May 2025
May is a busy month. We had soccer, dance, school activities, graduations, retirements, and Aubrey took a trip to Scotland just for fun in the middle. I managed to keep the kids alive. We finished the dance season, soccer season, and the school year. The May rains have been a relief. Oh, and there’s a new Murderbot show on AppleTV+. I’m cautiously optimistic about it so far.
Anyway, here are the books I finished and my reviews of them:
Fiction Books
Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson #2)
Percy Jackson is bad at following rules. Lucky for him, the rules are meant to be broken, ignored, or circumvented in his weird in-between world. Percy is a demigod. He is half human and half god, so he moves between the worlds kinda like Harry Potter. Percy and his half-brother, Tyson, end up at Camp Half-Blood early because there is trouble. Someone poisoned the tree that protects the camp from evil monsters, so the protection is decaying. The only cure is the Golden Fleece, which is lost in the Sea of Monsters. Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson head out to save Grover and find the fleece. They encounter all kinds of monsters, perils, and adventures. Percy learns about seeing beyond his friend's exterior and his insecurities to find the real value and power in his friends. He also sees how his friends are gifts from the gods. Percy makes hard choices and sacrifices in his journey. Will they be worth the pain?
This is for young people learning how to distinguish between right and wrong.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Jesse Bernstein, 7:55)
Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #2)
It has been a while since I read Book 1, so it took a while to remember some of the characters, but the author made it extra interesting by introducing a new setting (Ganymede) and a group of new characters. Eventually, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are reintroduced and mixed into the drama. Most sequels are just extensions of the previous storyline with the same cast. This one felt different. The story is about an arms race between Mars and Earth while everyone tries to ignore the dragon growing on Venus. There is a group of children who are kidnapped, and finding them becomes Holdon’s task. That storyline combines with the political and military escalation between the two planetary fleets. There are two new characters that I enjoyed: Bobbie- a Martian Marine who survives the initial assault on Ganymede, and Chrisjen Avasarala, who is a UN (Earth) official. She is a little old lady with a dirty mouth and big ideas. They are both working through their journey of grief, and they help each other. I hear there is a good show created from this book series (The Expanse), but I haven’t watched any of it. I’ll read the books first.
This is for Martians, Belters, and anyone who enjoys a good space battle.
(Rated R, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Jefferson Mays, 21:00)
Maddie is a normal teenage girl navigating the angles between her parents and trying to fit in. Bad luck and even worse timing led her to be abandoned in her small town in Colorado. Everyone evacuates, and Maddie misses the transport. She wakes up to find herself truly alone. She spends the rest of the book learning how to survive. She faces all kinds of challenges and hardships. Her only companion is George, the neighbor’s abandoned Rottweiler. Together they roam the town and the surrounding area, scavenging food and water. The library becomes their only source of new information. Maddie learns how to drive, farm, and understand the world through books and poetry. There were two ideas that stuck out. First, good correspondence always begins with gratitude. Second, this quote: “Loneliness and insanity are twin houseguests, and it’s hard to entertain one without inviting the other in as well.” Thanks, Jennifer, for the recommendation.
This is for young people who think they have a hard life.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Gail Shalan, 4:50)
Brian is a 13-year-old boy battling his way through his parents’ divorce. His mom gives him a hatchet before sending him to his father for the summer in Canada. On the way, in a small single-engine Cessna, Brian flies as copilot. Midway through the flight, the pilot suffers a massive heart attack and dies, leaving Brian alone at 7,000 feet with no idea how to survive. Brian calls for help over the radio, but can’t reach anyone who can help. Eventually, the plane runs out of gas and Brian crash-lands the plane through some trees into a lake, barely surviving and swimming to shore. Now he’s all alone, concussed, and confused. Brian struggles against the wild, learning hard lessons, winning small victories, and is ultimately transformed from a scared boy into a toughened survivor. The bugs try to eat him alive, the wildlife tries to kill him a few times, and hunger becomes an ever-present motivator. He learns to find berries and eggs. He teaches himself how to fish and then how to hunt. He learns how to make fire with the hatchet and some flint he finds in his shelter. He learns how to use his senses to survive. He learns how to hear the animals and how to see past the colors to find the birds he hunts. He learns to prioritize food and safety. “First food, then thought, then action.” He learns to stay busy to keep his thoughts from wandering. One day, after months on his own, nature tries extra hard to kill Brian. He is ambushed by a moose, which nearly crushes and drowns him in the lake. After he escapes to his shelter, everything he’s built and collected is destroyed by a tornado. But he isn’t shaken. He started with just the hatchet, and he can rebuild everything again. The next day, Brian sees that the tornado has left him a gift- it moved the plane wreckage to a place where the tail is visible above the water. He builds a raft and floats out to the wreck, hunting for the survival pack it holds and the wealth of survival gear in it. It takes him a whole day to free the pack and haul it back to his shelter, but inside, it has miracles like food, a gun, fishing gear, and an emergency transponder. Brian isn’t even done cooking his first meal out of the stores when a plane drops down on his lake and parks on his beach. A hunter/trapper heard his emergency transponder and came to his rescue. Brian survived almost two months on his own in the story. Listening to this story made me want to do some more camping and survival training. My kids are just about big enough to handle some next summer, I think. That will be great because it will give Aubrey some quiet time.
This is for boys, survivors, and nature lovers.
(Rated PG, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Peter Coyote, 3:42)
Brian is trying to work his way back into a normal life after his adventure in the Canadian wilderness in Hatchet. He can’t quite get used to the amazing amount of food available in the city after starving and scavenging to survive. Brian is visited by some men who seek to learn from his experience. They teach survival courses, but none of them have ever had to survive like Brian. They want him to do it again. They try to convince Brian and his parents to allow Brian to participate in a field experiment where they will study his survival mindset and psychology so that they can more effectively teach their courses. His parents object. Why would they let Brian go back into the wild after thinking he was dead? Brian eventually convinces them that his participation could save many lives. Brian and Derek decide to go back to the wilderness near where Brian was stranded previously. They fly into a lake, and Derek plans to document Brian’s thoughts and actions as they survive. Brian forces the pilot to take all the survival gear except a radio. He is convinced that the experience will not be real with the gear. Brian and Derek set up camp, find food, and begin the process of getting to know the land, but it’s all too easy. So, of course, nature and fate add some tension. Brian finds himself in an impossible situation and must face the river to survive. This book is much shorter than Hatchet. It doesn’t quite live up to the first book.
This is for little survivalists.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Peter Coyote, 2:31)
The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl #5)
Carl is in trouble- all kinds of trouble. But Carl likes trouble. At the end of book 4, he and his fellow Dungeon Crawler friends tricked a lot of important people, pulling off a stunt that will have ripple effects for the rest of the series. (Who knows how many books that will be?) So Carl wakes up between floors in a legal dilemma. He demands a lawyer, and remarkably, he gets one. Through some skillful negotiations, Carl gets several concessions, including some new spells and bodyguards/mercenaries. Book 5 is all about Floor 6 of the Dungeon called The Hunting Grounds. On this floor, Hunters join the Crawl from outside the dungeon. They are typically ruthless killers who rampage the floor, killing the crawlers and looting their gear in preparation for the Faction Wars, which will be on the 9th Floor. Carl, Donut, Mongo, Katia, and Mordecai work together to eliminate the Hunters before they can get powered up. They make some powerful enemies and some new friends. Mongo even finds a dinosaur girlfriend. The story pushes everything to a climax at an event called The Butcher’s Masquerade, where the top 50 crawlers and the remaining Hunters gather for a ball. There are many moving pieces to the story when they converge at the ball. I probably need to re-listen to that bit just to sort it all out and catch some of the nuances. The Crawlers face Queen Imogen, who is the first country boss they find. They must defeat her to survive. These books are getting longer and much more complex. They hold a lot of political and emotional complexity for books that are supposed to be like a video game. Not quite as confusing as Game of Thrones, but getting close. There are a few moments the author creates where there is no right way out for the characters, only hard choices with heavy consequences. It’s interesting to see how these moments play out and how the characters change. “The goat’s demeanor had greatly changed from the first time I’d met him. Trauma does that, I thought. It’s an explosion with your heart at the center. It changes everything all at once.” There is a lot of evil and trauma in our world. All we can control is how we act.
This is for crawlers, fighters, and dungeon anarchists.
(Rated R, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Jeff Hays, 23:33)
Agent In Place by Mark Greaney (Grayman #7)
The gray man is back in action on “vacation” this time (so he's not on assignment for the CIA), working to rescue a Spanish supermodel from an ISIS attack in Paris. From there, his mission gets more sketchy and more extreme. His fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants style leads him to Syria on a rescue/kidnapping mission with undesirable company. This is book 7 of the series, and it is the most complicated plot so far. This is an expertly woven story of action and adventure. It is interesting to observe Court’s motivation and inner dialogue evolve through the book series. His external dialogue is interesting, too. I’ve never been a good trash-talker, so it’s fun to read the banter between the deadliest man and those around him. He doesn’t hold back. I recommend this book for the spy-craft fans who like the Bourne books, Mitch Rapp, or Bond, but if you are like me and have to read series in their proper order, start with book 1 - The Gray Man.
This is for seekers of justice and peace.
(Rated R, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Jay Snyder, 16:26)
Non-Fiction Books
This is a tough book. It’s all about learning how to be wrong gracefully and then learning and thinking again. It takes a lot of courage to admit when you are wrong. And yet, we are wrong about all kinds of things all the time. What a gift to be able to treat being wrong like a gift. What if we could all say, “That was wonderful- I was wrong. I am now less wrong than I was before.”
Overconfidence is dangerous. Overconfidence and pride keep us from being able to reconsider our beliefs and incorporate new data into our paradigms. Arrogance = ignorance + conviction.
This book is organized into three sections:
1- Individual Rethinking- This section is about the battle in your own head. Honestly evaluating your beliefs, opinions, and understanding, and then being humble, curious, and having a learning/growth mindset.
2-Interpersonal Rethinking- This section is about how we disagree, argue, and persuade others. The author suggests making these interactions more like a dance. Read the other side. Listen. Give good feedback. Find all the things that you agree on first to build trust and the relationship. Then the differences are smaller and easier to resolve. There is a chapter on what it takes to rethink deep sports rivalries (Red Sox vs Yankees) and another about the science of teaching people how to rethink childhood vaccinations. The lessons are about how to listen well in order to inspire change.
3- Collective Rethinking- This section is about creating communities of lifelong learners. A lot of people are never taught how to think or rethink. If you go along with the majority, you don’t have to use your brain and make your own decisions. The author outlines ways to teach students how to question their textbooks and reimagine the learning process.
Here are some of the ideas that resonated with me as I worked through the book:
~Dropping one’s tools creates an existential crisis. Without my tools, who am I?
~Admitting when you are wrong is honorable.
~Taking responsibility is taking your power back.
~To harness the power of disagreeable people, create a challenge group.
~Use spirited debate. Lean into task conflict, not personality conflict.
~Beware the HIPO-Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.
~This is a powerful question: What evidence would change your mind?
I enjoyed this book. I like the author’s mix of intelligent perspective, research, humor, and practical application ideas. Rethinking comes pretty naturally for me. I think we were taught to be humble and curious. We also learned not to trust or believe everything we read, heard, or saw. I’m interested to see if I can use the practical ways of helping groups rethink.
This is for anyone interested in learning how to think better.
(Rated PG, Score 10/10, audiobook read by the author, 6:40, paperback, 320p.)
The Lord’s Prayer by Wesley Hill
I like these little books in this series. They have bite-sized wisdom and insight into areas that can be forgotten or lose their power through repetition. This book contains a chapter for each phrase in the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6 and Luke 11. I’m sure you’ve heard this prayer before. We prayed it before every soccer game in high school, so even my heathen friends knew it.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil. (Doxology) For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.
The author goes through each petition, giving history, context, and color about why Jesus taught his disciples to pray with these words. There are some deep theological truths and some practical notes. When addressing the question about why we should pray, the author uses this quote from C.S. Lewis, which resonated deeply with me: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.” I have found this to be true in my life lately. Giving things to God changes me. It relieves stress, reminds me who is in control, and reminds me of my priorities.
This is for anyone looking to pray deeper prayers.
(Rated G, Score 9/10, hardback, 120p.)
Preview/Currently Reading-
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl #6)
I track my books in a database called Goodreads. It might help manage your reading lists.
Final Thoughts-
Aubrey found this Read Your Color Survey. My reading color is red. My mom always said red was my color. I think in this case, it just means action and adventure. Take the survey and send me your color.
There was a fascinating conversation in Caliban’s War that I’ve been pondering. Chrisjen is trying to save the human race. She’s dealing with two human space fleets and a new threat growing on Venus. Her spouse tells her, “It’s not all your responsibility.”
Her response hit hard: “It’s everyone’s f***ing responsibility, but I’m the only one who’s taking it seriously.”
There are so many things in this world that are everyone’s responsibility. Being an adult means taking at least some of those important things very seriously. Being a parent means teaching the kids to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. Being a professional means seeing the work that needs to be done and then having the guts, grit, and cleverness to get the work done in spite of the politics, lack of resources, and doubters. As I pondered this, I remembered the Jordan Peterson idea about the path of maximum responsibility also being the path of maximum adventure. Take your path of maximum adventure very seriously.
Thanks for adventuring with me.
Joshua
PS. I’m looking to grow and improve this little experiment. If you have benefited from it and would like to support my ability to buy better books or run with some other ideas I have been working on, here is your opportunity. You could think of it as an investment or buying me a coffee.
