Reviews

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

in reviews    3 min. read

August 2, 2011

I have to admit that I was intrigued when I read the summary of this book. A novel by John Grisham about a third string NFL quarterback, escaping his terrible past to play professional football in Italy. Nothing about lawyers? This sounds interesting, if not just to figure out why John didn’t write about lawyers. Normally the novel isn’t quite as good, when an author writes completely out of their “comfort zone”.

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Treason by Don Brown

in reviews    5 min. read

August 2, 2011

This used to be offered as a free book for the Kindle and was one of many I added to my account after receiving my Kindle. (If its free, its for me, right?) When reading the author “Don Brown” on the cover of this novel, I was mistaking it for a more famous Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code). As I read the military themes unfold, my mind then played further tricks on me as I made a connection with Dale Brown’s military styled novels as the author.

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H.M.S. Unseen by Patrick Robinson

in reviews    1 min. read

December 14, 2008

This is the second book by Patrick Robinson I could get my hands on. I really enjoyed reading Kilo Class and I enjoyed this book as well. It is set a couple years into the future, so Patrick gets to play with some technology that isn’t around quite yet. The novel is an interesting story about a seriously skilled agent from Iraq. He infiltrated Israel’s navy and was trained as a submariner.

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Kilo Class by Patrick Robinson

in reviews    1 min. read

November 4, 2008

This book was an accident. I needed a new book to read, because I was going to be waiting for something. The cover looked like a decent military technological drama. Since Tom Clancy cannot write books as fast as I can read them, I thought I would give it a try. It was a decent choice. The premise is that Russia wants to sell Kilo class submarines to China. At $300 million a boat, it is much needed income for Russia.

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On Writing by Stephen King

in reviews    5 min. read

July 3, 2008

Recently I’ve started writing again. In the last few years, all my writing was on screenplay style for short films. Some of these we actually shot and produced, most just sit on my computer in final PDF form. Writing in screenplay format is different than novel, novella, or short story forms. Screenplay is all about dialog and character actions. There is no exposition of character thoughts. I think this experience makes you a stronger dialog writer, when you switch to fiction.

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Jet Mini vs PSI Turncrafter Pro

in reviews    3 min. read

December 26, 2007

When I was looking at lathes, I talked with many people who had tried and liked either the Jet Mini or the PSI Turncrafter Pro lathes. I could not find many that had used both, to get an idea of the differences between them. Now owning a PSI Turncrafter Pro and having taken a class and used a Jet Mini for 5 hours or so, I decided to summarize the differences.

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Bicycling Coast to Coast by Donna Ikenberry

in reviews    2 min. read

December 15, 2007

As soon as I realized that my recumbent would allow me to complete my dream of riding a bicycle across the country, I started research all over the web. While reading through the many trip reports of coast to coast touring cyclists, two things became clear. First, I would be riding the TransAmerica Trail created by Adventure Cycling in 1976 (the year of my birth). Second, I should purchase, read, re-read, and take along Donna’s book.

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White-Out by James Vance Marshall

in reviews    2 min. read

December 11, 2007

This is a book I happened on by chance. I picked it out of the new book section of the library by the title and checked it out after reading the inside cover. I’m glad that I did. While I only rate it 4 out of 5, it was an interesting book and worth reading. The book is centered on telling the story of a Royal Navy officer and his trials to survive against impossible odds.

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A Crossing: A Cyclist's Journey Home by Brian Newhouse

in reviews    1 min. read

December 9, 2007

This book was an incredible read. Brian starts his trek by dipping his wheel in the Pacific Ocean and heading east. Follow Brian across the United States and learn of his internal conflicts and pressures that time alone on a bicycle set free. Raised in a fundimentalist Christian home, he is searching for the method of understanding his relationship with his father and his spirituality.You do not have to ride a bicycle to enjoy this book.

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Metal Cowboy by Joe Kurmaskie

in reviews    3 min. read

November 4, 2007

I have not found a way to better describe this book than the first sentence inside the dust cover. “It’s as if Dave Barry and Charles Kuralt squeezed together onto a bicycle to pedal across America and around the world, filing outrageous dispatches along the way.” Indeed, many times while reading I felt as if I was watching the well done Sunday morning stories where the common man or the small town are shown in all of their glory.

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