The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Vol 1

By These Guys

Man, I love Dr. McNinja. Having the comics in hardcopy was an added bonus, but when I saw that the graphic novel had bonus features and preserved the alt-text commentary from the site (plus added commentary for the first adventure), I had to have it. I'm glad I made the investment, and will be picking up Vol. 2 as soon as I can.

If you don't already read Dr. McNinja, I can't really do it justice here. Short version: He's a doctor who is also a ninja. He fights zombies, boys who have turned into giant lumberjacks, pirates, and banditos on dinosaurs. If that sounds like your cup of tea, it almost certainly is and you should go read.

Book 8 in 2008! Unread books: 201 (21 to go til I can buy new books)

Rain Fall

By Barry Eisler

I really enjoyed this somewhat pulpy thriller. Set in Tokyo, it follows the adventures of John Rain, half-American, half-Japanese assassin, as he deals with the aftermath of what had seemed like a routine assassination. There's a beautiful girl -- the daughter of the man Rain killed -- and plenty of thugs, both politicians and gangsters. Rain is surprisingly sympathetic, considering that he's an amoral killer-for-hire haunted by memories of the atrocities he committed as a soldier in Vietnam. Eisler gets points from me for describing martial arts accurately (he even has some Aikido thrown into the mix, woo!).

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

Book 7 in 2008

Women, Work, and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend!

by Rosalind Joffe and Joan Friedlander

I got this book through the LibraryThing early reviewer program.

This is a must-read for women with autoimmune disease, especially if they are interested in being/staying employed. The text is a little too self-consciously sassy in places for my taste, and I wish they went a bit more into what they mean by being a warrior and having warrior spirit (I know what I think that means, but they didn't talk much about what they think it means, which I would have liked), but there is walth of good information in this book. The authors cover interviewing when you have a chronic illness, "coming out" to coworkers, considering self-employment as an option, and plenty of other material as well. The book is filled with stories from women the authors interviewed and from the authors' own lives, which makes the ideas and suggestions seem a lot more realistic. Good stuff!

Book 6 in 2008.

Healing the Child Within

By Charles L. Whitfield M.D.

I wasn't terribly impressed with this book, but it did give me some food for thought. It's very compact, written concisely, and in a dry, non-engaging style. It was written 20 years ago and feels kind of dated.

Book 5 in 2008.

Reading stats: 203 unread books; 23 books to read until I can buy more books.

Library Stats!

I have finished entering allll my books into my LibraryThing Catalog!! YAY! A few stats:

202 unread books (can buy more when that's down to 180)
956 read books (nearly all of these are available for loan!)

Of the read books:
536 are fiction
252 are nonfiction

Pretty neat, eh? I'm psyched. I wish I had a widget that would dynamically show how many unread books I have so I could put it in the left column, but Oh Well.

Deja Dead

By Kathy Reichs

I was unimpressed with this book for two reasons, one of which is admittedly unreasonable.

Firstly, I read the book because I love the TV show based on it, "Bones." Every single thing I loved about the show was missing here -- the geeky secondary characters, the socially awkward but strong and brilliant (and childfree!) female lead, the relationship between her and her FBI partner... all gone. Replaced with a frequently stupid, emotionally-driven, alcoholic divorced Mom. Tempe of the book is a reasonably well-crafted character, but nothing like the Brennan I love in the show. Unreasonable, I know, but it bugged me. A lot.

The real reason I will not only not give this book a good rating but not even bother keeping it in my library is that it's full of female victims. Tempe is strong in that she refuses to give in to her alcoholism even when stressed but she is driven by her heart instead of her head and repeatedly makes bad judgments that make her look stupid and put her in danger. I know this is a first novel and I should probably give it a break, but it annoyed the crap out of me.

(Book 4 in 2008)

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre FINALLY FINISHED

by Stephen Youngkin

Short, irritated review at the original post.

(Book 3 in 2008)

Mossad Exodus

By Gad Shimron

Got this book through the Librarything Early Bird Reviewer program, and am so glad I was picked! This is one heck of a story. It's a first person account of the rescue of refugee Ethiopian Jews by Mossad, Israel's secret service. I had no idea there even were Ethiopian Jews! Shimron was one of the major players in the operation and tells a good story. It's a bit stiffly written, though that may be because it was written in Hebrew and translated -- and anyway, I didn't mind. I was too busy enjoying this real-life spy story. Good stuff!

Woo Hoo!

I have finally finished entering alllll my "read" books into LibraryThing! Yay! I have 951 books in that category, wow.

And they are all available for loan!

Surviving a Borderline Parent

By Kimberlee Roth

Although nobody in my family has a BPD diagnosis, this book was recommended to me as a way to look at some of the dysfunction I grew up with. I found it incredibly useful -- in large part because it is aimed at both adult children of folks diagnosed with BPD and adult children of folks with BPD-like symptoms. It's given me a lot of food for thought. I borrowed it from a friend and am thinking I may buy a copy so I can reread it after I've digested the contents a bit and work through the exercises more thoroughly.

(Book 1 in 2008)