Mickey Ross and His Books

This book is about a time traveler that has traveled where no other time traveler has traveled before.



If and If I read the book correctly. Dan/Danny/Uncle Jim/ Diane/Donna/Aunt Jane are all the same person but traveling in different time lines depending on the decisions they take resulting in different time lines ( makes sense? Probably not :).

Some where in the book Dan talks about traveling into the future and talks about sex changes and gentic engineering of humans. So a future Dan becomes a Diane. They are now on a different time line for the future, they Dan and Diane can only meet in a distant past where time lines where they can meet.

So Dan gets himself pregnant, more than once, creating different time lines. Dan becomes Uncle Jim and raises himself. Diana becomes Aunt Jane and raises herself. But one thing Dan could not discover in his travels is how to prevent old age and dying.

So thus the title of the book, "The man who folded himself". He is the beginning and end of his own life. Yea time travel and there fun filled paradoxes.



I also enjoyed this book. I give the the book five out of five stars.

If you have IBS, this diet is probably for you. I do believe they have finally figured it out. However, this has to be the most complex diet I have ever seen. It is not like other diets that typically remove whole food groups like sugar for diabetics or wheat for those that have wheat alergies. One will need to keep this book or a low-fodmap phone app with them when ever they eat something or have a great memory to remember the foods one could or should not eat.

Yea this is a book that will always be within my reach.

A very interesting world build and the society of Cetaganda.

When I brought home my new Cusinart Ice Cream machine home on christmas eve, I was excited. However, the Recipies that came with the machine was horrible. At first I thought I purchased a dud that would end up sitting in the basement and was a little disappointed.

Then I searched the web for Ice cream Recipies and discovered Jenni Splended Ice Cream book, YES! I went from sadness to Joy. Since then then I have made Ice cream that was so much better than what was in the supermarkets.

Now my Cusinart is used on a weekly basis or more. When ever family or freinds come over they always head towards my freezer for the homemade ice cream. I can always make more :)

An excellent book, with a great world and character build. The story is excellent and very unpredictable, even the ending was a complete surprise to me. One extra side note: one may want to read [b:Stranger in a Strange Land|350|Stranger in a Strange Land|Robert A. Heinlein|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1156897088s/350.jpg|908211] before reading Steel Beach.

Consider Plhebas

My review of the book "Considering Phlebas by Iain M. Banks.

THE STRUCTURE:

I see the "MIND" as a gadget, person or thing, like in many stories, that different groups or individuals are after and the "Path" is the actual story.

The Yins and Yangs, extreme vs extreme. Let me list the ways.

Order vs Chaos :
Order associated with Culture and Chaos associated with Iridian.

The "Strategist" - female vs male:
Fal Shilde Ngeestra - From the Culture, female, has an intelligent drone as a friend.
Querl Xoralundra - From the Iridains, male, has a not so intelligent Medjel as a slave.

The "Tacticians" - again female vs male:
Perosteck Balveda - From the Culture, female, well trained and cares about others.
Bora Horza Gobuuchal - From the Iridian, male, a changer that cares only for himself.

Females vs Males - ( Fal and Balveda ) vs ( Xoralundra and Horza)

{ After reading the chapter "State of play: one" and observing this setup in today's society, I knew the women would win the gadget called the MIND. }

{ oh how do I miss they good old days of "film Noir" when it was the single, childless, hot looking, vixen women that was always the evil one that committed the crimes :) }

From the chapter: Dramatist personae.

Both "Tacticians", Horza and Belveda had died. Horza by the hand of his allies the Iridians and Belveda committed self termination after the war. Belveda could not live with her past acts of violence.

Both "Strategist", Fal and Querl got promotions and lived long fulfilling lives after the war.

{ One odd thing that Fal had a sex change operation after the war. If Fal had superior intelligence equal to the minds. Does this mean that life is better as a male, implied from the book :) }


THE VIOLENCE:

I felt the reason for all the violence is to show how evil the Iridan empire is.
How many ways to list the different forms of violence.

WAR - The Iridian empire started the war against the peaceful Culture Empire.
Murder - Horza murdered a person on the planet Sorpen, chapter 1: Sorpen.
Torture - Horza's punishment for murder drowning in a septic tank, chapter 1: Sorpen.
Slavery - The Medjel served under the Iridian, Chapter 2: the hand of God 137.
Cruelty - Querl kicking a Medjel when down for falling, instead of helping him up.
Mass Murder - Xoralundra nuking cities without concern - chapter 2, hand of God 137.
Fighting - Horza fighting for his life on the CAT ship, chapter 3: Clear Air Turbulence.
Rape - Captain saying "Culture women could not be raped", Iridian space they could?
Piracy, murder, stealing, theft - chapter 4: Temple of light.
Selfishness - I am taking you with me with the personal nuke, Chapter 5: Megaship
Cannibalism - need I say more, chapter 6, The Eaters.
Gladiatorial Fighting - the mind game called damage, Chapter 7: A game of damage.
Animal Cruelty - Animals fighting to death from ceiling, Chapter 7: A game of damage.
Recklessness - Harming innocent beings as flying through the GSV: Chapter 8
Murder - Chapters 10 through 12.
Vengeance - Horza's uncontrollable urge to kill the Iridain that killed his pregnant mate.
{ There is no honor among thieves }

{ a note that Belveda asked Horza to let go the Iridan that killed his mate to show that those living in the culture are not vengeful and forgiving }


THE RELIGION:

The Culture :
"Imagine" there is no religion... and everyone living life in peace, John Lenon.

The Iridian :
Religion is the other major player in the Iridan empire along with all of the violence. Religion and Violence goes hand in hand in this book.

Chapter 2: The hand of God 132.
Even the WAR ships are named after God.

Chapter 4: Temple of Light.
{Easy in Easy out? Surprise! Priest carry guns! }
{ Sell what you have and buy a sword - Bible, Luke 22,36 }

Chapter 6: The Eaters.
{ The gods are everywhere in this chapter, give thanks to god for our human dinner. }

“The Idirans saw themselves as agents in this great reordering. They were the chosen—at first allowed the peace to understand what God desired" quote from Horza in chapter 6.

{ Predestination - I personally call this, Religion of Narcissism. God chosen me, kiss yourself, God loves me, kiss yourself, God chosen me... }

{ With this viewpoint, god has chosen you as an agent of God, therefore you are better than others that were not chosen and provides the excuse to harm others, if god has not chosen you, then you are a bad person. }

SUMMERY:

As I see it, this is a story where Violence and Religion goes hand in hand as seen through the eyes of a criminal named Horza. Take away religion and one will live in peace. And I agree with this "self perceived" viewpoint.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

I will say Iain M. banks is an excellent writer. Lots and lots of patterns in this book that made it so easy to predict what coming next. The book was too highly structured with little surprises for my liking.

A good world and character builder for two stars. Writing was excellent for one star. The book and characters are memorable for the forth star. The story line was lack luster and could not give him that extra star.

This cookbook is different. Not just filled with recipes, it is filled with a lifestyle of kindness, time and wisdom in the kitchen. As a single person who is tired of consuming plain cooked foods that wants a bit more spice in life. This is a small book that I will return to on those grey filled days looking for the small personal pleasures of life.

This is the book that converted me to atheism.

I had only a dozen or so conflicts and contradictions of the bible. This author has a great many more.
He tries so desperately to answer these "Difficulties" and his answers were not credible in my opinion.

Like I am to believe that:

Length of one hair can control ones strength: Samson.
That one can survive for three days in a whale or leviathan: Jonah.
That a person could live for hundreds of years: Methuselah.
That on could raise people from the dead: Christ.
To build an ark thousands of years ago that could hold the worlds animals: Noah.
To part the seas: Moses.
The list that goes on and on...

To believe in the Bible is to abandon reason.

I am a messed up ENTJ.

A excellent book for those wanting the basics of cooking.

This is not just a basic cookbook, it is a cookbook that shows the "best" way to cook basic foods. Perhaps one notch above a basic cookbook.

This was my first Cookbook that I ever purchased. It was ok at first for basic cooking. After time I learned to expand on the recipes.
If your looking for a great basic cookbook I would get Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything: The Basics".

The Meaning of Life... 42.
Not sure what others think. But I think it goes like this.
42 is the sum of two dice.
"Life Is A Crapshoot".

[bc:The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide|64123|The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1-4 + short story)|Douglas Adams|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1183047496s/64123.jpg|12932638]

A good read that flows from page to page. A excellent writer with a good story. Also what I like about this book is that it has NO usless fillers that just occupy pages that has nothing to do with the story.