Monday, July 24, 2017

Slouch Witch (The Lazy Girl's Guild to Magic Book 1):

Slouch Witch (The Lazy Girl's Guild to Magic Book 1) by: Helen Harper
Fiction: Mystery, Paranormal, Humor, E-book
E-Book Count:7
Book Count:56

Ivy is a taxi driver.  She is also a witch, but she was kicked out of the Order of witches, for some cheating that she did not do.  She is house setting for her neighbor Eve, an up and coming member of the Order, and watching her familiar for her.  When she was over at Eve's apartment, members of the Order knocked on the door.  Before Ivy can inform them that she is not Eve, they announce her promotion and bond her to the leader that she will apprentice under.   They use some extra strong magic, as the head of the department that Eve wants to join is known for not being good with keeping apprentices.  So Ivy is stuck working with him until they find a way to reverse the magic.  Before this happens, they get a major case to solve involving some of the oldest and most important artifacts of the magical world.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Fatima: A Message More Urgent than Ever:

Fatima: A Message More Urgent than Ever by: Luiz Sergio Solimeo
Non-fiction: Religion-C (At least technically, this was read knowing that it wouldn't necessary be orthodox)  134 pages
Physical Book Count: 49
Book Count: 55

1. This book does NOT have a nihil obstat or an imprimatur.  For readers that don't know what that is, it is an official declaration that  a book does not have any doctrinal error.  So this book did NOT get a bishop to sign off on: the theology not being wrong, much less any note on the science, history, politics, etc.  I would not be surprised if this was because they tried to get one, and were told no. 

2. I got this book from my mom, for those that know me IRL you know how bad that can be.  I only read this for what new crazy "won't anyone think of the children," hysteria and over sentimentality, that it would contain.   (For a thing I am working on, not the torture of this type of junk.)

3.  This book is published by "America Needs Fatima" a part of "The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property."  Now I have vaguely heard of ANF before, and found everyone connected to it to be the types from point 2, and the name of the main group just double downs on it.  And after reading the book I did a quick google search of the group and found that all the links in the top pages that were not from the group were either questions on if the group was a rad-trad/fascists/other cult or people stating that they were a cult and/or have been denounced by different bishops as a cult.  Also their only Better Business Bureau review was negative.  

4. This book is a horrible book!  It gets the basic facts on what happened at Fatima right, but then goes on a rant that shows that they have no knowledge of history, science, what communism is, etc. 

Not Fun Not Facts from the book:  We would have won 'Nam if it weren't for politicians and being forced to sign a peace agreement,  evolution is a communist plot, communist are both atheists and neo pagans at the same time,  all evils of the modern world are both new since 1917 and communism, and other things that are just too bad to repeat as it goes beyond the point of crazy stupid to "not touching that with a 10 foot pole." 


Sunday, July 16, 2017

Alton Brown: EveryDayCook:

Alton Brown: EveryDayCook by: Alton Brown
Non-fiction:Food/Cooking 211 pages
Physical Book Count: 48
Book Count: 54

A cook book by Alton Brown, of food that he cooks at home, and not things that he made for his shows like other ones.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Drunken Botanist:

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks by: Amy Stewart
Non-fiction: Science, Food/Drink, 355 pages
Physical Book Count: 47
Book Count: 53

This book covers the major types of plants that are used to make drinks, both as the alcohol and mixers for them.  It starts with the plants that become the main basic forms of alcohol: agave, barley, corn, grapes, sugarcane, etc.  It then deals with the parts of the plants used: herbs, fruit, flowers, etc.  It has notes on what drinks the plants are/may be in.  As well as notes for people interested in growing them.  

Saturday, July 08, 2017

100 Deadly Skills:

100 Deadly Skills By: Clint Emerson
Non-fiction: 243 pages
Physical Book Count: 46
Book Count: 52

This book was written by a retired Navy Seal, and includes many notes about how you should not use  many of the skills in this book.  There are a number of ones where it notes how being aware of your surroundings is the take away for the average person.   Each skill includes a page of step by step artwork on how it works as well as written instructions.  

Friday, July 07, 2017

The Last Secret of Fatima:

The Last Secret of Fatima By: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Non-Fiction, Religion, Biography, History,  163 pages
Physical Book Count: 45
Book Count: 51

This book is mostly  a series of interviews that the author had with Sister Lucia, the last living member of the children that saw the vision of Our Lady of Fatima.  It also has a forward by then Pop Benedict XVI and some other documents that relate to Fatima.

It covers all the major crazy ideas surrounding Fatima and the secrets connected to it, with the answers from the last living visionary, i.e. the one person who should know the truth.  So in no particular order: there is no additional secret, there is no additional letter she wrote  to the Popes, she didn't tell John Paul I that he would be the Pope, or that he would be killed as the Pope (though she might have commented that he would make a good pope as a personal observation, not some message from Heaven,) and the 1984 consecration of the world counted, even thought it did not say Russia, but only hinted at it.  (The reason being that the Pope did not want to upset the Patriarch of Russia, also related, the error of Russia was about the militant atheism of communism and not a slight on the Orthodox Church.)  Also, both Sister Lucia and St. Pope John Paul II agreed that the third secret relates to when he was shot in 1980, and the book pointed out many connections between the event and Fatima as well as the fact that he was almost to the point of death and that if it wasn't for a number of unlikely things he would have died.  It also adds a section of thoughts on how visions relate to the visionary and are often symbolic in nature.  (For those that will not believe the event has happened until a pope is killed mountain climbing in the ruins of a city filled with the dead by bows and arrows while angels splash people in blood, etc.)  In short, all the popular conspiracy theories about Fatima, aren't true.