Sotto Voce's Blog, page 5

Light My Pyre (Kat Kinney)

 

The good thing about fantasy is that the imagination can belimitless. I believe I had watched some old Asian movie about dragonshapeshifters, but I certainly had never read a book about it.

The book follows the journey of Asher (a firefighter; thisis not as close as Bookman as a librarian in Seinfeld, and definitely notbetter than a real-life firefighter, Lieutenant Les McBurney, but good enough)facing the challenge of a serial arsonist who seems to have something againsthim. He moves to...

BOOK REVIEW: LIght My Pyre (Kat Kinney)

 

The good thing about fantasy is that the imagination can belimitless. I believe I had watched some old Asian movie about dragonshapeshifters, but I certainly had never read a book about it.

The book follows the journey of Asher (a firefighter; thisis not as close as Bookman as a librarian in Seinfeld, and definitely notbetter than a real-life firefighter, Lieutenant Les McBurney, but good enough)facing the challenge of a serial arsonist who seems to have something againsthim. He moves to...

The Silent Day

 

Do you remember the time when you tried to eat chips in theoffice but didn't want to share? Or when you wanted to fart and dropped a bookto conceal the sound, but because of poor timing, you dropped the book, thewhole class went silent, looked at you, and then you farted? Neither do I. Itdidn't happen to me. I swear.

But today, I try to be as quiet as possible. If you havewatched a movie titled The Quiet Place that tells a story about monsters thatattack sound (and everything attached to...

Redemption (Dave Saari)

 

For the mystery, this book has a decent case. It startsstrong and intriguing with a kidnapping and ransom case of a wealthy man'swife. He then fades into the background as we learn that the said wife had beenmurdered, allegedly wrongfully convicted and has been sitting in prison forfive years until a good friend of his hires a private investigator to relookinto the case.

The private investigators called FYI are the maincharacters: husband and wife, Trey and Sybil, and Trey's mother, Made...

Flit (Ed Morawski)

 

Since I was a young adult, I have been dreaming aboutteleportation. Staying away from my loved ones, it's always a delicate balanceto be with them, be in a place with the job, and be in places that are good formy mental well-being. I do not intend to be greedy outside of personal use andam very good at keeping secrets. Because of this wish, I think about this alot, albeit always briefly, about how having this kind of device would impactmy life and others if it's finally realized one day.

...

The Classic (Race) Car

 

Locky has an itchy fit after I picked him up from hisoriginal grandma (a boarding perk I got from his original family when I adoptedhim. He has a second home whenever I am away). Besides medication andantiseptic soap, the vet suggested that he put on a cone or a shirt to preventhim from scratching. Here he is unhappy with the fashion choice, and that is mybest T-shirt!

 

But he got comfortable after I fastened it and slept wellinto the morning. On the way to beautiful, itch-free skin!

Duri...

It's Not Too Late for April 14 Valentine Day

 

We still did manual drawings in uni, no computer, all handdrawn on humongous papers. I didn't have a drawing table, but fortunately, Icould use the communal ones on my campus, which also meant I spent days andnights there preparing my final presentation each semester with a bunch of otherclassmates who also didn't have drawing tables or those who preferredcompanions during those sleepless nights. The schedule got crazier the closerwe were to graduation.

It was miserable yet memorable; we...

Free Thermos (For Me!)

 

For me.

I am sorry, this is not a free gift announcement. Instead,it's a post about me boasting about my free thermos. Or the opposite.

It’s February, and I hope the new year has been kind to youso far.

It has been fantastic for me, maybe not to others'standards, but I don't need to live up to those, and I have just got a freethermos! 

You know the threat of AI replacing us is real; it has beenfor a long time. They 'write,' they do backflips, they make stuff, they aregreat in accurac...

REVIEW: Jigsaw: Powder Keg (David Alyn Gordon)

This is one of the weirdest books I have ever read.

I like the uniqueness of the first of its series, but unlike this one, it was at least contained in a certain theme. While this one is fast-paced with a lot of action, it confuses the hell out of me. I like reading books in nonlinear timelines, and although the timelines here are undoubtedly challenging to follow, as they span thousands of years, I don’t have any problem with that.

Even when I can’t get into the importance of what they are doing,...

REVIEW: Darklands Paranormal (Marco Santucci)

 

This is the second book of the paranormal investigation series by Marco Santucci and also the second book in this genre that I have ever read. Unlike the first book, which feels much more personal, this one follows Marco and his partner, Scott and their visits and investigations to various places, with stories of their encounters with other beings. Scott has a knack for snapping pictures of them, while Marco has his recordings. There are QR codes throughout the book that readers can scan to hea...