Dresden Revisited

 Last week, in the interests of mindless entertainment, I decided to re-read books 7-12 of The Dresden Files, which slowly but surely push Harry, Molly, Karen, Butters and the rest of Harry's friends into becoming the figures I believe Butcher intends them to be for the events of Peace Talks, Battle Ground, and beyond. I added Ghost Story and Cold Days to the binge, as well, but having recently re-read Skin Game in preparation for the release of the latest duology, I stopped at that. Not quite up to the emotional impact of Battle Ground at this point. Changes was tough enough. Don't know why I get so wrapped up in the lives of Butcher's characters; good writing, perhaps?

Anyway, that's been my reading life lately.

Spelunking through Hell by Seanan McGuire

 I tried, I really tried, to like this book, but I just couldn't care enough to finish it.

The point of view in this story switches to Verity's generation's grandmother, Alice Price-Healy, who has been mentioned a number of times in the other Incryptid stories. She is searching for her husband, who was taken away and stranded in a pocket dimension by the Crossroads, as the result of his deal with them for saving Alice's life. 

I should have felt more compassion for Alice and her quest, perhaps, but for some reason the whole thing just fell flat. Maybe McGuire has said all she really has to say on the subject of incryptids and the Healy family, but just didn't know when to quit.

Hoping that her October Daye novels don't grow stale, as well.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

 Well, here we are, at the close of another five year chapter in my life. Today is the last day I will be operating Surfer Sands, my little sandwich shop on the beach. The sale closes today, and I am officially retired. This may actually mean more book blogging over the long haul, though there are a zillion little details to take care of to wrap up my business dealings, so that should keep me entertained, not to mention that the garbage disposal at the condo died yesterday, so I need to replace that, and my lovely wife probably has a list of other projects for me that she's been hiding until I had no excuses left.

Looking forward to spending some time with my three remaining fans.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

 I had read some of Novik's Temeraire series a while back, and she seemed like a good author, so I took a chance on her new YA series. 

The first book was quite entertaining; enough so that I checked out a copy of the 2nd book in what appears to be destined to be a trilogy. 

The Scholomance is like Hogwarts without a sense of humor, perhaps more like a Marine Corps boot camp which tries to eliminate, in this case with extreme prejudice, most of the recruits before their incompetence might kill other fighters. Or maybe it's got a bit of a deadly serious version of Clouseau vs. Cato, where one can be attacked at any time without warning.

Good fun.

Another Deuce

 Continued my streak of unremarkable books with Dirty Magic, by Jaye Wells. It seemed like it had at one time been a police drama/mystery/romance novel that someone simply edited with a find and replace function to make it into an urban fantasy. 

Bad Run of Cards?

 I seem to be having a bad run of luck in my book selection process right now. 

I barely managed to finish Dead Lies Dreaming, by Charles Stross, which is in the Laundry Files universe, but which really wasn't up to his usual standards.

Then, I tried to get into a book about blockchain and crypto, but it was very poorly written and edited - rambled on and on, so I gave up.

Next was a book about corruption in the FBI, but it turned out to be a rehash of the Russian collusion narrative, and so I gave up a couple chapters in.

Then, I picked up the first novel, Isolate, in a new series by L.E. Modessit - a great author whom I have followed for years - and I hung in there for two weeks trying to finish it, but at last, alas, I decided that I just didn't give a crap any more. It just rambled on and on, repetitive and uninspired, going nowhere in particular, for around 700 pages.

Then there was Red-Handed, by Peter Schweizer, whose works I have really enjoyed over the years. Unfortunately, most of the subject matter in this book had already been covered by him a while back, and is merely topical again due to Biden being in the White House. Gave up about three chapters in.

Most recently, I decided to try the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman. About 50% of the way through it I realized I didn't care what happened to the characters in the slightest, and didn't even like them very much, so I gave up on that one, as well.

Currently reading another book on Bitcoin, which, while it does contain a few factual problems, at least is better written than the crypto book and fortunately is short enough to avoid the rambling, unfocused approach of the aforementioned.

I'm going to try another new author tonight. Hope something finally is worth completing.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel

 There was nothing terribly surprising to me in this classic by Malkiel. I'd pretty much read or heard it all before.

That said, however, for someone just getting started or looking for facts and figures and objective truth about the most effective way to invest their money without the ups and downs of the stock market keeping them awake at night, this book is a great primer.

Some choice tidbits:

"The key to investing is not how much an industry will affect society or even how much it will grow, but rather its ability to make and sustain profits."

"Discount brokerages make money on the spread between bid and ask prices on stocks."

"The golden number for American xenophobes—those fearful of looking beyond our national borders—is at least fifty equal-sized and well-diversified U.S. stocks (clearly, fifty oil stocks or fifty electric utilities would not produce an equivalent amount of risk reduction). With such a portfolio, the total risk is reduced by over 60 percent. And that’s where the good news stops, as further increases in the number of holdings do not produce much additional risk reduction."

"It turns out that the portfolio with the least risk had 17 percent foreign securities and 83 percent U.S. securities. "

A good definition:

"Some stocks and portfolios tend to be very sensitive to market movements. Others are more stable. This relative volatility or sensitivity to market moves can be estimated on the basis of the past record, and is popularly known by—you guessed it—the Greek letter beta."

There was a study performed investigating herd mentality, how people are influenced by those around them to do things that are irrational or counterfactual - often the case in investing.

"If caving in to the group was the result of social pressure, the study reasoned, one should see changes in the area of the forebrain involved in monitoring conflicts. But if the conformity stemmed from actual changes in perception, one would expect changes in the posterior brain areas dedicated to vision and spatial perception. In fact, the study found that when people went along with the group in giving wrong answers, activity increased in the area of the brain devoted to spatial awareness. In other words, it appeared that what other people said actually changed what subjects believed they saw. It seems that other people’s errors actually affect how someone perceives the external world."

In other words, the people you associate with can affect your apprehension of reality. Scary, huh?

A Perfect Day, with Explosions by Dorothy Grant

 I have literally read everything Dorothy Grant has written, pretty much all in novelette length, and enjoyed it immensely.

A Perfect Day, with Explosions is the latest in her Combined Operations series, set on a planet where terrorist groups are rebelling against the Empire which controls the planet. Each story seems to consist of a heroine thrown into wild and crazy combat operations out of an ordinary life of innocence, yet somehow rising beyond who they were, thriving through trials and tribulations, and finding love with a special forces guy.

Nothing terribly deep, dark, or heavily philosophical, but just good fun and an evening or two of entertainment well worth the ebook price. 

Dissolution by W. Michael Gear

 

There's a "diary entry" in this book that talks about how, when the triggering event occurred, our politicians and media had done such an effective job of setting Americans at odds with each other that there was not enough trust left between factions, and society by and large simply imploded. Doesn't require much in the way of science fiction's "willing suspension of disbelief" to accept the premise, I'm afraid.
I've often said over the last decade or so that money is a ficitional concept, based on nothing but the agreement to treat it as a valid form of exchange between consenting adults; a bunch of ones and zeroes in cyberspace, for most part. Our fiat currency, the US dollar, used to be backed by an actual "hard" asset, gold, but that was done away with around fifty years ago, so Gear's story about hackers taking down the banking system and destroying, first, the US, and later the world economy could happen at any time.
Do you have faith that your fearless leaders in the free world actually understand economics and could rapidly restore or rebuild our system without running roughshod over our liberties? Better read Gear's book to see how things could all end up in the crapper.

I've been reading Gear's books for decades, and this author hasn't disappointed yet.

Other series of note:
Way of the Spider
Donovan

All I Want for Christmas is more Time to Read

 By the time the year is through, I should finish just over 100 books for the year, disregarding some of my re-reads, such as the Sten series by Cole and Bunch and the Chalion books by Bujold, and a dash of Tolkien.

The best of the year:

Best new (to me) author - Jack Carr (not SF or Fantasy)
Best Fantasy - The Ile-Rien series by Martha Wells
Best Urban Fantasy - A Terrible Fall of Angels (new series start by Laurell K. Hamilton)
Best Science Fiction - Governor (new series start by David Weber)
Best Science Fiction series - Donovan series by Michael W. Gear, or Dread Empire's Fall series by Walter Jon Williams, or The Palladium Wars series by Marko Kloos, or Major Bhajan series by Asaro. All worth the time.
Best Mystery/Thriller - Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman
Best non-Fiction - Kitchen Confidential by Andrew Bourdain

In other news, Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series finally wrapped up with Risen, there were new iterations of October Day and Jane Yellowrock, Bujold's Penric, Weber's Honorverse, 

Smile, Dammit!

 When I was about twelve years old, I got involved in local civic theater productions, beginning as one of the Workhouse Boys and Fagan's Gang in Oliver!, singing and dancing my way around the stage with the rest of the cast. This was followed by similar roles in Hello Dolly, Bye Bye Birdie, and a number of other productions over the years.

The resident director, Fred, spent countless hours with large groups of amateurs, of varying talents and inclinations, attempting to meld us into an ensemble that delivered a high quality show. Whilst we were all dancing our little feet and legs off to the musical numbers, he would all too often shout out one line, which has stuck with me for the rest of my life.

"Smile, Dammit!"

You see, when you are trying to remember all the steps of a dance, maintain your spacing with all the other dancers, belt out the lyrics of the song simultaneously, you have a tendency to grimace and frown, which is not exactly the expression the song should convey to the audience. 

Fred's imprecations were meant to remind us that no matter how difficult the task, the most important thing was that the people watching our performance believe it was delightful and merry.

So, whenever the task seems too hard, the road too long, or the effort excessive, I have to remind myself, "Smile, Dammit!"

Knot of Shadows by Lois McMaster Bujold

 I've said it before, I'm certain, but Bujold is one of those writers whose works I can enjoy over and over again. She's like comfort food for my brain.

Knot of Shadows continues the saga of Penric and Desdemona which began with Penric's Demon, and has generated a total of nine novelettes so far. Can't determine whether the story length selection by Bujold has been an inspirational affair or a financial decision; more books at a lower prices = better net sales over time? It certainly has made it an easier decision for me to pull the trigger on the latest Kindle offering at $3.99 rather than $14.99 for most other authors. Dorothy Grant has done something similar that seems to be working out well.

Anyway, most of the recent offerings in this saga have had at their heart some quirky mystery that Penric needs to solve, using his wits, sorcerous skills, and Desdemona's experience, as well as a little help from his friends. In this story, a body has been fished out of the harbor which is only, as they say "mostly dead". It turns out to have been inhabited by a ghost, not the spirit of the person who occupied the body originally, who has been slain by death magic, or death miracle, depending on your theological point of view in the world of the Five Gods.

For those who have been following Bujold for some time, this further explores some concepts that arose in her first book in this world, Curse of Chalion, about how death magic/miracles work and some of their more unexpected consequences. Hmmm...we don't seem to have any novels by Bujold involving death magic where it happens exactly as expected, do we? Point to ponder.

Reading this one inspired me to go back and binge read Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls over the weeekend. I highly recommend all of Bujold's books, but most especially the Vorkosigan stories and the Five Gods stories.

Elements of Investing by Burton Malkiel

 Malkiel is the author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, long considered to be one of the classic books on investment, so I thought I'd check out this book by him, as well. 

I think I've been studying investing too long now, as absolutely nothing in here came as a surprise to me. He and his co-author, to varying degrees, simply advocate buying broadly-based index funds with low expense ratios and relying on the overall market to deliver perfectly good returns without worry nor fuss. Pick an age-appropriate asset allocation, with a certain percentage allocated to bond funds, a percentage to international stocks and a percentage to domestic stocks, rebalance annually, and you can go on blissfully enjoying life on autopilot until retirement.

They provide a lot of data, painstakingly gathered over the years, to support their conclusions, which I certainly can't refute, and probably wouldn't want to. My only problem with it is it's all just so...boring. What would I fiddle with and fixate upon if I just handled all of my investments that way?

All kidding aside, this is actually very sound strategy, and could have been summed up in a simple news headline, rather than a novel-length work of non-fiction. However, it's a good idea to provide the facts to back up one's arguments, and Malkiel has done just that.

For the most part, I suppose, in my own strategy within 401k plans offered by my employers over the years, I have done something very similar to that, picking three or four funds, setting the autobalance switch to "on" and letting it ride until something changed, such as adding or removing fund selections by the custodial firm running the plan. And I've certainly recommended something similar to my own children and employees (surrogate children) over the years. 

A pretty decent book for those just encountering the idea of retirement investing, but nothing new nor exciting for those of us who have been around a while.

Full Shovels

 When I was young, my maternal grandfather, "Gramps" ran a septic pumping and sewer contracting business (Forgive me for flaunting my white privilege, please). On a side note, one of the most spectacular things in my perspective as an eight year old boy was getting to watch Gramps dump several thousand gallons of raw sewage at the waste facility out in L.A. County one day. A seemingly never-ending torrent of poop!

Anyway, Gramps' profession resulted in him being able to dig a hole or ditch faster than nearly anyone I have ever known, and when I was a teenager, that seventy five year old man could outwork me all day long. Gramps instilled in me a strong work ethic; an almost pathological need to make sure all my work for the day is done before allowing myself to go off and play.

I spent a good part of one summer with him in the mountains at his hunting cabin, digging fence post holes and other chores. At one point we were in the process of digging a well where the dowser had indicated we'd find water. I remember him saying to me, "Full shovels, Jon! Full shovels! If you're going to the trouble of lifting a shovel all the way out of the hole, make sure it's all the way full, not just half-full."

That little lesson from Gramps stuck with me all of my life. If you're going to the trouble to perform a task, be sure that you're getting the maximum results from your efforts. Don't settle for partial results and inefficiency.

Full shovels, folks, full shovels!

Back?

  So, I'm feeling the urge to write a bit again; I might even have the glimmer of some ideas about a book on running a small restaurant, but that will probably be on hold till I retire.

However, regarding other folks' books, I've been reading some books by Catherine Asaro, the Major Bhaajan series, lately. I recall having read one of Asaro's books in the Skolian Empire series a long time ago, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it, probably a bit too romance-y for me. Hmmm...this brings to mind the thought that there's a ton of PNR genre, which everyone knows, but lesser known is the SFR genre, which actually dates back pretty far...some of the old Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton springs to mind...can't recall who wrote the Rissa and Tregare series (F.M. Busby), but that would certainly fall into it, as well as some of Tanya Huff's books. Guys who wrote SFR? Not so many, but if I give it enough time it will come to me.

Anyway, this series is about a retired major who is now a private investigator, hired by powerful people to find and return one of their family who has been kidnapped or perhaps simply run away from home. It's set on a desolate and dying planet with a sharply divided population; the dust rats who live in the Undercity (coincidentally the title of the first book) and the middle and upper classes who live in the city of Cries, itself. The second and third novels are titled The Bronze Skies and The Vanished Seas.

Bhaajan was born and raised (metaphorically by wolves) in the Undercity, and fought prejudice and poverty by enlisting in the military and working twice as hard as those of higher social class in order to become an officer. I wonder if there's some Asaro novels about that story. Off to Goodreads!

Her background makes her uniquely qualified to search the labyrinth of the Undercity for the missing person, and along the way she begins to become an influencer for change in her world's culture.

Rich background, colorful characters, and an intriguing mystery to follow in each of the books so far have made these an enjoyable read.

Going dark?

I'm tired of fighting with Google's opaque systems. Once again, they are reporting that my payment method isn't working. I think this is three years in a row, now. I'll probably copy and paste all of my old reviews into my Goodreads account and give this work up. No time for blogging any more, and I have even less time for the frustration of dealing with Google.

Adios.

Can't fight the feeling

Yeah, I continue to read at a fair pace, though perhaps not as much as I'd like.

Read the latest Reacher book by Lee Child over Thanksgiving. You gotta love his approach to problems.

Found the first two books in the Vatta's Peace series by Elizabeth Moon, and gobbled them quickly, then decided I had to go back and re-read the start of the affair, the Vatta's War series of five books. In the middle of that at the moment.

Read House of Assassins, by Correia. Way too much time has passed since Son of the Black Sword...really struggled to get back into the intrigue of the saga.

Re-read a Spider Robinson anthology. He used to be one of my top authors, but his output has slowed to a halt, since his last book came out in 2009.

The latest Jane Yellowrock, the latest Monster Hunters, the latest Alex Verus, October Daye,
SPI Files...

Some Mira Grant zombie stuff.

Binged on the final three Murderbot books, by Martha Wells.

A few bits of Anita Blake apocrypha.

A few other unremarkable items, but those are the highlights.

Still kickin'

In case anyone out there is worried, yes I am still reading away at more or less my usual pace, I just seem to have no time nor energy to blog much about the books after running a sandwich shop seven days a week. All creativity flees.

I did a massive re-read of nine of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs after reading the latest one, Storm Cursed, out a month or so ago.

Discovered the Jackaby series (historical fantasy detective stuff) by Ritter, and am currently reading the conclusion in The Dire King.

Keeping up with Bujold's Penric and Desdemona stuff.

Read the "Sweep" series by Ilona Andrews, and found it reasonably entertaining, with a bit of a different take on vampires and werewolves. Also read the latest in Andrews' Kate Daniels series, Magic Triumphs.

Read a few of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. They started out to be entertaining, but around the third one I just lost interest.

Wild Country, in The Others world by Bishop, was very tasty.

Some miscellaneous other novels by "new" authors, but nothing that grabbed me enough to actually pay good money to follow up.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Death and Relaxation by Devon Monk

I've enjoyed some of Monk's earlier work, so I thought I'd give this "new" one a try. The town of Ordinary, Oregon is, of course, filled with various supernatural creatures, living more or less in harmony with humans, but it also is home to vacationing gods, like Odin, Thor and Heimdall. While in town, they are required to set aside their god powers, which is where the Reed family comes in. The Reeds have, for ages, taken care of the transfer of god powers for safekeeping, and/or in the unfortunate event that a temporarily mortal god is killed while in town, they find a new vessel for the power.
At present, the Reed family in Ordinary solely consists of three sisters, all of whom work for the police department, with the eldest, Delaney, serving as chief, as her deceased father. So when Heimdall's body washes up on the beach, she not only has the responsibility to investigate his murder, but must carry the burden of his power until she is able to find the human who is destined to become a god.
Not Monk's best work, but semi-amusing.

The Great Library Series, by Rachel Caine

Seem to be on a YA kick here. Perhaps it's a result of more of the genre being made available for free via Overdrive than the adult stuff, which the funding folks probably figure we can afford to pay for, while the teens can't (being too busy getting tattoos, and bling for their iPhones).

This one has been a fun ride. The premise is that the Great Library of Alexandria was saved, rather than destroyed, and that the librarians have been the sole arbiters of what knowledge the human race is allowed to read and have. Enter a world of black market book smugglers, anarchists called The Burners, and where the invention of the printing press has been suppressed more than once. Nearly non-stop action.

The Atlantis Grail Series by Vera Nazarian

Just a brief mention here of the Atlantis Grail series, which I found via Overdrive at my local library. Reading these young adult novels set in an SF world where Earth is about to be destroyed, and space travelers from Atlantis, who left when the city was destroyed in the dim mists of history, have returned to "rescue" the most worth teens on the entire planet before a massive asteroid strikes, has been mostly delightful.

I've coined a new three letter acronym. You've heard of PNR - Paranormal Romance. This is SOR - Space Opera Romance, and in this case, sub-genre YA - Young Adult.

Just a fun ride without a ton of political lecturing, and a tolerable portion of teen angst.

Jamaica - No worries

As my wife and I decided before we left to disconnect as much as possible from the Internet while we were away (it's harder to do than you might think), I didn't produce daily posts while we were there, so this is mostly my scattered impressions of Jamaica and the Couples Tower Isle all-inclusive resort.

Staying at an all-inclusive resort, it was difficult to get a firm picture of the "real" Jamaica, as we didn't have to get out and mingle with folks on the street in the towns and cities, never shopped at a grocery store or "native" shopping center, and only interacted with Jamaicans whose main job was to make the tourists happy - tourism is the country's #1 income producer, ahead of bauxite mining and agriculture. And a very finely tuned money machine the tourism industry is, with no effort spared to part the hapless visitor from their cash. In an utter about face from what I've seen in other places, the resort gift shop was actually the most economical place to buy souvenirs of all sorts - even prices at the duty-free shops in the airport were up to triple the prices we saw there. I was simply amazed, as well, at the number of shops and restaurants in the Montego Bay airport - attempting to get every last penny out of those soon departing the country.

Despite the crass commercialism of it all, our interactions with Jamaicans were unfailingly positive and polite. Everyone offers a cheerful greeting and parting, a friendly smile, and mostly exhibit an attitude of "No problem, mon".

A small island with over 3 million inhabitants, Jamaica is a country of stark contrast - amazing ocean view villas stand side by side with tin shanties, sleek luxury cars roll down the coastal highway, while schoolchildren in uniforms walk on the road's shoulders, and five star restaurants vie with jerk shacks for trade. A tropical paradise for visitors, it may seem a prison to those who will never get an opportunity to rise above manual labor or a place in the tourist service industry.

This was our first stay in an all-inclusive resort, and it may very well have spoiled me for any other type of vacation. From the moment we got past customs, the Couples organization saw to our every need. Red Stripe beer flowed freely in the Couples airport lounge, as we waited about a half hour for the rest of the afternoon's guests to arrive, and then we and our luggage were whisked away to a bus for the two hour ride to Tower Isle, where we were greeted with rum punches and welcoming smiles, and our luggage was whisked away to our ocean view room.

From that point forward, the only thing we had to pay for was a pedicure and full body massage at the resort spa (and there are packages available where those services are also included). Full body massage - drooling incoherent relaxation! Worth every penny. Every meal at all every one of the six restaurants on property was included - from snacks and smoothies to burgers and jerk, to five start dining experiences and boundless buffets. I won't describe all of the food available, but will note a few new experiences.

Jerk chicken, pork and sausage, of course, were tasty, smoky, spicy and truly delicious. The smoked marlin, akin to smoked salmon, which I discovered on the lunch buffet the first day, became a daily staple for me - just wow! Curried goat - surprisingly good, but watch out for the bones - they roast the WHOLE goat. Sorrel fruit juice, tangy and very refreshing - probably filled with antioxidants. Desserts were daintily portioned, which made it far to easy to succumb to multiple temptations. Creme Brulee was available daily - killing me slowly.

Room service menu available 24/7 for no extra charge. We only indulged the first morning, since I wasn't sure I was going to endure until the restaurants opened, given my tendency to wake early, even on vacation. Other than that it was the Patio buffet every morning, and most lunches, unless we wanted a particular item such as the marvelous gazpacho soup at the Veggie Bar, or to grab a quick bite at the Pool Grill, where you can make yourself a frozen yogurt cone or a plate of nachos, and grab a quick soda or (great grapefruit flavor) Ting soft drink while dripping from a swim or a round of pool volleyball. 

The ambiance of the Bayside restaurant was like nothing we'd ever had, and both the Verandah and Eight Rivers restaurants provided a five star multi-course elegant experience. Here's an area where you could get tempted into paying a little extra if you want something off of the "imported" wine list. The Dom Perignon champagne I can understand, but I had a good laugh at the Kendall Jackson California vintage for $50 a bottle and the Kim Crawford New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for $45 (I have a bottle in my wine cooler at home that was $9.99 at Costco). The party at the table next to us at Eight Rivers bought two! The house reds and whites from Frontera winery in Chile were perfectly acceptable as the all-inclusive options.

Customize your mini bar in the room. Whatever you need would be stocked daily in your fridge. This was really a waste of time for us, as there was so much free booze flowing at the bars, from Red Stripe beer to blended drinks to tropical concoctions like the Bob Marley and the Deep Blue Sea - all FREE! Top shelf liquor? No problem, Mon! No extra charge for the good stuff. Love a shot of Rum Cream in your coffee? The bartender will hook you up with a generous glass to take back to the room and keep in your fridge for a delicious addition to your morning pick-me-up.

My wife and I are pretty moderate drinkers, but I'm afraid too long a stay here might turn us into serious lushes. From mimosas and Bloody Marys on the breakfast buffet to late night brandies around the pool, the alcohol flows freely and abundantly.

Tons of activities included, from golf to tennis to waterskiing, paddle boarding, sailing Hobie Cats, playing bocci, volleyball on the beach (standing joke was "losers buy the drinks") or in the pool, ring toss, trivia games. Take a tour on a glass bottom boat, hop a ride out to the au naturel Tower Isle, party for the afternoon on a catamaran, climb Jamaica's famous Dunn's River Falls. There's a game room with board games, pool table, ping pong and a library, a nicely equipped gym, a piano bar singalong, martini parties on the rooftop.

It's really hard to remember (might have something to do with the free booze) all of the things going on, and we didn't even hang out for the late night festivities. We did hear a fantastic steel drum band one night, and the beach party on Monday had some amazing island drummers, dancers, jugglers and acrobats.

We got a couple of hour long painstaking and patient tennis lessons from Collin, the pro. Enjoyed private water ski shots in a calm cove one morning before the late night revelers awoke with Captain Marvin. Had a wonderful guided nature walk around the grounds with Robby. Enjoyed a cooking class, preparing fish with coconut sauce with Chef Bibbibbib (don't ask me). Entertainment director Alex was a charmer.



Bottom line, Couples all-inclusive resorts are money well spent if you really want to relax and enjoy yourself, headache free - aside from the hangovers.

Back again...more or less

Finally, after a number of rounds of going round in circles with Google's convoluted systems for administering web sites, I lucked into a way to get to the area where I could set up a new payment method for my annual fees for steelbookshelf.com, and it looks like the blog will be around for 2018, at least.
Coincidentally, on the same day, I set up my new website for the sandwich shop swag marketing. Eventually, it should have a way to place online cheesesteak orders during working hours, as well, but that's a project for another weekend or two.

Anyhow, with regard to my readings, I just took back a couple of books on making gelato that I was studying in order to add a gelato shop to my place for the summer, The Art of Making Gelato by Morgan Morano and The Ciao Bella Book of Gelatos and Sorbettos by F.W Pierce. Good material, but still more research is needed to get to the point of production.

I recently read Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach, which turned out to be a pretty interesting story about a mercenary soldier finding excitement and mystery on a tramp freighter, which led me to pick up the second book in the series, Honor's Knight, which gets pretty twisty in an out-of-the-frying-pan fashion. Also picked up a book called something like the Idiot's Guide to Business Plans.

Hoping I can get some book blogging done this year.

Weber publishes another tome

Looks like Through Fiery Trials has finally arrived. I think the last one I read in this series was Hell's Foundations Quiver. Not sure how many I have missed in between now. Great series, just simply too overpowering at times. Might be something to binge read after I retire, when he may have finally completed the saga.

Fall Back?

I'd really like to feel motivated to blog again about the books I am reading. Yes, though the blogging stopped, the need to read is a monkey on my back that never quits screeching at me, and I still consume a couple of books each week. At the very least, any of my readers who are still paying attention will get some travel blogging to read in February when we take our annual vacation to warmer climes - Jamaica this year.