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Review: Ready Player One
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline My rating: 2 of 5 stars When it comes to my experience of this book, there are a few things that marred my enjoyment. When I first heard of it and didn’t know all the info about it I did by the time I actually read it, it sounded…
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Review: The Witch of Portobello
The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho My rating: 4 of 5 stars I like to avoid spoilers wherever possible, I even stay away from reviews and trailers for most movies and books. But in the last few years I’ve come to the conclusion that (with the exception of detective stories and murder mysteries) if…
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Review: The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories
The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories by A.C. Wise My rating: 4 of 5 stars I got this book in Storybundle’s LGBT+ Bundle and the title and description of this book are what got me to pick up the entire bundle. I didn’t even realize I already knew A.C. Wise’s work from its appearance…
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Podcasts I’m Listening to in 2018
I’ve both added and dropped some podcasts since last time around. Where I’m listing the same podcast as last year I may use the same description as in the past with slight (or no) variation. Public Radio Radiolab – Heard about them because sometimes their stories are used on This American Life. Radiolab is a…
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Review: Wild Cards
Wild Cards by George R.R. Martin My rating: 4 of 5 stars With anthologies, I *usually* just present the status updates I made while reading, sometimes with some modifications since there are character limits on the updates. However, Wild Cards is a bit different. Like the Machine of Death anthology that Dan gave me, Wild…
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Perfect Blue
I used to hate Hunger Games because I considered it to be yet another example of America getting credit, fame, etc from another culture’s work; Battle Royale in this case. Eventually, I got the Hunger Games Trilogy from a Humble Bundle and read it, realizing that while the plots were the same in the abstract…
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Review: Elantris, Part 3 of 3
Elantris, Part 3 of 3 by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well, I’m done. That is one heckuva first-time novel for an author. I have a feeling this Sanderson kid is going places. Joking aside, it was a well-done novel that leaves the world open for a slew of books in the…
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Review: Battle Royale Slam Book: Essays on the Cult Classic by Koushun Takami
Battle Royale Slam Book: Essays on the Cult Classic by Koushun Takami by Nick Mamatas My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s been over a decade since I read Battle Royale. It was a book that amazed me with its emotional resonance. It was the first book that ever made me tear up with the…
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Review: Elantris, Part 1 of 3
Elantris, Part 1 of 3 by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is one of Sanderson’s earlier books and it’s exploring similar themes as Warbreaker, so while I’m enjoying it, it’s definitely not as good to me so far. What does it share with Warbreaker? The idea of divinity on Earth vs…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 by John Tiffany My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’d like to start off by addressing the big thing I’ve noticed with this story – while it has 3.5ish stars on Goodreads, a quick scroll through the reviews reveals that’s mostly the average of 1…
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Review: Lightspeed Magazine, March 2013
Lightspeed Magazine, March 2013 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars Got this as part of a Humble Bundle in 2015, I think. Finally got around to it. There were some really great and moving stories in here. As usual with anthologies, a collection of my status updates: “Things Undone” (Novella) –…
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Review: Whiskey and Water
Whiskey and Water by Elizabeth Bear My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book was hard to read. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely hard. Goodreads says it’s the second book of this series and it probably is (the info is populated by GR people who volunteer to be librarians and is sometimes wrong).…
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Review: Black Mercury
Black Mercury by Charlotte E. English My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book started off seeming as though it would be some sort of Victorian, Steampunk Speed Racer. But that turned out to just be a red herring to introduce us to the characters and set up some of the conflicts. I also thought…
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Review: Tampa: A Novel
Tampa: A Novel by Alissa Nutting My rating: 3 of 5 stars I am too young to have experienced it first-hand, but for a minute there in the 70s pornography went mainstream. Everyone was talking about it. It was “in” to see it. Regular theaters (as opposed to shady sex theaters) were showing movies like…
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Review: The Emperor’s Agent
The Emperor’s Agent by Jo Graham My rating: 3 of 5 stars And so my first book of 2017 is done, although it’s a bit of a cheat as I started it at the end of 2016. I purchased this book as part of a book bundle – I think it was on StoryBundle.com. The…