Book Review: The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury (2.5 Stars)

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

2.5 out of 5 stars

Recommended by the GoodReads SciFi/Fantasy Book Club August 2009 Selection

Read in August, 2009

Synopsis (courtesy Wikipedia):

The Martian Chronicles is a 1950 science fiction short story collection by Ray Bradbury that chronicles the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled and eventually atomically devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists. The book lies somewhere between a short story collection and an episodic novel, containing stories Bradbury originally published in the late 1940s in science fiction magazines. The stories were loosely woven together with a series of short, interstitial vignettes for publication.

My Thoughts:

This collection of stories about Mars reminded me of Edgar Rice Burroughs stories. But where Burroughs entertained with adventures and action, Bradbury expounded on various themes, mostly anti-war and anti-establishment.

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Movie Review: Parkland (3.5 Stars)

Parkland

3.5 out of 5 stars

Watched BluRay late March 2014

I must be mad (hinting at March Madness) or crazy because all this film did was depress me.  These events predate me by almost ten months.  Not even a glint in my parents’ eyes yet.  I’ve stood on the white “X” on the street where President Kennedy was shot in Dallas.  I’ve walked through the park and stood in the spot where Zapruder captured the assassination on film.  I did not visit Parkland, where both Kennedy and Oswald were declared deceased.  Until this morning, I didn’t even know the name of the hospital nor the doctors and nurses burdened with that triage.

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Book Review: Bible Stories for Adults by Morrow (3.3 Stars)

Bible Stories for Adults by James K. Morrow

3.3 out of 5 stars

Read in January 2014

Anthology Synopsis:

Morrow unabashedly delves into matters both sacred and secular in this collection of short stories buoyed by his deliciously irreverent wit. Among the dozen selections is the Nebula Award-winning “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge.”

Contents:

Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge (1988)

Daughter Earth (1991)

Known but to God and Wilbur Hines (1991)

Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower (1994)

Spelling God with the Wrong Blocks (1987)

The Assemblage of Kristin (1984)

Bible Stories for Adults, No. 31: The Covenant (1989)

Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s (1989)

The Confessions of Ebenezer Scrooge (1989)

Bible Stories for Adults No. 46: The Soap Opera (1994)

Diary of a Mad Deity (1988)

Arms and the Woman (1991)

My Thoughts:

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Book Review: A Highly Unlikely Scenario by Cantor (3 Stars)

A Highly Unlikely Scenario or, a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World by Rachel Cantor

3 out of 5 stars

Read in February 2014

Suggested reading for the Kansas City Public Library Adult Winter Reading Program “Stop Me If You’ve Read This One”

Publisher’s Synopsis:

In the not-too-distant future, competing giant fast food factions rule the world. Leonard works for Neetsa Pizza, the Pythagorean pizza chain, in a lonely but highly surveilled home office, answering calls on his complaints hotline. It’s a boring job, but he likes it—there’s a set answer for every scenario, and he never has to leave the house. Except then he starts getting calls from Marco, who claims to be a thirteenth-century explorer just returned from Cathay. And what do you say to a caller like that? Plus, Neetsa Pizza doesn’t like it when you go off script.

Meanwhile, Leonard’s sister keeps disappearing on secret missions with her “book club,” leaving him to take care of his nephew, which means Leonard has to go outside. And outside is where the trouble starts.

My Thoughts:

I read this new novel with every intention of joining the local real-life book discussion group.  I try to participate in at least one or two book discussion groups during the annual adult winter reading program at the Kansas City Public Library.  Continue reading “Book Review: A Highly Unlikely Scenario by Cantor (3 Stars)”

Book Review: The Anubis Gates by Powers (3 Stars)

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

3 out of 5 stars

Read in October 2008

Warning: Spoilers

Brendan Doyle is a biographer and researcher specializing in poetry and prose of the early 19th century. In fact, it’s his knowledge of Coleridge and the obscure contemporary William Ashbless that leads Doyle into his time traveling adventure. An eccentric named Darrow has discovered a method of time travel. To secure venture capital for his personal scheme, he sells tickets to a Coleridge lecture in 1810. Doyle is hired as the Coleridge expert brought along to prep the audience.

The party arrives successfully in London in 1810 and convinces Coleridge to give an impromptu lecture. Darrow had misinformation about the date of the “real” lecture. At the conclusion of the lecture, Doyle is sent to fetch the carriages and is kidnapped.

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Book Review: The Age of Innocence by Wharton (3 Stars)

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

3 out of 5 stars

Read in October 2008

At times, I wanted to strangle Newland Archer for being so naive, so blind to what was happening around him. Especially from his sweet subservient fiancé. I really connected with Ellen and longed for her to have more scenes, rather than just hearing the rumors about her from various members of the families involved.

I admire all the characters stoic resolve to play the cards dealt them and make the best of their lives. In today’s society with disposal marriages and relationships, it was refreshing.

Downloaded the free ebook from Project Gutenberg – http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/541

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Book Review: ABC Murders by Christie (3 Stars)

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

3 out of 5 stars

Read in December 2008

Not as engaging as And Then There Were None , but still an entertaining exercise in murder mystery theatre. I confess I did not discover the true murderer until Hercule Peroit telegraphed it to me in the final chapters. However, I did suspect that the obvious in-your-face suspect was just that – too obvious. For the longest time, I was convinced Inspector Crome was the mastermind behind the serial murders, but thankfully, I was wrong on that count.

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Book Review: Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille by Brust (3 Stars)

Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust

3 out of 5 stars

Read in December 2008

Warning:  Spoilers

This was not your typical Stephen Brust novel. In fact, I’ve never read anything quite like this.

It’s told in first person (with a few Intermezzos of third person to fill in the blanks) of a banjo player in a folk band named Billy. We meet Billy in Cowboy Feng’s as he listens to his band mates tuning up for the evening gig. The gig is cut short by a nuclear explosion which catapults the bar through time and space to another planet. They were on Mars, prior to that on Venus, prior to that a lunar colony and original in London on Old Earth.

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eBook Review: Three Princes by Wheeler (2.5 Stars)

Three Princes by Ramona Wheeler

2.5 to 3 stars out of 5

Read in January/February 2014

In the beginning, there were only Two Princes – Oken and Mabruke, apprentice/journeyman and master spies of the Egyptian Empire, an empire that never fell and where Cleopatra didn’t kiss an asp. The offspring of Caesar and Cleopatra multiplied and prospered across the centuries, bringing us to the golden age of culture and civilization we normally associate with the Victorian era. Never fear, Victoria and Albert have their parts to play in the political theater bubbling across Europe and between the two Empires of the Old and New Worlds.

And that’s where our Third Prince, Viracocha, makes his dramatic entrance, as a member of the royal family of the Inca/Aztec Empire of the New World. Logically, to the author at least, if Spain never rose to prominence, then the South American continent wouldn’t have been invaded and devastated by the Conquistadors. Instead, they flourished and prospered just as their Egyptian peers did in the Old World.

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