One of the reasons How the West Was Won was such a disappointment was because I’ve already read two five star books this year. I don’t get to read books that make me want to make everyone read them all the time, but when I find them, I love sharing them with everyone. And I do mean everyone. My husband, my kids, random people who come through my line at the grocery store. Everyone.

Gamechanger was one of those five star, share with everyone books. I’ve even pre-ordered the paperback so I can have this on my shelf to re-read later. There’s a reason I need to make a run to IKEA sometime soon. The only reason I’m not re-reading this immediately is because it’s a library book, and I just got notification that something I requested has arrived.

So, enough about how good it is. What is it about? Let’s see…

This is near future sci-fi, so it takes place about a hundred years from now. Environmental catastrophes are here. Widespread social change has taken place, in part through an even deeper immersion into the electronic world.

Everyone, once they reach a certain age, is outfitted with VR tech that lets them immerse themselves in various games and environments. Personal property fits into a small bag, and the things that make your home yours are all digital overlays over the physical world.

That’s just one of the interesting ideas in this book.

There’s the idea of social capital as actual capital, increasing or reducing the amount of resources you get beyond the bare minimum every person is entitled to, based on your behavior, and the actions you do or don’t take.

I could go on, because the world building is immersive and interesting, but suffice it to say that there are a lot of cool ideas here.

When you get right down to it, it’s a fairly simple story that starts out as a missing persons case that turns into a murder mystery and then into some world-changing sci-fi. Not going to spoil this one for you. The reveal is entirely too much fun and ridiculous, but completely serious, to share here.

I love the characters too. They worry just the right amount. Some books, the characters obsess over one idea or another and never do anything, but these people use the worrying to figure to what they’re going to do.

Sounds like real people to me.

As a bonus, you know how doom and gloom a lot of near future dystopian stories are? This isn’t. This one acknowledges that things suck, and they have sucked in the past, but they can get better through individual action. Sort of like what the baby boomers preached when they were kids, but forgot about as they grew up.

So. Good. Read it!

Did I mention five out of five stars?

Now what’s next…

When I saw the prompt for A Western on the Popsugar Reading Challenge, I thought now would be a good time to read one of Louis L’Amour’s books. He was after all, considered a master of the western genre. I sold so many of his books when I worked in bookstores.

Deciding which one to pick was hard. L’Amour has written over a hundred books, and when I was in the library, I didn’t want to take the time to research which of his books was the best. (The library has poor cell service, too.) So after scanning the shelf quickly, I decided on How the West Was Won. I’d heard of that.

I wish I hadn’t.

The book starts slowly, except it doesn’t really. Each scene has got plenty of action, but it just reads slowly. Do you know what I mean?

I got 50 pages into it, and was having to make myself sit down to read it. That’s not a good sign. Then I read the additional information at the end of the book, about how the book came to be.

I discovered that L’Amour was doing the novelization of the book for MGM, and he grew to hate the book because they kept having him revise the story based on how they were shooting the movie. It took him months and months to get the finished book off his plate. Sounds like a horrendous business all the way around.

I wasn’t willing to give up on the story yet. It could have some redeeming qualities. So I decided to check out the movie. The screenplay won an Oscar in 1962. How bad could it be?

Bad.

Not even Debbie Reynolds and Jimmy Stewart could keep me watching. And I love Jimmy Stewart! But his acting was so strangely wooden I couldn’t keep watching.

So I’m giving up. I think. The book’s due back to the library on Sunday, and I may try to finish it, but I am not going to make myself. Not sure if I’m going to try for another western later on or not. There’s a reason I generally don’t read westerns.

Life is too short to make myself read things I’m not enjoying.

No stars. Can’t rate things I haven’t finished.

You’ve probably heard of Mike Rowe. He had this little show called Dirty Jobs awhile back? He narrates a lot of shows for Discovery Channel, and has a show on Facebook called Returning the Favor. One of the things that he currently does, is put out a podcast called The Way I Heard It. It’s a fun little 10 minutes of can you guess what famous person Mike’s talking about before he tells you at the end of the episode.

Last year, he put out a book that included some of his favorite episodes, interspersed with bits about why he chose each episode for the book, or how each story relates to something he’s experienced himself.

Mike’s an entertainingly opinionated person, who doesn’t fit in the neat categories of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ being passed around as the truth these days. He’s a refreshing voice of honesty and integrity who’s trying to live life as close as he can to his own values. He’s engaging and entertaining and funny.

The podcast is consistently fun, and the book follows assuredly in its footsteps.

*spoiler alert* (If you aren’t already listening to the podcast, or haven’t read this yet.)

There’s a fun part where he talks about how the Soviets built a statue to Laika, treating her as a hero. One of his friends responds that Laika is no hero, and that the statue is there to assuage the Soviet guilt conscience. It’s that kind of insightfulness that makes the book (and the podcast) so enjoyable.

Bottom line, a solid 4, 4 and a half, out of 5. Definitely worth reading, and possibly re-reading.

Have you read it? Tell me what you think of it.