Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Friday, November 29, 2024

November '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 6 ↓↓

Short Stories – 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels – 6 ↑↑

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.08 ↓

Pages – 3022 ↓

Words – 709K ↓↓

The Bad:

Neuromancer – 1/2star of Utter Badness

Web of Spider – 1.5stars of neo-paganism

The Good:

If Only He Knew – 4stars of good relationship advice

Demon Slayer #1 – 3.5stars of mercy in action

Movie:

Vacation Daze, the 5th dvd in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

As you can tell from the book numbers, Neuromancer absolutely destroyed my book reading rhythm. I had almost zero desire to read after that blasted thing. If it wasn’t for me trying out the Demon Slayer manga and loving it (I read more manga this month than I have in the entire year for goodness sake), my numbers would have been even worse. As it was, I read about half the number of words that I usually consume in a month.

Couple that with one week at work where my coworker and I were setting lot corners all week. That is a combination of granite bounds and iron pins. We set a total of 20 granite bounds and 25-30 pins. A day or two isn’t a problem, but by day three my elbows begin to throb by 8am and it’s pain reliever time at lunch time for the rest of the week. And one night of sleep isn’t enough for my body to recover from that level of labor any more, so I was simply exhausted by week’s end. Thankfully, that was only one week out of the month, so it was survivable, just not enjoyable. But it did coincide with the week I reviewed Neuromancer, so I was blasted both in body and in mind.

Thanksgiving, REAL Thanksgiving, was yesterday and I had that off and I get today off from work as well. Using that time to do as much nothing as I can.

Cover Love:

The Old Gods Waken, the first in the Silver John series takes this month’s cover love. I love the cover, but in all honesty, it had NO competition at all this month.

Plans for Next Month:

I am desperately hoping my reading mojo returns and that I can return to my more normal levels of reading. I do have a bunch more of the Demon Slayer manga on standby though, just in case I’m still not fully recovered.

Each Friday in December I plan on doing my Love Saves the Day by Barbara Cartland update for the chapters I’ve read. Anybody is more than welcome to ride along. Here is the schedule for the chapters and dates

December 6 – Chapters 1-3
December 13 – Chapters 4-5
December 20 – Chapters 6-7
December 27 – Chapters 8-10
January 7 – Final Review

Other than the usual Magic the Gathering posts, I figure I’ll squeeze in an Art post or two. Honestly, the first week in January is looking extremely busy (in terms of blogging) so I’m trying to give myself all the extra padding I can ahead of time. Yes, that’s a month away, but doesn’t everybody plan their blogging schedule that far ahead? 😉

Thursday, November 28, 2024

[Art] Happy Thanksgiving 2024 /Updated

The last several years I have done pretty much the same thing for Thanksgiving. The things I have given Thanks for have remained pretty steady. If you’d like to see that list, feel free to visit last years post, Thanksgiving 2023.

I wanted to do something slightly different this year. So the first change was including an Art piece. That visual change helps me change my mindset about the whole post. I wanted to give thanks this year for the little things that I might usually take for granted.

Our world is chockful of little things to be thankful for. I immediately think of grass. I like how grass looks. It’s soothing and calm. Seeing a little patch of green in a sea of pavement or concrete can bring a moment of peace. I am thankful such opportunities exist.

I am thankful for leaves (I suspect the fact that I don’t have to rake them up affects that 😀 ). From their brilliant green in the spring and summer, to their wonderful colors in the fall, to the fact that their death replenishes the nutrients in the ground. We live in a wonderful created world, with each part doing the job it was created to do. I am thankful for that.

I am thankful for such small things as Rockstar energy drinks. I just have to be careful not to be TOO thankful and imbibe more than is safe 😉

Finally, I am thankful for all of my fellow bloggers, from those who write multiple times a day to those who write once a month. My blogging experience wouldn’t be the same if you weren’t there. My world would be a poorer place if you weren’t in it. So thank you for fighting the good fight and pushing out those posts and comments.

Cheers to you all!

UPDATE:

It is now approximately 9am and Mrs B and I have already had our Thanksgiving Dinner, for breakfast. I absolutely love having the day off.

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

If Only He Knew 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: If Only He Knew
Series: —–
Author: Gary Smalley
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 192
Words: 53K

I read books like this, like Hedges, like Making Love Last Forever, not because I have ever felt that Mrs B and I have been on the rocks relationally, but because I want to do everything in my power to prevent us from ever getting onto the rocks in the first place. Preventative steps are always easier to take than the steps needed when divorce is a real possibility.

I feel like I could take the following quote and have it sum up the book, for me:

“If a couple has been married for more than five years, all of the husband’s emotional unhappiness is 100 percent his fault.
In other words, your feelings of unhappiness in your marriage are directly traceable to the beliefs you have placed within your own heart.”
~Chapter 5, Climbing out of Marriage’s Deepest Pit

That’s a tough statement right there. But you know what? Men NEED those tough statements. At the same time, Smalley is writing exclusively to men. This is not a book for a woman to buy her husband and casually leave it on the coffee table in hopes he’ll read it and become the man she wants him to be. Smalley has a book for women called For Better or For Best. I have no plans to ever read that book, it’s not for me. This book however, is for men who want to enrich their relationship with their wives, fix their relationships with their wives or recover their relationship with their ex-wives. The thing is, the man has to want to, or nothing in this book is going to help.

Smalley also makes it a huge part of everything that the only person you can change in your marriage is you. Do not spend the time, effort and energy to change your wife. Change yourself into the man God wants you to be and the man your wife needs. This is very much about sacrificial love on the husband’s part. I wish I could emphasize that to the heavens itself. A husband is called to sacrifice himself for his wife, just like Jesus sacrificed Himself for the Church (Christians). There is no getting around that.

If you are a list kind of guy, there are lots and lots of checklists. One chapter had over 100 things to ask/question/check. It was daunting and I must admit, I skipped it. There were smaller ones though that I assiduously read.

Reading this made more thankful than ever that I am married to Mrs B. She is a dedicated Christian, has set herself to follow Christ and because of her willingness to be more Christlike and less self oriented, has made our relationship so much better. I am reaping the rewards of her faithfulness. Some of those checklists I was like “Phhhht, Mrs B doesn’t do ANY of these issues” and I was immensely grateful. I hope I can be the husband she needs, as she is very much the wife I need. At the same time, even with 16 years of marriage under our belts, we still have a lot of learning to do. It brings to mind an instance that occurred just a couple of months ago. I am a very “Words” oriented person. I use words to show people that I love them, that I care about them, that they matter to me (which is why a “silent treatment” is the worst thing I can ever imagine doing to someone). Mrs B on the other hand is very much a touch oriented person. She likes giving hugs, shaking hands, etc. That is completely foreign to me. Well, one day I came home from work and I could tell Mrs B had had a very bad day at work. So I can began asking her how her day went, how she was feeling, if there was anything I could do for her. She finally exploded (her version of it anyway) with “Words, word, words! Just give me a hug!” Ever since then, I make sure to give her a hug when I come home BEFORE asking her all my “words” questions. Loving my wife also means knowing just what love is to my wife. I also make sure she knows I am not just going through the motions with that hug. When I hug her, she knows it! 😀

Smalley ends the book on a warning note however. Never become complacent, never coast. A marriage is not a static relationship. It is a changing thing where you are either growing closer or further apart from each other. Smalley encourages men to make sure they are doing their best to grow closer to their wives. I thought it was a great way to end the book.

★★★★☆

Table of Contents – click to open

1. How to Drive Your Wife Away Without Even Trying 9

2. Where Have All the Feelings Gone? 25

3. If Your Wife Doesn’t Win First Place, You Lose! 39

4. Your Wife Needs Your Shoulder, Not Your Mouth 53

5. Climbing Out of Marriage’s Deepest Pit 67

6. What No Woman Can Resist 97

7. What Women Admire Most About Men 107

8. If Your Wife’s Not Protected, You Get Neglected 117

9. Arguments … There’s a Better Way 129

10. A Successful Marriage … It’s Easier Than You Think 143

11. So You Want a Perfect Wife 155

12. Watch Out! It Can Happen to You 169

Resources 172

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

The Demon Slayer Corps Gather (Demon Slayer #6) 3.5Stars

Title: The Demon Slayer Corps Gather
Series: Demon Slayer #6
Author: Koyoharu Gotouge
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 195
Words: 9K

At the end of the previous volume, Tanjiro was facing down one of the Kizuki and apparently about to lose. Some of the higher powered Demon Slayers show up, clean things up and take Tanjiro, his sister Nezuko, and the Two Doofuses into custody. Tanjiro for allying himself with a demon (his sister) and Nezuko, for being a demon. The two doofuses are just kind of dragged along by association.

This is the volume where we find out a good bit about the hierarchy of both the Demon Slayers and the demons. I know we (as in Tanjiro and thus the “reader”) are finding all of this out for the first time, but for goodness sake, Tanjiro was trained by a former high ranking Demon Slayer and he was told NONE of this? This is a common trope in shonen manga, as that is based on the Warrior Mythos, ie, one man becoming stronger and stronger, all on his own! No help needed, thank you very much. It still bugs the living daylights out of me. Communication is King, you dumbasses.

We also get a special Training Montage chapter or three. Once again, it was all stuff that Tanjiro’s former master should have taught him before ever letting him even try to be a demon slayer. Arrrrghhhh, it’s fun to read about but at the same time it is frustrating as all get out as I can see ways to increase efficiency, decrease demon slayer deaths and work towards killing Big Papa Demon. The funny thing is, in the training montage sequence, Tanjiro does EXACTLY what I just said. He asks for help, and gets it. Once he masters an idea, the two doofuses see that it can be done and thus apply themselves and learn it too. I kind of hope to see Tanjiro change the Demon Slayer Corps for the better. Considering the kind of character he is, I bet that will be one of his story arcs, probably bringing him into conflict with a high ranking Demon Slayer in the process. In other words, the usual. I hope the manga-ka surprises me though and does something UN-usual. Like he has in previous volumes.

All in all, a well deserved return to a 3.5star rating.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

ToC & Synopsis – click to open

“Against Corps Rules”

“Trial by Hashira”

“Master of the Mansion”

“Hmph!”

“Butterfly Mansion”

“Rehabilitation Training, Part 1”

“Rehabilitation Training, Part 2”

“The Nichirin Sword Returns”

“Cruel and Heartless”

After killing the daughter spider, Shinobu targets Nezuko with Giyū holding her back so the Kamado siblings can escape. But they are intercepted by Shinobu’s ward Kanao Tsuyuri, the girl who completed Final Selection with Tanjiro. Luckily, the Kasugai crows relay orders for the Kamado siblings to be brought before the Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the Demon Corps leader, and Hashiras, the Demon Slayer Corps elite. Despite the others’ objections, Kagaya vouches for Nezuko to be spared as both Giyū and Urokodaki vouch on her behalf promising to commit seppuku should she start eating humans. Despite his objection, the Wind Hashira Sanemi Shinazugawa relents when Nezuko refuses to attack him after he repeatedly stabbed her. Tanjiro then begins his rehabilitation with his friends at Shinobu’s Butterfly House and learns new breathing techniques while curious about the Hinokami Kagura he used on Rui. Meanwhile, Kibutsuji has Nakime summon the Lower Kizuki to the Infinity Castle. He deems them no longer necessary and kills all but one named Enmu. Enmu receives some of Kibutsuji’s blood to increase his powers and is instructed to kill the Hashira and Tanjiro. A month later, Tanjiro’s group is assigned to investigate disappearances on the Mugen Train.

Monday, November 25, 2024

Fog - MTG 4E

I tended to be a defensive player until I was familiar with the deck I was facing, so whenever I played green, I always jammed in a couple of Fogs to protect myself. Let your opponent attack with all his creatures, thus tapping them and then don’t block any of them with my creatures but play a Fog. Then on my turn I sweep in with my horde of creatures and because his are all tapped, he can’t block and I either do a massive amount of damage or I kill him. Once someone knows that you play Fog a lot though, it changes how you play the game. Which is the whole point of Magic, every game should be different.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Book Recommendations IV

Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I’m able to start right away! That makes me pretty happy.

Recommendations & Responses

This will be a longer than usual list. People have really gotten into the spirit of things and so I need to up my blogging game as well.

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin was recommended to me by Film-Authority. While he had the temerity to suggest a Barbara Cartland romance novel in an earlier Book Rec post (thus earning himself the first diseased Chartreuse Flag), this was a serious recommendation. I hate Modern Lit and A Kiss is square in the midst of that time period. So I’m going to dive into it and see what I think. Added

The House on the Borderlands by William Hope Hodgson was recommended by Snapdragon. I have heard of Hodgson but never read anything by him. I’m totally up for trying out an old newtome author! And look at that cover? Is that just plain creepy or what? Added

The Mr Men series was recommended by Dave. Going to have to pass as I never experienced these as a kid and thus have no nostalgia factor to draw me to them. Pass.

Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud was recommended by Mallika. I’ve read this Trilogy and the Prequel back in 2009-2011.

The Stand by Stephen King was recommended by Firewater. Sadly for him, I’ve read that, back in 2008.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman was Mogsy’s recommendation. Now, you have to understand, Mogsy and I have a “history”, a book history that is. We read upon parallel SFF tracks and over the years have found that our tastes are VERY similar, but our bookish interests never quite converge. In fact, it’s become a running joke that if Mogsy absolutely loves something that I think sounds interesting, I’ll end up hating it. Because that’s how it has shaken out every single time. So this gets a hard Pass!

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Now we come to the part where I begin to wonder about all of you. Seriously.

Jilly Cooper’s Polo was recommended by Nic. Based on that cover alone gets Nic a Chartreuse Flag of Shame. Good job Nic, you earned that flag! 😉

The Most Important Part

Recommend me some more books!!!! Leave a comment with your recommendation of books you think I should respond to. I have the list of all the recommendations so far, so don’t you worry, I’ll be getting to them all eventually. And I had a lot of fun doing this 🙂

Friday, November 22, 2024

My Week XVII

Last week I told you how Mrs B survived a blown tire and that we were also dealing with a dead starter. Turns out it was way more than just a dead starter. Our A/C compressor had seized up and was dead as a doornail. That is run on a serpentine belt, which means everything else running off of that belt needed the compressor to be working. So we had to get a new one installed, along with the new starter.

$1500.

Right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Folks, I am not feeling very thankful right now, I really am not. Not even a new journal could make me feel better at the moment. While we have the money, thank God, this is going to impact us for the whole of 2025. This happened on Monday, so I’ve been stewing about it all week. I’m like a stewed prune right now.

And just because, I also caught a bug that had been going around Mrs B’s work place, so I was out of work on Wednesday and Thursday, being very noisily sick.

Best. Week. Ever.

Thursday, November 21, 2024

The Amulet (Groo the Wanderer #34) 3Stars

Title: The Amulet
Series: Groo the Wanderer #34
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

Back in Issue 26, Groo was tasked with finding half an amulet for a pair of witches. Who were in turn tasked by a powerful wizard. And of course Groo found half the amulet, only it was the half the wizard already had, and Groo completely messed up everything by throwing the half everybody wanted into a lake without them know it.

In this issue, things get resolved. In a very Groo sort of way of course.

The Wizard is in some sort of war with “creatures” and appears to be losing. So once again he tasks Arba and Dakarba to find Groo so as to find the lost half of the amulet. The Sage gets involved, as does his dog. Groo gets turned into a fish (which is smarter than Groo as a human), finds the amulet and the Sage steals the amulet and sends the Wizard and all his minions to another dimension.

That is all I really want from a 24 page comic.

★★★☆☆

All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Boundless (Lost Fleet: Outlands #1) 3.5Stars

Title: Boundless
Series: Lost Fleet: Outlands #1
Author: Jack Campbell
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 317
Words: 124K

After reading the prequel series The Genesis Fleet and not being very impressed, I was wondering how I was going to handle Campbell’s foray into the next Black Jack Geary Adventure. It has been 8 years after all.

Thankfully, Campbell does a great job of recapping things and bringing wayward readers like myself up to speed. Thus I dived back into the Lost Fleet universe and had myself a grand old time.

This was everything that previous Lost Fleet books are. You get Jack Geary being forced to walk that impossible line between doing the right thing while corrupt politicians do everything in their power to destroy him by hook or by crook. He’s given conflicting orders, hampered by stupid citizenry, surrounded by enemies as well as crew who border on hero worship of the worst kind.

There are space battles but thankfully that plays a smaller part than usual. I have had my fill of space battles from reading the Empire Rising series by Holmes. Sadly, with Campbell being a retired Navy officer, there’s not much space marine fighting described. It’s all ship to ship, sigh.

Overall though, I had a better time reading this than the Genesis fleet trilogy and that bodes well for the rest of the trilogy.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

click to open

Geary believed in the Alliance. Even when he uncovered overwhelming evidence that the highest echelons of the government and fleet command were involved in secret programs and prison camps, he believed it was worth saving. And that his duty was to see that justice was served even though some factions feared that revealing the truth would cause the Alliance to crumble.

But after narrowly surviving two assassination attempts when he brings evidence of the misdeeds to the capital star system, Geary realizes that some have decided the easiest way to make the Alliance’s problems go away is to get rid of him. He finds himself ordered to undertake a perilous new mission outside of the reaches of human-occupied space while the Senate clashes over the evidence.

Geary’s warships must escort a diplomatic and scientific mission across the dangerous, disintegrating remnants of the Syndicate Worlds empire. But even if he can make it to Midway Star System, the gateway to alien-controlled space, Geary will face former Syndicate officials who have rebelled and regard the Alliance with deep suspicion. And that will be the easy part. . . .

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

To Hell (Demon Slayer #5) 3Stars

Title: To Hell
Series: Demon Slayer #5
Author: Koyoharu Gotouge
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Words: 9K

Ok, well, this just got gory really fast! I know there has been violence and blood before, but it just seemed to ramp up here. There’s a typical “sliced into pieces” scene that is familiar to fans of Cube to Resident Evil, so it didn’t make me sick to my stomach, but I wasn’t expecting such graphic’ness.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Gotouge (the mangaka) commits the cardinal sin of Tanjiro having mercy towards demons mean that they are just poor misunderstood humans who had some bad luck by being turned into demons in the first place. We have evidence that demons CAN refrain from killing humans (Tanjiro’s sister Nezuko is one, as is the Doctor and her apprentice from the previous volumes) and thus they need to be destroyed if they are killing humans. Mercy also doesn’t mean you don’t kill the thing you’re having mercy towards. It didn’t go quite that far in this volume, but suddenly, I am concerned it will. The reason it concerns me is that it means there isn’t evil, just misunderstood “poor babies’ who need just the right coddling and magically everything will be ok and all forgiven with no consequences. I’m not feeling very charitable at the moment so that attitude irks me to no end. Not sure it would actually bother me at another time.

Blaaaahhhhh….

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

ToC and Synopsis – click to open

“Scattered”

“This Is Bad!”

“Broken Blade”

“Real and Fake”

“Life Passing Before One’s Eyes”

“Hinokami”

“Shinobu Kocho”

“Behind”

“To Hell”

Zenitsu enters Mt. Natagumo and kills the brother spider but is poisoned. He is saved from the demon’s poison by Shinobu while Giyū dispatches the Father when Inosuke is overpowered. Tanjiro ends up facing the real Kizuki Rui as he was disciplining a demon he forced to be his sister, revealing that assembled the spider demons to create his own familial bonds and takes an interest in Nezuko. Tanjiro is overpowered while trying to save Nezuko, causing him to remember watching his frail father dance the Hinokami Kagura. Tanjiro proceeds to use Hinokami Kagura offensively, managing to behead Rui with support from Nezuko’s Demon Blood Art. Rui survives and nearly kills the Kamado siblings when Giyū appears and kills him, with Rui regaining his memories and closure with the parents he assume did not love him.