The Hugo nominees were announced last Saturday, and Totaled by Kary English was among the nominees for Best Short Story. I try to read and review as many of the nominees as possible, and since a quick Google search led me to English’s short story on Wattpad, Totaled became my first post-nominee announcement read (I’ve already […]
There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life: Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn
2015-04-03 · by ·
If, like Princess Leia, there aren’t enough scoundrels in your life, then Timothy Zahn’s heist novel Star Wars: Scoundrels might be for you. I’m a sucker for Star Wars, but after gobbling up The Thrawn Trilogy as a teenager, I somehow lost track of Star Wars fiction. I don’t know if it was disappointment with the […]
Review | The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
2015-03-25 · by ·
Even though it’s an “oldy and goldy,” I had to watch a pilot for an Amazon original based on The Man in the High Castle before I got around to reading the book. And, to be honest, I’m a little embarrassed that it took a TV show to get me to read one of the […]
Short Story Review | Mitosis: A Reckoners Story by Brandon Sanderson (Reckoners #1.5)
2015-03-13 · by ·
There’s so much to like about Mitosis, and almost all of it comes down to one thing: Brandon Sanderson’s nearly unparalleled ability to build and describe action. Mitosis takes place in the period between the events of Steelheart and Firefight, but really is just a snap shot, a moment in time to give a flavor […]
Review | American Sniper by Chris Kyle
2015-02-23 · by ·
After reading American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, there’s no doubt in my mind that former U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is a patriot. Beyond that, though, my feelings about the former soldier are less clear. To hear Kyle tell it in his memoir, he has all the ingredients […]
Thoughts on Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
2015-02-19 · by ·
With books that are widely popular, I often find that I am among the last to discover them. Well, not discover them, exactly, but to read them and discover why they are so popular, and well liked, for myself. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemptionis exactly that kind of a […]
NASA’s Gigantic Photo of Andromeda
2015-01-21 · by ·
In the “Nothing to do with Books” category we have this: NASA took a photo of the Milky Way’s nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, with the Hubble Space Telescope, and the photo is ginormous. As in, it would take over 600 HD televisions just to look at it. It’s beautiful.
Racers of the Night by Brad Torgersen is Fantastic
2015-01-06 · by ·
In the hour since I finished reading Brad Torgersen’s second collection of short stories, Racers of the Night, I’ve tried to come up with clever ways of saying nice things about Brad’s short fiction. Really. I have. He’s the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème, the ace in the hole, as fine […]
The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley is a Powerful Look at Education in the Poorest Neighborhoods on Earth
2014-12-29 · by ·
Perhaps we’re doing third world development all wrong. That was the thought that stuck with me most after I finished reading James Tooley’s The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World’s Poorest People are Educating Themselves, a surprisingly readable book about the role of private schools in education in some of the world’s […]
