Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review will contain spoilers for The Expanse book series, but not this book.

When we last left the universe of The Expanse, the good guys appeared to have won, except for the ship the rebels had sent into one of the gates. It was implied (or maybe outright stated, I can’t remember) that they were working on tech related to the protomolecule to use as a weapon for the rebels. Or maybe they were pretending to do so because there’s no honor among thieves.

All That Outer Space Allows by Ian Sales

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It’s very interesting to be reading this (well, listening as an audiobook) at the same time as The Calculating Stars as both of them tackle women’s issues, the Baby Boomer Era America, and space travel. But whereas I’m really enjoying The Calculating Stars, I really did not like this book.

Skipped Parts by Tim Sandlin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Supposedly (according to the cover on the version I selected on Goodreads) this was made into a movie. I found this so incredulous that I looked it up on IMDB. Apparently it was made in 2000 and is rated R so MAYBE there’s hope it actually comes close to this book. There are parts of this story that hinge on the main characters (especially the kids) saying “fuck you” to someone and there’s some very young kids fooling around. But Sandlin also wrote the screenplay so maybe it’s as close to the book as he wanted.

Riley Parra Season One by Geonn Cannon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It seems every year I’ve been reading a book about a detective working in our world, if our world was an urban fantasy. The last two I’ve read Dead Witch Walking and Neon Noir: A Delilah Street Paranormal Investigator Anthology were in an alternate Earth where it was known that there were supernatural beings. This book is more like Buffy in that a couple folks know that the supernatural - Angels and Demons in this case - are real. Otherwise it’s more or less a normal world. Although, unlike Buffy, God’s side actually has something to do rather than sit by as demons just run things.

Churrasco: Grilling the Brazilian Way by Evandro Caregnato

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book starts off with a biography of the author, one of the founders of the Texas de Brazil restaurant chain. It then gives a brief history of where Churrasco came from in Brazil. After a primer on the tools and cuts of beef they get to the recipes. Interestingly, there are a decent amount of non-grilling recipes in here.

Then Will The Great Ocean Wash Deep Above by Ian Sales

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I don’t usually say this because I can understand people having different opinions about fiction, but I’m baffled by the higher scores on this book. The first two in this quartet had a conventional plot; even if the stories were mostly about the journey with just a little twist tacked onto the end. But on this one I didn’t even understand how the two stories fit together. The book provides a history less at the end so we understand in which way Mr. Sales different from our timeline, but I almost feel the fact that this one hewed so close to reality that he had to do that was a failure compared to the other two books. Oh well, we’ll see what happens with the fourth one.

White Sand, Volume 2 by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As per usual, the second volume in a trilogy keeps setting things up without any resolution. The same applies here. That said, I do like the forward momentum in Kenton and Kris’ respective stories. While it is nice to see an illustrated version of Mr. Sanderson’s work, I can’t help wishing this were just a prose novel. There’s so much detail that I know we’re not getting because comics are a “show, don’t tell” medium. Still, the story’s kind of neat and it’s fun to see a new magic system. Interestingly, Kenton helps someone named Trell and I could have sworn that’s the name we’ve heard about in Mistborn Era 2? Clearly this story takes place before Mistborn Era 2 because we know that Kris has been exiled from her planet and we know that she’s on Scadrial around the time of Mistborn Era 1 books 2 and 3. So maybe this Trell ends up on Scadrial somehow? Or maybe (and this is rare for Sanderson) it’s just reuse of a name that has nothing to do with it.

The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself by Ian Sales

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is definitely one of those stories that’s more about the journey than the destination. I was wondering the entire time what the point of the story was going to be. It literally took place en route somewhere and in flashbacks. Overall an OK story with a heck of a twist at the end. Felt very pulp science fiction. It appears the four short stories (of which this is the second) don’t have anything in common other than the first story introduced the idea of alternate timelines and so each is in a different NASA timeline. (Which actually reminds me somewhat of Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 1: Science. Bad.)

The South’s Best Butts: Pitmaster Secrets for Southern Barbecue Perfection by Matt Moore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I gave this book a three, but it’s really more of a 3.5 rating. The stories of all the pitmasters that Matt Moore interviews are a 4. They really bring to bear the diverse people who work the pits to make BBQ throughout the south. The recipes are a 3 as compared to the recipes Steve Raichlen, America’s Test Kitchen, or Meathead provide.

Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming: Build robust and maintainable software with object-oriented design patterns in Python 3.8, 3rd Edition by Dusty Phillips

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve rarely done object-oriented programming in Pytnon and haven’t done any serious OOP since undergrad, nearly 20 years ago (and in Java). i found this book to be very well written and a good way to become an expert in the Python way of doing OOP. I discovered new and more efficient ways to write functions I’ve been writing that should allow me to have more easily maintainable code.