Tag Archives: 1 Star

April 20, 2019 · 12:02 pm

Black Powder and Moonlight by Melanie Winter

After reading Black Powder and Moonlight together, neither my sons nor I are quite sure what it was about. There was an overly large number of characters to keep straight particularly considering the short length of the book. The “rules” of the world weren’t really explained much and that made it all the more confusing. What the storyline was, well, there were some characters missing and then they were found and that was about it. I do not recommend this book at all.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2019: 46
Pages Read in 2019: 11,759
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December 31, 2018 · 9:14 pm

The Temple Experience by Wendy Ulrich

The Temple Experience is a terrible book. As I read it, I alternately felt horribly sorry for the clients who go to the author (a therapist) and wondered if perhaps the author’s view of the world is terribly skewed to the point that she thinks absolutely everyone is extremely mentally unhealthy. Worse, though, many things she asserted throughout the book were not doctrinally correct. I absolutely cannot recommend this book to anyone.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2018: 141
Pages Read in 2018: 36,569
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Filed under Reason: It sounded interesting, Religious

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December 17, 2018 · 8:11 pm

The Bill of Rights Primer by Akhil Reed Amar and Les Adams

The Kindle version of The Bill of Rights Primer is so horribly formatted it is difficult to read. There are some serious editing issues as well (which could be part of the formatting problems). The authors are dreadfully boring and talk in circles, repeating themselves over and over. I’m not sure they actually made the argument they said in the beginning they were going to make and then asserted at the end that they made. They do cover the first ten amendments plus the fourteenth which makes the book slightly worthwhile. Because of the formatting problems and how terribly written it is, I cannot recommend it to anyone.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2018: 138
Pages Read in 2018: 35,847
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Filed under History, Reason: Pre-Reading for Cameron

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November 14, 2018 · 4:12 pm

Operation Hail Storm by Brett Arquette

I was asked by the author to read and review Operation Hail Storm. I’m sorry I accepted. I’m also sorry that I seem to lack the ability to put horrible books down and stop reading them. There is so much wrong with this book. There are a multitude of typos and other errors. It reads like a rough draft rather than a finished book. Good writers know they should show rather than tell. The author occasionally succeeds in doing so, but then proceeds to immediately explain what he has just shown once or twice more. It’s kind of bizarre and kind of like when someone tells a joke and then explains the punchline even though you got it the first time. The dialogue doesn’t feel real. It is usually one character asking a question followed by another character answering for several paragraphs. The president is a complete idiot who doesn’t seem to understand how anything works and makes extremely stupid decisions. The CIA doesn’t seem to know that microdrones even exist and are just amazed, and kind of confused, at what Hail can do with his drones. The timeline of the whole thing is completely unbelievable. It’s only been two years since the terrorist attack that spurred Hail to action and, yet, in those two years he’s managed to gather and become the legal guardian of many who were left orphans from the attack and plan, create the tech, train the kids, and begin to carry out his retaliation plan. Most of the characters are rather unlikable and didn’t make me even remotely care about them. Quite simply, this is not a book I recommend anyone bother to read.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2018: 124
Pages Read in 2018: 32,563
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April 17, 2018 · 3:39 pm

Out of the Blue by Gretta Mulrooney

After inheriting her grandmother’s cottage in Cork, Liv leaves London to clear her head and think things through while her husband goes to a clinic to try to get his alcoholism under control. She unexpectedly runs into her first love, Aidan, who is now living near her grandmother’s little town, and sparks fly.

Out of the Blue is a horrible book. Most of the characters are incredibly selfish and think it is no big deal to have an affair. There are three affairs in the book and they all ruin lives, but that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue to participants. It’s like if you are unhappy in your marriage, feel free to step out on your husband or wife. As if the terrible plot wasn’t enough, the writing is sometimes hard to follow due to tense and incredibly boring and slow much of the time. The end is ridiculous and abrupt like the author had no idea how to actually write an ending to a book. I most definitely do not recommend reading this book.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2018: 42
Pages Read in 2018: 9861
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Filed under Realistic Fiction, Reason: Birthstone Bookology

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November 26, 2017 · 7:02 pm

Zera and the Green Man by Sandra Knauf

Zera talks to plants and they talk back. Her guardian, her uncle, is a biotech engineer mixing things like cows and potatoes to make beefy fries. After being visited by the Green Man, Zera knows she must try to stop her uncle.

I really did not like Zera and the Green Man. I very rarely give a book 1 star, but this one earned it. The first half was pretty much okay. And then it just went nuts. I felt like the book was trying to be multiple types of books (and failed miserably at the combination). Sometimes it was sci-fi. Sometimes it was mystical fantasy. Sometimes it was a thriller. Sometimes it was a heavy-handed lecture about how horrible genetic modification is and the dangers of global warming. The writing was not very good, particularly when the lectures droned on. I was hoping the ending would redeem it, but no such luck. The ending was extremely poorly done and rather dumb. I most definitely do NOT recommend this book.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2017: 158
Pages Read in 2017: 42,827
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Reason I Chose It: Birthstone Bookology (Z in TOPAZ)

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August 27, 2017 · 11:23 am

Wulf the Saxon by GA Henty

I never realized the story of the Norman Conquest including descriptions of battles could be made incredibly dull and boring, but GA Henty did his best and definitely succeeded with Wulf the Saxon. I actually found myself making excuses not to read the book, and had I not been pre-reading it for my son for school, I am pretty sure I would’ve stopped reading it completely… something I’ve only done with exactly one book ever. I will say, though, that my house was incredibly clean by the time I finished reading it so I guess it was good for something.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2017: 115
Pages Read in 2017: 31,553
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Reason I Chose It: Pre-reading for Cameron for Next School Year

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April 11, 2017 · 3:17 pm

Traditional Irish Fairy Tales by James Stephens

Traditional Irish Fairy Tales is a collection of ten stories from Ireland. They are all dreadfully dry and boring. There is no key for pronunciation of the names (some of which are very difficult to figure out). I did not enjoy it, nor did my 8-year-old who was assigned to read it for school. I do not recommend this book.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2017: 46
Pages Read in 2017: 13,606
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Reason I Chose It: Assigned to Adrian for School

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August 26, 2016 · 7:27 pm

Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’ve Got Henchmen by Richard Roberts

Penny, Claire, and Ray are back on earth and delighted to find many of their super powered classmates are proclaiming their skills openly. They create an after school club complete with super sparring to practice their skills. Penny, however, can’t participate in the sparring because her parents have asked her not to. Everyone wants to fight her, though, so eventually things happen where she has to get involved.

Honestly, it was darn near impossible to come up with a synopsis of this book. The reason? There was no clear plot. It jumped around, often making no sense because of this. There were grammar and spelling errors. It was in serious need of an editor. I kept hoping it would get better. The first book in the series was so great. The second book was weird, but not horrible. This one was just kind of terrible. There were many characters that were sometimes referred to by their villain/hero names and sometimes by their real names with no rhyme or reason to when making it hard to keep them straight. Penny repeatedly said she couldn’t remember one character’s real name and so she was always referred to as Beaddown and then all of a sudden she was referred to by her real name (Charlotte) and from then on only called her real name and not her hero name. That was just one example of the weird editing issues. The Penny/Ray relationship was ridiculous (particularly since they are only 12 and 13) and it seemed like the same scenes were repeated over and over. Often things happened or side plots were introduced and then abandoned making the whole book a mess. The end was so lame and disappointing. The climax of the story was a dud. I am sad to say I just don’t recommend this book at all.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2016: 79
Pages Read in 2016: 21,050
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November 7, 2015 · 8:54 pm

Actors Anonymous by James Franco

Written as a sort of 12 step program for actors, Actors Anonymous is a truly horrible book. It is a collection of loosely connected stories that sometimes make sense. When they are coherent they are actually decent. Unfortunately those moments are few and far between. Some parts are autobiographical, some parts are loosely based on reality, and some parts are completely fiction. A good portion of it is just stream of consciousness randomness. In among the stories and stream of consciousness chapters, there is a poemish thing about River Phoenix, a part of a fake magazine article that has been annotated with the annotations present for the part of the article that is missing, and some random snippets of scripts. There is some complaining about being a famous actor who is rich because that is, apparently, annoying. If nothing else, I learned that James Franco is a very foul-mouthed sex-obsessed man. He especially likes the a-word and the f-word. There is a whole lot of sex, both gay and straight. Apparently that’s a famous actor perk (so I guess he likes at least one part of being an actor). This book is just plain bad. It is not worth the time it took to borrow it from the Kindle Lending Library.

1 (out of 5) Stars

Books Read in 2015: 98
Pages Read in 2015: 28,410
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Applied to Category for Special Reading Challenge: A book with bad reviews (2 1/2 Stars)

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