Category Archives: Book Reviews

Directed by James Burrows by James Burrows (2022) – BR00216 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 30 2022

Plot or Premise This is an autobiography of the director of multiple hit TV series over the years, including Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, and Will & Grace. What I Liked I have followed the blog of Ken Levine (MASH, Cheers) for a number of years, and he touted the biography of James Burrows in his blog on several occasions and noted that he’s even referenced in the book (minimally as it turns out). But it was enough for me to be interested. When I look at Burrows’ IMDB profile, I see tons of shows I’ve watched and enjoyed over the … Continue reading →

The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton (1992) – BR00215 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 29 2022

Plot or Premise Agatha Raisin retires from an active public relations life in London and settles down in a small town, expecting a relatively quiet existence. What I Liked The general premise is interesting, with a pie she enters in a contest ending up somehow killing someone. There are lots of characters running around, and once things settle down, it has the basis for a good universe to visit. What I Didn’t Like I struggled with three aspects of the story. First and foremost, Agatha herself is not particularly likable. She’s spent her career generally being oblivious to others, but … Continue reading →

The Lost World by Michael Crichton (1995) – BR00214 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 27 2022

Plot or Premise Six years after Jurassic Park turned into a human slaughter by rampaging dinosaurs during a storm, the chaos theorist Ian Malcolm is back to join a rich academic in visiting Site B, a nearby island that was the production facility for the original Park’s dinosaurs. What I Liked The story is a bit of a retread of the original, with a bit of added mystery of what happened at the site that is now long dormant. There is a bit new in the ways that the dinosaurs interact and less about “how” they were created from the … Continue reading →

Artemis by Andy Weir (2018) – BR00213 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 26 2022

Plot or Premise A young woman on a lunar base works to save money and build some capital. What I Liked The story seems incredibly realistic by focusing less on the tech details and mostly on the day-to-day life of Jasmine aka Jazz. She has a very basic life, scrambling to make ends meet as a porter / courier around the station and trying every day to find any angle to get ahead just a little bit, regardless of the small corners she has to cut. She doesn’t want to be rich, she just needs to pay off a large … Continue reading →

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1990) – BR00212 (2022) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 25 2022

Plot or Premise A rich industrialist with a vision creates a safari park on a secluded island for tourists, where the main attraction will be dinosaurs brought back to life through advanced DNA sequencing. What I Liked It’s a bit hard to read the book without comparing it to the successful movie franchise that was built on the book. But the imagination to not only conceive of a dinosaur park for tourists and to conceive of a realistic way to make the science sound feasible even in 1990 (pulling dinosaur DNA from a long-dead mosquito trapped in amber) was simply fabulous … Continue reading →