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read: The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece (4 stars)
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tom Hanks knows a thing or two about making movies. After all, he's written several, directed several and...
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read: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead ★★★★
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead★★★★ This is no crime thriller, though crimes are committed and witnessed. There's not much of a plot, although the storytelling keeps the reader turning pages. There...
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Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson ★★★★
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson★★★★ This non-scholarly, yet deeply researched, book about the people of Polynesia (everything in the triangle formed by Hawai‘i, Easter Island...
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Devil's Gun by Cat Rambo ★★★
Devil's Gun by Cat Rambo★★★ The sub-title of this could easily be "The Continuing Adventures of the Crew of 'You Sexy Thing'". The thin thread of a plot is supposedly a search for someone Captain Niko...
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read: The Defector by Chris Hadfield ★★★★
The Defector by Chris Hadfield★★★★ I fully enjoyed Chris Hadfield's first foray into thriller fiction and am glad to see it was no fluke. He's followed it up with a crackerjack spy thriller that is...
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read: System Collapse by Martha Wells ★★★★
System Collapse by Martha Wells★★★★ I've been consuming these as fast as they come out. But it's not fast enough. A full three years of my real time has transpired since I read Network Effect. And much...
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read: Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg ★★★★
Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg My rating: ★★★★ Engaging heist story with a little Backdraft and Fugitive thrown in. View all my reviews
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read: Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond by Henry Winkler ★★★★
Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond by Henry Winkler My rating: ★★★★ I remember Henry Winkler as Fonzie. I remember Henry as a competent actor trying to grow beyond Fonzie, with mixed success. I've...
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read: The Women by Kristin Hannah ★★★★★
The Women by Kristin Hannah My rating: ★★★★★ I am so glad I read this book. The historical subject matter appealed to me and I knew Kristin Hannah could write a good story. But I was a little...
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read: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ★★★★
And Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieMy rating: ★★★★ A very classic whodunit story almost worthy of 5 stars. But knock off a star for a somewhat convoluted setup and undeniably outdated and...
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read: Rumor Has It by Cat Rambo ★★★★
Rumor Has It by Cat Rambo My rating: ★★★★ I thought of the previous story in this series as "The Continuing Adventures of the Crew of 'You Sexy Thing'". That would make this book "The Still Ongoing...
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read: A Cold, Cold World by Elena Taylor ★★★★★
A Cold, Cold World by Elena Taylor My rating: ★★★★★ I really liked the first book in this series, from the new sheriff to the setting to twisty plot to the writing itself. This new story is quite...
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read: Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni ★★★★
Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni My rating: ★★★★ Keera Duggan deserves a break after the tough case she just cracked and won (read 'Her Deadly Game'). But her staycation will have to wait...
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read: Cinderwich by Cherie Priest ★★★★
Cinderwich by Cherie Priest My rating: ★★★★ A moody, creepy, Southern gothic road-trip mystery story. At less than 200 pages, it's right-sized reading for an autumn evening to get into the Halloween...
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read: Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway ★★★★
Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway My rating: ★★★★ This has the familiar look of a cold-war Smiley story by le Carre, yet it feels a bit off, like an overly complicated intelligence...
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read: James by Percival Everett ★★★★★
James by Percival Everett My rating: ★★★★★This book retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck's slave friend Jim. It's an easy read with difficult content, worthy of your time...
View ArticleMy 2024 in Books
Glossing over the fact that I'm a bad blogger and haven't done a book-year-in-review since 2021 (and I didn't even post that one), here is my summary of 2024 and a few thoughts about 2025:According to...
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[I wrote this up on December 28, 2021 and never posted it to this blog. Better late than never? I'm not going to bother fixing up the formatting issues due to pasting from OneNote.]According to the...
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read: The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal ★★★★
The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal My rating: ★★★★ I am loving this series from Mary Robinette Kowal. It pushes all of my buttons as a boomer child of the space age, telling stories of an...
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read: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi ★★★★★
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi My rating: ★★★★★ I expected this book to be offbeat and entertaining. But John Scalzi took it in a completely different direction than I expected. The reader...
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reread: How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford ★★★
How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford My rating: ★★★ So many feelings after rereading this decades after a first reading upon its initial release. It's still such a silly take on Star Trek,...
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read: Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger ★★★★★
Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger My rating: ★★★★★ Returned to this series at #4 after a long break reading other stuff and after reading a later volume. Still great storytelling that does not...
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read: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory...
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire My rating: ★★I don't like to post negative reviews. But I really feel like I would have liked someone to warn me off this...
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read: Wake Up With Purpose!: What I've Learned in My First Hundred Years by...
Wake Up With Purpose!: What I've Learned in My First Hundred Years by Jean Dolores Schmidt My rating: ★★★★★ This book is a breath of fresh air. You don't have to be Catholic, or even Christian, to...
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read: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown ★★★★★
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown My rating: ★★★★★ Delightfully entertaining story that ignores the scary parts of AI to explore more promising possibilities of machine learning, set against a fanciful...
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