Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

This is the second Gideon Oliver mystery by Aaron Elkins. The dark place is the Olympic National Park in Washington, here the dense canopy hides the sun from most of the forest floor. A few bones in a basket are found by a hiker, and a large footprint is found nearby.

John Lau asks Gideon to provide whatever information he can determine. These are the bones of several people and dead by a number of years, it could be an indian burial site, but there are no Indians in the park. Another sign points to big foot, so the crazies are about.

The story is well-told and a good mystery, throw in a love interest with a park ranger and you have an enjoyable story.

My impression of this book seems to improve with age. Susan Cain presents a new perspective in introversion and its place in society. The book seems aimed at parents and teachers, but has enough information of general interest and value to be a good read for anyone interested in these aspects of psychology or sociology.

The book presents the strengths and weaknesses of both introversion and extroversion and why both are of value to society. I found the section on leadership styles and strengths and weaknesses very interesting. Susan continues to touch on why corporate America overvalues the extrovert and the value to business of the introvert and on the relationship between the two personality styles.

More of the book was directed more toward parents and teachers dealing with introverted children than I liked, or I would have rated the book much better. These sections were still interesting, but much less relevant.

This book is a good read for anyone, but it could have been better.

These puzzles are way too easy. You get used to them pretty quickly.

The puzzles are only based on addition and subtraction, and no larger than 5×5. The last dozen puzzles seemed easier than early ones, i don’t think they were organized well. And they didn’t get challenging enough once you learn the techniques.

The book, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, proposes that writing fiction can be broken into six basic skills, dubbed by the author as the SIx Core Competencies. Most of the reviews seemed very favorable, and it seemed like it would be a good read.

The first section, about 30 pages plus introduction, made me feel like the whole thing was a sales pitch. The author dropped the subject of his workshops several times. I was encouraged to continue only by the previous reviews I had read. He mentions the “Six Core Competencies” so often, it felt like he was trying to artificially make it into a catch-phrase associated with his name.

The Six Core Competencies, always capitalized, each had a section of several chapters devoted to it. Several of these sections had no meat to them. He talked around the subject, discussing its importance, but not providing any engineering techniques.

As all of the previous reviews suggested, his section on characterization was strong, and it was the strength of the book. He did provide good information no building characters and weaving them into the story in the proper sequence. However, I don’t think he offered enough that wasn’t available in other books with better information.

I found the sections on structure and scenes also interesting and informative. In my own opinion, the structure was better and more valuable than the character sections. But he did provide good information in all three of these sections.

Overall, I don’t feel the book is bad, but it does feel overblown. It is a good primer into story design, and if it were presented that way, I would rate it better. If you want or need solid information on any of his competencies, I believe you should find them elsewhere. The book, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, proposes that writing fiction can be broken into six basic skills, dubbed by the author as the SIx Core Competencies. Most of the reviews seemed very favorable, and it seemed like it would be a good read.

The first section, about 30 pages plus introduction, made me feel like the whole thing was a sales pitch. The author dropped the subject of his workshops several times. I was encouraged to continue only by the previous reviews I had read. He mentions the “Six Core Competencies” so often, it felt like he was trying to artificially make it into a catch-phrase associated with his name.

The Six Core Competencies, always capitalized, each had a section of several chapters devoted to it. Several of these sections had no meat to them. He talked around the subject, discussing its importance, but not providing any engineering techniques.

As all of the previous reviews suggested, his section on characterization was strong, and it was the strength of the book. He did provide good information no building characters and weaving them into the story in the proper sequence. However, I don’t think he offered enough that wasn’t available in other books with better information.

I found the sections on structure and scenes also interesting and informative. In my own opinion, the structure was better and more valuable than the character sections. But he did provide good information in all three of these sections.

Overall, I don’t feel the book is bad, but it does feel overblown. It is a good primer into story design, and if it were presented that way, I would rate it better. If you want or need solid information on any of his competencies, I believe you should find them elsewhere.

You can recognize a good philosophy book, you know them. They have an 8-point font and every other paragraph runs on for at least 2 pages. Until now.

THe Popular Culture and Philosophy series changes that. With Star Trek and Philosophy, several philosophers use the Star Trek universe to explore different topics in philosophy. They make great use of different facets of the numerous series and movies to discuss philosophical points.

For instance, Professor Harald Thorsrud discusses stoicism comparing it to Vulcan philosophies. He makes good use of the series, with a few dialog excerpts to drive points. Other topics include ethics of bioengineering, aspects of religion, the nature of time, and Lyotard’s theory of the Differend, among many other topics.

The book offers good breadth with narrow depth, but provides enough depth in its choice of topics to give you a good taste of the subject. The book is light, yet full of information that is easy to digest. Any fan of Star Trek with at least a passing interest in philosophy should consider it for reading.