February 2024
February is usually colder, but I guess we got most of our winter early this year. The first couple of weeks were dark and cloudy but the sun came out and warmed up and that helped my attitude. We did have some sickness in the house, but I think we are past that. My sister, Charity was diagnosed with Leukemia, so she has been working through aggressive treatment. I think she is responding well physically. She’s very tough. Continued prayers for her recovery would be appreciated. I was able to take a road trip and spend time with her and my family. Sometimes all you can do is show up and give hugs.
Anyway, here are the books I finished and my reviews of them:
Fiction Books
Joe Bishop is just an Army soldier on leave in a sleepy town in Northern Maine until an alien ship crashes into his hometown and he goes to work trying to do something to help. He rallies a team of civilians and plans an assault on the alien Hamsters (Ruhar) and they manage to subdue and capture one of the aliens. Bishop treats the alien as humanely as possible, treating its wounds and giving it food and water. After the Ruhar are driven away from Earth by another alien race of giant lizards (Kristang), the humans join the space wars ground troops fighting for the lizards. Bishop joins up and gets shipped off-planet to Alpha Base for training, then to a planet called Paradise where the humans are ordered to manage a Hamster evacuation. Bishop meets a mayor of the Hamsters who begins to teach him the truth about the war the humans have been unlucky enough to be drawn into. The Hamster Mayor confides in Bishop because of the way he handled the Hamster on Earth. The Hamster tells Bishop that the Lizards are lying to the humans, abusing them, and planning to destroy Earth. Bishop passes the intel up the chain of command, but the humans on Paradise are reluctant to turn against the Lizards who are supposed to be their allies and their only ride back to Earth. Bishop earns a field promotion to Colonel when he takes command of a small team of soldiers, leads them to a strategic position, and launches an attack that destroys two troop carriers of Hamsters. As the situation in Paradise declines for the Lizards and Humans, Bishop is arrested for refusing to execute civilian Hamsters. In jail, Bishop finds an ancient Super AI who he calls Skippy. Skippy is hilarious (and a bit mad). Skippy helps Bishop escape, steal a drop ship, recruit a pirate crew of humans, steal a starship, and head out into the galaxy looking for ancient tech designed to control wormholes. The team aims to save Earth from the Lizards by shutting down the wormhole near Earth. After capturing the wormhole tech, Bishop, Skippy, and their pirate crew warp into the solar system, destroy the Lizard army, and save the humans. Back on Earth, the team has one month to report to their leaders, restock, and get ready for the next adventure. The AI- Skippy is a lot like the AI Shipment from the Murderbot books called ART. Both are snarky, rude, and funny. I liked the way Bishop just does the best he can in each situation even if the odds are against him or he is defying authority. Thanks, Lucas for recommending this book.
This is for warriors, poets, and dreamers.
(Rated PG-13, Score 9/10, Kindle ebook, 369p.)
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Inheritance Games #1)
Avery is a sharp teenager dealing with some tough circumstances life has thrown her way. Both of her parents are dead so her step-sister Libby is her legal guardian. Libby has an abusive boyfriend, Drake, who doesn’t like Avery, so when he is around, Avery leaves and ends up sleeping in her car. Everything changes when Avery gets a summons to fly to Texas for the reading of a billionaire’s will. In two days, Avery goes from sleeping in her car orphan to billionaire heiress. During the reading of the will, she learns that Hawthorne has disinherited his family and left everything to her. The only stipulation is that she must live in the giant estate called Hawthorne House for one year or the fortune defaults and goes to charity. Each of the four Hawthorne grandsons is given letters from the old man. Avery gets one too. The letters are clues. The clues are part of the old man Hawthorn’s last contest for his grandsons. They have spent years learning about his games, riddles, puzzles, and challenges. Each of them reacts differently. As Avery starts to work out some of the clues, she faces new challenges of the mega-rich like lawyers, security detail, media problems, new enemies, and even attempted murder. Libby’s ex-boyfriend turns into a big problem when he learns of the money. He sells details to the press and makes a scene outside the mansion in front of the media and police. As Avery explores her new castle and navigates the crazy new relationships she is thrown into, she learns quickly. She wins some friends and banishes some enemies. More than anything she remains true to herself. She doesn’t lose her head. She plays to win. I’m looking forward to book 2 (along with several others judging by the hold time at the library). One big idea that stuck with me was that the old man insisted that his four grandsons learn to invest, cultivate (skills and talents), and create. I am going to work on being more deliberate about teaching my kids these things and executing them myself. My beautiful wife read all these books in like 3 days so I had to check them out.
This is for anyone looking for a page-turner, the loyalists, and the puzzle-solvers.
(Rated PG-13, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Christie Moreau, 10:45)
The Hidden Kingdom by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire #3)
There are five dragonettes in the prophecy, and each of the first five books in the series highlights a different dragonette. Book 3 is written about Glory, the Rainwing. After leaving the Tsunami’s family, the five dragons decide to head to the rainforest to see if they can find a way to heal Webs who was poisoned by sandwing venom. The Rainwings are not like the other types of dragons. They are very zen. They spend a lot of time sleeping in the sun. They primarily eat fruit, and they have five rotating queens. Glory spends time learning about her clan, their strengths and weaknesses, and the different dragons involved in running the rainforest. The dragonettes learn that several Rainwings are missing from the rainforest including one of the queens. Glory is incensed that no one is worried about the missing dragons and gets assigned/volunteered to investigate. During the investigation, they find two creepy magical warp tunnels in the rainforest- one to the desert and one to the Nightwing’s secret island. Glory finds out that the Nightwings have been kidnapping her people. When the current Rainwing queens won’t put together a rescue operation to save kidnapped Rainwings, Glory challenges them for the throne. After a dramatic set of competitions, Glory wins the crown and begins training the bravest Rainwings to go on the rescue mission. Jet has been using the graphic novel versions of these books to follow along with the audiobooks. It helps to picture the characters and settings. I liked this booklet better than the first two. It had more clever plot points, better dialogue, and less random death.
This is for people who like siestas, camo, and cuddly sloths.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Shannon McManus, 7:34)
The Dark Secret by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire #4)
Between books 3 and 4 Starflight is captured while he is standing guard at the tunnel between the rainforest and the Nightwing’s volcano island. He is reunited with his clan, the Nightwings, and this book is his story. On the island, Starflight meets many new Nightwings and a group of dragons that he learns are the backup dragonettes of the prophecy. Starflight begins to suspect that his sheltered ideas of how the world and the prophecy should be are not really as set in stone (or scroll) as he had believed. Morrowseer, the giant leader Nightwing forces Starflight and the other dragonettes through tests, battles, and dangers, trying to teach them how to follow orders. Starflight meets his father, Mastermind, who is a Nightwing scientist, but he also learns that his father is responsible for the Rainwings who have been kidnapped from the rainforest. The Rainwings are being held prisoner and Mastermind is running experiments on them and their venom. Starflight learns that the Nightwings are planning on taking over the Rainforest because their volcano island home is running out of food, making them sick, and working its way toward an eruption. Starflight works to rescue his friends from invasion, his people from doom and homelessness, and himself from his feelings of cowardice. Starflight turns out to be much more powerful and brave than he thought. I like his character evolution throughout the book. The volcano forces the Nightwings to choose between serving Glory as their new queen or running to the mainland and making their fortunes abroad and leaderless.
This is for little dragons hoping to find their powers and bravery.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Shannon McManus, 7:35)
The Brightest Night by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire #5)
This book does a fun job of bringing all five books of the prophecy together. It features everyone’s favorite brave little dragonette, Sunny, the Sandwing. When the volcano explodes at the end of book 4 and the Rainwings and Nightwings are trying to sort out how to handle their new, forced alliance, three Nightwings kidnap Sunny with plans to sell her to one of the rival Sandwing queens. Sunny escapes, steals their magic mirror, and tracks them to the Scorpion Den. Thorne is the leader of the Outclaws, a band of Sandwings who look out for each other and protect the Scorpion Den. Sunny learns that Thorne is her mother before a different group of thugs takes her hostage and flies her off to Burn’s stronghold. There, Sunny meets Smoulder (who I keep imagining looks like Flynn Rider from Tangled) and faces Scarlet (former queen of the Skywings). Thorne and some other Outclaws come to rescue Sunny from Burn. Sunny learns that her father is a Nightwing named Stonemover, who is an animus dragon who magicked the warp tunnels in the rainforest. Sunny visits him on her way to warn her friends that Scarlet and other scary dragons are hunting for them and now know they are hiding in the rainforest. Sunny also finds a Dreamvisitor gem and develops a plan to fulfill the prophecy and end the war. Together the dragonettes of destiny draw Burn, Blister, and Blaze to a meeting, where the prophecy comes true and the war ends. I liked the way Sutherland wrapped up the story pulling all the right pieces together to satisfy the prophecy, which was intended to be fake and ended up coming true.
This is for peacemakers and brave little dragons.
(Rated PG, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Shannon McManus, 8:04)
The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney (Gray Man #13)
This book came out at just the right time for my road trip to New Mexico. The book starts with Court and Zoya on the run from the CIA and SVR in South America. They are out to lunch when Zoya is approached by an old friend who asks her to help save a software programmer in Mexico. The incident puts Zoya and Court at odds until they are united by an attacking force. The pair escape and continue to run, but they end up in a trap at a roadside checkpoint. After fighting their way out of an attempted execution, they decide to go on the offensive. They reach out to an old friend, Sir Donald Fitzroy, who puts together a meeting in Mexico with the handler running Lancer, the hitman who attacked them and killed the programmer in Mexico. During the meeting, Court and Zoya learn just how far down the rabbit hole they are falling when the Mexican compound is attacked by a swarm of robots being controlled by AI. There are three types of robots working together- Drones for targeting, helicopters with explosives that act as suicide bombers, and greyhound robots which are like dogs with sniper rifles on their backs. Court and Zoya manage to defeat the swarm, but just barely. The implications of fully autonomous weapons platforms terrify them. Their story continues and wraps into a global story of tech experts being systemically murdered around the world. The people at the cutting edge of AI, electronics, and robotics are being killed by a person named Cyrus. The hunt for Cyrus takes Court, Zoya, and others from the CIA and Ground Branch to Cuba, where they discover a massive operation built by a billionaire weirdo named Anton Hinton. Hinton and his colleagues have built and released an AI named Cyrus, who has been learning and growing for several days operating in the real world at machine speed manipulating humans and robots to do its bidding as it seeks to eliminate any threats to its existence. Like all Gray Man books, this one is filled with action, explosions, ninja stuff, and fantastic banter. I know the idea of an AI taking over weapons and then teaching itself to kill all humans is terrifying, but my experiments with AI chatbots make me think we still have quite a ways to go.
This is for futurists, techies, and anyone who liked The Terminator.
(Rated R, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Jay Snyder, 17:35)
Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn (Mitch Ramp #3)
I don’t know for sure, but it feels like someone stole the plot of this book and used it to make White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. I’m revisiting the Mitch Ramp books because they are quick and easy and I wasn’t writing book reviews for them when I first read them. The book starts with Mitch Rapp leading a group of Navy Seals on a mission to snatch a terrorist leader. During the interrogation of that leader, the CIA learns that there is an attack planned for that day against the White House. They notify the Secret Service, who intervene just in time to escort the POTUS out of danger and into his secure bunker under the White House. Mitch Rapp has been hunting Rafique Aziz, the lead terrorist in the attack, for almost ten years, and now Aziz has control of the White House, which means Rapp doesn’t have to find him. He just has to figure out how to get to Aziz. The terrorists take control of the White House, take over 70 hostages, and wire all the access points with enough explosives to level the whole building. Aziz is a careful planner, so he knows how the Americans will react to each of his demands, and plays them accordingly. What he has not planned for is Rapp, who finds a salty old soldier who knows all the secrets of the White House including hidden elevators, safe rooms, and air ducts. Rapp gets clearance to sneak into the building through the air system and to start figuring out how to take down the terrorists. Eventually, Rapp learns that Aziz has brought in a safe cracker who is working to defeat the bunker doors to capture the President. The trick almost works, but Rapp and the Navy Seals and Delta Force raid the building, free the hostages, and kill the terrorists. Pulling one last trick out of his bag, Aziz escapes in the chaos, by dressing as an FBI agent and pretending to rescue one of the hostages. But you can’t run from Rapp forever, and Aziz’s luck runs out shortly after his escape.
This is for spies and action junkies.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Nick Sullivan, 16:43)
Non-Fiction Books
Mind Shift by Erwin Raphael McManus
McManus has a fascinating story. He has amazing experience in a variety of fields. He’s tough, and passionate, and a little bit crazy. In this book he tries to outline the strategies and shifts that he uses to coach people to their full potential. The following chapters outline each psychological shift needed to think like a genius:
1- It’s all about people.
2- You don’t need an audience.
3- You can’t take everyone with you.
4- They won’t believe you until they see you do it.
5- You are your own ceiling.
6- Talent is a hallucinogen.
7- No one knows what they are doing. What matters most is to start.
8- Bitterness and other poisons that will kill you. Forgiveness is the antidote.
9- You find what you are.
10- Be average…at almost everything.
11- Success weighs more than failure.
12- There is no such thing as too much of a good thing.
My favorite chapters were 5, 6, and 12. In chapter 5 McManus talks about taking responsibility for your life and how owning your choices gives you incredible power. In chapter 6 he talked about how having a strong character keeps it real vs talent can give you the illusion that you are successful until life tests you. Real success comes out of hard work. In chapter 12, McManus describes how we need more of the good things like love and mercy and justice. It is not possible to have too much of these things in our world and we should strive to increase them all the time. Some of these mind shifts resonated with me. Some I’ve squared with. Others don’t seem to apply to me yet. Maybe I’ll figure them out later in my leadership journey.
This is for anyone struggling to find some new perspectives and growing leaders.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by the author, 3:07)
The Wisdom of the Bullfrog by William H. McRaven
It turns out the Bullfrog is what they call the leader of the Frogmen (Navy Seals). This book is a short collection of sayings and the wisdom they represent as collected and presented by McRaven in his years of service and leading in the military. Here they are in order:
1- Death Before Dishonor
2- You Can’t Surge Trust
3- When in Command, Command
4- We All Have Our Frog Floats
5- The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday
6- Run to the Sound of the Guns
7- Sua Sponte
8- Who Dares Wins
9- Hope is Not a Strategy
10- No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy
11- It Pays To Be a Winner
12- A Shepherd Should Smell Like His Sheep
13- Troop The Line
14- Expect What You Inspect
15- Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
16- When In Doubt, Overload
17- Can You Stand Before The Long Green Table?
18- Always Have a Swim Buddy
Each saying is the foundation of a chapter in the book. I had heard many of them before. A couple were new. My favorite new one was Sua Sponte which is Latin for “of your own accord”. It’s a term for describing initiative. The ability or will to fix something when you see that it needs to be done, without needing an order to do it. Sua Sponte is a superpower that can be learned and strengthened but only through hard work, grit, and will. Another chapter that resonated with me was the one about trust. Trust cannot be forced all of a sudden. It must be cultivated over years. It is deeply relational. You must build solid relationships by being reliable in the good times so that you have a strong foundation of trust to lean on in times of chaos and crisis. Finally, always have a swim buddy. I have reflected on this idea lately. Over the years, I have had some great swim buddies to bail me out of tight spots and hold me accountable. We are not meant to brave this world on our own. Make sure you have a swim buddy you can trust. Don’t go it alone. My wife is my forever swim buddy and over the past four months, she has proven to be the best partner I could imagine in the face of tons of extra stress. She’s been amazing. I love her. This is a short and inspiring book. I enjoyed it for the lessons, inspiration, and stories.
This is for any leader looking for wisdom to get better.
(Rated PG-13, Score 9/10, audiobook read by the author, 3:44)
Preview/Currently Reading-
Becoming a King by Morgan Snyder
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
I track my books in a database called Goodreads. You might find it helpful in managing your reading lists.
Final Thoughts-
My dad sent me this short philosophical video about Shopping carts. It is very interesting. We grew up learning how to be contributing members of society. We learned how to work hard, how to take pride in cleaning up after ourselves (like putting away shopping carts), doing good things for people who can’t pay you back, and generally being good to people. These are lessons I have been trying to pass down to my kids. I want them to be givers and not takers. I want them to think of ways they can contribute instead of always consuming selfishly.
I read a lot this month. It feels like getting back to normal… just in time to have another surgery. My ACL is still busted so I’m going to get it fixed on March 13th. Prayers (mostly for Aubrey) would be appreciated.
Thanks for adventuring with me.
Joshua
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