Samuel Proulx

This book made me think about a lot of things. In the field of science fiction, religion is most often something to be scorned and laughed at, mostly through[return]heavy handed pokes at the Catholic church. While I'd agree that Christianity has a set of major problems, I think most readers and writers of science fiction[return]are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. That's what makes Calculating God so interesting: it takes a new and fresh look at creationism. Oh, basic[return]religious issues have been looked at before, but the treatments that I've seen have been confined to the classic Adam-and-Eve storyline, or to the tiny[return]genre of Christian science fiction. Yeah, there are books in this genre, and the fact that you've most likely never heard of them proves my point. calculating[return]God, however, isn't particularly Christian; the ending proves the fact beyond all doubt. It manages to make points about the existence of God, and our[return]societies views on the matter, without preaching one religion or another. This is not a book to be read for plot or characters. In fact, it's seriously[return]lacking on both those fronts. As with most of Soier's work, I think it would be happier as a popular nonfiction text. Still, the quality of the ideas was[return]heigh enough to make up for the lack in...well, everything else.

I really enjoyed the setting of this book; based loosely on reality, the surrounding environment and community is powerful and well shown. The characters[return]are interesting and believable, and the premise of the book works well. Unfortunately, the resolution is just a little far fetched and fantastic for my[return]taste. However, it's still worth the read. You'll enjoy every minute you spend getting there, just beware that at the end you may find you did not enjoy[return]where you got.

The first half of this book is just as good as anything Heinlein ever wrote. However, the second half leaves something to be desired. I mean, really leaves[return]something to be desired. While it isn't as confusing as the ending of to sail beyond the sunset, it makes up for this with the fact that it really sucks.[return]When you start coming across many characters you recognize from other books, it's time to stop reading. Make up your own ending if you must. You'll be[return]happier.

I don't think I've ever read a book with quite this many different genres mixed in. It's a fantasy detective zombie novel...with shotguns. Surprisingly it all somehow works.

Those who know me are surprised to find that I am, in fact, not a particularly big fan of the cyberpunk style vision of the future. That's probably why it took me so long to really get in to this book. However, I'm glad I stuck with it. The character development and plot turned out to be much better than I expected, based on the first part of the book. If you're a fan of this style of science fiction, I expect that you will probably enjoy this novel from the start. But even if you aren't, give this book a chance. You might be surprised.

I really enjoyed this book; it presented not only a picture of what it was like for the people on the ground, but also did a good job of giving a picture of the overall war, and putting all of the battles in context.

Someone dies. A huge number of characters spend a bunch of time discussing it. By the time anything else happens, nobody cares. The writing is just not good enough to make me feel attached to any of these people.

Paksenarrion is the typical strong warrier woman in this fantasy novel that tries really, really hard to be epoch. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite make[return]it. I'm not saying it's a bad book, and if you enjoy epoch fantasy you'd probably get a kick out of it. However, by the end of the book it starts to feel[return]like the same old fantasy stuff that we've read time and time again, accept instead of a strong masculin male character it's happening to a strong masculine[return]female character. It's got battles, magic, and a main character who can do no wrong. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you'll find this the stuff of legends.[return]For the rest of us, it's an ok read...but you've probably got better things to do.

This book didn't teach me anything I didn't already know. However, if you're new to the subject, this is a good overview that you should be able to finish in one or two sittings.

This book would have been much better with a better narrator.

Merged review:

This book would have been much better with a better narrator.

I don't struggle with this problem myself, and I don't really know anyone who does. I picked up this book mostly on a whim, hoping for a more compassionate understanding of Hoarders than one generally sees on reality TV. That is, for the most part, what I got. This book does a good job of telling the case stories it provides, making them real people, rather than objects of amusement.

This is another book in the Black Jack series. It won't stand alone, so unless you're already up to date on these books, don't bother. If you are keeping up with them, and enjoyed the last one, this one continues where it left off. The writing is as good as ever, and the characters are the same. I'm starting to feel kind of trapped in an endless saga, though. But that doesn't mean I can bring myself to stop reading. Be warned, once again, this book has no real ending. Just an opening for the next book.

This book is so dated as to be useless to the casual reader. While the cases it presents may still be interesting for those in the profession to analyze, people reading from a less professional perspective will find nothing of any worth. This book is so full of horrifying 1970's style racism (comparing “savages” to children and “retards” and “simpletons”, calling cases retardeds, simpletons, idiots, and worse, etc) that while some of the information may still be valid today, I cannot take a single word of it seriously. If the author took the time to read and write a forward for the audio edition, why on earth didn't he take the time to go through the text, and at least update some of the worst blunders? Yes, I realize time and language have changed. But that's no reason to perpetuate historical mistakes in what is sold as a popular psych book, especially not when the author is alive and well and could update the text.

This book is one of the darker discworld novels. However, it does serve as a brilliant twist on the girl-as-boy standard plot, poking fun at societies and[return]the plot device itself. That's all I can say about that and still honestly keep this review no spoilers. The discworld series is one of those that is improving[return]with age. If you haven't yet read this book, even if you've never read any discworld book before, I think you'll enjoy it.

It's another DW book; what more could anyone ask? Not quite as funny as some of the others, but still worth reading if the disc is something you enjoy.

This book tries a little bit too hard, in my opinion. When it's funny, it can be laugh out loud funny. But unfortunately, it usually isn't all that funny. What it is, mostly, is strange and slightly unbelievable. But if the subjects of music and copyright interest you, give it a read anyway. It won't change your life, but you'll at least have an enjoyable time with it.

A brief history of the United States, that served as a good review of things everyone should know, American or not. It also contains many interesting facts that I didn't already know.

I wish Goodreads let us give books half-stars; 3 stars feels like not enough, and 4 stars feels like way too many. So pretend that I gave this book 3.5 stars.

In short: the start of this book is 4 out of 5, the middle bits are 5 out of 5, and the end is about 3 out of 5.

I'll start with the good things. Once you get used to her, Jenny Lawson is extremely funny. The start of the book kind of feels like she's trying too hard, but as you keep reading, you start to realize it isn't the case; I'm pretty sure that's just who she is in real life.

Surprisingly, Jenny is at her best when writing about more serious issues like friendship, sickness, and the babies she lost. She manages to handle these issues in her trademark style, without getting extraordinarily depressing, or being particularly offensive.

If you read this book in print, I kind of pity you. The audio edition is entirely worth the price. Although I must admit that I purchased my copy from audible for $5. But those of you reading the print book, instead of listening to it as Delivered by the author herself, missed a lot. First of all, Jenny feels the need to sing every chapter heading, for some strange reason that I really don't understand. This does add something to the book, although I'm not sure quite what. Second, she's an entirely natural sounding reader, giving the audiobook a conversational feel that I suspect would be missing from letters on a page. Third, some of the included sound effects were just so silly that they made me laugh in and of themselves. Fourth, the five or so minutes of bonus outtakes at the end were worth it, if only to convince me that Jenny Lawson really is who the book makes her out to be. But I'm glad they were saved for the end, because if I had tried to play that drinking game, I would be dead. The only criticisms I have of the audio are that the narration sounds really unnatural when she's trying to read her footnotes, and that her voice sounds a bit like she's 13. Hearing someone who sounds 13 say the word Vagina that many times is just a little disconcerting at first. Even though it's been 2 days since I finished the book, I've heard the word Vagina so often that it still sounds like nonsense.

Okay, now I'm going to move on to the stuff that I didn't like. First off, keep in mind that I don't suffer from any kind of anxiety disorder, and don't have a lot of experience with it. Also, I don't have a vagina. I suspect that makes my reaction quite different from those who are coping with anxiety, or do have a vagina. The best way I can articulate the problem is that I felt like I was laughing at the author, not with her. Especially in the chapter when she was discussing anxiety disorder directly, I would find myself belly-laughing. Then I would stop, realize this is a serious problem, and wonder if I should really be laughing at it. But the writing is so funny that it sets you up to laugh, even if you suspect that you shouldn't. I ran into that discomfort repeatedly throughout the book, realizing that I was laughing at something serious (poor parenting, female issues, etc) that I had no experience with, and wondering if that made me an insensitive person. If you're a female with anxiety disorder, I doubt you'll have this reaction at all, though you could be totally offended.

My second problem with the book is that it seems to drag on far too long. By about the three quarter mark, I was getting ready for the end, but it never seemed to come! Some of the visits home could have been cut, or shortened, without really taking anything away from the book. They just felt like the same humour, repeated with only slightly different events. Once again though, this could have had something to do with how I read the book. Me and my girlfriend sat down to listen to the audiobook in two marathon sittings, and by half way through the second one, we were both thinking about what book we wanted to read together next. I suspect that if I had read each chapter in the context of a blog, at one chapter per day, I might not have had this problem. It might just be a case of Lawson overload. If you have the time and ability, I recommend pacing yourself, and reading only 1 or 2 chapters per day. I suspect it'll be funnier that way.

I'm not really a fan of Wil Wheaton, but I am a fan of John Scalzi, Little Fuzzy, and H. Beam Piper. If you're not a fan of at least one of those things, give this one a pass. If you are, you've probably read this book already.

This isn't normally the kind of thing I'd bother reading. But the fact that it's read by the author makes it totally worth it! Yes, she does as good a job as you would expect.

When I initially purchased this audiobook, I didn't realize it used multiple readers for the various characters. For the most part, with one notable exception, they all did an excellent job, and the different voices added a lot to the reading.

I decided to read this book after having watched the movie. While their are a lot of things in the book that were skipped over for the movie, I don't find that makes the book better. The book and movie each stand alone, and serve different purposes. The movie does a better job at telling a tightly plotted story with a point. However, the book does a better job at painting a true, full picture of the characters and setting. But for the most part, if you enjoyed the movie, you'll like the book just as well, for different reasons. If you enjoyed the book, give the movie a try; it doesn't mangle the basic story at all.

This was one of my least favourite books in the series. However, the series is so good that I still enjoyed it.

At first, I thought that this book would appeal mostly to language geeks, the kind of people who speak 11 languages, and are working on number 12. Fortunately, I decided to give it a chance, even though I'm not at all that sort of person. The appeal of this book is much, much wider than just polyglots and linguists. If you're interested in nonsense in the style of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear, you should read this book. If you're interested in wordplay, you should read this book. If you're interested in the inner workings of interactive fiction, text adventure, and mud parsers, you should read this book. If you're a wannabe writer or speaker, you should read this book. If, like me, you're interested in all of the above, you'll probably be reading this book a second time at some point in the future.

This book is packed with interesting and useful information. Unfortunately, the Arrogance and unnecessarily confrontational style of the author really get in the way. Perhaps he has spent too much time in online debates on this subject; read as a collection of forum posts in an online discussion, it would be fine. As an informative nonfiction book, however, this style of writing is much less to my taste.

Australian funny science fiction that tries just slightly too hard. Instead of coming off funny, it at times manages only silly. However, when it does get funny, it is extremely funny.