K.A. Ashcomb's Blog, page 47

Short Story: Pressure Cooker

God, I hate this city. That is the first and last thought I have every day. Now, I stare at the brown blotch on the ceiling. What a fitting image. I try to prolong my stay on the bed, but the stain gets more depressing every minute I let my attention stay on it.

I push my feet outside the cover and let them fall on the floor as unattached and heavy as I feel. That would be a story to tell if they actually fell off. I’m not even lucky enough to get an escape to a hospital and then put into an ...

Book Review: Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

This is my 200th book review, and there is no fitting one to write it from than Monstrous Regiment because it is an odd Discworld novel, yet, brilliant. It doesn’t feel like a Discworld book until the last pages. Before that, the tone is more serious, more coherent, and raw somehow. This is a story about the silliness of war and what it does to the people and the country. However, that is just a backdrop for Polly and the other members of the company who have suffered through hell to get where t...

Book Review: The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford

Splendid setting for a story, but superficial. The characters are cardboard cutouts of this Hollywood style storytelling. They are there, have personality, are interesting, and have a background, but attempts to go deeper and dwell on actual problems people face with existing in this universe are half-hearted. This is sad because there was something in this book that really deserves to be read and appreciated.

Tegan is not your typical badass superhero. First, she is not some wet fantasy or p...

Short Story: Ticktock Heart

The day always starts and ends with a plan. It is pre-designed, nothing ever changes, yet I have to push and pull myself to go through the motions. Winding up for another day with an endless list, going through the motions tired and as satisfied as a laboratory mouse on an electric pad. The hours go past; the years go by, and I wish for a change, but no one ever gives me a choice. I push on, crossing every line from top to bottom despite my fatigue. The list has to be fulfilled, or I deem the da...

Book Review: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil

I first came across Cathy O’Neil’s concept of Weapons of Math Destruction on a philosophy podcast. I was spellbound and horrified of how math was used carelessly (cursed are the poorly made proxies) to shape our societies and tamper with people’s lives. She spoke of broken window programs and how lopsided they are, and she spoke lengthily about the data economy and consequences of it. I had to read the book and hear what else she, as a mathematician and insider from finance, had to say how data ...

Book Review: Time Travel: A History by James Gleick

I had fun with this book, and my mind kept thinking weird new stories to tell while I listened to it. So you could say the book was inspirational. But this is one of those odd books that easily disappoint people, and that is trough a misconception of the concept of time travel combined with history. They might think this is about the science behind time travel, and it partly is, but mostly the book goes over the ideas on how time and time travel have been handled in literature, especially in sci...

Gone Fishing!

Hi everyone! No storytime today or next week. That includes book reviews as well. For personal reasons, Im taking a small break. I wish you an amazing time. Happy reading and writing

-K and her cat

P.S. stay purrlecious!

Book Review: The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Okay, I cannot really review this book as it is intended as I read this as research for my upcoming book. As a material for my book, I got a ton of information that I can use to make my characters and the setting seem more authentic, but that is not the only thing that caught my eye. It was the psychology behind it all: the philosophies and spirituality through nature. The connection we form with nature is powerful and meaningful, studies have shown that it promotes both health and happiness,...

Book Review: Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell

A story, characters, and setting that is almost there. The reading experience started poorly for me. The narrative kept jumping around mid-chapter from one person to another without even the courtesy space between viewpoint changes. And I got frustrated and was about to put the book down. Then the story opened up to me, and I got giddy about the idea of this being about zoning committee policies and how people handle them and how witches and dark forces are tied to them. I was all in with the...

Short Story: What-If Machine

NEVER FRET OVER THE CHOICES YOU MAKE, LET THE WHAT-IF MACHINE GUIDE YOU THROUGH LIFE TO RIGHT PATH AND HAPPINESS, flashed on his screen. He looked at the words and was about to click the ad away, but something stopped him. He had had a string of bad luck lately, breaking up with his girlfriend, ending up into a dead-end job he hated, hating the flat he lived in, and all the rest made him bitter while Charles his workmate had just bought a new car, moved houses, and was taking his boyfriend...