Merge branch 'release/20190114'

content/reviews/books/greek-mythology-explained.md

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+title = "Greek Mythology Explained: A Deeper Look at Classical Greek Lore and Myth -  Marios Christou, David Ramenah"
+date = 2019-01-05
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["en-au", "book", "reviews", "greek mythology", "marios christou", "david ramenah"]
++++
+
+[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41822694-greek-mythology-explained):
+Greek mythology explored like never before.
+
+Fans of George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series and the Game of Thrones
+TV series will love Greek Mythology Explained, a unique retelling of Greek
+mythological tales featuring love, betrayal, murder and ruthless ambitions. 
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=4) }}
+
+When I saw "Explained" in the title, I thought the explanations would point
+things in the stories that reflected things in the Greek society at the time.
+
+But no, explanations are way more simpler than that.
+
+For example, the mith of Odysseus and his voyage back home, starting when he
+has to choose between facing Scylla or Chyrabdis, one a monster of 6 heads and
+another a huge whirlpool. The explanation: "between a rock and hard place". I
+mean, it doesn't take much to realize that either option is terrible. You don't
+need explanation for that.
+
+On the other hand, some explanations are, actually, explanations about the
+chosen story. Some characters in Greek mythology have different narrations for
+the same story -- for example, there are, according to the book, 6 different
+tales of Artemis and Orion, all with the same start, the same ending, but
+different content "in between". This is nice.
+
+And, even if the explanations aren't a huge thing, the select stories are
+pretty good.

content/reviews/books/modern-vim-craft-your-development-environment-with-vim8-and-neovim.md

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+title = "Modern Vim: Craft Your Development Environment with Vim 8 and Neovim - Drew Neil"
+date = 2018-12-29
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["en-au", "books", "reviews", "vim", "drew neil"]
++++
+
+[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36517607-modern-vim):
+Turn Vim into a full-blown development environment using Vim 8’s new features
+and this sequel to the beloved bestseller Practical Vim. Integrate your editor
+with tools for building, testing, linting, indexing, and searching your
+codebase. Discover the future of Vim with Neovim: a fork of Vim that includes
+a built-in terminal emulator that will transform your workflow. Whether you
+choose to switch to Neovim or stick with Vim 8, you’ll be a better developer.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=4) }}
+
+I'll be honest and say that I did expect a bit more about this book.
+
+It is not a book talking about changes in the last few years in the VIM
+workflow; it's more about the changes in the ecosystem of VIM. So instead of
+focusing on new features (say, from last version and current version), it
+focuses a lot more on plugins.
+
+Not that focusing on (recent) plugins is a bad thing: There were changes in the
+infrastructure of VIM that allowed the creation of more modern and flexible
+plugins and talking about them is a good thing. But, again, I expected a more
+focused book on VIM than plugins. If the title were "Craft your VIM environment
+on VIM 8 and Neovim", it would fit perfectly on what the book presents, for
+example.
+
+In all, it's not a bad book, although it requires that you know VIM beforehand.

content/reviews/books/moon-shot-the-inside-story-of-americas-race-to-the-moon.md

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+title = "Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon - Alan Shepard"
+date = 2018-12-28
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["en-us", "alan shepard", "book", "review", "nasa", "apollo"]
++++
+
+[GoodReads summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37711959-moon-shot):
+The never-before-told story of the courage, dedication, and teamwork that made
+the journey to the moon possible--an intense human drama of the sacrifices and
+risks asked of a remarkable group of astronauts. Shepard and Slayton, part of
+the pioneering space program from the beginning, tell this fascinating inside
+story. 32 pages of photos.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=0) }}
+
+I'm giving this book no stars because it deserves none.
+
+First of all, the writing style is terrible. At the very start, the way the
+author writes makes you wonder if this is really a book about history or if it
+is plain fiction. There are ways to write about historic events -- and I don't
+mean you can't go a little overboard while writing about it -- but the way the
+story is told is more akin to fiction than actual reporting of events.
+
+Second, this is as "MURRICA!" as a book can get. All American events are
+described as passionate as possible, while Russian events -- you know, the guys
+who put a man in space before the US and who did a spacewalk before the US --
+as described as plain as possible. This gets to the point that, at the first
+half of the book, events are timed after American successes and Russian
+failures; it gets to the incredible insensitive point when talking about Apollo
+15 and the moonbuggy and how it was easier to carry stuff on the moon compared
+to the Apollo 14 mission (which is probably the longest part of the book, even
+supplanting the Apollo 11, the first mission to reach the moon) and, oh, 3
+Russians died a bit before -- mentioned as a simple "matter of fact" than an
+actual accident and something that shouldn't happen.
+
+I'm not saying "Yeah, Russians are part of the Apollo mission" 'cause that
+would be stupid, but JFK said the space missions were a mission to humanity and
+even Neil Armstrong said reaching the moon was a giant leap for mankind, but
+this book takes "humanity" and throws out of the window. 'Cause the important
+stuff is that American win and Russians lose and fuck Russians, amirite? (That
+was sarcastic, in case you didn't noticed.)
+
+And the last chapter is purely political instead of focusing on history.
+
+If the whole book was Alan Shepard telling his side of the history -- and
+focusing on *that* instead of going all the way to the points where
+Shepard had no interaction with -- then yeah, it could be a reasonably good
+book. But the way it is told, it's Alan Shepard story hidden in a bunch of
+other stuff.