June was a month full of reading, but not gaming...

I'm trying to play through the FMV game Bloodshore, but I'm not doing very well at it. I haven't reached one ending yet and I'm told it only takes a couple hours to get there. I just haven't had the time to sit down and play for 30 minutes or more at a time, which is what this game really needs. I did also get Tetris Effect and played that a bit, which lets me pick up and play from time to time. 

As for reading, WHAT A MONTH! Somehow I finished 12 books this month! Albeit a couple were graphic novels, and/or novellas. But even still it was a very successful month. Even the audiobooks the wife and I listen to increased. We're becoming more consistent at listening and coming close to finishing a book a month almost!

First off I read the fifth collection of Catana Comics, Still Smitten. These comics are little slices of relationship love and I don't know how she knows what's going on in our house be they are so relatable for us it's crazy. We love reading these together as it's the perfect combination of heartwarming, funny, and loving.

9/10

The other graphic novel was Eat the Rich by one of my new favorite authors Sarah Gailey. Ah, the pun title master strikes again! They are fantastic at making titles for books that have double meanings, and *SPOILER* have significance to the story. This is a typical person marries into a rich family situation, with bad things to follow. Think the movie Ready or Not.

8/10

I didn't talk much about Sarah's other books, because one of the novella's I read was their fantastic dystopian tale Upright Women Wanted. This Handmaid's Tale meets The Book Of Eli future is a fantastic dystopian western about the power of "librarians." The best news is that the sequel was just announced! This is really a great title and I have another one of Sarah's books sitting next to me now, and a few more on my watchlist. If you like westerns and the fight for equal rights, or are a fan of Cathay Williams this book will be up your alley!

9/10

There were two book club books on my docket this month, Cue the Sun by Emily Nussbaum about the creation and history of Reality TV was the first. This was already on my to be read list and when I saw it was part of the library's book club I had to jump at the chance. I'm trying to read more non-fiction, and that doesn't just mean about traditional things, but about anything really. This was an interesting study of the subject and starts from radio and moves through game shows, older tv shows than you think, to the explosion in the 90's and ends in the 2010's with the election of the felon and his unlikely rise to power. I didn't realize how much reality TV I actually consume and enjoy (it's more than just The Amazing Race)! This helped me to recognize that and the chapter about the incomparable Chuck Barris is worth the price of entry on it's own!

7/10

The Measure by Nikki Erlick was my other book club book. Somehow everyone 22 years old or older receives a box with a string in it. The length of the string ties to the length of their life. Chaos ensued. It was a well told story and felt a little bit like The Dead Zone by Stephen King, and The Box by Richard Matheson. To someone that is familiar with speculative fiction, there's not much to see new here, even with it being well told. It also *SPOILER* wraps up with a cute little bow full of hopeful, if not happy endings, and felt a bit too much. Honestly, this book in a weird way reminds me of Inception. Fresh and new for people who normally don't consume speculative fiction.

6.5/10

I did read another non-fiction book, and it's one of the first self-help books I've ever read, The Practice of Attention: Cultivating Presence in a Distracted World by Cody Cook-Parrott. This was an attempt to learn some strategies for being more present, specifically while with the family. I have a tendency to ADHD out and not be as present as my family deserves. Nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself and getting help while doing that.

7/10

I finally listened to the sequel to Bless Your Heart, Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan. This is a *kinda* cozy horror book about a family of women who are cursed to fight the rising dead and protect their southern town. This takes place right after the end of the first book, and while it was enjoyable to return to the characters, the pacing and plot of this one was a bit off. I just wasn't drawn in as much, but it was enjoyable enough that I'll return to the series if there's a book 3.

6/10

The bittersweetness of reading Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey. This amazing series had another phenomenal edition, but it's getting closer to the end. I cannot recommend this series enough and this book was one of the best. I don't want to spoil anything with these books, but they are legitimately the best fiction books I've ever read on how people actually act and react to things. It feels so real even though its anything but. Just one more book, that I'm currently reading, and one last short story. The only thing good about finishing this book series is that I can then finally watch the show and play the video games!!!!!

9.5/10

The last four books I'm going to combine and write even less about. These were all the books the wife and I listened to. Hermit by S.R. White was an Australian thriller that took place over a day and it felt like it was a month. It was dry and wordy and the concept was great but it just dragged. The Probability of Murder by J.D. Barker and Patrick Logan was a serial killer, maths, figure out the puzzle and secrets book that had some twists, misogynistic cops, but also entertained like the pulps of old. Speaking of pulps, The Lies We Tell by J.D. Barker and Richard Bailey was an utterly ridiculous waking up for a coma and figuring out if you can trust your husband, friends and family tale that spent most of the time with inner monologues and bad dialogue, but we still were amused, even if it was just the outlandish looks we gave each other. Finally was None of this is True by Lisa Jewell. This is a Single White Female/A Simple Favor feeling book about two moms who navigate friendship, death and the truth. It's the best written book of the bunch, but not necessarily the most entertaining.

Hermit 4.5/10

Probability 7.5/10

True 7/10

Lies 6/10

Masters of the Universe, Why I Dug It

Imagine, if you will, the cast and crew of Batman '66 getting together and inspiring a whole new group of people to create a movie based on the toy commer... cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. That is the new movie. You have a remarkable cast of Alison Brie, Jared, Leto, Morena Baccarin, Kristin Wiig, James Purefoy, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba and the underrated Nicholas Galitzine putting on their best overacting faces and acting through the silliest of material and making something utterly ridiculous, but entertaining as hell. I went to see it with my wife, and she found it awful. I have a friend who agreed that it was a bit too much for him. I sat back, enjoyed the intentional camp and basked in this film.

I wasn't a He-Man kid. I'm the right age for it but I was all about GI Joe. Even Transformers wasn't too attractive to me, I mean Soundwave was cool, but I was pretty meh overall. I did have a couple He-Man figures, and bought a new version of my favorite, Buzz-Off, just last year. That being said, I was excited for this movie, I don't know why really, but I came into it with some pretty high expectations, and I left satisfied. It is no where near the best movie I've seen this year (Project Hail Mary or An Ideal Host. It's not even the best Nicholas Galitzine movie I've seen this year (The Sheep Detectives), but I loved turning my brain *WAY* off and enjoying the dad jokes, action, and camp. 

I just really liked this movie, and while I understand the hate out there for it, if you're on the fence, and aren't sure if you want to see it or not, give it a shot. It's dumb fun, but it's FUN!

8/10

*SINGLE SPOILER BELOW*

I loved the ending of this movie and the fact that Adam offers a peaceful way out for Skeletor and not just a violent end. Doesn't mean Skeletor took it, but I liked that it was offered. 

I started a Primitive War with a Carnosaur

So I was surfing the web looking for something dumb to watch and fell down the Roger Corman rabbit hole. Man was that guy amazing. Besides making entertaining (if not good) movies over 70 years, he influenced films for years. He never rally made a blockbuster, but he also never made a complete dud. A master of the budget film and tight timeline Corman made a slew of films for mostly nothing and they all made their money back and then some. More importantly he was one of the best of recognizing talent and then developing it until it moved beyond him and his production company. Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, James Cameron and numerous others owe their careers in part to working with Corman. One of his later creations was Carnosaur. He heard about he novel by Harry Adam Knight and purchased the rights. It was written 6 years before Jurassic Park and when Corman heard they were making that into a movie he rushed production in the way only he could and pushed the movie out the same year, but earlier than Jurassic Park. Carnosaur weirdly stars Diane Ladd, the mother of Jurassic Park's Laura Dern. Carnosaur was hard to find and I actually had to get it off eBay for more than you would expect. It was worth it. The camp of the movie is fantastic, the story top notch and the "message" of it hits harder when thought about than Jurassic Park's in my opinion. Not to say it's a better movie, it absolutely is not. But its well worth a watch and deserves to find a home on streaming somewhere.

8/10

The other dinosaur film I watched is much more recent. 2025's Primitive War is a different beast altogether. Who needs practical effects when you have bad CGI? Why make it contemporary when you can make it a Vietnam War period piece? What sounds good? Jurassic Park and Predator mashed up! That'd be awesome right? Well, it's full of special a T-Rex that snaps its mouth at the guys and the sound is like what happens when I do the finger pop in my cheek. The CGI Dinos look worse than the 1993 (yup 30+ years ago) Jurassic Park ones do. The T-Rex chases guys off a cliff and instead of going 20 feet to the left it passes them by just so the movie doesn't end so soon. Somehow this movie is over 2 hours long. Of course you can learn to navigate the jungle and survive the dinosaurs (thanks 2 female characters!) but its man that is the real enemy. None of this is to say that the movie is awful, it's just nothing special. If you like action movies with too much testosterone and or anything with dinosaurs give it a shot. 

4/10

May got busy and reading was hard

 May was a super busy month both for work and for the family. Kids school things, the busiest time of the year for work by far, and some fun family events to celebrate summer made this a tough month for anything. I only got through 3 books and 2 of them were extremely quick reads.

First I read the Graphic Novel Bad Kid by Sofia Szamosi. This is a tough autobiography about the author's time in and out of residential treatment facilities while she was a teen. It was not the easiest of reads, but was a good one nonetheless. I'm glad she came out on the other side to be (hopefully) healthy and happy. It is a tough situation for both her to be in and her to come out of. Some of the responsibility is on her and some is not but she doesn't shy away from that. I highly recommend this read, but there are some content warnings so be aware.

9/10

Next I read The Big Bad Wolf Murder by PG Bell. I'm a sucker for werewolf tales and this was close enough I gave it a try. It's an entertaining enough read, with some good action and twists. Basically the world is full of humans and wolfpeople. They came to peace and have an asymmetric reality game now that pits one wolf vs several humans in an intense game of capture the flag/tag. Well the new hot young human player ends up accused of killing her legendary opponent and has to work with a timid little wolf to clear her name. Nothing spectacular here, but it is enjoyable for younger audiences and fans of werewolves or Little Red Riding Hood.

6.5/10

Finally I finished the tome of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. This was for a book club and was the first true fantasy novel I've read in quite some time. This is a found family gathering of outcasts that are forced to work for the "good" of the church. There are werewolves, vampires, necromancers and other magic users, elves, witches, curses, Dr Moreau style creations, and more. All of this in a alternate Earth with a religion that is similar to the Catholicism, with the schism and all. The Pope of the West is trying to reunite the church and uses the devils to transport the lost heir to the throne to Troy to have a leader willing to work with the church and such. The perilous journey is bloody, but not as bad as Joe Abercombie's reputation for gory tales. I really enjoyed this one and recommend it to anyone who likes a fantasy tale!

8/10

Gil Grissom, Shooter McGavin and Mr Incredible lead Pacey and Brian O'Conner into the Kingdom of the Secret Skull

 Nothing I write here is going to make me happier than the title of this post. In case you didn't figure out the references to a 26 year old middling movie, I watched The Skulls. It stars Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker and also has Leslie Bibb, Craig T Nelson, William Peterson, and Christopher McDonald. Quite the cast for a teen political/elitist thriller. 

Exceptional, but poor, Luke (Joshua Jackson) works a ton of part time jobs in order to go to Yale, and through this overwhelming abilities he's recruited to the vaunted Skull and Bones Yale secret society. This is the pathway to influence and wealth, at least by urban legend. Of course the society is nefarious and Luke has to choose between the future the Skulls "offer" and the ethics and true friends he could leave behind. 

There's a scene that starts with Creed's Higher that highlights the "glory" the Skulls have to offer, like women (ahhhhh, misogyny) cars, yachts, etc. Of course Luke's friend is investigating the Skulls and is found out and made to look like it's a suicide. The white male society circles the wagons and who will Luke side with?

Honestly the best part of this movie is when Leslie Bibb is running, for once they got an actress that it doesn't look outrageous that she could outrun some men. She could pretty easily out run a couple out of shape middle-aged men (I'm looking at you Shooter). 

There are two direct to video sequels, I was going to watch those as well, but they're not really available for free and I'm certainly not going to pay for them. The first wasn't that good.

3/10

Since The Skulls 2&3 weren't easy to find I looked across the pond for The Riot Club and to see another, perfectly innocent university secret society doing nothing wrong. This one felt a bit more realistic than The Skulls for sure. The stakes are lower, the insanity a bit more realistic and the biggest issue the complete stupidity of young spoiled men. Sam Claflin is in this one, an actor I believe is highly underrated. You still have to face the ultimate choice of what is the price of your morality. This is more difficult to watch as it's more a critique of the innate exploitation of such a misogynistic club. 

A bit more posh and classist, much akin to most British shows/movies. Man inherited wealth is grand ain't it? This is a much more human, better in almost every way movie. This is one that I appreciated watching but I'll never watch it again. 

7/10

April Was Sneakily a Readathon

 This was supposed to be a slower reading month, but once again I went a big crazy with reading. While I didn't finish the most books of the month for 2026 yet, I did read the most pages! That's just a lot! Honestly, the wife and I have picked up our listening to an audiobook before bed and it has made a huge difference for us.

The first book I finished was mostly read in March but I just couldn't get the last bit done. I found the 1995 X-Com: UFO Defense novel by Diane Duane on eBay and just loved biting my teeth into more of this video game lore! It's the oldest of the X-Com books by far and is attached to the original PC game but a lot of the world is the same as the newer Enemy Unknown universe. I believe I've finished all of the related novels now, and one of the graphic novels too. This was probably the best written, and the easiest to connect to the characters within. It was an interesting dive for sure.

7/10

I also finished Wilderness Reform by Harrison Query and Matt Query. This is the tale of a group of teens sent to a reform camp in Montana. We follow Ben through this change in his life. It could have easily fallen into the "Look how much smarter the teen is than the adults" trope that is common in YA books, but this one makes it feel a bit more realized. Ben is from Louisiana, and is woefully undereducated, but that doesn't mean he's not smart. He has just learned how to utilize his intelligence in ways to keep his brother and him safe from the horrible conditions he's been left in. Unfortunately this leads to his eventual arrest and being sent to a reform camp in Montana that is not what it seems. There a satisfying connection here and I liked this book quite a bit.

7.5/10

I followed this up with a pair of pulp/cozy tales. They were both easy listens and were quite enjoyable in their own ways. Advent by Seth Ring is my 3rd serious try into the LitRPG world and it might be my favorite. It's not as comedic and over the top as Dungeon Crawler Carl, but it feels a bit more grounded and the world is very interesting and one that I will be diving into further. I also listened to The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan. This Mumbai based cozy detective story is the first of the Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation series. It's a forcefully
retired Police Inspector gets caught up in a murder case and has to go it on his own (kind of, he still has some police connections and the help of his newly inherited baby elephant, yup seriously) to help out a family that does not have the standing (money) to make the Police listen to them. It was nothing super special but enjoyable nonetheless.

8/10

6.5/10

The wife and I started one story, that was not very good so only I finished it, kinda out of spite, I have DNF'ing, more than anything. It was the newly released The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss. This was another reality show goes wrong and people die story. It's the worst of them all so far. The premise is a competition show based around teams solving escape rooms as fast as possible. But the corruption, greed, selfishness, and creepy sexual deviancy involved makes this season one to be remembered. You switch views between characters a bit too much and the twist doesn't feel earned enough to be honest. I really need to fix my DNF aversion.

5/10

The wife and I then listened to two really good books this month though as well! The newest in the US Steve Cavanagh book Two Kinds of Stranger is the next in his Eddie Flynn series, and while it was not his best, it kept us entertained and we're coming back to him once the next in the series is released. Honestly, I'd be all about a book in this series that is just about Block. She's my favorite of them all. We then listened to the best of the month, Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera. This was a very good listen as it is a fictional true crime podcast going back to solve a murder and these sequences between the "podcast episodes" and the rest of the narrative has music and multiple narrators for interviews, it makes it feel more authentic. The ending is satisfying if not completely foreseeable. We enjoyed this book thoroughly and recommend it to all.

6/10

9/10

The last of the month was a surprise read for me. My local book store had an emergency so they needed someone to fill in for one of their book clubs, and I'm the lucky guy! The book is Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky and it is the second of his books that I've read now and I'm starting to become a fan. While I think I read his best for me book first (Service Model is a masterpiece and everyone should read it) this one is a great story and is a bit more depressing than I usually prefer, it was engaging enough that I had no problem getting through it and I enjoyed it by the end. If you have read Shroud and want more like it, I can't speak of the other Tchaikovsky books, but the David Wellington The Last Astronaut is on the same vein and was very good as well. Now I just need to finish my non-fiction book I put aside to get this done in time.

8/10

Cathay Williams makes everyone else seem small

I recently watched the historically inspired, but wholly fictional The Harder They Fall (2021). I am a fan of westerns and this one got me interested, but Jonathan Majors is a real life horrible person so I avoided it. Watching They Will Kill You with Zazie Beetz, brought me back to it. I decided to give it a shot after all, and I'm glad I did. Everyone in this movie shines, and most are significantly better than Majors. The biggest standout is Danielle Deadwyler, who plays Cuffee, inspired by Cathay Williams. Add in Zazie Beetz, who play the real life Stagecoach Mary and Regina King who plays the fictional Trudy Smith and you have three very strong women who stand out in this film. Cuffee is the best character in the film, in my opinion, and Danielle does an amazing job as her. I can recommend this movie to all because of it, the inclusion of majors notwithstanding.

Coincidentally, I happened upon the western Surrounded (2023) on Tubi as a movie that was leaving soon. The Harder They Fall created a bigger itch for another western and this one looked interesting so I decided to give it a shot. I had no idea that Cathay Williams inspired yet another character in Mo Williams in this film. This time Letitia Wright (most know her as Shuri from Black Panther) plays "Cathay," and the role is more significant as it's the main character. It is just as impactful as the previous iteration and just make you like the character even more. 

All of this to say, I learned who Cathay Williams was, but certainly not enough about her to really talk about this amazing woman. I have order a biography on her and will be reading it later this year. I wholeheartedly encourage anyone else out there to look up these movies, and see if they amaze you like they did me. If not, you're, at worst, watching two good westerns. 

I will give the warning that they are violent, They Harder They Fall more so, but not as bad as many other action/horror films out there. 

They Will Kill You

 Introduce Zazie Beetz as a bad ass with a sad backstory on a quest to find/save/avenge her sister and add in a mix of Heather Graham, Tom Felton and Patricia Arquette as key member of a satanic cult who cannot be killed and you get They Will Kill You. Weirdly this movie came out the same time as a similarly themed Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. While I haven't yet seen RoN2 yet, They Will Kill You was my most anticipated movie of the year. I really like cult movies and a killer heroine only makes that better. 

Zazie Beetz is awesome as Asia Reaves and shines in the action scenes, that are truly the highlight of the movie. There isn't too much to dig into here, and it does an effective job of making this tiny snippet of the world feel "real." The acting is a bit over the top, but that's not entirely a bad thing in a movie like this. There is a scene that truly gives you the ick, men really suck, but it doesn't last too long and there's hell to pay for the act. Honestly this is not the best movie I've seen this year, not even close, but it was entertaining enough and I will buy it (when it goes on sale, I don't buy anything full price anymore). If you're interested in it at all, give it a watch at some point, it's well done. If you want something similar and probably better the first Ready or Not and Gunpowder Milkshake are both objectively better.

7/10

Close Encounters of a Hail Mary

 So the whole family went to see Project Hail Mary and we loved it. It was a darn near perfect movie (I know Rish, the book is better and it makes the movie a disappointment but as I haven't read it yet I cannot comment). It brought back the sense of wonder and awe into a movie and it really is one that deserves to be seen on the big screen. I encourage everyone to go see it! It's even more amazing to learn how little CGI and how much practical effects were used. The more I learn about the movie the more I appreciate it. Lord and Miller knocked it out of the park and Ryan Gosling is a much better actor than I thought.

9.5/10

Of course it made me think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even before the tip of the hat to the tune. So I had to rewatch that movie too and I finally saw the director's cut of it. While it has aged a bit, overall it holds up so well. I always preferred it to ET, and its probably more the ongoing sense of something wrong is going on that I like. I will say though that Richard Dreyfuss's Roy Neary is a total @$$. He only wants to play or have his kids do what he wants, not actually parent them, putting that on his wife. His irrational obsession on the aliens, whic
h isn't all his fault as shown by the others in the same obsessive state, further drives his wife from him, not that she needed much more of a push. Roy has much more of a connection with Jillian Guiler, a fellow alien experiencer and actually seems to care for her, unlike any emotion shown to his wife. At the end *SPOILER* Roy has no hesitation to join the aliens, and doesn't even think about HIS FAMILY AND CHILDREN!!! This is not just tied to the alien influence as Jillian does crave to go with the aliens as she is more about her child and being with him, you know, like a LOVING PARENT!! All this doesn't take away from an awesome story about contact with aliens, it's just too bad that this part of the movie hasn't aged well, although it's not a unique way to have a man view his family from this time period.

8/10

Both of these movies have such a sense of wonder, amazement and hope. It something that is finally returning to stories it feels like after the morally gray and dark stories we've had lately. I can go for more of this!!!

Marching my way through some pages.

It was a busy end of March/start of April so this post is a little later than expected. But I read so much in March. It was more than expected for sure! Travelling around and spring cleaning really help me listen to more audiobooks.

I read my third reality show in a secluded area goes wrong book. We Won't All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall was the best of the bunch so far. It wasn't the best written (One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware) or have the best twist (How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates) but it was the most satisfying. Coates' book was a bit too gory/violent for my tastes. And Ware's just fell flat. Marshall's was the most entertaining, even if it was ridiculous.

7/10

I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman at the very start of the month, just in time for a bookclub. I will say that it was one of the better audiobooks I've listened to, and it was heaps better than any LitRPG books I've listened to up to this point. If you're interested in the series at all it's worth it. I don't know that I'll continue with it though, it's not completely my bag, even as entertaining it as it is.

8/10

The wife and I listened to several books this month and they were almost all decent. There was The Rush by Michelle Prak, Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston, and Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh. The Rush was an Australian thriller and it was the best of the bunch if terrifying. Cavanagh's book was the first we've listened to that wasn't part of his Eddie Flynn series. It was thrilling, but left you unsure how to feel about things at the end. Anatomy of an Alibi had potential but felt flat by the end. It wasn't an awful but just didn't hit the way you'd hope.

8/10

8/10

5/10

I read the next in The Expanse series, Persepolis Rising by James SA Corey. This was a darn hear perfect addition to the series. I don't understand how such massive tomes can be so engrossing and move so fast. The pacing is perfect. Bobby is a total badass and this book represents it better than any other. I cannot recommend this series any more and this is the start of the last three that the show didn't cover.

9.5/10

The last two books were both a bit of comfort reads after the intensity that James SA Corey brings to the table. I listened to Countess by Suzan Palumbo which is a sci-fi Caribbean inspired Count of Monte Cristo retelling. It was interesting and worth a read, if not as good as the original work. I followed it up with book five in the Fred the Vampire Accountant series, Deadly Assessments by Drew Hayes. This series is amazing pulp joy. It's a found family series and has good humor and makes you really care about so many characters. It's the perfect relaxing comfort food to offset the intensity of The Expanse.

6.5/10

8/10