Orbiting Fortunes, A.L. MacDonald

 

Orbiting Fortunes by A.L. MacDonald

Started: April 26, 2025
Completed: August 11, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: The author

Review:

This is a fun read.  The writing style is casual and I got the feeling that the protagonist was a "regular guy" in unusual circumstances.  The story is believable on several levels which is always fun for sci-fi.  The details were not perfect, but the story was fun, approachable, and kept me engaged.  It also was an interesting look at how a space cowboy might go around trying to make a living--that part was a little hard to believe, but having accepted the rest of the premises, it wasn't a stretch.  This is not hard scifi that will grab you with the harshness of space and you won't be constantly reminded of the bitter tang of outer space each time you turn a chapter.  The fight scenes are a little stretched, but they are fun and they get the job done--this isn't a science manual.  Think MacGyver not Carl Sagan.  I enjoyed it for what it was and find it a bargain on Kobo! 

You Are Not American, Amanda Frost

 

You Are Not American:  Citizen stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers by Amanda Frost

Started: August 3, 2025
Completed: August 11, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: A local book club

Review:

I was aware that people could lose their citizenship.  I was absolutely aware that slaves were not considered citizens as a result of Dred Scott.  I was not aware of how recently this citizenship stripping had been happening and it was shocking.

Who Is Government?, Michael Lewis

 

Who Is Government?:  The untold story of public service by Michael Lewis

Started: July 31, 2025
Completed: August 3, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a good collection of stories that helps put a face on government workers.  Not only is it a look at the "common" worker, but there are several stories of extraordinary workers.  My experience with government workers is that are service oriented hoping to make the United States a better place.

Changing Planes, Ursula K. Le Guin

 

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin

Started: July 28, 2025
Completed: July 31, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

As usual, Le Guin wrote good stuff.  By the end, however, the motif of changing planes had started to wear off and the morality lessons were beginning to add up.  I enjoyed these stories both as stories and as morality plays, but this is not my genre.

Between Me and You, Allison Winn Scotch

 

Between Me and You by Allison Winn Scotch I bought this book on CD several years ago (it came out in 2018 and I must have bought it somewhere around 2020.  This has been sitting in a basket near the door (amongst other audio books) for car listening.  I imagine that at some point in the future, I will no longer have a CD player in the car, so I probably should be busy listening to the books in this basket before I end up giving up on the old Nissan Leaf.  I'm sure I bought this book on audio because I simply could not get it at the library at the time, but I cannot remember what brought me to want a Romance novel--not really my genre.  Maybe I was branching out or had read a review about the book telling the same story from multiple points of view (something I do really like).  I dunno.

Started: May 17, 2025
Completed: July 30, 2025
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: Not sure

Review:

I did not enjoy this book.  The plot "twists" were rather obvious and only twists by virtue of not travelling the story linearly in time.  The characters were shallow and did not develop.  I think that this counted as a "meet cute" which ran the traditional story line of boy/girl meets girl/boy, boy/girl loses girl/boy, and boy/girl gets girl/boy.  The only redeeming portion of the book is that it was written from both the main characters' point of view, so they were some occurrences where the same event was viewed differently, but mostly it was each validating the other's perspective internally without doing so externally.  The whole story just left me flat.

Vladimir, Julia May Jonas

 

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas is another attempt to find a way to enjoy romance novels.

Started: July 19, 2025
Completed: July 22, 2025
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: The Guardian

Review:

I guess I am a pretty pedestrian (some might say, "Hallmark," romantic).  I don't find masturbation romantic.  I'm not a BDSM kinda guy.  I guess I just really like when two people click.  I do see this in the Hallmark romances, although it is not common there.  The push me, pull you style of romance has no attractiveness for me.  I don't get a rush over the enemies turned lovers (although I have room for that...it is more that there is not the "thin line" between these two things as some suggest for me).  I get how everyone has a bunch of angst around romance and so a touch of that is just realistic...a month of that seems, to me, like a wild indulgence.  Not so interesting for me.  The book is well written with pretty good character development and a reasonable story line (until the end when it all falls apart in my mind and becomes a rush to stop writing at some word requirement).  There is a lack of transition to the ending (imagine, and they all lived happily ever after--though that is not the exact nature of this particular ending).  It just felt like it wrapped up once the romantic drama was done, then there was a bunch of hand waving and it is over.

Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner

 

Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner

Started: July 10, 2025
Completed: July 19, 2025
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

oeuvre -- the sum of the lifework of an artist, writer, or composer

Review:

This book is dated.  I knew that when I selected it, but I was still surprised at how dated it was.  The concepts behind multiple intelligences were all new to me, so it was not dated in that sense.  It was dated in how it referred to society and computers in particular.  I don't find fault with this (it was written quite some time ago), but it did surprise me.  In any case, I thought it was great to see the story behind the concepts of multiple intelligences and how the research sort of began.