Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Side Jobs
This one's a collection of short stories featuring the wizard detective Harry Dresden. They fit into various moments of The Dresden Files' chronology, from a tale of Harry Dresden's training as a private investigator to a story set immediately after the events in the novel Changes. The stories are entertaining, skewing more towards the humor than the crises of the novels. (The last story, "Aftermath", being a notable exception.) It's a good tome for a Harry Dresden fan to have on the shelf for whenever they want a quick foray into Mr. Butcher's fantasy world.
Labels: DresdenFiles, JimButcher, OnMyShelf
Friday, May 07, 2021
Dark Matter
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both...
-Robert Frost
A lot of people wonder about "the road not taken"--speculating what their life would be like if they had only made different choices. Well, you can't go backwards in life. But what if you could go sideways? If you couldn't turn around on the road of life, what if you could turn onto a side street and get over to that "road not taken"?
That's the premise of Dark Matter. Jason Dessen gets to see what his life would have been like if only he had given a higher priority to his research. Well, gets is probably not the right word. You see, Jason is kidnapped, taken to, and dumped onto "the road not taken." The story, then, is what he discovers about his alternate life and his attempts to get back onto the right "road".
Y'know, years back I had a very similar story idea. Of course, my version of this concept was nowhere near as developed or interesting as Mr. Crouch's tale. His story is much more entertaining, filled with well rounded, relatable characters. He puts them through a journey that's poignant and thrilling.
Check it out!
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut
Monday, May 03, 2021
Bury Me Standing
by Isabel Fonseca
Are human beings basically good or basically evil? After reading this book, I would definitely vote "evil". Bury Me Standing is a book about the Roma people in eastern and central Europe. Ms. Fonseca recounts her experiences visiting Roma families in various countries and intersperses them with historical overviews of how the Roma were treated by the more settled people of Europe. Their history is a long tale of fear, hatred, discrimination, violence, and injustice. I saw many parallels between the injustices experienced by the Roma and those experienced throughout the recent centuries by Native Americans, African Americans, and Jewish people. Like I said, I vote that people are evil. (Even the Roma folks Ms. Fonseca met have their shortcomings.) But that said, this is an interesting book, presenting a history that, though unpleasant, should not be forgotten.
Check it out!
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut
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