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Enterprise IoT
Dirk Slama, Frank Puhlmann, Jim Mirrish and Rishi M. Bhatnagar
Book
Current hype aside, the Internet of Things will ultimately become as fundamental as the Internet...
Bubblesreview (110 KP) rated The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared in Books
Mar 13, 2019
Farcical (2 more)
Political and history based
Name dropping
Disappointing.
I really really really thought this was going to be a good book, a funny book, an adventurous book and I tried so hard to enjoy this... but it was so utterly boring and I really can't understand what the hype was about.
Some of the present day parts in it were admittedly funny... SOME. However, the majority of the book was about his past which involved too many very unlikely events and coincidences, too much name dropping of historical leaders and politics and wars and bla bla bla... If you want to learn about European history and gain some knowledge on some historical leaders and events then sure read this book, but I personally didn't pick this book up expecting to be in a history lesson. It got so unrealistic it wasn't even the slightest bit funny anymore, I just wanted it to end ? I can't say I'll put myself through watching the apparent 'major motion picture'.
Some of the present day parts in it were admittedly funny... SOME. However, the majority of the book was about his past which involved too many very unlikely events and coincidences, too much name dropping of historical leaders and politics and wars and bla bla bla... If you want to learn about European history and gain some knowledge on some historical leaders and events then sure read this book, but I personally didn't pick this book up expecting to be in a history lesson. It got so unrealistic it wasn't even the slightest bit funny anymore, I just wanted it to end ? I can't say I'll put myself through watching the apparent 'major motion picture'.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Of Fire and Stars (Of Fire and Stars #1) in Books
Dec 25, 2018
Having read the prequel to this book already, I can see why a lot of people complained about the lack of worldbuilding. Even though the prequel is based in a neighboring country, there's a lot in this book that I understood based on events in Inkmistress. I definitely recommend reading that one first.
That said, I enjoyed this book a lot. I think Inkmistress is better, but that happens often with new authors. I think the sequel, Of Ice and Shadows, due out this summer, will probably be even better, and should bring the events of the previous two books together.
Like Inkmistress, bisexuality seems to be absolutely normal in Denna's country, with Denna not expressing a preference, Mare having had male and female lovers, and one of Denna's ladies having a female lover. (There is a brief mention of a gay couple as well.) I do wish nonbinary people would make an appearance, but it's something, at least.
There are a lot of twists and turns to the plot in this book, so while Inkmistress was fairly straightforward, this one took me by surprise multiple times. It also makes it much harder to talk about the plot without giving anything away!
I wish we'd discovered more about the King's council - several members of it seemed to have ulterior motives but we never got to see what those were. If we knew their motivations, some things might make a lot more sense and be a lot more satisfying.
Read Inkmistress. If you like the world, go ahead and read this book, because the events of this will be necessary to understand the third book, which takes us back to the country featured in Inkmistress. And I want to know more about that country!
You can read all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
That said, I enjoyed this book a lot. I think Inkmistress is better, but that happens often with new authors. I think the sequel, Of Ice and Shadows, due out this summer, will probably be even better, and should bring the events of the previous two books together.
Like Inkmistress, bisexuality seems to be absolutely normal in Denna's country, with Denna not expressing a preference, Mare having had male and female lovers, and one of Denna's ladies having a female lover. (There is a brief mention of a gay couple as well.) I do wish nonbinary people would make an appearance, but it's something, at least.
There are a lot of twists and turns to the plot in this book, so while Inkmistress was fairly straightforward, this one took me by surprise multiple times. It also makes it much harder to talk about the plot without giving anything away!
I wish we'd discovered more about the King's council - several members of it seemed to have ulterior motives but we never got to see what those were. If we knew their motivations, some things might make a lot more sense and be a lot more satisfying.
Read Inkmistress. If you like the world, go ahead and read this book, because the events of this will be necessary to understand the third book, which takes us back to the country featured in Inkmistress. And I want to know more about that country!
You can read all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
TM
The Meat Book: 130 Classic Recipes from Around the World
Ben O'Donoghue and Curtis Stone
Book
The Meat Book is the ultimate cookbook for the carnivore in all of us; packed full of delicious...
Labyrinth Learning games for children age 3-5: Help the animals to find their way through the maze
Games and Education
App
* Learning games for kids aged 3-5 * Based on pedagogical principles * Motivate kids to learn for...
Reading this would be a great cure to insomnia...
This book has been on my shelf for quite some time. Mainly because it's a beast of a read - a huge 650 page hardback book - and I've not had the inclination to read. As my pile of unread books is dwindling drastically, I finally decided to give it a go and overall I was pleasantly surprised.
My biggest surprise when reading the first few chapters was the realisation that this book isn't what the Christopher Nolan film Insomnia was based on. I cant even tell you why I thought this in the first place 😕 Once I got over this, I really got into the book or at least the first few hundred pages. As always with King, the book is very well written with a likeable protagonist and well developed secondary characters. The problem is that the story is maybe a little convoluted and isn't helped by the sheer length of it all. 200 pages in I was wondering how this could be dragged out for 650 pages and whilst it never gets as tedious as you'd imagine, this is definitely longer than it needed to be. Whilst the plot is typical King, it gets a little confusing and 'out there' even for him and I think he could've simplified this a little. Because of this I could only read up to 100 pages at a time as it made me feel rather sleepy - a perfect cure for insomnia I'm sure.
By the end of the book I did come to at least enjoy this story more than I thought I would, and even shed a tear or two. This definitely isn't a book for casual readers though and not one of King's best. But if you're looking for a door stop sized challenge, you could do much worse than this!
My biggest surprise when reading the first few chapters was the realisation that this book isn't what the Christopher Nolan film Insomnia was based on. I cant even tell you why I thought this in the first place 😕 Once I got over this, I really got into the book or at least the first few hundred pages. As always with King, the book is very well written with a likeable protagonist and well developed secondary characters. The problem is that the story is maybe a little convoluted and isn't helped by the sheer length of it all. 200 pages in I was wondering how this could be dragged out for 650 pages and whilst it never gets as tedious as you'd imagine, this is definitely longer than it needed to be. Whilst the plot is typical King, it gets a little confusing and 'out there' even for him and I think he could've simplified this a little. Because of this I could only read up to 100 pages at a time as it made me feel rather sleepy - a perfect cure for insomnia I'm sure.
By the end of the book I did come to at least enjoy this story more than I thought I would, and even shed a tear or two. This definitely isn't a book for casual readers though and not one of King's best. But if you're looking for a door stop sized challenge, you could do much worse than this!
MP
Managing Piety: The Shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh
Book
The shrine of Ali Hajveri (known as Data Ganj Bakhsh) in Lahore, Pakistan, is one of the South Asias...
HT
Harlem's Theaters: A Staging Ground for Community, Class, and Contradiction, 1923-1939
Book
Based on a vast amount of archival research, Adrienne Macki Braconi's illuminating study of three...
Smashbomb (4683 KP) created a post in Smashbomb Council
Jan 20, 2020
Lizz Cook (11 KP) rated Practical Magic in Books
Jul 3, 2018
Good Witches based book!
I liked the book on a few different levels. Being a writer can be difficult, and she wrote in third person which to me can be very difficult.
The mother is the main character because she overshadowed her daughter's actions (lives). It's about the Owen's family, mainly the sisters who resided in Massachusetts with their aunts. I love the themes of a family bond, they have to learn to appreciate each other and for who they are but also highlights the differences in the sisters. Learning that magic doesn't always fix everything. They use magic sparingly, only when they needed it.
Alice made Fate a real and breathing thing, the secondary theme. If you haven't read the book, prepare yourself to have an open mind because the story is a bit darker than you would expect. It can be entirely entertaining towards the right audience.
The mother is the main character because she overshadowed her daughter's actions (lives). It's about the Owen's family, mainly the sisters who resided in Massachusetts with their aunts. I love the themes of a family bond, they have to learn to appreciate each other and for who they are but also highlights the differences in the sisters. Learning that magic doesn't always fix everything. They use magic sparingly, only when they needed it.
Alice made Fate a real and breathing thing, the secondary theme. If you haven't read the book, prepare yourself to have an open mind because the story is a bit darker than you would expect. It can be entirely entertaining towards the right audience.