Review: Blue Descent

Blue Descent by David Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

All the elements were there for a casual summer read that was entertaining, but not particularly deep. The narration made it easy to just let the story develop from a simple mystery to some more … paranormal. Not exactly believable, but still interesting and fun way to pass the time with a little treasure hunting mixed in with a few legends (rumors of the fountain of youth and monster sea creatures play a significant role here) and conspiracies (standard missing persons) that sort of magically all work out (almost predictably). That also makes it easy to come and go pretty much at will and not really miss much. As an intro to the series, it was okay … a little choppy, but a good introduction to the characters and story telling style that might be hit or miss for some folks.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Librarian Gladiator: Book One of the Tallindran Trilogy

The Librarian Gladiator: Book One of the Tallindran Trilogy by Dustin Bilyk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A slightly different twist on a classic trope

Despite the somewhat provocative title, it was the dark world building premise that I found interesting enough to pick up the story … of course, high stakes, tourney style combat has been done before; but I had not yet encountered one where the penalty for the loser was the sacrifice of the entire family line and I was interested in how the author would implement this. Over all, this was a pretty entertaining story, first introducing our “librarian” hero as one of the selected four (4) before cramming a ton of action, adventure, mystery and surprises into the few days before the combat. 

The characters were well developed, if prone to some of the typical navel gazing that drives me to distraction (oh no I don’t want anything at all to do with that mysterious power that guarantees I can not die today cause it is just too scary or evil or what ever). The story does throw in a few good monsters that actually become an important part of the plot and a solid resolution at the end … with an obvious lead in to the next book (but this story is reasonably complete). All in all, the story would be a good 3.5 and the solid narration makes it easy to round up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: MARSHAL OLIVER BLACKSTONE: Oliver's Gold

MARSHAL OLIVER BLACKSTONE: Oliver's Gold by Riano D. McFarland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ****

The story itself was pretty much as expected for the genre; strong, mysterious and rugged man facing some threat that prevents him from winning his love interest … in this case, it is the marshal’s reputation and all of the young guns trying to win a name by taking him out … and a young lady who doesn’t quite fit into the Boston High Society her daddy’s wealth brings. Over all … it is a fell good tale that follows a well worn and very predictable path. The characters are all too good to be true, but are fun none-the-less (especially Oliver). Here there are two basic plots … how Oliver can become wealthy enough to “deserve” his lady love (which doesn’t hit home for me at all) and how to keep the danger from his violent past from breaking in on his new life of retirement. 

So the first half of the story is focused on trying to keep his history as a western marshal a secret (which is a bit of a stretch … with a bit of a genie out of the bottle problem that never really gets solved). The second half of the story is Oliver chasing his gold to solve the wealth problem. The story moves quickly here and there is enough hand waving to prevent any buildup before we get to the anticipated climax. All of that considered, the narration was quite good and makes this a fun distraction worth the effort.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: DBT Workbook For Emotional Eating: Stop Compulsive Overeating & Quit Your Food Addiction with Proven Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills for Men & Women ... a Healthy Diet

DBT Workbook For Emotional Eating: Stop Compulsive Overeating & Quit Your Food Addiction with Proven Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills for Men & Women ... a Healthy Diet by Barrett Huang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ***

Decent Advice for Healthy Eating

The another book in the DBT Workbook series
Previous Review of DBT Workbook for Depression

This is another application of Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) applied to counter emotional eating and the associated health issues. DBT is adapted from Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) that has been found useful in treating emotion based behaviors through talking … with the dialectic presumably using opposing ideas. In that respect, it was not obvious to me how this fits in the DBT treatment arena. Like the previous book, Huang combines personal anecdotes to illustrate the concepts presented in the book, which, while helpful, don’t seem to be that revolutionary or particularly surprising. However, this was good advice and well organized, with an accompanying pdf to help put these ideas into practice. The narration was good for the material as presented and was easy to listen to and stay focused, but was not exceptional.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Introduction (9:51)
Ch. 1: Understanding Emotional Eating (22:21)
Ch. 2: Dialectic Behavior 101 (11:22)
Ch. 3: Mindfulness Skills for Emotional Eating (17:53)
Ch. 4: Distress Tolerance Skills for Emotional Eating (12:22)
Ch. 5: Emotion-Regulating Skills for Emotional Eating (27:55)
Ch. 6: Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills for Emotional (19:08)
Ch. 7: Developing Healthy Habits (24:08)
Ch. 8: Building a Support System (90:53)
Ch. 9. Dealing with Setbacks and Relapses (8:34)
Ch. 10. Maintaining Long-Term Success (11:22)

Conclusion (3:17)
Appendix (17:20)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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