Thursday, November 23, 2023

Always Legion by Jason Anspach, Peter Nealen, & Nick Cole (2023)


I needed something light, fun, humorous to recover from that terrible Peter H Kim book.  This one is a little disappointing; the close combat is good as always. This era and setting in the Galaxy's Edge universe is dark and depressing, though.  3/5 Stars.

How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships are built, broken, repaired by Peter H Kim (2023)


This book is terrible. The Science in it is shockingly bad.  The topics covered are about taking offense, unrelated to trust. I kept hoping it would get better and it just got worse.  1/5 Stars.

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (175 AD)


I enjoyed this collection of the Roman emperor's personal journal snippets.  They are short, dense, and unambiguous. It's interesting how the fundamentals of Stoical Roman ethics of Aurelius' era have so much in common with other civilizations' ethics, e.g. Zoroastrianism's good deeds from good thought. Civic duty, and aligning our conscious decisions to the Logos (divine, cosmic consciousness) is also repeatedly and well-articulated with examples.  I learned a lot in a short time. 4/5 Stars.

Taken to the Stars by J N Chaney * Rick Partlow (2023)


I enjoy the Anspach / Chaney books so I tried this one by Chaney.  It's a juvenile book written for young teenagers and not very good. I shall not read the rest of the series. 2/5 Stars.


The Colorado Kid by Stephen King (2007)

Clever, well-crafted, immersive, and fun.  I did not like the end of the story-in-the-story. 4/5 Stars.

Homo Faber von Max Frisch (1957)

Ich habe diese Geschichte wirklich genossen. Es ist unvorhersehbar, subtil und gut gemacht. Das philosophische Thema der anti-humanistischen amoralischen Wissenschaft und Technologie im Vergleich zu Mythen, Kunst und Transzendentalismus ist großartig. 5/5 Sterne

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Play Dead by Harlan Coben (1/1/2010)


Harlan Coben wrote this book when he was 19 and 20 years old, as an undergrad in college.  The values, perspectives, hormones, and perspectives of a 20-year-old shine through the fantastic (though somewhat melodramatic) plotting and dialog.  It's always great to catch up on the early works of a good writer.I really enjoyed this book, despite the terrible, cardboard 2-D characters. In particular, the end is well-crafted and well-edited. 5/5 Stars.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Holly by Stephen King (2023)


I am very grateful to live in a time when Stephen King is still writing new, thrilling books that are so carefully and skillfully crafted. The universe is conspiring to make me happy.  5/5 Stars.

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Der Prozess von Franz Kafka (1925)

\
Ich habe dieses Buch langsam gelesen, weil mir die Prosa und der Stil gefallen haben. Die bürgerlichen und sozialen Interaktionen sind schrecklich, frustrierend und erschreckend. Die Hauptfigur K hat gesunden Menschenverstand und stellt unschuldige, vernünftige Fragen. Der Dialog und die detaillierte Darstellung der Bewegungen, Ereignisse und Schauplätze sind fantastisch. Die Geschichte ist natürlich sehr deprimierend. 4/5 Sterne.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Yesterday's Spy by Tom Bradby (2022)


An "impulse borrow" from the library the last time I was there, this book reads like a James Bond film script set in 1953.  The author really should have availed himself of professor Amanat's fantastic history book; he made some blunders about the leaders and factions in the 1953 chaos in which the story takes place. But the thriller aspects of the story were fun and it was wildly entertaining, despite how depressing the situation was. 3/5 Stars.