Review: Rough Juniper Pale Ale

Since I no longer can drink more than three beers in a sitting, I'm in to buying unique craft beers. Mass produced American lagers no longer suite me. My recent purchase was Juniper Pale Ale by Rough Ales from Newport, Oregon.

Juniper is a light colored, crisp Pale Ale. Quite a bit lighter than Summit or Surly. I would compare it to the Brewhouse's signature Lighthouse Golden, if you've had that.

Should you try Juniper? You can buy it by the bottle so if you're into craft beers and Pale Ales, add it to your list. Worth a try.

NOTE: Per pending U.S. Government regulation, Rough Ales did not compensate me for this review. Just letting you know so I don't get thrown in prison.

Review: Magic Hat

While on my stay-cation, I picked up a bottle of Magic Hat. Though the bottle says "not quite Pale Ale," it's definitely a Pale Ale. A little fruity for my taste, but a respectable brew.

I think the folks behind Magic Hat (Magic Hat Brewing Company, South Burlington Vermont) might have been at Woodstock. On their label they state "The ancient ritual of brewing a distinctly rich and flavorful beer is a performance to behold. Our mysterious melange of time-honored ingredients harmonize with chaotic chemistry, humble patience, and blind faith to create unique beers to share in the rousing company of kindred spirits." Pick up a bottle sometime and read the label.

Review: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer wrote a book on Mormonism called Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. I just finished reading it last night and it has brought me a new appreciation for his writing.

Krakauer weaves the religion's history with a story of Dan and Ron Lafferty's egregious murder of their sister-in-law and nice, Brenda and Erica Lafferty. The Lafferty murder is one of sadness. Because Ron Lafferty had a revelation from God to kill his brother's family, Dan and Ron sliced the throats of not only their sister-in-law, but also their baby niece's (around 18 months old). It's a tragedy of magnificent proportions.

The Mormon history has a number of, while not necessarily as grotesques, equally odd and disturbing events. Joseph Smith created the religion by using peep rocks to find and translate the plates of gold. If you're not familiar with peep rocks, they were used in black magic as a way of viewing precious metals in the ground. In fact, if you're interested in an investment, I think you can buy stock in the Dream Mine. Unsure of its legitimacy? The mine's founder, John H. Koyle, had a dream that minerals where in the mine and thus the digging started. Being he was a Mormon, it has to be true.

A part of the book I found particularly interesting is the Mountain's Meadow Massacre. This is where the Mormon's were suspected of impersonating Native American's and murdering the Fancher wagon train as they made their way to California. In a despicable act of cowardness, the Mormons pressured the Fancher people to surrender, which they did, and then proceeded to slaughter most all of them.

The only survivors were small children, who the Mormons took into their homes in hopes of molding them into future Mormons. Fortunately, the U.S. government stepped in, took all the children back and placed them with family or foster homes. If you read about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, you'll find it a despicable act.

There is a number of other fascinating stories in the book. If you catch me over a beer sometime, I'll share a few others. Should you read it? If you're interested in religion history and want to know more about the Mormon church, I think it's a nice addition to your personal library.

Review: Outliers

Last night I finished Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. Outliers starts out explaining that your chances of being a great Canadian hockey player are increased if you are born earlier in the year. I don't remember his exact numbers, but he said there is a large proportion of professional hockey players born between January and March.

The reason is that players born in January are a year older than teammates born in December. If you think about it, his theory makes sense. A five-year-old is going to be more advanced than a four-year-old. Gladwell argues that the five-year-old gets more ice time, coaching and recognition being he's a year older. I've argued for sometime that every kid should get the same amount of playing time until varsity for this very reason.

Gladwell also discusses how Bill Gates and Bill Joy became computer giants. Both Gates and Joy had access to some of the first computers in the world. He argues that while Gates and Joy are obviously smart, their early access to computers was far more important to their future success. Give other smart kids the same access, and they too might be as successful.

The book ends with a story of Gladwell's family and how he was blessed with circumstance. His great, great, great grandmother was a Jamaican slave, purchased by an owner who impregnated her, giving birth to "light skinned" children, who were entitled simply because they had less pigment in their skin.

I enjoyed the book. The only part I had issues with was the chapter on why Asians are better at math than western children. His primary argument was that because a large percentage of Asians worked in rice fields - where the work is extremely laborious - Asians were able to concentrate on difficult problems longer than western equivalents.

The issue I have is, most of the book is about how people become outliers simply because of the situation they are gifted with. While the assumption that Asians can concentrate longer on a problem, due to their history of working in rice fields, may be true, it's in my opinion that the "work hard" reasoning is out of sync with the rest of the book (the only other chapter coming close is the second regarding 10,000 hours). I suppose you could interpret Gladwell as saying they were born into the farming families and thus, given the gift of hard work. Though I think that would take some unnecessary inference.

Overall I thought the book was good. If you liked Blink or the Tipping Point, you'll like Outliers. Give it a shot if you have time.

Review: Schlitz

I picked up a six-pack of Schlitz for the Super Bowl. The last time I had Schlitz was an ice fishing contest in the winter of '96. If my memory serves me right, I actually had Schlitz Ice - if there was such a thing.

The new Schlitz marketing caught my eye three months ago. Something about an old recipe. However, it wasn't until Tom Powers wrote about them sponsoring a weekly pond hockey game in the West metro that I decided Schlitz deserved another try.

My effervescent attitude might have introduced a slight bias, but I enjoyed the ice cold Schlitz so much, I'm planning on buying more in the near future.

The new recipe is smooth to the pallet. It's got some body that you can't find in a Bud or Miller. While you can drink it anytime of the year, I'm envisioning Schlitz being a great deck beer for summer. I plan on adding it to my list.

Review: "The Appeal"

I just finished Grisham's "The Appeal." While I'm not keeping track, I've read most of Grisham's books. "King of Torts" is my favorite. I read it during our honeymoon. Maybe the atmosphere made the book better?

The Appeal is about a small personal injury law-firm, Payton & Payton, and their case against Krane Chemical. The court rules in favor of Payton & Payton's client who lost her husband and son to cancer, caused by contaminated water. The award is around $40 million.

The Paytons claim that Krane Chemical dumped waste into the water system causing an explosion in cancer. The rate of cancer in the county is many times the national average. Case closed right? Wrong.

Wall Street big wigs, lead by Carl Trudeau, decide they are not paying the $40 million dollar fine and appeal the case to the Mississippi Supreme Court. The court has four judges with liberal decision history and three conservative - voting in favor of big business. One liberal judge, Sheila McCarthy, is up for election.

Carl Trudeau's people hire an election mastermind who promises to ostracize Sheila McCarthy and replace her with a conservative candidate named Ron Fisk. Fisk is a right leaning, Christian, anti-gay, pro-gun, blow-hard who appeals to Mississippi's ultra-conservative constituents.

As expected, Fisk wins the election. He then proceeds to vote against all personal injury Supreme Court appeals. The book gets exciting when the Paytons' case arrives at his desk. In parallel with his expected decision, Fisk's son is severely injured. Evidence points at both a baseball bat company and emergency room personal being at fault for harming and further harming his son.

I won't tell you how the book ends, but I did find the outcome to be interesting and not what I expected. If you've read The Appeal, would you have done the same thing at Ron Fisk? Or would you have acted differently?

Overall, I think the book was ok. If you're a Grisham fan, I'd recommend you add it to your library. However, if you're not into Grisham, you can probably skip this one.

Review: El Azteca

My wife, son and I frequently visit a small Mexican restaurant in Apple Valley called El Azteca. On average, we patronize them once every two or three weeks.

They're a friendly group offering great service with arguably even better food. It's authentic Mexican food. Not the type you get at Taco Bell.

My son has made quite a name for himself at El Azteca. They have a large broom ready when we come in. See, my son has a propensity to toss rice all over himself, his parents and the floor. Nothing will stop him. He's like a rice sprinkler.

If you're in the Apple Valley area, give El Azteca a try. They are located right next to Home Depot on the South East corner of town. It will be well worth your stop.

Review: "Extreme Measures"

I just finished up with Flynn's newest Mitch Rapp book, "Extreme Measures". Extreme Measures is a term used in the book to describe Rapp's defense of himself and new side kick, Mike Nash, after they are caught roughing up (they call it interrogating) two high profile terror targets in Afghanistan.

Two terror cells have been broken up in recent months. However, those in the know suspect a third cell is still active and close to causing havoc in the U.S. The two terror suspects in Afghanistan may have knowledge of the pending attacks. Rapp and Nash intend to find out how much they know. That is up until their interrogation is broken up by a overzealous military officer who circumvents the knowledge gain and turns Rapp and Nash over to Congress.

The last half of the book involves Rapp defending himself in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a terrorist attack in Washington. Turns out Rapp was right (who would have guessed) and there was a third cell. There is a pretty cool ending when Rapp finds himself a direct target of the terrorists. From what I can tell, they picked the wrong federal building to storm. Rapp took care of things in typical fashion.

Flynn takes the opportunity to share his opinion on interrogation methods. Through his characters he states that terrorists shouldn't be protected by the Geneva Conventions because they themselves don’t follow the rules of warfare. That is, they don't follow the rules of war so America should not follow the rules of war. Like most everything, I can see both sides of this argument. Yes, humans are humans and we should treat humans fairly. On the other hand, here we have people who are trying to kill innocent civilians. Should we be able to use "Extreme Measures" when interrogating terrorists? I'll let you decide for yourselves.

Review: Cold Spring Pale Ale

I picked up a six pack of Cold Spring's Pale Ale. I asked the unfriendly store worker if it was new. He shook his head in a manner such that one could hypothesis it was. Typical of city workers. And one of the many reasons why I don't understand why governments run liquor stores. They stink at it. A private owner would have given me the gory details (e.g. promotions, delivery date etc,) that I was looking for.

Anyway, Code Spring has a nice offering. I'm a big Pale Ale fan so just about anything with fine hops will tickle me. I can't say it lives up to Summit, which is the best Pale Ale I've ever had, but Cold Spring's is good. I recommend you pick up a six pack and try it for yourself.

Review: "The Last Lecture"

I'm not the first, nor the last, person to review Randy Pausch's book The Last Lecture. It's one of the top sellers of the year and a number of reviews have been written. Most of them positive.

My mother gave me "The Last Lecture" for a birthday gift. She had read it for a book club and thought it was the type of book you should buy, not borrow. She was right; this one should be on everyone's book shelf.

If you're not familiar with Randy Pausch he was a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. If you're not familiar with pancreatic cancer, it's nearly always fatal.

Educators have an age old obligation to give a last lecture. Since I hope to teach someday, I suppose I'll give one. They are a way of wrapping up your academic career.

Dr. Pausch's last lecture was different though as he was leaving for a different reason than most. He was dieing.

The book's first half is about him growing up. He shared his family life and background on numerous trips to Disney World with his father. The second half was a number of rules that he said worked for him in life. The one that sticks with me is how he recommends handwriting "thank you notes". They are more personal and carry more weight. I'm going to give this a try.

The book is heavy on the heart. He and his wife, Jai, didn't tell their three young children about his cancer until very late in dieing process. Books don't usually choke me up, but being I'm a relatively new father, I was brought to near tears when he would discuss all the things he would be doing with his children for the last time. Their last Christmas together; their last trip to Disney World; their last football game. Powerful stuff.

The book is a short read. I recommend it to all of you who would like to read about an incredible person and how they got the most out of dieing young.

Review: “The Dark Night”

After dropping our son off at grandpa and grandma’s, my wife and I went to “The Dark Knight.”  I’m usually not interested in comic book based movies.  However, a number of close friends thought that I’d be interested in the new Batman.  They were right, I was.  If you haven’t seen the movie, I’d be careful reading this blog. 

The writer, Christopher Nolan (no relationship), did a great job matching up the psychotic Joker against the billionaire Bruce Wayne, who is really Batman.  I remember Bruce Wayne from the t.v. show, but I don’t remember him being a Gotham City aristocrat?  Do you?

The Joker hooks up with an organized crime unit and promises to get their money back from the justice department that had kidnapped a Hong Kong businessman who was laundering the money for the criminals.  What was the Joker’s motivation?  He’s a nut job.  The money was insignificant as he ended up burning it.

The Joker, played by the deceased Heath Ledger, has a fascination with bombs.  His most creative use, in my opinion, is when he wires up two cruise ships which were used to evacuate Gotham City.  One boat was filled with prisoners while the other was filled with average citizens.  Why they were letting prisoners out of Gotham first is a mystery to me, but it made the story interesting.  Each boat had the detonator for the other boat.  If neither boat blew up the other, both boats would supposedly blow up at midnight.

The Joker was using this as a social experiment.  Would the civilians blow up the prisoners so they could live?  Or would the prisoners overtake the boat’s commander and blow up the civilian boat?  As it turns out, neither boat exploded.  The Joker had been wrong, humans won’t sacrifice another life to save their own.

There is a lot more to the story, but this post has gotten long enough.  My recommendation would be to see “The Dark Night.”  I give it a thumbs up.

Review: "Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to present."

Two nights ago I finished Michael Oren's Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to present. It's a healthy read at 615 pages. Thinking about it, Oren's book might be the longest book I've read. No, I've not touched "War and Peace."

My dad recommended the book and said that while academic, he really enjoyed it. I figured that I'd give it a shot and as it turns out, I loved it.

Oren starts off with the young United State's initial contact during the Barbary Wars. The Barbary Wars were two engagements with North African countries who collectively called themselves the Barbary states. They were somewhat related to the Ottoman Empire.

The Barbary states caused quite a stir as they were pirating the U.S. trade boats as we tried to do business with Mediterranean trading partners. The U.S. started off by paying off the pirates, but after that proved too expensive, we engaged them in war and assured our trading boats' safety.

Once the pirating issues got resolved, in our infinite wisdom, we started to send missionaries over to promote Christianity. I hold the belief that my religion is mine and your religion is yours. And I have no reason to try and convert you to my religion. Apparently leaders of the U.S. held a differing view than mine, and since failed mission after failed mission over to the Middle East. It when on like this for quit sometime.

The last two-hundred pages of the book is from World War I to present. This was the most interested for me. Oren covered how Zionism lead to the eventual creation of Israel. The Iran contra affair. Russia's invasion of Afghanistan and how we initially backed bin Laden. The last chapter finishes with the Iraq war and how our concentration there has lead to a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There are far too many things to discuss for me to get into in this short blog. However, if you're really interested in the history of our relationship with the Middle East, check out Oren's book. It's all you'll ever need to read for a thorough history lesson.

Review: Rendition

WARNING: If you have not seen Rendition, avoid reading this blog entry and watch the movie first. While I don't spell out the ending, I do allude to some of its uniqueness which should be acquired from your viewing, not my blog.

Sunday night my wife and I watched our second movie together since our son was born eleven months ago. The first was Michael Clayton at the theater. Sunday was a rental called Rendition.

Rendition has an odd story structure. The primary story is about an Egyptian-American who is taken hostage by the U.S. government on suspicion of terrorism. The hostage is flown to North Africa and interrogated by the head of defense (Ministry of Defense maybe?). An American, working for the CIA, is consulting the interrogation.

The second story is about a girl, who happens to be the daughter of the head of defense, and her affinity for a boy who seemly is a harmless artists. The two stories are only connected by the head of defense and North Africa.

Things get very interesting at the end. If you've not seen the movie, you might want to stop reading here. The hostage is eventually freed by the American working for the CIA. The second story line turns out to be a week ahead of the primary one. At the end of the meeting, you find out that the movie's opening explosion was actually the final chapter in the second story. Yes, it's very confusing. But I loved it.

What are you thoughts?

Review: "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko"

This past weekend I read a career advise book called "The adventures of Johnny Bunko " Typically I stay away from these types of books, but since Scooter recommended it, and the commitment was less than an hour, I decided to try it out.

The book's format is cleaver. Then entire story is written in the form of a comic book. The illustrations are really good.

As for the content; there are six primary lessons that the "genie" of sorts, gives Johnny. They are 1) There is no plan, 2) Think strengths, not weaknesses, 3) It's not all about you, 4) Persistence trumps talent, 5) Fail intelligently, and 6) Leave an imprint.

For the most part, I've heard all of these things packaged in various different lexicons. However, I like the way Daniel Pink (the author) made them simple and easy to remember. Also I like the encouragement that rule 4) "Persistence trumps talent" has. Given my talents are limited, I'm glad to know that persistence could pay off some day.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it's only a 30 minute commitment so give it a chance. At a minimum, you should be able to remember the six rules and recite them in an upcoming review.

Review: Summit Pilsner

You're missing out if you've not tried Summit Pilsner. The other day I got a bit crazy and picked up a 6-pack of it. In addition to a 12-pack of Pale Ale of course.

The results were fabulous. While visiting the Czech Republic a few years ago, my wife and I fell in love with Bohemian Pilsner. Being she's Bohemian, I'd only expect that from her. I, being half German and a bit Irish, was skeptical of the brew, but after 10 or 12, I approved.

Summit Pilsner is very close to those great beers we had in Europe. If you get in the mood for a light drinking beer, give Pilsner a try. You'll enjoy it.

Review: Term Limits

Two nights ago I finished up with Vince Flynn's first book called Term Limits. For a novel it's pretty long read at 610 pages. Flynn's dialog tends to be in paragraphs so the 610 pages are well filled. That is in contrast to writers like Dean Koontz or James Patterson who write dialog in shorter statements (like I do by the way).

I wouldn't rate Term Limits as my favorite Flynn book. While I was warned, by a friend of mine, Mitch Rapp never shows up. I found this odd as my assumption was that all of Flynn's writings centered around Rapp.

Term Limit's primary character is Congressman (or was it Senator?) Michael O'Rourke from Minnesota. He's a former University of Minnesota hockey player (go Gophers!) and Recon Marine. O'Rourke shows up in some future Flynn books, but I think as a minor character.

The entire story is based on the assassination of three senators and one congressman (or three congressman and one senator). The four men killed were known as Washington slime balls and while the country was concerned about their murders, the U.S. was better of that they were dead.

Michael O'Rourke gets involved as he knows who killed the men. The reader is thrown for a twist though when two other senator and congressman's show up dead. O'Rourke is confused as the original assassins insist they didn't have anything to do with the latest two killings.

I won't give any more of the story away, but will tell you that there are two ignominious members of the president's cabinet (i.e. Mike Nance and Stu Garret) who look pretty guilty all the way through the book.

Should you read it? If you're goal is to read all of Flynn's books, which is a goal of mine, then give it a shot. If not, I might recommend skipping this one.

Review: Blinds.com

Because I couldn't muster up the patience to visit Home Depot again, we decided to order new blinds from Blinds.com. I heard about Blinds.com from a friend of mine a few years ago. He had just moved into a new house and found blinds, of all things, to be one of the many unanticipated expenses.

The first set of blinds we actually got from Home Depot so I kind of had an idea of what we needed. Same size, color but with "blackout" so we could take down the beach towels hanging over our son's bedroom windows.

I found Blinds.com to have a friendly user experience which I used to find pretty much exactly what we wanted. While we would have preferred a "honeycomb, double cell, cordless lift, black out" blind, Blinds.com only had a single cell offering. After two more weeks of seeing those beach towels, we decided the single cell was sufficient and ordered.

Blinds.com carries a number of vendors including their "Blinds.com" brand. The Blinds.com brand is an entry level (i.e. low budget) blind from what I can tell. The price range for ours was somewhere between $136 and $546. We decided to stay on the low end and went with the Blinds.com brand.

Comparing it with our existing blinds (which were on the higher end), you can tell the Blinds.com brand is lesser quality. However, it did hang a lot easier than the more expense blinds we replaced (we moved them to another room).

Would I recommend Blinds.com? I felt the customer experience was very positive. Everything from shopping to purchase to delivery went well. As for the Blinds.com brand; the quality is as priced. If you want an entry level blind that is easy to hang and looks nice, get the Blinds.com brand. If you're looking for something a bit higher-end, then look at some of their more expensive offerings (e.g. Hunter Douglas).

Review: Coke Zero

If you're a big Coke fan, you've probably already tried Coke Zero. I, who hold no special allegiance to any soft drink, tried it for the first time this past week. And I loved it.

Two or three times a week I'll enjoy a diet soda (usually Diet Coke or Diet 7-UP). Then on the weekend (which I figure starts at noon on Friday), I have one or two regular, sugar filled drinks (usually Coke, Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper). Using this formula I keep my soft drink consumption and calorie intake lower than I have in the past.

What I've found with Coke Zero though is it tastes so close to a regular Coke, I double my "diet" pop consumption and have reduced my regular soda intake. While I can't say the tastes are exact, Coke has a winner with Coke Zero.

Review: "Fearing and Loathing in Las Vegas"

If you haven't noticed, I've been into reading gambling and/or Vegas based books lately. A few days ago my son and I went to the book store. He picked up "The fat cat sat on the mat" while I bought a copy of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fearing and Loathing in Las Vegas." I'm not sure where to begin my book review on Thompson's 1971 book.

Thompson's story starts off with him, the Doctor of Gonzo Journalism, and his attorney buying up every type of drug possible for their road trip to Vegas. I won't even list them out, but the supply included everything from hash to ether. Their goal is to find the American Dream. Yet, even after reading all 200 pages, I'm not sure what American Dream they were looking for.

The first half of the book is them getting stoned and drunk while covering the Mint 400 desert race. From what I can gather, the extent of their coverage was watching a few desert hoppers fly off into the dust. They then headed back to the hotel bar to continue the binge.

About halfway through the book, the lawyer goes back to L.A. and the doctor decides to split town in the Red Shark. But on the way out of Nevada, the doctor ends up calling his attorney who reminds him that they are suppose to meet at the Flamingo for the District Attorneys' Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. The irony here is actually enjoyable. Here you have two strung out druggies attending a conference with over 2000 cops and lawyers. The rest of the story is them using more drugs and alcohol.

Should you read the book? I'm not sure. It's just over 200 pages so the investment is small. Yet, the book is so arcane that you have to be pretty patient and understanding to get through it. Here is my recommendation. Ready Hunter S. Thompson's Wikipedia page. If you find his life interesting, they check out the book. If you find his life not worth your time (which I can understand), then skip over any of all his writings.

Review: "Busting Vegas"

Last Friday I finished up grading Ben Mezrich's book called "Busting Vegas". If you're not familiar with Ben's writing, he's the author of "Brining Down the House" which is now a "major" motion film called "21." While the book was great, the St. Paul Pioneer press only gave the movie two stars. I've yet to see the show so I'll refrain from giving my review until later.

When I first saw "Busting Vegas" at the book store, I thought it was simply a repackaged version of "Brining Down the House." Both subtitles state something like "MIT Wiz kids...". But a friend of mine quickly corrected me and said it's about a different group of MIT kids who have a different formula. The group in "Bring Down the House" uses a common card counting formula with some team twists (i.e. Big Player).

To be honest, I'm not sure if I believe the Busting wiz kid's approach works as well as Ben writes. The approaches are a bit complicated to explain, but they all basically come down to identifying where cards will show up during play. For example, after the dealer shuffles and offers a cut to the players, if the Busting kids see an ace at the bottom of the deck, they'll make sure to cut exactly 52 cards when offered the cut card. That way they know that an ace will be coming out in exactly 52 cards (or 51 if there is a burn card). Once they know where the ace is coming out, they'll place a max bet on that position.

Of course there are some caveats like; they make sure that the table only has team members playing so they're assured that the ace will hit one of their players. And, they have to play a lot of hands to finally get an ace at the bottom. But they have two other mechanisms to fill in the gaps which Ben describes for you in clear detail.

Ben is a risky writer. The book opens with him at a brothel called "The Ranch" just outside of Vegas. You're not sure if he's describing a side sex trip he took or not. I'll let you read the book to see what happens here.

Later on, he has a young prostitute meet him at his hotel. He purchased her services to get a story on why these girls are in the business of selling themselves. After getting the story he leaves the reader with the Vegas marketing theme, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." If I remember right, he alluded to the fact that escorts can legally strip for paying customers, but not go all the way to home base. Or first or second I would imagine. So I think he was saying that he only purchased the time to get a story and a private strip show, but he never really said exactly what happened. That's a risk that most authors wouldn't take.

The book is an average read in length at only just under 300 pages. If you liked "Brining Down the House," I'd recommending "Busting Vegas." The story is a bit embellished, but worth a few nights if you enjoy reading about wiz kids who take on casinos.