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 […]
Short Story Review | Mitosis: A Reckoners Story by Brandon Sanderson (Reckoners #1.5)
Review | American Sniper by Chris Kyle
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
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
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
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
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 […]
Why I Read The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You’ve Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, and Your Way, Edited by Gregory Bassham and William Irwin
I admit that I didn’t quite know what I was picking up when I opened The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You’ve Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, and Your Way. At the time, I was three quarters of the way through The Hobbit for the umpteenth time, but because I was reading it to my […]
The Book of Nurturing by Linda and Richard Eyre is My Favorite Parenting Book
We received this The Book of Nurturing as a gift from my parents back before we had children. Mom and Dad have always been big fans of the Eyres, allegedly raising us based on the stuff they picked up from the Eyre’s many books. We read it, found it interesting, and decided it was all […]
The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi is Brilliant, but Difficult
As I approached the final act of The Causal Angel, Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean Le Flambeur Series that started with The Quantum Thief, there was an uptick in the action, a movement toward battle and denouement. Giant space ships and lethal weapons were brought to bear, planetary defenses were invoked, and warriors on both sides came […]