Book Review Time!

I really need to do more things so that I can blog about more things. I did read this book at. So, at least it is something.

This book is a young adult magical world type book. It takes place in an alternate Victorian England, where magic exists. The story is about a girl who is prophesied to be the one to defeat the monsters attacking her world.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and a fun story. Mostly what I enjoyed was the fact that it was a story with magic in it.

Despite liking it I wouldn't say I really recommend it. I didn't really like any of the characters. Some of them I couldn't really remember who they were for the book. They seemed like just a name that kept popping up.

Although the book was set in Victorian England, there was very little that made it feel that way. In the beginning there was mention of fires being used for heating, so you know it was without technology. Later there was a carriage mentioned a few times. Nothing really stood out at specifically England or specifically that time period. They threw in meeting the queen at the end, but that really didn't do much.

This book seems like it was written to be a movie. A lot of the things I think it was lacking could be filled out with visuals you'd find in a movie. Maybe that was the intent? I don't know.

German Baking - Book Review

I am not German. I come from a family that loves baking, but pretty much everything in this book is new to me. On that note I found this book to be very disappointing. There are very few pictures, and very few of the pictures are of the finished baked goods. There are pictures of Germany and of food prep, but those don't inspire me to want to make a recipe. As an example the Glazed Hazelnut Torte recipe has two pictures, one of a bicycle and one of a graffiti style art wall. Why would I want to see those pictures right then? It makes no sense.

Other than the very disappointing visual aspect of the book, the recipes look well written with good detailed instruction. I am doubtful that I will ever make anything from this book given how uninspiring the formatting is.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Book Review: Natural Color

I have been interested in learning natural dying for a while. Hand dyed yarn has become very popular, it can make a solid color more interesting too look at because of the slight color variations. I have been wanting to try to create my own color combination yarn, or try dying already knitted things.

This book has many color options for natural dying. They are arranged along with project ideas for many things you can dye. At the back of the book is a handy chart of all the colors you can make and how different methods can change the color.

I am very excited to start my first project.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Book Review

 

I tried really hard to get into this book, but I wasn't able to. The format of this book implies using each chapter as a weekly meditation. I didn't have enough time to take this approach since the goal was to review the book.

Looking through the chapters it seems unlikely that each one would apply to every person. I'm not sure how this would factor into someone using the book for a weekly meditation. One meditation is, "So, you want to get married". I'm already married; this would not apply to me. Nor would it apply to someone not interested in that. Another chapter is called, "How to Handle Negative People". This would probably be useful for most people at some point during the year, but not necessarily on the week it happens to come up.

There is a listing of all the topics in the table of contents, but that it doesn't seem to have any particular subject organization beyond the order things appear in the book. I wouldn't be likely to pick up this book if there was something specific I wanted to meditate on because of this format.

I think I will keep it around and read it occasionally, hopefully it will be more helpful than my original opinion indicates.

Book Review: Dark Matter

I started off enjoying this book. It was a quick read, and hard to put down. There were some weird science things that the author made a decent attempt to seem plausible. Nothing stood out as too absurd to exist at least in the realm of fiction. 

The main thing I didn't like about the book overall is that it seemed to be very much written by a man. It was a subtle thing, but not being a man there were quite a few moments where I thought it was odd how something was said or described. On a second thought it seemed less odd, just different. 

I'm always a little hesitant to pick up a fiction book I haven't read great things about. I don't like getting all wrapped up in a book and then have the ending just go pffft. I read a few reviews, which claimed this book had a sappy ending. I thought that would be fine, I don't mind sappy. In my opinion the ending was dumb. It took all the momentum of the story and just killed it. 

This book is about dimensional travel. The idea is that any choice you make you actually made all the choices, and there are infinite realities with all the outcomes of everyone's choices. The book starts with Jason, a happy average man with a family and mediocre job. He is taken hostage and thrown into another world where he didn't get married and have a child, instead he became a famous scientist who invented the dimension travel. The guy who took him hostage was actually the version of himself from that world, who regretted leaving the women Jason married.

The whole book is Jason escaping the world where Jason2 stuck him, trying to get home to his family. The machine to travel in throws him into all these horrible places where he almost dies multiple times. He finally figures out how to use it and finds world's closer and closer to his own, almost going crazy in the process.

When he finally does get to his world there are apparently there are many copies of himself who also found this exact world, and all these copies are trying to kill each other. This is where I think the book stops making as much sense. It makes sense that there are copies of the first Jason, but why do they all end up in the same exact world at the end? Jason was gone for weeks trying to find it, there must be an infinite number of worlds that started as the one he left. That world had millions of people making millions of choices for weeks, there must be a nearly infinite number of worlds that all the versions of Jason's could have ended up in. And then there is the issue of why are they all trying to kill each other? None of them are trying to kill Jason2 for taking their family, they are all attacking each other. It makes very little sense.

Then the worst part one of the Jason, presumably the one we have been following the whole book, gets to his family, and they decide the only way to escape is to all jump in the machine together and try their luck in whatever world they end up in. That plan didn't work so well the first few times Jason went into it. The machine is controlled by your thoughts and emotions, so somehow his wife and teenage son are able to control the machine their first time in it, after being through a very traumatic few days. This ending makes no sense. Maybe the author is leaving it open to a sequel?

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this Review. 

Book Review: Home Sewn

I was really excited to get to review a book on a hobby I actually do. I have some really cute books with some great sewing projects in them, and I was hoping this book would be a great addition to that collection. I was not impressed.

Some of the major problems I had with this book:

Two of the projects in the book are just pictures of the writer having used purchasable kits with her own fabric. There is a make your own lampshade, and make your own headboard. I don't think using a premade kit and writing the instructions count as making your own project...

One project is a linen ottoman. This on it's own this could be a great project. Except when you get to the important part of the stuffing. She gives minimal direction on this. "Stuffing of your choice"... "Up to you really"... I made a floor cushion a year or so ago. The sewing part, although complicated, was the easiest part. Finding a good stuffing, tips on getting it into the cushion, tips on not getting said stuffing all over your house... Any of those would be a really useful addition to this project.

At least two projects in this book don't fall on the right side of the handmade vs homemade. When I make something by hand I want to take the time to do it right. If I am going to spend hours making something and probably spending at least twice what it would cost to buy the same thing. What I make should look good. One project the "embroidered lambskin and silk throw pillows" looks terrible. The final project pictured is wrinkled and the embroidery is a small circle in the middle filled in with random stitches and x's. Maybe if it was a child making it this could be appreciated.

Another project " decorative silk upholstery panels" looks like she tacked on fabric to the back of a chair. Reading the instructions for this project, says that is exactly what she did. "You probably don't need instructions - the images say almost all you need"... She actually says that.

There are a few cute things. One project is making silk butterflies. Another is a leather strap to tie back curtains with. She made a cotton, silk, and leather chandelier that looks nice. But even for these projects that I might actually want to do the instructions are minimal. She takes a lots of posed pictures of the finished product, but doesn't really focus on helping people get there with great instructions. I could probably figure it out, but with a book I shouldn't have to.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

New Game

I normally get books to review, but this time there was an option for a game. Since I like games I got it. I wasn't expecting to love this game, since I don't love puns, and it states that it is a game for pun lovers. Steven loves puns, so I thought he might like it. 

The game makes a claim to be the new Cards Against Humanity. I can't say I really liked the game, but I definitely disagree with that claim. Cards Against Humanity has only the requirements that you read english and aren't easily offended. It doesn't require much thinking and if you have no clue for a round nothing really happens. Punderdome requires a lot of thinking. You are given two topics and you have to write your own pun combining them. Some combinations are easier than others, but when you can't come up with anything it is frustrating. 

Also it seems to be a wasteful game. Each round you write your pun on a piece of paper. By the end of game there was a lot of little paper bits. 

I would like to watch this game be played by people who are really good at puns. It might be amusing. I don't think it is a game that can be enjoyed by any group. Which is something that is good to have in a game.

Some examples of our rounds.

Cat in the Hat