Minor Thoughts from me to you

Charlie Wilson's War
by George Crile

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 27 February 2014 – 12 March 2014
Goal: Non-Fiction

This is a well-written book about a sequence of events that strains credulity. If I'd seen a movie or TV show that featured the events of this book as plot points, I'd attack the effort as contrived and unrealistic. Yet it apparently all happened. It's enough to further shake my already shaken faith in democracy.

Crile goes through great effort to portray Charlie Wilson as a lone wolf, pulling the strings of power to achieve his singular aim. That makes the book more interesting but I think it obscures the fact that a great many other people were involved in this conflict and very much wanted it to succeed. Charlie took a pre-existing conflict, already tepidly supported by the Congress and the White House, and pursued it with more creativity and vigor than anyone else could seemingly muster. He pushed his Congressional authority to the limits and beyond. In that sense, it was very much "Charlie Wilson's War". But he didn't single-handedly start or run the war.

The CIA was already involved in Afghanistan when he discovered the plight of the mujahideen. It's true that he sought extra funding for the effort and forced the CIA to step up its efforts. That extra funding, however, was voted on by the entire Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, the entire Appropriations Committee, and the entire Congress. Charlie was a likable Congressman with many friends and he was owed many legislative favors. But "his" war never would have happened if the other members of his committee, the Congress, or the White House had seriously opposed what he was doing. I think that the book errs by giving too much credit to Congressman Wilson and downplaying the support he had from others. It was otherwise engaging, horrifying, and educational.

Many people credit the downfall of the Soviet Union to its loss in Afghanistan. Many people also blame 9/11 and the rise in Islamic terrorism on America's training and equipping of the mujahideen. I'm prepared to believe that both are true. After reading this book, I'm left with many more questions than answers. Was the rise of terrorism inevitable and a necessary component of defeating the Soviet Union? Could we have prevented 9/11 by using more discretion about which tribal leaders to back? Was Charlie right or foolhardy to push for the escalation of America's involvement in Afghanistan?

Charlie Wilson's War illustrates the folly of believing that we can predict the effects of America's foreign policy moves. What seems right today may seem disastrous tomorrow. A certain humility would seem to be in order. You can read the book as a celebration of the American can-do spirit. I read it as a statement that we would be wise to pursue a foreign policy of non-intervention.

Slanted Jack
by Mark L. Van Name

My rating: ★★★☆☆
Read From: 25 February 2014 – 27 February 2014
Goal: Series

It's been about 2 years since I read One Jump Ahead, the book that introduces Jon Moore and his ship, Lobo. I liked that story because of the technology it introduced, especially Jon's ability to control the nanotech embedded in his body. Also, you just have to like a planet named “Pinkelplonker” (named by the 5-year old son of the captain that discovered the planet).

For the past two years, I've been thinking about reading more in the series. I've just never done it. I decided to do it this year, as part of my reading goals. Unfortunately, once I did read it, I was disappointed in this book.

The plot revolved around a boy that multiple people wanted, a possible survivor from Pinkelplonker. He was protected by Slanted Jack (a con-man so named because nothing he did was ever straight and on the level). Jon was brought in as Jack's one-man security force. Of course, things went south and Jon ended up trying to double-cross three different groups simultaneously.

Throughout the book, Jon spent a lot of time being despondent about his job, his past history, and his future prospects. The mood was rather bleak throughout. Either I don't remember the first book as well as I thought I did or the tone shifted substantially. My favorite part of the first book was the way Jon used his nanotech. In this book, he barely used the nanotech at all. Between the gloomy atmosphere and the absence of the most interesting tech, I didn't see a lot to really enjoy.

I'm hoping that the next book in the series is a little bit better. If not, I may not finish it.

Crystal Soldier & Crystal Dragon
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

My rating: ★★★☆☆
Read From: 21 February 2014 – 24 February 2014
Goal: Series

I read these two books back to back and they easily combine to form one large story. I'll review them together. These books (the "Migration Duology") form an origin story to the entire Liaden Universe. They literally explain how the universe came into being.

The story starts in the misty depths of history when a group of humans began genetically modifying themselves. They continually modified themselves until they no longer remotely resembled humanity or considered themselves human. These "Sheriekas" then decided to cleanse the universe of every less perfect being, destroying entire star systems as they went.

Humanity fought back, though generally not very successfully. The novels focus on two characters: M Jela Granthor's Guard and Cantra Yos Phelium. They become reluctant partners and eventual lovers. Together with a sentient, telepathic Tree (possibly the best part of the story) and the dramliza (escaped creations of the Sheriekas), they fight a desperate rear guard action. They eventually succeed in creating an entirely new universe for humanity to escape to, one where the Sheriekas can't reach them.

These books were okay but I didn't feel like they really fit in with the rest of the Liaden Universe novels. I had a hard time caring about a war that occurred thousands of years before the rest of the series—and that was fought in a completely separate universe.

I kept thinking "so what?" and wondering what impact all of this really had on the rest of the series. (It seemed like a tale that would be an interesting origin myth for Clan Korval but not something that would affect ongoing events in the new universe.) Additionally, the plot events and relationships reminded me a lot of events and characters in both Conflict of Honors and Agent of Change.

The novels were fun but seemed both somewhat pointless and somewhat of a retread of earlier novels. I think they're good to read if you're really interested in the origin of some of the recurring themes of the series. I wouldn't start reading the series with these novels though.

Showdown at Gucci Gulch
by Jeffrey Birnbaum & Alan Murray

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 12 February 2014 – 21 February 2014
Goal: Non-Fiction

Birnbaum and Murray — two Wall Street Journal reporters — wrote this book just after Congress passed the 1986 Tax Reform Act. The Washington Post's political reporter said it "reads like a thriller, which it is, with a remarkable cast of characters and a payoff in billions". I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but it was interesting and informative.

Birnbaum and Murray narrate the history of the tax reform effort, starting with Senator Bill Bradley's initial doomed efforts. From there, we move to Reagan's desire to dramatically lower tax rates and (House Ways and Means Committee) Chairman Rostenkowski's desire to eliminate hundreds of tax loopholes. No one else really wanted tax reform.

How did we get tax reform? The authors walk us through it one roadblock at a time. Treasury Secretary Don Regan wanted the credit for pushing forward one of Reagan's major goals. Chief of Staff Jim Baker wanted to loyally carry out the President's requests. Chairman Packwood (of the Senate Finance Committee) wanted to win re-election and wanted to avoid being seen as an enemy of tax reform. The tax reform effort almost died three or four times during its three year incubation. Although it was the bill that no one wanted, it was also the bill that no one wanted to publicly oppose.

I learned a lot while reading this book. I was surprised by how uninvolved President Reagan was in the details of the bill. I was surprised by how many Republicans wanted to bury the bill and how many Democrats supported it. I reconfirmed my own lack of faith in government as I saw just how many "special interests" (and Congressman and Senators) fought for the survival of their own specific tax breaks (loopholes) in defiance of the common good.

This would make a great book for any high school civics class. Students would learn far more about how our government works (or doesn't) from this one book than they would from any number of Schoolhouse Rock videos. You might be surprised at how few people are involved in writing large, complex bills. You might be surprised at how much power the White House staff exercises independent of the President himself.

This book was interesting enough to be engaging and educational enough to be a valuable resource on the way American government really works.

The Reagan Diaries
by Ronald Reagan

My rating: ★★☆☆☆
Read From: 5 August 2013 – (unfinished)
Goal: Non-Fiction

It's time to throw in the towel on this one. It's been on my "currently reading" shelf for 7 months now. It's time to move it to the "started-not-finished" shelf.

I bought this book last February, when Amazon had it on sale for just $1.99. I'd heard other conservatives reference it, as a good insight into the Reagan years and the problems President Reagan dealt with. I'd hoped it would be both entertaining and informative. It wasn't.

At the outset, I thought the diaries were bland and mechanical but I kept pressing through. I had a moment of optimism when I read the January 18 1983 entry. Reagan said: "I think I've been doing wrong in these diaries for 3 yrs. I've made them a logbook of the days schedule & those schedules are all in the archives. I guess I should be noting other things so I'll start now." The entries got a little bit better but they still weren't what I was looking for.

Mostly, I found the entries to be short on real detail and repetitive. I was looking for vivid pictures of the various world leaders and important figures that Reagan interacted with. What I got were generalities ("We got along well and I think he'll be a true friend"). Most of the entries seemed to fit into one of several templates. For instance, while visiting a foreign nation he'd often write: "We drove the streets and the people lined the side for miles each way. We were told it was the most enthusiastic reception any American had ever been given." On domestic politics, he'd frequently write: "Meet with House R's. They're for us but powerless against the D's". Or: "Met with Senate R's. Sometimes I think they're more against us than the D's are". Or: "Gave a speech. Calls have been coming in 10-1 in our favor".

I learned some things while reading the book. It was especially interesting to see early mentions of people like Donald Rumsfeld, who would later have much more prominent roles in other administrations. But in the end, it felt like I was wading through a lot of uninteresting, repetitious entries to get to those nuggets. I hardly ever picked it up and read it. I finally decided that I should admit defeat and concentrate on something else.

Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September 2013
by Sheila Williams

My rating: ★★★★★
Read From: 1 February 2014 – 7 February 2014
Goal: Flotsam and Jetsam

When I've reviewed magazine issues in the past, I've always attempted to review every single story in the issue. That's a noble goal but it's also a little overwhelming and off putting. For this issue, I decided to do something different. I decided to just review the stories I liked and to ignore the rest. And, wouldn't you know it, this turned out to be the issue that I really liked almost everything.

Novelettes

The Unparallel'd Death-Defying Feats of Astoundio, Escape Artist Extraordinaire by Ian Creasey—For my next trick, I'll fall into the event horizon of a black hole and then escape back out again. And, it's obvious (of course!) when you know the trick. That's one thing. But escaping from utopia? That's another matter altogether.

A Hole in the Ether by Benjamin Crowell—Living in a world where intellectual property law has metastasized and is now the only thing that matters, a small family preserves the last free library left on earth. I don't understand why various cities and populations were getting destroyed throughout the story, but that's a minor nit about a minor point in the story. The main point, the struggle to preserve art from commercialism, was very good.

Short Stories

What We Ourselves Are Not by Leah Cypess—What if you could have cultural memories and knowledge implanted via chip? What would that do to your relationships and the whole structure of society? In this story, a seventeen year old boy faces exactly that choice as he struggles to figure out who he is, where he came from, and where he's going in a multicultural society that highly values heritage.

This is one of the best and most thought provoking stories I've read in a long time. I found myself agreeing with points on both sides of the argument (to implant or not to implant) and I still don't know which way I'd go if I had to make the decision.

As Yet Untitled by James Sallis—The central character in this story is, in fact, an actor. Not a movie actor but a book actor. Someone who appears in different books as different characters, according to the whim of the author. He faces a tough transition as he's forced to move on from his longtime genre and tackle the Western.

Non-Fiction

On Not Dying of the Light by Sheila Williams—This is a familiar feeling old school science fiction magazine editorial. Ms. Williams puts forth a call to arms: we must build a defense against incoming asteroids. It would be stupid to be able to fully comprehend what an asteroid did to the dinosaurs but still die anyway because we were too complacent to take the danger seriously. We must not die quietly of the light.

Translations by Robert Silverberg—This is an essay about it means to create science fiction. Science fiction isn't just "calling a rabbit a smeerp". Silverberg reflects on his introduction to collaborative novel Nightfall, where he made exactly that point:

The essence of this story doesn't lie in the quantity of bizarre terms we might have invented; it lies, rather, in the reaction of a group of people somewhat like ourselves, living on a world that is somewhat like ours in all but one highly significant detail, as they react to a challenging situation that is completely different from anything the people of Earth have ever had to deal with…".

Note that phrase, a world that is somewhat like ours in all but one highly significant detail. A science fiction story needs to have some underlying speculative concept, or isn't science-fiction no matter how many smeerps and greeznaks it has.

That's exactly what I look for in science fiction. (And, now that I've been reminded of it, I may have formulated my preferences based on my own reading of Nightfall, many years ago.) I love fun space stories. But what I really like is a story that can change something about our world and, in so doing, reveal things I'd never noticed before. A good SF story will move the camera a few degrees off center, giving us a totally different perspective on the familiar, revealing the commonplace to be anything but.

My Take

This is one of the best issues of Asimov's I've read yet. It makes me glad to be a subscriber and to stay one.

Side Jobs
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 29 January 2014 – 5 February 2014
Goal: Series

I've now completed my goal of reading the entire Dresden Files series (everything except the graphic novels). This is not a novel, like the other books in the series. Rather, it's all of the Dresden short stories that Jim Butcher has written.

Each story is told in the familiar first-person narrative. However, they're not the end-of-the-world apocalypses that the novels tend to be. Rather, they're the small cases that you always thought "Chicago's only professional Wizard" would have. Most of the stories have an element of simplicity and fun that can be lost in the larger events of the novels.

There's one of Harry's first cases, when he was still an apprentice P.I. There's the time he saved a bride from a vengeful faerie, the time he had a run-in with one of Grendel's descendants, or the unfortunate vampire-LARP-turned-deadly that ensued when he tried to give his brother, Thomas, a birthday gift. There's even a story told from Thomas's point of view and one from Murphy's point of view.

This wasn't a page turner the way the full-length novels have been. But it was still fun and it did make Harry more well-rounded in a way that the novels don't.

The Emperor's Soul
by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 27 January 2014 – 28 January 2014
Goal: Flotsam & Jetsam

I'm feeling lazy tonight, so I'll borrow the Goodreads plot summary.

Shai is given an impossible task: to create—to Forge—a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai's only possible ally is the emperor's most loyal councillor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent.

As I've grown to expect, Brandon Sanderson delivers the goods. The magic system in this novella, Forging, is innovative. Forger's can transform raw materials or existing objects into something else. But they have to know the history and character of the object first. If they don't get the soul of the object right, their Forgeries won't last. A good Forger has to have a very close, very intimate knowledge of that which they would Forge. And that's the soul of this novella: in order to Forge a new soul for the emperor, Shai will have to learn more about him than anyone else knows, even his closest friends. That developing relationship — between Shai and a brain dead ruler — is what drives this story.

This story won a Hugo award last year. I can see why. The magic system is interesting. As is usual in Brandon's stories, the limitations of the magic system are more interesting than the magic system itself. But the magic takes a back seat to the relationships and that's what makes this story good.

Cold Days
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 23 January 2014 – 25 January 2014

Harry Dresden discovers that being Queen Mab's Winter Knight is weirder and more confusing than he'd already expected it to be. He also has to fight a continual battle against Winter's gravitational pull towards evil. Not only that, but he's closer than ever to Mab and learning that she has her reasons for what she does and that he sometimes even agrees with her.

Cold Days completes the story arc that began in Changes. Dresden has now completely left behind his old life of Chicago's only professional wizard. He's walking in far more powerful circles, whether he likes it or not. He's assumed broad new responsibilities and he's learned more about the true dangers in the world than he ever wanted to know. At heart, he still wants to protect the ones he loves and use his strength for good. But the line between good and evil, between good motives and evil outcomes, is very blurry.

In some ways, this novel completes a story arc — a character arc — that started with the very first novel in the series. Harry gradually realized that his cases concealed much deeper machinations. He gradually learned more about the forces that were manipulating the events that he kept getting caught up in. This novel is the first time that he really starts to see the big picture and figure out who his real, ultimate, enemies are.

I'm looking forward to reading Skin Game, to see where things go next. I only wish I didn't have to wait until May to find out.

My wife and I recently became fans of Dominion. We like how every Dominion game can be different — different strategies, different pace, different level of aggression — based on which cards you choose to play with. There are 205 total released Kingdom cards. Each game only requires 10 Kingdom cards, so there are over 28 quadrillion potential games that we could play.

Some of those combinations will be lots of fun and worth repeating. Others will involve cards that don't go well together and don't lead to enjoyable games. I decided that it would be nice to find an app that could help me pick good game combinations and help me remember which ones I like the most. After searching through the App Store, I found three to try: Dominion Deck Builder, Dominion Vault, and Adept. I downloaded all three, to compare and find out which one would work best for me.

Adept

Pros

I was initially disposed to like Adept. The layout is simple, elegant, and very readable. I like the clear icons, on the left of each row, to show which expansion the Kingdom card is in. I like the coin, on the right of each row, to show how much each card costs. And I like the color coding, to indicate which type of card it is (Victory, Treasure, etc).

My favorite feature is the Setup display. It shows how many Victory, Treasure, Curse, etc cards you need to go with your chosen Kingdom cards. Additionally, it shows the correct quantity of cards for a 2 player game up through a 6 player game. This is a really nice feature, to make it easy to not only pick Kingdom cards but to quickly know how else you need to set up your chosen game.

Cons

Visually, this is my favorite app out of the three, but it has a fatal flaw. The app will show you which card to put in your game, but it doesn't show any information about what the card is or what game features it enables or disables. Unless you have all of the cards memorized (and I don't), you'll feel like you're picking blindly. That lack of information makes this app a no-go for me.

Dominion Deck Builder

Pros

Based solely on app descriptions, this would be my favorite app — it's the only one to have both an iPhone and an iPad version. The interface is gorgeous, with plenty of high quality artwork taken directly from Dominion. You start by scrolling through a list of expansions and choosing which ones to use to generate your Kingdom.

Once you've generated a Kingdom, you can scroll through the chosen cards and see each one represented as a high quality image, along with which expansion it's found in. At the bottom, you can see the required setup for this game, complete with whatever token pieces, trade route pad, treasure cards, etc are needed. The information is very useful and the graphics make it absolutely clear what you're looking for.

Finally, you can view close ups of each card, to review how it works. If you tap on the card, you get a text description of the card and all of the minutia about how it can and can't be used. Tapping on the text takes you back to the card view. The "Done" button will return you to the list of all cards and the "Change" button will immediately swap the card for another randomly chosen card.

Cons

Dominion Deck Builder does have two drawbacks. It has limited support for configuring how your Kingdoms are randomly generated. You can choose which expansions to draw from. You can choose to always add Reaction cards if the Kingdom includes Attack card. You can choose certain card types to exclude all together. Finally, you can choose to track cards so that cards that have been chosen for one game won't be chosen again in a future randomly generated game. This can help you play through the various Kingdom cards and have a chance to experience everything at least once.

It's also hard to browse and find saved Kingdoms. The app comes preconfigured with all of the recommended Kingdoms from each expansion. These are presented in one giant list, alphabetically ordered. There's no way to view just Kingdoms from a particular expansion or just my custom Kingdoms. In fact, my custom Kingdoms are mixed in with the rest, making it hard to find them and zero in on my favorites, unless I remember their individual names.

Dominion Vault

Pros

This app frustrates me. It's both the ugliest app out of the three and the most powerful app of the three. It opens immediately, to a randomly generated Kingdom. The display packs a lot of information. The far left side of each row shows an icon representing the expansion the card is found in. The middle shows the name of the card and the cost. The right side shows the type of card. The splashes of color on the left and right sides further serve to indicate which type of card this is. The setup section, at the bottom, tells you if you need any extra cards or pieces for this game.

You can tap on a row to lock it. If you do, you'll see a lock icon, in between the card type and the right pointing arrow. This is useful if you like part of a generated Kingdom but not the entire thing. You can quickly tap to lock the rows that you do like, then hit the refresh button to replace the rest with randomly generated replacements. Doing this will allow you to iteratively construct a deck that you do like.

You can tap on the right arrow to view more information about the card. All of the essential information from the actual Kingdom card is included. Additionally, you can press the FAQ button to view more detailed information about the card, including when it can and can't be used and exactly how it can be used.

The real strength of Dominion Vault is in the Advanced settings. You can choose which types of cards to include, require games to include cards that have extra Buys or extra Actions, and play with or without Alchemy specific rules. You can also track cards so that Kingdom cards aren't reused between games and you can choose how Black Market decks are generated.

Cons

Unfortunately, this app has almost as many things that I don't like as it does things that I do like.

Low Quality Graphics — The overall problem is that none of these graphics appear to be retina quality. The icons representing each expansion are very fuzzy and can make it hard to tell which expansion a given card comes from. The icons for Intrigue, Prosperity, and Hinterlands are particularly bad. The graphics representing the refresh button and options button are similarly fuzzy and low quality.

Hard to Use — When viewing the Kingdom, you have the option of tapping to lock a card or tapping to view detailed information about the card. Unfortunately, the default tap locks the card. Tapping anywhere in the row activates the lock. In order to view card information, you have to tap directly on the right arrow. This is not as easy as it should be and makes it harder than necessary to view card details. I'd prefer to have the behavior switched around so that tapping anywhere in the row shows card details and tapping on the right side locks the card. (And heaven help you if you try to tap the uppermost right arrow, miss, and hit the refresh button instead. You'll suddenly get an entirely new set of cards.)

Boring — The app doesn't have any graphics directly from Dominion. Instead of nice looking representations of each card we get bland textual descriptions. Sure, the information is there, but it's not attractively presented. The app also doesn't support many swipe gestures. It would seem natural to swipe up or down, to move between cards in a Kingdom. It would likewise seem natural to swipe left or right to toggle between the card details and the card FAQ. Instead, you are forced to navigate solely through button presses.

Verdict

I'm torn between Dominion Deck Builder and Dominion Vault more than I should be. I like the options available in Dominion Vault. It appears to be the app that would generate the best decks. But it's very hard to overlook the poor quality graphics and the usability problems. They really make the app seem cheap. If Dominion Vault had crisper icons (like the ones from Adept) that would help a lot. I'd also recommend making the individual rows larger (for easier tap targets) and finding a way to make it easier to view card details while still keeping the lock feature accessible.

I love the graphics in Dominion Deck Builder. That, combined with the iPad app, makes this the best looking of the three and the one that serves as the best companion to an actual on-going game. I'd like to see more advanced options for generating games and better organization options for saved decks. Give me that and I think this app would be about perfect.

I'm leaning towards using Dominion Vault to generate my Kingdoms and Dominion Deck Builder to save the Kingdoms, view them, and see setup details for each game. Preferably one of these two apps will step up and make the necessary improvements so that I can be completely happy with either one.

Ghost Story
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★★
Read From: 21 January 2014 – 23 January 2014

After being assassinated at the end of Changes, Dresden wakes up as a ghost. Which sounds cool. But Ghost Story is here to tell you that it's anything but fun.

Dresden quickly realizes that he's more cut off and isolated than he's ever been. He doesn't know how to "live" as a ghost. He has to be taught by the other ghosts. He can't talk to any of his friends. He can't touch any of his friends. He can't touch anything at all. He can walk around Chicago. He can see what's going on. But he's completely unable to interact with anything or affect circumstances in any way.

Before dying, Dresden had completely wiped out the Red Court vampires. He's been gone for 6 months. Now that he's back, Chicago looks like a city under siege. Dresden learns that there's been some nasty fallout from the destruction of the Red Court. He created a magical power vacuum and nature abhors a vacuum. Now his friends are in even more danger than before and it looks like his apprentice may have gone completely around the bend.

This was a different type of Dresden story. It moved at a slower pace and was a lot more reflective. Dresden had to grow accustomed to being a ghost. He had to think deeply about what it meant to live, what it meant to die, and what it meant to care for people when you were neither fully alive nor fully dead.

The last book had more upheaval than any other Dresden novel. This book had more contemplation and self-reflection than any other Dresden novel. I liked it. I think it may be the strongest book yet in the series.

Changes
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★★
Read From: 18 January 2014 – 20 January 2014

This may be the most appropriate title of the entire series. Harry goes through more change in this one book than he has in the entire series to date. He discovers that he has a daughter. Friends die. A magical Power disappears forever. Harry changes jobs, makes peace with the Winter Court, loses his car, loses his home, and loses most of his possessions.

I enjoyed this book. That's an odd thing to say when this much pain, suffering, and change is packed into one story, but it's true. Harry faced some very tough choices and some no-win scenarios. He chose in a fashion that felt very true to the character that Butcher has created him to be. It's hard to imagine how the series itself will change after the events of this story but that too feels right, given the potentially apocalyptic scope of the Powers that Harry continually faces.

Every series needs to change to avoid becoming stale, cliched, or repetitive. Butcher has proven that he can change this series and that he can continue to make it feel like a living reality and not just a static universe for telling the same stories over and over.

Turn Coat
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 17 January 2014 – 18 January 2014

The man with a vendetta against Harry Dresden, Donald Morgan, shows up at Harry's front door. He's wounded, on the run, and asking for help. Harry's pathological need to always do the right things means that he offers that help right away. That doesn't change the fact that he and Morgan both hate that Harry's offering the help and that Morgan was forced to ask Harry for help. Morgan's accused of murdering a member of the White Council's Senior Council and Harry is practically the only wizard that doesn't believe that he did it.

For the first time, we get to see the headquarters of the White Council and some of the inner political workings of the council. This is the first time in the series that the White Council has truly felt like a large, global concern rather than just a group of a few powerful wizards. (From this view we also see, quite clearly, why other magical powers keep referring to the White Council as a rotten tree that's about to fall.) By the end of this story, it's clear that the White Council has more than one active traitor and that it would be dangerous for any one to depend on the wizards for help.

This is another solid story that continues to develop both Harry Dresden and the world that he lives in.

Small Favor
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★☆☆
Read From: 14 January 2014 – 17 January 2014

The book opens on Harry Dresden enjoying a lighthearted snowball fight with the Carpenters. Out of nowhere, for seemingly no reason, he's attacked by creatures from the Nevernever. He later discovers that they're gruffs (as in "the billy goats gruff"), creatures of the Summer Court. Later, he's attacked by creates of the Winter Court. Then he ends up in face offs with the Denarians and the Fallen.

This book has many great moments. Harry's various battles with the gruffs are fun highlights. His continuing character development is good to see. But the overall plot felt messy. I spent most of the book wondering what was going on. That can be fine—Harry is the narrator and the audience is supposed to be confused if he's confused. (He definitely should be confused, given the powers he goes up against.) In this case, I don't think the overall actions of the various powers made a lot of sense. I felt confused because the plot itself was confusing and not all that coherent.

This story is important as a part of the overall Dresden story line but I don't think it's a great individual book.

White Night
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 12 January 2014 – 14 January 2014

Harry believes that a string of suicides is really a string of murders. He investigates and ends up pitted against the various factions of the White Court vampires. He gradually discovers that they're all being manipulated by an outside force. But when it comes to the White Court, that's more of an expectation than a surprise.

Harry continues to grow and develop. The theme of the novel is personal responsibility. You aren't good or evil. You're who you choose to be. This is developed through several different characters, including both Harry, his apprentice Molly, and his brother Thomas.

We continue to see an extremely dark side to Harry. It's clear that he could very easily cross over the line and start becoming someone evil. All it would take is the decision to make things right, no matter what the cost. He's definitely tempted but he's resisting and he's relying on his friends to challenge him when he steps too close to the line. This push and pull drives the story.

Highlights: Harry suddenly acting as the jilted gay lover. Marcone showing up for an emergency extraction. Harry using lust to power a spell.

Proven Guilty
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 8 January 2014 – 12 January 2014

Harry Dresden, now a Warden of the White Council, gets a cryptic warning to be on the alert for black magic in Chicago. First he has to stop in at a local horror convention (SplatterCon!!!) to stop some phobophages manifesting as horror movie monsters. Then he has to plan and execute a raid deep into Winter's terrority in færie. Then, finally, he can worry about the appearance of dark magic. And, in the process, gain an apprentice of his own.

Once again, Harry is still dealing with the consequences of his past decisions and actions. He's haunted by the people he killed during the necromancer's Halloween party. He still struggles with his own personal Fallen angel. He's avoiding his friends because of his guilt and shame. In short, the series continues to feel like a real story about a real individual. These aren't just paint by numbers fantasy adventures.

Dead Beat
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★★
Read From: 05 January 2014 – 08 January 2014

This story opens pretty much where the last one left off. Harry Dresden is living with his half-brother, Thomas. He's discovering that the family he always wanted comes with a price — putting up with the family. He's still dealing with the physical, mental, and emotional aftereffects of his last magical battles. Unfortunately for Dresden, Chicago now has to deal with several recently arrived necromancers. And that means that Harry has to deal with them.

Because of the way that the last novel unfolded, I had thought that Butcher was done introducing new magical denizens. I was wrong. The necromancers were definitely new and the story revolved around their not so fun plans. It was a little bit of a different kind of story. Karrin Murphy was absent for this novel and Harry had almost no interaction with the Chicago PD. His principal sidekick, Butters, was a very minor sidekick from a previous story. These changes helped to keep the story fresh and not formulaic.

Throughout the story, Harry constantly has to deal with the effects of the decisions he made during his previous battles. Some were good, some were bad, but all still have to be dealt with and still have lingering consequences. He has his own Fallen angel to deal with, a vampire half-brother, and a puppy.

He also has to deal with his own desire to protect Chicago and has to decide how far he'll go — what powers he'll use — to do that. There's an interesting side effect to having Dresden act as the narrator for these stories. He knows he's changed, but he doesn't think he's changed that much. (Who does?) He's surprised when his friends start acting afraid of him and worrying that he's going insane. He comes to realize that his friends have valid concerns. He's much more magically powerful now than he was at the beginning of the series. And he's far more willing to dabble in grey, or even black, magics than he ever was before. He's more dangerous, but is he a worse person? His inner battle defines the story as much as his outer battles do.

This series keeps getting better and better. I love the way the stories continue to be page turners even as real character development takes place.

Blood Rites
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 03 January 2014 – 05 January 2014

In my last review, I said "once you’ve hit upon a successful method, it’d be a crime to change it". With Blood Rites, I consider myself corrected. Butcher changed up his formula and the result is an even better story. The previous five novels have each introduced a new big bad, fleshing out the magical world that Dresden lives in. This one takes that foundation and builds off of it.

Thomas, a White vampire, asks Harry to take a case, to help one of Thomas's "normal" friends. Harry, needing the money, agrees to do so. He finds himself acting as a gofer for a movie producer, as he tries to figure out who is sending killing curses against the leading ladies. For good measure, he also has to defend himself against a scourge of Black vampires looking for revenge.

This story was much more of a mystery story than the previous books were. Harry and the reader spent the majority of the story completely out to sea regarding the identity or motives of the magical attacker. The result was a very compelling read. To make things better, Harry grew over the course of the book, learning more about himself and his family. He learned some painful truths about people he thought he knew well and came out of everything with a much closer connection to the people around him. I'm eager to see where things go from here.

Death Masks
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 1 January 2014 – 2 January 2014

Butcher continues his successful series. Once again, Harry Dresden is fighting to save Chicago from something terrible. Once again, Butcher gives him a different type of big bad to fight against. He's faced wizards, werewolves, vampires, and færies. Now, he confronts the Fallen (angels), as he works to recover the stolen Shroud of Turin.

The Dresden books may be somewhat formulaic but that doesn't make them bad. Once you've hit upon a successful method, it'd be a crime to change it. The magic is still fascinating. The mythological details are vividly described. Nothing comes easy for Dresden and the result is another compelling page turner.

Brain Rules
by John Medina

My rating: ★★★★☆
Read From: 07 December 2013 — 25 December 2013

I majored in Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh. While there, I took a course called Human Information Processing. We studied how the brain works, how people perceive information, how they store information, how they remember, etc. It was fascinating and gave me many good insights into how I could help myself — and others — learn.

Brain Rules is a layman's version of my college course. Medina concisely and entertainingly walks us through things that we know — or think we know — about how the brain works. He's careful to only relay information that's been confirmed by multiple independent experiments. He clearly distinguishes between what we're pretty sure we know and what we only suspect or guess at.

He starts out by emphasizing the importance of exercising to brain function. It persuaded me to start walking more and to look for more ways to become more active. He included a startling statistic: doing aerobic exercise just twice a week halves your risk of general dementia. It cuts your risk of Alzheimer's by 60 percent.

He also focuses on education and learning. For instance, the brain's attentional "spotlight" can only focus on one thing at a time (rule #4). We're incapable of multitasking. And we are better at seeing patterns and abstracting the meaning of an event than we are at recording detail. These facts suggest new ways for teachers to educate students.

Teachers need to make classes interesting, so that students' minds don't wander to other things, tuning out the class. And teachers need to put content into patterns that students can see, rather than just giving students a hodgepodge of facts.

I found each chapter to be interesting and thought provoking. I can definitely recommend it as a way to learn more about yourself and how to optimize your life.