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B0DFSNQS77
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| Aug 31, 2024
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Jun 12, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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1955676194
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| 1955676194
| 4.16
| 212
| Sep 15, 1998
| Aug 30, 2022
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Jan 17, 2025
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1402287704
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| 1402287704
| 3.66
| 665
| Apr 15, 2014
| Apr 15, 2014
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liked it
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In terms of my reading plans for 2025, mentally laid out at the end of last month, this read was a totally unexpected curveball. The book (and author)
In terms of my reading plans for 2025, mentally laid out at the end of last month, this read was a totally unexpected curveball. The book (and author) wasn't one I'd ever heard of, and not one I'd have bothered to pick up even on a free rack; but it was a surprise Christmas gift from a library colleague, delivered early this month when we returned from Christmas break, and one that touched me deeply. As a gift from one librarian to another, it actually has a lot to commend it, being very library-centered and with a message very supportive of books and the importance of the written word. Written for younger readers (ages 10-14, according to the Goodreads description), this is the opening book of what's so far a duology. Author Downey describes the premise and genesis of the series in an answer to a question by another Goodreader, which is worth quoting from at length: "I think the seed for the series was planted when I saw the phrase “Petrarch’s Library” scrawled on a notebook I found in our never-very-organized, and always-very-clutterful house. Everyone in the family denied being the scrawler, but the phrase ignited my imagination, especially after I looked it up and found it associated with a collection of books that the 14th century humanist and poet, Petrarch, had carried around with him when he traveled on the back of a donkey. That made me laugh, because the phrase had suggested some sort of grand magnificent library. But then I thought, well, even a small collection of books IS a sort of imaginary grand magnificent place because each of the books is a doorway into a different world of ideas, and knowledge, and story. Suddenly I was imagining “Petrarch’s Library” as a solid, if sprawling building, made out of library chambers from different times and places knitted together by magic into one incredible super-library. Since I was a kid, I always had the feeling that librarians were masquerading at doing something mundane while actually doing something incredible, mysterious and magical. It seemed reasonable that the work of librarians who staffed the imaginary Petrarch’s Library would defend and protect the flow of information in shall we say, some additional warrior-ish direct action ways!" (That quote also answers the question of whether this is fantasy or science fiction; that would depend on whether the author intended us to view the speculative elements as enabled by magic --which, as noted above, she did!-- or by natural phenomena/technology unknown to present science.) 12-year-old protagonist Dorothea "Dorrie" Barnes is a library-loving kid growing up in Passaic, New Jersey (I suspect this might be Downey's hometown, but can't confirm that), in a chaotic household with her inventor father, college instructor mom, 14-year-old brother Marcus, and three-year-old sister Miranda. (The family shares the house with her great-aunt Alice, who's an anthropologist.) Dorrie's a pretty ordinary tween, albeit one with a sense of justice and a liking for the idea of sword-fighting against villains; she's got a blunt practice sword and takes a library-sponsored fencing and stage combat class. But when the book opens on the day of the library's annual Pen and Sword Festival (a sort of low-budget Renaissance Faire), a succession of freak events will very soon suck Dorrie and Marcus into a most un-ordinary experience.... With 358 pages of actual text, this is a rather thick book; but it has fairly large script, and is a quick-flowing page turner. Given that it's intentionally written for kids, it's safe to say (and no disgrace to the author!) that it would appeal more to that group than to adults; and while it's among those children's books that can please adults, it's much more towards the younger-age end of that spectrum than some. Probably its biggest problem is conceptual murkiness, which makes suspension of disbelief challenging (more so for adults than for most 10-14 year-olds). The circumstances behind the rise of the Foundation and later of its Lybrariad adversaries aren't really explained, and neither is the power behind the magic of Petrarch's library and why its details work the way they do (partly because the Lybrarians themselves don't know or understand this!). Because the author conceives of time as fluid, with past events subject to change which can re-write subsequent ones, time paradoxes are a factor, and that's definitely not my favorite time-travel trope. Also, Downey's perspective is secular humanist, though the book doesn't stress this. The issue of language differences in certain settings isn't always handled convincingly, IMO. However, there are definite pluses here as well. On the whole, the plot is a serious one, with real suspense and tension in many places and a definite potential risk of death at times, and there are some serious life lessons imparted and significant moral choices made; but the author leavens this with a good deal of both situational and verbal humor, which works well here. She's obviously well-read and knowledgeable about history, geography, natural history, etc., and she constructs her plot well for the most part (though there's a significant logical hole in the part played by one magical artifact). Dorrie's well-developed and likeable; most of the other characters who get any significant page-time are well-developed also, though not always likeable nor meant to be. (Marcus is, though you might sometimes want to swat him! :-) ) A nice touch is the incorporation of several real historical figures, such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Greek philosopher Hypatia, as members of the Lybrariad, though their portrayal isn't always necessarily realistic. (I appreciated the short appendices which identify most of these people, and give additional information about other real persons, places, books, and other items mentioned in the tale.) All in all, this is not deep fiction, and I don't plan to seek out the sequel. But it's an enjoyable romp on its own terms, and I don't regret reading it. (Note for animal-loving readers: the pet mongoose who plays an important role in the storyline is not harmed in any way!) ...more |
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1
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Jan 15, 2025
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Jan 31, 2025
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Jan 02, 2025
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1480145688
| 9781480145689
| 1480145688
| 3.69
| 124
| unknown
| Oct 01, 2012
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Sep 11, 2024
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Paperback
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1963515080
| 9781963515084
| 1963515080
| 4.75
| 4
| unknown
| Sep 20, 2024
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it was amazing
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Like the previous two books, this conclusion to the Unsanctioned Guardians trilogy (a prequel to the Elioud Legacy trilogy) was a generous gift to me
Like the previous two books, this conclusion to the Unsanctioned Guardians trilogy (a prequel to the Elioud Legacy trilogy) was a generous gift to me from the author. (There was no pressure to write a positive review; the book stands easily on its merits, and she knew I'd liked the previous installments, as well as the original series.) Given their prequel status, it's not really necessary to have read the Elioud Legacy books to enjoy reading these three; though if you have, it does give you more acquaintance with and understanding of the main characters (and conversely these books flesh out the background of the original three, and answer questions readers of those may have had). But the Unsanctioned Guardians books DO need to be read in order. Most of my general comments about the first two apply to this one as well; the premise builds organically on the preceding books, and the author's style, literary vision and handling of content issues is consistent across all three books. About a year has elapsed since the events of the previous book, The Harlequin Protocol. CIA agent Olivia Markham landed on her feet sufficiently, after the events in that one, to preserve her career with the Company; but since then, at her request, she's been moved to a desk job. For most of the interim, she's been in charge of an agency safehouse in Montenegro, which fronts as a free clinic for the town's numerous foreign refugees, run by an NGO that's not aware of the CIA connection. (The clinic work is real; when she was recruited by the agency in the first book, Olivia was a college pre-med student, and she has EMT certification.) She's also fallen in love with a French medical doctor at the local hospital; the two are living together, and will get engaged in the first chapter. But ...she's about to cross paths with an Islamic terrorist mastermind from the previous book. Meanwhile, Italian spy Stasia Fiore is still investigating the theft of a Predator drone from the Italian military; and Capt. Beta Czerna is soon to be approached by a desperate woman who needs help in rescuing her sister from the clutches of a Polish crime lord who's into sex trafficking (among other villainous things). Circumstances are about to converge these plot strands, and bring all three ladies together for a violent, high-stakes thrill ride. As before, Zane moves the action of the tale briskly through a variety of European locations (and a trip to Morocco, in this case), making considerable use of Internet research to handle the physical geography of her scenes with photographic realism. Again, she demonstrates her strong knowledge of espionage tradecraft and modern weaponry, and handles action scenes well. The body count in this book is significantly less than in the previous one, but the suspense factor is taut and constant. There's brief reference to loving pre-marital sex, as well as to off-screen sexual violence, but nothing explicit in either case. (One short scene could be described as "sensuous," but it consists of three sentences.) Bad language is minimal, and within the bounds of reasonable realism. We're still essentially in the realm of descriptive fiction, rather than the supernatural fiction of the first trilogy; but here there are a couple of brief incidents (not observed by viewpoint character Olivia) that suggest a bit of supernatural assistance, and readers of those original three books will readily recognize their old friend Zophie at one point. :-) My only minor criticisms were that in one place, we have a truck that apparently drives itself onto the scene, and nobody picks up on that fact; and in another, a character assumes knowledge of a location she wouldn't know at that point. Technically, that nit-picking means my rating was four and a half stars; but I didn't have any trouble rounding up, especially given the strong emotional effect of the storyline. This is a great depiction of the forging of a team that has each other's backs, and of female friendship under fire (literally). Zane's handling of Olivia's moral and emotional growth here is also powerful and superb. (All of these factors ably set the stage for readers to move on from here to the Elioud Legacy trilogy, if they haven't already read it.) ...more |
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Aug 30, 2024
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Sep 07, 2024
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Aug 23, 2024
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9798884061033
| B0D1M61CGN
| 4.00
| 8
| Aug 13, 2015
| Apr 12, 2024
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Mar 31, 2025
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Apr 08, 2025
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Jul 09, 2024
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1738595218
| 9781738595211
| 1738595218
| 4.67
| 3
| unknown
| Jun 06, 2024
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really liked it
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A resident of New Zealand for at least 30 years, Christian lay theologian William J. Laurence's other vocation is as a luthier --that is, an artisan w
A resident of New Zealand for at least 30 years, Christian lay theologian William J. Laurence's other vocation is as a luthier --that is, an artisan who crafts musical instruments; and he takes that work very seriously. (This background is much more than incidental to the book.) Not academically trained in theology or Biblical studies, he's nevertheless well read in these fields, fluent in Greek, and a serious student of the Bible. Readers do well to be wary of self-published (Strait Road Press, the imprint here, is apparently Laurence's own company) theological books written by uncredentialed authors, because the latter are often densely ignorant, self-righteously opinionated, and/or arguing for off-the-wall theology with no genuine grounding in Scripture or common sense. However, that is not true in this instance. Laurence has produced a sober, well-reasoned and grounded study of God's love for humans, based on the lexical meaning of the Greek word agape [pronounced as "ah-gah-pay"]. At a bit over 140 pages, this is a short work, and a quick, jargon-free read; but it packs a great deal of ground-breaking insight into that short length. New Testament scholars have always been aware that, whereas agape is a rare word in the secular Greek of the first century, in the New Testament it emerges as by far the most commonly used word for love, both the love God has for humans and that He commands them to have for Him and for each other. The same preponderance of agape is already apparent in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced ca. 300 B.C. Many serious students of the New Testament, including this reviewer, have long maintained (while admitting that there is no actual lexical evidence for this) that the early Christian writers, guided by the Holy Spirit as they interpreted the love shown by Christ on the cross, took a relatively rare word and invested it with the meaning "unconditional love." Much modern Christian theology (mine included) has also held that such "unconditional love" is an essential element of God's nature, so that He loves everybody in a way that's essentially almost automatic and involuntary. This is problematic, in that it has no objective lexical foundation and in that it disconnects God's love from His reason and His will. In this book, Laurence draws heavily on the ground-breaking 1918 article "The Terminology of Love in the New Testament," by famed "Old Princeton" scholar B. B. Warfield, published in The Princeton Theological Review just three years before Warfield died. For whatever reason, this article attracted little attention at the time, seems to have been quickly forgotten, and exerted little or no lasting influence on subsequent theology or New Testament studies. (I'd never heard about it until Laurence mentioned it on a discussion thread in a Goodreads group; I've subsequently gotten a copy by interlibrary loan and read it for myself --although the read was facilitated by skimming in some parts, since it's a long article and deals with apparently every attested ancient use of all four Greek words for love in eye-glazing detail.) But it deserves attention, because it establishes that all four words emphasize different aspects of love; and the aspect emphasized by agape is, in Warfield's words, "...approbation, or... esteem.... It is from the apprehension of the preciousness...of its object that it derives its impulse, and its content thus lies closer to the notion of prizing than that of liking." In other words, it is a love founded on the lover's view of the worthiness or value of its object. Building on this foundation, Laurence considers the way that this meaning of "love" would have appealed to the LXX translators as expressing a higher type of love than that implied in the more common Greek word philia; the shaping influence of the LXX on the Christian usage, and the ways that the apostles Paul and John define agape for Gentile readers in I Corinthians 13 and various verses in I and II John; and both the positive aspects and limitations of the biblical images of God as Father and of God/Christ as husband/bridegroom for understanding His love. Then he considers the biblical imagery of God as artisan, crafting the completed church as His eternal temple and bride, beautiful and precious in His eyes because of the beauty and value He has imparted, and will impart to it; and finds in this the most complete explanation of God's love for humans. The subsequent chapters develop this understanding, and its significance for how we think about God and our response to Him. It is presupposed (and stated in places) here that this response is voluntary, and desired by God from all humans; and with that supposition I agree. IMO, this book would be worth its price (though it offers more of value) simply for making contemporary New Testament students aware of Warfield's forgotten lexical work, which has significantly re-written the way I think of agape. If we understand the latter word in accordance with its objectively demonstrated meaning, as love for something/someone seen by the lover as worthy of love because of the object's worth, value or preciousness, then God's agape is a reasonable and willed love on His part, related to His wisdom and holiness. And I would also agree with Laurence that this worth, value and preciousness is entirely something God imparts to us, not anything we would possess in ourselves apart from God. Where I respectfully disagree with Laurence in one particular is with regard to what God values in us. To my mind, this is not entirely limited to our beauty and worth as part of the finished product of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ. Granting that God is not limited by time, and that in the perspective of eternity He already sees the finished product as complete (though, as finite and time-bound humans, we can't truly see from His perspective, and it's perhaps presumptuous to think we could) I believe that it's more consistent with Scriptures like John 3:16, and with the constancy of Divine attitudes spoken of in multiple Scriptures, to see His love as inclusive of all humans, even those who won't be part of the completed church, and as already extended to them as individuals, not simply as parts of a whole, and prior to the completion of the whole. If we take seriously the idea that He made us in His image, and that the latter is not wholly destroyed by the fall into sin (even though it's marred), I would argue that this image is something He finds precious and worthy of love. (That doesn't mean His love overrides His justice and forces Him to forgive the impenitent; rather, it means He grieves for the damnation of sinners whom He continues to love.) Even with this caveat, I would still highly recommend this monograph as one any serious student of the New Testament or of Christian theology ought to read and interact with. It's a major contribution to both fields. ...more |
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Sep 21, 2024
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Oct 02, 2024
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Jul 05, 2024
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1613162162
| 9781613162163
| 1613162162
| 3.92
| 220
| Jul 13, 2021
| Jul 13, 2021
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Oct. 4, 2025 Since I'm reading this collection piece-meal, when I'm between other books, I'm likewise writing this review piece-meal. I'll edit it into Oct. 4, 2025 Since I'm reading this collection piece-meal, when I'm between other books, I'm likewise writing this review piece-meal. I'll edit it into a coherent whole when I finish the book. Otto Penzler is one of the best-known anthology editors in the English-language mystery genre, with over 70 of them to his credit (among other things, he's editor of the long-running Best American Mystery Stories of 19/20__, one of the more well-regarded annual collections in the field). Here, he's brought together 14 tales, each by a different writer or writing team, published in the U.S. mystery pulp magazines from 1925-1953 (the dates are shown in the acknowledgements). But though the publication venues and the authors were in America, the style of all or at least nearly all of the stories appears to be that of the comparable British mysteries in the same period: that is, traditional, cerebrally-oriented yarns that tone down the violence and lurid elements, as opposed to the rougher, more violent and often morally cynical "hard-boiled" mysteries that were also largely represented in the American pulps of that day. Each story features a series sleuth, apparently in all or most cases an amateur detective rather than a professional. Penzler provides a helpful short bio-critical introduction to each selection. Published in 2021, this collection was a thrift store purchase for me (and one I was glad to stumble on). All of the authors represented were well known and popular in their field during the period when these stories were penned. Most still have reputations as genre writers today; there were only four names on the list that were new to me. But I hadn't previously read any of these stories, and had read work by only four or five (depending on how you count; ''Ellery Queen" was actually the pen name of the team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) of the writers. In this first stint of reading, I finished four stories, all of which I liked. Though I'd previously read all of Anthony Boucher's speculative short fiction (Boucher and Erle Stanley Gardner are probably the two biggest names here), "The Stripper" was my first exposure to his mystery writing. (The title character's occupation isn't what you're probably thinking it is.) I generally don't like the idea of serial killer fiction and try to avoid it; this story, featuring Sister Ursula, a smart and observant nun who originally wanted to be a policewoman and who frequently works with LA police detective Lieutenant Marshall to solve homicides, was an exception to that rule. (Reflecting Boucher's Catholic background, a crucial clue in this selection depends on a detail of terminology relating to the Catholic liturgical year.) Two of the other series detectives whose adventures I sampled so far are also female. Okay, technically Peter and Iris Duluth, whose 1946 case of "Puzzle for Poppy" I read out of order because it's relatively short, are a husband-and-wife team, but movie star Iris is the brains of the pair; her naval officer husband (here not yet demobilized from World War II, but home on shore leave) serves as narrator and foil much the way Dr. Watson did for Holmes. (This pair were created by Hugh Callingham Wheeler and Richard Wilson Webb, the collaborators behind the pen name Patrick Quentin; both were British born, but had emigrated to the U.S. before these characters were created.) Mystery writer Susan Dare, whom we might think of as a young and attractive version of Jessica Fletcher, was one of two popular series characters created by prolific genre writer Mignon [the g is silent, and the on pronounced as "yon"] G. Eberhard. She's represented here by "Postiche" (1935), a Gothic-flavored tale of possible murder set in a forbidding old mansion near Washington DC. Susan functions here in damsel-in-distress mode at one point; but she's also clever enough to cause considerable distress for evil-doers. Both Miss Dare and the Duluths were totally new to me (as was Patrick Quentin, though I'd heard of Eberhart). Similarly, the name of protagonist Mike Russell in Charlotte Armstrong's 1951 tale "The Enemy" was also one I hadn't previously heard (though I was aware of Armstrong). It's not clear if Russell is a professional detective or not (Armstrong presumably established his background in earlier stories), but here he falls into investigating the case of the possible poisoning of a boy's dog more or less by proximity and accident. In this outing, he has the assistance of a capable and caring lady schoolteacher (making all four of these stories refreshing departures from the stereotypical character portrayals of females in fiction from that era, where they were often depicted as inept and brainless!). These selections all proved to be well-constructed and involving mysteries, with solutions that I did not deduce until the reveal. I'm looking forward to reading more in the collection before the end of this year! ...more |
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May 31, 2024
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Paperback
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1785659286
| 9781785659287
| 1785659286
| 4.03
| 3,889
| Oct 09, 2018
| Sep 10, 2019
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May 31, 2024
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Paperback
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0886772575
| 9780886772574
| 0886772575
| 3.91
| 2,779
| 1976
| Jan 05, 1988
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None
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May 31, 2024
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Mass Market Paperback
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9798397859615
| B0C7J5GLPJ
| 4.00
| 2
| unknown
| Jun 10, 2023
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liked it
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My Goodreads friend Andrew M. Seddon's day job was as a medical doctor (he's now retired); but he's also been a successful and prolific author of both
My Goodreads friend Andrew M. Seddon's day job was as a medical doctor (he's now retired); but he's also been a successful and prolific author of both long and short fiction and of nonfiction articles on a variety of subjects. Naturally, he's picked up much practical knowledge, and wisdom, about the art and craft of writing along the way. In this short (129 pages) book, divided into 27 short chapters, he distills that knowledge and wisdom for the benefit of other writers, especially younger and aspiring ones. As he explains in the second chapter --the first one is just a humorous meditation on the truth that fictional characters and plots sometimes develop in ways very unanticipated by the author-- many of the chapters were originally separate articles (which were written over the years 1996-2006, and published in various writer's magazines, mostly The Christian Communicator). This means that there are references to his personal circumstances that are inconsistent in places (some were written while he was still single, for instance, and others after his marriage), and which are not edited out, and that some topics that are particularly important in writing, such as characterization, are touched on more than once. However, this does not interfere with the flow and readability of the writing; and where certain points are repeated, the repetition is the sort that good instructors use to emphasize and drive home important points. Writers approaching this book as a resource should be aware that it does not offer advice on the purely business aspects of authorship, such as finding a venue or publisher, self-publishing (although Andrew has experience both with the latter and with traditional publishing), or marketing, etc. Where he's offering his advice is strictly in the area of the writing process itself, and that just with reference to prose writing (would-be poets won't find poetry-specific instruction here). Fiction, in both the long and short formats, is the central focus, but there is one chapter on nonfiction. But within that defined scope, the advice offered is solid and constructive. Of course, this assessment is coming from a writer (of sorts) whose credentials are vastly less impressive than Andrew's own. But I've also been reading both fiction and nonfiction avidly for over sixty years, have seriously reviewed much of that reading in various print and online venues for over 30 years, and gotten an A in a college Creative Writing class, albeit decades ago. So I'm not without some ability to recognize good advice in this field. Indeed, I would say that this book would have been a well-fitting and useful resource for that class, and even have made a good textbook –-maybe in conjunction with an anthology of good fiction (which our textbook mostly consisted of) or with a book on the poetic craft. Topics covered here include plot structure, the importance of a strong beginning and an effective and appropriate ending, vital characterization, stylistic tips for the proper handling of language for clear and pleasing readability, the vital importance of editing and revision, how to handle writer's block, the valuable help that can come from rejection letters that include some kind of critique, and much more. Andrew encourages wide reading for all would-be writers, as well as using travel (which nowadays, as he points out, can be virtual, through the Internet) as an occasion for observation. All of this is written with a verve and humorous touch that's never boring, and often enlivened with visits to the author from such figures as Julius Caesar, the main characters from the original Star Trek TV series (a transporter malfunction temporarily landed them in his house) and a mummy, all of them able to impart or evoke some insights on the writing craft. (And all of whom demonstrate that having a big imagination is probably a serious asset to the fiction writer. :-) ) One chapter deals with the question of various kinds of bad language, such as profanity (I would quibble with his taxonomy, preferring my own categories and definitions, but that's a minor point). His strong advice is against using it, mainly for religious reasons (he's a devout Roman Catholic), but also because well-written fiction doesn't require bad language in order to be “realistic,” it can in fact be a crutch for lazy writing, and it can make the reading experience tedious and offensive to many readers, especially if it's used a lot. My practice in my own writing is to avoid profanity and obscenity entirely, so I largely agree with him, while perhaps being more willing to recognize the matter as a judgment call for each individual writer to decide (though he does allow that it is). I'm also more open to the practice of using symbols such as “##%$*&!” as a substitute (though I don't do it myself); Andrew finds these “awkward and childish,” but Paul Zindle comes to mind as an author who's used that device successfully, and similar devices such as “_____” can be used as well. If I were writing such a guide, I'd probably lay more stress on the great value of accurate research (especially in historical settings, and anywhere where you're dealing with scientific, medical, or technological material that you don't understand well yourself), mainly because I've experienced both the humiliation of making drastic bloopers from neglecting research and the joy of escaping other equally drastic ones due to research I did do. :-) But if I were writing this guide, it wouldn't have turned out to be half as readable, informative and helpful as this one is! In my opinion, this book will definitely be useful to anyone who's currently engaged in writing, as a source of income or a serious hobby, whether you're just beginning or have been at it a while but still want to improve your craft. As indicated above, I'd also recommend it as a textbook for anyone preparing to teach creative writing at either the secondary or college level (it would lift students at the former up to the latter, not vice versa) –and it's priced reasonably, rather than extortionately as most present-day textbooks are! My solid three-star rating for it (meaning that I liked it) is my usual one for nonfiction books; those that get five stars, like the Bible, or four, are books that can majorly change your whole life, or be a significant factor in your spiritual, intellectual or philosophical formation. This book doesn't aim to be in that league. But it just might help you to seriously better your writing skills! Full disclosure: the author gifted me with a copy of this book, not with any request for a review, but simply because he's always been generous in sharing his writing with me as an act of friendship. ...more |
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Feb 28, 2024
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Feb 07, 2024
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Paperback
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9798852106810
| B0CDYWLH66
| 4.00
| 1
| unknown
| Aug 08, 2023
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really liked it
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This collection is another rewarding read from prolific independent author Andrew M. Seddon, whom I've had the honor of counting as a friend for some
This collection is another rewarding read from prolific independent author Andrew M. Seddon, whom I've had the honor of counting as a friend for some 20 years. It's actually a sort of sequel to his Bonds of Affection: Short Stories and Memories of German Shepherds (2019), and like the earlier collection contains both short stories and nonfiction "memories" of German Shepherd dogs who have been part of his and/or his veterinarian wife, Olivia's lives. (He had written too much material to include in the original book, and had notes for other stories he wanted to write as well; hence this companion volume.) The general comments in my review of the first book would apply to this one as well. Again, the fictional selections include both descriptive and speculative works (in at least one case, the dividing line is ambiguous, and it's sometimes uncertain whether the speculative element in those stories that have one is supernatural or science fictional). All profits from the sale of this collection, as with the first one, "go to benefit German Shepherd rescues and K9 support organizations." In all, there are 13 short stories here, of which seven were previously published in literary magazines or earlier collections of Andrew's tales. All of the latter were revised for publication here, however; and although I've beta read several stories here years ago (and Andrew kindly mentioned me in his acknowledgments for that, though my role was slight!) I read the entire collection on this go-around so that my reactions would be as fresh as possible. The German Shepherds who figure in the stories appear in various roles, including search-and-rescue dogs, as in the title story, "Ranger's First Call;" seeing-eye guides for the blind, as in the most thought-provoking story here, "The Sun on the Liffey;" as nonconsensual experimental subjects, for instance in "Experimental Subjects" (featuring Andrew's space-faring vet character, Doc Hughes); or just plain companions to their humans. Some of them play major roles in the plots of their stories, others are just supporting characters. ("The Darkness at the Edge of the World" features story-cycle characters Howard Sheffield and his dog Baltasar, but those stories have yet to be published together in their own book.) Story settings vary, from the historical fiction of "The Easter Shepherd," unfolding in the hellish milieu of World War I trench warfare, to contemporary locales as widely separated as Oregon and Ukraine, all the way to outer space in the far future. But they all have in common Andrew's skillful story-telling, thoughtful craftsmanship, and strongly moral literary vision; and they all exude his affection for dogs in general and German shepherds in particular. That affection, as well as understanding and concern, comes across as well in the four memories sections, which pay tribute primarily to six dogs not mentioned in the first book, some of whom had happy lives and some of whom did not. But even in the case of the first group, the memories may ultimately have a poignant and bittersweet quality, because sadly our canine companions' natural life spans aren't as long as ours. There are also two short poems, one by Andrew and one by his sister Judith, which are both moving elegies to canine friends that have passed away. The short Preface was nominally written by Andrew's German Shepherd Rex (who has since also passed --this was published in 2022), though I have reason to suspect he had some help from his human. :-) It encourages adoption of shelter dogs who need loving homes. Andrew's four-page Introduction is also well worth reading, for a simple and straightforward testimony to the unique qualities of dogs (who are, as he explains, neither things to be used nor four-legged, furry humans, but special and distinct creatures in their own right), and to the rewarding friendship that they can bring into the lives of human individuals and families if we open our hearts to them. This book will particularly appeal to all readers who have a special affection for dogs and who also like tasteful, well-written short fiction; but you can greatly appreciate it even if you aren't in that first group. But even folks who aren't ardent dog enthusiasts may come away from these pages with a new understanding and appreciation for these friendly and intelligent creatures! Note: My copy of the book was a kind gift from the author, but he didn't solicit a review; I read it because I wanted to, and am glad to share my honest opinion! ...more |
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Mar 05, 2024
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B08L2JYZB5
| 3.91
| 211
| Oct 10, 2020
| Oct 10, 2020
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it was ok
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This novella is another freebie for Kindle which I finished reading earlier this month, but haven't had time to review until now. It's also one I orig
This novella is another freebie for Kindle which I finished reading earlier this month, but haven't had time to review until now. It's also one I originally downloaded under the influence of a five-star review from a Goodreads friend, but wound up being much less taken with than he was. Chronologically, our setting is sometime in the later 19th century (it's no earlier than 1861, when what is today Nigeria became a British crown colony, but we're never told how much later it is, except that we're still in the "Victorian" era). Our story proper begins in London, but very swiftly shifts to Lagos in colonial Nigeria. Young (she's under 21, because she still has guardians; I don't recall if her age is stated, but I'd guess it to be 19-20) orphaned protagonist Beatrice is a psychically-gifted investigator for the sub rosa Society for Paranormals and Curious Animals, directed by a werewolf. Whether Beatrice's last name is Knight or Anderson is a point of confusion through most of the book; that point is cleared up near the end, but it fosters (or indicates, on the author's part!) more confusion. (view spoiler)[Knight will apparently be her married name in future books; but in that case, she should be a Mrs., not a Miss (hide spoiler)]. The first sentence tells us that this adventure will pit her against "a giant Praying [sic] Mantis" (or, more accurately, an African pagan demi-goddess who usually appears in preying mantis form). Her boss, Prof. Runal, has gotten wind that brownies (of the Wee Folk, not the baked, sort) are being kidnapped and smuggled internationally by a trafficking ring based in Lagos. How he's gotten wind of this is never explained (although, obviously, knowing that would be important for an investigator going into the situation!), nor is it ever explained why anybody would want to smuggle brownies in the first place, and in particular why a shape-shifting demi-goddess would be involved in it. The whole concept just functions as a McGuffin. Prof. Runal has enough clout with the British government to arrange for the Lagos police to cooperate with Bee; but if keeping the paranormal world secret from the uninitiated is an issue, it's dubious how smart that move would be, and it's unclear how useful the civil police could be in an investigation of this sort, anyway. In fact, she doesn't need to investigate; her identity is known to her adversaries when she steps off the boat (which suggests that a mole is compromising the mission, but that idea is never developed), and the culprits either come to her or information is dropped into her lap by third parties. Of course, in fairness, a tale with this kind of premise isn't going for intense realism; but even tales with wildly speculative premises can play out with a greater degree of internal plausibility than this does. And details that may be dubiously realistic can be forgiven if a story features a strong, psychologically realistic character study that appeals to the reader, or a plot that engages one on an emotional level. For me, this did neither. Bee's first-person narrative voice is written as trying to be wry and droll for its own sake, rather than coming across with the kind of feelings an actual young woman in her situation would experience. She's a rather irritating Mary Sue type with a streak of misandry, while Inspector Jones serves only to incarnate patronizing male chauvinism. Author Ehsani is obviously going mostly for humor (achieved primarily through Bea's one-liners, and cracks about werewolf body odor); but the humorous effect is largely undercut at the climax by the graphic violence and large-scale slaughter affected by the mantis-goddess Koki. :-( (And I personally find even normal-sized preying mantises to be really disgusting and repulsive!) Vered Ehsani was born in South Africa, but is a long-time resident of Kenya. (The subsequent novels of the series are set in the latter country, though I don't plan to follow them.) To give credit where it's due, as an African native, she does a good job of incorporating African folklore (which North American and European readers typically don't encounter often, and don't know much about) into her narrative. ...more |
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Kindle Edition
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9798876787019
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| 5.00
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| Jan 20, 2024
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it was amazing
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Note, May 5, 2025: I've just edited one sentence slightly to remove possible confusion. Because I contributed a story to this newly-published anthology Note, May 5, 2025: I've just edited one sentence slightly to remove possible confusion. Because I contributed a story to this newly-published anthology of 21 fiction selections by 14 authors, I received a contributor's copy. (My review and rating refer only to the work of the other writers!) Andrew M. Seddon, the editor of this collection (he also contributed seven of the stories) and I have been Internet friends since before Goodreads existed. He's a long-standing animal lover, especially of German Shepherd dogs, but his canine affections extend to their wild cousins, the wolves, whom he feels are the victims of long centuries of misunderstanding, misrepresentation and mistreatment from humans. A few years ago, knowing that I share this feeling, he confided the idea of an anthology of wolf-friendly fiction to me and to a few other writer friends, and I was happy to be included in the project. Now, it's come to fruition at last in the present work! Historically, wolves sadly haven't enjoyed a good press in English-language literature. Finding wolf-friendly works proved to be something of a challenge, which is why five of the stories here by Andrew (and possibly some by other contributors as well) were written specifically for this collection. (His two others here had been published previously in other collections, and I'd actually beta read both of them years ago; but I reread them here.) That consideration also influenced the inclusion of some werewolf/shapeshifter stories. However, he nevertheless was able to assemble a quality collection, with contributions mostly from living authors, but including tales by Saki (who's represented twice), Jack London, and Algernon Blackwood. Besides Andrew himself, the best-known of the contemporary authors here is Karina Fabian, who (both as a writer and as an editor) has a following among science fiction fans; at the other end of that spectrum, Idunn Frostfall is a teen writer whose excellent story "Plagues and Wolves" is her first publication. Most of the writers represented are American or British; a couple are Canadian, and Deryn Pittar hails from New Zealand. At least three of them are Christians, and at least two of those (Seddon and Fabian) are Roman Catholic; but the selections themselves are mostly not explicitly religious in character. Each author has a short bio-bibliographic description in alphabetical order at the back of the book. Each of the selections has a short introductory paragraph; in the case of the living authors, it consists of their explanations of the inspiration behind the story. In terms of genre, there's a good bit of variety; some are general fiction and others are historical fiction, while SF and fantasy are also represented. Only one selection is a novel excerpt, from Robin Lamont's The Trap (in keeping with my usual practice, I didn't read that one, but I added the book to my to-read shelf!). The title character of London's "Brown Wolf," which has thematic affinities to his novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang), is actually a cross between a wolf and a husky (the two types of canine can interbreed, as real-life cases demonstrate). Andrew's "Wolfsheart," set in Viking times, is perhaps my favorite story here (possibly because of my own Scandinavian heritage), although it's hard to pick. But his "The Beast-Fighter's Tale" and Godfrey Blackwell's "Ancient Partners" (which finds far-future Earth wolves introduced into the ecology of a human-colonized planet far from Earth) are also standouts. Fabian is represented by a story from her Rescue Sisters series, "A Wolf of Mars." It's impossible to comment on all of the selections; but of the 19 I read (I didn't reread my own), there wasn't a clunker in the bunch, which is unusual for an anthology! Emotional impact, great writing, strong characterization (of two-legged and four-legged characters alike) and effective, imaginative storytelling is the order of the day in all of them. As an added feature, Andrew introduces the book with a short (a bit over ten pages) but informative and well researched "Brief History of Wolf-Human Relations." It also features a bibliography of almost two dozen recommended books, mostly nonfiction, about wolves (I would personally add Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves to that list.) All profits from the sale of this collection go to reputable wolf conservation organizations and sanctuaries, a list of which is appended. ...more |
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0441783589
| 9780441783588
| B00A2MSVXY
| 4.01
| 244,850
| Dec 1959
| Feb 2010
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really liked it
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Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was part of the generation of American science fiction writers whose interest in the genre was shaped within the insula
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was part of the generation of American science fiction writers whose interest in the genre was shaped within the insular little world of U.S. SF fandom in the years between the World Wars, centered around a handful of pulp magazines, with John W. Campbell's Astounding Stories ultimately the foremost of them. Making his first SF short story sale to Astounding in 1939, in time to become, like his slightly younger colleague Isaac Asimov, one of Campbell's proteges and leading contributors to the magazine in pulp SF's “Golden Age,” he would go on to be one of the genre's biggest 20th-century names, winning the Hugo Award four times (the first time for this novel). Despite a liking for science fiction that goes back to my childhood, though, I've never sought Heinlein out as a writer. Overall, my taste in the genre runs more to its “soft” branch, or to sociological SF, sword-and-planet scenarios, post-apocalyptic and alternate history works –not so much to the “hard” school, closely aligned with strict extrapolation from (and often devoted to expounding a lot of) actual science, which characterized the pulp tradition. (Heinlein fit into the latter very well; in the late 1930s he was a postgraduate student in physics and math at the Univ. of California.) Then too, with a few exceptions, military-oriented SF isn't generally my thing. There are also significant differences between my worldview and his. So my prior experience with his work was limited to a handful of his short stories in anthologies (which for me have been a mixed bag). But when my oldest grandson was thoughtful enough to gift me with a copy of this book last Christmas, I was resolved to read it ASAP; and it turned out that I appreciated it more than I'd expected to. Our setting here is the far future (I don't recall the exact century being specified), and our protagonist and narrator is a soldier whom we meet in medias res as he's about to “drop” down, along with other troopers, from an orbiting starship onto the surface of a hostile planet, for a raid in the course of a high-tech interstellar war. We don't learn his full name until chapter 11 of a 14-chapter book (that's actually done for a purpose, which I won't divulge, but for which I give Heinlein high marks on a couple of counts!); until then he's just “Johnnie.” In the following chapter, we drop back to the time when he's finishing up high school on Earth and about to turn 18, when his best friend convinces him that after graduation, they should sign up for military service together. (The war breaks out while he's still in basic training.) Beginning with chapter 2, the plot proceeds in linear fashion, though there's a longer than usual chronological gap before the final chapter. You might suppose, then, that this will be primarily a space opera action-adventure potboiler with primary emphasis on battles and military hardware. But that supposition would be wrong. The book opens with a battle scene, and there's a grand total of one other such scene in the entire novel. Both of these are described in an exciting and suspenseful fashion, with plenty of action, though none of it grisly-gory. But these are hardly the meat of a 335-page novel. Likewise, there's some attention paid to describing the trooper's formidable armored combat suits and their weaponry, communications capabilities, etc., just sufficiently so that you can understand the action taking place. But this isn't heavy-handed nor lengthy, and there's no hard science for its own sake. (No effort is made to explain faster-than-light space travel, for instance; just that it's made possible by the “Cherenkov drive.”) Most of Johnnie's narration describes his training (at one level or another), and the conditions of starship life in a combat unit. Heinlein served in the Navy from 1929-1934 (after graduating from Annapolis –he had to return to civilian life on a medical discharge), and allowing for the mostly cosmetic differences of setting, futuristic technology and some specific future customs and practices, a lot of the lifestyle and ethos he describes clearly derives directly from this real-life experience. According to one SF website, “...Troopers was the first SF novel in which military life was depicted in a manner believable to readers who had actually served.” Readers looking for a constant high level of slam-bang action won't appreciate this, but for readers who value verisimilitude, this is actually a plus. Plausibly realistic description of what training and life in a space navy might be like for a mobile-infantry trooper, however, though important to the author, still wasn't his main reading for writing. His real reason is to make the novel a vehicle for expressing certain social messages relevant not only to American society in 1959, but to Western society in general in succeeding generations down to the present. This is very much a novel about ideas, and about the consequences of ideas. As Johnnie learns in school, 20th-century Earth societies collapsed, at least partly because of an epidemic of teenage crime produced by the ideologically driven abandonment, at the societal and legal level, of not only corporal child discipline, but pretty much any punitive child discipline at all. Teens grew up with no sense of moral duty to others in their society in general; the resulting aggressive violence made the cities increasingly unlivable. A third World War hastened the collapse. In its immediate aftermath, order was gradually restored by vigilante groups of veterans, who had that kind of sense of duty; and as a federated world state took shape under their tutelage, they created a polity in which full citizenship with voting rights was restricted to veterans. (It was also a state where crimes were punished primarily by the whipping post rather than by prison terms.) By Johnnie's time, this had produced a stable, widely prosperous society with low crime and maximum personal freedom for most of the populace. All those who applied for military service were accepted, and if they stuck out at least one two-year term (not necessarily in combat service), they became voting citizens. But frivolous applicants were discouraged, training was rigorous enough to weed out those who couldn't hack it, and the service itself was no cakewalk. In the service, there was a strong emphasis on discipline and on self-sacrifice for the good of the civilian society which military services exist to protect. The implications for American society in the author's present, facing a then unprecedented rise in “juvenile delinquency” as well as what many perceived an an existential external threat from the Soviet Union, were fairly obvious. They remain obvious, as the decline of law and order has become even more noticeable than it was in 1959, and as existential threats multiply in the post 9/11 world. Heinlein's own general socio-political attitudes were broadly right-of-center (more so than mine, in some respects), though he doesn't go into those much here, and he later supported the Vietnam War, a stance that in hindsight was recognizably misguided. By the late 1960s, this led the rising younger generation of intelligentsia and college-educated SF fans to hate and demonize him. This novel was grist for their anger. One reviewer has described his viewpoint here as “hyper right-wing nationalism,” which is ironic, considering that he happily depicts all nationalities as absorbed under a benevolent world government, a goal which was really popular with SF writers in the Campbell school, but not so much so with those of us who actually are (peaceful) nationalists. Another reader (and probably more than one!) has characterized it as “Fascist,” though Heinlein was actually a very strong libertarian. For my own part, I have significant disagreements with him at the philosophical level. I don't, for instance, deny that humans have a moral instinct and reduce all valid ethical principles to whatever aids individual or group survival, nor explain all wars as caused by population pressure (his Darwinism, IMO, misled him in these respects), and I think there are serious problems with restricting suffrage to veterans, and doubt that it would work as well in practice as he imagined. Yet in his basic thesis that children and teens need constructive moral discipline, and that a willingness to defend your community against aggressors with your life if necessary is a laudable thing, I would contend that he wasn't wrong. Also on the plus side, this is a very clean novel, with no bad language and no sexual content. It also has a positive view of women in combat –none serve as infantry troopers (probably because the weight of the armored suits would be too heavy for most), but we're told that they make better combat pilots than males do, and they generally captain the starships. (For 1959, that's a pretty feminist stance!). Personally, I really enjoyed the book overall, and would recommend it to SF and military fiction fans. ...more |
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Mass Market Paperback
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1782275959
| 9781782275954
| 1782275959
| 3.48
| 221
| Oct 31, 2019
| Aug 31, 2021
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really liked it
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Physically, this 2019 anthology from Pushkin Press is a slight one (it has 220 pages, but they're small pages), with just nine short stories. But they
Physically, this 2019 anthology from Pushkin Press is a slight one (it has 220 pages, but they're small pages), with just nine short stories. But they're well-chosen stories, making for a good, quick reading experience (I finished it in just four days, though my quick completion was speeded by the fact that I'd already read four of the stories). Editor and Goodreads author Laird Hunt was previously unknown to me, but he's identified here as the author of seven novels (and judging from his Goodreads profile, has possibly written more by now). His five and 1/2 page Introduction (better read, as I did, as an afterword) starts with a reference to a paranormal experience he had one night around midnight, as a six or seven-year-old child, while sleeping at his grandmother's Indiana farm. He implies that this may have given him a lifelong fascination with the "dark" or spooky, and makes comments on the chosen stories relating them to that experience/theme. But he suggests that "scary stories" have a fascination for us all. A scare factor, or at least a sense of the darkly unsettling. is the intended common element here, though it may arise from either supernatural or natural causes. All nine of the authors represented here, as the collection title suggests, were American. The stories aren't dated, but the only one of the writers born in the 20th century was Shirley Jackson (d. 1965); the rest preceded her. So these are all older stories, dating from the 19th or early 20th centuries. Most of the authors are well known, in American letters generally or at least in the weird fiction field; Hunt doesn't supply any information about them, but it's generally not needed. Although Hunt found Mark Twain's "A Ghost Story" scary, it's ultimately humorous (although it's the only one here that is). That story was one of those I'd read previously, the other three being Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" (which perhaps gains an added frisson in the shadow of the recent pandemic!), Hawthorn's "Young Goodman Brown,' and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I've commented on all of these in reviews of other collections. None of the other tales are as well known, though most of the authors are. Edith Wharton is represented by "The Eyes;" that one is hard to discuss without a spoiler, except to say that it shows the influence of Henry James in the way that a character intuits things. "Spunk" by Zora Neale Hurston is set in a rural black community in the South and reflects the author's interest in realistically portraying the lifeways and sociology of that culture, not in relation to whites but as an independent entity created by black people. (Of course, not everything is necessarily harmonious in that world, and it may at times play host to supernatural realities they don't teach about in university anthropology classes....) Jackson's "Home" shows her aptitude at both the traditional ghost story and at deft characterization. Though I'd of course heard of Robert W. Chambers, "The Mask" was my first introduction to his work. All I'll say about it is that it's greatly whetted my eagerness to read The King in Yellow and Other Horrors: The Best Weird Fiction & Ghost Stories of Robert W. Chambers (which was on my to-read shelf already)! Emma Frances Dawson (1839-1926) was the only writer here I'd never heard of before. Her "An Itinerant House," like most of her fiction, is set in San Francisco, where she lived most of her life (she was a protege' of Ambrose Bierce). That story made me aware that in late 19th-century San Francisco, physical moving of buildings from one location to another was apparently actually a not particularly uncommon thing. (But if a given building has a Romany curse attached to it, moving it may not be a good idea.) All in all, this is a solid collection with uniformly good stories (some of them great stories). Most short story fans, especially those who like fiction on the macabre side, would probably like it. ...more |
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not set
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Apr 27, 2024
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B08MBCJP1D
| 4.50
| 2
| unknown
| Oct 29, 2020
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really liked it
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Note, May 7, 2025: I just edited this review to note that the author has updated the book text to correct a quibble I mentioned below! When I began rea Note, May 7, 2025: I just edited this review to note that the author has updated the book text to correct a quibble I mentioned below! When I began reading this fourth installment of G. K. Werner's Clerk of Copmanhurst's Tales, I had the impression that it was the conclusion of the series, and would bring Robin's saga down to the end of his life. In fact, however, it only covers about another year of his early career as an outlaw, from August 1191 (when the previous book ended) to July 1192. There is intended to be at least one more volume, to be titled Marian of the Greenwood, though it's not yet published. All of the installments have a similar literary style (so many of the comments in my previous reviews apply equally to this one). Structurally, the content is again technically presented in the format of short stories (just as the original folk material that first presented the Robin Hood legend is divided into individual ballads), supposedly adapted by G. K. Werner into a more modern style while repeating the essential content of letters written by the aged Friar Tuck, the titular "Clerk of Copmanhurst," to Robin's son. (Like his fellow historical novelist Norah Lofts, the author doesn't try to make his dialogue medieval-sounding; the characters' speech avoids anachronisms as such, but otherwise their vocabulary and diction is essentially modern.) There are seven stories here, again divided into two "fitts," and presented with introductory "Translator's" Notes and footnotes. The latter can be genuinely educational. (For instance, I learned the derivation of the word "fortnight;" I'd always wondered what a "fort" has to do with a two-week period, but the word actually is a slurred form of an Old English phrase for "fourteen nights.") As usual for this series, the plots for the tales come both from the ballad tradition and sometimes from incidents in earlier Robin Hood books and films that have become part of the modern pop-culture tradition. G.K. is well-versed in both the ballads and the earlier Robin Hood re-tellings; his biggest influence from the latter is Henry Gilbert's 1912 novel Robin Hood), which I read as a kid (and reviewed retrospectively), but which this series is tempting me to reread sometime. There's a substantial vein of humor here, as in the other three books (occasionally earthy humor, which reflects actual medieval attitudes); Robin's and his followers' liking for puns, jokes, and pranks comes through clearly. (That element is already in the ballads; the "Merry Men" label didn't emerge out of nowhere.) But it's a vein that provides needed tension relief at times in a book that's essentially serious, concerned with violent and potentially lethal injustice (it's indicative that of the four major good characters --Robin, Marian, Little John, and Myriam-- all four lost at least one parent, and most of them both parents, to violent deaths), fraught with serious danger from villains with no scruples, often tensely suspenseful and emotionally evocative, and clear in its depiction of radical evil. We have a plot strand of healthy romance here between the 15-16-year-old Marian and Robin who's only about three years her senior (and they're not the only loving couple in the book). The author realistically depicts the rancorous political intrigue of the times, between those loyal to the absent king Richard and his scheming younger brother John (Marian's a ward of Richard's, and has also secretly been acting as his spy in Nottingham Castle since she was a 13-year-old kid). Marian in particular comes into her own here; we've always known that she's very good with both a sword and a bow (she was trained well, albeit illegally for a girl, by her father, since he had no son to succeed him as defender of the family's castle and land), but here she gets to show her mettle in actual combat. An evangelical Christian himself, the author sympathetically depicts the positive role of Christian faith in the lives of those characters who genuinely live it, including Robin and his band, and Marian and her friend Myriam (like her parents, a convert from Judaism). That faith is sharply contrasted with the hypocritical use of nominal religion as a cover for pride and avarice. However, the depiction here isn't without its problems. As in the preceding books, Robin and his friends and allies all have a strict no-killing policy (though Little John sometimes grumbles about it), reflecting a view of Christianity as a strictly pacifist faith. That view wouldn't have been held by many, if any, believers in the 1190s, and the resulting policy doesn't appear in either the original ballads nor in prior fictional treatments like Gilbert's; it can come across as somewhat unrealistic in places. Here as in the earlier books, G. K. confuses monks with priests (although this problem has now been fixed in a corrected update of the text!). In a couple of places in this book, Tuck makes comments that appear to deny the legitimacy of the "sacraments" of confession and infant baptism. While I don't have any problem with his theology as theology, I have a problem with it as a likely position for anybody in the late 12th century to hold, even if he can read the Bible in the original languages (or as a position that all of the mostly illiterate outlaws would accept uncritically). His statement to a Norman prelate that he doesn't "need your Norman version of the Church" is similarly anachronistic; contemporary Saxons would have recognized hypocrisy when they saw it, but they wouldn't have questioned that Normans and Saxons were both part of the one Church (even though some might be in more desperate need of its provisions for forgiveness than others!). These quibbles, however, didn't stop me from really liking the book! And my appetite is officially whetted for the following one. :-) ...more |
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B094GPDTKR
| 3.67
| 3
| unknown
| May 08, 2021
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This is neither a book nor a short story (nor a free-standing read of any kind!), and this note is not a review as such. Instead, the subtitle is lite
This is neither a book nor a short story (nor a free-standing read of any kind!), and this note is not a review as such. Instead, the subtitle is literal; rather than being a prequel to the author's novel Turncoat, this actually is just the 8-page Prologue, set in 1962, from the novel itself. (And the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the contents.) What we get is simply a tedious and padded description of a short White House ceremony bestowing a medal on a retiring CIA agent, and then an account of the difficult childbirth of a first son to a couple who, as far as we know, have no connection to the agent. There are a significant number of typos or misused words, lots of name-dropping, and digressions like a recounting of the origin of President Kennedy's desk. It's my own fault that I didn't notice the ultra-short page count before downloading this, and since it's free, I can't say I was gypped; it really is worth $0.00. :-) But it's basically just a come-on (and not a very interesting one to me) for the novel, and I felt that I wasted my time in reading it at all. ...more |
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B0CK6TXQK7
| 4.47
| 68
| unknown
| Sep 30, 2023
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liked it
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Note, Oct. 11, 2023: I'm just adding a hasty note to this review to state that I read it in electronic format, as an ARC I was given earlier this year
Note, Oct. 11, 2023: I'm just adding a hasty note to this review to state that I read it in electronic format, as an ARC I was given earlier this year by the author, who's a valued Goodreads friend. No promise of a positive review was asked for, or given! House Blend is a short novella in Heather Day Gilbert's Barks and Beans “cozy” mystery series, set in present-day Lewisburg, West Virginia and featuring amateur sleuth (and first-person narrator) Macy Hatfield. Macy and her slightly older brother Bo operate a “petting cafe,” a coffee shop with an adjacent area where customers can interact with shelter dogs (with a view to encouraging adoptions). This particular entry takes place a couple of years after the series opener, No Filter (since there Macy's about 37, and here she turned 39 a few days before the tale opens), and would probably appeal most to people who've already read the earlier book. But it stands outside of the series numbering, so doesn't have to be read in any particular sequence as compared to the later books. It could even, possibly, serve as a sort of appetizer for the main series for “cozy” fans who are new to it (though I think the first book would be a more effective and appealing introduction). This volume does have basic information as to a couple of romantic attachments that have developed in the intervening years since the series opener –but these are really not “spoilers,” since most readers of the latter book will already have placed their bets on both pairs to become dating couples. :-) Like most book titles in this series, this one takes a coffee-shop term and connects it to a element in the mystery. The connection here is the word “house.” Harper Pine is a “house flipper,” that is, someone who buys older houses which could benefit from a makeover, has them renovated, and sells them at a profit. Normally she lives in neighboring Virginia; but the house she's currently working with is in Lewisburg, and during her time there she's become a Barks and Beans regular. Unfortunately, the house in question proved to contain a shallowly-buried skeleton with a bashed-in skull in its basement. Back in 1989, Lewisburg gossip was set agog over the disappearance of a young, childless married woman named Delta Buckner. Local police investigated it at the time, but no leads were found; and the intervening 30+ years have left the case very cold and general interest waned to the vanishing point. In the first chapter, though, we learn that the bones have been identified as Delta's, so the missing person case is now a homicide case. Harper's concerned that an association with an unsolved murder will hurt the sales appeal of the house. She strikes up a friendship with Macy, also in the first chapter, and our heroine, being native to the community --and also being, as most readers will recognize (maybe with rolled eyes!) afflicted with, as Gabriel Betteredge in The Moonstone would say, “detective fever”-- volunteers to ask around about the lead-up to the tragedy, to see if she can unearth any clues. So, “the game is afoot.” The book has its positives. It's a quick read (I read it in two sittings, and some readers might finish it in one), with an undemanding prose style and a strong narrative drive. (I would say that it's plot-driven rather than character-driven, but that isn't necessarily a flaw.) For those who, like myself, have read the first book, it's a chance to reconnect briefly with old friends (though Bo plays very little part in this episode). The nicely evoked small-town ambiance is a plus, and the author's love of dogs comes through. (Dog lovers may particularly appreciate this series in general, although here Macy doesn't get any canine assist in solving the mystery as she did in No Filter.) Our girl also doesn't put herself in such “too stupid to live” jeopardies as she did in the first book. She's learned to pack pepper spray instead of relying on a pocketknife; and though she thinks she's in great danger at one point, readers who actually picture the realistic physical possibilities of the situation won't be as scared for her as she is for herself. (In order to avoid spoilers, I can't be more specific!) Harper proves to be a character with unexpected depth, and was one reason I rated the book as highly as I did; as I said of Bo in the first book, I actually think she'd make a better series sleuth than Macy does. However, there are negatives as well (though one is just the converse of a positive, and not all of them would be regarded with the same weight by all readers). As in the first book, Macy doesn't genuinely solve the mystery; the solution is unexpectedly dropped into her lap by a confession. Under the circumstances, I found it hard to believe the confession would have been made in real life; to overcome that challenge, the character of the person making it would have had to be developed in enough depth to make it seem credible for that person, and that isn't done here. Similarly, the extreme events that culminated in the killing come, as it were, out of the blue; we're told about them, but we don't know enough about Delta as a person to have expected, or to genuinely feel in our gut, that this was something that could have likely happened. (Some of my Goodreads friends who frequently run into “dual timeline” narrative structures in their reads –I have only a little experience with reading that technique myself-- call attention to the drawbacks and difficulties of that method; but I actually think that structure might have worked better here, and this author would have the chops to pull it off.) The ultra-extreme overreaction of another character with secrets to learning that another character has vague and unsubstantiated suspicions in that general area also served to drop information into Macy's lap; but it doesn't come across as realistic in any setting outside of the old America's Dumbest Criminals TV show. Both of these confessions seem like shortcuts designed to end the book quickly; and in general, the whole composition has a sort of undeveloped or minimalist feel. Short stories, despite their shortness, can be carefully crafted as well-polished and emotionally evocative jewels. This short novel lacks that jewel-like quality; it's just short, and some readers would possibly find it more rewarding if it were significantly longer, and the space used to develop the characters more deeply, and to flesh some things out. Finally, it's doubtful that the police would have failed to again contact the person who made the confession, despite having done so already back in 1989. True, some of these criticisms are subjective; and it's also fair to note that the author is trying here to appeal to readers who actually want a very quick, light read, and who would be put off by more depth. But I have to review it from the standpoint of my own wants and likes. So, if I could give half stars here, my rating would be two and a half; I rounded up for the sake of the positives noted above. ...more |
Notes are private!
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May 03, 2023
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May 04, 2023
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Oct 10, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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B0916DR5WL
| 4.57
| 402
| Oct 18, 2021
| Oct 18, 2021
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liked it
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The fifth installment of the popular Barks and Beans Cafe' mystery series removes Macy from the cafe' for most of the book's length, and provides her
The fifth installment of the popular Barks and Beans Cafe' mystery series removes Macy from the cafe' for most of the book's length, and provides her with a temporary sidekick in the person of secondary series character Della (mom to one of the cafe' employees), who was introduced in the second book, Iced Over. Della's a caregiver for elderly clients. We learn in the first chapter that the latest of the latter, one Lorraine Rosso (to whom Della was especially close), suddenly died the day before the book opens. She was bed-fast and didn't have a particularly strong heart, and the physician who examined her body attributed her death to heart failure. But while she wasn't a likely contender for any Olympic medals, she didn't previously appear to be at all near death's door; and Della has noted that one of the deceased's two pillows is unaccountably missing. (Was she smothered?) The widowed Lorraine didn't have a loving relationship with either of her two adult children, and didn't trust either of them. (She did trust Della implicitly.) Adding to the intrigue surrounding the situation, some time before she died Lorraine gave Della a letter, to be opened in the event of her demise. Signed (and witnessed by a neighbor), it reveals that when Lorraine's husband died, he left in her keeping an unspecified "object" of great value, which had come into the possession of his great-grandfather shortly after his immigration to America. (It bears the latter's initials, "F. R.") Not trusting his kids any more than Lorraine did, and believing that they'd simply fight over the object if they did inherit it, he charged her to pass it to some other worthy person. (The kids know a valuable object exists, but not what or where it is.) It further reveals that Lorraine has hidden this treasure, not in her own home, but in some undisclosed place in the Baxter Manor, a Lewisburg inn owned and run by her daughter and son-in-law, Camilla and Phelps Baxter, and designates Della as Lorraine's choice to be the heir of the object. (Lorraine's will, recently changed, will confirm this, though the lawyer won't read her name out loud when the will is officially read.) With Halloween approaching, the Baxter Manor --where the out-of-town contingent of Lorraine's family is staying, pending the reading of the will-- is sponsoring an upcoming "Spooks and Screams Weekend," to feature a candlelit ghost tour, a hayride, etc. Della proposes that she and her friend Macy sign up for this and book rooms in the inn for the weekend, under the guise of being a bit burnt out from their work and wanting a "girls weekend" to relax. That, she thinks, will give them a chance to secretly search for the treasure, and spy on family members who may be murder suspects. Readers who know Macy won't be surprised that she agrees. (She does have sense enough to contact her police detective friend and acquaint him with Della's suspicions.) This sets the stage for another typical Macy Hatfield outing, this one characterized by numerous red herrings, more than one mystery, faux supernatural elements, and some clean romance. Gilbert makes good use of actual Lewisburg area folklore, particularly the historical element of the "Greenbriar ghost," an instance where a claimed ghostly visitation actually provided verifiable courtroom evidence in an 1897 murder trial (https://www.wboy.com/only-on-wboy-com... ). Following the denouement, the concluding chapter brings us a couple of significant developments in the ongoing series story lines. Like the previous novels of the series, this was one Barb and I read together. In terms of style, plotting, texture, etc., this book has much in common with the preceding ones. However, I wasn't able to rate it quite as highly, because the initial premise struck me as implausible. Although she's a stronger fan of this particular series than I am, and more of a target audience for the "cozy" subgenre (of which this is a good example), Barb shared my criticisms on this point. While it heightens the mystery element for Della and Macy to be kept in the dark as to the identity and location of the mysterious treasure (which functions as a McGuffin here), there's no discernible reason for Lorraine to conceal this information. Her stated purpose was for Della to have the object; that purpose was threatened, not furthered, by not permitting her to have this information. Since the letter was given to Della, there was no danger of the kids getting it, and no more need to conceal the withheld information than to conceal the things she did reveal. (And surely a safety deposit box, with the key held by the bank or the lawyer, would be a more secure hiding place than placing the item in the home of two people who she was particularly anxious NOT to have find it?) Nonetheless, we enjoyed the tale for the diversion that it is, and plan to continue the series! ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 08, 2023
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Nov 09, 2023
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Aug 23, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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4.62
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not set
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Jun 12, 2025
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4.16
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not set
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Jan 17, 2025
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3.66
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liked it
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Jan 31, 2025
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Jan 02, 2025
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3.69
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not set
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Sep 11, 2024
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4.75
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it was amazing
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Sep 07, 2024
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Aug 23, 2024
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4.00
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Apr 08, 2025
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Jul 09, 2024
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4.67
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really liked it
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Oct 02, 2024
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Jul 05, 2024
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3.92
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not set
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May 31, 2024
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4.03
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not set
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May 31, 2024
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3.91
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not set
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May 31, 2024
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4.00
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liked it
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Mar 05, 2024
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Feb 07, 2024
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4.00
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really liked it
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Mar 12, 2024
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Feb 07, 2024
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3.91
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it was ok
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Oct 03, 2024
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Jan 30, 2024
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5.00
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it was amazing
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Feb 19, 2024
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Jan 29, 2024
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4.01
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really liked it
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Mar 22, 2024
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Dec 26, 2023
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3.48
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really liked it
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Apr 27, 2024
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Dec 20, 2023
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4.50
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really liked it
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Mar 20, 2025
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Dec 11, 2023
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3.67
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Nov 22, 2023
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Oct 24, 2023
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4.47
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liked it
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May 04, 2023
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Oct 10, 2023
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4.57
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liked it
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Nov 09, 2023
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Aug 23, 2023
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