Zach's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:27:20 -0700 60 Zach's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1)]]> 32109569 Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.]]> 383 Dennis E. Taylor Zach 0 currently-reading 4.29 2016 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1)
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Zach
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lost Birds (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito, #27)]]> 194896838
From New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman, a thrilling and moving chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series involving several emotionally complex cases that will test the detectives in different ways.

Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential to solve a compelling new finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child’s blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client’s adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a deadly cache of long-buried family secrets.

As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg’s desperation is clear in his voice, but just as he begins to explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. Investigation of the explosion falls in part to Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who discovers an unexpected link to Cecil’s missing wife.

Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.

Exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption of Indigenous children by non-native parents, Anne Hillerman delivers another thought-provoking, gripping mystery that brings to life the vivid terrain of the American Southwest, its people, and the lore and traditions that make it distinct.

Ěý±Ő±Ő> 300 Anne Hillerman 0063344823 Zach 4 4.26 2024 Lost Birds (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito, #27)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/13
date added: 2025/06/13
shelves:
review:
Looks like I accidentally read this one way out of order. Anyways Anne Hillerman really seems better than her father. Same old characters yet they felt more fully written. Listen this is book 27 so you know what this series is about but if you are like me and you are enjoying this series, keep reading because Anne Hillerman is a great writer!
]]> <![CDATA[Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again]]> 223927267 From two of America’s most respected journalists, an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy.

Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump presidential term. He, his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting.

Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. What you will learn makes President Biden’s decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless—a desperate bet that went bust—and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades.

The irony is that in the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, tossing aside his implicit promise to serve for only one term, denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years, dooming the Democrats to defeat. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has happened as a consequence. Rarely does hubris meet nemesis more explosively. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential reading.]]> 352 Jake Tapper Zach 3 3.63 2025 Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again
author: Jake Tapper
name: Zach
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/08
date added: 2025/06/13
shelves:
review:
Very readable book here but not sure I heard anything new. Not unhappy I read this but the topic is so specific and it's widely known.
]]> <![CDATA[Sub-Majer's Challenge (Saga of Recluce, 25)]]> 217387613 448 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 1250326826 Zach 0 to-read 4.33 2025 Sub-Majer's Challenge (Saga of Recluce, 25)
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Zach
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shape Shifter (Leaphorn & Chee, #18)]]> 48081 Since his retirement from the Navajo Tribal Police, Joe Leaphorn has occasionally been enticed to return to work by former colleagues who seek his help when they need to solve a particularly puzzling crime. They ask because Leaphorn, aided by officers Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito, always delivers.

But this time the problem is with an old case of Joe's--his "last case," unsolved, is one that continues to haunt him. And with Chee and Bernie just back from their honeymoon, Leaphorn is pretty much on his own.

The original case involved a priceless, one-of-a-kind Navajo rug supposedly destroyed in a fire. Suddenly, what looks like the same rug turns up in a magazine spread. And the man who brings the photo to Leaphorn's attention has gone missing. Leaphorn must pick up the threads of a crime he'd thought impossible to untangle. Not only has the passage of time obscured the details, but it also appears that there's a murderer still on the loose.

New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman is at the top of his form in this atmospheric and riveting novel set amid the rugged beauty of his beloved Southwest.]]> 276 Tony Hillerman 0060563451 Zach 3 3.99 2006 The Shape Shifter (Leaphorn & Chee, #18)
author: Tony Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/07
date added: 2025/06/07
shelves:
review:
Spending time with Joe Leaphorn is always a good time. I wish he wasn't retired though. This book felt cozy, like spending time with older relatives. It was entertaining but honestly nothing special.
]]> <![CDATA[Never Flinch (Holly Gibney, #4)]]> 221633230 From master storyteller Stephen King comes an extraordinary new novel with intertwining storylines—one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty� in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,� Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.

Thrilling, wildly fun, and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.]]> 439 Stephen King 1668089335 Zach 3 to-read
It's fine, but I wouldn't start with this one if you are a King fan.]]> 3.85 2025 Never Flinch (Holly Gibney, #4)
author: Stephen King
name: Zach
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:
I love Stephen King. I do not love this book. I feel like Mr. King did not have the most inspiration in writing this one, the plot seemed similar to many of his books and the characters were also uninspired. I don't mind Holly Gibney, she's fine but this book needed another character with substance. Unfortunately this one just lacked seasoning.

It's fine, but I wouldn't start with this one if you are a King fan.
]]> Eleven Numbers 222163948 An American mathematician’s assignment in Russia spirals into a high-stakes maze of shifting loyalties and intrigue in a propulsive short thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.

Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics—in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.]]> 50 Lee Child 1662526202 Zach 3 4.09 2025 Eleven Numbers
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/22
date added: 2025/06/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cleaning the Gold (Jack Reacher, #23.6; Will Trent, #8.5)]]> 45302351 From New York Times bestselling authors Karin Slaughter and Lee Child comes this electrifying short story featuring their iconic characters Will Trent and Jack Reacher.


Twice the action.

Twice the drama.

Double the trouble.

Will Trent is undercover at Fort Knox. His assignment: to investigate a twenty-two-year-old murder. His suspect’s name: Jack Reacher.

Jack Reacher is in Fort Knox on his own mission: to bring down a dangerous criminal ring operating at the heart of America’s military. Except now Will Trent is on the scene.

But there’s a bigger conspiracy at play—one that neither the special agent nor the ex-military cop could have anticipated. And the only option is for Jack Reacher and Will Trent to team up and play nicely. If they can…]]> 129 Karin Slaughter Zach 3 3.52 2019 Cleaning the Gold (Jack Reacher, #23.6; Will Trent, #8.5)
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Zach
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/21
date added: 2025/06/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Moby-Dick or, The Whale 153747 "It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

This edition of Moby-Dick, which reproduces the definitive text of the novel, includes invaluable explanatory notes, along with maps, illustrations, and a glossary of nautical terms.]]> 720 Herman Melville 0142437247 Zach 4 DO NOT READ THE UNABRIDGED VERSION. It's so long, has so much nonsense in it and just is absolutely distracting.
I always read unabridged but this book simply would not end. It really took me forever to get through it.]]> 3.53 1851 Moby-Dick or, The Whale
author: Herman Melville
name: Zach
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1851
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/25
date added: 2025/06/01
shelves:
review:
Ok here is the thing. This is an all time great book. Ahab is one of the best characters I HAVE EVER READ! Got it?
DO NOT READ THE UNABRIDGED VERSION. It's so long, has so much nonsense in it and just is absolutely distracting.
I always read unabridged but this book simply would not end. It really took me forever to get through it.
]]> <![CDATA[In Too Deep (Jack Reacher #29)]]> 200638634
That was for damn sure.*PRE-ORDER THE NEW JACK REACHER NOW!*]]> 338 Lee Child 1529922771 Zach 3 3.98 2024 In Too Deep (Jack Reacher #29)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/24
date added: 2025/06/01
shelves:
review:
This one failed to grab me. Wasn't terrible, definitely more of the same and unfortunately not one of the better ones from this series.
]]> Ushers 218362004 A young man who has improbably escaped death twice reveals his secret in a spine-tingling short story by New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill.

Martin Lorensen is a twenty-three-year-old counselor for disturbed teenagers. He’s bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing. He’s also—and this is the most interesting thing—not dead. Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disasters that claimed dozens of lives. The kid is riding one hell of a lucky streak. Two federal agents think there is something darker at play. Now that they’ve arranged to interview Martin, they want answers. Martin is ready to share everything he knows. One thing is for certain: when it comes to escaping death, luck doesn’t figure into it at all.]]> 29 Joe Hill 1662527942 Zach 4 4.23 2024 Ushers
author: Joe Hill
name: Zach
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves:
review:
A very short book, a very fun spooky tale.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook]]> 191746386
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?

Hampton Sides� bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science-–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.]]> 408 Hampton Sides 0385544766 Zach 4
The book moves at a brisk clip and never stops entertaining. By the closing chapters I did not feel I truly “met� Captain Cook, but that's ok a much longer book would have felt like a slog. If you’re looking for an engaging introduction to Cook and his fateful last voyage, this is an excellent place to start, equal parts history lesson and high‑stakes adventure. Fans of narrative maritime history will find plenty to love.]]> 4.47 2024 The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
author: Hampton Sides
name: Zach
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves:
review:
Hampton Sides has a gift for turning archival research into page‑turning narrative, and The Wide Wide Sea is no exception. I especially appreciate that Sides, one of my favorite narrative historians, keeps reminding readers that the surviving accounts come almost entirely from the voyage’s European participants. That perspective matters: as I am married into a Polynesian family myself, I read with caution whenever the Indigenous peoples are cast as anything less than admirable.

The book moves at a brisk clip and never stops entertaining. By the closing chapters I did not feel I truly “met� Captain Cook, but that's ok a much longer book would have felt like a slog. If you’re looking for an engaging introduction to Cook and his fateful last voyage, this is an excellent place to start, equal parts history lesson and high‑stakes adventure. Fans of narrative maritime history will find plenty to love.
]]> <![CDATA[Skeleton Man (Leaphorn & Chee, #17)]]> 48082 In 1956, an airplane crash left the remains of 172 passengers scattered among the majestic cliffs of the Grand Canyon - including an arm attached to a briefcase containing a fortune in gems. Half a century later, one of the missing diamonds has reappeared... and the wolves are on the scent.

Former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is coming out of retirement to help exonerate a slow, simple kid accused of robbing a trade post. Billy Tuve claims he received the diamond he tried to pawn from a mysterious old man in the canyon, and his story has attracted the dangerous attention of strangers to the Navajo lands - one more interested in a severed limb than the fortune it was attached to; another willing to murder to keep lost secrets hidden. But nature herself may prove the deadliest adversary, as Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee follow a puzzle - and a killer - down into the dark realm of Skeleton Man.]]> 336 Tony Hillerman 006056346X Zach 3 3.94 2004 Skeleton Man (Leaphorn & Chee, #17)
author: Tony Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves:
review:

]]> North Woods 71872930
When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants . An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins survive war and famine, only to succumb to envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave, but finds the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?]]> 372 Daniel Mason 0593597036 Zach 4
Reading it, though, I discovered two things. First, Mason’s narrative moves at a brisk pace. Just as I’d grow attached to a character, the story would leap forward to the next era. Sometimes this left me wanting more time with the people I’d just met; other times I was completely swept up in the momentum.

Second, my feelings about the book shifted as I read. Around the three-quarter mark I was leaning toward a solid two- or three-star rating. Then the final chapters pulled everything together in a way that felt unexpectedly tender and nostalgic. By the last page I was convinced I’d underrated it—so much so that I’m already planning a slower, more deliberate reread.

My advice? Don’t race through North Woods. Linger over its vignettes, let each generation settle in your mind, and you’ll find a quietly remarkable novel that rewards patience and reflection.]]> 4.11 2023 North Woods
author: Daniel Mason
name: Zach
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:
North Woods had me at its premise: a single house standing for four centuries, quietly gathering the lives and legends of everyone who passes through. On the page, that sounds like the perfect book for me, sign me up!

Reading it, though, I discovered two things. First, Mason’s narrative moves at a brisk pace. Just as I’d grow attached to a character, the story would leap forward to the next era. Sometimes this left me wanting more time with the people I’d just met; other times I was completely swept up in the momentum.

Second, my feelings about the book shifted as I read. Around the three-quarter mark I was leaning toward a solid two- or three-star rating. Then the final chapters pulled everything together in a way that felt unexpectedly tender and nostalgic. By the last page I was convinced I’d underrated it—so much so that I’m already planning a slower, more deliberate reread.

My advice? Don’t race through North Woods. Linger over its vignettes, let each generation settle in your mind, and you’ll find a quietly remarkable novel that rewards patience and reflection.
]]> <![CDATA[From Sand Creek to Summit Springs: Colorado's Indian Wars]]> 61137266 543 Linda Wommack 0870046438 Zach 0 currently-reading 5.00 From Sand Creek to Summit Springs: Colorado's Indian Wars
author: Linda Wommack
name: Zach
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA["The Utes Must Go!": American Expansion and the Removal of a People]]> 1125534 256 Peter R. Decker 1555914659 Zach 5 Every Coloradan should read this book, the story of Utes shouldn't be this hidden. Vital history, easy reading. Good stuff!]]> 3.94 2004 "The Utes Must Go!": American Expansion and the Removal of a People
author: Peter R. Decker
name: Zach
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:
Wish this was longer!
Every Coloradan should read this book, the story of Utes shouldn't be this hidden. Vital history, easy reading. Good stuff!
]]> The Secret (Jack Reacher #28) 62983544
That attention comes from the Secretary of Defence, who promptly calls for an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher is assigned as the Army's representative.

Reacher may be an exceptional soldier, but sweeping other people's secrets under the carpet isn't part of his skill set. As he races to discover the link between these victims, and who killed them, he must navigate around the ulterior motives of his new 'partners'. And all while moving into the sight line of some of the most dangerous people he has ever encountered.

His mission is to uncover the truth. The question is: will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way . . . or his way?]]> 400 Lee Child 1984818597 Zach 3 4.12 2023 The Secret (Jack Reacher #28)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:
Decent mystery kept me engaged. Not enough violence but at least not too much James Bond romance either.
]]> <![CDATA[Necroscope: The Novellas: The Plague-Bearer and The Mobius Murders]]> 60229574
The Plague-Bearer

Harry Keogh is moving on. Though the search for his missing wife and child continues, his heart now lies in Edinburgh with Bonnie Jean—a beautiful Scottish werewolf whose friendly pack and flourishing pub have given him a place he can almost call home.

But from the rocky heights of Sicily, the diabolical Francezci brothers plot the wolf-pack's destruction; and down in the terrible Pit beneath Le Manse Madonie, an ancient evil schemes.

The vampires conspire. They reach a decision. They choose a vector. Mafia thug Mike Milazzo is no good to anyone, anytime, anywhere…which makes him perfect. Disposable.

The brothers infect him with a deadly poison—an engineered plague that even a werewolf could never survive—and they offer him a terrible successfully contaminate the wolf-pack, and receive the antidote. Fail, and die!

Mike has everything to lose. So does Harry Keogh. But the Necroscope lost everything once before, and he isn't about to do it again...

The Möbius Murders

Harry Keough, aka the Necroscope, has always considered himself a master of the Möbius Continuum—a dimension existing parallel to all space and time and his personal instantaneous gateway to anywhere in the multiverse. But this is hardly overweening conceit on Harry's part, for to his knowledge he is not unique; two other intelligences, with powers similar to his, do indeed exist. One such is the long-dead August Ferdinand Möbius himself, the German astronomer, mathematician, and discoverer of the eponymous Möbius Strip which led him to explore, posthumously, his previously conjectural Continuum; and the other is Harry s son, who has not only inherited his father's mathematical skill but also the metaphysical talent by means of which the Necroscope converses with dead people in their graves!

Picture Harry's confusion, then, on returning home via the Möbius Continuum from an adventure in Las Vegas, as he witnesses however briefly a flailing figure hurtling conscious but uncontrolled through the endless midnight of the Continuum. Who could this be—how can it be?—that a helpless, silently protesting other is rushing meteor-like across the Continuum's Stygian vault? Moreover, if he hasn't arrived here voluntarily, then what vile murderer has sent his victim on this monstrous journey to the end of life itself? For Harry is sure that this is neither his son s nor Professor Möbius' doing.

Who and where is he, this Möbius murderer? It is a mystery that only the Necroscope can ever hope to solve—but at what risk to his own life?

Who and where is he, this Mobius murderer? It is a mystery that only the Necroscope can ever hope to solve—but at what risk to his own life?]]> 327 Brian Lumley Zach 2 4.12 Necroscope: The Novellas: The Plague-Bearer and The Mobius Murders
author: Brian Lumley
name: Zach
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:
Feel like I've squeezed all the juice out of this series. These novellas do not really push the narrative and feel like crumbs left over from the main series.
]]> No Plan B (Jack Reacher, #27) 60048804
But Reacher is unaware that these crimes are part of something much larger and more far-reaching: an arsonist out for revenge, a foster kid on the run, a cabal of powerful people involved in a secret conspiracy with many moving parts. There is no room for error, but they make a grave one. They don’t consider Reacher a threat. “If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and permanently removed. There’s too much at stake to start running from shadows". But Reacher isn’t a shadow. He is flesh and blood. And relentless when it comes to making things right. For when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B....]]> 336 Lee Child 1984818554 Zach 3 4.01 2022 No Plan B (Jack Reacher, #27)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:
Reacher is becoming less Sherlock Holmes and more T-1000. This book was short on dialog, plot, mystery, characters and really just had a lot of Reacher kicking butt. Ok, so you see that I gave it 3 stars still right. Yeah, that's my statement.
]]> Abundance 176444106 Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic from climate change to housing, education to healthcare.

To trace the global history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of growing unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, the entire country has a national housing crisis. After years of slashing immigration, we don’t have enough workers. After decades of off-shoring manufacturing, we have a shortage of chips for cars and computers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean energy infrastructure we need. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the environmental problems of the 1970s often prevent urban density and green energy projects that would help solve the environmental problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions in matters of education and healthcare have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires the ability to see promise rather than just peril in the creation of new ideas and projects, and an instinct to design systems and institutions that make building possible. In a book exploring how can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and how we can adopt a mindset directed toward abundance, and not scarcity, to overcome them.]]> 304 Ezra Klein 1668023482 Zach 4
Some of the cons were that not every idea of this book was something we haven't heard a million times from these folks. Some of the statements like the average age of scientists making ground breaking work didn't feel like a well proven argument and sort of felt like why did you include this. Also why Ezra is so obsessed with bringing up California every 5 minutes gets pretty annoying.

Aside from that I think this book really has an important message and I'm glad I read it.]]> 4.06 2025 Abundance
author: Ezra Klein
name: Zach
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:
Lots of great ideas included in this book. I'll go so far to say that I really hope every Democrat reads this and we start to get the country on track. I think the ideas in this book were absolutely essential.

Some of the cons were that not every idea of this book was something we haven't heard a million times from these folks. Some of the statements like the average age of scientists making ground breaking work didn't feel like a well proven argument and sort of felt like why did you include this. Also why Ezra is so obsessed with bringing up California every 5 minutes gets pretty annoying.

Aside from that I think this book really has an important message and I'm glad I read it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sinister Pig (Leaphorn & Chee, #16)]]> 48092
But if a hunter were involved, Chee knows the prey was intentionally human. This belief is shared by the "Legendary Lieutenant" Joe Leaphorn, who once again is pulled out of retirement by the possibility of serious wrongs being committed against the Navajo nation by the Washington bureaucracy. Yet it is former policewoman Bernadette Manuelito, recently relocated to Customs Patrol at the U.S. -- Mexico border, who possibly holds the key to a fiendishly twisted conspiracy of greed, lies, and murder -- and whose only hope for survival now rests in the hands of friends too far away for comfort.]]> 318 Tony Hillerman 0061098787 Zach 4 3.87 2003 The Sinister Pig (Leaphorn & Chee, #16)
author: Tony Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:
Great spending time with these characters. Nothing too great included here just simply a good mystery and quick resolution.
]]> The Sirens of Titan 13144087 The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there's a catch to the invitation... and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.]]> 326 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Zach 3
Here we have quintessential Vonnegut, in my opinion it's concentrated too. This one simply felt very silly to me, too silly. Sometimes his wit hit me in the gut where he normally lands his quippy jabs but for most of the time I was thinking boy is this silly, and since I'm living in extraordinarily silly times it just hit a little too close to home.]]> 4.13 1959 The Sirens of Titan
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Zach
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:
I have to apologize for my lack of intelligence. I'm certain if I was smarter I would have enjoyed the genius of Vonnegut more. I've certainly enjoyed his other works more!

Here we have quintessential Vonnegut, in my opinion it's concentrated too. This one simply felt very silly to me, too silly. Sometimes his wit hit me in the gut where he normally lands his quippy jabs but for most of the time I was thinking boy is this silly, and since I'm living in extraordinarily silly times it just hit a little too close to home.
]]> <![CDATA[The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina (American Heritage)]]> 60685736 128 Damon L. Fordham 1467152765 Zach 5
Contained within this book was a whole other world for me, with historical leaders who had world changing thoughts during a time when these thoughts needed to be heard. As someone who is fascinated by Reconstruction and generally reads about white men and women this was refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the speeches from the South Carolina legislature.

At just over 100 pages I recommend others to find out about this hidden (and nearly lost) history.]]> 5.00 The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina (American Heritage)
author: Damon L. Fordham
name: Zach
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:
While traveling in Charleston I saw this book and decided to give it a shot. I know almost nothing of South Carolina from this time other than during Reconstruction this must have been a rough place for black families.

Contained within this book was a whole other world for me, with historical leaders who had world changing thoughts during a time when these thoughts needed to be heard. As someone who is fascinated by Reconstruction and generally reads about white men and women this was refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the speeches from the South Carolina legislature.

At just over 100 pages I recommend others to find out about this hidden (and nearly lost) history.
]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920]]> 150778828 592 Manisha Sinha 1631498444 Zach 4 4.21 2024 The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
author: Manisha Sinha
name: Zach
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:
Excellent research, and a comprehensive approach both delighted me and yes overwhelmed me too. The great news for me is that this put so many new names, and episodes in my head so I can dig a little deeper. The bad news is that this is admitting that I'm walking away with the thought that I want to go deeper but I should be careful of attempting to eat the whole elephant.
]]> <![CDATA[Into the Inferno (Rise of the Republic Book 11)]]> 212716200 For the brave Spartacus Division�
…every inch of victory was hell.
Could the Pharaonis finally fall?

After the triumphs of the Battles of the Forts, with Serenea now firmly under Allied control, Brigadier General Spartacus Varinius set his sights upon the Pharaonis home world. The Allies used a tactic reminiscent of Earth’s Second World War—however, instead of island hopping, they began planet-hopping, bypassing Pharaonis strongholds as they zeroed in on the planet Eurysa.

Was the Republic in reach of final victory?

Admiral Ripley Lee Willis had just received his second admiral’s star and additional reinforcements. In a daring maneuver that might alter the course of the war, he struck at the heart of the Zodark Empire. That risk might have cost him his fleet and the command he had worked toward his entire career.

Would Ripley’s fleet outwit his Zodark counterpart?

As the Humtars considered joining the Allies, an old foe emerged from the abyss, sending shivers down their spines.

They thought they had eradicated this evil long ago.

You’ll love this eleventh installment of the epic Rise of the Republic military sci-fi thriller series because the epic battles will make you feel like you are part of the action.

Get it now.


]]> 342 James Rosone 1961748665 Zach 4 4.46 Into the Inferno (Rise of the Republic Book 11)
author: James Rosone
name: Zach
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:
In Book 11, more of book 1-10. I enjoyed it. The ending was intense!
]]> <![CDATA[Better Off Dead (Jack Reacher, #26)]]> 56663329 336 Lee Child 1984818503 Zach 4 3.62 2021 Better Off Dead (Jack Reacher, #26)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
Reacher is pretty much the alpha predator the entire book. He's never on the back foot he's always terrorizing the bad guy. I like this.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wailing Wind (Leaphorn & Chee, #15)]]> 48084 Officer Bernadette Manuelito found the dead man slumped over in the cab of a blue pickup abandoned in a dry gulch off a dirt road--with a rich ex-con's phone number in his pocket ... and a tobacco tin nearly filled with tracer gold. It's her initial mishandling of the scene that spell trouble for her supervisor, Sgt. Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police--but it's the echoes of a long ago crime that call the legendary former Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn out of retirement. Years earlier, Leaphorn followed the trail of a beautiful, young, and missing wife to a dead end, and his failure has haunted him ever since. But ghosts never sleep in these high, lonely Southwestern hills. And the twisted threads of craven murders past and current may finally be coming together, thanks to secrets once moaned in torment on the desert wind.

]]> 334 Tony Hillerman 0061098795 Zach 5
Giving this a 5 star because if you like Hillerman's stuff then this is one of the best.]]> 4.06 2002 The Wailing Wind (Leaphorn & Chee, #15)
author: Tony Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
Something about this book which was like many of the previous ones just sat perfect with what I wanted in a novel. Good mystery, believable characters, interesting plot points and doesn't 0verstay it's welcome.

Giving this a 5 star because if you like Hillerman's stuff then this is one of the best.
]]> <![CDATA[Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI]]> 204927599 From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?

Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.

Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.]]> 528 Yuval Noah Harari 059373422X Zach 3
One thing that consistently stands out in Harari’s writing is his sense of conviction, he tends to argue with the certainty of a friend who’s convinced the world is ending and believes they know exactly why. This may be a bit harsh, but it’s the impression I get from reading all of his books, and Nexus is no exception.

Focusing on the content, Nexus presents some intriguing ideas but ultimately seems to assert that change is fundamentally harmful, with history offering ample evidence of tragedy. While I agree that history is rife with disasters and that the AI revolution may bring serious consequences, I’m not fully convinced by the book’s somewhat fatalistic conclusion. As a techno-optimist, I still found the perspectives in Nexus thought-provoking, even if I don’t share Harari’s more pessimistic outlook. There’s no denying that he tackles pressing issues, and the book raises questions that are well worth contemplating.]]> 4.14 2024 Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Zach
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:
I’ve read all of Yuval Noah Harari’s published works, so I’m quite familiar with his writing style. Over time, I’ve noticed that he often revisits material from Sapiens, albeit with some expansion. While I enjoyed Sapiens the most, I appreciate that this latest book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, doesn’t lean too heavily on past content, though it still retains Harari’s trademark voice.

One thing that consistently stands out in Harari’s writing is his sense of conviction, he tends to argue with the certainty of a friend who’s convinced the world is ending and believes they know exactly why. This may be a bit harsh, but it’s the impression I get from reading all of his books, and Nexus is no exception.

Focusing on the content, Nexus presents some intriguing ideas but ultimately seems to assert that change is fundamentally harmful, with history offering ample evidence of tragedy. While I agree that history is rife with disasters and that the AI revolution may bring serious consequences, I’m not fully convinced by the book’s somewhat fatalistic conclusion. As a techno-optimist, I still found the perspectives in Nexus thought-provoking, even if I don’t share Harari’s more pessimistic outlook. There’s no denying that he tackles pressing issues, and the book raises questions that are well worth contemplating.
]]> King Sorrow 223420465
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.

But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.]]> 896 Joe Hill 0062200607 Zach 0 to-read 4.41 2025 King Sorrow
author: Joe Hill
name: Zach
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Necronomicon 23012085 Listening length: 21 h

Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when first published.

Contents:
� Dagon
� Herbert West: Re-Animator
� The Lurking Fear
� The Rats in the Walls
� The Whisperer in Darkness
� Cool Air
� In the Vault
� The Call of Cthluhu
� The Colour Out of Space
� The Horror at Red Hook
� The Music of Erich Zann
� The Shadow Out of Time
� The Dunwich Horror
� The Haunter of the Dark
� The Outsider
� The Shunned House
� The Unnamable
� The Thing on the Doorstep
� Under the Pyramids]]> 21 H.P. Lovecraft Zach 1
At first I was willing to put some of that aside because H.P. is the father of so much great horror, his influence is undeniable and some of his stuff if you read it alone is great. As soon as you read lots of his stuff one after the other you see what I said above.

I gave this one star because it's offensive. I hate using the word offensive because it implies I'm looking to be offended and I'm really not but I'm sorry what was the cat's name again (google it if you don't know... here's a hint it's the N word)? I'll excuse a bit of "a man of his time" but that does not really apply here does it? It's time to be honest about who H.P. Lovecraft was. Sorry Cthulhu I still kinda love you I just can't support your creator.]]> 3.45 Necronomicon
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Zach
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2019/10/26
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:
This book exhausted me. Unspeakable terrors, blasphemy, eldritch horror, beyond description....every story. All about foreigners and how weird they were, oh they worship some horrible god.... oh how these mongrel races suck. Xenophobic much?

At first I was willing to put some of that aside because H.P. is the father of so much great horror, his influence is undeniable and some of his stuff if you read it alone is great. As soon as you read lots of his stuff one after the other you see what I said above.

I gave this one star because it's offensive. I hate using the word offensive because it implies I'm looking to be offended and I'm really not but I'm sorry what was the cat's name again (google it if you don't know... here's a hint it's the N word)? I'll excuse a bit of "a man of his time" but that does not really apply here does it? It's time to be honest about who H.P. Lovecraft was. Sorry Cthulhu I still kinda love you I just can't support your creator.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sentinel (Jack Reacher, #25)]]> 51053653
But there’s nothing pleasant about the place.

In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one� . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution.

The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name.

Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder—all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.

Rule one: if you don’t know the trouble you’re in, keep Reacher by your side.]]> 386 Lee Child 1984818473 Zach 2 3.99 2020 The Sentinel (Jack Reacher, #25)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
review:
Nothing wrong with this one per se it just failed to really grab me. Is Lee Child getting tired of writing Jack Reacher books?
]]> <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (Jack Reacher, #30)]]> 220784995 DAILY MIRROR

THE 2025 JACK REACHER THRILLER

Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for.

First � a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing about. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There's no problem. Nothing is missing.

Second � a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climes. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.

Third � wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy's technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more . . .

DON’T MISS THE 30TH JACK REACHER ADVENTURE � AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW.

We all need Jack Reacher � a righteous avenger for our troubled times.

'There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.' MICK HERRON

'It's no wonder Jack Reacher is everyone's favourite rebel hero.' KARIN SLAUGHTER

'These books are absolutely addictive. When you pick them up you can't put them down.' GEORGE R. R. MARTIN]]> Lee Child 152992278X Zach 0 to-read 4.12 2025 Exit Strategy (Jack Reacher, #30)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Source Code: My Beginnings 213034913 The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age.

The business triumphs of Bill Gates are widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education.

Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world.

Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it’s a fascinating portrait of an American life.]]> 336 Bill Gates 059380158X Zach 4 4.06 2025 Source Code: My Beginnings
author: Bill Gates
name: Zach
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
review:
A very easy read. Fun to hear about Bill Gates life but come on no surprises here. He's the nerd you think he is and he's actually a pretty good author. I enjoyed this one.
]]> Blue Moon (Jack Reacher, #24) 43903354
This isn’t one of those times.

Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right.

An elderly couple have made a few well-meaning mistakes, and now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a brutal turf war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs.

Reacher has to stay one step ahead of the loan sharks, the thugs, and the assassins. He teams up with a fed-up waitress who knows a little more than she’s letting on, and sets out to take down the powerful and make the greedy pay. It’s a long shot. The odds are against him. But Reacher believes in a certain kind of justice . . . the kind that comes along once in a blue moon.]]> 364 Lee Child 0399593551 Zach 4 4.02 2019 Blue Moon (Jack Reacher, #24)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves:
review:
Definitely a Reacher book. The 24th one, formulaic and enjoyable.
]]> Uncle Tom's Cabin 21925912 0 Harriet Beecher Stowe 1312005394 Zach 0 0.0 1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin
author: Harriet Beecher Stowe
name: Zach
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1852
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> On the Border with Crook 33834478 464 John G. Bourke Zach 3 4.21 1891 On the Border with Crook
author: John G. Bourke
name: Zach
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1891
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> All the Sinners Bleed 61884832 A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction� (The Washington Post).]]> 338 S.A. Cosby 1250831911 Zach 4
Ok, bottom line, this writer has chops, I loved when our protagonist dealt with his town and the racist elements. It felt real. Shame he doesn't write series because I'd love to meet the protagonist again.]]> 4.18 2023 All the Sinners Bleed
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Zach
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:
Very good writing, characters were well written too. Unfortunately the weak point was the plot, sometimes it felt a bit like a million movies I've seen and I'm just a bit tired of serial killers I guess. The pace of the book felt strange too, sometimes things just felt like they went really fast and elements didn't develop, but then again I do value short and sweet books.

Ok, bottom line, this writer has chops, I loved when our protagonist dealt with his town and the racist elements. It felt real. Shame he doesn't write series because I'd love to meet the protagonist again.
]]> The Sound and the Fury 52677348 The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.]]> 9 William Faulkner Zach 1
Beyond that, I found the characters themselves unappealing. They range from simple-minded to racist, diabolical, and extremely sexist. Some readers appreciate this kind of storytelling, but if there's nothing admirable about the characters or their situation, it’s not for me.

I suspect this novel might reveal more depth on a second or third read, but I’m not interested in revisiting it. I missed too much of what was going on, and I blame some of that on the audio format.

Finally, I know it’s a classic. If you love this book, I respect that. It’s just not something I can enjoy. Feel free to chalk up my one-star rating to misunderstanding or to my own preferences, I stand by it either way.]]> 3.36 1929 The Sound and the Fury
author: William Faulkner
name: Zach
average rating: 3.36
book published: 1929
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
review:
I did not enjoy The Sound and the Fury. Part of my frustration may stem from the edition I chose: I listened to the audiobook, and I never quite knew who was speaking. I also didn’t pay attention to the chapter titles, which might have been critical for following the plot.

Beyond that, I found the characters themselves unappealing. They range from simple-minded to racist, diabolical, and extremely sexist. Some readers appreciate this kind of storytelling, but if there's nothing admirable about the characters or their situation, it’s not for me.

I suspect this novel might reveal more depth on a second or third read, but I’m not interested in revisiting it. I missed too much of what was going on, and I blame some of that on the audio format.

Finally, I know it’s a classic. If you love this book, I respect that. It’s just not something I can enjoy. Feel free to chalk up my one-star rating to misunderstanding or to my own preferences, I stand by it either way.
]]> <![CDATA[Past Tense (Jack Reacher, #23)]]> 34019122
At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They are stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It's a strange place ... but it's all there is.

The next morning in the city clerk's office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He's told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. Now he wonders, was he ever there in the first place?

So begins another nail-biting, adrenaline-fuelled adventure for Reacher. The present can be tense, but the past can be worse. That's for damn sure.]]> 382 Lee Child 0399593519 Zach 5
Here is why I did it. Sometimes I want to shut my brain off. Sometimes I don't want to think too hard. This book didn't have a dumb romance crowbar'd into the narrative. That's always something I wish for in a reacher book. The mystery really had me guessing and the 2nd half of the book made Reacher into a Rambo type which I'm always here for.

Nothing new here just the right amount of dumb 80's style action movie and actually a pretty sweet ending for the character of Reachers legend.

This might be my favorite of the 23 books!]]> 3.95 2018 Past Tense (Jack Reacher, #23)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
review:
I must be some kind of idiot for giving this 23rd Jack Reacher book a 5 star review.

Here is why I did it. Sometimes I want to shut my brain off. Sometimes I don't want to think too hard. This book didn't have a dumb romance crowbar'd into the narrative. That's always something I wish for in a reacher book. The mystery really had me guessing and the 2nd half of the book made Reacher into a Rambo type which I'm always here for.

Nothing new here just the right amount of dumb 80's style action movie and actually a pretty sweet ending for the character of Reachers legend.

This might be my favorite of the 23 books!
]]> <![CDATA[All Quiet on the Western Front]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the â€glorious warâ€�. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young â€unknown soldierâ€� experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]> 296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Zach 5 4.04 1928 All Quiet on the Western Front
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Zach
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1928
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:
Brutal...masterpiece. Not sure I'll ever be the same.
]]> Necroscope: The Touch 19283771 On Earth, Scott St. John is mourning his wife when he is struck by a golden arrow of light - a fragment of the soul of Harry Keogh, the original Necroscope - and gains powers he does not understand. A mysterious, beautiful woman appears, desperately trying to warn Scott about something...then vanishes midword. Scott dreams of a very unusual Wolf, who begs him - in human speech - for rescue.

A fledgling Necroscope, a telepathic Wolf, a beautiful woman from beyond the stars, the ghost of Harry Keogh, the best of E-Branch's psychic fighting forces, and a dead girl who is not yet ready to seek her just reward must defeat three impossibly strong, psychically gifted monsters whose touch literally melts flesh from bone.

]]> 501 Brian Lumley 057508863X Zach 3 4.00 2006 Necroscope: The Touch
author: Brian Lumley
name: Zach
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:
The well of these books is about dry. Not sure I have the energy for new characters and the same ground returned. Still this wasn't too bad, it had its moments.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days]]> 205804545 A blend of mindset science, original research, and cultural insights for cultivating a positive “wintertime mindset,� to vanquish winter blues and find joy and comfort in dark times year-round.

Do you dread the end of Daylight Saving Time and grouch about the long, chilly season of gray skies and ice? Do you find yourself in a slump every January and February? What if there were a way to rethink this time of year? Psychologist and winter expert Kari Leibowitz’s galvanizing How to Winter uses mindset science to help readers embrace winter as a season to be enjoyed, not endured—and in turn, learn powerful lessons that can impact our mental wellbeing throughout the year.

Kari Leibowitz moved above the Arctic Circle � where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter –expecting to research the season’s negative effects on mental health, only to find that inhabitants actually looked forward to it with delight and enthusiasm. Leibowitz has since travelled to places on earth with some of the coldest, darkest, longest and most intense winters, and discovered the power of “wintertime mindset”� viewing the season as full of opportunity and wonder. Impactful strategies for cultivating this wintertime mindset can teach us not just about braving the gray, cold months of the year, but also the darker and more difficult seasons of life.

� In Tromsø, Norway, people live in rhythm with nature, adapting to the months-long Polar Night by honoring seasonal fluctuations in energy, slowing down, and resting more.
� On the Isle of Lewis, off the coast of Scotland, communal gatherings around roaring fires embrace darkness and provide connection during long nights.
� In Yamagata, Japan, families sink into steaming onsen baths, banishing the chill of winter with healthful soaks that improve sleep and reduce risk of heart attack.

Inspired by cutting-edge psychological and behavioral science research as well as cultures worldwide that find warmth and joy in winter’s extremes, How to Winter provides readers with concrete tools for making winter wonderful wherever they live and harnessing the power of small mindset changes with big impact to help readers embrace every season of life.]]> 304 Kari Leibowitz 0593653750 Zach 5
The author’s advice is both practical and uplifting, offering actionable steps to make the most of winter rather than just endure it. I’m tired of being a passive victim to my seasonal mindset, and this book has given me the tools to change that. Now, I’m hopeful that I can approach winter with a renewed sense of purpose and even find joy in it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with winter, whether due to seasonal affective disorder or simply a dislike of the cold and darkness. It’s a thoughtful, inspiring read that has already made a difference in how I view the season. If you’re looking for ways to embrace winter rather than dread it, this book is well worth your time.]]> 4.03 2024 How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days
author: Kari Leibowitz
name: Zach
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:
Every year, I find myself dreading winter more and more. Growing up in Florida, I initially felt inspired by the idea of northern winters. However, as the years have passed, that inspiration has faded, leaving me feeling weighed down by the season. Reading this book has been a transformative experience, it’s helped me shift my mindset and see winter in a new light.

The author’s advice is both practical and uplifting, offering actionable steps to make the most of winter rather than just endure it. I’m tired of being a passive victim to my seasonal mindset, and this book has given me the tools to change that. Now, I’m hopeful that I can approach winter with a renewed sense of purpose and even find joy in it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with winter, whether due to seasonal affective disorder or simply a dislike of the cold and darkness. It’s a thoughtful, inspiring read that has already made a difference in how I view the season. If you’re looking for ways to embrace winter rather than dread it, this book is well worth your time.
]]> <![CDATA[Hunting Badger (Leaphorn & Chee, #14)]]> 48116 318 Tony Hillerman Zach 3 4.02 1999 Hunting Badger (Leaphorn & Chee, #14)
author: Tony Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:
A fairly short Leaphorn and Chee novel. Not too much to this one but I find that a novel where things are a bit more toned down to have a lot more believability than one book topping the last.
]]> 'Salem's Lot 5413 Also contains: One For the Road, Jerusalem's Lot. For standalone novel see ISBN 9780450031069.

Stephen King's second novel, the classic vampire bestseller 'Salem's Lot, tells the story of evil in small-town America. For the first time in a major trade edition, this terrifying novel is accompanied by previously unpublished material from King's archive, two short stories, and eerie photographs that bring King's fictional darkness and evil to vivid life.

When Stephen King’s classic thriller 'Salem's Lot hit the stands in 1975, it thrilled and terrified millions of readers with tales of demonic evil in small-town America. Now, thirty years later and still scaring readers witless, 'Salem's Lot reemerges in a brilliant new edition, complete with photographs, fifty pages of deleted and alternate scenes, and two short stories related to the events of the novel.

While the original edition of 'Salem's Lot will forever be a premier horror classic, 'Salem's Lot: Illustrated Edition, with the inclusion of material from King’s archive, is destined to become a classic in its own right and a must-have for all Stephen King fans. In this edition, the hair-raising story of Jerusalem’s Lot, a small town in Maine whose inhabitants succumb to the evil allure of a new resident, is told as the author envisioned it, complete with fifty pages of alternate and deleted scenes. With a new introduction by the author, two short stories related to the events and residents of Jerusalem’s Lot, the lavishly creepy photographs of Jerry Uelsmann, and a stunning new page design, this edition brings the story to life in words and pictures as never before.

No library will be complete without this ideal collector’s item for any King aficionado, the definitive illustrated edition of the great 'Salem's Lot.]]> 594 Stephen King 0385516487 Zach 0 4.28 1975 'Salem's Lot
author: Stephen King
name: Zach
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]> 2956 327 Mark Twain 0142437174 Zach 5
This book is considered a classic for good reason. Mark Twain's writing is masterful, with clear and vivid narration that brings his characters to life. Huck and the other figures in the story are engaging, realistic, and memorable. As an adventure, this book is captivating and suitable for readers from their teens onward. It doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of the era because it isn’t meant to. Twain, having grown up in Missouri, writes with firsthand knowledge of the societal atmosphere, and his depiction is unflinching.

As I read, I found myself drawn not only to Huck’s journey but also to the story of Jim, the enslaved man whose presence adds a rich and poignant undercurrent to the narrative. While Huck's adventure takes center stage, the story of Jim speaks volumes in its quieter moments, forcing the reader to grapple with the moral complexities of the time.

Overall, I found this book highly engaging and thought-provoking. The ending offers some resolution but not the sweeping justice one might hope for, something that feels honest to the story and its themes. This is a book that will linger in my thoughts for years to come, and while it may be challenging, it’s a rewarding and important read for anyone willing to wrestle with its complexities.]]> 3.82 1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
author: Mark Twain
name: Zach
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
Reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn means confronting its setting, a time and place where racism was not just pervasive but unapologetically normalized. This is a significant challenge for modern readers, myself included. I struggled with the frequent use of the "N" word, which is deeply uncomfortable and something I have no tolerance for in my daily life. However, as a student of history, I recognize this book's place as a historical classic and understand that its language reflects the reality of its time.

This book is considered a classic for good reason. Mark Twain's writing is masterful, with clear and vivid narration that brings his characters to life. Huck and the other figures in the story are engaging, realistic, and memorable. As an adventure, this book is captivating and suitable for readers from their teens onward. It doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of the era because it isn’t meant to. Twain, having grown up in Missouri, writes with firsthand knowledge of the societal atmosphere, and his depiction is unflinching.

As I read, I found myself drawn not only to Huck’s journey but also to the story of Jim, the enslaved man whose presence adds a rich and poignant undercurrent to the narrative. While Huck's adventure takes center stage, the story of Jim speaks volumes in its quieter moments, forcing the reader to grapple with the moral complexities of the time.

Overall, I found this book highly engaging and thought-provoking. The ending offers some resolution but not the sweeping justice one might hope for, something that feels honest to the story and its themes. This is a book that will linger in my thoughts for years to come, and while it may be challenging, it’s a rewarding and important read for anyone willing to wrestle with its complexities.
]]> <![CDATA[Necroscope: Avengers (Necroscope, #13)]]> 22820467 E-Branch action teams have almost more on their plates than they can handle—locating renegade communists who threaten nuclear homicide; cooperating with Gustav Turchin, head of Russia's mind-spy organization, in trying to permanently close the Gate between the Wamphyri world and Earth; analyzing the spore plague; and always, always hunting the Wamphyri.

]]> 564 Brian Lumley Zach 3 4.40 2001 Necroscope: Avengers (Necroscope, #13)
author: Brian Lumley
name: Zach
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
The good part of this book was it was more of the great atmosphere and mythos that you've come to love if you are still reading these books. The bad part is there was a bit too much sulking and brooding about. As with every book in this series it could have been about 200 pages less however the end of this book picked up and the prologue was a real pay off. Tempted to bump up a star just for the end of this book.
]]> <![CDATA[American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873]]> 199130503 A Pulitzer Prize winner’s masterful history of the Civil War and its reverberations across the continent.

In a beautifully crafted narrative of soaring ideals and sordid politics, of civil war and foreign invasion, Alan Taylor presents a pivotal twenty-year period in which the United States, Mexico, and Canada all transformed themselves into nations. The American Civil War stands at the center of the story, its military dimension and the drama of emancipation the focus. The American West and its Native peoples feature prominently, with fascinating detail on California and the southwest borderlands. The instability in the United States shakes the continent: it invites a French invasion of Mexico that fuels long-standing hostilities between Conservative and Liberal forces; in Canada it raises the urgency of a continental confederation to manage the differences of Francophones and Anglophones. The vivid character portraits throughout are indelible: from Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the great Liberal leader Benito Juárez to key Black abolitionists such as Martin Delany and Mary Ann Shadd.]]> 560 Alan Taylor 1324035285 Zach 4
While I was initially seeking a clear retelling of the U.S. Civil War itself, I found that this book provided far more: it offers a nuanced understanding of the war's origins, its course, and its aftermath. What impressed me most was how it tackled the key historical factors that led to the war, how it was fought, and its long-term consequences, all without falling into the traps of mythologizing or embracing "Lost Cause" narratives.

The author strikes a commendable balance by presenting perspectives from both sides of the conflict, allowing for a more complete and fair account of events. In my view, this makes the book not just a retelling of history, but a comprehensive and insightful analysis. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience, and I believe this book is an excellent resource for anyone looking to understand the full scope of the Civil War in a broader continental context.]]> 4.34 2024 American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873
author: Alan Taylor
name: Zach
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873 offers an engaging and expansive perspective on the U.S. Civil War, not only focusing on the conflict itself but also exploring the ways in which neighboring nations—such as Canada and Mexico—and even Europe were involved or impacted by the war. For me, one of the most eye-opening aspects of the book was the examination of the political landscapes in Canada and Mexico, which was entirely new territory.

While I was initially seeking a clear retelling of the U.S. Civil War itself, I found that this book provided far more: it offers a nuanced understanding of the war's origins, its course, and its aftermath. What impressed me most was how it tackled the key historical factors that led to the war, how it was fought, and its long-term consequences, all without falling into the traps of mythologizing or embracing "Lost Cause" narratives.

The author strikes a commendable balance by presenting perspectives from both sides of the conflict, allowing for a more complete and fair account of events. In my view, this makes the book not just a retelling of history, but a comprehensive and insightful analysis. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience, and I believe this book is an excellent resource for anyone looking to understand the full scope of the Civil War in a broader continental context.
]]> <![CDATA[The Midnight Line (Jack Reacher, #22)]]> 33378951 So begins a harrowing journey that takes Reacher through the upper Midwest, from a lowlife bar on the sad side of small town to a dirt-blown crossroads in the middle of nowhere, encountering bikers, cops, crooks, muscle, and a missing persons PI who wears a suit and a tie in the Wyoming wilderness.

The deeper Reacher digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes. Turns out the ring was just a small link in a far darker chain. Powerful forces are guarding a vast criminal enterprise. Some lines should never be crossed. But then, neither should Reacher.

]]> 368 Lee Child 0399593489 Zach 3
Bottom line. An interesting mystery and very unrealistic as in the characters were all fairly poorly written.]]> 3.95 2017 The Midnight Line (Jack Reacher, #22)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
One should not think too hard about a Jack Reacher book. These books are mindless after all. Here we have a plot that was pretty low key compared to the other books, the plot never felt very urgent but it kept me going. What's going to happen next??? I was hooked all was well. By the end I felt like I had enjoyed a 4 star book and then Jack Reacher pulls off his James Bond thing and it really felt so stupid. It then made me think about how dumb the whole plot had been from the get go and I dropped it a star to 3.

Bottom line. An interesting mystery and very unrealistic as in the characters were all fairly poorly written.
]]> Decision Points 8099187
George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.

Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor’s mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

For the first time, we learn President Bush’s perspective and insights on:

His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith

The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials

His relationships with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War

His administration’s counterterrorism programs, including the CIA’s enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program

Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis

His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge

His legislative achievements, including tax cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform

The relationships he forged with other world leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and didn’t trust

Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America again—is among his proudest achievements

A groundbreaking new brand of presidential memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on eight remarkable years in American history—and on the man at the center of events.]]> 497 George W. Bush 0307590615 Zach 4
This book captured most of the very important moments of his life and mostly was a fairly interesting read. Though it probably will not flip anything you thought about the subject going into the book.]]> 3.80 2010 Decision Points
author: George W. Bush
name: Zach
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:
Bush is not the writer that Clinton is (referring to their respective autobiographies) however this is well written and importantly well edited. I didn't feel like I learned many new things and I think that's a testament to the man. Bush was a President that told us what he was thinking during his presidency.

This book captured most of the very important moments of his life and mostly was a fairly interesting read. Though it probably will not flip anything you thought about the subject going into the book.
]]> <![CDATA[Into the Reckoning (Rise of the Republic Book 10)]]> 207704863 No longer hidden behind the curtain�
…the Humtars walk among us.
How will their return impact the Galactic Empire’s wars?

With the help of his uncle, Captain Tim Haas has smuggled out a virus that is highly deadly to the Zodarks. After the attack on Sol, this weapon of mass destruction would be an instrument of revenge, of justice, for billions of people.

Will it be discovered before he can use it?
Would such a genocidal act threaten the Republic’s position in the Empire or strengthen it?

After what transpired with the Orbots, the Dominion alliance has been thrown into chaos. The Zodarks not only face external threats but infighting as well.

Despite these challenges, the war is far from over.

You’ll love this tenth installment in the epic Rise of the Republic military sci-fi thriller series because the action will keep you up at night.

Get it now.]]> 334 James Rosone 196174838X Zach 5 4.45 2024 Into the Reckoning (Rise of the Republic Book 10)
author: James Rosone
name: Zach
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:
Short, tense, vital writing make this 10th book about as good as any in the series.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Zach 4
This though was a pretty entertaining book. I picked it up because it was on some Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ list and I thought well looks interesting enough. Didn't realize who the author was and thought it was about climate change. Well that was wrong.

What we have here is a lot of great fairly random musings from a pretty interesting guy. Mostly I was pretty entertained reading this.]]> 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Zach
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/09
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
I'm probably not going to read John Green's other books. They make me uncomfortable and they're just not something I'm into for reasons I won't mention here (nothing problematic).

This though was a pretty entertaining book. I picked it up because it was on some Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ list and I thought well looks interesting enough. Didn't realize who the author was and thought it was about climate change. Well that was wrong.

What we have here is a lot of great fairly random musings from a pretty interesting guy. Mostly I was pretty entertained reading this.
]]> <![CDATA[Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)]]> 203578847 The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide―Adolin in Azimir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah at Thaylen City. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiants killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.]]> 1344 Brandon Sanderson 1250319188 Zach 4 4.34 2024 Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Zach
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:
This book is fine and at times pretty enjoyable but in no way do I think it needed to be as long as it is.
]]> <![CDATA[Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America]]> 213395531 The thrilling narrative of how New York came to be, by the author of the beloved classic The Island at the Center of the World.

In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he began parleying with Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch leader on Manhattan.

Bristling with vibrant characters, Taking Manhattan reveals the founding of New York to be an the result not of an English military takeover but of clever negotiations that led to a fusion of the multiethnic capitalistic society the Dutch had pioneered to the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery. Taking Manhattan shows how the paradox of New York’s origins—boundless opportunity coupled with subjugation and displacement—reflect America’s promise and failure to this day. Russell Shorto, whose work has been described as “astonishing� (New York Times) and “revelatory� (New York magazine), has once again mined newly translated sources to offer a vibrant tale and a fresh and trenchant argument about American beginnings.]]> 408 Russell Shorto 0393881164 Zach 0 to-read 4.13 2025 Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
author: Russell Shorto
name: Zach
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1929-1941]]> 34201498
When we left Stalin at the end of Stalin: Paradoxes of Power: 1878-1928, it was 1928, and he had finally climbed the mountaintop and achieved dictatorial power of the Soviet empire. The vastest peasant economy in the world would be transformed into socialist modernity, whatever it took.
What it took, or what Stalin believed it took, was the most relentless campaign of shock industrialization the world has ever seen. This is the story of the five year plans, the new factory towns, and the integration of an entire system of penal labor into the larger economy. With the Great Depression throwing global capital into crisis, the Soviet Union's New Man looked like nothing so much as the man of the future. As the shadows of the 30's deepen, Stalin's drive to militarize Soviet society takes on increasing urgency, and the ambition of Nazi Germany becomes the predominant geopolitical reality he faces when Hitler claims that communism is a global "Judeo-Bolshevik" conspiracy to bring the Slavic race to power.
But just because they're out to get you doesn't mean you're not paranoid. Stalin's paranoia is increasingly one of the most horrible facts of life for his entire country. Stalin's obsessions drive him to violently purge almost a million people, including military leadership, diplomatic corps and intelligence apparatus, to say nothing of a generation of artistic talent. And then came the pact that shocked the world, and demoralized leftists everywhere: Stalin's pact with Hitler in 1939, the carve-up of Poland, and Stalin's utter inability to see Hitler's build-up to the invasion of the USSR. Yet for all that, in just 12 years of total power, Stalin has taken this country from a peasant economy to a formidable modern war machine that rivaled anything else in the world. When the invasion came, Stalin wasn't ready, but his country would prove to be prepared. That is a dimension of the Stalin story that has never adequately been reckoned with before, and it looms large here.
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler: 1929-1941 is, like its predecessor, nothing less than a history of the world from Stalin's desk. It is also, like its predecessor, a landmark achievement in the annals of its field, and in the biographer's art.]]> 1184 Stephen Kotkin 1594203806 Zach 3 4.41 2017 Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1929-1941
author: Stephen Kotkin
name: Zach
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves:
review:
Dense! This book is dense, and I thought it was a slog. Still walking away understanding so much more about Stalin and the USSR period. Unfortunately there is so much to understand and this second volume biography is really comprehensive. I feel like I need something a bit more introductory.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)]]> 111673828 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and set in the world of A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E. Schwab opens a new door into perilous adventure and tangled schemes with The Fragile Threads of Power.

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory―Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years―and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own―but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together―or unravel it all.]]> 648 V.E. Schwab 0765387492 Zach 2 4.25 2023 The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)
author: V.E. Schwab
name: Zach
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves:
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I'm sorry but this one wasn't for me. I felt like nothing makes sense until it was explained around 1/2 way through the book. I also felt like the characters were uninteresting. After a certain point things did become much more interesting but for me too little too late.
]]> <![CDATA[Law and Disorder in Colorado City 1859-1917; a Rare Glimpse at Law Enforcement in the Days of Colorado City Before Annexation to Colorado Springs in 1917]]> 77175599 0 Barbara J. Barbaro 097940231X Zach 5 5.00 Law and Disorder in Colorado City 1859-1917; a Rare Glimpse at Law Enforcement in the Days of Colorado City Before Annexation to Colorado Springs in 1917
author: Barbara J. Barbaro
name: Zach
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Night School (Jack Reacher, #21)]]> 28077464
Two other men are in the classroom—an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.

Then they find out: A Jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor—a Saudi courier, seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset, undercover inside the cell, has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.�

For what? And who from? Reacher and his two new friends are told to find the American. Reacher recruits the best soldier he has ever worked with: Sergeant Frances Neagley. Their mission heats up in more ways than one, while always keeping their eyes on the prize: If they don’t get their man, the world will suffer an epic act of terrorism.

From Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev, Night School moves like a bullet through a treacherous landscape of double crosses, faked identities, and new and terrible enemies, as Reacher maneuvers inside the game and outside the law.

Listening Length: 13 hours and 7 minutes]]> 14 Lee Child 0804192979 Zach 2 3.89 2016 Night School (Jack Reacher, #21)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering]]> 213890796
Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.]]> 352 Malcolm Gladwell Zach 0 4.05 2024 Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Zach
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves:
review:

]]> When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naĂŻve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Zach 0 to-read 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Zach
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering]]> 216857785
Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.]]> 352 Malcolm Gladwell 0316575801 Zach 4 4.02 2024 Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Zach
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Overcaptain (The Saga of Recluce #24)]]> 203924567 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. continues the Saga of Recluce, the long-running, best-selling epic fantasy series. Overcaptain, the sequel to From the Forest, continues to follow the early life of a man known by many names depending on who you ask—hero, tyrant, emperor.

Alyiakal, overcaptain in the Mirror Lancers of Cyador, has completed his tour of duty as officer-in-charge of a small, remote post. He just wants to finish and see his best friend consorted and assume his next post assignment. If only it were that easy.

He discovers corruption in the Merchanter Clans of Cyador, but investigating Mirror Lancer officers end up dead. Before he can go on leave, he has to replace one of these officers, close a post, dodge an attempt on his life, and an investigation from Magi-i.

At Lhaarat, Alyiakal is assigned as a deputy commander to a post that never had one, and the commander doesn't want one—and that's just the beginning of Alyiakal’s problems.]]> 528 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 1250902932 Zach 5 4.47 2024 Overcaptain (The Saga of Recluce #24)
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Zach
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War]]> 35224674 The Field of Blood, the historian Joanne B. Freeman offers a new and dramatically rendered portrait of American politics in its rowdiest years. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that today's hyperpolarized environment cannot compare with the turbulent atmosphere of the decades before the Civil War, when the U.S. Congress itself was rife with conflict. Legislative sessions were routinely punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slug-fests. Congressmen drew pistols and waved bowie knives at rivals. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance or silence, particularly on the issue of slavery.

These fights didn't happen in a vacuum. Freeman's accounts of fistfights and threats tell a larger story of how bullying, brawling, and the press - and the powerful emotions they elicited - raised tensions between North and South and fueled the coming of the war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities - the feel, sense, and sound of it - as well as its nation-shaping import. Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of luminaries such as John Quincy Adams and Thomas Hart Benton, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating characters. We see slaveholders silence Northerners with threats and violence. We learn how newspapers promoted conspiracy theories that helped polarize the nation. And we witness an entire legislative chamber erupt into a massive fist-throwing, spittoon-tossing battle royal. By 1860, armed congressmen, some carrying pistols sent by their constituents, fully expected bloody combat in the House. In effect, the first battles of the Civil War were fought in Congress itself.

The Field of Blood demonstrates how a country can come apart as conflicts over personal honor, party loyalty, and moral principle combine and escalate. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.]]> 450 Joanne B. Freeman 0374154775 Zach 4 4.08 2018 The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
author: Joanne B. Freeman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies]]> 18143067 A much-awaited collection of prose and poetry from one of the great cosmic masters of the supernatural

Not just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him "perhaps unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living� or compel Fritz Lieber to employ the worthy term sui generis. Clark Ashton Smith—autodidact, prolific poet, amateur philosopher, bizarre sculptor, and unmatched storyteller—simply wrote like no one else, before or since. This new collection of his very best tales and poems is selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi and allows readers to encounter Smith’s visionary brand of fantastical, phantasmagorical worlds, each one filled with invention, terror, and a superlative sense of metaphysical wonder.]]> 370 Clark Ashton Smith 0143107380 Zach 2 4.15 1935 The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies
author: Clark Ashton Smith
name: Zach
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1935
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves:
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]]> Make Me (Jack Reacher, #20) 23664710 “Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?�

That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.

Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.

Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.]]> 428 Lee Child 0593073894 Zach 2 3.93 2015 Make Me (Jack Reacher, #20)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Personal (Jack Reacher, #19) 20263040 You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you. Not always. Not completely, notes Jack Reacher—and sure enough, the retired military cop is soon pulled back into service. This time, for the State Department and the CIA.

Someone has taken a shot at the president of France in the City of Light. The bullet was American. The distance between the gunman and the target was exceptional. How many snipers can shoot from three-quarters of a mile with total confidence? Very few, but John Kott—an American marksman gone bad—is one of them. And after fifteen years in prison, he’s out, unaccounted for, and likely drawing a bead on a G8 summit packed with enough world leaders to tempt any assassin.

If anyone can stop Kott, it’s the man who beat him before: Reacher. And though he’d rather work alone, Reacher is teamed with Casey Nice, a rookie analyst who keeps her cool with Zoloft. But they’re facing a rough road, full of ruthless mobsters, Serbian thugs, close calls, double-crosses—and no backup if they’re caught. All the while Reacher can’t stop thinking about the woman he once failed to save. But he won’t let that happen again. Not this time. Not Nice.

Reacher never gets too close. But now a killer is making it personal.

]]> 353 Lee Child 0804178747 Zach 3 3.89 2014 Personal (Jack Reacher, #19)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
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]]> My Life 61198756 Bill Clinton Zach 4 3.50 2004 My Life
author: Bill Clinton
name: Zach
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Never Go Back (Jack Reacher, #18)]]> 17262159 Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind Reacher’s old desk isn't a woman. Why is Susan Turner not there?

What Reacher doesn’t expect is what comes next. He himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn't expect to hear these words: â€You’re back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.â€�

Will he be sorry he went back? Or � will someone else?

]]> 400 Lee Child 0385344341 Zach 3 4.01 2013 Never Go Back (Jack Reacher, #18)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fallen Man (Leaphorn & Chee, #12)]]> 48115 From New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman comes another thrilling mystery featuring Leaphorn & Chee who must investigate a cold case that has far more personal consequences than expected.

“G°ůľ±±č±čľ±˛Ô˛µ.â€Ĺ¨¶Ä�New York Times Book Review

Human bones lie on a ledge under the peak of Ship Rock mountain, the remains of a murder victim undisturbed for more than a decade. Three hundred miles across the Navajo reservation, a harmless old canyon guide is felled by a sniper's bullet. 

Joe Leaphorn, recently retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, believes the shooter and the skeleton are somehow connected and recalls a chilling puzzle he was previously unable to solve. But Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee is too busy to take an interest in a dusty cold case . . . until the reborn violence of it hits much too close to home.]]> 320 Tony Hillerman 0061092886 Zach 4 4.07 1996 The Fallen Man (Leaphorn & Chee, #12)
author: Tony Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
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]]> Horror Movie 200101541 A chilling twist on the “cursed filmâ€� genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid� is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions � demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost? 

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film� that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.]]> 277 Paul Tremblay 0063070014 Zach 3
Tremblay is someone who can really write characters I can spend time with. That was the one real strength in this book Horror Movie. I felt like the main character was someone who I was getting to know and who felt real enough to not question things that would have taken me away from enjoying the writing. Or at least up to a point. It wasn't that the character felt real it was just that the plot was slow and even though I enjoyed the end I did not understand where things were headed for much of the book.

For me this book suffered from a lack of explanation into why events were happening. Sure hints were left but they never felt like they involved me only that I was being asked to trust the characters interpretation of things. That unfortunately was not enough in this story, otherwise it would have been a 4 star read. The plot turned from ok this is interesting to what in the hell is going on here. The end though, that nearly saved it.
Verdict: I can't see this one becoming a movie.]]> 3.29 2024 Horror Movie
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Zach
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
Tremblay's books are always unique and I think I've read most of his stuff if not at least half his books. Thus far this is the most unique!

Tremblay is someone who can really write characters I can spend time with. That was the one real strength in this book Horror Movie. I felt like the main character was someone who I was getting to know and who felt real enough to not question things that would have taken me away from enjoying the writing. Or at least up to a point. It wasn't that the character felt real it was just that the plot was slow and even though I enjoyed the end I did not understand where things were headed for much of the book.

For me this book suffered from a lack of explanation into why events were happening. Sure hints were left but they never felt like they involved me only that I was being asked to trust the characters interpretation of things. That unfortunately was not enough in this story, otherwise it would have been a 4 star read. The plot turned from ok this is interesting to what in the hell is going on here. The end though, that nearly saved it.
Verdict: I can't see this one becoming a movie.
]]> Necroscope: Defilers 19034728 Necroscope, which introduced Harry Keogh, a man who could commune with dead people. Harry was such a skilled linguist of "deadspeak" that the British Secret Service recruited him into E-Branch, its ace paranormal unit. Harry waged a war against vampires--until the tables turned and he became another bloodsucking statistic. No longer a Necroscope (top vampire hunter), now he's a kind of advisor who beams helpful thoughts from the afterlife.

E-Branch's vampire woes intensify in Necroscope Defilers, the 12th installment of Lumley's series. A trio of seriously nasty critters are spreading their spawn on earth, but E-Branch is in crisis. Jake Cutter, the new Necroscope, is preoccupied with a personal vendetta--he's hunting down the Sicilian mobsters who killed his girlfriend. Jake also faces another minor distraction--a dead vampire named Korath is stuck inside his head, whispering evil nothings into his ear all day long. As the unholy monsters descend upon the Greek island of Krassos, it seems all hell will break loose--literally. Will Jake return to E-Branch and help annihilate this unholy scum, or is mankind doomed?

Although Necroscope Defilers is a little light on original plot twists, Lumley's curious country is still a land worth visiting, halfway between science fiction and dark fantasy. --Naomi Gesinger

]]> 644 Brian Lumley Zach 4 4.38 2000 Necroscope: Defilers
author: Brian Lumley
name: Zach
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
I think the key to reading these books at least for me is to space them out quite a bit. This felt like the previous books plot wise and character wise. It's been nearly a year since reading the last one and it was nice to jump back into the universe. That being said I'm someone who doesn't mind a formula and these books certainly have that.
]]> The Halloween Tree 761381
Eight costumed boys running to meet their friend Pipkin at the haunted house outside town encounter instead the huge and cadaverous Mr. Moundshroud. As Pipkin scrambles to join them, he is swept away by a dark Something, and Moundshroud leads the boys on the tail of a kite through time and space to search the past for their friend and the meaning of Halloween.]]> 145 Ray Bradbury 0375803017 Zach 5
Absolutely love it!!!]]> 3.81 1972 The Halloween Tree
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Zach
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1972
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
5th time re-reading this. A Halloween tradition. What really leaps out at me is that we're getting a spooky Halloween history lesson and the prose is just so sweet and poetic. This is my favorite Halloween book and perhaps one of my all time favorite books. I'm not one for kids books but this one cuts through.

Absolutely love it!!!
]]> Myers Avenue 14943076 31 Leland Feitz 0936564164 Zach 5 3.60 Myers Avenue
author: Leland Feitz
name: Zach
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shattered dreams on Pikes Peak: Jones Park, Lake Moraine, and Seven Lakes : with 43 photographs and 4 maps]]> 4679038 64 Ivan Brunk 0962400815 Zach 5 4.00 Shattered dreams on Pikes Peak: Jones Park, Lake Moraine, and Seven Lakes : with 43 photographs and 4 maps
author: Ivan Brunk
name: Zach
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Springs of Colorado 20419960 36 Richard M. Pearl Zach 4 4.00 1975 Springs of Colorado
author: Richard M. Pearl
name: Zach
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/05
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Home Before Dark 50833559 What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?]]> 389 Riley Sager 1524745170 Zach 4 4.04 2020 Home Before Dark
author: Riley Sager
name: Zach
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves:
review:
A very competent haunted house story. Plot flowed nicely and the landing wrapped up well. The only con here is was it may have just been a bit too smooth. I never felt that compelled by what I was reading but I did feel like I was always engaged. I guess what I'm saying is this was good but ironically not that memorable.
]]> Episode Thirteen 61030527 From the macabre mind of Bram Stoker Award nominated author Craig DiLouie, Episode Thirteen is a heart pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense that takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined possible. A beautiful Russian doll of a story... Episode Thirteen hooks you, creeps you out, and then it overwhelms you. It's House of Leaves meets Haunting of Hill House, in all the best possible ways. -- Peter Clines, NYT bestselling author of The Broken Room


Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen -- and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong.


An epistolary descent into a living nightmare . . . well-written and genuinely unsettling. Fans of paranormal documentaries, ghost-hunting shows, and found-footage horror will lose their minds over this one. - Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award winning author of Kin]]> 433 Craig DiLouie 0316443107 Zach 4 3.5 stars]]> 3.45 2023 Episode Thirteen
author: Craig DiLouie
name: Zach
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves:
review:
What can I say about this one? Well I picked up a haunted house novel for halloween and it delivered. The book really felt like well worn territory though, it was a found footage (put to book) type episode of a TV show investigating a haunted structure. I felt like it hit the tropes but was pretty entertaining. Now the end was pretty bonkers and I felt like that was somewhat refreshing but you know all in all. This book was fine, it accomplished the goal of giving me something supernatural to read in October.
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity]]> 61796651 Ohioana Book Award Finalist

 Can a group of well-intentioned people fulfill the promise of racial integration in America?

In this searing and intimate examination of the ideals and realities of racial integration, award-winning Washington Post journalist Laura Meckler tells the story of a decades-long pursuit in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and uncovers the roadblocks that have threatened progress time and again—in housing, in education, and in the promise of shared community.

In the late 1950s, Shaker Heights began groundbreaking work that would make it a national model for housing integration. And beginning in the seventies, it was known as a crown jewel in the national move to racially integrate schools. The school district built a reputation for academic excellence and diversity, serving as a model for how white and Black Americans can thrive together. Meckler—herself a product of Shaker Heights—takes a deeper look into the place that shaped her, investigating its complicated history and its ongoing challenges in order to untangle myth from truth. She confronts an enduring, and troubling, question—if Shaker Heights has worked so hard at racial equity, why does a racial academic achievement gap persist?

In telling the stories of the Shakerites who have built and lived in this community, Meckler asks: What will it take to fulfill the promise of racial integration in America? What compromises are people of all races willing to make? What does success look like, and has Shaker achieved it? The result is a complex and masterfully reported portrait of a place that, while never perfect, has achieved more than most and a road map for communities that seek to do the same.

Includes black-and-white images.]]> 400 Laura Meckler 1250834414 Zach 4
As I kept reading though the story of integration and experimentation became a fascinating one where I felt like new avenues of my mind were opened. I had no idea that this area decided to do this and it's pretty crazy to think that it happened and was supported by so many people in the area. The stories about representation in schooling having effects on minority children's performance was pretty fascinating too. This is where the book felt like journalistic narrative and not some prescription for societal change. This book felt like it knew what it was but it did lack additional research that could have supplemented the themes we were being given.

All in all, it was a good book.]]> 4.06 2023 Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity
author: Laura Meckler
name: Zach
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
review:
I picked this one up because someone I work with who is local to Shaker Heights was reading it and I figured if it had to do with history it might give me something to talk to him about. At first I thought I had made a mistake because the story felt hyper-local, or in other words of consequence to someone who was local and not many others.

As I kept reading though the story of integration and experimentation became a fascinating one where I felt like new avenues of my mind were opened. I had no idea that this area decided to do this and it's pretty crazy to think that it happened and was supported by so many people in the area. The stories about representation in schooling having effects on minority children's performance was pretty fascinating too. This is where the book felt like journalistic narrative and not some prescription for societal change. This book felt like it knew what it was but it did lack additional research that could have supplemented the themes we were being given.

All in all, it was a good book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wine of Angels (Merrily Watkins, #1)]]> 611395 630 Phil Rickman Zach 2
Me, I'm smooth brained. It was too slow, I did enjoy the atmosphere but I often lost the plot. I couldn't attach myself to the characters and this simply was not for me. ]]> 3.91 1998 The Wine of Angels (Merrily Watkins, #1)
author: Phil Rickman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:
I understand why people like Phil Rickman, I've enjoyed some of his books. They ooze atmosphere, they're for careful readers who want to sink into an english countryside novel about small town drama. People who appreciate Jane Austen I'm guessing would like this type of novel.

Me, I'm smooth brained. It was too slow, I did enjoy the atmosphere but I often lost the plot. I couldn't attach myself to the characters and this simply was not for me.
]]> <![CDATA[A Wanted Man (Jack Reacher, #17)]]> 13359067
An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified. Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there.

All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat - to both sides at once.

14 hr., 30 min]]> 15 Lee Child 0307749606 Zach 2 3.99 2012 A Wanted Man (Jack Reacher, #17)
author: Lee Child
name: Zach
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves:
review:
This is probably the worst Jack Reacher book I've read. It didn't have an annoying romance thankfully but it simply was boring. I didn't connect with the plot which is actually somewhat of a first. The rest was the same formula as all the others which is what I'm here for. This just was boring.
]]> <![CDATA[The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West]]> 51898894 A dramatic, riveting, and deeply researched narrative account of the epic struggle for the West during the Civil War, revealing a little-known, vastly important episode in American history.

In The Three-Cornered War Megan Kate Nelson reveals the fascinating history of the Civil War in the American West. Exploring the connections among the Civil War, the Indian wars, and western expansion, Nelson reframes the era as one of national conflict—involving not just the North and South, but also the West.

Against the backdrop of this larger series of battles, Nelson introduces nine individuals: John R. Baylor, a Texas legislator who established the Confederate Territory of Arizona; Louisa Hawkins Canby, a Union Army wife who nursed Confederate soldiers back to health in Santa Fe; James Carleton, a professional soldier who engineered campaigns against Navajos and Apaches; Kit Carson, a famous frontiersman who led a regiment of volunteers against the Texans, Navajos, Kiowas, and Comanches; Juanita, a Navajo weaver who resisted Union campaigns against her people; Bill Davidson, a soldier who fought in all of the Confederacy’s major battles in New Mexico; Alonzo Ickis, an Iowa-born gold miner who fought on the side of the Union; John Clark, a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s who embraced the Republican vision for the West as New Mexico’s surveyor-general; and Mangas Coloradas, a revered Chiricahua Apache chief who worked to expand Apache territory in Arizona.

As we learn how these nine charismatic individuals fought for self-determination and control of the region, we also see the importance of individual actions in the midst of a larger military conflict. The Three-Cornered War is a captivating history—based on letters and diaries, military records and oral histories, and photographs and maps from the time—that sheds light on a forgotten chapter of American history.]]> 352 Megan Kate Nelson 1501152548 Zach 5
The text flowed easily by making chapters about certain individuals primarily. When I was done I wanted more and at all points I never felt things dragged. I'll give this 300+ page book high marks for it's readability and editing. Great research, great narrative. Give this a read!]]> 4.00 2020 The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West
author: Megan Kate Nelson
name: Zach
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:
A very easy read covering a section of American history that I feel is at least undertold. This isn't the beginning of the American Indian wars but this is a beginning for many in the story. Instead of simply the tribes versus the federals we have 3 sides of the conflict and how it shaped the west is an essential story.

The text flowed easily by making chapters about certain individuals primarily. When I was done I wanted more and at all points I never felt things dragged. I'll give this 300+ page book high marks for it's readability and editing. Great research, great narrative. Give this a read!
]]> <![CDATA[The Way of the Bear (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito, #26)]]> 61812400 Fossil harvesting, ancient lore, greed, rejected love and murder combine in this gripping new installment of New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman's Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series.

An unexpected death on a lonely road outside of Utah's Bears Ears National Park raises questions for Navajo Tribal Police officers Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito. Why would a seasoned outdoorsman and well-known paleontologist freeze to death within walking distance of his car? A second death brings more turmoil. Who is the unidentified man killed during a home invasion where nothing seems to have been taken? Why was he murdered?

The Bears Ears area, at the edge of the Navajo Nation, is celebrated for its abundance of early human habitation sites and the discovery of unique fossils which revolutionized the scientific view of how early animals dealt with their changing world. For Chee and Bernie, the area glows with geological interest and spiritual insight. But their visit to this achingly beautiful place is disrupted by a current of unprecedented violence that sweeps them both into danger.

An illicit business, a fossilized jaw bone, hints of witchcraft, and a mysterious disappearance during a blizzard and to the peril. It will take all of Manuelito's and Chee's experience, skill, and intuition to navigate the threats that arise beneath the twin buttes that give Bears Ears its name and to see justice served.]]> 281 Anne Hillerman 0062908391 Zach 0 to-read 3.83 2023 The Way of the Bear (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito, #26)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sacred Bridge (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito, #25)]]> 58587866 "A fine legacy series . . . in the spirit of her late father, Tony."--Booklist

An ancient mystery resurfaces with ramifications for the present day in this gripping chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series from New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman.

Sergeant Jim Chee's vacation to beautiful Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell has a deeper purpose. He's on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier.

Chee's journey takes a deadly turn when, after a prayerful visit to the sacred Rainbow Bridge, he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon's ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk.

Back in Shiprock, Officer Bernadette Manuelito is driving home when she witnesses an expensive sedan purposely kill a hitchhiker. The search to find the killer leads her to uncover a dangerous chain of interconnected revelations involving a Navajo Nation cannabis enterprise.

But the evil that is unleashed jeopardizes her mother and sister Darleen, and puts Bernie in the deadliest situation of her law enforcement career.]]> 308 Anne Hillerman 0062908367 Zach 0 to-read 3.89 2022 The Sacred Bridge (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito, #25)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stargazer (Leaphorn & Chee, #24)]]> 54573153
What begins as a typical day for Officer Bernadette Manuelito—serving a bench warrant, dealing with a herd of cattle obstructing traffic, and stumbling across a crime scene—takes an unexpected twist when she’s called to help find an old friend. Years ago, Bernie and Maya were roommates, but time and Maya’s struggles with addiction drove them apart. Now Maya’s brother asks Bernie to find out what happened to his sister.

Tracing Maya’s whereabouts, Bernie learns that her old friend had confessed to the murder of her estranged husband, a prominent astronomer. But the details don’t align. Suspicious, Bernie takes a closer look at the case only to find that nothing is as it seems. Uncovering new information about the astronomer’s work leads Bernie to a remote spot on the Navajo Nation and a calculating killer.

The investigation causes an unexpected rift with her husband and new acting boss, Jim Chee, who’s sure Bernie’s headed for trouble. While she’s caught between present and past, Chee is at a crossroads of his own. Burdened with new responsibilities he didn’t ask for and doesn’t want, he must decide what the future holds for him and act accordingly.

Can their mentor Joe Leaphorn—a man also looking at the past for answers to the future—provide the guidance both Bernie and Chee need? And will the Navajo heroes that stud the starry sky help them find justice—and the truth they seek?]]> 326 Anne Hillerman 0062908359 Zach 0 to-read 4.28 2021 Stargazer (Leaphorn & Chee, #24)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tale Teller (Leaphorn & Chee, #23)]]> 40788134
Joe Leaphorn may have retired from the Tribal Police, but he finds himself knee-deep in a perplexing case involving a priceless artifact—a reminder of a dark time in Navajo history. Joe’s been hired to find a missing biil, a traditional dress that had been donated to the Navajo Nation. His investigation takes a sinister turn when the leading suspect dies under mysterious circumstances and Leaphorn himself receives anonymous warnings to beware—witchcraft is afoot.

While the veteran detective is busy working to untangle his strange case, his former colleague Jim Chee and Officer Bernie Manuelito are collecting evidence they hope will lead to a cunning criminal behind a rash of burglaries. Their case takes a complicated turn when Bernie finds a body near a popular running trail. The situation grows more complicated when the death is ruled a homicide, and the Tribal cops are thrust into a turf battle because the murder involves the FBI.

As Leaphorn, Chee, and Bernie draw closer to solving these crimes, their parallel investigations begin to merge . . . and offer an unexpected opportunity that opens a new chapter in Bernie’s life.]]> 288 Anne Hillerman Zach 0 to-read 4.28 2019 The Tale Teller (Leaphorn & Chee, #23)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cave of Bones (Leaphorn & Chee, #22)]]> 35712819
A New York Times Bestseller

Anne Hillerman brings together modern mystery, Navajo traditions, and the evocative landscape of the desert Southwest in this intriguing entry in the Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito series.

When Tribal Police Officer Bernadette Manuelito arrives to speak at an outdoor character-building program for at-risk teens, she discovers chaos. Annie, a young participant on a solo experience due back hours before, has just returned and is traumatized. Gently questioning the girl, Bernie learns that Annie stumbled upon a human skeleton on her trek. While everyone is relieved that Annie is back, they’re concerned about a beloved instructor who went out into the wilds of the rugged lava wilderness bordering Ramah Navajo Reservation to find the missing girl. The instructor vanished somewhere in the volcanic landscape known as El Malpais. In Navajo lore, the lava caves and tubes are believed to be the solidified blood of a terrible monster killed by superhuman twin warriors.

Solving the twin mysteries will expose Bernie to the chilling face of human evil. The instructor’s disappearance mirrors a long-ago search that may be connected to a case in which the legendary Joe Leaphorn played a crucial role. But before Bernie can find the truth, an unexpected blizzard, a suspicious accidental drowning, and the arrival of a new FBI agent complicate the investigation.

While Bernie searches for answers in her case, her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee juggles trouble closer to home. A vengeful man he sent to prison for domestic violence is back—and involved with Bernie’s sister Darleen. Their relationship creates a dilemma that puts Chee in uncomfortable emotional territory that challenges him as family man, a police officer, and as a one-time medicine man in training.

Anne Hillerman takes us deep into the heart of the deserts, mountains, and forests of New Mexico and once again explores the lore and rituals of Navajo culture in this gripping entry in her atmospheric crime series.]]> 323 Anne Hillerman Zach 0 to-read 4.15 2018 Cave of Bones (Leaphorn & Chee, #22)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Song of the Lion (Leaphorn & Chee, #21)]]> 31280668
New York Times Bestseller

“Fans of Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito, characters created by the author’s father, Tony Hillerman, will savor this multilayered story of suspense, with its background of contemporary environmental vs. development issues.” — Library Journal

A deadly bombing takes Navajo Tribal cops Bernadette Manuelito, Jim Chee, and their mentor, the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, back into the past to find a vengeful killer in this riveting Southwestern mystery from the bestselling author of Spider Woman’s Daughter and Rock with Wings.

When a car bomb kills a young man in the Shiprock High School parking lot, Officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers that the intended victim was a mediator for a multi-million-dollar development planned at the Grand Canyon.

But what seems like an act of ecoterrorism turns out to be something far more nefarious. Piecing together the clues, Bernadette and her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee, uncover a scheme to disrupt the negotiations and inflame tensions between the Hopi and Dine tribes.

Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn has seen just about everything in his long career. As the tribal police’s investigation unfolds, he begins to suspect that the bombing may be linked to a cold case he handled years ago. As he, Bernadette, and Chee carefully pull away the layers behind the crime, they make a disturbing a meticulous and very patient killer with a long-simmering plan of revenge.

Writing with a clarity and grace that is all her own, Anne Hillerman depicts the beauty and mystery of Navajo Country and the rituals, myths, and customs of its people in a mystery that builds on and complements the beloved, bestselling mysteries of her acclaimed father, Tony Hillerman.]]> 307 Anne Hillerman 0062391895 Zach 0 to-read 4.28 2017 Song of the Lion (Leaphorn & Chee, #21)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rock with Wings (Leaphorn & Chee, #20)]]> 22934457
Doing a good deed for a relative offers the perfect opportunity for Sergeant Jim Chee and his wife, Officer Bernie Manuelito, to get away from the daily grind of police work. But two cases will call them back from their short vacation and separate them—one near Shiprock, and the other at iconic Monument Valley.

Chee follows a series of seemingly random and cryptic clues that lead to a missing woman, a coldblooded thug, and a mysterious mound of dirt and rocks that could be a gravesite. Bernie has her hands full managing the fallout from a drug bust gone wrong, uncovering the origins of a fire in the middle of nowhere, and looking into an ambitious solar energy development with long-ranging consequences for Navajo land.

Under the guidance of their mentor, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, Bernie and Chee will navigate unexpected obstacles and confront the greatest challenge yet to their skills, commitment, and courage.]]> 322 Anne Hillerman 0062270516 Zach 0 to-read 3.75 2015 Rock with Wings (Leaphorn & Chee, #20)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spider Woman's Daughter (Leaphorn & Chee, #19)]]> 17349269
Bernie and Chee discover that a cold case involving Chee’s former boss and partner, retired lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, may hold the key to the shooting. Digging into the old investigation with fresh eyes and new urgency, husband and wife find themselves inching closer to the truth with every clue . . . and closer to a killer who will do anything to prevent justice from taking its course.]]> 301 Anne Hillerman 0062270486 Zach 0 to-read 3.86 2013 Spider Woman's Daughter (Leaphorn & Chee, #19)
author: Anne Hillerman
name: Zach
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America]]> 37564 508 Ronald Takaki 0316831115 Zach 4
My only quibble with the text which is in my opinion unfair is that I'm someone who seeks out books like this and I did not find that much new information. Still I find value in immersing myself in these stories and it would be pure hubris to claim that there was nothing new. There was plenty that was new I'm certain. Books like these will become apart of my knowledge and I'm grateful for it.

I'd recommend this for anyone seeking to learn more about the immigrant experience. It is afterall the American experience.]]> 4.18 1993 A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
author: Ronald Takaki
name: Zach
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves:
review:
A great overview of all the different cultures that were forced to assimilate to American culture. Even included is the native experience, the story is told chronologically and is always a well written narrative. The text does not rely on too many nuanced facts but tells the stories of many of the people. Each chapter felt vital and emotional.

My only quibble with the text which is in my opinion unfair is that I'm someone who seeks out books like this and I did not find that much new information. Still I find value in immersing myself in these stories and it would be pure hubris to claim that there was nothing new. There was plenty that was new I'm certain. Books like these will become apart of my knowledge and I'm grateful for it.

I'd recommend this for anyone seeking to learn more about the immigrant experience. It is afterall the American experience.
]]> <![CDATA[The Burning White (Lightbringer, #5)]]> 30169100 IN THE DARKEST HOUR, WILL THE LIGHTBRINGER COME?

Gavin Guile, once the most powerful man the world had ever seen, has been laid low. He's lost his magic, and now he is on a suicide mission. Failure will condemn the woman he loves. Success will condemn his entire empire.

As the White King springs his great traps and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip guile must gather his forces, rally his allies, and scramble to return for one impossible final stand.]]> 960 Brent Weeks 0316251305 Zach 2
This series was addicted to curve balls and I just got spun out. I guess. I don't know others loved it. Maybe I'd benefit from a re-read but yeah...]]> 4.22 2019 The Burning White (Lightbringer, #5)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Zach
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
Struggled to get through this one. Bottom line, I was lost. I didn't know what was going on most of the time. Feel like all the dialogue between the characters was... oh you poor thing you didn't realize that the state of affairs was actually this!

This series was addicted to curve balls and I just got spun out. I guess. I don't know others loved it. Maybe I'd benefit from a re-read but yeah...
]]> <![CDATA[Crystal Park - The Gem of Pikes Peak]]> 6584894 64 Ivan Brunk 0962400831 Zach 5 5.00 1990 Crystal Park - The Gem of Pikes Peak
author: Ivan Brunk
name: Zach
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/24
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Man On the Iron Horse 42188248 46 Rhoda Davis Wilcox 0960664823 Zach 5 4.25 1959 The Man On the Iron Horse
author: Rhoda Davis Wilcox
name: Zach
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:
Hey if you live in Colorado Springs and want a short history on William Jackson Palmer here you go. I've read a lot about him and this very up beat almost child's way of memorializing him was fun. Nothing critical at all, just a happy book about the founder of Colorado Springs.
]]> <![CDATA[An Honest Enemy: George Crook and the Struggle for Indian Rights]]> 52297222 Over the course of his military career, George Crook developed empathy and admiration for American Indians both as foes and as allies. As Paul Magid has demonstrated in the previous two volumes of his groundbreaking biography, this experience prepared Crook well for his metamorphosis from Indian fighter to outspoken advocate of Indian rights.

An Honest Enemy is the third and final volume of Magid’s account of George Crook’s life and involvement in the Indian wars. Using rarely tapped information, including Crook’s own diaries, the work documents in dramatic detail the general’s arduous and dangerous campaigns against the Chiricahua Apaches and their leader Geronimo, action that forms a backdrop to the transformation in the general’s role vis-à-vis Native Americans.

In a story by turns harrowing and tragic, Magid details the plight of Indians who, in the aftermath of their defeat, were consigned to reservations too barren to sustain them, where they were subjected to impoverishment, indifference, and in many cases, outright corruption. With growing anger, Crook watched as many tribes faced death from starvation and disease and, unwilling to passively accept their fate, desperately sought to flee their reservations and return to their homelands. Charged with the grim task of returning the Indians to such conditions, Crook was forced to choose between fulfilling his duties as a soldier and his humanitarian values. Magid describes Crook’s struggle to reconcile these conflicting concerns while promoting policies he regarded as essential to the welfare of the Indians in the face of a hostile public, jealous fellow officers, and an unsympathetic government that regarded his efforts as quixotic and misguided. Here is a tale that readers will not soon forget.
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 568 Paul Magid 0806165006 Zach 5 5.00 2020 An Honest Enemy: George Crook and the Struggle for Indian Rights
author: Paul Magid
name: Zach
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blood Mirror (Lightbringer, #4)]]> 29449386 Gavin Guile is missing, leaving Kip and his allies to face the White King's horde in the fourth novel of the NYT bestselling Lightbringer series by Brent Week's. When does an empire fall?The Seven Satrapies have collapsed into four-and those are falling before the White King's armies.Gavin Guile, ex-emperor, ex-Prism, ex-galley slave, formerly the one man who might have averted war, is now lost, broken, and trapped in a prison crafted by his own hands to hold a great magical genius. But Gavin has no magic at all. Worse, in this prison, Gavin may not be alone.Kip Guile will make a last, desperate attempt to stop the White King's growing horde. Karris White attempts to knit together an empire falling apart, helped only by her murderous and possibly treasonous father-in-law Andross Guile.Meanwhile, Teia's new talents will find a darker use-and the cost might be too much to bear.Together, they will fight to prevent a tainted empire from becoming something even worse. Devour this blockbuster epic fantasy series that had Peter V. Brett saying, "Brent Weeks is so good, it's starting to tick me off!"]]> 704 Brent Weeks Zach 2
The plot did not feel like you were there in so much as you felt like the characters were telling you in their dialogue that things the characters experienced were in all actuality completely false. It got really hard to read at a certain point. Lots of whining, lots of dialogue explaining how hopeless things were and just felt like things were happening and I wasn't entirely sure why. All in all I felt like the plot of this one was really hard to follow. To be honest walking away I'm not really certain what happened in this book. Really felt like mostly filler.]]> 4.38 2015 The Blood Mirror (Lightbringer, #4)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Zach
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:
I have enjoyed this series but I feel like the trick of -oh wait, you thought it was this but you idiot it was really this- wore very thin. The protagonists felt tired and depressed and the bad guys were presented as universally genius always one step ahead or so you were told constantly.

The plot did not feel like you were there in so much as you felt like the characters were telling you in their dialogue that things the characters experienced were in all actuality completely false. It got really hard to read at a certain point. Lots of whining, lots of dialogue explaining how hopeless things were and just felt like things were happening and I wasn't entirely sure why. All in all I felt like the plot of this one was really hard to follow. To be honest walking away I'm not really certain what happened in this book. Really felt like mostly filler.
]]> <![CDATA[Cherubim's Call (Apollo's Arrows #1)]]> 59991034
…a war brewed that threatened humanity.

Would three fresh recruits make a difference?

Harrison picked the military life for one reason; he wanted to see the galaxy. The lure of the Republic Army and traveling through space to find a future for humanity seemed like the best adventure he could imagine.

Everything changed when the war began.

Would he be ready?

Oliver was born into the dying high society of London—a society he desperately wanted to escape. His battle buddy Aiden was a thief looking for a second chance. Harrison, Oliver and Aiden couldn’t have been any more different…yet in the fires of bootcamp, they would all be forged into one cohesive force.

Now, with their feet barely on the ground of New Eden�

…the first patrol was going to alter their lives forever.

As the battle began, the truth of what these three civilians, turned soldiers, signed up for came to light. It was going to be brutal. They would be tested: physically, emotionally, and mentally. The desperate fight for survival would threaten to consume their very being.

The Galactic War just got real.

They had a major role to play.

You’ll love the first book of this late 21st century epic space military thriller because it looks at the story of the Rise of the Republic from a whole different perspective.]]> 315 T.C. Manning Zach 4
In my opinion this will be an entertaining series. Will it leave me feeling that I have unlocked a higher level of consciousness. Lol, no. This is just some good old action that reminded me of the time I spent in the Army. Pretty simple really but a decent time. Curious where it goes from here because at some point the book will have to feed me something a bit more thoughtful.]]> 4.36 2022 Cherubim's Call (Apollo's Arrows #1)
author: T.C. Manning
name: Zach
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves:
review:
This story occurs in the same story as "The rise of the republic". The other series just about gets all 5 stars in all the books I've cleared. This one gets a 4 star, why? Because I'm getting the same story I already got but this time with new characters. Sure I loved it the first time, and this time I'm getting to know new characters who aren't the most interesting but who seem real enough.

In my opinion this will be an entertaining series. Will it leave me feeling that I have unlocked a higher level of consciousness. Lol, no. This is just some good old action that reminded me of the time I spent in the Army. Pretty simple really but a decent time. Curious where it goes from here because at some point the book will have to feed me something a bit more thoughtful.
]]> <![CDATA[Into the Uncertain (Rise of the Republic, #9)]]> 123161762
…could the wrath of a nation be quenched?

Or would it drown in the blood of its enemies?

It was a crucial piece of intel, and now they had coordinates for the RNS Freedom . The allies� next move could change the course of everything, but there was just one question. Was the Viceroy’s final card to play enough to save the Republic?

The Gallentine Emperor isn’t pleased.

Could Viceroy Miles Hunt lose his place of influence?

Sakura and her team had discovered an ancient portal, but it wasn’t like the others. After being sealed for thousands of years, would opening it unlock Pandora’s box?

Were some secrets better left undiscovered?

Or would the answers there save them all?

Into the Uncertain pushes our heroes to their limits, forcing them to make decisions that will alter the fate of humanity. You’ll love this 9th book in this incredible military science fiction thriller series because some mysteries are solved and others have just begun.

Get it now.]]> 317 James Rosone 1957634855 Zach 5 4.52 2024 Into the Uncertain (Rise of the Republic, #9)
author: James Rosone
name: Zach
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:
So intense, emotional and easy to read. I couldn't put it down. I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW!
]]> The Call of Cthulhu 24905014 Read more]]> H.P. Lovecraft Zach 3
I enjoy horror, I enjoy supernatural horror the most. This is absurdist supernatural horror bursting with endless fodder for a person like me... only this is a short story and there is not really much of a universe here. I got a bit out of this and I enjoy works that use this as a template. $3 for the book wasn't asking too much. Good Halloween read I suppose.]]> 3.00 1928 The Call of Cthulhu
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Zach
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1928
rating: 3
read at: 2018/09/26
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
On one hand I really like the atmosphere of this book, on the other hand I want more and there isn't much to it is there? This was written in a time where a cheap thrill was what was offered and people realized there was some real start to something here. They figured this out after H.P. was past on if my understanding of history is right. Then there is the fact that old H.P. was a racist and that comes through in this book just a little in descriptions of sailors. It's brief and it's not right but it doesn't dwell there.

I enjoy horror, I enjoy supernatural horror the most. This is absurdist supernatural horror bursting with endless fodder for a person like me... only this is a short story and there is not really much of a universe here. I got a bit out of this and I enjoy works that use this as a template. $3 for the book wasn't asking too much. Good Halloween read I suppose.
]]> <![CDATA[The Broken Eye (Lightbringer, #3)]]> 12652457 New York Times bestseller
The Broken Eye continues the spectacular Lightbringer series from the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife.

As the old gods awaken and satrapies splinter, the Chromeria races to find the only man who can still end a civil war before it engulfs the known world. But Gavin Guile has been captured by an old enemy and enslaved on a pirate galley. Worse still, Gavin has lost more than his powers as Prism--he can't use magic at all.

Without the protection of his father, Kip Guile will face a master of shadows as his grandfather moves to choose a new Prism and put himself in power. With Teia and Karris, Kip will have to use all his wits to survive a secret war between noble houses, religious factions, rebels, and an ascendant order of hidden assassins called The Broken Eye.


Lightbringer
The Black Prism
The Blinding Knife
The Broken Eye
The Blood Mirror

For more from Brent Weeks, check
Night Angel
The Way of Shadows
Shadow's Edge
Beyond the Shadows

Night The Complete Trilogy (omnibus)
Perfect A Night Angel Novella (e-only)
The Way of The Graphic Novel]]> 688 Brent Weeks 0316235555 Zach 4
These books are too long. There is too much back and forth with the characters and things shift around so much. Some of the characters are adorable and really limited and some are written to be so genius that everything they do have levels of affect on the plot. Only the characters aren't really fleshed out that well so when the multiple genius moves of the characters come out it just feels like you are told that they did these things and you aren't given any indication as to how. It just feels that some of the characters you are told are epic and certainly their impact is epic but you are never given insight into how they did these epic arrangements. I'm doing poorly at making my point here.

Let me just say I do not actually think the characters are fleshed out that well and I do not think the plot is filled out with the why's and how's enough. You are just left reading some really dramatic whiplash scenes where the protagonists are constantly reacting to these huge moves that just do not seem tangible in anyway.

The bright side is, the simple characters charm me. The action is usually pretty good. The magic system is pretty good but sometimes I still find myself asking how exactly this stuff works. It's like the system wishes it was Wheel of Time but it isn't quite.

I did actually enjoy most of the book despite my complaining. I do think the author is getting better at writing with each book.]]> 4.45 2014 The Broken Eye (Lightbringer, #3)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Zach
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
I'm struggling writing this review. There are moments where I'm thrilled by this book, a clear 5 star review must follow. Then I'll read along and realize I didn't quite understand what I thought and I guess I missed something.

These books are too long. There is too much back and forth with the characters and things shift around so much. Some of the characters are adorable and really limited and some are written to be so genius that everything they do have levels of affect on the plot. Only the characters aren't really fleshed out that well so when the multiple genius moves of the characters come out it just feels like you are told that they did these things and you aren't given any indication as to how. It just feels that some of the characters you are told are epic and certainly their impact is epic but you are never given insight into how they did these epic arrangements. I'm doing poorly at making my point here.

Let me just say I do not actually think the characters are fleshed out that well and I do not think the plot is filled out with the why's and how's enough. You are just left reading some really dramatic whiplash scenes where the protagonists are constantly reacting to these huge moves that just do not seem tangible in anyway.

The bright side is, the simple characters charm me. The action is usually pretty good. The magic system is pretty good but sometimes I still find myself asking how exactly this stuff works. It's like the system wishes it was Wheel of Time but it isn't quite.

I did actually enjoy most of the book despite my complaining. I do think the author is getting better at writing with each book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer, #2)]]> 12499290
He’d thought he had five years left—now he has less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son, and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin has problems on every side. All magic in the world is running wild and threatens to destroy the Seven Satrapies.

Worst of all, the old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.]]> 671 Brent Weeks 031607991X Zach 5
I can't say the magic system makes total sense to me. There are also other aspects of the world I'm not completely following (the demon battles, what does breaking halo mean etc.). But yeah despite all of my not following what's going on I'm totally into this series. As I read I'm starting to understand more of the world and I'm really enjoying this. On to the next book.]]> 4.41 2012 The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer, #2)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Zach
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:
I'm upfront with my weird bias for having a school/training type deal in my fantasy books. I love them every time. This had that and all the impossible scenarios our main character was thrust into, yeah I was pretty much at the edge of my seat. Very suspenseful!

I can't say the magic system makes total sense to me. There are also other aspects of the world I'm not completely following (the demon battles, what does breaking halo mean etc.). But yeah despite all of my not following what's going on I'm totally into this series. As I read I'm starting to understand more of the world and I'm really enjoying this. On to the next book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)]]> 7165300
When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.]]> 629 Brent Weeks 0316075558 Zach 3
(Update I'm about 20% into the next book and I'm really into it. I guess book 1 was a bit of a rough start but so far so worth it.)]]> 4.23 2010 The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Zach
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves:
review:
I had to restart reading this book, others have pointed out that in the first 100 pages or so you may not understand the magic system. I fit in that camp and I was lost. Somewhere around mid book I started picking up on things but it took the entire book before I felt comfortable. The characters also did not sparkle for me much but as things went along they picked up. It's as if there was a lot of information being thrown at me and the reveal was not done cleverly like as is in many great fantasy books. I finished the book and felt 50/50 on continuing.

(Update I'm about 20% into the next book and I'm really into it. I guess book 1 was a bit of a rough start but so far so worth it.)
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