Category Archives: Reviews
Reviews of various things
Book Review – Badass: Ultimate Deathmatch
Badass: Ultimate Deathmatch: Skull-Crushing True Stories of the Most Hardcore Duels, Showdowns, Fistfights, Last Stands, Suicide Charges, and Military Engagements of All Time by Ben Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
For those of you who have read and liked the previous Badass books, you will not be disappointed with this one.
Thompson brings the same testosterone fuel he had from his two previous books to this one, now focusing on some of the great battles in history. Thompson does not limit himself to the big epic wars either, but looks to some of the smaller scale fights as well. Along side wars like the 100 Year War and the Punic Wars are specific battles like Gettysburg and Rorke’s Drift.
I cannot verify the historical accuracy of the events as Thompson tells them. But, I am intrigued enough by what I read to seek further information about the events he relates, if only to seek clarification. But, Thompson’s unique style definitely pulls you into the story and does not let go.
Book Review – How To Blog A Book
How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time by Nina Amir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book had me a little torn as to whether to give it three stars or four. The book is very well written, and provides a lot of information for people who are thinking about trying to blog a book. But, it felt like a lot of the information was more for a non-fiction type book rather than the fictional narratives that I usually write. In the end, I was left wondering if much of the information the author provided could be used in blogging a more conventional writing project on the web.
Book Review – Weird Things Customers Say In Bookstores
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I used to work in a comic shop. During my tenure there, I had a lot of strange requests. This book made me remember just about all of them.
A funny collection of observations from the author and from other booksellers, this book made me realize that even the most literate of people can be a complete idiot at times.
Book Review: Scared Sh*tless
Scared Sh*tless: 1,003 Facts That Will Scare the Sh*t Out of You by Cary McNeal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Let’s dispel a few things off the bat. None of the facts in this book will actually do what the title claims. That said, this book is a gruesome collection of interesting tidbits. While there are some facts that I had not seen before, I have seen most of them in other books.
It seems that the author learned something from the first book. Snide comments do not follow each factoid. However, unlike the first book, there is no real distinction between the facts and the author’s comments, which takes away from the book.
Book Review – Trucker Ghost Stories
Trucker Ghost Stories: And Other True Tales of Haunted Highways, Weird Encounters, and Legends of the Road by Annie Wilder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
As with most anthologies, there are some good stories and some not so good stories, and you just have to take the good with the bad.
All the stories within are written by the witnesses of these strange events, which adds to the variable nature the writing within. It is tough to take any of these stories as evidence of the supernatural since each is, as mentioned, is written by a single author, the “eyewitness” of the event described. As such, without any outside verification, it is tough to accept any of these stories as “true” since we know so little about each author.
Still, taken as a collection of tales from the road (whether true or not), there are enough good stories in the book to suggest that anyone curious should pick it up.
Book Review: Mudslingers: The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time
Mudslingers: The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time by Kerwin Swint
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In this election year, I live in a state where two candidates are attacking each other based how each handled their finances. At times, the political ads look pretty nasty.
Reading this book, I realize that this race is no where near as brutal as the races Swint covers.
Mudslingers looks at the dirty side of American politics. The personal attacks, the political ads, the underhanded deals, just about everything you could think of (but really should not) happens in this book. Swint covers all sorts of political races, from presidential right down to mayoral. And writing this as a list allows Swint to build to an ultimate climax of campaign brutality.
This book is not for everyone, but I do recommend this read for anyone who looks at today’s political attack ads and wonders if they could get any worse. Mudslingers proves it can get a lot worse.
Book Review – The Best of Ghosts Caught on Film
Best of Ghosts & Paranormal Caught on Film by Various
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Books like this are interesting not so much for what’s written. Most of the entries are simply a summary of the facts of the pictures they accompany, along with some possible explanations. The true stars of this book are the pictures themselves. Whether or not you belief in the paranormal, these pictures are presented as the evidence. The reader is then left to draw their own conclusions about the pictures, whether they be too vague to rule one way or the other, too obvious to be real evidence of the paranormal, or whether they just make the reader say, “What the hell IS that?”
Book Review – One Second After
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had originally given this book 4 stars, but I downgraded my rating after thinking about it for a while. The book itself is fairly well written, though I had problems with the fact that it telegraphs a lot of what will happen pretty early on. The bigger problem I had with it is that it presents itself as a realistic depiction of the aftermath of an EMP attack on the United States. While I do not fault the author on logistical details (breakdown of communication, short supplies of food and medicine), the author is very cynical in his writing, which often moves the story past a “worse case scenario” to something a bit too over dramatic to accept.
Book Review – The Trench
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am not going to say that this book is high literature, because it really isn’t. But it is a thrilling adventure with lots of twists and turns. Alten masterfully builds the suspense with each chapter, pulling you in and keeping you turning page after page until you reach the exciting climax of the story.
Book Review – Monsters and Demons
Monsters and Demons: From Goblins and Ghouls to Fiends and Fairies A Complete Compendium of Mythological Beasts by Charlotte Montague
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The title itself if a big misnomer. Considering the volumes that have been written on some of the creatures they discuss in the book, this one is by no means “complete.” That might have been something I could have gotten past if the book itself was not so chaoticly written. Some creatures, like the Golem are double covered, with paragraphs written about their cinematic appearances, only to be written again in the pop culture section. Plus the inclusion of pop culture “monsters,” like the X-Men’s Cyclops, the Hulk, and Matt Wagner’s Grendel (which is connected to the Grendel monster in name only) is out of place and unwarranted.
