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Month: November 2008

  • No More Reviews!

    At first I thought it would be fun to include a few notes on books I’ve been reading here. Then I thought it would help keep my posting rate up. Now, I’m thinking, not so much.

    After a couple of my friends called this my “book review blog” and one was even unaware that I was posting my own writing here, I decided that anyone who shows up and sees book reviews as the last several posts is likely to get that impression.

    So I’m just going to allow this blog to be a bit slower and post my own writing and links to other writing I find on the web.

    Will I quit writing book notes and reviews? No! Never! I’ll just post them at the new blog I created for the purpose: Energion.com Book Blog, which is closely connected with my existing review site. The two ideas go together anyhow.

  • Book: The Miracle at Speedy Motors

    I’m prepared to read just about anything Alexander McCall Smith writes. This whole series is charming–enchanting, even.

    The story this time centers a great deal around the office, with her secretary, or “Associate Detective” as she has become getting involved a great deal along with her fiance.

    I’m not one to tell much of the story, but Precious Ramotswe finds herself solving things in very unexpected ways, even when she’s intending to do something quite different.

    All I can say about the whole series is, “What’s not to like?”

  • Book: Hounded to Death

    I like Rita Mae Brown, and especially the mysteries that involve Sneaky Pie Brown. This was my first time reading from her series written around fox hunting.

    I guess I’m a cat person much more than a dog person, but I never really warmed up to the background in fox hunting. It just doesn’t resonate with me. In addition, the animals are less involved than they are in the books with Sneaky Pie.

    Nonetheless I still detect the skill of the other books, even though I didn’t warm to the background. Rita Mae Brown can paint the background and characters that draw you in with relatively few words. You quickly feel like you know the characters and you actually care what happens to them.

    I rate the book a three for myself, but I’m betting most mystery readers will rate it higher than that.

  • Movie: War, Inc.

    I rarely bother to review something like this, but this one annoyed me so much that I wanted to write about it. If this had been a production for YouTube by a bunch of teenagers, it might be regarded as good. I don’t mean production quality. There were some decent effects for the combat.

    But one needs to decide whether to write satire, comedy, a tacky adventure movie, or a political statement. This movie had elements of all of those, but pretty much managed to combine the worst of those elements. It’s not funny for any length of time. Where it is satirical it is overdone, but not overdone well.

    It’s hard to like any of the characters even when it looks like the writers intend you to feel sympathy for them.

    I’m glad I watched this on the Netflix movies on demand and thus didn’t pay anything extra for it. I rate this a one, with a note that I considered inventing a zero rating just for the occasion.