Added the latest book reviews

content/reviews/books/answers-to-questions-youve-never-asked.md

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+title = "Answers to Questions You’ve Never Asked: Explaining the What If in Science, Geography and the Absurd - Joseph Pisenti"
+date = 2018-12-04
+
+category = "reviews"
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["books", "en-au", "trivia", "joseph pisenti"]
++++
+
+[GoodReads summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36049427-answers-to-questions-you-ve-never-asked):
+Fun facts for kids of all ages: When you take the most absurd parts of history,
+science, economics and geography, you end up with a pretty confusing picture of
+humanity. Why do we have borders, what’s the furthest you can get from the
+ocean, how do you qualify as a country and why did Vikings wear those silly
+helmets? These are just a few of the strange questions that bounce around the
+head of YouTube sensation Joseph Pisenti, aka RealLifeLore.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=3) }}
+
+Another trivia book. And this one is... weird.
+
+Instead of coming directly with trivia, the book focus on the *history*
+behind the fact (e.g., the size of the Roman Empire is giving talking about the
+annexed countries). On the other hand, the way to get to the history is
+strange, to say the least: How many countries today would encompass the Roman
+Empire, if it didn't fall?
+
+Also, the last 1/3 of the book is devoted to American presidents, which is
+interesting... if you're American.
+
+(And yes, I know I'm picky about this kind of stuff, but some one *has* to
+be, right?)

content/reviews/books/soulminder.md

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+title = "Soulminder - Timothy Zahn"
+date = 2018-12-13
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["books", "en-au", "timothy zahn", "sci-fi"]
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+
+[GoodReads summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21822375-soulminder):
+For Dr. Adrian Sommers, a split second of driving while distracted leads to
+tragedy-and obsession. His family destroyed, he devotes his entire being to
+developing Soulminder, a technology that might have saved his son as he wavered
+on the edge of death. Sommers's vision is to capture a dying person's life
+essence and hold it safely in stasis while physicians heal the body from injury
+or disease. Years of experimentation finally end in success—but those who
+recognize Soulminder's possibilities almost immediately corrupt its original
+concept to pursue dangerous new frontiers: body-swapping, obstruction of
+justice, extortion, and perhaps even immortality.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=2) }}
+
+What if souls really exist and we could capture them, store them, and then
+return them to the body? That's what this book is about (in a way, it's pretty
+close to "The Discovery" by Netflix).
+
+In one hand, the book is *not* about the fact that we have souls (or where they
+go after we die, and things like that), but how one tool, dreamed by someone,
+could be explored and turned into something completely different, and how that
+dreamer would feel about the misuse of his tool. This is a really interesting
+way to build characters in a story.
+
+On the other hand, I have this feeling that the author used the word "soul"
+just to create a fake controversy over the stories. If it was called "Brain
+tracer" or "Memory storage" -- which is what the device does, in the end --,
+half of the book would fall apart, because there would be no direct association
+with something it is mostly used by religions -- which, again, is used as a
+plot device to create controversies inside the book.
+
+As a side note, I got the feeling that either the author had ulcers while
+writing the story or was hungry while writing, 'cause most of the characters
+suffer, in a way or another, with stomach problems: "felt a knot in his
+stomach", "made her stomach churn" and things like that.
+
+Also, chapters are too episodic, and it gave me the feeling that the story
+wasn't wrote for a book, but for some TV series.