Tag: travel

Posted on

#BookReview: Rope by Tim Queeney

Solid Examination Of The Topic. This is a book written by a sailor that goes deep into all things rope, including its earliest known histories through to its future uses as currently known and planned. We get a *lot* of history from eras from prehistory through Egypt and the Greeks through the Age of Exploration (and even some about the Chinese exploration expeditions) through rope’s uses in executions both sanctioned by governments and not all the way into bleeding edge rope tech taking us into the future of humanity. Through this narrative, I guarantee you that you are going to learn at least something you didn’t previously know – I know I did. I appreciated that the chapter titles were themed to the idea of individual strands in a piece of rope, as that was both perfect theming and a great way of organizing and thinking about the overall history being presented.

Ultimately, this book had two weaknesses for me, though only one worthy of a star deduction. The other, simply a discussion here in the review – a warning, really, to other readers who may be less prepared for it.

The warning is that Queeney *is* a sailor and *really* knows his rope – and knots. He can get quite technical, particularly when he’s talking about how to rig ropes for sailing – which is a significant topic in the book. Through these sections, I recommend the literary/ reading equivalent of the social “nod and ‘uh huh'” when someone is talking about some passion that you’re interested in, but clearly nowhere near as interested in as they are. Read every word – don’t skim it – but allow yourself to not focus on “I must remember every detail of this!”.

Outside of these hyper detailed sections though (and even within them, really), the book really is quite well written and very fascinating indeed in all that it reveals. I’m not joking whatsoever when I mentioned above that even I learned from this book. I really did. Quite a bit that I had never even considered previously. So absolutely go into this book preparing to learn more about this particular subject than at any time since you left formal schooling, whenever that may have been for you.

The star deduction is for the dearth of a bibliography, coming in at 12% or so of the text – still over 30 pages of documented sources in a book of this length, to be clear – which falls just short of even my relaxed-ish standard of 15% and further short of the 20-30% documentation I had been expecting earlier in my reviewing efforts several years ago.

So… that’s it. That’s the review. Go read this book, even if you had never considered the topic and don’t necessarily want to learn anything new. Because this book may be hyper focused, but that actually *increases* its overall quality and ultimately usefulness.

Very much recommended.

This review of Rope by Tim Queeney was originally written on August 12, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Last Letter Of Rachel Ellsworth

Strong Travel/ Foodie / Found Family Drama Shoots Itself In The Foot. This is one of those books where everyone is flawed – and it tells a remarkable story *because* of this, not in spite of it. So if you’re a reader where at least one character has to be some level of perfect for you to enjoy the book…. I tell you here and now you’re not going to like this one. So save O’Neal yet another 2 star or lower review because you’ve been warned right here, right now that this isn’t your kind of tale.

For the rest of us flawed humans, this is actually a remarkable tale of picking yourself back up – and finding some fortuitous help along the way to help you do that. And yes, those people are going to be flawed too, and you may actually get a chance to help them even as they help you… hey! isn’t that how friendships and families are *supposed* to work? Have so many of us been so damaged by modern life that we’ve forgotten this? Or is it the idealized world of booklandia that is just too perfect? Regardless, O’Neal ignores the perfection of people in pursuit of the perfection of story, and she does a truly remarkable job here. One of her books, The Art Of Inheriting Secrets, was the first Advance Review Copy review I posted on my then brand new blog when I started it all the way back in July 2018, and it has been a true pleasure reading her most every year since. Of those I’ve read in that time, this is easily in the upper half in terms of depth of emotion evoked and pure joy of reading.

As a foodie and travel romp, this story also works quite well. While we don’t get the steaks or *ahem* Rocky Mountain oysters *ahem* of Colorado, once the story starts traveling beyond the US, we wind up in a few different countries and a few different cafes within each, and the food honestly sounds phenomenal. I hope O’Neal had recipes for these fictional dishes, because I absolutely want my wife to try to make some of them for me. No, I’m not joking about this at all. That is how lovely and visceral O’Neal makes these scenes. Also the traveling itself, at times making deliberate choices within the story to slow down and not just jet-set all over the place, to take the time and really embrace the place you’re in (or, more accurately, where we find the characters in that scene… warts and all.

But I did mention that for all the praise I’ve heaped on this book – deservedly – it shot itself in the foot too, right? Well, to discuss that part absolutely goes into spoiler territory, and since the various places I post these reviews don’t always have good spoiler tags, let’s play it this way, shall we?

And now… the spoilers. DO NOT READ BELOW HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Giving.
People.
Who.
Don’t.
Want.
To.
Be.
Spoiled.
Time.
To.
Leave.

Ok, at this point I’ve given everyone’s eyes a chance to leave before you read what I say next, so HERE COME THE SPOILERS.

The blatant mistake O’Neal makes is that she allows her utter disdain for one particular type of tool to come through the page of the text here as much as her love of food and travel does. She didn’t need to use a mass shooting to achieve the character dynamics she has here, *many* other things would have worked just as well or perhaps even better. Not even that ‘perhaps’, as using this particular vehicle and using it the particular way O’Neal does will actively turn people off across the political spectrum for a variety of reasons, and many particularly pro-gun people will likely want to defenestrate the book from the highest available window. (But don’t. Read the book anyway, because it *is* a particularly strong tale even with this – it could simply have been *so much more* without it.)

Also, she kills a dog. Come on. That is a *complete* throwaway that was 100% an unforced error, and *nobody* likes killing dogs – at least nobody that most of society wants anything to do with. Again, there were other ways to achieve the same results as far as characterizations. You didn’t have to kill the dog.

Yet neither of these are truly objective criticisms – there are many who don’t like guns and will share O’Neal’s disdain for them, who will thus praise her for using them the way she did, and like I mentioned, *some* absolute idiots don’t mind killing dogs. But is that *really* a crowd you want to *market into*???? Still, because they weren’t even approaching objective criticism, I couldn’t really allow myself to deduct one or even multiple stars for it – yet it *did* need to be mentioned in this review, if deep within a spoiler coded section.

And.
Now.
We.
Come.
Back.
Out.
Of.
The.
Spoilers.

Ultimately, this was a fun, if deep and emotional as well, book that did a lot of things right… and then shot itself in the foot. Maybe even both feet.

But you, oh reader of my review, give it a read yourself, then let us know your own thoughts wherever you are reading mine. I’d love to see what you think, even if it is just a few words. Reviews don’t need to be long – really only about as many words as the first sentence of this paragraph – and can truly just be “I did (not, if applicable) like this book because (insert a reason here).” You only need 24 words to be accepted everywhere I currently know of, and I just gave you 6 of them (or 7 if you didn’t like it). *Anyone* can come up with an additional 18 words. Particularly if you’ve just finished reading a near 400 page book. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Last Letter Of Rachel Ellsworth by Barbara O’Neal was originally written on August 2, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: All Roads Lead To Rome by Yamile Saied Mendez

Solid Dramatic Romance Marred By Mismatched Cover/ Description. I’d had an ARC of this book for a few months before publication, despite only finishing it on publication day due to both life and a rather insane pace of reading – it was my 81st completed book of the year and 11th of the month. At least through this point, even the next day, the cover of the book and the description of the book both hint at a lot more visual and visceral travel based romance than what is delivered here, to the level that I felt the star deduction was warranted for this mismatch – a mismatch that can be corrected at any time, perhaps as soon as even within the very time I’m writing this review. Thus, if the cover and description have been updated by the time you read this review and reflect more of what I’m about to tell you, heh, my reason for deducting a star is no longer there and I would consider it a five star read instead.

Now, as to what this book actually is… prepare for some very dusty rooms. While there is a lot more telling than showing here, due to the nature of how Mendez chooses to tell the story, and perhaps the events of the book – both good and bad – could have landed even harder with a more first person / showing narrative, the story still works quite well as is and I have no actual problem with it. Yes, some people won’t prefer it, but others wouldn’t prefer it if it *were* done in the first person/ showing kind of manner, so meh, your mileage will absolutely vary there.

Still, the story as presented is powerful, if one of those romance tales that spans several years. This is far from an insta-romance, yet I’m also not sure that I would classify it as slow burn. Instead, this is a tale of life molding two people – mostly one of them – to the point where they *finally* realize they are what each other always wanted… even if they had to go through so much pain and hardship (along with fun and adventure) to get there. Thus, it actually works as a more serious balance to so much of the more “bubblegum pop” types of romances that are out there and thus a solid tale to stay within the romance space yet get a different taste and texture from a story than may be your typical. (Or perhaps this is your typical and you *need* some bubblegum pop. While that isn’t this review, find my other reviews wherever you see this one and you can likely find some recs for some of those too. :D)

This is one of those books where you need to be ready to read about life continually knocking our main character down… and sometimes she stays down perhaps longer than is healthy or wise. And that isn’t the kind of book everyone can read at every stage of their lives, so you need to be prepared for that. It gets *deep* into the stages of grief and loss of different elements of our main character’s life, and if that is too much for you… go grab some of that bubblegum. Heal up. Come to this one when you can handle this kind of tale. Because it *is* a good tale that deserves to be known,

Overall truly a strong tale that I perhaps have a quibble or two with the manner in which it is told and a more serious problem with how it is currently marketed at release time, neither of which actually seriously detracts from the power of the story itself.

Very much recommended.

This review of All Roads Lead To Rome by Yamile Saied Mendez was originally written on June 25, 2025.

Posted on

#BlogTour: The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a book that will transport nearly anyone to the beauty of the Amalfi Coast of Italy for nearly anyone who may possibly want to go along for the ride. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Something For Damn Near Everyone. Seriously, this book has a LOT. You’ve got romance, in both timelines. You’ve got a touch of action, in both timelines. You’ve got adventure, again, in both timelines. You’ve got pirates and witches. You’ve got a lonely mom just trying to keep her family together. You’ve got a son desperate to keep his business… in business. You’ve got various heartaches. You’ve got at least some humor. You’ve got an academic investigation. You’ve got the fucking Amalfi Coast of Italy, which apparently is one of the more beautiful settings in Europe. (One I personally have no interest in ever visiting, despite this book’s strong efforts of conveying just how beautiful it is. I have do doubt it is every bit as beautiful as this book describes so vividly… and yet, I can tell you of places in the Caribbean and the Americas that are just as beautiful. :D)

Overall, the story works well here in both timelines. Yes, it can be a touch slow at times… but then, in a setting such as this… maybe you want to more casually linger, have a more relaxing time in this world and in this location, if only in your mind while you trudge through your “real” life in whatever location you may find yourself in. It *does* take a bit more effort to get into the 19th century story than the 21st century one, but once you do… both parts are equally magic.

Ultimately it almost doesn’t matter how you approach this book – whether you’re in it for the 18th century pirates/ witches story, the 21st century travel/ adventure/ discovery story, either one of the romances, or even just here for some of the secondary characters or just to hang out in the Amalfi Coast for a few hours in your mind… you’re going to find something to enjoy here regardless. Truly about the only types of readers that will be overly disappointed – and I’m warning you now if you’re one of these – are those who can *only* read balls to the wall action or Carolina Reaper scorching, damn near erotica, romance, as neither of those are here at all – though their milder forms certainly are. Enough to get the pulse pounding but perhaps without the flood of adrenaline. 🙂

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner”

Posted on

#BookReview: Starbound by Ed Regis

Solid Look At Complexities Both Scientific And Ethical Regarding Interstellar Travel. This is exactly what the title says – a solid look at pretty well all aspects of the complexities of interstellar travel from both scientific and ethical directions, with discussions of the sheer distances involved, the various proposed types of habitation possibilities, propulsion technology, and seemingly every other conceivable facet of the topic at hand.

At 300 ish pages with just 11% or so of that being bibliography, the actual discussion is somewhat brief while still being comprehensive. Technical enough in both science and philosophy to underscore the key issues, yet informal enough to be easily followed along with by most readers. Indeed, the only real problem I had with the text was that 11% bibliography – it needed to be 50% ish larger, from what I’ve seen across my several years of reviewing advance review copies of nonfiction books, as I’ve done here.

Overall truly a fascinating book and a great primer for anyone even remotely interested in the complexities of actually achieving interstellar travel.

Very much recommended.

This review of Starbound by Ed Regis was originally written on March 1, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio

Perfect Escapism. Even as certain elements of this book are damn near torn from the headlines of the past several weeks – for the record, *long* after Di Maio had completed writing this book, as I’ve had it myself for nearly four months already – this book really is pure, damn near perfect, escapism. For most people. For those in at least one sadly far too common situation – one my own grandmother experienced during the period detailed in this book – it could potentially be triggering. Yet even in this, Di Maio provides a solid set of escapism, and even in this, there is ultimately purpose in the story beyond “you can survive”.

Instead, the vast majority of this tale focuses primarily on one particular lady and the situations she finds herself in during the early 1960s as she attempts a career as a Pan Am stewardess. We see in detail the exacting standards of the position and the more-intense-than-one-may-realize training they underwent. We see the (then) exotic locales that are still wildly different than what most Americans today are accustomed to – and yet those locations have also been increasingly “Americanized” and generally commercialized over the ensuing decades, to the point that this book really hits the nostalgic appeal of the locations in the eras portrayed and, as the text takes place nearly entirely in the early 1960s, largely glosses over all that they have become.

Our other primary narrator from this period is another view of the trials women went through in this period, and here Di Maio does a particularly superb job of showing that looks can indeed be deceiving, and sometimes one must actively seek out the real truth in matters.

Our final perspective – yes, this is technically multi-perspective, but there really are just the three – is a modern day person looking back on the halcyon days portrayed in the rest of the story. It is through her eyes that we see both all that was, story wise, and… even a glimpse of Di Maio herself, as she notes in the Author Note. (No, not even spoiling that here, although that particular tale sounds pretty fucking awesome. 🙂 )

Ultimately this is one of those books that does a truly phenomenal job of providing maximal escapism through exotic travel in a long-gone era… and it is one that is going to tug your heart strings quite a bit at times, both making your heart race from a variety of situations and in making the room quite dusty indeed at points.

For those who may have worried where Di Maio was or if she was coming back at all or if she could come back and stay just as good as she once was, with her last major release being almost exactly three years to the day before the publication date of this book… I’ll tell you now: I’ve now read over half of Di Maio’s major releases, first encountering her with 2019’s The Beautiful Strangers, and at least of the books I’ve read from her… this may well be the best one yet.

Very much recommended.

This review of Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio was originally written on February 14, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia

Twisty Thriller. Maybe Not The Best Read The Day I Read It. Without spoiling *too* much, I read this book on the same day that United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered in cold blood – and given many peoples’ opinions of that murder, opinions echoed by one of our characters within this text… it was a bit much to read on that exact day.

But since *you* won’t be reading it *that* day (and, hopefully, not on any similar day), know that this book is actually one of the twistier, more inventive books I’ve read this year or even in quite some time, really. By the end of it, you’re going to feel very sad for certain characters and you’re likely to want to pull a gun on other characters yourself. Still other characters come off as incredibly sleezy basically every time they are “on screen”, and other characters you’re going to wind up actively cheering certain actions, at minimum.

If you enjoy twisty thrillers where nothing is ever as it seems… there is quite a bit to like here. If you’re a fan of more straightforward books… this may not be your cup of… well, whatever you prefer to drink. (As an American of the Southern US, the only tea I drink is sweet and iced, and I’m fairly sure the idiom “not your cup of tea” refers to that disgusting British stuff that we rightfully dumped into Boston Harbor all those years ago – which is all that stuff is good for. But I digress. :D)

Complex. Thrilling. Titillating (to a degree) even. If those are things you like in your books, congratulations. You’ve found a book that is *right there*. If a more Hallmarkie approach is more your speed… there are a lot of those stories out there, but this aint that.

Overall truly one of the more enjoyable and interesting books of the near 200 I’ve read this year, it will likely be on my Top 24 Books I Read In 2024 list. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia was originally written on December 12, 2024.

Posted on

#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.

Posted on

#BookReview: Following Caesar by John Keahey

Not A Christmas Book. Admittedly, I saw “Caesar” and the release date and for some reason thought this had… anything at all to do with Christmas. To be clear, it does not. Just in case anyone else was somehow thinking it might. 😉

What we *do* get, however, is actually a rather intriguing tale in its own right, of the author’s adventures in a post-collapse world to try to find the last remaining vestiges of ancient Roman roads in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and surrounding areas. We get a decent amount of history, but to be clear – this is far more travel book (and almost travel log even) than history book. We get tales of espresso and kind strangers and parking woes, and we get tales of finding obscure patches of ancient Roman roadway or bridgeworks or some such often deep in farmer’s fields – and which the author only stumbled upon because he happened to stumble into a local who happened to know what he was looking for. We also get several tales of various “official” sites being closed, some of which the author was able to sneak into anyway either by outright sneaking or by some official or another looking the other way.

Indeed, this was, as I mentioned above, quite an intriguing tale for what it is – just *really* don’t go in here expecting some detailed treatise on the exact engineering of ancient Roman roadways and how at least certain sections of them have managed to last all these centuries. Go in expecting a 2020s era romp through the region at hand… and you’ll probably leave a lot more satisfied here.

The one star deduction comes from having next to no bibliography, despite having so many historical details and references. Instead, the bibliography is simply a “selected reading” and clocks in at less than 4% of the overall text – compared to closer to 20-30% being my expected norm based on reading hundreds of nonfiction advance review copies of books across nearly every discipline these last few years as a book blogger.

Still, I had a great time with this book and learned a lot about a subject the author is clearly passionate about. I felt I was right there with him through many of these adventures and woes, and really… what more do you actually want in a book of this type?

Very much recommended.

This review of Following Caesar by John Keahey was originally written on November 22, 2023.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Lost Supper by Taras Grescoe

Intriguing Romp Through The History Of Food That Fails The Sagan Standard. One of the core features of the scientific method, and indeed of rational thought more generally, is what is known in some circles as the “Sagan Standard” after he quoted it so much: Extreme Claims Require Extreme Evidence.

And this is where this otherwise truly intriguing tale utterly fails, coming in at just 10% documentation despite claims as extreme *even in the prologue* as claiming that 90% of US milk production comes from a particular breed of cows and ultimately is the product of just two bulls that ultimately created that particular breed.

Reading the text as less science and history – even though much science and history are discussed – and more as the “creative nonfiction” Grescoe writes of once describing his writing to a security officer as, the book flows quite a bit better and provides quite a bit of interesting and intriguing nuggets for people of various persuasions to track down on their own. For example, the global histories Grescoe explores, from the Aztec culture of eating certain bugs to the Phonecian/ Mediterranean culture of eating very fermented fish to the Canadian First Nations’ peoples’ culinary pursuits and several others as well all provide rich stories that *beg* for a more documented history. On the other hand, if one is more gastronomically inclined ala the author, perhaps one simply wants to try to track down these particular foods and techniques for him or herself to sample these items as the author did – including a particular breed of pig that “originates” from a small island not far from where this reviewer lives on Florida’s First Coast.

Ultimately, once one abandons any standard of documentation the way one would abandon any sense of “reality” upon entering a cinema to watch the latest MCU movie and appreciates the sheer spectacle of what is presented to you… this is a truly great book that foodies in particular will absolutely love. Given the literal hundreds of different shows about food and culinary pursuits, including several actively traveling around the world highlighting various dishes and techniques just as this book does… clearly there is a market for exactly this kind of tale, and this one does in fact appear to work perfectly within that market. Very much recommended.

This review of The Lost Supper by Taras Grescoe was originally written on September 3, 2023.