Life Is All About Range by Jane Pastore Coleman

This book was acquired free from the author in exchange for a review.

Life Is All About Range is a book about the author, Jane, who leaves city life to live with a man, Bob, she has fallen in love with. Bob lives in a totally opposite environment - he is out in the country. This book is about Jane's adventures, and how she had to get used to living her new lifestyle.

I feel this book is incorrectly labeled. On the front, it states "How to Replace Your Fears with Knowledge and Skills", and on the back, it is categorized as "Self Improvement", but this does not have these attributes.

The whole book is a personal account of the author's experiences and how she had to face her fears. It does not give the reader any advice. Is the reader supposed to derive self-improvement by reading about experiences, some of which talk about specific places in the country? Is reading about Triple Creek Ranch going to help someone face their fears? It may seem like nitpicking to criticize the subtitle, but that is what the book is supposed to be about. It should be renamed to "How to Adjust to Country Life from the City", which would definitely be more appropriate.

The book is written well, with very few errors. Sometimes historic events are talked about; these are described interestingly so they do not seem like simple boring facts. Throughout the book there are pictures, which help give a better feeling about what is being talked about.

It is interesting reading how Jane gets use to as a totally different lifestyle, as it is also unfamiliar to me. There are many things that can be learned from her experiences. It seems that although Jane has a hard time adjusting, she overall enjoys her new experiences.

Life Is All About Range is a book for someone who would like to learn more about the country lifestyle. It is not for someone who is looking for self improvement, unless they can acquire it by reading about someone's new lifestyle. It is a mildly interesting read, but make sure you are reading it for the right purpose.

Interested? Get a preview of the book and buy it here.

Read More

Dignity is a Renewable Resource by Shanna Goodman

This book was acquired free from the author in exchange for a review.

Dignity is a Renewable Resource is labelled as a self-improvement book that attempts to show the reader how to face their fears by trying new things. The author does something new each month for a year in order to experience new things she has never done while facing her fears.

The book has a simple format - describe an experience and how she went to tackle it. This formula repeats for half the book, and gets old very fast. Most of these simply state "I was scared, I tried it, and it was not that bad." There is not much more beyond this simple statement to summarize each section, and not much for the reader to extract from this information. This is the main part of the book, yet it only covers half of it and feels like not enough time was spent on it.

The second half of the book is a disaster; if you thought the first part sounded lacking, this part will definitely disappoint you. The author talks about her experience leaving a company she had believed in at first, but then lost faith it. Through many pages she talks about it as if she thought you already knew about it. Throughout these pages, information is constantly repeated, with the vibe of the author stating "Yeah, I was right." many times.

After this, it seems that the author had to fill a page quota. She ends up talking about random things that do not have any relevance to the purpose of the book. The worst part by far is when she talks about Obama following her on Twitter for several pages. Remember when the book promised self-improvement? Well, you can forget that, because Obama (United States President) follows her on Twitter! Forget facing your fears and focus on getting Obama to follow you!

Dignity is a Renewable Resource is a book that simply accomplishes nothing. This idea was based off a blog, but the author should have known that a book is not a blog. You can change your posts in a blog any time you want, but you cannot change the fact that this book is a very worthless piece for anyone who is trying to get some self-improvement. If you want a cheap laugh at some poor writing, then this is the book for you.

Read More

On Blazing Wings [Audiobook] by L. Ron Hubbard

On Blazing Wings is another classic by L. Ron Hubbard. It takes place during World War II, where an American David is fighting for the Fins against the Russians.

This book had a good amount of action that kept things interesting. You never knew what was going to happen next, because it is not just a normal plane fighting book. There are many twists that you simply cannot predict. These twists help keep the book more interesting.

The audio book was done well. It uses several voice actors, and they know how to do their roles. Sound effects are placed correctly which help the experience.

On Blazing Wings is another good book by L. Ron Hubbard that continues to satisfy the need for action novel.

Interested? Get a preview of the book and buy it here.

Read More

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan by Michael J. Straczynski

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan consists of backstories for three of the characters in Watchmen: Nite Owl, Dr. Manhattan, and Moloch.

The art style of the book is very nice. Each panel has a large amount of detail and helps tell the story wonderfully.

Nite Owl's story was my favorite out of the three in this book. It details how Nite Owl (second generation) came to be, and what hardships he had to deal with in his life to become how he was. It also includes a good portion of Rorschach with many action-packed scenes. This is probably one of my favorite sections out of the series of Before Watchmen.

The second section deals with Dr. Manhattan, not really detailing his backstory since it was already shown in Watchmen, but focusing more on how his current existence correlates with quantum physics and how time is working with him. It was my least favorite, because he is my least favorite character and then way things are explained with him are just so...infuriating. The story constantly jumps around, relying on you to keep track of everything that is going on. On some pages the text is placed at different angles to correlate with the story.

Moloch is the character the third part is based off of. He is a minor character, but still gets his backstory told. It is a simple origin story explaining how things went with him up until the events in Watchmen. It was alright, and would be what you would expect for it.

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan is a good book that does a great job at explaining the origins of characters before Watchmen. The biggest problem is Dr. Manhattan's story, which feels more like a "we have to include it" sort of story, rather than actually being important to the plot. Nite Owl is told wonderfully and Moloch is a simple story. Overall, it is a book worth looking at.

Interested? Get a preview of the book and buy it here.

Read More

Living Large on Less: A Guide to Saving Without Sacrifice by Christina Spence

Living Large on Less: A Guide to Saving Without Sacrifice shows you a variety of ways to reduce the costs based off your style of living. It seems that the whole book was tailored to how the author lives and basically nothing else. Also, it suggests that in order to save money on many things you have many friends ready to exchange things such as food and other possessions.

This book could have been much shorter. It does show you briefly on how to create a budget plan and stick with it, and it does detail on the much more important expenses in one's life (such as deciding whether to rent or purchase a house or choosing a 401k or an IRA). For the rest of the book though, it gives a bunch of random tips. At the end of the book, all of these tips are listed in about six pages. This means that after you have read the whole book, you get a much briefer version of the same exact material!

This book is suggested for individuals who are trying to begin a frugal lifestyle. It does not give the best hints, and many important ones are missing.

Interested? Get a preview of the book and buy it here.

Read More