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.

February 10, 2016

Barefoot Walking by Michael Sandler

Filed under: health and fitness,self-help — Tags: — Randolph @ 11:11 am

Barefoot Walking by Michael Sandler

I was sorely disappointed in this book. Having foot problems, I was hoping for some insights and guidance. The author’s lack of scientific statistical understanding left me wondering what else he might not understand.

For instance, he repeatedly, through anecdote, discusses the advantage of barefoot walking over a sedentary lifestyle. However, he never shows that going barefoot is better than wearing shoes.

He also seems to believe that the ground in electronic devices means there is a wire the is connected to the earth.

The book is more spiritual than it is a solid medical guide. He has some good motivational text and a lot of advice. A lot of this can be validated though other sources. But given the weak buildup of his arguments, I wouldn’t have faith in his advice without backing it up in other sources. So not using this text seems to be a reasonable approach.

If you want the motivation or enjoy the spiritual aspects of the book, it may provide some value for you.

February 9, 2016

The Constant Art of Being a Writer: The Life, Art and Business of Fiction by N. M. Kelby

Filed under: Art,Writing — Tags: — Randolph @ 11:09 am

The Constant Art of Being a Writer: The Life, Art and Business of Fiction by N. M. Kelby

The author, N. M. Kelby, has experience both as a publisher and an author, she is providing her insights and experience to the novice author. This book give the reader a solid foundation of, what I presume are, all the steps toward publishing and selling a book.

The book starts with developing discipline, good writing habits and finding support. It continues through writing, editing, finding an agent, finding a publisher or self-publishing, selling, touring, and even estate planning. If you haven’t actually published a book, this will help you work through steps you haven’t even considered.

The book is an easy read and well-organized. It takes you though the steps pretty much in order of how you will encounter them with lots of advice and tips on the way. She provides lots of URLs for online support, both in writing and editing groups, to authors’ anecdotes of bad experiences.

Even for the non-author, it is interesting and will give you a real appreciation for what these guys go through.

January 28, 2016

Death Dance: A Novel by Linda Fairstein

Filed under: Mystery,Series — Tags: — Randolph @ 10:14 am

Death Dance: A Novel by Linda Fairstein

This is another in the series of Alexandra Cooper. She is investigating the apparent suicide of a ballerina at the NY Met. Unfortunately, she isn’t someone the reader cares about, nor are the incidental characters. Most are flat and uninteresting, although there is some interest in a few of the interactions.

The book opened with a drug-rape scene and its ensuing courtroom actions. The judge was a mysogenist, although way over the top. He was too extreme to be believable as a character. Although probably within the realm of reality, he was too much for a book. This plot line was more interesting and more appropriate for Alexandra. Unfortunately it was a subplot and happened in the background and was resolved without much interest.

Overall the story felt flat. It wasn’t a bad mystery, but just barely held my interest.

January 17, 2016

Moscow Rules (Gabriel Allon) by Daniel Silva

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Randolph @ 8:28 am

Moscow Rules (Gabriel Allon) by Daniel Silva

Gabriel is on his honeymoon, when a Russian journalist insists on meeting with him. Gabriel reluctantly accepts the invitation, but when the man is killed before the meeting, Gabriel is drawn into a mystery involving a very powerful weapons dealer with dangerous plans.

Gabriel’s art plays a bigger role than in some of the stories, it has always felt it should be a bigger part of this stories, so this was refreshing.

This is a very well-told story with a lot of intensely interesting characters. The story has a good pace and will keep the reader involved.

January 12, 2016

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

Filed under: Mystery,Series — Tags: , — Randolph @ 5:24 pm

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

This is book 13 of the Mary Russel stories of Sherlock Holmes. This book is more a cultural story of Japan and Japanese culture in the 1920s than a true mystery, I’m not sure there’s enough information for the reader to solve the puzzle.

The story opens on a cruise from India to Japan. Sherlock cannot relax and enjoy the trip, he finds questions to ponder, a suspicious English lord and an odd acrobat are part of a growing mystery that involves royalty and extortion.

The Japanese culture is exposed through two unusual characters. They become closely intertwined in the mystery for most of the book. They present a cultural experience that seems extreme, but can be forgiven due to the nature of these characters.

One of the books minor themes are haiku by Basho. Each chapter begins with a haiku, presumably in the style of Basho. The haiku does relate to events in the chapter and can provide additional meaning. They are well worth reading for content.

Overall, the book has good pacing and is interesting enough to keep the reader involved. Laurie King does not disappoint her audience.

January 3, 2016

Batman: Gothic by Grant Morrison

Filed under: Fantasy — Randolph @ 5:03 pm

Batman: Gothic by Grant Morrison

This is a rather dark Batman tale with the expected gothic overtones. The artwork by Klaus Janson does reflect the spirit well, but the story does not. The characters are a bit flat and the story a bit predictable.

Although certain liberties are acceptable with superhero stories, this story delves too far into the supernatural and feels out of place with the Batman cannon. It was not a satisfying read.

November 20, 2015

Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts

Filed under: Science Fiction,Series — Randolph @ 10:39 am

Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts

This book started as a script for TV written by Douglas Adams. The script does not follow what we think of as Doctor Who cannon. Production did start on an episode (or movie?) but (apparently) not completed. Gareth Roberts took the script and expanded it into a book.

The book is an adventure story, it seems to be based on the Tom Baker version of The Doctor, but it isn’t explicitly stated. It does have a good feel of Doctor Who, the deviations are pretty obvious and appear early, and it is easy to get past them and enjoy the story. The flavor of Douglas Adams is obvious, especially toward the end of the book.

The characters are interesting, although the relationship between the two primary human characters felt contrived. The plot is interesting and has enough twists to keep the interest up.

October 21, 2015

X-Men and Philosophy by William Irwin & Rebecca Housel

Filed under: Fantasy,Philosophy — Randolph @ 5:13 pm

X-Men and Philosophy by William Irwin & Rebecca Housel

Another book in the Blackwell Philosophy and pop Culture Series focusing on the X-Men. This book uses the X-Men comics and movies to introduce several philosophical concepts. Different authors touch on topics such as the meaning of being a person or mutant and what we can know about mutants – an idea that easily extrapolates to classes or cultures. Others touch on morality, identity, women’s issues, synthetic biology, among others.

Authors will help you see Magneto’s point of view, and why Magneto and Xavier can maintain a strong friendship in spite of significant philosophical differences. What is the human role, and what is the meaning of race.

As usual, I’ve found all of these books easy to read and interesting. They each introduce philosophical concepts using icons of pop culture making them easy-to understand and to remember.

In general, I thought this book had better philosophy than others, I found it more interesting. A couple of authors seemed to talk more about the X-Men than of philosophy, but they were interesting to read as well.

October 3, 2015

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

Filed under: Mystery,Series — Randolph @ 8:19 pm

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

A woman, Lucky Strike, approaches Dr. Brennan with questions about a disappearance, a case that was closed years ago. The woman is a web sleuth, a hobbyist detective who spends a lot of her free time investigating closed cases and discussing them on the internet.

The woman comes across as a nut, but naturally provides Temperance enough to become curious, which leads into twisty passages of an investigation.

Ramsey, a sheriff she has to deal with, is a reluctant partner, and a comes across as a bit of a chauvinist. He contrast a bit with Andrew Ryan, who wants to get married. Then things get complicated with Lucky is killed.

The solution to this one surprised me, and the story was very good, I looked for those moments when I could read a few pages. This is better than some of the more recent books, a very good read.

September 8, 2015

Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay

Filed under: Fantasy,Series — Randolph @ 8:08 am

Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay

The book is set in a fantasy-world equivalent of Byzantium. The title refers to going to Sarantium in order to find opportunity or the cost of failure in not standing up to that opportunity.

The protagonist is a mosaicist who goes to Sarantium in place of his master to build a mosaic for the King. There is some courtly intrigue and it has interesting and well-developed characters.

I’m not sure why it’s set in a fantasy setting, as the fantastic elements seems of negligible importance and could have been achieved by other means. It could easily have been set in Rome or Byzantium, among other ancient cultures.

The book got off to a slow start, but became much more interesting when the protagonist reached Sarantium.

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