rossbm's reviews
454 reviews

Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

A fun and easy fantasy read. Sometimes the characters and their motivations are quite stupid; like one of the main characters didn't talk to her childhood best friend for 10 years because she felt ashamed that she chickened out of going into the scary woods on a dare with her friend? Come on!

Still, enjoyable enough. A lot of mystery and things being setup for the future.

Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by Tom Holland

informative mysterious medium-paced

3.75

A fun read. Found the style a bit hard to get into at first (overly done?, not talking about sources?), but started to enjoy it. However, still feel like it was just padding Herodotus?  Maybe cause lack of sources. Think sources were pretty clear from end notes, but I didn't look at that. Saying would have liked more context, about how we know what is being recounted. Shouldn't have to go to end notes for that. Though that would change the flow

The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us by Adam Rutherford

informative

3.0

Decent pop science book about how humans compare to other animals. Two major sections on tool use and sex. Some birds of prey help spread wildfires so they can prey on the fleeing animals? Talks about genes also. Not the most fascinating book, but decent read. Short. Listened to audiobook which was good.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

adventurous challenging emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Found this to be a bit of a slog to be honest. Quite long. Enjoyed the shorter chapters. Good writing style. Interesting characters. Plot kind of non-existent. Not realistic how people always bumping into each other in the West. Took a while to get through. Glad I did, but not a strong recommend.

A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

funny lighthearted medium-paced

3.75

Listened to the audiobook. Pretty funny. Interesting that Colin Jost wrote a memoir, since pretty young. Interesting also that at end of book Colin said that he might leave SNL soon, but he's still there.

Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

informative medium-paced

4.0

An interesting read. Spent more time on history than I expected. I had never thought before about impact that the US's lead in semiconductors had on the cold war. It's what gave the US their edge in quality and thus push the Soviets to worry and spend more.

Good summary of current situation with reliance on Taiwan for high end chip manufacturing and the geopolitical implications. Give the potential costs of disruptions to the supply chain, makes me think that it would be worth investing in alternative manufacturing capabilities, even if the cost of those investments would be enormous.

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner by Dean Karnazes

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.0

Starts off with the amusing andedocte about  Karnazes  eating a pizza while running. Then covers his childhood in which he competed in track and field in highschool, buut stopped running at age 15 until age 30. 

The book doesn't really explain why  Karnazes  runs. Or give much tips or insights into his training, though there's a new section at the end that is interesting. Spends too much time on some of his adventures, like running a marathon to the south pole. Whole things sounded stupid and boring.

The Original by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A fun, short, read. Quick action.

Audiobook had music, which was fun at times, other times stupid.

Some sort of post scarcity utopia/dystopia. Main character's main hobby/occupation was "orange carver" lol.

 Cliffhanger ending...

The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist

challenging reflective slow-paced

1.5

What a snooze fest! Tried listening to the book as audiobook. Something like 40 hours. So repetitive. Droning on and on about the differences between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. To be honest, only got about 15 hours in before stopping.

Even now, having trouble remembering that the left  hemisphere is  more verbal, "digital", classifying things. while right  hemisphere is more intuitive, seeing patterns, "grasping the whole". The author seems obsessed with the glorifying the right hemisphere. It's like, why don't you just marry the right hemisphere if you love it so much?

Kind of ironic that he drones on and on about the differences between the two hemispheres while praising the right hemisphere, given that it is  supposedly  the left hemisphere that specializes in distinguishes between individual parts.

I stopped reading/listening by the time he gets to the crux of the book, which is some kooky theory that our society and environment is dedicated to the left  hemispheres tendencies and that the environment also reinforces these tendencies. 

Still, some interesting things in this book, but should have been way, way, shorter and less dogmatic.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Listened to this as a French audibook. Very long. This is the first Stephen King book I have finished. I suppose that they aren't all as long as this, but previous ones I have tried (The Stand) were also very long. Narrator was very good for this book which helped me get through it. Since it's so long, definitely slow. Takes too long in the beginning to reveal the main hook, then after the big climax at the end, there's 6 hours of denouement!

Still, was enjoyable. Waiting to see how/if assassination would be stopped. Then the love story got interesting.