Some tough decisions among these polls.
And yes I continue to vote against Game of Thrones.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Category: Books
Includes all types of publications: books (hardcovers, trade paperback, mass market paperbacks, ebooks, magazines, graphic novels)
Audiobook Review: King of Thorns by Lawrence (DNF)
King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Fantasy Book Club selection August 2013
Attempted to Read/Listen: August 2013
I tried reading, or rather listening, to this in August 2013 for the GoodReads Fantasy Book Club. We previously read Prince of Thorns as a group in October 2011 and I actually liked the first book of the series. But I had to give up listening at around twenty percent. I may come back to it at a later date, but right now I need something a lot less bleak.
Continue reading “Audiobook Review: King of Thorns by Lawrence (DNF)”
Fantasy v SF Round One Second Half Gets Weird
io9 continues whittling down the first sixty-four entries, getting decidedly weirder, digging around in the classics for mad scientists, dystopian alternate realities, monsters and magic.
Results from the first half of the voting returned only one disappointment for me, and it’s a bittersweet one. The Princess Bride edged out The Wheel of Time in the Epic Fantasy bracket. Bit of a quibble for me as I don’t really think the former qualifies as ‘epic’ fantasy; rather, it’s more like humorous high fantasy. The latter clearly takes epic to the next level and should not have been so easily defeated. I’ve read both, though, and loved them both.
Update March 20, 2014: I missed the vote yesterday for the first half of round two. Some of the results are already in and can be found here.
Upcoming Schedule:
- Friday, March 21: Sweet Sixteen
- Monday, March 24: Elite Eight
- Wednesday, March 26: Final Four
- Friday, March 28: Championship
Audiobook Review: Low Town by Polansky (4 Stars)
Read in December 2013
Publisher’s Synopsis:
Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops . . . and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town.
In the forgotten back alleys and flophouses that lie in the shadows of Rigus, the finest city of the Thirteen Lands, you will find Low Town. It is an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. Disgraced intelligence agent. Forgotten war hero. Independent drug dealer. After a fall from grace five years ago, a man known as the Warden leads a life of crime, addicted to cheap violence and expensive drugs. Every day is a constant hustle to find new customers and protect his turf from low-life competition like Tancred the Harelip and Ling Chi, the enigmatic crime lord of the heathens.
Continue reading “Audiobook Review: Low Town by Polansky (4 Stars)”
Fantasy v SF Round One Pits Epic Fantasy Against Space Opera
io9’s version of March Madness begins today with ‘Epic Fantasy v. Space Opera‘ so vote now so Gandalf won’t have to smack down Vader. It won’t be pretty.
Of course, we’re holding the Mouse in reserve in case of foul play.
Book Review: Bible Stories for Adults by Morrow (3.3 Stars)
Bible Stories for Adults by James K. Morrow
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:
Continue reading “Book Review: Bible Stories for Adults by Morrow (3.3 Stars)”
Movie Review: Gravity (5 Stars)
Watched in theater (October 2013) and at home (March 2014)
This was a great birthday gift last October. My husband and I saw this movie in theaters last fall. Absolutely amazing.
Yesterday, we invited my father over for a lazy Sunday afternoon of grilled burgers (yes, we grilled outside in March because it was sunny and in the 60s) and a movie. He brought home-made carrot cake and Sweeney Todd, but because Terry and I had just seen our daughter perform Mrs. Lovett live a couple of weeks ago in a UNT College of Music production, we passed on watching Johny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. I had two BluRays from Netflix: Parkland and Riddick, but I asked my dad if he’d seen Gravity yet. He had not, so I decided to buy it via Google Play Movies (the HD edition was only $20).
Watch a staggeringly beautiful time-lapse video of Yosemite National Park
http://io9.com/5878091/this-time-lapse-video-of-yosemite-is-staggeringly-beautiful
I’ve been to Yosemite twice. I loved it. It would be the only reason I would ever move to California.
[vimeo 35396305 w=500 h=281]
Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.
This stunning time lapse combines several of my favorite photography subjects into four breath taking minutes: sunrises, sunsets, moon rise, Milky Way with meteors, nature, landscapes, etc.
And if four minutes wasn’t enough, try the five minute sequel from Project Yosemite:
[vimeo 87701971 w=500 h=281]
Yosemite HD II from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.
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
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: Influx by Daniel Suarez
I don’t read much science fiction, especially of the hard variety, but my uncle does. So check out his review of the recently released Influx.