Rob

I loved wrestling as a kid and watched the WWF through most of college. But after a while I got tired of it. Woman's wrestling in particular was not very good. A young teenage boy was titillated by all the T&A and hot woman, but otherwise uninterested in that aspect. So I completely missed out on AJ Lee's run in the WWE.

In the years since, I would periodically read about the goings on in WWE, in particular this group of nerds called The New Day, who would dress up like Super Saiyans or play the Final Fantasy victory music when they won. I also started to hear about how the Woman's division was actually good, if not BETTER than the men's.

2020 started making me nostalgic for the good old days (which maybe weren't that good, but I was younger and things were simpler). I started watching a lot of documentaries on Wrestling, and then started following the storylines while not actually watching the show again.

Then I saw some of the woman's matches and I found myself pulled back in. The woman's division is by far the best thing they got going. A lot of this it turns out was due to what AJ and a few others had done to create the path for this current generation's female superstars to take things to such a high level.

I had watched this sadly cancelled Starz show called Heels. CM Punk had a small role and I knew who he was, even though I had missed his run in the WWE too. When I was looking up who played one of the female wrestlers on the show I discovered that AJ Lee was Punk's wife. And that was all I knew about her until maybe 2 months ago. Turns out that's one of the least interesting things about her.

CM Punk had famously left the WWE on bad terms, but time (and money) heals all wounds and he returned a few years ago. Then they started to set up a story hinting at the possible return of AJ Lee. When it actually happened, I started reading up more about her and discovered she wrote this book.

I mostly do audio books these days, so it was great to see that she read her own book. AJ is very funny and that comes across in her reading.

AJ is very brave in the stuff she admits in this book. Although as she mentions in the book, after some of the stuff she did in her run in the WWE, there isn't anything that embarrasses her anymore.

There is a lot of wrestling in this book (in particular the last third or so), but much of this book focuses on her childhood, family and her (and her mother's) struggles with mental health. In particular both AJ and her mother are bi-polar.

When I was younger my mom had bouts of depression including a stint in mental help facility. I didn't understand it. It was embarrassing. Or so I thought as a young kid. There is a negative stigma on mental health that is only starting to change in recent years.

I also learned many years later as an adult that my grandmother was bi-polar when she went off her meds are started behaving in ways I had never experienced. Our family had never talked about it. No one explained to us when we were a kid. So I can really identify with some of what AJ went through.

I think some of changes in the stigma on mental health has begun to change thanks to people like AJ. Hearing a WWE crowd cheering for Therapy in 2025 was not something I had on my Bingo card.

The book was fascinating, funny and inspiring. I don't know where AJ Lee's stint in WWE will end up, but I'm interested to find out.

4.5 Stars.

I really enjoyed The Art of Prophecy, but found The Art of Destiny uneven and didn't always keep my attention. This one was a pretty solid finish to the series. There were a few lulls keeping me from giving it a 5, but nothing like the last book.

I came to really enjoy the world and the cast of characters and am sad to be leaving them, but I think that's another sign of a good book.

I'll be curious to see what Mr. Chu writes next.

4.5 Stars.

I really enjoyed The Art of Prophecy, but found The Art of Destiny uneven and didn't always keep my attention. This one was a pretty solid finish to the series. There were a few lulls keeping me from giving it a 5, but nothing like the last book.

I came to really enjoy the world and the cast of characters and am sad to be leaving them, but I think that's another sign of a good book.

I'll be curious to see what Mr. Chu writes next.

Picked this one up from the library. Did the audio, which is narrated by Tom Felton himself. It's non-fiction, so in general the narrator doesn't matter much, but there was some times when he would slip into Draco or do some accents or whatever to add a little extra to his story.

I didn't know about any of the post Harry Potter stuff (or most of the pre-Harry Potter stuff for that matter). He's had a fairly interesting life and the book had some good stories in it. He also talked about his mental health issues and how that led to his issues with drugs and alcohol.

The parts I enjoyed the most were the Harry Potter bits, something that is a lot harder to do these days. I don't want anything to do with JK Rowling, but I still love the books and enjoy the movies despite her recent crusade to be an awful human being.

Tom certainly mentions her a few times. It's hard to know what he feels about her now, but certainly he comes off as grateful to her for the books and what Harry Potter has meant to his life.

I like to think the best of people and it's not his job to take a stand on someone else's beliefs. I'm also not certain when this book was written vs. when JK Rowling started her crusade.

So if you're all out on Harry Potter, I totally get it and probably will want to take a pass on this book. But if you still love it like I do, and want some interesting stories about his time on the films, this is a good book to check out.

I'm never a big fan of short stories, just when things start going they end. So I tend to like/rate them less than full novels.

I thought this one did a good job of feeling like a complete story and not just the start of something though.

Executive Summary: A fun present day sci-fi story that will cause you to never look at history the same way again.

Full Review
I had never heard of this series or Wesley Chu until Sword & Laser did an interview with him back in April. Not long after, the first two books of this series were on sale so I added them to the ever increasing pile. Recently, I was looking for something to read. A few people recommended this as a good light read and I'm happy to agree.

Aliens are among us. The conspiracy theorists are right. They've been inhabiting humans since the days of the neanderthal. Tao has inhabited some of the best leaders in history including Genghis Khan and Zhu Yuanzhang. His current host Edward is an elite field agent.

Then everything goes sideways and Tao ends up in an overweight 30-something computer programmer named Roen (hey that's me! well, not that overweight, but still!) whose life is going nowhere.

This is really more of a spy thriller with a sci-fi backdrop than it is your typical technology near-future sci-fi story. Roen doesn't obtain magic powers, highly advanced weapons or a jet pack.

What he does get is thousands of years of experience and expertise of the alien symbiote named Tao. Can Tao use his knowledge to turn Roen from overweight slob into something that can pass for a field agent? He had better because there is a civil war between the two factions of aliens that has been raging for hundreds of years, and Tao's side is losing.

The book is well written, with enjoyable characters. The is a decent amount of humor throughout keeping things pretty light. I really enjoyed the way Mr. Chu incorporates the Quasing into our history.

This book was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to picking up the sequel just as soon as I have some more time. Highly recommended!

Executive Summary: A fun present day sci-fi story that will cause you to never look at history the same way again.

Full Review
I had never heard of this series or Wesley Chu until Sword & Laser did an interview with him back in April. Not long after, the first two books of this series were on sale so I added them to the ever increasing pile. Recently, I was looking for something to read. A few people recommended this as a good light read and I'm happy to agree.

Aliens are among us. The conspiracy theorists are right. They've been inhabiting humans since the days of the neanderthal. Tao has inhabited some of the best leaders in history including Genghis Khan and Zhu Yuanzhang. His current host Edward is an elite field agent.

Then everything goes sideways and Tao ends up in an overweight 30-something computer programmer named Roen (hey that's me! well, not that overweight, but still!) whose life is going nowhere.

This is really more of a spy thriller with a sci-fi backdrop than it is your typical technology near-future sci-fi story. Roen doesn't obtain magic powers, highly advanced weapons or a jet pack.

What he does get is thousands of years of experience and expertise of the alien symbiote named Tao. Can Tao use his knowledge to turn Roen from overweight slob into something that can pass for a field agent? He had better because there is a civil war between the two factions of aliens that has been raging for hundreds of years, and Tao's side is losing.

The book is well written, with enjoyable characters. The is a decent amount of humor throughout keeping things pretty light. I really enjoyed the way Mr. Chu incorporates the Quasing into our history.

This book was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to picking up the sequel just as soon as I have some more time. Highly recommended!

I struggled a bit with this at times. My attention would drift. I'd go several days without picking it back up, often opting for a podcast instead. It got better as it went along and I already bought the final book in the series, so I will probably wrap it up later this year, but there are some other books I plan to listen to first.

Stephen Brand once again does an excellent job with the narration. This really helped me get through the slower parts when I was less interested.

Executive Summary: A fun present day sci-fi story that will cause you to never look at history the same way again.

Full Review
I had never heard of this series or Wesley Chu until Sword & Laser did an interview with him back in April. Not long after, the first two books of this series were on sale so I added them to the ever increasing pile. Recently, I was looking for something to read. A few people recommended this as a good light read and I'm happy to agree.

Aliens are among us. The conspiracy theorists are right. They've been inhabiting humans since the days of the neanderthal. Tao has inhabited some of the best leaders in history including Genghis Khan and Zhu Yuanzhang. His current host Edward is an elite field agent.

Then everything goes sideways and Tao ends up in an overweight 30-something computer programmer named Roen (hey that's me! well, not that overweight, but still!) whose life is going nowhere.

This is really more of a spy thriller with a sci-fi backdrop than it is your typical technology near-future sci-fi story. Roen doesn't obtain magic powers, highly advanced weapons or a jet pack.

What he does get is thousands of years of experience and expertise of the alien symbiote named Tao. Can Tao use his knowledge to turn Roen from overweight slob into something that can pass for a field agent? He had better because there is a civil war between the two factions of aliens that has been raging for hundreds of years, and Tao's side is losing.

The book is well written, with enjoyable characters. The is a decent amount of humor throughout keeping things pretty light. I really enjoyed the way Mr. Chu incorporates the Quasing into our history.

This book was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to picking up the sequel just as soon as I have some more time. Highly recommended!