tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349392962024-02-29T17:47:33.325-08:00J's PagesA literary travelogue. (If you can call some of the stuff I read literature...)Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.comBlogger1127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-13739644217277583212024-02-27T17:43:00.003-08:002024-02-29T17:46:39.878-08:00Follow the Devil / Follow the Lightby Jeremiah WebsterFollow the Devil / Follow the Light is the story of a walk through hell. Joe Muggeridge comes home to his Seattle apartment, only to find a demon waiting for him. The demon, Morte Magari, pressures/lures Joe into hell to see his deceased sister Nora. What follows is a journey where Joe encounters the sins and illusions of our modern society, both played out in hell and Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-18320436605023493742024-02-18T15:45:00.003-08:002024-02-24T15:48:02.812-08:00Destiny and Powerby Jon Meacham
George Herbert Walker Bush was the last American president from the "Greatest Generation" and, according to Jon Meacham, the "last gentleman." Mr. Meacham presents a portrait of George Bush as a man born to wealth and privilege, and raised to compete, succeed, but also to serve his community--be that be his immediate neighbors or the entire world. Mr. Meacham starts by Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-80641698765310032522024-01-28T14:01:00.007-08:002024-02-05T14:05:43.184-08:00A Trail Through Timeby Jody TaylorThe fourth volume of The Chronicles of St. Mary's is rather dark. Like the previous books, the characters travel to various time periods and historical events. These jaunts are still narrated with a liberal dose of humor and snark. Ms. Taylor does her usual good job of spinning the tale. But this time, Max is not leading teams of historians to research the past. Instead she's on theJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-59730409272229565082023-10-23T21:39:00.003-07:002023-11-13T21:42:00.957-08:00The Door into Summerby Robert A. HeinleinThis one's a time travel tale from 1956 that somehow I have never managed to read until now. It's set in the future, 1970. Dan Davis is an engineer who gets done wrong by his fiancée and his business partner. Through a series of events he ends up traveling to the future... via suspended animation. He awakes 30 years later in the future future, 2000 A.D. (This was before C.E. Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-79784254708720781022023-10-11T12:28:00.002-07:002023-11-13T21:43:28.894-08:00A Dance with Dragonsby George R. R. MartinThis book was a long one. It wasn't exactly a slog, but I was propelled as much by my desire to finish the book as I was by my desire to find out what happens next. The book focuses mostly on the shenanigans up in the north of Westeros and the shenanigans in the eastern lands of Valyria. Both storylines moved too slow for my tastes and both were left hanging at the end of Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-29405116686011026362023-09-05T08:43:00.002-07:002023-09-12T08:50:24.175-07:00Words of Powerby Ellis AmdurI picked up this one at a seminar. (I've been doing a lot of seminars with the new position, so I forget what that one was about.) The sponsors were handing out books and I grabbed it for my office library. Well, it might be more accurate to say that the two books I grabbed established my office library. Anyway, Words of Power is a guide to de-escalation. It's written to help folks Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-51050324423682280022023-09-01T08:06:00.001-07:002023-09-02T08:12:46.511-07:00The Sound of God Breathingby Don SchatzThis one is a book on grieving. I didn't buy it because I'm grieving myself, but because the author is a member of my congregation. Don lost his wife to cancer a while back. While going through his grief, he wrote. He eventually shared his musings with others who recommended that he turn his manuscript into a book. In The Sound of God Breathing, Pastor Schatz explores the Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-13702450745553681132023-08-25T11:34:00.004-07:002023-08-25T11:34:30.909-07:00Homelessness is a Housing Problemby Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page AldernThis book has a great title. It is such a good distillation of the book's message that I was tempted to just type, "Yep!" for my review and leave it at that. You see, there are many things that are blamed for the homelessness crisis in America. Mr. Colburn and Mr. Aldern have taken a look at each of them, crunched the numbers from available studies, and Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-77766707652206893732023-08-13T11:20:00.003-07:002023-08-25T11:24:40.061-07:001812: The Rivers of Warby Eric FlintI actually purchased this as waiting room material, as I had to kill time while out shopping. But it really is a book worth checking out. Mr. Flint spins a tale where Sam Houston does not suffer an incapacitating injury during the War of 1812 and is instead around to help bring together a groups of freedmen and Cherokee warriors to fight in the battle of New Orleans in 1814. The Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-19166198411392838602023-07-21T22:44:00.001-07:002023-07-24T22:47:35.764-07:004U Green - 4U Blueby Pete AbramsIn this volume, Mr. Abrams takes the unprecedented step of splitting up Riff and Torg. Riff has been transported to another dimension where he is trapped in 4U City, a futuristic metropolis where everyone is happy. Said happiness is mandated by law and achieved by a combination of pharmaceuticals and weeding out of the sad. Riff, of course, begins to make his plans for escape. Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-10299936498128090212023-07-10T22:27:00.001-07:002023-07-24T22:32:01.594-07:00Tea Time for the Traditionally Builtby Alexander McCall SmithIt's been a minute...This installment of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency features two mysteries. The official one is that Mma Ramotswe is hired by the owner of the local football club to figure out who in the organization has betrayed him and caused the team to lose more matches. The unofficial one is where Mma Makutsi, assistant detective, tries to figure out how her Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-65013960687811215452023-06-04T09:05:00.003-07:002023-06-08T09:09:11.509-07:00Finding Battlestar Galacticaby Lynette Porter, David Lavery, & Hillary RobsonI recently binged the 2003 version of Battlestar Galactica. I had seen the miniseries back in the day, but didn't catch the series because I wasn't about to pay for cable TV. (I'm still not, though I do spring for a streaming service from time to time.) Anyway, I was enthralled with it and immediately wanted to get info about the series. Being Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-42407873661321543012023-05-04T17:36:00.003-07:002023-05-05T17:42:13.004-07:00Bright Valley of Loveby Edna HongI confess that I'm a cynical man--all to quick to roll my eyes when stories start effusing about things like goodness and love. I'll usually skip any story that might make it to the Hallmark channel. That said, goodness and love are worth effusing about, and a good story can feature them without having to mix in a dark edge to the plot and characters. For example, you have this Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-60576098204398840772023-05-01T17:25:00.003-07:002023-05-05T17:27:04.237-07:00Pinocchio's Guide to the End of the Worldby Eva MoonI have neither read the original Pinocchio or seen the Disney adaption. All I know of Pinocchio is that he was a living puppet created by the woodcarver Geppetto, and was eventually turned into a real boy. Well, real boys grow up. For Pinocchio, adulthood means service in the first World War and a confrontation with the rising Fascist movement in Italy. That doesn't turn out too well Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-6975526612960528562023-03-20T11:22:00.003-07:002023-03-28T11:25:25.343-07:00Skid Roadby Josephine EnsignThis one's an interesting look at how the city of Seattle reacted to the people experiencing poverty and homelessness throughout its history. Professor Ensign starts this journey through Seattle's history by looking at how the question of "Who is responsible for paupers, for insane people, for homeless people?" was answered in England. The answer changed, like so many other Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-50715657504851704352023-02-21T14:28:00.007-08:002023-03-06T14:33:40.445-08:00Camera Manby Dana StevensThis one is a biography of Buster Keaton. It's been years since I've read a Keaton bio, but this one piqued my interest. (The fact that the author was giving a presentation at a screening of Keaton's Go West that I attended might have influenced me a bit.) Unlike a typical biography, Ms. Stevens interweaves the account of Buster's life with reports of other people and events of theJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-322320652049492682023-01-21T23:23:00.003-08:002023-01-22T23:27:13.111-08:00What If? 2by Randall MunroeRandall Munroe takes a second turn of giving mostly scientific answers to ridiculous questions. The scenarios explored seem less destructive than those in the first book. (At least to my recollection.) But the explanations and illustrative are just as amusing and entertaining.Check it out!
LibraryThing linkJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-50966678586675108552023-01-09T18:02:00.003-08:002023-01-09T18:02:17.807-08:00How to Speak Midwesternby Edward McClellandThis is a light hearted look at the accents of the American midwest--which Mr. McClelland defines as "west of Exit 41 on the New York State Thruway, east of the Missouri River, and north of the Ohio River." There are three accents in this region: the North Central, the Midland, and the Inland North. (Which, of course, isn't an accent. Just ask all the people in my hometown.) Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-57969944412778368252022-12-31T14:23:00.003-08:002023-01-02T14:25:18.695-08:00Buried in Treasuresby David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost, and Gail SteketeeThis is another book I read for work. It looks at the concept of "Hoarding Disorder"--the state where one's habits of acquiring and keeping possessions begins to interfere with daily life. After covering some motivations why a person might either acquire or hang on to too much stuff, the authors offer some strategies to try and overcome the Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-50721825225085137002022-12-22T23:19:00.003-08:002022-12-23T23:26:12.682-08:00Motivational Interviewingby William R. Miller and Stephen RollnickSo this was the book I was looking to read for my new position. I'm glad I read Finding Your Way to Change first, because that was written for regular folks and served to put the basic concept of Motivational Interviewing into my head. This book is written for professionals--folks who actually know what they're doing. But the book was clear enough for thisJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-23693021480416174512022-12-12T18:03:00.002-08:002023-01-02T18:07:20.347-08:00Brokenby Pete AbramsIn this Sluggy Freelance collection, Torg and Riff's search for information on Oasis puts them on a collision course with Dr. Schlock and the evil Hereti-Corp. It leads up to a significant change in the strip. (And I don't mean the introduction of Zombie Head on a Stick.)It's on my shelf!LibraryThing link
Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-45566886340136437822022-12-04T16:29:00.003-08:002022-12-05T16:34:58.313-08:00Finding Your Way to Changeby Allan Zuckoff with Bonnie GorscakI grabbed this book from the library because I wanted to read up on Motivational Interviewing for my new job. It isn't so much a book about MI, but rather a book that uses MI to help the reader make changes in their life. Once I figured that out I decided to finish reading it to see what MI looked like in action. The book is set up in three sections. The first Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-46049565151438485532022-11-06T11:55:00.003-08:002022-11-14T11:57:42.711-08:00Hidden Chicago Landmarksby John R. SchmidtI was raised in Chicagoland, but now I've lived more years outside the area than I did inside it. But Chicago is a permanent part of my identity regardless. That makes this book both delightful and depressing at the same time. Hidden Chicago Landmarks is a combination history and guide book. Mr. Schmidt tells about a number of minor historical landmarks tucked in the Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-70503260831811095622022-10-30T13:51:00.003-07:002022-10-31T13:55:53.376-07:00Flying Coloursby C. S. Forester(Of course I had to read the next Hornblower right away.)
First read in February of 2017. On my shelf.LibraryThing linkJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34939296.post-33112922622877196002022-10-29T21:04:00.003-07:002022-10-31T21:07:13.189-07:00Oboe Jonesby Kevin FrankWhen putting Doonesbury Deluxe away, I happened to pick this one off the shelf. It's a collection of comics from the late Cornerstone magazine from about 1985 to 1992. The strip features Oboe, an apartment building manager, and the people in his life. Most the characters are born-again Christians with a Baptist-flavored theology, so the book is a humorous peek into the life of folksJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725435155373619743noreply@blogger.com0