Book Reviews

I have been very fortunate, this year in January I started reading in earnest again. I am traveling a lot and work has reached a point that I can listen to audio books. Before this I was listening to podcasts but I want to go back to reading some books.

I use Goodreads, however because you can never tell about a site if you will lose everything I will also post here. If you want to see my Good Reads profile here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1570983-lucky

The Civil War Battlefield Guide

The Civil War Battlefield Guide by Frances H. Kennedy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is an excellent resource of every single battle in the American Civil War. It is not an in depth detail, rather a basic guide for all 350+ battles. It helped me find other sources for the battles as well so I could produce my American Civil War Battles youtube spots.

Definitely recommend for the American civil war history buff!

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Skin Game

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Much like his other books this is enjoyable and goes by very quickly. I listened to it on audiobook so I got to hear James Marsters read it and that is half the fun. Don't get me wrong, John Glover was good on the book he did, but when I think Harry Dresden, I think of "Spike" aka James Marsters voice.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I just want to reiterate I like it. You meet new characters, along with the old. Its nice to see that maybe... just maybe Harry might be coming back to some form or normality (well at least normality for him).

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Locke & Key

Locke & Key by Joe Hill

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

THIS IS FOR THE AUDIBLE AUDIO PLAY/BOOK ONLY!

To be perfectly honest I couldn't get into it. Listening to the audio play (is that what it is considered?) wasn't a lot of fun. The sound was echoey and not nearly as professional as other audio books I have listend.

I have read audio books that are read by a cast and those have been fine, but this is more like a play you are listening to and because you don't hear them talking about the action itself but just the sounds of the action (like a gunshot instead of them talking about raising the gun and firing) I found I couldn't get into it.

Also, even though there are some actors doing the parts, I just didn't really like any of their performance. I won't be listening to any more in this series. I wouldn't even recommend trying it. It isn't that the story idea is bad, but the way the performance works it just isn't for me.

I did give it two stars because the plot was interesting, maybe if you read it it will come out better.

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Last two days in Los Angeles

The last two days in Los Angles were quiet. There wasn't much to say except I went to class on Thursday, went back to the hotel and talked with the hubby for about an hour. Even though I found Yum Yum donuts the night before, I have to say it was still way better talking with my husband then eating heaven on earth.

This beats everything.

Friday was a 3/4 day of work. Don't get me wrong, there has been things I have learned, however it is called a "work session" and so there were many hours of just rerunning programs with no real goal. The highlight of this last work session day was going to lunch at chipotle across the street. It was like a contest, it had been raining heavily all day, and I had not realized that L.A. does not have the same kind of drainage that Seattle does and the streets were literally flooded 3-4 inches deep. The topper for our trip out, on the way back a truck slammed into a mud puddle beside my supervisor and I and a wave of water 4 foot high (no, that is not hyperbole) swept across us. The annoying part is I heard and saw him coming, but it was slow motion and I couldn't get out of the way.

yep wet, tired and ready to go home.

We finally got back to the class and I was soaked. I couldn't dry off either because my clothes were packed in the car a couple of blocks away. So I sat there in the class for three hours and dripped. Funny enough my lightweight coat was soaked the whole flight. So by the time we left Friday I couldn't get out of there fast enough. We ended up driving back to the airport and it only took about 35 minutes on the freeways, so we were fortunate.

I was sad to leave palm trees... don't worry I will be back in San Diego in 41 hours.

Once at the airport I had time to look around. The first thing I noticed was how run down the terminal. It was a bit dirty everywhere, things seemed to be falling apart and it was lacking in any real food/store selection. The Sea-Tac and Atlanta airports both have several stores, restaurants and fast food. There wasn't any fast food at all in the terminal I was in at all. The biggest disappointment though was the swag in the airport shops. I tried to find the hubby his travel spoon from Los Angeles but no luck. There was only two shops in the area to begin with and they were bare of almost anything I was interested in. That was a real disappointment and the first time I couldn't find a spoon.

crowded and dirty ;(

The flight back was ok. It was very short (only about 2 hours and 12 minutes in the air) but this was a Boeing 717 which means absolutely no leg room. Seriously I never once could touch the ground with my feet when my legs were straight forward. The flight was short though, and I had the aisle so I did survive it.

Yep, leg room is just an illusion

Finally I rolled into the Sea-Tac Airport and the hubby picked me up. I can't tell you how much I missed him. We crawled in bed, talked for a long time then fell asleep. He definitely made everything all right.

I missed that look when I photograph him randomly.

There are probably a few little stories I forgot to tell. I will probably bring them up later. However, overall my trip wasn't the worst. I definitely like Los Angeles better than Atlanta. The people are very similar to Pacific Northwest, with a bit of gun loving that was a surprise. Tomorrow morning (today is the Saturday after coming home) I fly back down to San Diego. I will post more about that as I go.