Category Archives: Book Review

Book Review: North Korea’s Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society by Jieun Baek

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Tietsu

Up until I read this book I hadn’t really put any overly critical thoughts into how North Korea functioned. I had pretty much painted the entire country as a giant prison camp and local life was basically just A Day … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Nonfiction | Tagged Adam Johnson, Authoritarianism, Defection, Dictatorships, international politics, Jieun Baek, Korean dramas, North Korea, North Korea's Hidden Revolution, politics, prison camps, South Korea, Technology | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Future of Violence by Benjamin Wittes and Gabrielle Blum

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Tietsu

Look at the title of this book. The Future of Violence. War, war never changes, but violence? We are absolutely brilliant about coming up with ways to cause grievous harm to one another. What cool military and privatized inventions await … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Nonfiction | Tagged Benjamin Wittes, Drones, futurism, Gabriella Blum, Germs, Hackers, Military, politics, Privacy, Robots, science, terrorism, The Future of Violence | Leave a comment

Book Review: Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Tietsu

Adam Johnson is quickly becoming one of those writer’s that I resent for their skill and the ease with which they display it. He plays with your emotions using prose so unassuming and lacking in ulterior motive that it … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged Adam Johnson, adam johnson is a warlock, Assimilation, Child Pornography, Fortune Smiles, literary fiction, Native American, North Korea, surrealism, The Orphan Master's Son, warlock | Leave a comment

Book Review: Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram by Iain Banks

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Tietsu

If you picked up this book and wanted to read about whisky/dram/scotch then I have little doubt that, after reading it, you are probably more than a little disappointed. If you picked up this book because you are an Iain … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Nonfiction | Tagged Dram, food and drink, Iain Banks, In Search of the Perfect Dram, MacGuffin, Mostly drink though, petrol head, politics, Raw Spirit, Scotland, travel, Travel Log, Whisky | Leave a comment

Book Review: Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Tietsu

Yeah, alright. I did it. I told myself I wouldn’t, but here we are. After reading twelve goddamn Philip K. Dick books and finding only a handful that didn’t piss me off as lyricless, drug-laddled sci-fi dime novels, I told … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged A Scanner Darkly, Eye in the Sky, Graham Joyce, horror, mystery, Philip K. Dick, philsophy, pulp, science fiction, Stephen King, The Silent Land, Ubik, VALIS | 3 Comments

Book Review: Digging to America by Anne Tyler

Posted on November 28, 2017 by Tietsu

At my work we were given the task of filling out a sheet of paper about the books we liked and the ones we didn’t. There were ‘whys’ and titled examples of what drove us to keep reading and what … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged Adoption, Anne Tyler, culture, Digging to America, Iranian America, milquetoast, motherhood, multiculturalism, parenthood, Parenting, Reader Advisory | Leave a comment

Book Review: Will Save the Galaxy for Food by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Tietsu

There is something about Yahtzee Croshaw that has always appealed to me. I discovered his Zero Punctuation just before it got picked up The Escapist back in 2007. His disdain for tropish literature and general cynicism for, well, everything puts … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged Ben Croshaw, humor, Jam, Mogworld, pulp, Satire, science fiction, space opera, Will Save The Galaxy For Food, Yahtzee Croshaw, Zero Puncuation | Leave a comment

Book Review: It by Stephen King

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Tietsu

After reading The Dark Tower series I felt like I had given Stephen King a bit of a bad rap. I have lamented about such things earlier, but aside from my drunken late night decision to follow him on Twitter, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged fantasy, gore, halloween, Hollywood, horror, It, Pennywise, Pennywise the dancing clown, Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series, Thriller, Violence | Leave a comment

Book Review: Stoner by John Williams

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Tietsu

When I was a kid I use to walk through graveyards. I’d search for the oldest headstones and longest lived lying beneath them. I remember running charcoal across crumbled paper in order to decipher those too weathered and beaten to … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged american literature, classics, college, Education, Existentialism, humanity, John Edward Williams, John Williams, literary fiction, Love, perfection, Stoner, World War I | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Posted on October 17, 2017 by Tietsu

I read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow back in high school. It was Halloween and as all teachers strive to tie literature to something relevant in their students’ lives, mine did the same. I didn’t remember it. I remember being … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged 18th century literature, classics, fantasy, Gothic, halloween, horror, Ichabod Crane, Short Story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving | Leave a comment