Reading roundup – June 17th 2017
Reading Roundup / June 18, 2017

Hello, and here I am with another reading roundup.  It’s been a while since I gave a reading update and I have been on vacation so I have a lot to catch up on. Rick Riordan During my vacation I read two Rick Riordan books – The Dark Prophecy and Camp Blood Confidential.  Both of these are pretty much what you would expect from Riordan; a fun middle grade read, based on Greek/Roman mythology with a good dose of humour.  While I enjoyed them – they were both light, fun reads – they were what I was expecting, nothing more, nothing less.  If you’ve read one Rick Riordan book, you know what to expect.  They are hardly world altering, so I gave both books three and a half stars out of five. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare One of my most anticipated reads of the summer was Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare, the second in the Dark Artifices series set in her Shadowhunters world.  I absolutely LOVED this one.  Although Emma and Julian are the ostensible protagonists, I found myself less interested in their journeys than those of their supporting characters.  The growing bond between Ty, Kit and…

First Impressions Amazon Echo Dot and Home Automation
Tech Reviews / June 10, 2017

Hello all.  For something a little different today, I thought I’d share with you my first impressions of the Amazon Echo Dot and its pairing with the Philips Hue lighting system.   I’ve been thinking about a an intelligent speaker for a while.  I regularly use Apple’s Siri on my iPhone to set alarms, timers etc and I was interested in having an always-on assistant in the home.  At the time of writing, there are three contenders in this market; the Amazon Echo, Google Home and the new Apple HomePod.  I was anxiously watching the Apple Keynote to see what kind of product Apple would announce.  While the HomePod looks interesting, its price was beyond my budget and also the emphasis seems to be on the Bluetooth speaker rather than the smart assistant integration.  The ability to play my Apple Music would have been nice though.  The Google Home was also of interest, but the Amazon Echo’s ability to play Audible audiobooks as well as the low price point of the Echo Dot were the deciding factors for me.  Our apartment is pretty small, and I only play music with a headset, so I couldn’t justify the extra expense for…