Missive #87 Published 16 June 2023
The book does not measure up to the promo. It is not a bad book but he doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said many times during the past few years. I don’t recommend it.
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Missive #86 Published 14 June 2023
I liked this book the better than the previous four in the series. Perhaps I'm just becoming used to Herbert's writing style. He didn't get bogged down in his philosophy and just told a good story.
Missive #83 Published 7 June 2023
On Valentine’s Day, four members of the Coverdale family were murdered in the space of fifteen minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them one by one in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When the police arrest Miss Parchman two weeks later, they discover a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine’s Day massacre, a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life.
Missive #82 Published 4 June 2023
This is the first book in a trilogy which I'll read. Then decide if I want to read any of the other works by this author. She is British so there is some British English that may be off putting to some readers but I've become accustom to the 'language'. It is a good read and I recommend it.
Missive #80 Published 30 May 2023
It has taken 70 years for Vonnegut's dystopia to come to pass — almost. Today in the United States all those machines have been moved to some other country where they still require human labor but it is cheaper. For those jobs that can't be sent out of the country the plan seems to be to allow cheap labor to come into the country. A very good book, I'll be reading more of his novels.
Missive #78 Published 26 May 2023
The author received high marks from The New York Times but did not score as well with goodreads.com reviewers. There were some that thought it was great and some that thought she didn’t write the all encompassing business book that she should. The book is about ‘people’ and how globalization has destroyed their lives. It is also about John Bassett III and his family but that was about people as well. I liked the book and recommend it.
Missive #77 Published 24 May 2023
This is a much better book than what Dos Passos produced in his early career. It may be a collection of prior articles but they fit together to make his point. It is also a mild mea culpa regarding his early support of socialism and communism .
Missive #74 Published 16 May 2023
I have now finished the two books and have also finished the coding. There may be some more cosmetic coding to be done but it is WORKING. It has taken me a long time to accomplish this. But, considering the fact that I do not know what I'm doing and it has all been done using the "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." coding method, I'm rather proud of what I have done.
Missive #73 Published 14 May 2023
Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick immortalized the idea of a mammoth sperm whale roaming the seas, wreaking havoc on all that crossed its path. But could such a creature actually exist, then or now? To find out, the acclaimed adventure writer and explorer Tim Severin set off to the islands of the South Pacific in search of one of our most iconic modern myths.This is a good read but not as adventurous as Severin's earlier books.
Missive #72 Published 12 May 2023
This book uses a lot more geography than just the 'bootheel' of New Mexico for the story setting. It covers an area from Reserve, New Mexico in the north to near Durango, Mexico is the south. From east to west; all the border crossings from Palomas, Chihuahua to Naco, Sonora, Mexico. What made it very enjoyable for me was the mention of the many places in that overall area where I have been. The story line is very similar to the first book in the Border Trilogy. There is also considerable character conversation in Spanish so be prepared to do translations if you do not speak the language. There is also more philosophical musing in this second book that there was in the first; that made it a more difficult read for me.