The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

Light, fun, thrilling space opera, 5/5 stars.

The Reckoning by John Grisham

Despite the frustrating lack of plot, drama, and a cohesive story, I enjoyed this one.  I loved the situational depth of both storylines and the historical details.  I also enjoy Grisham's writing style.  It was, perhaps, twice as long as necessary, and the plot is very weak.  Still worth it, 3/5 stars.

Infinity Wars edited by Jonathan Strahan

Mixed bag, but disappointing.  Two or three of the stories were excellent.  All the others were bad. 2/5 stars.

Demian by Hermann Hesse

As a high school sophomore, 15-years-old, my class was assigned to read and discuss the English translation of this terrible book and 15-year-old-me hated it.  45 years later, in a flight to Europe, I read the book in German and it still sucks.  Abraxis?  Yuck.  1/5 stars.

The collapsing empire by John Scalzi

Fun story, great world-building, fantastic humor, colorful characters, 5/5 stars.

Abominable by Dan Simmons

Awesome story, great writing, interesting history, gripping.  5/5 stars.

Narziß und Goldmund by Hermann Hesse (1930)

Wow!  What a fantastic spiritual journey.  Apollonian vs Dionysian sensibilities struggle in the self-actualizing journey of a young sculptor as he wanders through the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) ridden areas of Germany.  Karl Jung's silly archetypes in the masculine heterosexual Goldmund counter-balance his special gay friend Narziss as each matures.  Very well-written, moving, poetic.  5/5 stars!

Swords and Saddles by John Hemry (Jack Campbell)

Really well-researched and fun military science fiction by one of the modern masters, very entertaining set of short stories.  5/5 stars.

Riverdale (tv series, 2017)

Sleepless on a transatlantic flight, I watched the first few episodes of this series and enjoyed them.  The writers are creative and give a dark, modern twist on the old comics and cartoons I remember from the 1970s.  Way too much political correctness detracts from an otherwise excellent series.  3/5 stars.

Crazy Stupid Love (film) 2011

I was on a transatlantic 787 dream-liner flight, could not sleep, watched this bad romantic comedy, 2/5 stars; miss it.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson writes a fun story but the science and magic system were bad with too much deus est machina (lazy writing), 3/5 stars.

Ruhrpott Abenteuer (Kriminalhoerspiel)

Very well-dramatized and exciting story, 4/5 stars.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.  There is a TED talk and some other videos online by the author with popular science concepts he highlights. 5/5 stars.

short lived solar power generators

Last year I introduced you to Tree Beard, the mighty oak that poops several tons of leaves. We spend hours each week cleaning up those leaves.

Tree Beard carelessly dropping his failed solar power generators (leaves).

Discarded non-functional solar power generators choking grass.

Why does Tree Beard put up with such shoddy manufacturing?  He exerts an enormous amount of time, effort, and energy to build these power generators.  The duty cycle of these leaves is quite good but their service lifetime is terrible.  Leaves generate power for only eight months.  When the leaves get a little cold, they shut down.  Tree Beard then litters these failed systems wherever the wind blows them.

After several hours of struggle, we finally gather the broken power generators (leaves).  But Tree Beard has many more to discard and we shall be out working again next week, sigh.

uncompromising honor (honor-verse book 14)

It is great to have Honor back in action.  I did not enjoy the spy vs spy stuff, though.  Agents on all sides were much too competent, rational, powerful, and ethical.  4/5 stars.  I look forward to the next one.