Ye have heard it said “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” but I bring a new Rule for ye to follow.
If ye would be healthy, wealthy and wise, prepare for thyself a libation. Measure out in equal portions milk, golden eggnog and the ground remains of one fruit of the vanilla met-rx tree. No more, no less lest my wrath fall upon all the congregation and ye suffer a plague for thy willful disobedience.
Blend together at high speed in ye olden blender and thusly pour out the libation into ye olde thyme’y mug. Drink to the health of thyself, thy neighbors and thy nation, that it shall go well with ye and ye shall live long and prosper in the land I have given ye.
But if this seem too hard for ye, then stick ye head in a bucket.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Cain gets in another scrap on some world and finds a weapon that is capable of turning regular humans into psykers. A rogue priest (? I simply can’t keep straight what various non-soldiers in the Imperium are called. There are so many!) wants to use it to turn humanity into a massive psyker fist and punch out the lights of Chaos. Of course, he’s tainted by Chaos and ignores that psyker abilities are an aspect of Chaos. Thankfully, the woman who Cain hangs out with (not a clue what her name is at the moment) is involved and she’s got some power armor. Plus a genestealer fleet is invading and the world is full of chaos cultists as well.
Cain stumbles from one hairy situation to another, always succeeding, always coming out looking good and always knowing he’s a Hero of the Imperium. It just makes me grin 🙂 Plus, the action, while not non-stop, is pretty intense. That always helps keep my interest in a franchise fiction story.
Mitchell (the author) continues to impress me with the workman like writing. Sometimes that can be a bad thing, but for franchise fiction, it is pretty much what I want. Get the grammar right, get the syntax correct and don’t have Cain being in two places at once in the story and I’m satisfied. I know I judge other books harder and hold them to a higher standard, but that simply isn’t done for this kind of book or series.
When I want to judge an energy drink, I compare it to a Reign White Gummy Bear and its 300mg of caffeine. When I drink an 8oz Red Bull, I know I’m only getting 80mg of caffeine and something that I imagine tastes like horse piss. I don’t blame the Red Bull for being weak horse piss. It is what it is. Hahahahahaa. So franchise fiction has its limitations and I judge accordingly.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: A Christmas Carol read by Patrick Stewart Author: Charles Dickens Narrator: Patrick Stewart Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Genre: Classic Length: 1hr and 46min (Pages: 98) (Words: 28K)
Last year when I listened to this story narrated by Tim Curry, many of my faithful followers recommended the audio version read by Patrick Stewart. I immediately put it onto my google calendar to help remind myself for this year.
And boy howdy, am I glad I did! I will never listen to another version again and I’ll be hard pressed to even justifying reading it. Stewart does an absolutely PERFECT job here and I was completely impressed.
He also reads at a faster pace than Curry did and takes about half the time, so it’s not a big time commitment. It never felt rushed though and his stage training meant his diction and enunciation were a joy to listen to.
In short, and to end, this is now my definitive and preferred edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Good stuff!
The last week of October and the first 2 weeks of November were sunny, warm and work was great. Weeks like these are why I put up with the winters of New England. I was soaking in the sunshine and humming to myself and life was good. Of course, by the end of the month I was wearing my thermal underwear and mountaineering socks, so winter came in fast.
The Author Index is going along quite swimmingly. I’m working my way backwards from Z to A and I’m working on the S’s already. It is already paying dividends as I found another book I hadn’t reviewed on the blog and so added it. I did have to change how the page behaved, as I realized I had over 900 authors and one single page with 900 links was going to be so unwieldy as to be useless. So each letter now opens up to its own page and associated authors. Not what I wanted but I suspect long term it will work out better.
I wrote what felt like was a lot of non-review posts and I HAD SO MUCH FUN AGAIN. Not posting on Tuesdays did mean I had to double up posts on other random days, but it worked for me. I do have to ask, how do you all feel about? Do you care if a blogger has multiple posts in a day or would you rather they were spread out completely? If you have never thought about this subject, I think you should. Being a wiser, discerning blog reader is important and besides, I want to raise the tone here on my blog. So raise that left pinky when leaving a comment please.
Life has been changing, in small ways but more than I was expecting. Upgrading my avatar, buying a new computer, going Dot Blog, the disastrous new theme that didn’t work out, Mrs B becoming a contributor to the blog, all little things in and of themselves, but for someone like me, that’s a veritable avalanche of changes. Last month I joked about reading my old journals being my midlife crisis, but in all seriousness, this much changing in such a short time is not like me at all. But I am enjoying it instead of worrying about it, hahahhaaa. In the words of the Immortal Bill & Ted, Party on Dudes!
Cover Love:
Hidden Voices, book 9 in the series, does not fail to once again deliver a stunning cover. I LOVE these!
Plans for Next Month:
Well, pretty much the same as this month I think. 12 books a month seems to work out well for me in terms of reviewing without burning out and adding 4 comics on top of that was not too much. I’m still not going to be reading any manga though. That’s going to have to wait until January.
I am going to be watching and reviewing Event Horizon for my movie. Starting next year I’m going to have to figure out something as watching and reviewing random movies really doesn’t work for me. The Muppet journey was perfect and if I could find something akin to that, it would be great. I doubt I’ll be able to though. I might even give the whole one movie a month thing the toss.
Got a bunch of non-review nonsense posts queued up. Just need to actually write them. That’s the biggest problem with blogging I have found. I have some great ideas but then I actually have to work and write it out. Totally bogus.
Survive the holidays. Thanksgiving wasn’t nearly as bad as I was afraid it might be, but we’ll see what happens with Christmas and New Years. Speaking of Christmas, tomorrow I’ll be reviewing A Christmas Carol as read by Patrick Stewart. Please look forward to it!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Galactic Odyssey Series: ———- Author: Keith Laumer Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 129 Words: 37K
This, along with Sentenced to Prism, is one of my most read books. This is the fourth time I’ve read it since 2000 and I know I read it at least 3 times between 1990 and 2000, quite possibly 4 or 5 times. However, my recent re-read of Sentenced and my reaction to it, helped prepare me for this re-read. I had almost the same reaction, ie, a wistful disappointment but because I was expecting it, it didn’t change how I viewed the book like it did for Sentenced.
At under 150 pages, this is a very short story and so much happens, that its serial roots are quite obvious this time around. I hadn’t noticed it in previous reads, but this time around it was rather glaring.
While I still enjoyed this, I think, that just like with Sentenced, the time of re-reading this particular story is over. I’ve changed enough that this doesn’t engage the same way on the emotional level like it has in decades past. Sometimes getting older and changing isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be :-/
Once upon a time, there was a pumpkin. It sat next to a bunch of spider plants that were grown to look like hair on the flower pots shaped like people. I can almost imagine the plants encouraging the lonely pumpkin, saying “I’m rooting for you!”.
This little pumpkin went to the market place AND this little pumpkin went home!
The little pumpkin sat quietly in November and was behaving itself instead of turning bad. It was the only one left on the shelf and I decided to shelter the little guy.
Shank you very much!
Lil Pumpkin sat quietly on the counter for awhile, until I decided it was time to decorate for Thanksgiving. Time to slim up and go under the knife!
Guts and Glory!
The Pumpkin wasn’t very nice and puked up its guts everywhere.
Fits like a glove!
Lil pumpkin was a fighter. It didn’t want to give up, but I liked how it looked and overcame all objections!
You glow, pumpkin!
Thankfully, when the pumpkin was done, I decided it had a beautiful heart. It practically got glowing reviews from me!
In the end, the little pumpkin didn’t quite make it until Thanksgiving before going dark, but it’s still a bright little memory for me!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Collected Stories Series: (The Russians) Author: Nikolai Gogol Translator: Unknown Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Fiction Pages: 575 Words: 166K
If peasants getting drunk and doing stupid things amuses you, if the devil being outfoxed by said peasants sounds interesting and if constantly worrying about your class status is something you do, then these short stories are probably for you.
They were not for me. Thankfully, this was the last of Gogol. There are some plays left, but I’m not going to bother.
Today is the day that Americans are supposed to give Thanks to God for the many blessings they have received over the past year, whether they deserved them or not. In this day and age of Commercialism, Covid19, Uncertainty and Fear, it is all the more important.
If you haven’t figured it out yet (or read my About page), I’m a committed Christian. In this context, it means that I’m specifically giving thanks to Jehovah God and not just some idea of a greater power.
Without Further Ado, I am thankful for:
Mrs B once again tops the list. Without her, my life would be radically different and none of it for the better.
I am thankful for my work. I am also thankful for Mrs B’s work. Not only does it provide the money that we need to live, but it keeps me occupied (idle hands are the devil’s tools after all). I also enjoy my work. Being outside with only 1 other person and not having to deal with office politics, etc, etc is a real blessing. It also gives me a chance to meet people I normally never would. And one thing that has been brought to the fore of my mind this year is that we can use our finances to bless others.
Church. The fellowship that I have with other Christians at church is priceless to me. The fact that there are also weekly Small Group meetings has been an immense blessing this year. Getting to know individuals is one of the greatest gifts I have been given. I also get to watch kids turn into teenagers, teenagers turn into young adults and young adults turn into adults. I also feel blessed that the Bible is taught every single week. The Word of God is the Word of Life.
I am thankful for my journal. I started the one pictured above in April (I talk about it HERE) and just finished it up this past month, so I’m already on a new one. Haven’t decided if I’ll post anything about the newest one, but chances are better than not as I just Like Journaling. Being able to articulate what I feel and why in total privacy with no one being able to judge me or even “suggest” anything feeds my soul.
Finally, I am thankful for eggnog. Life is made up of big and little things and having eggnog available from Thanksgiving to Christmas is a little delight that I revel in.
I think that is enough for now. God bless you all and may you find Peace in Christ Jesus.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #11 Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 41 Words: 2K
So after the last issue where Shredder is shown to be alive and attacks the group and they barely escape, this issue is all from April’s perspective and takes the form of her writing in her journal while the group recovers at an old farmhouse that belonged to Casey’s grandmother.
April has nightmares about losing everything, each of the boys is hurt and trying to recover in their own way and through the winter they all do their separate activities, with varying degrees of success. Finally Splinter gets involved and starts them on the healing path as a group.
April journaling was definitely something I can identify with. The act of writing (not typing mind you, but writing, not that that was readily available in 1987 in abandoned farmhouses in new england!) can be therapeutic and can act as a release valve. For me, there are lots of things I think and feel that I can’t say to others, for a variety of reasons. But they are still inside of me, churning around and bubbling like a cauldron. Writing those thoughts down allows me to stop thinking about them and prevents them from festering in my mind and becoming something worse. It is also a calming exercise as I am totally focused on the act of writing and can ignore the world around me for that time. Obviously, that is me bringing my own thoughts on journaling to the comic, but from what April writes and how she writes, it seems like she uses it the same way.
I downgraded this a full star though because near the end Splinter and the boys are having a kum bai ya moment and it is so full of 80’s Eastern Mysticism Cant that I literally rolled my eyes. Thankfully, the issue does end with spring coming and everyone getting back on track to be the group they were meant to. So I’ll keep on reading 🙂
