Book Review: Acrobat, By Gonzalo Lira

The Book: Acrobat, by Gonzalo Lira

The Hook: Five young CIA operatives on the run, accused of stealing $60 Million dollars and selling military secrets.

The Thoughts: This book had a great opening, starting off the story with an amazingly fast-paced start. Even the way one of the main characters dies was completely unique, and for a guy who collects books such as “What A Way To Go” and “Strange Deaths,” I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.

I also really enjoyed the different characters of a team, and the contrast of personalities was stark and memorable. Good dialogue, and the antagonist was refined and nasty. Unfortunately, halfway through the novel I had grown weary of the excessive profanity (needless, one might say), and flipped through the rest of the novel to find out who the “traitor” was. (Thankfully, I was surprised once again.)

Conclusion? An engaging novel that’s sure to keep the spy fan entertained for a few nights, provided they’re more insensitive to profanity than I am. (And the word “poop.”)

Kevin

Book Review: Jurassic Poop, By Jacob Berkowitz

Kyler and I went to the library yesterday, for the first time in a matter of months. (Not because we avoid libraries, but because we’ve been out of town for quite a while…) I went with the intention of picking up a few fresh videos to rent, but we ended up sitting on a couch and reading a few books as well.

And wouldn’t you know it? The kid goes over to a table, snatches up a lone book and comes trotting back with a grin on his face. He can’t read (yet), but something in his smile says he knows EXACTLY what kind of book he picked up.

“Read this to me, Daddy!” he says excitedly.

“Okay,” I say, barely looking at the title. Something about dinosaurs I think to myself, absently turning the page…

…only to find myself staring at a cartoon of a Tyrannosaurus Rex squeezing a turd out in a river.

“What’s he doing, Daddy?” Kyler asks, pointing to the straining creature.

I stare at the cartoon blankly. “Um…” then I turn back to the cover to see what kind of book I’m reading… Jurassic Poop, I think to myself… What in the world….?

“He’s… ah…. he’s pooping,” I answer, turning back to the page with a smirk.

“Ewwwwwww!!!!!”

And so it goes… reading about dinosaurs pooping for the next 32 pages. To be honest, it was very scientific. It wasn’t just showing huge lizards making lumps for the sake of yuks, it actually had photos of scientists examining, dissecting and analyzing fossilized poop.

Kyler loved it. He’s still talking about the book today. Thankfully he didn’t have the bright idea of actually checking the book out… :)

Kevin

Book Review: Can A Guy Get Pregnant? By Bill & Rich Sones

The Book: Can a Guy Get Pregnant?: Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So-Everyday) Questions – Bill Sones, Rich Sones

The Hook: Intriguing & outlandish questions about little-known facts (or myths).

The Thoughts: I love trivia. I really do. And more than anything, I love learning about the cross-sections of society and culture that I wouldn’t normally run across. To be able to find an easy-to-digest collection of across-the-board, specialized questions and answers is nothing short of delightful to me. So when I heard about this book (don’t recall how….), I knew it was for me.

With questions like “Do blind people see in their dreams?” and “Why do so many couples get divorced?” (simple mathematics) and “What’s the strongest material made by an animal?” are all intriguing gems. Wow, am I lovin’ this book! Not only is it entertaining and educating, but it’s very well-designed as well. Each question and answer takes up one page and one page only, making this the ideal “pick-me-up” book for when you don’t want to waste time sitting in line. (Or, in my case, working out on the treadmill or stationary bike at the gym…)

Great book, highly recommended. I can’t wait for another like it! :)

Kevin

Book Review: Survivor, By Robert Steele Gray

Last night I started a new book, Survivor, by Robert Steele Gray. It was selected by my wife with utterly random abandon. “What book should I read next?” I asked her in bed. “Third shelf down, third book from the left.”

Hm. Okay… might as well…

So I picked it up and dug in. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

“Mark Lewellyn is an overweight, forty-something couch potato leading a life dominated by computers, television, and an array of other electronic gadgets: in other words, the typical modern man. Incredibly, while out in a rainstorm, Mark is struck by twin lightning bolts that steal him from his lazy suburban slumber and propel him back into stone-age America. The absence of today’s modern conveniences proves to be the least of Mark’s troubles, as he’s forced to confront the very essence of life: basic survival.

Suddenly he faces buffalo herds, bears, floods, primitive villagers, and warring Indian tribes. This is not only a thrilling adventure story, but also the fascinating account of a “nobody” lost in a modern anonymity who learns what it really means to be a man.”

The story is far-fetched, but I still liked the premise. A guy on the run in prehistoric times? I’m there! Battling dinosaurs, fighting the elements and terrain… yowza! Gray did a great job starting straight out of the gate, and by page 3 the guy’s been zapped. No time wasted building everything up or nothin’ (which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on what kind of novels you like…).

But then it kinda bogged down after a few more pages, shifting in viewpoint from Mark’s struggles to his wife & kid’s lives back in modern day Texas. And, alas, not a dinosaur in sight. (At least, not that I found when I started speed-browsing after page 40…) So I’m afraid it’s going to the Paperback Swap list for someone else to snatch up.

Again, though, great premise. Nice to see wild plots still get published these days…

Kevin

Book Review: Utopia, By Lincoln Child

This week I finished reading Utopia, by Lincoln Child. I had previously read the novel The Relic by Child and his co-author, Douglas Preston and was impressed with the pacing and creature descriptions. I didn’t know what the novel was about, so I just picked it off the shelf blindly and dug in.

It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t what I’d call a page-turner, but that’s because I’ve been spoiled with Matthew Reilly’s work (Ice Station, anyone?) But for the most part I enjoyed it. A bit too long on narrative description, not enough hooks for my taste, etc., but the characters were good and the setting was completely original and detailed.

So if you’re into techno-thrillers with a dash of terrorist intrigue, you might be quite pleased with Lincoln Child’s Utopia.

Kevin

The Ice Storm Cometh.

This weekend in Oklahoma they’re predicting up to 2 inches of ice and sleet to blanket the state. We’re being told this storm will be worse than the one in 2002, when there were electrical outages everywhere (someone in Kim’s office had no power for over a week).

Even though I grew up in Oklahoma, I never really experienced the inconvenience an ice storm can bring. And in Indonesia we experienced our share of brown outs and down power, but it never lasted long. But power outages in the winter? No way to heat the house? No way to cook food? That’s something else entirely.

Am I scared? Just a tad. Not “pee runneth down the leg” scared, but more like… concerned. We’ve all grown so comfortable with our lives’ various comforts.. to get ‘em yanked away forcefully, so quickly… well, it’ll be a shock.

As I was praying this morning, trying to ask God how I should pray to avoid the calamity, the verse from Psalms 112:7 came to mind. “He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.” (The whole passage describes the man who “fears the Lord.”)

That’s good stuff.

There’s a storm coming. An ice storm. That’s bad news. But me? I’m not going to be afraid, because regardless of what happens, I will trust in the Lord. Not trusting that He’ll specifically swoop down and save us or protect us, but that regardless of WHAT happens the next few days, He is still God and knows EXACTLY what we need and when.

So, Fear! Time for you to take a hike. And Pee! You crawl right back up my leg and return from whence you came! (Wow… what a visual…. eww……) I know where my heart is, and where it’s not. Circumstances may change from moment to moment, day to day, but God and His sovereignty will not change.

I’ll be sure to post some pics later…

Kevin

Resolution Revolution.

So the other night Kim and I were over at Rob and Carreybeth’s (our friends around the corner) eating dinner, and Rob asked if we had made any New Year’s Resolutions. Needless to say, we hadn’t. It hadn’t even occurred to me, honestly. I used to make resolutions back when I was younger (more idealistic?), but I just haven’t done it recently. Eh…

Still, his question got me thinking, and a few minutes later my jumbled thoughts had strewn themselves together and came spewing out of my mouth. “I have an idea,” I announced. “Why don’t we make resolutions for the OTHERS around the table?”

Blank looks all around.

So I explained the concept: Kim, Rob and I would come up with a resolution for CB. She, Rob and Kim would come up with one for me, and so on and so forth, until everyone has been told off how to improve themselves (or how much they suck, depending on how neurotic you are…). I don’t think I knew what a can of worms I had exploded, but thankfully it didn’t go over too poorly. (i.e., no one ran from the room in tears or flipping the other three off… well, no one ran from the room in tears, anyway…)

I won’t go into everyone’s suggestions, but I will share what they came up with for me. Because I like to go to the gym and go for a leisurely swim or a relaxing walk on the treadmill, Rob suggested that I actually work to get my heart rate up to where I’m doing aerobic exercise. I found the idea to be intriguing and enough to make me squirm, but I accepted it. (How could I not? I was the doofus who came up with the game in the first place…)

So for the past few days I’ve been at the gym, briskly walking on the treadmill for a half hour, getting my heart rate up to 130+ and so on. The first time I knew I was going to die. Just flat out have a seizure right there on the machine, in front of all the workhorses surrounding me (and THEY run at full tilt, mind you!). Alas, I didn’t die. Today I thought my calf would seize up (again, drawing gawkers galore…0, but it didn’t happen either (yet).

Lesson learned? Don’t come up with cute, novel ideas of ways to play with people’s heads unless you’re ready for them to poke around in your life first. Or something like that…

Mr. Universe (Kevin)

Switcheroo.

Okay, so I’m screwin’ around with the template a bit. To be honest, it was an accident. As I’m working through revamping JacKardiac.com and separating my creative outlets from my family ones (i.e. a separate site for family stuff), I was browsing the templates at Blogger.com to find something suitable for the JacKardiac name.

I came across one that looked nice and adventurous, but the background looked some some smoker’s wallpaper. Nasty stuff. So I’m back to plain jane until I revamp the whole thing in iWeb. I like the simplicity of Blogger, but at this point I’d rather be in control of the entire formatting of my site(s), so iWeb it is…

Anyhow, I’m coming up with new ideas to write about, so stay tuned… I’ll update this thing regularly yet…

Kevin

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