Books Read 2013

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Kasey Chang
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Re: Books Read 2013

Post by Kasey Chang »

Reading eBook "the Last Praetorian" by Greg Smith.

At first the book is interesting, then I realize this had to be a self-published book as the author jumps ALL OVER the f***ing place. He had a flashback inside a flashback, that's how jumbled this book is.

The premise started somewhat interestingly... The background is not bad... FTL has caused a splintering of the colonies, which was only reunited via the empire's absolute rule, which was welcomed after the dark ages of civil war. Hundreds of years later, there is no queen, merely Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his daughter Sofia, and the Praetorians, swore to protect the emperor and his family.

Unfortunately, the book then delve into random thought bubbles, i.e. various scenes where the "hero", John Radec, became the last praetorian when a coup killed the emperor and the fleet is out to hunt down the sold remaining royal blood: Princess Sofia, and the rest of the Praetorian sacrificed themselves to make sure they get away. The next half of the book then jumped between how Radec is clearly smitten with the princess but clearly can't do much about it, while the princess knows exactly and often teased him for it. Add a couple scenes of heroics (heroic Radec kills bunch of pirates and saves the Princess from fate worse than death!) both 5 years ago and now, lots of "she's so gorgeous it hurts to look at her" or some similarly stupid scenes I'm at about half-way where things *may* start to get exciting.

As I got the eBook for free I guess I can't complain TOO much...

EDIT: Finished, it's an interesting finish but the characters are complete cardboard cutouts. Hero can't love the girl, girl can't love him back, bad guy that takes things way too personally (how the heck did he keep a whole f***ing fleet out there doing nothing for YEARS?) the friendly "wise doc", the marine "gunny", the older "friend" who spilled the beans when the hero won't talk about such things, and not one but TWO girls who falls for him hard, except he's got survivor's guilt, i.e. "don't fall for me, everyone close to me dies".

Meh.
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Re: Books Read 2013

Post by Isgrimnur »

Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA by William Colby

This was an excellent review of Colby's life in the secret services from his days as a WWII OSS member through his time as DCI of the CIA. In reading it, I got a very good feel of his efforts to impact the war in Vietnam and shape the world of intelligence to make it a responsible member of a Constitutional democracy, being forthwith in revealing to Congressional oversight all that had gone on before during the decades of complete secrecy and executive privilege.

Honestly, I found myself kind of bummed about the current state of things as contrasted to what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go with the intelligence world, and to contrast that with recent developments. His agitation for public understanding of the intelligence world and a proper role of protecting the country while honoring the idea of who we are.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Red – Sammy Hagar. Quick autobiography of Sammy Hagar where he is brutally honest. He really tells all the dirty secrets about himself and the Van Halen brothers. I never knew the brothers were both raging alcoholics. Alex quit drinking, but Eddie didn’t and Sammy says he’s a total screw up who lives in filth. He really made Eddie sound like he’s in bad shape. Good read if you’re interested in him or Van Halen.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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McNutt wrote:Red – Sammy Hagar. Quick autobiography of Sammy Hagar where he is brutally honest. He really tells all the dirty secrets about himself and the Van Halen brothers. I never knew the brothers were both raging alcoholics. Alex quit drinking, but Eddie didn’t and Sammy says he’s a total screw up who lives in filth. He really made Eddie sound like he’s in bad shape. Good read if you’re interested in him or Van Halen.
I have a friend who is a massive Hagar fan who read the book when it came out and loved it. In fact he was supposed to loan it to me, I will have to remind him of that. Also that he still has my Hagar-Neil Schon CD.
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Re: Books Read 2013

Post by McNutt »

I like Sammy's honesty in the book, but you have to wonder how the other people he wrote about feel about that honesty. For example, he talked about each guy in Van Halen having their own tent underneath the stage where they would have sex with groupies while one of the others was doing a really long solo. He'd have multiple girls in his tent while he wife was at home. Rock star, baby. It's one thing to admit that about yourself, but to say the other guys were doing it while they were married is not cool. "Bitch, that wasn't supposed to be public knowledge!!!"
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Re: Books Read 2013

Post by Jeff V »

The Bluffer's Guide to Rock Music by Eamonn Forde :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:
:binky:

When I was a wee lad, dinosaurs roamed the earth. They weren't dinosaurs then, it was just considered contemporary music. As a hopeful musician, I remember spending something like $100 on a thick volume of music called "The Fake Book." If I recall correctly, this book was considered contraband; but used by wedding-band types to "fake" their way through requests for songs they has not previously rehearsed.

The Bluffer's Guides take this concept to the proletariat, ostensibly providing broad knowledge on a given topic, along with just enough trivia to pose as an aficionado, if not an expert. This volume, on the subject of Rock music, appears to be aimed not at myself (who already possesses much of the information in this book and more), but someone who would presume to hold their own in a conversation with someone like me back in the day when I would have gladly indulged such dialog, likely at a party or perhaps a concert.

This was a fun book to read, as I've lived through much of what it covers. My opinions don't necessarily mesh with the author's, however. While the music itself might have been polar opposites, I was (and still am) a fan of both punk and progressive -- the other maintains this was not possible. I would suggest punk v. disco to be impossible -- I don't recall ever hearing a punk band rail against the likes of Yes or ELP. Punk was mostly a reaction to soft, safe, corporate rock such as Eagles or Captain and Tennile anyway. (see...just writing about it and I revert to the pretentious jerk I must have seemed to be back in the day).

Judging from where the chronological center of this book seems to be, I'd wager the author is close to my age. The bulk of the book therefore sits in the late-60's through the 80's. Now, it could be there is nothing of substance to say of music after 1990...but I'm sure younger fans would challenge this notion. I doubt, however, that most readers will find a need to bluff their way through the likes of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, or The Who; let alone festivals such as Woodstock or Live Aid. Same goes for long-defunct magazines or books about icons of days long past. And the newer stuff? With age comes wisdom -- the wisdom to never try to bluff with superficial knowledge of the topic.

That said, the book is a lot of fun, both on content and the presumption that readers are looking to use this knowledge on anything but a superficial way. I would more recommend this to the person who thinks they know a lot than someone who knows nothing.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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He writes for The Guardian on occasion.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Finished "City of War" by Neil Russell

When Rail Black rescued a naked girl from Santa Monica freeway from two thugs, he thought little of it. Born of priviledged British Aristocracy, and richer than most, Black was born and brought up in the US and a former Delta operator. Now he just lives his life, after tragic loss of his fiancee a while back. Kim, the rescuee, was about to tell him something when she was murdered, and he almost died in the same ambush. The stakes are now personal. Who was Kim? Who was she running from? What secrets were she hiding? When the perps went after him elsewhere, it's clear that there's an international conspiracy going on, and he will not rest until he got to the bottom of it... No matter the cost...

Normally a good guy lacks resources. This guy has every advantage in the book. He's rich so he access to planes, boats, helos (the regular playboy kind, not the mercenary kind), and if needed, he can always call upon people he knew in the military... OR his vast number of rich and famous contacts. Not to mention he gets the girls too. For the first few chapters I wondered if this novel's one of those "nerd's revenge" type novels where he's gonna basically steamroll the bad guys, and I almost quit reading, but I'm glad I kept going, as it does get better, much better as it got to the end. While not quite on the level of say, Lee Child (Jack Reacher series), this is a decent read as you are introduced to a different circle of people and different method of operation... ones that involve money. And the conspiracy is peeled off layer by layer, as are the deceptions. People long believed dead are not, people you thought as victims are accomplices, people you thought guilty are not, and people you thought can't possibly be involved... are involved. Add a Corsican named "white hyena", a Russian billionaire, and a conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of the US... and you have an interesting novel despite the "what's the challenge" beginning.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Carpet_pissr wrote:Just finished 'Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43' after much stopping and going, and several books read in between.

I guess my overall thoughts on it are "meh" even though it has 4.5 stars out of 99 reviews on Amazon, and the WWII buffs reviewing it seem to consider it a must read.

Basically, it's the reprinting of a German soldier's HIGHLY detailed diary entries throughout the war on the Eastern front. While it does give a ground soldier's perspective in a massive, broad war, and I doubt it was the compiler's intent to garner any sympathy considering the circumstances, I couldn't help but read certain passages where the protagonist comments about the "Bolshevik, subhuman dogs" or "God willing, we will prevail" type sentiments, and at the same time hope this dude would get a bullet between the eyes.

You have this apparently humanistic soldier who longs for his home, his wife and child, who obviously cares for his fellow soldiers, and is obviously severely affected by seeing the awful slaughter at Lutsk, and on top of all that seems quite intelligent. Yet he has bought into the Nazi marketing, and believes their actions are just (invading Russia). This was telling: ""we soldiers in the first attack wave have never thought about the stuff that happens behind us in the cities we leave..." after hearing from a "Kill Commando" coming from the rear, reporting how they took care of the Jewish "problem" in some of the cities that the frontline troops had already rolled over.

Not sure if I was expecting more "yay! we are awesome, our fight is just! down with the filthy Jews!" or what, but I think even the subtle hints that the protagonist drops about how proud he is of his Fuhrer, country, etc, about what they are doing is almost more disturbing than if he was more brash about this.

http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Inferno-J ... tern+front" target="_blank
I'm only 14% of the way through (according to Kindle) and already I can't stand this guy. Two things really struck me. There was a quick mention of his group capturing a few Bolsheviks and Jews and taking to the town square and shooting them. The second was a story about a tank that was destroyed by some Russian civilian who set the tank on fire. For his actions, the author's group set the civilian on fire. In neither one of his stories does the author give many details. I can't even tell if he was involved. But what I could tell was that it seemed justified to him. There was no questioning of the morality in doing such horrible things. I know war is hell, but it's hard to feel sympathy for a soldier who seems to have no feeling about killing local Jews or setting somebody on fire who was fighting foreign invaders.

I know that there could be several journals from US troops that could expose such horrors. I just can't see how anybody could casually mention such things. They way he casually mentions them is very disturbing.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Just got "Thinking... fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman. It's down to $2.99 on Kindle eBook. I have interest in psychology and this is one of the books I meant to get for a long time. Now that I have Kindle HDX, I can have the stuff read to me automatically. Hehehe. (yes, it has TTS, up to 3X normal speed)
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Kasey Chang wrote:Just got "Thinking... fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman. It's down to $2.99 on Kindle eBook. I have interest in psychology and this is one of the books I meant to get for a long time. Now that I have Kindle HDX, I can have the stuff read to me automatically. Hehehe. (yes, it has TTS, up to 3X normal speed)
Now, see, this is useful info in my quest to justify a tablet. I think my wife would LOVE having books read to her by Alvin from the Chipmunks. :lol:
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Private Berlin by James Patterson :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

I really loved the first of the Private books, but subsequent books have all come up short. What started out as a group of highly skilled investigators now seems only to presume as such. The story is good -- half of it told first-person by the perpetrator of a number of serial killings. However, Madeline, an agent with Private, is poorly conceived in just about every way. Private is supposed to consist of the best of the best; agents equipped to handle high profile clients in the most delicate of situations. But Madeline not only was previously engaged to Chris Schneider, an agent who runs afoul of the evil bad guy, but also has a son -- which we know is an Achilles Heel in this profession. If she had awesome skills to offset these disadvantages, we might overlook it, but she does not, and becomes predictably compromised.

And that is a shame -- the running commentary by the serial killer was very well done. The overall plot reaches back to the days of Communism and East Germany and is pretty well conceived -- the plot is bigger than just a serial killer and dredging up events long buried is inconvenient and unhealthy for those who thought they moved on. The hero is just too weak for the outcome to be plausible.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Wars of the Flesh (edition 2013) by Germaine Shames :binky: :binky: :binky:

The best way to describe this book is a haiku expanded to sort of a short story. There are five short stories in this book, but none seem particularly coherent -- they feel like fragments of a story, although in most cases the whole story is told. If you are looking for romance stories, you should probably look elsewhere. The author stays outside of conventional bounds. The settings are often well done, but the romantic aspect is usually perverted in some way -- romance gone wrong, and not in a fun way. I enjoyed some of the settings, but others seemed devoid of purpose.

I wager the author could parlay these stories into longer, more complete form, and come off better for the effort. If more experimental prose floats your boat, however, this is a short collection of short stories, and won't take much time from your life to satisfy your curiosity.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Jeff V wrote: Now, see, this is useful info in my quest to justify a tablet. I think my wife would LOVE having books read to her by Alvin from the Chipmunks. :lol:
And you get a choice of male or female chipmunk! :D Or download even more voices like British or Australian accents! :D (Amazon bought IVONA so all the voices are VERY nice sounding)
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Kasey Chang wrote:
Jeff V wrote: Now, see, this is useful info in my quest to justify a tablet. I think my wife would LOVE having books read to her by Alvin from the Chipmunks. :lol:
And you get a choice of male or female chipmunk! :D Or download even more voices like British or Australian accents! :D (Amazon bought IVONA so all the voices are VERY nice sounding)
IVONA Humpalot? Sweet!!
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed

I first learned of Ahmed when Salon.com had authors create their scariest two-sentence story. Ahmed's was:
"When I was 9, the birds stopped still in the sky and I saw the men that move between moments. They sang silently as they prepared the lake where my little sister was about to drown."

After reading that I bought his debut novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon.

The book is a fantasy novel that takes place in an Arab region. It's a refreshingly different setting and I enjoyed that about it. The story follows an aging ghul hunter and his young apprentice, a fanatical dervish who is a master of the sword and of nothing else. I found the book to be merely okay. The world felt small and the story seemed predictable. That doesn't mean it wasn't unique, but I guessed everything that was supposed to be the big shockers. It's a short read, so it isn't a big time commitment. The description says it's to be part of a series, but the book pretty much wraps everything up and the only reason to read the next book would be to follow a different adventure. No cliffhangers here. I enjoyed the book, but will not buy more in the series.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Private Games by James Patterson :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

I'm sure I would have liked this book better had I read it BEFORE the London Olympics. It's not as engaging afterward when you know everything that happened in the London Olympics played out differently. This is a common problem reading books written about soon-to-be contemporary events after the event fades into history.

As in Private Berlin, another flaw in the book are easily compromised agents. Another Private agent is faced with the decision to save his children from a pathological killer nanny that is a diversion to a climatic attack during the Olympics seminal event. It works out in the end, but for an allegedly elite firm as Private, the lead agent sure was having his strings played the entire book.
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Re: Books Read 2013

Post by Jeff V »

Place of a Skull by Keith Jacobsen :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

Taking a step back, I have to say this is a probably a well-written book for those able to identify with the characters in the book. The setting (Ireland through the unrest/IRA attacks) I, however, just couldn't make a connection with the characters or the topic. The first third was particularly grueling as there wasn't much in the way of action -- it was mostly reminiscing about how the past conspired to reach the current predicament.

Seamus and his father were executioners in the IRA. They were betrayed, Seamus escaping while his dad was captured. Vowing vengeance on the informant, it slowly become apparent that this drama is "All in the Family."

From the start, I could not make a sympathetic connection with the killer Seamus, or his conspirator priest for that matter. Others seem to love it though, so consider your interest in the topic and setting before picking this one up.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Jeff V wrote:Private Games by James Patterson :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

I'm sure I would have liked this book better had I read it BEFORE the London Olympics. It's not as engaging afterward when you know everything that happened in the London Olympics played out differently.
Go read Rainbow Six now. It's all about the lead up to the Sydney Olympics. :D
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Re: Books Read 2013

Post by Jeff V »

Isgrimnur wrote:
Jeff V wrote:Private Games by James Patterson :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

I'm sure I would have liked this book better had I read it BEFORE the London Olympics. It's not as engaging afterward when you know everything that happened in the London Olympics played out differently.
Go read Rainbow Six now. It's all about the lead up to the Sydney Olympics. :D
That's another example, although part of the problem with Private Games is that the London games are fresher in my mind.

At least I was still able to finish the book. I tried to read World War III after it didn't come to pass, and for a book so heavily lauded in its day, it was impossible to read after the expiration date of presumptions it was built upon.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

Third book in the series and just not as good as the first two. Parallel tracks of doing a play in their past and trying to foil a political election in the present. Interwoven with Locke's and Sabetha's horrendous attempts at a relationship you have a pretty meh book. Didn't really move the story much forward.

Price of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. If you've read anything about it, this book receives bad press for being too cruel and sexist. The main character is an anti-hero but there is a reason behind the cruelty. It's set in a post-apocalyptic earth and sets the stage well for the next two books.

Dead Drunk: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse... One Beer at a Time by Richard Johnson

This is a very fun and funny book but isn't really about zombies but about a virus unleashed on the US by China. If you want a light, fun read without putting too much thought into the plot you'll enjoy it.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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You might want to try spam!
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Re: Books Read 2013

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I'm not reading anything recommended by a Russian spambot that advertises "self love books"
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:08 pm I'm not reading anything recommended by a Russian spambot that advertises "self love books"
That's awfully closed-minded of you.
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Re: Books Read 2013

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Not to mention, how good can his/its memory be for book read 4 years ago?
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