Author: Jeff

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#BookReview: The Girl In The Smoke by Matt Hilton

Relentless Action. This is one of those books that starts off with the barest semblance of “normalcy”, and then… well, I hope you like balls to the walls action, because that is what you’re going to get here. The heart of the crime here is typical enough to be easily understood, with enough wrinkles to make it interesting to try to figure out exactly what the hell happened. But the action is what you’re here for. If, like me, you found Hilton first through the Po and Villere thrillers… well, if you thought the action in those tales was relentless, you aint seen nothing yet. And here, the action is just as violent as anything you’ll see there… without the massive hulking excons to execute it. Indeed, in what could be a bit of a bridge too far for some, the young girl in question has more of a proclivity for violence than some of those entrusted with her care, which produces interesting relational dynamics at times. Overall a fun and short action thriller, great for those times when you just want some basic escapism without too much thinking involved. Very much recommended.

This review of The Girl In The Smoke by Matt Hilton was originally written on February 8, 2024.

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#BookReview: Turning Points In American Church History by Elesha J. Coffman

Well Documented Examination Of Oft-Ignored Periods Of History As They Relate To The American Church. Coffman makes it clear in the introduction of this book that she is setting out to examine 12 events/ periods of history that had what she believes is the greatest impact on the American Church over the course of its history – from the earliest days of Christianity in the land now called the “United States of America” through today. While some are rather obvious and typical, others – including her in-depth analysis of the Pentacostal style of worship – are less so. The writing style is nearly conversational academic – still clearly academic in nature, but not such that you have to be an academic (and particularly an academic in her given field) to understand, and Coffman covers pretty well the entire history and most all angles of the given moment for the chapter at hand. Other interesting writing choices are including a period worship song and a period prayer to highlight her overall points about the period in question. Overall an interesting look at a lot of history that even this amateur historian wasn’t completely aware of, the book still invites the reader to decide for themselves if Coffman really got the 12 most pivotal events, or why the reader believes other events should have been discussed instead, making it fairly rare in its overall tone and “aftertaste”. Truly an interesting book for anyone remotely interested in its subject or combination of subjects. Very much recommended.

This review of Turning Points In American Church History by Elesha J. Coffman was originally written on February 7, 2024.

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#BookReview: That Wild Country by Mark Kenyon

One Sided Polemic Benefits From Reading The Audible. This is yet again one of those books that benefits from the fact that I read the Audible version and thus have no idea about the length of its bibliography. However, no citations were noted during his own reading of the Audible version, so one suspects the bibliography to be quite scant indeed.

Which is a shame, because otherwise… well, the one star reviews of this book more accurately capture my own feelings on it, specifically that this apparently at least upper middle income white kid Michigan State alum presents only his side of the debate and uses strawmen at best for those opposing him. But there was nothing truly *technically* wrong here, and because I read the Audible I don’t even have the length of the bibliography to hang a star deduction on… meaning the book gets the full 5* rating.

But if you’re looking for a good history of the US National Parks… this is a half-assed primer at best. If you’re looking for an interesting travelogue of someone visiting several different national partks… Kenyon winds up having remarkable similar experiences in each of his visits. The one thing I can give Kenyon is that he is remarkably lyrical about describing his encounters… same-ish they may be.

Thus, if you happen to agree with Kenyon’s views… you’ll probably enjoy this book quite a bit. The more you disagree with his own views, the less you’ll like this book. Given that it has been out for a little over 4 yrs at the time I finally read the book, it will be interesting to see how many reviews come in after this one. 🙂

Recommended.

This review of That Wild Country by Mark Kenyon was originally written on February 7, 2024.

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#BookReview: For Love Of Country by Norman W. Holden

Reads Like General Francis Hummel or Frank Castle Monologue Yet Also Contains Points Far Right/ GOP Won’t Like. This is designed to be a new version of the pamphlet Common Sense by Thomas Paine that was so influential in Revolutionary America and which clocks in at around 70 pages, depending on exact modern edition. Yet Holden repeatedly claims that he is actively not seeking to incite violence – perhaps in an attempt to stave off any legal claims – even as the book maintains a revolutionary fervor throughout its short 91 pages. While admittedly this is written from a solidly right-side-of-the-aisle perspective, there are in fact several points throughout where Holden goes “off script” for that side and genuinely advocates what are at minimum more centrist positions. Ultimately, this is an intriguing treatise that will at minimum help its opponents better understand the actual mentality of the “other side”, and the only objective fault here is the absolute lack of any actual bibliography. Recommended.

This review of For Love Of Country by Norman W. Holden was originally written on February 7, 2024.

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#BookReview: Pity Pact by Whitney Dineen

Solid Romantic Comedy Builds On Characters From Prior Book. This was a solid romantic comedy – yes, in the Hallmarkie type vein – where two people in Small Town USA suddenly find themselves on the same reality dating show that is being shot not only in their small town, but actually in the country club one of them owns. Both of the main characters here played fairly heavily into the prior book, Pity Party, and it was nice to see some strong character growth from the male lead in particular between the two books. Otherwise, there are yet again some fairly hefty subjects broached here, including high school bullying. There are a few laugh out loud moments – always great in something billed as a comedy 😉 – and I enjoyed that this book was much more directly about our lead couple and the people surrounding them. Yes, including the couple from the prior book. One scene in particular may give the clean/ sweet romance crowd a case of “the vapors”, but to be clear even that scene isn’t actually a sex scene. Overall a fun romance that at least somewhat sets up the next book as well, which I’m very much looking forward to reading. Very much recommended.

This review of Pity Pact by Whitney Dineen was originally written on February 7, 2024.

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#BookReview: Pity Party by Whitney Dineen

Strong Hallmarkie Romance, Kid Nearly Steals Show. This is a sunshine/ grumpy romance that also features a single parent, and this is one where the child very nearly steals the book with the focus on her and her antics. Which is normally not my thing, but it works in this particular case. There’s also a “friends with benefits” / “situationship” thing going on, but all “action” is behind closed doors – so be warned, whichever direction you may fall on those issues. Overall this is another small town, hallmarkie style romance, and it absolutely works within that mold. Very much recommended.

This review of Pity Party by Whitney Dineen was originally written on February 6, 2024.

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#BookReview: Strange Religion by Nijay K. Gupta

Fascinating History Marred By Prooftexting And Dearth Of Bibliography. This was an utterly fascinating look at the first few hundred years of the Christian Church as it related to its world’s dominant government – and religion. I genuinely learned quite a bit from reading this book, and Gupta kept the overall tone scholarly enough to be sufficiently serious without going into pretentiousness. Indeed, the *only* problems I had here, that are automatic star deductions when I encounter them, are the rampant prooftexting – the practice of citing Bible verses out of context in order to “prove” a particular point – and the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 12% or so of the overall text when 20-30% is more normal in my experience across hundreds of nonfiction titles over the last several years. Even with being more willing to at least *slightly* lower that given more recent experiences, 12% is still simply too low.

But for anyone interested in the history of the early Church, for any reason: read this book. Christians, no matter your bent, read this book and consider its words in relation to your existing governments and their religions.

Very much recommended.

This review of Strange Religion by Nijay K. Gupta was originally written on February 6, 2024.

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#BlogTour: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a strong scifi book that will possibly cause a war within Booklandia. For this blog tour, we’re looking at A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen.

Here’s what I had to say on the review sites (TheStoryGraph, BookHype, Goodreads):

Title Vs Genre Will Cause A War In Booklandia. This is a book where the title will quell any riots over the story… and yet so many places (perhaps because of the publisher? unclear there) classifying this as a “romance” for genre purposes… is going to spark those very riots. To be clear, this book does NOT meet RWA qualifications for a “romance novel” – and is actually all the stronger for it. (As is generally the case, fwiw.) Which is why the title is correct and speaks to exactly what you can expect here: a scifi love story, both with the characters and from the writer to the audience. This is a quirky, funny, heart bursting, extremely cloudy room kind of scifi tale that is going to take you less on a rollercoaster of emotion and more through a multiverse of various combinations of emotions.

Yes, at its base this is a Groundhog Day/ Edge Of Tomorrow kind of time looping tale. Which then builds into almost Terminator level time looping. Even certain elements of a Michael Crichton TIMELINE or a Randall Ingermanson TRANSGRESSION or even a Jeremy Robinson THE DIDYMUS CONTINGENCY. All while based in and around a “super-LHC” – which reminds me, make sure to check hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com a few times while reading this book, just to be sure – and its experiments.

Overall this book really was quite good and quite a ride – one of the very few where I knew I had to immediately begin writing the review as soon as I finished the book itself. That, to me over the course of *so very many* books and Advance Review Copies over the last several years, is one of the marks of a particularly good book – you’re just left in such emotional upheaval that you *have* to write to get the thoughts out of your own head. But don’t go into this book expecting a romance – it does NOT meet those “official” guidelines – and, again, is stronger for it. It absolutely IS a love story (and yes, “clean”/ “sweet” crowd, you’ll find this one perfectly acceptable), and honestly one of the better ones I’ve read in the last several years.

Very much recommended.

Note that the review on TheStoryGraph, and Goodreads contains an extra paragraph that contains a spoiler that some may find beneficial to know about – this site, BookHype, and BookBub do not support spoiler tags to hide such details.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen”

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#BookReview: Free Time by Gary S. Cross

Intriguing History Of The Concept. Straight up, this is an academic writing this book… and the typical academic leftist anti-capitalist themes are quite prominent throughout the text. So rather than defenestrate the book (as some will very much want to do) and to save the author some 1* reviews that are nothing more than “this was just anti-capitalist trash!!!!!”… if you can’t at least accept that this is the position the author comes from… this may not be the best book for you.

As far as the overall history and presentation goes, it is actually rather intriguing. Cross’s examinations of “high culture” and “genteel” Victorian leisure ideals vs “low culture” entertainment of the masses is quite extraordinary in just how detailed he gets in showing the stark differences here. When Cross begins to get more into the 20th century and showing the mass increases in productivity and the intricate tradeoffs of using the surplus productivity for more income (what American society ultimately came to) vs for more leisure time (what other societies came to), it really is truly intriguing. As someone with an interest and at least a modicum of training in both history and economics myself, it is rather interesting to consider the ramifications if other choices had been made through these struggles and decisions as Cross lays them out here.

As with most any book of its kind, once Cross ends the historical illumination and switches over into more proscriptive social commentary on where believes society should go from our present position… meh, this is the typical section of “Your Mileage May Vary”, and that is certainly the case here.

Still, with a bibliography hitting the 20% mark, this is a reasonably well documented examination of the topic, and the way Cross presents it really is stimulating. Very much recommended.

This review of Free Time by Gary S. Cross was originally written on January 27, 2024.

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#BookReview: Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Simplistic, Perhaps A Touch Naive And Even Self-Centered, But Nothing Technically Wrong. This is one of those self-help/ memoir combinations that perhaps would work best for someone who is truly at rock bottom and can’t think of any way out of their current life or any way to better their current situation. Particularly if such a person had never had a parent or elder in their life to teach them these very basic lessons that many parents teach early on. So that is actually another way of looking at this: as a grandfather stares at his own mortality, these are the lessons he hopes to impart to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Yes, there is a lot of “I did this, so you can do a version of it too” – and, at the end of the day, a LOT of advice tends to be based around that idea, not just in this book. There actually weren’t as many specifics of Arnold’s life as one might think in here, as he actively states at the beginning of the book that he knows he made some mistakes and destroyed his family, but this book isn’t about that.

Yes, there is also quite a bit of repetition of the basic, simplistic, perhaps a touch naive points. Here again, as many any educator will tell you, the primary way to teach is to repeat. Over and over and over. Yes, there is also quite a bit of repetition of the basic, simplistic, perhaps a touch naive points. Here again, as many any educator will tell you, the primary way to teach is to repeat. Over and over and over. Yes, there is also quite a bit of repetition of the basic, simplistic, perhaps a touch naive points. Here again, as many any educator will tell you, the primary way to teach is to repeat. Over and over and over. Yes, there is also quite a bit of repetition of the basic, simplistic, perhaps a touch naive points. Here again, as many any educator will tell you, the primary way to teach is to repeat. Over and over and over. (See what I did there? Arnold wasn’t anywhere *near* as blatant in the book, though he did in fact repeat his key points often, particularly referring back to earlier “lessons” in later chapters.)

Overall this truly was an interesting look at a clearly intelligent man who has lived a life many of us could only wish for, and the lessons he has picked up along the way. Perhaps a touch simplistic and naive, but if viewed from the perspective of a grandfather staring down his mortality and expressing the values he wishes to teach to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it makes a bit more sense. Very much recommended.

This review of Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally written on January 27, 2024.