Tag: covid

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#BookReview: Mailman by Stephen Starring Grant

Inverted Hillbilly Elegy. That really is the easiest way to have a general idea about this book. Take nearly everything about Hillbilly Elegy, invert it, and you have a pretty solid approximation of Grant’s thinking. Told as a native of the eastern/ southern side of Appalachia rather than the western/ northern side, this is a man who went to prestigious Southern schools (his dad was shot in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting) rather than prestigious Northern schools (“the” Ohio State and Yale). Instead of going into the military as a way out of Appalachia, Grant had already left Appalachia long ago as a businessman and came back during COVID to work in a purely peaceful, yet also Constitutionally guaranteed, service – the United States Postal Service, with its own sworn oath remarkably similar to that of the military’s. Instead of “spreading Democracy” as a desk jockey PR flack in Baghdad, Grant was the first person outside their homes and families that many people in his rural area of Virginia saw during the global shutdowns of COVID, spreading hope person to person in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the titular Postman of both David Brin’s original book and Kevin Costner’s movie (neither of which Grant ever mentions, to be clear). Instead of learning to fire a rifle from ROTC, Grant learned from his family and friends – including his avid fly fisherman dad. Instead of never really needing one in the safe zones of Baghdad (as Vance himself noted, to be clear), Grant speaks of the necessity of his John Browning designed 1911 pistol in the hinterlands of Appalachia – even against explicit USPS policy, as Grant notes more than once. Instead of the dangers of a broken family, Grant’s dangers come from both his own mind and the natural world around him, including an incident with a hornet nest as well as the burning and freezing of working out of a largely uninsulated metal box.

Now, Grant doesn’t seem to have any ambition for public office – even when Hillbilly Elegy came out, Vance was already running for US Senate – and that is truly one key distinction here. And yet, there are so many other similarities that the dichotomies really do speak to how you, the reader of my review of this book, can begin to get an idea of the overall nature of the book and whether you might be interested in reading it.

In all honesty, this is absolutely one I would recommend for anyone even remotely interested in learning about the lives of a “normal” (if any of us really are) American in a job most of us will never have, but who came to that job during a period where most all of us experienced massive upheaval. (To be clear, I was atypical during that period – the *only* difference in my job was that suddenly I was doing it from my home rather than driving across town to a cubicle I largely hated being in anyway. At the time I was working for a Fortune 50 global bank, and had been for a couple of years already. I wouldn’t leave there until long after the world had regained most normality, such as it had by the mid 2020s at least.)

Now, you may be asking me, “Jeff, why didn’t you deduct a star for relying on COVID so much? You literally did that in your very last review for a book set in that exact same year.” Which is a fair question, because I did do that and I do maintain that I largely don’t want to read anything about that year at all. But it is also a *nonfiction* and specifically *memoir* based look at that year (which also spared it the star deduction for lack of bibliography, as this was purely memoir), and it was clear from the description – that mentions Grant losing his job in March 2020 specifically and becoming a mail carrier after that point – that this book would be covering that period in some manner. Thus, I can’t exactly deduct a star for a real life look at that period that I was explicitly told up front was exactly that.

Overall a truly solid work perhaps more in the vein of the relatively unknown One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Frick (which told of a Dartmouth graduate’s experience as a Marine officer who was among the first “boots on the ground” in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the post 9/11 era) than Hillbilly Elegy, yet also with the direct contrasts between itself and Hillbilly. In other words, compelling, interesting, and…

Very Much Recommended.

This review of Mailman by Steven Starring Grant was originally written on July 14, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos

Rich And Multilayered Story Marred By Emphasis On COVID. At one point during/ after the world collapse due to COVID-19, I had an ironclad star deduction policy for any mention of COVID whatsoever. One line referencing it even obliquely was usually enough to trigger it. I’ve relaxed that policy over the years and no longer apply it for such one off/ tangential references, so long as they are minimal and don’t actually impact the story beyond an attempt to acknowledge the reality of setting any story in that period of world history.

This noted, I absolutely still apply it religiously when a story makes COVID a primary focus of the story… and unfortunately that happens here. Borgos could have used almost literally anything else to achieve some of the same ends he uses COVID for here, and it would have worked reasonably well – hell, some of them could have even tied into themes from earlier in the series. But he chose to use COVID, and that is damnable to many – and a major issue for me. Enough to warrant the star deduction, at minimum.

One of the other major themes here is perhaps just as volatile, if more locally – that of Nevada’s wild horses and what should be done about them. This story plays out across the entire book, and Borgos seemingly does a solid job of showing the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. I say “seemingly” here as as a native of the borderlands between Appalachia and Atlanta, I can certainly count on both hands the number of times I’ve even been west of the Mississippi River – and I’m pretty sure I can count them on one hand. I’ve only been west of Texas *once* – a weekend nearly 20 yrs ago in Phoenix, Arizona. Thus, I don’t really know anything at all about how Nevadans feel about this issue one way or the other, and unlike Borgos, this isn’t something I’ve spent a lifetime in and around- culturally, at minimum. (Now, if the issue is the American Civil War… different story. But that particular topic doesn’t apply to this book. :D)

Outside of these issues (and even inside of them, to a degree), this is a police procedural in form and format, if a more interesting/ less typical version of the sub genre in its particulars. Throughout this series, Borgos has made a truly interesting and compelling character in Porter Beck, a fully fleshed out, heroic yet flawed in his own ways, man of his world. Supporting characters, including Beck’s dad and sister, are equally compelling, and even other relationships come across as all too realistic, particularly as things develop further in this book with these relationships. Even secondary characters such as the various suspects of this book are fleshed out much better than other authors generally do, including some rather horrific backstories that have enough detail to them that they seem based on at least generalizations of specific real world people and events. Indeed, once one gets beyond the COVID and beyond the horse issue- both central to this particular story, to be clear – and perhaps beyond the issues of foreign ownership and mining also discussed here, though less prominently and in far less detail, the actual story here between the various characters themselves is actually quite strong, and everyone plays their roles rather superbly.

Borgos has done an excellent job of building this world in a realistic, complex manner that reflects on the real world issues of its place and time in a manner that provides food for thought for all involved and for those completely unfamiliar with the area or its issues, and in so doing presents a solid story for all readers, but particularly male readers who may be looking for more male-oriented books that don’t have the problems that more extreme forms of entertainment and/ or discussion all too often have.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos was originally written on July 13, 2025.

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#BookReview: Proof by Adam Kucharski

Not As Bad As It Could Have Been. Quite honestly, if I had known up front that I was reading a book about proof and certainty written by a *COVID “scientist”*… I would never have picked the damn book up to begin with. Those fuckers have been more wrong than flat earthers, and the world learned from dire direct personal experience to not believe a word they say.

This noted, Kucharski does at least admit that even he was wrong in at least certain areas, so the fact that he wasn’t trying to defend everything he and his colleagues did to us and all of their blatant mistakes was at least somewhat refreshing and gave this review its title.

Kucharski actually does a good job here with writing about precise concepts in layman and approachable terms, and even raises great (and hitherto unknown even to me) points about how even Euclid’s Elements ultimately shaped decades of American politics… via one State Senator working himself through it in order to learn how to be a more convincing orator. That particular State Senator being none other than later President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

Similarly, other sections are also quite enlightening about other forms of proof, even going so far as to at least allow for the possibility of Bayes being wrong in his Theorem (a topic explored much more fully in the much more targeted work Bernoulli’s Fallacy by Aubrey Clayton) – which not many books about proof and statistics have ever done, at least in my experience as a former math and math related fields major and avid reader. (LONG story short, I came within a half dozen classes of getting degrees in Computer Science (the one I ultimately did get), Mathematics, and Secondary Mathematics Education at once… almost 20 yrs ago to the day as I write this review.)

Ultimately, the star deductions are for the long focus on COVID, which even 5 yrs later still warrants a star deduction in my own personal war against books focusing on that topic, and for trying to defend the scientists who were pushing so much of the damaging narratives – including, it seems, Kucharski himself. In a book about “proof” and “certainty”, where history has now proven that one group of scientists in particular was so *incredibly* wrong in their “certain” judgements, to defend that very group of scientists as correct is to actively deny reality, and this cannot be ignored in such a text as this. (I’ve since come to forgive/ be far more lenient about more passing references to that horrible period of the 21st century, by the way.)

Now, maybe your political positions align more with Kucharski’s. Maybe you still believe the blatant lies the world was fed about that period that ultimately caused far more harm and devastation than the actual virus ever did. In which case, you’re going to LOVE this book.

But for those like me who believe that every single one of those “scientists” should find a more appropriate job that suits their actual knowledge and skill level – burger flipper, maybe? – eh… read this book anyway. Kucharski really does have some great stuff here, when he’s not talking COVID.

Recommended.

This review of Proof by Adam Kucharski was originally written on May 1, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Two Dead Wives by Adele Parks

For this blog tour, we’re looking at an interesting sequel that the author originally never intended to exist. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Two Dead Wives by Adele Parks.

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

WOMAN LAST SEEN Began My War On Books Featuring COVID. This Book Continues It. Having read literally 394 books between WOMAN LAST SEEN and this book, I did not *even* realize this book was a sequel to that one until the very end, when I read the Author’s Note. Perils of reading so much? This isn’t exactly the first time this has happened to me in my reading these last few years, though I think this is (so far) the most books between sequels. Long winded way of saying, if you read these books closer together than I did, or perhaps have better memory than I do, you’ll likely pick up on the fact that this is a sequel within the first chapter or two, so despite me not finding out until the end… it isn’t exactly a secret, either.

All of that noted, as with Woman Last Seen, here we get an excellent mystery/ thriller sequel, one that actually manages to work within the bounds given by the original book when a sequel was never actually intended – and thus showing just how strong of a storyteller Parks is (and perhaps how good of an editor she has). If you love fairly fast paced, character driven mysteries, you’re likely going to enjoy this one.

And then… the COVID. Whereas the first book dealt with COVID more as an ominous foreshadowing, being set in the days immediately prior to the global lockdowns that destroyed far more lives than the virus ever will, this book dealt head on with said lockdowns and actually incorporated them – and the slow global re-opening – into the story. Thus, while I deducted a star from Woman Last Seen because I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID even though it was more tangential in that book, with it being far more central and ever present in this tale, the deduction remains because even nearly four years later, I STILL DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. My war against such tales began with Woman Last Seen, and with Two Dead Wives it continues, along with my own real “weapon” at my disposal: the single star deduction in rating. Seriously, authors, PLEASE – just abandon that entire year or so of human history. Or at least ignore those parts of that year.

But again, other than the COVID aspects, this truly was a superb tale that truly shows how remarkable Parks is as a storyteller – I truly don’t know of many that *could* have written such a book when it was never intended, and I perhaps know of even fewer who *would* write such a book when readers clamor for it.

Very much recommended.

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: Two Dead Wives by Adele Parks”

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#BookReview: The Cove by Gregg Dunnett

Extensive Focus On COVID Mars Otherwise Intriguing Story. The break about 1/3 into this book to focus on mostly new characters for another 1/4 to 1/3 or so (before coming back to at least some of the original characters) is a bit jarring and could potentially be off-putting to some readers, but to me it actually felt like an interesting way to tell this particular story, as well as the larger story of the Detective this series seems to be based around. No, the biggest problem for me – and the reason for the star deduction – is the extensive use of and discussion of COVID in its various forms. Quite simply, even in July 2023, I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. In ANY form. AT ALL. I’m beginning to become at least slightly more tolerant of passing references to it, but this particular tale used it quite heavily both as a plot device and in showing various actions related to it.

And yet, again, to be crystal clear: Ignoring the narrative break and COVID, this is actually a fairly inventive book about a serial killer and the detective that is trying to stop them. Indeed, this particular killer could well have been made into almost a new Moriarty, for a new Sherlock Holmes in this particular detective. But alas, this tale does hold forth to crime/ police procedural genre conventions, and this is instead more a “freak of the week” tale that is so common in the genre. Still, quite promising indeed, and with a Detective that actually stands out a bit from the crowd in her own way. Very much recommended.

This review of The Cove by Gregg Dunnett was originally written on July 25, 2023.

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#BookReview: The Overlooked Americans by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett

Wokeism (n): The Tendency Towards Social Justice Turned Toxic. Got your attention with the headline here, right? Good. Now sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how “it’s done”.

When you get beyond David Auerbach’s Meganets, when you get beyond Tobias Rose-Stockwell’s Outrage Machine, when you get to the *person* you think you so adamantly oppose…

… what happens when you find out that while they may come from a different culture than you, the human condition remains the same across cultures, and ultimately they share quite a bit of commonality with you?

What happens when you find out the monster at your door, the horrid kaiju that is threatening your children and your very way of life…

… is just another person who is just trying to protect his own way of life and his own kids, who thinks that *you* are the horrid kaiju threatening *his* kids and way of life?

What happens when you stop shooting at each other for just one minute…

… and find out that you had far more in common than you ever had different all along?

Don’t get me wrong, this book has a few problems. Currid-Halkett still tends to be at least somewhat elitist and/ or condescending to those opinions she disagrees with, and there is quite a lot of discussion of COVID here – the latter point being the star deduction, as even in 2023 I remain adamant in my one-man war against any book that mentions COVID, and the single star deduction is my only “real” “weapon” there.

Overall though, it is on the higher end of normally well documented, at 29% bibliography, and fairly well reasoned overall. For those that want to avoid the fates shown in David French’s Divided We Fall… this book is one that so very many people will need to read and take to heart.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Overlooked Americans by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett was originally written on May 9, 2023.

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#BookReview: Year Of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub

Realistic Look At The Practical Side Of Trying To Eliminate Household Garbage. I intentionally read this book immediately after reading Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis (which is scheduled to release about two months after this book), and the convergences and divergences were quite interesting. Franklin-Wallis’ text is absolutely the better, more well-rounded, guide to almost the entirety of the overall waste problem around the world, and is has nearly triple the overall percentage of the text as bibliography – indicating *far* more actual research and documentation. This is actually the first star deduction – the lack of bibliography. Perhaps more excusable in a more memoir-based book such as this, but even among memoirs, getting closer to that 20% range on documentation is more typical in my own experience with reading Advance Reviewer Copies of these types of books.

But where *this* text stands out is in just how *practical* it is. Schaub is apparently effectively a performance artist whose medium is memoirs, and she has to learn quite a bit along the way and ask a *lot* of questions of people that I’m honestly not sure Joe Blow (who can’t say that he is working on a memoir) would ever have actual access to. But even outside of all the questions Schaub asks of various waste industry professionals and activists, she has to wrestle with the day to day realities of truly trying to eliminate 100% of her family’s trash – for an entire year. A year which turned out to be 2020, and thus involve the worst parts of the global collapse and home imprisonment. Which is where the star deduction comes in, as I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. Yes, even in 2023.

Nevertheless, the challenges Schaub had to surmount were indeed quite formidable, and in the end she learned a hard fought, depressing for some, lesson: Ultimately, eliminating 100% of garbage cannot currently be done in modern society. *Perhaps* as a true Homesteader/ Survivalist – which Schaub is not and therefore did not test -, but for the vast majority of those living in the modern, Western-ish society, it simply cannot be done.

Read the book to see how close Schaub and her family got and all the trials and travails they had to go through to get there. Schaub writes in a fashion that comes across as both no-nonsense and humorous, and the tale reads well because of this. Her ultimate recommendations… let’s just go with “Your Mileage May Vary” on. If you’re a avowed environmentalist fan of Bernie Sanders… you’re probably going to like a lot of them, perhaps all of them. The further away from that archetype you are, the less you’re likely to agree with her recommendations.

Still, regardless of where you think you’ll land on her recommendations – and thus, how much you’ll want to throw this book on the nearest trash heap, pour gallons of gas all over it, and light it up (even if it is on your Kindle) -, read this book to see just how hard it is to eliminate household garbage in the US, and perhaps start thinking about some possible solutions for your family or possibly policy solutions for your local community, your state, and/ or your nation that more align with your own principles.

Overall, this book is very much recommended.

This review of Year Of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub was originally written on April 8, 2023.

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#BookReview: Lost At Sea by Patricia Sands

Solid Women’s Fiction, Too Reliant On COVID, Unnecessary Element In Epilogue. This is the penultimate entry in the Sail Away “series” where several authors have come together to craft their own unique stories all centered around cruising, with each taking a different bent to it. The cruise Sands uses here is more of a luxury yacht / WindStar type ship sailing the Mediterranean, and the cruising elements here are absolutely breathtaking – particularly for anyone who is even remotely familiar (even from other pop culture sources/ YouTube) with the waters and coasts of the region, from Spain to France to Italy.

Something like a solid 70% of this tale is more women’s fiction based, with a woman trying to rediscover her passion after years of COVID burnout, and through this section, it absolutely works as a women’s fiction tale. The star deduction is because it *is* so heavily focused on COVID and related topics, and any such talk for me is an automatic star deduction because I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. (This noted, it *is* in the description that this will be discussed to some extent or another, but in my defense here… I pre-ordered this entire series months before publication, just on the strength of the authors and my love of cruising generally.)

The romance here, such as it is, feels a bit tacked on and rushed, even in a shorter sub-200 page novel/ longer novella. It works within the story being told to that point, just don’t expect the entire tale here to be the romance. 🙂 Note that no other element of this tale feels so rushed as this particular element.

And the epilogue. It works. It is what one would expect from a women’s fiction/ romance. But why oh why does seemingly every romance author out there (not *all* of them, but *many*) feel the need to tack in a baby/ pregnancy in these epilogues? Completely unnecessary, and leaves a bitter aftertaste to the tale for those who are childfree (such as myself) or childless (others I know). Yes, there is a difference between the two – childfree largely are happy not having children, childless want them and don’t have them. (A touch of a simplification, but one that works for purposes of *brief* explanation.) Something to look at for authors who may not be aware that these particular groups exist – and thus the inclusion of the pregnancy here in the epilogue wasn’t star-deduction worthy so much as discussion-within-the-review worthy.

Still, overall this book really was quite good, and a solid entry into a fun series. Very much recommended.

This review of Lost At Sea by Patricia Sands was originally written on February 24, 2023.

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#BookReview: Reorganized Religion by Bob Smietana

Mostly Solid Examination – If From A Single Worldview. This is one of those examinations of an issue where the examination seems mostly solid, but is also clear that it is from a particular worldview – and the reader’s own feelings about that worldview will likely determine how much the reader enjoys or agrees with the author’s reasonings and recommendations. Specifically, Smeitana’s ultimate point is that older white churches are out, and younger multi-ethnic churches are in. Mostly using a more case study approach with a few more general facts thrown in (and with a scant bibliography of just about 12% of the text, rather than the 25-33% or so that is more typical of more scholarly based examinations in my experience), this book tells the tale of where the American Church finds itself now, what Smietana thinks got it here, and how he believes it can adapt into the future. And again, all of this seems objectively pretty reasonable, and how you view his particular slant will likely determine whether you agree more or less with it.

Ultimately the two stars deducted here – while I considered a third star deduction for the scant bibliography, I ultimately leaned against it due to the power of the case studies and clear direct investigations – were for proof texting and for large discussions of COVID. The proof texting was a complete brain fart, as he really only does it twice (vs other “Christian Living” books doing it *far* more often), but it is an automatic star deduction *every* time I see it, in my own personal war against the practice. The discussions of COVID largely couldn’t be avoided for anyone writing a book about where the American Church is in 2022, with the COVID disruptions of the past couple of years shifting the landscape in this arena at least as much as within any other, and objectively I can acknowledge this. However, *I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID*. Period. And therefore I wage a one man war against any and every book that mentions it as well.

Ultimately this is a book that I think it is important for anyone interesting in American Christianity and where it is and can go to consider, as there really are a lot of interesting and compelling discussions within it and points to consider, no matter your own religious or political persuasions. For this reason, it is very much recommended.

This review of Reorganized Religion by Bob Smietana was originally written on August 31, 2022.

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#BookReview: Escape From Model Land by Erica Thompson

Astrology == Mathematics. For Sufficiently Large Values Of 2 While Imagining Spherical Cows. Thompson does a truly excellent job here of showing how and where mathematical models of real-world systems can be useful, and where they can lead us astray – perhaps a bit *too* good, as at times she has to jump through a few mental hoops to excuse the inadequacies of preferred models such as those related to climate change and the spread of COVID. On climate models in particular, she actually raises one of the several points Steven Koonin did in 2021’s Unsettled – namely, just how wide each cell of the model is by necessity and how much variation there is within these cells in reality yet models must – again by necessity – use simply an average value throughout the cell. But she discusses a wide variety of models in addition to climate, and again, she truly does an excellent job of showing their benefits and how they can harm us. One star is lost due to the extremely short “future reading” section in place of a more standard bibliography (20% or so is fairly standard in similar nonfiction titles). The other star is lost because this book does have a robust discussion of the numerous COVID models and *I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID*. I am waging a one-man war on any book that references this for any reason at all, and the single star deduction is truly the only tool I have in that war. Still, again, this book really is quite good – as a narrative alone, indeed better than the three star ranking would seem to indicate. Very much recommended.

This review of Escape From Model Land by Erica Thompson was originally written on July 15, 2022.