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. 

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Book Review: The Lions of Lucerne (Scot Harvath Series #1)

 


The Lions of Lucerne, published in 2002, was the start of what has become a prolific series of novels in the spy novel/political thriller genre set around the character Scot Harvath, written by author Brad Thor. It is similar to the Mitch Rapp series in that Harvath is not a spy, but rather he is an ex-navy seal who is now on the presidential Secret Service detail. 

The plot of the novel involves the kidnapping of the fictional President, Rutledge while he is on a ski vacation with his daughter. Harvath is injured in the kidnapping and then sets off to find the President, while on the run from the law when he gets too close to the truth, and the planners and organizers of the kidnapping start going after him.

The hardcover version of the book is just over 400 pages, but the pace of the story is good and does not drag out. It does have what seems to be the requisite twists and turns in the story that most novels in the genre do. Some of them are a bit silly, but for the most part, they work and do not detract from the overall story. There are a lot of action sequences in the book with some character setup and development in between them. Overall, the book is very good, but not perfect. The imperfections do not lessen the quality of the overall story for me, but for some, however, they might.  If you are a fan of the genre, it is definitely worth the time to read. 

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