Really fun read. Easily recommended to anyone. My review for more details:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/1791268898?book_show_action=false

Pretty good.  Sort of an English Harry Dresden.  Except his power isn't so...explodey.

Codex Alera is excellent.

I read some of the earlier Riftwar books, but kinda lost interest after the Serpentwar Saga.

Yeah but when I tried to read the Conclave of Shadows trilogy I simply couldn't get into it.

Darth Plagueis - James Luceno


I picked this up because one of the Amazon reviews I read said this novel made midi-chlorians "cool". So, that was a lie. lol

The first 2/3 of the novel is chocked full of wicked Sith manipulations and machinations as Plagueis consolidates power and continues the Sith master plan. I always find these stories which delve into the Sith philosophy brutally fascinating, just because at times it can arguably seem so reasonable.

The last 1/3 feels predestined and forced, and thus a bit boring, just because Palpatine shows up and it covers a time in which several of the other pre-Episode 1 novels take place with no Plaguies previously mentioned. It tries to act as a sort of behind-the-scenes overview that gels those different stories together, which though at least interesting, is an ultimately unnecessary choice. Better to have ended the story earlier and kept it completely self contained.

Just read this one:



I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a great beginning to the Earth 2 series.

Does anybody know if there are more stories featuring Bruce and Helena as Batman and Robin? I really want to read more about how their father/daughter relationship carries over to their Batman and Robin alter egos.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell


This describes the circumstances that allow exceptional people to succeed (Bill Gates and Steve Jobs born just at the right time to allow them to take advantage of computers, most pro sports players are born right after the youth league annual cutoff dates and so benefit from being larger kids competing against smaller ones). A couple of the more interesting revelations is that becoming very good at a discipline usually takes 10,000 hours of practice, and the reading proficiency deficiencies between poor and middle class American students can be almost completely accounted for just by the reading done by middle class students during the summer vacation.

As usual I can be summoned by mentioning things I love, so. :') I do hope you enjoy Othello, Sim. It's my personal favorite and I can talk for ages on it.

Iago is bae.