Sotto Voce's Blog, page 6

REVIEW: A Darker Shade of Sorcery (William Collins)

The good thing about fantasy books is that everything can be up to the imagination. You can find everything in this book, I mean, everything: orcs, gargoyles, vampires, demons, elves, wizards, zombies, ghosts, modern life, other realms, too many to mention. While I applaud the author’s creativity, it also feels a bit overwhelmed and, at times, thrown together in a lump. Yes, it’s a fantasy, but it’s also a good way not to have explanations for many things. Maybe I shouldn’t wonder if a ghost is ...

REVIEW: All The Life I Could Not Speak (Shubelle John Baptiste)

This book could help kids or even adults struggling in difficult social situations, regardless of where you are in the spectrum. I relate to most situations and wish I had read something like this.

The illustrations are wonderful. I am sure it's much nicer to hold this book in its physical format. In my opinion, the language is a bit too complex and mouthful at times for a children's book, but on the plus side, it doesn't simplify the situations and is most likely more acceptable to a wide range ...

REVIEW: The Haight (Peter Moreira)

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The Haight is a murder investigation book that is more than murder investigations. The book is fast-paced, and we are introduced to many characters; almost all of them are fleshed out well with their distinctive traits. Although many names are thrown around, I don't have difficulty remembering them because they are not just names.

The story follows the main character, Jimmy Spracklin, to a case that is easily overlooked as suicide, but things are not what it seems. Besides the case, we learn abou...

Trial Run (S. Lynn Helton)

 

Trial Run is an entertaining, well-written, and fast-pacedstory centred around the main character’s journey to get admitted to anunderground organization. It is the last test before she becomes an officialmember.

I enjoyed the reading, but mostly because I had read thefirst book, I knew some of the characters, I knew the organization, I knew bitsand pieces of the world, and I knew the continuation of the story to a certainextent.

However, if I had read this book first, something would h...

Wish You a Gentle One

 

Every year, I take the same picture, with the same dog, withthe same small Christmas tree and decorations. As usual, he just rolls hiseyes, gets bored, and sleeps. Me, bored? No. I wish I could do this next year,the next, and the next…

This is my last post for this year. 2023 has been agood year for me. In book sales? No! Haha! You, funny, you. I just want to sayas long as my loved ones are still with me, it is a good year. Everything elseis a bonus.

The holiday season is usually associ...

PUPPY

 PETS ARE NOTSEASONAL GIFTS

Acouple of years ago, we were at the end of our morning beach walk, and insteadof walking on the sand, we made a detour to the paving area to avoid a strayfriend. We didn’t expect to meet a lot of strays that day, and our food had runout. (Feeding strays is unpredictable; we never know who will show up). But notto take the risk, we took the detour instead of meeting that regular fur boy inthat area empty-handed.

Theysay that sometimes things are meant to be....

A Free Gift

One day, an unknown teacherwalked into our class. She introduced herself, saying that she would be thesubstitute teacher for a few months because our math teacher had personalissues that he needed to be away for a while.

OurMath teacher was fun; most of us enjoyed his class, so it was a bummer.However, we were not mean students; we just went with it. It was obvious to methat this teacher, Miss Sarah, was motivated. She was young, and although shedidn’t have the charm of our teacher and h...

Ordinary Life Is Underrated

 

Riding or driving in Bali is tricky. Bali is very diverse;you can find multilane roads with big intersections or hidden roads betweenpaddy fields. Almost all of those are acknowledged by Google Maps, Waze, orpaper maps (which is why it’s tricky).

If you are riding, things are simpler; you can stop almostanywhere to renavigate if you are lost or go around small roads and alleys thatbarely fit a human. But if you are driving, good luck; GPS can pinpoint you tostreets that are not fitting f...

An Unofficial Guide to NYPD Blue (Gene Kendall)

 

I am a fan of the BBC Sherlock TV series, and there was atime when I devoured everything about it. From behind-the-screen productionbook, an almost-all-pictures casebook, to a book written by a fan to analyzethe show. There is certainly a market for this, as I am pretty sure ImdB itselfis not enough for devoted fans.

This book is a gigantic, detailed review of the show. Iremember when NYPD Blue first became available where I lived (far later thanits original airing), but it was one of th...

Dream Job Rant

 

Have you ever liked a quote and then realized it's not thebest advice? (I know, quotes are not advices)

I used to like ''Do what you love, and you will never workanother day in your life.'' While it sounds great, it's the fastest way to ruinwhat you love.

I love animals, so naturally, living in an urban jungle backthen, I thought my dream job was working in the zoo. It was a world-class zoowith a sparkling reputation. I was fortunate to get a job there with littleexperience back then, a...