Hearts of Oak, Eddie Robson

 

Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson

Started: June 11, 2024
Completed: June 19, 2024
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is really a farse and it is a bit of a morality play as well.  It is not very funny although the opening paragraph is pretty darn good.  The plot, if I were to describe it is really rather sad and once you look under the hood, it becomes down right depressing.  It is not the light romp I'd hoped for.  The part that makes it hardest is not my blown expectations, but the feeling that I wasted my time on a pretty basic story with a nice little twist (although this twist is quite clear).

We Are Legion (We Are Bob), Dennis E. Taylor

 

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor is the first book in the Bobiverse Series.

Started: 9/10/2022
Completed: 1/12/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Saw this book in the comments on another book, thought it might be a funny read

Review:

I really enjoyed this book.  It had a good mix of adventure and humor.  Taylor also took on a serious sci-fi issue--what if your brain was put into a computer.  How would that work?  How would you deal with the time loss?  How would you not go insane knowing that everything was truly just a phantom of something that once actually was.  Taylor also went after the Von Neumann approach to interstellar space exploration which I truly love.  There is so much to recommend in this book and I cannot encourage anyone enough to get the audio version where you get to hear all the different voices of Bob.  Really enjoyed it.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk:  A modest Bestiary by David Sedaris is a collection of the humorists works with an animal theme.  My wife and I decided to read this on long trips.

Started:  6/21/2015

Completed:  6/21/2015

Recommendation:  Mildly Funny

Recommended By:  Nobody, we have both enjoyed David Sedaris

Review:

These are funny, but not split your sides funny.  We enjoyed most of the stories (except one which clearly involved animal testing and we just couldn't read that one).  David Sedaris seems to be obsessed with loss of eyes in this book.

Crossroads Road, Jeff Kay

Crossroads Road by Jeff Kay is the story of a mother-in-law winning the lottery and driving her family (or at least one member of it) mad.

Started:  5/30/2013

Completed:  6/13/2013

Recommendation:  Funny, worth the time

Recommended By:  Freebooksifter.com

Review:

The book is good, but probably a better concept then implementation.  Describing how crazy the family is puts the book off to a great start, but it bogs down when, well, the family can't really get crazier.  In addition sympathy and understanding for the protagonist gradually diminish until there is just one more crazy in the crazy pot.  I wish I was clever enough to have thought of the idea, so kudos there, and I really wish I could offer suggestions to help eliminate the plateau and gradual drop-off towards the end, but I can't.  I enjoyed the book, it was fun, but after a series of one-liners could sustain no further description, the book washed out.  Still worth the read just for the mental images, but nothing to write home about.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a book I have enjoyed several times.  I picked up an audio copy to share with my youngest son while we are driving around.  What fun!  No review on this one and I imagine I'll listen to this many times.  This classic is both a fun comedy (imagine being tortured by poetry; no really bad poetry; really, without even bongo drums) and a cool sci-fi romp.  I recommend it unabashedly to even the non-geeks out there.