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Review: Ghost Station

Review: Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes from Tor Nightfire #Horror #ScienceFiction #Space #Station

My sister, a doctor, told me that people go into healthcare to heal themselves or heal someone they love. I have to think that’s even more true when it comes to mental healthcare. But as with any person, therapists can’t escape their pasts, especially if they choose to run from it. One way we run from our past is the secrets we keep from others and the secrets that we refuse to confront in…

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Review: The Silverblood Promise

Review: The Silverblood Promise by James Logan from Tor Books #Fantasy #Series #Debut #Reconciling

Death always comes too soon. We don’t think about it as a survival mechanism, but it’s out there waiting for all of us. Yet, we delay things because we believe tomorrow will come. Whether optimism or naivete, we put off doing things that are difficult, that are painful. We put off reconciling. Sometimes, we put it off too long and can never reconnect. Lukan Gardova in The Silverblood Promise by…

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Review: What Feasts at Night

Review: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher from Tor Nightfire #horror #AlexEaston #mushrooms

Humans are, by nature, a social animal. We need contact with others to stay emotionally and mentally healthy. It’s also why readers and movie goers attach to characters. We want to find ourselves in characters, but we also want to find our friends and family in characters as well. In character driven fiction, different experiences are available to us. But, in all of these experiences, we can live…

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Review: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

Review: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older from Tordotcom #Jupiter #cozy #mystery #romance #tea #sciencefiction

Jupiter is my favorite planet. I find the storms and the atmosphere beautiful. The idea of living amongst those swirling gases and turbulent storms is exciting and daunting. It’s also beyond the scope of technology that we have and could possibly foresee. So when Malka Older set her series of cozy mysteries on Jupiter, I was intrigued and pleased. After all, that’s what science fiction is for,…

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Review: Hit 'Em Where It Hurts

Review: Hit 'Em Where It Hurts by Rachel Bitecofer from Crown Publishing #politics #democrats #progressives #winning

I love politics. I hate my political party. I’m a registered Democrat because I hate the GOP worse. The GOP’s moral cowardice towards Trump and their support of Eric Greitens pushed me from independent to registered Democrat. And that, in short, is how politics in the U.S. truly works. We don’t vote for our team; we vote against the other team. Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts by Rachel Bitecofer takes…

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Review: The Tainted Cup

Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett from Del Rey #fantasy #book #mystery #TheTaintedCup

Some books just click with you. The plot, the characters, the setting, the mystery, the themes, etc., all just work together to make a truly wonderful reading experience. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett did that for me. It’s a book that just hit on all cylinders, and I cannot wait for the next one in this promising series.Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in…

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Review: Limitarianism

Review: Limitarianism by Ingrid Robeyns from Astra House #extremewealth #economics #limitarianism #eattherich

Billionaires shouldn’t exist. It feels weird for me to write that sentence even though I intellectually know it to be true. My younger, conservative self would be dumbfounded if he knew he would one day write those words. But they are the truth. Extreme wealth has thrown society out of balance in many ways. It was something I began to suspect long before Elon’s very public and ongoing mental…

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Review: Memoirs of a French Courtesan: Volume 1

Review: Memoirs of a French Courtesan: Volume 1 by Céleste Mogador, translated by Kristen Hall-Geisler #memoir #France #courtesan

Ever since I began learning the French language, I’ve taken an interest in its history and culture. I’ve been seeking out more books to understand the language better because language is as much a product of culture as vice versa. So, when I saw a chance to review a memoir of a French courtesan, I jumped on the opportunity. Memoirs of a French Courtesan: Volume 1: Rebellion by Céleste Mogador and…

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2023 Year's End

2023 Year's End A look back at life in 2023 #Review #Goals #Improving

2023 Well, the year has come and gone. It’s time for the 2023 year’s end review. This has been a fantastic year for the blog. I’ll get to that in a minute, but first I want to thank you the reader. This has been the best year by far since I began blogging on Primmlife.com, and I appreciate each and every person who stopped by for a visit. This is a labor of love. It costs me money to keep this…

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Review: The Curse of Penryth Hall

Review: The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong from Minotaur Books #mystery #Cornwall

Some novels are immersive. I get lost in character or story or action. I get caught up world building. Rarely do I get caught up in scenery or setting of a novel. When it does happen, I love it. It’s always a joy to be surprised by a novel, especially when you read as much as I do. The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong was a novel where I got lost in the scenery and setting. It was…

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My Latest Review at Strange Horizons

My Latest Review at Strange Horizons #Reviews #Fantasy #SFF

My Latest Review at Strange Horizons My review of The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft is live on Strange Horizons! Check it out and while you’re there, look over the other wonderful stories, reviews, and poems that Strange Horizons has produced.

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Review: The Olympian Affair

Review: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher from Ace Books #Fantasy #Airships #Politics #Cats

When I read the opening to The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher, I was intrigued. I kept reading, and I found it to be a perfectly serviceable swashbuckling adventure story. Then I met Rowl, and I was hooked. So, of course, I was going to read The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher, which is the second book in the Cinder Spires series. This book continues with the wonderful world and story from the…

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Review: Milton Friedman

Review: Milton Friedman by Jennifer Burns from Farrar, Straus and Giroux #politics #economics #conservatives #MiltonFriedman

Intellectual biographies are a weakness of mine (see also: Jacques Derrida and Edgar Allan Poe). I’m interested in how people learn, form, and live their ideas, and if those people are intellectuals, so much the better. Education, study, and becoming an expert in something matters greatly to me. Reading about how others have done that provides lessons for me. This applies even if I disagree with…

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Review: Blood Betrayal

Review: Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan from Minotaur Books #mystery #police #race #procedural

Fiction allows readers to get inside the lives of other people. It allows us to practice empathy because we can learn about experiences that we’ll never have. For example, I, a white male, will never be harassed by the police in the way that a black man will be. I, an engineer, will never have to determine in split seconds whether the thing in someone’s hand is a weapon meant to kill me like a…

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Interview with Author Ed McDonald

Interview with Author Ed McDonald Thanks to @Torbooks for the assist here. #TraitorofRedwinter #ChroniclesofRedwinter #Fantasy #Books #Authors

Life is as always very busy, and what’s the best thing to do when you’re busy? Add in something new to work on. With that in mind, I decided to change things up from my normal routine and conduct an interview with an author whose work I admire. This will be the first interview I’ve done on my blog, and I’m happy with how it turned out. For the first interview, I reached out to author Ed McDonald…

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Review: Traitor of Redwinter

Review: Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald from Tor Books #books #fantasy #review #magic #politics

I am a series lover. I enjoy spending time in an author’s creation. I love it when author’s explore their worlds and show their imagination. While this is usually something I find in horror, fantasy, and science fiction, it’s not limited to those genres. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry was the first book that I wanted to never end. Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is the latest book that…

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Review: Kakistocracy

Review: Kakistocracy by Alex Shvartsman from CAEZIK #ScienceFiction & #Fantasy #books #bookcommunity #review

Second books in a series are actually way more important for a series than the first book. Sure, the first book is what hooks the reader, but it’s the second book that shows whether the long term commitment to a series is worth it. Second books are also difficult because they have to be better than the first while still doing everything the first book does. It has to introduce the characters…