Review: The Comic Book Story of Video Games: The Incredible History of the Electronic Gaming Revolution

 So, let's start off saying that my husband and my older son are both pretty big video game junkies, so this review sort of takes into account their perspective as well, perspective from the experts in my household, haha.

This book covers the basic overview of the history of how we got from Pong to crazy highly detailed graphics and controls with so many buttons I have no idea how to even begin to play Destiny or Overwatch. (Halp.) With anything comic or graphic-based, the artwork is an important consideration when reading.  This book reminds me of some old-school, retro style comic illustrations, which is apt for a book that showcases the history of something. Both my husband and son agreed.

This would make a good gift more so for the older video game (and often, at least in our house, also comic book) enthusiast in your life. There are some jokes and references my son sort of got, sort of not. He's 10, so that's understandable. If you yourself find the evolution and stories behind the creation of this mega industry appealing, this is a great way to get a good overview of how it happened, a fun and easy read that actually gives you some knowledge about a subject.

Fun fact, this author has some other graphic novels/comic form 'history of' books-- like the history of beer. Yum. Beer. ;-D

If you really want to get in-depth about it, there are some really detailed books out there about the subject, and about different aspects of the subject (relevance in pop culture, specific companies, etc.) like Console Wars, etc.



*This book was received for free from Blogging for Books for an unbiased review.

'The Heirs' Review by Susan Rieger

The Heirs is a book that I was lucky to read at the right time, in the right mood. It's one of those books.

It's a complex novel of family, wealth, what holds people together and what drives them apart. It's relatable in that emotional way for the everyday Joe who doesn't have millions (i.e. me), and at the same time it's so far removed from most people's lives that you can't help but feel better at the fuckedupedness of the Falkes clan.

A family of five boys whose father dies leaves behind and exposes secrets that totally shake up their world. And, while this isn't a Wes Anderson movie (I know, right?), and this concept of elite families and their hidden crazy seems to run amok in many books these days, this one was just plain fun, and eloquently written.

If you feel like escaping the mundaneness of your little life and enter the somehow still dramatic mundaneness of the New York Elite, give this one a shot.  Love, death, sex, family, and the all important dollar bill are universal themes, after all.





*This book was received for free from Blogging for Books for review.

Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer The Competition By Challenging Everything - Book Review

Red Teaming by Bryce Hoffman provides a unique look into the concept of Red Teaming - basically playing Devil's Adversary in a systematic, critical way that allows intelligence and military agencies to test our their strategies in increase chances of success.

We are full of bias, groupthink, and our culture often encourages you to 'go with the flow' instead of challenging the process. This can be disastrous for a business organization, and, in the case of the military, often deadly.

Red Teaming as a concept without the name has existed for a long time, but the origins of this as a particular methodology here in the US lie in failed missions and bad planning after 9/11.  Bryce Hoffman, the author of this book, was able to attend the selective military training for Red Team groups, (which is a fun introduction and first part of this book) and in turn has taken these seemingly combat-type tactics and applied them to business acumen.

I am a total nerd about anything that helps me to become a more strategic, more creative and more engaged thinker, and this book hit the nail on the head.  Well fleshed out, easy to follow and builds upon itself as you progress through the chapters (psychology, how to start, various techniques, etc.), Red Teaming is an important business book that can immediately be put into practice and will stand the test of time - these lessons aren't bound by an era.

If you have any interest AT ALL in about challenging the status quo, driving your business forward, or becoming better at your job - you should definitely read this book.


*Note: This book was provided for review for free for honest, unbiased review by BloggingForBooks.com .

Boss Bitch by Nicole Lapin: A Review

Boss Bitch by Nicole Lapin is billed as a '12-step plan to take charge of your career.' I'm a fan of anything with 'Bitch' in the title automatically, and, based upon the blurb, it seemed up my alley - a funny, feisty, strong woman who doesn't take any shit and provides some guidance to other women who are getting started on their career path. As much as I wanted to LOVE this.. I only liked it. It's an easy read, and the advice she provides (especially regarding branding yourself and running a business) is solid. She's got skills, and the confidence to share her expertise and her failures, which is awesome.

However.. at this point in my career, it's all sort of.. common sense at this point. She's definitely writing for a younger (than my grey haired, 34 year old self) audience. Which is totally fine, but it feels a bit patronizing for me. I'm all about cheese and ridiculous memes and saying silly things (Everyone I work with is younger than me. Really. Everyone.) and talking about Bey and 'spro bros', buuuut... It's amusing on a t-shirt and fine coming out of your mouth every now and then, but I don't particularly have the desire to read it. Kind of also ruins the longevity of a book?

Am I right? Disagree? Well - cash me outside howbow dah? :-D

Ha, go ahead and give it a go if you are in your early 20s and looking for some confidence and career guidance, but maybe leave it behind if you are old af like me.

*Note: This book was received for free for a review from Blogging For Books.

Review: Girl and Flame: A Novella by Melissa Reddish

 What a beautiful little book! I loved this. Almost poetry. Sweet, strange and full of feeling.

















*Note: This book was received for free from LibraryThing.

Review: 'Unfair' by Adam Benforado

At a time like this, a book like 'Unfair' by Adam Benforado seems more and more relevant.  I started reading this awhile ago, but had to put it down because it was hard to get through (after elections, not even going to lie)

Regardless, it's an important book to read. Our justice system is broken, and we are all guilty until proven innocence.

Simple cognitive forces are directing our perception of guilt and innocence, and the first step in correcting these issues is understanding them. This book achieves what it sets out to do.

Understanding that intuition drives so much of what should be looked at in a neutral light, no matter how unbiased we strive to be, can be a hard fact to swallow, but it's very true.

While I, personally, believe there are other, underlying issues beyond this that have had a deep and lasting negative impact on our criminal justice system, this is an important and engaging read that will make you think about your reactions and look at well-known historical and current court cases in a new light.

*Note: This book was received for free from bloggingforbooks.com for review. 

Review: Slow Fires by Justin Smillie

Well, I am the worst. It's been a hellacious year of ups and downs. But that's a whole other blog post. This one.. is about: Slow Fires: Mastering New Ways to Braise, Roast, and Grill.

This one, again, was chosen for the Chef Hubs, because I am nice like that. From both our perspectives, it's quite beautiful, like most cookbooks, but it's more than pretty pictures.

The layout is clean, separating Braising, Roasting, Grilling into their own specific sections, ending with Foundations and Finishes. Each section starts with preparation and technique, giving you the fundamentals before diving into the recipes.

That being said, this isn't really the easiest cookbook for the layman. (Read: me). However, Chef liked it just enough. It highlights more unique flavor pairing, ingredients, and concepts while keeping the foundation in place, because a good roast chicken is a good roast chicken.

This presents some really fun ideas beyond the backyard BBQ bash where dad wears a 'Kiss The Cook' apron and overcooks the steaks. 

If you've got some time, and are willing to dive in and give yourself a challenge, especially if you are a home cook, this is a delicious way to try.

Note: This book was received for free from Blogging for Books.

The Gap of Time: A Review: By Jeanette Winterson

This book is a beautiful re-telling of 'The Winter's Tale.' Jeanette Winterson's beautiful voice and style shine through. I adore most of her books, so I was excited to receive this.

It's raw, highly emotional, highly sexually charged. It's choppy and disjointed, full of small beautiful things, bits and pieces of words that phrases that stick out in your mind. I haven't had a lot of time to read these days, but this was a great book to read during my limited free moments. The cyclical nature of our existence, the ebb and flow of time, love and passion and desire and anger. It’s all so human and so removed from reality. It’s really, quite beautiful and brings out all the feels.

I enjoyed the 'primer' in the beginning, giving you a little bit of feedback if you happen to not be familiar with the classic Shakespeare tale. I'm interested to see where the Hogarth Shakespeare series goes, because this is a helluva start.

To the boy with the knives at 2 AM, smoking a cigarette by the arborvitae and dreaming big dreams.

It takes a helluva lot of inner fortitude to stay driven and motivated to succeed when the person who unequivocally is supposed to have your back thinks what you are doing is a waste of time.
I allow myself one night of feeling sorry and sad.
Now, I push back harder, work harder, do more.
I will not allow grasping at straws to stop me, simply because what I am passionate about, what I have chosen, doesn't fit his schema.
This world we build together must make us both happy andh satisfied.
No, I don't think you or they are roadblocks.
Yes, I think we, both, can have it all.
But you don't get to dictate what that means for me, simply because you don't understand it.
I never took you for such a misogynist.
I never thought I'd feel so lost and saddened by your silly, stupid words.
I hope you see the bigger picture, and not the short term.
You cannot stop me from growing, learning, giving myself some strength and attention towards my goals, when all I ever did was support yours, no matter my frustrations or feelings.
I kept silent, and made it work.
Now, maybe you can do the same.

Olympia Provisions: Cured Meats and Tales from an American Charcuterie: A Review

Well, since work has been kicking my butt, I put Chef down for reviewing this one. I did a quick run-through, but he explored it in depth.

Here's what he relayed to me:
Confits, charcuterie, pâtés, and sausages are some of his favorite things, right up there with raindrops on roses or whatever. As a chef in a mostly bar-centric restaurant, he doesn't often get to practice these arts, but sneaks them in whenever he can. So when I saw this one, I knew it was right up his alley.

From a professional perspective, he says that the book is very thorough, and the recipes are detailed enough to provide the layman some direction on processes. He would be hesitant to have anyone who doesn't have some background try their hand at cured meats all by their lonesome, mainly because what this book is describing requires a HAACP plan in an actual restaurant setting, to prevent illness, etc.

He says the book is a good history and vibe of the restaurant itself, makes it intriguing, calls to you to come and visit or seek out their products. The images in the book, which are just foodie eye-candy, capture the essence of the food and the place. Totally worth the space they take up (in my opinion-I don't cook, haha), but chef says the book would be a whole lot smaller w/o them. He can take them or leave them, but totally understands their value as images and making the book complete. He's after the technical stuff, and has done enough sasuage making that the images are needed for him to get the directions.

However, they are gorgeous.

From both of us, this book is well worth the purchase price, for the content and for just as a beautiful piece of art to share at dinner time with friends, even if you end up buying their meats instead of making them yourself. We need more places like this in America, and we need to make this food accessible to everyone, because it's amazing and unappreciated in the vastness of MickyD's and Taco Bell, in quick pre-frozen food wastelands of the midwest and giant doggie bags of crap.

We need to enjoy our food, really enjoy it. This is a start.

*this book was received for free via Blogging For Books.

Gold, Fame, Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins - A Review

Gold, Fame, Citrus is the apocalypse, imagined in a an eerily real way these days. Drought overtakes Southern CA (sound familiar), but to the point of barren wasteland, scavenging for anything fresh, water rations and abandonment. Most have left for greener pastures, but Luz and her boyfriend Ray hold out, their love enough to deal with the crazy.

Then, they find a little girl. Dirty, scruffy, indeterminable and irresistible, they take her from those whom have her. Ig, she is called, because that’s who she says she is.  A child, even if it’s not yours, makes your mind look towards the future, and they realize they need to leave.

On the way through, things happen. Bad things. Ray is gone and Luz is left with Ig, rescued by other hold outs, in an even more barren, more wasted wasteland were sand dunes constantly shift and grow, threatening to bury everyone at any moment. But there is a leader there, and he seems to have the answers.

This book is written like poetry, short, quip phrases and allusions, metaphors and fragmented thoughts that shift like the desert and sand in this story. It’s not for everyone, but for those people who can look deeper into the text, enjoy flawed characters and gritty wonder. It’s fantastical and realistic, all at once, and the ended leaves you lost and aching. 

Books should end like that sometimes.

(*this book was received for free as an ARC via Shelf Awareness)

Without You, There Is No Us by Suki Kim - A Review

Without You, There Is No Us offers a glimpse at the most secretive state in the world, North Korea. This is a very real, very powerful look at the sons of the elite in the DPNK, and author Suki Kim manages to give a human face to the faceless mass that is North Korean, sharing the underlying connections between all of us as human, and exploring the very real differences when you live in a place that refuses to let you think for yourself.

I read this book in a night, caught up in the same fascination that led Suki to seek out a way back to Pyongyang after her initial visit in 2002. Disguising herself as a missionary/teacher of English, she manages to land a position at PUST, The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. This is her story of her two semesters teaching there.

My husband lived in South Korea, and I’ve always been fascinated by his description of his time there, and his trips to the DMZ. His father was in the military and the strangeness and sadness of a country quite literally divided has always gripped me, made me think about what we have here, and the simplest things, smallest freedoms, we experience every day and think nothing of.

Kim gives a honest, earnest look at the students she falls in love with, their trials and struggles and the incredible contradiction she sees because of where they were raised and the limits they face. She gives an honest look at the missionary/teachers as well, and the reasons they are really there.

What struck me was the irony of the missionaries, the desire to free these poor oppressed students under the rule and brainwashing of a dictator by planting themselves in North Korea so they can provide another set of dogma for them to eventually live by. Kim, an atheist, realizes this strangeness too. But money talks, and PUST is what it is because of it.

Kim leaves with a little hope, maybe something she said, something she did, in some way reaches her students. But she leaves, of course. 

Read this, and learn a little more about some place we can never really know about, at least not yet. But maybe reading this will offer some humanity and perspective on all we have.

*this book was received for free via Blogging For Books.