[Book] Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Cover Every once in a while, I try to get in a review of a classic.  Something that some of my readers are likely to have read themselves.  I do this, mostly, to help readers calibrate my taste...  That is, it seems likely enough that some readers are likely to disagree with everything I like, and might find it compelling to read a book that I really didn't like....

17 Jul 2019 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[Book] Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

Book cover This short book (novella) is the first in the trilogy.  Binti is the name of the main character.  This book starts on a distant future (unspecified timeline) Earth where humans are now space-faring, and alien races are known. There is a lot to unpack in the world-building and the world is built along with the story.  Each chapter is unusually episodic, in that some small part of the last scene of a previous chapter will be often be repeated at the beginning of the next....

10 Jul 2019 · 4 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[Book] Defy The Worlds by Claudia Gray

Book cover This is book 2 of the Defy the Stars trilogy.  I recommend first reading my review of Defy the Stars before diving headlong into this review.  Also, there may be mild spoilers of the first book in this review.  I'm not sure that can be helped. I recommend not reading Defy The Worlds until Defy The Stars has already been read.  Like most sequels, this book could stand-alone, but there is not as much exposition and recap as I'm used to reading in sequels....

26 Jun 2019 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[Book] The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King

Book cover Subtitled, The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, this is a biography of a man that most Americans over 30 grew up watching as children on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which is a show that ran on US public television stations (PBS) for 31 years (1968-2001). I cannot review this book without noting that Fred Rogers means a lot to me, as I watched his show regularly for many years....

12 Jun 2019 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink