Julio Biason
5 years ago
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title = "Adult Stuff: Things You Need to Know to Win at Real Life - Robert Boesel, Matt Moore" |
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date = 2020-02-09 |
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[taxonomies] |
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "robert boesel", "matt moore"] |
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26544444-adult-stuff): |
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Sometimes your first steps into the "real world" send you falling flat on your |
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face. It's natural to be optimistic about new experiences, but most of us set |
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ourselves up only to be let down every time. And disappointment hurts like a |
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$%&*#. |
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News flash: You don't have to be an Einstein to survive adult life. You don't |
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even have to abandon your standards to get what you want. All you have to do |
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is keep your expectations realistic. |
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{{ stars(stars=3) }} |
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Alright, right up front, let me say that it is weird to read a book about "How |
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to Survive Real Life When You Just Got Passed Your Teens and Now Need to Work |
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and Keep a Place and Have a Life" when you're 43. But here we are. |
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One thing the book does (although a bit too flourish for my taste) is to |
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destroy all those dreams of a perfect life: Oh, you're out of your parents |
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apartment? Sure, you can have that huge loft Tom Hanks have in "Big", or a |
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nice apartment like the ones in "Friends"? NOT! Oh, sharing with someone you |
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go fine? It will be like "Friends", every day! SIKE! |
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So, yeah, it is not that bad, but it is not a dream. |
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But instead of saying "Nope" all the time, the book tries to give some advice |
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on how to survive this dark times. I think it missed the point sometimes; for |
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example: dripping faucet? Hire someone. Why not buy two, play with one till |
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you understand how it fits and then try the other one. Sure, hiring someone |
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and watching over their shoulder how to do is something I do all this time -- |
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I'm not kidding here -- but you can also experiment yourself. You'd pay |
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double, but if you manage to understand how things work, you'll have a spare |
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and if you break it, at least you got it shouldn't work. |
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title = "Broetry Poetry for Dudes - Brian McGackin" |
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date = 2020-01-26 |
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[taxonomies] |
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "brian mcgackin"] |
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10326288-broetry-poetry-for-dudes): |
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As contemporary poets sing the glories of birds, birch trees, and |
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menstruation, regular guys are left scratching their heads. Who can speak for |
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Everyman? Who will articulate his love for Xbox 360, for Mama Celeste's frozen |
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pizza, for the cinematic oeuvre of Bruce Willis? |
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{{ stars(stars=4) }} |
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Don't let the title fool you: It may sound like a book with bro-dude stuff, |
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like women being bitches, the parties all nights to get bitches and so on, but |
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there is none of this here. |
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It's more about life, about growing up, with some fun tones -- I specially |
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recommend the one that describes a whole life in 3 or so pages using only |
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movie titles. |
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title = "Christopher Walken A to Z: The Man, the Movies, the Legend - Robert Schnakenberg" |
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date = 2020-02-18 |
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[taxonomies] |
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "biography", "christopher walken", "robert schnakenberg"] |
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23838378-christopher-walken-a-to-z): |
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The Complete Guide To All Things Walken. |
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{{ stars(stars=3) }} |
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It's "The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray", but for Christopher Walken: Stories, |
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people, movies, things related to the Christopher Walken, in alphabetical |
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order. |
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Is it good? Well, that's the point I can really say. One thing that annoys me |
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is that most of what is said in the book comes from other sources; Walken is |
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never interviewed, but all the information is taken from other books and |
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interviews and whatnot, but nothing directly said for the book. Also, because |
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I'm not a super-fan, I can't validate if things are interesting or not, so it |
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ends up being a compilation of information about an (recluse, private) actor. |
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It may be good if you just found out about Christopher Walken and want some |
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opinion about his movies, and what to watch next and such and get some |
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information in the more boring scenes. |
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title = "Employees Gone Wild: Crazy (and True!) Stories of Office Misbehavior, and What You Can Learn From the Mistakes of Others - Richard Burton" |
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date = 2020-01-26 |
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[taxonomies] |
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "richard burton"] |
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23130072-employees-gone-wild): |
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Richard Burton has tales you won’t believe actually happened over his decades |
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spent as the attorney hired by companies to protect them when their employees |
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act out. Employees Gone Wild collects some of the most outrageous and |
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absolutely-true stories (names changed to protect the guilty of course) from |
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Burton’s years on the job, along with his indispensable practical advice on |
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how companies and the people that work for them can avoid the same pitfalls. |
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{{ stars(stars=3) }} |
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Strange office stories happen everywhere, being passed along from generation |
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to generation of new employees by old sages. |
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And this book captures the stories of one of those sages. |
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Some of the stories are funny, some are really weird, but all of them have |
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some points in case you get caught in a similar situation, by someone who has |
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some ideas about labor law and works for HR (the author mentions that he is, |
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actually, a labor lawyer, but since there is a disclaimer that you shouldn't |
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take the suggestions as facts, I'm downplaying the position a bit). This means |
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that every freaky story have some pointers on what one shouldn't do and what |
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management should do in case something like that should happen. |
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The last chapter is a downer, though. Instead of funny/freaky, the stories are |
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mostly discrimination and the tone gets really serious -- with reason. |
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Still, it's kinda interesting seeing that your office is not the only weird |
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one |
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title = "K is for Knifeball: An Alphabet of Terrible Advice - Avery Monsen, Jory John" |
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date = 2020-01-26 |
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[taxonomies] |
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "avery monsen", "jory john"] |
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14553581-k-is-for-knifeball): |
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From the authors of the breakout bestseller All my friends are dead. (more |
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than 175,000 copies sold) and in the humorous vein of Go the F**k to Sleep |
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comes a laugh-out-loud collection of bad advice that turns the children's |
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alphabet book on its head. Adorable illustrated characters lead readers down a |
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path of poor decision-making, and alphabetical, rhyming couplets offer |
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terrible life lessons in which O is for opening things with your teeth, F is |
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for setting Daddy's wallet on fire, and R is for Raccoon (but definitely not |
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for rabies). With plenty of playfully disastrous choices lurking around every |
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corner, this compendium of black humor may be terrible for actual children, |
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but it's perfect for the common-senseless child in all adults. |
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{{ stars(stars=3) }} |
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What would happen if you mix "Please Go To Fucking Sleep" with an ABC book? "K |
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is for Knifeball". |
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It's a "for-kids-but-not-kids" kinda of book: For example, "D is for Drifter, |
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which you should call to get in when your parents aren't at home" and "F is |
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Food, which you should give for the drifter living under your bed" (or |
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something around those lines)... Pretty much what "Go To Fucking Sleep" does. |
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Surely one wouldn't recite the book to a kid anyway, and being really short, |
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I'm not sure about the re-readability of it. Still, it is somewhat amusing. |
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title = "The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History - Jon Morris" |
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date = 2020-02-02 |
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[taxonomies] |
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "comics", "superheroes", "jon morris"] |
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23164984-the-league-of-regrettable-superheroes): |
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You know about Batman, Superman, and Spiderman, but have you heard of Doll |
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Man, Doctor Hormone, or Spider Queen? In The League of Regrettable |
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Superheroes, you’ll meet one hundred of the strangest superheroes ever to see |
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print, complete with backstories, vintage art, and colorful commentary. So |
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prepare yourself for such not-ready-for-prime-time heroes as Bee Man (Batman, |
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but with bees), the Clown (circus-themed crimebuster), the Eye (a giant, |
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floating eyeball; just accept it), and many other oddballs and oddities. |
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Drawing on the entire history of the medium, The League of Regrettable |
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Superheroes will appeal to die-hard comics fans, casual comics readers, and |
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anyone who enjoys peering into the stranger corners of pop culture. |
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{{ stars(stars=4) }} |
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An encyclopedia of failed super-heroes. |
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The intro for the book is really good in the point that, today, super-heroes |
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are all in rage in the movies. But there are those who failed to get some |
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attention and died in the darkness of the comic book world. |
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So, here they are. |
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I just felt it could have a bit more about the background of the heroes. Sure, |
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some were promotional heroes (like NFL hero, the trucker hero, and so on) but |
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still, what was the catalyst for the creation of such hero: Was it the times, |
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the culture change, some requirement from higher ups, drugs...? Also, powers: |
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Some have a short list of super powers they got, but they are not complete -- |
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surely, it's mentioned that some heroes go through several revisions, so their |
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powers change, but one could consider a revision another hero and just keep |
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the powers with the heroes+revision. I'm saying this 'cause, as an |
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encyclopedia, it would be nice to have an index by powers, so when one is |
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looking for that hero that have, say, the power to create bubbles, one could |
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just check the index for "bubbles" and there you go. |
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The book also need some more careful work by the editors. There are a couple |
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of misspellings around, like a "thsoe" in the middle of the sentence. It's not |
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that hard to figure out what was meant in these cases, but still... annoying. |
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