex Magazine. I truly enjoyed the stories in here and I can’t wait until the next real issue in January. Below is what I thought of each story: The Legacy…
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Review: The Brisket Chronicles: How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure the World’s Most Versatile Cut of Meat
The Brisket Chronicles: How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure the World’s Most Versatile Cut of Meat by Steven Raichlen My rating: 3 of 5 stars When I first heard about this book, I was slightly skeptical. An entire book on brisket? Really? Isn’t it just (maybe) two ways? Dalmation rub and spicy rub. Maybe…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…