Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Book Review: Act of Treason: (Mitch Rapp Series Book 9 Chronological Order; Book 7 Publication Order)

 


+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior novel, Consent to Kill+++

Act of Treason, published in 2006, is the follow-up to the novel Consent to Kill written by Vince Flynn and continues the story of CIA counter-terrorism operative, Mitch Rapp. In this book, Mitch is dealing with, or not dealing with, the death of Anna, basically drinking himself into oblivion until he gets wrapped up in the investigation of a bombing that kills the wife of a presidential candidate just before the election. The book starts out in October and then does a time jump to early January just before the President-elect Josh Alexander and Vice President-elect Mark Ross, who was introduced in Consent to Kill are ready to replace President Hayes, who announced he would not seek another term because of his Parkinson's disease diagnosis. Rapp discovers that responsibility for the attack is pointing away from it being an Al Qaeda operation as everyone assumes, and is instead pointing toward domestic terrorism.

By this point, Flynn had written six novels in the Mitch Rapp story and had really developed his style and tone. This one has a similar blend of action and suspense, with political gamesmanship and corruption interweaved throughout. The book is 415 pages but is a pretty quick and easy read. If you read fast, you can easily finish the book in a day or two. The story is mostly self-contained and resolved by the end of the novel. Flynn does introduce some new characters who could potentially be included in later novels and also uses some of the characters from the prior books. So, if you have liked Flynn's prior novels, you will probably like, or love, this one. 


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