Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Friday, October 11, 2024

The Great Pumpkin Saves the Town or Pumpkin Festival 2024!

The (Great) Pumpkin Festival officially starts at 5pm. So we drove down to the local County Store to park at 4:30pm. This was possible because I worked my backside off at work to get out at 3pm. Yeah, I’m just that good.

As is our custom, (and yes, we do have a custom when it comes to the Pumpkin Festival) we first went down to Food Alley. Not every place was open but most were and we took advantage of that to score ourselves some food and some open tables. Trust me, after 5:30pm it is standing room only, everywhere.

Mrs B stopped at the Fried Tempura vendor and got a fried vegetable platter. It was a lot!

It was also incredibly greasy. Just the way fried food should be!

Last year I had seen a vendor selling Elephant Ears, so this year I was curious enough to find out just what that was.

It turns out Elephant Ears are massive amounts of fried dough. HUGE!

Then we wandered around, looking at various vendors selling brightly colored crap.

Or vendors trying to sneakily separate you from your money for other kinds of brightly colored crap.

It was perfect! Even the obnoxious bands playing all over the place. I believe there were 3 this year. One in the center of the Oval, one off to one side and the third down at the beer garden a street over. There was also some “music” up by the Post Office. So no matter where you went, you were assailed by sight and sound. And jostled by people.

Unless you were me. Because I had a staff and people don’t mess with guys in cloaks who carry a staff as tall as they are.

Then the (Great) Pumpkin rose into the sky and the town was safe for another year!

Thus Sir Bookstooge navigated another deadly, people infested adventure and nobody died. That’s how you know it was good.

The End

[Art] Lady of the Fall or My Week XII

Tonight is the Pumpkin Festival. I wanted something to celebrate that event, as I don’t know if I’ll be able to get pictures and write up a post like I did last year (Pumpkin Fest ’23). So I asked Miss Ross to do something Festival’y and I think she delivered in spades. I’m pretty happy with this and I hope you can enjoy it too.

The week, up to this point, has been something else. My coworker took the week off, just because apparently, so I was working with the new guy. He’s been hired to work in both the field and the office, and he’s 6’6″. I’m 5’3″. It has made setting up our equipment a real chore and I’ll be glad when things return to normal next week.

Other than that and the falling temps and leaves, not much else to report.

Have a good day and if there is a Pumpkin Fest post, it won’t be until after 8pm tonight, so don’t hold your breath 🙂

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The Watsons 4Stars

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 Watsons
Series: ———-
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 46
Words: 17K

This is an unfinished novel that Austen began, stopped and for unknown reasons, never picked up again. It is 5 chapters long, which is why I’m giving it the “novella” tag.

While I enjoyed this little “taste”, it had many of the same elements in Austen’s full novels so it wasn’t a novelty like Lady Susan was.

I almost didn’t rate this because it wasn’t finished and so I didn’t know how the later, unwritten part of the story would have changed my outlook on the beginning. But I am rating what I was able to read and that gets 4stars from me.

There have been several “completed” versions by various authors. One of them, a descendant of Austen wrote a full 500+ page novel based on this. At some point I plan on reading that. It is entitled “The Younger Sister”.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

The timeframe of the completed fragment covers about a fortnight, and serves to introduce the main characters, who live in Surrey. Mr Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father’s house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret. One particular focus for them is Tom Musgrave, who has paid attention to all of the sisters in the past. This Emma learns from her more responsible and kindly eldest sister Elizabeth.

Living near the Watsons are the Osbornes, a great titled family. Emma attracts some notice from the young and awkward Lord Osborne while attending a ball in the nearby town. An act of kindness on her part also acquaints her with Mrs Blake, who introduces Emma to her brother, Mr Howard, vicar of the parish church near Osborne Castle. A few days later Margaret returns home, having been away on a protracted visit to her brother Robert in Croydon. With her come her brother and his overbearing and snobbish wife. When they leave, Emma declines an invitation to accompany them back.

Here the story breaks off.

Wednesday, October 09, 2024

The Blog Tag

From Pooja on her post The Blog Tag. I haven’t done a Tag post in quite some time (a year and a half in fact!) and this felt like a good one to do.

The Blog Tag

How did you come up with your blog name?

I was on Devilreads from 2009-2013. During that time I used my real name and a real photograph of myself. During that time I also had enough run ins and threats from crazy writers and rabid fans that I swore never again. So when Devilreads began their campaign to censor reviews under the guise of “guidelines’ and silence people, I left for Booklikes.

I chose Bookstooge because I read so many books (you’d be surprised how many people on a site dedicated to reading think 100+ books a year is some impressive number, sigh) and stooge because I was willing to do a lot to make sure that books (and the attendant reviews) had a very high place in my life. There is no “wrong” way to review, whatever Devilreads and the idiots who inhabit that stygian darkness may claim.

On the avatar side of things, I started using one with this review:
Gorgon

Since then I have gone through several facelifts until I am where I currently am now.

If your blog was a person (fiction or real), who would it be?

Hands down, it would be Shrek. Mrs B told me that and she’s 110% correct!

What helps you create new content if you feel like you need some inspiration?

Rockstar, baby! The power of caffeine running through my veins powers everything I do.

Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with?

I do consider myself to be collaborating with Miss Ross, as she does the art for the artwork posts and I do the words side of things. But the reality is that I would not willingly choose to share the writing aspect of blogging with anybody. I chronicled that decision here:
A Loner But Not Alone

The words here at Bookstooge.blog are mine and mine alone. I take the glory and the responsibility. Words are important to me.

Is there anything more you wish you had or would like to learn as a blogger?

I think every blogger wants more, something. Finding out what that is is part of the fun of being a blogger. For me, it is interaction, specifically, comments. I want more of those suckers, I really do.

As for learning, I wish I knew how to be a better craftsman when it comes to the words I write. I want to look at my posts and see exactly which word is needed at “that” point to make the whole thing flow like a stream.

Do you have a specific style of blogging?

My blog is mainly book reviews. I do try to leaven things out with various non-review posts, which can run the gamut from Tag posts like this to personal posts where I bare my soul and cry like a baby for you all to see (yeah, ok, maybe NOT quite that personal) to Art related posts. I would say it is 50-60% book reviews and the rest is whatever I feel like.

As for “style”, I am not sure. Intelligently Ironic? Punchyouintheface-fu? Studiously Ignorant? Pugnaciously Pink? Whatever style, it’s me and don’t you forget it!

And there we go, the Tag is finished. I like short tags like that.

All of My “Tag” Posts

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Last Stand (Empire Rising #12) 3.5Stars

Title: Last Stand
Series: Empire Rising #12
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 364
Words: 143K

Man, I did not see the Kurullians showing up and saving the day, not at all. I was seeing humanity about to be destroyed, again, and I knew it couldn’t happen, because of the snippets from the beginnings of each chapter, which are from 500 years later. So I saw an untenable position for humanity, saw no way out and yet knew the author would pull a rabbit out of his literary hat, somehow.

And yet.

And Yet.

I was as tense as anything waiting for things to work out.

That takes skill on an author’s side to be able to do such things. I realize this is book 12 but Holmes has shown a consistency in his skill level that I appreciate. Doesn’t mean he’s a wordsmith like Rex Stout or a story teller like Charles Dickens (Holmes could use a good editor to cut down on some of the expositional scenes that go on for pages) but he has not let me down yet.

If you like military science fiction, I highly recommend this series. It’s a bit more space ship oriented than I care for, but it is good nonetheless.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

Synopsis – Click to Open

The orbital Battle of New Shanghai has been lost. What is left of the Allied fleet under James Somerville’s command is in full retreat. The Imperial Marines and Colonial Militia on the planet’s surface are left alone and without support. With a Karacknid fleet in orbit and tens of thousands of ground troops being landed, it is General Johnston’s duty to fight Humanity’s enemy to the last man. For he is the only thing delaying the Karacknid fleet from pushing on to Earth and completing their conquest of the Human Empire.
Meanwhile James must scrabble together what meagre forces he can and ready the defenses of the homeworld. With his fleet already beaten once, hope has all but been extinguished. Still, he will make his last stand and fight to the death for the sake of his family and his Empire.

When a fleet of Kurullian worldships show up to help defend Earth and the Alliance, James realizes they have a very slim chance to strike at the heart of the Karacknian Empire and challenge the Warlord himself, which is the only chance the Alliance has in the long term.

All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Monday, October 07, 2024

Dead Men Walking (Warhammer 40K: Necrons) 3.5Stars

Title: Dead Men Walking
Series: Warhammer 40K: Necrons
Author: Steve Lyons
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 267
Words: 96K

Every Warhammer 40,000 book starts with the following quote:

“It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries The Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.
Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants – and worse.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.”

This book, Dead Men Walking, captures the essence of the bolded part of that quote. A lot of the Warhammer 40K that I’ve read has been about the “good” parts of the society; Ciaphas Cain the rich and famous Commisar, Ibram Gaunt the disciplined yet moral Colonel-Commisar and then you have my forays into the non-human side of things with the Tau and now the Necrons. All of those are the exception to the rule of the Empire of Man. DMW sets the record straight about what it is like to be a normal citizen of the Empire and how your life is weighed, sometimes literally, against a box of ammunition. Is it cost-effective to rescue World X? If not, then so long Citizen. But heaven forbid if those same citizens turn on the Imperium before it abandons them, then it’s chop, chop, off with their heads.

This book is about a Necron Tomb resurrection on a mining world and how the Imperium screws things up. Technically the “main characters” are the Kreig Death Korps, but I’m lumping it in with my Necrons read because they are the main bad guys and we get to see just how bad ass they are. Unlike The Infinite and the Divine, where the Necrons almost come across as chummy, bonhomie babies, here they are shown for the absolute monstrous dealers of death that they are. Unkillable killing machines that grind the troops of the mining world to dust. Whether it is the elite Death Korps, or regular Astrum Militarum or even citizens drafted into a world army, it doesn’t matter. They all die. One of the main characters we follow who was a regular citizen, realizes that is going to be his final fate and instead of fighting and raging against it, stoically does his best to kill as many Necrons as he can before he dies.

And that is why this book is titled as such. Every man and woman who is fighting is a dead man from the get go and there is nothing they can do about that.

I call that soul destroying. It is also why I don’t read a lot of the Space Marines stories in WH40K (plus, those guys are just jerks and they DESERVE to die, horribly). I try to cherry pick my stories so that there is at least an iota of hope within the pages.

The cover is hard to parse at this size, but it is supposed to be part of some sort of gun that the soldiers carry.

Overall, I enjoyed the action and the Necrons being described, but I absolutely hated the stark reality of this universe.

★★★✬☆

From The Black Library

Synopsis- Click to Open

When the necrons rise, a mining planet descends into a cauldron of war and the remorseless foes decimate the human defenders. Salvation comes in an unlikely form – the Death Korps of Krieg, a force as unfeeling as the Necrons themselves. When the two powers go to war, casualties are high and the magnitude of the destruction is unimaginable.

Firebreathing - MTG 4E

Cards like this wielded the power of “The Classics” like a sword.

Little Jimmy: But Dad, these cards have Tennyson on them. They’re educational!

Dad: Oh, well then, buy all you want son, nothing but the best for my little Timmy, errr, I mean, Jimmy.

Sunday, October 06, 2024

Mary Poppins in the Park (Mary Poppins #4) 3Stars

Title: Mary Poppins in the Park
Series: Mary Poppins #4
Author: Pamela Travers
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fiction
Pages: 272
Words: 49K

Exactly more of the same. The same plot points, the same beats, the same style. Once each story opened, I knew exactly where it was going. That’s just fine for a childrens story. But since this is the fourth Mary Poppins book I read, it was a bit tiresome for Adult Me.

I have no regrets whatsoever about reading this omnibus of Mary Poppins books, but I am glad I am done with these stories. I wouldn’t recommend them on their own but only to those of you who might have children or want to be reminded of what a child’s mind can handle.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Synopsis – Click to Open

This fourth book contains six adventures of the Banks children with Mary Poppins during their outings in the park along Cherry Tree Lane. Chronologically the events in this book occurred during the second or third book (Mary Poppins Comes Back and Mary Poppins Opens the Door respectively). Among the adventures they experience are a tea party with the people who live under the dandelions, a visit to cats on a different planet, and a Halloween dance party with their shadows.

Friday, October 04, 2024

8 Journals or My Week XI

Not much to report on the work front. Working 11+hr days, while exhausting, isn’t exactly news. As of this post going live I’ve got 38hrs and there’s still today to get through. Also, there’s only so many ways to say “I cut some trees down and tramped all over creation” before it starts to sound repetitive. On the plus side, that means I did not encounter a bear, or a moose. Or even mutant acorn flying bears that drop out of trees and eviscerate you and eat your brains. Those are the worst. For which I am very grateful; that I didn’t encounter them, not that they eviscerate people, because that would actually be kind of cool.

He WILL eat your brains. Unless you’re armed with a machete of course.

You should be grateful too, otherwise there would be nothing here for you to read and then you would be sad. You would be a sad, lonely blogger. But I am here and I’m your friend, so now you are a happy, popular blogger! And as a bonus, you still have your brains and viscera.

Hurray!

And what really makes a blogger happy? This is a multiple choice test, so here are your choices:

Eating at “Rubbin Butts BBQ” (it’s a real place, I kid you not)
Getting 1 million followers who promptly do nothing and never interact with you
Running over a squirrel
Buying 8 journals
Writing the best post in your entire life in said journals and then bragging about it on your blog and telling everyone they simply aren’t worthy to read it.

Remember, there are no wrong answers here. But if you don’t pick the correct one, I’m totally scourging you with a flaming, fiery whip from hell.

Because I can.

I am currently writing in my last journal and should have it filled up by Thanksgiving or Christmas. With that impetus, I went and bought the eight current Paperblanks Embellished Manuscripts journals that I didn’t yet own.

This week you just get to see the packages they all came in. Over the coming weeks I’ll be showcasing each one individually for your viewing pleasure.

I’ve talked about the PEM journals before and how much I like them, but I think I’m going to talk about them some more. I’ve written about my journaling journey before (A History of…Journaling) and have gone through a wide variety of styles.

The reason I like the PEM’s the best is three fold.

First, they lay flat when opened without having any pressure put on them. I do a lot of my journaling while sitting, in a pew, in the work van, on the couch at home. I need the pages to lie flat so I can easily write on them. If I have to press on the journal to keep it open while writing, that doesn’t make for a good writing time.

Second, they have a flap closure. This means that when closed, the pages are not subject to rubbing up against whatever else I may have in my bag. It also means it can’t accidentally fall open and expose all my secrets to the world. Like the formula for becoming one of the world’s foremost bloggers.

Thirdly, it is the right shape and size for me. It’s not quite square but neither is it so narrow that I feel I can only write 5 words on one line. The line spacing is also good for my eyes so I can write as large as I need to without strain.

And I think that’s enough blabbing from me. Happy Sabbath when it arrives for you (sun down).

Thursday, October 03, 2024

KTF Part I (Galaxy's Edge #16) 3Stars

Title: KTF Part I
Series: Galaxy’s Edge #16
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Military SF
Pages: 267
Words: 87K

KTF stands for Kill Them First, which is one of the mottoes of the Legion.

It turns out that Ravi, the last Ancient in our universe, didn’t die in the previous book. He simply broke a covenant that freed Dark Forces to act as they were going to eventually anyway.

And all during this time, the original Savage has been biding his time, learning, becoming knowledgeable in the power that Goth Sullus called The Crux. The power that Prisma is trying to learn about. She is now with her mother, who is also a savage in thrall to this God of the Savages. He is the one who set the original Savage Wars in motion and now, he not only plans on starting the Second Savage War, but he also has plans to contain the Consumption, the Dark Force that has been trying to gain access to our universe. With that power under his control, he truly IS approaching godhood.

I enjoyed this much more than the previous book but not enough to redeem the path the authors are going overall.

The Consumption is the Dark Force that Tyrus Rechs was trying to warn everyone against. It is the force the Legion was created to eventually fight against and when the Legion went bad before Article 19, the force Dark Ops were created to fight against. And it turns out he was being used by the Savage King even way back then. So everything we thought we knew has been thrown into question.

This was a good, enjoyable military science fiction story and if this wasn’t book 16 in a series, I’d probably give it a much higher rating, maybe even a 4star. But the authors, Anspach and Cole, have spit on me and my Star Wars fandom and I can’t overlook that, nor will I. 3Stars is as high as my reading conscious will let me go.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

Synopsis – click to open

The Savage Wars never ended.

As Kill Team Victory and General Chhun take control of the cities on Kima, a war every bit as spiritual as it is physical rages in the deepest parts of galaxy’s edge. The Legion, and the Republic military at large, struggle to deal with a sudden multitude of planetary invasions and uprisings — with rumors of mysterious ships breaking the peace achieved by Article Nineteen. Meanwhile Captain Aeson Keel continues his search for Prisma, aided by friends from both his past and present. But only mankind’s oldest ally can hold back the tide of ultimate destruction. For an unknown darkness is closing in, and the Republic once again stands on the threshold of galactic war.