16.9.18

Review: Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-Experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks

Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-Experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-Experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks by Zack Hample
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book meanders through the world of baseball, dropping short anecdotes, statistics, opinions, and other items meant to make you say 'Gee whiz, I didn't know that". This is told with a light touch, mildly humorous throughout. It seems quite similar to a book on baseball I previously read that had been sold at a Hallmark card store. As a baseball fan, I knew or at least was passingly familiar with a large majority of the stories, like why stadiums are different, and why rules are the way they are. I was very surprised, given my audiobook source says that this book was from 2017, that the book dissed the concept of video call reviews, saying that will never happen, and waxed eloquently on the strategic use of multiple trips to the pitcher to waste time, etc. that have become part of pro baseball rules over the past few years. Ends up this book was first released in 2007, and some of the things that it says to make you a smarter baseball watcher are now totally incorrect. If you are a beginner, you won't know what is still correct and what isn't, and if you are a more casual but up-to-date fan, these just look like mistakes. It is a shame these new versions of the audiobook were released without updating the changes in baseball, or at least without a notice about the actual age of the content. I took stars off because of this, and because it wasn't really written for the "deeply serious geeks". Had this book been about a sport I know less about, like women's gymnastics, with the same odd details and snarky opinions, I probably would have ranked it higher as I liked the voice of the author.

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Review: Free Will

Free Will Free Will by Mark Balaguer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This bounced around in argumentation a bit too much, making it read like the kind of discussion you'd have with some friends in the dorm who happened to be taking a philosophy class from a fun teacher. I found this easy to read, and written in a light, conversational way, but not so easy to follow on audio. It requires continuous attention to catch all the arguments and counterarguments offered. Quite a few times, given lapses in attention, the arguments seemed to say something is x because it is x, which wasn't very satisfying or memorable. I will chalk this one up to learning how these MIT books work, and will look forward to the next one with some different expectations.

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14.9.18

Review: Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road

Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road by William Least Heat-Moon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another reviewer says of William Least Heat-Moon "His writing is enjoyable, relaxing and challenging." I have to agree. The chapters of this book read like long magazine articles on traveling, and perhaps that is what they originally were - I listened to the audio unadorned with normal book metadata. The voice of the author is Midwestern friendly, but you also get a hint of the university in the not-so-occasional $10 word. Least Heat-Moon likes to play with words, and for this book I actually found it made the text more interesting. I had previously read his "Roads to Quoz", and this felt more approachable, in a kinder voice and in blessedly shorter essays with fewer digressions.

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11.9.18

Review: Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of a Mountaintop Honky-Tonk

Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of a Mountaintop Honky-Tonk Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of a Mountaintop Honky-Tonk by John Lingan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I began reading this book after a brief skimming of the book’s description. I expected a lot of country and roots music history, with some small town-loving prose. I got a lot less of the music I was expecting. I got a lot more of the small town story, but it was a story of change, not all reminiscing. Sure, there’s a lot of reminiscing about the history of Winchester and the area, especially the recent history, the Patsy Cline years. And there’s a lot about what has changed as the townspeople have changed, with the old residents dying off and new outsiders, almost always from bigger cities, moving in. Those outsiders often have different ideas, and the clash of old and new is what the book is really about.

The section that really explained the situation was about a water tasting competition held in town. This event has become the area’s draw, or what it is known for, usurping “the birthplace of Patsy Cline," or the home to a very traditional mountain honky tonk. The idea for the event was by outsiders, and the event is mostly run by outsiders. I liked the way the author illustrated the perspectives of the outsiders as well as some of the older, traditional residents in their thoughts on the water tasting event. You can sense that growth and progress will overtake history and tradition. The same kind of thing happened in my small hometown. An outsider mayor gifted the town a 30 feet tall plastic statue of a man on an old high-wheel bicycle, and had it placed on city property in the center of town. There’s no historic reason to showcase a bike there, but it is along a bike trail. There was lots of grousing by the long-time residents initially, but that has mostly died down, and the statue is becoming what the town is known for. (Previously the town was best known for writing a prodigious number of speeding tickets, so maybe this is an actual upgrade.) This book covered topics that seemed all too familiar.


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Review: Children of the Mind

Children of the Mind Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While it was good to see closure to Ender’s story, this was a bit disappointing with many dropped plot lines and an ending that was left open for Card possibly starting a new series with plenty of characters we’ve gotten familiar with. Could have used some more Wang-Mu, with some depth. She comes across as a slightly more human version of supercomputer Jane, and needed some fleshing out.

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5.9.18

Review: You're on an Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir

You're on an Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir You're on an Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir by Parker Posey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a book that illustrates the manic style of Parker Posey. If you thought the pouty, flighty, loud, odd, smart, spoiled, changeable and often annoying characters she plays were just parts that were written for her, it seems from this memoir that that’s the real her, not just acting. The book is written as if it is one side of a conversation between Posey and an unnamed traveler sitting next to her on an airplane flight. Posey meanders throughout her life, telling stories about growing up, pets, apartments, and occasionally movies. Interspersed throughout the book are grainy, staged black and white pictures of the actress and her dog and props, more arty than enlightening. I expected to read a lot about her movies, but was disappointed. Not much about the Hal Hartley movies, not much about “You’ve Got Mail”. She does talk about how little money she’s made focusing on independent films, though. Interesting life, and you do learn about about what makes Posey tick, but a little Parker Posey goes a long way. From now on, I think I’ll stick to her films.

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4.9.18

Review: Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence: At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness

Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence: At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence: At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness by Douglas Lennick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I consider myself well-read in personal finance. So when I saw the title of this book, I thought I might find a book that either comes up with new ways to think of personal finance based on common knowledge, or ways to teach others. I’d be interested in either of these topics – becoming better from a good base, and teaching my kids and others. That isn’t what this is about. Instead, this is a typical goal-setting self-help book, with as much a focus on living a healthy and valuable/reasoned life as on finances. It’s probably more the first topics than finance. If you are well read in these topics, much of this will sound familiar. If you haven’t read a lot or thought a lot about personal finance, this seems like a good book to read early in your exploration.

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Review: Foundation

Foundation by Isaac Asimov My rating: 3 of 5 stars I decided to read the Foundation novels in chronological order, and before this...