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mossjon

Autumn Adventures

My retreat from the post-Amazon-apocalypse-GoodReads. My shelves and my reviews, I hope, will find a safe haven here.

 

I like to read epic fantasy (the bigger, thicker and longer, the better) and science fiction (perfer space operas).  I also enjoy the occasional biography or history non-fiction.

 

Out in the real world, I'm an IT professional in the Legal industry.  Tech doesn't scare me or phase me.

Currently reading

Hammered (Iron Druid Chronicles, #3)
Luke Daniels, Kevin Hearne
Progress: 94 %

Autumn Approaching

This year (2014) has nearly come and gone.  I realized last week that I hadn't been on BookLikes since December 2013.  I've read nearly a hundred books since then, but I failed to udpate my shelves here so I've thrown my hands up in the air and said 'oh, well!'

 

As much as I dislike what's happened to GoodReads since Amazon bought them 18 months ago, I still feel most comfortable with tracking my reading progress and cataloging my books there.  BookLikes has a lot of catching up to do in that regard. 

 

I'm still limiting how I rate and review books at GoodReads.  If I feel a review is worth writing, I'll compose it at my blog (Misty Midwest Mossiness) and then link it to my unrated brief GoodReads review. 

 

You probably won't see me much here at BookLikes, at least until the cataloging features improve enough to make it worthwhile. 

 

I'll try to remember to stop in and see 'what's new' at BookLikes at least monthly.  Feel free to let me know if something exciting has been announced.  

 

Keep reading!  May you have many happy adventures!

Satisfying Conclusion to Divergent Series

Allegiant  - Veronica Roth

Roth redeemed herself, at least in my mind, with Allegiant.  While not perfect, I felt more at home with the direction the plot took than what happened in the middle weak-link book Insurgient (which I didn’t bother to review because it disappointed me so much).  For my review of Divergent, follow this link.

Source: http://bit.ly/1bs9uJK

Great Classic Hard SF from Clarke

Rendezvous with Rama  - Arthur C. Clarke, Peter Ganim

My review of the audiobook I listened to this past week. 

Source: http://bit.ly/18qPXsO
The Wolf of Tebron - C.S. Lakin
"It is said among wolves, “The road to truth has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult—and left untried.”"
The Wolf of Tebron - C.S. Lakin
"But why you humans always want answers, answers . . . Just remember the old saying: ‘The riddles of God are much more satisfying than the solutions of man.’"

DNF

Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage - David Gibbins

Made it to just over 100 pages, but read 2-3 books before I could force myself to pick it up again. I decided "Life is too short ..." and gave up.

Source: http://bit.ly/1jpFiAz

Can't find a title at your bookstore? No problem, have them print it out for you.

Reblogged from Books2day:

Books-A-Million, the book chain based in Birmingham, AL, with stores throughout the south, will offer print-on-demand books using the Espresso Book Machine built by On Demand Books. The machine looks and functions like a large copy machine and can output any of thousands of titles as a perfect-bound book in just minutes.

 

BAM is trying it out at two of their primary locations as a joint marketing effort with ODB. Machines will be serviced by Xerox. Book content will come through the EspressNet system. There are many advantages to the concept of e-book meets print edition at a store, including the ability to offer far more titles and keeping costs down (no shipping or warehouse). 

 

Pricing is based on length of the book. The machine can handle any paperback edition up to 600 pages long in sizes from 5x5 to 8x5 with a full-color cover. Major publishers involved include Penguin, Harper, McGraw Hill, Random House, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. Hopefully this will help independent bookstores and publishers as well. 

 

 

 

Source: http://ondemandbooks.com/docs/BAM%20ODB%20PR%20071713.pdf
Hollow World - Michael J. Sullivan
"The place looked like NASA ground control staffed by a welders’ guild."
Hollow World - Michael J. Sullivan
"Ellis wasn’t a hero, either, but he had a pistol and the Y chromosome to use it."
Range of Ghosts - Elizabeth Bear
"A good dog was sky-buried with as much honor as a good horse. "

Resistance is ...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1) - Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams

I'm coming very late to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy party that is canon for most science fiction aficionados.  So late, in fact, that the phrase 'Resistance is useless' just doesn't have the same ring to it, the same impact, it might have had pre-Borg.  I'm more partial to the chilling unison legion-like 'Resistance is futile' myself.  Still, it's comedic in the context of Adams' novel. 

"... the grizzled veteran who had ..."
Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage - David Gibbins

is there any other kind?  Sometimes I wonder, but mostly I just wince and read on.

Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
"We have a saying, where I come from: Power requires neither permission nor forgiveness."
"I refer, of course, to the accountants, those bean-counters extraordinaire who know the cost and price of everything and the value of nothing."

Accountants ... and Other Finance Types by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

bl dashboard lite?

I haven't been on booklikes for a couple of days.  I stopped by this evening to review what my new bookish friends are reading, reviewing and posting.  Instead of seeing lots of content via my dashboard feed, I only see one item. 

 

Is this just happening to me?

 

Or do I just chalk this up to more of the same because this has been one crazy week at home and work. 

 

Good night and sweet dreams!

The Thousand Names  - Django Wexler, Richard Poe

My latest cure for insomnia ... listening to this audiobook.  If I ever harbored any illusions of the grandeur of life as an infantry man (or woman), this book is grinding them to dust.

 

Not even listening to my husband's rock band cover Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" could liven up the text ... and this was during a 'battle' scene. 

 

Debating on whether or not to continue listening ... to the audiobook that is.  I never get tired of listening to "The Trooper."