Author: Martha Wells Series: The Murderbot #4 Publication year: October 2, 2018 Book Description (from GoodReads): Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right? Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit. But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue? And what will become of it when it’s caught? Thoughts: By now it does feel a bit formulaic. The adventures keep piling up. Murderbot is still a bit annoying insisting it does not have feelings and continues to think humans cannot really care about or it should be possible to care for humans.  Anyway, Murderbot decides to finally go back to Dr. Mensa...

  Author: Martha Wells Series: The Murderbot Diaries #3 Published date: August 7, 2018 Genre: Sci-Fi Book description (GoodReads): SciFi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is. And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good Thoughts: Murderbot is still on the move. After their last mission and with money and a bit of practice the next mission begins. The course is set, and pretending to be human without the help of ART might prove to be more difficult than Murderbot wanted.  Murderbot heads off to Milu, a deserted terraforming facility in space, to investigate the past of a murky group called GrayCris, yes the same group we saw in the first book. It is probably because Murderbot still feels guilty about Dr. Mensah and the other humans that they abandoned. The new crew of h...

  Author: Martha Wells Series The Murderbot Diaries #2 Genre: Sci-Fi Publication date: Book Description (from GoodReads): It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks. Thoughts  Murderbot decides to run away from the humans it got close to during the mission. They do not trust humans and after getting to know them, more feelings and theories are proven wrong. Murderbot had a very specific idea on what bots should be and humans. After the previous mission, all those ideas are thrown out the window.  Murderbot is annoying, they insist on their inability to have emotions and therefore the...

 Author: Stuart Albert Genre: Nonfiction Publication date: January 1, 2013 (sidenote: I am reading it exactly 8 years after it was published. Not important just a nice coincidence). Book Description(from GoodReads): An elegant and counterintuitive guide to achieving perfect timing Timing is everything. Whether we are making strategic business decisions or the smallest personal choice, we must decide not only what to do, but when to do it. Act too early--or too late--and the results can be disastrous. Based on a 20-year investigation into more than 2,000 timing issues and errors, When presents a single and practical approach for dealing with timing in life and business. Good timing, Albert argues, is not just a matter of luck, intuition, or past experience--all of which may be unreliable--but a skill. He describes that skill and details the tools and methods needed to conduct a successful timing analysis. The book is the first to offer an efficient and comprehensive way to thin...

  Author: Hiroyuki Takei Translator: Lillian Olsen, Erin Procter Genre: Manga Quick description: The opening ceremonies are over and the first challenge of the Shaman Fight is assigned. The shamans are dropped off in North America with the mission to reach the Patch Village in 3 months - with no directions or guidance. Alongside Yoh are allies, enemies, and spirits - all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to become the next Shaman King. Most notable is Hao, the enigmatic yet familiar self-professed "Future King". Again we will include a few more volumes here. It should be very obvious but everything from here onward will be spoilery. I don't think there is an issue mainly because well, this series is over 20 years old.  Omnibus 4 volumes 10-12 Yoh, Ryu, Ren, and Horohoro continue the journey together looking for the Patch village. The towns around have not heard of this village or even the tribe, but they manage to run into a young woman who recognizes it. She tel...

  Author: Hiroyuki Takei Translators:  Lillian Olsen, Erin Procter Genre: Manga Original publication date:  December 1998. The omnibus collection is from 2021.  Basic description:  " When he takes a shortcut through a cemetery, Manta Oyamada meets a strange kid with headphones — surrounded by ghosts. The kid is the teenage shaman Yoh Asakura. Tapping the supernatural swordfighting powers of samurai ghost Admidamaru, Yoh fights Bokuto no Ryu, a sword-wielding gang member. But an even more dangerous opponent is stalking Yoh and Manta — a Chinese shaman who wants to possess Amidamaru." So here is the difficult decision. If we include details about every single volume, it will be all spoiler-filled. So this story is not new, it came out over 20 years ago. That's why is described as "this classic from 1998..." When I read that I was a bit surprised. Then I look back and I go, yeah it has been a long time.  Let's stop focusing on the fact that I feel old with thi...

  Author: T.J. Klune Genre: Sci-Fi Publication date: March 16, 2020 Book description: A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days. But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur an...

  Author:  Hiromu Arkawa  Genre: Manga Book description:  Breaking the laws of nature is a serious crime! In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies...the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. Alchemy: the mystical power to alter the natural world; something between magic, art and science. When two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, dabbled in this power to grant their dearest wish, one of them lost an arm and a leg…and the other became nothing but a soul locked into a body of living steel. Now Edward is an agent of the government, a slave of the military-alchemical complex, using his unique powers to obey orders…even to kill. Except his powers aren't unique. The world has been ravaged by the abuse of alchemy. And in pursuit o...

  Author: Stephen Baxter  Genre: Sci-Fi Original publication date: January1995 Book description:   There is a secret passage through time...and it leads all the way to the end of Eternity. But the journey has a terrible cost. It alters not only the future but the "present" in which we live. A century after the publication of H. G. Wells' immortal The Time Machine, Stephen Baxter, today's most acclaimed new "hard SF" author, and the acknowledged Clarke, returns to the distant conflict between the Eloi and the Morlocks in a story that is at once an exciting expansion, and a radical departure based on the astonishing new understandings of quantum physics. Thoughts: It starts off in an interesting manner. We follow our main character as he returns to his normal timeline and no time has been registered so he was not missed really. He tries to share his finding and what he saw with his contemporary scientific society. No one really believes or takes shim seriou...

  For Buzzwordathon the first week of March the prompt was time and I managed to read a few books I wanted to get to for my own personal improvement.  The first book I picked up was:  Tick Tock Time Management: How to Improve Time Management Skills and Stop Procrastination When Your Time Really Counts! Author: Instafo Genre: Nonfiction, Self-Help Original publication date: August 10, 2017 Book description: What fortune awaits you with "Tick Tock Time Management"? * How to overcome procrastination to never fall behind on anything again. * How to organize time to always stay on top of everything that you do. * How to develop self-discipline to finish whatever you must get done. * How to test your time management skills to truly become a time master. * How to maintain time every day habitually to make it a part of who you are. And a whole lot more you shall be blessed with. Regardless if time can never be bought back, you can always manage it better like your life depends...

  Series: A series of unfortunate events # 9 Author: Lemony Snicket Genre: Fantasy, Children Original publication date: October 17th, 2002 Book description (from Storygraph):  Dear reader, The word "carnivorous," which appears in the title of this book, means "meat-eating," and once you have read such a bloodthirsty word, there is no reason to read any further. This carnivorous volume contains such a distressing story that consuming any of its contents would be far more stomach-turning than even the most imbalanced meal. To avoid causing discomfort, it would be best if I didn't mention any of the unnerving ingredients of this story, particularly a confusing map, an ambidextrous person, an unruly crowd, a wooden plank, and Chabo the Wolf Baby. Sadly for me, my time is filled with researching and recording the displeasing and disenchanting lives of the Baudelaire orphans. But your time might be better filled with something more palatable, such as eating your ...

  Series: Hercule Poirot #17  Author: Agatha Christie Genre: Mystery/Thriller Original publication date: 1937 Book description: The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful, a girl who had everything - until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: 'I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.' Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems. Thoughts: I did not read the synopsis for this book before starting it. I saw it and I was very surprised that it spoiled who gets killed. I started to read it and get to know the characters and had no idea Linnet was going to be the person who was murdered. But then I started thinking, Hercule Poirot is always solving murders, so it makes sense that she was the victim all along.  It begins as usual following the c...

Volumes: 27-28 Which include  THE WALKING DEAD #157-168 Author: Robert Kirkman Illustrators: Charlie Adlard, Stefano Gaudiano, Cliff Rathburn, Rus Wooton Publication date: March-October 2017 Book description:  A group of survivors after a zombie epidemic. They have been living in a world where the dead have risen. The walking dead though is not the main threat, the other humans soon proved to be a far greater enemy. Volume 27: the whisperer war  We are very close to the ending, there is no way to review or talk about this without huge spoilers.  Negan comes back after he completes his self-appointed mission. He calmly walks back to Alexandria and allows himself to be guided to Rick. They have a new issue. Wat to do with Negan, he tried in his own way to help them. He defeated Alpha, but then again because Rick's people were chasing after him the Whisperers discovered that Alexandria knows about him. Rick takes his high and mighty posture that annoys me greatly. Negan...

  Author: Stephen King  Genre: Fantasy Original publication date: February 2, 1987 Book description:   A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies, murdered by a strange and horrible poison. While the land of Delain mourns, the evil wizard Flagg, hatches an unscrupulous plot, which sees the King's eldest son Peter imprisoned for his father's murder, and the youngest son inherit the throne. Only Peter knows the truth about his own innocence and the evil that is Flagg. Only Peter can save Delain from the horror that Flagg has in store. But first, he must escape from the high tower Thoughts: This is a good book. It takes a bit to get into it, but overall it's easy, or let's say not something too complicated. The world has soft magic, it is not very explained and doesn't have strict rules on how it works. We have a huge page count on napkins, if you have read it you will understand.  This is a bit of a mix between a little plot and a lot of character focus. We follo...