Book Review: Kendo, Culture of the Sword

In Kendo: Culture of the Sword, Alexander Bennett follows the technical and cultural evolution of Japanese swordfighting from the days of the samurai warrior class to its current status as one of the “sportified” martial arts (budo). In detailing this history, Bennett also gives an overview of the basics of performing kendo; however, this is not an instruction manual, and the descriptions of the moves, rules, and equipment are very basic and are used mostly to provide the reader with some grounding for the substance of the book.

Book Review: Mortom, by Erik Therme

I was disappointed with this Mortom, by Erik Therme. The set up is definitely interesting: Andy inherits an estate from estranged cousin Craig and goes to look at the property with sister Kate. Upon entering the house, the siblings find a dead rat, which is the first clue in a puzzle that begins to consume Andy.

Book Review: The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith (aka, J.K. Rowling)

 

Disclaimer - I’m a huge J.K. Rowling fan.  I loved the Harry Potter books (d’uh), but I also thought that The Casual Vacancy was excellent and very underappreciated.  I enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling, but it’s my least favorite out of the three worlds.

 

The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J.K. Rowling for the two of you out there who didn’t know) is the second book in the Cormoran Strike detective series.  The story starts with the disappearance of a second-rate but overly dramatic author named Quine, who has recently written an incendiary and potentially libelous book, and ends with all of the entrails everywhere.  In his search for Quine, Strike delves into the publishing industry, which is presented as a dying aristocracy.  Once the gatekeepers to elite intellectualism, the entire industry is now on edge as it suffers through the “new challenges” of ebooks and self-publishing.  The insight into the publishing world, especially coming from such a popular author, was fascinating, and the tension and suspicion surrounding everyone related to traditional publishing made a literary murder that much more believable.

 

Book Review: So Anyway..., By John Cleese

At this point, I should just make this blog into a book review one...

Book Review: The Paris Winter, by Imogen Robertson

I love me a good historical novel, and this was a good historical novel.  The Paris Winter, by Imogen Robertson, follows Maud, and English woman studying art in Paris, who takes a job as a companion for a sister and brother.  The story is set during the end of the Belle Époque, and does a particularly good job in differentiating between the wild optimism usually associated with the time period and the crippling poverty that was so pervasive and so often ignored.

Book Review: The Satanic Bridegroom, by Joe Gola

 

So many book reviews...

 

The Satanic Bridegroom (TSB), by Joe Gola, was a very, very well crafted book.  I am a big H.P. Lovecraft fan (in fact, I just finished reading his complete works earlier this year), and I was impressed with how well this novel fit into the weird fiction canon.  It really does have all the trappings of a traditional weird story: ancient civilizations, mysterious artifacts, old gods, etc.  Gola even manages to throw in the word “cyclopean,” which I’m pretty sure is some kind of requirement.  Clocking in at around 270 pages, and combined with mystery, action, and adventure, this was a very fast read.  270 pages would normally seem short to me, but the story had good pacing, and the shortness was very much in line with the old weird short stories and novellas of the past, so it worked.

Book Review: Nation to Nation

Nation to Nation was a fascinating read. Native American history is odd in that the one thing that everyone knows about it is how little everyone knows about it. Native American history is held up as the very epitome of white-washing and eurocentrism rampant in US history. And, while most history books will probably devote a chapter to Native Nations now, it’s still a gaping hole in our curriculum. I note this because, even knowing that I knew very little about Native American history, Nation to Nation shocked me by showing me that I essentially knew nothing. I tried to keep this review focused on the book itself, but I learned so many things that I just need to share, so there’s a fair bit of content below.

Book Review: A Vision of Fire, by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin

It's book review time!  I received a copy of A Vision of Fire, by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin, through the GoodReads First Reads program.  A Vision of Fire is a sci-fi thriller about a child psychologist named Caitlin O'Hara who has been called in to (discreetly) help a UN ambassador's daughter.  The daughter, Maanik, witnessed an assassination attempt on her father and broke down shortly afterwards.  The strange nature of Maanik's illness and the emergence of similar cases around the world, however, lead Caitlin to believe that this is more than just PTSD.  There are some spoilers ahead, although I try to stay away from anything too big.  Just to be on the safe side: Read at your own risk.  Also, I felt a free book deserved a detailed review (i.e. - it’s pretty lengthy), so...read at your own risk?

Book Review: Bird Box, by Josh Malerman

 

I really enjoyed Bird Box.  At first glance, this book has many of the traditional post-apocalyptic trappings: the havoc-inducing creatures, the mass hysteria, the scrappy band of survivors, that one guy who just has to fuck everyone over, etc.  But even with all this, the story kept my interest (I finished in a little over a day), and I was a little more nervous than usual when walking home from work (in the dark - thank you, Daylight Savings Time).

Scary Movie Night: The Recap (Part I)

*Will become important later*

We finally ended up having our Scary Movie Night.  Although it was still not particularly scary, it was a lot of fun, and I'm hoping to do it again.  Surprisingly, one of the most important things I learned from movie night was that it's always best to watch scary movies with other people (more about that in Part II).  This is especially true if you have access to a unicorn: the coward who is willing to watch them with you.  For me, this was my sister.  We watched a mixed of movies and "true" haunted house TV episodes, some of which I had already seen (but she hadn't) and some of which were new to both of us.  Since we watched three movies and two TV episodes, I'm going to split my recap into two parts.  So, without further ado, here is Part I.