Category: E-Books

Children of the Mind

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Card, Orson Scott. Children of the Mind. Tor Books, 2002.

Reason read: started in October in honor of Science Fiction Month.

Children of the Mind is the second half of Xenocide which explains why the residents of planet Luistania are still looking for a way to escape the decimation of their planet. This is also the final book in the Ender quartet. The survival of the children of the mind hinges on Computer Jane’s ability to move the humans, buggers, and pequeninos to a more hospital planet for colonization without overtaxing her bandwidth. Every jump takes her down a notch. Meanwhile, Peter Wiggin, Ender’s older brother, travels to meet with the Starways Congress to convince them to stop their campaign to destroy Lusitania. Only Peter isn’t Peter. He is another entity of Ender. In fact, Ender has three bodies: his own, Peter’s and Young Valentine’s. Children of the Mind, like the other books in the series gets a little didactic and preachy.
I have to wonder how many people freaked out when they got to the demise of Ender as we know him.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 224).

Downbelow Station

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Cherryh, C.J. Downbelow Station or the Company Wars. Daw Books, 1981.

Reason read: January is another science fiction month.

Confessional: I felt like Cherryh was speaking directly to me when she said she wanted to write a book for readers who love to detect connections between books. Cherryh called Downbelow Station a “novel of interstellar conflict and ambition” as part of the Alliance-Union Universe series. Above all else, it is a human story, a love story even. Cherryh wanted to create a wider universe that would be consistent in a series set in the future a few centuries from now. Her story is populated with tribes of spacefarers and groundlings. We begin Downbelow Station with Book One Earth and Outward between the years 2005 and 2352 but most of the action is nestled comfortably between the years of 2352 and 2353 on a space station orbiting the Downbelow in the Tau Ceti star system. During this time space is not explored by NASA or the like. Private corporations rule the galaxies with their exorbitant wealth. Sound familiar? Old River is angry and the mill is not to be lost. The surviving companies need to plot an attack against the Union or else become refugees and, if that happens, where would they go?
Downbelow Station is packed with action, but as I mentioned earlier, hidden amongst the sci-fi is a human story and maybe a little romance. I appreciated the friendship Damon and Elene extend to Josh Talley, the prisoner who had his memories erased. He becomes the unlikely hero in the story. More human emotion is displayed when Elene Quen goes missing.

Author fact: C.J. Cherryh is Carolyn Janice Cherryh. I loved, loved, loved C.J. Cherryh’s advice at the end of her introduction – go out to where city lights don’t block your view and look up. Interesting fact about Downbelow Station – the stars are in real locations. Another fact – Cherryh worked with multiple cardboard clocks to make the multiple timelines agree.

Book trivia: Downbelow Station won a Hugo award and the story was so popular it was made into a board game.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Space Operas” (p 210).

Three Doors To Death

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Stout, Rex. Three Doors to Death: a Nero Wolfe Threesome. Viking Press, 1949.

Reason read: I first started the series fifteen books ago in honor of Rex Stout’s birth month.

Man Alive (published in December 1947) – A man once thought to be dead of suicide is found dead again.
Omit Flowers (published in November 1948) – as a favor to a friend, Nero Wolfe takes on the wrongful accusation of murder. Virgil Pompa, a restaurant chain manager has been fingered for the crime.
Door to Death (published in June 1949) – my favorite of the bunch. Nero’s caretaker of over 10,000 orchids, Theodore Horstmann, has taken leave indefinitely to care for his ailing mother. This abandonment is absolutely unacceptable to Wolfe. The travesty forces him to leave his beloved brownstone to recruit a replacement who has, of course, been charged with murder.

As an aside, for as many times as Archie says Nero never leaves his brownstone, I wonder if someone has actually counted up all the times he has and why.

Author fact: Stout passed away at the age of eighty-eight.

Book trivia: to track Stout’s publications one has to be pretty savvy. Three Doors to Death is comprised of three novellas which were published as stand alone stories. The three stories were republished in a collection called Five of a Kind.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Reinvention Playbook

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Wozniak, Bruno. The Reinvention Playbook: Self Published, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program from LibraryThing every once in awhile I get to read interesting books.

In a nutshell, The Reinvention Playbook is about navigating the loss of a job and all that that end entails. It is about rebuilding a new identity outside of what the job made you. Is it possible to find meaningful employment and emotional connection after ending a self-defining career? Wozniak urges his readers to try, try, try. It is all about moving forward, one baby step at a time. At times I found the advice to be a little repetitious with emotional signatures: disorientation, low energy, aligned with the adverse of curiosity and confidence.
I appreciated his phrase “identity earthquake” for when a job ends, it truly is a restructuring of everything you knew about yourself. Think about it. You spend a solid eight hours a day as one entity. That is a good chunk of time. Routines are established; a rhythm solidified. You need to reconcile the inside voice with the outside noise. Do not let the fear of urgency create chaos before you have had a chance to heal. You have to let go of who you were before you lost the job and take note of what remains after the work is gone. The diagnostics are sometimes hard to decipher if you do not know how to read the emotional cues or cannot resist the urge to stay busy. Wozniak’s book enables you to navigate those efforts to rebuild.

Author fact: I instantly connected with Wozniak’s example of running. Without the analytics to “prove” the effort, is it worth it? Can you go for a run without tracking pace, distance, heart rate, route?

Book trivia: The Reinvention Playbook is best read after losing employment as a tool for grounding yourself in reality, but what happens if you read the book with one eye on the approaching cliff you just know you are going to fall from? Would you read the book differently if you were secure in your employment or foresaw no immediate danger?

Something Else

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Simko, Lukas. Something Else: Words that Remember, Stories that Awaken. Independent Publicist, 2025.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read books that sometimes move me. This is one of those books.

The fastest review I could write about Something Else is to say it is a memoir about an individual wanting to find true love. Lukas Simko’s story begins when he is a thirty-two year old graduate looking for work. He meets a girl who over time showed all the classic signs of an abuser. She was controlling and manipulative and I found myself wishing he would have seen the signs earlier. Right away I felt Simko is someone who has the potential to fall hard and fast for a romantic relationship. He believes in taking chances and embracing adventure wherever it may take him.
Then there was Macy. She was clear she did not an emotional relationship, but Lukas started to like her more and more “without permission.” Interesting choice of words. This time around Simko noticed the signs of a relationship dying as Macy started to distance herself from him.
Next came Jaya. Lukas felt an instant connection with her for they had a great deal in common and almost seemed to be soul mates. She even took him in as a roommate without really knowing him. Once again Lukas became involved with a woman who did not want to be tied down with anything emotional. To say Jaya was complicated is an understatement. She often sent mixed signals and seemed to be confused about what she really wanted from Simko. One minute she was communicating as if she cared deeply; the next she felt it necessary to block Simko on social media (twice).
In the end, Simko emerged a stronger person. He was able to see the beauty in each failed relationship. As an aside, I think of it as the particle theory. You get what you need from each relationship whether that relationship withstands the test of time or not.

Confessional: I did not understand Ireland’s employment situation. Lukas requested three weeks off under the guise of taking care of a grandmother. Instead, he was rewarded with 3 1/2 months off, but the kicker was he had to go on leave when they told him to. I thought he was working in a remote IT position.
A more personal confessional: Simko went four months without talking to Jaya. Try five years! That’s how long I went without speaking to someone who meant the world to me.

As an aside, I learned a new word, “craic.”

Music: “Misty Mountains” by Leyna Robinson-Stone.

Piecework

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Shimshon-Santo, Amy. Piecework: Ethnographies of Place. Unsolicited Press, 2025

Reason read: as a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review Program I get to read really interesting books. This is one such book.

There are four themes to Piecework: the classroom, community, migrations, and conversations. In the beginning, Piecework is comprised of essays that encourage collective action as an extension of social justice, but by the end you have an intimate portrait of the author and her ancestry. For the first part of Piecework Shimshon-Santo provides a clear blueprint for how to bring key people together to form a productive interdisciplinary team to tackle common social problems. For example, the first she addresses is transportation. [As an aside, if anyone has seen Natalie Merchant’s storytellers show you will know that she called Los Angeles a “car culture” because of its massive highway systems. Walking around is out of the question for some parts of the metropolis.] Shimshon-Santo approaches a dilemma with creative innovation by viewing it through multiple lenses. She believes in compassionate leadership and the value of listening to children. By the end of Piecework the reader has a clear understanding of Shimshon-Santo thanks to a revealing essay about her grandmother and a couple of interviews in the conversation section.
It goes without saying that Piecework is thought provoking, but what I wasn’t expecting was the plethora of gorgeous photography. The entire book was exquisite to read.

Author fact: Shimshon-Santo has a background in dance. She also wrote Catastrophic Molting. I think she win a prize for the most interesting titles.

Music: Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Book trivia: the bonus to Piecework is the photography and poetry.

The Last Shepherd’s Dog…

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Sunderland, John. The Last Shepherd’s Dog and Other Stories From a Rural Spanish Village High and Hidden in the Costa Blanca Mountains. Shilka Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: for LibraryThing’s Early Review Program.

There is this phenomenon where AI can take every essay, short story, blog, personal letter, Christmas card, and term paper and turn it into a mishmash of a novel. I am not saying this is what happened with The Last Shepherd’s Dog and Other Stories From a Rural Spanish Village High and Hidden in the Costa Blanca Mountains, but I bet if you look hard enough you will find a blog or newspaper column with much of the same content. I sense it by the number of times Sunderland explains why he moved with his wife from New York City to Spain and from the rambling commentary. I sense it in the brevity and random subject matter of each of the chapters. They are entertaining stories in and of themselves, but they don’t convey life in Spain specifically. Sunderland writes about painting a portrait of a man so lifelike the deceased’s loved ones are moved to strong emotion. He writes another story about a perpetually closed grocery store that has him baffled. All in all it was a fun read.

Author fact: John Sunderland has been a writer, graphic designer, filmmaker, animator, and a museum designer. No wonder he was looking to retire somewhere far away and remote as possible.

Music: “New York, New York.”

Vampires of Chicago

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Cymry, Wynneth C. The Vampires of Chicago: A Subversive Satire, Gothic Fantasy Action Thriller. Lunatica Libri, 2025.

Reason read: for the Early Review Program from LibraryThing.

This turns everything you thought you knew about vampires on its head. Did you know vampires sing at a certain frequency to heal a wounded friend? Or that they have to sleep in cathedrals? Or that they can be afraid of blood? Vampires can eat garlic! You will learn about the Sybilline oath: not to kill, maim, torment or forswear. This is the story about a battle between vampires and the church where priests try to use the vampires to achieve immortality. The Covenant of Blood is strong. Be prepared for a variety of surgeries.
My first reaction after reading Vampires of Chicago was that I wished the character development could have been stronger. I did not know them well enough to care. I wasn’t dismayed when Aaron was pronounced dead. Nor did I cheer when he was revived. Same for Leander. He is dead. No, he is not. Maybe this is where the satire comes in?
My second reaction after reading Vampires of Chicago was that I felt as though I had been dropped into the middle of a situation and had to catch up to the plot.
All in all, it was a fun read.

If I had a dollar for every mention of a sehreb, sehrebim, sehrebimi, and sehrebimo I could buy myself a latte and donut. It is the only weapon the vampires and priests seem to use.

Music: “Agnus Dei” (I have to admit I love the Michael Smith version of this song).

Lead Anyway

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Thomas, Karissa. Lead Anyway: Teaching Through the Fog When the System Stops Seeing You. Mosaic Intelligence Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read thought-provoking books. This is one such book.

Lead Anyway is organized in four parts with references and a glossary. It seems to be geared mostly towards a K-12 school setting, but college is mentioned more than enough times to make it relatable to my current situation. I did appreciate the “emotional labor” Thomas touched on when talking about the higher education climate. Language does matter! Thomas knows her audience refers to teachers and professors. She creates prompts for each type of educator, but to make it more inclusive, I would have preferred the simpler term “educator” although she also said Lead Anyway was written for assistant principals and leaders. For the purposes of this review, I am assuming she means educational leaders.
All in all, Lead Anyway could be read by anyone looking for sound advice of how to keep fighting the good fight. Everyone can benefit from honing their active listening skills or knowing how to ask guiding questions with empathy and understanding. There has never been a better time to improve emotional intelligence, peer-to-peer resolution, or practice deep self-reflection. We need to chose compassion and create belonging because as it has been said, true leadership is built on honest trust.
Favorite section: at the end of each chapter is a Lead Anyway Reflection.
As an aside, when I saw the trademarked “Mosaic Intelligence Method” I worried this was be one giant marketing piece for a service Mosaic Intelligence could provide. Indeed, each chapter has statements on the topics of emotional integrity, cultural flexibility, and identity agility (the fundamental principles of the Mosaic Intelligence Method). It would have been great to have a compilation of all those statements as a wrap-up to demonstrate the vitality, importance, and necessity of the Mosaic Intelligence Method. That being said, I enjoyed Lead Anyway so much I am buying several copies as Christmas presents for colleagues. I look forward to the certificate pathway Thomas said was coming soon.

Of note: only sometimes the words Mosaic Intelligence Method is written in bold letters. The symbol for trademark is ever present.

As an aside, Thomas refers to a bell to signify the start of a school day. I did not go to school with bells. Does the bell signify a certain kind of school?

Author fact: Thomas researched Western educators in international school settings and is from Uganda. She has her own website for more information. The Mosaic Intelligence Method can be found on social media as well.

Book trivia: foreword titled Lead Anyway: an Intervention was written by Henry Mutumba.

Speaker for the Dead

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Card, Orson Scott. Speaker for the Dead. Macmillan Audio, 2006.

Reason read: to continue the series started in October in honor of Science Fiction Month.

As a small child, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin saved planet Earth from war with the Buggers. Now as an earthly yet ageless thirty five year old adult, Ender is faced with a second alien invasion with the piggies. War seems to be inevitable. Ender has transformed himself into a Speaker for the Dead and must reconcile his horrible past as Ender Wiggin the Xenocide. Not many know he is one and the same. It is a dance of identity to come to terms with the past.
I found it interesting to learn that in order for Speaker for the Dead to work Ender’s Game had to be a full blown novel. The sequel actually birthed the first book’s existence.
As an aside, I do not know how Speaker for the Dead can be pigeon holed into the genre of science fiction when it carries themes of philosophy, religion, family, psychology, religion, socio-economics, ethics, ecology, genetics, mysticism, hatred, and science.
I applaud any book that makes the reader feel something whether intended or not. If the author can be clever enough to hide personal feelings while promoting an unfavorable view, more power to him or her. Speaker for the Dead made me laugh and cry, hate and love, all at the same time.
The best part of Speaker for the Dead was Ender’s conversation with the Bishop about death – how another culture could see death as the greatest honor.

Line I liked, “I think, said Ender, that you should not plant anymore humans” (p 415).

Author fact: to look at Orson Scott Card’s list of books is impressive. I am only reading seven Ender books for the Challenge.

Book trivia: Speaker for the Dead is an indirect sequel to Ender’s Game. You can get by without reading Ender, but why would you want to?

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213).

Silence, Not for Sale

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Humphreys, April. Silence, Not for Sale. Publish Nation, 2025.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing. Every so often, I review a book that touches my heart. This is one such book.

Humphreys begins her story on a gray November day. The November sky outside my window matched hers when I sat down to read Silence, Not for Sale. Confessional: I had no idea that those details would not be the only similarities between us. It took me twice as long to read Silence, Not for Sale because of that fact.
Humphreys takes her reader back to December 1962, back when it all began in early childhood. For a victim of incest to come clean in such an honest and open way, Humphreys demonstrated courage in a way few people are capable. To relive childhood living nightmares is heroic. In addition to navigating a history of sexual abuse, Humphreys had to come to terms with a less than sympathetic mother and sister. Time and time again, Humphreys recalls stories of her mother’s callous and narcissistic nature. It is no secret that families are complicated, no matter their history. When family members refuse to recognize the trauma, or worse, accept their part in it, victims are slow to heal. Humphreys is no different, taking decades to sort out her grief. She had to make significant sacrifices in the name of self preservation. I applaud her courage.
Confessional: when Humphreys started to name all of the siblings of her parents and other family members I questioned if it was necessary to know all twenty-five of them?. Did I need to know them by name – Ernie, Betty, Brenna, Rose, Joan, Les, Lil, Alex, Jules, Sandra, Flo 1, Lily, Jack, Bob, Don, Flo 2, Pat, June, Bill, Elaine, Teddy, Jerry, Rose, Don, Larry, Tom, Troy, Richard, Sarah, Rachel, Grace, Nan, and Bet?

As an aside, did Humphreys want the reader to think she was crafting a suicide note? I certainly considered that until she said she had her husband print out copies of her letter to mail.

Confessional: my father was not around when I was born. When he was presented with a photograph of me soon after birth he commented that I resembled a shriveled prune. I call my partner my knight in shining armor, too. I did not learn to drive until I was twenty-five years old. There are other similarities that I will not get into here.

Music: “Long Haired Lover” by Jimmy Osmond, and “The Sunshine of Your Smile.”

Mystic Nomad

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Knopp, Annette. Mystic Nomad: A Woman’s Wild Journey to True Connection. Monkfish Book Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program I get to read interesting books.

Annette shares a similar story to Elizabeth Gilbert. The entire time I was reading Mystic Nomad I was reminded of Eat, Love, Pray. Knopp spent eighteen months in India, Nepal, and Thailand searching for a way to quiet her mind. From intense meditation in an ashram to hiking in the mountains and taking classes in sculpture, Knopp tried looking within for peace. She even went to Australia to work in an opal mine. From there Knopp traveled to Japan, the United States, Costa Rica, and Peru. At thirty-two years old, she needed to come to terms with the relationship she had with the woman she called mother and more disturbing, her dependence on a predatory spiritual advisor. Her devotion to him was crippling, even after he caused her great pain. [As an aside, Annette’s relationship with Brian reminded me of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Seven Years.” When asked what the song was about all Miss Merchant would say was it was about a spiritual advisor who let her down.] Knopp’s path to self discovery was haunting and beautiful, full of joy and sorrow. She conquered obstacles and challenges while taking the time to soak up her surroundings.

Author fact: Annette Knopp has her own website here.

Book trivia: My e-version of Mystic Nomad did not have any photographs.

Music: Arthur Rubinstein, Beethoven, Sibelius, and Mozart.

Wild Oz

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Clodd, Geoff. Wild Oz: Hilariously Unfiltered Backpacking Stories. Independently Published, 2025.

Reason read: this is a selection from LibraryThing’s Early Review program.

I do not know exactly what I was expecting from Wild Oz but this turned out to be a much different adventure. I think the subtitle about backpacking made me think he would be roughing it a little more than he did in his Oz adventures. I also thought there would be more variation to his escapades, especially through Thailand. Australia was just a string of towns where Clodd got this drunk and banged that chick. His stories start and stop without fanfare. Like a giggling kid farting for attention Clodd will tell you about crashing his moped in Thailand or trying to eat a dozen ice cream cones. The year is 2008 and he has decided to travel with a friend to Australia and Thailand for a year or more.
As an aside, Clodd interrupts himself from time to time to tell Vegas stories. That makes sense because he sustained his meager financial existence on internet gambling. I have to admit the prostitute stealing a plate was pretty funny.
Sometimes I thought Wild Oz was written by a horny fourteen year old left alone in the house without his parents for the very first time. His command of slang was pretty extensive (“suck on that!”). Chasing temporary employment and bedding various women while juggling excessive drinking and drugging, Clodd was finicky about dirty hands and paranoid about skin cancer and going bald. I think I just summed up the entire book in this last paragraph.

Fun fact: my husband and I have this game during horror movie season where we try to count the dead bodies. Exactly how many people were murdered during Nightmare on Elm Street? Sometimes we turn it into a drinking game – a swig for every time someone dies. We should take turns reading Wild Oz aloud and take a glug every time Clodd has sex with a different woman. That could be fun.

As an aside, I want to know how often Geoff has had to say “two fs and two ds” when telling someone how to spell his name.

Book trivia: Clodd makes pop references that some people may or may not get. For example, I didn’t know who Screech and Zack were.

Author fact: Wild Oz is Clodd’s first and only book on LibraryThing.

Playlist: “Let’s Get It Started” by Black Eyed Peas, Creed, Outkast, “Rape Me” by Nirvana, Janet Jackson, and Wolfmother (which I have on my run playlist).

Snow Fleas and Chickadees

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Quesnel, Eve. Snow Fleas and Chickadees: Everyday Observations in the Sierras. Illustrated by Anne Chadwick. University of Nevada Press, 2025.

Call it a small nature guide or a short literary companion. Either way Quesnel is motivated to share her observations about nature while living in the Sierra Nevada. What started as a column in a local paper has turned into a cute little book. Quesnel can tell you where to go to find a stand of Quaking Aspen to witness their splendor when the leaves turn golden. She solved a long standing curiosity I had (but was too lazy to research) about the “eyes” of birch trees. I am a fan of foraging for food so pulling fir needles of the trees for a snack made me hungry. But you won’t learn just about trees. Animals and birds and insects each have a chapter. How different spiders make their webs was pretty fascinating. Swallow tail butterflies can lose their tails and live. Who knew?
Much like other (short) ebooks, Snow Fleas does not start until page 30 of the 192 page book. I wished it was longer!

I won’t find a sooty grouse or a pica in my neck of the woods.

author fact: I liked how humble Quesnel is, saying “I am not an “ist” of any kind (preface, page 8).

Book trivia: Snow Fleas started as a newspaper column. I said that already. the illustrations by Anne Chadwick are fantastic.

Stroke of Luck

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Aithal. A Stroke of Luck: My Journey Through a Traumatic Brain Injury. 2025.

Although Stroke of Luck meanders sometimes I truly enjoyed Aithal’s courageous memoir. Aithal is coming up on the 23rd anniversary of his stroke so it is fitting for him to look back at his long road to recovery. I appreciated his honesty, vulnerability, and determination. Every chapter of Aithal’s story was eye opening for me. Before reading Stroke of Luck I did not think about every element of life that has to be rebuilt beyond speech and other motor skills after a traumatic brain injury. Appropriate emotional reactions or driving a car, for example. As an aside, I practically cheered when Aithal got his license back. Stroke of Luck is proof positive that you can regain a full life after a traumatic brain injury with the right supports around you. My father did not survive his stroke at fifty-five years of age.
I wish my friend could have read this book. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and his biggest downfall was something Aithal cautioned against doing. He said do not compare your current abilities to what you could do before the stroke. As a drummer with decreased ability my friend sunk into a depression he could not fight. I wish Aithal could have convinced him it does not matter what you used to be able to do. Instead, concentrate on how far you have come since the stroke changed your life. Your life matters.

Author fact: Aithal has a blog here.

Book trivia: Aithal included sources if you want to learn more about the treatments he described. He also shared culturally detailed from his homeland in India.