Book Review: The Last Patriot (Scot Harvath Series #7)

 

The Last Patriot, published in 2008, is the 7th book in the Scot Harvath series of action-thriller novels written by Brad Thor. This book is set down the line from the events of the prior novel, The First Commandment, with Harvath determined to get out of his role as a quasi-spy/assassin based on what he sees as being kept in the dark, sold out, and then betrayed by President Rutledge. This book starts with Scot and Tracy vacationing in France where they are witness to (and get involved in) an attempted assassination/hit. Their involvement gets Scot pulled back into working for President Rutledge in a storyline that mirrors a National Treasure-like follow-the-clues storyline, all while trying to avoid the assassin.

The hardcover version of the book is relatively short, coming in at just over 330 pages. In the Afterword, Thor lays out the background research he did for the book and goes through what elements of the story were real (or at least based in reality) and what he made up. The book has a good mix of action and suspense and by the end, essentially resets the overall storyline leaving the direction of the series very much open. There is less political intrigue/fighting as in some of the prior novels, but something like that would not have worked in this story anyway.  If you are a fan of the prior novels in the series this one is absolutely worth the time to read. 

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 3

Day 3 was a bit of a shit show. My back was spasming at 4AM so I was standing up all morning to loosen it up. Thankfully, this was a rest day in Lift 4, so I did the two recovery routines in the morning, which definitely helped my back. 

In the evening I did the total body circuit workout in T25. In this workout, you go through a series of exercises for 20 of the 25 minutes that alternate between a cardio focus (like sprints), chest and shoulder focus (like push-ups and pike-ups), core focus like plank moves, and legs (doing a lot of squats and lunges). Then, you do a burnout in minutes 20-24 doing some of the exercises from earlier in the workout at a little faster pace, and then for the last minute you do body runs, which is basically shuffling your feet forward and back while swinging your arms. Then you get a 3-minute cooldown (if you choose to do it). 

As with the other workouts, this does not have any scheduled breaks, but I did pause a few times to drink water and catch my breath. Tonia again modifies all of the moves. Unfortunately, there are some exercises for which the camera does not show what she is doing until about halfway through the time for that particular exercise. The cast in this workout is mostly the same, Tonia, Derek, and Scott, and they are joined by someone named Jan or maybe Jam. It is hard to tell what Shaun T calls her, and he does not really do formal introductions. Shaun is a bit irritating in this workout, repeating the word "focus" over and over again. He does get a bit "word-of-the-day" with the names of his workout programs in general, but he is a bit over the top in this one. 

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 2

Day 2 was Speed 1.0 in T25 and Back and Biceps in Lift 4, which was the non-HIIT circuit workout with two quad blocks, a burnout round, and the three sets of core.

The Speed workout in T25 is one in which you do a series of exercises and then stretch for about 30 seconds, and then you do another series of exercises and then stretch. There is only one burnout portion in which you do most of the exercises that you did earlier in the workout back-to-back without any stretching. The burnout portion lasts about 8 minutes and then you slow down for the last minute. The cast is the same except Susan (another fitness professional) replaces Christina. Tonia is modifying again.

I was able to modify a bit less in today's workout than in yesterday's. Although I definitely had to slow down and modify here and there. As I said a couple of posts ago, my lack of cardio fitness is what is really holding me back, so I am hoping that the two-a-day workouts will get that back close to where it was before.  

Book Review: Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide

 

Dawn of Rebellion is another one of the Star Wars visual guides. It is one of the books that I would categorize as a coffee table book, with as many pictures as it has text. The book mainly has character profiles of the main characters (from the movies, novels, animated series, and live-action series) who were around during the time period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It is updated to include the characters in the Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi series so it includes, for example, profiles of young Leia and Luke and the updated backstory of Cassian Andor.

The hardcover version of the book is very short. The book totals just under 140 pages, but none of the pages are full of text. Some pages just have a picture and little to no text, and other pages have several pictures with text blurbs next to them so the book is very easy to read. There is also a timeline at the beginning of the book that shows the major events that occurred during the time period from the creation of the Empire to the Battle of Yavin. I think the book is good, but not really essential reading. Chances are most people who are going to be interested in the book are the die-hard Star Wars fans as opposed to the casual fans, and most die-hard fans will likely already know most of the information in the book. It does, however, have some fine details that you may not have picked up watching the live-action material so if you are more than just a casual fan of Star Wars it is worth the time to look over.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 1

Today was the start of two-a-day workouts. In the morning I did the T25 cardio routine. This one has Shaun leading 4 cast members, Tonia (who was in the original Insanity workout, plus some of Shaun's hip-hop oriented workouts), Scott (who is Shaun's husband), Derek (who is Tonia's husband), and Christina (who is a fitness instructor and fitness model). Tonia modifies all of the moves.

The workout is set up such that you do a series of moves for about 30 seconds each move, then you do a burnout sequence in which you do some of the moves from the series going as fast as you can. Then, you do another series and another burnout. None of the moves are particularly hard, depending on your cardio fitness. T25 is really a program that was intended to prepare people for Shaun's Insanity programs, so even the unmodified exercises in T25 tend to be a bit less intense than what is in Insanity and Insanity Max 30. 

The Lift 4 workout was chest and triceps, which in week 1 was the 50/50 workout. I do think that lowering the amount of weight I used for the lift portion (and moving the weight more slowly) helped a lot because even using the lower weight I could barely finish the 10 reps, especially in the last set of each block. The HIIT portion was tough. I had to modify more than I would like, but hopefully once I get to week 3, my cardio will be much better because of doing doubles.