Book List

My Worst Books of 2020

Wednesday, 20 January 2021

This was a really weird year for me. Two of my favorite series released books that made it onto this list and two books that I thought I was going to like also made it on the list. 2020 was a weird year for many reasons. If you check out my Top Ten Books of 2020 post, you'll see that I read some amazing books last year, but the bad ones are still worth talking about.


5. Peace Talks by Jim Butcher


This hurts my heart. The Dresden Files is my favorite book series of all time. It got better and better with each installment. Then Skin Game came out in 2014, which was a great book, but it took 6 years for the next book to come out. Unlike Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Butcher made it clear he had good reasons as to why it took so long but when two books were announced in one year, I was so happy.  Then Peace Talks came out and I picked it up and.... almost put it down.

Here's what I think. I think Jim Butcher wrote one big book. He wrote one book that was over 700 pages and either he decided or his publisher decided to break it into two books. Because when put together Peace Talks and Battle Ground make for one epic book. But when you separate them Peace Talks is a boring mess with no point to it and Battle Ground is exciting but mostly all action. Peace Talks is the literary equivalent of Ben Stein's voice while Battle Ground is a coked up Tasmanian Devil.

If Butcher had released Peace Ground or Battle Talks in one big volume, we wouldn't have having this conversation. But two separate books were released and Peace Talks was not only the lesser of the two, but it was slow, boring, and pointless. 


4. The Genesis Game: Vol 1 by Andrew O'Kelley


I love LitRPG books. They're my guilty pleasure. They're so nerdy that even I hesitate, briefly. Then I own it. I also love Net Galley because thanks to that service I've read a lot of books for free before they even come out! This was one of those books.

This books is about Seraph, a tyrant known as the Angel of Genocide. He is the strongest person in the world dungeon, a powerful place that's coming marked the end of humanity. Seraph finally reaches the Altar of the End but is cursed and sent back in time with his powers sealed away. This time he's forbidden from hoarding the power for himself and must help humanity survive.

I wrote a full review on Goodreads but to give you the Cliff Notes version, this book had terrible pacing. The story moved so fast that it felt like O'Kelley was too excited to get to the next part that he rushed the plot. A downside of everything moving faster than The Flash with his ass on fire is that you don't get to know the characters so I didn't care about a single person.  To quote my review: “Seraph is supposed to come across as some dark and broody bad ass but he's just an a-hole. We meet his father but we get so little of their relationship that I think the Lindbergh baby would have been closer to his father than Seraph and his dad.”

Seraph and his dad's relationship is supposed to be his only hope to not turn out like the villain he was. But I never once cared. This book was bad.


3. My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix



Talk about a bait and switch. If you look at the cover of this book it sets you up for something light hearted or even comedic. If not that, then it hints that it's not super serious, something along the lines of Stranger Things. But no, this isn't a comedy, this isn't even slightly humorous. It's considered horror fiction and not only is it not scary in the least, it's so slowly paced that it could be cut down by half and it would only make it better.

Almost every character is unlikable and the two main characters Gretchen and Abby, are idiots. Gretchen is possessed for most of the book, so she mostly gets a pass, but even before she's possessed, she's simply boring. Abby is an idiot who has less personality than Katniss Everdeen. 

This book is boring and a waste of time.


2. The Land: Monsters  by Aleron Kong


This is another one that hurts my heart. The Land is another one of my all time favorite series. I stumbled upon the first book thanks to a sale on Audible and fell in love. The Land: Founding is a great book and a wonderful introduction to the LitRPG genre. If you like the first one, then dive right in because the first seven books are great and the 7th book is epic and is 2202 pages long (or 48 hours for the audiobook) but the 8th book is when it hits it's first hiccup.

There was no point to this installment. Nothing really happens. It's pointless and you hardly see any of the side characters as it mainly follows Richter as he tries to escape the underworld or wherever he is. But it feels like Kong took what could have been 2 -3 chapters and turned it into it's own book. 

You know what this felt like? This felt like something mindless Kong wrote that should have been released as a freebie to his fans or as a reward on Patreon. That would have been fine. I wouldn't have minded this if it was sold to me as a mindless add on and not an actual part of the story. But for the 8th book in a series I loved? It's terrible.


1. The Frame-Up by Meghan Scott Molin.


I hated The Big Bang Theory. It was just a group of aholes who were gross stereotypes of nerds. MG, the main character of this book, could have fit right in with that group of dicks. 

This book follows MG, a comic writer who realizes a recent string of crimes are just copies of crimes from her favorite comic series. So she takes it upon herself to help the cops track the killer, but can a geeky comic nerd really help stop crime

The story for this was more basic than a “ripped from the headlines” episode of Law and Order. It's a story that's been done before and done by better writers. Also, MG was horrid. She hates it when people put her in a box and assume they know who she is but she turns around and does the same thing to most people she meets.

What's worse is that there's at least one “nerdy” reference on each page and even worse than that, they're not all correct. I really should have written down some examples but at the time I was too pissed off to care, but there were quite a few times that  the nerdy stuff Molin was referencing, was completely wrong. Also, the constant nerdy references got super old. 

I also feel like Molin must have some huge chip on her shoulder because it came across in the book. MG is one of the most hateful and judgmental characters I've ever read and it feels like Molin was using her book as an outlet. 

This was a true waste of time. This is the first book in a series and if I ever read the second one it's because someone paid me a lot of money to do it OR my life was threatened.


So there you have it. My worst books of 2020. There were others that I didn't like but these were the ones that actually got a reaction out of me. What books from last year did you hate? And if you're not the type to hate, which books did you seriously not like? Let me know by leaving a comment!

The Anti TBR Tag

Monday, 18 January 2021

This blog has been sitting in my drafts for an embarassing amount of time. My wife has already published hers which you can find here. But thanks for taking time out of your day to check out my answers to this and if you have done this tag or plan on doing it, let me know and I'll check it out!


. A popular book EVERYONE loves that you have no interest in reading.



I hate to copy my wife's answer for this question, but I will anyway. Game Of Thrones was not only a very popular TV show, but a massively popular books series as well. There are a few issues I have with this series after watching a few seasons of the show. It's too grimdark for me. I stopped watching The Walking Dead as well because it was just too grim.  Hell, Supernatural isn't nearly as dark and one character went to hell and another was trapped in a cage with Lucifer. 

There's also the question of the future of the series. The last GOT book came out in 2011. 2011! The man has had 9 years to write a follow up. But instead he's working on other series and writing the history of GOT families that only hardcore fans would ever care about. And finally I just don't want to read about things like rape and incest. 

George R. R. Martin is just like Patrick Rothfus he can't finish a damn series. True, the third book in the Kingkiller Chronicles is supposed to come out in 2021, but I'll believe it when I see it.

So not only do I have no interest in the series, I don't want to read something that may never be finished.


2. A classic book (or author) you don’t have an interest in reading?  



Franny and Zooey by J D Salinger.  I hated Catcher in the Rye with every fiber of my being. It's not a good book. I'm sorry if you liked it when you were an angsty teen and thought that it was written just for you. But Holden Caufield is a horrible character who has no redeeming qualities, no growth, and nothing about him that's worth a damn. No wonder he thinks everything is the worst. It's because he a waste of good oxygen. Because of this, and the fact that my wife hated it, Franny and Zooey will never be picked up by me unless it's to use it as kindling. 


3. An author whose books you have no interest in reading?

Robert Galibraith / J K Rowling.

Yes, this answer is, in part, because J K Rowling (aka Robert Galibraith) is a dirty TERF who I regret ever giving money to. But there's more to it than that. This might have been my answer even if she didn't hate the Trans community. It's because she got lucky with Harry Potter. They were very well written books and a truly well thought out series. But anything else she's done since has been awful. Every time she tries to add on to the Harry Potter universe, she only screws it up. 

The Fantastic Beasts franchise had hope but she's already screwed the pooch on that one. Not only was the last movie one of the worst I've seen in a long while, but she's already messed with already established HP mythos. She got the continuity of her own series wrong! 

Add on to that the fact that there's problematic Trans representation in her latest Robert Galibraith book and I'm officially done with her. She could write a new HP series where it's a new generation at Hogwarts and I wouldn't even think of picking it up. She did one good series and anything else she touches is crap.


3.2 A problematic author whose books you have no interest in reading?



Rainbow Rowell, author or Eleanor & Park. I don't know how popular this book really is as Fangirl and the Simon Snow series really are her more popular works. But I'm counting this because she's a popular author and this is one of her books.

I have no interest in this book because of the very problematic Asian descriptions in it. An article from the Northeastern University Political Review called The Problem with Eleanor & Park goes into more detail about her problem filled book.  In her defense it seems like her transgressions come from a place of ignorance rather than purposeful racism, but I'd rather not support someone who could make such obvious mistake and never own up to it.  The only thing Rowell has ever done was defend the use of Park as a first name and how she, a white woman, can have an Asian character. As far as I can tell she never apologized or addressed the issues.

She could write the next great book that wins each and every prize and I wouldn't care because I don't want to support someone like her.


4. An author you have read a couple of books from & have decided their books are not for you?

Patrick Rothfuss. Apparently you have to like him if you like fantasy books, but I disagree. I find The Kingkiller Chronicles to be a painfully slow and uninteresting series.  It has a lot of promise but Rothfuss is so long winded that I stop caring about anything. Kvothe could have been a very good character and the story could have been really good, but it goes on for so long that by the end, I just want it to end so I can move on with my life. 

Also, Rothfuss has spent so long writing the next book in the series (7 years) that if I did care enough to read it, I'd feel like I have to reread the first two books just to read the new one. Also, he wrote a novella about a side character and I fully DNFd it because it was too painful to read.

Patrick Rothfuss seems like a nice guy, but I'll avoid any future books by him. 


5. A genre you have no interest in OR a genre you tried to get into & couldn’t?

Classic Cyberpunk. I've read Neuromancer by William Gibson. I've tried to read Idoru and few short stories of his as well. I also tried to read Snow Crash but I just couldn't get into it. I'm almost 100% done with this genre. Next year I plan on reading the last book I have any interest in. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick.

I was specific when I said “classic” cyberpunk because there are quite a few more recent books that I think I may like. Warcross by Marie Liu is on that list as well as The Windup Girl by  Paolo Bacigalupi. Just older Cyberpunk is too boring and hard to follow.


6. A book you have bought but will never read? (this can be a book you have unhauled/returned to the library unread)



The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence.  I bought the books because my group of friends loved them. We have very similar tastes in terms of Fantasy and Sci-fi.  I saw these books at a library book sale and got them. Before I could pick the first one up, I found out that he's a very problematic author. He apparently has been very mean towards women on book tours and on twitter and he hates booktubers and book bloggers as well as not caring about any opinions on his book except from actual book critics. Overall he's just a huge ass. 

I have so many books on my TBR that I don't want to waste time with someone like him. I couldn't find evidence to substantiate all the claims I've heard about him, but a simple google search showed me more than enough to know I'd rather not support him.


7. A series you have no interest in reading OR a series you started & have dnf’d?

Easy. The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. I tried this series out a couple years back and I was so sure I was going to like it that I took the first three books out of the library and even considered buying them before I even read them. Then I read Every Heart A Doorway and it was one of the worst books I ever read.

Seanan McGuire isn't a good author. The only thing that she did well was come up with a very good idea that I'd rather someone else write (like Rebecca Mead maybe?). Her characters were mostly forgettable. They made very weird choices and said odd things that didn't seem to further the plot or serve as any kind of development. The pacing of the story was horrid and it all seemed to end out of nowhere.  The ending was also awful and happened in the stupidest of ways. 

My wife wants me to read the third Wayward Children book because it's her favorite but I don't want to because I'd rather rinse my eyes out with bleach.


8. A new release you have no interest in reading?



A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green.  I feel bad. I like Hank Green as a person. He seems super nice, super smart, and like a genuine good person. But the first book in The Carls series An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was a test of my patience.  April May is a worthless tryhard piece of literary garbage and the only reason I would pick this book up is if she died a horrible death and even then I would only read that part just to make me smile.

Hank Green is pretty damn great and I feel bad for this. I love him on YouTube and TikTok. I think he's very smart, funny, and nice, but his books are just not for me.


My Top Ten Books of 2020

Saturday, 16 January 2021

2020 allowed for a lot of reading for most of us. Can't go out because of a pandemic made worse by idiots not following the rules? Then stay inside and read a book instead! So since I've read more books than ever this year, narrowing it down to a ten could have been hard, but I've read some pretty outstanding books this year, so it wasn't a difficult decision. Here's my top ten which I painstakingly put in order. Some of these have been around for a while and others were released this year, so you'll find a nice mix here. Enjoy!


10. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak



This is a heavy book that follows young Leisel Meminger who has a history of stealing books. It all started when she steals the Gravedigger's Handbook at her brother's funeral. Leisel then goes to live with the Hubermann family, but not all is well as WWII is in full swing and Leisel and the Hubermann's don't drink the Nazi Kool-Aid but must survive by pretending they do.

I listened to this as an audiobook and I can't imagine it any other way. It's narrated by Roger Allam and he did a fantastic job. The narrator of the story is Death and Allam's smoky storyteller voice was perfect.

The Book Thief was everything I expected. You don't go into a WWII book expecting things to be happy. But what I didn't count on was being charmed by the characters, especially Liesel's foster father Hans Hubermann and his ornery wife Rosa. The characters are what set this story apart from others like it. It took me a while to read it and I'm glad because 2020 needed to be a good reading year.


9. Red, White & Royal Blue



This was a popular YA book from last year the follows First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz and his relationship with Prince Henry of Wales. The two met once and Alex has considered them mortal enemies ever since, but after a snafu at a White House Christmas party, the two are sent on a PR tour to fix it. But what Alex doesn't know is that his feelings for the Prince are going to grow.

I love love. You've heard the saying “Love is Love” and it's true. I love love stories. I love romance be it straight or any color on the LGBTQ+ rainbow, I can dig it and I'll get all sorts of warm feelings reading it. But it's more than just romance. The book has to be well written too. It needs characters who have more than one dimension. It's needs to have a realistic relationship even if the circumstances are extraordinary. It needs to be exactly what Red, White, & Royal Blue was.

If you're in the market for a solid romance with a touch of politics, this is for you. This may be labeled as YA, but like a lot of YA books, it's for everyone.


8. The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert



This was published back in July and it's about two high school students, Marva and Duke. Marva is very passionate about politics and voting as she understand People of Color need to vote if anything is going to change. After she votes for the first time she runs into Duke who is having trouble voting. So she takes it upon herself to ferry him around town, skipping school, to get his vote to count. Marva is having some relationship issues but will Duke be the answer.

I expected a basic YA romance book. Something good. Something fun. But also something I've read before. What I got instead was a YA romance that was perfectly balanced with commentary on important political issues. Brandy Colbert expertly discussed these issues while making it part of the story. The book does stand on a soapbox at times about issues like the systematic inequality for African Americans in the American political system and it does so while never letting the story of Marva and Duke get lost in the process.

Brandy Colbert's expert touch is what set this book apart from other YA romances. 


7. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse



Xiala is a captain who is promised a ship of her own if she completes one job. She's tasked with ferrying a young man named Serapio to the holy city of Tova in time for the Winter Solstice. In the holy city the Sun Priest, a woman named Naranpa, prepares for the solstice celebration but finds that some of her so called political allies may be plotting against her. 

I had read Rebecca Roanhorse's Sixth World series and loved it. So when I heard she was starting a new series I preordered the book. But lucky me, I got an ARC on NetGalley and got to read this before my physical copy came.

Rebecca Roanhorse is a fantastic world builder. I had no trouble understanding the setting, the politics, and the magic of this new series. It's a vast world that doesn't get too confusing. The characters are all unique and as the story jumped between the two (3 at times) points of view I never once felt lost.

The story was enthralling and Roanhorse as an amazing way with words.



6. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern



The Night Circus is a magical thing. It appears without warning, capturing the imagination of all the locals and then disappears just as fast. Celia and Marco were both trained by famous magicians and are pitted against each other in a very odd contest and the circus is the stage.

If you've heard about this book and you think it's about two magicians doing battle, I'm going to have to put a stop to that. This isn't a battle. There's no magic duel. Whoever wrote the premise to this wanted to try and make it sound more epic than it is.

What this book really is, is a beautiful story that revolves around the setting. The characters are still very important but the main character is the circus. Erin Morgenstern used some beautiful flowery language and if you listen to the audiobook you have the benefit of Jim Dale's voice which makes the whole thing feel like a bedtime story.



5. Becoming by Michelle Obama



I shy away from books about politics. But here's the great news, this isn't a political book. This is the life story (so far) of former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama. It follows her from her upbringing on the South Side of Chicago and follows her up and up and up all the way to the White House. 

This book showed that she's more than just the wife of a president. She is a powerhouse of a person who uses her abilities and fame to advocate for women and people of color. This was also an entertaining memoir full of anecdotes that made me smile, stories that made me cringe or get teary eyed, and it was a wonderful way to relive the historic moment Barack Obama was elected.

What's more is that I put the book down and felt hopeful. Even if the last four years have been bad, there's hope that good people are out there who want to help.


4. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman



To shamelessly steal the first paragraph of the synopsis: A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

I had no idea what to expect with this book. But that's just Fredrick Backman's style. He is a true master of characterization. This was full of characters who shared the spotlight equally and not once did I get confused because I knew who everyone was.  This was a page turner but not because it was exciting or fast paced. It was a page turner because I cared about what happened to everyone and I NEEDED to know how everything went down. 

Each character had their own wonderful arch and by the end I liked everyone. Even the people I started out hating, I even grew attached to them. Is this the reading version of Stockholm syndrome? Or is Fredrik Backman a master at what he does? Or maybe it's both.



3. The Only Good Indians By Stephen Graham Jones



Four American Indian men made a horrible mistake when they were but young boys. Now, decades later, those boys are men and that event is coming back to haunt them in the form of an entity bent on revenge.

Writing a premise for this book wasn't easy. I know. It was only two sentences, but I read the official premise and it's just not quite right. I think the official premise is slightly misleading. 

Enough about that though. Jones is an amazing writer. I would compare him with Stephen King, not because they both do horror, but because they're both masters of the written word. But Jones has the benefit of getting to the point, which King can sometimes forget to do. The Only Good Indians is an amazingly written book. This is the only book of his I've ever read so all I can say is this book, at least, is a masterpiece. This is also an own voices book as Jones is Blackfoot. 


2. Punching The Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam



2020 was a very volatile year. The Black Lives Matter movement exploded onto the tips of everyone's tongues due to the demonstrations caused by the rampant police violence. Due to that, Punching The Air was an unfortunately perfect timed YA Fiction piece loosely based on real events. Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five (aka The Central Park Five) used his own life experience to help Ibi Zoboi craft this truly powerful story.

This revolves around Amal Shahid, a young artist and poet who was on the wrong end of a biased system and the victim of systematic racism. Due to events that wouldn't have happened had he been born White, this sixteen year old is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. But can he make the best of a horrid situation or will he fall victim to a system designed to make him fail?

I say this book is powerful. That's not just some meaningless critic buzzword that can be slapped on the cover of the book. It's the truth. This is a fictional tale with it's roots based in horrifying reality. But this story isn't just doom and sadness. There is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. But it's going to be a fight getting there and Zoboi and Salaam were the two best authors to tell the tale.


This next book needs a trigger warning for sexual assault. There's no graphic detail but it is discussed. 


1. Know My Name by Chanel Miller



This is a story of survival and about the woman formerly known as Emily Doe, now openly known by her true name of Chanel Miller. She was made famous by her victim impact statement that went viral after the trial of convicted sex offender Brock Turner. This book shines a light on not only Miller's experience but how the horrors of sexual assault continue even after the heinous act is committed. 

I'll be honest. I was going to let this book pass me by. I was familiar with the Brock Turner case and followed it as it was going on. I, along with the rest of the world, was left dumbstruck by the light sentence the judge gave as well as the horrid statements made by Turners parents.  I read the impact statement by Miller written when she was still keeping her identity a secret. So I knew this wasn't going to be like any other memoir I've read. I tend to read memoirs by comedians and actors, people who tell funny stories and make me laugh, but after my wife read it and loved it, I new I had to read it too.

I'm so glad I did. It's a super tough subject but it's so very important to read. It's very eye opening to the court process and how unfair it is. How Miller had to defend herself even though she was the victim. She had to prove that she didn't want it or deserve it which is outrageous. Also, if her family wanted to testify they had to put their lives on hold and risk their education and jobs. It'd disgusting and Miller's story helped bring light to something I never knew.

A bonus to this book is that she has an amazing way with words. She's a fantastic writer, but even if she wasn't, this was still an important and necessary story to tell. 


So what were your favorite books of the year? Let me know! 

Net Galley Wrap Up #4

Sunday, 18 October 2020

It's time for another Net Galley Wrap Up! Yay! This time, instead of audio book or graphic novels, we're talking about regular books. So check it out and you may just find a fun future read.


Coffee Days Whiskey Nights by Cyrus Parker



This is a collection of poetry, prose, and aphorisms that juxtaposes the hopefulness a brand new day can bring with the lingering thoughts that keep us up into the late-night hours. This book takes a look at the way a single day can change our outlook on everything from relationships with others, to our relationships with ourselves, and everything in between. (Net Galley Synopsis)


I didn't expect to be blown away. I didn't expect to love it. I expected to read a bunch of lofty poetry that I'd only understand a smidge of but I got it as much as someone who is not Cyrus Parker can get it.  It was beautiful. It was sad. It was happy. I related to some of it while I can never understand some of it but I can still appreciate the words and emotions. 


This is my first modern poetry book and it will be on my favorites list. 


This was great. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.


Coffee Days Whiskey Nights gets a 10 out of 11


I Hope This Helps by Tommy Siegel



Tommy Siegel's debut book collection includes 200+ pages of comics, essays, and extremely helpful guides to coping with 21st-century panic. With comics titled “Choose your social anxiety coping mechanism” and “What your coffee drink of choice says about you,” I Hope This Helps offers clever and sardonic commentary on our phone-obsessed, social media-driven culture, as well as a series of devastatingly funny relationship comics starring his popular Candy Hearts characters. (Premise from Net Galley)


I had no idea what to expect going in as I had never heard of Tommy Siegel before. But I like comics so I figured, why not. This is a collection of 


The full title is I Hope This Helps: 500 Days of Comics and Extremely Helpful Guides. The comics were hit and miss. Some made me laugh so hard I was shaking. Others just missed the mark.


An ongoing theme is the difference between younger and older millennials as well as social media and phone addiction. The goal felt like it was aiming for sarcasm but it comes across as super cynical. 


This was going to be a 3 star book but a handful of comics really made me laugh. A great honest belly laugh that just makes you smile and that alone upped the rating by one.


If you're a fan of comics like The Oatmeal or anything with a vague resemblance to old Far Side, than this is for you.


I Hope This Helps gets a 7.5 out of 11


Dead Dudes by Christopher Sebela



Dead Dudes by Christopher Sebela and Ben Sears is a goofy little graphic novel about paranormal investigators that become ghosts and want to prove to the world that ghosts exist when their rivals show up to the place their haunting. 


The Ghost Bros, which is what the protagonists call their team, are quite clearly modeled after the Ghost Adventures crew while the rivals give off a Ghost Hunters vibe.  


The art is just okay. Not great but not awful. It seems to be purposefully messy. The plot is interesting but gets a bit too odd and convoluted at the end. There's no character growth. Everyone stays the same. The author has bleeps instead of actual swearing which gets quite annoying. Either swear or don't swear. Don't try and be cute and live in the middle. 


This was fun but could have been a lot better. The story tried to do to much and it didn't have enough going for it to make up for the shortcomings.


Dead Dudes gets a 3 out of 11


Guantanamo Voices: True Accounts from the World's Most Infamous Prison by Sarah Mirk



This is the heaviest graphic novel I've ever read. I've always known that Gitmo was just one gigantic war crime, but the stories of those involved were shocking, i think this graphic novel attempts to bring to light some of the stories that people need to know. 


Sarah Mirk and the various artists who worked on this did a fantastic job.  The art was good and the stories ranged from intriguing to horrifying and it captured my interest right away. 


I think this should be required reading in high schools and even in college because I never knew a lot of this stuff. Even some of the facts like there are 40 inmates still there was completely new to me. This is something we should know. Since this is all from first hand accounts the stories bypass the talking heads and spin doctors who always make things all muddled. 


I'm glad I read this and I'll recommend this to anyone willing to read it.


Grumpy Cat Awful-ly Big Comic Collection by Various Authors





This collection of Grumpy Cat comics would be great for kids.  This isn't one of those all ages comics where the parent would get just as much enjoyment as the child would. The jokes were basic, perfect for someone young. But for anyone able to tie their own shoes? This is an easy one to skip. Grumpy Cat, may she rest in peace, had her moment of fame and was a funny internet meme for a while but the fad is over. Sure, a good grumpy cat meme is still fun, but this doesn't feel like it's trying to capitalize on Grumpy Cat herself as opposed to just a cute topic for a kids book.


So if you want something fun for a child in your life, this could be worth a look. If not, skip it. My friends and fellow adults, we are not the target audince.


Grumpy Cat Awful-ly Big Comics Collection gets a 5 out of 11



Books I DNFd in 2019

Tuesday, 21 April 2020

Quarantining has given me a lot of time to do other stuff. So I decided to look at the blog posts I never finished and lo and behold, here's this one from last year. I thought to myself: "self, why don't you post it anyway?" to which I replied: "Great idea me! You're so smart!" So here's an unpublished blog from last year about all the books I DNF'd.

One of the downsides of expanding my reading horizons has been finding some of the books on my most hated book in 2019 list. A downside of doing a year long reading challenge is sometimes feeling like you don't have a choice in what you read. When both of those things combine I found these books, books I DNFd. Though I didn't "did not finish" these because they're all bad. For some it just wasn't the right time and for others I just couldn't get interested.



Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire By J.K. Rowling
Premise: Come on, you know it.

I love me some Harry Potter. I've loved the series since I first picked it up back in 2000 with the release of Goblet of Fire. Back in 2018 I said that 2019 would be the year I reread Harry Potter. Not only that, but I would marathon all of the books, something I haven't done since 2007 when The Deathly Hallows came out. So September rolls around and I still haven't picked up the first book and I felt like I had to. So I forced myself into a series I just wasn't in the mood for and I made it to book 4 before I gave up.

My DNFing of The Goblet of Fire has nothing to do with it's quality. It's still a great book. But I forced myself into a marathon of the Harry Potter books, and that was the wrong move. What should have been a fun and enjoyable reread turned into a boring chore and an old favorite book should never be a chore. So I put this down and will pick it back up later. When I try the reread again, I won't do the first three books as I'm super familiar with them. I'll just start with this one.




Gil's All Fright Diner by A Lee Martinez
Premise: Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood county in their pick-up when the stop at Gil's All Night Diner right before a zombie horde attacks. Loretta, the diner's owner, asks Duke and Earl to stay and help. But what she doesn't know is that Duke is a werewolf and Earl is a vampire, so this is right up their ally.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from The Goblet of Fire is this book. Let me start out by saying that I've read two other books by A Lee Martinez and liked them quite a bit. I think he's very funny and a good writer. What's his trick? Maybe he took every bad idea he was ever going to have and put it into one book just to get rid of it. Gil's All Fright Diner has none of the humor or enjoyability that his other books have. The jokes felt forced, the characters are more wooden than Lincoln's cabin, and the pacing is slower than a stoned sloth. The story was contrived and the two main characters were just awful.



Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb
Premise: Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America's lakes and rivers.

I didn't hate this book. I just couldn't focus. This was an audio book I picked up during a sale on Audible and was very interested in the history and current status of the beaver. However I just couldn't concentrate on it. I would have to rewind entire chapters because it would finish and I wouldn't remember what had just happened. I don't think it was the audio book's fault. I think I had too many mental distractions so I had to change to a different book. I want to revisit this next year though. We'll see if 2020 is the year of the beaver.


The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Premise: Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome or fight the invasion.

I had been in the market for a new sci-fi book and this had been at the top of all the lists. This was a highly rated and highly recommended book so I thought it was a sure-fire win. As I got farther and farther into it, I was getting more and more lost. I thought that maybe I was too used to lighter toned book and that this book was deeper than I was giving it credit for. So I tried to be a more active reader, but that wasn't what the problem was. It was just a meandering and pointless book. I got about halfway through and I still had no idea what it was about. All I knew is that the main character was trying to get into some sort of secret society and one of the keys to that was a virtual reality game called "Thee Body" which was more confusing than D&D to a toddler.  There may be promise in this book. Maybe it gets better after the first half. But I didn't want to stick around to find out. There was even supposed to be an alien invasion but the story was so slow that there wasn't even a hint of it up to halfway through.


The Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers by Sara Ackerman
Premise: Violet's husband disappears just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He gives no clue as to why he left or where he's going and the only person who may know is Violet's daughter Ella, but she' not saying a word.  As the war in the Pacific escalates, more and more soldiers come to their small Hawaiian town. As a way to make ends meet, Violet and her friends start to make pies to sell to the soldiers.

If you've read any of my past book blogs you may have noticed that I'm taking part in the 2019 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. I have since completed the challenge but my final prompt was "read a book with sweet, salty, bitter, or spicy in the title." I was having a hard time with it. I stumbled upon this book while enjoying a free trial for Scribd, an app that has ebooks and audio books. I gave this book the "old college try," but just couldn't get into it. I just didn't find it interesting even though it seems like a book right up my alley. A slice of life book set during WWII and involves Japanese people and culture. But I found that I just couldn't wait to put this book down.

Quarterly TBR | Jan-Mar 2020

Sunday, 26 January 2020

Okay, I'm a little late with this one but I thought I'd share my quarterly To Be Read list. I try not to have a TBR set in stone as my mood can change. I can have a book that's burning a hole through my TBR but then I finish my current book and suddenly the burning desire to pick up that book has dwindled and I go to something else instead. Also, this year I'm trying to read more manga as there are series I really want to finish, so I'm tossing a lot of those into my TBR list.

So when you read this, please keep in mind that these books could or could not be exactly what I read. I also plan on reading more than just these ten books in the three month period, but I like to give myself some wiggle room. So here we go.

Note; The word is pronounced mah*n*gah not main*gah. Come on gaijin, get it right.

The Books


Let's start with the book so anyone not interested in manga can move onto something else.



The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes

Tippy the Triceratops is a detective. He was also once the imaginary friend of a little girl. When the girl's father dies, Tippy finds himself in the Stillreal, the place where once beloved imaginary friends go when they're no longer needed. Tippy sets himself up as a detective and things go well, until one day when he stumbles upon something that shouldn't happen. Tippy stumbles across a nightmare who can kill an idea permanently, something that should never be able to happen.

This is one of the books I'm currently reading. It was my pick for my first book of the year. It seemed right up my alley but so far it's mediocre at it's best moments. Time will tell if it can save itself.

UPDATE: Since writing this post I have DNFd this book. I like the idea, I think it's very clever. But it's just so slow and hard to get through. Also there's a subplot of transgendered issues and acceptance that doesn't come across well. Tippy, at times, is too concerned about getting characters pronouns right that instead of being an example of how to act, it makes him seem like it's a joke, which it shouldn't be.



Calamity by Brandon Sanderson (Book 3 of The Reckoners)

I won't talk about the premise of this book since it contains huge spoilers for the first two books. Instead I'll move onto my thoughts. This is a book I had started near the end of last year but put it down temporarily in favor of my first book of the year. I loved the first two books in The Reckoners series and thought book two was better than the first. So I was hoping that the 3rd would be even better than the last. So far it's been just as good, but not better.



Family Outing: What Happened When I Found Out My Mother Was Gay by Troy Johnson

Troy Johnson was 8 when his mother was outed by her lover at the time and let's just say that the early 80's wasn't a time where people were very “woke.” This revelation affected Troy and shaped his early years. Now, as an adult, Troy is more aware and acknowledges that he handled the situation poorly. Despite it possibly reflecting poorly on him, he wrote this candid memoir where he admits to his negative thoughts and reactions to the whole thing.

I've picked this book up already and am questioning it. The Troy Johnson I'm familiar with now is a food blogger and friend of Guy Fieri. He's kind and funny and a joy to watch. The Troy who wrote this book may be the same person, but I get a different vibe from it and so far, I'm not liking it. I still think it's brave of him to admit what his adolescent self thought but his brash words in the book tend to put me off. We'll see if I can finish it.

UPDATE: This is another book I've tried and decided to DNF (for now). I like what Troy is trying to do. He's admitting that as a kid he wasn't very “woke” and is being honest about it. He's not parading it. He's not saying he's proud of it. He's being honest which takes balls in today's world of cancel culture. But it's just so cringy that I had trouble reading it.



On The Shoulders of Titans by Andrew Rowe (Arcane Ascension book 2)

This is the continuation of the story started in Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Just like with the Brandon Sanderson book, I'm not going to talk about the premise for this one as the first line of the official description is a spoiler for a big question in book 1.

Update: I have since finished this book and it was quite good. I'll write a review later.



Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

It's been several months since the 2016 presidential election and “Uncle Joe” Biden is puttering around his house feeling lost and adrift in an America that doesn't make sense anymore. When his favorite Amtrak conductor dies in a suspicious accident, Joe feels a familiar desire to serve and leaps into the role of amateur sleuth with a little help from his old friend President Barack Obama. Together they'll dive deep into this investigation that takes them deep into the heart of America's opioid epidemic.

This book just sounds so fun and goofy. Obama and Biden had become so beloved by about half the country that it seems fitting that someone did the equivalent of political fanfiction.



The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (Hitchiker's Guide book 2)

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle through space powered by pure improbability and desperately in search of a place to eat.

I read the first book a while back and never continued with it. So I figured it was time to pick it back up. By putting this on my TBR I'm hoping that I won't need to reread the first one to remember what's going on.



Aftermath by Chuck Wendig

As the Empire reels from its critical defeats at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance, now a fledgling New Republic, presses its advantage by hunting down the enemy's scattered forces before they can regroup and retaliate. Hero piolet Wedge Antilles is trapped on a Star Destroyer high above Akiva, one of the last bastions for the Empire. Down below on the planet's surface, another rebel piolet, Norra Wexley has returned home to see her family, only to intercept Wedge's distress call. She realizes that her time as rebel isn't quite finished yet.

I've been on a Star Wars kick ever since I saw Rise of Skywalker and this was the first book released in the new canon. It's no longer the first as far as the timeline goes, but I figured it'd be a great place to start. Just like the old canon, the Star Wars stories jump around in time so it'd be a fool's errand to try and read them all in chronological order.



The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Goodreads Premise: When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved. Plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naivete, and vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

I'm actually ashamed it's taken me so long to pick this up. But now is the time.

The Manga


I want to read a lot more manga this year. I used to read a lot. I used to be a huge weeb. But those days are behind me. But even though I'm not a con going anime super nerd anymore, that doesn't mean I'm not interested. So 2020 is the year I want to "kind of" get back into it.



20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa

In 1969, a group of young boys build a secret base, and inside that base they come up with an idea. An idea to save the world. But to save the world they have to know how it's going to end, so they figure out the best way for a villain to try. It's now the 1990's and the boys are men with their own families and lives of their own. One of them, Kenji, finds a letter sent to him by one of his old group. A letter he sent before taking his life. The letter leads Kenji to believe his old buddy didn't kill himself and instead it's tied to a mysterious cult leader calling himself Friend. Friend and his cult use a symbol, a symbol Kenji and his group came up with as children. This cult starts implementing a plan to take over the world, a plan that's very familiar to Kenji. This mysterious “Friend” is one of his old crew. Who is it? And can Kenji save the world before Friend becomes too powerful?

Doesn't that sound awesome? At one point in my life I had almost finished this. What stopped me? I was reading this as it was coming out in Japan and caught up entirely. Instead of reading chapter by chapter as it was released by scanlators, I decided to wait until the whole final book was out to read it. The problem? It took so long that I forgot. Now I don't remember enough to pick up where I left off. So it's time to read the whole thing again.



Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto

Come on, you know what Naruto is about, right? You don't? Really? Okay, here we go with a BASIC premise. Naruto Uzumaki is a young ninja student rejected by his village for having a terrible demon sealed within him. Naruto must work harder than others to overcome his disadvantage in his dreams to become a Hokage, the leader of the village.

There's so much more to the manga (and anime) than that, but it's hard to say any more without some pretty substantial spoilers. This manga has about 700 chapters spread over 72 volumes, so I can only give the most basic premise.

I don't forsee myself finishing 20th Century Boys this quarter, but if I do, Naruto is my next manga. Just like with 20th Century Boys, I started reading (and watching) this when it was new and just fell behind and eventually gave up. I want to finish it. I want to know how it ended. I know a bit about it, like the couples that ended up together, but not much else.

Most Surprising Book of 2019

Monday, 23 December 2019


This list is made of up books that, wait for it, surprised me. These are all good surprises, so yay! So the common theme is that these books surprised me because I wasn't expecting to love them as much as I did. So here are a list of books that I loved more than I thought I would.


Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Most of the world has drowned after rising waters flooded the Earth during a climate apocalypse. The Navajo reservation has been reborn as Dinetah and in this new world, gods and heroes of old walk the earth once again, but so do monsters. Maggie Hoskie is a monster hunter from Dinetah who is supernaturally gifted. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie steps in to help, but she finds more than just a missing girl.

This is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, which is right up my alley. I went into this book prepared to enjoy it, but what surprised me was just how much I loved it. Rebecca Roanhorse is a wonderful author who created a truly wonderful cast of characters that I just fell in love with. I have to be honest, I expected a basic fantasy book, but I found a new favorite series.  If you've ever read authors like Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, or Kim Harrison, then you'll love Rebecca Roanhorse. If you love Harry Dresden, Mercy Thompson, or Rachel Morgan, then you'll love Maggie Hoskie.



I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short

I don't need a premise for this book. It's a memoir from Martin Short. That explains it. But what I do need to explain is why this stood out when compared to other memoirs I read. I listened to the audio book, which was read by Short himself, and I felt like it really helped the book. It was fascinating learning about his life, his start in comedy, his stint on SNL, his movies, and the love and loss he's experienced. I found myself laughing out loud more than once and even crying a time or two. I thought I was going to listen to a basic memoir. Something interesting but ultimately forgettable. But what I found was something that will stay with me for a while to come.


The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

This is the story of Theo Decker, a young boy who miraculously survives the bombing of a museum but loses his mother. We follow Theo over the course of about a decade of his life going from living with a family friend, to Vegas, then back to New York. All the while he harbours a secret. He stole a painting in the aftermath of the bombing. A painting that was very special to his mother. The Goldfinch.

My wife recommended this book to me so I knew I was going to, at the very least, like it. But what I didn't know was that I was actually going to enjoy it. This book is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, which means that a lot of haughty judges somewhere thought it was artsy enough to win an award. I'm not a fan of "literature." I think it's overrated. But this was actually an okay book. My wife is reading one of Donna Tartt's other books and from what I've heard, it's pure torture. I may never read The Secret History as it sounds more pretentious than an ivy league sommelier. The Goldfinch was also pretentious, but not as much so I was able to stay invested in the story. The first half of the book is much better than the first and the ending sucks, but I still liked it more than I thought I would.



The Buddha in the Attic

This book tells the story of Japanese "picture brides" as they move from their homes in Japan to America where something other than the promised riches of their suitors awaits them. We follow their stories as they adapt to this new life in a county that doesn't want them, married to men who just wanted someone to help them work, and raising children in this new world.

Let's be honest. Books and stories written from the 2nd person perspective don't work. When I started The Buddha in the Attic, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to follow it. I was wondering if I would lose interest. But surprisingly enough, it kept my interest. This wasn't a great book. Not at all. But the reason this made it on the list is because I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I was actually able to follow it. The second person omniscient perspective wasn't confusing. I may never reread this book, but I'm glad I at least read it once.



When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Paul Kalanithi was 36 and just about to finish a decades worth of training as a neurosurgeon. However life has different plans. Paul is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and while there is hope that he can survive, it doesn't look good.  So he begins to write a book that has the unique perspective of a doctor on the other side of things. Paul talk about his experiences on both the doctor's side of things as well as the patients.

This was another book Anne recommended to me and I never would have even given it a second thought if it wasn't for her. I barely want to read memoirs about celebrities I like, let alone a no-name doctor.  But I trust my wife and picked up the audio book and was unprepared. I wasn't prepared to be charmed by Paul Kalanithi. I ate the book up and even though I may never reread it, I'm glad I read it at least once.


Most Disappointing Books of 2019



Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is a gifted mechanic who lives in New Beijing. She is also a cyborg. She lives with her evil stepmother and when her sister suddenly falls ill, she is blamed. Things get slightly better, but not easier, when the handsome and very single Prince Kai finds her and takes a liking to her. Can she save her step sister and can a cyborg ever hope to find love?

The answer? I don't care. Look, I didn't expect to read a great book when I picked this up, but I did expect a mediocre one. This is a perfect beginners novel for kids. It's fairly innocent and doesn't have much questionable content, if any. But for anyone above the age of 12 I think you should pass on this. It's a poorly written story that's so linear, a one way road has more surprises. This was predictable and uninspired. Not worth anyone's time.



Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Lee Israel

This is a memoir by Lee Israel about her short lived life as a forger of signed letters by old authors and Hollywood elite. Israel is a struggling biography writer and discovers that there's good money to be made in the world of written correspondence from long dead authors an actors. So she goes about stealing and forging letters.

I really don't know what I was expecting with this book. I knew the story thanks to the movie starring Melissa McCarthy. I never watched the movie, but the trailer tells you the whole story. I expected an interesting memoir of a literary forger and what I read was a mildly interesting short memoir that read more like pretentious old school "literature." Instead of just telling her story, Lee Israel tried to flower it up with purple prose and it all just came across poorly.




Shallow Graves by Patrick Logan

Robert's life has taken a bad turn.First he gets laid off, then his wife is having an affair with his former boss. And that's not even his entire day. So when things are looking bleakest, Robert gets a letter from an Aunt he never knew he had offering her entire estate to him if he cares for her in her final days. He takes his daughter and heads to the house to help, but the house holds more than just a harmless old lady.

I wanted to like this. I was looking for a book that reminded me of a Conjuringverse movie. But what I got was a book with a very slow build in the first half, and then a second half that moves faster than a greased up road runner. We spend a good porting of the book building up the story with a couple creepy things happening then it all just ends. A new character shows up who literally just used Google to figure out the answer to all the questions and then boom, the book's over. It could have been so good.




Are You Listening? By Tillie Walden


Bea is on the run when she runs into Lou. Together the two set off on a journey through West Texas and strange things seem to happen wherever they go. Along they way they meet a mysterious cat and it affects their trip in unpredictable ways.

I wanted to love this. I wanted to love it so bad. I wanted this to be the new graphic novel I discovered and introduce to my group of friends. A graphic novel written by a woman with two female main characters and a cat? That sounds great! But instead it was a boring mess with a convoluted story that dabbled in magical realism but never quite made sense. It could have been good but it was all lost. The characters were bland, the story was weird, and nothing could save this good idea turned bad.


Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire

If you want the premise for this, then just check out my blog about the worst books of 2019. Why did this make it on both lists? Because I was so disappointed. I wanted so badly to love this series, but instead I hated it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Seanan McGuire is a talentless hack who wrote an awful story that shouldn't be read by anyone.

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