I read The Red Pony by John Steinbeck as part of a summer reading program. It was a great quick read. Always a good story to be had with Steinbeck. And this one has four! I’m looking forward to find out what happens to Jody when he grows up and if he and Black Demon are as good buddies and he thought.
Steinbeck has long been one of my favorite writers. In my opinion you can not go wrong choosing to read one of his books.
I couldn’t resist posting this list of books. The following list appeared in the November Wired magazine. It is a list of books that Obama recommends for future leaders. I love book lists! BTW the book above is Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
I’ve been at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) for the last three days. I have been lucky, and gotten to go to Comic-Con for the past several years. The last three years, I have concentrated on getting complimentary advanced readers copies (ARC) from publishers at the event. All the big publishers are there: HarperCollins, Disney Publishing, Penguin, Del Rey, etc.
Pictured above are those books which I was able to meet the author and get their books signed. Only one above, Life Debt, was paid for. This is one I have been excited for, so paying was no big deal!
Obtaining books at Comic-Con is not difficult but it takes some research. I plan out my days before hand. Looking to see who will be signing in what booth at what time. But much harder than the planning is getting tickets. Approximately 130,000 people attend Comic-Con and getting tickets to the show is extremely difficult, but tickets are open to everyone.
The photo above are the books that I have gotten from the first three days, Wednesday – Friday. I’m going to go again tomorrow and on Sunday. Today alone I received 15 copies of books, well 14 books and one audiobook. My backpack was VERY heavy!
I’m very happy to have the opportunity to meet the authors and publishers of some of my favorite books. I thank them all for being there! I’m excited for the last two days of the show.
The summer has started and that means that libraries around the country have started their summer reading programs encouraging patrons to check out books and visit their local library branch more often. For my part I visit my local libraries (at least 2) once or twice a week. During the summer and the rest of the year, but summer reading programs are fun!
There are usually freebies attached to the number of books you read. Summer reading programs are not just for kids either. While my kids are enrolled in summer reading programs so am I. Both my nearby libraries have adult reading programs running in parallel with the kids programs. Why would adults want to participate? How about a winning an iPad mini or $150 Target gift card? These are the top prizes that both my local libraries are giving away to participants in the summer reading program.
In July of last year (when the reading program starts) I read 20 books in a single month. That’s a lot for me! I currently have a list for all the books I want to read as part of the program. Next to each title is the call number (book library location) for both of my local libraries. Meaning by reading one book I can claim credit for reading it in both libraries programs.
I’ve finished 4 books MTD this July, so I have a lot to read to keep up with what I did last year. I have about 30 books listed on my summer reading list and more being added all the time. I hope I can get to them all. I’m always looking for more time to sneak in reading. Wish me luck and go check out your local libraries summer reading program.
The Fall of the House Usher by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story, 36 pages, that even though I have not read the Tell Tale Heart I have to believe is super similar. The story starts when the main character is invited to cheer up a childhood friend. The main character visits the house Usher and a verbose amount of description starts about the house and how spooky and depressing it is. Turns out his friend is all bummed because his sister is wasting away.
The sister dies after a long illness that the doctors can’t figure out. They bury her under the main characters bedroom. Weird right? Of course she isn’t dead and comes after her brother. She falls on him and I guess both are dead the main character who is telling us the story runs from the house scared out of his wits.
This story for me demonstrated how a whole great story can be told in only 36 pages. Writing short stories can be hard, but Poe nails this one!
I was lucky enough to have Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics sent to me for free from St. Martin’s Press as part of The History Book Club, of which I am a member. The opinions expressed below are my own.
Michael Wolraich moves you ten detailed and fascinating chapters, through the progressive politics of Theodore Roosevelt’s era. In the story you will get to know the players like “Fighting Bob” La Follette and Teddy himself as well as a larger cast of personalities. This well researched history takes you through a time in American politics that has been largely forgotten.
I found the book riveting and the story fun and education as my understanding of this period and the players was limited.
If you are interested in this topic I encourage you to browse through the discussion forms at History Book Club and read all the great information that club moderators put together as well as many comments from the author himself!
I gave The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo to my wife for Mother’s Day. It was meant to be a slight joke. My wife falls into the third category that Kondo points out in her book:
the “can’t-throw-it-away” type, the “can’t-put-it-back” type, and the “first-two-combined” type.
When I gave this to my wife on mother’s day my mother-in-law was also over at our home celebrating. When my wife opened the gift she rolled her eyes, but my mother-in-law shrieked. She said she had had this book on hold at the library for months, waiting to read it.
Since my mother-in-law has such a reaction we made sure she had a copy. As she read it (she reads faster than my wife) we discussed it and the book interested me. It’s a short read. While 224 pages long the text is large. So, I decided to read it as well. So, now we have three copies in the family.
As I read the book though, I found it read surprisingly fast and smooth. I also found lots of tid-bits to use. Kondo states, that you should clean house in a particular order:
The best sequence is this” clothes first, then books, papers, komono (miscellany), and lastly mementos
I agree with this list as the easiest things to drop are listed first. However, books would come after papers and komono for me.
As this all these self-help type books there are things you will take away from them and others that you will prefer to leave.
Star Wars: Chewbacca is one of the most recent comic book complications in the new Star Wars Cannon. I had to wait a long time for this one to come in from our library.
The story starts with Chewbacca stranded on a strange planet after crash landing. Soon trouble finds him in the form of a tween girl. She needs his help and lovable caring Chewbacca is there for her after his usual complaints that no one can understand.
The story follows the battle against the bad local bad guys and eventually Chewbacca and his new little pal have to part ways. Chewbacca proceeds to his original destination Kashyyyk, his home planet, where he is able to finally deliver a box. We are never told what is the box, but I got the feeling it was the remains of a fallen comrade.
Yes, I got one. I pre-ordered Kindle Oasis with a brown cover on the first day possible and just received mine, two days after the official launch. Since there was a delay you could infer that the demand was pretty high for this gadget. As of now, they are out of stock on most configurations. Most reviews I read said wait this time and don’t get it, since it wasn’t a substantial upgrade from the Voyage.
I have to disagree. The fact that the Kindle Oasis finally has a bezel big enough to hold the kindle single-handed without accidentally turning the pages, is a huge benefit. Also, increasing the number of internal lights is very nice. The additional battery life is nice, but the Voyage lasted long enough for me already.
A lot of reviewers were also comparing the Oasis to the Paperwhite model. This is a mistake. You should compare it to the Voyage. I did and it is dramatically lighter and thinner, at least on the non-battery sides of the Oasis. Oasis, as you can see in the above chart is 4.6 ounces. The Voyage is 6.3 ounces. A difference of 37%!
I quickly figured out how to change the name of the kindle and discovered that it was not trying to automatically download books, it was just populating what books I had bought, but not downloading them.
I ended up pushing most of the books that I had bought to the Kindle Oasis. It now has around 150 books on it and I can’t wait to start reading them. I’ll do another update when I have had some time to read with it and see if I really do like it better than the Voyage. I already like how the cover comes off easier and the look of the cover. Although, it seems to scratch easily.
I read with it for a bit tonight and I did switch from hand to hand often. It is a nice feature that you can switch from hand to hand and the screen automatically rotates. The page turns are fast. It is very light in your hands and easily held with one hand, unlike the Voyage.
I think this is a good upgrade from the Voyage. Maybe those reviewers that thought it wasn’t didn’t read on their Kindle every day. Maybe only real serious readers can see the advantages that this new Kindle Oasis can offer.
Star Wars: The Weapon of a Jedi is placed between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Jason Fry is a new author to me at least with this new Journey to the Force Awakens series. He is actually best known for the The Jupiter Pirates series.
When comparing this to the other books in the series like Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening. It doesn’t do to well. The story was extremely slow to start. Don’t get me wrong the book reads very fast. It took me two days and I had a ton of interruptions in reading. I’m glad I read this only because I know its not integral to the story of the Force Awakens.
The story follows Luke on a mission he is doing for the Rebel Alliance. Although, he never gets to the mission in the book (too bad, might have been a better story). He feels himself attracted (via the Force) to a planet he has never been to before. He visits the planet and figures out why the Force was calling him, unfortunately his presence has not gone unnoticed. A new bad guy finds him. The story is little ruined by the fact that we all know Luke makes it.
No surprises and a slow story earns this book 3 stars. One star for being about Star Wars included. If you are following along in the series you can skip this one, but its under 200 pages and written for a much younger audience so the book goes very fast. Just don’t expect it to be your favorite Star Wars novel.