James's Updates en-US Tue, 06 May 2025 18:48:28 -0700 60 James's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9396018143 Tue, 06 May 2025 18:48:28 -0700 <![CDATA[James started reading 'The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet']]> /review/show/7546723324 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers James started reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
]]> UserStatus1058469119 Tue, 06 May 2025 18:35:22 -0700 <![CDATA[ James is 23% done with Iberia ]]> Iberia by James A. Michener James is 23% done with <a href="/book/show/199817411-iberia">Iberia</a>. ]]> GiveawayRequest709833356 Tue, 06 May 2025 08:27:04 -0700 <![CDATA[<a href="/user/show/11178674-james">James</a> entered a giveaway]]> /giveaway/show/411637-nightshade Nightshade by Michael Connelly
10 copies available, ends on May 27, 2025
Enter to win ]]> ReadStatus9392499835 Mon, 05 May 2025 20:45:35 -0700 <![CDATA[James wants to read 'Never Let Me Go']]> /review/show/7546723998 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro James wants to read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
]]> ReadStatus9392498882 Mon, 05 May 2025 20:45:15 -0700 <![CDATA[James wants to read 'The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet']]> /review/show/7546723324 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers James wants to read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
]]> Review7472769247 Sun, 04 May 2025 21:13:47 -0700 <![CDATA[James added 'To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last']]> /review/show/7472769247 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis James gave 4 stars to To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last (Oxford Time Travel, #2) by Connie Willis
Take 3, maybe 4, of the Jeeves/Wooster books of P G Wodehouse. Add a bit of time travel and an homage to Jerome K Jerome’s “Three Men and a Boat�. Then do a bit of namedropping and quoting of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, and Wodehouse as well, and you have a very entertaining sci-fi romcom of a novel.

(Actually, the Conan Doyle references aren’t so flattering for the most part.)

Outrageously rendered but unforgettable characters and one comedy of errors after another make the comparison to Wodehouse inevitable. The book is more comedy than sci-fi, although it provides a somewhat different twist on the conventional “theories� about time travel - in fact, it blows away the “butterfly effect � notion that even the slightest impact upon the past would inevitably alter subsequent events, possibly to a catastrophic degree.

In addition to the time traveling historians� speculations about the effects of their actions on the space time continuum (they often have conflicting views), there is the subtext of the Victorian era history professors and their feud over whether the course of history is determined by a Grand Design or is shaped by the character of significant individuals.

And there is just enough mystery to keep the soap opera plot lines from getting too tiresome.

One caveat - if you’re expecting hardcore sci-fi (as I was, given the Hugo and Nebula hype for Dog), you won’t find it here. But give it a chance and you might find it an entertaining read in its own right.

]]> Review7472769247 Sat, 03 May 2025 21:02:36 -0700 <![CDATA[James added 'To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last']]> /review/show/7472769247 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis James gave 4 stars to To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last (Oxford Time Travel, #2) by Connie Willis
Take 3, maybe 4, of the Jeeves/Wooster books of P G Wodehouse. Add a bit of time travel and an homage to Jerome K Jerome’s “Three Men and a Boat�. Then do a bit of namedropping and quoting of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, and Wodehouse as well, and you have a very entertaining sci-fi romcom of a novel.

(Actually, the Conan Doyle references aren’t so flattering for the most part.)

Outrageously rendered but unforgettable characters and one comedy of errors after another make the comparison to Wodehouse inevitable. The book is more comedy than sci-fi, although it provides a somewhat different twist on the conventional “theories� about time travel - in fact, it blows away the “butterfly effect � notion that even the slightest impact upon the past would inevitably alter subsequent events, possibly to a catastrophic degree.

In addition to the time traveling historians� speculations about the effects of their actions on the space time continuum (they often have conflicting views), there is the subtext of the Victorian era history professors and their feud over whether the course of history is determined by a Grand Design or is shaped by the character of significant individuals.

And there is just enough mystery to keep the soap opera plot lines from getting too tiresome.

One caveat - if you’re expecting hardcore sci-fi (as I was, given the Hugo and Nebula hype for Dog), you won’t find it here. But give it a chance and you might find it an entertaining read in its own right.

]]> Review7484173464 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 18:40:56 -0700 <![CDATA[James added 'Ubik']]> /review/show/7484173464 Ubik by Philip K. Dick James gave 4 stars to Ubik (Kindle Edition) by Philip K. Dick
]]> ReadStatus9359616481 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 14:30:04 -0700 <![CDATA[James wants to read 'The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia']]> /review/show/7523844127 The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin James wants to read The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
]]> ReadStatus9347687239 Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:27:07 -0700 <![CDATA[James wants to read 'The Lathe of Heaven']]> /review/show/7515584801 The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin James wants to read The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
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