April 2021 – Ryan’s Book Blog

Shadow Puppets

April 25, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Published in August of 2002, Shadow Puppets is the third book in the Orson Scott Card’s Shadow Series. This installment follows Bean and Petra through their marriage and sees the resolution of their conflict with Achilles.

My Thoughts

Not a bad book but again it seems to give so much power to Achilles were it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Peter Wiggin continues to be more understandable and we see continued redemption of the Wiggin parents. All made the characters more human and therefore more likeable. Well done!

Recommendation

Good book

Shadow of the Hegemon

April 24, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Published in December of 2000, Shadow of the Hegemon is the second book in Orson Scott Card’s Shadow series. While we know the Hegemon will be Peter Wiggin (older and more aggressive brother of Ender Wiggin) the book primarily follows Bean and Petra through their lives after the great battle of Ender’s Game. It raises the specter of war on Earth after we ran out of others to fight.

My Thoughts

While it made sense the nation-states would fall back into war, I was surprised the main villain turned out to be Achilles who grew up on the streets with Bean. I just didn’t see him as that much of a character. Peter Wiggin becomes more reasonable now that he is overmatched and knows it. Also, we finally see the Wiggin parents weren’t quite the 2-dimensional characters they were made out to be.

Recommendation

Not a bad read

Like War

April 22, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Published in 2018, Like War gives the terrifying truth of how social media has been weaponized and will continue to be going forward. It shows us how we are starting to lose track of who we can trust and how bad we are at sussing out what is real and what is fake.

My Thoughts

This book was suggested as a possible course to help Marines think about what is going on in social media. It is a great book but the subject matter changes so much that I could feel it was 3 years out of date. The book also feels unbalanced. Sections of it read like an indictment of the Trump administration and other “alt-right” organizations yet, there was no mention of anything negative on the left. Coupled with President Biden in office, and the fact his administration hasn’t changed anything, it feels more out of date. However, I really enjoyed the book and feel the concepts covered are relevant and important to understand.

Recommendation

Great book but take the political commentary with a grain of salt.

Children of the Mind

April 11, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Published in August of 1996, Children of the Mind is the final book in the Ender’s Game series. It finishes the tale of Ender Wiggin and shows what happened to the 4 sentient life forms they knew about. Is there another?

My Thoughts

It was well written and I enjoyed the experience. Some of the ideas presented were one’s I hadn’t really thought about before (e.g. communicating via ingestion). All of which is fun enough. However, there was something about this book that was tugging at me and I haven’t been able to really put a finger on it. I don’t believe I will read it again though I will likely read Ender’s Game a few more time as least. Perhaps I will revisit this at another time.

Recommendation

On the fence. It was worth closing out the series but it left me wanting.

American Dirt

April 8, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Originally published in 2018, the book had a huge bump by Oprah endorsing it for her book club in Jan 2020. It is the story of a mother and her son fleeing from the cartels in Mexico to seek refuge in America.

My Thoughts

Pure crap. I didn’t like the book at all. The story does move you forward and keeps you wondering what comes next until you stop and think about what stereotypical drivel you are reading. It is obviously a bleeding-heart dig at the situation at the border and was written during the Trump administration. (I doubt it would be as popular if released today.) The characters are overblown and they try so hard to make them relatable. However, it is so over the top, I just couldn’t buy into it.

My mother-in-law is reading it for her book club so I decided to read it. I didn’t know what it was or what it was about when I picked it up. It was extremely validating to see all the controversy about it and how many others shared my thoughts. I particularly enjoyed watching Oprah try to back peddle and saw how it blew up in everyone’s face.

Recommendation

Pure crap. Don’t even bother with it.

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates

April 6, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Published in November of 2015, Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates gives the story of one of America’s first conflict overseas. It details how we went from paying ransoms to fighting in our own self-defense putting us on to the world stage.

My Thoughts

This was a very interesting book. Given that I work with Marines, you would think I would have been more familiar with this story but there was a lot that surprised me. I knew we paid off the pirates to leave our ships alone until we were ready to defend ourselves but I didn’t know how close that struggle was or the real story. This was a pivotal moment in our history and could have gone very differently.

Recommendation

Great read. I highly recommend it.

The Iliad

April 2, 2021 by Ryan

Background

Tales as old as time… The Iliad, also known as the “Song of Ilium”, is an epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer in the 8th century BC. However, all of it is debatable. What isn’t debatable is it tells the story of the Trojan War, the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, the climatic fight between Achilles and Hector, and all the Greed gods causing issues.

My Thoughts

My first thought was the translation I had was hilarious in terms of the wording. “Bite the dust,” “hurly- burly,” and other such gems were fun to come across in the Trojan setting. There were several Roman crossovers as well, “Juno” rather than “Hera” and so on. The biggest stars of this book was really Zeus and the rest of the gods. Everything was blamed on them and they were in every detail. They were constantly fighting and picked sides in the conflict.

Recommendation

It was pretty underwhelming to read but so important to Western culture that it is worth the time.