DB Books and Reviews

Daily reflections for the whole year... I've had this book in my personal library for many years now and have even begun it several times, but always seemed to drop off halfway through the year either due to big life changes, general business, or (most often) simply not finding a good way to work it into my daily schedule. 2022 finally proved to be the year that I stuck with it, largely due to the simple trick of leaving a space for the book on my nightstand and reading that day's entry right before I went to bed.   HOW I RATED IT  4/5  While Fulton Sheen is certainly one of the wisest and most pious members of The Catholic Church, there were some questionable editing choices in terms of how the daily reflections are split up that held this back slightly for me. CONTENT I am certainly not in a position to critique the actual works of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, but I can share some thoughts on the editing quality, what kind of content is present, and how it all made me feel from a

Neither here nor there, but long ago... I don't often read new releases (mostly because I am always behind the times with my reading), but this is one that sounded particularly interesting to me. I would not have been able to fit it into my physical or eBook reading, but was able to sneak it in via Audible and am glad that I did. HOW I RATED IT  4/5  THE STARDUST THEIF  is a breakout new release for good reason and the impressive voice talents that support the audiobook largely overshadowed certain aspects of the writing that I felt to be odd or annoying.  CHARACTERS As is typical with a lot of what I read last year, this is a story that switches between three main perspectives (not sure if this reflects market trends or just my personal tastes). Loulie/Layla is a famed seller of magical items (relics) who is dubbed "The Midnight Merchant." Mazen is the youngest son of a Sultan and feels stifled by being his father's favorite. Aisha is a brutal assassin who works for

A different kind of magic... Brandon Sanderson's debut novel,  ELANTRIS  is a topic of some conversation among readers with a decent number of die hard fans claiming that it is the weakest entry into his famed Cosmere and others saying it is one of their favorites. With even the author himself having made some comments disparaging certain aspects of the book, I was understandably nervous to get into this.  HOW I RATED IT  5/5  While  ELANTRIS  is undeniably distinct from pretty much all of Sanderson's other Cosmere novels, I personally think this is one of the most enchanting and engrossing stories I have ever read.  CHARACTERS As is now typical with most any Sanderson story, the characters are really at the heart of this adventure. Over the course of the narrative, the perspective shifts between three main characters. Raoden is a prince of Arelon who is taken by the mysterious affliction known as the "shaod" and shipped off to Elantris, the once radiant city of god-l

What began as a rather slow month ended up as one of the best I have had all year long, at least in terms of how many 5 star reads I got through. This is the month of having to rank a bunch of all-time favorites against each other and I am very happy that this is the case.  1. WARBREAKER This was a  5/5  read for me While this title does not receive the same buzz and acclaim as many of Brandon Sanderson's other novels and series, I actually think that WARBREAKER might be one of my favorite entries into the Cosmere. If you haven't already, I highly, HIGHLY, recommend you check this one out, especially on audiobook where Alyssa Bresnahan's performance is unlike any I have listened to so far.  Full review here 2. PEACE AND TURMOIL I gave this  5/5  stars as well Another pleasant surprise for me was the self-published epic fantasy novel by YouTube personality, Elliot Brooks. While this isn't necessarily perfect in terms of writing mechanics or polish, it has this charm to

An end that is also a beginning... The final installment in the DESCENDER  series had a lot to deliver on after the phenomenal run that it has had. I went in both excited and nervous as to how it would turn out.  HOW I RATED IT  5/5  While this ending is also a beginning in the sense that it leads directly into a new series titled ASCENDER , I still felt as though it provided a satisfying conclusion to this adventure and delivered plenty of twists and climactic moments. CHARACTERS Unexpectedly, the beginning of this volume introduces two brand new characters into the story, but with a slight twist: they lived 4,000 before the events that we've been following thus far. I really liked both of them and felt pretty invested in their stories even though I knew they mostly just served as a sort of extended prologue to this finale.    In the present, all the characters that we've met converge over the planet Mata as the fates of both mankind and machinekind rest in the balance. I part

Lord of Colors... WARBREAKER is one of Sanderson's lesser-talked-about novels that is technically part of his Cosmere, but doesn't seem to be as popular as his MISTBORN or STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE series or even his debut novel, ELANTRIS . BookTube personalities like Elliot Brooks and Merphy Napier have given it high praise though, so I was both excited and nervous to explore this world for myself.  HOW I RATED IT  5/5  While WARBREAKER feels somewhat different from some of Sanderson's other work despite being part of his Cosmere, I found this to be such a deeply satisfying story with fascinating magic, a world rife with political/ideological tension that sits on the edge of war, and vivid characters that will likely live rent-free in my head for a long time to come. PLOT/TONE The  story focusses around a princess named Siri who is the youngest of the Idrian royal family whose bloodline is famous for being able to change their hair length and color on command, although it can al

When greed is the most deadly disease of all... I originally heard about this book during an interview that Kayla from Kay's Hidden Bookshelf did with the Author on her YouTube channel. The story sounded really intriguing and it is always nice to find a shorter book in the science fiction and fantasy genres so I figured I would pick it up while the eBook was on sale.  HOW I RATED IT  3.5/5  Some aspect of  THE STARS WITHIN  did not work as well for me as it did for others, but I still had a good time reading through this short, contemplative piece of science fiction that might actually appeal to people who aren't normally fans of the genre.  CHARACTERS There are two main characters in this story: Thomas and Colette. The perspective changes between them in every chapter, though it won't be immediately obvious how their stories are connected. Each of them has a supporting cast of characters around them and while there are a couple of standouts, a lot of the secondary charac

The power of a Product Mindset... I received a copy of this book during an in-person training that Melissa Perri had done at my company years ago. At the time, I wasn't sure if the book contents would just rehash a lot of key ideas from the workshop so I wanted to save it for a time down the road when I felt like I needed a refresher. I have found myself at such a place in my career which led me to finally pulling this one off my shelf. HOW I RATED IT  5/5  Refreshingly frank descriptions of problems companies often face paired with detailed advice on how to work through them is one of the main reasons anyone who's a current or future Product Manager should get a copy of ESCAPING THE BUILD TRAP. CONTENT While not a total rehash of the workshop I took a few years ago, there are definitely some concepts that were nice to revisit when it came to prioritization, experimentation, and the overall role of a Product Manager. What I wasn't expecting as much with this book is how muc

Looking for something to read over the Thanksgiving Holiday? From November 21-25 (2022) THE VOIDWALKER COLLECTION will be free on Amazon Kindle. Please consider grabbing a copy while it is free and perhaps checking it out once you have consumed all the Thanksgiving Dinner your body can handle. Get it here

Of fire and fiends... I am subscribed to Elliot Brook's channel on YouTube and while I don't watch all of her content religiously, I do enjoy quite a lot of it. After having read Daniel B. Greene's (he is another YouTube/BookTube personality) novel in September, I wanted to give Brook's debut novel a try as well. HOW I RATED IT  5/5  While PEACE AND TURMOIL may not be a perfect book, I had such a lovely time reading it that I couldn't imagine giving it anything les than five stars.  CHARACTERS Unsurprisingly, the characters in this book are one of the strongest elements of the story. Brooks has talked a lot about how she is a very character-driven reader and I think that shows through here in the best possible way. The story initially centers around three young royals from different kingdoms: Dietrich of Sadie, Gwenivere of Xenith, and Roland of Messidia. Each of them have a full supporting cast around them and more perspectives are gradually added to the mix over

I began October with the intention of mainly focusing on making a dent in my physical TBR of already-owned books, but I mostly failed at that. Fortunately, I still enjoyed some really awesome audiobooks and digital comics as well as one physical read. 1. WORDS OF RADIANCE This was a  5/5  read for me Building off of the painstaking character building of THE WAY OF KINGS and following up on all of that book's final twists, WORDS OF RADIANCE shines a light on why Sanderson's STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE series is so wildly popular. All of my hangups with the first book were addressed with this adventure and I felt thoroughly invested in everything going on. I think I have a novella to read through before I go into the third book, but I am eager to continue with this series.  Full review here 2. REDISCOVER THE SAINTS I gave this 4/5  stars Although this book was not at all what I expected, I still had a good time with it. I wish that Kelly made stronger (or at least more consistent) use o

Have the Radiants really returned?... I'd jumped into WORDS OF RADIANCE immediately after finishing THE WAY OF KINGS . As I'd mentioned in my review of the first book in this series, these are absolutely massive books. Even on audiobook, it still takes me a solid couple of months to finish them, but I am so happy to be experiencing this series.  HOW I RATED IT  5/5  This second entry into THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE is an absolutely brilliant follow up to book one and I felt that it managed to strike a much better balance between character building and plot advancement.  Please note: While I will not be mentioning any major spoilers for WORDS OF RADIANCE , I may mention characters, places, and events that could be considered spoilers for THE WAY OF KINGS . CHARACTERS Although THE WAY OF KINGS was largely focused on building up the cast of key characters in this series, there is still plenty more development that happens in this sequel. The characters were all left in pretty inter