I wanted to like this novella, I really did. It's an ambitious story to reference slavery so directly and to talk about the experience of a freed slave, or at least liberated to more freedom, and the challenges and the need to go back and help the people where you're from.
\nIt just didn't work for me as a read. The writing style was too.. wispy? Ethereal? Weird choice to not give the two protagonists names but the other characters names. A lot of the plot action was pretty elliptically described and the transcendental ending lost me entirely. I didn't much like A Stranger in Olondria either, maybe this is just not the author for me.
\n","w":116,"cv":"covers/127280349.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":3.73,"n":3894,"dist":[76,334,1103,1420,961],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Fantasy","Dystopia","Speculative Fiction","Space","Dark Academia"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Novella","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Novella","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":null,"year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Outstanding Novella","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37612114W","isf":"3289596"},{"id":57043,"t":"Foreigner","sl":"foreigner","se":"Foreigner","sn":"1","a":["C.J. Cherryh"],"as":"Cherryh, C.J.","y":1994,"p":428,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-09-26","cv":"covers/57043.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":3.92,"n":11243,"dist":[314,766,2332,3939,3892],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Aliens","Speculative Fiction","Space","Politics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1995,"won":false}],"ol":"OL60612W","isf":"1918"},{"id":255797883,"t":"The Cross Quarter Mysteries","sl":"the-cross-quarter-mysteries","a":["Louis Flint Ceci"],"as":"Ceci, Louis Flint","p":389,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-09-24","d":"2026-09-24","rev":"I enjoyed this novel! It's an ambitious collection of entwined stories: a mystery, a love letter to the California coast, and gay men connecting to their hearts. All are strong and the combination makes for a solid novel.
\nI liked the gay men story the best. This isn't really a romance novel, definitely not erotic. Instead it's about men finding their way to emotional honesty. And developing complicated relationships: some romantic, some friendly. Also a moving side story of reconciling being gay with being Catholic. There's a wonderful interlude with a retreat to a gay camp with The Billies, a picture of gay communion that made my heart ache.
\nI also liked the California story. Most of the story is set in a fictional Central Coast town somewhere around Big Sur. It's well depicted and the town's cast of characters form the main structure of the story. There's a particularly thoughtful depiction of two people living on the fringes with some mental illness in the mix, they were compelling. The titular Mysteries take place in this town and I don't want to spoil anything but it follows a murder mystery novel pattern. But that's not the main focus of this book, at least not for me. Instead it's really about the people and their complex emotional interactions.
\nOne extra setting also is remarkable. This town has a modern monastery and the glimpses of monastic life made me want for more about it. Maybe a followup gay love story set in the monastery? That might be a bit blasphemous compared to the vibe of this book.
\nPS: this book is written by a friend, so this review may not be quite as nit-picky as some of mine. But I genuinely liked the book.
\n","w":293,"cv":"covers/255797883.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":5.0,"n":3,"dist":[0,0,0,0,3]},{"id":245061847,"t":"Main, Middle & Gay: A Chef Finds His Place in the World Against All Odds","sl":"main-middle-and-gay","a":["Patrick O'Connell"],"as":"O'Connell, Patrick","p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-09-19","cv":"covers/245061847.avif","cw":280,"ch":425},{"id":231953328,"t":"Children of Strife","sl":"children-of-strife","se":"Children of Time","sn":"4","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2026,"p":679,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-09-16","d":"2026-09-16","rev":"I did not much care for this. It was a chore finishing it.
\nThe good thing: he has a very ambitious storytelling structure, telling three stories separated by hundreds of years that all converge into how one particular planet is terraformed and colonized. And it's a pretty inventive and interesting story. I also liked the characters and setup of some of the earlier action.
\nUnfortunately the most recent timeline ends up being the dominant story. And it is not to my liking. The main problem is I didn't like any of the characters, all very weird intelligences. And one of them's entire shtick is he likes to hit things violently, his society is based in one-on-one combat. This did not make good for story telling.
\nIt was reasonably well written though. Tchaikovsky's prolific output astonishes me but the quality isn't suffering. I think this book's problem was just a concept I didn't like.
\n","w":153,"cv":"covers/231953328.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.23,"n":8744,"dist":[46,180,1283,3457,3778],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Aliens","Space","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL44335925W","isf":"3576504"},{"id":77197,"t":"Assassin's Apprentice","sl":"assassins-apprentice","se":"Farseer Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Robin Hobb"],"as":"Hobb, Robin","y":1995,"p":435,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-09-07","cv":"covers/77197.avif","cw":280,"ch":476,"avg":4.2,"n":452156,"dist":[5392,13455,64002,172795,196512],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Young Adult"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1997,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2707183W","wp":"Assassin's_Apprentice","isf":"5980"},{"id":225699786,"t":"The Everlasting","sl":"the-everlasting","a":["Alix E. Harrow"],"as":"Harrow, Alix E.","y":2025,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-08-31","cv":"covers/225699786.avif","cw":145,"ch":220,"ol":"OL44495442W","wp":"The_Everlasting_(novel)","isf":"3512193"},{"id":38374795,"t":"Howards End","sl":"howards-end","a":["E.M. Forster"],"as":"Forster, E.M.","y":1910,"p":318,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-08-28","d":"2026-08-28","rev":"I enjoyed this well enough but it took an awful long time for the story to go anywhere. And like his other novels, the characters are all so unlikable! I fear this critique says more about me as a modern reader than it does Forster as a writer. But honestly, there it is.
\nWhat bothered me most was how little plot action there is. All this setting up of characters and homes and nothing really happens until halfway through the book. And the moments there are events: Mrs. Wilcox' death, the reveal of adultery, the reveal of an affair the core moment is barely described in half a page while there are endless pages describing less momentous events. I'm sure this is a deliberate choice on Forster's part but it is not very satisfying reading. And a secondary complaint: the actual plot turns are pretty melodramatic. A lot of the book reads as highbrow farce.
\nWhat is satisfying is just how excellent the prose writing quality is. I love the first chapter, Forster efficiently characterizing two families and their homes and their roles in society in just a few pages. There's also a lot of complex emotions and social situations on display. And there's lots of little turns of phrase that are quite lovely. To take one example, "He had never known young-manliness, that quality which warms the heart till death".
\nOverall I recognize this as a very finely written novel but the plot structuring is just a bit inaccessible for me to enjoy.
\n","w":254,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/38374795.avif","cw":280,"ch":491,"avg":3.96,"n":96882,"dist":[1709,5056,21075,36761,32281],"g":["Classics","Historical Fiction","Literature","British Literature","20th Century","Romance","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL88881W","wp":"Howards_End"},{"id":246522091,"t":"As You Wake, Break the Shell","sl":"as-you-wake-break-the-shell","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2026,"p":480,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-08-14","cv":"covers/246522091.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL45345488W"},{"id":3973,"t":"Ilium","sl":"ilium","se":"Ilium","sn":"1","a":["Dan Simmons"],"as":"Simmons, Dan","y":2003,"p":731,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-08-11","d":"2026-08-11","rev":"Whew that was a lot of pages for not a lot of payoff.
\nAt the center is a very clever book. A wildly imaginative sci-fi premise, sprawling over three interconnected stories. Some very well read intertextual writing, steeped not just in The Iliad and The Tempest but a lot of other literary sources too. At times it's really engaging.
\nBut then it's also a mess. The story takes a long time to go anywhere. Then when it does it's in the most pot-boilery cliffhanger writing. It works but it's a cheap trick. I was mostly OK with it until the last 5% of the book when it was clear "oh god he's setting up a sequel". I gather it's a much lesser book, and this one wasn't so great, so I won't be reading it. I'll just pretend the war on Olympos ended immediately and the Garden of Eden folks went back to their horny lives.
\nThe part that left a bitter taste in my mouth is Simmons' het male worldview. There's a lot of male gaze in this book. That's OK: straight men are allowed to like women's boobs and write about that. But there's a whole lot of it and it's kind of cartoonish and not to my interest. And then on top of that some of Simmons right-wing nasty worldview is starting to leak through in this book. Several gratuitously homophobic passages, him grinding some ax about Shakespeare's gay poets or the love between Achilles and Patroclus. He could have just left those few paragraphs out and it would have been a better book.
\n","w":267,"cv":"covers/3973.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":4.04,"n":33386,"dist":[628,1592,5895,12925,12346],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Mythology","Space Opera","Historical Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Cena Akademie SFFH","cat":"Kniha roku (Book of the Year)","year":2005,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1963271W","wp":"Ilium_(novel)","isf":"23854"},{"id":255363125,"t":"Not Like Other Girls","sl":"not-like-other-girls","a":["A.L. Goldfuss"],"as":"Goldfuss, A.L.","y":2026,"p":27,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-08-05","d":"2026-08-05","rev":"A lovely, creepy bit of body horror. Also a really poignant musing on relationships between women and men, I didn't expect something so sad. Tight story, a worthwhile read.
\n","w":29,"cv":"covers/255363125.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.94,"n":143,"dist":[1,5,30,73,34],"g":["Horror","Short Stories","Fantasy","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":150254281,"t":"House of Open Wounds","sl":"house-of-open-wounds","se":"The Tyrant Philosophers","sn":"2","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2023,"p":608,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-08-03","cv":"covers/150254281.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL35724150W","isf":"3245025"},{"id":57045,"t":"Downbelow Station","sl":"downbelow-station","se":"The Company Wars","sn":"1","a":["C.J. Cherryh"],"as":"Cherryh, C.J.","y":1981,"p":526,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-07-19","cv":"covers/57045.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":3.9,"n":16788,"dist":[400,1104,3758,6092,5434],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Hugo Awards","Space","Speculative Fiction","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1982,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1982,"won":false}],"ol":"OL60590W","wp":"Downbelow_Station","isf":"2078"},{"id":67696,"t":"The Last of the Wine","sl":"the-last-of-the-wine","a":["Mary Renault"],"as":"Renault, Mary","y":1956,"p":400,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-07-19","cv":"covers/67696.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"avg":4.04,"n":6938,"dist":[100,310,1388,2561,2579],"g":["Historical Fiction","Historical","LGBT","Classics","Mythology","Queer","Greece","Romance","Greek Mythology"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL3906362W","wp":"The_Last_of_the_Wine"},{"id":834518,"t":"Cyteen","sl":"cyteen","se":"Cyteen","sn":"1-3","a":["C.J. Cherryh"],"as":"Cherryh, C.J.","y":1988,"p":680,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-07-19","cv":"covers/834518.avif","cw":280,"ch":395,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL60589W","wp":"Cyteen","isf":"2179"},{"id":52576333,"t":"The Prophets","sl":"the-prophets","a":["Robert Jones Jr."],"as":"Jr., Robert Jones","y":2021,"p":400,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-07-19","cv":"covers/52576333.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24137490W"},{"id":44020395,"t":"The Life to Come: And Other Short Stories","sl":"the-life-to-come","a":["E.M. Forster"],"as":"Forster, E.M.","y":1972,"p":234,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-07-16","d":"2026-07-16","rev":"A remarkable collection of stories Forster left unpublished until after his death. The best are the later stories he wrote that are explicitly gay, ones that were unpublishable in his time, just like Maurice.
\nThe real jewel of gay literature here is Arthur Snatchfold, a story of gay solidarity along with an amusing and very modern scene of cruising and tricking. I think Dr Woolacott and The Other Boat are also very good reading for a queer studies curriculum. There's some other fun stories here too, some queer or transgressive. Unfortunately the earliest stories are not nearly as good, one wonders if they were unpublished because no one wanted to buy them.
\nIt's fun reading a few of Forster's regular themes in short story form. Mocking the English upper classes. Upholding the noble strength (and sexiness) of the working man. Manly love between an intellectual and a commoner. Also a surprising theme I don't think is in his novels: a love of the supernatural, of ghost stories.
\nHere's my story-by-story commentary.
\nAnsell (1903)
\nA wistful, tender portrayal of a close friendship between two completely different young men. Has the Forster theme of the connection between an intellectual and a "common man." Without condescension; the self-important intellectual is the one who is mocked.
\nAlbergo Empedocle (1903)
\nWeird story, reads like a prototype of A Room with a View (tourism) and then Maurice (insanity because of being a closeted homosexual). None of it quite works, he's trying to get too much stuffed into too small a story.
\nThe Purple Envelope (1903–1905)
\nNot good, better left unpublished. The story makes no sense in places and the borrowing of a Gothic ghost story does not work.
\nThe Helping Hand (1904)
\nAnother forgettable story. It's a funny parody of English society but the plot isn't good at the irony and the end is unearned.
\nThe Rock (1906)
\nPunches hard for such a short, short story. About the value of life and the tension between spirituality and lusty physical life. A little opaque.
\nThe Life to Come (1922)
\nA remarkably interesting story. A dual critique of Christian missionaries and of homophobia. And with a remarkable twist ending, a sort of violent apotheosis.
\nDr Woolacott (1927)
\nA lovely tragic story about a gay man struggling to accept himself. And being trodden down by a doctor who requires him to repress himself. The supernatural element here gets in the way but gives Forster room to write an emotional story.
\nArthur Snatchfold (1928)
\nMy favorite of the stories, a real jewel. At its core is a casual morning trick between an older man and the milkman. It's written very modern and matter of fact, quite relatable! But then it's couched in a tragic story and some unlikely gay solidarity. At least on the part of the younger man; the older man comes off as insensitive and glib. This story would make a great short movie and is totally relatable in the contemporary era.
\nThe Classical Annex (1930–1931)
\nA silly story, and a little porny. More supernatural stuff I don't care for. I appreciate Forster writing this for his gay amusement but it's not particularly good.
\nWhat Does It Matter? A Morality (1935)
\nAnother slightly silly story but this one works much better. It's a sort of queer liberation story in 1935, the idea that a whole country could just decide that sex in general and homosexuality in particular doesn't really matter and how easy that would be.
\nThe Obelisk (1939)
\nA funny sort of sex romp, reads like a Three's Company episode. It's interesting reading something from Forster so light and yet still so transgressive. Honestly the whole story looks like it's a setup for a dick joke
\n\n\n“Anyone ever seed a bigger one?” he inquired. No one replied, and how should they to so foolish a question? “Stands up, don’t it?” he continued. No one spoke. “No wonder they call that a needle, for wouldn’t that just prick.”
\n
The Torque (1958)
\nAlso a funny sex romp! Sort of a spoof on pagan vs. Christian, with lots of lusty sex. Forster did say he wrote some of these stories to arouse himself... Unfortunately it's also tinged with some unconsidered sexual violence. It doesn't ruin the story but it does date it a bit.
\nThe Other Boat (1957–1958)
\nWhat a tragic, dreadful story! But also a story of true queer liberation, or at least a temporary autonomous zone of same sex love for a few days. Until it all goes disastrously wrong when the British social order comes crashing down on them. Feels dated but interesting and relevant.
\n","w":770,"cv":"covers/44020395.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":3.88,"n":1049,"dist":[5,49,259,488,248],"g":["Short Stories","Classics","LGBT","Queer","Gay","20th Century","British Literature","Literature","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL21646731W"},{"id":150249463,"t":"The Tainted Cup","sl":"the-tainted-cup","se":"Ana and Din Mysteries","sn":"1","a":["Robert Jackson Bennett"],"as":"Bennett, Robert Jackson","y":2024,"p":410,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-07-12","d":"2026-07-12","rev":"I liked the fantasy novel very much! An interesting world with complicated societies, politics, fantastical enemies. And a fun narrator as the underdog newbie making his way in the world discovering his talents. All good fun.
\nI did not like the murder mystery novel! I mean it was OK, sort of. But then Sherlock Ana would stride into the scene and declaim the solution to some part of the mystery. Using information that only she knew and was revealing to us, the reader, for the first time. It was just annoying.
It's a well written book, the prose is fun, the characters are good. I just wish it didn't have the Agatha Christie thing going on.
\n","w":116,"cv":"covers/150249463.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.29,"n":113488,"dist":[586,2112,12742,46220,51828],"g":["Fantasy","Mystery","Mystery Thriller","Thriller","Crime","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Edgar Allan Poe Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37628730W","wp":"The_Tainted_Cup","isf":"3267240"},{"id":37971858,"t":"Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry","sl":"good-reasons-for-bad-feelings","a":["Randolph M. Nesse"],"as":"Nesse, Randolph M.","y":2019,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-22","cv":"covers/37971858.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"ol":"OL20155132W"},{"id":59012057,"t":"Bad Gays: A Homosexual History","sl":"bad-gays","a":["Huw Lemmey","Ben Miller"],"as":"Lemmey, Huw","y":2022,"p":357,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-06-17","d":"2026-06-17","rev":"I liked this quite a bit, and I like the podcast. But it's uneven.
\nThe best parts of the book are the insidery gossip about the lives of lesser known historical figures. Pietro Aretino, Jack Saul, Radszuweit in the Weimar Germany chapter. I enjoyed learning about people I genuinely knew nothing about. And the deep professional history grounding of the work really informs well beyond just fun facts, particularly the queer theory perspective of the authors. They have done a lot of deep research on some of these figures and it's great.
\nThe book is a little less good on figures I knew something about already. Their treatment of Frederick the Great is strangely dismissive, Frederick the Great: King of Prussia has a lot more interesting detail. The J. Edgar Hoover + Roy Cohn chapter is kind of thin.
\nWhere the book started to bother me is when the authors have an axe to grind. Often an anti-colonial / anti-capitalist axe. I'm sympathetic to those political views myself but they interfered with the narrative IMO. The chapters about Margaret Mead and Philip Johnson were particularly frustrating this way. I get it, it's Bad Gays, and they are talking about the bad parts of these folks. It just felt a little too reductive.
\nOverall a really entertaining and informative history. And a uniquely good and constructive queer viewpoint. Glad I read it and glad I have the podcast to enjoy. (The episode on EM Forster is terrific.)
\n","w":246,"cv":"covers/59012057.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.55,"n":6139,"dist":[169,587,2091,2289,1003],"g":["History","Queer","LGBT","Biography","Gay","Historical","Politics"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"History & Biography","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL26424932W"},{"id":26618323,"t":"Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis (German and European Studies, 23)","sl":"sex-and-the-weimar-republic","a":["Laurie Marhoefer"],"as":"Marhoefer, Laurie","y":2015,"p":340,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-14","cv":"covers/26618323.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"q":1,"ol":"OL20027350W"},{"id":59655047,"t":"Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love","sl":"racism-and-the-making-of-gay-rights","a":["Laurie Marhoefer"],"as":"Marhoefer, Laurie","y":2022,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-14","cv":"covers/59655047.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL27807098W"},{"id":467218,"t":"Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)","sl":"queer-london","a":["Matt Houlbrook"],"as":"Houlbrook, Matt","y":2005,"p":398,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-11","cv":"covers/467218.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"q":1,"ol":"OL9173152W"},{"id":6036218,"t":"The Sins of the Cities of the Plain","sl":"the-sins-of-the-cities-of-the-plain","a":["Jack Saul","Wolfram Setz"],"as":"Saul, Jack","y":1898,"p":114,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-11","cv":"covers/6036218.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL85879W","wp":"The_Sins_of_the_Cities_of_the_Plain"},{"id":52730573,"t":"Sexual Hegemony: Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System","sl":"sexual-hegemony","a":["Christopher Chitty","Max Fox","Christopher Nealon"],"as":"Chitty, Christopher","y":2020,"p":240,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-11","cv":"covers/52730573.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"q":1,"ol":"OL21668657W"},{"id":240019874,"t":"Platform Decay","sl":"platform-decay","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"8","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2026,"p":244,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-06-08","d":"2026-06-08","rev":"Meh, this was fine. But the series has outlived its welcome. This book is strangely shallow. It's basically just one big action adventure series, like a dumb summer popcorn movie. Murderbot's unusual narrative voice is intact but annoyingly so, particularly the writing style with lots of parentheticals and emotion checks. There's no character development or novel social situation.
\nThe plot itself is entertaining enough, although a bit samey. There's some fun world-building in the crappy space station everything happens on. But all in all I'm not sure I needed to read this book. I didn't mind it though.
\n","w":98,"cv":"covers/240019874.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.22,"n":36776,"dist":[99,652,5579,15320,15126],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Space","Humor","Space Opera","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL44660267W","isf":"3597228"},{"id":6860037,"t":"The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada (Bibliolife Reproduction Series)","sl":"the-life-of-josiah-henson-formerly-a-slave-now-an","a":["Josiah Henson"],"as":"Henson, Josiah","y":1849,"p":84,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-06-02","cv":"covers/6860037.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"ol":"OL2856850W"},{"id":205436022,"t":"Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined","sl":"big-jim-and-the-white-boy","a":["David F. Walker","Marcus Kwame Anderson","Isabell Struble"],"as":"Walker, David F.","y":2024,"p":288,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-06-02","d":"2026-06-02","rev":"Good graphic novel and an important piece of storytelling. It's remarkable to think this came out about the same time as James, another Huckleberry-Finn-from-Jim's-Perspective. But this is a very different book.
\nIt's only very loosely Huckleberry Finn, and the weakest parts were towards the start where the story tries to follow the Twain narrative. It gets much stronger when it becomes its own story. An imagined history of Jim, the liberated Slave, fighting for freedom before, during, and after the Civil War. Along with a very sweet story of his love for Huck and their lifelong friendship.
\nI didn't love the art. Or the simplified superhero elements in the story. I think it works as a fun graphic novel and if it brings in readers, great! But this story seemed most powerful to me at its moments of the most complexity, particularly Jim and Huck's relationship.
\nThis book seems like a great introductory text for young readers needing a counterbalance to Confederate mythology.
\n","w":164,"cv":"covers/205436022.avif","cw":280,"ch":395,"avg":4.5,"n":1276,"dist":[4,9,82,436,745],"g":["Graphic Novels","Historical Fiction","Comics","Young Adult","Historical","Retellings","Classics","Family"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Oregon Book Award","cat":"Graphic Novel/Illustrated Work","year":2026,"won":true},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards","cat":"Best Publication for Teens","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"NAACP Image Award","cat":"Graphic Novel","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award","cat":null,"year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37871008W"},{"id":3087,"t":"A Room with a View","sl":"a-room-with-a-view","a":["E.M. Forster"],"as":"Forster, E.M.","y":1908,"p":119,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-05-31","d":"2026-05-31","rev":"It took me awhile to get into it.. The first few chapters of English people being provincial in Italy were irritating! I'm glad I stuck with it through to the second section, it got much more interesting once the romantic intrigue got going.
\nThe romance is so thin though! George is far too underwritten a character given how important he turns out to be. We never learn much about him and the only scene of any consequence is the confusing murder in the piazza. The all-important kisses just sort of happen out of the blue with no explication. And Forster gives us very little insight into Lucy's true thoughts, although arguably that's deliberate because she does not know them herself.
\nI was primed to think this because of the Bad Gays podcast, but... I read this thinness as Forster's own lack of knowledge about romantic relationships. The book was published when he was 29 and a first draft written when he was 23. Meanwhile Forster didn't understand how sex even worked until age 30 and was a virgin until 37. It's remarkable he could write so poignantly about the anguish of love and desire with so little experience himself. But then, maybe that's exactly why he could write this, his own homosexual anguish.
\nHow did anyone understand Forster's writing without knowing he was gay?! I tried asking an AI about that and it said earlier critics focussed on the wit and satire of the novel and the themes of Gothic vs Greek or rationality vs. desire. All very abstract and proper. But to me there certainly seems to be a much queerer reading, about Lucy's confusion being a parallel to a gay man figuring himself out.
\n","w":287,"cv":"covers/3087.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.89,"n":209331,"dist":[3731,12684,51026,77613,64277],"g":["Classics","Romance","Historical Fiction","Italy","Literature","British Literature","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL88813W","wp":"A_Room_with_a_View"},{"id":7128958,"t":"A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster","sl":"a-great-unrecorded-history","a":["Wendy Moffat"],"as":"Moffat, Wendy","y":2010,"p":408,"sh":"currently-reading","d":"2026-05-29","cv":"covers/7128958.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":4.23,"n":487,"dist":[5,13,62,194,213],"g":["Biography","History","LGBT","Biography Memoir","Queer","Gay","Literary Criticism","Writing","British Literature"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"James Tait Black Memorial Prize","cat":"Biography","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Randy Shilts Award","cat":"Gay Nonfiction","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"Best First Biography Prize","cat":null,"year":2010,"won":true}],"ol":"OL13844329W"},{"id":20878022,"t":"Captive Prince","sl":"captive-prince","se":"Captive Prince","sn":"1","a":["C.S. Pacat"],"as":"Pacat, C.S.","y":2013,"p":209,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-05-25","d":"2026-05-25","rev":"I wish I could remember why I thought I'd want to read this. Or why I struggled through it after all the rape and child sexual abuse and awfulness. Not to mention the clumsy writing. Weirdly I still enjoyed it and kind of even want to know what happens next in the story. Not enough to read through all the violence, sexual and otherwise. As a rule I don't read this kind of thing and I wish I'd stuck with it.
\nThe good: the main character's narrative voice is strong and strange but compelling. I like the complexity of his relationship with his captor. Clearly they're building to an enemies-to-lovers kind of thing. Also the pacing was strong enough the book kept my interest. It's mercifully short.
\nThe bad: I just can't enjoy the central latent romance because part of "the setup involves torture, enslavement, sexual humiliation. And not in a fun kink way. It's hideous.
\nAlso the bad: the writing is not good. The prose flows OK but is not particularly literary or evocative. Sometimes important things are glossed over and only explained pages later. And weirdly the author throws in some 50 cent SAT word, vocabulary far too erudite for the rest of the writing. As much as I like obscure words it just breaks the narrative voice and feels like someone showing off.
\nAnyway this book was sort of entertaining and sort of appalling and overall I'd rather be spending my time on higher quality writing.
\n","w":249,"cv":"covers/20878022.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.78,"n":133324,"dist":[6222,10120,31761,44075,41146],"g":["Fantasy","Romance","LGBT","M M Romance","Queer","Enemies To Lovers","Historical","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"DABWAHA Romance Tournament","cat":"Best Romance of the Year & Best Gay/Lesbian/Transgender Romance","year":2014,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17364725W","isf":"1831335"},{"id":40789359,"t":"Lot","sl":"lot","a":["Bryan Washington"],"as":"Washington, Bryan","y":2019,"p":236,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-05-20","d":"2026-05-20","rev":"A lovely, insightful, and sensitive novel. I grew up in Houston and love local geography so all of Washington's hyper-local prose speaks to me. I also appreciate the gay experience he writes about. My own upbringing was significantly whiter and more privileged than Lot's characters, I can't relate directly, but that just makes it all the more interesting for me to read.
\nAt its best Washington's prose has a meaningful lyricism to it. He has a slightly askew sense of associations and moods, when he writes about "the leaves plaguing Montrose" or "he felt like a bag of Tic Tacs" I can relate even if I couldn't tell you exactly what the similes mean. There's also a sort of rhythm and mood to the feelings he expresses that reminds me very much of Ocean Vuong.
\nI had a hard time reading this book coherently. It's a set of short stories, somewhat interwoven with someone being a character in one story and then the narrator in the next. But I never quite followed the literal through-line. Plenty of overlapping mood and scene and situation though. I feel like I'd benefit from reading this book a second time much more closely and critically, dissecting it as one would for an English class. OTOH it's far too lovely a novel to cut apart that way, I'm happy enjoying it as-is.
\nThe strongest story for me was Waugh. A heart-breaking narrative and the protagonist Poke was easier for me to empathize with than some others.
\n(One nitpick: some of the geography doesn't quite make sense. Like there's no I-90 in Houston, is there? And you think you can identify the exact blocks in Waugh only the details don't quite make sense. None of this matters to the mood or meaning, it's just me being pedantic. I want to put the places on a map! It's not that kind of book.)
\n","w":317,"cv":"covers/40789359.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":3.74,"n":10670,"dist":[146,684,3199,4448,2193],"g":["Short Stories","LGBT","Queer","Contemporary","Literary Fiction","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize","cat":"Shortlist","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Dylan Thomas Prize","cat":"","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Texas Institute of Letters","cat":"Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"The Publishing Triangle Award","cat":"The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Ernest J. Gaines Award","cat":"Literary Excellence","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20161445W"},{"id":845074,"t":"Venus Plus X","sl":"venus-plus-x","a":["Theodore Sturgeon"],"as":"Sturgeon, Theodore","y":1960,"p":224,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-05-16","cv":"covers/845074.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL12667125W","wp":"Venus_Plus_X","isf":"924"},{"id":57693493,"t":"Goliath","sl":"goliath","a":["Tochi Onyebuchi"],"as":"Onyebuchi, Tochi","y":2022,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-05-09","cv":"covers/57693493.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL25466796W","wp":"Goliath_(Onyebuchi_novel)","isf":"2965259"},{"id":63896470,"t":"Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon","sl":"shigidi-and-the-brass-head-of-obalufon","a":["Wole Talabi"],"as":"Talabi, Wole","y":2023,"p":314,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-05-09","cv":"covers/63896470.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"ol":"OL42402505W","wp":"Shigidi_and_the_Brass_Head_of_Obalufon","isf":"3201848"},{"id":214329001,"t":"Death of the Author","sl":"death-of-the-author","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2025,"p":448,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-05-09","d":"2026-05-09","rev":"What a magical book! Was really spellbound by parts of this. What I liked best is how intensely sophisticated the narrative is, the interweaving of three storytelling modes. I also liked all the surprises in it, the bits of magic that the narrator Zelu encounters in her charmed but challenging life. Okorafor really swung for the fences with this novel and it paid off.
\n","w":64,"cv":"covers/214329001.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":3.93,"n":27688,"dist":[463,1674,5981,10900,8670],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Contemporary","Literary Fiction","Books About Books"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Novel","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2026,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Sci-Fi/Fantasy","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"NAACP Image Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2026,"won":true},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Longlist","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"She Reads Best of Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Libby Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction","year":2026,"won":true}],"ol":"OL42398368W","wp":"Death_of_the_Author_(novel)","isf":"3394110"},{"id":199851460,"t":"Alien Clay","sl":"alien-clay","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2024,"p":424,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-04-25","d":"2026-04-25","rev":"Meh. This was a fun quick read, so 3 stars and not 2, but it's pretty forgettable.
\nTchaikovsky consistently writes interesting alien intelligences. But he keeps experimenting with different narrative moods in his different novels. I appreciate that, but this particular version didn't work for me. The central story is a story about prison labor, about a rebellious group in a prison camp on an alien planet. And the social dynamics of that just didn't engage me at all. It's solidly written, I could follow the story, I just didn't care. It didn't help that it felt like Andor did this kind of story so much better recently.
\nThe alien intelligence part is good but surprisingly thin. The central conceit is fun but pretty simple. And not well explored. I had all sorts of questions about how this ecosystem would work and in other Tchaikovsky novels he'd have explicated it all over the course of a satisfying novel. This time it was just the surface idea.
\nThe most annoying thing is Tchaikovsky's playing with a narrative style where he hints at things but doesn't reveal them until the next chapter. Makes for a page turner but it's a cheap gimmick. Some of it is horror movie stuff: "there's a scary thing and I'm going to keep it scary by not telling you about it". Does not work in sci-fi IMHO. Some of it is that the plot and the characters are more than they seem and I'd rather he just told us rather than trickle it out.
\nAnyway, still good fun to read. Just not one of his best.
\n","w":269,"cv":"covers/199851460.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":3.98,"n":20662,"dist":[209,864,4409,8771,6409],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Aliens","Dystopia","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":null,"year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37568895W","wp":"Alien_Clay","isf":"3286979"},{"id":18423,"t":"The Left Hand of Darkness","sl":"the-left-hand-of-darkness","se":"The Hainish Cycle","sn":"4","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1969,"p":304,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-04-19","d":"2026-04-19","rev":"I read this years ago and didn't care for it much. But I was looking then for gay sci-fi and it didn't satisfy. (It's no Dhalgren)! This time I'm ready to engage just with LeGuin for her anthropological self and I liked it much better.
\nThe world building is exquisite. Some of the details of the politics are incredibly intricate. And just barely followable, she moves fast. But it comes together into a really compelling story about a culture's response to an alien visitor representing an advanced technological power. It recalls narratives of Europeans in Japan, or China, or Hawaiʻi. Only a much gentler and kinder one focussed on common humanity and exchange of knowledge, not colonialism and weapons.
\nI still don't like it as a gay novel. It's just not about the gay male experience and doesn't try to be. I certainly recognize it as a queer novel though, a whole society of androgynous / changing gender humans. But their whole society is that way and its presented as entirely normal, there's nothing of the queer experience of otherness. Well there is, the cis-male narrator himself is "the Pervert", but LeGuin doesn't explore his experience as a gender variant in this society as much as I'd like.
\nBut genderqueer and trans friends of mine find much more of themselves in this book. Or at least the hope of the experience of being something other than the basic male/female gender, of giving alternative gender experiences equal respect. That's a good thing.
\nFinally on gender, I tripped over LeGuin's use of "he" as the gender-neutral pronoun. LeGuin did this on purpose and then later regretted it, and part of me wonders if a light edit using they/them pronouns wouldn't read better in 2026.
\nMostly I want to go back to the main sci-fi story, the part mostly separate from gender. The way the Envoy is misunderstood, and misunderstands, his alienness in this society with different ways of communicating and being. The deep friendship with Estraven is very moving, in particular the heartbreaking last third of the story. It's a lovely first contact tale.
\n","w":354,"cv":"covers/18423.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":4.09,"n":238838,"dist":[3209,10717,41404,88776,94732],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Classics","Queer","Speculative Fiction","Feminism"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1970,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1969,"won":true},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Retrospective","year":1995,"won":true},{"name":"Margaret A. Edwards Award","cat":null,"year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59800W","wp":"The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness","isf":"7662"},{"id":43190272,"t":"To Be Taught, If Fortunate","sl":"to-be-taught-if-fortunate","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2019,"p":153,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-04-11","d":"2026-04-11","rev":"Lovely humanist story. Some good scifi about exploring new planets. But the real hook is the emotional experiences of the characters, their lives as a small family far from Earth. Some nice evocation of loneliness and distance, also of hope and purpose.
\nI don't normally read novellas but glad I made an exception. I would have been glad to read a novel-sized treatment but honestly she had plenty of room to say what she wanted to.
\n","w":76,"cv":"covers/43190272.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.19,"n":62061,"dist":[365,1727,9471,24955,25543],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Queer","LGBT","Space","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Shorter Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20642211W","wp":"To_Be_Taught,_If_Fortunate","isf":"2577807"},{"id":210384823,"t":"Shroud","sl":"shroud","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2025,"p":436,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-04-09","d":"2026-04-09","rev":"What a satisfying Tchaikovsky book. Yet another alien intelligence explored and this one truly, frighteningly alien. Both the sentients and the whole environment and planet.
\nThe writing of the people is just good enough to work. The personal relationships are important, they operate as a foil to understanding the alien intelligence. Also the nature of the conflict between us and them. I've never thought Tchaikovsky was great at writing believable people but it works pretty well here. It helps the folks are in limited environments and circumstances.
\nThere's a lot of interesting rhyming and parallels between the humans and the aliens. The nature of vehicles. The relationships between individuals. The approach to strangers. Innovation. Some of these parallels are explicit but a lot is implicit. The writing is quite deft here, particularly the way the main characters' friendship develops and becomes essential to the story.
\nOne small regret: the alien intelligence shares a lot of commonality with the Tines in A Fire Upon the Deep. It's not a ripoff or anything, Tchaikovsky goes his own direction with it. But some the details of how the minds work is so similar it was a bit frustrating not to have a more direct comparison.
\n","w":203,"cv":"covers/210384823.avif","cw":147,"ch":220,"avg":4.14,"n":16703,"dist":[104,520,2632,7058,6389],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Aliens","Space Opera","Space","Adventure","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL42397730W","wp":"Shroud_(Tchaikovsky_novel)","isf":"3406045"},{"id":33253215,"t":"The Heart's Invisible Furies","sl":"the-hearts-invisible-furies","a":["John Boyne"],"as":"Boyne, John","y":2017,"p":582,"sh":"did-not-finish","d":"2026-04-01","rev":"Quit after the first two of nine sections. It's not a bad book, just not a genre I'm interested in reading right now. Far too much arch irony and silliness when I was on the lookout for a more serious book. Which isn't to say the book is frivolous, it's pointed satire, just not working for me.
\n","w":57,"cv":"covers/33253215.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.51,"n":232473,"dist":[1881,3584,16359,63260,147389],"g":["Historical Fiction","LGBT","Ireland","Historical","Literary Fiction","Queer","Irish Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Historical Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Book of the Month Book of the Year Award","cat":null,"year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Dublin Literary Award","cat":"","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"The Publishing Triangle Award","cat":"The Ferro-Grumley Awards for LGBTQ Fiction","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19551794W","wp":"The_Heart's_Invisible_Furies"},{"id":44244939,"t":"Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs","sl":"fifth-sun","a":["Camilla Townsend"],"as":"Townsend, Camilla","y":2019,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-04-01","cv":"covers/44244939.avif","cw":280,"ch":397,"ol":"OL20872735W"},{"id":50608676,"t":"Black Leopard, Red Wolf","sl":"black-leopard-red-wolf","se":"The Dark Star Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Marlon James"],"as":"James, Marlon","y":2019,"p":640,"r":1,"sh":"did-not-finish","d":"2026-04-01","rev":"Read several chapters for a book club, gave up. Not for me.
\n","w":12,"cv":"covers/50608676.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.45,"n":31686,"dist":[3101,4208,7240,9650,7487],"g":["Fantasy","Mythology","LGBT","Africa","Queer","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Horror Novel","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction (Ray Bradbury Prize)","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Minnesota Book Award","cat":"Genre Fiction","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20159625W","wp":"Black_Leopard,_Red_Wolf","isf":"2486677"},{"id":52916544,"t":"Game Changers Collection","sl":"game-changers-collection","se":"Game Changers","sn":"1-3","a":["Rachel Reid"],"as":"Reid, Rachel","y":2020,"p":922,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-04-01","d":"2026-04-01","cv":"covers/52916544.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.31,"n":4565,"dist":[27,104,629,1461,2344],"g":["Romance","Hockey","Sports","Queer","Contemporary","LGBT","M M Romance","Sports Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL26576654W"},{"id":220966547,"t":"Tough Guy","sl":"tough-guy","se":"Game Changers","sn":"3","a":["Rachel Reid"],"as":"Reid, Rachel","y":2020,"p":303,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-04-01","d":"2026-04-01","rev":"Maybe I made a mistake binge-reading three of these in a row, or maybe I just lack the imagination to enjoy a book I haven't seen a TV show for. But I think that's not it.
\nMy real problem is I just didn't like the protagonist, Ryan. It's hard to like him! He's so anxious, and so screwed up, and so lacking in confidence. It's good writing, and I appreciate the representation of a big strong anxious guy. But her previous characters were all basically likeable guys with one big problem or flaw. Ryan's just a mess and it made it hard for me to like, particularly the first half of the book. It gets better as he builds his confidence. Fabian is far more interesting to me, the shit-together femme boi who is a musical genius. And he's so sweet with Ryan, that part moved me.
\nGiven how horny the first two books are this one is curiously lacking in sex. There is some, but it's suppressed first by Ryan's freakouts and then by Ryan's sexual dysfunction. Again: great representation! But not fun as an escapist romance for me.
\nOne last complaint: the book is very claustrophobic. The previous books had lots of characters and settings and a sense of freedom. But since Ryan's world is so limited, so is the book. That's gonna make for dull TV if they film this.
\nThe thing I thought was really interesting was the strong condemnation of hockey fighting culture. The first two books feel like a love letter to NHL with some criticism about its homophobia. This one's much more hostile to the professional league. I wonder what the sports-loving fans of these books think about that.
\n(I was originally expecting this book to have some pornographic descriptions of hockey fights, big men fighting as a substitute for kissing. That would have been grotesque, I'm glad she didn't do it.)
\nTime for a break from the gay hockey books. They are uncommonly good but I've read too many too fast.
\n","w":339,"cv":"covers/220966547.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.59,"n":139915,"dist":[1407,11277,53659,50046,23526],"g":["Romance","Sports","LGBT","M M Romance","Sports Romance","Hockey","Contemporary","Queer"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL25432584W"},{"id":241371963,"t":"The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya (Unearthing the Past)","sl":"the-four-heavens","a":["David Stuart"],"as":"Stuart, David","y":2026,"p":488,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-04-01","cv":"covers/241371963.avif","cw":280,"ch":425},{"id":220966494,"t":"Heated Rivalry","sl":"heated-rivalry","se":"Game Changers","sn":"2","a":["Rachel Reid"],"as":"Reid, Rachel","y":2019,"p":372,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-03-30","d":"2026-03-30","rev":"Well that was great. I came here from the TV show, so I was primed to like it, and it definitely helps to visualize Shane and Ilya via the fantastic performances we saw this year. But this book is well written!
\nI particularly like that it dwelt more on Shane's inner journey, his coming out. This came through well in the show but I felt it more in the book. Also Ilya's change. It's a little more complicated since we don't get much of his POV, or maybe he's underwritten. But the place he ends this book is lovely.
\nAlso very sexy book! But not quite as overwhelming as the first one. Much more emotion and actual romance too, very sweet.
\n","w":121,"cv":"covers/220966494.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.24,"n":469141,"dist":[3172,12813,67377,168937,216842],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Sports","M M Romance","Sports Romance","Queer","Enemies To Lovers","Contemporary"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL25434351W","wp":"Heated_Rivalry_(novel)"},{"id":220965585,"t":"Game Changer","sl":"game-changer","se":"Game Changers","sn":"1","a":["Rachel Reid"],"as":"Reid, Rachel","y":2018,"p":400,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-03-25","d":"2026-03-25","rev":"Well that was a lot of fun. I read this after watching the TV show. Remarkable how close the show follows the book! Very little was changed. Plenty cut though, there's only an hour or so for this whole novel.
\nThe fun thing in the book is seeing more depth. Particularly Kip's POV, his pride in being out and then the anguish of being with Scott. There's also more steps to Scott's coming out that are fun. The impact of the Big Kiss isn't quite as exciting in the book, the TV show really did set that up marvelously. I think cutting Scott + Kip's story in and out of Ilya + Shane was a smart choice for the show.
\nBack to the book, my one complaint is about a quarter of the way in there was too much sex. Never thought I'd say that! The sex is well written, hot and a little porny but not too much so. But then she writes the romance part of the book well too. And there's a stretch where after the fifth sex scene I was ready for more feelings and talk. Maybe it was like the rhythm of a new intense relationship where the sex takes front of stage. Or maybe the author was just finding her balance. Overall the result was fine.
\nThere's a thread of criticism from gay men that this book and this TV show were written by a woman and that was appropriation. I didn't feel that way at all. I get the concern, but this book felt pretty authentically gay to me. Both the sex descriptions and the emotional stuff felt true, not like a woman imagining what gay men are like.
\nOne unique thing in this romance is a detailed description of what it feels like to be in the closet. From both perspectives, the closeted man and the out man who loves the closeted man. I don't think I've read that view in a romance novel before, at least not in this detail. I wonder if that experience is less accessible to young readers. For me at age 54 it was quite familiar.
\n","w":359,"cv":"covers/220965585.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.77,"n":259003,"dist":[2514,15833,80222,100849,59585],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Sports","M M Romance","Sports Romance","Queer","Contemporary","Hockey"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL27916409W"},{"id":35849997,"t":"California and the Civil War (Civil War Series)","sl":"california-and-the-civil-war-civil-war-series","a":["Richard Hurley"],"as":"Hurley, Richard","y":2017,"p":278,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-03-20","d":"2026-03-20","rev":"A very solid and readable history of a narrow slice of history, combining California and the Civil War. California didn't play a big role in the Civil War, at least not in terms of number of men or influential battles. (Our gold supply was a much bigger factor!) But there are a bunch of interesting incidents, also a lot of strong feelings about the Civil War even in brand-new California. So the author has a lot of good stories to tell but one gets the sense he's told all of them, that this is a complete history of all the significant things.
\nI like the writing style, casual and easy to read. But it's not a shallow book, it is very well researched with some significant interpretation from the author. Just the style of history I like to read.
\n","w":139,"cv":"covers/35849997.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"avg":4.06,"n":18,"dist":[0,0,5,7,6],"g":["History","American Civil War","Civil War"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL25793966W"},{"id":42046112,"t":"Recursion","sl":"recursion","a":["Blake Crouch"],"as":"Crouch, Blake","y":2019,"p":329,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-03-20","cv":"covers/42046112.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20073906W","wp":"Recursion_(Crouch_novel)","isf":"2550080"},{"id":171624,"t":"The Ipcress File","sl":"the-ipcress-file","se":"Secret File","sn":"1","a":["Len Deighton"],"as":"Deighton, Len","y":1962,"p":342,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-03-17","cv":"covers/171624.avif","cw":280,"ch":463,"avg":3.9,"n":18551,"dist":[276,890,4642,7311,5432],"g":["Thriller","Espionage","Mystery","Crime","Classics","Mystery Thriller","Spy Thriller","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2425041W","wp":"The_IPCRESS_File"},{"id":1061439,"t":"Perverts by Official Order (Journal of Homosexuality Series: No. 1)","sl":"perverts-by-official-order-journal-of-homosexuality-series","a":["Lawrence R. Murphy"],"as":"Murphy, Lawrence R.","y":1988,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-03-11","cv":"covers/1061439.avif","cw":280,"ch":387,"q":1,"ol":"OL4983647W"},{"id":198112144,"t":"Service Model","sl":"service-model","se":"Service Model","sn":"1","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2024,"p":373,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-03-11","d":"2026-03-11","rev":"Wildly uneven and unusual book from Tchaikovsky. On the balance I liked it, mostly because I developed such sympathy for the protagonist. But parts were rough going.
\nThe opening part of the book is very funny with a writing conceit about the mechanistic "thinking" of AIs. I liked it for one chapter and then it kept going and I was fearing it'd be a whole book like that. Ugh! Fortunately once the point is thoroughly made Tchaikovsky goes on to other writing styles. It's all a bit meta and too clever in places but overall it's fine.
\nWhat's weird is this is Tchaikovsky writing a light, conversational book. I tend to think of his harder sci-fi stuff. Here this book about a robot is quite humanistic and intimate. It works. Other things didn't work for me, particularly the human character The Wonk. She felt unnecessary and badly drawn to me, I am curious if this book could have been made to work without her entirely.
\nAlso unconvinced about the ambitions of comparing itself to Dante's Inferno. Or the grand design of the whole story. It's a big, wide ranging story and it doesn't always get to his ambitious narrative goals. But overall it held together and I'm glad I read it.
\n","w":211,"cv":"covers/198112144.avif","cw":270,"ch":415,"avg":4.03,"n":25373,"dist":[239,1084,4839,10747,8464],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Robots","Humor","Adventure","Artificial Intelligence"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Longlist","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37576633W","wp":"Service_Model","isf":"3316101"},{"id":48902303,"t":"Memorial","sl":"memorial","a":["Bryan Washington"],"as":"Washington, Bryan","y":2020,"p":320,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-02-09","d":"2026-02-09","rev":"What a lovely novel! At first it seems so casual and breezy I didn't take it seriously. Then I realized my mistake, how carefully written this book is and how much emotional truth it carries. My big question is how much is autobiographical. So much rings true. Not just about Benson, the character whose background mirrors the author's. But also his boyfriend Mike. Even the third of the novel that takes place with Mike's father in Osaka felt very honest to me, the kind of honesty that comes from a personal narrative, but I don't think that was the author's own experience. Remarkable writing!
\nAnother remarkable thing Washington does well is convey a sense of place in his writing. Particularly Houston, the city I grew up in, it's nice to see it featured so lovingly here. But also Osaka or rather a little slice of Osaka, the book felt well situated.
\n","w":151,"cv":"covers/48902303.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.56,"n":38544,"dist":[773,3674,13493,14422,6182],"g":["LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Romance","Literary Fiction","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Aspen Words Literary Prize","cat":"Longlist","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Texas Institute of Letters","cat":"Best Work of Fiction","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize","cat":"Longlist","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"The Publishing Triangle Award","cat":"The Ferro-Grumley Awards","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20761742W","wp":"Memorial_(novel)"},{"id":34381254,"t":"An Unkindness of Ghosts","sl":"an-unkindness-of-ghosts","a":["Rivers Solomon"],"as":"Solomon, Rivers","y":2017,"p":351,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-01-26","d":"2026-01-26","rc":2,"rev":"Very good and disturbing novel. I love generation ship stories. This story is that but it's a bleak and hopeless one. Not only has civilization and technology failed on the ship but so has politics and the current society is a brutal and inequitable community. With a lot of physical and sexual violence suffered by our protagonist and her friends.
\nIt's all sympathetically written. And there's moments and love and grace, queer moments at that. The book is depressing but also humane and at times lovely.
\nLooking forward to more from this author!
\n","w":93,"cv":"covers/34381254.avif","cw":280,"ch":479,"avg":3.95,"n":22526,"dist":[395,1275,4720,8876,7260],"g":["Science Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Fantasy","Dystopia","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBTQ SF/F/Horror","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Hurston/Wright Legacy Award","cat":"Debut Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19721977W","wp":"An_Unkindness_of_Ghosts","isf":"2289559"},{"id":40333989,"t":"The Priory of the Orange Tree","sl":"the-priory-of-the-orange-tree","se":"The Roots of Chaos","sn":"1","a":["Samantha Shannon"],"as":"Shannon, Samantha","y":2019,"p":849,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2026-01-16","d":"2026-01-16","rev":"I finished it! Yay me! I enjoyed the middle 300 pages. But the first 300 pages took forever to get going. And the last 300 pages were a rushed mess. This book would have been considerably improved by being edited down to half the length and then a bit more story inserted to result in three 200 page novels.
\nThe good part is a fun, long story about women in various pseudo-feudal societies making their way through political machinations, swordplay, and some occasional magic. When this story is cooking along it does really well, it's just frustrating that it doesn't maintain that level of quality consistently.
\nThe other good part is it's a nice queer story. A strong FF romance in the middle. Also a gay man as a side character who is interesting. Although argh! His major plot twists: a heel turn, then a turn back to the side of good, are very poorly explained. Particularly his decision to help the good team afterall. What a waste of a good setup.
\nThe bad part is the writing is just so undisciplined. And long. I almost wish the author would return to this exact same story after 10 or 20 years as a professional writer. There's a lot of good ideas here and they just need better writing.
\n","w":218,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/40333989.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.16,"n":302709,"dist":[4347,12578,46264,107278,132242],"g":["Fantasy","LGBT","Queer","Dragons","Lesbian","Romance","High Fantasy","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20157354W","wp":"The_Priory_of_the_Orange_Tree","isf":"2486787"},{"id":218541399,"t":"Journey to the West: (Abridged translation by Arthur Waley originally published in 1942 as \"Monkey\")","sl":"journey-to-the-west","a":["Wu Cheng'en","Arthur Waley"],"as":"Cheng'en, Wu","y":2005,"p":324,"sh":"did-not-finish","d":"2026-01-16","cv":"covers/218541399.avif","cw":280,"ch":366,"avg":4.22,"n":49,"dist":[0,1,10,15,23],"ol":"OL8625270W","wp":"Journey_to_the_West","isf":"2062611"},{"id":590234,"t":"The Lord Won't Mind (Peter & Charlie Trilogy)","sl":"the-lord-wont-mind-peter-and-charlie-trilogy","a":["Gordon Merrick"],"as":"Merrick, Gordon","y":1970,"p":255,"sh":"to-read","d":"2026-01-02","cv":"covers/590234.avif","cw":280,"ch":451,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL14849874W"},{"id":61886,"t":"The Curse of Chalion","sl":"the-curse-of-chalion","se":"World of the Five Gods","sn":"1","a":["Lois McMaster Bujold"],"as":"Bujold, Lois McMaster","y":2001,"p":490,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-12-23","d":"2025-12-23","rev":"Well that was lovely. A good solid fantasy story, with a light romance. And best of all told from a really kind humanist perspective. I understood the characters and cared about them. Particularly the protagonist.
\nIt's kind of a light book, I can't think of anything particularly subtle or complex to go into detail about. It's also an awful lot of pages. But well told and very satisfying as a novel.
\n","w":71,"cv":"covers/61886.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.18,"n":44786,"dist":[710,1567,6477,16154,19878],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Romance","Magic","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2002,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2002,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2002,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2002,"won":true}],"ol":"OL56910W","wp":"The_Curse_of_Chalion","isf":"21365"},{"id":61904,"t":"Paladin of Souls","sl":"paladin-of-souls","se":"World of the Five Gods","sn":"2","a":["Lois McMaster Bujold"],"as":"Bujold, Lois McMaster","y":2003,"p":470,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-12-23","cv":"covers/61904.avif","cw":280,"ch":465,"avg":4.19,"n":28094,"dist":[285,786,4253,10682,12088],"g":["Fantasy","Romance","Hugo Awards","High Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Science Fiction","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2004,"won":false}],"ol":"OL56898W","wp":"Paladin_of_Souls","isf":"23859"},{"id":406380,"t":"Same-Sex Affairs: Constructing and Controlling Homosexuality in the Pacific Northwest","sl":"same-sex-affairs","a":["Peter Boag"],"as":"Boag, Peter","y":2003,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-12-06","cv":"covers/406380.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"q":1,"ol":"OL4285629W"},{"id":23444482,"t":"The Traitor Baru Cormorant","sl":"the-traitor-baru-cormorant","se":"The Masquerade","sn":"1","a":["Seth Dickinson"],"as":"Dickinson, Seth","y":2015,"p":399,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-12-05","cv":"covers/23444482.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17877492W","wp":"The_Traitor_Baru_Cormorant","isf":"1888996"},{"id":50523477,"t":"The Jasmine Throne","sl":"the-jasmine-throne","se":"The Burning Kingdoms","sn":"1","a":["Tasha Suri"],"as":"Suri, Tasha","y":2021,"p":533,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-12-05","cv":"covers/50523477.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL24151326W","wp":"The_Jasmine_Throne","isf":"2865201"},{"id":220305223,"t":"Frontier Comrades: From the Fur Trade to the Ford Car","sl":"frontier-comrades","a":["Jim Wilke"],"as":"Wilke, Jim","y":2025,"p":290,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-12-04","d":"2025-12-04","rev":"Very solid and readable history, I'm glad I read it. Quite quickly too, it was a quick and fairly entertaining read.
\nI think the book is strongest at painting a picture of what life was like on the frontier in the American west. Daily life for folks fur trading or working in logging camps, mining camps, army camps. His writing is quite evocative. Maybe too much so: it felt a little embellished and a little too lengthy. But that made it an enjoyable read and his enhancements were responsible and narrative, not misleading.
\nThe queer history part of the book is weaker. There's very little information about the sexuality of most of the subjects. How could there be? Many of them were living in a time before homosexuality or transgender identity were well defined. And to the extent it was known it was stigmatized or illegal. Of course there's little record. But then it's hard to tell a whole story of, say, a sheriff of Tombstone when the only evidence he was queer was a couple of close male friendships and some gossip from people after he died. I think the author is responsible here, I imagine that man really was homosexually inclined, but I'm not sure I learned a lot about what that was like for him.
\nThe narrative is stronger in a couple of chapters that have written accounts of scandals. Mrs. Noonan's story is the best here, a transgender woman doing laundry for an army camp. Her story is a tragedy and the newspaper accounts are cruel. But they are well balanced by Elizabeth Custer's respectful recollection of the woman's life, some remarkable words of acceptance.
\nThe Lesbian couple (Dietrich and Chatfield) is similarly well told through newspaper accounts. Alas, no sympathetic words and none of their own. I also loved the last chapter about a logger because it's all sourced to a Straight to Hell first-hand account written in 1975. I'd love to read that primary source!
\nSpeaking of sources, I'm a bit confused on how much of this book is original research and how much is re-presented. The book itself is well footnoted, but a lot of the references are either to Jonathan Katz's Gay American history or else to Peter Boag's Same-Sex Affairs. Both great sources but I was unclear what scholarship Wilke added to their work. Certainly some, there's a lot more of Dietrich & Chatfield's story here.
\nOverall this is a good book of scholarship. I'm grateful for it because this historical record is so thin.
\n","w":424,"cv":"covers/220305223.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.57,"n":14,"dist":[0,1,6,5,2],"g":["Queer","History","Gay"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL42541817W"},{"id":74270,"t":"Luck in the Shadows","sl":"luck-in-the-shadows","se":"Nightrunner","sn":"1","a":["Lynn Flewelling"],"as":"Flewelling, Lynn","y":1996,"p":479,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-12-03","cv":"covers/74270.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"avg":4.09,"n":23910,"dist":[387,1014,4169,8843,9497],"g":["Fantasy","LGBT","Queer","M M Romance","Romance","High Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL5696571W","wp":"Luck_in_the_Shadows","isf":"3105"},{"id":24468673,"t":"The Lightning-Struck Heart","sl":"the-lightning-struck-heart","se":"Tales From Verania","sn":"1","a":["T.J. Klune"],"as":"Klune, T.J.","y":2015,"p":405,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-12-03","cv":"covers/24468673.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL17857349W"},{"id":202408844,"t":"Paladin's Faith","sl":"paladins-faith","se":"The Saint of Steel","sn":"4","a":["T. Kingfisher"],"as":"Kingfisher, T.","y":2023,"p":517,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-12-03","d":"2025-12-03","rev":"I enjoyed this well enough but it felt a bit off. Too much fantasy, not enough romance. OTOH the fantasy was the better part of the novel so I was entertained by the story! Rest of this review is kinda spoilery, read at your own peril.
\nThe romance was fun. Kingfisher takes a long time for her characters to get there, and the paladins being all self-doubting gets tedious. But that's the shtick and it works. And when we finally get to the real good sex scene, involving some mild kink, hoo boy it sizzles. Best scene in the book.
\nThe fantasy is interesting! She's built out an elaborate world of living gods and frightening demons and a rich complex world of economics and politics. A lot of this novel is about spies and intrigue and it was fun. But parts of the fantasy are a little clumsy. And it takes a lot of pages to get where it goes. Might have benefitted from a little tightening up. I did enjoy it though.
\nThe characters are good. Marguerite, the main female lead, is appropriately fun and brassy and lusty. The main paladin is kinda boring but does his job. I really liked Wren but just wish the author could have given her a romance, because she deserved to get laid. There's also an odd male character who joins the story later who seemed quite interesting to me, wouldn't mind more of his story.
\nOverall it's fun. If you liked the third of these books you'll like this fourth. I'm not sure if I need yet more of these but they are fun and competent so I'm probably in for a fifth.
\n","w":282,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/202408844.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":4.18,"n":21017,"dist":[61,395,3407,9037,8117],"g":["Fantasy","Romance","Romantasy","Fantasy Romance","Adventure","Magic","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37537307W","isf":"3253676"},{"id":179028,"t":"Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality","sl":"love-stories","a":["Jonathan Ned Katz"],"as":"Katz, Jonathan Ned","y":2001,"p":426,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-11-30","cv":"covers/179028.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.97,"n":185,"dist":[5,8,41,65,66],"g":["History","LGBT","Queer","Gay","Gender and Sexuality","Sexuality","Sociology","Queer Studies","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL8046554W"},{"id":221179193,"t":"The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity 1869-1939","sl":"the-first-homosexuals","a":["Jonathan D. Katz"],"as":"Katz, Jonathan D.","y":2025,"p":368,"r":5,"sh":"currently-reading","d":"2025-11-28","cv":"covers/221179193.avif","cw":280,"ch":335,"avg":4.57,"n":28,"dist":[0,0,2,8,18],"g":["Art","LGBT","History","Queer","Queer Studies"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL43775274W"},{"id":8722,"t":"Burr","sl":"burr","se":"Narratives of Empire","sn":"1","a":["Gore Vidal"],"as":"Vidal, Gore","y":1973,"p":430,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-11-26","cv":"covers/8722.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.09,"n":10946,"dist":[137,388,1909,4389,4123],"g":["Historical Fiction","Politics","American History","Historical","American","Literature","American Revolution","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":1974,"won":true}],"ol":"OL97984W","wp":"Burr_(novel)","isf":"21611"},{"id":94797,"t":"Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and its Silent Past","sl":"ghosts-of-spain","a":["Giles Tremlett"],"as":"Tremlett, Giles","y":2006,"p":400,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-11-23","cv":"covers/94797.avif","cw":280,"ch":458,"avg":3.92,"n":4376,"dist":[43,193,996,1997,1147],"g":["History","Spain","Travel","Politics","Spanish Civil War","European History","Spanish Literature","Spanish History","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL8387088W"},{"id":59110287,"t":"Paladin's Hope","sl":"paladins-hope","se":"The Saint of Steel","sn":"3","a":["T. Kingfisher"],"as":"Kingfisher, T.","y":2021,"p":305,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-11-17","d":"2025-11-17","rev":"Good fun reading, light and entertaining queer romance / fantasy. Sadly I didn't write this review right after reading it and I've already forgotten a lot just ten days later. Enjoyable but not memorable. I did like the gay romance and particularly liked the character Piper, his loner confidence. The sexy parts were sexy although I wish there were more!
\nWhat I really didn't like is the main plot action for the middle of the book, probably half the book. It's a specific conceit that had me rolling my eyes at the tedium of it. Fortunately the author doesn't dwell too much on it and uses it as an artifice to hang the romance on, so it worked out OK.
\n","w":120,"cv":"covers/59110287.avif","cw":60,"ch":40,"avg":4.16,"n":27561,"dist":[107,520,4486,12148,10300],"g":["Fantasy","Romance","LGBT","Queer","Romantasy","Mystery","Fantasy Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL25862062W","isf":"2930639"},{"id":41742208,"t":"The Cloud Roads","sl":"the-cloud-roads","se":"The Books of the Raksura","sn":"1","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2011,"p":290,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-11-12","d":"2025-11-12","cv":"covers/41742208.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.98,"n":16921,"dist":[202,778,3553,7032,5356],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Adventure","Romance","Science Fiction","Epic Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL16165507W","isf":"1232888"},{"id":14376,"t":"Einstein’s Dreams","sl":"einsteins-dreams","a":["Alan Lightman"],"as":"Lightman, Alan","y":1993,"p":140,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-10-31","d":"2025-10-31","rev":"I went into Einstein's Dreams not sure what to expect, but thought maybe it'd be a hard sci-fi exposition about relativity. So I was please to find a book that is only peripherally about science. Instead it's really a poignant book about the human experience, and emotion, and our perception of change over our lives. It's lovely.
\nThe book doesn't have a traditional plot. Instead it's a series of parables, each one exploring how people might live if time worked differently. What struck me is how little Lightman belabors the science. I read a lot of speculative fiction where authors get very into the hard sci-fi details, and that's fun, but it usually gets in the way of the human story. Here the physics is underpinning everything but it never overwhelms the emotional core.
\nI couldn't stop thinking about Borges, that same moody, philosophical writing driven by big ideas. But Borges' Ficciones jumps all over a bunch of ideas, it's a collection of diverse short stories. Lightman's little novel explores variations on a single idea. (Lightman acknowledges the influence.) It's is a little exhaustive, I wouldn't have minded an even shorter book, but then I imagine which of the parables resonates depends on the particular reader. They're all pretty good, many suffused with an existential sadness. Occasionally sweetened with a little romance, or affection, or human kindness.
\nWhat I like most is that this book respects both ideas and feeling. It doesn't sacrifice one for the other. It's left me feeling a pleasant melancholy.
\n","w":255,"cv":"covers/14376.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.06,"n":43919,"dist":[673,2422,8209,15091,17524],"g":["Short Stories","Philosophy","Science Fiction","Historical Fiction","Physics","Fantasy","Literature","Time Travel"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2937539W","wp":"Einstein's_Dreams","isf":"839368"},{"id":44326506,"t":"Three Flames","sl":"three-flames","a":["Alan Lightman"],"as":"Lightman, Alan","y":2019,"p":208,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-10-31","cv":"covers/44326506.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL21338276W"},{"id":204536163,"t":"Wrong Locker (Wrong Series Book 1)","sl":"wrong-locker-wrong-series-book-1","se":"Wrong","sn":"1","a":["Mallory Grant"],"as":"Grant, Mallory","p":375,"sh":"currently-reading","d":"2025-10-24","cv":"covers/204536163.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.91,"n":841,"dist":[38,70,142,268,323],"g":["Romance","Young Adult","Contemporary","LGBT","M M Romance","Sports","Queer","Gay","High School"],"f":"Fiction","q":1},{"id":237621768,"t":"Trouble and Her Friends","sl":"trouble-and-her-friends","a":["Melissa Scott"],"as":"Scott, Melissa","y":1994,"p":433,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-10-23","d":"2025-10-23","rev":"What a remarkably good work! How come I didn't hear about this when it came out in came out in 1994? Queer cyberpunk and very well written.
\nFirst, the cyberpunk. It's high cyberpunk, full of a functioning underworld economy and lots of descriptions of virtual worlds and hacking through dramatic, exciting scenes of cracking ICE and looking cool. A good chunk of the action is written in cyberspace and it seems a little cheesy but it's so visual and attention grabbing, good fun. It feels sort of retro reading this now, the imagined cyberpunk future has not come to pass. But I like it.
\nSecond, the queer. It's not the central part of this book but queerness is essential to the characters and the plot. The main group of people are all queer hacker friends, bonded together by their dual outsider status as queer and as hackers. Very chosen family and the queerness serves as a shortcut to intimacy with and between the characters. Also there's some hot woman/woman sex in the book that's well written and fun. Having women POV characters solves a lot of the male gaze problems that suffuse Gibson, etc.
\nA friend complains that not much actually happens in the book. It is a lot of pages for a pretty simple story. I didn't mind. At one point the main character spends four pages just checking in to a flophouse. The author writes a lot of details about currencies, and identification, and how door locks work, and... she did a lot of world building and was eager to show it. Makes for a slow book but fun reading. I've been reading a lot of this thinking about the Cyberpunk 2077 game where that kind of detail becomes essential to the game design.
\nThe story itself is fairly simple. A lot of it is a "get the old gang back together" heist story. Then there's a sort of not-well-structured mystery about who the bad guy is. But then it takes a really interesting turn. The bad guy turns out to be Silk, a teenager. His story is unsettling and very queer. Slightly puzzling, I think it would have been more true to write explicitly that the Mayor was having a sexual relationship with him but then that opens a big can of worms for the book. Anyway this is the human complexity I was looking for and it was from an unexpected quarter. In particular turning the Mysterious Bad Guy into a victim himself, or at least relatively powerless. There's also a moment in the end where Trouble and Cerise both recognize Silk as one of their own, both on the wire and queer. And they sort of want to protect him even as they work to get him arrested. I liked that.
\nWhile there's not a lot of plot for such a long book, there's exactly enough plot for a movie script. This book would make a great movie. Particularly if they added more to the script for the bad guy. Good characters, a richly realized world that would translate into a beautiful production.. Maybe cyberpunk is too retro right now, or alternately it'd feel like a sort of bad Matrix clone. But I wonder if anyone has ever considered seriously producing it.
\n","w":547,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/237621768.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.79,"n":1656,"dist":[26,121,446,643,420],"g":["Cyberpunk","Science Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Lesbian","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Science Fiction/Fantasy","year":1994,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1697254W","wp":"Trouble_and_Her_Friends","isf":"6437"},{"id":215976926,"t":"Maurice","sl":"maurice","a":["E.M. Forster"],"as":"Forster, E.M.","y":1971,"p":239,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-10-16","d":"2025-10-16","rev":"I read this as a gay novel, and a novel about England. But it's more than that, it's an important work of early English homosexuality, and I'll comment on that towards the end.
\nAs a gay novel I found it frustrating. Far too much hand-writing about being afflicted with the unspeakable vice, not enough actual gay love. Maurice himself is quite unpleasant at the start of the novel. And then this ridiculous platonic love affair with Clive. That just sort of.. ends? When Clive is miraculously cured of any same sex love. It just felt so old fashioned and overwrought. I liked the second love story much better, with Alec. It's still couched in very old ideas of homosexuality, fear of prosecution and blackmail. But Maurice finds his way to something like gay liberation and the boys do find their way to being in love. Hooray!
\nPicking this as my novel to read while in London didn't work so well. It's much more a novel of rural England. And while it has a lot of stuff about English class roles and expectations. Which I'm just not that interested in, Downton Abbey was enough of that for me.
\nI read the book all wrong.
\nThe exciting and important thing about this book is it was written in ~1920, by a gay author, and not published in his lifetime. And it contains the transition to a modern sensibility about gay identity. All the hand-wringing and doubt is essential because it sets the stage for Maurice' decision at the end. To break with the past, his societal expecations, the demands of his class. To declare himself in love with another man and risk everything for him. And that is a hell of a story to be writing in 1920.
\nSo now I need to re-read the book through that eye, to set it in the same Edwardian context as I recently read Teleny and The New Life and am working my way through The First Homosexuals. Only this book is a heartfelt and personal accounting from someone living that moment, a novel author of great skill and insight. It's lovely.
\nRealistically I won't re-read this book. But I plan to watch the movie, which is a gem on its own merits but now may also offer me a chance to revisit the novel itself.
\nPS: the scenes where Maurice and Alec reconcile and decide to become lovers are thrilling. I particularly liked the chase scene through the British Museum, the inversion of power and risk and emotion. It's a very subtle and true story and I wonder where Forster got the idea to write it that wya.
\n","w":445,"cv":"covers/215976926.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.08,"n":62339,"dist":[609,2130,11478,25377,22745],"g":["Classics","LGBT","Queer","Romance","Historical Fiction","Gay","Dark Academia","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL88877W","wp":"Maurice_(novel)"},{"id":40180049,"t":"Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames","sl":"mudlark","a":["Lara Maiklem"],"as":"Maiklem, Lara","y":2019,"p":336,"r":2,"sh":"did-not-finish","dr":"2025-10-15","d":"2025-10-15","rev":"Usually DNF is a 1 star, but half of why I quit reading this book is I left London before finishing it. OTOH I didn't finish it because I didn't love it. It's an amusing book but it was too much about the author and the contemporary hobby of mudlarking and not enough about London history for me.
\n","w":58,"cv":"covers/40180049.avif","cw":263,"ch":400,"avg":4.14,"n":5803,"dist":[24,142,1001,2464,2172],"g":["History","London","British Literature","Memoir","Nature","Archaeology","Historical","Travel"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL20481175W"},{"id":22882816,"t":"A Place Called Winter","sl":"a-place-called-winter","se":"Harry Cane","sn":"1","a":["Patrick Gale"],"as":"Gale, Patrick","y":2015,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-10-02","cv":"covers/22882816.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL20025349W"},{"id":17986,"t":"Teleny or the Reverse of the Medal","sl":"teleny-or-the-reverse-of-the-medal","a":["Oscar Wilde","Uday K. Dhar"],"as":"Wilde, Oscar","y":1893,"p":144,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-09-28","d":"2025-09-28","rev":"How fun, a gay pornographic novel from 1893. And previously unknown to me! I read the Wikisource version which has a serviceable epub.
\nA lot of the book is not good. Chapters 2-5 are a series of misogynistic heterosexual porn vignettes, increasingly violent. I was not here for them. Some of the writing is good but it is far too rapey for me to enjoy. These chapters are skippable.
\nChapter 1 sets up a gay love story. Chapter 8 brings it to its tragic conclusion. The plot is quite solid for a pornographic novel, the story is interesting. Also the book portrays a quite modern conception of homosexuality, particularly for 1893. The narrator asserts that homosexuality is in his nature, and that while that may be shameful it is also who he is and he is harming no one. And then he has a true passionate love affair with Teleny. It's early gay pride literature.
\n\n\nIn fact, had our union been blessed by the Church, it could not have been a closer one. Let the moralist after that explain to me the harm we did, or the law-giver that would apply to us the penalty inflicted to the worst of criminals, the wrong we did to society.
\n
Chapters 6 and 7 are the erotic prize, particularly chapter 6. That's the consummation of the love between the two men and it is delicious and quite hot. Chapter 7 is a bit sillier, a big homosexual orgy, but that kind of writing has a long heterosexual history and it's good fun to read my version.
\nThe prose in this book is very finely styled. Decadent and Victorian and full of archaic expressions like "unwilling contractions of the sphincter brandle the phallus". It's quite fun reading those in genuine prose, not as a parody.
\nFascinating book. If you're a student of early gay literature or Victorian porn, I recommend it. But maybe just skip chapters 2-5.
\nBonus: some quotes that struck me as a very modern statement of gay liberation.
\n\n\n","w":585,"cv":"covers/17986.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":3.62,"n":2697,"dist":[105,280,783,909,620],"g":["Classics","LGBT","Queer","Romance","Erotica","Gay","19th Century","M M Romance","Victorian"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL7955184W","wp":"Teleny,_or_The_Reverse_of_the_Medal"},{"id":73765048,"t":"INVENTING THE TRUTH: Memory and Its Tricks - A Gay Life","sl":"inventing-the-truth","a":["Lucien L Agosta PhD"],"as":"PhD, Lucien L Agosta","p":324,"sh":"currently-reading","d":"2025-09-27","cv":"covers/73765048.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":5.0,"n":1,"dist":[0,0,0,0,1]},{"id":59808603,"t":"The Mountain in the Sea","sl":"the-mountain-in-the-sea","a":["Ray Nayler"],"as":"Nayler, Ray","y":2022,"p":456,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-09-25","d":"2025-09-25","rev":"Still I had thought that on the morrow—the intoxication passed—you would have shuddered at the thought of having a man for a lover?"
\n"Why? Had I committed a crime against nature when my own nature found peace and happiness thereby? If I was thus, surely it was the fault of my blood, not myself. Who had planted nettles in my garden? Not I. They had grown there unawares, from my very childhood. I began to feel their carnal stings long before I could understand what conclusion they imported. When I had tried to bridle my lust, was it my fault if the scale of reason was far too light to balance that of sensuality? Was I to blame if I could not argue down my raging motion? Fate, Iago-like, had clearly shewed me that if I would damn myself, I could do so in a more delicate way than drowning. I yielded to my destiny, and encompassed my joy.
\n...
\nIn fact, had our union been blessed by the Church, it could not have been a closer one. Let the moralist after that explain to me the harm we did, or the law-giver that would apply to us the penalty inflicted to the worst of criminals, the wrong we did to society.
\n...
\nI was not the only member of our cankered society who loved in the Socratic fashion, and that men of the highest intelligence, of the kindest heart, and of the purest aesthetic feelings, were—like myself—sodomists.
\n
I liked this book, it had a lot of interesting ideas in it. I liked its depiction of different kinds of intelligence. Not just the octopuses but also a conventional AI and then some more robotic yet all powerful AI. Also the Tibetan drone interfaces. Just an interesting exploration of so many alternate forms of intelligence. It's a little like Adrian Tchaikovsky's writing but more philosophical, less gee-whiz scifi.
\nWhat I didn't like was the action in the book. Or the lack thereof. The book is curiously static. Also devoid of human connections. It's not a huge flaw, what the book does instead is interesting enough, but it felt a little one-note to me.
\nI also wasn't wild about the horror / monster aspects of the octopus description. I kept feeling dread the whole time. Which may not be an accident, it's deft writing, it just kind of bummed me out.
\n","w":152,"cv":"covers/59808603.avif","cw":140,"ch":215,"avg":3.86,"n":41718,"dist":[736,2913,9930,15983,12156],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Animals","Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"First Novel","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Ray Bradbury Prize","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Golden Tentacle (Debut)","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27172785W","isf":"3073671"},{"id":16842,"t":"A Single Man","sl":"a-single-man","a":["Christopher Isherwood"],"as":"Isherwood, Christopher","y":1964,"p":186,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-09-23","cv":"covers/16842.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":4.05,"n":39253,"dist":[545,1737,7301,15354,14316],"g":["Classics","LGBT","Queer","Gay","Literary Fiction","20th Century","Literature","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL51203W","wp":"A_Single_Man_(novel)"},{"id":217582901,"t":"The Incandescent","sl":"the-incandescent","a":["Emily Tesh"],"as":"Tesh, Emily","y":2025,"p":432,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-09-15","d":"2025-09-15","rev":"Well that was fantastic. For most of the book I was thinking "so this is what people who grew up reading Harry Potter write as adults". School for wizards but with a refreshing change of focus to the decidedly early middle-aged teacher rather than feckless schoolkids. Good storytelling! Took a bit to get off the ground but all was going very well.
\nThen the last section. Avoiding any spoilers here but the author tried something very ambitious with the writing and it worked great. Elevated this from just a good entertaining book to something really quite special. She had me with the page turning good novel in general but the concluding section took my breath away.
\n","w":116,"cv":"covers/217582901.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.91,"n":15875,"dist":[192,828,3581,6839,4435],"g":["Fantasy","Dark Academia","Queer","LGBT","Lesbian","Magic","Urban Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Novel","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2026,"won":false}],"ol":"OL42426032W","isf":"3454790"},{"id":241387247,"t":"Shaping Lineage: A Memoir","sl":"shaping-lineage","a":["Uli Paulin"],"as":"Paulin, Uli","p":290,"sh":"currently-reading","d":"2025-09-15","cv":"covers/241387247.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"n":0},{"id":54493401,"t":"Project Hail Mary","sl":"project-hail-mary","a":["Andy Weir"],"as":"Weir, Andy","y":2021,"p":476,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-09-09","d":"2025-09-09","rc":2,"rev":"Just devoured this book in three days, absolutely loved it. Compared to Artemis this book is much more like The Martian, a two fisted tale of a man's survival using science and engineering against the odds. Both Hail Mary and The Martian to me read like a throwback to Boy's Life, or those survival-against-nature stories Reader's Digest used to publish. It's kind of a retro genre, and definitely out of step with the contemporary focus on thoughtful social writing from diverse perspectives. It's also for me a really fun kind of book to read full of page turning excitement and excellent fantasy. And that's OK too!
\nAt first I thought this book was basically going to be The Martian 2. But it solves that story's problem by getting significantly more interesting, complicated, and varied as the narrative goes on. No spoilers but suffice to say the problems our hero has to Science and Engineer his way out of are numerous and varied in their problems. Also there's enough relationships and emotions to give our main character some real shape and meaning, not just be some two dimensional Macgyver expert. It all comes together remarkably well, great read.
\nUpdate read this a second time excited for the movie and enjoyed it as much or even more. What strikes me this second time is just how well crafted the book. The pacing is exciting all the way through (if a bit relentless) and the scenarios are varied and it's interesting. It almost feels like there's too much towards the end, the last two twists, but then they add a lot of meaning. That he was forced to go on this mission he didn't want to go on. And then that he chose to do the minimum to save Earth and went instead with his new friend. It's kind of a surprising turn for a hero and I liked it.
\nI'm very curious how the movie is going to work, a lot depends on how they portray Rocky. Also they have to cut some of the story out, right? There's too much to put every action-packed scene on screen.
\n","w":358,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/54493401.avif","cw":265,"ch":400,"avg":4.51,"n":1894459,"dist":[8658,27871,138074,532325,1187531],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space","Thriller","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Geffen Award","cat":"Best Translated Science Fiction Book","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Best Audiobook and Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Lincoln Award","cat":"","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Nutmeg Book Award","cat":"High School","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Green Mountain Book Award","cat":"","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21745884W","wp":"Project_Hail_Mary","isf":"2848254"},{"id":61273326,"t":"The New Life","sl":"the-new-life","a":["Tom Crewe"],"as":"Crewe, Tom","y":2023,"p":392,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-09-02","d":"2025-09-02","rev":"Very solid and enjoyable book. It gets a little tedious in parts, it could do with more sex and less letter-writing. But it's a serious work of historical fiction and has a lot of insight to offer.
\nI'm fascinated by this era in gay history, when the modern homosexuality identity was being discovered and created. This novel makes for great companion reading to The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity 1869-1939. Also it was great to read on the back of me reading a lot of Whitman.
\nWhat I liked best is the author's historical research. I'm more than passing familiar with 19th century sexology so I was all over the details of Symonds and Ellis' lives. At the same time it's clearly fiction, with several years added to Symonds' lifespan and a third party added to Ellis' family that I think there's little or no historical basis for. That's all fine and makes for a more insightful story.
\nOne detail I appreciated: the sympathy paid to the straight folks who also suffered the consequences of homosexual persecution. Particularly Symonds long-suffering wife, she is written with agency and dignity.
\nAll in all a terrific book. Remarkably well structured for a first novel.
\nPS: Chapter 1 is available to read here. It's excellent, interesting writing and very sexy. But the rest of the book is not like this. Not as stylized and not as porny. Too bad, this chapter was fun!
\n","w":244,"cv":"covers/61273326.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.75,"n":7080,"dist":[133,479,2041,2832,1595],"g":["Historical Fiction","LGBT","Queer","Historical","Romance","Gay","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Orwell Prize","cat":"Political Fiction","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"The Polari Prize","cat":"First Book","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Walter Scott Prize","cat":"Shortlist","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Betty Trask Prize","cat":null,"year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Nero Book Award","cat":"Debut Fiction","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27813840W","wp":"The_New_Life_(Crewe_novel)"},{"id":224120293,"t":"Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global","sl":"proto","a":["Laura Spinney"],"as":"Spinney, Laura","y":2025,"p":334,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-08-22","d":"2025-08-22","rev":"I enjoyed this book! A surprisingly readable and interesting romp through the history of a bunch of people and languages. I love this kind of big picture history, or in this case a mix of linguistics, archaeology, and ancient DNA work.
\nI liked the deep treatment of historical linguistics and the reconstructions of Proto Indo-European and language evolution. I've always been skeptical of that scholarship. She makes a strong case for the rigor of it. I also love the connection to all the ancient DNA work being done right now. It's a very exciting time in archaeology!
\nMostly I appreciate how coherent the book comes together, very enjoyable read.
\n","w":109,"cv":"covers/224120293.avif","cw":200,"ch":304,"avg":4.12,"n":4777,"dist":[32,121,808,2093,1723],"g":["History","Language","Linguistics","Science","Anthropology","Archaeology","Ancient History","World History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL42393317W"},{"id":216540053,"t":"Of Monsters and Mainframes","sl":"of-monsters-and-mainframes","a":["Barbara Truelove"],"as":"Truelove, Barbara","y":2025,"p":407,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-08-19","d":"2025-08-19","rev":"Well I can say I finished this book. I was modestly entertained, it's fun enough, but it's not great.
\nit suffers too much from being like Murderbot but not as good as Murderbot. I hate to say it, it may be totally unfair to the author, but it's the same shtick of having a weird POV character who is a human-like AI with wisecracks and unusual gender. If I'd never encountered that idea in Murderbot I would have found this much more clever. Instead I couldn't help but make comparisons and this book is not flattered by them.
\nMy main complaint is with the stories. And the monsters. It seems like a clever conceit, bringing classic horror novel monsters onto a spaceship. It just falls totally flat. I could barely bring myself to care about the story, or the conflict, or any of the details of the plot.
\nThe one thing that was really nice and sweet is when we learn that Demeter is falling in love with Steward. That was nice!
\nIf you're into the idea of this book then by all means please read it, it is well written and entertaining. But still just OK for me, not particularly distinguished.
\n","w":202,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/216540053.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":4.04,"n":17730,"dist":[168,781,3399,7240,6142],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Fantasy","Vampires","Queer","LGBT","Paranormal","Space"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Readin' Award","cat":"Indie Published Sci-Fi","year":2025,"won":true}],"ol":"OL43455405W"},{"id":222457771,"t":"Not Till We Are Lost","sl":"not-till-we-are-lost","se":"Bobiverse","sn":"5","a":["Dennis E. Taylor"],"as":"Taylor, Dennis E.","y":2024,"p":354,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-08-11","cv":"covers/222457771.avif","cw":200,"ch":300,"ol":"OL40592593W","isf":"3399590"},{"id":59832903,"t":"Young Mungo","sl":"young-mungo","a":["Douglas Stuart"],"as":"Stuart, Douglas","y":2022,"p":449,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-08-07","d":"2025-08-07","rev":"I had a hard time to start with this book but I'm glad I finished it! I was here for the gay story, and on the back of Bastard Out of Carolina I was not ready for another tale of misery and abuse growing up in a hard-scrabble family and place. Honestly it was pretty brutal reading and I almost quit. But ChatGPT assured me there was a sweet gay romance to come and once I got there I enjoyed the book all the more.
\nNot to discount the misery parts: they are very important to the novel. And serve well to highlight how special the brief moment of grace in teenage romance is. Usually in gay novels the central conflict is about being gay. And while that's certainly part of Young Mungo's woes the real conflict is the sectarian gang warfare and his abusive family. It makes for an interesting sort of Romeo & Juliet novel, where part of the tragedy is that Juliet is actually an other Romeo but the bigger problem is the Capulets and Montagues. (And the whole damn town).
\nI liked the structure of the book. It was a bit confusing at first, two interwoven narratives at different at times. But when he brings them together it's quite a shock, a sort of foreshadowing of yet more misery to come, and that moment is powerful.
\nI enjoyed the Scots language stuff. Some fun vocabulary words in there. Some of the dialect writing is a little thick and hard to read but it's all reasonable and important to the color of the book.
\nMostly I loved how warmly the romantic scenes shone through all the grime of tenement Glasgow. Even in a grimy dovecot the pure love and beauty of the young men is undeniable. The writer is a remarkably good prose stylist. "an eyeful of alabaster and rose, the glacial blue of inner arms with their veins like violet rivers"
\n","w":325,"cv":"covers/59832903.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":4.37,"n":100383,"dist":[661,2000,9788,35146,52788],"g":["Queer","LGBT","Romance","Historical Fiction","Literary Fiction","Contemporary","Gay","Scotland"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"British Book Award","cat":"Audiobook: Fiction and Nominee for Fiction","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA)","cat":"International Book","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"The Polari Prize","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Saltire Society Literary Award","cat":"Scottish Fiction Book of the Year","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Historical Fiction","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Longlist","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL25345147W","wp":"Young_Mungo"},{"id":195791689,"t":"Hum","sl":"hum","a":["Helen Phillips"],"as":"Phillips, Helen","y":2024,"p":272,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-08-07","cv":"covers/195791689.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL37620414W"},{"id":96284,"t":"Remnant Population","sl":"remnant-population","a":["Elizabeth Moon"],"as":"Moon, Elizabeth","y":1996,"p":326,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-08-06","cv":"covers/96284.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":4.11,"n":8255,"dist":[91,330,1409,3138,3287],"g":["Science Fiction","Aliens","Fantasy","Space Opera","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1997,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":1996,"won":false}],"ol":"OL14871725W","wp":"Remnant_Population","isf":"3169"},{"id":41940267,"t":"Beowulf","sl":"beowulf","a":["Unknown","Maria Dahvana Headley"],"as":"Unknown, Unknown","y":2020,"p":140,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-07-30","cv":"covers/41940267.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20819405W"},{"id":75514722,"t":"Gilgamesh","sl":"gilgamesh","a":["Stephen Mitchell","George Guidall"],"as":"Mitchell, Stephen","y":-1800,"p":4,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2025-07-30","cv":"covers/75514722.avif","cw":280,"ch":413,"avg":3.76,"n":124737,"dist":[2841,10160,35573,41722,34441],"g":["Classics","Poetry","Mythology","Fantasy","Literature","Epic","Ancient","Religion"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Premi Crítica Serra d'Or de Traducció","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":true}],"ol":"OL4301672W","wp":"Epic_of_Gilgamesh","isf":"2006360"},{"id":203579283,"t":"Usurpation","sl":"usurpation","se":"Semiosis","sn":"3","a":["Sue Burke"],"as":"Burke, Sue","y":2024,"p":240,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-29","d":"2025-07-29","rev":"Maybe it was a mistake to read these three books back to back.
\nThis one has interesting ideas in it, but it's very diluted. The theme of bamboo sentience continues in an interesting way, but not that interesting. A bunch of other ideas are also introduced (like intelligent whales) that aren't nearly as interesting. And all of it on the backdrop of some sort of global medical emergency that is solved and zzzzz.... it just didn't grab me.
\nI really like some aspects of this story and world, but maybe the author has seen it through as far as it can go.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/203579283.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":3.68,"n":1039,"dist":[17,109,308,361,244],"g":["Science Fiction","Aliens","Fantasy","Plants","Speculative Fiction","Futuristic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL37730212W","isf":"3351700"},{"id":167845,"t":"The Peace War","sl":"the-peace-war","se":"Across Realtime","sn":"1","a":["Vernor Vinge"],"as":"Vinge, Vernor","y":1984,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-07-25","cv":"covers/167845.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.97,"n":7446,"dist":[42,276,1729,3190,2209],"g":["Science Fiction","Time Travel","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Speculative Fiction","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1985,"won":false}],"ol":"OL1975715W","wp":"The_Peace_War","isf":"1408"},{"id":45999776,"t":"Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son","sl":"gay-like-me","a":["Richie Jackson"],"as":"Jackson, Richie","y":2020,"p":160,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-20","d":"2025-07-20","rev":"Real mixed bag here. I like the idea of this book and I like a lot of what he says.
\nBut I hate the tone. It's written in the second person, a letter to his son. And it feels so condescending! Some stranger lecturing me on how I should live my gay life. If I read it as him advising his own son on being gay then it's fine. But when he says "you should do X, you are Y" it's very hard not to feel like he's talking to me. And that's off-putting. I don't mind a little advice but this is laid on very thick!
\nThe part I like best is his fairly radical queer comments. His encouragement to embrace our differences as gay people. Our unique contributions to culture. I also like the suggestion that maybe being gay is inborn, maybe it's learned, but either way it doesn't matter and if being gay is a choice he would proudly choose to be gay. His comments about the legacy of the AIDS crisis for people our age also struck home.
\nI could imagine this book being useful to someone young or new to being gay. It is all well meaning, mostly good advice, and an interesting perspective.
\n","w":209,"cv":"covers/45999776.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":3.89,"n":1251,"dist":[30,111,263,414,433],"g":["LGBT","Memoir","Queer","Gay","Biography","Parenting","History","Biography Memoir"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL20647670W"},{"id":9318318,"t":"The Burning Library","sl":"the-burning-library","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":1994,"p":419,"sh":"did-not-finish","dr":"2025-07-19","d":"2025-07-19","cv":"covers/9318318.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":3.72,"n":164,"dist":[2,6,56,72,28],"g":["Essays","Queer","LGBT","Literature","20th Century","American","Politics","Memoir","Sociology"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL119202W"},{"id":32758901,"t":"All Systems Red","sl":"all-systems-red","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"1","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2017,"p":144,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-19","d":"2025-07-19","rc":3,"rev":"Fun little novella. Mostly I liked it because the main character POV is just so bizarre. It seems very human in some ways, like the love for soap operas, and so inhuman in many other ways. Or maybe it's just the atypical emotional responses, it almost read like a parable of autism or something. I also found its extreme social anxiety relatable.
\nI didn't much care for the actual story and plot. It seemed pretty thin, and for a book that's so plot-centric that's a weakness.
\nThis author interview is worth a read. It cleared up for me that MurderBot is intended to have no gender. https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/16/16315474/science-fiction-author-martha-wells-murderbot-robots-interview
\nUpdate: I read this a second time (audiobook) and enjoyed it again. Same comments: loved the character, didn't really care about the plot. What I'd forgotten is how very funny the book is, the narrative asides from Murderbot as it explores its social awkwardness. Just lovely writing.
\nUpdate 2: I read it a second time after the TV show! I was struck by how good the TV adaptation was. These comments aren't meant to slag the book, it's still good, but the TV show is a remarkable enhancement.
\nThe novella is good but, IMHO, not Great. What makes it fun is the unusual Murderbot persona, it's social alienation. I think that doesn't come out very well in the TV show. Skarsgård does his best and some things work (the eye contact) and some don't (his sarcastic voice). But I didn't identify with it in the show like I did reading the book.
\nBut the novella is weak in other points. The plotting is a little confusing: I've read it three times and still don't fully follow what happens. The story is very rushed, a rare book that could benefit from being longer. It lacks a satisfying emotional conclusion. The TV show's portrayal of the heroic dive off the plateau and then Murderbot's resurrection is much more compelling than the book version (IMHO) and then the coda of Murderbot deciding to go off on its own was so well done.
\nWhich segues to another good addition in the show: the PreservationAux characters. I tried real hard in this reading to keep them straight in the book and really can't, it's just some interchangeable names. The TV show did a fantastic job characterizing them, distinct personalities with their own stories. The standout here is Gurathin, both the writing and the acting. His part of Murderbot's conclusion really moved me and is not really in the book other than the barest hint.
\nAnother interesting change in the show is how they portray GrayCris, or EvilSurvey as the PresAux folks call them in the book. Wells' original version is really not compelling, they're just some bad guys (5 humans, 5 secunits) and some stuff happens. LeeBeeBee turns that all on its head, gives the TV audience a chance to meet one of the GrayCris people. She's a complete invention in the TV show but I think it works much better. Wells was closely involved in the TV show but not directly writing, more a producer and story consultant. The extra writing, the directing, and the acting all really fleshed out her original story and world in a good way.
\n","w":542,"cv":"covers/32758901.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.1,"n":412898,"dist":[2883,11948,72988,177104,147975],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Fantasy","Space","Robots"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":"","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":"","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Cuento Extranjero","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Blogistanian Globalia","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17914663W","wp":"All_Systems_Red","isf":"2161845"},{"id":43325783,"t":"Interference","sl":"interference","se":"Semiosis Duology","sn":"2","a":["Sue Burke"],"as":"Burke, Sue","y":2019,"p":304,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-14","d":"2025-07-14","rev":"I wish I liked this better! The story was pretty interesting. A little slow, a little oblique, but it developed in an interesting way and the epilogue is particularly intriguing. Enough so I'll probably read the next book even though this one was a slog.
\nThe problem is the writing style. The author has done something interesting here, trying to write each section in the voice of the narrator. Unfortunately all her chosen narrators have weird styles. It was nearly painful reading some of the sections because the prose was so clunky and the narrator so dumb. I think this is all deliberate, even impressive, but it made the book less enjoyable for me.
\n","w":114,"cv":"covers/43325783.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.97,"n":4493,"dist":[21,188,975,2023,1286],"g":["Science Fiction","Aliens","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Dystopia","Plants"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20790310W","wp":"Interference_(novel)","isf":"2605456"},{"id":756203,"t":"Breaking Bounds: Whitman and American Cultural Studies","sl":"breaking-bounds","a":["Betsy Erkkila","Jay Grossman"],"as":"Erkkila, Betsy","y":1995,"p":304,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-12","d":"2025-07-12","rev":"I haven't actually read this, just skimmed it and read a couple of essays in particular. But want to make a note because it's quite an interesting collection of critical essays about Whitman and his role in American culture. And it's not the only topic, but the book is not shy about claiming Whitman as a queer American forefather (and mother). Ed Folsom's chapter on the photographs of Whitman with various young men and what they tell us about him is particularly interesting.
\n","w":83,"cv":"covers/756203.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.33,"n":6,"dist":[0,0,0,4,2],"ol":"OL18236227W"},{"id":41880609,"t":"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous","sl":"on-earth-were-briefly-gorgeous","a":["Ocean Vuong"],"as":"Vuong, Ocean","y":2019,"p":246,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-05","d":"2025-07-05","rc":2,"rev":"It's beautifully written but this book is not for me. (See updates: this book ended up growing on me and I liked it quite a bit.)
\nWhat's great: an intensely personal memoir. The author's courage to be loose and fluid with prose and narrative, to veer into poetic where needed. The unique personal perspective, the marrying of the experiences of a child of Vietnamese refugees and a young queer man. It's powerful and true.
\nPart of why this book isn't for me is I don't relate to that perspective. The Vietnamese-American experience is not mine. I did appreciate reading this as an outsider, the insight he shares with us. But the queer perspective is mine, or at least I thought it might be. But his dirtbag boyfriend and the awkward life they have is not the gay narrative I had or want to read. Again I respect the writing for being true, I just found it unrelatable. I was hoping to connect to it more personally.
\nThe other challenge for me is the writing style. I admire it but it was too elliptical for me to hold on to. These days I think I'm favoring more linear and straightforward writing. That's a failing of mine, not the book's.
\nI read this for a book club. Feeling a little apprehensive about talking about it with folks I don't know well. The parts I connected with are the most intimate and sexually explicit, particularly the description of anal sex towards the end and the awful juxtaposition to his grandmother's fecal incontinence while dying. I mean.. woof.
\nUpdate: I listened a bit to the audiobook, Vuong himself reading it, and wished I'd experienced the whole book this way. In his reading the poetry of his words come through. Particularly the alliteration, the careful diction. The chain of plosives in the phrase "the wet clicks of his cock as he stroked his spit along its length", remarkable writing that I missed just seeing words on the page.
\nUpdate 2: book club discussion went well and it made me appreciate the book more. There's a lot of depth and nuance here. I came away from the discussion feeling much more sympathetic about Trevor, the boyfriend, who still seems like a dirtbag but maybe not a bad one. I was particularly moved by the outcome of that final anal sex scene, Trevor's washing away of the narrator's shame.
\nOne thing I completely missed reading this: this is a novel. It is fiction. Clearly it's autobiographical in parts but not everywhere. That makes the narrative much more complicated to parse and judge. The story is how it is because of the author's choice, not the accident of personal history, and that's left me more room to consider what's going on. The book is more complex than I appreciated at first.
\nUpdate 3: revised my rating up one star. I keep talking about this book and thinking about, there's more there than I first appreciated.
\nUpdate 4: this book really has gotten under my skin. I've quoted it a lot, been arrested by hearing Ocean Vuong on the radio. I finally re-read it as an audiobook, let the words wash over me. It really is a lovely work. I'm well past my initial reaction of not relating to the narrative. I now appreciate much more how Vuong has shown us a true story of a different kind of life, his own life or something very similar.
\n","w":582,"cv":"covers/41880609.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.99,"n":446195,"dist":[7026,26978,90343,160825,161023],"g":["Poetry","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"National Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Ferro-Grumley Award","cat":"LGBT Fiction","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Dylan Thomas Prize","cat":"Shortlist","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Kirkus Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fiction and for Debut Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize","cat":"Fiction and Poetry","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize","cat":"Shortlist","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel","cat":"Longlist","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Bibliotekets litteraturpris","cat":"","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Dublin Literary Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"The Publishing Triangle Award","cat":"The Ferro-Grumley Awards","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20783698W","wp":"On_Earth_We're_Briefly_Gorgeous"},{"id":59063036,"t":"Bastard Out of Carolina","sl":"bastard-out-of-carolina","a":["Dorothy Allison"],"as":"Allison, Dorothy","y":1992,"p":326,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-07-02","d":"2025-07-02","rev":"Phew, that was a heartbreaking book. But also very true and meaningful. I love the narrators voice in this. She seems young but insightful, and her emotions come through very strongly. The family situations are often infuriating or sad, not to mention the central conflict's awfulness. But that's all just good writing to convey that.
\n","w":55,"cv":"covers/59063036.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.15,"n":49289,"dist":[587,1718,7786,18982,20216],"g":["Classics","Coming Of Age","Southern","Literary Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Contemporary","Southern Gothic"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Ferro-Grumley Award","cat":"Lesbian Fiction","year":1993,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":1992,"won":true}],"ol":"OL33893211W","wp":"Bastard_Out_of_Carolina"},{"id":35018907,"t":"Semiosis","sl":"semiosis","se":"Semiosis","sn":"1","a":["Sue Burke"],"as":"Burke, Sue","y":2018,"p":333,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-06-21","d":"2025-06-21","rev":"Fascinating book! At its best it recalls Octavia Butler, particularly the Xenogenesis Trilogy and its exploration of humans living with aliens. Also some elements of Adrian Tchaikovsky, the imagination of non-human intelligence.
\nBurke's writing style is just a little odd. There's something a bit awkward in her characterizations and plotting. Maybe it's deliberate because it works well to me. It kept me off balance reading the story and the story itself is disquieting, so it should be.
\nI was particularly impressed that she saw through a disturbing conclusion. The idea that the Glassmakers, or at least most of them, deserved to die. A genocide justified because they were so awful it would be impossible to live with them. Brrr! Creepy idea. But also sort of compelling. She even leans into the awfulness of it by pointing out it wasn't exactly the fault of the Glassmakers entirely, that this group was severely degraded by disease and hunger. If they were humans this story would be monstrous. But they're aliens, and the planet is hostile, and in the end humans did what they had to do to survive an existential threat. Kinda awful, kinda great writing.
\n","w":194,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/35018907.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.91,"n":16356,"dist":[252,993,3589,6702,4820],"g":["Science Fiction","Aliens","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"First Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Golden Tentacle (Debut)","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19734824W","wp":"Semiosis_(novel)","isf":"2300478"},{"id":35385499,"t":"Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution","sl":"transgender-history","a":["Susan Stryker"],"as":"Stryker, Susan","y":2008,"p":321,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-06-14","d":"2025-06-14","rev":"It's a valuable book, a really good documentation of this moment in transgender acceptance in the US. But it suffers from being entirely US-centric, and mostly San Francisco at that. Also it's difficult to evaluate as history since so much she's writing about is so recent. This edition was published in Nov 2017 and talks about events as late as 2016. That's not history, although it is good clear reporting on current events.
\nThe best part of the book is the early research, the context on transgender identity starting in the 1850s. There's a lot of interesting historical detail here. I wouldn't have minded some more analysis of the construction of gender and sexual identity in general, although the author is well aware of how complicated those topics are and refers to them frequently.
\nI was also impressed with all the detail of the transgender movement in San Francisco in the 60s and 80s. Some of this is first hand reporting and a lot seems based on oral history. It will probably be the definitive document for this movement.
\nI just wish the book had a broader base. And some historical remove to reflect on themes and trends instead of individual people and events.
\n","w":204,"cv":"covers/35385499.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.22,"n":5933,"dist":[42,98,761,2640,2392],"g":["History","Queer","LGBT","Transgender","Gender","Feminism","Social Justice","Politics","Gender Studies"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Transgender","year":2008,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2954890W","wp":"Transgender_History_(book)"},{"id":458284,"t":"Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers","sl":"drum-beats","a":["Charley Shively"],"as":"Shively, Charley","y":1989,"p":256,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-06-13","d":"2025-06-13","rev":"Did not care for this book. I skimmed it along with Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados and my complaints about the author's fictional narrative applies here too. Only in this case the boys and men Whitman knew are not as interesting or significant in his life. I think it's an important piece of history, uncovering all these details of Whitman's relationships, but it's just not very interesting to read.
\n","w":71,"cv":"covers/458284.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":2.5,"n":6,"dist":[1,1,4,0,0],"g":["History","Gay"],"q":1,"ol":"OL4634075W"},{"id":458285,"t":"Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados","sl":"calamus-lovers","a":["Charley Shively"],"as":"Shively, Charley","y":1987,"p":224,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-06-13","d":"2025-06-13","rev":"An important book, Shively did heroic work researching Walt Whitman's lovers and assembling collections of letters to and from them. He established Whitman's homosexuality without any room for doubt and cast a lot of light on the specific nature of his relationships with men.
\nUnfortunately the book is wrapped in some really unusual scholarship. The book is widely criticized for semi-fictional storytelling, inventing some color for stories about Whitman's various loves. They do make for better stories! And I appreciate Shively's gay liberation goal. But it's misleading, it's very hard to tell which things are true and which are not.
\nI'm also vexed by the last chapter, Shively's own editions of Whitman's gayest poems. What's strange is how he chopped up and reassembled some of the poet's own texts. For instance I spent a lot of time figuring out what was done to "City of Orgies". Shively's version takes the first line from an 1867 edit, then adds extra (clumsy) lines from an unpublished 1850s manuscript. What ends up in this book is not any version Whitman ever published together, but rather Shively's construction. He does disclose how he is going to do this kind of editing, and he does have some restraint. Still it seems inappropriate to me. Whitman does not need posthumous editing.
\n","w":215,"cv":"covers/458285.avif","cw":128,"ch":199,"avg":4.0,"n":10,"dist":[0,2,1,2,5],"g":["Biography","Classics"],"ol":"OL4634074W"},{"id":22929602,"t":"What Belongs to You","sl":"what-belongs-to-you","a":["Garth Greenwell"],"as":"Greenwell, Garth","y":2011,"p":195,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-06-07","cv":"covers/22929602.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL16141836W"},{"id":211003842,"t":"The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir","sl":"the-loves-of-my-life","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2025,"p":256,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-06-07","d":"2025-06-07","rev":"Oh I wish I liked this book better. At its best the book is pure White, his frank, compassionate, and insightful view into gay sex and the gay people he knows. And such lovely turns of phrase, see my highlights for some choice quotes
\n\n\nhis performance was like that of a firefly toward the end of its luminescence, pulsing more and more feebly in your hand.
\n
Unfortunately the book is kind of a mess and needs serious editing for structure. Some of the chapters are great, I particularly liked Pedro. Others are unfocussed or simply don't belong. White has written this kind of book before, many times, and the others I've read have been better. This one is fun to catch up on his thoughts in his 80s. And sadly this may be his last book although there's rumors he was working on at least another novel.
\nWhite means a lot to me as an author. I did enjoy this book. But I'd not recommend it as anyone's first White read, or even their third. Start with his autofiction trilogy.
\n","w":181,"cv":"covers/211003842.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":3.66,"n":2073,"dist":[49,170,640,801,413],"g":["Memoir","Queer","LGBT","Gay","Biography","Biography Memoir","21st Century"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL42404537W"},{"id":109713,"t":"City of Night","sl":"city-of-night","a":["John Rechy"],"as":"Rechy, John","y":1963,"p":400,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-06-06","cv":"covers/109713.avif","cw":280,"ch":445,"avg":3.95,"n":5283,"dist":[106,327,1129,1884,1837],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","Classics","Literary Fiction","Queer Lit","Gay Fiction","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL61322W","wp":"City_of_Night"},{"id":43483913,"t":"Edges","sl":"edges","se":"Inverted Frontier","sn":"1","a":["Linda Nagata"],"as":"Nagata, Linda","y":2019,"p":406,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-06-04","d":"2025-06-04","rev":"Interesting book! I liked the hard scifi elements, the descriptions of duplicating and managing human consciousness in multiple institutions. And the setup of the local area of space, the remnants of human society, the alien menace. All well told sci-fi elements.
\nI was also liking the human characterizations right until the alien menace shows up. Unfortunately then the author devoted almost all of the writing to advancing that plot along. And while it was an interesting plot I was hoping for more character development. It was so strong in the first part of the book!
\nStill enjoyed the book. Might read the rest in the series but not in a hurry to.
\n","w":112,"cv":"covers/43483913.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.99,"n":1708,"dist":[22,78,333,736,539],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Aliens","Mystery","Space","Artificial Intelligence","Speculative Fiction","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20129338W","isf":"2530276"},{"id":85766,"t":"Epistemology of the Closet","sl":"epistemology-of-the-closet","a":["Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick"],"as":"Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky","y":1990,"p":258,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-05-31","cv":"covers/85766.avif","cw":128,"ch":190,"avg":4.1,"n":2329,"dist":[35,92,430,829,943],"g":["Queer","Philosophy","Theory","LGBT","Feminism","Gender Studies","Academic","Gender","Queer Studies"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"James Russell Lowell Prize","cat":null,"year":1990,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2007273W","wp":"Epistemology_of_the_Closet"},{"id":51079279,"t":"A Saint from Texas","sl":"a-saint-from-texas","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2020,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-05-25","cv":"covers/51079279.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20890627W"},{"id":201739650,"t":"The Diaries of Mr Lucas: Notes from a Lost Gay Life","sl":"the-diaries-of-mr-lucas","a":["Hugo Greenhalgh"],"as":"Greenhalgh, Hugo","y":2024,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-05-25","cv":"covers/201739650.avif","cw":280,"ch":451},{"id":32191885,"t":"My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2","sl":"my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-vol-2","se":"My Favorite Thing Is Monsters","sn":"2","a":["Emil Ferris"],"as":"Ferris, Emil","y":2024,"p":304,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-05-23","d":"2025-05-23","rev":"A lovely graphic novel, a nice followup to the first. These two books are extraordinarily good as graphic novels. Less so as a simple narrative book, the writing and story aren't quite strong or interesting enough for me. This never comes to any satisfying conclusions although what's there is satisfyingly disturbing.
\nBut the art, wow, the art is just amazing. And unique and so generous, so much of it. So it comes together well.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/32191885.avif","cw":280,"ch":362,"avg":4.21,"n":5021,"dist":[20,124,790,1944,2143],"g":["Graphic Novels","Comics","Horror","Bande Dessinée","Mystery","Historical Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Graphic Novels Comics"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Graphic Story or Comic","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards","cat":"Best Graphic Album- New","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24631809W"},{"id":41104117,"t":"Live Oak, with Moss","sl":"live-oak-with-moss","a":["Walt Whitman","Brian Selznick","Karen Karbiener"],"as":"Whitman, Walt","y":2019,"p":192,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-05-21","d":"2025-05-21","rev":"A lovely little publication. At its core is a well edited set of Whitman's set of 12 poems that later became part of the Calamus cluster, itself part of his book of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The Live Oak poems are some of his earlier ones and more importantly, his gayest.
\nThere's an argument that the 12 poems in this order are basically Whitman's story of falling in love with a man, losing him, and reconciling himself to it. That structure then got diffused on reordering and editing in Leaves of Grass. So it's nice to see them all together in this original if unpublished order. Some of them poems are quite lovely.
\nThe other part of this book I appreciated is Karen Karbiener's afterword, a critical essay discussing the poems and what they might have meant to Whitman. It's a helpful guide.
\nIn addition the book has a lot of imagery. There's nearly 100 pages of illustrations by Selznick, or rather 100 pages of details of some 15 or so original illustrations. They're nice enough but didn't do anything for me. Also high quality photographs of the original manuscript which are nice to have on hand.
\nI've been reading the Calamus poems and it's nice to have this excerpt of the gay heart of the cluster with appropriate interpretation.
\n","w":220,"cv":"covers/41104117.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"avg":4.27,"n":558,"dist":[0,6,95,201,256],"g":["Poetry","LGBT","Classics","Art","Queer","Graphic Novels","Comics","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL20157518W"},{"id":121606,"t":"A Door Into Ocean","sl":"a-door-into-ocean","se":"Elysium Cycle","sn":"1","a":["Joan Slonczewski"],"as":"Slonczewski, Joan","y":1986,"p":403,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-05-18","cv":"covers/121606.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":3.99,"n":2477,"dist":[51,163,476,863,924],"g":["Science Fiction","Feminism","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","LGBT","Queer","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1987,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1882196W","wp":"A_Door_into_Ocean","isf":"2083"},{"id":60769830,"t":"How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures","sl":"how-far-the-light-reaches","a":["Sabrina Imbler"],"as":"Imbler, Sabrina","y":2022,"p":263,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-05-16","d":"2025-05-16","rev":"It's a very clever idea! A mix of light science journalism talking about sea creatures interspersed with the author's memoir of their own queer life. With the sea creatures being metaphors for the queer life, so the octopus that gives its life to nurture its young is juxtaposed with the author's mother, or the color changes of the cuttlefish connected to the author's changing identity and presentation in their life. I admire the audacity of the book, the way the author goes right at it.
\nSometimes it's a little too on the nose. It feels like the science parts are being bent too much to support the parallel memoir. Or the analogies are so direct it's a little hokey. Also it's a little diffuse, particularly as a memoir. There's no throughline of the author's life, just a lot of honest and often slightly painful impressions and confessions. It reads like a young person's memoir which, afterall, it is.
\nAs always, 3 stars is fairly high praise for me in a review, it makes "I liked it". I liked this book and am glad I read it. Looking forward to more from this author. Their recent interviews with civil servants fired by the Trump administration are timely and interesting.
\n","w":208,"cv":"covers/60769830.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.08,"n":15273,"dist":[131,609,2824,6002,5707],"g":["Science","Memoir","Queer","LGBT","Essays","Nature","Animals"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Science & Technology","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBTQ+ Nonfiction","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27855219W"},{"id":57119466,"t":"Paladin's Strength","sl":"paladins-strength","se":"The Saint of Steel","sn":"2","a":["T. Kingfisher"],"as":"Kingfisher, T.","y":2021,"p":445,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-05-10","d":"2025-05-10","rev":"Big step down from the first book. Just didn't have the same freshness or sympathetic characters. I was totally uninterested in Ishtvan and mostly uninterested in Clara. The fun part is the romance between them. It's dragged out a bit but when they do start to hook up it's pretty hot. I also think it's a well constructed fantasy story by the standards of romance novels. But it's pretty simplistic and on-the-nose, albeit entertainingly told.
\nI'm probably off this train and won't read the last two books but I see the third book has characters I might be more interested in. Maybe when I need some light entertainment.
\n","w":108,"cv":"covers/57119466.avif","cw":280,"ch":402,"avg":4.15,"n":34961,"dist":[89,679,5727,15701,12765],"g":["Fantasy","Romance","Romantasy","Fantasy Romance","Adventure","Magic","Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24211259W","isf":"2869303"},{"id":50702014,"t":"Paladin's Grace","sl":"paladins-grace","se":"The Saint of Steel","sn":"1","a":["T. Kingfisher"],"as":"Kingfisher, T.","y":2020,"p":366,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-04-26","d":"2025-04-26","rev":"What a fun book! So I've never read romantasy before, still not sure exactly what that genre is, but this mix of romance writing and fantasy novel worked for me. Also murder mystery novel, and spy novel, and a really fun side story about the life of a perfume maker. Just so many ideas! And it all comes together remarkably well.
\nIt's a bit silly. This is not a serious weighty novel. It is an entertaining novel with well written characters. Also some hot romance. All in all just a nice package of a book.
\n","w":95,"cv":"covers/50702014.avif","cw":280,"ch":402,"avg":4.02,"n":66384,"dist":[657,2546,12546,29391,21244],"g":["Fantasy","Romance","Romantasy","Mystery","Fantasy Romance","Magic","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Manly Wade Wellman Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20943470W","isf":"2721895"},{"id":53543063,"t":"Black Sun","sl":"black-sun","se":"Between Earth and Sky","sn":"1","a":["Rebecca Roanhorse"],"as":"Roanhorse, Rebecca","y":2020,"p":461,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-04-16","d":"2025-04-16","rev":"I enjoyed this quite a bit as an entertaining story. Some good characters, I particularly liked both Serapio and Xiala. Well constructed book too, she does a good job fleshing out characters and the world without belaboring it with a lot of background exposition.
\nAlso the story was interestingly structured. It took me awhile to grab hold of it at first, different POV characters with seemingly unrelated stories. But it comes together pretty deftly by the end of the first third of the novel, first with vibes and then with the details of the plot itself.
\nBut I felt totally cheated at the end of the novel. She does such a great job building the action to an apocalyptic conclusion, lots of death and mayhem. Only at the end to pull a "are they dead or aren't they? Find out in the next novel..." sort of thing. It felt like she tacked that on at the end too, maybe her original plan was to write the one novel and call it concluded. I wish she had.
\nI appreciated the author's goal of writing fantasy grounded in something other than European medieval environments. It felt broadly inspired by American cultures and stories but not too much specifically of any one culture or tradition, which is fine by me. What I know of Pueblo culture that she drew from worked well here.
\n","w":230,"cv":"covers/53543063.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.16,"n":57533,"dist":[524,1824,8534,23633,23018],"g":["Fantasy","LGBT","Science Fiction","Queer","High Fantasy","Indigenous","Historical Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBTQ Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Adult Novel","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20865716W","wp":"Between_Earth_and_Sky"},{"id":12274785,"t":"Queen of the Northern Mines: A Novel of the Civil War in California","sl":"queen-of-the-northern-mines","a":["Richard Alan Hurley","T.J. Meekins"],"as":"Hurley, Richard Alan","y":2011,"p":342,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-04-08","cv":"covers/12274785.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL27959475W"},{"id":201608148,"t":"The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World","sl":"the-golden-road","a":["William Dalrymple"],"as":"Dalrymple, William","y":2024,"p":425,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-04-08","d":"2025-04-08","rev":"I read this and enjoyed it pretty well. Very excited to learn some of the material and Dalrymple is a marvelous writer. It might work even better as an audiobook: I listened to a bit of it and his reading is good. Some of this material is also available in his Empire podcast.
\nSo at its best this book is revisionism, highlighting the role India, Hinduism, and Buddhism played in global culture 200BC - 1200AD or so. No major surprises here but most readers will be astonished to learn about the close times between India and Rome, At least, I was. I was less surprised about the connections to China but sure didn't know what any of them were. And having just visited Angkor I knew the Indian influence was there but was glad to hear it in detail.
\nWhere the book falls short is it's a bit too much about famous people and not enough about trade and archaeology and history. I would have liked more analysis of cultural and economic influences and less storytelling about specific people. But Dalrymple is playing to his strengths and he is a formidable expert, so I will welcome what he has to teach me.
\nOne thing missing was a full overview of the reach of India. Indonesia is barely covered, nor much of anything about the eastern coast of Africa. I also kind of wish he hadn't included the last couple of chapters about mathematics. It's important but it's mostly an Arab and Muslim story. Although the details about India's contribution at the start of that was totally new to me and fascinating.
\nI found the writing clear but a little dull. The audiobook was a lot more captivating even though it's the same text. Dalrymple is a good oral storyteller.
\n","w":299,"cv":"covers/201608148.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.1,"n":3950,"dist":[31,130,691,1666,1432],"g":["History","India","Asia","Ancient History","Politics","Religion","Historical","World History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL38120208W","wp":"The_Golden_Road:_How_Ancient_India_Transformed_the_World"},{"id":17841760,"t":"Science of Cheese C","sl":"science-of-cheese-c","a":["Michael H. Tunick"],"as":"Tunick, Michael H.","y":2014,"p":281,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-03-31","cv":"covers/17841760.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"ol":"OL19705207W"},{"id":211492066,"t":"The Tomb of Dragons","sl":"the-tomb-of-dragons","se":"The Cemeteries of Amalo","sn":"3","a":["Katherine Addison"],"as":"Addison, Katherine","y":2025,"p":336,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-03-25","d":"2025-03-25","rev":"Well this was lovely. Just the kind of well written cozy fantasy story I need. I like this series of stories and I like this story.
\nI described these books to a friend as "a murder mystery procedural with some light fantasy, the victim in this book is a dragon. Also our hero can talk to the spirits of dead people which makes the murder investigation part a little different. He's gay and smart and has pleasantly awkward relationships with his friends."
\nI love the awkward friends.
\nAlso I say without shame that I loved all the hints of romance and love between friends in the story. All very warm-the-heart. Wouldn't mind if the romance part was a bit steamier, and I do wonder if it sets up a slightly silly story in the next book, but it's adorable and I'll go with it.
\n","w":144,"cv":"covers/211492066.avif","cw":280,"ch":409,"avg":4.3,"n":4510,"dist":[17,65,512,1870,2046],"g":["Fantasy","Mystery","Dragons","Queer","LGBT","Steampunk","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2026,"won":false}],"ol":"OL42427285W","wp":"The_Tomb_of_Dragons","isf":"3406675"},{"id":203608754,"t":"Wind and Truth","sl":"wind-and-truth","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"5","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2024,"p":1330,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-03-22","d":"2025-03-22","rev":"Turgid.
\nI finished! All 1344 pages passed before my eyes, indeed all 6400+ pages of the series so far. We are threatened that this is only the first half of the larger epic story. I will not be reading the second arc. Nor any other books by Sanderson.
\nIt was entertaining enough! And remarkably well structured. It's quite an achievement to write 1344 pages and have it remain coherent and well plotted, free of structural or continuity errors. There is a real author's skill here.
\nAlas, the author only had 344 pages of story. The other 1000 pages exist. All along I've been complaining the Stormlight books could have been half the length; this one could have been a quarter and nothing important would have lost. He has some good ideas but they are buried in so much.. Not filler exactly, none of it is tedious. Just mediocrity.
\nEnough complaints. It's an entertaining fantasy epic. And bold in its scope and exploring some human emotions and foibles you don't usually see in fantasy. It's nice to see heroes have weaknesses and some kindness and consideration be world-saving powers. I enjoyed many of the individual characters and their stories. And the whole thing does hold together remarkably well for a book its size.
\n","w":212,"cv":"covers/203608754.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.36,"n":164186,"dist":[1677,5142,18275,47053,92039],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Magic","Epic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37577930W","wp":"Wind_and_Truth","isf":"3376478"},{"id":58446227,"t":"Sea of Tranquility","sl":"sea-of-tranquility","a":["Emily St. John Mandel"],"as":"Mandel, Emily St. John","y":2022,"p":259,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-03-13","d":"2025-03-13","rev":"Sort of liked this, but it didn't quite work for me.
\nThe part I liked was the humanist aspects of it, the characterizations of people. She does a great job quickly painting characters as the narrative skips around in time. I wanted to know more about what happened to Edwin! I also liked the minimal sci-fi world building, particularly the moon colonies.
\nWhat I didn't like is so much of the book came off trite. The one protagonist, the woman writer on a book tour, was a bit too on-the-nose as an author standin. I really didn't like all the pandemic stuff, it seemed like a direct narrative of the Covid trauma we all just experienced and I didn't want to read it in this format. Also I don't generally like time travel stories or "what if it's all a simulation" sophistry. It says a lot about the author's writing skill that I liked the book despite it being constructed from all these pieces I don't like.
\nOverall this book reminds me more than a little of Cloud Atlas. Partly the narrative structure, partly the humanist characterizations, partly just the prose style.
\n","w":193,"cv":"covers/58446227.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"avg":4.04,"n":317517,"dist":[2850,12033,60411,135485,106738],"g":["Science Fiction","Time Travel","Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Literary Fiction","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"OLA Evergreen Award","cat":"","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Premi Ictineu","cat":"Millor novel·la traduïda","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Shortlist","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"She Reads Best of Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL24731706W","wp":"Sea_of_Tranquility_(novel)","isf":"2993583"},{"id":68099,"t":"Death at La Fenice","sl":"death-at-la-fenice","se":"Commissario Brunetti","sn":"1","a":["Donna Leon"],"as":"Leon, Donna","y":1992,"p":270,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2025-02-27","rev":"Enjoyed this. Fun breezy read, with some clever writing. I gather this is a much-loved murder mystery series, partly for Venice and partly for the mysteries. I could see reading more, they are fun. I didn't love the actual murder mystery solution here, it was a little bit much and more clues early on would have been welcome. But really the genre is an excuse for the author to have fun painting a lot of characters. And Leon is great at that. I particularly liked Brett Lynch, compelling and hilariously over the top all at once. Good fun.
\n","w":98,"cv":"covers/68099.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"avg":3.89,"n":44840,"dist":[567,1874,11301,19416,11682],"g":["Mystery","Italy","Crime","Mystery Thriller","Detective","Thriller","Murder Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2914621W","wp":"Death_at_La_Fenice"},{"id":3381069,"t":"Ancient Angkor","sl":"ancient-angkor","a":["Michael Freeman"],"as":"Freeman, Michael","y":1999,"p":244,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-02-20","d":"2025-02-20","rev":"Very good coffee-table style book with photos and descriptions of the Angkor complex. It's not great but it was the best I could find in the genre and has integrity.
\n","w":30,"cv":"covers/3381069.avif","cw":280,"ch":394,"avg":3.81,"n":255,"dist":[3,6,81,111,54],"g":["Travel","History","Reference","Architecture","Art","Asia","Photography","Guidebook","Archaeology"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL20688464W"},{"id":94079,"t":"The Art of Eating","sl":"the-art-of-eating","a":["M.F.K. Fisher"],"as":"Fisher, M.F.K.","y":1954,"p":749,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-02-10","cv":"covers/94079.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.32,"n":6206,"dist":[75,193,757,1834,3347],"g":["Food","Cooking","Essays","Cookbooks","Food Writing","Memoir","Foodie","Culinary","Food and Drink"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL452999W"},{"id":837315,"t":"Angkor and the Khmer Civilization","sl":"angkor-and-the-khmer-civilization","se":"Ancient Peoples and Places","a":["Michael D. Coe"],"as":"Coe, Michael D.","y":2003,"p":240,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-02-07","d":"2025-02-07","rev":"Informative but very dry. This book is the most popular reference on the history of Cambodia and Angkor in particular. I read it in preparation for a tourist trip. And I was indeed well prepared. But way more historical detail than I was looking for, and without much effort to make for an entertaining read. Fair enough, it's a serious work of scholarship. Just not what I was up for.
\nThe most interesting chapter is towards the end, "The Life and Culture of Classic Angkor". This is the cultural history that I was looking for, more interesting to me than the political history or archaeology. If you're impatient like me, maybe start with that chapter.
\n","w":115,"cv":"covers/837315.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":3.91,"n":217,"dist":[2,9,56,89,61],"g":["History","Asia","Archaeology","Travel","Architecture","Anthropology","Ancient History","World History","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL526725W"},{"id":221288099,"t":"The Orb of Cairado","sl":"the-orb-of-cairado","se":"The Chronicles of Osreth","sn":"1.1","a":["Katherine Addison"],"as":"Addison, Katherine","y":2025,"p":115,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-01-31","cv":"covers/221288099.avif","cw":280,"ch":368,"isf":"3401076"},{"id":139087,"t":"The Line of Beauty","sl":"the-line-of-beauty","a":["Alan Hollinghurst"],"as":"Hollinghurst, Alan","y":2004,"p":438,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-01-26","cv":"covers/139087.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":3.78,"n":33505,"dist":[1269,2859,7521,12037,9819],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Historical Fiction","Literary Fiction","Gay","Contemporary","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":null,"year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2004,"won":false}],"ol":"OL1993508W","wp":"The_Line_of_Beauty"},{"id":40032435,"t":"Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea","sl":"sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea","a":["Sarah Pinsker"],"as":"Pinsker, Sarah","y":2019,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-01-18","cv":"covers/40032435.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20153710W","wp":"Sooner_or_Later_Everything_Falls_into_the_Sea","isf":"2503632"},{"id":39713593,"t":"Compass Rose","sl":"compass-rose","se":"Compass Rose","sn":"1","a":["Anna Burke"],"as":"Burke, Anna","y":2018,"p":375,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2025-01-13","rev":"I enjoyed this pretty well but it had some rough edges.
\nWhat I liked best was the fusion of bodice-ripping FF romance with a postapocalyptic pirate story. It's quite a creative pastiche, two exciting genres in one, and made all the more fun because it's got some modern queer edge to it. And the romance parts were hot.
\nI also liked the story and the world building. It was fun and interesting. Her writing about people is particularly good, excellent characterization.
\nThe rough edges was the action scenes. There's a bunch of them and somehow the descriptions of what was going on didn't really work for me. I never could figure out how the ships were even travelling, or where they were, and the ending has a lot of improbable stuff happening. That's fine, never let realism get in the way of a good story, but it would have been more fun for me if the action seemed more coherent.
\nOverall a good book, and creative and fresh. Glad to have read it.
\n","w":174,"cv":"covers/39713593.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.32,"n":2952,"dist":[18,88,345,988,1513],"g":["Fantasy","Lesbian","Science Fiction","Pirates","LGBT","Queer","Romance","Dystopia","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Golden Crown Literary Award","cat":"Debut Novel","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20574370W"},{"id":292335,"t":"The Life of an Amorous Woman and Other Writings","sl":"the-life-of-an-amorous-woman-and-other-writings","a":["Saikaku Ihara","Ivan Morris"],"as":"Ihara, Saikaku","y":1963,"p":402,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-01-03","cv":"covers/292335.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL4746983W"},{"id":40864030,"t":"A Prayer for the Crown-Shy","sl":"a-prayer-for-the-crown-shy","se":"Monk & Robot","sn":"2","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2022,"p":152,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2025-01-01","d":"2025-01-01","rc":2,"rev":"A sweet fun quick read. A musing on humanity and meaning and a gentle explanation of a utopian society. The narration moves along at a brisk pace. The book feels a little self indulgent - the only driving narrative here is the author enjoying explaining the world that's been built and how it reflects on what it means to be human. And it's awfully short for a full length novel. But it's enjoyable and a nice followup to the first book.
\nUpdate: I re-read this for a book club. I enjoyed it the second time but it feels.. a little redundant with the first? Chambers gets to spend more time fleshing out her world, it was fun having the vingettes from different perspectives. But the themes are the same as the first book. Also I felt a little cheated she didn't show The City. If there's ever a third book I hope it gets there. Still a sweet read but the first book is the one that hit home for me.
\n","w":172,"cv":"covers/40864030.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":4.36,"n":97740,"dist":[210,1288,10703,36606,48933],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Novella","Queer","LGBT","Cozy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Novella","year":2023,"won":true}],"wp":"A_Prayer_for_the_Crown-Shy","isf":"3054957"},{"id":49405286,"t":"The Dragon's Banker","sl":"the-dragons-banker","a":["Scott Warren"],"as":"Warren, Scott","y":2019,"p":255,"sh":"to-read","d":"2025-01-01","cv":"covers/49405286.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL24135546W"},{"id":35074096,"t":"Mythos - The Greek Myths Retold","sl":"mythos-the-greek-myths-retold","se":"Stephen Fry's Great Mythology","sn":"1","a":["Stephen Fry"],"as":"Fry, Stephen","y":2017,"p":416,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-12-24","cv":"covers/35074096.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"ol":"OL17916664W"},{"id":57217101,"t":"Regeneration","sl":"regeneration","se":"Regeneration","sn":"1","a":["Pat Barker"],"as":"Barker, Pat","y":1991,"p":260,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-12-23","d":"2024-12-23","rev":"A really interesting book and outside my usual wheelhouse. I read it on a friend's recommendation, particularly for its depiction of trauma and treatment in World War 1. His comment has stuck with me: "I love the humanity of Regeneration, especially in light of the anger, rage, and grief as each of the characters faces the ugly truth of war and that of insensitive people in authority."
\nInteresting subject and very sensitively depicted. A really excellent portrayal not just of several victims of war trauma but also the conflicted role of Rivers, the doctor who is treating them. All set in the backdrop of the horror of WW1 in the UK.
\nIt's been awhile since I've read a book that was this, well, literary. I mostly read genre fiction which leads you by the hand and tells you what it's about. Barker's writing is a lot more complex but also very clearly written, a pleasure to read the prose page after page. I'm just not entirely sure what all she was getting at. Particularly in one of the last chapters, the torture treatments of Yealland which nevertheless cure the patients? Very uncomfortable reading.
\nAnother theme of the book I particularly enjoyed was the gay characters Sassoon and Owens. The hints of homosexuality being discussed in hushed but forthright tones, with Rivers being sympathetic and refusing to pathologize his gay patients. Along with the themes of masculinity and upper British class consciousness there's a lot of interesting social depiction going on.
\nThe first half of the book was strongest for me. I started to lose the plot a bit when Rivers leaves the hospital. That's part of Barker's obliqueness, there's no strong narrative story here, no complex plot machinations to follow. There's the evaluation of Sassoon as the main progression, a foil for all the other psychological treatment stories, but that's not a lot to hold on to. I made an error not paying more attention to Prior at first, his story is as important as Sassoon's and in some ways a more followable narrative arc. But the book is really Rivers' story.
\nI think I will watch the movie soon, curious how this story works in that medium.
\n","w":368,"cv":"covers/57217101.avif","cw":280,"ch":373,"avg":4.01,"n":34951,"dist":[464,1614,6848,14091,11934],"g":["Historical Fiction","War","Historical","World War I","Literary Fiction","British Literature","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL14865044W","wp":"Regeneration_(novel)"},{"id":4136,"t":"Holidays on Ice","sl":"holidays-on-ice","a":["David Sedaris"],"as":"Sedaris, David","y":1997,"p":176,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-12-17","d":"2024-12-17","rev":"Oh dear, this has not aged well. I remember hearing much of this material on NPR years ago, including all of the SantaLand Diaries. And thinking it was hilarious. Clever humor, bitchy waspish queen tearing down American society and exposing all its hypocrisy and banality. Hilarious!
\nNow some 30 years later it hasn't aged well. Some of the pieces are outright offensive. The low point is in "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" where not only do they mock a Vietnamese-American young woman for acting like a prostitute but they even do a little stereotyped Asian accent and a riff on the Full Metal Jacket hooker scene. I can see past the dated racist humor but then the rest of it isn't clever enough to keep my interest. What should be funny about Season's Greetings is the awful woman writing the letter, you could imagine this piece being a sharp parody of her ignorance and cruelty. And it is that, somewhat, but most of the humor is more us playing along with her hating all the other people in her life.
\nSantaLand Diaries is the biggest piece. I still like the shape of it, him skewering the Macy's Santa machine and this kind of synthetic crowd experience jollity. I appreciate the malice of him taking weeks of humiliating work as a mall elf and making it funny. But it's not quite funny enough. A lot of his jokes are at the expense of the New Yorkers who are going there, folks who are having a rough day too and just want a little Christmas joy. Sure some of them are awful, or self-centered, but I could have done with a little more empathy and a little less poison.
\nThe whole gag of Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol is that kids Christmas pageants are terrible. That could be funny! But instead it just comes off as mean, either the humor is too subtle for me to get (unlikely) or just not sharp enough.
\nDinah, the Christmas Whore works better. Its a somewhat sympathetic portrayal of Dinah, the prostitute, and his mother treating her with kindness. It works kind of like Burroughs' Junkie's Christmas, making an underdog a folk hero.
\nThe pieces I liked best me additions Hachette made in the 2008 audiobook I listened to. "Six to Eight Black Men" is the real standout and is still hilarious. He's making fun of weird old racist Dutch traditions, a safe target. And he humanizes them by comparing to weird American traditions. The humor is all just in the weirdness of it, something totally relatable. "The Monster Mash" is also quite weird and interesting, his experiences in an autopsy office.
\nI think originally I enjoyed these stories because it seemed very gay. Now I'm struggling to hear anything gay at all in it. If I wasn't listening to the audiobook for an LGBT book club probably wouldn't have considered it gay at all. Sedaris' has that arch humor at a remove like the great gay comics of the 70s but that doesn't hit very hard in 2024. That's a measure of how much society has normalized this kind of gay writing and voice.
\nNote: I listened to the 2008 Libby audiobook version which at 4h20m has some extra content not in other versions.
\n","w":552,"cv":"covers/4136.avif","cw":280,"ch":398,"avg":3.88,"n":132786,"dist":[3992,9308,29854,44593,45039],"g":["Humor","Short Stories","Memoir","Essays","Christmas","Comedy","Holiday"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2693086W","wp":"Holidays_on_Ice"},{"id":46756,"t":"Oryx and Crake","sl":"oryx-and-crake","se":"MaddAddam","sn":"1","a":["Margaret Atwood"],"as":"Atwood, Margaret","y":2003,"p":389,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-12-09","d":"2024-12-09","rev":"I finished it! I feel like a hero. This review could have just as easily been 1 star DNF after half the book. This review contains spoilers for the plot which I marked with spoiler tags but Goodreads is showing them anyway.
\nThe good parts first. The story is sort of interesting, I liked the flashback narrative structure. I like the weirdness of Snowman, the last man from the Before Times, a terribly inadequate shepherd for his flock. I also thought the world Atwood built was interesting enough, if a bit clumsy. There's a lot of scifi tropes here that probably feel exciting if you've never read them before. I've read them before in better books.
\nBut ugh.. mostly the narrative is plodding. A whole lot of telling when showing would be more interesting. The characters are not compelling. (As the NYT review says, "its characters all lack the chromosome that confers deeper human credibility".) It's just all kind of clumsy. I feel bad, there's something solid at the middle of this book and I have respect for Atwood. But it didn't come together.
\nAnd then one unforgiveable sin, the big reveals to the end of the plot. Why did Crake kill Oryx? Why did he kill the world? I don't know! The author doesn't tell us. The narrator doesn't either, he literally is reading his diary where he's about to write his motivation and then the page is blank. WTF? Reading online there's various theories from the obvious clues Atwood drops. But none of it is compelling. I should not be left guessing about the main moral events in the book.
\nAnd my other discomfort, with the character Oryx. Why did Atwood write her as the victim of child sex trafficking? Why did we need those child rape porny scenes? In the hands of any other author I'd think it was some awful male writer getting off on some white knight fantasy. But this is Atwood, she's not doing that. In fact she dismisses the idea. But then what is she doing? I don't know. Maybe I'm dumb and missed it but I don't think so. It doesn't help that Oryx is not a very well drawn character, hardly present for most of the book. The book would have been better giving her a voice.
\nOverall a forgettable book.
\n","w":391,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/46756.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":4.0,"n":295765,"dist":[6127,15256,56046,112790,105546],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Canada"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"","year":2003,"won":false},{"name":"Orange Prize","cat":"Fiction Shortlist","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"Sunburst Award","cat":"Canadian Novel","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"Scotiabank Giller Prize","cat":null,"year":2003,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger","year":2006,"won":false}],"ol":"OL675722W","wp":"Oryx_and_Crake","isf":"154548"},{"id":123760191,"t":"Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City","sl":"venice","a":["Dennis Romano"],"as":"Romano, Dennis","y":2024,"p":800,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-12-08","cv":"covers/123760191.avif","cw":263,"ch":400,"ol":"OL37567810W"},{"id":17934530,"t":"Annihilation","sl":"annihilation","se":"Southern Reach","sn":"1","a":["Jeff Vandermeer"],"as":"Vandermeer, Jeff","y":2014,"p":195,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-12-05","d":"2024-12-05","rev":"I finally read this! Been meaning to for awhile. I kinda liked it. I appreciated it was short. I didn't love it.
\nWhat I liked best is how it reminded me of two other things I've liked. One is the video game Pacific Drive which must have drawn heavily on this novel for inspiration for its backstory. (Great game btw, underappreciated).
\nThe other is the general tone connection to SCP Project fiction. My favorite in that genre is There Is No Antimemetics Division but there's a wide variety of creepy writing in this genre. VanderMeer's novel reads like a particularly well written book that was inspired by some SCP fanfic he wrote when he was 19. Only he's a proper novelist now and writes a solid book.
\nOne thing I liked in the book as a side story was the relationship between the main character and her husband. I guess it wasn't just a side story, it becomes a key part of the central mystery. That is a nuance I didn't expect to find in creepy sci-fi. It was a welcome human touch.
\nI'm curious about the movie. I like Alex Garland. Update I saw the film. It's a well made movie that has very little to do with the book other than vibes.
\n","w":214,"cv":"covers/17934530.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.8,"n":335443,"dist":[6877,26092,83662,128368,90444],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Fantasy","Mystery","Dystopia","Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Warwick Prize for Writing","cat":"Longlist","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Shirley Jackson Award","cat":"Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17268007W","wp":"Annihilation_(VanderMeer_novel)","isf":"1678159"},{"id":26073005,"t":"The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future","sl":"the-grid","a":["Gretchen Bakke"],"as":"Bakke, Gretchen","y":2016,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-12-04","cv":"covers/26073005.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"ol":"OL20030969W"},{"id":12000020,"t":"Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe","sl":"aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe","se":"Aristotle and Dante","sn":"1","a":["Benjamin Alire Sáenz"],"as":"Sáenz, Benjamin Alire","y":2012,"p":390,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2024-12-03","rev":"Very sweet book of a teenage boy finding himself. Interesting main character (Aristotle), both for the low-key queer narrative and the family issues. Also finding his Mexican-American identity. There's a nice central mystery about a missing brother. All lovely writing. It's very young adult, and the writing style is awfully simple, but it's a good story.
\nWhat I really loved is Dante, the other character. He's not the POV and he's only told in suggestions. But he's compelling and interesting as his whole family. Sort of a fantasy really, a good one.
\nMy main quibble in the story is with the final section. It felt very abrupt. The whole book is about Ari and Dante coming to love each other. But Ari's love seems clearly platonic. I was enjoying the story at that level and the sad tension of Dante's unrequited crush. But then all the sudden in the last pages everyone's like "no Ari you love-love your friend" and they kiss and... It's sweet and felt true enough but also a little unearned.
\nNot sure if I'll read the sequel. Would love to read more of the story but my head's in a more adult space. In particular the language here was awfully simple which I assume is appropriate for the audience but left me a little wanting.
\n","w":219,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/12000020.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.28,"n":695703,"dist":[10836,22546,87817,215425,359079],"g":["Young Adult","Romance","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Coming Of Age","Realistic Fiction","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Children’s and Young Adult Literature","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Michael L. Printz Award","cat":"","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award","cat":"Young Adults","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBT Children's/Young Adult","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis","cat":"Jugendbuch","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award","cat":"","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Lincoln Award","cat":null,"year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Pura Belpré Award","cat":"Narrative","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Premi Llibreter de narrativa","cat":"Altres literatures infantil i juvenil","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Premi Protagonista Jove","cat":"Categoria 14-16 anys","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16596099W","wp":"Aristotle_and_Dante_Discover_the_Secrets_of_the_Universe"},{"id":40864002,"t":"A Psalm for the Wild-Built","sl":"a-psalm-for-the-wild-built","se":"Monk & Robot","sn":"1","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2021,"p":151,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-11-18","d":"2024-11-18","rc":2,"rev":"I really enjoyed this. I started reading Becky Chambers just at the same time I was reading Martha Wells and I get them mixed up sometimes. So I was reading this thinking "how clever to write a Murderbot book where the robot is on a spiritual quest instead of being a murderbot!" Lol, no, wrong author. And I don't mean to suggest the book is derivative in any way, it's its own thing for sure, just some similarities.
\nIt's a lovely story. And a nicely built world, just revealed enough to give the impression of depth without being pedantic. Particularly in how the details of the religion was revealed. Also just enough philosophy about the nature of consciousness and selfhood without being navel-gazing. And I really enjoyed the monk narrator's point of view. The personalization of the robot was fantastic. Just came together great. And the conceit of a tea monk - lovely!
\nMy only complaint is I wish there were more book, I was enjoying it so much. I guess a second is coming. A little annoyed at being charged full novel price for a 160 page book but then I definitely believe in paying authors well for good stories, not by the word.
\nEdit I re-read this and liked it even more the second time. Right now is very upsetting in US politics and this book about kindness and compassion was very welcome. Also the ending chapter really moved me. I read it more slowly this time and absorbed more of its message, about one way to imagine finding meaning in life. It made me cry a bit, a message of self-acceptance I need to hear.
\n","w":278,"cv":"covers/40864002.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.19,"n":210101,"dist":[2112,7290,31685,75507,93507],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Novella","Queer","LGBT","Cozy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL22561871W","wp":"A_Psalm_for_the_Wild-Built","isf":"2869744"},{"id":53086262,"t":"Harrow the Ninth","sl":"harrow-the-ninth","se":"The Locked Tomb","sn":"2","a":["Tamsyn Muir"],"as":"Muir, Tamsyn","y":2020,"p":512,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-11-11","d":"2024-11-11","rev":"I finished it. Do I get a cookie? I want a cookie. Maybe a gold star sticker?
\nI come down on the side of this being a flawed book that makes far too many demands on the reader in pursuit of its own too-clever-by-half structure. OTOH I did successfully struggle through the first 75% where it's not clear at all what is happening. Because every 15 or 20 pages there'd be a revelation of coherent story that was interesting. Or some delightful wordplay, like "the minute deaths throughout her body—bacterial, apoptotic, autophagic—produced a thanergetic embroidery".
\nThere's a lot of brilliance in this book. Good characters, interesting ideas, fun language. And then there's a lot of self-indulgent wankery with plot structure and unreliable narrators and switching of whether the narrative is in third, second (!), or first person. I'm OK with some of that kind of gameplaying in writing. But this book had far too much of it for too long. Maybe if the disorienting part had been half the length or twice as interesting I would have liked it more.
\nStill I finished it and mostly liked it, so I tip to a positive 3 star rating instead of a meh 2.
\nThis is a book for which "harrow the ninth what the fuck did I just read" gets many, many web hits. That confusion is not a compliment, it's a failure of authorship. It could also be a failure of the readership but an awful lot of readers seem to have had the same trouble I did.
\n","w":258,"cv":"covers/53086262.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.29,"n":95801,"dist":[1010,3412,11729,30556,49094],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Queer","Horror","LGBT","Lesbian","Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20723256W","wp":"Harrow_the_Ninth","isf":"2719702"},{"id":1274861,"t":"Fatal Shadows","sl":"fatal-shadows","se":"The Adrien English Mysteries","sn":"1","a":["Josh Lanyon"],"as":"Lanyon, Josh","y":2000,"p":232,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-11-10","cv":"covers/1274861.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL8157434W"},{"id":148821,"t":"Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture","sl":"brunelleschis-dome","a":["Ross King"],"as":"King, Ross","y":1999,"p":192,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-11-03","cv":"covers/148821.avif","cw":280,"ch":410,"avg":3.91,"n":28915,"dist":[955,1692,6273,10029,9966],"g":["History","Art","Architecture","Italy","Renaissance","Art History","Biography","Science","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Book Sense Book of the Year Award","cat":"Adult Nonfiction","year":2001,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2984865W"},{"id":109710,"t":"Numbers","sl":"numbers","a":["John Rechy"],"as":"Rechy, John","y":1967,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-11-02","cv":"covers/109710.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.76,"n":493,"dist":[6,37,149,180,121],"g":["Queer","Gay","LGBT","Gay Fiction","American","20th Century","Literature","Sexuality"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL61318W"},{"id":42288661,"t":"Gideon the Ninth","sl":"gideon-the-ninth","se":"The Locked Tomb","sn":"1","a":["Tamsyn Muir"],"as":"Muir, Tamsyn","y":2019,"p":479,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-10-26","d":"2024-10-26","rc":2,"rev":"Buzzy book! I enjoyed it well enough but am not over the moon about it. Well imagined tight little world, interesting characters. The writing style is trying a little too hard at times and has this weird mix of ordinary SFF style and then occasional "young people speak this way" phrases interjected that I guess are authentic but seem a bit odd. Also the whole plot setup was a little too "Harry Potter and the Secret of the Necromancer Palace", I never could figure out if the characters were supposed to be adults, or teenagers, or what. Criticism aside it's a good and enjoyable book and I will gladly read the sequel when it comes.
\nUpdate I read this a second time and apparently forgot most of the plot of the first one. Also this time it seemed more "Agatha Christie's Lesbian Necromancers" than Harry Potter. Kind of a hate read on second time through. It's just really too hard to follow. So much of the writing is really good but it doesn't quite stick together in a solid, humanistic book. But it is original and fresh and interesting. I read it again mostly to prepare for reading the rest of the books.
\n","w":203,"cv":"covers/42288661.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.17,"n":198614,"dist":[3507,8825,28242,67509,90531],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Horror","Lesbian","Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel (2020) and for Best Series","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds Award)","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction and Debut Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Matilde Horne a la Mejor Traducción Literaria del Género Fantástico","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20128158W","wp":"Gideon_the_Ninth","isf":"2592014"},{"id":4982,"t":"The Sirens of Titan","sl":"the-sirens-of-titan","a":["Kurt Vonnegut Jr.","Chris Moore"],"as":"Jr., Kurt Vonnegut","y":1959,"p":224,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-10-17","cv":"covers/4982.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":4.15,"n":164595,"dist":[1631,5737,27415,61375,68437],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Humor","Fantasy","Literature","Satire"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1960,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1973,"won":true}],"ol":"OL98485W","wp":"The_Sirens_of_Titan","isf":"1205"},{"id":13658,"t":"The Other Wind","sl":"the-other-wind","se":"Earthsea Cycle","sn":"6","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":2001,"p":211,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-10-17","cv":"covers/13658.avif","cw":110,"ch":180,"avg":4.21,"n":34917,"dist":[205,922,5435,13305,15050],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dragons","High Fantasy","Classics","Magic","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2002,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2002,"won":false}],"ol":"OL59806W","wp":"The_Other_Wind","isf":"21392"},{"id":13659,"t":"Tales from Earthsea","sl":"tales-from-earthsea","se":"Earthsea Cycle","sn":"5","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":2001,"p":280,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-10-17","cv":"covers/13659.avif","cw":280,"ch":459,"avg":4.09,"n":34734,"dist":[165,984,6697,14722,12166],"g":["Fantasy","Short Stories","Young Adult","High Fantasy","Dragons","Classics","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2003,"won":false},{"name":"Endeavour Award","cat":null,"year":2002,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59812W","wp":"Tales_from_Earthsea","isf":"39404"},{"id":202110188,"t":"The Mercy of Gods","sl":"the-mercy-of-gods","se":"The Captive's War","sn":"1","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2024,"p":423,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-10-10","d":"2024-10-10","rev":"Ooh I really did not like this book. I read and finished it quickly and was entertained, so it's not awful, but I did not like it.
\nMy main complaint is 60% of the book is torture porn. Our heroes suffer existential loss, then are put in depraved captivity and subject to abuses and depredations told in explicit, stomach-turning detail. I do not understand why the authors thought that would make good entertainment.
\nThe other complaint is the sci-fi parts of the book are not nearly as interesting as they should be. I like the structure of the Carryx, their bizarre interstellar empire and their inhuman way of thinking. But Tchaikovsky writes this kind of thing so much better, the details in this book are awfully thin to be a reward for making it through all the grim torture. There's a hint of a much more interesting space opera story in the Swarm but that's like just a little sprinkle put on top of the story, honestly if it were left out entirely it'd be the same book. Maybe that's where the series is going and it will be interesting.
\nMy final complaint is the narrative structure. The Expanse started as a live roleplaying game with a group of friends. That shows in the narrative but it works as a series of novels. I fear this new book has the same structure. The whole first act is an unmotivated explication of unmemorable characters playing out some tedious academic scenario. Then the action picks up and you can almost see the random encounters, the players solving puzzles ("should we accept the gift from the feather monkey NPCs?"), various players dropping out of the game and meeting ugly deaths. Perhaps the Swarm was implemented as a way for one person to swap which character they were playing as. It's all just very clumsy. I don't know this book was actually written as an RPG campaign, probably not, but it has that structure and it seems clumsy.
\nI read this book on the back of re-reading some of the Earthsea stories. Which are so much the opposite: humanistic, kind, empathetic, motivated and personal. Coming to Space Abu Ghraib was not a good turn.
\n","w":370,"cv":"covers/202110188.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.15,"n":46301,"dist":[435,1380,7189,19307,17990],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Aliens","Adventure","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL37579227W","wp":"The_Mercy_of_Gods","isf":"3327853"},{"id":13662,"t":"The Tombs of Atuan","sl":"the-tombs-of-atuan","se":"Earthsea Cycle","sn":"2","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1970,"p":180,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-10-06","d":"2024-10-06","rc":2,"rev":"What a fantastic and unusual book. It's a strange inversion of the princess-in-the-tower trope, where the princess thinks she is in charge and ends up being rescued by her prisoner. It took awhile to build up but as Arha's character starts taking firm shape it gets great, then troubling, then horrifying, and then sort of sweet and romantic. Loved all the twists and turns.
\nAs with the first book I'm grateful for LeGuin's' author notes many years later. She comments on how she got some feminist critique that Arha needed a man to save her. And honestly says she just couldn't figure out how else to get Arha out of her predicament other than outside help, and the outsider in this case was her established male character.
\nUpdate re-read this a second time after suggesting it to a small book club. Liked it again the second time, again for the unusual princess rescue inversion. Didn't find it quite as exciting and novel to read as the first time. Was surprised to see such strong echoes with the Omelas short story, the captive child sacrifice.
\n","w":184,"cv":"covers/13662.avif","cw":280,"ch":470,"avg":4.14,"n":142175,"dist":[1076,3887,24440,56923,55849],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Classics","High Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Newbery Medal","cat":"","year":1972,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award","cat":"Children's Books","year":1972,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":null,"year":1972,"won":false},{"name":"Phoenix Award (Children's Literature Association)","cat":"","year":1991,"won":false},{"name":"Margaret A. Edwards Award","cat":null,"year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59801W","wp":"The_Tombs_of_Atuan","isf":"7654"},{"id":13642,"t":"A Wizard of Earthsea","sl":"a-wizard-of-earthsea","se":"Earthsea Cycle","sn":"1","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1968,"p":183,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-10-01","d":"2024-10-01","rc":2,"rev":"Such a clean, simple, appealing young adult fantasy novel. It's a bit thin by modern standards, a bit simple, but that just makes it more of a pleasure. I was greatly moved by Le Guin's afterword explaining that she didn't want to write the book but there basically was no young adult fantasy, so she decided to give it a try. (And get paid!) Her formula was "what was Gandalf like as a young student?" and that seemed to have worked out well.
\nThe book feels a bit dated now in some was, but I think also good enough to stand out as a document of its time.
\nUpdate re-read this a few years later and appreciated it a lot more the second time. It's just so nicely written. And so humanistic. Also LeGuin's prose really sparkles. The simplicity I complained about the first time seems like a virtue this second time.
\n","w":152,"cv":"covers/13642.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":4.01,"n":378174,"dist":[6899,19006,75796,137036,139437],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Classics","High Fantasy","Magic","Science Fiction","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Lewis Carroll Shelf Award","cat":null,"year":1979,"won":true},{"name":"Boston Globe-Horn Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":1969,"won":true},{"name":"Złota Sepulka","cat":"Książka autora zagranicznego","year":1984,"won":true},{"name":"Margaret A. Edwards Award","cat":null,"year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59798W","wp":"A_Wizard_of_Earthsea","isf":"7653"},{"id":65211701,"t":"System Collapse","sl":"system-collapse","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"7","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2023,"p":245,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-09-27","d":"2024-09-27","cv":"covers/65211701.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.24,"n":86076,"dist":[228,1423,12432,35060,36933],"g":["Science Fiction","Space","Space Opera","Novella","Fantasy","Humor"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Libby Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":true}],"ol":"OL33402895W","isf":"3229607"},{"id":205463976,"t":"System Collapse [Dramatized Adaptation]","sl":"system-collapse-dramatized-adaptation","se":"Murderbot Diaries","sn":"7","a":["Martha Wells","David Cui Cui","Debi Tinsley","Elena Anderson"],"as":"Wells, Martha","r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-09-27","d":"2024-09-27","rev":"OK definitely time to lay off the Murderbot books. I re-read 1-4 recently and enjoyed them even more a second time. I think because the novelty of Murderbot's odd personality really shone through those first books. It's still here in the newer books but the shtick has worn thin and hasn't evolved much. If anything Murderbot is becoming more typical human which honestly isn't that interesting!
\nBut what really doesn't work for me is it's just hard to follow the action. Wells is a good writer and structures things mostly well, but when it gets to all the people and bots moving around and stuff being blown up it's hard to follow (or care) what's happening. Just fell flat for me and was a bit tedious to finish.
\n","w":128,"cv":"covers/205463976.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.26,"n":412,"dist":[2,5,53,177,175],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Space"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":35519109,"t":"Exit Strategy","sl":"exit-strategy","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"4","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2018,"p":172,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-09-07","d":"2024-09-07","rc":2,"rev":"I enjoyed this and am glad it is an end to the series. The Murderbot books are fun. At its best the author locks in this bizarre prose style where Murderbot is emotionally disengaged from a situation and yet deeply in it and the writing gets really compelling. That's where it's best. As a regular scifi action story it kind of doesn't work for me. But as a musing on humanity and bot AI, maybe with metaphorical reach to queerness or transgender or simply being neuroatypical, that's good stuff.
\nUpdate I reread the first four novellas back-to-back and liked them quite a bit on a second read. They're really well executed books, deftly written. I still find some of the action writing a bit stilted but each book gets better. But what's great is the emotional writing for Murderbot, its journey to being a person and finding a way to co-exist with humans. The four books together really tell a nice narrative arc.
\n","w":163,"cv":"covers/35519109.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.36,"n":167549,"dist":[251,1229,17162,68583,80324],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Space","Space Opera","Fantasy","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Short Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19763338W","isf":"2421678"},{"id":42837514,"t":"Gender Queer: A Memoir","sl":"gender-queer","a":["Maia Kobabe"],"as":"Kobabe, Maia","y":2019,"p":240,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-08-31","d":"2024-08-31","rev":"Enjoyed this book for its intense personal honesty about a difficult and fraught topic. The graphic art style works great here, it defuses some of the difficult emotions to have beautiful and cute art. Great colors too.
\nI'll be honest, the varying forms of gender expression in the current era sometimes baffle me. I have enough trans friends that simple transgender identity doesn't seem surprising anymore but there's a zillion genderqueer variants I don't really understand. Doubly so because my own experience is pretty firmly cis-male (with some gender bending for fun occasionally). So I really appreciated the author so forthrightly putting out eir experiences and explaining what it feels like to em in their own gender identity.
\nAnd a special thank you for the section on asking people to use eir pronouns. I find constructions like the Spivak pronouns clumsy and it was nice to see the author acknowledging that difficulty and explaining why it is important to em to ask.
\nI gather from wikipedia that some awful people have declared this book as obscene and inappropriate for teenagers. Absolute nonsense and I hope kids find their way to read this book when they're the age to understand or maybe need it.
\n","w":203,"cv":"covers/42837514.avif","cw":280,"ch":398,"avg":4.27,"n":82022,"dist":[2503,1967,8682,26812,42058],"g":["Graphic Novels","LGBT","Memoir","Queer","Comics","Banned Books","Biography","Gender","Biography Memoir"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Non-Fiction","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":"","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Lincoln Award","cat":"","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21337755W","wp":"Gender_Queer:_A_Memoir"},{"id":60784260,"t":"Some Desperate Glory","sl":"some-desperate-glory","a":["Emily Tesh"],"as":"Tesh, Emily","y":2023,"p":440,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-08-28","d":"2024-08-28","rev":"Excellent book, certainly understood why it won the award. A joy to read such a well written novel. The characters are great, as is the characterization. So is the plot structure. There's a really interesting 5 act design here that's unusual in its pacing and organization and it works really well.
\nThe plot even got me to like a time travel story. I have a usual rule never to read those because they are dumb. But this avoids the dumb, there's no paradoxes or anything. Just second chances but with more knowledge. Very much a video game narrative in that structure and some specifics really reminded me of the game Deathloop. That's not a complaint! Also the "let's try again knowing more" ...
\nstructure dovetails nicely with another part of the story, the feminist part Specifically the handling of sexual assault and of predators. From the slow reveal in the first act where it's like "hold on, this is awful isn't it?" to the full-throated condemnation to the squalid, grubby denouement in the end. And Kyr's shifting perspectives through it all, finding her power. Loved it! Made everything seem much more meaningful, the personal stakes and development.
\nI didn't love this as a queer book. That's OK, it's a whole lot of other things. I did like Mags and Avi and their awkward thing. I particularly liked how their being closeted had their characters act differently, it read very true to me. Poor Mags on loop 1. But it's a tragic gays story and I wouldn't have minded some more happiness. Maybe that would have come from Val / Lisa but that plot is a very small sideline. I'm glad it's there but it didn't really make a big impact.
\nThe final thing I liked, the framing of humans vs aliens. The way the humans are violent powerful brutes all the way through, an inversion of sci-fi troops. And Yiso is a terrific character, particularly young Yiso. The Wisdom is appropriately alien and kind of creepy, the Majo are not a well fleshed out space opera faction but certainly written enough to serve their role in the story. It's a good setup.
\nI loved the ending, the way our characters find their way to a place of love and grace. And power, when needed. It felt very true to me.
\n","w":390,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/60784260.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.05,"n":22468,"dist":[331,1061,4019,8835,8222],"g":["Science Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Space Opera","Fantasy","Lesbian","Space"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"First Novel","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Ursula K. Le Guin Prize","cat":null,"year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Libby Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26522636W","wp":"Some_Desperate_Glory_(novel)","isf":"3148749"},{"id":62909156,"t":"Lords of Uncreation","sl":"lords-of-uncreation","se":"The Final Architecture","sn":"3","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2023,"p":592,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-08-19","d":"2024-08-19","rev":"Enjoyed the ending. Took a long time getting there, maybe too many words, but the final half of this book with the big conclusion to the cosmic menace was great. The first half of this book was like a different novel, more space opera conflicts between empires. And that stuff is good too but there was a lot more of it than I was interested in. But much appreciated the final existential stuff. Tchaikovsky once again writes a truly alien intelligence, something nearly impossible to relate to and yet still compelling. Masterful.
\n","w":92,"cv":"covers/62909156.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.32,"n":18450,"dist":[42,343,2275,6816,8974],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Aliens","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL28803446W","isf":"3160665"},{"id":201901,"t":"Always Coming Home","sl":"always-coming-home","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin","Todd Barton","Margaret Chodos-Irvine"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1985,"p":525,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-08-06","cv":"covers/201901.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL59846W","wp":"Always_Coming_Home","isf":"2433"},{"id":40604388,"t":"Walkaway","sl":"walkaway","a":["Cory Doctorow"],"as":"Doctorow, Cory","y":2017,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-08-03","cv":"covers/40604388.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17801248W","wp":"Walkaway_(Doctorow_novel)","isf":"2153032"},{"id":36376896,"t":"Pickles: A Global History (Edible)","sl":"pickles","a":["Jan Davison"],"as":"Davison, Jan","y":2018,"p":176,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-29","cv":"covers/36376896.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"ol":"OL19754473W"},{"id":169255300,"t":"Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology","sl":"origin-uncertain","a":["Anatoly Liberman"],"as":"Liberman, Anatoly","y":2024,"p":344,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-29","cv":"covers/169255300.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"ol":"OL37572352W"},{"id":89195,"t":"The Prefect","sl":"the-prefect","se":"Prefect Dreyfus Emergency","sn":"1","a":["Alastair Reynolds"],"as":"Reynolds, Alastair","y":2007,"p":410,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-24","cv":"covers/89195.avif","cw":280,"ch":405,"avg":4.17,"n":22418,"dist":[211,511,3224,9870,8602],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Mystery","Space","Fantasy","Hard Science Fiction","Detective"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":" Best Novel","year":2007,"won":false}],"ol":"OL5724835W","wp":"The_Prefect","isf":"357261"},{"id":40881567,"t":"The Last Astronaut","sl":"the-last-astronaut","a":["David Wellington"],"as":"Wellington, David","y":2019,"p":364,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-24","cv":"covers/40881567.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20670148W","isf":"2560589"},{"id":26114130,"t":"Everfair","sl":"everfair","se":"Everfair","sn":"1","a":["Nisi Shawl"],"as":"Shawl, Nisi","y":2016,"p":381,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-07-22","d":"2024-07-22","rev":"Ooof, this book was very much not for me. Only reason I finished is I'm reading it for a book club.
\nI was excited to read it! Alternate history in Congo, some Afrofuturist elements, some steampunk. Complicated politics of race, culture, colonialism. Sexy lesbian relationships. All seemed promising.
\nBut the book never grabbed me. I finished the whole thing and can barely recall what happened or who the characters were. Sometimes I'm a lazy reader so maybe that's on me, but I think the writing just really didn't work for me.
\nStructurally one problem other reviews have noted is the chapters are very short. You get 4 or 5 pages at a time so it's hard to really get in to one particular character or set of emotions before the narrative moves on. I've read other books written this way that worked for me but I think this structure was part of the problem.
\nThe other problem for me is there were too many characters and I really couldn't keep them straight. There's several factions, then 3 or 4 people within each faction, then also the action takes place across many years. Just a whole lot to keep straight. I also don't think the author did a great job defining every character with a personality. I felt the only way to distinguish them was by their names, not by who they were.
\nOne specific detail stuck with me though that I thought was great: how many people have prosthetic hands or other limbs. Partly it creates a bit of a steampunk opportunity with people having various unusual attachments. Also of course a callback to the horrible abuses of the Belgians in the Congo with their abuses, dismembering people. The prosthetics even take on an erotic tinge in a couple of cases, a sort of light fetish. That could have been creepy maybe but it worked.
\nI also liked the bit about "riding cats". I was hoping the steampunk elements would be more fun too but they are not the focus of the writing.
\n","w":343,"cv":"covers/26114130.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":3.19,"n":3025,"dist":[171,545,1190,774,345],"g":["Fantasy","Steampunk","Science Fiction","Historical Fiction","Alternate History","Africa","Historical","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20038408W","isf":"2035005"},{"id":21468277,"t":"Message of Love","sl":"message-of-love","a":["Jim Provenzano"],"as":"Provenzano, Jim","y":2014,"p":372,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-20","cv":"covers/21468277.avif","cw":280,"ch":495,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL19993485W"},{"id":58353189,"t":"A Half-Built Garden","sl":"a-half-built-garden","a":["Ruthanna Emrys"],"as":"Emrys, Ruthanna","y":2022,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-20","cv":"covers/58353189.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"ol":"OL25957989W","isf":"3054963"},{"id":63122255,"t":"Adversary","sl":"adversary","a":["Blue Delliquanti"],"as":"Delliquanti, Blue","y":2024,"p":72,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-19","cv":"covers/63122255.avif","cw":280,"ch":397,"ol":"OL37860575W"},{"id":44436221,"t":"Interior Chinatown","sl":"interior-chinatown","a":["Charles Yu"],"as":"Yu, Charles","y":2020,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-17","cv":"covers/44436221.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20991105W","wp":"Interior_Chinatown","isf":"2833702"},{"id":1335568,"t":"Engine Summer","sl":"engine-summer","a":["John Crowley"],"as":"Crowley, John","y":1980,"p":209,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-14","cv":"covers/1335568.avif","cw":280,"ch":475,"ol":"OL482541W","wp":"Engine_Summer","isf":"2003"},{"id":6334,"t":"Never Let Me Go","sl":"never-let-me-go","a":["Kazuo Ishiguro"],"as":"Ishiguro, Kazuo","y":2005,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-13","cv":"covers/6334.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.85,"n":918900,"dist":[20884,66522,217874,341235,272385],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Literary Fiction","Contemporary","Classics","Romance"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"James Tait Black Memorial Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Novela Europea Casino de Santiago","cat":null,"year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Corine Internationaler Buchpreis","cat":"Belletristik","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"Dublin Literary Award","cat":null,"year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Merck Serono","cat":"Romanzo","year":2006,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59038W","wp":"Never_Let_Me_Go_(novel)","isf":"305891"},{"id":180270,"t":"Ammonite","sl":"ammonite","a":["Nicola Griffith"],"as":"Griffith, Nicola","y":1992,"p":432,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-13","cv":"covers/180270.avif","cw":231,"ch":346,"avg":3.9,"n":7770,"dist":[150,488,1698,3057,2377],"g":["Science Fiction","LGBT","Queer","Fantasy","Feminism","Lesbian","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1994,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":null,"year":1993,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Lesbian Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror","year":1993,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2737410W","wp":"Ammonite_(novel)","isf":"2432"},{"id":7726420,"t":"How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe","sl":"how-to-live-safely-in-a-science-fictional-universe","a":["Charles Yu"],"as":"Yu, Charles","y":2010,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-13","cv":"covers/7726420.avif","cw":185,"ch":274,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL18817404W","wp":"How_to_Live_Safely_in_a_Science_Fictional_Universe","isf":"1142404"},{"id":53780642,"t":"The Employees","sl":"the-employees","a":["Olga Ravn","Martin Aitken"],"as":"Ravn, Olga","y":2018,"p":136,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-13","cv":"covers/53780642.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"wp":"The_Employees","isf":"2862663"},{"id":54859745,"t":"O Human Star, Volume Three","sl":"o-human-star-volume-three","se":"O Human Star","sn":"3","a":["Blue Delliquanti"],"as":"Delliquanti, Blue","y":2020,"p":200,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-07-11","d":"2024-07-11","rev":"Review for all 3 volumes. I liked this. I was originally going to only read volume 1 for a book club but ended up reading all three because I liked it enough. It's a sweet story.
\nThe part I liked best was the core narrative about AI robots becoming people. And this weird story of one of the main characters being resurrected twice, in very different forms. Really interesting! I also liked Sulla's story as a trans character, triply awkward also as a teenager and a home-schooled kid. It felt very personal and real without just being an author stand-in.
\nI also liked the hunky daddy and the cute love story he had with the twink. A different book would have been much pornier and I would have enjoyed that. Instead this is a sweet gentle version of various kinds of self discovery and love. Also a cozy version of the movie Ex Machina or maybe the Animatrix: Second Renaissance.
\nThe superhero part didn't work for me. Why can Sulla fly? It seems to be part of the author's original vision, they reference Astro Boy in one of the end notes. OK fine. But I liked the other parts of the story a lot more.
\nI didn't love the ending. The hunky daddy ends up transitioning to a female version at the end. At least, I think so? It's confusing because early on when we learn his younger self was a girl he gets all upset and says something like "did I ever give any sign I was trans?" The transition later came from out of nowhere. Or maybe I missed the entire point of the story, that is possible
\nBTW it's very hard to figure out how to buy this to read easily. It's a free webcomic you can still find online. Or you can buy PDFs on itch.io.
\nUpdate: we had a great discussion about this at our book club. There's a lot of depth in this story, particularly in the dual transgender allegory of boy / girl and robot / human.
\n","w":346,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/54859745.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":4.71,"n":275,"dist":[0,1,9,59,206],"g":["Comics","Queer","Graphic Novels","Science Fiction","LGBT","Webcomic","Transgender","Graphic Novels Comics"],"f":"Fiction","q":1},{"id":33516443,"t":"O Human Star, Volume Two","sl":"o-human-star-volume-two","se":"O Human Star","sn":"2","a":["Blue Delliquanti"],"as":"Delliquanti, Blue","y":2017,"p":163,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-07-10","d":"2024-07-10","cv":"covers/33516443.avif","cw":197,"ch":300,"avg":4.56,"n":471,"dist":[0,5,26,140,300],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Queer","Science Fiction","LGBT","Romance","Webcomic","Transgender"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL24346062W"},{"id":25343236,"t":"O Human Star, Volume One","sl":"o-human-star-volume-one","se":"O Human Star","sn":"1","a":["Blue Delliquanti"],"as":"Delliquanti, Blue","y":2015,"p":192,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-07-08","d":"2024-07-08","cv":"covers/25343236.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.46,"n":812,"dist":[4,9,69,254,476],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Science Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Romance","Webcomic","Graphic Novels Comics","Robots"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Graphic Novel","year":2015,"won":false}]},{"id":43702757,"t":"A Mark on My Soul","sl":"a-mark-on-my-soul","se":"Noahverse","sn":"1","a":["Jordon Greene"],"as":"Greene, Jordon","y":2019,"p":384,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-07-07","d":"2024-07-07","rev":"I read this book after it broke the heart of a friend of mine. Appropriately, it's a heartbreaking book. You don't expect a romance novel to have a tragic ending. Particularly a terrible suicide that feels as real and contemporary as this story.
\nIt left me questioning a bit who this book was written for. It's a young adult book and it seems at first like a gay teen romance. But the pact with romance novels is that the couple gets together and there's a happy ever after. Instead here it all falls apart and we have a tragic suicide. It's a real story and important to tell! But is it well told? Maybe so, given how emotionally affecting the book is.
\nStill it feels awfully heavy for the light YA romance writing style. I didn't love the prose, the writing is a little simplistic and trying too hard to be youthful. And the book has the simplistic structure of a romance. Which, fine! but then to lead that to a tragic ending feels a bit off. Not disrespectful exactly, I'm sure the author meant absolutely well here. Mostly I'm just confounded a bit.
\nI like how well this book talked about the pressure of the closet. About how hard hiding who you are is, how liberating telling others can be. Or tragic, in this case, a kid destroyed by his hateful parents and church. Ugh. I wonder if the story would have worked so well if Parker had felt all that despair and then rose above it somehow, with Noah's help, freed himself from the hate and survived. I would have liked that a lot better but it wouldn't be the same book.
\nI think this book just needs to be approached carefully. My friend had no idea it had a tragic turn and had no defenses, it really upset him. I could imagine this being very hard reading indeed for younger gay kids in bad situations.
\n","w":328,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/43702757.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.95,"n":1223,"dist":[62,92,203,357,509],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Queer","Young Adult","Contemporary","Gay","M M Romance","Mental Health","Friends To Lovers"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Best Indie Book Award","cat":"LGBTQ","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL26335473W"},{"id":194477918,"t":"Escape Velocity","sl":"escape-velocity","a":["Victor Manibo"],"as":"Manibo, Victor","y":2024,"p":368,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-07-01","cv":"covers/194477918.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"ol":"OL37624938W"},{"id":150277127,"t":"The Mars House","sl":"the-mars-house","a":["Natasha Pulley"],"as":"Pulley, Natasha","y":2024,"p":469,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-06-30","cv":"covers/150277127.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL37628733W","isf":"3277724"},{"id":13623848,"t":"The Song of Achilles","sl":"the-song-of-achilles","a":["Madeline Miller"],"as":"Miller, Madeline","y":2011,"p":408,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-06-28","d":"2024-06-28","rev":"I really enjoyed this book. It's a modern novel informed by one of the classic epic stories, entertaining on its own terms and by reference to the historical text. Full of emotion. Vanity, hubris, violence.. the classic themes I remember from the Iliad. But that's all I remember from that college reading, the narrative was too alien for me to follow or recall. So here we have an enjoyable modern story instead.
\nAnd doubly good, it's a gay love story. I picked this up expecting a light gay romance. It's not. It's more of a historical fiction novel with a gay love story at the center. Even more interesting, it's Patroclus' narrative that's at the middle, the book is his story. Which works partly because the author can invent a new perspective without clashing with the Iliad itself and partly because Achilles' narrative in Homer is fragmented and difficult to follow. Also Patroclus is blameless, a reliable narrator whose life we can inhabit without friction.
\nThe language is great. This book is written very carefully and in an unusual style. It still reads modern, approachable, it's not some forced poetic meter with obscure words. But it still has a heightened and otherworldly cast to the writing. A slight remove that gives the story epic weight. A sample I liked:
\n\n\nTheir whispers choked me, turned the food in my mouth to ash. I pushed away my plate and sought out corners and spare halls where I might sit undisturbed, except for the occasional passing servant. My narrow world narrowed further: to the cracks in the floor, the carved whorls in the stone walls. They rasped softly as I traced them with my fingertip.
\n
I also appreciated that this story is not awful about women. My memory of the Iliad is it's irredeemably sexist, full of women as objects and victims and rape. Here the book gives us a strong side character in Briseis. She's not a primary character but she is an interesting throughline in the second half of the book, particularly her relationship with Patroclus. And while rape is a constant threat in the book it's very clear that it's an awful thing only done by horrible people.
\n","w":368,"cv":"covers/13623848.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.3,"n":2194149,"dist":[28519,73107,273256,661782,1157485],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Romance","Mythology","LGBT","Queer","Greek Mythology","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Orange Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2012,"won":true},{"name":"Gaylactic Spectrum Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Español - Spanish Language","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Chautauqua Prize","cat":"","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Lovelybooks Leserpreis","cat":"Romane","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16509148W","wp":"The_Song_of_Achilles","isf":"1533740"},{"id":194803838,"t":"Koreaworld: A Cookbook","sl":"koreaworld","a":["Deuki Hong","Matt Rodbard"],"as":"Hong, Deuki","y":2024,"p":304,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-06-24","d":"2024-06-24","rev":"Fun, punky modern Korean cookbook from LA to Seoul. Lots of delicious ideas in here, not sure if I'll cook from it very often though.
\n","w":25,"cv":"covers/194803838.avif","cw":280,"ch":350,"avg":3.93,"n":75,"dist":[0,8,10,36,21],"g":["Cookbooks","Cooking","Food"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL37928277W"},{"id":23451951,"t":"The Dog in the Chapel","sl":"the-dog-in-the-chapel","se":"The Dog in the Chapel","sn":"1","a":["Anthony McDonald"],"as":"McDonald, Anthony","y":2014,"p":311,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-06-22","cv":"covers/23451951.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"ol":"OL29317362W"},{"id":51179990,"t":"Written in the Stars","sl":"written-in-the-stars","se":"Written in the Stars","sn":"1","a":["Alexandria Bellefleur"],"as":"Bellefleur, Alexandria","y":2020,"p":370,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-06-19","cv":"covers/51179990.avif","cw":230,"ch":346,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL21883446W"},{"id":54860443,"t":"One Last Stop","sl":"one-last-stop","a":["Casey McQuiston"],"as":"McQuiston, Casey","y":2021,"p":418,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-06-19","cv":"covers/54860443.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL21703286W","wp":"One_Last_Stop","isf":"2866155"},{"id":67700,"t":"The Persian Boy","sl":"the-persian-boy","se":"Alexander the Great","sn":"2","a":["Mary Renault"],"as":"Renault, Mary","y":1972,"p":420,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-06-17","cv":"covers/67700.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"avg":4.18,"n":11809,"dist":[118,408,1910,4188,5185],"g":["Historical Fiction","Historical","LGBT","Queer","Classics","Gay","Romance","M M Romance","Greece"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL3906363W","wp":"The_Persian_Boy","isf":"2785341"},{"id":22328,"t":"Neuromancer","sl":"neuromancer","se":"Sprawl","sn":"1","a":["William Gibson"],"as":"Gibson, William","y":1984,"p":271,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-06-15","d":"2024-06-15","rev":"I read this first in high school, back when it was new and hip. I didn't like it much, I think because of the plot problems in the second half of the novel. Now I'm reading good sci-fi as a fun alternative to stuff that's "good for me" and finding it incredibly entertaining, not to mention stimulating. I really enjoy the way Gibson puts words together, creates moods with inflection. And the way Gibson catches, and in some cases predicts trends is incredible. I can't help but be amused at the few anachronisms ("the clattering of printers", for instance), but in general he gets things right on.
\nI've been thinking some about virtual realities, and "cyberspace", and that sort of cruft. Neuromancer's view of VR provides a nice opposition to that in Stephenson's Snow Crash. Stephensonian cyberspace is very true to the physical world - hop on a motorcycle, go into a building, chat with people. In contrast, Gibson's cyberspace is much more natural to the computer: it matches the true organization of infostructures, multidimensional and probably non-Euclidean. As a computer geek, I find Gibson's conception more appealing. I want to use the binocular vision processing hardware in my brain to increase bandwidth, but I don't want to constrain my understanding of cyberspace to 3d physical reality.
\nEdit read this a third time with almost no memory of the first two readings. And struggled with the first half quite a bit, just following the plot. Gibson's writing is elliptical and the story is a little confusing. But then I synced in, and got some help from Wikipedia's plot summary, and I got to enjoy the ride and the sheer novel imagination of this invention of cyberpunk.
\nReading it this time I picked up so much on how it was influenced by and then influenced so many things I like. Influenced by PK Dick's sci-fi detective stories and by William S. Burrough's malicious hallucinatory action. And influencing things, famously the novel that defined cyberpunk. Interesting to see all the specific bits of this book that made it into The Matrix, things like the razorgirl Molly. Also how very much the excellent writing of the Cyberpunk 2077 game follows the beats and tropes of the Neuromancer novel. It's not a retelling of the book but it sure has a lot of homage.
\nI hardly connect with that previous review I wrote up there as a much younger man. This time around what I see is the romantic part of the book, the adventure. That and the sheer novelty of inventing so many cyberspace ideas.
\n","w":432,"cv":"covers/22328.avif","cw":280,"ch":467,"avg":3.89,"n":381318,"dist":[13989,28790,78834,124838,134867],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Classics","Dystopia","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1984,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel and Best SF Novel","year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1984,"won":false},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":"","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"","year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"Ditmar Award","cat":"Best International Long Fiction","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Novel","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"Prix Aurora Award","cat":"","year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Long Story","year":1987,"won":true}],"ol":"OL27258W","wp":"Neuromancer","isf":"1475"},{"id":55135062,"t":"Honeytrap","sl":"honeytrap","a":["Aster Glenn Gray"],"as":"Gray, Aster Glenn","y":2020,"p":334,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-06-11","cv":"covers/55135062.avif","cw":280,"ch":448},{"id":49233093,"t":"Red, White & Royal Blue","sl":"red-white-and-royal-blue","se":"Red, White & Royal Blue","sn":"1","a":["Casey McQuiston"],"as":"McQuiston, Casey","y":2019,"p":425,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-06-04","d":"2024-06-04","rc":2,"rev":"What a fantastic and joyful book. I am normally stingy with my ratings, I've given 5 stars to very few books I've read. But this book is just perfect, particularly for me right now. It's well written, it's funny, it's sexy. And most of all it exists, this big ridiculous love story of two men. Just delightful.
\nI'm not sure I've ever read a romance novel before, at least not all the way through. I'm familiar with the stereotypes of the genre. And this book is a bit trope-ish. But it never reads as cliche. Instead the set pieces "enemy turned friend", "surprise kiss", "breakup and get back together", "steamy bad idea sex"... they may be well worn plot conceits but here they all feel fresh and new in the gay context. Also their familiarity reads as comfort. I was particularly happy to know going into the start of the novel that by the Romance Novel Pact everything was going to be OK in the end, the lovers were going to be together. So much gay writing is about the challenges of daily life in a homophobic society that it's nice to read some totally happy fantasy for once.
\nI even liked the absurd conceit of the novel, the romance between the son of the President of the USA and a British Prince. The author uses this structure really effectively, both to drive some increasingly wacky international scenarios and as the foil of what felt like a very real coming out drama and yet safely fictionalized in this frankly unbelievable story. I mean that in the best way, the book is a romance fantasy and the setting is part of making the fantasy work.
\nThis is the author's first book and it's remarkably well written for that. Tight plot, excellent pacing. Lots of research details sprinkled in. And a fresh youthful prose that just feels real and of the moment, not trying too hard.
\nMore books like this please!
\nSecond read. I read this a second time, also saw the movie adaptation. It stands up even stronger on second read. The romance parts are so very good. This was the first gay romance novel I'd ever read and sadly it may have spoiled me for them since it's so remarkably well written. I think first time I was starstruck by all the romance stuff, and what a pleasure that was!
\nBut this second time through I read it more as a political book. As the author says, after Trump's election in 2016 "what was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek parallel universe needed to be escapist, trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality." (The book was written in 2016 and 2017 but not published until 2019). On second read this political story shines out. A lot of the general themes, the desire to be yourself and be free even in confining situations. And the specific thing of showing a competent Democrat woman President winning an election against a Trump standin. Also highly fictional and optimistic, a sort of political romance, but it's deft. And I think it elevates the basic personal romance story too.
\nThe other thing I enjoyed on a second read is how fresh the prose still reads. The author has a lot of remarkably well turned phrases. I've published a bunch of Kindle highlights for the ones I marked as I was reading.
\nOne central conflict in the story is "OMG I have to tell my parents I'm queer". I wonder / hope that in the coming years young readers will read this and think "why is this such a big deal? my classmate came out to us and xir parents when they were nine!" The closet will never go away but I hope fewer and fewer kids are growing up in it as we progress.
\n(I enjoyed the movie adaptation quite a bit, particularly because it was snappy and sexy. Cuts a lot from the book of course including a lot of the political story that I liked so much on second reading. Still very good, intend to watch it a second time.)
\n","w":683,"cv":"covers/49233093.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.04,"n":1285169,"dist":[30412,69809,235510,428756,520682],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Young Adult","Enemies To Lovers","New Adult","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":"","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Romance and for Debut Novel","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Bisexual Book Awards","cat":"Romance (joint winner)","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20090688W","wp":"Red,_White_&_Royal_Blue"},{"id":33453,"t":"You Suck","sl":"you-suck","se":"A Love Story","sn":"2","a":["Christopher Moore"],"as":"Moore, Christopher","y":2007,"p":328,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-05-28","cv":"covers/33453.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":3.85,"n":51609,"dist":[861,2800,13400,20789,13759],"g":["Humor","Fantasy","Vampires","Comedy","Paranormal","Urban Fantasy","Horror","Romance","Supernatural"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL274945W","wp":"You_Suck:_A_Love_Story","isf":"1004626"},{"id":93269,"t":"Earth Abides","sl":"earth-abides","a":["George R. Stewart"],"as":"Stewart, George R.","y":1949,"p":345,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-05-27","d":"2024-05-27","rev":"What an amazing book! I feel pretty well steeped in the post-apocalyptic genre but somehow I'd never read this classic of the type. Or maybe I read this in 2004 or so but have no memory of it. Regardless it was a fantastic read in 2024. Interesting to see its influence on future writers.
\nParticularly thinking of Kim Stanley Robinson and his econarratives; the side passages in this book narrating changes to the earth post-disaster are very similar. (The edition I read had a forward by KSR). Also some strong connection to Octavia Butler's Parables and Patternmaster books, the tribal society. A little bit of Jemisin / Broken Earth. And games like Fallout of course, particularly the scavenging of artifacts from the lost society. A bit of The Martian in this book too, or rather vice-versa.
\nI love how the library is kept as this monument and reservoir of knowledge but ends up not mattering one damn bit. Nothing intellectual ends up mattering much, a melancholy thought for me and the author.
\nOne fault of the book is it's unimaginatively sexist. Women are there mostly to be baby factories and in one admittedly moving package, be strong beacons of hope and care during a medical disaster. Would be interesting to read a modern retelling of this same story from womens' perspectives.
\n","w":221,"cv":"covers/93269.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.94,"n":35628,"dist":[839,2347,7364,12617,12461],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Apocalyptic","Classics","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"International Fantasy Award","cat":"Fiction","year":1951,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2321336W","wp":"Earth_Abides","isf":"2029"},{"id":174716416,"t":"Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben","sl":"washingtons-gay-general","a":["Josh Trujillo","Levi Hastings"],"as":"Trujillo, Josh","y":2023,"p":192,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-05-22","d":"2024-05-22","rev":"Lovely little history, quite quick. I knew the broad strokes of van Steuben's history, the way he connects Frederick the Great to George Washington is fascinating. As is his queer life, the focus of this book. But this book is well researched and fills in a lot of details. It got a bit preachy in the middle trying too hard to relate von Steuben's presumed homosexual life in the 1700s to modern life but it was well meaning, in service to the author connecting himself to this bit of queer history.
\nUnfortunately the exact historical record is a bit thin, there's no racy letters or tawdry details. There's no question von Steuben himself loved the young men in his life but their relationships with him are more ambiguous and don't meet the modern way of being gay. I like that the book presented all that directly without trying to overinterpret.
\nThe art is quite pretty. A bit sketchy and undemanding, more of an illustration for the writing than a graphically intense novel in itself. I like that and there's a few grand panels that are more intricate, quite lovely artwork.
\n","w":190,"cv":"covers/174716416.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":3.95,"n":989,"dist":[8,37,228,438,278],"g":["Graphic Novels","History","LGBT","Biography","Queer","Comics","Historical","Biography Memoir"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL34509815W"},{"id":51637946,"t":"Light of the Jedi (Star Wars: The High Republic)","sl":"light-of-the-jedi-star-wars","se":"Star Wars: The High Republic","a":["Charles Soule"],"as":"Soule, Charles","y":2021,"p":380,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-05-21","d":"2024-05-21","rev":"I enjoyed this entertainment product. There were many adventures and characters. Lots of laser swords and space wizards. They had a big fight and the good guys won. Or did they? A whole franchise of more story awaits, a multi-media onslaught guaranteed to occupy us for the next ten years.
\nCompetently written but utterly soulless, devoid of any deep meaning or excitement. Perfectly serviceable middlebrow entertainment that was not asked to do much and did not do much.
\n","w":78,"cv":"covers/51637946.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":3.92,"n":35361,"dist":[538,1842,7984,14538,10459],"g":["Star Wars","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Adventure","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24228313W","wp":"Star_Wars:_Light_of_the_Jedi","isf":"2811685"},{"id":33616965,"t":"Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush","sl":"roaring-camp","a":["Susan Lee Johnson"],"as":"Johnson, Susan Lee","y":2000,"p":342,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-05-12","d":"2024-05-12","rev":"Well researched and written but pretty dry. I skimmed sections that were not of interest to me.
\nI like Johnson's approach to social history, particularly contextualizing events in terms of gender and race understanding of the time. It's also interesting to read such a fine, detailed summary of things gleaned through many hours of work reading through diaries, court records, newspapers, etc.
\nI came to this book hoping for more info on LGBT history for the Gold Rush. Sadly it's not really in the record. Not for lack of trying, I appreciate the few scraps of homosexual history the author could find. I also appreciated when she just said outright that there was only one unambiguous record of homosexuality in her study area, a mention of buggery in a divorce court. But a few stories of mining men and their close relationships with other men, ones that it's easy to imagine were romantic. She also does a good job explaining why the Anglo sources she mostly draws from would not have recorded more explicit evidence of homosexual behavior, even very private ones like diaries.
\nI came away with a better understanding of that brief window in the early 1850s in the Southern Diggings, and a deep appreciation of the multicultural nuances at work.
\n","w":213,"cv":"covers/33616965.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":3.76,"n":246,"dist":[6,18,69,89,64],"g":["History","American History","Grad School","Research","American","Sociology","Class","19th Century"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Bancroft Prize","cat":null,"year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"W. Turrentine Jackson Award","cat":"","year":2001,"won":true}],"ol":"OL465251W"},{"id":20186,"t":"Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed","sl":"seeing-like-a-state","se":"The Institution for Social and Policy Studies","a":["James C. Scott"],"as":"Scott, James C.","y":1998,"p":461,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-05-08","cv":"covers/20186.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":4.21,"n":7489,"dist":[70,210,1070,2871,3268],"g":["Politics","History","Economics","Anthropology","Philosophy","Sociology","Political Science","Theory","Society"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"APSA Benjamin E. Lippincott Award","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Mattei Dogan Award","cat":"","year":2000,"won":true},{"name":"Wildavsky Award for Enduring Contribution to Policy Studies","cat":"","year":2015,"won":true}],"ol":"OL26241985W"},{"id":48727813,"t":"She Who Became the Sun","sl":"she-who-became-the-sun","se":"The Radiant Emperor","sn":"1","a":["Shelley Parker-Chan"],"as":"Parker-Chan, Shelley","y":2021,"p":416,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-05-05","d":"2024-05-05","rev":"Finished this book for my queer bookclub but it was a slog. It just never grabbed me. I had a hard time keeping track of who was who and never got excited about all the political machinations. What I did like was the theme of making your own fate. Of Zhu's aggressive stance to claim a future for herself and then making it manifest through sheer force of will.
\nIt didn't work for me as a queer book either. Two queer characters, the eunuch Ouyang and the genderqueer Zhu. Neither fitting modern LGBT roles (not a problem for me, but notable). We don't talk about eunuchs in modern life, it's considered an aberration or atrocity. But historically eunuchs operated as a sort of third gender, at least in European society, and apparently Mongol too. Zhu is not transgender exactly, she seems to think of herself as a woman passing as a man more than being a man. (In fact her becoming comfortable with being a woman is a major character development!) But certainly queer, genderqueer, and there's some interesting writing around that.
\nJust wish I had gotten more engaged with the political story. I doubt I would have finished this if not for the book club obligation.
\n","w":207,"cv":"covers/48727813.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":3.83,"n":99629,"dist":[1763,7014,24372,39851,26629],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Historical","Lesbian","Historical Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"British Book Award","cat":"Fiction: Début","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Aurealis Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Transgender Fiction","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds Award) and for Best Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award)","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy and for Debut Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Otherwise Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24184009W","wp":"She_Who_Became_the_Sun","isf":"2867445"},{"id":167843,"t":"The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge","sl":"the-collected-stories-of-vernor-vinge","se":"Zones of Thought","a":["Vernor Vinge"],"as":"Vinge, Vernor","y":2001,"p":464,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-05-01","cv":"covers/167843.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.98,"n":1187,"dist":[7,36,287,506,351],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Collections","Anthologies","Short Story Collection","Speculative Fiction","Literature","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20102991W","wp":"The_Collected_Stories_of_Vernor_Vinge","isf":"40024"},{"id":107214412,"t":"Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path","sl":"park-cruising","a":["Marcus McCann"],"as":"McCann, Marcus","y":2023,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-04-23","cv":"covers/107214412.avif","cw":266,"ch":400,"ol":"OL28732677W"},{"id":136361472,"t":"These Burning Stars","sl":"these-burning-stars","se":"The Kindom Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Bethany Jacobs"],"as":"Jacobs, Bethany","y":2023,"p":465,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-04-22","d":"2024-04-22","rev":"Had some good moments and an interesting backstory. But I found the book hard to read, thanks to the jumping timeframes and one too many secret agent style character with a complicated presence. Also the book is hyperviolent, cruelty and murder as entertainment, and I found that tiresome. So overall kind of negative on the book but there's a spark in it that kept me interested enough to finish it.
\n","w":70,"cv":"covers/136361472.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.13,"n":7028,"dist":[110,261,1033,2818,2806],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Queer","Lesbian","LGBT","Space"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"First Novel","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL28356842W","isf":"3219025"},{"id":38914991,"t":"Escaping Exodus","sl":"escaping-exodus","se":"Escaping Exodus","sn":"1","a":["Nicky Drayden"],"as":"Drayden, Nicky","y":2019,"p":300,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-04-17","cv":"covers/38914991.avif","cw":265,"ch":400,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL21018286W","isf":"2609396"},{"id":776624,"t":"Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West (Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies)","sl":"jennie-carter","a":["Eric Gardner"],"as":"Gardner, Eric","y":2007,"p":153,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-04-15","cv":"covers/776624.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"ol":"OL8475950W"},{"id":60215300,"t":"Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America","sl":"indigenous-continent","a":["Pekka Hämäläinen"],"as":"Hämäläinen, Pekka","y":2022,"p":592,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-04-13","cv":"covers/60215300.avif","cw":235,"ch":360,"ol":"OL27815501W"},{"id":61871743,"t":"The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History","sl":"the-rediscovery-of-america","a":["Ned Blackhawk"],"as":"Blackhawk, Ned","y":2023,"p":596,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-04-13","cv":"covers/61871743.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL28798549W"},{"id":56078386,"t":"Heaven's River","sl":"heavens-river","se":"Bobiverse","sn":"4","a":["Dennis E. Taylor"],"as":"Taylor, Dennis E.","y":2020,"p":608,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-04-12","d":"2024-04-12","rev":"Apparently I liked this, since I read it so fast and was entertained by every page. But goodness it seemed awfully fluffy in retrospect. It doesn't help that the central plot in the book ends up amounting to nothing although it is a good structure for the author to show us the workings of a fictional world. That and entertain us with some two-fisted tales of derring-do.
\nThe interesting ideas are on the periphery. The two secret Quin factions. The factions in the universe that the Bobs have to contend with. That's remarkably complex but a bit underexplored.
\nMeh, lots of criticism. It's a fun read.
\n","w":106,"cv":"covers/56078386.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.28,"n":42901,"dist":[158,797,5743,16438,19765],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Humor","Fantasy","Aliens","Artificial Intelligence"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL23705087W","isf":"2789069"},{"id":218427,"t":"Gateway","sl":"gateway","se":"Heechee Saga","sn":"1","a":["Frederik Pohl"],"as":"Pohl, Frederik","y":1977,"p":278,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-04-11","cv":"covers/218427.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL60924W","wp":"Gateway_(novel)","isf":"1884"},{"id":179550498,"t":"James","sl":"james","a":["Percival Everett"],"as":"Everett, Percival","y":2024,"p":304,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-04-07","d":"2024-04-07","rev":"Goodness I read this in 24 hours, very fast for me. It's very well written, very readable, and wryly funny throughout. Without in any way shying from the horrors of slavery that are described.
\nI read Huckleberry Finn two years ago and it made me angry. For lots of reasons, but mostly because Twain really gave Jim short shrift in the book. So it's great to read this new novel, the story from James' perspective. Just what I needed.
\nMostly it works. I liked Everett's book the best in the first parts where it hews closely to Twain's own narrative, if anything is constrained by the original plot. Everett deftly tells the absurd hijinx of the white boy from the perspective of the escaped slave James. It's interesting to see author succeed at this narrative feat. I think the book goes off the rails a bit towards the end when the narrative diverges from Twain's, but then Everett's got a plan in mind for this book and he gets the story there. It's not place my to criticize that. (I am sorry we didn't get to see James' view of the offensive last quarter of Twin's book, where Sawyer makes a game of Jim's freedom for his own entertainment. I was hoping Everett would somehow redeem that, but maybe in retrospect it's better he just let it go.)
\nThe most powerful thing in the writing is all the code switching, James alternating "slave dialect", a put-on to set white people at ease, vs his own learned "proper" English. It's the source of a lot of humor in the book, then later horror and power and poignancy. It never gets old.
\nThere's also a couple of heartbreaking character details. James' love for Huck, his caring for the boy, protecting Huck on his adventure. And James hunger for written words, for books and writing implements. These speak powerfully to James' humanity and his perseverance in the face of slavery and are elements absolutely missing from Twain, part of what made me so angry reading Twain's novel. I thank Everett for supplying them.
\n","w":351,"cv":"covers/179550498.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.41,"n":607095,"dist":[2819,9487,55082,208719,330988],"g":["Historical Fiction","Literary Fiction","Historical","Race","Retellings","Classics","African American"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"Shortlist","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Pulitzer Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"British Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction","cat":"","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"California Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Literary Fiction & Classics and Nominee for Best Fiction Narrator","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Audiobook and Nominee for Fiction","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Dayton Literary Peace Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Hurston/Wright Legacy Award","cat":"General Fiction","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"NAIBA Book of the Year","cat":"Fiction","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Kirkus Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Historical Fiction and for Audiobook","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Βραβείο Βιβλίου Public","cat":"Μεταφρασμένο Μυθιστόρημα (μετάφραση: Μυρσίνη Γκανά)","year":2026,"won":false},{"name":"Southern Book Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Aspen Words Literary Prize","cat":"Shortlist","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Dublin Literary Award","cat":"Shortlist","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"She Reads Best of Award","cat":"Literary Fiction and Nominee for Book of the Year and Audiobook","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Award","cat":"","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Libby Award","cat":"Best Historical Fiction and Nominee for Best Adult Fiction","year":2025,"won":true}],"ol":"OL36506504W","wp":"James_(novel)"},{"id":840278,"t":"Eon","sl":"eon","se":"The Way","sn":"1","a":["Greg Bear"],"as":"Bear, Greg","y":1985,"p":504,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-04-06","d":"2024-04-06","rev":"Well it's certainly ambitious! A very Big Ideas scifi novel, and with some significant novelty in it. I admire the ambition and description of other cultures, ways of being human, and a bunch of hard scifi ideas and their consequences.
\nShame the book is so dated in other ways. There's a whole Cold War plot with Grim Soviet Soldiers that just reads bafflingly now, the stereotypes shining through. Also while there's good women characters there's also some really baffling sexuality on display including one laughable scene where a woman volunteers to have a quick shag with our hero because he's so horny he just can't concentrate. Really?
\nMostly though what frustrated me is for all its Big Scifi ambition, it got lost. I never really understood the layout of The Stone, the chambers and the singularity and how it all fits together. And I fully never understood the political machinations of the factions that are introduced in the second half of the book. I think Bear probably spent a lot of very creative time sketching that out and I like the ambition. I just wish he'd described it better.
\n","w":189,"cv":"covers/840278.avif","cw":280,"ch":458,"avg":3.88,"n":30624,"dist":[525,1900,7496,11556,9147],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Speculative Fiction","Time Travel","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":null,"year":1987,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16518W","wp":"Eon_(novel)","isf":"1997"},{"id":24152470,"t":"The Tower at the Edge of the World","sl":"the-tower-at-the-edge-of-the-world","se":"The Nine Worlds (Recommended Reading Order)","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2014,"p":33,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-03-31","d":"2024-03-31","rev":"What if the kid in the Omelas hole were a wild mage of incredible power and figured out how to free himself? It's a nice premise for a quick read and very sympathetically written. A young man discovering himself and his capabilities in the world.
\nIt'd be an unremarkable pleasant story except this also is the first of Goddard's Nine Worlds stories and a precursor to the excellent The Hands of the Emperor. Reading this early backstory for a major character from those books is quite a surprise and it's funny how in her later books she calls back to so many details written here.
\nI wouldn't read this story first; I'd read it after the three recent major novels. But it's a nice backfill for some story and character.
\n","w":131,"cv":"covers/24152470.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.16,"n":697,"dist":[3,6,147,260,281],"g":["Fantasy","Short Stories","Novella","Canada","Fantasy Of Manners","Magic","Cozy Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24683781W"},{"id":42647752,"t":"We All Loved Cowboys","sl":"we-all-loved-cowboys","a":["Carol Bensimon","Beth Fowler"],"as":"Bensimon, Carol","y":2013,"p":196,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-03-30","d":"2024-03-30","rev":"Read for a book club, would not have finished it otherwise. But was greatly helped by Lily Meyer's review. The key that unlocked the book for me was that it "features a difficult protagonist whose myopia belies..."
\nI struggled to engage with the book. I'll be honest, road trip novels about young women either falling in love or not are not my jam. And Cora, the narrator, seemed so vapid and flighty. Meyer's review helped me understand that was deliberate writing on Bensimon's part, the skill of the novel, so I could read past that and appreciate what the author was doing.
\nStill not really engaged though. It is a nice dreamy sort of journey novel and some of the scenes and characterizations were interesting. Particularly the revelations about Julia's brother. But overall, it never really grabbed me.
\n(Beth Fowler's translation felt a bit clunky to me too. Entirely readable, for sure, but a little leaden. Perhaps that reflects the original prose?)
\n","w":163,"cv":"covers/42647752.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":3.37,"n":1497,"dist":[39,200,599,491,168],"g":["Queer","LGBT","Romance","Lesbian","Contemporary","Brazil","Literary Fiction","Gay","Coming Of Age"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL20552304W"},{"id":7929891,"t":"Slow Horses","sl":"slow-horses","se":"Slough House","sn":"1","a":["Mick Herron"],"as":"Herron, Mick","y":2010,"p":320,"r":1,"sh":"did-not-finish","dr":"2024-03-25","d":"2024-03-25","rev":"Nope. Love the TV show, read three chapters and could not get my head around the writing style. The TV show is so very good, with strong characters and performances. I think shifting to the book isn't going to work for me.
\n","w":42,"cv":"covers/7929891.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":4.05,"n":96257,"dist":[1136,3197,16756,44047,31121],"g":["Thriller","Mystery","Espionage","Crime","Mystery Thriller","Spy Thriller","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL18630860W","wp":"Slow_Horses_(novel)"},{"id":56304450,"t":"We","sl":"we","a":["Yevgeny Zamyatin","Bela Shayevich","Margaret Atwood"],"as":"Zamyatin, Yevgeny","y":1924,"p":304,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-03-25","d":"2024-03-25","rev":"Wouldn't think it'd take me nearly two weeks to read a 200 page novel. I really didn't enjoying reading this. It's not a bad book, Ursula K. Le Guin called it "the best single work of science fiction yet written". My 1 star is purely personal. It was a triumph I managed to have every page pass before my eyeballs.
\nMy problem is entirely in the stylized, nearly experimental writing style of the book. Very modern, by the 1920s standard. It felt like trying to watch the movie Metropolis instead of a contemporary fun movie: it's brilliant and innovative but so awkward as to be unenjoyable. Enormous amount of symbolism went right past me as I desperately tried to hold on to the basic story. I tried hard with We. Read a bunch of two different translations, scanned several others. Finally read a Cliff's Notes style plot summary which at least let me get through the book.
\nThe book has strengths! It's an interesting dystopia about a totalitarian society. It has some funny sex in it. There's something very imaginative here. Orwell's review connects it to Brave New World, then used it as inspiration for writing 1984. Also the book has a role it played as an example of Soviet dissident literature (although as Orwell points out, that's not entirely accurate). Perhaps if I were a student of modernist literature or 20th century Russian fiction I would find it more interesting.
\n","w":241,"cv":"covers/56304450.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.87,"n":120177,"dist":[2139,7603,29147,45764,35524],"g":["Classics","Science Fiction","Dystopia","Russia","Russian Literature","Literature","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Deutscher Hörbuchpreis","cat":"Bestes Hörspiel","year":2016,"won":true}],"ol":"OL10215W","wp":"We_(novel)","isf":"1232995"},{"id":929783,"t":"The Iron Heel","sl":"the-iron-heel","a":["Jack London","Matt Soar"],"as":"London, Jack","y":1907,"p":155,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-03-16","cv":"covers/929783.avif","cw":280,"ch":442,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL74502W","wp":"The_Iron_Heel","isf":"21610"},{"id":41563262,"t":"The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found: A History in Seven Cities","sl":"the-map-of-knowledge","a":["Violet Moller"],"as":"Moller, Violet","y":2019,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-03-14","cv":"covers/41563262.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL20163258W"},{"id":77980762,"t":"Julia","sl":"julia","a":["Sandra Newman"],"as":"Newman, Sandra","y":2023,"p":394,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-03-13","d":"2024-03-13","rev":"What a grotesque, lurid novel. I was sure before I read this that all the negative reviews were misogyny. But no, really the book is not very good. I question why it got approved by Orwell's estate.
\nI was all in for a feminist revisiting of the 1984 story. I liked some of the first parts of the book, seeing Julia's agency, her canny understanding of the people around her. Her sex scenes with Winston were particularly hilarious, playing the role of a sweet girl fluffing up her man so he can fulfill his masculine role. All without harming his fragile ego. That part of the book I liked.
\nBut the rest of it... a lot of the novel is a sort of tedious set of explicating the horrors of what life under IngSoc would be. Torture porn at its worst, but most of it a sort of tedious recitation of extended worldbuilding. Of misery. It struck me as entirely missing what made 1984 so great, how Orwell explicated how totalitarianism can subvert people. Instead Newman just seems to be writing a book about how bad it'd be to live in a totalitarian state. Yes, I agree, it's awful! Do we need that book to be written? As fiction, drafting off of such a well known classic book?
\nIn some ways this book reminds me more of The Handmaid's Tale. The book itself but also the extended universe of TV writing. Clearly the woman's perspective is part of what me thinks that. But also the sort of relentless unspooling of the world of Airstrip One, vignettes revealing depredation after atrocity after horror. I just wish it were all in service of something illuminating. Instead I fear this book is entertaining, at best, and a dismal job of that.
\nStill it's competently written and compelling enough. Good characters, some interesting insights. Just cloaked in a lot of awfulness whose literary purpose I am questioning.
\n(PS, I highlighted some passages in the book because I thought they were particularly well turned phrases. Hilariously I realize now they are almost all about sex.)
\n","w":351,"cv":"covers/77980762.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.7,"n":17121,"dist":[436,1371,4673,6983,3658],"g":["Dystopia","Science Fiction","Retellings","Feminism","Classics","Historical Fiction","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Longlist","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL34511292W"},{"id":39863463,"t":"When Brooklyn Was Queer","sl":"when-brooklyn-was-queer","a":["Hugh Ryan"],"as":"Ryan, Hugh","y":2019,"p":308,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-03-09","d":"2024-03-09","rev":"Read for a book club, wish I liked it better. It was fine. I'm very grateful to have histories like this written for me to read. Just wish it was beter!
\nThere's the rare kind of history book which is strongly written and has a clear narrative and thesis throughout. This book isn't quite that. The author does have a story, one I'm quite interested in. The way LGBT visibility and awareness at times has led to more oppression or conformity or stigmatization. I loved the parts of the book that talk about early Brooklyn queer culture hiding in plain site, or at least between the cracks.
\nBut a lot of the book feels a bit more vague and rambling. Part of the problem is just organization. Each chapter is chunked by eras but the lines are not so clear between, say, 1920s and 1930s. And then within each chapter it's a muddled stream. The book could have done well with subheadings inside the chapter, one every few pages for a new subject / theme. Instead it's all mixed together in a confusing way.
\nThe research is interesting! Some really excellent deep dive scholarship, particularly in the Kinsey archives getting first person narratives. The material from Thomas Painter is particularly interesting.) So were the escapades of Alfred Gross and Dr. George Henry and their 1950s efforts at "helping" homosexuals. The Quaker Emergency Services would make a great book in itself. So I'm grateful to the author for bringing these bits of history to life.
\nBut it's not quite a deep enough book. It's inevitable to compare this to Chauncey's tremendous Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940. But, well, it doesn't quite have the same weight.
\n","w":295,"cv":"covers/39863463.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.3,"n":2040,"dist":[3,34,252,805,946],"g":["History","Queer","LGBT","Historical","New York","Gay","Queer Lit"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Randy Shilts Award","cat":"Gay Nonfiction","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"New York City Book Award","cat":"Book of the Year","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBTQ Nonfiction","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20156997W"},{"id":133454,"t":"Jhereg","sl":"jhereg","se":"Vlad Taltos","sn":"1","a":["Steven Brust"],"as":"Brust, Steven","y":1983,"p":307,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-03-04","cv":"covers/133454.avif","cw":95,"ch":169,"avg":4.12,"n":15794,"dist":[203,563,2746,5910,6372],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Science Fiction","Adventure","Mystery","Epic Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1900625W","wp":"Jhereg","isf":"1686"},{"id":57021245,"t":"Light From Uncommon Stars","sl":"light-from-uncommon-stars","a":["Ryka Aoki"],"as":"Aoki, Ryka","y":2021,"p":384,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-03-01","d":"2024-03-01","rev":"Lovely quick read. I love queer "finding yourself" narratives, which this definitely is. But it's not smarmy or trite, the character and the story has quite a sharp edge to it. The fantastical and sci-fi angles elevated the storytelling quite a bit.
\nBut what I liked best was all the music details, the violin construction and the video game music and the Bartók sonata for solo violin. Clearly the author has some depth here, or good research, and it augments the narrative well. The climactic chapter with our hero performing brilliantly had me really excited and compelled, the writing is almost shatteringly beautiful there (like the music!).
\nThis book has some energy in common with Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I liked them both in a similar way, the connection to young people with genius and talent.
\n","w":138,"cv":"covers/57021245.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.02,"n":42149,"dist":[664,2347,8018,15387,15733],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Queer","LGBT","Lesbian","Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Literature","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Ray Bradbury Prize","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Otherwise Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Adult Novel","year":2022,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24167486W","wp":"Light_from_Uncommon_Stars","isf":"2910711"},{"id":56392665,"t":"The Return of Fitzroy Angursell","sl":"the-return-of-fitzroy-angursell","se":"The Red Company Reformed","sn":"1","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2020,"p":380,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-02-26","d":"2024-02-26","rev":"Charming, cozy read, but a bit of a guilty pleasure. I loved The Hands of the Emperor and its sequel, so was ready to read more stories about the characters. But Fitzroy Angursell turns out not to be the most interesting character for a whole book.
\nCompared to the Lays of the Hearth-Fire what's missing here is any real tension or bite. Kip's story, particularly the first book, has a meaningful fantasy story with events that happen and bureaucracy. And Kip has a real long personal journey to go on with meaningful conflicts about his heritage, his role in the world, his relationship with the Emperor.
\nBut here in this Red Company book it's the return; Fitzroy is an established person and is just coming back. There's some tension as he wrestles with his own history and who he is but it's all in service to a foregone conclusion. Narratively it's interesting since this is the first full book the author is written: we the reader have no idea who this Fitzroy is, other than some hints from other books. But that dramatic irony isn't explored as well as it could be, I could have done with some more surprises.
\nStructural complaints aside it is nicely written and sweet. Goddard is a remarkably good prose stylist. Her pages flow smoothly, full of just musical enough language to be more than a direct read. And sometimes she waxes elegiac with paragraph-long descriptions of some scenery, or lighting, or the arrangement of objects in a room. They're like little paintings, lovely.
\nThe book greatly improves after the first 100 pages or so, the author finds the right voice. I might well read more of this series if I'm looking for something undemanding to pass the time.
\n","w":295,"cv":"covers/56392665.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.38,"n":1446,"dist":[4,28,152,492,770],"g":["Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Royalty","High Fantasy","Queer","Epic Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL24541656W"},{"id":58950674,"t":"Eyes of the Void","sl":"eyes-of-the-void","se":"The Final Architecture","sn":"2","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2022,"p":596,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-02-20","d":"2024-02-20","rev":"Oof, this was a slog and I considered quitting a few times. I finally got into the groove about 2/3 of the way through though and enjoyed the rest of the story. I liked the first one well enough, why not this?
\nI think mostly because all the universe building I liked in the first book just sort of.. sat there in this sequel. Learning for the first time about the Hivers and the Partheni and the destruction of Earth and all was exciting and fun, a lot of new ideas. I was thrilled by the great existential danger of the Architects, the big reveal at the end of the first book about their nature.
\nBut this second book just reiterates all that. There's not much new depth to the various space factions. We finally learn one minor new fact about the Architects. Mostly it's just using the same characters and setting to tell new two-fisted tales of space opera excitement. Which honestly seemed tedious to me. I really don't care about the characters in particular, except maybe Idris.
\nI wonder if I'll bother with the third book. I probably should, but then I sort of feel a one paragraph summary of the conclusion of all the drama about the Architects would probably satisfy my desire to know more.
\n","w":219,"cv":"covers/58950674.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.19,"n":22218,"dist":[82,413,3373,9787,8563],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Adventure","Fantasy","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26518910W","isf":"3009985"},{"id":58919034,"t":"Petty Treasons","sl":"petty-treasons","se":"Lays of the Hearth-Fire","sn":"0.5","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2021,"p":110,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-02-05","d":"2024-02-05","rev":"I don't specifically recall reading this in the Goddard binge, but I did. Vaguely remember it being pleasant but not particularly insightful, not adding a lot to The Hands of the Emperor
\n","w":32,"cv":"covers/58919034.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.27,"n":1356,"dist":[4,20,204,500,628],"g":["Fantasy","Novella","Magic","High Fantasy","Short Stories","Royalty","Cozy Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL25305659W"},{"id":199662808,"t":"The Game of Courts","sl":"the-game-of-courts","se":"Lays of the Hearth-Fire","sn":"0.6","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2023,"p":67,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-02-03","d":"2024-02-03","rc":2,"rev":"Entertaining enough but I wish something more happened. Also Goddard seems to be using these shorts as a chance to experiment with prose style and this one didn't really land for me.
\n","w":32,"cv":"covers/199662808.avif","cw":280,"ch":442,"avg":4.31,"n":625,"dist":[0,5,85,245,290],"g":["Fantasy","Novella","LGBT","Short Stories","Friendship","Queer","High Fantasy","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","q":1},{"id":60720846,"t":"Terec and the Wild","sl":"terec-and-the-wild","se":"Terec of Lund","sn":"1","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2022,"p":52,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-02-02","d":"2024-02-02","rev":"Didn't land for me, not sure why it needed to be written or read. Too far outside the Lays of the Hearth-fire series to be interesting as apocrypha, not enough met in itself to sustain my interest.
\n","w":37,"cv":"covers/60720846.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.93,"n":380,"dist":[2,12,109,144,113],"g":["Fantasy","Short Stories","Queer","Novella","LGBT","Cozy Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1},{"id":62117306,"t":"Those Who Hold the Fire","sl":"those-who-hold-the-fire","se":"Lays of the Hearth-Fire","sn":"0.3","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2022,"p":40,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-02-02","d":"2024-02-02","rev":"Pleasant short read, a bit generic. Nice to have Kip fleshed out a bit.
\n","w":14,"cv":"covers/62117306.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.29,"n":561,"dist":[1,4,80,220,256],"g":["Fantasy","Short Stories","Novella","High Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":61918023,"t":"At the Feet of the Sun","sl":"at-the-feet-of-the-sun","se":"Lays of the Hearth-Fire","sn":"2","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2022,"p":1330,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-01-31","d":"2024-01-31","rev":"Good heavens, what a book. I found this very moving, almost too much so, and greatly enjoyed reading it. It's also just way, way, way too long. Easily could have been broken into three books. Or edited to half and kept the story, but maybe not the reinforcement of the emotional beats. I'm not complaining, I enjoyed reading every page and want to read more. But the length dilutes the book a bit.
\nMost of the reviews of the first book I read concentrated on Cliopher's love for his Emperor, his caring for the man as well as the job. It's interesting to see that kind of non-sexual relationship develop in a second book, the author went fully at it. But I'm not sure it worked for me entirely. It's just too hard for me to connect to an asexual relationship. The whole book is written around a great and romantic love between two men. And yet.. there's no sex! Like, just kiss already! It's explicitly an asexual relationship but like a marriage or deep friendship in every way and I found that.. frustrating. I'm being churlish here. Ace representation is good and I appreciate in particular how the author tackled head-on Cliopher's mostly lack of interest in sex, including the awkward negotiation over a chapter or two with Fitzroy
\nAlso the author deftly avoids any complaint of hiding queer content by including a robustly homosexual relationship. I loved the scenes of Aurelius and Elonoa'a, in particular introducing them as a couple having sex on a beach. Just full-bore embrace of raunchy gay male sex and hilariously echoed by Fitzroy's poem about them at the end. It provided some gay representation, and some comedy, and most importantly an interesting counterpoint to Kip and Fitzroy's relationship. They're supposed to be a future mirror but not quite, right?
\nThere's also a puzzling scene with sex and Cliopher when he has sex with the woman who paints his portraits. It's presented perfectly nicely, a fun but not too serious romp between people who respect and like each other. But then that's a little hard to square with Kip's uninterest in anything sexual with Fitzroy. He does say that to the extent he has sex it's with women, so fair enough...
\nI'm left wondering about the Emperor and how it's going to work, him being asexual with Kip. Because he's clearly randy AF. Maybe book 3 will include the polycule of the Red Family and all the hijinx that ensue.
\nI will note the book follows the first in being almost entirely a story about men. There's some minor women characters, and some diverse gender representation. And she writes men very well; as a gay man I'm delighted to read books about men! I wonder if some of her Red Company books center the women in the book and how that works.
\nPhew, that's a lot of review about sexual relationships. But at its heart this book is the story of a great romance, it seems what it is. I did miss all the bureaucratic fantasy of the first book, Cliopher's success at reshaping an empire through his unstoppable competence. That wouldn't have worked as a second book, fair enough, but it was a fun theme. There's also less about Kip's status as an outsider, between the Islander and Court society. But that's because he's found his place and it's fun seeing him fully claim his rightful role as a person of respect.
\nPS: for anyone else interested in reading her larger universe, this reading order is helpful.
\n","w":594,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/61918023.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.52,"n":1744,"dist":[7,24,144,450,1119],"g":["Fantasy","Queer","LGBT","Romance","Adventure","Magic","Cozy Fantasy","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL31367667W"},{"id":197191745,"t":"Snow Boys","sl":"snow-boys","a":["Simon Doyle"],"as":"Doyle, Simon","y":2023,"p":384,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-01-15","d":"2024-01-15","rev":"What a lovely emotional book! It took me awhile to get into it but the book just gets stronger and better with each chapter, the final third was very compelling to me.
\nIt's a young adult gay romance. Fairly light on the sexy stuff. But what it really is is a meaningful story about two young men finding themselves, their place in their school community, and each other. Overcoming some problems. Both my partner Ken and I read it and found ourselves in it.
\nStructurally the author does something interesting. Each character has two narrative arcs and they are well balanced off each other. Dean, the brainy one, is really struggling to understand being gay and being comfortable with his crush on Ben. He's got problems in life but they're relatively minor, mostly just singing with the choir. Meanwhile Ben, the basketball player, starts the novel already knowing he's gay, having coming out to his best friend, and knowing unambiguously how he feels about Dean. But then Ben has some really serious problems in his life, his family falling apart.
\nThose four challenges are the narrative threads of the book. On the romance side we have Ben and Dean falling in love. And figuring out how to tell other people. Then on the other story side we have Ben and Dean each overcoming their challenges. Both on their own and with support from the other. And the relative magnitude and progress of each of those four stories gives the book a lot of texture as the narrative is interwoven. The author deftly weaves that all to an emotional crescendo towards the end of the book, a climax, and it's quite effective.
\nAs an aside one of the themes in the book is coming out in high school and dealing with homophobia. And it's quite awful in one part, the book gets quite dark. I appreciated this: so many young adult gay books I've read romanticize coming out unrealistically. This book gives voice to my own fears coming out when I was young, has the story grapple with how people react in their various ways. It ends positively (it is a romance novel after all!) but in a believable way. I appreciated that.
\n","w":372,"cv":"covers/197191745.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.29,"n":1125,"dist":[5,33,145,385,557],"g":["Young Adult","Queer","Romance","LGBT","Contemporary","Gay","M M Romance","Christmas","Holiday"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL45917717W"},{"id":61885085,"t":"Witch King","sl":"witch-king","se":"The Rising World","sn":"1","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2023,"p":432,"sh":"to-read","d":"2024-01-10","cv":"covers/61885085.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"ol":"OL28764208W","wp":"Witch_King_(novel)","isf":"3162122"},{"id":29069374,"t":"My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1","sl":"my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-vol-1","se":"My Favorite Thing Is Monsters","sn":"1","a":["Emil Ferris"],"as":"Ferris, Emil","y":2017,"p":416,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2024-01-04","d":"2024-01-04","rev":"Read this for an LGBT book club. I liked it, the art more than the text. Parts of it feel really poignant and powerful. It didn't quite hold together for me as a narrative, I lost the plot more than once. Which was kind of OK; the fantastic artwork provides its own experience and carried me through the parts I didn't quite follow.
\nI liked the narrator Karen quite a bit. The first part of the book, the art and the narrator's voice, reminded me more than a little of Marlys (the Magnificent!) in Lynda Barry's Ernie Pook's Comeek. That's not a bad thing, it might have been a little derivative but the author definitely has her own voice and takes the story in an entirely different direction. I also liked Karen's brother Deeze, his sad and poignant presence. Franklin was an interesting character too (and the most overt LGBT content.)
\nWhat I didn't like was Anka and the Holocaust story. Of course I was moved by it, the story is heart wrenching. But it felt uncomfortably fictionalized; I've spent too much time reading autobiographical Holocaust victim narratives and it felt a little strange to be reading what I think was a fictional pastiche. My reaction may be unfair, I'm sure the author meant well. And now having heard the author's Fresh Air interview in March 2017 I understand she's writing from her own research and remembered discussions with Holocaust survivors she knew from her neighborhood. So I don't really have a strong criticism but I am still left a little uncomfortable.
\nOverall it's a unique book and quite a beautiful one. I'm excited that the second volume is finally coming out.
\n","w":283,"cv":"covers/29069374.avif","cw":280,"ch":369,"avg":4.25,"n":27949,"dist":[685,1104,3220,8399,14541],"g":["Graphic Novels","Comics","Horror","Mystery","Historical Fiction","Bande Dessinée","Graphic Novels Comics","LGBT","Queer"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Bram Stoker Award","cat":"Graphic Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Harvey Awards","cat":"Book of the Year","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Ignatz Award","cat":"Outstanding Artist / Outstanding Graphic Novel / Outstanding Story","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Prix du Festival d'Angoulême","cat":"Fauve d'or du meilleur album","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBTQ Graphic Novel","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Tebeo","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards","cat":"Best Graphic Album—New, Best Writer/Artist (for Emil Ferris) & Best Coloring (for Emil Ferris) AND nominated for Best Lettering (for Emil Ferris) & Best Publication Design (designed by Jacob Covey)","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Graphic Novels & Comics","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Premio de los Libreros de Madrid","cat":"Comic/Novela grafica","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Litsy Award","cat":"Graphic Novel","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Prix BDGEST’ ARTS COMICS","cat":null,"year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Gran Guinigi","cat":null,"year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Rudolph Dirks Award","cat":null,"year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de la Critique","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17929982W"},{"id":81992,"t":"Singularity Sky","sl":"singularity-sky","se":"Eschaton","sn":"1","a":["Charles Stross"],"as":"Stross, Charles","y":2003,"p":389,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-12-26","d":"2023-12-26","rev":"I wanted to like this more but honestly the book is kind of a mess. There's some good ideas in here and I like the two main human characters. But then parts of the book are nearly incomprehensible with the gonzo writing and gimmickry. There's even a section of the book which seems like a Very Important Space Battle until ha ha the curtain is pulled and you learn it's just an exercise. That's annoying enough on TV when Star Trek does it but doing that in a book is just not OK. Particularly when I'm struggling to follow the plot already.
\nBut, good things.. I like the history of the Eschaton and how humanity created an AI God and just sort of didn't benefit from it. The Festival is an interesting phenomenon / menace, I wish he'd spent more time on that. Instead all we got were the Critics with their obnoxious prose and some adventure I never quite understood involving a governor and a rabbit. I liked the premise of the twisted up New Republic more, that was well explored.
\nStarting to think Stross is not for me. Too bad; I vaguely know him from the Internet, he's a good and smart guy. And his books are about themes I'm interested in. But somehow it doesn't quite click for me.
\n","w":222,"cv":"covers/81992.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"avg":3.84,"n":16345,"dist":[279,1020,4051,6666,4329],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Singularity","Space","Speculative Fiction","Time Travel","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2465688W","wp":"Singularity_Sky","isf":"23623"},{"id":65215321,"t":"Blackouts","sl":"blackouts","a":["Justin Torres"],"as":"Torres, Justin","y":2023,"p":306,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-12-22","cv":"covers/65215321.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL34082879W","wp":"Blackouts_(novel)"},{"id":58605538,"t":"Beyond the Hallowed Sky","sl":"beyond-the-hallowed-sky","se":"Lightspeed Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Ken MacLeod"],"as":"MacLeod, Ken","y":2021,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-12-21","cv":"covers/58605538.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"ol":"OL25770784W","isf":"2939517"},{"id":61222723,"t":"On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe","sl":"on-savage-shores","a":["Caroline Dodds Pennock"],"as":"Pennock, Caroline Dodds","y":2023,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-12-18","cv":"covers/61222723.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"ol":"OL27415236W"},{"id":545951,"t":"Death Comes for the Archbishop","sl":"death-comes-for-the-archbishop","a":["Willa Cather"],"as":"Cather, Willa","y":1927,"p":297,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-12-15","d":"2023-12-15","rev":"Well this was lovely and a good reminder I should be reading more classic fiction. Remarkably well written and so gentle. I liked the depiction of close, non-romantic friendships between men. And the devotion to a religious life (surprised I liked that, given how problematic Catholic missionary activity can be.) And a meditation on the meaning of one's life in relationships and impacts on others. Timeless themes.
\nBut what I really liked was the New Mexico setting. It made me homesick for when I lived in Santa Fe. The book is beautifully written and does a great job giving vignettes to smaller places like Acoma or Taos. Oddly Santa Fe itself doesn't get quite the same depth, I think because it was too complicated and modernized for the theme of the book. Fair enough.
\n(This is petty but what a terrible title for the book. I spent years thinking it was some cheesy murder mystery.)
\nI was really curious reading this how accurate it was. All the stories seemed true to me, like I remembered from living there. But then did I learn real true stories or was I getting Cather's fiction second-hand?
\nI'm sure the stories I learned in New Mexico were influenced by Cather. But I did a bit of research and she definitely did an enormous amount of research to write the book. The book is fiction but obviously heavily informed by real world events and people. More than just partly truthy. Some details on what I learned...
\nA big chunk of Cather's novel was informed by Life of the Right Reverend Joseph P. Machebeuf, a 1910 biography of the first Bishop of Colorado written in 1908 by a priest who knew him and had access to his letters after his death. Machebeuf becomes Vaillant in the book. On a quick skim it's clear many of Cather's specific stories, like the origin of the bells in one church, come straight from Howlett's biography. I'll take Howlett's work as historical truth or as close to it as is possible now.
\nCather also travelled in the Southwest a fair amount. And was known for doing careful and extensive research. I'm less clear how much access she had to Bishop Lamy's historical life. There's a lot in her book about his thoughts and feelings and I don't know if those were the author's art or come from Lamy's letters.
\nI didn't go this deep but in 1955 Edward and Lillian Bloom wrote The Genesis of Death Comes for the Archbishop, a scholarly article with a lot of details on Cather's sources and writing. There's also a 1999 scholarly edition of the book that promises to "reveal Cather’s creative process and enable the reader to follow the complex history of the text".
\n","w":463,"cv":"covers/545951.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":3.98,"n":45746,"dist":[863,2548,9613,16449,16273],"g":["Classics","Historical Fiction","Literature","Religion","Westerns","American","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"William Dean Howells Medal","cat":"","year":1930,"won":true}],"ol":"OL12832W","wp":"Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop"},{"id":95584575,"t":"Generation Ship","sl":"generation-ship","a":["Michael Mammay"],"as":"Mammay, Michael","y":2023,"p":598,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-12-10","d":"2023-12-10","rev":"Well that was good fun. And remarkably well constructed. Compelling all the way through, good characters, interesting story. Just really well written. Reading this reminded me of reading The Martian, another well told page turner book. Only Mammay also is able to write human relationships.
\nThe primary story is an interesting mix of sci-fi themes. Generation Ships and the political factions of folks living in a bottle for 200 years, that's the main story. But we also get some interesting alien planets, some AI stuff, some cyberpunk, it's a nice mix. Maybe one ingredient too many but it's fine and entertaining.
\nBut the best part of the book is he somehow has several distinct sympathetic POV characters. And two of them are contemptible people, just really bad at their job and somewhat malevolent. They aren't evil anti-heroes either, they're just flawed people in a position of too much authority. It's kind of an interesting trick of writing! (The counterpoint to that is there's one perfect character, not a POV nor main character, but she's called upon to resolve conflicts in a somewhat deus ex machina fashion).
\nAlso appreciated this book after reading Planetside. That book was a little too military to me, this had a lot more going on culturally.
\n","w":212,"cv":"covers/95584575.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.77,"n":2031,"dist":[44,133,540,835,479],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Adventure","Aliens","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL34051384W"},{"id":35657891,"t":"Planetside","sl":"planetside","se":"Planetside","sn":"1","a":["Michael Mammay"],"as":"Mammay, Michael","y":2018,"p":384,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-12-05","d":"2023-12-05","rev":"Starts slow, gets good. I was halfway through the book and about to quit when suddenly the Main Plot kicked in. And what a doozy. I thought the author was just going to do this tedious military procedural thing, show off his knowledge of modern US military culture with a thin scifi wrapper around it. But in the second half there's a proper scifi plot and all the investment in culture and personality clashes comes together with that plot to tell a good and chilling story. Disturbing conclusion, too. Good read.
\n","w":91,"cv":"covers/35657891.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"avg":3.98,"n":5196,"dist":[63,203,1097,2233,1600],"g":["Science Fiction","Mystery","Military Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Aliens","Military Science Fiction","War"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20939266W"},{"id":697251,"t":"Martian Time-Slip","sl":"martian-time-slip","a":["Philip K. Dick"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1964,"p":262,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-11-30","d":"2023-11-30","rev":"A PK Dick schizophrenic novel I somehow had not yet read. It's good! It's not great. There's such a plodding inhuman quality to Dick's narratives, his characters are wooden. Which is at least true to type.
\nWhat's great in this book is the existential horror of the psychotic breaks, the actual time slips. And the gubble gubble. It's just dropped in with no warning or explanation, the reader is expected to keep up with the writer. But in this early book Dick is fully coherent and it's reasonable to expect us to keep up. It works great.
\nI kind of like the dated 50s stuff, the union boss and his girlfriend and the housewives cheating on their husbands with the milkman.
\nGood book but not essential reading. I think it'd make for a really interesting movie adaptation, or maybe a miniseries. The psychological themes might hew a little too closely to A Scanner Darkly to do this one too though. There's not enough hard sci-fi to really carry it in a different direction, this book could just as easily been in California as Mars.
\n","w":184,"cv":"covers/697251.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.78,"n":14969,"dist":[160,865,4396,6221,3327],"g":["Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Time Travel","Classics","Dystopia","American","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2172408W","wp":"Martian_Time-Slip","isf":"1564"},{"id":60749900,"t":"When London Snow Falls","sl":"when-london-snow-falls","se":"When Snow Falls","sn":"2","a":["Hayden Stone"],"as":"Stone, Hayden","y":2022,"p":320,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-11-25","d":"2023-11-25","rev":"Lovey gay romance! Nice characters, excellent pacing and story development. And very sexy, with a few outright porny sections. Not complaining, they were well written and good spicy fun.
\n","w":29,"cv":"covers/60749900.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.62,"n":1650,"dist":[46,158,538,535,373],"g":["Romance","LGBT","M M Romance","Queer","Contemporary","Gay","Christmas","Contemporary Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL27893367W"},{"id":58575163,"t":"Akata Woman","sl":"akata-woman","se":"The Nsibidi Scripts","sn":"3","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2022,"p":416,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-11-16","d":"2023-11-16","rev":"I wanted to like this more but it was tough to get through, I almost quit halfway through. I liked the previous two books much more. Something about this narrative failed to really grab me. I think because she picks up her 4 main characters running, with no reminders from previous books or introductions. Maybe if I'd read this right after the first two I would have followed it more easily.
\nAlso embarrassed to admit I had a hard time following it for the West African culture and mythology. She brings in archetypes in the adventures like the spider god Udide or various trickster men and women who pose challenges and riddles along the way. These are entirely unfamiliar to me and that's exactly why I'm reading these books! I enjoy reading fiction drawn from other cultures. But it's also disorienting and I didn't feel like the writing helped me orient to it. And I couldn't tell if the antagonists she introduces are well-known folk characters anyone raised in Nigerian culture would understand or inventions of Okorafor's from some broad cultural themes I'm not familiar with. I learned via web searches that at least a few of them are drawn from Okorafor's other writing.
\nAnyway, once the book got going I was able to follow along well. I enjoyed the basic quest structure, it felt a whole lot like Wizard of Oz (in a good way). Really don't care for her character writing though. Sunny is mostly the only character who feels really fleshed out, although there's a nice section on Chichi's family history I found quite moving.
\nI probably won't read any more books in this series. Would love to read some other Okorafor though.
\n","w":286,"cv":"covers/58575163.avif","cw":60,"ch":40,"avg":4.19,"n":5206,"dist":[17,103,907,2009,2170],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Magic","Africa","Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Urban Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Lodestar Award","cat":"","year":2023,"won":true}],"ol":"OL24415911W","wp":"Akata_Woman","isf":"2961753"},{"id":57423807,"t":"Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History","sl":"plagues-upon-the-earth","a":["Kyle Harper"],"as":"Harper, Kyle","y":2021,"p":704,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-11-12","cv":"covers/57423807.avif","cw":263,"ch":400,"ol":"OL25317695W"},{"id":61884985,"t":"The Saint of Bright Doors","sl":"the-saint-of-bright-doors","a":["Vajra Chandrasekera"],"as":"Chandrasekera, Vajra","y":2023,"p":356,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-11-08","cv":"covers/61884985.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL28899652W","wp":"The_Saint_of_Bright_Doors","isf":"3181826"},{"id":17250966,"t":"Rhythm of War","sl":"rhythm-of-war","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"4","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2020,"p":1231,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-11-06","d":"2023-11-06","rev":"I finished it! I went into this book expecting something mediocre and I was not disappointed. But was surprised at how uneven it was. The first 100 pages are disorienting, the next 900 pages feel like filler (and half of that ghost written?). But the last 200 pages really go somewhere! I guess people expect this from Sanderson, I certainly did, but it leaves me wondering why it's like this.
\nSo the good part: the story gets quite interesting at the end. A bunch of character arcs and plots are paid off and a lot of stuff happens. Clearly the grand epic plan for the 5 book series is well thought out and interesting. I just don't understand why it takes so long to get there.
\n#1 pet peeve: the most interesting part of the book, the overarching plot, is a bunch of Cosmere machinations that require information beyond these books to understand. Characters like Wit or Mraize are essential parts of the plot. But they're not really characters, just folks who come in from off-world every once in awhile to meddle. I guess these characters get more detail in some of Sanderson's other books, because this 6000 page epic doesn't have enough room for them? It doesn't help that they all have 3 or more names, like Wit is also Hoid but also Cephandrius. The names are used interchangeably and sometimes in a way you can follow, but not always. The Coppermind wiki is helpful in following this but then it's also full of spoilers.
\nThis book suffered in particular by sending a whole set of the actual characters off to Shadesmar, again, where Nothing Ever Happens. I guess he had to park them elsewhere for the story. For that matter a bunch of other characters also get sent off-stage and idle. The main action is in Urithiru but that also takes forever to go anywhere. I guess that was to give more character development to the Parshmen that he's elevated to major characters? It was very slow. Meanwhile other beloved characters like Shallan, Dalinar, Jasnah get short shrift. Renarin gets no narrative action at all.
\nOne interesting character development is where he took Kaladin. In the first book he starts off as the Big Hero, then Sanderson works to undermine that trope. And so here in the fourth book he's suffering PTSD and is broken. And finds himself in the end, in a very compelling section of the final part of the book.. That narrative worked for me.
\nOverall it's a giant sprawling mess. But somehow entertaining enough page to page, and the last 200 pages really does pay it off. I suppose I'm in for the 5th book, you don't get this far invested without seeing the story through. Although it's promised to actually be 10 books, but the first 5 as a grouping the stand alone.
\n","w":481,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/17250966.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.56,"n":269333,"dist":[590,2519,17024,73844,175356],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Epic","Magic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Best Fantasy","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Traditionally Published Novel","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20842226W","wp":"Rhythm_of_War","isf":"2782068"},{"id":989237,"t":"Dai Vernon: A Biography--Artist - Magician - Muse (Vol. 1: 1894-1941)","sl":"dai-vernon","a":["David Ben"],"as":"Ben, David","y":2006,"p":366,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-10-31","cv":"covers/989237.avif","cw":280,"ch":400,"ol":"OL8831074W"},{"id":17863,"t":"Accelerando","sl":"accelerando","a":["Charles Stross"],"as":"Stross, Charles","y":2005,"p":415,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-10-22","cv":"covers/17863.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.87,"n":22874,"dist":[757,1690,4889,7957,7581],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Singularity","Speculative Fiction","Space Opera","Artificial Intelligence"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":null,"year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":null,"year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Long Form","year":2010,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2465670W","wp":"Accelerando","isf":"158237"},{"id":54511226,"t":"Dawnshard","sl":"dawnshard","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"3.5","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2020,"p":171,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-09-29","d":"2023-09-29","rev":"This was a fun read and a meatier story than I expected for a filler novella. Rysn is a great character and the bits of world lore fleshed out here are quite interesting. There's a B plot involving secrets and plots within the crew that didn't really go anywhere but, eh, I give him credit for trying.
\nThese Stormlight books are like potato chips: tasty, filling, not much complexity or nutrition. Just right to fill hours, I'm reading them now while travelling in Europe and needing undemanding downtime.
\n","w":88,"cv":"covers/54511226.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.32,"n":151280,"dist":[198,1481,18130,61981,69490],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Novella","Adventure","Magic","Short Stories"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24139894W","isf":"2803503"},{"id":23533039,"t":"Ancillary Mercy","sl":"ancillary-mercy","se":"Imperial Radch","sn":"3","a":["Ann Leckie"],"as":"Leckie, Ann","y":2015,"p":328,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-09-26","d":"2023-09-26","rev":"Genuinely not sure why I finished this book except I'd read the two and didn't realize how.. thin the story was here until I got halfway through the third one. I dunno, I had the same complaint about the second book and maybe the first. They're such small stories, focussed on Breq and a couple of other people. The stakes feel very low for a space opera. So does the action. Which is weird because what actually happens with the AIs is fairly monumental, but doesn't feel that way.
\nWhat does work is the humanistic writing, the multifaceted insights into the few characters and their personal relationships.
\n","w":107,"cv":"covers/23533039.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"avg":4.22,"n":51954,"dist":[395,1390,7207,20494,22468],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Queer","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17358701W","wp":"Ancillary_Mercy","isf":"1896926"},{"id":7670,"t":"The Andromeda Strain","sl":"the-andromeda-strain","se":"Andromeda","sn":"1","a":["Michael Crichton"],"as":"Crichton, Michael","y":1969,"p":327,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2023-09-16","cv":"covers/7670.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":3.91,"n":277460,"dist":[2381,13545,71286,108817,81431],"g":["Science Fiction","Thriller","Horror","Mystery","Suspense","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1971,"won":true}],"ol":"OL46909W","wp":"The_Andromeda_Strain","isf":"6349"},{"id":61179,"t":"Ringworld","sl":"ringworld","se":"Ringworld","sn":"1","a":["Larry Niven"],"as":"Niven, Larry","y":1970,"p":288,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2023-09-16","cv":"covers/61179.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.93,"n":131425,"dist":[2230,8382,29574,47195,44044],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space","Hugo Awards","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1971,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1970,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1971,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1979,"won":true}],"ol":"OL510405W","wp":"Ringworld","isf":"1298"},{"id":2845024,"t":"Anathem","sl":"anathem","se":"Anathem","a":["Neal Stephenson"],"as":"Stephenson, Neal","y":2008,"p":937,"r":1,"sh":"did-not-finish","d":"2023-09-16","cv":"covers/2845024.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":4.17,"n":77089,"dist":[1853,3480,10440,25242,36074],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Philosophy","Speculative Fiction","Cyberpunk","Mathematics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2009,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2009,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2009,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Endeavour Award","cat":null,"year":2009,"won":false}],"ol":"OL14911626W","wp":"Anathem","isf":"866747"},{"id":62842748,"t":"Infinity Gate","sl":"infinity-gate","se":"Pandominion","sn":"1","a":["M.R. Carey"],"as":"Carey, M.R.","y":2023,"p":496,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-09-16","d":"2023-09-16","rev":"Eh, I was entertained, a good page turner and a coherent story. It just fell really flat. The world building at the start is promising and the characters are well written. But things took a turn to the tedious when we got to the action plot, a young hero in peril fleeing the bad guy super soldiers. Not stupid but not the thoughtful scifi I was hoping for.
\n","w":68,"cv":"covers/62842748.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":4.13,"n":10428,"dist":[91,320,1604,4504,3909],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Dystopia","Fantasy","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Libby Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27814506W","isf":"3142115"},{"id":229278,"t":"Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province","sl":"revolutionary-chinese-cookbook","a":["Fuchsia Dunlop"],"as":"Dunlop, Fuchsia","y":2007,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-13","cv":"covers/229278.avif","cw":280,"ch":363,"ol":"OL7977159W"},{"id":63907039,"t":"Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food","sl":"invitation-to-a-banquet","a":["Fuchsia Dunlop"],"as":"Dunlop, Fuchsia","y":2023,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-13","cv":"covers/63907039.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"ol":"OL34029114W"},{"id":13712899,"t":"The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)","sl":"the-sumerian-world-routledge-worlds","a":["Harriet Crawford"],"as":"Crawford, Harriet","y":2012,"p":684,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-10","cv":"covers/13712899.avif","cw":280,"ch":400,"ol":"OL16618083W"},{"id":53242328,"t":"River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road","sl":"river-kings","a":["Cat Jarman"],"as":"Jarman, Cat","y":2021,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-09","cv":"covers/53242328.avif","cw":266,"ch":400,"ol":"OL25245937W"},{"id":54738255,"t":"If This Gets Out","sl":"if-this-gets-out","a":["Sophie Gonzales","Cale Dietrich"],"as":"Gonzales, Sophie","y":2021,"p":404,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2023-09-08","rev":"Aw this was lovely. I was on the fence at first, it seemed a little vapid and boy bands are not my thing. But it got more interesting because the stakes got more complex and adult. Also I appreciated the complexity of the coming out stories, particularly Zach's ambivalence about telling people what and when. Quite thoughtful. Mostly though I was swept up in the emotions of the book and cheering our heroes' successes as they happened.
\n","w":77,"cv":"covers/54738255.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":3.89,"n":34782,"dist":[427,1960,8505,13986,9904],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Young Adult","Queer","Contemporary","Gay","Friends To Lovers","Music"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL24583367W"},{"id":55529818,"t":"The Queer Principles of Kit Webb","sl":"the-queer-principles-of-kit-webb","a":["Cat Sebastian"],"as":"Sebastian, Cat","y":2021,"p":348,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-08","cv":"covers/55529818.avif","cw":231,"ch":346,"ol":"OL22164170W"},{"id":61813212,"t":"Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE","sl":"ancient-africa","a":["Christopher Ehret"],"as":"Ehret, Christopher","y":2023,"p":224,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-08","cv":"covers/61813212.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"ol":"OL28736461W"},{"id":86229516,"t":"Red Smoking Mirror","sl":"red-smoking-mirror","a":["Nick Hunt"],"as":"Hunt, Nick","y":2023,"p":237,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-09-05","cv":"covers/86229516.avif","cw":249,"ch":400,"ol":"OL35722365W"},{"id":23667604,"t":"The Water Knife","sl":"the-water-knife","a":["Paolo Bacigalupi"],"as":"Bacigalupi, Paolo","y":2015,"p":384,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-08-30","d":"2023-08-30","rev":"I enjoyed this enough to finish it fast. But it's a pretty shallow book, honestly reads more like a story hoping to get a screenplay deal.
\nThe good thing is the implicit world building. An American west devolved, the federal government failing, states in anarchy or near open warfare over water rights. And control by organized crime and militias. It's a troubling future but it felt very real and compelling. I also liked the characters, felt that the two main characters were real people whose motivations and actions I understood.
\nLots of complaints though. The politics are shallow, although in its one domain they are very good. And the book is very violent, at times pornographically so, which I find distasteful. And while it's a fun and well crafted read the book doesn't seem to allow for thinking too much about it.
\nI got into this looking for books on climate change. This isn't really one. Sure, the setup is all about water shortages but this book is definitely one about politics and personal drama, not climate.
\n","w":177,"cv":"covers/23667604.avif","cw":184,"ch":274,"avg":3.85,"n":28965,"dist":[589,1705,6732,12420,7519],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Thriller","Post Apocalyptic","Climate Change Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17849707W","wp":"The_Water_Knife","isf":"1840895"},{"id":60806778,"t":"The Deluge","sl":"the-deluge","a":["Stephen Markley"],"as":"Markley, Stephen","y":2023,"p":896,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-08-24","cv":"covers/60806778.avif","cw":244,"ch":360,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL27905815W"},{"id":50998056,"t":"The Ministry for the Future","sl":"the-ministry-for-the-future","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":2020,"p":563,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-08-23","d":"2023-08-23","rev":"I waffled between 2 stars and 4 because I loved parts and didn't like other parts. I will say I was in such a hurry to finish reading the book, I must have liked it!
\nThe best part of this book is a well told science fiction story about climate change and a global political response to it. Reading this I didn't realize how much I needed climate change fiction, need more of it. I don't think this book is the be-all-end-all of the genre but it's very good. I also want to call out in particular the first chapter, with its horrible and detailed narration of an extreme heat wave killing many people in India. It's terrifying and memorable.
\nThat first chapter quickly leads to one of my problems with the book, a staccato of several short chapters with no narrative structure, just ideas writ quickly on the page. Some of these chapters work well. The best are like little short stories. Some are twee or bad experimental writing, particularly the bizarre childrens' book like chapters that end with sentences like "you guessed right, I am a photon".
\nA lot of the book's ideas are conveyed in these short chapters. Some of them work, many don't. Mostly it just felt a little lazy, like he had a bunch of ideas he wanted to get in the book and couldn't figure out how to tell a novel-length story with them so he just sort of inserted them on their own. But the ones that work are good.
\nThe book reads in part like a political agenda, almost a roadmap for a better progressive future. At times KSR seems to be saying "see if we just did these obvious things look at the utopia that would result!". I'm OK with that, but...
\nThe book ends up sprawling pretty far from climate change, into global solutions for economic inequality, refugee crises, extinctions, etc. A lot of these problems are solved with magic solutions. "We just passed a law you couldn't pay rich people too much and it worked!" This stuff undermines the interesting political agenda.
\nAnd the interesting core of the book, the climate change, also suffers from magic solutions. I'm not troubled by the various technologies that work, it is sci-fi afterall and he does a good job explaining the struggles of developing and testing technologies. But rather a key part of the solution is a series of benevolent terrorist acts, particularly assassinations. All private aviation ends because someone blew up a bunch of planes and everyone got too scared to fly. For that matter the titular Ministry only works because it has a secret black ops division that carries out various selective awful actions. In the real world terrorism and unregulated violence do not work as political solutions to global problems. It's offensive to read KSR suggest they would. Guess he couldn't fully escape the ecofascist ideal.
\nTwo minor things I enjoyed quite a bit. One was the description of the town of Zürich, he must have spent a fair amount of time there. The Bay Area description also felt very like home. And I liked some of the gentle characters, particularly Mary and Art. Those recall the pleasant utopian days of the Mars trilogy.
\nSo all in all a mixed bag. On the balance I think this book is important and novel and worth a read. But then it also had some real problems. I am glad I read it.
\n","w":581,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/50998056.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":3.85,"n":45795,"dist":[1032,3476,10506,16895,13886],"g":["Science Fiction","Climate Change","Environment","Politics","Speculative Fiction","Climate Change Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger","year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21680947W","wp":"The_Ministry_for_the_Future","isf":"2772326"},{"id":57094295,"t":"Termination Shock","sl":"termination-shock","a":["Neal Stephenson"],"as":"Stephenson, Neal","y":2021,"p":708,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-08-23","cv":"covers/57094295.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24697326W","wp":"Termination_Shock_(novel)","isf":"2933385"},{"id":3347,"t":"The Basque History of the World","sl":"the-basque-history-of-the-world","a":["Mark Kurlansky"],"as":"Kurlansky, Mark","y":1999,"p":400,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-08-21","cv":"covers/3347.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.87,"n":5873,"dist":[56,273,1522,2550,1472],"g":["History","Spain","Travel","European History","Politics","France","Historical","Anthropology"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2652865W"},{"id":48979981,"t":"The Camino Club","sl":"the-camino-club","a":["Kevin Craig"],"as":"Craig, Kevin","y":2020,"p":292,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-08-21","cv":"covers/48979981.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20761101W"},{"id":185822,"t":"The Star Fraction","sl":"the-star-fraction","se":"The Fall Revolution","sn":"1","a":["Ken MacLeod"],"as":"MacLeod, Ken","y":1995,"p":320,"r":1,"sh":"did-not-finish","dr":"2023-08-12","d":"2023-08-12","rc":2,"rev":"Gave up after three chapters. Couldn't retain anything I read. May just be me, I don't feel like I gave the book a fair shake. But after reading a bunch of reviews of people with similar complaints I decided to cut my losses. Sorry!
\n","w":44,"cv":"covers/185822.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":3.69,"n":2977,"dist":[101,275,785,1088,728],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Space Opera","Politics","Speculative Fiction","Near Future"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1996,"won":true}],"ol":"OL7923835W","wp":"The_Star_Fraction","isf":"4667"},{"id":45046743,"t":"Only Mostly Devastated","sl":"only-mostly-devastated","a":["Sophie Gonzales"],"as":"Gonzales, Sophie","y":2020,"p":281,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-08-09","d":"2023-08-09","rev":"Sweet young adult romance. It's a little too much about the neuroses of a teenager wondering if the boy likes him back but, eh, that is the genre. What made this book interesting is how gay it read. The central conflict is whether the boy in question is willing to come out and date the protagonist. And his fear of a homophobic reaction from his friends and family. That challenge was written very well and felt true to me which made the whole book more than just a silly romance.
\n","w":90,"cv":"covers/45046743.avif","cw":141,"ch":218,"avg":3.92,"n":34311,"dist":[371,1494,7968,15007,9471],"g":["Romance","Young Adult","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Gay","Young Adult Contemporary","M M Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Waterstones Children's Book Prize","cat":"Older Readers","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult Fiction","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20651925W"},{"id":34039808,"t":"Oathbringer","sl":"oathbringer","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"3","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2017,"p":1220,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-07-31","d":"2023-07-31","rev":"Well I finished it. Phew. Was a real struggle, particularly part four where our heroes go off on a pointless adventure in a different plane of existence for awhile. So tedious, but when you're 800 pages in on a 1200 page book you're committed. Not sure I'll sink that cost again for a fourth book.
\nI enjoyed the previous books more. I felt they were about twice as long as necessary but eh, Sanderson mostly told a clean tale. This book feels three times as long as needed. I think 2/3 of the book could be pared down and nothing would be lost.
\nI'm also annoyed Sanderson abandoned his relatively controlled storytelling. Oathbringer sprawls wide and deep, bringing in a lot of unexplained lore and random side historical characters on brief asides. Worse, many of them have two or three names. Even with liberal use of Kindle X-Ray I had a hard time remembering who anyone other than the POV characters were.
\nOne last complaint: he tries an experimental writing technique with Shallan's POV. I liked the general concept of what was being done, her story. But the specific shifts in narration were really off-putting to me. I think he tried something interesting and fell short.
\nOn the good side I like the long slow meditation on the heroic condition. What it means to try to live with honor, pursue glory, fulfill duty. The development of The Thrill was particularly interesting. The length of the book helps here, it gives him plenty of time to slowly build and reinforce the themes.
\nHarumpf. Maybe it was a mistake to read three of these in short succession. They're entertaining books but pretty shallow for the time invested.
\n","w":285,"cv":"covers/34039808.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":4.6,"n":395241,"dist":[1276,3545,22610,98748,269062],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Magic","Epic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"David Gemmell Legend Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"David Gemmell Ravenheart Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Cover Art","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Traditionally Published Novel","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17834026W","wp":"Oathbringer","isf":"2259227"},{"id":36638492,"t":"The Last Word: An Autobiography","sl":"the-last-word","a":["Quentin Crisp","Phillip Ward","Laurence Watts","Joseph Mulligan"],"as":"Crisp, Quentin","y":2017,"p":230,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-07-28","cv":"covers/36638492.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"q":1,"ol":"OL19764045W"},{"id":62365905,"t":"We Could Be So Good","sl":"we-could-be-so-good","a":["Cat Sebastian"],"as":"Sebastian, Cat","y":2023,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-07-22","cv":"covers/62365905.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"ol":"OL29050698W"},{"id":19001,"t":"A Perfect Spy","sl":"a-perfect-spy","a":["John le Carré"],"as":"Carré, John le","y":1986,"p":608,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-07-12","cv":"covers/19001.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":3.99,"n":23925,"dist":[403,1168,4815,9315,8224],"g":["Espionage","Thriller","Mystery","Spy Thriller","Mystery Thriller","Crime","Suspense"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Martin Beck Award","cat":null,"year":1986,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Deutscher Krimi Preis","cat":"3. Platz International","year":1987,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15723132W","wp":"A_Perfect_Spy"},{"id":7999236,"t":"Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders","sl":"through-the-valley-of-the-nest-of-spiders","a":["Samuel R. Delany"],"as":"Delany, Samuel R.","y":2012,"p":872,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-07-04","cv":"covers/7999236.avif","cw":280,"ch":400,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL17267895W","wp":"Through_the_Valley_of_the_Nest_of_Spiders","isf":"1180255"},{"id":247960,"t":"Clotel: or, The President's Daughter","sl":"clotel","a":["William Wells Brown","M. Giulia Fabi"],"as":"Brown, William Wells","y":1853,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-06-28","cv":"covers/247960.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL515599W","wp":"Clotel"},{"id":58323892,"t":"Husband Material","sl":"husband-material","se":"London Calling","sn":"2","a":["Alexis Hall"],"as":"Hall, Alexis","y":2022,"p":423,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-06-28","d":"2023-06-28","rev":"Well that was unexpectedly great. The book really ramps up. It starts off pretty silly and light, an extension of the first book. And that's a good thing; the writing is great, it's a fun gay story, I had a good time.
\nThen the book got all serious! Not in a bad way, just the development of Oliver as a character and his relationship with Lucien got a lot more complex and interesting than I was expecting. Oliver's choices in Part 4 of the book were quite moving and meaningful. And then Part 5.. not only does it subvert a lot of expectations for the genre but it manages to both develop characters in a meaningful way and make some insightful and novel commentary about the role of gay people in society. Really deft writing.
\n","w":135,"cv":"covers/58323892.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.53,"n":48826,"dist":[1594,5903,15570,16327,9432],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","M M Romance","Contemporary Romance","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Swoon Award","cat":"Contemporary Romance","year":2022,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26232049W"},{"id":125259325,"t":"Edgedancer","sl":"edgedancer","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"2.5","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2016,"p":269,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-06-25","d":"2023-06-25","rev":"Eh, it was OK. I liked Lift more when her character and writing style were a short story novelty in a very large novel. Dedicating 200+ pages to him trying to write like an 11 year old girl thinks was a bit much. Also the story is quite small and constrained compared to the larger sprawling epic it's embedded in. Not bad, but not great either.
\n","w":66,"cv":"covers/125259325.avif","cw":280,"ch":459,"avg":4.1,"n":186198,"dist":[519,4081,35726,80992,64880],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Novella","Short Stories","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19631308W","isf":"2068857"},{"id":17332218,"t":"Words of Radiance","sl":"words-of-radiance","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"2","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2014,"p":1088,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-06-17","d":"2023-06-17","rev":"Made my way through another Sanderson doorstop. Enjoyed it, found it mostly compelling, but a bit of a slog at times. I'm confident this book could be half the length and not leave out anything. And with some careful editing get it down to one third the size. But that's not Sanderson's thing, so here we are.
\nI liked the grand epic story that's (very slowly) being unfolded. The interaction between feudal politics, religion, prophecy, grand spirits, history, geography.. There's something very big and elaborate. I don't know that Sanderson is smart enough to have it all sketched out ahead of time with clarity, but he is deft at keeping it going and self-consistent and adding new interesting bits over time. It's a remarkable thing to set out about a 10,000 page epic fantasy project and so far, deliver with quality.
\nI think I'm probably in for the next book but I may let it go awhile.
\n","w":157,"cv":"covers/17332218.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.76,"n":535024,"dist":[911,2102,13453,92035,426523],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Magic","Epic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"David Gemmell Legend Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"David Gemmell Ravenheart Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Cover Art","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Reddit r/fantasy Stabby Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16813053W","wp":"Words_of_Radiance","isf":"1695127"},{"id":33385229,"t":"They Both Die at the End","sl":"they-both-die-at-the-end","se":"They Both Die at the End","sn":"1","a":["Adam Silvera"],"as":"Silvera, Adam","y":2017,"p":389,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2023-05-30","rev":"Cute book, breezy read given the grim subject matter. The sci-fi premise is sort of silly but fortunately the author doesn't spend much time dwelling on how it works. The protagonists know they're going to die end of the day, that's the setup. Fine!
\nWhat works best in the book is the sweet relationship built between the main characters, Mateo's emotional growth, Rufus' generous love.
\nBut structurally the book had a lot of frustrations. There's an ambitious thing in having interlocking POV characters that was kind of interesting but a little hard to follow. Some of the narrative has some clumsy continuity problems. And as a romance novel the balance is off, nothing romantic even happens for 2/3 of the book! Then towards the end the author chastely elides any depiction of sex, replacing it with an unexplained 45 minute nap (!). Maybe that's a necessity for the genre but it just felt like a strange omission.
\nOverall it was a fun quick read though. I'm probably 30+ years older than the target audience but eh, that's why I read it. I sure wish I had gay young adult romance like this when I was the right age.
\n","w":198,"cv":"covers/33385229.avif","cw":280,"ch":469,"avg":3.75,"n":911425,"dist":[33646,87254,226832,292692,271001],"g":["Romance","Young Adult","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Fantasy","Science Fiction","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Flicker Tale Children's Book Award","cat":"Older Readers","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Lincoln Award","cat":"","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Hea Noorteraamat","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL19713513W","wp":"They_Both_Die_at_the_End","isf":"2235437"},{"id":59729042,"t":"Babel","sl":"babel","a":["R.F. Kuang"],"as":"Kuang, R.F.","y":2022,"p":557,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-05-24","d":"2023-05-24","rev":"I liked this quite a bit.
\nThe first half is a Harry Potter-style narrative of the joy of finding your place in a school, of being able to study. I relate very well to this concept and the author does a great job conveying the joy of being an academic. But then it's all tinged with rot, from the beginning, and it's all kind of awful while simultaneously being appealing. Interesting writing trick!
\nThe second half is more of an adventure and story of rebellion. Honestly I felt the politics in the book and the action seeing out those politics were a little simplistic. But hey, it's a fantasy novel, it's OK that it not be too deep or subtle.
\nAnd it's a fantastic story of rebellion. Mapping industrial revolution England to a magic university was a stroke of genius. And rooting a novel like this in 19th century opposition to colonialism feels like a vital, necessary story to tell. Really enjoyed that.
\nWanted to highlight a couple of themes. One is magic coming from the mismatches in meanings in translation. Really great literary device and clearly the author had fun researching etymologies. The other is the theme of the narrator being mostly sympathetic but doing monstrous things in reaction to external events. That was a big thing in the Poppy War trilogy as well and it's kind of upsetting, honestly, particularly to the extent the main character feels like an author stand-in in places. Interesting choice!
\nThe book is at its strongest when she references real-world historical events, like the revolution in Haiti. it's at its weakest when she's fabricating her own fictional historical narrative, the details of Robin's story. Particularly towards the end once things get going with Hermes, just too simple and rapidly written to feel truthful.
\n","w":301,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/59729042.avif","cw":280,"ch":400,"avg":4.12,"n":548078,"dist":[7948,27566,89423,186891,236250],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Dark Academia","Historical","Magical Realism","Historical Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy Novel","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"British Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Shortlist","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Novel: Adult","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"She Reads Best of Award","cat":"Book of the Year and Fantasy & Magical Realism","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26443093W","wp":"Babel,_or_the_Necessity_of_Violence","isf":"3050296"},{"id":32768522,"t":"Carry On","sl":"carry-on","se":"Simon Snow","sn":"1","a":["Rainbow Rowell"],"as":"Rowell, Rainbow","y":2015,"p":521,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-05-21","cv":"covers/32768522.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL17339151W","wp":"Carry_On_(novel)","isf":"1898435"},{"id":58244814,"t":"The Darkness Outside Us","sl":"the-darkness-outside-us","a":["Eliot Schrefer","James Fouhey"],"as":"Schrefer, Eliot","y":2021,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-05-21","cv":"covers/58244814.avif","cw":280,"ch":412,"ol":"OL24481935W","isf":"2866127"},{"id":23834716,"t":"A Fashionable Indulgence","sl":"a-fashionable-indulgence","se":"Society of Gentlemen","sn":"1","a":["K.J. Charles"],"as":"Charles, K.J.","y":2015,"p":264,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-05-14","cv":"covers/23834716.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL34917317W"},{"id":35230501,"t":"It Takes Two to Tumble","sl":"it-takes-two-to-tumble","se":"Seducing the Sedgwicks","sn":"1","a":["Cat Sebastian"],"as":"Sebastian, Cat","y":2017,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-05-14","cv":"covers/35230501.avif","cw":280,"ch":445,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL19731813W"},{"id":50225678,"t":"Boyfriend Material","sl":"boyfriend-material","se":"London Calling","sn":"1","a":["Alexis Hall"],"as":"Hall, Alexis","y":2020,"p":425,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-05-14","d":"2023-05-14","rev":"A fun and pleasing read with more depth in character than I was expecting. Really that's the best part of the book, the deft writing of both Luc and Oliver. The way Oliver's character evolves through glimpses of him at various parties is the best writing here. I wish the book were a little less silly in parts, but then that's the genre. Alternately I wish it were a little sexier. But overall a good read.
\n","w":76,"cv":"covers/50225678.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.97,"n":167259,"dist":[2955,8501,34754,65859,55190],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","M M Romance","Contemporary Romance","Fake Dating"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Romance","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Swoon Award","cat":"Contemporary Romance","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20840329W","wp":"Boyfriend_Material"},{"id":59427409,"t":"The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle","sl":"the-secret-life-of-albert-entwistle","a":["Matt Cain"],"as":"Cain, Matt","y":2021,"p":400,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-05-06","d":"2023-05-06","rev":"Huh, I'm not sure what I just read. I liked it! But I can't tell if it's a particularly deep romance novel or a shallow fictional account of a gay life.
\nI'm new to reading romance novels. I picked this book up thinking it was a basic romance, some distracting and escapist fantasy about an older man finding love late in life. Sounded fun! And that is kind of what the book is.
\nBut then also the book is a lot harder than that. It's crushingly bleak in the first third. And then instead of resolving the trauma with some safe and escapist plot it goes into heavy personal territory of a repressed gay man and his entire life wasted by homophobia. And it dwells on that quite believably and seriously and suddenly it's a much higher stakes novel.
\nExcept.. the writing is really shallow. The protagonist snaps out of a decades-long depression and social isolation over the course of one long weekend, a transformation literally attributed to a hangover. That's not how real depression works. And he throws himself into a new social life and recognizing his gayness with basically no difficulty. Everyone encourages him, and welcomes him, and he's successful at the transformation at basically every turn. In the span of a few weeks. That's not how real life works.
\nSo maybe this book is an escapist fantasy afterall? But it's been grounded in such a serious and tragic real story, one I personally know men who have suffered. So seeing someone escape all that in the twinkle of an eye seems disrespectful.
\nOn the other hand it's also a fun and hopeful book about a man turning his life around in later life and discovering himself. And I really liked the theme of finding community, both in his workplace and as a member of the gay community. What an encouraging thing! Just with the backdrop of the very real feeling trauma he suffered seeing a breezy romance solution to all those problems felt, well, awfully shallow.
\nI may be taking this book too seriously, maybe it is just a fluffy romance novel and I should enjoy the fantasy of escape. But then the subject is so serious, rooted in real trauma. So then I'm annoyed by the fluff. I'm vexed!
\nEither way glad I read the book. And devoured it, finished in two days. And I'm compelled to read more about the book or talk about it with people to put what I read in context. I think on the balance this could have been a really good gay fiction novel if the author had tried to write it in a serious literary style. But that's not what this book is and it's successful on its own terms too.
\n","w":462,"cv":"covers/59427409.avif","cw":260,"ch":400,"avg":4.05,"n":16634,"dist":[143,631,3249,6910,5701],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","British Literature","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL21709104W"},{"id":60584364,"t":"Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander","sl":"portrait-of-a-wide-seas-islander","se":"Lays of the Hearth-Fire","sn":"1.5","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2022,"p":100,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-05-04","d":"2023-05-04","rev":"I enjoyed this but it wasn't great. The good part is seeing one of the stories in The Hands of the Emperor retold from a different perspective. Particularly since it was one of that book's strongest themes, the clash of two cultures in Kip. Seeing it from his Islander uncle / mentor's point of view was a good idea for a novella.
\nUnfortunately the result is pretty thin. I liked the Islander culture in the novel but the author always skated a little too close to being a shallow appropriation of Polynesian culture rather than a deep meditation. Respectfully done, I think, but not very deep in this novella. That weakness really came through. Buru Tovo is just not enough of a character to hang a story on and didn't get much development here. I did appreciate the insight into his sexuality, that was fun, but it was one of the few things that made him seem like a real person and not a caricature of "wise native elder".
\n","w":169,"cv":"covers/60584364.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":4.47,"n":945,"dist":[2,3,86,312,542],"g":["Fantasy","Novella","Short Stories","LGBT","Magic","Queer","High Fantasy","Cozy Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL28584191W"},{"id":43525897,"t":"The Hands of the Emperor","sl":"the-hands-of-the-emperor","se":"Lays of the Hearth-Fire","sn":"1","a":["Victoria Goddard"],"as":"Goddard, Victoria","y":2019,"p":969,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-05-02","d":"2023-05-02","rev":"Wow. I usually reserve 5 stars for books that are "best literature of the decade". I'm not sure this novel quite qualifies. But I was so emotionally moved by the humanist story I feel compelled to praise it with how I was responding to it while reading. Here's the three things I really liked about the book.
\nThe first and most important theme is the intimate friendships between men. Complex, deep, emotional love and bonding between colleagues who become each other's chosen family. And it's all men. Ordinarily I'd be criticizing a fantasy novel about the one gender perspective because it's often so lazy. But here the author is herself a woman and the writing is not typical dumb masculinity. Honestly it reminded me of gay-themed slash fiction or gay manga written by women, a sort of woman's gaze at male intimacy. Not that the relationships are romantic or sexual in this novel! But they have a depth you seldom get in genre fiction.
\nThe second theme I liked was Kip's status as an outsider to the Imperial court. And then how he's caught between two worlds; too courtly for home, too Islander (and common) for the court. The author is specifically working from an imagined clash between a traditional Polynesian culture and a medieval European court and that works really well. I liked the invented Polynesian-like society, it comes off very strong with a rich detail of traditions and stories that give the narrative weight.
\nFinally I liked this book as a fantasy novel. Not a magic-and-dragons fantasy, there's very little of that. But rather the fantasy that one hyper-competent and diligent bureaucrat could reform an entire multi-world government and make life unambiguously better for everyone. It's completely unrealistic how Kip is successful at everything governmental he tries but it sure is satisfying fantasy.
\nSome minor complaints. It's very long. I don't think it's too long; the writing style is not succinct but I enjoyed reading every word. Structurally it's five volumes, each of which stands alone mostly as its own short novel. But the five build on each other to the crescendo of the final chapters so it's important they be read together.
\nMy other complaint is the last volume dragged a bit, mostly because the central conflict between Kip and his family made no sense. It's all a comedy of errors where his family doesn't understand what his job is. And I like that tension in general, and I like how it built up and was resolved in this volume. But it got done a little to death here. Also his family visited Kip at work in the previous volume, hung out daily with the Emperor. Surely they would have figured out Kip's status and shared the gossip?
\nThose are small complaints and didn't really diminish my enjoyment of reading at all. Overall it's a really warm, entertaining, emotionally meaningful work of fantasy and character. It moved me.
\n","w":491,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/43525897.avif","cw":280,"ch":402,"avg":4.36,"n":4522,"dist":[76,169,455,1152,2670],"g":["Fantasy","Cozy","Queer","LGBT","Cozy Fantasy","High Fantasy","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL20529978W"},{"id":7235533,"t":"The Way of Kings","sl":"the-way-of-kings","se":"The Stormlight Archive","sn":"1","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2010,"p":1007,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-04-20","d":"2023-04-20","rev":"I enjoyed this book way more than I expected to! I picked this up semi-ironically after the big "Sanderson is a hack" article. I'd enjoyed reading The Final Empire and was ready for a fantasy doorstop. And Sanderson delivers!
\nPerhaps he delivers too much. Somewhere in this 1000 page book is a good 500 page book struggling to be seen. There's no specific pages I can point to as filler, no side plots that would be better off left out (hello, GRRM). It's just an awful lot of pages to communicate what in the end are some relatively simple plot points and character development.
\nI grew to like that. It's middle brow fantasy, meant to fill the hours, and it's kind of cozy for that. I came to like the very slow and obvious development of Kaladin and the bridge crew.
\nAlso want to acknowledge the world building. There's a lot of fun ideas in here. Like the spren or the conceit of the safehand. I'm less excited with the Big Reveal for this book, particularly how interminably long it takes to get there. But all in all it satisfies.
\n(One structural problem with the book; that last section, the short final few chapters. It's like the author wrote a whole 900 page novel and then realized "wait I can get paid to write more of these" and so tacked on a bunch of Season 2 teasers.)
\n","w":237,"cv":"covers/7235533.avif","cw":185,"ch":276,"avg":4.66,"n":730209,"dist":[4241,7001,30379,148383,540205],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Magic","Epic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"David Gemmell Legend Award","cat":"","year":2011,"won":true},{"name":"Whitney Award","cat":"Best Novel of the Year","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy and for Favorite Book and for Goodreads Author","year":2010,"won":false}],"ol":"OL15358691W","wp":"The_Way_of_Kings","isf":"1139069"},{"id":23965838,"t":"Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877","sl":"reconstruction","se":"The New American Nation Series","a":["Eric Foner"],"as":"Foner, Eric","y":1988,"p":1361,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-04-20","d":"2023-04-20","rc":2,"rev":"The Reconstruction era was something a little fuzzy from my high school education, probably just because we only had a short time to spend on it but maybe also because I grew up in the South. Anyway it's a fascinating time and in so many ways essential to where America is today. And Foner's book is the definitive contemporary history.
\nI'm writing this review a year or two after I read it, so I can't recall details. Honestly I only read 80% of it, I never quite finished it. It's a long book and a little dry and full of an awful lot of detail. Perhaps I would have preferred the abridged version, A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877
\nAnyway, it's an excellent book. Really putting a lot of detail behind the modern theory that Reconstruction was such a powerful and hopeful moment in America. Despite all its problems it also had a lot of successes in the face of an impossible task resisted at every turn by the racist power in the South. And while it failed to fully liberate people in America that was probably impossible and maybe not a real goal in the first place.
\nThe other resource I want to highlight here is PBS excellent miniseries on Reconstruction, which Foner contributed to. If reading a history book doesn't seem your speed maybe a 4 hour TV documentary is.
\n","w":233,"cv":"covers/23965838.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.22,"n":6435,"dist":[127,258,876,1968,3206],"g":["History","American History","Civil War","Race","Politics","American Civil War","American","The United States Of America","19th Century"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Pulitzer Prize","cat":"History","year":1989,"won":false},{"name":"Bancroft Prize","cat":null,"year":1989,"won":true},{"name":"Francis Parkman Prize","cat":null,"year":1989,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"History","year":1988,"won":true},{"name":"Lionel Trilling Book Award","cat":null,"year":1989,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"General Nonfiction","year":1988,"won":false},{"name":"Civil War and Reconstruction Book Award","cat":"","year":1989,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Nonfiction","year":1988,"won":true},{"name":"Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award","cat":"","year":1989,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1805114W"},{"id":39863237,"t":"The Ruin of Kings","sl":"the-ruin-of-kings","se":"A Chorus of Dragons","sn":"1","a":["Jenn Lyons"],"as":"Lyons, Jenn","y":2019,"p":560,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-04-06","cv":"covers/39863237.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20521134W","isf":"2486311"},{"id":13053326,"t":"Ubik","sl":"ubik","a":["Philip K. Dick"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1969,"p":226,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-03-27","d":"2023-03-27","rev":"Classic PK Dick, a schizophrenic nightmare suffused with sci-fi themes. Somehow my appetite for that has lessened over the years. This book frustrated me because the story itself was fairly uninteresting and, honestly, pretty dated in its sexism. And then the overlay of the narrator who has lost touch with reality, the delusions that are actually sci-fi reality. At its best when Dick writes this way it's fascinating but this one didn't work so well for me.
\n","w":77,"cv":"covers/13053326.avif","cw":128,"ch":187,"avg":4.11,"n":129548,"dist":[1373,4946,22410,50068,50751],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Mystery","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2172454W","wp":"Ubik","isf":"948"},{"id":60850767,"t":"Children of Memory","sl":"children-of-memory","se":"Children of Time","sn":"3","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2022,"p":486,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-03-23","d":"2023-03-23","rev":"I seem to be liking each book of this series less. All the novelty that excited me of the first book now just feels like a retread as the author explores a variant of the theme in a new way. This particular variant (or the two of them) was a bit uninteresting. The Corvids were fun but unconvincing, and the other sentience stuff, well, it was awfully muddled.
\nMostly I was frustrated with the structure of the book. It started as an interesting small town mystery / horror story, the Big Secret of the town, a sort of Children of the Corn kind of thing. Then it got repeated in strange and confusing ways, the author's big conceit, but it just felt repetitious and not-enlightening. Meanwhile I really didn't care for the recurring characters from previous books, the narrators with perspective. Not well written, not compelling.
\nReally nothing much came together for me. Maybe it would have been more interesting to just read a straight story about the colony, Liff, the secret of Remembrance and the Watchers and the Seccers. Just tell that story direct and leave the rest out. But then it wouldn't be Children of Time.
\n","w":199,"cv":"covers/60850767.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.0,"n":37040,"dist":[304,1691,8148,14615,12282],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space","Aliens","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL28018696W","isf":"3096641"},{"id":77711,"t":"A Fire Upon the Deep","sl":"a-fire-upon-the-deep","se":"Zones of Thought","sn":"1","a":["Vernor Vinge"],"as":"Vinge, Vernor","y":1992,"p":613,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-03-18","d":"2023-03-18","rev":"I just re-read this for the third time. So good! Really fun reading. And just chock-full of ideas, there's a whole lot of original sci-fi concepts well elaborated here. I think my favorite may be the Net, the idea of old-school Usenet turned into a galaxy-spanning cultural medium. But also the conceit of the galaxy organization, the zones of thought.. And the pack minds of the Tines, and the terrifying singularity-like Powers, and, and... just a lot of great ideas in this book.
\nReading this the third time I really appreciated how well drawn the characters are. So many different ones! And legimately of alien races, with alien modes of thought. I even found the Skroderiders compelling this time, particularly the tragic story of the Rider's Myth. It's good deep sci-fi but it's a remarkably humanistic novel too, with fun characters and exciting plots. What a great novel.
\nWorth noting there's a version of this book out there with the author's notes while writing them included. I wouldn't recommend reading the book this way, the notes are distracting, but it's interesting to be able to consult them when considering detailed questions.
\n","w":192,"cv":"covers/77711.avif","cw":280,"ch":460,"avg":4.13,"n":68757,"dist":[1113,2884,11008,24593,29159],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space","Hugo Awards","Aliens","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1993,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bester ausländischer SF-Roman","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Traduction","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera","year":1995,"won":false},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Novel","year":1993,"won":true},{"name":"Prix Cosmos 2000","cat":"","year":1995,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1975714W","wp":"A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep","isf":"1952"},{"id":61965394,"t":"The Earth Transformed: An Untold History","sl":"the-earth-transformed","a":["Peter Frankopan"],"as":"Frankopan, Peter","y":2023,"p":736,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-03-18","cv":"covers/61965394.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"ol":"OL28934049W","wp":"The_Earth_Transformed"},{"id":2715,"t":"Salt: A World History","sl":"salt","a":["Mark Kurlansky"],"as":"Kurlansky, Mark","y":2002,"p":484,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2023-03-12","cv":"covers/2715.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.75,"n":81509,"dist":[3014,6641,20944,28014,22896],"g":["History","Food","Science","Microhistory","Historical","World History","Cooking"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Vermont Golden Dome Book Award","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16026786W"},{"id":52263339,"t":"Rose/House","sl":"rose-house","a":["Arkady Martine"],"as":"Martine, Arkady","y":2024,"p":115,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-03-12","cv":"covers/52263339.avif","cw":280,"ch":411,"ol":"OL38652997W","wp":"Rose/House","isf":"3297923"},{"id":45154547,"t":"A Desolation Called Peace","sl":"a-desolation-called-peace","se":"Teixcalaan","sn":"2","a":["Arkady Martine"],"as":"Martine, Arkady","y":2021,"p":496,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-03-10","d":"2023-03-10","rev":"A bit on the fence with this book; I really liked aspects of it. The core story was compelling. I love her major characters, both the main characters brought back from the first book and the addition of Eight Antidote, the child emperor-in-waiting. I liked the central conflict and plot. Good stuff!
\nIt just took so many words to get there. The whole first third of the book was a slog, before the action started. And then the rest feels very wordy. Not padded, I can't point to any subplot or page that felt superfluous. But the book would benefit from a denser narrative.
\nWe finally get around to the interesting central concept of the book, the various forms of group consciousness. But it takes a very long time to tease out what's going on with the aliens (despite it being obvious from the first hint). And the Teixcalaani versions of group thinking were fascinating, more of that! Still it's a pretty remarkable accomplishment from the author, to take the theme of shared-minds from the imagos in the first book and then expand on it. Just wish it were executed better. (And now I'm re-reading Fire Upon the Deep because Vinge's exploration of group minds is so excellent.)
\nAll in all a remarkably good book. I'm hoping for a third one and am optimistic that the author's writing is improving with each book.
\n","w":233,"cv":"covers/45154547.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.3,"n":39105,"dist":[203,814,4544,15211,18333],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Queer","Fantasy","LGBT","Space","Lesbian"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBTQ Speculative Fiction","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Inky Tentacle (Cover Art)","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20832939W","wp":"A_Desolation_Called_Peace","isf":"2826343"},{"id":45857086,"t":"The Burning God","sl":"the-burning-god","se":"The Poppy War","sn":"3","a":["R.F. Kuang"],"as":"Kuang, R.F.","y":2020,"p":622,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-03-01","d":"2023-03-01","rev":"Well, this last book was not great. I went from really liking the first book to being mildly enthusiastic about the second to barely finishing this third novel. The first third of the book was a real slog, I almost quit, but I persevered and fortunately the author had a brand larger story in mind that was interesting to see through.
\nThe biggest problem is that Rin, the main character, is just really unappealing. She's a rage-fueled genocidal monster. But then she's also our sympathetic protagonist. But only sort of, she's really kind of an awful person. The author is aware of all this, and writes it so, but instead of being intriguingr or tragic I found myself just fully alienated. She does finally write a redemption of sort for Rin at the end but it felt pretty shallow, unearned.
\nOddly it was Kitay who ended up being the most interesting character to me. But he's not really fleshed out, just a sort of victim / enabler of Rin's.
\n","w":169,"cv":"covers/45857086.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.26,"n":197733,"dist":[1715,6594,27368,64665,97391],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","High Fantasy","Historical","War","Magic","Epic Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21163518W","wp":"The_Burning_God","isf":"2782112"},{"id":1842,"t":"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies","sl":"guns-germs-and-steel","se":"Civilizations Rise and Fall","sn":"1","a":["Jared Diamond"],"as":"Diamond, Jared","y":1997,"p":498,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2023-02-25","rev":"I loved this book when I read it, such an audacious narrative. Now I've read a lot more, including some criticism of Diamond, and I'm a lot more skeptical of his just-so story. But it's very well written.
\n","w":38,"cv":"covers/1842.avif","cw":280,"ch":442,"avg":4.04,"n":474164,"dist":[15219,24129,81047,161058,192711],"g":["History","Science","Anthropology","Sociology","Politics","Economics","Historical","World History"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Royal Society Science Book Prize","cat":"General Prize","year":1998,"won":true},{"name":"Pulitzer Prize","cat":"General Nonfiction","year":1998,"won":true},{"name":"California Book Award","cat":"Nonfiction (Gold)","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"Puddly Award","cat":"History","year":2001,"won":true}],"ol":"OL276558W","wp":"Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel"},{"id":306090,"t":"The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding","sl":"the-fatal-shore","a":["Robert Hughes"],"as":"Hughes, Robert","y":1986,"p":688,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2023-02-25","cv":"covers/306090.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.09,"n":10655,"dist":[108,392,1917,4287,3951],"g":["History","Australia","World History","Historical","Travel","Classics","18th Century","19th Century","Crime"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"WH Smith Literary Award","cat":null,"year":1988,"won":true},{"name":"Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize","cat":"","year":1987,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2908661W","wp":"The_Fatal_Shore"},{"id":37794149,"t":"A Memory Called Empire","sl":"a-memory-called-empire","se":"Teixcalaan","sn":"1","a":["Arkady Martine"],"as":"Martine, Arkady","y":2019,"p":448,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-02-14","d":"2023-02-14","rev":"I enjoyed this but it fell a little flat for me. It's an awful lot of words. And for a book about a vast and ancient space empire it sure is claustrophobic.
\nThe best part of the book is the slow personal reveal of the main characters. I felt over all those words we really got to know Mahit, and Yskandr, and particularly Three Seagrass. It's a very human sort of writing. I also enjoyed the intricate world-building and its parsimonious reveal. Over time I felt I understood the Teixcalaanli, at least a little, and I liked how the author slowly shared what she must have spent years designing. It comes out in the poetry, and the flowers, and the AI that controls the City (a topic only hinted at but could have been a whole book.)
\nIt sure was claustrophobic though. There's only, what, 4 characters in the book with any significant narrative? And almost all of it takes place in one neighborhood in one city. There's a vast stellar empire out there, and our hero's home station, and apparently some sort of galactic existential threat. But instead all the time is spent inside palaces and homes and so, so many pages of diplomatic sparring. Which was all fun but I like my space operas to enjoy the grandeur of their setting a little more.
\nStill eager to read the next book and anything else Martine writes. It's a remarkably mature book for a first novel.
\n","w":247,"cv":"covers/37794149.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.1,"n":77846,"dist":[1089,3371,12646,30557,30183],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Queer","LGBT","Mystery","Lesbian"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländisches Werk","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Traduction","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20157046W","wp":"A_Memory_Called_Empire","isf":"2500310"},{"id":59808117,"t":"Ocean's Echo","sl":"oceans-echo","se":"Winter's Orbit","sn":"2","a":["Everina Maxwell"],"as":"Maxwell, Everina","y":2022,"p":464,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2023-02-02","rev":"I enjoyed this but wish the prose were tighter. I feel like cutting 25% of the words while maintaining the same story would have made for a better book. It's good, and entertaining, but dilute.
\nThe interesting thing about the book is that it's a fusion of a sci-fi novel and a romance novel. The sci-fi stuff is fairly strong. The romance novel is not. Partly the romance tropes just trap the writing into two main characters (the love interests) that aren't compelling enough. Or in the case of the main character, kind of obnoxious. Also it's not quite sexy enough. I liked the scifi stuff though, the construction of the remnants and psychic powers and the scary oversight of the Resolution.
\nAgain, enjoyed the book. Just wish it was more!
\n","w":131,"cv":"covers/59808117.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.11,"n":10019,"dist":[66,349,1760,4073,3771],"g":["Science Fiction","Romance","LGBT","Queer","Fantasy","Space Opera","M M Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Romantic Novel Award","cat":"Fantasy Romantic Novel","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27172711W","isf":"3086484"},{"id":60100307,"t":"Ocean's Echo (The Resolution Universe)","sl":"oceans-echo-the-resolution-universe","se":"Winter's Orbit","sn":"2","a":["Everina Maxwell"],"as":"Maxwell, Everina","y":2022,"p":480,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-02-02","d":"2023-02-02","cv":"covers/60100307.avif","cw":254,"ch":400,"avg":4.11,"n":10019,"dist":[66,349,1760,4073,3771],"g":["Science Fiction","Romance","LGBT","Queer","Fantasy","Space Opera","M M Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Romantic Novel Award","cat":"Fantasy Romantic Novel","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27172711W","isf":"3086484"},{"id":60321392,"t":"The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human","sl":"the-song-of-the-cell","a":["Siddhartha Mukherjee"],"as":"Mukherjee, Siddhartha","y":2022,"p":473,"sh":"did-not-finish","dr":"2023-01-29","d":"2023-01-29","rev":"No review because I only read a couple of chapters. Absolutely not the book for me. Odd style, the author writes every sentence like it's the most interesting and remarkable think ever written. It's exhausting. Also turns out I don't actually want to read a deep dive into cell biology. I didn't know, now I do.
\n","w":56,"cv":"covers/60321392.avif","cw":237,"ch":360,"avg":4.28,"n":16622,"dist":[67,289,2099,6603,7564],"g":["Science","Biology","Medicine","History","Health","Medical","Nature","Popular Science"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"PROSE Award","cat":"Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Chautauqua Prize","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2022,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27846773W","wp":"The_Song_of_the_Cell"},{"id":58677491,"t":"The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer","sl":"the-memory-librarian","a":["Janelle Monáe","Yohanca Delgado","Eve L. Ewing","Alaya Dawn Johnson","Danny Lore","Sheree Renée Thomas"],"as":"Monáe, Janelle","y":2022,"p":321,"r":1,"sh":"read","d":"2023-01-25","rev":"I managed to finish it but regret having ever started. This book really did not work for me. I found it incoherent and tedious. It's a bit odd as a collection of stories and many of the individual stories are poorly structured. There's some good professional writing at times but as a whole it just did not work for me.
\nI was primed to like this book! I find Janelle Monáe compelling, I like afrofuturism as a genre, I was ready for something new. I enjoyed the videos for Dirty Computer and even watched the whole "emotion picture" (itself also tedious and poorly structured, although the individual videos are great.) But I just didn't ever get engaged with any of the stories here. Baffled at this as a book.
\nQuite possible I just missed the good in this book entirely. Perhaps I'm too old or too far removed culturally to get it. I did honestly try.
\n","w":156,"cv":"covers/58677491.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.73,"n":5559,"dist":[111,417,1564,2217,1250],"g":["Short Stories","Science Fiction","LGBT","Queer","Fantasy","Dystopia","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Collection","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL25346901W","wp":"The_Memory_Librarian:_And_Other_Stories_of_Dirty_Computer","isf":"2995999"},{"id":59431090,"t":"The Moonday Letters","sl":"the-moonday-letters","a":["Emmi Itäranta"],"as":"Itäranta, Emmi","y":2020,"p":359,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-01-18","d":"2023-01-18","rev":"Mixed feelings on this book. I'm glad I read it, I enjoyed it. Her world building is interesting and deftly revealed. But it's a strangely passive book with very little happening. A lot of that is because of the structure of the storytelling, the narrator writing letters to the person actually doing the action. It's a mystery investigation of a sort but without any active investigatory narrative. I also didn't care for the second story, the spiritual / healer stuff, and particularly didn't like when she started take mystical walks on the astral plane. Just not my thing. But that's all a bit unkind and like I said, the book did entertain me and I think about it.
\nMy real complaint, or maybe admiration, is the ambiguity of the moral valence of the main story, the big reveal. What moral judgement are we supposed to make about the events? Is Sol a hero who sacrifices things for an environmental cause? Because I'm going with a cynical reading. The Stoneturners are evil ecoterrorists, Sol is a manipulative and naive sociopath, and Lumi is his passive enabler / victim. The way Sol reveals the whole plan in one final letter seems particularly cruel. I think the author intended something more morally ambiguous but "inert landscapes have as much right to existence as human beings" is just a nonsense position IMHO.
\n","w":228,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/59431090.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":3.78,"n":2175,"dist":[26,162,572,914,501],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","LGBT","Mystery","Queer","Dystopia","Finnish Literature","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":true}],"ol":"OL26625632W","isf":"3046447"},{"id":61272711,"t":"Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom","sl":"master-slave-husband-wife","a":["Ilyon Woo"],"as":"Woo, Ilyon","y":2023,"p":416,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-01-18","cv":"covers/61272711.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"ol":"OL28442278W"},{"id":398718,"t":"How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics","sl":"how-to-kill-a-dragon","a":["Calvert Watkins"],"as":"Watkins, Calvert","y":1995,"p":613,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-01-13","cv":"covers/398718.avif","cw":280,"ch":399,"ol":"OL2927937W","wp":"How_to_Kill_a_Dragon"},{"id":1831667,"t":"The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World","sl":"the-horse-the-wheel-and-language","a":["David W. Anthony"],"as":"Anthony, David W.","y":2007,"p":568,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-01-13","cv":"covers/1831667.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL9561422W","wp":"The_Horse,_the_Wheel,_and_Language"},{"id":58724898,"t":"The Grief of Stones","sl":"the-grief-of-stones","se":"The Cemeteries of Amalo","sn":"2","a":["Katherine Addison"],"as":"Addison, Katherine","y":2022,"p":245,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-01-13","d":"2023-01-13","rev":"What a lovely, dignified book. This may be the first "cozy novel" I read and genuinely enjoyed in part for its coziness. At least... I think it qualifies as cozy? The subject matter is anything but: ghosts, ghouls, murders, blackmail, and as the title says.. grief. It's a lot. But the narrative style is so straightforward and calm, the opposite of overwrought. Just really direct and enjoyable. I find the protagonist incredibly sympathetic and bringing in a foil for him and maybe even a love interest in this book were good choices.
\nThe plot structure still confounds me a little. I guess it's a murder mystery story? Certainly most of it is investigation. Also the setting confounds me; is it really a fantasy novel? The trappings of fantasy are used to transport the story into a fictional milieu I find compelling, so yes. But then it's hardly a swashbuckling adventure tale or fable of eldritch strange worlds. Just enough.
\nI also continue to be annoyed by the writer's habit of dropping in made up fantasy words as if they were normal. Most of the time it's pretty straightforward to figure out from context what is meant by the extra word, even if it's a little hard to keep all the honorifics and proper names straight. But occasionally a sentence occurs like "I did not know if Anora knew I was marnis. I knew I did not want to tell him." and there's no real clue here what marnis might mean. It turns out to be important int his case! ("Gay", or maybe "Queer"). Perhaps I was supposed to remember it from the previous book. It's powerful to use new words here because the meaning might be subtle and unique to the book, not exactly like "Gay" or "Queer" to an American reader. But it'd be helpful to give a little more hint to the reader. Harumph! It's a minor quibble.
\nI've now read 3 of 4 of Addison's novels and enjoyed them all. Remarkable writing!
\n","w":335,"cv":"covers/58724898.avif","cw":280,"ch":409,"avg":4.3,"n":8018,"dist":[16,71,889,3545,3497],"g":["Fantasy","Mystery","Queer","LGBT","Steampunk","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL25957866W","wp":"The_Grief_of_Stones","isf":"3058004"},{"id":11312,"t":"Over Sea, Under Stone","sl":"over-sea-under-stone","se":"The Dark is Rising","sn":"1","a":["Susan Cooper"],"as":"Cooper, Susan","y":1965,"p":196,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-01-08","d":"2023-01-08","rev":"May be unfair to review this as I'm reading it some 40 years older than the target audience. And my main complaint is it seemed simplistic and silly. Perhaps my expectations are a bit too high. But this read more like a jumped up Hardy Boys story than a compelling start to a fantasy series. I gather this book series is well loved though, so maybe I missed it. Or the later books are more compelling?
\nWhat I did really like was the sense of autonomy the kids had. How Great Uncle Merry tells them at some point that they are on their quest and he can't help, only serve as their Guardian. I also liked the menace that comes from the adults in the village, nearly all of them in the end, the idea that the kids have to defend themselves because everyone around them is the enemy. It's kind of Harry Potteresque in that way.
\n","w":157,"cv":"covers/11312.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.85,"n":57410,"dist":[1282,3328,14651,21333,16816],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Childrens","Middle Grade","Adventure","Arthurian","Classics","Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL894247W","wp":"Over_Sea,_Under_Stone","isf":"19218"},{"id":24780,"t":"The Book of Three","sl":"the-book-of-three","se":"The Chronicles of Prydain","sn":"1","a":["Lloyd Alexander"],"as":"Alexander, Lloyd","y":1964,"p":224,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-01-06","d":"2023-01-06","rev":"Reread this recently based on memories of 40 years ago liking this as a boy. It holds up! Still an enjoyable read. The story is awfully straightforward and simple but that's totally appropriate for a children's book. I appreciated that it had a fairly good female protagonist in Eilonwy; she's a sidekick but she's got plenty of agency and is capable. Of course as a boy and now I identify mostly with Taran, the main character, and it's sweet how he's such a bumbling kid who means well and somehow managed to always do OK.
\nI think it's Gurgi who's the best drawn character. His strangeness, his craven incompetence that hides real heroism and capability. Also the great rhyming phrases, "munchings and crunchings" is something that's reverberated in my head every since I read the book 40 years ago. Just a fun character.
\nI was struck by how thematically similar this was to Lord of the Rings. I guess that shouldn't surprise me; same source material and I imagine Alexander was not dumb and willing to borrow from Tolkien's success. The book stands on its own but the overlaps were quite clear.
\n","w":192,"cv":"covers/24780.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":3.98,"n":84933,"dist":[1680,3654,18598,31842,29159],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Childrens","Middle Grade","Classics","Adventure","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL270887W","wp":"The_Book_of_Three","isf":"2323"},{"id":20662430,"t":"Sand","sl":"sand","se":"The Sand Chronicles","sn":"1","a":["Hugh Howey"],"as":"Howey, Hugh","y":2014,"p":372,"sh":"to-read","d":"2023-01-04","cv":"covers/20662430.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19979112W","isf":"1697282"},{"id":41118857,"t":"The Dragon Republic","sl":"the-dragon-republic","se":"The Poppy War","sn":"2","a":["R.F. Kuang"],"as":"Kuang, R.F.","y":2019,"p":658,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2023-01-03","d":"2023-01-03","rev":"A solid middle book of a trilogy. It's not as exciting or fresh as the first book and doesn't have some of the explosively transgressive moments. And the historical parallels are a little lost on me. There's no set piece as huge as the Golyn Niis massacre in the first book, or if there was it was lost on me. The book leans even more heavily into the supernatural elements which takes it further from historicity. And while I appreciate the intrigue of adding a new faction, the Federation, it really wasn't clear to me what they were meant to represent other than vaguely the influence of the Western world on China.
\nIn short the book lacks some of the things that made the first book so very compelling. On the other hand it's still got plenty of deep back story. And an interesting story with good characters. Some of the machinations get a little overwrought but it was compellingly entertained and I am looking forward to reading the final book.
\n","w":171,"cv":"covers/41118857.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.33,"n":253959,"dist":[1322,5376,28506,92196,126559],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Historical","High Fantasy","War","Magic","Young Adult"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Novel - Adult","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19629129W","wp":"The_Dragon_Republic","isf":"2578035"},{"id":35068705,"t":"The Poppy War","sl":"the-poppy-war","se":"The Poppy War","sn":"1","a":["R.F. Kuang"],"as":"Kuang, R.F.","y":2018,"p":545,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-12-26","d":"2022-12-26","rev":"This is a hell of a book for a first novel from such a young author. There is a lot going on here, it's a complex story. And with an enormous historical backdrop feeding it. Despite my admiration for the book I'm not sure I exactly enjoyed it. I was mildly annoyed by yet another "young adults in school" novel, although the narrative goes far from that in the second half. Partly it felt a bit wordy, like maybe it could have done with being edited to 90% of its length.
\nBut mostly the book is entirely grim. What a remarkable twist on the usual "young person discovers their power and saves the world". To have the hero embrace world-cleansing destruction.. And so deliberately. She is presented with the choice many times, even has a spirit guide as well as a teacher who are trying to save her from the immoral path. And she explicitly chooses to demolish the world, for vengeance. And that choice is clearly hers to make, we are told explicitly the gods make no choices.
\nI greatly appreciate the fresh perspective the author brings to fantasy writing. Drawing on Chinese culture and World War 2 makes for a lot of depth. She walks a good line between using literal historical facts vs. keeping it a fantasy novel. It was obvious that the main conflict is China vs. Japan but between my ignorance of the details and the liberal modification for fantasy novel purposes, it stays mostly on the side of entertaining fiction. Well, at least until the ending quarter of the book. The Rape of Nanjing / Golyn Niis scene was really upsetting, particularly the graphic descriptions of sexual violence. Also concluding with "we choose absolute nuclear destruction of all of Japan" is a bit grim.)
\nRemarkable book all around, an impressive accomplishment.
\n","w":307,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/35068705.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.15,"n":555115,"dist":[6419,21975,84151,211574,230996],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Historical","High Fantasy","War","Young Adult","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"First Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds Award)","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Golden Tentacle (Debut)","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy and for Debut Author","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Reddit r/fantasy Stabby Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19351054W","wp":"The_Poppy_War","isf":"2346745"},{"id":53671067,"t":"Programming with 64-Bit ARM Assembly Language: Single Board Computer Development for Raspberry Pi and Mobile Devices","sl":"programming-with-64-bit-arm-assembly-language","a":["Stephen Smith"],"as":"Smith, Stephen","y":2020,"p":407,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2022-12-25","cv":"covers/53671067.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.27,"n":15,"dist":[0,0,2,7,6],"g":["Programming","Computer Science"],"ol":"OL20926225W"},{"id":60018232,"t":"The World: A Family History of Humanity","sl":"the-world","a":["Simon Sebag Montefiore"],"as":"Montefiore, Simon Sebag","y":2022,"p":1344,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-12-17","cv":"covers/60018232.avif","cw":280,"ch":412,"ol":"OL27245479W"},{"id":340819,"t":"Blood Music","sl":"blood-music","a":["Greg Bear"],"as":"Bear, Greg","y":1985,"p":344,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-12-16","d":"2022-12-16","rev":"Meh, didn't much care for this. I know it's a popular book, when Bear passed away recently a lot of people cited it as their favorite. I think a lot of people responded to the body horror aspect of the story. Me, I just couldn't get past the uneven writing. From the 70s bachelor farce at the start to the horror to some big scifi that doesn't quite make sense. A particular irritation was the writing passages where the noocytes are communing with their hosts, some alien merged consciousness, and the writing is nearly incomprehensible. I gather that was deliberate but it did not work for me.
\nThe premise is very interesting, the self-replicating life form. But then he takes this to some cracked idea about reality being altered by perception of reality and I felt he lost whatever great idea he had.
\nIt's a creative book and there's a good story buried in there, just needed some refinement to come out more coherently.
\n","w":164,"cv":"covers/340819.avif","cw":280,"ch":442,"avg":3.84,"n":17826,"dist":[303,1144,4499,7011,4869],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Cyberpunk","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Tour-Apollo Award","cat":"","year":1986,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":1988,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16513W","wp":"Blood_Music_(novel)","isf":"2340"},{"id":2578241,"t":"Parable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents / Kindred","sl":"parable-of-the-sower-parable-of-the-talents-kindred","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","p":948,"sh":"read","d":"2022-12-12","cv":"covers/2578241.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":4.47,"n":490,"dist":[6,8,43,124,309],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Fantasy","Post Apocalyptic","Womens","Time Travel","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":21265321,"t":"Bloodchild","sl":"bloodchild","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1996,"p":31,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-12-12","cv":"covers/21265321.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL15207635W","isf":"41597"},{"id":52739476,"t":"The Love Study","sl":"the-love-study","se":"The Love Study","sn":"1","a":["Kris Ripper"],"as":"Ripper, Kris","y":2020,"p":336,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-12-11","d":"2022-12-11","rev":"Not my cup of tea. I'm not a romance novel reader (but trying!) but this was just too breezy and shallow for me. Honestly it felt very millennial, its approach both to sexual identity and to problem solving in relationships. If I were 25 maybe I'd feel this is more relatable. Oh god, have I become a grumpy middle aged man?
\nI did like the happy friendship group the author depicts. And Sidney is a lovely character, someone I'd like to know; perhaps too lovely and perfect to be real. Honestly had a hard time finishing the book though.
\n","w":99,"cv":"covers/52739476.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"avg":3.47,"n":1316,"dist":[34,168,463,450,201],"g":["Romance","LGBT","Queer","Contemporary","Contemporary Romance","Transgender","M M Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL21950779W"},{"id":464609,"t":"Anvil of Stars","sl":"anvil-of-stars","se":"Forge of God","sn":"2","a":["Greg Bear"],"as":"Bear, Greg","y":1992,"p":471,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-12-07","d":"2022-12-07","rev":"Wow, that was a hell of a book. I rated it lower because the story got so tedious in the middle I almost gave up. Glad I stuck with it to the end though. An entertaining book in the first and last thirds. And the middle third did serve a purpose, setting up story and new ideas. Just dragged a bit.
\nIt's so ambitious as a book! A new form of very small human society. A fascinating alien species brought in halfway through the book with totally different psychology and cognition. Truly alien, in other words. And then the reveal towards the end about the nature of the enemy they are hunting. almost incomprehensible in its alienness. And Bear isn't afraid of that, leans into it, the experience of being overwhelmed with power and strangeness is something both the characters and we the reader experience. Very nice writing.
\nI also appreciated the subversion of tropes, much like the first book. Specifically the nature of what our heroes end up doing and the moral and social consequences of that.
\nI also want to acknowledge how much better written this book is. I complained about how the first book was awfully White Dude and the characters were wooden. Not so here, the social drama is very well written. And there are good women characters. He wrote it only a few years after the first book, surprised to see so much evolution in his writing style.
\n","w":243,"cv":"covers/464609.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":3.92,"n":7113,"dist":[85,313,1747,2911,2057],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Hard Science Fiction","Space"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL16503W","wp":"Anvil_of_Stars","isf":"2418"},{"id":56268846,"t":"A Previous Life","sl":"a-previous-life","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2021,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-12-06","cv":"covers/56268846.avif","cw":260,"ch":400,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL25331854W"},{"id":58377135,"t":"Something Fabulous","sl":"something-fabulous","se":"Something Fabulous","sn":"1","a":["Alexis Hall"],"as":"Hall, Alexis","y":2022,"p":363,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-12-06","cv":"covers/58377135.avif","cw":60,"ch":40,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL24634154W"},{"id":64732,"t":"The Forge of God","sl":"the-forge-of-god","se":"Forge of God","sn":"1","a":["Greg Bear"],"as":"Bear, Greg","y":1987,"p":474,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-11-29","d":"2022-11-29","rc":2,"rev":"Entertaining book, but not great. The plot is so unusual, a nice subversion of genre. Any other book like this and humanity would succeed in banning together and saving Earth, fighting off the aliens. Or at least understood what was going on. In this book though humanity is in the dark, and deliberately so thanks to psyops tactics from the aliens. We're left guessing to the very end whether the supposed savior aliens are even really good guys. The President is worse than useless, in the grip of religious mania. And to the extent humans ever do take useful action it's only under the direct mind control of the savior aliens, we do not save ourselves. The true free humans are off singing folk songs on top of a waterfall. Well one of them manages to nuke the spaceship in Furnace Creek, a sort of heroic action sequence, but it ends up literally not mattering. It's a remarkable thing to do in a sci-fi novel, to rob humanity of agency.
\nThe weirdness of the story is my favorite thing about the book. I also liked the prose in the last chapter or two, Bear clearly had a fun time writing that tableau.
\nThe book was a little smaller than it could be I think mostly because of the wooden characters. Arthur is well drawn and interesting but the rest of the characters seemed bland, honestly, and interchangeable. Also this book comes from the old era of White Dude sci-fi and while I won't criticize Bear for that, it does make the characters more dull. If some of the women characters were better written, particularly Francine and whats-her-name in Shoshone, it would have made for a better story.
\nThis book would make an interesting movie. Assuming the adaptation stuck to the story and wasn't afraid of the subversive weirdness of the plot arc I mentioned above. Wikipedia says there were efforts at development ~15 years ago but maybe it didn't go anywhere?
\n","w":331,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/64732.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":3.87,"n":16751,"dist":[222,875,4393,6698,4563],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Space Opera","Apocalyptic","Aliens","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1988,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1987,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16514W","wp":"The_Forge_of_God","isf":"1910"},{"id":43305488,"t":"Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings","sl":"children-of-ash-and-elm","a":["Neil Price"],"as":"Price, Neil","y":2020,"p":656,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-11-24","d":"2022-11-24","rev":"A thoughtful and in depth history that also managed to be readable and fairly entertaining. The author does an excellent job giving us insight into the mindset of Vikings, what the world looked like to them and how they understood their role in it. Lots of excellent grounding in archaeology research, including some very recent new information. But not too scholarly or dry, all in service of a good story. Just great writing all around.
\n","w":75,"cv":"covers/43305488.avif","cw":258,"ch":400,"avg":4.13,"n":10742,"dist":[106,350,1654,4525,4107],"g":["History","European History","Medieval","Historical","Medieval History","World History","Archaeology","Anthropology"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL21664163W"},{"id":627614,"t":"Night Soldiers","sl":"night-soldiers","se":"Night Soldiers","sn":"1","a":["Alan Furst"],"as":"Furst, Alan","y":1988,"p":456,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-11-23","cv":"covers/627614.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1904180W"},{"id":60926,"t":"Lilith's Brood","sl":"liliths-brood","se":"Xenogenesis","sn":"1-3","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1987,"p":746,"sh":"read","d":"2022-11-18","cv":"covers/60926.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.37,"n":22729,"dist":[170,536,2390,7275,12358],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Aliens","Feminism"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL15207642W","wp":"Lilith's_Brood"},{"id":60930,"t":"Bloodchild and Other Stories","sl":"bloodchild-and-other-stories","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1995,"p":214,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-11-18","cv":"covers/60930.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.34,"n":28879,"dist":[175,447,3156,10745,14356],"g":["Short Stories","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Horror","Speculative Fiction","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novelette for \"Bloodchild\"","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novelette","year":1984,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novelette for \"Bloodchild\"","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Best Novelette","year":1985,"won":true}],"ol":"OL35621W","wp":"Bloodchild_and_Other_Stories","isf":"36941"},{"id":41940427,"t":"Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil","sl":"learning-from-the-germans","a":["Susan Neiman"],"as":"Neiman, Susan","y":2019,"p":434,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-11-15","cv":"covers/41940427.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL20843020W","wp":"Learning_from_the_Germans"},{"id":55643287,"t":"How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America","sl":"how-the-word-is-passed","a":["Clint Smith"],"as":"Smith, Clint","y":2021,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-11-15","cv":"covers/55643287.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"ol":"OL23095423W"},{"id":36896898,"t":"Spinning Silver","sl":"spinning-silver","a":["Naomi Novik"],"as":"Novik, Naomi","y":2018,"p":465,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-11-13","d":"2022-11-13","rev":"What a compelling read! Really excellent fantasy / fairytale story with just a hint of romance novel tropes. Told consistently and well paced, with a lot of characters and complexity but always comprehensible. Really just a good scale of story.
\nThe part I found most interesting was the feminist themes. All the main POV characters are women. Three of the most important are trapped by patriarchal figures; fathers, husbands, societal expectations. But never are they powerless or overwhelmed or irrevocably abused. They all persevere and succeed on their strengths, their intelligence, their skill. A hero fantasy, sure, but all the more interesting coming from a position of relative powerlessness as women.
\nThe other theme I liked was the drawing from Slavic stories and fairytales. A comparison to Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy is inevitable. They're quite different books, no problem at all reading them in addition to Spinning Silver. But they are drawing from some similar source material and some of the story beats are similar. To me it made it all the more interesting since the outcome is so different.
\nI've liked pretty much everything of Novik's I've read now.
\n","w":190,"cv":"covers/36896898.avif","cw":280,"ch":412,"avg":4.17,"n":159228,"dist":[1717,5855,24136,59513,68007],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Retellings","Romance","Fairy Tales","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy Novel","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Geffen Award","cat":"Best Translated Fantasy Book","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Traditionally Published Novel","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19145737W","wp":"Spinning_Silver","isf":"2370764"},{"id":42975172,"t":"The Testaments","sl":"the-testaments","se":"The Handmaid's Tale","sn":"2","a":["Margaret Atwood"],"as":"Atwood, Margaret","y":2019,"p":422,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-11-07","d":"2022-11-07","rev":"Entertaining and read quickly, it's a good book. I loved the fleshing out of Gilead, the perspectives of different women, and particularly the centering of Aunt Lydia and learning about her character. But the plot takes a real turn for improbable and dumb about 70% of the way through and that really bugged me. It seemed like the author had a story she wanted to tell from the beginning and it sort of came together cleverly but then it all gets just entirely improbable with all the characters together and events advancing far too quickly. Also in retrospect the original silliness to have Baby Nicole go back into Gilead as an agent of Mayday was absolutely implausible and ridiculous.
\nIt's interesting reading this as an alternative exploration from where the TV show has gone. Both are good and are thematically compatible, but Atwood's vision is a lot more contained and focussed. I wonder if they had the option to use her stories for the TV show?
\n","w":166,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/42975172.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.2,"n":467182,"dist":[2901,13363,69749,183076,198093],"g":["Dystopia","Science Fiction","Feminism","Classics","Literary Fiction","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländisches Werk","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Scotiabank Giller Prize","cat":"","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Audiobook of the Year","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA)","cat":"International Book","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Βραβείο Βιβλίου Public","cat":"Μεταφρασμένο Μυθιστόρημα (μετάφραση: Αύγουστος Κορτώ)","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Blogistanian Globalia","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20129837W","wp":"The_Testaments","isf":"2593386"},{"id":256890,"t":"Survivor","sl":"survivor","se":"Patternist","sn":"4","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1978,"p":187,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-11-01","d":"2022-11-01","rev":"I liked this a lot more than I expected to. Butler disowned the book and it was written early in her career. But it's quite a strong story. The characters are well written, the human conflict is interesting, and it's all a very tidy and compelling plot. Really the only drawback is it wasn't Butlerian enough. There's her trademark dwelling on near-humanity (as alien species) but it's not quite strong or central as her treatment of similar themes in the Xenogenesis trilogy. (This book also has her recurring trope of women loving people who coerce them into sexual relationships; this is so present in all her books I wonder what's going on there.)
\nIt strikes me as sharing an interesting connection with Kindred, which she published just a year later. Both novels are sci-fi rewrites of particular kinds of uniquely American books. Kindred is a slave narrative, only fiction with a little sci-fi. Survivor is a lot like the narratives of white Americans who were raised in Native American tribes and then left / escaped back to the white world. I think it's interesting and smart that Butler would choose to work with that base story and now I wonder what other sci-fi novels have done the same.
\nIt's a little strange to me Butler didn't want the book republished. It's good! She explained that she didn't like that it sounded like a particular type of colonialist sci-fi. But it didn't seem problematic to me! Her alien species are fully formed and not portrayed as weaker natives or anything. The whole point of the novel is how personhood transcends species!
\nIt's also a little weird this is lumped in as one of the Patternist novels. It's not really, other than a few pages of unimportant backstory locating the Missionary colonists as ordinary humans who had fled the world she built for the Patternists.
\n","w":314,"cv":"covers/256890.avif","cw":280,"ch":250,"avg":3.81,"n":1542,"dist":[21,81,447,611,382],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Aliens","African American","Dystopia"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL35619W","wp":"Survivor_(Butler_novel)","isf":"1072"},{"id":116256,"t":"Patternmaster","sl":"patternmaster","se":"Patternist","sn":"4","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1976,"p":208,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-10-29","d":"2022-10-29","rev":"What a remarkable first novel! Confident, full of complex ideas and personal relationships. And already Butler's trademark themes.. Transhumanity with a creepy edge. Coercion of people via mental connections, including sexual coercion. Strong female character (and bisexual, at that!). I can only imagine how fresh this novel must have felt in 1976 when it was published.
\nThe story feels very well polished, tight. Just enough characters to make it interesting. And some hints of a larger world outside but not too much to disrupt the almost claustrophobic band of telepaths at the center of the story.
\nIt's remarkable reading this book as the fourth in a series while knowing it was actually written and published first. It follows so naturally from the books she wrote a decade later! From what I've read she had the broad world building outlined from the beginning, all well planned out. That's a pretty remarkable achievement.
\nAll that said the Patternmaster books fall a little flat to me as a whole. I think precisely because they are so small in a way, focussed on just a few characters. I would have loved to read some grand space opera from Butler. But she didn't write that. I think her other novels have more though: Xenogenesis has some space operatic scope and the Parables books feel like they are about all of America, not just a group of weird telepaths or infected.
\nI'm going to read Survivor next, Butler's disavowed fifth Patternist novel.
\n","w":246,"cv":"covers/116256.avif","cw":280,"ch":459,"avg":4.03,"n":11647,"dist":[48,402,2583,4788,3826],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Dystopia","African American","Post Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL35620W","wp":"Patternmaster","isf":"1413"},{"id":56952634,"t":"Seed to Harvest: The Complete Patternist Series","sl":"seed-to-harvest","se":"Patternist","sn":"1-4","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":2007,"p":788,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-10-29","d":"2022-10-29","cv":"covers/56952634.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":4.39,"n":6863,"dist":[40,102,726,2252,3743],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Historical Fiction","African American","Dystopia"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL15207645W","wp":"Patternist_series"},{"id":60933,"t":"Clay's Ark","sl":"clays-ark","se":"Patternist","sn":"3","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1984,"p":213,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-10-27","d":"2022-10-27","rev":"Huh, in some ways this book is a rewrite of Mind of My Mind. Slightly different sci-fi connection between people. And this story and the characters are better executed. But at its core it's a form of intentional society between people who have been enhanced with extra powers, exploring what that might look like.
\nAnd similar themes. Particularly the idea of being coerced into liking things (by alien microbes this time, not telepathy). This gets really uncomfortable when it's sexuality, all through this book are girls and women being compelled to have sex with men they don't want to but liking it anyway because of some external influence. Just awful! This is a recurring trope with Butler (see also Imago) and I can't tell if it's a feminist criticism, a personal fantasy, or maybe some of both.
\n","w":139,"cv":"covers/60933.avif","cw":280,"ch":458,"avg":3.84,"n":13057,"dist":[131,787,3619,5020,3500],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Dystopia","Horror","Post Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL35622W","wp":"Clay's_Ark","isf":"2224"},{"id":116254,"t":"Mind of My Mind","sl":"mind-of-my-mind","se":"Patternist","sn":"2","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1977,"p":226,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-10-25","d":"2022-10-25","rev":"Straight off of reading Wild Seed I read this, the second in the series, but it was such a disappointment compared to the first. Something just does not work with this book for me. I think it's the characters and the social setup. Honestly it felt like a take on a bad 1970s commune experiment, none of the people felt real to me, too many generic names and lack of personalities. I also didn't like how Doro and Emma were both basically lost as characters after so much good writing for them in the first book.
\nBut then I looked and read the publishing history and I see this book was written well before #1, and that the whole series is jumbled up. That may explain some of the unevenness in tone. Ordinarily I prefer to read things in publication order but too late now.
\nAnyway there's some good in this book. Particularly Butler's strength in delving into alien variations on humanity, in this case how weird and upsetting a telepathic society would be. Also all the casual domestic violence she writes about is upsetting but feels true and an important foundation for her writing.
\n","w":195,"cv":"covers/116254.avif","cw":280,"ch":479,"avg":4.19,"n":16799,"dist":[73,342,2660,6938,6786],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","African American","Feminism"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL35626W","wp":"Mind_of_My_Mind","isf":"1523"},{"id":22237143,"t":"KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps","sl":"kl","a":["Nikolaus Wachsmann"],"as":"Wachsmann, Nikolaus","y":2015,"p":865,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-10-22","cv":"covers/22237143.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"ol":"OL17072105W"},{"id":39927096,"t":"Less","sl":"less","se":"Arthur Less","sn":"1","a":["Andrew Sean Greer"],"as":"Greer, Andrew Sean","y":2017,"p":273,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-10-18","d":"2022-10-18","rev":"This book is about 2x too twee for me. Also perhaps I am in this book and do not like it.
\nIt's good, definitely, sympathetic and fun and poignant. But the story is such a silly setup. Middle aged writer suffering writing problems. A potted travelogue. Some clever turns of phrase around middle aged foibles. I'm being unkind, these things are executed very well, but the book as a whole comes together as such a cliche.
\nBut then I find myself in the writing. And it is very well written. I'm glad we have gay fiction like this, but ultimately it felt a bit hollow.
\n","w":105,"cv":"covers/39927096.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.62,"n":232581,"dist":[8296,24085,67492,81120,51588],"g":["LGBT","Contemporary","Queer","Romance","Literary Fiction","Humor"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Pulitzer Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA)","cat":"International Book","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19710804W","wp":"Less_(novel)"},{"id":52318,"t":"Wild Seed","sl":"wild-seed","se":"Patternist","sn":"1","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1980,"p":306,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2022-10-16","rev":"Oh, what a sad book. Just deeply sad in its premise of human trafficking, eugenics, a man controlling people emotionally to bend them to his will. Butler's novels all seem to come from these intensely uncomfortable personal horrors and I felt this one more than most because they are so ordinary and human, explicitly not alien and only a little sci-fi.
\nGreat novel for all of that. I love her insight into personalities and motivations. And her ability to adapt some strangeness - the magical abilities, the longevity - into a story about humanity. About the history of African Americans, at that! In a weird oblique way. There's a lot of depth here and I think I only got about a third of it. But the surface story was also compelling and I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
\n","w":140,"cv":"covers/52318.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":4.2,"n":42026,"dist":[478,1415,5848,15740,18545],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Historical Fiction","Speculative Fiction","African American","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL35627W","wp":"Wild_Seed_(novel)","isf":"842"},{"id":59743336,"t":"The Golden Enclaves","sl":"the-golden-enclaves","se":"The Scholomance","sn":"3","a":["Naomi Novik"],"as":"Novik, Naomi","y":2022,"p":411,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-10-07","d":"2022-10-07","rev":"What a fantastic conclusion to the series! What I was afraid was originally an amusing YA Hungry Potter Games turned out to be a really interesting moral story about the development of a young woman's abilities and ethics. With a global warming allegory at that.
\nI'm not going to rehash the plot here, but I will say it was very solid. Structurally this book is quite different from the first two, now that school is over, and the author managed to find a new plot framework that worked very well. Mostly though I appreciated El's transition in her ethics, understanding what her role would be in the world and resolving the contradictions of both her own abilities and the nature of magic.
\nThere's a huge twist / development in this book that explains and reshapes a lot of the concepts and narratives in the first books. I gather this has been controversial with fans but I think it worked perfectly. Also I'm not sure but there's several hints that the author had this planned from the very first book; not in detail but in broad strokes. It definitely felt like it all made sense to me, not a deus ex machina at all. Smart writing and quite satisfying.
\nMy one quibble is I think Orion got short shrift in this book, barely a character at all and off-screen for most of the action. Instead several of El's friends are the other characters but I had a hard time caring much about their stories. Also there's a bit of romance in this book that just feels out of place. It was charmingly awkward in the first two, here it maybe should have just been elided.
\nBut minor complaints aside it's a great book and really justifies the whole trilogy. I also recently read the author's Uprooted and liked it quite a bit as well, if you're looking for more.
\n","w":318,"cv":"covers/59743336.avif","cw":60,"ch":40,"avg":4.11,"n":109865,"dist":[981,4124,19559,42248,42953],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dark Academia","Magic","Romance","Urban Fantasy","Young Adult Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Lodestar Award","cat":"","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26431106W","wp":"The_Golden_Enclaves","isf":"3070031"},{"id":20706284,"t":"Ancillary Sword","sl":"ancillary-sword","se":"Imperial Radch","sn":"2","a":["Ann Leckie"],"as":"Leckie, Ann","y":2014,"p":359,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-09-25","d":"2022-09-25","rev":"I wish I liked this more. But like the first book, it's just so small in scale. A handful of characters, action only in one place, very little of import really happens in the plot. It's odd to read something with all the trappings of grand space opera when what you get is so limited in scope.
\nI was prepared to really dislike this book but the author brings it all home 3/4 of the way through in Chapter 16 with the character Queter, and her relationship with Raughd Denche. And a conflict that results in a pitch-perfect scene about the plight of indigenous people being dominated by a colonialist force. That scene was so empathetic and meaningful it redeemed the whole book for me.
\nAlso emphasized the best thing about the author's writing of Breq, the main character. Her empathy and understanding of individual people. It's a little puzzling given her own background but the character is very compelling and so well written.
\nI'll probably read the third book just because I'm so invested but I do wish there were just a little more in the way of excitement.
\n","w":190,"cv":"covers/20706284.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":4.09,"n":62605,"dist":[611,2149,10878,26557,22410],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Queer","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17062642W","wp":"Ancillary_Sword","isf":"1766349"},{"id":1535273,"t":"Imaro","sl":"imaro","se":"Imaro","sn":"1","a":["Charles R. Saunders"],"as":"Saunders, Charles R.","y":1981,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-09-20","cv":"covers/1535273.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL920737W","wp":"Imaro","isf":"4255"},{"id":36681425,"t":"Uprooted","sl":"uprooted","a":["Naomi Novik"],"as":"Novik, Naomi","y":2015,"p":465,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-09-17","d":"2022-09-17","rev":"Very solid, even exciting book with an interesting fantasy setting. I like how she draws on Slavic culture. And also the setting in the landscape, the forest and mountains, the villages and The Wood. Her descriptions of magic and particularly different styles of magic are compelling. And I like the twist about how Agnieszka's magic is rooted to her valley, and the valley is a sort of affinity that is hard to leave. All of it adds up to a gentle, meaningful setting and environment.
\nThe story was mostly fun. The book lags a bit when she goes off to court; I'm not sure I ever much cared about the politics or the plot in the middle third of the book. But that's OK there was plenty at the start and the end.
\nThe weird thing to me is that this felt almost like two different stories, two narratives, and one of them was a little too rape-culture for me. Specifically the damsel in distress setup at the start. First that it seems The Dragon is taking girls as sex slaves. And then the attempted rape by the prince. It just seemed very high stakes and more adultly awful than the rest of the book needed. OTOH it is a meaningful peril for women both real and in a fantasy novel, maybe those stakes were needed? Alternately Novik could have taken the ending story about the Wood and the people it takes and turn it into a full-on Octavia Butler body horror story. That would have been interesting and consistent with the first part, but a much darker novel.
\nNot complaints, just me thinking out loud on taking the story seriously. It's a good story, a great mix of fairy tale and fantasy and mysterious adventure.
\n","w":297,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/36681425.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.01,"n":274372,"dist":[7581,16532,47875,94861,107523],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Romance","Magic","Fairy Tales","Retellings","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2016,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17345493W","wp":"Uprooted_(novel)","isf":"1842005"},{"id":109395,"t":"Faggots","sl":"faggots","a":["Larry Kramer","Reynolds Price"],"as":"Kramer, Larry","y":1978,"p":363,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-09-09","cv":"covers/109395.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":3.62,"n":4140,"dist":[201,453,1130,1295,1061],"g":["Queer","LGBT","Gay","Classics","Gay Fiction","Queer Lit","Romance","Sexuality"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL3138747W","wp":"Faggots_(novel)"},{"id":232431,"t":"Dancer from the Dance","sl":"dancer-from-the-dance","a":["Andrew Holleran","Garth Richard Greenwell"],"as":"Holleran, Andrew","y":1978,"p":250,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2022-09-09","rev":"I enjoyed this and I'm glad I read it, but the book is a bit of a mess. Lots of very florid prose, and a narrative that at times lost me. Maybe my reading comprehension skills are at fault more than the writing.
\nWhat's fantastic about this book is its depiction of gay New York life in the 70s. Fiercely queer, hilarious, a little tragic. And absolutely unapologetic. What a bolt of lightning this book must have been when it came out!
\nAnd it really is very well written. It has more than a little of a Death in Venice vibe to me, Malone's slow descent into a debauched life. Only way more witty and fun and sexy. And I loved a lot of the writing style even if it did seem awfully wrought. Without that it would have been a much more ordinary book. Sutherland in particular is fantastically characterized by his outlandish soliloquies.
\nI wonder how relatable this novel is for The Young People these days. I recognize the world described, it was the generation older than me when I was growing up gay. But now it's 40-50 years in the past. And there's more than a little uncomfortably racist and misogynist text in it. Mostly though this book is so rooted in the alienating sense of being queer and other, removed from ordinary society. That's much less a feature of American gay life now, particularly in a city like New York.
\nFor reference, here is the NYT review from 1979.
\n","w":253,"cv":"covers/232431.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.97,"n":11385,"dist":[174,657,2502,4027,4025],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","Classics","Romance","New York","Gay Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL79305W","wp":"Dancer_from_the_Dance"},{"id":3140046,"t":"A Day and a Night at the Baths","sl":"a-day-and-a-night-at-the-baths","a":["Michael Rumaker"],"as":"Rumaker, Michael","y":1979,"p":81,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-09-09","cv":"covers/3140046.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"ol":"OL3289341W"},{"id":58916147,"t":"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow","sl":"tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow","a":["Gabrielle Zevin"],"as":"Zevin, Gabrielle","y":2022,"p":418,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-09-02","d":"2022-09-02","rev":"What a phenomenal book. I gobbled it up it five days. Just a really wonderful story about creativity, and love between friends, and growing as an adult from ages 18 to 35.
\nThe author's writing style is so great. Very direct and frank in times, also a bit emotionally detached. But all in ways that draw me in and make the personalities and emotions feel very real and personal. There's a lot of complicated feelings in this book, in a bunch of directions, and it pretty much all lands.
\nI particularly enjoyed the early sequences when Sadie and Sam are young students in Cambridge, MA. A lot of fun details told particularly well, like the mentions of the Necco factory. And I can certainly relate to the student experience and the feeling of intense creativity. I also enjoyed the details of Sadie's experiences as a woman developing games, including her uncomfortable relationship with Dov for good and bad. That all felt very true and subtle to me.
\nThe fact the book is about computer games definitely helped me to connect to it. But it's not some Ready Player One knockoff as I feared the first few pages; there's way more emotional and story depth here. The games serve as a metaphor, particularly for recovering from failure and for thinking about death. But I think the interest of the novel goes way beyond gamer culture.
\nJust a great read all around.
\n","w":240,"cv":"covers/58916147.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.1,"n":1475478,"dist":[20747,67418,247392,542575,597346],"g":["Contemporary","Romance","Literary Fiction","Historical Fiction","Coming Of Age","Friendship"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"British Book Award","cat":"Pageturner","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Book of the Month Book of the Year Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"Shortlist","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"She Reads Best of Award","cat":"Book of the Year and Literary Fiction","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Relationships","year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26004554W","wp":"Tomorrow,_and_Tomorrow,_and_Tomorrow_(novel)","isf":"3402138"},{"id":60097415,"t":"California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric--and What It Means for America's Power Grid","sl":"california-burning","a":["Katherine Blunt"],"as":"Blunt, Katherine","y":2022,"p":350,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-08-31","cv":"covers/60097415.avif","cw":265,"ch":400,"ol":"OL26981276W"},{"id":184592,"t":"Father Brown: The Essential Tales","sl":"father-brown","se":"Father Brown","a":["G.K. Chesterton","P.D. James"],"as":"Chesterton, G.K.","y":1935,"p":258,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-08-29","cv":"covers/184592.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.92,"n":1009,"dist":[14,37,262,397,299],"g":["Mystery","Classics","Short Stories","Crime","Catholic","Christian","British Literature","Classic Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL29380307W"},{"id":44159810,"t":"The Toll","sl":"the-toll","se":"Arc of a Scythe","sn":"3","a":["Neal Shusterman"],"as":"Shusterman, Neal","y":2019,"p":637,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-08-28","d":"2022-08-28","rev":"What an ambitious conclusion to the story! It's a rare trilogy where I like each book more than the previous. I enjoyed the intricate plotting here, several stories that felt like they all had their own meaning converging in one place. The author also has a knack for keeping some surprises and twists for us to be revealed in the last third of the book.
\nI think what I liked most was the author stretching to more complex writing styles. Some experimental prose. Also a complex time-woven narrative. And while he had to do some silly tricks to make everything come together, parking a couple of characters in limbo for a few years while other things happened, I liked it most.
\nMuch like the second book, while it's the Scythedom that's front and center of these stories I think the narrative about the Thunderhead and what a benevolent God-AI would be like is the more interesting sci-fi conceit. The changes in this third book are good, although I do think the author cheated a bit to get to tell some stories he was clearly wanting to tell. The Cirrus being able to talk to people in a way the Thunderhead couldn't. Also the Thunderhead's brief flirtation with being human. Although both of those were wrapped up very nicely in the story of the Cirrus being developed as its own AI. I liked how the long game was played there, the little interstitial stories of the AI iterations.. Not to mention the big cheat at the start, resurrecting most of his characters he killed from book 2 to tell a new story with them. It is a world where resurrection is common, so fair play, but still a bit of an eyeroll from me.
\nMy main complaint is that the overriding global conflict of the Scythedom didn't seem terribly plausible. Specifically once Goddard and the scythedom declare open season on murdering humans. They are a tiny minority in the world; I have to think some uprising would quickly just kill all the scythes. Instead Goddard rules as a global dictator largely without question? The Tonists were supposed to be our faction of resistance but they were so clearly hapless it was hard to take them seriously.
\nBut those are niggling complaints because I am overthinking the story. I appreciate the author just bullied through even with a little silliness because the story it lets him tell is quite satisfying.
\nThey're making a movie of the book(s) but it seems stuck in development hell at the moment. I think that might work well, it'll be interesting to see all this story stripped down to a much shorter screenplay.
\n","w":447,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/44159810.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":4.15,"n":187735,"dist":[1643,6676,31812,70147,77457],"g":["Young Adult","Fantasy","Dystopia","Science Fiction","Romance","Young Adult Fantasy","Teen"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger pour la jeunesse","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20651847W","wp":"The_Toll_(novel)","isf":"2617787"},{"id":36126072,"t":"Thunderhead","sl":"thunderhead","se":"Arc of a Scythe","sn":"2","a":["Neal Shusterman"],"as":"Shusterman, Neal","y":2018,"p":393,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-08-22","d":"2022-08-22","rev":"I ended up really liking this. It starts off kind of slow and felt like an obligatory sequel. But then two things happen to make it interesting. First, the author completely upends the world he'd spent so much time building. And second, he centers the Thunderhead as a POV character with the very well written short interstitial material. It's a great story of the horror and unknowability of an all powerful sentient AI and it's really quite an interesting thing to have interleaved in the rest.
\nIt's still a YA book at heart so it's not terribly subtle or complex. But plenty of fun plot twists and interesting main characters keep it humming along. Good stuff. Very excited to see where the plot goes next.
\n","w":125,"cv":"covers/36126072.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.37,"n":253992,"dist":[851,3635,25422,94707,129377],"g":["Young Adult","Fantasy","Dystopia","Science Fiction","Romance","Young Adult Fantasy","Teen","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger pour la jeunesse","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas","cat":"Extranjera perteneciente a saga","year":2018,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17852712W","wp":"Thunderhead_(Shusterman_novel)","isf":"2303431"},{"id":58027863,"t":"Heartstopper: Volume 1-4","sl":"heartstopper","se":"Heartstopper","sn":"1-4","a":["Alice Oseman"],"as":"Oseman, Alice","y":2016,"p":1260,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-08-12","d":"2022-08-12","rev":"Read these quick after watching the TV show. What charming, wholesome stories. It makes me super happy as a middle aged gay guy to see stories like this told so forthrightly. It's written for a pretty young age set but I enjoyed it anyway as a fantasy and sweet story for people like me who never had stories like this about ourselves growing up.
\nThe comics work really nicely and I wish I'd read them before the TV show. The writing is so very spare and the art is so light and whimsical. Really just sets a strong mood. The TV show is great too but it wasn't possible for me to read the first two books without picturing all the TV scenes and I think the graphic novel stands strongly on its own as a different thing.
\n","w":138,"cv":"covers/58027863.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.6,"n":10217,"dist":[65,124,632,2239,7157],"g":["Romance","Graphic Novels","Young Adult","LGBT","Queer","Comics","Contemporary","Gay","Webcomic"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL26458016W","wp":"Heartstopper_(graphic_novel)"},{"id":58822691,"t":"Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution","sl":"allow-me-to-retort","a":["Elie Mystal"],"as":"Mystal, Elie","y":2022,"p":270,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-08-07","cv":"covers/58822691.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"ol":"OL26584779W"},{"id":58772743,"t":"The Kingdom of Sand","sl":"the-kingdom-of-sand","a":["Andrew Holleran"],"as":"Holleran, Andrew","y":2022,"p":258,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-07-30","d":"2022-07-30","rev":"Oof, what a suffocating book. I read it as quick as I could manage because it was both very moving and yet also very depressing and I just wanted to get through it as quickly as I could. But I have a feeling I'll be thinking about it a long time.
\nIt’s a novel narrating a 60ish year old gay man’s declining life of isolation in rural Florida and his friendship with Earl, a gay man some twenty years older than him. Its depiction of loneliness and aging weighs heavy, it’s not a happy read. But it’s also honest and moving and thoughtful. These are gay stories that need to be told.
\nOne odd thing that's stuck with me; the narrator is very annoying. He repeats things, whole phrases and ideas, like he's forgotten he's told them to you. Sometimes he focuses on irrelevant minutiae. I was left wondering if this was an artful fictional narration of what a lonely aging man sounds like, or if it was instead the author's own weaknesses coming through. The prose is so finely crafted and the book so well edited I think it must be deliberate but I'm not certain.
\n","w":197,"cv":"covers/58772743.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.5,"n":1596,"dist":[66,196,492,564,278],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","Literary Fiction","Historical Fiction","Contemporary","Queer Lit"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":false}],"ol":"OL26003578W"},{"id":28954189,"t":"Scythe","sl":"scythe","se":"Arc of a Scythe","sn":"1","a":["Neal Shusterman"],"as":"Shusterman, Neal","y":2016,"p":435,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-07-26","d":"2022-07-26","rev":"What a nasty book. I was entertained, it's a fun read, but the core of it is such an awful and brutal conceit that I'm more than a little disturbed at this being young adult entertainment.
\nThe book is a lot like the first Hunger Games book, to a fault. Teenagers pitted against each other by adults in some bizarre artificial contest, a friendship / slight romance between the teens, a corrupt government. But the details are much more personal. Where the book is at its strongest is in the worldbuilding, talking about the weird society of immortality along with a special caste of endorsed killers to cull the herd. The idea is interesting and there could be a lot more.
\nBut also like Hunger Games the core problem is that the book's entertainment is reading about teenagers being taught to be brutal killers all in preparation to kill each other. It's so awful! But whereas Collins redeems her books by making the next two in the trilogy all about the awfulness of that society and the pain of the blood sport.. It's not clear that's where Shusterman is going with Scythe. I was more than a little uncomfortable reading the book because of that.
\nBut that's a lot of hand writing, and goodness knows when I was the age of the target audience I was reading all sorts of awful depraved stuff. (And often without the self-awareness.) The plot itself is pretty well told, the characters are well drawn, there's a few good twists. Enjoyed reading it and will probably read the next.
\n","w":265,"cv":"covers/28954189.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.31,"n":446729,"dist":[3046,9986,49309,165259,219129],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dystopia","Science Fiction","Romance","Young Adult Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger pour la jeunesse","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Michael L. Printz Award","cat":"","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"South Carolina Book Award","cat":"Young Adult","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Rhode Island Teen Book Award","cat":"","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"California Young Readers Medal","cat":"Young Adult","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Lincoln Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Green Mountain Book Award","cat":"","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Gateway Readers Award","cat":"","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award","cat":"","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17876096W","wp":"Scythe_(novel)","isf":"2066306"},{"id":42302727,"t":"Bonds of Brass","sl":"bonds-of-brass","se":"The Bloodright Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Emily Skrutskie"],"as":"Skrutskie, Emily","y":2020,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-07-26","cv":"covers/42302727.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL20879667W"},{"id":2398533,"t":"Clipperton: A History of the Island the World Forgot","sl":"clipperton","a":["Jimmy M. Skaggs"],"as":"Skaggs, Jimmy M.","y":1989,"p":318,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-07-21","d":"2022-07-21","rev":"Well that was a remarkable book about a place remarkable for its unimportantness.
\nClipperton Island is a tiny little atoll 600 miles off the shore of Acapulco where no one lives. It's had a few mildly interesting events in its history but it is basically irrelevant.
\nThe awesome thing about this book is Skaggs chases down every single story there is to tell, every visit and attempt at living there. Every failed landing attempt, every disastrous two week stay. All meticulously researched with frankly twice the amount of detail I really needed. It amounts to a series of follies and ridiculous tedium that somehow adds up to a fairly fascinating narrative about a largely uninteresting island.
\nThe most interesting story is the horrible tale of the "King of Clipperton". Also surprising was Franklin D. Roosevelt's personal interest in claiming the island as an American airbase and the stories of him personally commandeering Navy ships for fishing trips to visit his favorite Mexican/French useless atoll. What a weird story!
\nRemarkable reading for the depth research. But I can only recommend the book if for some reason you have a personal interest in Clipperton itself, naval logistics on atolls, or obscure bits of French and Mexican foreign relations.
\n","w":206,"cv":"covers/2398533.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":3.88,"n":16,"dist":[0,1,3,9,3],"ol":"OL3739168W"},{"id":57699002,"t":"Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages","sl":"powers-and-thrones","a":["Dan Jones"],"as":"Jones, Dan","y":2021,"p":656,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-07-15","d":"2022-07-15","rev":"Solid, readable cultural history of the Middle Ages. Did a great job conveying what life was like. It gets off to a slow start, a little too much political history setting the stage. But it picks up by Part II. I particularly liked the chapter-focus on various themes: Crusades, Monks, Merchants, etc.
\nThe tone is pretty dry and factual. Which I appreciate, I'd rather this than a dumb sexed up narrative. But then it's not a particularly fun or engaging read. More like homework than entertainment, but the knowledge it conveys is worth the effort.
\n","w":95,"cv":"covers/57699002.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.38,"n":11484,"dist":[25,109,1042,4585,5723],"g":["History","Medieval","European History","Medieval History","Historical","World History","Politics","Religion"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL28058196W"},{"id":20445481,"t":"A Matter of Disagreement","sl":"a-matter-of-disagreement","se":"Mechanical Universe","sn":"1","a":["E.E. Ottoman"],"as":"Ottoman, E.E.","y":2014,"p":74,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-07-04","d":"2022-07-04","rev":"Romance novels are a new thing for me and sadly this book confirmed the stereotypes that have kept me away from the genre. Fluffy, limited, some editing mistakes. One sex scene which didn't work great. What I did like was the slow build of romance, the quarreling rivals, and also the trappings of a fantasy novel universe.
\n","w":57,"cv":"covers/20445481.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":3.51,"n":468,"dist":[10,49,164,183,62],"g":["Romance","Fantasy","Steampunk","Queer","Historical","LGBT","M M Romance","Transgender","Historical Fiction","Novella"],"q":1,"ol":"OL20588415W"},{"id":56304414,"t":"The Actual Star","sl":"the-actual-star","a":["Monica Byrne"],"as":"Byrne, Monica","y":2021,"p":624,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-06-29","d":"2022-06-29","rev":"What an ambitious novel! I mostly loved it for its tone, the mood it creates. Also some of the quirkiness of the writing. It's an idiosyncratic book, and personal, and I like it much for that. To me it felt like a riff on Cloud Atlas in terms of the multiple-lives-across-centuries narrative structure. And Station Eleven for the somewhat magical mood, not to mention the plot device of staging a play. But then Actual Star has its own particular depth of rooting the narrative in a Mayan legend.
\nThe general theme of the book is seeking satori, or perhaps internal peace, or reconciliation with oneself across millennia. Three intertwined stories: 1012 (Mayan world), 2012 (modern world, Belize tourism) and 3012 (future world, global). Characters with echoes of each other bridge the millennia stories but not in any clumsy or literal way. I particularly liked the slow character reveal of Leah in the 2012 story, what to me seemed the main narrative.
\nI also have to write a bit about the sex scenes. I liked them! Also they are very quirky. Written in a quite detached style, almost clinical, and it's all very much the opposite of intimacy. It reminded me of how some women I know have talked about bad experiences with men, the detachment they felt, and that makes sense in this narrative. Also in the far-future everyone has both sets of genitals so sometimes the action gets a little alien.
\nAll in all a satisfying and emotionally complex book. I'll be thinking about it a long time. I wonder how well it'd adapt to screen?
\n","w":267,"cv":"covers/56304414.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.86,"n":2990,"dist":[104,250,602,1025,1009],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Historical Fiction","LGBT","Speculative Fiction","Queer"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Manly Wade Wellman Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Otherwise Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24188852W","wp":"The_Actual_Star","isf":"2897796"},{"id":28597221,"t":"The Diary of a Forty-Niner","sl":"the-diary-of-a-forty-niner","a":["Chauncey L. Canfield"],"as":"Canfield, Chauncey L.","y":1906,"p":139,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-06-20","d":"2022-06-20","rev":"What a fun book! Some commentary knocks it for very likely being a work of fiction, and a romanticized one at that. To me that's part of the book's strength, it's a very tidy little narrative with interesting character development and circumstances. The whole thing feels truthy and some of the specific events (like the Thanksgiving caper) feel very real, as if they were a remembered story written down just as grandpa told it. All that makes this a very good read.
\nOscar Lewis' introduction from 1947 gives a lot more detail on how the book was written and published. It says the stories are mostly the memories of Lewis Hanchett, an actual forty-niner, transcribed to novel form by Canfield. Canfield also apparently did a lot of local research at the office of the Nevada City Transcript newspaper, which may be why the book feels so authoritative in describing local events and places.
\nIn no way would I call this a gay book (although there is one minor genderbending character). But as a gay man I did appreciate its depiction of a loving relationship between two adult men. "As if brothers". Just a sweet moment of intimacy and camaraderie. One of the themes in the book is the oddly temporary nature of the gold camps, men living practically feral without obligation to polite American society. But intense obligation to each other, even as everyone is transient. A sort of temporary autonomous zone.
\nI live in Grass Valley, CA just a few miles from where this story takes place. It was fun looking up all the little locations, areas that mostly now bear no visible trace of the Forty-Niner area. I was particularly pleased to find that Selby Flat was a real place and really had a hotel; now it's just a bunch of semi-rural houses a few miles out of town.
\n","w":311,"cv":"covers/28597221.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":4.39,"n":664,"dist":[8,9,66,215,366],"g":["History","American History","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL7305646W"},{"id":89187,"t":"Revelation Space","sl":"revelation-space","se":"The Inhibitor Sequence","sn":"1","a":["Alastair Reynolds"],"as":"Reynolds, Alastair","y":2000,"p":585,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2022-06-17","rev":"What a paradox of a book. It simultaneously felt like a giant expansive space opera with Big Ideas and also a claustrophobic minor mystery story with just a few characters and locations. Really odd pairing of writing styles.
\nI appreciated the specific focus on the stories of the characters but the personal writing wasn't very good IMHO, a confusing array of shifting motivations. the primary drama and changes in character motivation seemed motivated by "surprise here's this alien influence you didn't know about", over and over again. Awkward.
\nWhat did work was the big universe story, a sort of cosmic existential horror along the lines of Mass Effect. The development of the main conceit was fairly interesting, just kind of clumsy getting there on the way. Also felt like the book could have been half as long without losing any of the story.
\n","w":143,"cv":"covers/89187.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":3.99,"n":64187,"dist":[1038,3199,12557,25921,21472],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Hard Science Fiction","Fantasy","Aliens","Horror"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2001,"won":false}],"ol":"OL5724837W","wp":"Revelation_Space","isf":"20131"},{"id":52166786,"t":"The Empire of Gold","sl":"the-empire-of-gold","se":"The Daevabad Trilogy","sn":"3","a":["S.A. Chakraborty"],"as":"Chakraborty, S.A.","y":2020,"p":766,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-06-05","d":"2022-06-05","rev":"Read this right on the heels of the second book. And greatly enjoyed it, read it fast, but I didn't like it quite as much as the first two books.
\nMy complaint is with Part 3, the big dramatic conclusion to all the scheming and plotting and peril. It was just too much, a chaotic and sprawling extended fight scene with world-shaking magic and enormous movements of people, monsters, destruction. The author holds it together, it is coherent and followable, but it was big and loud in a series of books that I think are better in its quiet moments.
\nAnd some good quiet moments! Nahri's relationships, particularly Ali and Dara, get room to develop and come to conclusions in ways that satisfy. Also various characters resolve the mystery of their parentage and while it gets a little ridiculous at times, it does feel meaningful. This kind of character writing is the author's strenght, I think, and when the books stick to that I like them all the more.
\nCan't wait to read the next novel Chakraborty writes, I'm hoping for something still borrowing from Arabic mythology but in a different setting. There's also The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy as a sort of apocrypha for this trilogy and I imagine I'll read it when it comes out.
\n","w":221,"cv":"covers/52166786.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.49,"n":82435,"dist":[295,970,6233,25619,49318],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Magic","Mythology","Romance","Young Adult","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20789805W","isf":"2734332"},{"id":20819685,"t":"The Bone Clocks","sl":"the-bone-clocks","a":["David Mitchell"],"as":"Mitchell, David","y":2014,"p":624,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-05-25","cv":"covers/20819685.avif","cw":186,"ch":281,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17078738W","wp":"The_Bone_Clocks","isf":"1754844"},{"id":39988431,"t":"The Kingdom of Copper","sl":"the-kingdom-of-copper","se":"The Daevabad Trilogy","sn":"2","a":["S.A. Chakraborty"],"as":"Chakraborty, S.A.","y":2019,"p":625,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-05-23","d":"2022-05-23","rev":"Well that was good fun. A strong continuation of the trilogy, greatly expounding on the characters and setting and telling a complex, fun tale. I think this series' big strength is the ambiguity and complexity of so many of the characters. Ali, Dara, Muntadhir, even Nahri are all messy characters. Villains in one scene, honorable in another, it makes for a much more interesting fantasy epic series than the usual hero tropes. This book got particularly complex with two different main antagonists working at once, not to mention minor hostile forces interfering in things. I almost got lost in times but the author pulls it all together into a delightful page turning conclusion.
\n","w":113,"cv":"covers/39988431.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.38,"n":99779,"dist":[285,1185,9226,38818,50265],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Magic","Mythology","Young Adult","Historical","Romance"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Novel - Adult","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19794571W","wp":"The_Kingdom_of_Copper","isf":"2470018"},{"id":6668872,"t":"The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America","sl":"the-straight-state","a":["Margot Canaday"],"as":"Canaday, Margot","y":2009,"p":296,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-05-21","cv":"covers/6668872.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"q":1,"ol":"OL13617718W"},{"id":23719398,"t":"$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America","sl":"2-00-a-day","a":["Kathryn J. Edin","H. Luke Shaefer"],"as":"Edin, Kathryn J.","y":2015,"p":210,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-05-16","cv":"covers/23719398.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"ol":"OL20010505W"},{"id":37588503,"t":"A Spark of White Fire","sl":"a-spark-of-white-fire","se":"The Celestial Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Sangu Mandanna"],"as":"Mandanna, Sangu","y":2018,"p":311,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-22","cv":"covers/37588503.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"ol":"OL19751453W","isf":"2406136"},{"id":32718027,"t":"The City of Brass","sl":"the-city-of-brass","se":"The Daevabad Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["S.A. Chakraborty"],"as":"Chakraborty, S.A.","y":2017,"p":532,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-04-21","d":"2022-04-21","rev":"What a delicious book. It's wonderful to read a fantasy novel like this set in Arabic and Egyptian cultural themes. Djinn, ifriti, it's a rich and fantastical heritage to draw from. I think the milieu walked a fine line between being exotic and yet also respectful. (The book and author could be open to complaints of appropriation but it didn't feel that way to me, not that I'd be the expert to analyze that.)* The strength of the writing for the narrator characters Nahri and Ali are good and help make all of this strange world relatable and, well, human.
\nThe political context the book takes place in is also rich and complex. I was put off because up front the book has a clumsy little encyclopedia of the six major tribes and then a map. And I'm like "I'm supposed to remember all this?" But it's the background for the setup for the machinations that drive the main story. It's easy enough to follow once you're in the book. I particularly liked how the history of conquering and enslavement and exploitation and liberation was so rich and ambiguous.
\nThe story is pretty dark. It reads up front like a princess fantasy, two handsome men vying for the affections of the Chosen Girl. But it goes somewhere much more complex than that, and interesting, and I won't spoil anything except to say I'm intrigued to read the next book. At times I found it almost too much, I wouldn't have minded a happier fantasy story. But the way the author takes it is quite interesting.
\n* I went looking for more information about the author and how she thought about using this Islamic cultural setting. This Reddit answer she gave to a similar question is insightful. So is this twitter thread. I particularly want to highlight the reading list she recommended for more sources about the cultural and historical themes her book draws on.
\n","w":325,"cv":"covers/32718027.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":4.14,"n":167503,"dist":[1775,5751,25859,68715,65403],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Young Adult","Magic","Romance","Historical","Mythology"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds Award)","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19623241W","wp":"The_City_of_Brass_(novel)","isf":"2260453"},{"id":23001,"t":"Galatea 2.2","sl":"galatea-2-2","a":["Richard Powers"],"as":"Powers, Richard","y":1995,"p":329,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-19","cv":"covers/23001.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.73,"n":3602,"dist":[99,331,910,1363,899],"g":["Science Fiction","Literature","American","Speculative Fiction","Artificial Intelligence","Contemporary","Literary Fiction","Technology"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":1995,"won":false}],"ol":"OL138012W","wp":"Galatea_2.2","isf":"1000692"},{"id":1882568,"t":"Don't Look Back","sl":"dont-look-back","a":["Patrick J. O'Connor"],"as":"O'Connor, Patrick J.","y":1993,"p":172,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-12","cv":"covers/1882568.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"ol":"OL3245641W"},{"id":109718,"t":"My Lives","sl":"my-lives","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2005,"p":368,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-08","cv":"covers/109718.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"avg":3.79,"n":536,"dist":[15,32,139,215,135],"g":["Memoir","Biography","LGBT","Queer","Biography Memoir","Autobiography","Gay","Literature"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL272364W"},{"id":109725,"t":"Chaos","sl":"chaos","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2007,"p":192,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-08","cv":"covers/109725.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.51,"n":194,"dist":[3,28,65,64,34],"g":["Short Stories","Gay","Queer","LGBT","Gay Fiction","Novella"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL7907604W"},{"id":17978087,"t":"Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris","sl":"inside-a-pearl","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2014,"p":261,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-08","cv":"covers/17978087.avif","cw":280,"ch":453,"ol":"OL17416734W"},{"id":46158740,"t":"Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan","sl":"sovietistan","a":["Erika Fatland","Kari Dickson"],"as":"Fatland, Erika","y":2020,"p":477,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-04-08","cv":"covers/46158740.avif","cw":267,"ch":400,"ol":"OL20641949W"},{"id":50663055,"t":"Elder Race","sl":"elder-race","se":"Elder Race","sn":"1","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2021,"p":199,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-04-03","d":"2022-04-03","rev":"I was entertained reading this. But here I am just a few days after finishing it and I can barely remember what happened in the story. It was OK, hence two stars, but not my cup of tea.
\n","w":38,"cv":"covers/50663055.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.08,"n":28674,"dist":[141,817,5364,12658,9694],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Novella","Horror","Space Opera","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Ursula K. Le Guin Prize","cat":"","year":2022,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24770248W","wp":"Elder_Race_(novella)","isf":"2933372"},{"id":59548471,"t":"The Sins of Our Fathers","sl":"the-sins-of-our-fathers","se":"The Expanse","sn":"9.5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2022,"p":64,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-03-31","d":"2022-03-31","rev":"A nice coda to a long, excellent sci-fi series. I like the anticlimax as a literary genre and this novella delivers well. Filip was never my favorite character but this story is a fitting end for him, particularly given the way the story plays out towards the end. I also appreciate the reiteration of the Expanse theme of how human societies are structured, the social glue and the role of power.
\n","w":71,"cv":"covers/59548471.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":4.13,"n":9346,"dist":[32,209,1638,4073,3394],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Novella","Space Opera","Space","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL27701126W"},{"id":58085211,"t":"The Wok: Recipes and Techniques","sl":"the-wok","a":["J. Kenji López-Alt"],"as":"López-Alt, J. Kenji","y":2022,"p":672,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-03-30","d":"2022-03-30","rev":"Kenji is one of my favorite food people. His Serious Eats articles, his first book “The Food Lab”, his Youtube channel. They’re all excellent content, full of science-based cooking tips and a big dose of friendly vibes. I was excited to get The Wok and to get a wok.
\nThat impulse didn’t last long. I liked the book quite a bit! But it put me off wok cooking, specifically stir fry. He does a great job explaining the techniques. But they sound so challenging! Precise tossing, super hot pans, everything moving fast, velveting.. It seemed like a lot. And do I really need another big pan in the house? Maybe stir fry is something I get only via takeout and restaurants.
\nFortunately the book has a lot more in it than just stir fry. Really only a third of the book is even wok specific, a lot of the recipes don’t use a wok at all or will braise just fine in a Western pot. So really the book is a great tour of mostly Asian cooking. His explanations of how to use Chinese sauces is fantastic. So is his collection of relatively simple but flavorful dishes.
\nIt’s a mistake to call the book “recipes”, it’s not a traditional cookbook. Most of it is really more a description of techniques. At its best the book is a sort of choose-your-own adventure where he explains how to prep vegetables and proteins to make a dish and then gives suggestions for good flavoring. This matches exactly how I think about cooking, and I think a lot of other people. It’s a great cooking writing style.
\nI seldom sit down and read a cookbook cover to cover like a regular book but I’m glad I did with this one. I should add the Kindle edition is quite nicely done, I may actually prefer it to the hardback.
\n","w":314,"cv":"covers/58085211.avif","cw":156,"ch":218,"avg":4.59,"n":1660,"dist":[16,27,96,343,1178],"g":["Cookbooks","Cooking","Food","Reference","Culinary","Food and Drink","Foodie","Cuisine"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Washington State Book Award","cat":"General Nonfiction/Biography","year":2023,"won":true}],"ol":"OL25336349W"},{"id":352780,"t":"Deepsix","sl":"deepsix","se":"The Academy","sn":"2","a":["Jack McDevitt"],"as":"McDevitt, Jack","y":2000,"p":508,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-03-19","d":"2022-03-19","rev":"Fun space sci-fi adventure story. The second in the Academy books by McDevitt, which I am reading because I love the conceit of sci-fi archaeology. Unfortunately this second book is more adventure story than archaeology, it’s about 80% action and peril and 20% alien cultures. Too bad about the balance because the big reveal towards the end of the book about just what was happening on Deepsix to explain the mysterious artifacts and buildings was a really sweet story that invited lots more explanation. Instead we get a well-written series of action climaxes where our heroes are somehow just moments away from disaster despite events taking weeks to converge.
\nThe author does a good job in this book writing characters with personalities, very soap operalike. I liked the interactions. The weird and uncomfortable thing is his writing is rooted in some serious sexism, down to describing the women character’s beauty and in one instance, literally describes her as “top heavy”. There’s no excuse for this sexism and it mars the books. OTOH the women characters are also written well and are central parts of the story. Particularly the main character through this whole series of novels, Hutch. I don’t know that I mind that aspects of the writing reflect a straight male gaze even, I just wish it were better done.
\nI don’t know if or when I’ll read the rest of the books. There’s a lot of them. Sometimes it’s fun to read a good adventure story.
\n","w":248,"cv":"covers/352780.avif","cw":100,"ch":161,"avg":3.89,"n":5042,"dist":[49,183,1290,2290,1230],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Adventure","Space","Fantasy","Aliens","Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL15166747W","wp":"Deepsix","isf":"21049"},{"id":14201,"t":"Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell","sl":"jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell","se":"Strange & Norrell","sn":"1 ","a":["Susanna Clarke"],"as":"Clarke, Susanna","y":2004,"p":1006,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-03-09","d":"2022-03-09","rev":"My goodness, what a novel. And a first novel at that! Huge and ambitious and excellently written, entertaining and with a lot of complexity and interesting themes. It’s a significant accomplishment of a book.
\nMy favorite aspect of the book is how none of the protagonists are particularly likable. No one is a hero here, no one is an unambiguous good guy. The two titular characters are sympathetic, and well drawn, and have noble characteristics. But also insufferable attitudes and occasional terrible choices and actions. They aren’t anti-heros either, they’re just complicated.
\nI do wish the other characters had been written a bit better, particularly the women. The plot is oddly retro, a damsel in distress story. But I think Stephen Black is the character who could have been most expanded. He’s got a great back story and has a fascinating role in the plot but he’s entirely passive in the writing, more of his perspective would have made for a better book. Vinculus, too.
\nThe Victorian setting was very well done. The author clearly enjoyed doing her research and one of my side pleasures was looking up various obscure English words she uses to paint a picture of Magical Victorian England which was transportive. Some bits here don’t quite work. The French army should absolutely have had their own magic. The parts with Lord Byron should have just been written out entirely (or alternately, embellished so they mattered). But it says a lot about the strength of her conception of a magical England that I could then point out some minor weaknesses in it.
\nBetween this and Piranisi, Ms. Clarke has set a remarkably high bar for the genre.
\n","w":280,"cv":"covers/14201.avif","cw":280,"ch":453,"avg":3.88,"n":263459,"dist":[11439,21313,51130,83911,95666],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Historical","Magic","Magical Realism","Alternate History","Historical Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"Longlist","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel (2005) and Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (2005) and for Illustrated and Art Book","year":2025,"won":true},{"name":"Guardian First Book Award","cat":"","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Book Sense Book of the Year Award","cat":"Adult Fiction","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Cena Akademie SFFH","cat":"Kniha roku (Book of the Year)","year":2007,"won":true}],"ol":"OL5703422W","wp":"Jonathan_Strange_&_Mr_Norrell","isf":"153332"},{"id":50202953,"t":"Piranesi","sl":"piranesi","a":["Susanna Clarke"],"as":"Clarke, Susanna","y":2020,"p":245,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-02-12","d":"2022-02-12","rev":"What a lovely story! Poignant, melancholy, also compelling and beautiful. I don't want to spoil the plot, it's a bit of a puzzle story, but it comes together in a way that gives the book way more meaning than it seems at first. But not in a tiresome way, I found this compelling on every page and finished it in barely 24 hours.
\nTo take a specific example of the craft; the book is written in the first person and it has an odd writing style that seems stilted, formal, with all the Important Noun Phrases capitalized. At first I thought it was some sort of homage to Library of Babel, which clearly this story borrows from. But then it turns out towards the end it's more of a deliberate voice, to reflect the narrator's new mental state. The style ends up being beautiful on the surface for its lyricism but also a more deeply meaningful narrative device.
\nI think this book could be made into a good movie. The story is all about tone. So maybe Aronofsky, or del Toro minus the horror, or Natali, the person behind the movie Cube. Really I'd want to see a wholly new filmmaker attempt this, someone young for whom this book has been highly influential.
\n","w":216,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/50202953.avif","cw":280,"ch":397,"avg":4.19,"n":588612,"dist":[5976,19999,83929,222501,256207],"g":["Fantasy","Mystery","Magical Realism","Mythology","Dark Academia","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Costa Book Award","cat":"Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Audiobook of the Year","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction (Ray Bradbury Prize)","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Women's Prize for Fiction","cat":"","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Premi Ictineu","cat":"Millor novel·la traduïda","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"RSL Encore Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Bibliotekets litteraturpris","cat":"","year":2024,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20893680W","wp":"Piranesi_(novel)","isf":"2758983"},{"id":43534546,"t":"Lord of Light","sl":"lord-of-light","a":["Roger Zelazny"],"as":"Zelazny, Roger","y":1967,"p":292,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-02-10","d":"2022-02-10","rev":"Nope. Read the lengthy first chapter, no memory of what I read. Struggling to remember characters and actions from one paragraph to the next. That's almost certainly a statement about me and not the book, sometimes a writer's style just doesn't work for me. I quit this one.
\nApologies to my friend who recommended the book. I liked the idea of the recommendation! Maybe I'll try again in a few months in a different mode.
\n","w":75,"cv":"covers/43534546.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.05,"n":36804,"dist":[831,2133,6819,11775,15246],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Classics","Mythology","Hugo Awards","Religion","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1968,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1967,"won":false}],"ol":"OL13992W","wp":"Lord_of_Light","isf":"1611"},{"id":1276941,"t":"The Farewell Symphony","sl":"the-farewell-symphony","se":"The Edmund Trilogy","sn":"3","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":1997,"p":433,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-02-07","d":"2022-02-07","rev":"I am sad having finished White's trilogy of autobiographical novels. Right now, I'm sad because I wish there were a fourth book. So much of his three books have been like a manual for a gay life I never had. I grew up too late for what White describes, with different constraints and hangups on sexuality and relationships. I'm envious of his life, the "right to express ourselves sexually wherever, whenever and with whomever we chose." I'm envious of his clear ability to describe his experiences and connections to so many people. This book ends about when White becomes my age now. I'd be curious to read another novel in this vein of his life after age 50, maybe some advice on what's to come. (The hint he offers, "Now that I’m fat and in my fifties I go to bed only with men I pay or men who love me or fans", is a little discouraging although I admire his brashness of inserting the personal ad.)
\nI'm also sad because the book is quite melancholy. It begins and ends in death, particularly his partner Brice. And then the last chapter, the death of nearly everyone in White's social circle. The last thirty pages or so are a poignant catalog of reconnecting with old friends and lovers as they are dying. And hanging over it all is White himself having HIV, the fear of his own potential death and the constraints of that fear. AIDS narratives are still an incredibly raw subject in gay writing and I appreciate White's view of this (written in 1997).
\nThese books were very emotionally affecting for me. The honesty and directness, the unapologetic descriptions of his life. It's also admirable to see how the writing improves with each book, gets more complex and self reflective. The tone of this third book is quite different from the first two, more self conscious and thoughtful. At times it's a little overwritten, but there's so many great turns of phrase (see my highlights) it's worth it. Also the gravitas of the book can bear the weight of a little too much word polishing.
\nOne thing I'm curious about is just how much detail White is able to conjure. Remembering exact descriptions of how he felt about a meal he had 25 years ago, or the awkwardness of a particular trick. He says somewhere he didn't keep diaries and notes. And he was drunk or high for a lot of what he describes. Perhaps some of these details benefit from the status of this as a "fictional autobiography". It's remarkably effective writing.
\nThese three books have left feeling a great empathy for White. And for all gay men, even myself.
\nUpdate: I wanted to quote this paragraph from a 1997 interview Edmund White did on Fresh Air, because it's White speaking to a central theme in his writing I find so appealing.
\n\n\n","w":599,"cv":"covers/1276941.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.0,"n":1268,"dist":[19,63,261,476,449],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","Gay Fiction","Classics","Literature","Literary Fiction","Historical Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Men's Fiction","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"The Publishing Triangle Award","cat":"The Ferro-Grumley Awards","year":1998,"won":false}],"ol":"OL119203W","wp":"The_Farewell_Symphony"},{"id":209525,"t":"The Purple Cloud","sl":"the-purple-cloud","a":["M.P. Shiel","John Clute"],"as":"Shiel, M.P.","y":1901,"p":296,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-02-06","cv":"covers/209525.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL6414317W"},{"id":18478222,"t":"Twelve Years a Slave","sl":"twelve-years-a-slave","a":["Solomon Northup","Karolyn Smardz Frost","Sue Eakin","Joseph Logsdon","Eric Ashley Hairston"],"as":"Northup, Solomon","y":1853,"p":363,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-01-30","cv":"covers/18478222.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"ol":"OL78871W","wp":"Twelve_Years_a_Slave"},{"id":109726,"t":"The Beautiful Room Is Empty","sl":"the-beautiful-room-is-empty","se":"The Edmund Trilogy","sn":"2","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":1988,"p":241,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-29","d":"2022-01-29","rev":"Nor did all this sex preclude intimacy. For those who never lived through that period, and most of those who did, are dead, the phrase "anonymous sex" might suggest unfeeling sex, devoid of emotion. And yet, as I can attest, to hole up in a room at the baths with a body, after having opened it up and wrung it dry, to lie, head propped on a guy's stomach just where the tan line bisects it, smoke a cigarette, and talk to him late into the night and early into the morning about your childhood, his unhappiness and love, your money worries, his plans for the future. Well, nothing is more personal, more emotional.
\n
I read this right after finishing A Boy's Own Story and wow did I like this a lot. Just a better, more compelling book for me in every way.
\nWith the first book I wrote that it felt strangely impersonal and guarded, like the author didn't want to reveal much about himself. Absolutely not that here in this second book, it felt intensely personal and emotionally raw. There's still a veil, he has a habit of not dwelling deep in his own emotions in his prose. But those feelings are all right there in the text for you to understand, it feels like in the years between writing the two books White got much more comfortable with himself, understood his own feelings better, then wrote this book with that knowledge. Maybe that's also a hallmark of the freedom of gay liberation.
\nThe main thing I loved about this book is how connected it made me feel to my own life growing up gay in the 80s. I knew a few gay men of White's background, same general age and education and class. I always thought I'd have plenty of time to get to know them better, to learn from them and grow in my own way. But that was all sundered by the AIDS crisis and also by the normal gap of generations and cultures. I'm glad I came out into Queer Nation rather than self-loathing psychotherapy, I'm glad for the support I had and feel how painful so many of White's experiences are as he comes to terms with himself. But I also respect where he came from and think there's a lot to learn from it.
\nThis book benefits from being a liberation journey, a transition to being out and gay. Ending at the Stonewall Uprising is an excellent way to frame the whole book. And of course it's a pre-AIDS narrative, events in the 60s, although written in the mid to late 80s AIDS must have been very much on his mind. I'm going to roll right in to reading The Farewell Symphony and am almost a little scared to, it's very painful to read narratives of the AIDS crisis.
\nThis is a bit of a jumbled review; I honestly just finished the book and need to sit with it awhile to come to clear thoughts. Right now I'm overwhelmed with fondness for the author and pleasure at how well written this book is.
\n","w":407,"cv":"covers/109726.avif","cw":138,"ch":218,"avg":3.93,"n":3627,"dist":[52,192,827,1449,1107],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","American","Literature","20th Century","Literary Fiction","Queer Lit"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Men's Fiction","year":1989,"won":true}],"ol":"OL272368W","wp":"The_Beautiful_Room_Is_Empty"},{"id":1025100,"t":"A Boy's Own Story","sl":"a-boys-own-story","se":"The Edmund Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":1982,"p":218,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-25","d":"2022-01-25","rev":"What a lovely gay novel! I somehow have never read this and am glad I read it now. It feels a little dated but also excellent and very honest.
\nThe part I find strangest is how the novel is simultaneously very personal and yet tells us so little about the narrator. There's such an ironic remove! I don't think it's intentional, either, particularly the last scene with his betrayal of a lover. I think he's genuinely confessing a real regretted moment in his life. (The afterword 20 years later confirms this). Also the book is full of personal remembrances, both factual and emotional, and they all ring true and honest.
\nAnd yet I feel like the author has protected himself through the whole book, that there's this distance. My best guess is that it's the writing style. White's prose is highly ornamented and stylized, really intensely written. It works, it doesn't seem pretentious, but it is very wrought. So maybe that's part of the distancing. The other element is something White also mentions in his afterword. The book is framed as fiction, indeed is fictionalized in some ways, so even though it's obviously autobiographical it's not quite a personal memoir or confessional but a cleaned up one.
\nAnother thing I want to highlight, the frank addressing of children's sexuality. He's describing his sexual experiences from when he was as young as 14 and talks about some predating that. That's pretty much taboo in 2020s writing under the admirable goal of avoiding harmful sexualization of children. But that taboo also robs gay men of a big part of their own stories. Our sexuality develops around puberty just like straight kids and gay kids have sex much younger than the officially sanctioned age 18. I appreciated reading a direct reminiscence of White's own experiences of that. It doesn't come off as creepy at all, just honest. Although also sad given how enrobed so much of it was in homophobia and internalized homophobia.
\nOne last thought was how much this narrative reminds me of Gore Vidal or William S Burroughs, other great gay authors of just half a generation or so older than White. Mostly for the patrician white maleness of it, the boarding schools, the upper class environments, the sense of the world belonging to you even if you also felt like an outsider. I'm grateful for all the diversity of modern queer writing, it'd be very boring if all we got was this privileged white viewpoint. But this viewpoint is valid too, and also queer, and to be honest is closer to my own history than others. I enjoyed reading it.
\n","w":441,"cv":"covers/1025100.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.7,"n":9644,"dist":[277,860,2721,3421,2365],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","Classics","Coming Of Age","American","Gay Fiction","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Men's Fiction","year":1988,"won":true}],"ol":"OL119209W","wp":"A_Boy's_Own_Story"},{"id":8171378,"t":"The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration","sl":"the-warmth-of-other-suns","a":["Isabel Wilkerson"],"as":"Wilkerson, Isabel","y":2010,"p":640,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-01-23","cv":"covers/8171378.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"ol":"OL15380640W","wp":"The_Warmth_of_Other_Suns"},{"id":57891620,"t":"Fine Structure","sl":"fine-structure","a":["qntm","Sam Hughes"],"as":"qntm, qntm","y":2010,"p":357,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-23","d":"2022-01-23","rev":"Oh I wish I liked this book better. At its core are some wildly inventive ideas. And I'm OK with the loose experimental narrative structure. Except it doesn't work. It doesn't ever quite come together. I nearly quit two or three times in the middle, it gets really bogged down in the conflict between several of the characters. It comes back to a fairly remarkable crescendo towards the end and the broader story gets delivered in a fairly compelling way. If you can follow it, and I only barely could. Sort of.
\n","w":92,"cv":"covers/57891620.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.03,"n":1955,"dist":[24,88,392,755,696],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Hard Science Fiction","Superheroes","Lovecraftian"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL27511562W","isf":"3359423"},{"id":157440,"t":"The Married Man","sl":"the-married-man","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":2000,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-01-22","cv":"covers/157440.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.75,"n":1312,"dist":[28,96,363,512,313],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","Historical Fiction","Gay Fiction","Contemporary","Queer Lit","Romance"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Ferro-Grumley Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Fiction","year":2000,"won":false}],"ol":"OL119208W"},{"id":302489,"t":"End of Exile","sl":"end-of-exile","se":"Exiles","sn":"3","a":["Ben Bova","H. Lawrence Hoffman"],"as":"Bova, Ben","y":1975,"p":214,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-12","d":"2022-01-12","rev":"My payoff for making it through the first two books! Extra star for nostalgia; this is one of the first scifi books I read as a kid and it made a huge impression on me. Looking back I am sure I identified with the hero, the young engineer whose talents no one respected but ended up saving everyone's lives. Also it's just a fun mix of sci-fi story and adventure.
\nWhat makes this book really good though is the setting in a lapsed civilization. It's almost a post-apocalyptic novel, the way society has regressed to superstition and loss of technology. Remarkably this came out the same year as High-Rise but the two books don't have much in common other than the setting.
\nThis book would make an excellent TV serial. Particularly if Magda and Monel were fleshed out and given more depth as characters. The biggest weakness of the book is the hacky writing; Bova is really not a very good prose stylist. But imagine Expanse-like production values, it'd be terrific.
\n","w":171,"cv":"covers/302489.avif","cw":280,"ch":401,"avg":3.54,"n":237,"dist":[4,21,92,84,36],"g":["Science Fiction","Young Adult","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL14923127W","isf":"447"},{"id":302508,"t":"Flight of Exiles","sl":"flight-of-exiles","se":"Exiles","sn":"2","a":["Ben Bova","H. Lawrence Hoffman"],"as":"Bova, Ben","y":1972,"p":185,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-11","d":"2022-01-11","rev":"Enjoyed this more than the first book. This book has much more of a sci-fi plot. Particularly interested in the dynamics of the old first generation vs the young second generation and how so many people are in cryosleep. Also the challenge of inheriting a generation ship, as the second generation. And the challenge of finding a safe planet to call home. Good stuff!
\nBut then lots of sexism and a plot centered on two-men-fight-over-a-woman. Fortunately Bova gives the woman plenty of agency of her own, she ends up being a pretty good character despite some of the man-centric writing. Also some of the action plotting gets a bit silly. Although again it works better than I would expect; Bova can write two fisted tales pretty well.
\nAll in all a mildly enjoyable book but nothing spectacular. Again, mostly reading this to set up the third book which so far seems to have the payoff I was hoping for.
\n","w":159,"cv":"covers/302508.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":3.39,"n":246,"dist":[4,32,105,73,32],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL14923136W","isf":"448"},{"id":302503,"t":"Exiled from Earth (Exiles Trilogy)","sl":"exiled-from-earth-exiles-trilogy","se":"Exiles","sn":"1","a":["Ben Bova"],"as":"Bova, Ben","y":1971,"p":202,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-10","d":"2022-01-10","rev":"A rare one star review for a book I actually finished and enjoyed. Cringingly though, it's not a well written book. And really dated. The deep sexism and casual racism in the book is tough to read past. I was prepared to say "well things were like that in the 50s" but this book was published in 1971! No excuse for that.
\nBut even overlooking the problematic writing the deeper issue is the story is just not very good. It's barely sci-fi, this first novel, mostly it's an action adventure of Our Hero committing various unlikely stunts of survival and sabotage. And there's nothing at all in this book about what becomes the interesting story in the rest of the trilogy, the colony ship. It's setup for all that but honestly entirely skippable.
\n(I'm reading these books because I have a strong memory of reading the third book when I was about 12, and loving it. Thought it'd be fun to revisit it but boy are my standards higher now.)
\n","w":170,"cv":"covers/302503.avif","cw":280,"ch":373,"avg":3.42,"n":404,"dist":[16,36,168,132,52],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Young Adult","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20878578W","isf":"449"},{"id":41746496,"t":"The Clockwork Rocket (Orthogonal Book 1)","sl":"the-clockwork-rocket-orthogonal-book-1","se":"Orthogonal","sn":"1","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":2011,"p":345,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-09","d":"2022-01-09","rev":"I finally found it, a hard scifi book that was too hard scifi for me. I like Egan's shtick and have enjoyed many of his books, even when they focussed mostly on the implications of some fictional physics instead of characters and plot and stuff.
\nBut the Orthogonal universe was too much for me. I tried really hard to follow the alternate physics the first twenty or so pages. But it just never really made sense to me; either I'm too dumb, it's badly explained, or it's just not consistent enough to be coherent. And there's a lot of that physics presentation throughout the whole book, I ended up just skimming most of it. Ironically it all made a lot more sense when I finished the book and found the appendix that explained some of the basics without all the fictional narrative context. Perhaps if I'd read that first I'd like it better.
\nI was left feeling like this book was trying to be Flatland and falling short.
\nSurprisingly the part of the book I liked best was the plot and character. And particularly the setup of gender and reproduction. The fate of women in this story is really poignant and fascinating and the author addressed it well. Even used it effectively as motivation for various plot points throughout the book. That's not usually this author's strength. I was left being kind of curious what would happen to the society in subsequent books but I didn't like this one enough to want to read the rest.
\n","w":256,"cv":"covers/41746496.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.66,"n":2443,"dist":[87,244,655,881,576],"g":["Science Fiction","Hard Science Fiction","Steampunk","Fantasy","Space Opera","Space","Speculative Fiction","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2011,"won":false}],"wp":"The_Clockwork_Rocket","isf":"1244665"},{"id":51862863,"t":"A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians","sl":"a-declaration-of-the-rights-of-magicians","se":"The Shadow Histories","sn":"1","a":["H.G. Parry"],"as":"Parry, H.G.","y":2020,"p":531,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-01-06","cv":"covers/51862863.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL20759179W","isf":"2735808"},{"id":156775,"t":"Quarantine","sl":"quarantine","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":1992,"p":283,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2022-01-03","d":"2022-01-03","rev":"Huh, what a frustrating book. There's a really good psychological novel in here hidden in the science conceit. The best parts of the book read like a version of PK Dick's schizoid disassociative novels. The mind mods work much like the Pennfield mood organ and the way the narrator can't trust his own mental state and individualization reads like the most disorienting parts of VALIS or The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Loved that aspect of the story.
\nBut then this early Egan novel veers into Egan's trademark hard-science conceits. He tries so, so hard to make quantum superposition and many worlds make coherent sense as a psychological framework as well as an action plot device. And it almost works. But it doesn't quite hold together and at parts it just reads like gibberish rather than entertaining fiction or brilliant hard scifi. It just didn't quite work.
\nInteresting read though. And it's kind of nice to see Egan writing human characters with human emotions and interactions; that's not really his strength in his later books.
\n","w":176,"cv":"covers/156775.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"avg":3.92,"n":6621,"dist":[94,338,1485,2797,1907],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Mystery","Hard Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Physics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"SF ga Yomitai","cat":"Best Translated SF of the Year in Japan","year":1999,"won":true}],"ol":"OL115337W","wp":"Quarantine_(Egan_novel)","isf":"558"},{"id":59928433,"t":"My Handful of Stars: Coming Out at Age 90","sl":"my-handful-of-stars","a":["Kenneth Felts"],"as":"Felts, Kenneth","y":2022,"p":166,"sh":"to-read","d":"2022-01-03","cv":"covers/59928433.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL27244435W"},{"id":56435898,"t":"We Are Bellingcat: Global Crime, Online Sleuths, and the Bold Future of News","sl":"we-are-bellingcat","a":["Eliot Higgins"],"as":"Higgins, Eliot","y":2021,"p":273,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-12-31","d":"2021-12-31","rev":"Bellingcat is an important and effective institution. I love what they're doing. And this book is a valuable primary document from its founder about how they got started and its early days and successes. I'm glad this record has been created.
\nUnfortunately the book lacks much depth of analysis of the implications of Bellingcat. Higgins is thoughtful about the novelty of what his organization does and how it might affect the world. But from his inside perspective it's a little bit of a shallow analysis. I guess it's up to outsiders to make the nuanced journalistic critique.
\n","w":97,"cv":"covers/56435898.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.11,"n":5900,"dist":[33,134,1058,2576,2099],"g":["Politics","Journalism","History","Technology","Crime","True Crime","Russia","War"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL24149728W","wp":"We_Are_Bellingcat"},{"id":18886790,"t":"Diaspora","sl":"diaspora","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":1997,"p":354,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-12-26","d":"2021-12-26","rev":"What a terrific an wildly imaginative book! Enjoyed this much more than I was expecting, particularly given the very slow and difficult start.
\nAt core this book is an exploration of transhumanity, what it might mean to transfer consciousness into artificial environments with far fewer limits and the ability to self-modify your own personality. Lots of interesting sidelines mentioned here; the people who choose to live with flesh constraints, the people who choose to live as embodied robots, and then the main characters, the fully virtualized intelligence living in a tiny and largely irrelevant computer infrastructure. I love the various decadent dead ends along the way; the dream apes who have severed all language abilities, the solipsists rabbitholing on some intense but ultimately meaningless pleasure.
\nAnd that's what the book is for, an exploration of meaning and self-actualization. What it means to be human and have goals in life, how that might be altered once freed from physical constraints and a limited lifespan. It's kind of awful, really, but fascinating. My usual complaint with books like these is they aren't emotional or humanistic enough. And yeah, this book doesn't have great examinations of social relationships or love or the like. But it does have a fantastic exploration of the search for meaning. Also a really intense section about grief and catastrophe. I found the middle crisis of the book really moving.
\nMy main complaint is I had to read past some of the imagined physics explanations from time to time, particularly in the macrosphere discussion. They got tedious. I admire Egan's highly technical world building but sometimes it was too much, particularly that first chapter that put me off at the start. But the plot and character development those imagined physics create are fantastic and Egan takes the conceit to really interesting places.
\n","w":303,"cv":"covers/18886790.avif","cw":280,"ch":366,"avg":4.1,"n":12048,"dist":[232,612,1999,4089,5116],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Hard Science Fiction","Artificial Intelligence","Speculative Fiction","Space Opera"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"SF ga Yomitai","cat":"Best Translated SF of the Year in Japan","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Long Form","year":2006,"won":true}],"ol":"OL34348361W","wp":"Diaspora_(novel)","isf":"1399"},{"id":1138575,"t":"The Young and the Evil","sl":"the-young-and-the-evil","a":["Charles Henri Ford","Parker Tyler"],"as":"Ford, Charles Henri","y":1933,"p":136,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-22","cv":"covers/1138575.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL4470661W"},{"id":2968832,"t":"Strange Brother","sl":"strange-brother","a":["Blair Niles"],"as":"Niles, Blair","y":1931,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-22","cv":"covers/2968832.avif","cw":280,"ch":478,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL3590597W","wp":"Strange_Brother"},{"id":3063427,"t":"Autobiography of an Androgyne (Subterranean Lives)","sl":"autobiography-of-an-androgyne-subterranean-lives","a":["Jennie June","Earl Lind","Ralph Werther","Scott Herring"],"as":"June, Jennie","y":1918,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-22","cv":"covers/3063427.avif","cw":128,"ch":198,"q":1,"ol":"OL154594W"},{"id":17787856,"t":"Butterfly Man","sl":"butterfly-man","a":["Lew Levenson"],"as":"Levenson, Lew","y":1934,"p":318,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-22","cv":"covers/17787856.avif","cw":280,"ch":399,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL7571025W"},{"id":28700589,"t":"A Scarlet Pansy","sl":"a-scarlet-pansy","a":["Robert Scully","Robert J. Corber"],"as":"Scully, Robert","y":1932,"p":232,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-12-22","d":"2021-12-22","rev":"What an astonishing novel! A 1932 gay novel, very queer, and quite modern. It seems quite an important book for how little it is known.
\nThe main plot is an improbable rags to riches story of Fay Etrange as she works her way up from nothing to being a wealthy investor and doctor, culminating in her romantic and tragic death on the front of World War I. Honestly this plot is not very good but it's not the point of the book. The real story is a proud, unapologetic biography of a gay man living an absolutely queer life of high camp. The gender and sexual content is surprisingly relatable now, almost 90 years later.
\nFirst, to get the pronouns out of the way. Fay is referred to throughout the book as "she". But it's also clear she is a man, a gay man. My take on it is not that she's transgender in the contemporary sense, she does not live as a woman. We'd say she's "genderqueer" instead. Or in the language of its time it was the camp world of gay men referring to each other as "her" and "Miss Thing" and "girl". Anyway none of the pronoun stuff is very complicated but I like the editor's notes about how unusual the book is in directly challenging gender roles in a way that was not only atypical at the time, but also out of step with 1990s gay liberation as America normalized gay men as men. Fay is feminine but a man. Also a fairy at a time when being a fairy was a role with a place in society, not just despised.
\nFay also is sexually voracious. And quite successful at picking up "real he-men". Some trade, but mostly men of some refinement and interest. The first part of the book has her being sadly self-loathing and avoiding her sexuality. A tiresome trope of its era. But then the book goes in a really wonderful and liberating direction as she embraces her sexuality and joins the queer demimonde. Much of the book is a mix of her escapades with her various tricks mixed with outrageous parties and drag balls. And a rotating cast of queens, fairies, bulldykes, men and women living outside the bounds of accepted society and absolutely proud and hilarious about it.
\nThis transgressive glittering society is the gay world I feel I inherited. Growing up in the 80s my exposure to gay life involved a lot of thrilling hints of camp, promiscuity, and defiance. We've moved past that now in America. Now the stereotypical gay man is a slightly burly, competent and quiet couple who has dogs or maybe a child and lives a life in harmony with the expectations of ordinary straight society. And while I am grateful for that normalization I also find the demimonde depicted in A Scarlet Pansy appealing, a theatrical and brave society of queers living queer lives by their own rules. Some of that spirit today is captured in communities like the New York Ball Culture.
\nIt's not all fun and parties though, particularly at the start of the book. I particularly touching bit of writing is Fay's relationship with her brother Bill. Who hates how faggy she is, criticizes her speech, and contributes greatly to Fay's self loathing. The author's portrayal of that felt very authentic to me. Happily Fay just decides Bill is boring and bad for her and moves on and doesn't see him again. It frees Fay to live the outrageous queer life that makes the book so fun.
\nI found this book in the most wonderful way. Finding it on a list of homophile publications in Swasarnt Nerf's Gay Guides for 1949, an authentic recommendation from 70 years ago.
\nI'm grateful to Robert Corber for producing this edition. The book went through a lot of edits and variations; a bowdlerized version in the 40s, an "updated" edition in the 90s to hew to modern political sensibilities (with Fay given the name "Randy" and masculine pronouns!) It's great to read the original version. And his preface is remarkably useful in contextualizing the novel. I particularly like his emphasis on how this book works outside expected gender norms, both in its time and now. It reads very queer and au courant in 2021.
\n","w":719,"cv":"covers/28700589.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":3.53,"n":70,"dist":[2,4,30,23,11],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Historical","Queer Lit","American","Transgender","Historical Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL5804006W"},{"id":745703,"t":"Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (California World History Library)","sl":"maps-of-time","a":["David Christian","William H. McNeill"],"as":"Christian, David","y":2004,"p":664,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-18","cv":"covers/745703.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"ol":"OL279973W"},{"id":57717410,"t":"The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story","sl":"the-1619-project","a":["Nikole Hannah-Jones","The New York Times Magazine"],"as":"Hannah-Jones, Nikole","y":2019,"p":590,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-12-16","d":"2021-12-16","rev":"What a phenomenal book. It's rough reading in parts for the unflinching litany of crimes and abuses. But an honest reckoning of history is essential for restoration. The book has lots of inspiration and some joy, too.
\nThe best parts of the book are the historical chapters laying out a narrative of the Black experience in America on various themes. Democracy, Race, Capitalism, Politics, Self-Defense, Punishment, Medicine... well written, clear capsule histories of aspects of our civil society and how American ideals were bent or broken to benefit white people at the expense of Blacks. Not just the injustice of slavery, although of course that is the original sin. But how that subjugation continued after emancipation and continues today.
\nIn places the book reminds me in tone of the German writing I've read trying to come to terms with its Nazi history. The best of that, in museums and books, is similarly forthright and direct. And almost neutral. There's no need to say "murdering Jews is bad"; that's self-evident. But there is a lot of power in talking about the details of how Jews were murdered, and how Germany's politics enabled the murdering of Jews, and the impact it had on Jewish families and on the legacy of Judaism in Germany today.
\n1619 Project does something similar for slavery and the subjugation of African Americans. Lots of detail about the mechanisms of oppression and the thoughts and action of the political and civic leaders who participated in the systems of control and exploitation. And details on the effects it has had on the lives of Black people, and still has today on American society.
\nTwo important differences with Nazi Germany there. One, we still have millions of African Americans living in the US today. And many of our biggest inequities and political problems today are in our unreconstructed racial politics. And the second difference in Germany. There's still no real consensus in America today that slavery was a pure unmitigated evil. Or that its repercussions affect the country today. And of course, no reparations.
\nIf this book is taken seriously it can help lead America to healing the deep wound we've had since the country's founding. It starts with a reckoning and then reconstructive action to try to finally right the wrongs that have been done so far.
\n","w":388,"cv":"covers/57717410.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.61,"n":26037,"dist":[272,256,1255,5901,18353],"g":["History","Race","Politics","Social Justice","Banned Books","American History","Essays","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Audiobook of the Year and for Multi-Voiced Performance","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"NAIBA Book of the Year","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"NAACP Image Award","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL24340913W","wp":"The_1619_Project:_A_New_Origin_Story"},{"id":9066900,"t":"Swasarnt Nerf's Gay Guides for 1949","sl":"swasarnt-nerfs-gay-guides-for-1949","a":["Hugh Hagius"],"as":"Hagius, Hugh","y":2010,"p":180,"r":5,"sh":"read","d":"2021-12-13","rev":"What a treasure of a book. Or pamphlet, really. A lovingly edited collection of rare and important American gay materials from 1949 and the early 50s. The core of the book is A Gay Girl's Guide, a series of zines published out of New York that had information for gay men. Advice on parks and bars and beaches to go, dishy information on gay life and culture, some useful factual information on liberation movements and health. It's all very seminal material for the Gay culture that I inherited growing up in the 80s. It's wonderful that it's preserved.
\n","w":99,"cv":"covers/9066900.avif","cw":280,"ch":362,"avg":5.0,"n":5,"dist":[0,0,0,0,5],"ol":"OL44012683W"},{"id":55411740,"t":"Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth","sl":"forget-the-alamo","a":["Bryan Burrough","Chris Tomlinson","Jason Stanford"],"as":"Burrough, Bryan","y":2021,"p":416,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-12","cv":"covers/55411740.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL24540325W"},{"id":28335699,"t":"Leviathan Falls","sl":"leviathan-falls","se":"The Expanse","sn":"9","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2021,"p":528,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-12-07","d":"2021-12-07","rev":"A satisfying end to an excellent trilogy of trilogies. Really enjoyed these stories, this book included. I particularly admire the professionalism of the writers, cranking out book after book reliably while holding down a TV show as well. And I don't mean "cranking" perjoratively, the quality of writing and plotting and ideas has been consistently great through all the books.
\nSo why only 3 stars? As always, my ratings are 1 star below most, so call it 4. Why not more? Because as fun as this book is, it left behind what I liked best about the Expanse books. The humanism, the exploration of human cultures. The high point of the Expanse for me was the development of Belter culture, all the details like the tattoos and the language and the economics and the awkward politics of near-anarchists. Or the Laconians with their fascist empire built on high tech and the impact that had on the people living under their thumb.
\nThis book drops all that and focusses more on the grand science fiction story, the protomolecule and the gates and the monsters that live in the other universe. And that stuff is interesting! But I preferred it when that was the backdrop and the real story was about human interactions.
\nThe new social idea the book could have addressed is the hive mind. But that idea was undeveloped. There's some clumsy comparison between forced telepathic unity vs. the "working together like a machine" of the Rocinante crew but it was pretty thin. You could imagine a whole book dedicated to the hive mind as something more complex than just a nightmare. I think I've read that book actually. But this book is not that.
\nThis book is more of a rollicking space adventure fighting the Big Bad and it's just not what I liked best in the series. It is well executed for that though and I appreciate them bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion.
\n","w":327,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/28335699.avif","cw":261,"ch":400,"avg":4.54,"n":76399,"dist":[184,793,4996,21905,48521],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Aliens","Adventure","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL21704818W","wp":"Leviathan_Falls","isf":"2934141"},{"id":52660359,"t":"Shift Happens: A Book About Keyboards","sl":"shift-happens","a":["Marcin Wichary"],"as":"Wichary, Marcin","y":2023,"p":1216,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-12-05","cv":"covers/52660359.avif","cw":280,"ch":401,"ol":"OL37985494W"},{"id":568236,"t":"A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century","sl":"a-distant-mirror","a":["Barbara W. Tuchman"],"as":"Tuchman, Barbara W.","y":1600,"p":714,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-11-30","cv":"covers/568236.avif","cw":280,"ch":453,"ol":"OL3378547W","wp":"A_Distant_Mirror"},{"id":50209317,"t":"The Galaxy, and the Ground Within","sl":"the-galaxy-and-the-ground-within","se":"Wayfarers","sn":"4","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2021,"p":336,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-11-29","d":"2021-11-29","rev":"Three strangers are stranded in a remote country inn by a freak snowstorm. Over the next few days of forced isolation they find commonality, mutual pleasure, deep disagreements, and a way to sit with all of those. The real journey was the friends we made along the way.
\nIt's a cliché but it's a great narrative structure and Chambers adapts it well to sci-fi. Instead of a German, a Frenchman, and a Romani person all tended to by a Swiss caretaker and her teenage kid, we have five very alien people with their own distinct personalities and cultural backgrounds. But it's not just some silly extrapolation or caricature; the characters in this book feel unique and of their own. Chambers is an excellent writer for this kind of fiction. I understood and cared about the stories of the characters immediately.
\nMostly the book was just idle amusement for me but it all comes to a strong conclusion with the final chapter for Speaker, one of the characters. The ending with her sharing the sim with her sister and feeling for the first time the loss of not having a planetary home. The emotional impact hit me hard. And then I realized the great clever writing trick, that the reason this worked so well was all the setup in the rest of the book. The backstory for the Akarak is set up well throughout the book. Her arguments with Pei set up the stakes of conflict. And her joy at sharing daily life with Roveg, Ouloo, and Tupa help motivate her epiphany about having grounded pleasures. It gave the book a lot more depth than I expected and I'm thankful for that.
\nI'm really curious to read Chambers writing a different kind of story now. I enjoyed A Psalm for the Wild-Built quite a bit too but in some ways it felt like the same kind of story, just in a different setting with different characters. Not that that's bad; I'll happily read such humanist sci-fi any day.
\n","w":337,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/50209317.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.39,"n":45407,"dist":[119,567,4518,16383,23820],"g":["Science Fiction","Queer","LGBT","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Cozy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20923693W","wp":"The_Galaxy,_and_the_Ground_Within","isf":"2831087"},{"id":56269264,"t":"The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity","sl":"the-dawn-of-everything","a":["David Graeber","David Wengrow"],"as":"Graeber, David","y":2021,"p":692,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-11-23","d":"2021-11-23","rev":"This is a good book and an important book. But it's not a great book. I'd welcome comments from friends on what they think.
\nReally it's two books. The book that interests me is the revisionist anthropology, a re-examination of human prehistory that upends current understandings. The other book is a critique of modern society, a call to egalitarian anarchism. That is also interesting to me but not as much and reads more as personal opinion than scientific writing.
\nTo focus on the anthropology part, I really like the authors' challenging the standard narrative of humanity. That we went from unorganized egalitarian bands and tribes to the modern hierarchical nation-state, an inevitable march of progress, led by Great Men. Of course this simplistic view has been debunked for decades now but it still persists and suffuses everything we read or think about the development of human society. We need books like this one to get us to a more nuanced (and correct) view.
\nI just wish they wrote their arguments better! The book is full of details from diverse human populations, summarizing new archaeology to argue that this group never really organized into dense cities, or that group rejected hierarchical kingly authority, or these others were an egalitarian matriarchal society. I crave this kind of science! But the writing suffers from being diffuse at times, hard to follow, and repetitious. I lost the plot many times. Also their core arguments seem to be less than iron-clad, there's a lot of "experts say this thing about this society but we say the opposite because our interpretation is correct". I wasn't entirely convinced in many cases. But I'm a layman and am certainly not expert enough judge their claims, nor will I do the research the backing material. (And to there credit, there is a very extensive bibliography and list of footnotes.)
\nThen there's the other book, the argument that modern society could be different. That we're not trapped on some treadmill of inevitable domination of nation states and ruthless capitalism. I very much want to believe that could be true but it comes off pretty ax-grindy here. And it's a major part of the book. I almost gave up after the second chapter which spends way more time talking about Rousseau than the anthropological record. But the balance is corrected for the middle 3/4 of the book and as a whole it comes together to make a strong, well reasoned argument.
\nI just wish the argument and the science were more clearly presented. A churlish thing to say after one of the authors passed away, maybe, but some good editing and rewriting could have honed this into a generation-defining book.
\n","w":449,"cv":"covers/56269264.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.19,"n":29088,"dist":[422,1208,4224,9846,13388],"g":["History","Anthropology","Science","Politics","Philosophy","Sociology","Economics","World History"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Orwell Prize","cat":"Political Writing for Shortlist","year":2022,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24663287W","wp":"The_Dawn_of_Everything"},{"id":56552948,"t":"Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth","sl":"chronicles-from-the-land-of-the-happiest-people-on-earth","a":["Wole Soyinka"],"as":"Soyinka, Wole","y":2021,"p":444,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-11-14","cv":"covers/56552948.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24209367W","wp":"Chronicles_from_the_Land_of_the_Happiest_People_on_Earth"},{"id":57175436,"t":"Empire in Black and Gold","sl":"empire-in-black-and-gold","se":"Shadows of the Apt","sn":"1","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2008,"p":625,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-11-09","d":"2021-11-09","rev":"I enjoyed this book. It was a fun middle-brow fantasy story. It would make a great basis for a TV serial, at least if they can figure out how to do the animation or SFX for the insectoid nature of everyone.
\nThere's a lot of excellent world building here. Also the author does an excellent job writing battle scenes. There's maybe 15 fencing duels and small battles in the book and they are so beautifully written in great detail.
\nIf only he were as good at writing people! And relationships, and personal development, and emotions. There's a lot of complex emotion here, don't get me wrong, and some great back stories. But it comes across a little leaden, none of the personal stuff really sparkled as I was hoping. It made the book feel somewhat shallow.
\nWould totally watch a TV adaption though. Or maybe read the rest of the books if I need something uncomplicated to entertain me. There sure are a lot of the.
\n","w":166,"cv":"covers/57175436.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"avg":3.78,"n":14015,"dist":[403,953,3472,5745,3442],"g":["Fantasy","Steampunk","Epic Fantasy","Science Fiction","High Fantasy","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL15026874W","isf":"870444"},{"id":3506388,"t":"I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany","sl":"ill-never-be-french-no-matter-what-i-do","a":["Mark Greenside"],"as":"Greenside, Mark","y":2008,"p":256,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-11-04","d":"2021-11-04","rev":"Fun little book, amusing. The genre of "middle age American moves to France and falls in love with quirky village" seems pretty crowded; this one is unique in the narrator being male. And Brittany, not Provence. It's well written, full of humor and personal observations and with enough interesting events to keep motivated.
\nThe part that bugged me is the author's personal distance about himself. He goes into great detail about the wonderful things about the people he befriends, the people who help him. But when he talks about himself he's nothing but self-deprecating, full of jokes about his incompetence and inability to speak French. That's all fine but it left me wondering; why did people like him? Why did they go out of their way to help him? I have to assume he has some charming characteristics that he does not advertise in the book. Admirable humility, maybe, but it left a strange picture where the people of Breton are painfully generous folks who will help the bumbling intruder in their midst despite his persistent rudeness and obvious ignorance. I suspect the real story is much more interesting and human.
\nBut that's my quibble. Mostly it's just a fun book about the fantasy of moving to France and finding acceptance, home, and family. Wouldn't that be lovely?
\n","w":218,"cv":"covers/3506388.avif","cw":128,"ch":198,"avg":3.81,"n":2950,"dist":[37,172,848,1146,747],"g":["Travel","France","Memoir","Humor","Biography","Biography Memoir","Autobiography","Cultural"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2886741W"},{"id":44492285,"t":"Dune Messiah","sl":"dune-messiah","se":"Dune","sn":"2","a":["Frank Herbert","Brian Herbert"],"as":"Herbert, Frank","y":1969,"p":336,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-10-30","d":"2021-10-30","rev":"Yuck. What a badly written book.
\nI read this hot off the Villeneuve Dune movie. I'd read the first Dune novel 20 years ago and didn't much love it, but respected its position in the scifi canon. Also had been warned off the other novels. But I didn't realize quite how rough even this second book is, often considered one of the better ones.
\nIt's not all awful, I did manage to finish it and enjoyed it mostly. It helps that it's mercifully short. It's just so badly written. Overwrought prose. Characters that make no sense. Batshit insane ideas that somehow end up being mundane and unsurprising. Silly embellishments like ghouls and dwarfs that don't add anything but some borrowed exoticism. And it's all so claustrophobic: so little happens in so few places. I can't imagine how this gets made into a movie, something apparently now in the planning.
\nThere is some brilliance in here. Herbert's deeply imagined vision of collapsing empire is interesting. The tragedy of Maud'dib's jihad is a popular theme for Dune fans, too, although I don't honestly know why given how poorly Herbert writes about it. But I will give the author credit for suggesting larger concepts that fans can then spin into stories into their own heads.
\nNot much danger of me reading any of the other books now.
\n","w":224,"cv":"covers/44492285.avif","cw":279,"ch":500,"avg":3.9,"n":448008,"dist":[3679,22112,112226,188387,121604],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Classics","Space Opera","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL893461W","wp":"Dune_Messiah","isf":"2037"},{"id":54304067,"t":"Machinehood","sl":"machinehood","a":["S.B. Divya"],"as":"Divya, S.B.","y":2021,"p":404,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-29","cv":"covers/54304067.avif","cw":228,"ch":346,"ol":"OL21967564W"},{"id":86242,"t":"A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya","sl":"a-forest-of-kings","a":["Linda Schele","David A. Freidel"],"as":"Schele, Linda","y":1990,"p":552,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-26","cv":"covers/86242.avif","cw":280,"ch":400,"avg":3.96,"n":559,"dist":[12,23,128,209,187],"g":["History","Anthropology","Archaeology","Ancient History","Native American","Reference","Historical","Science","World History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2717811W"},{"id":59022,"t":"Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs","sl":"mexico","se":"Ancient Peoples and Places","a":["Michael D. Coe","Rex Koontz"],"as":"Coe, Michael D.","y":1962,"p":248,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-25","cv":"covers/59022.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":3.95,"n":588,"dist":[6,24,148,227,183],"g":["History","Anthropology","Archaeology","Art","Native American","Ancient History","Research","Textbooks","Indigenous History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL526754W"},{"id":137625,"t":"The Maya (Ancient Peoples & Places)","sl":"the-maya-ancient-peoples-and-places","se":"Ancient Peoples and Places","a":["Michael D. Coe"],"as":"Coe, Michael D.","y":1966,"p":272,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-25","cv":"covers/137625.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":3.86,"n":1627,"dist":[26,73,455,622,451],"g":["History","Anthropology","Archaeology","Indigenous","Art","Historical","The Americas","Latin American","World History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL526755W"},{"id":7767021,"t":"Who Fears Death","sl":"who-fears-death","se":"Who Fears Death","sn":"1","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2010,"p":386,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-10-25","d":"2021-10-25","rev":"One of my favorites of Okorafor's book I've read. This one does a great job in creating a slightly dream-like narrative mood, a floating disconnection. It feels a bit like The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season / The Obelisk Gate / The Stone Sky in mood somehow, even though it's a totally different setting and characters.
\nThe book is basically a Hero's Journey only told sort of in reverse. We know the end of the story nearly from the beginning. Half the early book is with the hero already home, safe and with her people, and only then does she go on a journey and slowly lose her personal connections. Her discoveries about herself are irregular and often uncomfortable. It's all just a bit tilted from the usual Western fantasy structure and I lik eit.
\nAlso love the African setting. Inspired in part by Sudan, but then also with a lot of West African elements (and presumably Nigerian in particular). I've enjoyed reading about Africanfuturism, a term referring to a writing movement that's different from Afrofuturism. This book is considered a prime example of Africanfuturism (or Africanjujuism) and it's definitely a strong cultural background to root a story in. I also like how there are these brief sci-fi hints, like that laptops were common in the long long ago and still exist but aren't really a big deal now.
\n","w":231,"cv":"covers/7767021.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.93,"n":29066,"dist":[532,1922,6111,10914,9587],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Africa","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Speculative Fiction","Magical Realism"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2011,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Carl Brandon Kindred Award","cat":null,"year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2010,"won":false}],"ol":"OL15935869W","wp":"Who_Fears_Death","isf":"1098746"},{"id":23281789,"t":"The Book of Phoenix","sl":"the-book-of-phoenix","se":"Who Fears Death","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2015,"p":232,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-25","cv":"covers/23281789.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20003034W","wp":"The_Book_of_Phoenix","isf":"1841060"},{"id":57632292,"t":"Noor","sl":"noor","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2021,"p":214,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-25","cv":"covers/57632292.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL25052301W","wp":"Noor_(novel)","isf":"2932339"},{"id":35066358,"t":"The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August","sl":"the-first-fifteen-lives-of-harry-august","a":["Claire North"],"as":"North, Claire","y":2014,"p":417,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-24","cv":"covers/35066358.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19159115W","wp":"The_First_Fifteen_Lives_of_Harry_August","isf":"1708932"},{"id":56702078,"t":"Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future","sl":"electrify","a":["Saul Griffith"],"as":"Griffith, Saul","y":2021,"p":288,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-10-16","d":"2021-10-16","rev":"The best thing an individual American can do right now to fight global warming personally is to switch to electricity for all your energy needs. Your next car should be electric and your next home heater and water heater should be heat pumps. Rooftop solar is an excellent idea too.
\nThat’s the central argument in Electrify, Saul Griffith’s new book about global warming. He’s been talking about this for awhile; Electrify covers a lot of the same ground as his free self published Rewiring America and his Make articles.
\nThe most interesting part of the new book isn’t the personal advice but rather his global plan for how the whole world mitigates global warming. He starts by pointing out how urgent the problem is: we have to start doing more right now, this very year, and there’s no time to wait on new technologies. Electricity is the best form of energy for transportation and storage. The basic idea is to shift from fossil fuel to electric consumption while in parallel adding more carbon-neutral electricity sources to the grid. He argues we’ll need 4x as much electricity in the US to achieve full electrification but this is a huge net gain (50%ish) in both total energy consumption and actual costs. He advocates for an effort akin to World War II mobilization to get it done, financed with low interest debt.
\nWhat I like best about his argument is it breaks the Gordian knot about “what can we do”? Electrify now and work on adding clean energy sources. I also like his holistic clarity, he really looks at whole-world energy consumption and economics. The optimism is great too. I find the argument convincing.
\nMy one quibble with the book is I wish it were better written. Some of the chapters feel a bit unfinished and some of the arguments are a little glib. This book is an improvement on Rewiring America and the fact it's officially published will give it a lot more impact. That's great! But there was an opportunity here to make a really solid decade-defining book and I think it fell a little short. That's OK, I'm glad Saul has taken the time out of his career of engineering and entrepreneurship to write such an important work of advocacy.
\n","w":380,"cv":"covers/56702078.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":4.13,"n":1133,"dist":[10,40,187,457,439],"g":["Science","Climate Change","Environment","Sustainability","Technology","Politics","Business","Engineering"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL24427527W"},{"id":55559887,"t":"The Last Graduate","sl":"the-last-graduate","se":"The Scholomance","sn":"2","a":["Naomi Novik"],"as":"Novik, Naomi","y":2021,"p":388,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-10-12","d":"2021-10-12","rev":"Woo what a fun book! This didn't quite blow me away as much as the first one. Maybe because I read the two back to back and the novelty wasn't there.. I felt the first half of the book kind of dragged, I was worried the author ran out of ideas. Then she shook everything up and the story goes in a great direction to a two-fisted conclusion. Good stuff.
\nIt's a small thing but I appreciated in these books is a frank and honest assessment of teen sexuality. The first book doesn't really talk about it much but off-hand has the girls talking about their contraception strategies. Good for them! And I liked how in this book the two characters finally just have sex, just like young adults would, and it's just matter of fact and sweet and a little hot without being creepy/porny.
\nAll in all a really solid book and of course now it has us all eagerly anticipating the conclusion of the trilogy.
\n","w":168,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/55559887.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.22,"n":139283,"dist":[695,3244,19647,57043,58654],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dark Academia","Magic","Romance","Urban Fantasy","Horror","Young Adult Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Lodestar Award","cat":"","year":2022,"won":true}],"ol":"OL22476184W","wp":"The_Last_Graduate","isf":"2905093"},{"id":48643567,"t":"The Doors of Eden","sl":"the-doors-of-eden","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2020,"p":609,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-11","cv":"covers/48643567.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL24313686W"},{"id":765618,"t":"Paradise","sl":"paradise","a":["Abdulrazak Gurnah"],"as":"Gurnah, Abdulrazak","y":1994,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-07","cv":"covers/765618.avif","cw":167,"ch":258,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL3958403W","wp":"Paradise_(Gurnah_novel)"},{"id":51080382,"t":"A Deadly Education","sl":"a-deadly-education","se":"The Scholomance","sn":"1","a":["Naomi Novik"],"as":"Novik, Naomi","y":2020,"p":338,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-10-06","d":"2021-10-06","rev":"What a great book. I had originally skipped this; the last thing I wanted to read was another book about kids at a school for young wizards. What I didn't realize is the setup is more Hunger Games than Hogwarts. That certainly makes for an interesting twist.
\nBut what most distinguishes this book is the protagonist's point of view. She's just so.. cynical. And harsh, and mean. And also smart and effective and in her heart the best person in the book. She's no Mary Sue, she's vulnerable and makes mistakes and is just so socially awkward. All normal adolescent stuff but with the author / first person narrator's cleverness and centering to make her both vulnerable and really compelling at the same time.
\nI also appreciated how the book felt authentically a book that's young-woman-centric. And multicultural. Without at all being clumsy, just genuinely some diversity and variation.
\nOn top of all those virtues it's just a really fun book. Great story, excellent pacing, the writing is very dense and evocative without being hard to follow or too writerly.
\nGreat book, can't wait for the next.
\n","w":187,"cv":"covers/51080382.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.93,"n":233295,"dist":[5753,14378,47786,88809,76569],"g":["Fantasy","Dark Academia","Young Adult","Magic","Horror","Urban Fantasy","Young Adult Fantasy","Romance"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Series","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"Nutmeg Book Award","cat":"High School","year":2025,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Lodestar Award","cat":null,"year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Traditionally Published Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20881237W","wp":"A_Deadly_Education","isf":"2764229"},{"id":25019,"t":"The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary","sl":"the-professor-and-the-madman","a":["Simon Winchester"],"as":"Winchester, Simon","y":1998,"p":242,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-04","cv":"covers/25019.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.84,"n":124763,"dist":[3745,7338,29948,47474,36258],"g":["History","Biography","Language","Books About Books","Historical","True Crime","Linguistics"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Nonfiction, Abridged","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"General Nonfiction","year":1998,"won":false}],"ol":"OL1840019W","wp":"The_Surgeon_of_Crowthorne"},{"id":9729504,"t":"Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II","sl":"lost-in-shangri-la","a":["Mitchell Zuckoff"],"as":"Zuckoff, Mitchell","y":2011,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-04","cv":"covers/9729504.avif","cw":185,"ch":276,"ol":"OL15445037W","wp":"Lost_in_Shangri-La"},{"id":337048,"t":"The Engines of God","sl":"the-engines-of-god","se":"The Academy","sn":"1","a":["Jack McDevitt"],"as":"McDevitt, Jack","y":1994,"p":422,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-10-03","d":"2021-10-03","rev":"I really enjoyed reading this book. As always I remind folks that 4 stars is a high rating for me, "really liked it".
\nThe part that works great is the archaeological mysteries. Indiana Jones in Space, as another reviewer summarized it. The author does a good job exploring the excitement and mystery of what archaeology on alien civilizations might be like, the combination of total mystery and yet also familiarity of what the author posts are cultural universal themes. I could read hundreds of pages of that.
\n(I will pick a nit with some of the science. The emphasis on the 8000 year cycle. Really? Exactly 8000 Earth years for a galactic phenomenon?. Also the directional clue at Oz, the way the two towers point to a distant star. On a rotating planetary object, in orbit. The tradition for this kind of thing is to say the alignment only happens at solstice. The slightly sloppy science conceits do not break the story in any way, but they do rob it a bit of the hard science perfection that some authors achieve.)
\nHowever it also has to be a fun book. And that is great in parts and a bit hackneyed in others. I enjoyed the Adventure parts, the breathless page turning Scenes of Peril. There's about six incidents scattered through the story and when I think back on each one I'm like "boy, that's kind of dumb". But Indy running from the giant stone ball was kind of dumb too, and yet also hugely entertaining and a key scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. McDevitt's book doesn't quite reach that lofty a level of iconicness but the adventure scenes do work in exactly the same way and I'm glad they were there.
\nAs other reviewers have said, the romance and relationship parts are pretty flat. They're present, and important. Some of them ring true, particularly the various people who are balancing being effective in their careers and not getting in trouble for breaking the rules vs. going off-book and doing the right / exciting thing. It's a complicated but very real set of emotions and the book conveys them well. But basic interpersonal interactions, the bits of romance.. They're functional in the book but not great. Eh, it's fine.
\nAll in all good fun. I'm not sure I'm compelled to keep reading; the second book's synopsis makes it sound like all the same tropes as this first book.
\n","w":410,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/337048.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"avg":3.83,"n":10536,"dist":[160,623,2700,4401,2652],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Aliens","Mystery","Space","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1997,"won":false}],"ol":"OL92871W","wp":"The_Engines_of_God","isf":"2002"},{"id":352774,"t":"A Talent for War","sl":"a-talent-for-war","se":"Alex Benedict","sn":"1","a":["Jack McDevitt"],"as":"McDevitt, Jack","y":1989,"p":310,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-03","cv":"covers/352774.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"ol":"OL92875W","wp":"A_Talent_for_War","isf":"1051"},{"id":10170545,"t":"The Children of the Sky","sl":"the-children-of-the-sky","se":"Zones of Thought","sn":"3","a":["Vernor Vinge"],"as":"Vinge, Vernor","y":2011,"p":444,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-10-03","cv":"covers/10170545.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL16239463W","wp":"The_Children_of_the_Sky","isf":"1285509"},{"id":23995249,"t":"The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World","sl":"the-invention-of-nature","a":["Andrea Wulf"],"as":"Wulf, Andrea","y":2015,"p":473,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-09-29","cv":"covers/23995249.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"ol":"OL17323380W","wp":"The_Invention_of_Nature"},{"id":38322550,"t":"The Last Emperox","sl":"the-last-emperox","se":"The Interdependency","sn":"3","a":["John Scalzi","Wil Wheaton"],"as":"Scalzi, John","y":2020,"p":320,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-25","d":"2021-09-25","rev":"I'd sure like to read this same book if the author had another six months and 100 pages to finish it. There's so much rushed at the end, and for the conclusion of a grand epic trilogy it's really a shame. The afterword even notes the author was rushed to meet a deadline and it definitely shows. In particular the death of Grayland II was given very short shrift, as was the whole post-coronation Kiva storyline.
\nI liked the whole trilogy. Very entertaining. Not world-changing sci-fi, really sort of shallow. But well written and enjoyable and worth the time and cost of the books.
\nWhat bothered me most about this series is how.. small it all felt. This is a far-flung interstellar empire and yet the story is a soap opera of the same 10 characters from 3 noble houses and a few hangers-on. That's sort of the nature of space opera. But then the story of The Interdependency itself is supposed to be vast in scope, this giant empire. And yet all those 20 billion people there's only one family who builds all the starships and that family is only led by a few people all of whom we meet in a few short pages? This problem is repeated across all the plot lines and characters. Other space operas do more to suggest the vast scale they're operating at while still focussing on the human stories.
\nAt least the human stories are good. All the main characters - Nadashe, Kiva, Grayland II, Mance - they're all well written. And fun. I liked the light interjection of the occasional sexytimes to keep things amusing. But I felt a little bit like I was watching a puppet show for The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and the cast only had one set and eight puppets.
\nSorry to be so critical but, well, it's a review. Overall I did really enjoy these books and will recommend them for folks looking for a fun read.
\n","w":334,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/38322550.avif","cw":280,"ch":434,"avg":4.14,"n":34560,"dist":[249,1009,5483,14774,13045],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Humor"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20732627W","wp":"The_Last_Emperox","isf":"2696005"},{"id":48668344,"t":"The Origin of the Flow","sl":"the-origin-of-the-flow","se":"The Interdependency","sn":"0.5","a":["John Scalzi"],"as":"Scalzi, John","y":2019,"p":5,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2021-09-25","cv":"covers/48668344.avif","cw":280,"ch":158,"avg":3.86,"n":615,"dist":[4,27,172,263,149],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Space","Space Opera","Speculative Fiction","Novella"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":34942741,"t":"The Consuming Fire","sl":"the-consuming-fire","se":"The Interdependency","sn":"2","a":["John Scalzi"],"as":"Scalzi, John","y":2018,"p":304,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-22","d":"2021-09-22","rev":"Enjoyed this! This one took three days to read instead of two, so maybe I'm slowing down a bit. Immediately will read the third one. Glad to be reading these together; honestly I'd rather read them all as one big novel, maybe edited to 3/4 the length. But they work OK as three standalones.
\nI was worried this second book was out of ideas, was thinking the world he built felt awfully small and the story was sort of spinning in circles. Then he introduces some New Science Facts into the story as well as some new groups of people. That made the story much more interesting. Was not enthralled by the primary plot that drove this novel but it was good enough and came to a delicious conclusion in the final chapter.
\nFiling this firmly in the "entertaining fiction" bin. It's nothing near as grand as Broken Earth, nor even as complex and full of ideas as The Expanse. But it's very enjoyable fiction with some well thought out ideas.
\n","w":171,"cv":"covers/34942741.avif","cw":275,"ch":500,"avg":4.22,"n":38786,"dist":[169,586,4999,17700,15332],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19754718W","wp":"The_Consuming_Fire","isf":"2421662"},{"id":18249027,"t":"Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past (Sexuality Studies)","sl":"sex-and-the-founding-fathers","se":"Sexuality Studies","a":["Thomas A. Foster"],"as":"Foster, Thomas A.","y":2012,"p":220,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-20","d":"2021-09-20","rev":"I got this book thinking it would be an amusing read about the peccadillos of our naughty founding fathers. Just who all was ol' Ben Franklin schtuping, anyway? And it is that, a little bit. But mostly it's a book about books about the sex lives of founding fathers. An examination of American history writing and hagiography.
\nAnd for that it was pretty good, if a bit dry. Major theme: 19th century writing was all about building up the mythology of the founding fathers as noble supermen. Think of George Washington and the cherry tree. Later there was an effort to also depict our founders as "normal red blooded men" - a youthful romance or two was good for the story. Only later in the 20th century do we start getting into the messy realities of personal history, particularly of the more rakish ones, and that too is steeped in contemporaneous changes like sexual liberation and general public horniness. All in all a good postmodern take on how history is never one true story of the past but rather a reflection on its writers of the present.
\nThree subjects came out as particularly interesting.
\nThomas Jefferson and the way historians have engaged with Sally Hemmings.
\nBen Franklin's friendship with le Chevalier d'Éon, a French genderqueer diplomat.
\nGouverneur Morris, a figure I'd never even heard of. Included in the book because he wrote some very intimate personal memoirs. Also married late in life and presented a complicated image of virility given two different physical disfigurements.
\nFun read, gobbled it up in two days. I'm not sure this book is much more than simple entertainment. And shallow entertainment at that, it's a pretty thin story. If I were making Prestige TV out of this book it would be like three one hour episodes. Nothing wrong with all that, the story is very well written and the characters are fun. Particularly Kira Kiva, the sexually voracious and profane no-bullshit space trader.
The premise of the universe is good and not too overthought. Will immediately read the second to find out what happens next.
\n","w":96,"cv":"covers/30282601.avif","cw":275,"ch":500,"avg":4.13,"n":61848,"dist":[501,1502,9619,28239,21987],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":true}],"ol":"OL19332006W","wp":"The_Collapsing_Empire","isf":"2131883"},{"id":54870256,"t":"There Is No Antimemetics Division","sl":"there-is-no-antimemetics-division","a":["qntm","Sam Hughes"],"as":"qntm, qntm","y":2020,"p":220,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-14","d":"2021-09-14","rev":"Well that was great. Devoured this book in a day. Had no idea what to expect going in and if something has convinced you to read this book, you should read it that way too. Skip the rest of this review.
\nBut if you still need convincing.. This book is a fresh, exciting take on horror/sci-fi. It's as structurally interesting as This Is How You Lose the Time War but then totally different. Rising out of the SCP Foundation mythology, something that originated as early-2000s fanfic, this book takes one really fascinating idea about human memory and perception of reality and spins it into a smart, compelling read. Hints of PK Dick, Lovecraft, and Ted Chiang. But also unique and highly disorienting. Compelling reading.
\n4 stars is very high praise for me. The only imperfections are.. it's a pretty inhuman book, the strength is in the narrative exploring the scifi idea and not the characters. Also ironically I didn't much like one of the later main characters, the last protagonist, they just weren't' as well sketched out as the others and the story stopped being as exhaustively inventive page after page. But the first 3/4 are truly and intensely excellent, so that slight loss of pace at the end is forgiveable.
\nUpdate April 2026 I re-read this book in the new edition, after extensive changes to the second half. It's definitely improved! The key thing is the relationship between the two main protagonists is much better explained, or at least I'm clearer on it now. It's a lovely and tragic story. And it makes it much easier to follow the plot towards the end.
\nIt's still a little woolly in the second half. qntm moves from some fairly straightforward neat idea short story chapters to a larger plot, a complicated setup and denouement. Honestly it's a little hard to follow, and still is in the 2026 version. Just a little too ambitious. But it's quite interesting and still the book as a whole is a uniquely fascinating bit of horror writing. I recommend it more than ever.
\n","w":347,"cv":"covers/54870256.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":3.99,"n":64645,"dist":[780,3463,13080,25657,21665],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Fantasy","Lovecraftian","Short Stories","Weird Fiction","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2026,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24726867W","wp":"There_Is_No_Antimemetics_Division","isf":"3359329"},{"id":19163118,"t":"Brown Girl in the Ring","sl":"brown-girl-in-the-ring","a":["Nalo Hopkinson"],"as":"Hopkinson, Nalo","y":1998,"p":259,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-08","d":"2021-09-08","rev":"It's a well written story. Very tightly planned, every character and scene has a purpose, some revealed only later as answers to mysteries. And an interesting narrative both of actual peril for a narrator we empathize with and an adaptation of Caribbean religioun ideas into a fantasy story. It's a good book!
\nBut I wish I enjoyed it more. It's pretty far removed from my language and culture. And while normally I relish the chance to read something well written from a different perspective than mine, this time it didn't click. Maybe I read it at the wrong time or in the wrong mood. But I didn't really personally connect to the characters or the story. I accept that's a failing of my imagination. I think the book is written from an important perspective and I'm glad to see it published and read. It just didn't quite grab me.
\n","w":149,"cv":"covers/19163118.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.85,"n":7717,"dist":[119,440,1930,3257,1971],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Dystopia","Urban Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Canada","Magical Realism","Horror"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":null,"year":1999,"won":false},{"name":"Golden Duck Award","cat":null,"year":1999,"won":false},{"name":"Warner Aspect First Novel Contest","cat":null,"year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":null,"year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Aurora Award","cat":"Best Long-Form Work in English","year":2000,"won":false}],"ol":"OL477817W","wp":"Brown_Girl_in_the_Ring_(novel)","isf":"12262"},{"id":55244019,"t":"Rewiring America","sl":"rewiring-america","a":["Saul Griffith"],"as":"Griffith, Saul","p":133,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-07","d":"2021-09-07","rev":"I find the argument here very compelling; the way to fix global warming is to electrify everything while building up a new clean electricity supply. I appreciate how thoughtful the argument is presented in this book and how optimistic so much of it is. Yes it's an expensive project but it's absolutely doable and has lots of other benefits in addition to saving us from global climate catastrophe.
\nMy one knock on the book is it's a very rough sort of outline. I took this as a rough draft of his book Electrify: An Optimists Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future that is coming out in a few months. I'm glad to have a copy of a sketch now, for free at that. But looking forward to the edited traditionally published book.
\n","w":132,"cv":"covers/55244019.avif","cw":188,"ch":269,"avg":4.39,"n":67,"dist":[0,2,7,21,37],"g":["Science","Environment"],"f":"Nonfiction"},{"id":278040,"t":"A Stitch in Time","sl":"a-stitch-in-time","se":"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine","sn":"27","a":["Andrew Jordt Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Andrew Jordt","y":2000,"p":396,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-09-06","cv":"covers/278040.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL5689430W","wp":"A_Stitch_in_Time_(Robinson_novel)","isf":"25858"},{"id":13648388,"t":"Lion's Blood","sl":"lions-blood","se":"Insh'Allah","sn":"1","a":["Steven Barnes"],"as":"Barnes, Steven","y":2002,"p":545,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-09-06","d":"2021-09-06","rev":"A fun and entertaining read. The author tells a gripping tale in a fun page turning way. He writes battle scenes particularly well; ordinarily I'd just read those as quick as I could and skip through but something about his style really worked for me and I enjoyed every word.
\nMy main complaint is the book felt really shallow to me. An adventure story, not a meaningful meditation on humanity. That really jarred with me at first because the book is explicitly an alternate history of American slavery. The first two sections read like a classic slave narrative. And having just read a couple of very thoughtful and moving versions of a slave narrative I was really put off by what to me felt like a shallow treatment. Fortunately the story gets its own momentum and gets increasingly unrealistic as a slave narrative and instead becomes its own thing, more in a classic fantasy vein.
\nThe main character Kai is well written as are some of the side characters, particularly Baratunde. Others like Shaka are crude caricatures. I was particularly let down by his writing of women. Some of the characters are interesting but seldom get a voice. And the most interesting, Sophia, gets reduced to a Madonna/whore sort of thing. She could have been a major POV character and instead she gets written almost entirely out, a real opportunity lost.
\nFun book but ultimately doesn't deliver on what it could have been.
\n","w":243,"cv":"covers/13648388.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"avg":3.99,"n":925,"dist":[28,45,176,338,338],"g":["Alternate History","Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Historical","African American"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Endeavour Award","cat":null,"year":2003,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15843805W","wp":"Lion's_Blood","isf":"22081"},{"id":23826188,"t":"Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora","sl":"dark-matter","se":"Dark Matter","sn":"1","a":["Sheree Renée Thomas"],"as":"Thomas, Sheree Renée","y":2000,"p":436,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-08-30","d":"2021-08-30","rev":"An important collection of pioneering Black sci-fi and fantasy. I hadn't realized quite how important until I read the essays towards the end of the book about just how few Black published sci-fi authors there were at the time, particularly African American. In 2000 everyone cited Octavia Butler and Samuel Delaney. And then.. a few others? But not very famous? The end. I knew diversity wasn't great in genre fiction but I didn't quite realize how bad it was. This book does a great job breaking through those limitations, both by highlighting old overlooked works and giving newer authors a platform.
\nThe highlighting of older authors was particularly enlightening for me: W.E.B. Du Bois' 1920 speculative story, George Schuyler's 1931 novel excerpt, the astonishing 1887 story from Charles Chesnutt. Unusual stories, all three, and reminders that speculative fiction has been an excellent way to explore social alternatives.
\nThis book is important enough as a collection I feel a little churlish not being more positive in my review. But, well, I didn't enjoy reading a lot of the stories. A bunch of them seemed pretty opaque or experimental in their writing style and I ended up skipping over several. Of course one expects from an anthology to not like everything equally and maybe I'm just a lazy reader. But I wish I could say I liked more of the newer stories more.
\nDerrick Bell's razor-sharp "The Space Traders" is my single most favorite of the modern stories and I was duly cut while reading it. Other favorites include "Separation Anxiety" by Evie Shockley, "Greedy Choke Puppy" and "Ganger (Ball Lightning)" by Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" (particularly strong; she works great in short form) and "The Woman in the Wall" by Steven Barnes. Delany's "Racism and Science Fiction" is also a welcome inclusion for its personal historical detail.
\nI appreciated how many of the stories were clearly informed by the Black experience without necessary being stories about Blackness or racial topics. There's a good sampling of explicit stories about race, too (particularly "The Space Traders") but there's a nice variety of topics and perspectives.
\n","w":360,"cv":"covers/23826188.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.17,"n":1475,"dist":[18,47,220,565,625],"g":["Short Stories","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Anthologies","Speculative Fiction","Africa","Race","African American"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Anthology","year":2001,"won":true}],"ol":"OL8135237W","wp":"Dark_Matter_(prose_anthologies)"},{"id":38362809,"t":"Rosewater","sl":"rosewater","se":"The Wormwood Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Tade Thompson"],"as":"Thompson, Tade","y":2017,"p":432,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-08-18","cv":"covers/38362809.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19763347W","wp":"Rosewater_(Thompson_novel)","isf":"2086430"},{"id":40642333,"t":"The Bird King","sl":"the-bird-king","a":["G. Willow Wilson"],"as":"Wilson, G. Willow","y":2019,"p":403,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-08-18","cv":"covers/40642333.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20139876W","wp":"The_Bird_King","isf":"2503863"},{"id":52504334,"t":"A Master of Djinn","sl":"a-master-of-djinn","se":"Dead Djinn Universe","sn":"1","a":["P. Djèlí Clark"],"as":"Clark, P. Djèlí","y":2021,"p":438,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-08-18","cv":"covers/52504334.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL22425740W","wp":"A_Master_of_Djinn","isf":"2848432"},{"id":53985410,"t":"The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook Includes Season 13 Recipes: Every Recipe and Every Review from All Thirteen Seasons (COMPLETE CCY TV SHOW COOKBOOK)","sl":"the-complete-cooks-country-tv-show-cookbook-includes-season","a":["America's Test Kitchen"],"as":"Kitchen, America's Test","y":2009,"p":861,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-08-18","d":"2021-08-18","rev":"Excellent cookbook for basic Americana. The ATK approach of thorough recipe testing is nicely applied to basic standard American dishes. Want to make cornbread or spaghetti and meatballs or a pie with a minimum of trouble and a reliable recipe? This book will do it. I particularly like the asides, paragraphs outside the recipe itself that provides a bit of context for the dishes and their methods of cooking.
\n","w":69,"cv":"covers/53985410.avif","cw":280,"ch":343,"avg":4.54,"n":4748,"dist":[56,69,304,1159,3160],"g":["Cookbooks","Cooking","Food","Reference","Culinary"],"f":"Nonfiction"},{"id":52665087,"t":"The Pueblo Revolt","sl":"the-pueblo-revolt","a":["Robert Silverberg"],"as":"Silverberg, Robert","y":1970,"p":228,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-08-13","cv":"covers/52665087.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL1960550W"},{"id":55278507,"t":"Shards of Earth","sl":"shards-of-earth","se":"The Final Architecture","sn":"1","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky","Sophie Aldred"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2021,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-08-12","d":"2021-08-12","rev":"Well that was a fun read. A real space adventure, much more action-packed than the more speculative / hard sci-fi Children of Time books I'd read previously. Not that this is dumb or not full of interesting ideas! But it's also got a lot of gun battles and escapes and page turning excitement. A nice mix.
\nI think the best thing in the book is how well drawn the characters are. The two main characters, Solace and Idris, and both of them very interesting human variants. But also Olli, the "differently abled" human, and someone actually written so that phrase has real meaning and isn't just a polite euphemism. She's a supporting character but a very interesting one. I just wish there'd been more details on the non-humans, particularly the Hivers. There's plenty there but I want more!
\nThe political nuance is also appreciated. This isn't some Star Trek Federation happyland, the political battles between the factions are real and complicated and thorny. Or incomprehensible, when it comes to both the enemy and also the sorta-allies the Hegemony. I could imagine a whole sequel that was just about the supposedly friendly factions conducting a 3-way Cold War without even getting into the Big Bad Alien Enemy that's the main driving force of this book.
\nThere's a few rough edges in the book. Some false starts with characters at the start, some ideas introduced or dropped in the middle a little clumsily. It's not a polished work of perfection. But what is? It is a creative and smart sci-fi novel and I'm looking forward to more.
\n","w":265,"cv":"covers/55278507.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.18,"n":37325,"dist":[318,1031,5230,15963,14783],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Aliens","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24481122W","isf":"2859162"},{"id":56222237,"t":"Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall","sl":"tunnel-29","a":["Helena Merriman"],"as":"Merriman, Helena","y":2021,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-08-12","cv":"covers/56222237.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"ol":"OL25041912W"},{"id":8694389,"t":"Deathless","sl":"deathless","a":["Catherynne M. Valente"],"as":"Valente, Catherynne M.","y":2011,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-08-04","cv":"covers/8694389.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL15538415W","wp":"Deathless_(novel)","isf":"1219898"},{"id":152519,"t":"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl","sl":"incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl","a":["Harriet Ann Jacobs","Linda Brent"],"as":"Jacobs, Harriet Ann","y":1861,"p":176,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-08-01","d":"2021-08-01","rev":"Phew, what a book. Read this on the back of Kindred, a fictional slave narrative. Figured I should read a real one to balance it out. Really glad I did.
\nThe remarkable thing about this book is what a well told story it is. It reads like a novel, a coherent and understandable narrative you can read from beginning to end. I apologize if that sounds like weird praise but there's a whole lot of autobiographies (and more than a few novels) that are not that well structured. For a woman suffering the restrictions of slavery from birth to write a book of this quality is a real testament to her brilliance and perseverance.
\nBut no, the real remarkable thing about this book is it exists at all. That a woman enslaved at birth in 1813 could learn to write, and write this book, and get it published, and get it read. To remember all these details with such clarity and then to write them down decades later when she was finally safe and had a hope of getting it published.
\nOr maybe the most remarkable thing is her ability to describe attitudes and daily life in an understandable way. Her family, foremost. Her fellow slaves. And her experiences of the white people around her.
\nI'll dwell on the white people since it's what I could relate to most, imagining myself as one of them. Hopefully one of "the good ones". And there's a real variety of white people in her life and she writes with detail, empathy, and absolutely no mercy about all of them. The kind mistress, the monstrous slaver who tried to rape her the moment she was old enough (ie: 13), her mostly useless congressman lover, the whites who helped her escape slavery. There's a really heartbreaking part about 80% through where she's been helped by two or three white people in a row and she confesses that even though they seem nice she can't really let herself trust any white person because so many have abused or betrayed her. She almost apologizes for this! Imagine.
\nThe final turns of the story.. Her precarious freedom in New York completely upended by the Fugitive Slave Act. How awful. Her whole story is awful. And also.. not inspirational, but amazing. Her ability to live, and protect her children, and write this book while suffering the worst abuses of America. It's hard to imagine having that kind of fortitude.
\nI feel very lucky to be able to read the words of someone who suffered this experience. Never again.
\n","w":429,"cv":"covers/152519.avif","cw":280,"ch":463,"avg":4.18,"n":59768,"dist":[920,2004,9392,20541,26911],"g":["History","Classics","Memoir","Biography","Autobiography","African American","Historical","Race"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL28623W","wp":"Incidents_in_the_Life_of_a_Slave_Girl"},{"id":18889555,"t":"Kindred","sl":"kindred","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1979,"p":264,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-07-23","d":"2021-07-23","rev":"Wow, that was a hell of a book. I just finished it and am kind of overwhelmed. I won't be trying to write any thoughtful analysis, there's far smarter people than me who've done that. Just some personal reactions.
\nPainful, gutting book. Butler's trademark uncomfortable writing but applied to real history, American slavery, the damage of which is still one of our most pressing problems today. I loved the Xenogenesis series but those books were "safe", clearly science fiction. Nothing safe about this book, it's a compelling narrative of a real historical scenario.
\nOriginally I was trying to sound smart and categorize this book as "not really science fiction / fantasy". But it absolutely is, and the best kind. The fantastical conceit of the time travel enables Butler to write a first person slave narrative in the 1970s. But from a modern perspective, a modern free Black woman, which makes it relatable and intimate for modern readers even as she describes a historical past that's hard for us to understand or imagine. It's like someone mixed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It works astonishingly well.
\nI also love all the ambiguity in the story. Dana is clearly the hero and fundamentally blameless, a victim both of the time travel and the slave owners. But in her moments she has to make hard moral decisions, sometimes with no good choices. And the pain of those choices which she bears, both in her mind and literally her body. The ending where she loses her arm was absolutely chilling.
\nI also appreciated how well written the supporting characters were. The slave population is full of actual people I care about and understand. I'd read a whole book about Alice, or Sarah. The white characters are well written too: Rufus in particular, but also Kevin. They aren't portrayed sympathetically, particularly not Rufus of course. But they are understandable and complex.
\nOne other thing I appreciated was how well researched the book was. It felt absolutely true and real, the kind of verisimilitude you only get from fiction where the author has meticulously studied the subject.
\nThey're making a TV show of this book, or at least a pilot. It's hard for me to imagine how that will work. The book is so brutal. Also full of racist language. Deftly applied by Butler, it's not there to titillate, the awfulness is the point of the narrative. But how do you film that? Will it be even marginally entertaining to watch or just relentlessly miserable?
\nThanks to Robert Crossley for the observation about first person slave narratives, in the Reader's Guide that was in my Kindle edition.
\n","w":451,"cv":"covers/18889555.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.31,"n":296545,"dist":[1596,6074,33868,112305,142702],"g":["Historical Fiction","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Time Travel","Classics","Historical","Race"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":1980,"won":false}],"ol":"OL35616W","wp":"Kindred_(novel)","isf":"1669"},{"id":36136118,"t":"Space Opera","sl":"space-opera","se":"Space Opera","sn":"1","a":["Catherynne M. Valente"],"as":"Valente, Catherynne M.","y":2018,"p":305,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-07-19","d":"2021-07-19","rev":"A rare one star review for a book I finished. But only struggled to the end after several days of hate-reading, trying to consume pages in hopes the story had some payoff I would enjoy. It did not.
\nMy biggest complaint with this book is the writing style. The exhausting, overwrought writing style. If I may quote...
\n\n\nA ship that wishes to avoid the unpleasantness of the public wormhole system is required by corporate law and the desire for self-preservation to have a Keshet representative on board, as anyone else attempting to work the Box would find their molecules subjected to all manner of assault in defiance of time, logic, and propriety—for example, summarily rearranged to resemble a painting by Picasso after it has been shat out by a sexually frustrated emu and delivered to the doorstep of a wholly perplexed pre-asp Cleopatra.
\n
It goes on like that for whole paragraphs, chapters. The author seems to be channeling Douglas Adams. Only distilled to a unpleasant thickness, a gooey viscous embellished prose. Like a sauce with too much guar gum.
\nThe premise of the book was vaguely promising: a galactic scale Eurovision contest. Unfortunately the main Earth characters came off as completely tedious. And the aliens are mostly just decoration, not characters with their own stories.
\n","w":215,"cv":"covers/36136118.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.45,"n":17560,"dist":[1182,2547,4856,5169,3806],"g":["Science Fiction","Humor","Fantasy","Space Opera","Space","Music","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2025,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24608807W","wp":"Space_Opera_(Valente_novel)","isf":"2331285"},{"id":853114,"t":"When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846","sl":"when-jesus-came-the-corn-mothers-went-away","a":["Ramón A. Gutiérrez"],"as":"Gutiérrez, Ramón A.","y":1991,"p":456,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-07-10","d":"2021-07-10","rev":"I only read the first third of this, the history up through the Pueblo Revolt. (That's what I was interested in.) I learned a lot from the book and really appreciate the scholarship. It's well written and easy to follow. A little dry but way more readable than the usual academic book.
\nI'm somewhere between curious and skeptical about the author's methods, particularly the way he comes to very specific and detailed conclusions about what various things meant to Pueblo Indians in the 1500s and 1600s. His primary sources are the records the Franciscan friars kept and he's careful at the start to talk about how problematic and biased those are. (And sometimes, clearly fantastical). I respect that it's possible to read through that and come to something like the truth, I just wish he gave us more detail on that process and estimated his certainty.
\nConcerns aside, as a detailed social-focussed history of early colonial New Mexico it's excellent.
\n","w":160,"cv":"covers/853114.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":3.53,"n":293,"dist":[12,39,82,101,59],"g":["History","American History","Native American History","Religion","Family","Grad School","Anthropology","Native American","Latin American History"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Frederick Jackson Turner Award","cat":"","year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"John Hope Franklin Prize","cat":"","year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"James A. Rawley Prize (OAH)","cat":"","year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"Bryce Wood Book Award","cat":"Honorable mention","year":1992,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2631366W"},{"id":55660732,"t":"Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific","sl":"voyagers","a":["Nicholas Thomas"],"as":"Thomas, Nicholas","y":2021,"p":224,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-07-09","cv":"covers/55660732.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"ol":"OL24760241W"},{"id":754001,"t":"They'd Rather Be Right","sl":"theyd-rather-be-right","a":["Mark Clifton","Frank Riley"],"as":"Clifton, Mark","y":1954,"p":173,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-07-04","d":"2021-07-04","rev":"What a mess of a novel. Just really not good. Confusing plot, terrible characters, rampant sexism. There's some good ideas but all in all this is really not a good book. It's not much fun talking about bad writing so let me highlight the good ideas.
\nBossy, the first truly thinking computer, could be a fascinating concept. The book even comes so close to a singularity plot when Bossy starts manipulating people to make copies of her. In 1955! But instead the computer is just seen as a particularly powerful tool, one used for a form of psychoanalysis of all things. Particularly weird the authors here gave her gender but no personality. I think in a modern novel Bossy would have been a character.
\nI liked the book's inclusion of telepathy; I gather that was a Clifton plot signature. Also interesting was the idea that psychoanalysis could somehow reverse aging and lead to superpowers. The emphasis on Skid Row characters was fresh, too, although then the book gets grossly sexist by treating Mabel (the one female character) completely as an object when she could have been the most interesting part of the narrative.
\nI read this because it was the 1955 Hugo novel winner. I wasn't aware of its reputation as "worst Hugo winner evar". In a year that could have considered Fellowship of the Ring or I am Legend for an award... what a weird result. For some perspective on that: https://www.tor.com/2010/10/31/hugo-nominees-1955/
\n","w":243,"cv":"covers/754001.avif","cw":128,"ch":201,"avg":3.0,"n":1403,"dist":[149,338,440,313,163],"g":["Science Fiction","Hugo Awards","Classics","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1955,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15686578W","wp":"They'd_Rather_Be_Right","isf":"186614"},{"id":55959466,"t":"Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America","sl":"black-af-history","a":["Michael Harriot"],"as":"Harriot, Michael","y":2022,"p":426,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-06-29","cv":"covers/55959466.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL24493848W"},{"id":350,"t":"Stranger in a Strange Land","sl":"stranger-in-a-strange-land","a":["Robert A. Heinlein","James Warhola"],"as":"Heinlein, Robert A.","y":1961,"p":525,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2021-06-28","rev":"This book was one of my favorite books ever as a teenager. Now as an adult I look back at it and shudder at all the toxic ideas in it.
\n","w":30,"cv":"covers/350.avif","cw":280,"ch":465,"avg":3.92,"n":331142,"dist":[13801,24157,65233,100848,127103],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Fantasy","Philosophy","Speculative Fiction","Religion"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1962,"won":true},{"name":"Prometheus Hall of Fame Award","cat":null,"year":1987,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59688W","wp":"Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land","isf":"1095"},{"id":827,"t":"The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer","sl":"the-diamond-age","a":["Neal Stephenson"],"as":"Stephenson, Neal","y":1995,"p":499,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2021-06-28","cv":"covers/827.avif","cw":280,"ch":467,"avg":4.16,"n":94252,"dist":[1273,3691,14947,33481,40860],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Steampunk","Fantasy","Dystopia","Speculative Fiction","Hugo Awards"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1996,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1996,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1996,"won":false}],"ol":"OL38499W","wp":"The_Diamond_Age","isf":"1181"},{"id":41302953,"t":"The Witness for the Dead","sl":"the-witness-for-the-dead","se":"The Cemeteries of Amalo","sn":"1","a":["Katherine Addison"],"as":"Addison, Katherine","y":2021,"p":240,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-06-27","d":"2021-06-27","rev":"Huh, I ended up really liking this novel. It's an odd structure for a fantasy novel. There's no heroic action, no evil defeated. It's just the story of the life of Thara Celehar, a Witness for the Dead, a sort of priest who gives last rights and can occasionally talk briefly with the spirits of the recently deceased. And the whole book is various stories he gets involved in; a murder mystery at the opera, a ghoul infestation, a dispute over a will, a serial killer. I guess structually it's a detective novel? Or an Agathie Christie? Only in a high fantasy world with goblins, elves, and light magic.
\nDespite the marketing it's not really a sequel to The Goblin Emperor. Celehar is a character in that novel, in fact appears throughout it, and this book is a continuation of his story. But there's no real through-line of plot. What is consistent is the fantasy world. And the great strength of this new novel is how well it fleshes out the world building. Mostly obliquely, the writing is much too subtle and ordinary to be tedious "tell not show". But there's plenty to show. The only thing that tripped me up a bit is the author is a bit too fond of stringing together words in an imaginary language along with person's titles and names. Sometimes I got a bit lost in all the unfamiliar words but overall the linguistic games are in service to the mood.
\nSpeaking of mood.. the book has a wonderful melancholy to it. Celehar is a melancholic character, awkward around people, no friends of his own, works with death and speaks to dead people as a profession. The whole novel is suffused with that sadness and slowness. It's not a depressing novel, the world is far too rich and interesting for that. But it is a melancholy one in a nice comfortable way.
\nGreatly enjoyed this book.
\n","w":322,"cv":"covers/41302953.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.09,"n":13075,"dist":[75,379,2224,6023,4374],"g":["Fantasy","Mystery","Queer","Steampunk","LGBT","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL24141355W","wp":"The_Witness_for_the_Dead","isf":"2868501"},{"id":53413743,"t":"Fugitive Telemetry","sl":"fugitive-telemetry","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"6","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2021,"p":172,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-06-23","d":"2021-06-23","rev":"OK maybe it's time to lay off the Murderbot books. I read this one just after reading #5 and found it, well, kinda tedious. Mostly for the plot; it's a basic police procedural, solving the crime. It's competently told and entertaining. And Murderbot's awkward attempts to fit in with human society are always amusing. But this novel felt much more by-the-numbers than the previous ones with few surprises or insights. Enjoyed but will immediately forget.
\n","w":75,"cv":"covers/53413743.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.28,"n":116079,"dist":[171,1272,15208,48556,50872],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Mystery","Space","Space Opera","Humor"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20805971W","isf":"2844053"},{"id":45046552,"t":"The Unspoken Name","sl":"the-unspoken-name","se":"The Serpent Gates","sn":"1","a":["A.K. Larkwood"],"as":"Larkwood, A.K.","y":2020,"p":464,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-06-16","d":"2021-06-16","rev":"Well I had a good time reading this book. Page turner, finished in six days. A rolicking fun adventure with a great main character. The first section of the book feels a little derivative of The Tombs of Atuan but I mean that in a good way, and the narrative and characters swiftly go their own way. Sections two and three were good fun and god interesting, especially with a tonal shift with some of the characters dialog to modern instead of mild fantasy. And then the fourth and final section takes an interesting narrative turn entirely and wraps to a nice conclusion. Well paced and fun all the way through.
\nI picked this in part because it's listed as an LGBT book. And it is in the simplest sense; the main romantic relationships are homosexual. But they're told fairly shallowly, personal feelings are not the strength of this narrative. And they didn't feel queer at all, this is more in the genre of "gay and lesbian relationships are perfectly ordinary and unremarkable". So while that's healthy I wouldn't look to this book for much insight into the LGBT mindset. Fair enough, because it is a good fantasy novel.
\n","w":199,"cv":"covers/45046552.avif","cw":143,"ch":218,"avg":3.72,"n":9721,"dist":[294,829,2578,3654,2366],"g":["Fantasy","LGBT","Queer","Lesbian","High Fantasy","Magic","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2021,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20645180W","wp":"The_Unspoken_Name","isf":"2667584"},{"id":18915870,"t":"Giovanni’s Room","sl":"giovannis-room","a":["James Baldwin"],"as":"Baldwin, James","y":1956,"p":178,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-06-05","d":"2021-06-05","rev":"I'm conflicted about this book. It's beautifully written and full of nuance. It's also a product from a homophobic past that is becoming hard to remember or imagine. It almost feels in a category like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book from a past, worse time. But while I hated reading that book recently I did really love the sensitivity of Giovanni's Room. Still conflicted.
\nFirst, the good and beautiful thing. The emotional nuance of the book is so complex. The simultaneous love and hatred and self-hatred the protagonist David feels on falling into a relationship with Giovanni, it's just heart-breaking and subtle and very sensitively narrated. "there opened in me a hatred for Giovanni which was as powerful as my love and which was nourished by the same roots." That ambiguity David feels in his loves is the core of the power of the book for me, Baldwin himself spoke of it as "what happens if you are so afraid that you finally cannot love anybody". What an awful yet real emotion.
\nSecond, the basic solid structure of the novel. Baldwin's a masterful writer. It's a lovely novel about Americans in post-war Paris. The narrative structure is great. I particularly like the inversion of time where all the details of the story are told to us up front and then the novel is just explaining how it all unfolded and the emotional impact of it. And I appreciate that Baldwin manages to even make Hella a real character at the end, something he was dangerously close to not doing: her taking agency and declaring "There are women who have forgotten that to be a woman doesn’t simply mean humiliation, doesn’t simply mean bitterness. I haven’t forgotten it yet" was excellent.
\nAnd third, the part I hated. This whole book is about gay shame. David's shame in early homosexual experiences, his shame at being in love with Giovanni, his intense contempt for the "fairies" of the Paris demi-monde, even his shameful rebound trick with a sailor who humiliates him. David is consumed by self loathing and homophobia that he never overcomes, it destroys him. It's awful.
\nSo here's the thing. In 1956 that was an incredibly brave and rare thing to write in a novel; it is literally one of the first works of American fiction that tells a homosexual story from an informed viewpoint. The shame is conveyed sympathetically, it's the entire intent of the book. But it's also just so depressing. My unhappiness about that may be tinged by my expectations going in; I was looking for some uplifting gay fiction to read for Pride month. That's definitely not this book.
\nI also wonder if this gay shame is harder to relate to in 2021. At least I hope it is. This book is very important to a lot of my older gay men friends, folks born in the 60s and 70s, because they saw themselves in the book and it gave them solace or companionship or at least a way to think about their own internalized homophobia. That's great! I only just read it now, at age 50, and I just find the shame upsetting. And I wonder for a young man born in the year 2000 whether this books makes sense as anything other than a historical document. I kind of hope it doesn't. It is an excellent historical document, well written, but based on a crisis of gay shame that is hard to imagine in the contemporary world. At least I do hope we've come that far.
\nPostscript: one other aspect of the book I was unprepared for, there's almost no African-American perspective in this. I know Baldwin as one of America's great Black writers so I was surprised to be reading this novel entirely about white people. Nothing wrong with that! Just a surprise in our contemporary era of intersectionality and highlighting minority perspectives. Baldwin did that on purpose and spoke about it: ‘‘I certainly could not possibly have—not at that point in my life—handled the other great weight, the ‘Negro problem.’ The sexual-moral light was a hard thing to deal with. I could not handle both propositions in the same book. There was no room for it.’’ Fair enough, he is not obligated to be my Negro. Also as Greenwell's essay in the Guardian notes, Baldwin's Black experience is definitely present in the novel even if not explicitly the center of it.
\nThat's a lot of words for a Goodreads review. Some of these were written after being informed by some recent articles, contemporary literary criticism. They may be good reading:
\nhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/19/james-baldwin-giovannis-room-garth-greenwell-60th-anniversary-gay-novel
\nhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/t-magazine/james-baldwin-giovannis-room.html
\nhttps://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-unsparing-confessions-of-giovannis-room
\nUpdate: I shared this review with two gay friends who both commented that shame is absolutely still a problem for LGBT people in America, including gay boys and young men growing up and finding themselves. I apologize for breezily dismissing that, I still feel remnants of internalized homophobia in myself! But the shame in Giovanni's Room is so blunt and overwhelming I didn't connect to it, maybe thanks to years of practice with gay pride. Anyway, I don't want to dismiss anyone who finds a connection to the shame Baldwin describes in his book. And he describes it incredibly eloquently, it resonates whether it's intensely personal or just a historical memory.
\n","w":885,"cv":"covers/18915870.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":4.34,"n":305560,"dist":[1864,6138,33296,108462,155800],"g":["Classics","Queer","LGBT","Romance","Literary Fiction","Gay","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Audiobook","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":1957,"won":true}],"ol":"OL228702W","wp":"Giovanni's_Room"},{"id":54735156,"t":"The Absolute Book","sl":"the-absolute-book","a":["Elizabeth Knox"],"as":"Knox, Elizabeth","y":2019,"p":640,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-05-31","d":"2021-05-31","rev":"The Absolute Snore. Sorry, I tried really hard to like this book. I soldiered through the first 60 pages where absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens. I got through the next 150 pages where it starts to get interesting and fantastical. And was still bored and confused and lost after being a nearly third done. I've learned the hard way that if I don't like a book by the first third I'm unlikely to like it. A friend who did finish the book confirmed my fears. So I stopped.
\n","w":90,"cv":"covers/54735156.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.19,"n":5649,"dist":[538,1041,1767,1429,874],"g":["Fantasy","Mystery","Books About Books","Magical Realism","Mythology","Urban Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Ockham New Zealand Book Awards","cat":"Acorn Foundation Fiction (longlist)","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL24148626W","isf":"2819915"},{"id":55671327,"t":"While Justice Sleeps","sl":"while-justice-sleeps","se":"Avery Keene","sn":"1","a":["Stacey Abrams"],"as":"Abrams, Stacey","y":2021,"p":367,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-05-31","d":"2021-05-31","rev":"Great book, a lot of fun to read. Going to get this out of the way; some of the plot points and writing style are a little over the top, a little silly. 100% appropriate for the genre though and in no way did it stop my enjoyment of the book. A real page turner full of excitement and peril and some interesting legal and intellectual puzzles. I read the bulk compulsively in just a few days and finished quite satisfied and entertained.
\nWhat was a real surprise for the genre was how well written the side characters are. I particularly liked Rita, the protagonist Avery's mother, who was written with a lot more nuance than necessary. Loved this paragraph
\n\n\nThen, on cue, came the weeping. Tears ran down poorly rouged cheeks, dripping their sincerity on Avery's throbbing skin. Wrapped in the emaciated arms, her nose buried in the rancid scent of unwashed hair, Avery felt despair creep through her heart. A lifetime of carefully plotted escape from this woman, this mother, and she'd never been able to shake her.
\n
All in all the book was great fun, I hope Ms. Abrams gets time to write more books. She's awfully busy saving American democracy.
\n","w":204,"cv":"covers/55671327.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.95,"n":46715,"dist":[601,2169,10518,19124,14303],"g":["Mystery","Thriller","Mystery Thriller","Politics","Suspense","Contemporary","Legal Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24339073W","wp":"While_Justice_Sleeps"},{"id":52381770,"t":"Network Effect","sl":"network-effect","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"5","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2020,"p":350,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-05-26","d":"2021-05-26","rev":"Really torn about this book. On one hand, I can barely remember it having just finished it. There's only one real character, precious little emotional development, just a lot of action. OTOH I thoroughly loved reading the book and turned pages as fast as I could to get through the exciting story. Not sure what conclusion to come to except it was enjoyable entertainment. And I continue to like the odd POV that is Murderbot's view on the world.
\n","w":79,"cv":"covers/52381770.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.46,"n":140298,"dist":[347,1251,11582,47821,79297],"g":["Science Fiction","Space","Space Opera","Humor","Adventure","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20735675W","wp":"Network_Effect_(novel)","isf":"2717735"},{"id":92610,"t":"Rocannon’s World","sl":"rocannons-world","se":"The Hainish Cycle","sn":"1","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1966,"p":258,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-05-08","cv":"covers/92610.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.79,"n":26348,"dist":[454,1489,7895,9938,6572],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Classics","Speculative Fiction","Aliens","Space Opera"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Premi Protagonista Jove","cat":"Categoria 14-15 anys","year":2000,"won":false}],"ol":"OL59850W","wp":"Rocannon's_World","isf":"454"},{"id":276767,"t":"The Word for World Is Forest","sl":"the-word-for-world-is-forest","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1972,"p":160,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-05-08","cv":"covers/276767.avif","cw":280,"ch":472,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL59797W","wp":"The_Word_for_World_Is_Forest","isf":"32494"},{"id":38212124,"t":"Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century","sl":"nomadland","a":["Jessica Bruder"],"as":"Bruder, Jessica","y":2017,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-04-29","cv":"covers/38212124.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"ol":"OL19715284W","wp":"Nomadland:_Surviving_America_in_the_Twenty-First_Century"},{"id":162556,"t":"The Search For Modern China","sl":"the-search-for-modern-china","a":["Jonathan D. Spence"],"as":"Spence, Jonathan D.","y":1990,"p":912,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-04-02","cv":"covers/162556.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":4.21,"n":3398,"dist":[32,85,486,1340,1455],"g":["History","China","Asia","Politics","World History","20th Century","Academic","Asian Literature"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Lionel Gelber Prize","cat":null,"year":1990,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1842805W"},{"id":178794,"t":"China: A New History","sl":"china","a":["John King Fairbank","Merle Goldman"],"as":"Fairbank, John King","y":1992,"p":640,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-04-02","cv":"covers/178794.avif","cw":280,"ch":405,"avg":3.86,"n":999,"dist":[11,38,264,453,233],"g":["History","China","Asia","Society","World History","Historical","Ancient History","Science","Academic"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL1355284W"},{"id":53122357,"t":"Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age","sl":"four-lost-cities","a":["Annalee Newitz"],"as":"Newitz, Annalee","y":2021,"p":320,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-03-15","d":"2021-03-15","rev":"I read this and barely remember it now and apparently didn't think enough of it to even record it in Goodreads. But my memory is I found it kind of shallow. OTOH I've read a lot of other stuff in this category; I suspect this book is more interesting as an introduction to the topics.
\n","w":55,"cv":"covers/53122357.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":3.77,"n":7635,"dist":[53,363,2301,3459,1459],"g":["History","Science","Anthropology","Archaeology","Historical","World History","Sociology"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"History & Biography","year":2021,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20913183W"},{"id":13667,"t":"The Farthest Shore","sl":"the-farthest-shore","se":"Earthsea Cycle","sn":"3","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1972,"p":259,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2021-02-12","rev":"I enjoyed this book well enough although I didn't much care for Prince Arren's character. He's so passive! But then this whole book is passive, a weird passive take on a hero's journey to slay the Big Bad. Particularly the way the enemy manifests as despair, and lethargy, and hopelessness. It makes for quite a blanket of depression for the book. I like how the Earthsea books continue to subvert all these fantasy tropes.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/13667.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.13,"n":131269,"dist":[1291,4301,23615,49437,52625],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Classics","High Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Award","cat":"Children's Books","year":1973,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":null,"year":1973,"won":false},{"name":"Margaret A. Edwards Award","cat":null,"year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59855W","wp":"The_Farthest_Shore","isf":"7655"},{"id":13661,"t":"Tehanu","sl":"tehanu","se":"Earthsea Cycle","sn":"4","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1990,"p":281,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2021-02-06","d":"2021-02-06","rev":"Loved this book. Following in the theme of Earthsea as subversion of fantasy trope I like that we're following around a middle aged woman. Who has no particular visible power of her own, nor agency, nor even any hero's story. She's raising a crippled orphan girl, and she knows some famous people. (And yeah, she's famous herself, but no one remembers that now). She's rejected being in any sort of heroic role.
\nAlso loved the dwelling on women's magic, and women's work, and the world of women. Not a simplistic feminist take on "women can be heroes like men!" but rather "the way women have been for centuries has its own power and dignity". I'm not sure it exactly goes anywhere in the book, but I like how she explores it.
\nI'm let with one big worldbuilding question; why exactly is it that only men can be mages? Why don't they teach women at Roke? She never really explains it. Women have magic powers, and teaching women is an imagineable thing (as we learn in this book). Is it tradition? Sexism? Does it end badly for some magical reason? I'm hoping the last books explore this.
\n","w":196,"cv":"covers/13661.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.07,"n":62908,"dist":[865,2845,11657,23022,24519],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Classics","High Fantasy","Dragons","Magic","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1990,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"","year":1991,"won":false},{"name":"Margaret A. Edwards Award","cat":null,"year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15056578W","wp":"Tehanu","isf":"7656"},{"id":337573,"t":"Taipan: A Historical Adventure for the Apple Computer (Apple II Edition)","sl":"taipan","a":["Art Canfil","Karl Albrecht"],"as":"Canfil, Art","y":1986,"p":0,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-02-06","ol":"OL11319776M"},{"id":28209634,"t":"Autonomous","sl":"autonomous","a":["Annalee Newitz"],"as":"Newitz, Annalee","y":2017,"p":303,"sh":"to-read","d":"2021-02-02","cv":"covers/28209634.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19339910W","wp":"Autonomous_(novel)","isf":"2234630"},{"id":19000,"t":"The Constant Gardener","sl":"the-constant-gardener","a":["John le Carré"],"as":"Carré, John le","y":2001,"p":482,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2020-12-31","cv":"covers/19000.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":3.83,"n":32184,"dist":[628,2022,7866,13301,8367],"g":["Thriller","Mystery","Africa","Espionage","Crime","Mystery Thriller","Suspense","Contemporary"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL15723135W","wp":"The_Constant_Gardener"},{"id":10073506,"t":"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy","sl":"tinker-tailor-soldier-spy","se":"George Smiley, #5; Karla Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["John le Carré"],"as":"Carré, John le","y":1974,"p":381,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2020-12-31","cv":"covers/10073506.avif","cw":280,"ch":475,"avg":4.06,"n":110780,"dist":[2463,5671,18660,39911,44075],"g":["Mystery","Thriller","Espionage","Classics","Mystery Thriller","Crime","Suspense"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"CWA Silver Dagger","cat":null,"year":1974,"won":false}],"ol":"OL15723131W","wp":"Tinker_Tailor_Soldier_Spy"},{"id":43904017,"t":"Agent Running in the Field","sl":"agent-running-in-the-field","a":["John le Carré"],"as":"Carré, John le","y":2019,"p":282,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-12-31","d":"2020-12-31","rev":"Read this on le Carré's death, his last book (at least so far). Eh, its OK? I do appreciate reading him modernized into the world of Trump and Brexit and the insight of how demoralizing that would be for the spy services. It was a very weird conceit of writing to have Ed and his traitorousness and relationship with the narrator be this giant coincidence. Also that he coincidentally decides to marry another agent. I like how le Carré dropped hints about that plot early without explaining it and letting that develop with partial dramatic irony, it's a deft trick of writing.
\nMostly I just didn't find much of the plot or characters compelling. Entertaining enough but it did not grab me.
\n","w":123,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/43904017.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.83,"n":24386,"dist":[377,1398,6168,10395,6048],"g":["Thriller","Espionage","Mystery","Spy Thriller","Crime","Mystery Thriller","Politics","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20483579W","wp":"Agent_Running_in_the_Field"},{"id":827280,"t":"Memoirs of a Spacewoman","sl":"memoirs-of-a-spacewoman","a":["Naomi Mitchison"],"as":"Mitchison, Naomi","y":1962,"p":160,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-11-30","d":"2020-11-30","rev":"What an odd book! It's basically a collection of short stories, musings on different forms of sentient life and the challenge of communicating with it. Very alien, improbable forms of existence, with an idea of what intelligence is much broader than most sci-fi. Loved the speculative nature of all that.
\nAlso appreciated the perspective of the woman narrator (and author). There's a lot of writing here about motherhood, both a relatively-normal human kind and then this bizarre grafting technology that the story keeps returning to. It's quite moving and unusual and I am glad for it.
\nAlso a bit unsettling. I don't think this was the author's intent but some of the alienness verges into the body horror that Octavia Butler was so great at writing. At least, I imagine Butler got some ideas from here and then ran with them. Neat to see that thread of sci-fi explored, I wish more authors would do it.
\n(As many reviewers have noted; the synopsis of this book is a weirdly sexist thing that inappropriately highlights erotic elements. There's a bit of that but it's a very minor theme, and most of it is in service to a sci-fi exploration of an interesting form of communication.)
\n","w":204,"cv":"covers/827280.avif","cw":280,"ch":498,"avg":3.58,"n":612,"dist":[21,58,200,213,120],"g":["Science Fiction","Feminism","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Classics","Aliens","LGBT"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL683089W","wp":"Memoirs_of_a_Spacewoman","isf":"8224"},{"id":43352954,"t":"This Is How You Lose the Time War","sl":"this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war","a":["Amal El-Mohtar","Max Gladstone"],"as":"El-Mohtar, Amal","y":2019,"p":209,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-11-02","d":"2020-11-02","rev":"Well that was a hell of a good read. It took me awhile to get into it; the prose is very intense and flowery. But then that's deliberate, and referred to internally in the text, and once you plow through that is's quite beautiful. The plot is very oblique too but really it doesn't matter. I never thought a romantic novel of letters between two lovers could also be a hard sci-fi time travel story. Pretty phenomenal accomplishment. Very much liked this book.
\n","w":83,"cv":"covers/43352954.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.82,"n":376453,"dist":[11786,36129,83421,122965,122152],"g":["Science Fiction","Romance","Fantasy","Queer","LGBT","Time Travel","Lesbian"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Shorter Fiction","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Shirley Jackson Award","cat":"Novella","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction (Ray Bradbury Prize)","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2024,"won":true},{"name":"Prix Aurora Award","cat":"Best Short Fiction","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel) and Inky Tentacle (Cover Art)","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize","cat":"Fiction and Poetry","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Reddit r/fantasy Stabby Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL19859295W","wp":"This_Is_How_You_Lose_the_Time_War","isf":"2567153"},{"id":26852117,"t":"Diary of an AssCan","sl":"diary-of-an-asscan","se":"The Martian","sn":"0.5","a":["Andy Weir"],"as":"Weir, Andy","y":2015,"p":4,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2020-10-26","cv":"covers/26852117.avif","cw":142,"ch":213,"avg":3.9,"n":5535,"dist":[48,278,1555,1952,1702],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Space","Humor","Novella","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":35097545,"t":"Artemis","sl":"artemis","a":["Andy Weir"],"as":"Weir, Andy","y":2017,"p":335,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-10-24","d":"2020-10-24","rev":"Fun book! I read this right on the heels of re-reading The Martian. While Artemis doesn't quite have the magic spark that The Martian did, it's also a much better structured novel with actual characters and stuff. Turns out Weir can write more than one human being, so that's good.
\nBasically this turns out to be a heist movie. On the moon. With lots of attention paid to the details of the heist, even a scene of getting the crew together. With Weir's trademark attention to kinda-hard science in the narrative. Good fun!
\nThe part that bugged me is the nature and seriousness of the heist. I mean first she tries to destroy the means of oxygen production for the whole city. Then she nearly kills the entire city. These are serious mega-crimes. The book sort of acknowledges that and lets her get away with it with some hand-waiving about how everyone's corrupt. But really I think Weir just wanted to write the caper consequence-free and it felt kinda fake.
\n","w":170,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/35097545.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.67,"n":367985,"dist":[8042,31679,110204,140887,77173],"g":["Science Fiction","Space","Fantasy","Thriller","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Geffen Award","cat":"Best Translated Science Fiction Book","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17837968W","wp":"Artemis_(novel)","isf":"2259277"},{"id":1353737,"t":"Homosexualities (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)","sl":"homosexualities-worlds-of-desire","a":["Stephen O. Murray"],"as":"Murray, Stephen O.","y":2000,"p":507,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-10-22","cv":"covers/1353737.avif","cw":280,"ch":403,"q":1,"ol":"OL1944209W"},{"id":1353739,"t":"American Gay (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)","sl":"american-gay-worlds-of-desire","a":["Stephen O. Murray"],"as":"Murray, Stephen O.","y":1996,"p":345,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-10-22","cv":"covers/1353739.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"q":1,"ol":"OL1944198W"},{"id":7966474,"t":"In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided","sl":"in-the-courts-of-the-conqueror","a":["Walter Echo-Hawk"],"as":"Echo-Hawk, Walter","y":2010,"p":360,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-10-15","cv":"covers/7966474.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"ol":"OL23250725W"},{"id":51603388,"t":"Waking Up Bear: and Other Ursine Stories","sl":"waking-up-bear","a":["Jay Neal"],"as":"Neal, Jay","y":2018,"p":212,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-10-15","cv":"covers/51603388.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"ol":"OL41194645W"},{"id":76401,"t":"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West","sl":"bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee","a":["Dee Brown"],"as":"Brown, Dee","y":1970,"p":509,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-09-05","cv":"covers/76401.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.26,"n":106705,"dist":[2125,3158,13260,34393,53769],"g":["History","Native American","American History","Classics","Historical","Indigenous","Politics","War"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL14864823W","wp":"Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee"},{"id":2323611,"t":"Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California","sl":"handbook-of-north-american-indians-volume-8","a":["Robert F. Heizer"],"as":"Heizer, Robert F.","y":1978,"p":816,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-09-05","cv":"covers/2323611.avif","cw":75,"ch":500,"ol":"OL25075733W"},{"id":20588662,"t":"An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States","sl":"an-indigenous-peoples-history-of-the-united-states","se":"ReVisioning American History","sn":"3","a":["Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz"],"as":"Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne","y":2014,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-09-05","cv":"covers/20588662.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"ol":"OL17640485W","wp":"An_Indigenous_Peoples'_History_of_the_United_States"},{"id":36589918,"t":"The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party","sl":"the-indifferent-stars-above","a":["Daniel James Brown"],"as":"Brown, Daniel James","y":2009,"p":376,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-09-05","d":"2020-09-05","rev":"Very solid and readable account of the Donner Party tragedy. The book feels incredibly well researched, with no embellishment of the facts. (The writing style is a bit embellished at times but in a way that just makes it more readable, doesn't confuse facts from fiction.) The story is fascinating and far more tragic and complex than I had any idea. Now I'm excited to go visit the Donner Memorial State Park and learn more in person.
\n","w":77,"cv":"covers/36589918.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.24,"n":44388,"dist":[215,835,5886,18496,18956],"g":["History","Historical","Biography","Survival","American History","True Crime","Horror"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL5616448W"},{"id":18746776,"t":"Akata Warrior","sl":"akata-warrior","se":"The Nsibidi Scripts","sn":"2","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2017,"p":496,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-08-16","d":"2020-08-16","rev":"Liked this book quite a bit, even more than the first one. The author has really researched her depth of West African folklore and culture. Love that we get to go to Lagos, even if briefly. The relationship writing isn't the best, particularly the minor romance elements, but the story and main character and world are all so great it doesn't much matter. Excellent fun.
\n","w":65,"cv":"covers/18746776.avif","cw":280,"ch":155,"avg":4.22,"n":14762,"dist":[66,213,2179,6276,6028],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Africa","Magic","Middle Grade","Urban Fantasy","Magical Realism"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Young Adult Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Nommo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Lodestar Award","cat":"","year":2018,"won":true}],"ol":"OL19717276W","wp":"Akata_Warrior","isf":"2247289"},{"id":40536236,"t":"Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia","sl":"sea-people","a":["Christina Thompson"],"as":"Thompson, Christina","y":2019,"p":365,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-07-26","cv":"covers/40536236.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"ol":"OL20780301W"},{"id":12001925,"t":"Akata Witch","sl":"akata-witch","se":"The Nsibidi Scripts","sn":"1","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2011,"p":369,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-07-09","d":"2020-07-09","rev":"Really enjoyed this book. Got about halfway through before I realized this was by the author of the Binti books, which I also enjoyed. Much fun drawing on a Nigerian cultural perspective, gives a rich backstory and details which seem both well worn and familiar and yet entirely new to me, someone ignorant of Nigerian culture.
\nI was less enamored with yet-another-Harry-Potter story, it's like every young adult book has to be "teenagers learn they have special powers, band together to fight evil". To be fair, that's a trope much older than Rowling. What I liked was the spin on this one, though, where the stakes are high and serious from the very beginning. Students die in the Leopard culture and that's just a reality. Punishments for mistakes are severe. There's no coddling. It's a little creepy but it's also kind of refreshing. Again, I appreciate the novelty if nothing else.
\n","w":151,"cv":"covers/12001925.avif","cw":200,"ch":301,"avg":4.02,"n":39230,"dist":[462,1491,7688,16681,12908],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Middle Grade","Africa","Magic","Witches","Urban Fantasy","Young Adult Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Young Adult Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"Andre Norton Award","cat":"","year":2011,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16116603W","wp":"Akata_Witch","isf":"1233573"},{"id":101094,"t":"The Famished Road","sl":"the-famished-road","se":"The Famished Road Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Ben Okri"],"as":"Okri, Ben","y":1991,"p":512,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-07-07","cv":"covers/101094.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.73,"n":13974,"dist":[673,1310,3311,4471,4209],"g":["Africa","Magical Realism","Fantasy","Nigeria","Literary Fiction","African Literature","Classics","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":null,"year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Grinzane Cavour","cat":"Narrativa Straniera","year":1994,"won":false}],"ol":"OL928455W","wp":"The_Famished_Road","isf":"15892"},{"id":944103,"t":"The Palm-Wine Drinkard","sl":"the-palm-wine-drinkard","a":["Amos Tutuola"],"as":"Tutuola, Amos","y":1952,"p":125,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-07-07","cv":"covers/944103.avif","cw":128,"ch":218,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL3942391W","wp":"The_Palm-Wine_Drinkard","isf":"1557632"},{"id":45063402,"t":"The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel","sl":"the-2020-commission-report-on-the-north-korean-nuclear","a":["Jeffrey Lewis"],"as":"Lewis, Jeffrey","y":2018,"p":307,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-06-27","d":"2020-06-27","rev":"Enjoyed reading this. It's a little preachy and already a little dated, but also a reasonable yarn about how quickly mistakes could escalate in international diplomacy. It's also sort of a charming document from the early Trump era when we still pretended he might be a competent President. The reality we have now is much more dismal.
\n","w":57,"cv":"covers/45063402.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.15,"n":3351,"dist":[34,87,514,1431,1285],"g":["Politics","Alternate History","War","Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Military Fiction","Thriller","Historical Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL21185892W","wp":"The_2020_Commission_Report_on_the_North_Korean_Nuclear_Attacks_Against_the_United_States","isf":"2391993"},{"id":60925,"t":"Fledgling","sl":"fledgling","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":2005,"p":310,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-06-22","cv":"covers/60925.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":3.78,"n":41863,"dist":[1339,3556,10262,14626,12080],"g":["Fantasy","Horror","Vampires","Science Fiction","Paranormal","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"Endeavour Award","cat":null,"year":2006,"won":false}],"ol":"OL43073913W","wp":"Fledgling_(Butler_novel)","isf":"171580"},{"id":34408305,"t":"Sword and Pen","sl":"sword-and-pen","se":"The Great Library","sn":"5","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2019,"p":368,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-06-16","d":"2020-06-16","rev":"Huh, the bloom fell off the rose for this series. I enjoyed the final book but definitely felt like I was slogging through it just to finish an obligation. Not sure why.. something about this last book felt too claustrophobic, the way all the action is confined to the city under siege in two days. Also just way too many set piece battles and puzzles, another straying of the moth towards the candle that is Harry Potter. It was nice to see all the characters finally get All Grown Up but also somewhat implausible. The book just felt like an obligation, both for the author and the reader.
\n","w":108,"cv":"covers/34408305.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.29,"n":6665,"dist":[21,102,821,2675,3046],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dystopia","Books About Books","Steampunk","Alternate History","Science Fiction","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL21163751W","isf":"2592826"},{"id":30106,"t":"The Swimming-Pool Library","sl":"the-swimming-pool-library","a":["Alan Hollinghurst"],"as":"Hollinghurst, Alan","y":1988,"p":352,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-05-28","d":"2020-05-28","rev":"I wish I had someone to talk to about this book! I loved it. Somehow I missed it in my gay culture reading when I was coming out. Glad I read it now, with some distance from it.
\nSo much joy in reading the author's quite enthusiastic gay life. It's a little strange, the book describes a fantasy world of London upper crust where everyone is gay. Everyone at the club, at the restaurant, at the hotel, all gay. And so much enthusiastic casual sex. And friendships, and loves, and complicated human relationships. It's a sort of wonderful fantasy land. This book is usually pigeonholed as a "pre-AIDS book" and while that's certainly true it still seems like an aspirational fantasy of what gay life could be if we lived in a world of full acceptance and as a majority culture.
\nSo I was a bit surprised towards the end when the book takes a turn to the more serious, to addressing police harassment and entrapment of gay men. There's a lovely surprise turn in the book about all this which I won't spoil, but I will say it landed hard and it landed well.
\nI also like the dissolute writing, the ragged edges and uneven prose and unfinished bits of story. It reads like an authentic memoir of someone's lived life, not a tidy novel with all the loose ends tied off.
\nRemarkable novel. I need to read more like this, to really center myself in this particular kind of gay male culture.
\n","w":254,"cv":"covers/30106.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.71,"n":11729,"dist":[424,1058,3026,4180,3041],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Gay","British Literature","Literary Fiction","Contemporary","Literature","Gay Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"","year":1989,"won":true},{"name":"Somerset Maugham Award","cat":null,"year":1989,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Debut Fiction and Nominee for Gay Fiction","year":1988,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1993499W","wp":"The_Swimming-Pool_Library"},{"id":42964126,"t":"Gods of Jade and Shadow","sl":"gods-of-jade-and-shadow","a":["Silvia Moreno-Garcia"],"as":"Moreno-Garcia, Silvia","y":2019,"p":384,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-05-12","d":"2020-05-12","rev":"Really enjoyed the novel's setting. A fun, detailed use of Mayan mythology brought into the modern era with lots of detail that gives the setting depth and richness. Unfortunately I didn't like the story nearly as much, something about it just felt claustrophobic. Oddly the book worked best for me in the couple of chapters sympathetic to Martín, one of the antagonists of the story. He's a bad guy but the bits from his point of view gave the story more layers and nuance, something that felt lacking in most of the narrative.
\nAlso the primary story is a young-woman-falling-in-love story but the author didn't quite want to commit to a romantic story, I think because she feared it was tonally dissonant with the young-woman-having-adventures story. (That, and the object of her love is in some sense her kidnapper.) It all just didn't quite work out.
\nWould absolutely read more stories set in this world though.
\n","w":156,"cv":"covers/42964126.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.87,"n":81124,"dist":[968,4475,20491,33275,21915],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Mythology","Historical","Romance","Magical Realism"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Aurora Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Adult Novel","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2020,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20074997W","wp":"Gods_of_Jade_and_Shadow","isf":"2574799"},{"id":42445130,"t":"Wanderers","sl":"wanderers","se":"Wanderers","sn":"1","a":["Chuck Wendig"],"as":"Wendig, Chuck","y":2019,"p":800,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-03-28","d":"2020-03-28","rev":"Long sprawling book, and more than a bit too on the nose to read in the time of COVID-19. But it was enjoyable and passed the time (a lot of time, 800 pages of time). Mostly just as a good story. Exciting plot, page turner, some interesting ideas.
\nI think this book fails on shedding much light on the human condition. Or character development, or psychological insights. Good fun tale though. Also it suffers a bit from being too much like The Stand. It's definitely its own book, but the similarities are hard to overlook.
\nI'm a bit annoyed at the end at the final twist that Black Swan caused the disease. I mean it is consistent with the whole story but it came a little too much out of nowhere, it could have been foreshadowed more. Also the idea of setting up a religion was excellent and I would have liked to see that idea developed further!
\n","w":158,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/42445130.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.98,"n":32090,"dist":[828,1839,5774,12360,11289],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Apocalyptic","Thriller","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Bram Stoker Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20073919W","wp":"Wanderers_(novel)","isf":"2567171"},{"id":43558961,"t":"The City We Became","sl":"the-city-we-became","se":"Great Cities","sn":"1","a":["N.K. Jemisin"],"as":"Jemisin, N.K.","y":2020,"p":481,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-03-28","cv":"covers/43558961.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20656799W","wp":"The_City_We_Became","isf":"2681329"},{"id":8366378,"t":"Moloka'i","sl":"molokai","se":"Moloka'i","sn":"1","a":["Alan Brennert"],"as":"Brennert, Alan","y":2003,"p":400,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-03-07","d":"2020-03-07","rev":"Got this book for some light Hawai'i vacation reading, not quite realizing that duh it's going to be a heartbreaking leprosy story. Oops. Also a soaring story of the human spirit and the power of love to overcome and blah blah blah.. still, it's awfully grim, but fair enough.
\nWhat I like best about this book is how well historically grounded it feels, the author clearly did a lot of research. Very readable and sympathetic and lots of great female characters. The other thing is he manages to tell a sweeping story of most of Hawaiian history through the eyes of this one woman living in exile, that's a neat trick. And goes some way to erasing Michener's dominance of that Hawaiian subgenre.
\n","w":123,"cv":"covers/8366378.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":4.2,"n":143916,"dist":[1455,4109,20351,55726,62275],"g":["Historical Fiction","Historical","Coming Of Age","Cultural"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"One Book One San Diego","cat":"","year":2012,"won":true}],"ol":"OL42271W","isf":"928956"},{"id":40591955,"t":"A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea","sl":"a-death-in-the-rainforest","a":["Don Kulick"],"as":"Kulick, Don","y":2019,"p":274,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-03-01","cv":"covers/40591955.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"ol":"OL20153896W"},{"id":34669616,"t":"Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire","sl":"teotihuacan","a":["Matthew Robb"],"as":"Robb, Matthew","y":2017,"p":444,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-02-23","d":"2020-02-23","rev":"Excellent, readable catalog from the recent museum exhibit. Has many comprehensible details on the archeology paired with beautiful photographs.
\n","w":19,"cv":"covers/34669616.avif","cw":280,"ch":335,"avg":4.25,"n":16,"dist":[0,0,1,10,5],"g":["History","Art History","Anthropology"],"ol":"OL19724335W"},{"id":40960334,"t":"How Long 'til Black Future Month?","sl":"how-long-til-black-future-month","se":"Dreamblood","sn":"0.5 - The Narcomancer ","a":["N.K. Jemisin"],"as":"Jemisin, N.K.","y":2018,"p":416,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-02-21","d":"2020-02-21","rev":"(Note: 3 stars is still a very positive rating for me.)
\nI have a hard time with short story books. I love reading short stories, but I hate reading collections of them all at once. Still I'm grateful for more Jemisin to read. I'd say about 3 of the stories in here were really great and most of the rest were good.
\nMy favorite stories were “The Effluent Engine”, “Cloud Dragon Skies”, “Cuisine des Mémoires”, “Stone Hunger” (set in the Broken Earth universe), and “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters”. Looking at that list I see I particularly like the stories where Jemisin is channeling New Orleans culture.
\n","w":114,"cv":"covers/40960334.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":4.27,"n":18666,"dist":[114,350,2356,7501,8345],"g":["Fantasy","Short Stories","Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Short Story","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Collection, Nominee for Short Story for “Cuisine des Mémoires” and “The Storyteller’s Replacement”","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize","cat":"Fiction and Poetry","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Reddit r/fantasy Stabby Award","cat":"Best Short Fiction","year":2016,"won":true}],"ol":"OL19740011W","wp":"How_Long_'til_Black_Future_Month?","isf":"2439473"},{"id":42749077,"t":"W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America","sl":"w-e-b-du-boiss-data-portraits","a":["Whitney Battle-Baptiste","Britt Rusert"],"as":"Battle-Baptiste, Whitney","y":2018,"p":145,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-02-21","d":"2020-02-21","rev":"Excellent collection of Du Bois' work. Interesting for two reasons. One, the subject matter, it's a very early treatment of Black American demographics. And doubly so for the presentation; Du Bois and his team invented a bunch of dramatic and colorful visualizations that are really lovely. I didnt' read the text much (mostly just looked at the images) but it looks to be a pretty good critical reading of those visualizations and what they signify.
\n","w":75,"cv":"covers/42749077.avif","cw":280,"ch":392,"avg":4.63,"n":516,"dist":[1,2,21,141,351],"g":["History","Design","Art","Sociology","Race","Social Justice","Social Science","Science","Politics"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL20855871W"},{"id":29090844,"t":"The Stars Are Legion","sl":"the-stars-are-legion","a":["Kameron Hurley"],"as":"Hurley, Kameron","y":2017,"p":512,"sh":"to-read","d":"2020-02-15","cv":"covers/29090844.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19618080W","isf":"2110145"},{"id":40036591,"t":"The Ancient Celts","sl":"the-ancient-celts","a":["Barry Cunliffe"],"as":"Cunliffe, Barry","y":2018,"p":496,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2020-01-18","d":"2020-01-18","rev":"A fine and detailed, if slightly tedious overview of Celtic history. I liked how careful the author is, the book is free of romanticization or speculation. It's also quite thorough, I feel like I've had an advanced undergraduate class in Celtic history. I just wish the author were a bit more of a storyteller and less of a scholar.
\nThe first part of the book is particularly slow in part because the historic record is so thin. What a shame and surprise; you'd think given the wide range of the Celtic peoples there'd be a lot more archaeological evidence. But between the way stuff tends to get built on top of older stuff and the almost non-existent Celtic written record, there's just not a lot to go on.
\nThe book picks up significantly once they enter the period of conflict with Rome, particularly Caesar's conquest. Entirely from Caesar's point of view, of course, it helps he wrote a whole book explaining his military campaign. Cunliffe does an excellent job taking us through that book and aligning the story to other historic evidence.
\nWhat I was really hoping was for more information on Celtic culture. What was life like? There's a lot written about the possible of matriarchal power; is that all fantasy or is it real? What was the religion like? But the author is very careful not to speculate and apparently we just lack for hard evidence. He does talk about what he can, particularly from evidence of burials, but it's just not a complete picture.
\nDefinitely recommend if you want a broad overview of the Celts. I'm still astonished there was a culture that spanned most of Western Europe before the Romans.
\n","w":284,"cv":"covers/40036591.avif","cw":280,"ch":385,"avg":3.91,"n":1495,"dist":[22,89,352,568,464],"g":["History","Ancient History","Archaeology","Mythology","Religion","Ancient","Prehistory","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL7975729W"},{"id":928010,"t":"Masters Of Deceit: The Story Of Communism In America And How To Fight It","sl":"masters-of-deceit","a":["J. Edgar Hoover"],"as":"Hoover, J. Edgar","y":1958,"p":384,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2019-12-11","rev":"I read this book back in high school as part of research for my US History term paper. And absolutely loved it. It's so bonkers! The whole idea of a Communist Menace meeting in secret in American living rooms, disconnected cells of 3-5 people discussing such horrible ideas as sharing wealth and guaranteeing basic social services. Also destroying America and turning it red, or something.
\nOf course this book isn't just bonkers, it's also evil. And Hoover's part of the Red Scare in the US is evil. But even as a teenager it was obvious to me this book was just crazy. Maybe that's what historical distance allows.
\n","w":108,"cv":"covers/928010.avif","cw":120,"ch":180,"avg":3.42,"n":193,"dist":[18,23,54,55,43],"g":["History","Politics","Political Science","Canon","American History","Biography","Espionage","Conspiracy Theories"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL836750W"},{"id":40631,"t":"Europe: A History","sl":"europe","se":"Europe: A History","sn":"1-3","a":["Norman Davies"],"as":"Davies, Norman","y":1996,"p":1392,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2019-12-04","rev":"True confession; I only read the first chapter of this book. Didn't quit out of frustration, that was all I was interested in. I probably shouldn't be writing a review.
\nBut I found the book readable enough. My main complaint is he reports a bunch of things which are fanciful, taking the most extreme interpretation of a limited historical record to tell the most entertaining story.
\nSpecifically quibbling with his account of the "Anemospilia sacrifice", an archaeological find, where if you take the most breathless account an earthquake crushed the room right in the middle of a blood sacrifice aimed at stopping the destruction. Perfectly preserving two sacrificial victims, the high priest, and another temple attendant. It's a great story, one National Geographic reported. It's also probably not true and is not supported by further evidence; there's a zillion competing interpretations of what was actually found. It makes a good story, but I'd rather read a sober and careful review of evidence.
\nMaybe that's a minor quibble or not relevant to the rest of the book. On a quick skim I also worry about the book staying coherent for 1400 pages. Or rather, maybe too coherent, more so than real human history is.
\n","w":203,"cv":"covers/40631.avif","cw":280,"ch":419,"avg":4.21,"n":5335,"dist":[71,172,744,1925,2423],"g":["History","European History","World History","Historical","Politics","Reference","Medieval","Ancient History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL17678281W","wp":"Europe:_A_History"},{"id":314653,"t":"The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars","sl":"the-perfect-heresy","a":["Stephen O'Shea"],"as":"O'Shea, Stephen","y":2000,"p":224,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2019-11-24","cv":"covers/314653.avif","cw":280,"ch":386,"avg":3.99,"n":949,"dist":[11,33,180,453,272],"g":["History","Religion","Medieval","France","Medieval History","Christianity","Historical","Gnosticism","Christian"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2636066W"},{"id":41892778,"t":"NieR: Automata: Long Story Short","sl":"nier","a":["Jun Eishima","Yoko Taro"],"as":"Eishima, Jun","y":2018,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2019-11-24","cv":"covers/41892778.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20153523W"},{"id":25806629,"t":"SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome","sl":"spqr","a":["Mary Beard"],"as":"Beard, Mary","y":2015,"p":607,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-11-13","d":"2019-11-13","rc":2,"rev":"See my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3044011763
\n","w":5,"cv":"covers/25806629.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":4.05,"n":88251,"dist":[1869,3497,14709,36267,31909],"g":["History","Ancient History","Historical","Italy","Roman History","Classics","World History","European History"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"General Nonfiction","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Waterstones Book of the Year","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Cundill History Prize","cat":"","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17340134W","wp":"SPQR:_A_History_of_Ancient_Rome"},{"id":52662209,"t":"Auberon","sl":"auberon","se":"The Expanse","sn":"8.5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2019,"p":78,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-11-13","d":"2019-11-13","cv":"covers/52662209.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.2,"n":15691,"dist":[42,261,2500,6667,6221],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Space Opera","Short Stories","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20642497W"},{"id":44599442,"t":"Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber","sl":"super-pumped","a":["Mike Isaac"],"as":"Isaac, Mike","y":2019,"p":410,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-11-01","d":"2019-11-01","rev":"A solid book and excellent journalism. Mike was the best reporter covering Uber during its batshit ascent and he took all his work (and some extras) and made a good book out of it. A valuable document for the Internet startup era, and a great tale of what happens when a monstrous, awful founder like Travis Kalanick is given unchecked power.
\nGonna complain a big because the book prose is kinda klunky in the first half. He's trying to write chapters with unified themes, ie a chapter about self-driving car engineer, sociopath and IP thief Andrew Levandowski. Then another chapter about the bros at Uber talking about doing oppo on journalists they don't like. But that means some of the events go out of order and it's a bit hard to thread a narrative through. The book really picks up at the end though, with the boardroom coup that finally forced TK out of the company. Mike's reporting is quite intense there and the narrative has a natural propulsion to it he taps in to well.
\nUber is a uniquely awful, unethical company among Internet startups. Or at least was in this period. I'm really glad there's a book documenting it.
\n","w":201,"cv":"covers/44599442.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.14,"n":14427,"dist":[151,418,2167,6170,5521],"g":["Business","Technology","Biography","History","Economics","Entrepreneurship","Startup","Journalism"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science & Technology","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21679231W","wp":"Super_Pumped"},{"id":3821792,"t":"All-Stud","sl":"all-stud","a":["Clay Caudwell"],"as":"Caudwell, Clay","y":1993,"p":212,"sh":"to-read","d":"2019-10-26","cv":"covers/3821792.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"ol":"OL8873747W"},{"id":35749414,"t":"Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past","sl":"who-we-are-and-how-we-got-here","a":["David Reich"],"as":"Reich, David","y":2018,"p":335,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2019-10-22","rev":"Really fun science book, warts and all. The author is up front at the beginning he's a lead scientist active in the area and is going to focus mostly on the research he and his colleagues are doing. The book is not a full overview of archaeology or genomics or the History of Humankind.
\nWhat it is, is a fantastic detailed look into the cutting edge of genomics research into the history of humanity. And he wrote it at a time where new techniques are just becoming available so there's a whole lot of juicy detail in it. Very well explained, in detail. Sometimes a little too much detail, or perhaps not enough. I was left being impressed that some of the statistical methods they were using worked at all, but no real idea how they worked. That's OK, glad to take the author's word for it.
\nThe broad story he comes away with is that humans have mixed a whole lot more often than you'd think. For instance, the current folks living in Europe are genetically a result of a migration that only happened 5-6000 years ago. There are previous populations of homo sapiens, and also Neanderthal, that were only recently overwhelmed by migrants. That same broad story seems true all over the world with many more groups and migrations than previously believed. It's a fascinating story and I can't wait to read it again in, oh, twenty years when the new science has become commonplace and reached a consensus.
\nI also appreciated the author's sensitivity to some of the social implications of this kind of genetics work, including the whole last section of the book. He owns up carefully to the bad history of anthropology leading to, say, Nazi ideas of purity. But he's not fully willing to bow to political orthodoxy either; he walks a very fine line in emphasizing that there are real genetic differences in current human populations, just that they don't mean what the racists claim they do.
\nAnyway, read this if you want a fascinating view of the cutting edge of genomics and anthropology. Or wait a few years for this stuff to become more widespread and someone writes a new History of Humanity that becomes the standard view. At least until the next scientific advance rewrites it again with new evidence.
\n","w":389,"cv":"covers/35749414.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.14,"n":6403,"dist":[42,199,1096,2565,2501],"g":["Science","History","Anthropology","Biology","Genetics","Evolution","Prehistory","Archaeology"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"PROSE Award","cat":"Excellence in Biological & Life Sciences","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science & Technology","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19742015W","wp":"Who_We_Are_and_How_We_Got_Here"},{"id":37653062,"t":"Station Eleven","sl":"station-eleven","a":["Emily St. John Mandel"],"as":"Mandel, Emily St. John","y":2014,"p":354,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-10-10","d":"2019-10-10","rev":"Such a lovely, humanist book. Really excellent characters and storytelling. Also good post-apocalyptic novel. I particularly liked the back-and-forth-in-time story, somehow it reminded me of Cloud Atlas, the stories from radically different eras that inform each other. It gets a little gimmicky in how the same characters carry over from time to time, but that's OK, it's in service to telling an excellent story of how people would react to the erasure of civilization.
\nOne of the best things I've read in awhile. (As always, my Goodreads ratings are very miserly; I only give 5 stars to the very best books of all time. This doesn't quite qualify, but it's excellent.)
\n","w":111,"cv":"covers/37653062.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.06,"n":650768,"dist":[8885,26861,114495,264495,236032],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Fantasy","Literary Fiction","Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländisches Werk (Best Foreign Work)","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction","cat":"","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Sunburst Award","cat":"Adult","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Horror Novel (August Derleth Award)","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"CBC Canada Reads","cat":"","year":2023,"won":false},{"name":"NAIBA Book of the Year","cat":"Fiction","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Toronto Book Award","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"The Great Michigan Read","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Women's Prize for Fiction","cat":"Longlist","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"OLA Evergreen Award","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"","year":2015,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17202418W","wp":"Station_Eleven","isf":"1754847"},{"id":39970390,"t":"Parable of the Talents","sl":"parable-of-the-talents","se":"Earthseed","sn":"2","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1998,"p":434,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-10-03","d":"2019-10-03","cv":"covers/39970390.avif","cw":254,"ch":392,"avg":4.32,"n":94121,"dist":[391,1749,11148,34997,45836],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Classics","Post Apocalyptic","Religion"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1999,"won":true}],"ol":"OL35618W","wp":"Parable_of_the_Talents_(novel)","isf":"12615"},{"id":15769897,"t":"Parable of the Sower","sl":"parable-of-the-sower","se":"Earthseed","sn":"1","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1993,"p":330,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-09-27","d":"2019-09-27","rev":"I didn't realize there could be a post-apocalyptic novel more grim than The Road or Handmaid's Tale. Yikes. The book is heartbreaking, particularly the first half. It's also excellent. I love the narrator's flat style. She seems like she's describing horrible events dispassionately. But the emotion comes through. As does her background, middle class LA suburban, Black, oldest sister. It's a good POV for this novel.
\nI'm less clear what to make of the extra elements. The Earthseed religion, the phenomenon of pain sharing. They seem a little superfluous. OTOH they also seem like essential elements of the character. And I presume they are setting up some story elements in the second novel. I like them, that they're there. Not every aspect of a book has to fit the plot like a perfect jigsaw puzzle.
\n","w":136,"cv":"covers/15769897.avif","cw":280,"ch":411,"avg":4.18,"n":300132,"dist":[2738,9544,45110,116096,126644],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Classics","Fantasy","Post Apocalyptic","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1994,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1995,"won":false}],"ol":"OL35623W","wp":"Parable_of_the_Sower_(novel)","isf":"1415"},{"id":11289,"t":"The Rise of Endymion","sl":"the-rise-of-endymion","se":"Hyperion Cantos","sn":"4","a":["Dan Simmons"],"as":"Simmons, Dan","y":1997,"p":709,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2019-09-09","rev":"Wow, I finished! What an epic read. And satisfying to the end. This last book is really quite special, almost as much as the second book in how it deftly picks up all the threads laid out and weaves them together into a satisfying narrative and conclusion.
\nI particularly liked the exploration of religion and the mystical in the books, both the Pax church and the Aenea with the Void that Binds. I don't think I've read any other scifi novel that can take manifest religion and make it seem both magical and vaguely consistent with scifi rules. Usually it's fantasy that tries to do that, but it works great here in scifi. He even managed to make a time travel plot work in a way that seemed relatively clever and satisfying.
\nAnd so these books are done and I am sad. For they were excellent and I'll never have the experience of reading them for the first time again. Glad I did though!
\n","w":164,"cv":"covers/11289.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":4.16,"n":68390,"dist":[1011,3073,10524,22864,30918],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Time Travel","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1998,"won":true},{"name":"SF ga Yomitai","cat":"Best Translated SF of the Year in Japan","year":2000,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1963248W","wp":"The_Rise_of_Endymion","isf":"12"},{"id":22922510,"t":"The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion","sl":"the-hyperion-cantos-4-book-bundle","se":"Hyperion Cantos","sn":"1-4","a":["Dan Simmons"],"as":"Simmons, Dan","y":2013,"p":3241,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-09-08","d":"2019-09-08","cv":"covers/22922510.avif","cw":280,"ch":373,"avg":4.57,"n":2267,"dist":[16,44,144,497,1566],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space","Collections","Speculative Fiction","Travel","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL45734375W"},{"id":3977,"t":"Endymion","sl":"endymion","se":"Hyperion Cantos","sn":"3","a":["Dan Simmons","Gary Ruddell"],"as":"Simmons, Dan","y":1996,"p":563,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2019-08-24","rev":"Oh I wish I liked this more. Coming right off the second book I was excited to go forward and see the payoff for the grander story. Instead this book is like treading water, setting up a bunch of stuff in motion. I hope it pays off in the fourth and final book.
\nThe book even starts with an apology of sorts, about how this story isn't the continuing story of the characters from the first two books. OK fine, I'm happy for new stories in the same universe. Which they then do. But the central character Aenea is the worst kind of plot device, the magic child with magic powers no one yet understands. And the narrative structure of a meaningless and ridiculous trip down a magical river, really? It doesn't even succeed at being a Huck Finn style narrative, despite the Jim-like presence of A. Bettik. Also I was mad that the whole plot of the book ends up being basically a head fake with everything undone by a deus ex machina bigger than the Shrike in the final chapters. Meh.
\nSo that's very negative. I still like this writing style, he's got a good mix of writing character and writing action. I like specific inventions, like the horrific mode of traveling in the Archangel ships. And I love the grander space opera plot and am holding out hope it concludes well.
\n","w":234,"cv":"covers/3977.avif","cw":280,"ch":479,"avg":4.19,"n":74618,"dist":[614,2347,11231,28446,31980],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Time Travel","Adventure","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1997,"won":false}],"ol":"OL1963279W","wp":"Endymion_(Simmons_novel)","isf":"11"},{"id":77565,"t":"The Fall of Hyperion","sl":"the-fall-of-hyperion","se":"Hyperion Cantos","sn":"2","a":["Dan Simmons"],"as":"Simmons, Dan","y":1990,"p":517,"r":5,"sh":"read","d":"2019-08-24","rev":"Really liked this. The author set up an incredibly sprawling and absurd set of plots, including a bunch of time travel nonsense. Then he brought it all together and stuck the landing. And all that without the narrative crutch of a "8 tales within a story" structure from the first book. I loved the characters, I loved the story, I was excited to read every page. A really great conclusion to the first book.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/77565.avif","cw":280,"ch":468,"avg":4.25,"n":158166,"dist":[1266,4646,21706,56533,74015],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Time Travel","Space","Horror","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1991,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1990,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Novel","year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1996,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1963251W","wp":"The_Fall_of_Hyperion_(novel)","isf":"1970"},{"id":45064996,"t":"Hyperion","sl":"hyperion","se":"Hyperion Cantos","sn":"1","a":["Dan Simmons"],"as":"Simmons, Dan","y":1989,"p":483,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-08-07","d":"2019-08-07","rev":"Greatly enjoyed this, compelling reading. Good mix of sci-fi techniques; crazy alien worlds, human psychological reactions to future tech like longevity treatments and teleportation. Richly imagined universe that still boils down to understandable human actions.
\nThe story structure, six separate tales interlinked, feels a bit like a cheat. I sort of wondered if it was a shortcut for the author or a way to avoid the challenge of building a coherent novel length narrative. But in retrospect and having read some of the sequel I think that's unfair. Certainly most of the stories are well told, and they do hang together and construct a larger narrative in a successful way. Much enjoyed.
\n","w":112,"cv":"covers/45064996.avif","cw":280,"ch":456,"avg":4.28,"n":320467,"dist":[4714,11279,39376,100004,165094],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Horror","Classics","Time Travel","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1990,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1990,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Novela","year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1990,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":1998,"won":true},{"name":"Chesley Award","cat":"Hardback cover","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Cosmos 2000","cat":"","year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1995,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1963268W","wp":"Hyperion_(Simmons_novel)","isf":"1749"},{"id":34731459,"t":"The Girl in the Tower","sl":"the-girl-in-the-tower","se":"Winternight Trilogy","sn":"2","a":["Katherine Arden"],"as":"Arden, Katherine","y":2017,"p":384,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-07-24","d":"2019-07-24","rev":"It starts a little slow, with the attention on Vasya's brother Sasha instead of Vasya herself. But rest assured the book quickly finds its way to Vasya and her story and picks up steam. In fact it changes gears entirely about halfway through and becomes something much better. I was a bit annoyed at the "girl pretending to be a boy" trope, but it's part of the story. And what a great story.
\n","w":73,"cv":"covers/34731459.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":4.35,"n":117518,"dist":[619,1507,11273,47038,57081],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Young Adult","Historical","Mythology","Fairy Tales","Russia","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19738981W","wp":"The_Girl_in_the_Tower_(novel)","isf":"2274662"},{"id":36621586,"t":"The Winter of the Witch","sl":"the-winter-of-the-witch","se":"The Winternight Trilogy","sn":"3","a":["Katherine Arden"],"as":"Arden, Katherine","y":2019,"p":400,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-07-24","d":"2019-07-24","rev":"A strong ending to a strong trilogy. The author really finds her voice here and delivers an exciting, tightly plotted book with a lot to think about. Particularly loved how she lands the conclusion to the story in historical reality, mixing both Russian folklore and Russian history into a modern and relatable tale. Just excellent writing, rare to read a trilogy that gets better with each book.
\n","w":67,"cv":"covers/36621586.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":4.48,"n":94009,"dist":[252,940,7525,30126,55166],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Young Adult","Historical","Mythology","Romance","Magic","Fairy Tales"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20158637W","wp":"The_Winter_of_the_Witch","isf":"2469412"},{"id":415696,"t":"Serpent in Paradise","sl":"serpent-in-paradise","a":["Dea Birkett"],"as":"Birkett, Dea","y":1997,"p":324,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2019-07-07","rev":"I love the idea of remote islands. Particularly those inhabited by Westerners like Ascension Island or Christmas Island. Or Pitcairn Island, a 1.75 square mile island with fewer than 50 people on it. No airstrip, no reliable communcations, not even a place to easily land a boat. But it has a website! Lots of them.
\nI just finished reading Serpent in Paradise, the narrative of an Englishwoman who went to Pitcairn pursuing her fantasies of island paradise only to find cold loneliness as an outsider in a complex, tiny, isolated society. Everything she describes about the island — the gossip, the newspaper, the work, the language, the religion — all seems so alien. Good book. For a taste, read this short article by the same author.
\nPitcairn was in the news a lot a decade ago, the result of child rape charges against most of the adult men on the island. Lots of complications: arguments about British sovereignty, arguments about where the trial will be held, and of course the question of what punishment means in such a tiny community. Things didn't really improve after the conviction, either. It seems to be a broken place.
\n","w":197,"cv":"covers/415696.avif","cw":196,"ch":299,"avg":3.54,"n":256,"dist":[5,20,100,95,36],"g":["Travel","History","Memoir","True Story"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2649182W"},{"id":15784099,"t":"Three Parts Dead","sl":"three-parts-dead","se":"Craft Sequence","sn":"1","a":["Max Gladstone"],"as":"Gladstone, Max","y":2012,"p":334,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-07-07","d":"2019-07-07","rev":"I read like half of this and decided I just didn't like it, quit.
\n","w":14,"cv":"covers/15784099.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.97,"n":15755,"dist":[216,681,3187,6916,4755],"g":["Fantasy","Urban Fantasy","Mystery","Steampunk","Science Fiction","Magic","Paranormal"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16646364W","isf":"1489552"},{"id":32143743,"t":"Days Without End","sl":"days-without-end","se":"Days Without End","sn":"1","a":["Sebastian Barry"],"as":"Barry, Sebastian","y":2016,"p":232,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-07-07","d":"2019-07-07","cv":"covers/32143743.avif","cw":265,"ch":400,"avg":3.96,"n":28075,"dist":[721,1711,5219,10618,9806],"g":["Historical Fiction","LGBT","Historical","War","Westerns","Queer","Irish Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"Longlist","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Costa Book Award","cat":"Novel","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Walter Scott Prize","cat":"","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Costa Book of the Year","cat":null,"year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"High Plains Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"HWA Endeavour Ink Gold Crown","cat":"Longlist","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Dublin Literary Award","cat":"","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17934982W","wp":"Days_Without_End_(novel)"},{"id":45199076,"t":"The Goblin Emperor","sl":"the-goblin-emperor","se":"The Chronicles of Osreth","sn":"1","a":["Katherine Addison"],"as":"Addison, Katherine","y":2014,"p":449,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-07-07","d":"2019-07-07","rev":"What a fun book! Read it fast and compulsively, it was compelling and entertaining. An interesting spin on fantasy novels, really not a fantasy novel at all except for the setting. The basic trope of "it's not fun to be the king afterall" has been told before. But this book has a special knack for getting inside our protagonists head and communicating all the social anxiety and confusion a young man would feel being unexpectedly elevated to Emperor. It's well done.
\nMy one complaint is the book is a bit claustrophobic. There's only the one protagonist and one point of view and it is sort of relentless. That kind of echoes the way he himself feels trapped and confined in his new life, so it works in that way.
\nI really like how various unpleasant emotions are honored and not apologized for. Early on our protagonist decides he simply hates one person in his life and wants nothing more to do with him. And that's fine; his dislike is valid, he uses his power to (decently) remove his enemy from his life. No apology for it. Sometimes the real world is like that, but too many books try to always present an uplifting story of redemption. There's plenty of redemption in the book too, mind you.
\n","w":216,"cv":"covers/45199076.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.06,"n":57962,"dist":[1261,2984,9695,21171,22851],"g":["Fantasy","Steampunk","High Fantasy","Young Adult","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2015,"won":true}],"wp":"The_Goblin_Emperor","isf":"1708191"},{"id":2030320,"t":"Serpent In Paradise","sl":"serpent-in-paradise","se":"Island Affairs","sn":"1","a":["Jayne Anne Krentz","Stephanie James"],"as":"Krentz, Jayne Anne","y":1983,"p":256,"sh":"read","d":"2019-07-04","cv":"covers/2030320.avif","cw":128,"ch":188,"avg":3.85,"n":1297,"dist":[45,101,307,401,443],"g":["Romance","Contemporary","Contemporary Romance","Romantic Suspense","Harlequin","Suspense","Category Romance","M F Romance"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL4055725W"},{"id":27418268,"t":"The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World","sl":"the-planet-remade","a":["Oliver Morton"],"as":"Morton, Oliver","y":2015,"p":431,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-07-01","d":"2019-07-01","rev":"Oh how I wanted this book to be great! But instead it's merely good. Still important and worth reading, but not earth-changing.
\nThe book starts from a strong premise; if you believe global warming is an urgent threat and that current efforts at carbon emissions limitation won't be enough to stop it, what else can we do? You have to consider geoengineering as a means to counter global warming.
\nThen the book launches into an excellent description of one of the most appealing geoengineering options; blocking out ~1% of sunlight by means of a veil of sulfurous gasses sprayed into the atmosphere by airplanes. It sounds crazy at first but the cost is very low, the effects are not scarily permanent, and it seems imminently doable without inventing new technology. It's worth talking about, if nothing else than because of the risk that some one country may decide to do it unilaterally.
\nSo far so good with the book. But then it goes off the rails a bit. It provides a lot of interesting history of science context. Other ways that we have unintentionally engineered the climate, like all the effects of nitrogen fertilizers. Cold War discussions of various ways to affect global weather, including large scale cloud-seeding experiments, etc etc.
\nBut the book never returns to what I hoped was its central purpose, a review of various geoengineering technologies and a discussion of their current plausbility. There's some of that but a lot more just speculation and philosophizing, much of which didn't seem insightful enough to be really exciting.
\nStill it's an important topic and I'm grateful to the author for writing an approachable book. Also with excellent citations and bibliography, should the reader wish to study more.
\n","w":289,"cv":"covers/27418268.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.77,"n":375,"dist":[4,30,108,139,94],"g":["Science","Environment","Climate Change","Politics","Sustainability","Technology","Research","Nature","Geology"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Royal Society Science Book Prize","cat":"","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction","cat":"Longlist","year":2015,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21603635W"},{"id":50917309,"t":"Exhalation","sl":"exhalation","a":["Ted Chiang"],"as":"Chiang, Ted","y":2019,"p":368,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-06-29","d":"2019-06-29","rev":"Enjoyed this well enough, but nothing truly blew me away. There's something a little twee in this collection of stories that didn't sit right with me, the common theme of wistfulness for adjacent possibilities. OTOH that's precisely one of the themes Chiang is good at writing so it's wrong for me to criticize it. He remains one of the best sci-fi authors of our generation and with so little written, every piece deserves attention.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/50917309.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":4.27,"n":118939,"dist":[688,3116,15615,43909,55611],"g":["Short Stories","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Philosophy","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Bram Stoker Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novelette for \"Omphalos\"","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella for \"Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom\"","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection and Best Novelette for \"Omphalos\" and Nominee for Best Novella for \"Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom\"","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Nouvelle étrangère","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction (Ray Bradbury Prize)","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Cuento Extranjero","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work","cat":"","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Premi Ictineu","cat":"Millor antologia fantàstica","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Ignyte Award","cat":"Best Novella Nomination for \"Omphalos\"","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"BSFA Award","cat":"Best Short Story","year":2008,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20149336W","wp":"Exhalation:_Stories","isf":"2527274"},{"id":41742154,"t":"Children of Ruin","sl":"children-of-ruin","se":"Children of Time","sn":"2","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2019,"p":576,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-06-13","d":"2019-06-13","rev":"Highly entertaining book and a lovely followup to Children of Time. A bit nonplussed at the formula on display, "let's apply magic human uplift genetics to wildly inappropriate species". But given how well the author works with that it's fine, and bring in the Portiids and later the bizarre truly alien species from Nod makes it fine. I felt the middle third of the book lagged a bit, the conflict was all set up and then got strangely static. But the sheer alienness of so much going on was really nicely written. Solid book.
\n","w":94,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/41742154.avif","cw":266,"ch":400,"avg":4.05,"n":70813,"dist":[436,2343,13890,31035,23109],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Aliens","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL20079532W","wp":"Children_of_Ruin","isf":"2528986"},{"id":66723,"t":"Seeing Voices","sl":"seeing-voices","a":["Oliver Sacks"],"as":"Sacks, Oliver","y":1989,"p":222,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2019-05-22","rev":"Read this many years ago and appreciated the detailed view in to Deaf culture in America. Also just the basic respect for the people and the language; that's a minimal expectation but one so often not met. I distinctly remember the last chapter on the Deaf President Now movement and thinking how exciting that was. (Writing this review because ~20 years after reading the book I'm finally going to visit the Gallaudet campus. Yay!)
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/66723.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.05,"n":6369,"dist":[50,216,1254,2665,2184],"g":["Science","Psychology","Neuroscience","Medicine","Medical","Language","Linguistics","History","Disability"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL1811907W","wp":"Seeing_Voices"},{"id":659311,"t":"Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha’s Vineyard","sl":"everyone-here-spoke-sign-language","a":["Nora Ellen Groce","john W. M. Whiting"],"as":"Groce, Nora Ellen","y":1985,"p":169,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2019-05-22","cv":"covers/659311.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":3.85,"n":606,"dist":[12,34,150,248,162],"g":["History","Disability","Linguistics","Language","Anthropology","Historical","American History","Science","Social Science"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL3570991W"},{"id":786182,"t":"The Mad Man","sl":"the-mad-man","a":["Samuel R. Delany"],"as":"Delany, Samuel R.","y":1994,"p":520,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2019-05-02","rev":"Barely remember reading this except it made me uncomfortable. Not that being uncomfortable is a bad thing for a book to do.
\n","w":22,"cv":"covers/786182.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.95,"n":309,"dist":[15,26,49,87,132],"g":["Queer","LGBT","Gay","Literature","Erotica","Dark","Sexuality","Science Fiction","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Mystery","year":1994,"won":false}],"ol":"OL56825W","wp":"The_Mad_Man","isf":"18903"},{"id":23646205,"t":"Ancient Teotihuacan: Early Urbanism in Central Mexico (Case Studies in Early Societies)","sl":"ancient-teotihuacan","se":"Case Studies in Early Societies","a":["George L. Cowgill"],"as":"Cowgill, George L.","y":2015,"p":312,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2019-04-12","rev":"A solid, mostly readable academic summary of what we know about Teotihuacan archaeology. Not gonna lie, the book is pretty dry. Definitely written for students of archaeology and can be a bit numbing in its thoroughness. But it's also very clearly written and well organized. I feel having read it I know a lot more about the history of the site and how we know what we know about that history.
\n","w":71,"cv":"covers/23646205.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":4.0,"n":22,"dist":[0,1,4,11,6],"g":["Archaeology","The Americas"],"ol":"OL21561724W"},{"id":39713324,"t":"Tiamat's Wrath","sl":"tiamats-wrath","se":"The Expanse","sn":"8","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2019,"p":545,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2019-04-06","d":"2019-04-06","rev":"Well I thought this was great. The books have gone a whole different direction from the early novels; the story of Laconia and the continuing gate menace could really be told with entirely different characters. But having our good ol' beloved characters continue through makes for good times. The new characters added are good too, I particularly like Teresa.
\nThe one thing suffering from this book (and maybe the previous?) is less attention to world building. The early books were full of details of Belter language, culture, economics, how life worked. In the post-gate world they've dispensed with explaining all of that. What is Laconia like? How do the economics work? How do day to day disputes get resolved? All that is stripped away in service to telling the soap opera story of our characters plus the big menace of the Big Bad.
\nStill enjoying the main story, and the soap opera stuff, and the mix of the two. Excited for the finish.
\n","w":163,"cv":"covers/39713324.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.57,"n":87731,"dist":[172,508,4338,26506,56207],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19800273W","wp":"Tiamat's_Wrath","isf":"2500259"},{"id":25812847,"t":"The Silk Roads: A New History of the World","sl":"the-silk-roads","a":["Peter Frankopan"],"as":"Frankopan, Peter","y":2015,"p":636,"sh":"to-read","d":"2019-03-15","cv":"covers/25812847.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"ol":"OL19666939W","wp":"The_Silk_Roads"},{"id":18800655,"t":"Terms of Enlistment","sl":"terms-of-enlistment","se":"Frontlines","sn":"1","a":["Marko Kloos"],"as":"Kloos, Marko","y":2014,"p":345,"sh":"to-read","d":"2019-02-21","cv":"covers/18800655.avif","cw":280,"ch":453,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20003263W","isf":"1663773"},{"id":25104,"t":"The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake","sl":"the-sandman-vol-10","se":"The Sandman","a":["Neil Gaiman"],"as":"Gaiman, Neil","y":1996,"p":192,"r":5,"sh":"read","d":"2019-02-18","rev":"I recently sat down and re-read all of the main Sandman, 1-75. Gonna write some comments about the whole series here. These comments are not just for The Wake.
\nI first read the books when they were published. I wasn't a comics nerd but a friend suggested these were special, and they were. I gobbled them up as fast as I could. Did the same on this reread, too, finishing the series in a month. Gaiman's a good writer but in particular he's a good comic book writer, the pacing and tightness of these stories is compelling. So is the art, at least at its best.
\nMy favorite of all the story-series is A Game of You. It's the right mix of humanist and mythological, the story is sufficiently weird, and it's just solid. The Doll's House is also terrific. I also think some of the standalones are the strongest parts of the run; Ramadan made me cry, I still love the Orpheus one-shot, and A Dream of a Thousand Cats is fantastic and the single issue I always recommend to newcomers to Sandman.
\nUnfortunately I don't think the overriding story arc of the series works for me. I never did understand Hippolyta's character or actions in the story. I much prefer the earlier story of Nada, if you want to read something about Dream screwing up his relationship with women. And as much as I like Orpheus, having his mode of death be the event that precipitates the events of the second half of the run doesn't really work for me. I also think The Kindly Ones is fairly weakly written and I didn't much care for the artist's style. And The Wake is a wan ending, although maybe as an anticlimax that's appropriate.
\nSandman remains a huge achievement of comics. Fantastic writing, amazing art, and a deep ambition to explore literary canon and reflect it on modern times. I continue to hope someone figures out how to do a film adaptation some day. Into the Spider-Verse gives me hope an animator could be up to the task. Still the problem of making the stories fit into film-shaped boxes.
\n","w":362,"cv":"covers/25104.avif","cw":280,"ch":393,"avg":4.51,"n":52268,"dist":[263,599,4230,14409,32767],"g":["Graphic Novels","Comics","Fantasy","Graphic Novels Comics","Horror","Comic Book","Mythology","Urban Fantasy","Dc Comics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Anthology/Collection","year":1998,"won":false}],"ol":"OL14975242W","wp":"The_Sandman:_Season_of_Mists"},{"id":292408,"t":"Angle of Repose","sl":"angle-of-repose","a":["Wallace Stegner"],"as":"Stegner, Wallace","y":1971,"p":569,"sh":"to-read","d":"2019-01-20","cv":"covers/292408.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL478213W","wp":"Angle_of_Repose"},{"id":12164067,"t":"The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction","sl":"the-aztecs","a":["Davíd Carrasco"],"as":"Carrasco, Davíd","y":2012,"p":152,"sh":"to-read","d":"2019-01-13","cv":"covers/12164067.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"ol":"OL16471077W"},{"id":36153880,"t":"Rogue Protocol","sl":"rogue-protocol","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"3","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2018,"p":158,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-12-29","d":"2018-12-29","rev":"I didn't like this nearly as much as the previous book. I just had a hard time following it. To many human characters not-well-fleshed out, too much complex action in a derelict space station or something. I just never had a clear picture in my head of what was going on exactly. I liked the conceit of the insipid pet robot but that character wasn't developed as well as I hoped.
\n","w":71,"cv":"covers/36153880.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.23,"n":190317,"dist":[355,2261,27388,83440,76873],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Space","Space Opera","Fantasy","Robots"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Novella","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19753589W","isf":"2391283"},{"id":36223860,"t":"Artificial Condition","sl":"artificial-condition","se":"The Murderbot Diaries","sn":"2","a":["Martha Wells"],"as":"Wells, Martha","y":2018,"p":158,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2018-12-21","rev":"Fun little book. (And I do mean little; very short read). This book worked better for me than the first one since it so quickly focussed in just on the narrator. And I love the voice the author has developed for her, the prose narrative style. It reads straightforwardly enough but every once in awhile some odd observation or disruption in emotional flow will remind you you're reading the words of a MurderBot, not a human being, it's quite a clever device.
\nThe actual plot here was kinda meh but sufficient for the real purpose, which was to develop a backstory and future for our MurderBot's life. Looking forward to more.
\n","w":111,"cv":"covers/36223860.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.24,"n":237768,"dist":[501,2810,32045,106145,96267],"g":["Science Fiction","Novella","Space","Fantasy","Space Opera","Robots"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Novella","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19747311W","isf":"2344581"},{"id":66479,"t":"Starfish","sl":"starfish","se":"Rifters","sn":"1","a":["Peter Watts"],"as":"Watts, Peter","y":1999,"p":384,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-12-18","d":"2018-12-18","rev":"what a strange, malicious little novel. I liked it. But it was kind of all over the place and only got more diffuse over time. Also it contains a problematic narrative conceit. All the main characters are damaged somehow; a pedophile, a dangerously angry raging man, a victim of abuse. These characters are all put together in a Lifeboat for our entertainment. It felt lazy and gratuitous on the author's part, although to his credit he at least wrote them reasonably well. Anyway it's a good read in the end but kind of a mess too
\n","w":96,"cv":"covers/66479.avif","cw":280,"ch":451,"avg":3.95,"n":10979,"dist":[170,564,2265,4648,3332],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Cyberpunk","Dystopia","Fantasy","Thriller","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL8514693W","isf":"20306"},{"id":36373298,"t":"Trail of Lightning","sl":"trail-of-lightning","se":"The Sixth World","sn":"1","a":["Rebecca Roanhorse"],"as":"Roanhorse, Rebecca","y":2018,"p":287,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-12-18","cv":"covers/36373298.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19747909W","wp":"Trail_of_Lightning","isf":"2358305"},{"id":13154387,"t":"Obsidian and Blood","sl":"obsidian-and-blood","se":"Obsidian and Blood","sn":"1-3","a":["Aliette de Bodard"],"as":"Bodard, Aliette de","y":2012,"p":896,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-12-05","cv":"covers/13154387.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20401533W"},{"id":31942429,"t":"Stormcrow","sl":"stormcrow","se":"The Great Library","sn":"0.5","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2016,"p":11,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2018-11-12","cv":"covers/31942429.avif","cw":176,"ch":275,"avg":4.09,"n":476,"dist":[0,11,104,192,169],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Short Stories","Dystopia","Steampunk","Romance","Alternate History","Books About Books"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL45968455W"},{"id":31942436,"t":"Tigers in the Cage","sl":"tigers-in-the-cage","se":"The Great Library","sn":"0.1","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2016,"p":7,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2018-11-12","cv":"covers/31942436.avif","cw":216,"ch":360,"avg":3.9,"n":428,"dist":[2,20,110,184,112],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Short Stories","Dystopia","Alternate History","Books About Books","Steampunk","Novella"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL45968454W"},{"id":36342968,"t":"News of the World","sl":"news-of-the-world","a":["Paulette Jiles"],"as":"Jiles, Paulette","y":2016,"p":212,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-11-11","d":"2018-11-11","rev":"A sweet book, a bit as if Cormac McCarthy wrote gentle prose about kindness. Excellently drawn characters and an unlikely buddy / heroic journey story set in a richly researched Reconstruction Texas. Much enjoyed all the details. The book is a bit claustrophobic in having only the two main characters, but it's a small story and well told.
\n","w":58,"cv":"covers/36342968.avif","cw":280,"ch":379,"avg":4.08,"n":115072,"dist":[960,3740,20960,49013,40399],"g":["Historical Fiction","Westerns","Historical","Literary Fiction","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Spur Award","cat":"Best Western Traditional Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Historical Fiction","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Writers' League of Texas Book Award in Fiction","cat":null,"year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Texas Institute of Letters","cat":"Best Work of Fiction","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Historical Fiction","year":2017,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19351465W","wp":"News_of_the_World_(novel)"},{"id":13041243,"t":"The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia","sl":"the-biggest-estate-on-earth","a":["Bill Gammage"],"as":"Gammage, Bill","y":2011,"p":434,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-11-06","cv":"covers/13041243.avif","cw":280,"ch":395,"ol":"OL16302653W"},{"id":21401526,"t":"Dark Emu","sl":"dark-emu","a":["Bruce Pascoe"],"as":"Pascoe, Bruce","y":2014,"p":176,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-11-05","cv":"covers/21401526.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"ol":"OL19750165W","wp":"Dark_Emu"},{"id":36395299,"t":"Smoke and Iron","sl":"smoke-and-iron","se":"The Great Library","sn":"4","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2018,"p":444,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-10-28","d":"2018-10-28","rev":"This may be my favorite of the books so far. It delivers a really nice climax to the overarching story, a satisfying conclusion to many major plot events. I also like that this book is the first with different character POVs; I was getting a bit bored of Jess' perspective. So was the author apparently, and while I wasn't thrilled with how much of Jess' time was him pretending to be Brendan it worked out fine. I also like how Wolfe and Santi were somewhat sidelined this book, letting the younger generation lead things.
\nI'm really looking forward to the anticlimax of the fifth book. There's a lot to say still.
\n","w":111,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/36395299.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.2,"n":8251,"dist":[10,103,1220,3776,3142],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dystopia","Books About Books","Steampunk","Science Fiction","Young Adult Fantasy","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19546120W","isf":"2370753"},{"id":25058210,"t":"This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason","sl":"this-gulf-of-fire","a":["Mark Molesky"],"as":"Molesky, Mark","y":2015,"p":496,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-10-25","cv":"covers/25058210.avif","cw":280,"ch":413,"ol":"OL20012539W"},{"id":32860059,"t":"Ash and Quill","sl":"ash-and-quill","se":"The Great Library","sn":"3","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2017,"p":274,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-10-20","d":"2018-10-20","rev":"Enjoyed this too, still compelling reading. I like that this book took a darker and more adult turn. Bad and heavy shit comes down on Jess and it made this book feel much more consequential than the second book. A little romance too. The continuing flirtation between Jess and Morgan got a little tedious but at least it was finally consumated. There's also a great scene between Wolfe and Santi which was much appreciated, up to then I'd felt like the author wasn't quite committed to writing a gay relationship.
\nThere's still something sort of breathless and unsatisfying about these books though. I kept thinking about the geopolitics in this book. It's basically a parable of the Roman Church vs. the European feudal governments, there should be a lot going on. And occasionally there's some glimpse of that, more in this book, but the story feels sort of claustrophobic focussing just on Jess and his pals.
\nStill, fun fiction. I suppose I'm in for the full series.
\n","w":169,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/32860059.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.11,"n":10945,"dist":[22,212,1959,5060,3692],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dystopia","Books About Books","Steampunk","Science Fiction","Historical Fiction","Alternate History"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19743689W","isf":"2209967"},{"id":27887873,"t":"Paper and Fire","sl":"paper-and-fire","se":"The Great Library","sn":"2","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2016,"p":368,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-10-14","d":"2018-10-14","rev":"A fun read, and quick, entertaining. The book suffers from being paced like an action movie with one too many chase scenes. Oh no! The automata lion is chasing Jess in the park / the hallway / the ruin. Will he manage to press the button in time to save himself? There's a lot of that and not as much thoughtful world building and character development as the first book. It calms down a bit about two thirds of the way through though and finally lands somewhere interesting. I'm optimistic for the third.
\nI do want to call out one nice and subtle thing in the book though, Jess' relationship with his father. The theme from the first book of his father not being there for him as a support (emotional, physical, etc) is further explored here and very effective. Jess also doesn't really seek out a father figure elsewhere, say Wolfe from the library. It's an interesting theme and I think the author has done something unusual in this characterization. I like it.
\n","w":174,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/27887873.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.03,"n":15263,"dist":[55,389,3073,7255,4491],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dystopia","Books About Books","Steampunk","Science Fiction","Alternate History","Young Adult Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19334428W","isf":"2013634"},{"id":20643052,"t":"Ink and Bone","sl":"ink-and-bone","se":"The Great Library","sn":"1","a":["Rachel Caine"],"as":"Caine, Rachel","y":2015,"p":362,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-08-31","d":"2018-08-31","rev":"Very compelling, couldn't put it down. Really nicely written; interesting world, good characters. And well told, or rather shown. The book has a little too much of a Harry Potter vibe to it, but it goes to a much grimmer and more interesting place pretty quickly.
\n","w":46,"cv":"covers/20643052.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"avg":3.96,"n":32689,"dist":[415,1287,6853,14662,9472],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Dystopia","Books About Books","Historical Fiction","Steampunk","Science Fiction","Young Adult Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"South Carolina Book Award","cat":"Young Adult","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19743690W","isf":"1863622"},{"id":36278177,"t":"Record of a Spaceborn Few","sl":"record-of-a-spaceborn-few","se":"Wayfarers","sn":"3","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2018,"p":368,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-08-27","d":"2018-08-27","rev":"I had a tough time engaging with this book. It took me a third of the book to realize that the point of this book isn't some grand narrative plot, but rather just a series of vignettes of Exodan life. Then about halfway through some actual plot happens, a bit of conflict and events to tie the narrative threads together. I liked it much better then. She's a great writer of characters and human moments but I sure wish they were tied together more closely into a story. Looking back on my reviews of the first two books I had the same complaint, so I suppose that's just how these books are going to work.
\n","w":115,"cv":"covers/36278177.avif","cw":220,"ch":332,"avg":4.12,"n":63400,"dist":[365,1938,11525,25739,23833],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Queer","LGBT","Space","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17933495W","wp":"Record_of_a_Spaceborn_Few","isf":"2370793"},{"id":40399399,"t":"Deep Learning Cookbook: Practical Recipes to Get Started Quickly","sl":"deep-learning-cookbook","a":["Douwe Osinga"],"as":"Osinga, Douwe","y":2018,"p":378,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-08-05","cv":"covers/40399399.avif","cw":280,"ch":367,"ol":"OL19542626W"},{"id":40894135,"t":"Before and After Michael","sl":"before-and-after-michael","a":["Jemiah Jefferson"],"as":"Jefferson, Jemiah","y":2018,"p":342,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-07-21","cv":"covers/40894135.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL20165215W"},{"id":157503,"t":"States of Desire: Travels in Gay America","sl":"states-of-desire","a":["Edmund White"],"as":"White, Edmund","y":1980,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-06-29","cv":"covers/157503.avif","cw":244,"ch":346,"avg":3.93,"n":296,"dist":[6,12,61,135,82],"g":["Travel","Gay","LGBT","Queer","History","Memoir","Biography","Sociology","Cultural"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL119210W","wp":"States_of_Desire"},{"id":34386617,"t":"The Night Masquerade","sl":"the-night-masquerade","se":"Binti","sn":"3","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2018,"p":208,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-06-29","d":"2018-06-29","rev":"A somewhat sprawling conclusion to an unusual trilogy. I liked the novelty of the writing, the unusual characters, the odd plot structure, the SF universe that feels different from so many other SF universes. But also these stories seemed awfully unruly, particularly this last one, not quite tamed into a shape that made for a solid and compelling story. That may just be me though, and it's sort of a weird criticism. But I found myself getting impatient at times in this third book as the author kept bringing in ideas. Also guilty of a very annoying author sin, dead characters that come back to life. Doing that robs the writing of meaning and consequences. At most you get to do it once. It was OK for me with Binti since it's part of her apotheosis, but killing and then bringing her family back was too much of an indulgence.. Also strange how the University was treated as such an important setting, then completely forgotten, then brought back in the end. Still the writing is fresh and interesting and I liked the development of Binti's character.
\n(I feel like I should clarify my scores are generally 1 star lower than anyone else's. The tooltip says 3 stars is "I liked it"; 4 is "really liked it". For me it's a 3.)
\n","w":222,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/34386617.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":3.99,"n":23826,"dist":[294,1132,5094,9378,7928],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Novella","Young Adult","Africa","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Nommo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19634667W","wp":"Binti:_The_Night_Masquerade","isf":"2281367"},{"id":36691498,"t":"Home","sl":"home","se":"Binti","sn":"2","a":["Nnedi Okorafor"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2017,"p":168,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-06-21","d":"2018-06-21","rev":"Enjoyed the continuing story but it's a bit of a leap / non-sequitur from the first. And then it's clearly unfinished, really all three novellas have to be read together as a book to get a complete story here. I'm a little on the fence about where the story goes here, to be honest, and will wait to finish to come to an opinion. I continue to love the author's writing style though, the world she's built, and the way she's painted the main character. Kind of wish the other characters were better fleshed out but this is a very personal story.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/36691498.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":4.02,"n":30823,"dist":[263,1001,6159,13746,9654],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Novella","Young Adult","Africa","Aliens","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Nommo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2018,"won":false}]},{"id":25667918,"t":"Binti","sl":"binti","se":"Binti","sn":"1","a":["Nnedi Okorafor","N.K. Jemisin"],"as":"Okorafor, Nnedi","y":2015,"p":96,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2018-06-14","rev":"Solid little story. I liked the sense of alienness. Also the writer did a great job creating empathy for us and the main character, Binti.
\n","w":25,"cv":"covers/25667918.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":3.83,"n":82947,"dist":[1174,5088,21924,33160,21601],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Novella","Young Adult","Short Stories","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Cuento Extranjero","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Nommo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2017,"won":true}],"ol":"OL19330487W","wp":"Binti_(novella)","isf":"1888987"},{"id":100237,"t":"Monkey: The Journey to the West","sl":"monkey","se":"4 สุดยอดวรรณกรรมจีนคลาสสิก","a":["Wu Cheng'en","Arthur Waley","Hu Shih"],"as":"Cheng'en, Wu","y":1592,"p":306,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-06-07","cv":"covers/100237.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":4.03,"n":8545,"dist":[114,392,1683,3259,3097],"g":["Classics","Fantasy","China","Mythology","Chinese Literature","Asia","Literature","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL8398725W"},{"id":29808780,"t":"A Closed and Common Orbit","sl":"a-closed-and-common-orbit","se":"Wayfarers","sn":"2","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2016,"p":365,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-06-07","d":"2018-06-07","rev":"I enjoyed this even more than the first book. The story really comes together well, the two overlapping narratives. The two main characters are very well drawn and written. It took a little bit to get going, the first third I was kind of wondering whether it was going to go anywhere. It absolutely does and is moving and a great read. Now looking forward to the third book. I'd also like to read a high fantasy novel by Chambers, something a little like the fantasy sections of Fire Upon the Deep. I think she'd tell that kind of story very well.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/29808780.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.37,"n":94042,"dist":[315,1267,9484,35503,47473],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Queer","Space","LGBT","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":null,"year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2021,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17897265W","wp":"A_Closed_and_Common_Orbit","isf":"2055699"},{"id":1848,"t":"Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China","sl":"wild-swans","se":"China Duology","sn":"1","a":["Jung Chang"],"as":"Chang, Jung","y":1991,"p":562,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-06-06","cv":"covers/1848.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.31,"n":129683,"dist":[1854,3399,14972,42353,67105],"g":["History","China","Biography","Memoir","Asia","Historical","Biography Memoir","Autobiography"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"NCR Book Award","cat":null,"year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"British Book Award","cat":null,"year":1993,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15845961W","wp":"Wild_Swans"},{"id":3698,"t":"The Quiet American","sl":"the-quiet-american","a":["Graham Greene","Robert Stone"],"as":"Greene, Graham","y":1955,"p":180,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-06-03","cv":"covers/3698.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.98,"n":75845,"dist":[855,3125,15574,33214,23077],"g":["Classics","Historical Fiction","War","Literature","Asia","Literary Fiction","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL106081W","wp":"The_Quiet_American"},{"id":586472,"t":"The Right Stuff","sl":"the-right-stuff","a":["Tom Wolfe"],"as":"Wolfe, Tom","y":1973,"p":352,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-06-02","cv":"covers/586472.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL1925474W","wp":"The_Right_Stuff_(book)"},{"id":25489134,"t":"The Bear and the Nightingale","sl":"the-bear-and-the-nightingale","se":"The Winternight Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Katherine Arden"],"as":"Arden, Katherine","y":2017,"p":322,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2018-05-27","rev":"I enjoyed this pretty well. Particularly for the tone, the claustrophobic world of the Russian village, the slow wonder of the girl learning who she is. Also really liked Morozko as an antagonist / force in the novel beyond classifying. It's a lovely and sensitive book and of course Russian folk tales are a rich source to draw from. OTOH it was also a little dull and took some time to get going. I'm not in a hurry to read the sequel.
\n","w":82,"cv":"covers/25489134.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":4.08,"n":246024,"dist":[3438,10139,42681,97718,92048],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Young Adult","Historical","Mythology","Fairy Tales","Russia"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy & for Debut Goodreads Author","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"HWA Debut Crown","cat":"Longlist","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2017,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21213411W","wp":"The_Bear_and_the_Nightingale","isf":"2096137"},{"id":5597902,"t":"Complexity: A Guided Tour","sl":"complexity","a":["Melanie Mitchell"],"as":"Mitchell, Melanie","y":2009,"p":368,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-05-01","cv":"covers/5597902.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"ol":"OL2936542W"},{"id":38472967,"t":"How to Think Like an Anthropologist","sl":"how-to-think-like-an-anthropologist","a":["Matthew Engelke"],"as":"Engelke, Matthew","y":2018,"p":327,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-04-20","cv":"covers/38472967.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL21202351W"},{"id":35506021,"t":"All These Worlds","sl":"all-these-worlds","se":"Bobiverse","sn":"3","a":["Dennis E. Taylor"],"as":"Taylor, Dennis E.","y":2017,"p":336,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-03-29","d":"2018-03-29","rev":"This review is for books 2 and 3, which seem to be mostly one continuous work and I read in sequence.
\nStill loved these books. Not quite as excited as the first book, but then I'm always looking for novelty and these books just continue the ideas and story. But very nicely done for that. Compelling page turner really, and I felt he delivered well on the promise of the initial story. The only that that disturbed me was the conclusion for the Big Bad, the Others. I loved the introduction and conceit for the enemy but concluding with a genocide is, well, creepy. He writes it as creepy, and the Bobs do grapple a bit with the morality, but I hate to read a book that seems to endorse genocide in any form. Compare this to the TNG episode where Picard grapples with a similar choice vs. the Borg. I noticed the author didn't take that particularly opportunity to make a winky-wink Star Trek reference.
\nThe place the books are a little weak is in writing other characters. It's a weirdly narcissistic book, particularly if you consider Bob as an autobiographical stand-in for the author. Which is sort of appropriate in keeping with the cloned-AI-personality theme. These latter two books allow the author to introduce more characters. Some of those relationships are poignant, particularly as Bob grapples with being immortal and yet also loving individual human people. OTOH the characters only exist as a foil for the Bobs, and are written as such. That's just the way these books are.
\nIn a funny way these books remind me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. They're a similar grand exploration of a single sci-fi idea and its impact on human civilization over 200+ years. The difference is it's all from one character's point of view, or at least 10 very closely aligned characters. I kind of like the tidiness of that.
\n","w":321,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/35506021.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":4.39,"n":72586,"dist":[141,784,7317,26435,37909],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Humor","Fantasy","Aliens","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19742647W","isf":"2333582"},{"id":34153598,"t":"For We Are Many","sl":"for-we-are-many","se":"Bobiverse","sn":"2","a":["Dennis E. Taylor"],"as":"Taylor, Dennis E.","y":2017,"p":384,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-03-26","d":"2018-03-26","cv":"covers/34153598.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.36,"n":83990,"dist":[245,942,8517,32705,41581],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Humor","Aliens","Fantasy","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19742648W","isf":"2214429"},{"id":26114545,"t":"Too Like the Lightning","sl":"too-like-the-lightning","se":"Terra Ignota","sn":"1","a":["Ada Palmer"],"as":"Palmer, Ada","y":2016,"p":432,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-03-23","cv":"covers/26114545.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19800093W","wp":"Too_Like_the_Lightning","isf":"1989076"},{"id":32109569,"t":"We Are Legion (We Are Bob)","sl":"we-are-legion-we-are-bob","se":"Bobiverse","sn":"1","a":["Dennis E. Taylor"],"as":"Taylor, Dennis E.","y":2016,"p":322,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2018-03-23","rev":"Very enthusiastic about this book. It's old school sci-fi, take one idea (self-replicating spaceships) and then explore it out to all its logical consequences. And it's a fun idea, well explored, and set in a situation that makes it interesting. And honestly it's two ideas: self-replicating AI with minor personality changes is also a key part of the story. And the thing that gives it personality. I found the writing for the various characters was pretty compelling and rang true.
\nI feel obligated to point out this book really only has one person's perspective, an American physicist white guy. (Guessing on the white, but it's written from that race-default point of view.) That's OK, not every sci-fi book has to be a work of intersectional feminism and not every author has the talents of a Butler or a Jemisin or a le Guin. Just I admire the diversity a lot of modern sci-fi brings so I note its absence here. Instead what we have is a very compelling sci-fi speculative novel that's written well enough to be entertaining and engaging. I read this super fast, too, like in 3 days. Rushing to read the second now.
\n","w":196,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/32109569.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.24,"n":146930,"dist":[1473,4490,20206,52449,68312],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Humor","Space","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19123425W","isf":"2159484"},{"id":26042767,"t":"The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet","sl":"the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet","se":"Wayfarers","sn":"1","a":["Becky Chambers"],"as":"Chambers, Becky","y":2014,"p":423,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-03-20","d":"2018-03-20","rev":"I enjoyed it! Also have some reservations, it felt a little lighter than it could have been. Would recommend it, but not in a hurry to read the sequel.
\nThe best part is the characters are fun. And it's satisfying to read a book made out of Adventures, one per chapter. It's like watching several episodes of Star Trek: TOS back to back. Good entertainment.
\n","w":65,"cv":"covers/26042767.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.16,"n":198424,"dist":[2935,7586,29099,74106,84698],"g":["Science Fiction","LGBT","Queer","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Julia Verlanger","cat":"","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2019,"won":true},{"name":"Women's Prize for Fiction","cat":"Longlist","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Golden Tentacle (Debut)","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Amaltea","cat":"Los otros autores","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17716925W","wp":"The_Long_Way_to_a_Small,_Angry_Planet","isf":"1879049"},{"id":12037159,"t":"Leviathan: The unauthorised biography of Sydney","sl":"leviathan","a":["John Birmingham"],"as":"Birmingham, John","y":1999,"p":532,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-02-08","cv":"covers/12037159.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"ol":"OL7916812W"},{"id":36188954,"t":"Pompeii","sl":"pompeii","a":["Mary Beard"],"as":"Beard, Mary","y":2009,"p":348,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-01-31","cv":"covers/36188954.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"ol":"OL21368541W"},{"id":34600958,"t":"Persepolis Rising","sl":"persepolis-rising","se":"The Expanse","sn":"7","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2017,"p":560,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2018-01-30","d":"2018-01-30","rev":"Excellent novel, a fun read, one of my favorites. Starting to hate how they are so comfortable, though, the series is developing a samey-ness that makes them less exciting. But this novel pays off well, our beloved old characters in a new situation of peril. I liked the whole setup of the Laconians, particularly the main villain in Singh, very well written. Bobbie was also well written in this particular book. Good stuff. But I'm ready for them to wrap it up. Hopefully books 8 and 9 will come to a grand epic conclusion.
\n","w":94,"cv":"covers/34600958.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.38,"n":93146,"dist":[238,867,8579,37259,46203],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17857348W"},{"id":1855153,"t":"The Harp in the South","sl":"the-harp-in-the-south","a":["Ruth Park"],"as":"Park, Ruth","y":1948,"p":251,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-01-19","cv":"covers/1855153.avif","cw":91,"ch":146,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL3192816W","wp":"The_Harp_in_the_South"},{"id":29570143,"t":"New York 2140","sl":"new-york-2140","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":2017,"p":624,"sh":"to-read","d":"2018-01-09","cv":"covers/29570143.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17937993W","wp":"New_York_2140","isf":"2131688"},{"id":33673959,"t":"Austral","sl":"austral","a":["Paul McAuley"],"as":"McAuley, Paul","y":2017,"p":288,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-12-30","d":"2017-12-30","rev":"Meh. It was enjoyable enough but nothing shone through for me. Not enough world building to be interesting sci-fi, not enough action for an action novel, not enough believable characters for a character study. I particularly found the hostage / kidnapper bonding to be obnoxious, even if the kidnapper had a heart of gold. Also there's stylistic inconsistencies in the writing that were distracting. It was a fun enough read, just pretty sure I'll forget all about it in a few weeks.
\n","w":82,"cv":"covers/33673959.avif","cw":260,"ch":400,"avg":3.52,"n":693,"dist":[21,71,236,255,110],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Thriller","Near Future","Speculative Fiction","Climate Change","Fantasy","Climate Change Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19760946W","isf":"2248263"},{"id":15819028,"t":"The Golem and the Jinni","sl":"the-golem-and-the-jinni","se":"The Golem and the Jinni","sn":"1","a":["Helene Wecker"],"as":"Wecker, Helene","y":2013,"p":486,"sh":"read","d":"2017-12-11","cv":"covers/15819028.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":4.13,"n":134065,"dist":[2122,4747,20312,53537,53347],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Magical Realism","Historical","Mythology","Urban Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Cabell First Novelist Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Harold U. Ribalow Prize","cat":"Jewish fiction","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy and for Debut Author","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16809947W","wp":"The_Golem_and_the_Jinni","isf":"1564195"},{"id":34373814,"t":"The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture","sl":"the-friendly-orange-glow","a":["Brian Dear"],"as":"Dear, Brian","y":2017,"p":640,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-12-09","cv":"covers/34373814.avif","cw":280,"ch":416,"ol":"OL17819654W"},{"id":7332753,"t":"Hitch 22: A Memoir","sl":"hitch-22","a":["Christopher Hitchens"],"as":"Hitchens, Christopher","y":2010,"p":435,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-12-03","cv":"covers/7332753.avif","cw":185,"ch":274,"ol":"OL16418599W","wp":"Hitch-22"},{"id":32283423,"t":"American War","sl":"american-war","a":["Omar El Akkad"],"as":"Akkad, Omar El","y":2017,"p":333,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-11-25","cv":"covers/32283423.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19349605W","wp":"American_War_(novel)","isf":"2152974"},{"id":440344,"t":"Breathmoss and Other Exhalations","sl":"breathmoss-and-other-exhalations","a":["Ian R. MacLeod"],"as":"MacLeod, Ian R.","y":2004,"p":309,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-11-24","cv":"covers/440344.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"ol":"OL3277582W","isf":"27556"},{"id":8479596,"t":"The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction","sl":"the-best-of-the-best","a":["Gardner Dozois","Robert Silverberg"],"as":"Dozois, Gardner","y":2005,"p":655,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-11-24","d":"2017-11-24","rev":"Not sure how to review an anthology like this except to say I liked all the stories in it but one. Four stuck with me: Wang's Carpets, Breathmoss, Kirinyaga, and Roma Eterna.
\n","w":32,"cv":"covers/8479596.avif","cw":280,"ch":417,"avg":4.11,"n":975,"dist":[20,35,167,345,408],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Anthologies","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Collections","Short Story Collection"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Anthology","year":2006,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19170896W","wp":"Best_of_the_Best:_20_Years_of_the_Year's_Best_Science_Fiction","isf":"157211"},{"id":22571752,"t":"The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm","sl":"the-knowledge","a":["Lewis Dartnell"],"as":"Dartnell, Lewis","y":2014,"p":340,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-11-23","cv":"covers/22571752.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL17112978W","wp":"The_Knowledge:_How_to_Rebuild_Our_World_from_Scratch"},{"id":36333061,"t":"Kingdom of the Wicked Book One: Rules","sl":"kingdom-of-the-wicked-book-one","a":["Helen Dale"],"as":"Dale, Helen","y":2017,"p":488,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-11-13","cv":"covers/36333061.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL21517178W"},{"id":17084967,"t":"Wang's Carpets","sl":"wangs-carpets","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":1995,"p":35,"r":5,"sh":"read","d":"2017-10-30","rev":"Read in an anthology. Excellent short story on the existential despair of a transhumanist future devolving in to solipsism. Also fun speculative hard sci-fi.
\n","w":24,"cv":"covers/17084967.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":4.12,"n":235,"dist":[3,13,36,84,99],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20131256W","wp":"Wang's_Carpets"},{"id":851384,"t":"Roma Eterna","sl":"roma-eterna","a":["Robert Silverberg","Chris Moore"],"as":"Silverberg, Robert","y":2003,"p":464,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-10-26","cv":"covers/851384.avif","cw":280,"ch":453,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1960468W","wp":"Roma_Eterna","isf":"23639"},{"id":858859,"t":"Kirinyaga","sl":"kirinyaga","se":"A Fable of Utopia","sn":"1","a":["Mike Resnick"],"as":"Resnick, Mike","y":1998,"p":293,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-10-25","cv":"covers/858859.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL8048088W","wp":"Kirinyaga_(short_story)","isf":"49284"},{"id":34909315,"t":"Strange Dogs","sl":"strange-dogs","se":"The Expanse","sn":"6.5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2017,"p":102,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-10-13","d":"2017-10-13","rev":"A sweet little story, very tightly written. Writing from the POV of a young girl works remarkably well. The story is ncie too, even if it's a little Rod Serling's The Expanse. I mean, Stephen King tread this exact same ground in Pet Semetary, and the trope is older still. But still, well written and enjoyable.
\n","w":57,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/34909315.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":4.1,"n":19499,"dist":[83,479,3748,8279,6910],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Novella","Short Stories","Space","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17857347W"},{"id":10573526,"t":"Pale Fire","sl":"pale-fire","a":["Vladimir Nabokov"],"as":"Nabokov, Vladimir","y":1945,"p":364,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-10-11","cv":"covers/10573526.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL627081W","wp":"Pale_Fire","isf":"1515575"},{"id":25877663,"t":"Babylon’s Ashes","sl":"babylons-ashes","se":"The Expanse","sn":"6","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2016,"p":532,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-10-09","d":"2017-10-09","rev":"The books seem to have settled in to a comfortable rhythm. The stories and characters just sort of unwind in a pleasant and well told way. That's not a bad thing, but it is perhaps a bit too comfortable. Maybe a bit too TV screenplay too, although perhaps that's unfair of me.
\nThis book had way too many POV characters. Also the action of the plot was weirdly structured. It didn't quite come together. I particularly don't like Marco Inaros as a villain character, he's just too mustache-twirlingly evil.
\n","w":89,"cv":"covers/25877663.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.26,"n":105357,"dist":[358,1873,13876,43581,45669],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2017,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17793650W","wp":"Babylon's_Ashes","isf":"2083534"},{"id":22752442,"t":"Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy","sl":"area-x","se":"Southern Reach","sn":"1-3","a":["Jeff Vandermeer"],"as":"Vandermeer, Jeff","y":2014,"p":595,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-10-03","cv":"covers/22752442.avif","cw":280,"ch":372,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19091078W","isf":"1778689"},{"id":79,"t":"Coming Into the Country","sl":"coming-into-the-country","a":["John McPhee"],"as":"McPhee, John","y":1977,"p":438,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-09-30","cv":"covers/79.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":4.21,"n":7833,"dist":[73,194,1156,2992,3418],"g":["Travel","Nature","History","Science","Adventure","Environment","Memoir","Natural History","Essays"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"General Nonfiction","year":1977,"won":false}],"ol":"OL7986809W","wp":"Coming_into_the_Country"},{"id":26797860,"t":"Frederick the Great: King of Prussia","sl":"frederick-the-great","a":["Timothy C.W. Blanning"],"as":"Blanning, Timothy C.W.","y":2015,"p":620,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-09-22","cv":"covers/26797860.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"ol":"OL20248054W"},{"id":12186368,"t":"Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars","sl":"full-service","a":["Scotty Bowers","Lionel Friedberg"],"as":"Bowers, Scotty","y":2012,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-09-13","cv":"covers/12186368.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"ol":"OL17895053W","wp":"Full_Service_(book)"},{"id":18890412,"t":"The Berlin Stories","sl":"the-berlin-stories","a":["Christopher Isherwood","Armistead Maupin"],"as":"Isherwood, Christopher","y":1945,"p":457,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-09-04","cv":"covers/18890412.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL51208W","wp":"The_Berlin_Stories"},{"id":34017126,"t":"The Stone Sky","sl":"the-stone-sky","se":"The Broken Earth","sn":"3","a":["N.K. Jemisin"],"as":"Jemisin, N.K.","y":2017,"p":398,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-09-01","d":"2017-09-01","rev":"An excellent ending to the series. Unlike most sci-fi, what I like best about these books is the characters, the human relationships. Motherhood is the strong theme in this book and it comes through achingly loud and clear. And that despite the mother and child being separated! The fleshing out of Nassun's character and story is really great.
\nAlso the world building in this book continues to be excellent. The construction of Syl Anagist and the horror of it, doubled back with a visit to its ruins, all great. Also fleshing out the role of the Evil Earth. Just super well done.
\nI have one complaint about the series, which is that I found the use of aliases for characters disorienting. I can't tell if this is clever writing or I have bad reading comprehension or maybe it's just not as clearly written as it could be, but I had a hard time tracking characters across the different story timelines. Here's a little list of aliases for your convenience:
\nFrom the earlier books:
\nDamaya / Seyenite / Essun
\nThe Stone Eaters:
\nRemwha / Steel / Gray Man
\nGaewha / Antimony
\nHoa / Houwha
\n","w":193,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/34017126.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.32,"n":177153,"dist":[895,3942,21646,61003,89667],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Speculative Fiction","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Traduction","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"BookNest Award","cat":"Best Traditionally Published Novel","year":2017,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17881901W","wp":"The_Stone_Sky","isf":"2226723"},{"id":57459,"t":"Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (Gender and American Culture)","sl":"gender-and-jim-crow","a":["Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore"],"as":"Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth","y":1996,"p":414,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-08-25","cv":"covers/57459.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.08,"n":835,"dist":[14,35,156,296,334],"g":["History","Race","American History","Feminism","Gender","Politics","African American","Gender Studies","Academic"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Frederick Jackson Turner Award","cat":"","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"James A. Rawley Prize (OAH)","cat":"","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"Julia Cherry Spruill Prize","cat":null,"year":null,"won":true}],"ol":"OL3254064W"},{"id":184612,"t":"Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880","sl":"black-reconstruction-in-america-1860-1880","se":"Library of America","sn":"350","a":["W.E.B. Du Bois","David Levering Lewis"],"as":"Bois, W.E.B. Du","y":1935,"p":746,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-08-25","cv":"covers/184612.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.52,"n":3460,"dist":[37,53,301,740,2329],"g":["History","Race","Politics","American History","Sociology","African American","Social Justice","Classics","Civil War"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL28582W","wp":"Black_Reconstruction_in_America"},{"id":22886612,"t":"Nemesis Games","sl":"nemesis-games","se":"The Expanse","sn":"5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2015,"p":536,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-08-05","d":"2017-08-05","rev":"This is my favorite of the Expanse books so far. The characters are well enough developed that the authors can rely on them and on us knowing who they are and what their motivations are. And yet there's enough room left for development. We get a lot more on Naomi's back story and Amos' and both characters develop significantly in the novel. (Poor Alex, still a blank slate.) This story feels more emotionally complex and insightful than previous books. There's barely any sci-fi at all in it really, and that's fine.
\nBut my favorite part of this book is the deft structural trick of the narrative. Scattering all the main characters across the solar system at the start, I was sure this book was going nowhere. But they've been placed in a very clever way to make for a compelling and exciting narrative as people are reunited. Nicely done.
\n","w":149,"cv":"covers/22886612.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.45,"n":122420,"dist":[223,953,9289,45289,66666],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17755458W","wp":"Nemesis_Games","isf":"2361325"},{"id":35403408,"t":"The Grid","sl":"the-grid","a":["Peter Seibel"],"as":"Seibel, Peter","y":2015,"p":129,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-07-21","d":"2017-07-21","cv":"covers/35403408.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":3.53,"n":15,"dist":[0,2,3,10,0],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":35109296,"t":"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn","sl":"the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn","se":"Adventures of Tom and Huck","sn":"2","a":["Mark Twain"],"as":"Twain, Mark","y":1885,"p":350,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-07-16","d":"2017-07-16","rev":"I hated reading this book. My 1 star review is not because I think the book is low quality, but rather because I did not like reading it. It's a nasty book, a snake to be handled carefully. I'm glad to be done with it.
\nI could not get past the racism of the book. I understand Twain was writing satire and holding up a mirror to American racism. The writing is deliberately racist. It's still an unrelentingly racist novel. And therefore so, so painful to read. I don't think that makes the book malicious, I think it's worth reading and teaching. But it sure makes for an ugly read.
\nTo get the easy critique out of the way, the word "nigger". It's infamously all over the book and is offensive by modern standards. But I think it was intended to be offensive in the context of the book and its time, too. Specifically the way Jim is never ever referred to as a man or a human being. He is "the nigger". The constant repetition of the word is intensely dehumanizing. Even when he's being feted for saving Tom's life, the highest praise is "a nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars". I accept that as pointed satire, or at least verisimilitude, but it makes for hard reading.
\nThere's a deeper structural racism in the writing that I can't justify, the way Jim is not a fleshed out character. He's passive, never given complex motivations or inner monologue. He's off stage for a lot of the action, particularly the Duke and King section. For most of the book Huck Finn doesn't give a damn about Jim's need for freedom, doesn't try to help him get to safety. He does finally come to some basic form of humanity in chapter 31, but it didn't ring particularly strongly to me. And then later when Huck and Tom go to free Jim from captivity they literally turn it into a game, dragging the escape out into a weeks-long farce. Tom never even conveys the news that Jim is legally free. It's just hideous treatment of a man very much in mortal peril. Maybe there's some clever reason Twain wrote it this way, or maybe it's just he couldn't imagine writing a Black man as a protagonist. Either way I didn't care for it.
\nThere's cleverness and nuance in the writing. I admire it as a full-throated document of American racism, a book that forces readers to grapple with just how we treated African-Americans in the 19th century. It's just really painful to read that, particularly alone.
\nSome further reading I found helpful:
\nToni Morrison's book introduction
\nTeaching Huck Finn Without Regret
\n","w":450,"cv":"covers/35109296.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":3.83,"n":1355407,"dist":[36039,98729,340079,468973,411587],"g":["Classics","Historical Fiction","Adventure","Literature","Young Adult","American"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL37513138W","wp":"Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn"},{"id":25563522,"t":"Children of Time","sl":"children-of-time","se":"Children of Time","sn":"1","a":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"as":"Tchaikovsky, Adrian","y":2015,"p":609,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-06-28","d":"2017-06-28","rev":"Loved, loved, loved this book. Best sci-fi I've read in a long time. Maybe it was just the moment for me and on reflection it will seem not so amazing but in the moment of reading it just loved everything.
\nThis book has all the grand themes of sci-fi novels. Ark ships travelling thousands of years to save the last traces of humanity. Terraforming of planets, uplift of species. Uploading your consciousness into a computer. Human drama, inter-species conflict, a little bit of sexytimes. Perfect!
\nAnd then the twist that makes it such a smart book; all this stuff goes wrong. The ark ships break down, the destinations aren't simple. The wrong species is uplifted. Minds go crazy when uploaded. It's a pessimistic take on this sort of otherwise optimistic futurism and the resulting chaos makes for a super compelling story.
\nFinally an overarching theme that holds the book together, the idea that intelligence could take many forms and be different. I haven't read something this good exploring that theme since Fire Upon the Deep. Excellent stuff. All well told with good plot structure and interesting-enough characters. Loved it.
\n","w":191,"cv":"covers/25563522.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":4.3,"n":198474,"dist":[1821,5465,23248,69417,98523],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Space","Dystopia"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Series","year":2023,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger","year":2019,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17373843W","wp":"Children_of_Time_(novel)","isf":"1856439"},{"id":26811735,"t":"The Vital Abyss","sl":"the-vital-abyss","se":"Expanse","sn":"5.5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2015,"p":71,"sh":"read","d":"2017-06-17","cv":"covers/26811735.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":3.9,"n":20353,"dist":[137,811,5519,8328,5558],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Short Stories","Novella","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17716923W"},{"id":18656030,"t":"Cibola Burn","sl":"cibola-burn","se":"The Expanse","sn":"4","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2014,"p":581,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-06-15","d":"2017-06-15","rev":"Very solid novel. The authors wrote themselves a bit into a corner at the end of book 3; how will they handle having a whole universe of planets available? This is how, and so far so good. I was torn about the structure of the novel, the focus mostly on Holden (of the core characters) and then so many new characters. But I thought both Havelock and Elvi were well written and enjoyable. Good storytelling.
\n","w":75,"cv":"covers/18656030.avif","cw":261,"ch":400,"avg":4.24,"n":135895,"dist":[425,2446,18577,57602,56845],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17454175W","wp":"Cibola_Burn","isf":"1724835"},{"id":20579686,"t":"Ash: A Secret History","sl":"ash","se":"Book of Ash","sn":"1-4","a":["Mary Gentle"],"as":"Gentle, Mary","y":2000,"p":1860,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-06-09","d":"2017-06-09","rev":"I gave up, I failed to read this. I did try, I managed about 200 pages or 1/4 of the 4 book bundle. Just didn't work for me. Surprised, the concept seems brilliant. Alternate history Joan of Arc, mercenary adventures and North Africans wielding golem magic and all.. But something didn't grab me. I think mostly I didn't like the characters, again a surprise because abstractly I should. Gender bending, strong women, wacky wry mercenaries, what's not to like? But they seemed shallow to me. And the plotting was this very linear "our hero does A and then B and then C happens to her and then she does D". I couldn't take another 600 pages of it. As always with something I didn't read, I feel like I probably failed the book somehow. But it was a relief to stop reading.
\n","w":142,"cv":"covers/20579686.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.1,"n":1264,"dist":[37,67,186,417,557],"g":["Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Science Fiction","Alternate History","Historical","Historical Fantasy","War","Medieval"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Novel","year":2000,"won":true},{"name":"Prix Julia Verlanger","cat":null,"year":2005,"won":true}],"ol":"OL3195034W","wp":"Ash:_A_Secret_History","isf":"8637"},{"id":600625,"t":"Life in a Medieval Village","sl":"life-in-a-medieval-village","a":["Frances Gies","Joseph Gies"],"as":"Gies, Frances","y":1989,"p":272,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2017-05-31","rev":"Solid and detailed book. It's remarkable how much we know about life in ~1250 England and how foreign so much of it seems. The writing is a bit dry, and the illustrations in the illustrated edition I read were not terribly good. But it's a solid and readable history / anthropology.
\n","w":51,"cv":"covers/600625.avif","cw":263,"ch":400,"avg":3.87,"n":2286,"dist":[16,92,642,948,588],"g":["History","Medieval","Medieval History","Reference","Historical","British Literature","European History","Research"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2011139W"},{"id":30364340,"t":"Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America's Democracy","sl":"ratf-ked","a":["David Daley"],"as":"Daley, David","y":2016,"p":323,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-05-31","d":"2017-05-31","rev":"A fantastic detailed book, essential reading to understand US politics of 2010 to now and where the fight will be in 2020. The New Yorker review is a good summary / encouragement to read the whole book.
\n","w":37,"cv":"covers/30364340.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":4.15,"n":1339,"dist":[13,33,218,551,524],"g":["Politics","History","American History","American","Social Justice","Political Science","Social Science"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL21144259W"},{"id":28225843,"t":"Borne","sl":"borne","se":"Borne","sn":"1","a":["Jeff Vandermeer"],"as":"Vandermeer, Jeff","y":2017,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-04-25","cv":"covers/28225843.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17762236W","wp":"Borne_(novel)","isf":"2152481"},{"id":11570653,"t":"The Butcher of Anderson Station","sl":"the-butcher-of-anderson-station","se":"The Expanse","sn":"1.5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2011,"p":40,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-04-10","d":"2017-04-10","rev":"A very tight little character short story. Two characters for the price of one story, both Dawes and Johnson. There's not a lot here, it almost reads like backstory for a videogame or TV show, but exceptionally well written backstory.
\n","w":40,"cv":"covers/11570653.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.02,"n":29115,"dist":[68,493,6548,13706,8300],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Space Opera","Space","Novella","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24622313W"},{"id":30831912,"t":"Norse Mythology","sl":"norse-mythology","a":["Neil Gaiman"],"as":"Gaiman, Neil","y":2017,"p":304,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-04-07","d":"2017-04-07","rev":"A very solid and readable telling of the Norse myths, way more satisfying than my limited attempts to read the Poetic Edda myself. Particularly enjoy all the humor Gaiman injects into the story, lots of wry asides about Thor and the like.
\n","w":42,"cv":"covers/30831912.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.09,"n":349348,"dist":[3236,9588,61886,150872,123766],"g":["Fantasy","Mythology","Short Stories","Classics","Historical Fiction","Retellings","Religion"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2017,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17619634W","wp":"Norse_Mythology_(book)","isf":"2111277"},{"id":11528304,"t":"The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice","sl":"the-taste-of-conquest","a":["Michael Krondl"],"as":"Krondl, Michael","y":2007,"p":320,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-04-01","d":"2017-04-01","rev":"I thought it was OK, hence the two stars. (Revised this to three on reflection.) It's interesting to write a linked history of Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam through the lens of the spice trade. Particularly given how complex and international that trade is. The touches of modern life interjected kept the book moving along.
\nBut the history parts were pretty thin. Or rather very thick, but not very dense, a lot of words to convey not very much in the way of historical facts or analysis or synthesis. It was a little disappointing.
\n(revisiting this review in 2023, this book has really stuck with me. I learned more than I appreciated at the time!)
\n","w":114,"cv":"covers/11528304.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":3.74,"n":963,"dist":[16,66,296,356,229],"g":["History","Food","Food History","World History","Travel","Italy","Portugal","Food and Drink"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2958657W","wp":"The_Taste_of_Conquest"},{"id":21530921,"t":"The Churn","sl":"the-churn","se":"Expanse","sn":"0.2","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2014,"p":60,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-03-28","d":"2017-03-28","rev":"I love Amos, but this book doesn't do much to really deepen his character. It does do a nice job of portraying what life on Earth is like though. And entertaining enough, with a few good writerly tricks sprinkled throughout.
\n","w":40,"cv":"covers/21530921.avif","cw":234,"ch":346,"avg":4.13,"n":30002,"dist":[95,723,5673,12242,11269],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Short Stories","Novella","Space","Crime"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24622302W","isf":"1727466"},{"id":296662,"t":"Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong","sl":"lies-my-teacher-told-me","a":["James W. Loewen"],"as":"Loewen, James W.","y":1994,"p":383,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-03-19","cv":"covers/296662.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"ol":"OL106813W","wp":"Lies_My_Teacher_Told_Me"},{"id":9581463,"t":"The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier & the Yukon Gold Rush","sl":"the-floor-of-heaven","a":["Howard Blum"],"as":"Blum, Howard","y":2011,"p":407,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-03-19","d":"2017-03-19","rev":"A solid fun tale of Yukon adventure. The structure is slightly odd; the author follows three different men of very different temperament on different paths. But in the intersection it paints a broader story of Western and Yukon life, and it works. The author has a very deft hand with telling a gripping tale; as he notes, a highwire act since he's also trying to tell a true historical story. Which I assume he mostly succeeds in doing, even if his addition of extra color detail is a bit eyebrow raising at times. Does he really know what a character ate for dinner on some specific night? Maybe so, if he's working off a diary, and it's not the kind of story that requires footnotes. But there's a lot of details like that and sometimes it made me slightly skeptical.
\nAnyway, good story. Now I want to read a second story of the same time and place but a more sober story of ordinary people, not the gunslingers and prospectors. Also I'd love to read a woman's perspective in that time and place. The "good time gals" in this story are just furniture, which I'm guessing is a limitation of the author's source material. I bet they have good stories too.
\n","w":211,"cv":"covers/9581463.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.02,"n":1540,"dist":[17,52,298,686,487],"g":["History","American History","Canada","Crime","True Crime","Biography","Adventure","Westerns"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL15988407W"},{"id":19270450,"t":"A Complete Guide to Heraldry","sl":"a-complete-guide-to-heraldry","a":["Arthur Charles Fox-Davies"],"as":"Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles","y":1929,"p":784,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-03-06","d":"2017-03-06","cv":"covers/19270450.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":4.06,"n":156,"dist":[0,3,35,67,51],"g":["History","Reference","Art","Medieval","Design","Art History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2634441W"},{"id":16131032,"t":"Abaddon’s Gate","sl":"abaddons-gate","se":"The Expanse","sn":"3","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2013,"p":539,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-02-16","d":"2017-02-16","rev":"Ah so this is going to be that kind of series. The Big Reveal about the protomolecule and the gate at the middle of the book is welcome. Because now we know what kind of story they are telling. But it also felt a little, well, out of context. The whole book did to me actually. It's mostly new characters. It's a much more linear and direct story than previous books, particularly the last third of fighting on the Behemoth.
\nOTOH it was also hugely entertaining and well written and I can't wait to read the next one.
\n","w":98,"cv":"covers/16131032.avif","cw":280,"ch":464,"avg":4.28,"n":164188,"dist":[484,2391,20403,68659,72251],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17074648W","wp":"Abaddon's_Gate","isf":"1533870"},{"id":26806657,"t":"Explore/Create: My Life at the Extremes","sl":"explore-create","a":["Richard Garriott","David Fisher"],"as":"Garriott, Richard","y":2017,"p":272,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-02-06","cv":"covers/26806657.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"ol":"OL21157056W"},{"id":15837317,"t":"Gods of Risk","sl":"gods-of-risk","se":"The Expanse","sn":"2.5","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2012,"p":72,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-01-31","d":"2017-01-31","rev":"A sweet little story, it's interesting to see The Expanse written as a small story about a single family on Mars. The story itself felt a bit hackneyed and tedious until the end, the payoff, which was really nice and bittersweet.
\n","w":41,"cv":"covers/15837317.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":3.73,"n":27167,"dist":[197,1681,9212,10134,5943],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Short Stories","Novella","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2013,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17716924W"},{"id":25721224,"t":"The CRPG Book Project","sl":"the-crpg-book-project","a":["Felipe Pepe"],"as":"Pepe, Felipe","y":2018,"p":528,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-26","cv":"covers/25721224.avif","cw":280,"ch":350},{"id":25899877,"t":"Drive","sl":"drive","se":"The Expanse","sn":"2.7","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2012,"p":30,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2017-01-25","cv":"covers/25899877.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.06,"n":18008,"dist":[51,382,3720,8090,5765],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Space Opera","Space","Novella","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL24622294W"},{"id":29939336,"t":"Empire Games","sl":"empire-games","se":"Empire Games, #1, Merchant Princes Universe","sn":"7","a":["Charles Stross"],"as":"Stross, Charles","y":2017,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-24","cv":"covers/29939336.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19360404W","isf":"2096074"},{"id":18142735,"t":"Caliban's War","sl":"calibans-war","se":"Expanse","sn":"2","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2012,"p":583,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-01-23","d":"2017-01-23","rev":"This was great! A real page turner. I'm enjoying this book a lot more than the first one because of having seen the TV show. That brought the characters to life enough for me that I can now follow them much more clearly when reading. Which may be a criticism of the novel, or my own reading comprehension, but whatever the case it's a lot of fun reading the further adventures of those TV characters I liked so much. I also like the new characters introduced, Bobbie and Prax.
\nMostly it's just a good rollickin' space opera adventure. The Alien Menace is a bit too featureless for me, it's more of a force of nature than a rational adversary. And the narrative felt a bit more claustrophobic with all the characters concentrated in one place. Still good reading and I'm eager for more.
\n","w":143,"cv":"covers/18142735.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":4.39,"n":194703,"dist":[357,1550,16328,79913,96555],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Fantasy","Adventure","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2012,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16117275W","wp":"Caliban's_War","isf":"1434585"},{"id":3869,"t":"A Brief History of Time","sl":"a-brief-history-of-time","a":["Stephen W. Hawking"],"as":"Hawking, Stephen W.","y":1988,"p":226,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2017-01-15","d":"2017-01-15","rev":"I wish I liked this book more. It's an amazing accomplishment, boiling down all of cosmology into a thin, readable book. It succeeds in being accessible to folks without higher mathematics while not dumbing it down too much. It even has human touches, specifically Hawking's occasional appeals to God's role, which isn't religious pandering so much as an acknowledgment that the scientific theories don't explain everything.
\nBut, well, I couldn't follow the whole book. The parts of cosmology I already understand, like the Big Bang and inflationary universes, that I followed completely. And was a little bored, but OK, this isn't new for me. The parts I don't understand, like how time behaves around singularities and the theory of quantum gravity. I still don't understand them, despite Prof. Hawking's best efforts to explain them to me. I don't know if it's because I'm a bad reader (likely), he's a bad writer (unlikely), or if this part of the science just really requires math to understand (definitely). Specifically Hawking can't help but introduce the concept of imaginary time, a mathematical concept, but then he doesn't really follow through with explaining how that works in the equations to make the theories. It's not that book. But I found myself wishing a little it was a bit more mathematical, at least here.
\nStill the book is an enormous accomplishment. And it's aged pretty well even if some of the theories he describes are no longer in favor. I'm glad I read it.
\n","w":249,"cv":"covers/3869.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.21,"n":494643,"dist":[8312,14376,69632,175689,226634],"g":["Science","Physics","History","Astronomy","Classics","Philosophy","Popular Science","Space"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Royal Society Science Book Prize","cat":"General Prize","year":1989,"won":false}],"ol":"OL1892617W","wp":"A_Brief_History_of_Time"},{"id":31525607,"t":"Welcome to Lagos","sl":"welcome-to-lagos","a":["Chibundu Onuzo"],"as":"Onuzo, Chibundu","y":2017,"p":368,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-15","cv":"covers/31525607.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19741409W","wp":"Welcome_to_Lagos_(novel)"},{"id":142462,"t":"Flashman and the Redskins","sl":"flashman-and-the-redskins","se":"The Flashman Papers","sn":"7","a":["George MacDonald Fraser","Gino D'Achille"],"as":"Fraser, George MacDonald","y":1982,"p":512,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-08","cv":"covers/142462.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.27,"n":4160,"dist":[16,89,594,1536,1925],"g":["Historical Fiction","Historical","Humor","Adventure","Westerns","Comedy","British Literature","20th Century","19th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1823774W","wp":"Flashman_and_the_Redskins"},{"id":542011,"t":"Flashman and the Mountain of Light","sl":"flashman-and-the-mountain-of-light","se":"The Flashman Papers","sn":"9","a":["George MacDonald Fraser"],"as":"Fraser, George MacDonald","y":1990,"p":400,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-08","cv":"covers/542011.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1823765W","wp":"Flashman_and_the_Mountain_of_Light"},{"id":1162229,"t":"Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others","sl":"sexuality-in-medieval-europe","a":["Ruth Mazo Karras"],"as":"Karras, Ruth Mazo","y":2005,"p":208,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-04","cv":"covers/1162229.avif","cw":266,"ch":400,"ol":"OL13636876W"},{"id":25455901,"t":"Twilight Company","sl":"twilight-company","se":"Star Wars: Battlefront","sn":"1","a":["Alexander Freed"],"as":"Freed, Alexander","y":2015,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2017-01-03","cv":"covers/25455901.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL29400685W","isf":"1915299"},{"id":30374485,"t":"Overwatch #6: Destroyer","sl":"overwatch-6","se":"Overwatch Digital Comics","a":["Micky Neilson","Gray Shuko"],"as":"Neilson, Micky","y":2016,"p":10,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-12-30","d":"2016-12-30","cv":"covers/30374485.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":3.9,"n":1154,"dist":[34,89,276,317,438],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Video Games","Science Fiction","Comic Book","Fantasy","Graphic Novels Comics","Games"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":30374498,"t":"Overwatch #5: Mission Statement","sl":"overwatch-5","se":"Overwatch Digital Comics","a":["Andrew R. Robinson","Nesskain"],"as":"Robinson, Andrew R.","y":2016,"p":10,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-12-30","d":"2016-12-30","cv":"covers/30374498.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":3.96,"n":1233,"dist":[33,79,285,342,494],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Video Games","Science Fiction","Comic Book","Graphic Novels Comics","Action","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":31182384,"t":"Overwatch #7: Legacy","sl":"overwatch-7","se":"Overwatch Digital Comics","a":["Andrew R. Robinson","Bengal"],"as":"Robinson, Andrew R.","y":2016,"p":10,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-12-30","d":"2016-12-30","cv":"covers/31182384.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.21,"n":1103,"dist":[15,43,190,305,550],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Video Games","Science Fiction","Comic Book","Fantasy","Graphic Novels Comics","Comics Manga"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":31278636,"t":"Overwatch #8: Old Soldiers","sl":"overwatch-8","se":"Overwatch Digital Comics","a":["Michael Chu","Bengal"],"as":"Chu, Michael","p":10,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-12-30","d":"2016-12-30","cv":"covers/31278636.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.15,"n":1097,"dist":[27,41,209,283,537],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Video Games","Science Fiction","Comic Book","Graphic Novels Comics","Comics Manga","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":25142942,"t":"Lovecraft Country","sl":"lovecraft-country","se":"Lovecraft Country","sn":"1","a":["Matt Ruff"],"as":"Ruff, Matt","y":2016,"p":387,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-12-27","d":"2016-12-27","rev":"I wanted to like this book more but sadly I just didn't. I was hoping from the premise the book would be smarter than it was. But at best it fell in to entertaining yarn category, not great insightful novel. I also didn't care for the serial short story format.
\nWhat I was hoping for was a transcendent mashup of historical Jim Crow racism and the eldritch horrors of Lovecraft fiction. Specifically dwelling on the basic theme of The Other, and fear of the unknown, and dread. With Lovecraft horror monsters as a metaphor for racism. And maybe delving some of Lovecraft's own racism.
\nWhat I got instead was a series of connected pulp horror stories. A couple of them are fairly good, I particularly liked Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe. A couple of them are not so good; Dreams of the Which House being particularly thin. As pulp horror goes they're fun enough, a bit retro.
\nAnd then the extra twist of the novel, the overlay of Jim Crow racism. I was originally brought in by the concept that one of the protagonists was the author of The Negro Motorist Green Book. Great idea! But the actual characterization of racism was awfully simplistic. Like every county seems to have a crooked sheriff just looking to murder some colored folks. After the third time that plot device it gets a bit thin. It didn't feel right to me, more of a caricature of both racism and of African American culture.
\nSo entertaining enough, but not delivering on what I hoped it would be.
\n","w":262,"cv":"covers/25142942.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.01,"n":50890,"dist":[477,2008,9908,22663,15834],"g":["Horror","Fantasy","Historical Fiction","Science Fiction","Historical","Lovecraftian","Supernatural"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Horror Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"Endeavour Award","cat":null,"year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Horror","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Elbakin.net","cat":"Meilleur roman fantasy traduit","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17356061W","wp":"Lovecraft_Country_(novel)","isf":"1947856"},{"id":17471279,"t":"The Rationalizing Voter (Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology)","sl":"the-rationalizing-voter-cambridge-studies-in-public-opinion","a":["Milton Lodge","Charles S. Taber"],"as":"Lodge, Milton","y":2013,"p":300,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-12-26","cv":"covers/17471279.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"ol":"OL16694676W"},{"id":27311899,"t":"Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior)","sl":"democracy-for-realists","a":["Christopher H. Achen","Larry M. Bartels"],"as":"Achen, Christopher H.","y":2016,"p":408,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-12-26","cv":"covers/27311899.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"ol":"OL20029883W"},{"id":9491855,"t":"Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future","sl":"why-the-west-rulesfor-now","a":["Ian Morris"],"as":"Morris, Ian","y":2010,"p":1162,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-12-21","cv":"covers/9491855.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"ol":"OL20458538W","wp":"Why_the_West_Rules—For_Now"},{"id":12961964,"t":"The Handmaid's Tale","sl":"the-handmaids-tale","se":"The Handmaid's Tale","sn":"1","a":["Margaret Atwood"],"as":"Atwood, Margaret","y":1985,"p":325,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-12-06","d":"2016-12-06","rev":"Excellent novel! Really liked its exploration of the subjugation of women in American society, the reduction to sex and breeding. But that's just the simple overnarrative. Beneath that is a more subtle level of commentary on women's society, or a distortion of it, and sorority and individuality and competition between women. A well spun story in the sci-fi vein of "what if our world but one twist".
\nAlso I am not kidding: Goodreads shows me ads for a hospital's maternity ward for this book. Almost exactly on target there guys.
\n","w":90,"cv":"covers/12961964.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.16,"n":2570322,"dist":[46817,100633,383314,911966,1127592],"g":["Classics","Dystopia","Science Fiction","Feminism","Fantasy","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1987,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":1986,"won":true},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Retrospective","year":1995,"won":false},{"name":"Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général","cat":"Fiction","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Novel","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"Commonwealth Writers' Prize","cat":"Best Book in Caribbean and Canada","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"CBC Canada Reads","cat":"","year":2002,"won":false},{"name":"Metų verstinė knyga","cat":null,"year":2012,"won":false}],"ol":"OL675783W","wp":"The_Handmaid's_Tale","isf":"1816"},{"id":531792,"t":"Shards of Honor","sl":"shards-of-honor","se":"Vorkosigan Saga","sn":"1","a":["Lois McMaster Bujold"],"as":"Bujold, Lois McMaster","y":1986,"p":313,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-11-28","d":"2016-11-28","rev":"I managed to finish this and enjoy the reading, but I really didn't like the book. Or three novellas, which I think was how it was originally written. The first story is fairly good, the second is one creepy set of rape and power ickiness, and the third story is just baffling setup for future stories. The characters seemed entirely flat and uninteresting to me, the plot boring and poorly told. Just didn't connect for me at all.
\n","w":78,"cv":"covers/531792.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"avg":4.06,"n":41582,"dist":[515,1699,7964,15906,15498],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Romance","Fantasy","Space","Adventure","Military Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländischer SF-Roman","year":1995,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":1987,"won":false}],"ol":"OL56899W","wp":"Shards_of_Honor","isf":"1239"},{"id":17692848,"t":"Rendezvous with Rama","sl":"rendezvous-with-rama","se":"Rama","sn":"1","a":["Arthur C. Clarke"],"as":"Clarke, Arthur C.","y":1973,"p":256,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-11-04","d":"2016-11-04","rev":"Masterful, tight sci-fi. I love the slow reveal and sense of wonder instilled in the book. And just a bit of suspense, the author's trick to keep the chapters flowing. Nice hard sci-fi edge, enough character to give the story some personality. Just good all around.
\nIdiosyncratic to me, but I was struck by the similarity to my favorite Lovecraft story, At the Mountains of Madness. Same sort of setup. Clark's version is better.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/17692848.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.12,"n":191159,"dist":[1388,6400,34353,74270,74748],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Space","Aliens","Hugo Awards","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1974,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1973,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1974,"won":true},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Novel","year":1973,"won":true},{"name":"Jupiter Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1974,"won":true},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1974,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1980,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17417W","wp":"Rendezvous_with_Rama","isf":"1319"},{"id":18730589,"t":"1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed","sl":"1177-b-c","se":"Turning Points in Ancient History","a":["Eric H. Cline","Barry S. Strauss"],"as":"Cline, Eric H.","y":2014,"p":264,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-11-02","d":"2016-11-02","rev":"Oh I wanted to like this book more! It's a thoughtful and thorough treatment about the end of a group of interconnected Bronze Age societies. It's a region I'm interested in, and a time I'm interested in, and after reading some other accessible archaeology like Charles Mann's 1491 or Diamond's Collapse I was hopeful.
\nUnfortunately the narrative here is a bit dry. I was hoping for an accessible, entertaining narrative. But instead it's more a careful academic treatment of what we know about various Bronze Age civilizations from the archaeological record. I admire the accuracy and breadth of the work that he's summarized, but I'm lazy and it was hard for me to keep my attention to it.
\nThe last third of the book brings all the collected facts together to a sort of theory about the Bronze Age collapse. Unfortunately the conclusion isn't very satisfying: "it was a collection of things and we're not really sure." Which may well be correct, and certainly responsible academia.
\nTo me the most interesting part of the book was the documentation of the interconnectedness of the various societies, the trade networks and correspondence between different rulers, etc. At the end of the book he talks a bit about complex systems and catastrophe theory, about how interconnected societies can all collapse swiftly together in ways we don't fully understand. I love that theme in science and wish there were more about it. Given the limited historical record though it may be hard to come to any certainty.
\n","w":253,"cv":"covers/18730589.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.75,"n":14492,"dist":[191,1017,4254,5785,3245],"g":["History","Ancient History","Archaeology","Ancient","Egypt","World History","Historical","Anthropology"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL17323768W","wp":"1177_B.C.:_The_Year_Civilization_Collapsed"},{"id":13573419,"t":"Great North Road","sl":"great-north-road","a":["Peter F. Hamilton"],"as":"Hamilton, Peter F.","y":2012,"p":976,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-10-20","d":"2016-10-20","rev":"I was all prepared to give this book a higher rating despite its self-indulgent length. It was a good companion for a Europe trip, jet lag fueled 45 minute undemanding reading binges of a fun story. I like some of his characters and the space the length gives him to develop both the characters and the quotidian details of his world. The good parts are fun story telling, and he does a pretty good job stretching out the central whodunnit mystery for awhile.
\nBut then it came time for the whole book to come together and that flopped. The entire character of Madeleine is a deus ex machina invention thrown at us in the last third to make the plot even vaguely hang together. The central coincidence of Angela having secret weapon implants that just happen to match the murder hand of the Big Bad is a stupid sort of red herring to keep the audience guessing. In the end the book did not come to a satisfying conclusion, it came to a conclusion that let the author get paid and move on to the next book. I won't be joining him.
\n","w":192,"sp":1,"cv":"covers/13573419.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":4.08,"n":18370,"dist":[254,747,3114,7474,6781],"g":["Science Fiction","Mystery","Space Opera","Crime","Thriller","Fantasy","Detective"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16805750W","wp":"Great_North_Road_(novel)","isf":"1471714"},{"id":28876,"t":"His Majesty's Dragon","sl":"his-majestys-dragon","se":"Temeraire","sn":"1","a":["Naomi Novik"],"as":"Novik, Naomi","y":2006,"p":356,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-09-12","d":"2016-09-12","rev":"Enjoyable, fun book. More for the fantasy bits than the alternate history bits, but most importantly for the richly painted main character Laurence. His transition from starched-shirt British Navy captain to empathetic, flexible dragon aviator is really well painted. The specific story of him navigating the social order with the aviators was really poignant. Laurence's transformation is the most adult part of the book, and my favorite.
\nThe rest of the book though is too much like young adult writing. The story is simplistic. So are most of the characters. The Big Plot Twist among the aviators is completely deus ex machina and unsatisfying. (Although the denouement is heartbreakingly written, and sympathetic.) So it's light reading, which is fine, but I wanted more.
\nWhat I specifically wanted was more from the dragons' point of view. Here we have a whole separate species of sentient creatures, some intellectuals. And they're mostly reduced to pets, completely dependent on their bonded humans for their entire lives and world experience. It's really kind of creepy, the way the dragons have no personal agency in their lives. Perhaps the rest of the books address this better? I'm not sure I'm moved to read more of them, other than as light entertainment.
\n","w":206,"cv":"covers/28876.avif","cw":280,"ch":460,"avg":4.07,"n":115853,"dist":[1532,4496,20934,46617,42274],"g":["Fantasy","Dragons","Historical Fiction","Historical","Alternate History","Historical Fantasy","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":"","year":2007,"won":true}],"ol":"OL5846671W","wp":"His_Majesty's_Dragon","isf":"275041"},{"id":11248213,"t":"China: A History","sl":"china","a":["John Keay"],"as":"Keay, John","y":2008,"p":512,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-09-05","d":"2016-09-05","rev":"Never finished it, too dry. That's mostly my fault, I'm lazy, but seems notable.
\n","w":14,"cv":"covers/11248213.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.92,"n":2544,"dist":[36,110,540,1193,665],"g":["History","China","Asia","World History","Ancient History","Politics","Historical","Reference"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL15487828W"},{"id":20172182,"t":"Promethea #3","sl":"promethea-3","se":"Promethea","sn":"3","a":["Alan Moore","J.H. Williams III","Mick Gray"],"as":"Moore, Alan","y":2002,"p":176,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-09-05","d":"2016-09-05","cv":"covers/20172182.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.13,"n":4632,"dist":[51,191,898,1473,2019],"g":["Comics","Graphic Novels","Fantasy","Graphic Novels Comics","Comic Book","Superheroes","Mythology","Occult","Magic"],"f":"Fiction"},{"id":26228034,"t":"The Obelisk Gate","sl":"the-obelisk-gate","se":"The Broken Earth","sn":"2","a":["N.K. Jemisin"],"as":"Jemisin, N.K.","y":2016,"p":410,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-09-02","d":"2016-09-02","rev":"What a fantastic followup to Fifth Season. Really exciting book. The prose crackles with intense emotion. The story is great. I love the characters, and the increasing nuance.
\nAnd the huge strength is the author's slow reveal of the world she's built. She doesn't just outright tell you what stone eaters are or how orogeny is like magic. Those insights come out slowly, as the characters themselves learn them, and there's a lot of depth and enjoyment in the process.
\nMy one caveat with the book is it involves a lot of violence to children. Not in a creepy way: the children are primary characters in the book, and entirely sympathetic. But I have some friends who are parents who got turned off by the first book because the very early plot involves a dead child. This second book is also difficult in the same way, albeit in a more Ender's Game fashion. I was fine with it, but it is painful at times.
\n","w":164,"cv":"covers/26228034.avif","cw":280,"ch":412,"avg":4.28,"n":207886,"dist":[732,3478,25619,85165,92892],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Magic","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17842279W","wp":"The_Obelisk_Gate","isf":"2019754"},{"id":223380,"t":"Stories of Your Life and Others","sl":"stories-of-your-life-and-others","a":["Ted Chiang"],"as":"Chiang, Ted","y":2002,"p":281,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-08-22","d":"2016-08-22","rev":"Feel terrible giving this two stars but, well, it was OK. These stories are my first and only exposure to Chiang, and I'm not sure I like his style. It's very much of the "take one sci-fi idea and explore what a weird world it would be if it were true", a throwback to the 1950s. He does this style very well, and his ideas are interesting, and the comparisons to (say) Asimov are fair. But then the stories lack for the characters and humanist themes I'm looking for these days.
\nThat said, there are two great stories in this collection. "Story of Your Life" is fantastic and I'm looking forward to the movie adaptation (Arrival) coming this year. It's a very cerebral story, very His Master's Voice, and I'm curious whether they'll successfully make that into a movie without wrecking it. I also thought "Hell Is the Absence of God" was just terrific, I'd love to read a whole novel or more in that version of religion. Or maybe a TV show? I feel like The Leftovers must have been influenced by it.
\n","w":184,"cv":"covers/223380.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":4.25,"n":133299,"dist":[1070,3631,17828,49130,61640],"g":["Short Stories","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Anthologies","Philosophy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella for \"Story of Your Life\"","year":1999,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novella for \"Story of Your Life\"","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2003,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Adult Literature","year":2003,"won":false},{"name":"Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award","cat":"\"Story of Your Life\"","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Nouvelle étrangère","year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"\"Story of Your Life\"","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"Asimov's Readers' Poll Award","cat":"Best Novelette","year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"HOMer Award","cat":"Best Novella for \"Story of Your Life\"","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"SF ga Yomitai","cat":"Best Translated SF of the Year in Japan","year":2003,"won":true},{"name":"Premi Ictineu","cat":"Millor antologia fantàstica","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Short Story for \"Story of Your Life\"","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"Openbook好書獎","cat":"年度好書．翻譯書","year":2017,"won":true}],"ol":"OL6216050W","wp":"Stories_of_Your_Life_and_Others","isf":"40036"},{"id":97875,"t":"44 Scotland Street","sl":"44-scotland-street","se":"44 Scotland Street","sn":"1","a":["Alexander McCall Smith","Iain McIntosh"],"as":"Smith, Alexander McCall","y":2005,"p":325,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-08-15","d":"2016-08-15","rev":"Amusing enough, but not very deep nor coherent. And not as quirky / local as I was hoping.
\nThe author explicitly states he was inspired by Tales of the City. The book is the same form; a collection of serial newspaper stories, 3 pages at a time, telling the intertwined stories of people. Sort of a soap opera, not intended to be too deep. I bought it because I was traveling in Scotland and wanted to read something light and local. But it didn't really come out to be very local, for the most part the story could have taken place in any American, European, or Australian city. I also missed the gay story which made Tales of the City so special.
\nBut there are some good parts. Smith does a remarkable job making characters empathetic, even the ones written to be cads or dullards. He has some nice insight into human foibles. It just didn't come together to a very compelling book. Entertaining enough I finished the one, but I won't be motivated to read the rest.
\n","w":178,"cv":"covers/97875.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":3.61,"n":28585,"dist":[738,2770,9038,10472,5567],"g":["Scotland","Mystery","Humor","Contemporary","British Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2435492W","wp":"44_Scotland_Street"},{"id":24611668,"t":"Saturn Run","sl":"saturn-run","a":["John Sandford","Ctein"],"as":"Sandford, John","y":2015,"p":486,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-08-09","cv":"covers/24611668.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17274274W"},{"id":19161852,"t":"The Fifth Season","sl":"the-fifth-season","se":"The Broken Earth","sn":"1","a":["N.K. Jemisin"],"as":"Jemisin, N.K.","y":2015,"p":512,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-08-04","d":"2016-08-04","rev":"Hey, this book was great! Really interesting world building, familiarity slowly assembled into greater strangeness. Also liked the characters. It seemed much smarter and more subtle than most genre novels, like it was written by an adult for adults. And some bits of diversity here and there, both racial and queer, which makes for some compelling variety.
\nI also appreciated some of the sense of dislocation the narration creates. The story's just a bit hard to hold on to, and told with a nifty narrative trick that keeps you off balance. It's possible that wasn't intentional and just bad writing, but I think it's deliberate and effective. It reminds me a bit of Dhalgren. The only drawback is part of the trick is that large sections are written in the second person which is obnoxious but forgiveable.
\nCan't wait to read the second book and see where she takes the story and characters. Good stuff.
\n","w":155,"cv":"covers/19161852.avif","cw":138,"ch":200,"avg":4.28,"n":355787,"dist":[4646,10782,41986,122332,176041],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Dystopia","High Fantasy","LGBT"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Traduction (2018)","year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera - Best Foreign Novel","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2022,"won":false},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Red Tentacle (Novel)","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel and Best Apocalyptic Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Prêmio LeBlanc","cat":"Romance Estrangeiro de Fantasia, Ficção Científica ou Terror Publicado em Língua Portuguesa","year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Fantasy","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17363125W","wp":"The_Fifth_Season_(novel)","isf":"1878015"},{"id":2767793,"t":"The Hero of Ages","sl":"the-hero-of-ages","se":"Mistborn","sn":"3","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2008,"p":572,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-07-13","d":"2016-07-13","rev":"Hey, this third book was great! I was kind of let down by the second book, it felt a bit off kilter. But the conclusion of the trilogy is great. Tight story, good character development, and lots of payoff for the world-building and systems Sanderson set up.
\nI really like his treatment of religion and the theme of ancient knowledge. Also unreliable knowledge. And the way Ruin works insidiously, undermining the world. It seemed remarkably intelligent and subtle and reflected a bit on the larger human condition in a way fantasy books often don't. Also made for a fun story, even if the end got a little too 2001-monolith for me.
\n","w":111,"cv":"covers/2767793.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":4.56,"n":659548,"dist":[2179,6820,42503,174369,433677],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Young Adult"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"David Gemmell Legend Award","cat":"","year":2009,"won":false},{"name":"Whitney Award","cat":"Speculative Fiction","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Traduction","year":2012,"won":false}],"ol":"OL5738154W","wp":"Mistborn:_The_Hero_of_Ages","isf":"872029"},{"id":25489625,"t":"Between the World and Me","sl":"between-the-world-and-me","a":["Ta-Nehisi Coates"],"as":"Coates, Ta-Nehisi","y":2015,"p":152,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-07-12","cv":"covers/25489625.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"ol":"OL17201654W","wp":"Between_the_World_and_Me"},{"id":68429,"t":"The Well of Ascension","sl":"the-well-of-ascension","se":"Mistborn","sn":"2","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2007,"p":592,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2016-06-26","rev":"I'm invested enough in the story and characters that I enjoyed this book. But it seemed awfully clumsy to me, the plot was weirdly static. And the characters less compelling, almost wooden. Just lacked the excitement and novelty of the first novel, but was a solid enough continuation of the story. I wish some of the central mysteries about the mist, etc were less oblique. The surprise twist at the end was annoying too, it didn't feel like there were meaningful clues to lead us to it.
\n","w":87,"cv":"covers/68429.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":4.37,"n":731707,"dist":[2422,10065,71460,276908,370852],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Magic","Adventure","Young Adult"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL5738150W","wp":"Mistborn:_The_Well_of_Ascension","isf":"389351"},{"id":6665847,"t":"Daemon","sl":"daemon","se":"Daemon","sn":"1","a":["Daniel Suarez","Daniel Suarez"],"as":"Zeraus, Leinad","y":2006,"p":632,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2016-06-26","rev":"I just didn't like it much. The prose style was not compelling to me. And the story ideas while fun are kind of a retread of earlier works like Fire Upon the Deep, Snow Crash, and to a certain extent Neuromancer.
\n","w":41,"cv":"covers/6665847.avif","cw":280,"ch":496,"avg":4.15,"n":49868,"dist":[954,2187,7233,17429,22065],"g":["Science Fiction","Thriller","Cyberpunk","Mystery","Technology","Fantasy","Mystery Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL13646905W","wp":"Daemon_(novel)","isf":"1096171"},{"id":68428,"t":"Mistborn: The Final Empire","sl":"mistborn","se":"Mistborn","sn":"1","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2006,"p":541,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-05-28","d":"2016-05-28","rev":"Very pleasurable escapist fantasy novel. Good characters, good political milieu. And a fun and intricate magic system. All works together for a pretty solid book. OTOH, the writing is a bit too young-adulty for me, I was hungering for a more mature story. And the magic system is great fun but basically reads like a video game, or movie action sequences, which is entertaining but makes for a strange sort of writing. Minor complaints, though. The main character Vin is pretty great. I like stories that are equal parts street thievery, magic, and ballroom parties.
\n","w":95,"cv":"covers/68428.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.48,"n":1088543,"dist":[6782,14429,78900,335584,652848],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Magic","Young Adult","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"Prix Elbakin.net","cat":"Meilleur roman fantasy traduit","year":2010,"won":true}],"ol":"OL5738148W","wp":"Mistborn:_The_Final_Empire","isf":"182331"},{"id":17861,"t":"The Family Trade","sl":"the-family-trade","se":"The Merchant Princes","sn":"1","a":["Charles Stross"],"as":"Stross, Charles","y":2004,"p":308,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-05-27","cv":"covers/17861.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":3.55,"n":6316,"dist":[171,584,2172,2387,1002],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Urban Fantasy","Alternate History","Speculative Fiction","Adventure","Contemporary"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Sidewise Award","cat":"Long Form","year":2006,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2465673W","isf":"156578"},{"id":17286670,"t":"Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much","sl":"scarcity","a":["Sendhil Mullainathan","Eldar Shafir"],"as":"Mullainathan, Sendhil","y":2013,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-05-15","cv":"covers/17286670.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL19969724W","wp":"Scarcity:_Why_Having_Too_Little_Means_So_Much"},{"id":20404905,"t":"The Spider's War","sl":"the-spiders-war","se":"The Dagger and the Coin","sn":"5","a":["Daniel Abraham"],"as":"Abraham, Daniel","y":2016,"p":492,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-05-04","d":"2016-05-04","rev":"Yay I finished the series. Binge-read all 5 of the books. Which worked well, because I think they were binge-written as well.
\nThe best thing about this series is how tightly constructed it is. It reads as if the author set down a five-book-long epic plot, then proceeded to tell that story with discipline and clarity. All the important characters are introduced in the first book. Most of the major plot machinations are established by the second book. And the fourth and fifth pay them off. It's a discipline sorely lacking in other epic fantasy stories (looking at you, Ice and Fire). It makes for good reading.
\nUnfortunately I don't think this fifth book pays off all the themes as well as it could. The Banking subplot goes to nothing. So does Jorey's army, they're sort of parked off-stage for most of the book which is odd given how much time was devoted to them in the fourth book. Even the mopey dragon sort of gets short shrift here.
\nBut the payoff for the main Spider's War story is pretty good, down to a thrilling action conclusion. I was left satisfied. Good stuff.
\n","w":193,"cv":"covers/20404905.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":4.13,"n":7647,"dist":[39,188,1254,3410,2756],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Epic","War"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19347156W","isf":"1961354"},{"id":18458800,"t":"The Widow's House","sl":"the-widows-house","se":"The Dagger and the Coin","sn":"4","a":["Daniel Abraham"],"as":"Abraham, Daniel","y":2014,"p":495,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-04-21","d":"2016-04-21","rev":"Sadly my enthusiasm for the story took a nose dive with this book. The story of Clara following the army was just ridiculous and silly and felt completely forced. Also not in love with Cithrin's economic innovation as the big climax of the book. I love the idea of banking and fiat currency being brought into High Fantasy, but this was very clumsy and on-the-nose, not as interestingly told as I would like.
\nWhat I did like was the depiction of Antea's sprawling empire starting to get a bit threadbare, coupled with the problems in the Spider Goddess cult. I admire the author's discipline in telling a 5 book arc and appreciate that things are starting to come to a natural conclusion at the end of book 4.
\n","w":128,"cv":"covers/18458800.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.1,"n":9316,"dist":[30,208,1572,4515,2991],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Epic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19988344W","isf":"1746035"},{"id":15790816,"t":"The Tyrant's Law","sl":"the-tyrants-law","se":"The Dagger and the Coin","sn":"3","a":["Daniel Abraham"],"as":"Abraham, Daniel","y":2013,"p":497,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-04-08","d":"2016-04-08","rev":"Now full-on binge reading the series. It's just very enjoyable entertainment. What I appreciate best about this third book is how tight the story is. It feels like the author plotted all 5 books out from the beginning, then stuck to the discipline of telling the story as planned. Contrast with Game of Thrones or the Harry Potter books which got bloated and sprawly later in the series. It's nice to read something solid.
\nI also like the subtle subversions of fantasy tropes in the books. Both Geder and Cithrin are interesting spins on traditional fantasy protagonists. And I love the conclusion of the Heroic Quest in the middle of the book, just great.
\n","w":114,"cv":"covers/15790816.avif","cw":274,"ch":400,"avg":4.08,"n":11471,"dist":[52,227,2040,5594,3558],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Epic","War"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17498009W","isf":"1530367"},{"id":12759057,"t":"The King's Blood","sl":"the-kings-blood","se":"The Dagger and the Coin","sn":"2","a":["Daniel Abraham"],"as":"Abraham, Daniel","y":2012,"p":501,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-04-03","d":"2016-04-03","rev":"Solid second episode. Now that I'm comfortably in the author's style and story I can start to complain a bit. There are not a lot of searing insights into the Human Condition in these novels. And some of the machinations he employs to get various characters to meet in the right place are a bit clumsy. But it's all very entertaining and I like the characters. A later chapter featuring a widow's plight was particularly strongly written.
\nOn the fence about binge-reading the rest of the books vs. waiting to trickle them out. They're very entertaining, but I try to space out my "read just for fun" books with things that are more demanding.
\n","w":114,"cv":"covers/12759057.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.03,"n":14249,"dist":[76,370,2700,6971,4132],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2012,"won":false}],"ol":"OL21528726W","isf":"1403862"},{"id":112292,"t":"Dauntless","sl":"dauntless","se":"The Lost Fleet","sn":"1","a":["Jack Campbell"],"as":"Campbell, Jack","y":2006,"p":293,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-03-31","cv":"covers/112292.avif","cw":280,"ch":490,"avg":3.97,"n":34621,"dist":[495,1602,7393,14215,10916],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Military Fiction","Military Science Fiction","Space","War","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL8126362W","wp":"The_Lost_Fleet:_Dauntless","isf":"182015"},{"id":8752885,"t":"The Dragon's Path","sl":"the-dragons-path","se":"The Dagger and the Coin","sn":"1","a":["Daniel Abraham"],"as":"Abraham, Daniel","y":2011,"p":555,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-03-27","d":"2016-03-27","rev":"What a lovely fantasy story! Comparisons to Game of Thrones are inevitable, but these books are much tighter, focussed on a few human stories. Also really great characters. Cithrin makes a good female lead, and Geder is a fascinatingly unusual character. The writing style is nothing particularly notable, just clear and entertaining and solid. It's the plot that makes this book so enjoyable.
\n","w":63,"cv":"covers/8752885.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.82,"n":23620,"dist":[439,1283,5932,10464,5502],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL25121666W","isf":"1234108"},{"id":1202479,"t":"The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii","sl":"the-house-of-pride-and-other-tales-of-hawaii","a":["Jack London"],"as":"London, Jack","y":1912,"p":116,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-03-05","d":"2016-03-05","rev":"Mixed bag. Too many stories about the leper colony. Not enough evocation of Hawai'i the place.
\n","w":16,"cv":"covers/1202479.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.71,"n":428,"dist":[5,35,125,175,88],"g":["Short Stories","Classics","Adventure","Literature","American"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL144788W"},{"id":23505989,"t":"Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii","sl":"captive-paradise","a":["James L. Haley"],"as":"Haley, James L.","y":2014,"p":447,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-02-14","d":"2016-02-14","rev":"A good, solid history of Hawai'i in the 19th century, almost entirely focussed on the time of the Hawaiian monarchy between contact in 1778 and the annexation by the US in 1898. It's a very detailed history of the experiences of the various kings, queens, and regents. With lots of detail from letters and personal stories of the time.
\nI enjoyed this remarkably personal view of the history of the rulers of Hawai'i. But in focussing on the rulers the book suffers from not giving more of a picture of what life was like for Hawaiians as a whole. I'm always curious what the experiences of basic laborers were, or townies, or immigrant laborers. Haley does discuss them a bit but only impersonally. OTOH the book is plenty long and detailed enough, and focussing that detail on the rulers makes sense for the story he wants to tell.
\nI also appreciated the slightly revisionist history. Haley doesn't romanticize pre-colonial Hawai'i, giving the context of the very limited feudal traditional life. But then he certainly doesn't apologize for the colonialists either, and only a little for the missionaries. I also liked reading a more subtle story of the politics than "sugar barons stole the country". That was part of it, but there's more too, and the deeper story is interesting.
\n","w":219,"cv":"covers/23505989.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.71,"n":1239,"dist":[23,91,341,555,229],"g":["History","American History","Travel","Historical","American","Indigenous","World History","Politics"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL19989999W"},{"id":68483,"t":"The Vor Game","sl":"the-vor-game","se":"Vorkosigan Saga","sn":"6","a":["Lois McMaster Bujold"],"as":"Bujold, Lois McMaster","y":1990,"p":346,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-02-06","cv":"covers/68483.avif","cw":280,"ch":484,"avg":4.27,"n":27855,"dist":[168,465,3599,11022,12601],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Hugo Awards","Fantasy","Adventure","Space","Military Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1991,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Overseas Novel","year":1997,"won":false}],"ol":"OL56909W","wp":"The_Vor_Game","isf":"915"},{"id":23168817,"t":"The Dark Forest","sl":"the-dark-forest","se":"Remembrance of Earth’s Past","sn":"2","a":["Liu Cixin","Joel Martinsen"],"as":"Cixin, Liu","y":2008,"p":512,"sh":"to-read","d":"2016-02-06","cv":"covers/23168817.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"wp":"The_Dark_Forest","isf":"1874945"},{"id":20518872,"t":"The Three-Body Problem","sl":"the-three-body-problem","se":"Remembrance of Earth’s Past","sn":"1","a":["Liu Cixin","Ken Liu"],"as":"Cixin, Liu","y":2006,"p":472,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2016-01-11","d":"2016-01-11","rev":"Fascinating book. Greatly enjoyed it, lived up to the hype, a bit of frustration.
\nWhat I liked was the scope of it, and the crazy story. Particularly liked the notion of Ye being a traitor to the species largely on a whim, and because the people around her had mistreated her so and she was so alienated. Love the whole idea of a human cult worshipping genocidal incoming aliens. Great themes and well told, an enjoyable read.
\nWhat I didn't like was some of the narrative devices. I got very impatient about 1/3 of the way through with the descriptions of the Three Body simulation game. I was so confused, like what is this a metaphor for? Nothing really, it's just grooming for fellow cultists. But it felt odd to me narratively. I also didn't care much for the elaborate MacGuffin of the single proton computer, although all sci-fi is entitled to some of that.
\nThis novel is the first Chinese modern novel I've read, and I kept wondering how much of the book was informed by being Chinese. Definitely don't want to oversell that, I don't think this book reflects what China is like any more than (say) Fire Upon the Deep reflects America. (Which is to say some, but not overwhelmingly so). OTOH there's a lot in the book about social structure and obligation to the social group, and that felt somewhat specifically Chinese. And of course all the explicit criticism of the Cultural Revolution.
\nAll in all good novel. I'm inclined to read the other two volumes, but maybe not quite yet.
\n","w":265,"cv":"covers/20518872.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":4.08,"n":540443,"dist":[7550,25949,92668,205608,208668],"g":["Science Fiction","China","Fantasy","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2019,"won":false},{"name":"本屋大賞","cat":"Translated Fiction","year":2020,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17267881W","wp":"The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)","isf":"1779018"},{"id":4406,"t":"East of Eden","sl":"east-of-eden","a":["John Steinbeck"],"as":"Steinbeck, John","y":1952,"p":601,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-12-26","d":"2015-12-26","rev":"What a phenomenal book. It feels out of time. Very modern, particularly in its psychology. Also dated both for the period setting and the narrative weight of it. Mostly I just enjoyed reading such a sprawling, mature American book. I didn't know writing like this existed. Maybe I'm finally old enough to appreciate it.
\nOTOH I kind of miss being in high school English classes. There's a lot going on in this book that I didn't completely follow. I could do with a week or two of English teacher exercises. I'm no critic though, so I'll just highlight a couple of themes that I thought were particularly interesting.
\nOf course the main theme, the Cain & Abel story, is fantastic. I'm sure that's what every high school senior would write in his essay, so I won't say more on that theme.
\nBut implicit in that story is that this is a male story. A story of male emotions, and men's weaknesses, and men's relationships with other men. But not daddy issues, at least not so much, East of Eden is mostly about brothers. And being a man and being respected, and being a man and having weakness. Steinbeck's writing about the fragility of masculinity feels incredibly contemporary to me, way more insightful than most of the "men's movement" crap of the past 20 years (or its slightly better gay cousin.) Steinbeck is like an anti-Hemingway in his sensitivity to men's emotions, and loved that.
\nThe downside is this book is not about women. It doesn't pass the Bechdel test and the only women characters in it are relatively two dimensional foils for the male story. Except maybe Kate, the central villain. And what an interesting character she is! The treatment of her feels dated and sexist to me in that Kate is just fundamentally evil and broken, none of the subtlety that the men get. But also modern in that she's still a well drawn character with plenty of motivation and complexity. And a great villain and victim of her own circumstance.
\nThe other character I found fascinating is Lee, the Chinese servant. If there's any compelling female character in the book, it's him, the way he's completely feminized in the text. But he's not a victim or a shrinking violet or a foil. He's the bedrock for the family. I love the section devoted to his studying Hebrew, both for the character development and the way it dovetails into the central theme in the book, the free will to make moral choices. He's a great character. Dated, he's too tinged with Oriental stereotypes to fully pass in 2015. But still a better drawn persona than most of the modern fiction I read. Also unusual to see a 1900 era Chinese man in California, I'm not sure I've ever seen another book about that kind of person.
\nI feel like there must be 10 other novels like this in English, classics, that I've not read. I should read them.
\n","w":499,"cv":"covers/4406.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.46,"n":738558,"dist":[6718,15664,67164,191454,457558],"g":["Classics","Historical Fiction","Literature","Literary Fiction","Historical","American"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Classic","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Deutscher Hörbuchpreis","cat":"Bestes Hörspiel","year":2022,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":1953,"won":true}],"ol":"OL23166W","wp":"East_of_Eden_(novel)","isf":"12302"},{"id":216443,"t":"Star Wars: Heir to the Empire","sl":"star-wars","se":"Thrawn Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Timothy Zahn"],"as":"Zahn, Timothy","y":1991,"p":404,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-12-23","cv":"covers/216443.avif","cw":280,"ch":471,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL83589W"},{"id":513176,"t":"Rogue Squadron","sl":"rogue-squadron","se":"Star Wars: X-Wing","sn":"1","a":["Michael A. Stackpole"],"as":"Stackpole, Michael A.","y":1996,"p":388,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-12-23","cv":"covers/513176.avif","cw":280,"ch":470,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL84533W","wp":"Rogue_Squadron_(novel)","isf":"12741"},{"id":18465875,"t":"Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon","sl":"countdown-to-zero-day","a":["Kim Zetter"],"as":"Zetter, Kim","y":2014,"p":406,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-12-22","cv":"covers/18465875.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"ol":"OL19323198W"},{"id":14965689,"t":"Rockhopper Copper","sl":"rockhopper-copper","a":["Conrad Glass","Color Photographs"],"as":"Glass, Conrad","y":2011,"p":176,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-11-30","cv":"covers/14965689.avif","cw":276,"ch":400,"ol":"OL17430702W"},{"id":6415529,"t":"Forbidden Fruit: Luscious and Exciting story and More Forbidden Fruit","sl":"forbidden-fruit","a":["Anonymous"],"as":"Anonymous, Anonymous","y":1898,"p":87,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-11-23","d":"2015-11-23","rev":"Victorian pornography. Amusing enough for that, but nothing particularly subtle about it except for the occasional odd vocabulary. (Favorite word: "gamahuching".) My Secret Life is a much more interesting example of the genre.
\nUnfortunately the book is full of rape. Not just "I ravished the willing young woman despite her feeble protests" but outright violent rape. I'm fine with all the incest fantasies and ridiculous combinations of people, and I try to read books in the mindframe of the time they were written. Not possible this time, unless the mindset was of men who get off on fantasies of raping children.
\n","w":101,"cv":"covers/6415529.avif","cw":280,"ch":373,"avg":3.29,"n":243,"dist":[32,40,54,59,58],"g":["Erotica"],"ol":"OL41212035W"},{"id":186074,"t":"The Name of the Wind","sl":"the-name-of-the-wind","se":"The Kingkiller Chronicle","sn":"1","a":["Patrick Rothfuss"],"as":"Rothfuss, Patrick","y":2007,"p":662,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-11-18","d":"2015-11-18","rev":"Enjoyable book, a page-turner. It kept me engrossed and amused and some of the bits of the story are particularly nicely told. I loved the chapter on Kvothe's entrance exam.
\nBut it's pretty flawed too. Mostly the story is just too much, a sprawling mess of events and exciting happenings that would have been more coherently told as a series of connected novellas. Also I hate to say this, but apparently it's impossible now to write a fantasy novel about kids in a school for wizards. The sections on The University just read like a mediocre Harry Potter retread. That's not fair; I think this book is way more interesting and adult in many ways. But unfortunately there's no way to avoid the comparison.
\n","w":124,"cv":"covers/186074.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":4.52,"n":1122267,"dist":[17226,25365,78583,240524,760569],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Magic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel and Best Fantasy Novel","year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger and Traduction","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"The Quill Award","cat":"Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Sakura Medal","cat":"High School Book","year":2009,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera (Best Foreign Novel)","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2011,"won":false}],"ol":"OL8479867W","wp":"The_Name_of_the_Wind","isf":"222811"},{"id":36529,"t":"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass","sl":"narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass","se":"The Autobiographies","sn":"1","a":["Frederick Douglass"],"as":"Douglass, Frederick","y":1845,"p":158,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-11-01","d":"2015-11-01","rev":"I somehow missed reading this in high school. What a fantastic book! So clear, such powerful and direct language. It's easy now in America to look back on slavery, 150 years later, and think of it as some distant past abstraction. Reading Douglass' own account of his own suffering as a slave removes that distance, and reminds us of our collective guilt in the United States of being heirs to such inhumanity.
\nAlso dare I say it, but it's a quick and entertaining read. Really tightly written, not a tedious effort at all. Accessibility is valuable.
\n","w":96,"cv":"covers/36529.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":4.14,"n":139339,"dist":[3228,5936,22035,45403,62737],"g":["History","Classics","Biography","Memoir","Autobiography","African American","American History","Read For School"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL69178W"},{"id":239399,"t":"The Ghost Brigades","sl":"the-ghost-brigades","se":"Old Man's War","sn":"2","a":["John Scalzi"],"as":"Scalzi, John","y":2006,"p":343,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-10-24","d":"2015-10-24","rev":"Didn't like this nearly as much as Old Man's War. Mostly because I didn't like the main character, nor the plot setup. What did work was Scalzi exploring a bit more of the world he's built, the conflicting views of the Colonial Union, the weird lives of the Special Forces. Fun speculative fiction. But the characters and the story really weren't strong enough to carry it through. Enjoyable enough, but IMHO not remarkable.
\n","w":73,"cv":"covers/239399.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"avg":4.12,"n":100929,"dist":[429,1847,16640,47942,34071],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Military Fiction","War","Space","Aliens","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Long Form","year":2009,"won":false}],"ol":"OL5734645W","wp":"The_Ghost_Brigades","isf":"180462"},{"id":51964,"t":"Old Man's War","sl":"old-mans-war","se":"Old Man's War","sn":"1","a":["John Scalzi"],"as":"Scalzi, John","y":2005,"p":355,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-10-08","d":"2015-10-08","rev":"Very enjoyable read, a humanistic space opera. Just the right mix of good characters, believable sci-fi, and a fun story. Not quite sure what the book was trying to say exactly, if anything, but it's quite enjoyable simply as a good story. Scalzi's skill at characterization is quite strong, I like the people in his book.
\n","w":56,"cv":"covers/51964.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":4.23,"n":234971,"dist":[2194,6254,31868,90270,104385],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","War","Military Fiction","Space","Fantasy","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Series (2026) and Nominee for Best Novel","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel and Best First Novel","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"Geffen Award","cat":"Best Translated Science Fiction Book","year":2007,"won":true}],"ol":"OL5734647W","wp":"Old_Man's_War","isf":"157782"},{"id":49255,"t":"Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-69","sl":"nothing-like-it-in-the-world","a":["Stephen E. Ambrose"],"as":"Ambrose, Stephen E.","y":2000,"p":432,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-09-24","d":"2015-09-24","rev":"Interesting history, with a lot of history and interpretation I knew nothing about. Particularly fascinated by the connection between the railroad construction and the end of the Civil War. And the meticulous detail on the corruption and bribery and outright theft conducted by the railroad companies. My main complaint was the book felt a bit repetitive in the middle, like I was reading the 15th vignette about the same construction problem or corrupt business practice. Which may be true to the facts, but it made the book a bit of a slog.
\n","w":92,"cv":"covers/49255.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":3.99,"n":14406,"dist":[200,694,3064,5545,4903],"g":["History","American History","Historical","Westerns","Business","Biography","Railways","19th Century"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL478570W","wp":"Nothing_Like_It_in_the_World"},{"id":6452798,"t":"Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety","sl":"command-and-control","a":["Eric Schlosser"],"as":"Schlosser, Eric","y":1848,"p":656,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-09-24","cv":"covers/6452798.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"ol":"OL16809886W","wp":"Command_and_Control_(book)"},{"id":816,"t":"Cryptonomicon","sl":"cryptonomicon","a":["Neal Stephenson"],"as":"Stephenson, Neal","y":1999,"p":1152,"r":1,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/816.avif","cw":280,"ch":465,"avg":4.23,"n":118694,"dist":[2022,4609,15571,38174,58318],"g":["Science Fiction","Historical Fiction","Cyberpunk","Thriller","Historical","War","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2000,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Hall of Fame Award","cat":null,"year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2000,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2000,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2000,"won":false}],"ol":"OL38494W","wp":"Cryptonomicon","isf":"19870"},{"id":4381,"t":"Fahrenheit 451","sl":"fahrenheit-451","se":"Fahrenheit 451","a":["Ray Bradbury"],"as":"Bradbury, Ray","y":1963,"p":158,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/4381.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.97,"n":3001860,"dist":[70491,171064,613622,1075697,1070986],"g":["Classics","Science Fiction","Dystopia","Literature","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Prometheus Hall of Fame Award","cat":null,"year":1984,"won":true},{"name":"Geffen Award","cat":"Best Translated SF Book","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"California Book Award","cat":"Fiction (Silver)","year":1953,"won":true},{"name":"Retro Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"AudioFile Earphones Award","cat":null,"year":null,"won":true}],"lang":"Spanish; Castilian","ol":"OL103123W","wp":"Fahrenheit_451","isf":"1972"},{"id":4981,"t":"Slaughterhouse-Five","sl":"slaughterhouse-five","a":["Kurt Vonnegut Jr."],"as":"Jr., Kurt Vonnegut","y":1969,"p":275,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/4981.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.1,"n":1531189,"dist":[35144,71566,250792,519023,654664],"g":["Classics","Science Fiction","Historical Fiction","War","Literature","Time Travel","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1970,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1969,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Fiction","year":1970,"won":true},{"name":"Chicago Publishers' Award","cat":null,"year":1970,"won":true}],"ol":"OL98459W","wp":"Slaughterhouse-Five","isf":"1191"},{"id":7332,"t":"The Silmarillion","sl":"the-silmarillion","se":"Middle Earth","sn":"0.5","a":["J.R.R. Tolkien","Christopher Tolkien","Ted Nasmith"],"as":"Tolkien, J.R.R.","y":1977,"p":386,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/7332.avif","cw":280,"ch":372,"avg":4.04,"n":350549,"dist":[7899,21778,66091,106032,148749],"g":["Fantasy","Classics","High Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Mythology","Literature","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":1978,"won":true},{"name":"Ditmar Award","cat":"Best International Long Fiction","year":1978,"won":true},{"name":"Gandalf Award","cat":"","year":1978,"won":true}],"ol":"OL27495W","wp":"The_Silmarillion","isf":"1214"},{"id":8909,"t":"The War of the Worlds","sl":"the-war-of-the-worlds","se":"War of the Worlds","sn":"1","a":["H.G. Wells","Arthur C. Clarke"],"as":"Wells, H.G.","y":1898,"p":192,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/8909.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.83,"n":362922,"dist":[5433,21835,98406,140582,96666],"g":["Classics","Science Fiction","Horror","Fantasy","Literature","Aliens"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL52114W","wp":"The_War_of_the_Worlds","isf":"895"},{"id":16690,"t":"The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress","sl":"the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress","a":["Robert A. Heinlein"],"as":"Heinlein, Robert A.","y":1966,"p":288,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/16690.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":4.15,"n":141976,"dist":[1949,5516,23625,49384,61502],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Fantasy","Politics","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1967,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1966,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Hall of Fame Award","cat":null,"year":1983,"won":true}],"ol":"OL59704W","wp":"The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress","isf":"1502"},{"id":18373,"t":"Flowers for Algernon","sl":"flowers-for-algernon","a":["Daniel Keyes"],"as":"Keyes, Daniel","y":1966,"p":311,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/18373.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"avg":4.25,"n":847780,"dist":[7600,25655,120647,288242,405636],"g":["Classics","Science Fiction","Young Adult","Psychology","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1967,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel (tie)","year":1966,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"All-Time Best Novel (36th in poll)","year":1975,"won":false}],"ol":"OL515754W","wp":"Flowers_for_Algernon","isf":"49838"},{"id":18490,"t":"Frankenstein","sl":"frankenstein","a":["Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley"],"as":"Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft","y":1818,"p":273,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/18490.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.92,"n":2011621,"dist":[48011,126874,442494,706807,687435],"g":["Classics","Horror","Science Fiction","Gothic","Fantasy","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL450063W","wp":"Frankenstein","isf":"9795"},{"id":60132,"t":"The Elric Saga Part I","sl":"the-elric-saga-part-i","se":"Elric Saga","sn":"1-3","a":["Michael Moorcock"],"as":"Moorcock, Michael","y":1984,"p":374,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/60132.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.09,"n":4831,"dist":[65,208,871,1747,1940],"g":["Fantasy","Sword and Sorcery","Epic Fantasy","Dark Fantasy","Science Fiction","Classics","Dark","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2697666W"},{"id":76620,"t":"Watership Down","sl":"watership-down","se":"Watership Down","sn":"1","a":["Richard Adams"],"as":"Adams, Richard","y":1972,"p":478,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/76620.avif","cw":280,"ch":280,"avg":4.1,"n":516053,"dist":[15829,24741,81993,164587,228903],"g":["Classics","Fantasy","Young Adult","Animals","Adventure","Childrens","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"","year":1975,"won":false},{"name":"Guardian Children's Fiction Prize","cat":null,"year":1973,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Best Male Narrator","year":2020,"won":false},{"name":"Boston Globe-Horn Book Award","cat":null,"year":1975,"won":true},{"name":"California Young Readers Medal","cat":"Young Adult","year":1977,"won":true},{"name":"Carnegie Medal","cat":null,"year":1972,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2096536W","wp":"Watership_Down","isf":"882"},{"id":76778,"t":"The Martian Chronicles","sl":"the-martian-chronicles","a":["Ray Bradbury","Michael Whelan"],"as":"Bradbury, Ray","y":1950,"p":182,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/76778.avif","cw":280,"ch":468,"avg":4.16,"n":294470,"dist":[3048,10466,49897,105329,125730],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Short Stories","Fantasy","Space","American","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Analog Award","cat":"All-Time Best Book","year":1952,"won":false}],"ol":"OL103134W","wp":"The_Martian_Chronicles","isf":"21571"},{"id":179033,"t":"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever","sl":"the-chronicles-of-thomas-covenant-the-unbeliever","se":"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever","sn":"1-3","a":["Stephen R. Donaldson"],"as":"Donaldson, Stephen R.","y":1977,"p":1160,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/179033.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":3.81,"n":15661,"dist":[975,1283,3016,4800,5587],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","Science Fiction","High Fantasy","Adventure","Epic","Classics","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel (1978) and Best All-Time Fantasy Novel (1987) and Best All-Time Fantasy Novel before 1990","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1978,"won":false},{"name":"Balrog Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1979,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel (August Derlith Fantasy Award)","year":1979,"won":true}],"ol":"OL257711W","isf":"25261"},{"id":228665,"t":"The Eye of the World","sl":"the-eye-of-the-world","se":"The Wheel of Time","sn":"1","a":["Robert Jordan"],"as":"Jordan, Robert","y":1990,"p":800,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/228665.avif","cw":280,"ch":457,"avg":4.19,"n":615177,"dist":[11126,22114,87634,211255,283048],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Adventure","Magic","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Book","year":1991,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Best Female Narrator","year":2023,"won":true}],"ol":"OL7924103W","wp":"The_Eye_of_the_World","isf":"1984"},{"id":248596,"t":"Something Wicked This Way Comes","sl":"something-wicked-this-way-comes","a":["Ray Bradbury"],"as":"Bradbury, Ray","y":1962,"p":293,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/248596.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL103194W","wp":"Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_(novel)","isf":"8151"},{"id":6316183,"t":"The Sword of Shannara Trilogy","sl":"the-sword-of-shannara-trilogy","se":"Shannara","sn":"1-3","a":["Terry Brooks"],"as":"Brooks, Terry","y":1979,"p":1200,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2015-08-20","cv":"covers/6316183.avif","cw":280,"ch":392,"avg":3.98,"n":25389,"dist":[758,1547,4985,8260,9839],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Adventure","Science Fiction","Magic","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL5683538W","wp":"The_Sword_of_Shannara_Trilogy"},{"id":6391377,"t":"Galileo's Dream","sl":"galileos-dream","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":2009,"p":578,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-08-10","cv":"covers/6391377.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19920227W","wp":"Galileo's_Dream","isf":"1003246"},{"id":23197269,"t":"Aurora","sl":"aurora","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":2015,"p":466,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-08-10","d":"2015-08-10","rev":"Oh I wanted to love this book. I did love this book, or at least the first half. But I fear Robinson ran out of plot for the second half, after the big crisis, and it finished pretty weakly. Still enjoyed it and would gladly read a sequel or even better, a second book from the perspective of other characters involved in the big crisis.
\nMild spoilers ahead.
\nThe good thing about the book is the generation ship story, a well worn sci-fi trope. (One of the first books I ever loved was Ben Bova's End of Exiles). I really like Robinson's spin on it, the pessimistic story, the idea that maybe our future is just going to go to shit. It's depressing reading but I think also very timely and relevant to where American culture is right now. I also liked it specifically as a counterpoint to his Utopianism in the Mars Trilogy. The first half of the book all the way to the Big Decision was just great, loved it.
\nBut then the Big Decision sort of takes all the humans out of the story. Robinson ends up having to invent a surprise cryogenic technology to even move the people where they need to go, and we get 50+ pages of narrative with effectively only the narrator as a character. And then the plot reaches its natural conclusion and just kind of peters out, whispers to a conclusion. The final 20 pages were particularly self-indulgent and while stylistically I get what he was aiming for, I don't think it worked.
\nSpeaking of style, Robinson also seems to be playing with narrative styles in his recent writing. I like the odd narrative voice in Shaman. I did not like the narrative style in Aurora though, the artifice that the book is written by the AI that runs the spaceship. There's a particularly clumsy section early on where the ship is being taught how to write and it's like 15 pages of awkward experimental prose that I could have done without. Overall it just fell a bit flat.
\nComplaints aside, there's a bunch of good stuff in the book, and I did like it.
\n","w":364,"cv":"covers/23197269.avif","cw":280,"ch":402,"avg":3.78,"n":28738,"dist":[717,2168,7112,11383,7358],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Space","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländisches Werk (Best Foreign Work)","year":2017,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"Dragon Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2016,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17346803W","wp":"Aurora_(novel)","isf":"1862882"},{"id":25137060,"t":"Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men","sl":"not-gay","a":["Jane Ward"],"as":"Ward, Jane","y":2015,"p":240,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-08-05","cv":"covers/25137060.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"q":1,"ol":"OL19779968W","wp":"Not_Gay"},{"id":6943146,"t":"Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India","sl":"nine-lives","a":["William Dalrymple"],"as":"Dalrymple, William","y":2009,"p":284,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-07-31","d":"2015-07-31","rev":"Absolutely loved this book, read it up in just a few days. A very engaging set of personal stories of different expressions of religion in India. Dalrymple is an amazing writer, both deeply knowledgable and able to convey intimate personal details. And bridge Indian culture to Westerners, in a way that's respectful and not pandering. That approach is particularly valuable when treating the diversity of religion in India, doubly so given the rather florid versions Dalrymple focuses on.
\nAnd such crazy diversity. I knew about Sufis of course, but not the Baul nor the tantric practices at Tarapith. Most of the stories he tells are quite foreign but also positive, holy men and women who have found fulfillment in whatever ascetic or exuberant religious tradition they have adopted. Frankly I find that kind of life incomprehensible and I thank Dalrymple for helping me understand a bit what it is like. Then there's the chapter on the life of a temple prostitute, a woman who is living a terribly miserable life. She too has dignity and her story is told well, but a poignant counterpoint to some of the other stories.
\nAll in all just an excellent book. Also I enjoyed reading this much better than Dalrymple's other book City of Djinns, that one never quite grabbed me. Nine Lives totally engaged me and I just wish he'd write three more books exactly like it!
\n","w":234,"cv":"covers/6943146.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":4.07,"n":8855,"dist":[91,274,1577,3870,3043],"g":["India","Travel","Religion","History","Spirituality","Asia","Biography","Indian Literature","Short Stories"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Ryszard Kapuściński Prize","cat":"","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction","cat":"Longlist","year":2010,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16601002W","wp":"Nine_Lives:_In_Search_of_the_Sacred_in_Modern_India"},{"id":960493,"t":"Descent into Hell","sl":"descent-into-hell","a":["Charles Williams"],"as":"Williams, Charles","y":1937,"p":220,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-07-27","cv":"covers/960493.avif","cw":280,"ch":405,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1155799W","wp":"Descent_into_Hell_(novel)","isf":"3495"},{"id":218487830,"t":"War in Heaven","sl":"war-in-heaven","a":["Charles Williams"],"as":"Williams, Charles","y":1930,"p":256,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-07-27","cv":"covers/218487830.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1155806W","wp":"War_in_Heaven_(novel)","isf":"896"},{"id":13184491,"t":"Avogadro Corp","sl":"avogadro-corp","se":"Singularity","sn":"1","a":["William Hertling"],"as":"Hertling, William","y":2011,"p":300,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-07-19","d":"2015-07-19","rev":"Enjoyable enough singularity story, fun to read the details of how it plays out. But not very innovative or creative. The prose is terribly wooden, as are the characters. Amusing though, I'm glad I read it.
\n","w":36,"cv":"covers/13184491.avif","cw":250,"ch":375,"avg":3.83,"n":6404,"dist":[142,427,1560,2504,1771],"g":["Science Fiction","Artificial Intelligence","Thriller","Cyberpunk","Singularity","Near Future"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL16798821W"},{"id":22749719,"t":"Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War","sl":"ghost-fleet","a":["P.W. Singer","August Cole"],"as":"Singer, P.W.","y":2015,"p":404,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-07-15","d":"2015-07-15","rev":"Enjoyable summer reading, silly war near-future fiction. Slightly better written than Tom Clancy, albeit with characters that are no more nuanced. Better plotting though, and a little better sci-fi. Fun read if you don't take it too seriously.
\nMy frustration is this novel comes in the same sort jingoistic war porn that the TV show 24, the movie Red Dawn, or the Tom Clancy novels come from. The Chinese villains are even more two dimensional than the American heroes. It's 100% a story for ra-ra military excitement. I enjoy that kind of entertainment, but am conflicted about it. A guilty pleasure.
\nUnfortunately the book takes itself way too seriously. Particularly the presence of footnotes. While it's interesting that the authors tried to source some of their ideas it creates the false impression that this book is somehow a guide to what a future war would actually look like. And therefore what the US should do right now to prepare for the coming war with China.
\nThe authors say their goal was to create a book "where you can read it at the beach, but with the research to show how real it all is". Taken at face value, that makes this book dangerous propaganda.
\n(Also a bunch of the plot events are not actually plausible. For instance, rare earth metals are not particularly rare, there's no way China could corner the world market on them. We know this because an attempt failed in 2012 for entirely predictable reasons. Or randomly elsewhere, the book has a pilot taking his plane in a slight descent "to become weightless", which gives him a big burst of speed because "acceleration is thrust times weight". Um, that's not how inertia works. I don't normally poke holes like this in a fiction book, why bother? But this book is pretending to have some sort of grounding in plausible truth, so the technical errors are relevant.)
\nFun book, I just hate that people will take it seriously.
\n","w":330,"cv":"covers/22749719.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.76,"n":12347,"dist":[332,1012,3282,4416,3305],"g":["Military Fiction","Science Fiction","Thriller","War","China","Technology","Historical Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20003047W"},{"id":18007564,"t":"The Martian","sl":"the-martian","a":["Andy Weir"],"as":"Weir, Andy","y":2011,"p":369,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-07-07","d":"2015-07-07","rev":"What a fun book! Science fiction that doesn't feel too dumb, and lots of fun problem solving. The narrative style bugged me at first but I really warmed to it as the book went on. Can't wait to see the film.
\nEdit: saw the film, not as good as the book. The movie doesn't capture the fun science in the first half, perhaps monitoring gas concentrations doesn't make for good cinema. The rescue scene at the end was great though.
\nEdit 2: needed a delicious snack, so I re-read the book. Finished in like three days. So much fun to read! It really is a perfect book in so many ways. Not the perfect book, it's missing so many things in its focus on one person's diary-style story. But for that it's really fantastic. There's a lot of complex writing going on here too. The overriding castaway survival story, of course. But then the bits of humor and other characterization that flesh Watney out as a character. And this time I noticed how many other characters there really are in the book. The relationships between the folks in Mission Control, the rest of Watney's crew, there's more there than I initially gave the book credit for.
\nWe should all aspire to such a successful self published first novel.
\n","w":218,"cv":"covers/18007564.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.42,"n":1385891,"dist":[10842,26044,122097,439221,787687],"g":["Science Fiction","Space","Adventure","Thriller","Survival"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländisches Werk","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"ITW Thriller Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera (Best Foreign Novel)","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"本屋大賞","cat":"Translated Fiction","year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction & Nominee for Debut Goodreads Author (2014) and Nominee for Best of the Best ","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Green Mountain Book Award","cat":"","year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2015,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17091839W","wp":"The_Martian_(Weir_novel)","isf":"1678924"},{"id":6881685,"t":"Bitter Seeds","sl":"bitter-seeds","se":"The Milkweed Triptych","sn":"1","a":["Ian Tregillis"],"as":"Tregillis, Ian","y":2010,"p":352,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-07-04","d":"2015-07-04","rev":"Fun book. I like alternate history, and "what if supernatural powers altered the course of WW2" is an excellent premise. Some of the details of the powers were a little too much like the TV shows Heroes or Agents of SHIELD, but that didn't bother me too much. What I really liked was the unusual narrative structure. The main characters are intensely dislikable and one of our heroes is really quite a terrible person. And then the whole narrative is really propelled by the actions of one of the bad guys. Actions were are explained well enough but not offered motivation, so that discovering the motivations becomes the central mystery of the story. It's smart writing.
\n","w":116,"cv":"covers/6881685.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.75,"n":6789,"dist":[116,495,1821,2878,1479],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Alternate History","Historical Fiction","Horror","Historical","Urban Fantasy","War","Steampunk"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17822827W","isf":"1098173"},{"id":18629,"t":"Excession","sl":"excession","se":"Culture","sn":"5","a":["Iain M. Banks"],"as":"Banks, Iain M.","y":1996,"p":451,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-06-22","d":"2015-06-22","rev":"Tedious, barely managed to finish it. Confusing plot. Impossible to follow characters with names like "Frank Exchange Of Views", "Byr Genar-Hofoen", and "Killing Time". (Exception: "Meatfucker", a name which is both evocative and well explained in the book.) Also the characters themselves are terrible. The Minds are free of needing to be nuanced of course, by virtue of being AI, but the human characters are equally unappealing and unsympathetic. And then there's some elaborate space opera plot woven through multiple chapters with shifting viewpoints, a technique I find increasingly tiresome but am willing to go along with.. If the narrative holds together, which this didn't particularly. No particular payoff at the end either. (Spoiler: the Big Bad turns out to be just a McGuffin.)
\nI didn't much care for Player of Games, either. I think that may be it for me and Culture novels.
\n","w":144,"cv":"covers/18629.avif","cw":280,"ch":448,"avg":4.19,"n":35793,"dist":[307,1163,5608,12906,15809],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Cultural","Fantasy","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländisches Werk (Best Foreign Work)","year":1998,"won":true},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1996,"won":true},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera (Best Foreign Novel)","year":2005,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel (August Derlith Fantasy Award)","year":1997,"won":false}],"ol":"OL8368435W","wp":"Excession","isf":"6886"},{"id":22608106,"t":"Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles","sl":"water-to-the-angels","a":["Les Standiford"],"as":"Standiford, Les","y":2015,"p":360,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-05-27","d":"2015-05-27","rev":"I enjoyed the book, but wish it was a bit more critical. It's a great description of an era in the growth of California where a single Great Man really could move mountains, or rivers at least, and guarantee the water supply Los Angeles needed to become a real city instead of a dusty desert town. Standiford is clearly an admirer of Mullholland and his accomplishments, in defiance of ongoing environmental criticism of the use of the Owens Valley water in LA. I have no problem with that stance. But at times it felt like the author was so busy protecting Mullholland's memory he didn't investigate enough things that might have been negative or critical. Particularly the crazy conflict-of-interesting dealings with Eaton and, to some extent, Lippincourt. There's a fascinating story there about how business was done in this era and I felt Standiford avoided what could have been an interesting story in his attempt to lionize Mullholland. Still definitely worth a read, it's well researched and pleasantly readable. Interesting moment of California history.
\n","w":174,"cv":"covers/22608106.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":3.86,"n":927,"dist":[13,45,221,427,221],"g":["History","Biography","American History","Politics","Science","Environment","Westerns","Urban"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL19995271W"},{"id":433243,"t":"Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology","sl":"laud-humphreys","a":["John F. Galliher","Wayne Brekhus","Wayne H. Brekhus","David P. Keys"],"as":"Galliher, John F.","y":2004,"p":224,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-04-17","d":"2015-04-17","rev":"Interesting book, but only of interest to folks wanting inside baseball on sociology and research ethics. Or my oddball interest, which was reading Tearoom Trade as a gay document. It's a reasonably thorough and fair treatment of Humphrey's career, I'm grateful it was written.
\n","w":44,"cv":"covers/433243.avif","cw":128,"ch":182,"avg":3.17,"n":12,"dist":[1,2,4,4,1],"q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Biography","year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL23883695W"},{"id":7082,"t":"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?","sl":"do-androids-dream-of-electric-sheep","se":"Blade Runner","a":["Philip K. Dick","Roger Zelazny"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1968,"p":244,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-04-11","d":"2015-04-11","rev":"Just re-read this for probably the third time, still love the book. Although I did knock my review down from 5 stars to 4. Still an excellent novel, but on re-reading it's got too many clumsy moments to be perfect.
\nWhat I love about this story is the horror of the disassociation, the idea that you can't really tell if something is human or android, animal or machine. Deckard's inability to read the people around him, to be at ease with other people. To murder other people, albeit android people. This theme really hits home in the alternate police station chapters with their own murderous bounty hunter. The whole funhouse mirror feeling, the danger. Part of the general theme of schizophrenia that tragically suffuses all of Dick's writing. It's upsetting but also he's an amazing writer in conveying it so forcefully.
\nI also love the theme of Mercerism, the empathy religion with its suffering saint. It's a profound and creepy take on Christianity. Also an interesting trope in a sci-fi novel. It's boggling to me how it was left out of the movie entirely, although I suppose that was a good and necessary decision for brevity. (Mercerism makes a cameo in the film Her.) It's just such an odd theme for the book, takes it from being a two fisted tale of bounty hunters to some morose meditation on humanity. Particularly the ending with Deckard's own experience as Mercer. I still don't know what that really means, but the emotion was profound.
\nReading this closely again I had to look for all the clues and sadly, I don't think Dick intended Deckard to be read as a replicant. He explicitly talks about how he can use the Empathy Box, fuse with Mercer, and that's a knowledge not available to androids. Doesn't really matter, the horrors of unbalance and unreality and not knowing what is human and what is android is strongly wrapped through the book. Just funny after so many nerd fights about the movie that the book is fairly clear.
\nI'd love to see someone turn this book into a movie. Blade Runner is a fantastic film but only briefly borrows some elements from the story and setting. I'd love to see a screenplay that hews closely to the novel. It'd be difficult to make in the shadow of Blade Runner. Maybe make it rotoscoped in the style of Linklater's Scanner Darkly, to emphasize the shifting unreality? I hated that style honestly, it gave me a headache, but it might be the cinematographic tool you'd need to make a fresh film. And convey the disease of the novel.
\n(As a postscript, I recently tracked down a copy of "The Little Black Box", the short story Dick wrote about Mercerism before this book. It was interesting enough but not very well developed. Still, interesting to see the author develop the idea.)
\n","w":481,"cv":"covers/7082.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":4.09,"n":536551,"dist":[4488,18442,97863,220798,194960],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Dystopia","Cyberpunk","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1968,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2172356W","wp":"Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep?","isf":"2103"},{"id":1128434,"t":"The Last Wish","sl":"the-last-wish","se":"The Witcher","sn":"0.5","a":["Andrzej Sapkowski","Danusia Stok","Peter Kenny"],"as":"Sapkowski, Andrzej","y":1993,"p":384,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-04-10","cv":"covers/1128434.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2577482W","wp":"The_Last_Wish","isf":"1297617"},{"id":1,"t":"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince","sl":"harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince","se":"Harry Potter","sn":"6","a":["J.K. Rowling"],"as":"Rowling, J.K.","y":2005,"p":652,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2015-04-05","cv":"covers/1.avif","cw":280,"ch":478,"avg":4.58,"n":3788800,"dist":[20976,40478,250248,890927,2586171],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Harry Potter","Magic","Childrens","Adventure","Middle Grade","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Young Adult Novel","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Audiobook of the Year","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"The Quill Award","cat":"Book of the Year","year":2005,"won":true}],"ol":"OL8531478W","wp":"Harry_Potter_and_the_Half-Blood_Prince","isf":"170655"},{"id":2,"t":"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix","sl":"harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix","se":"Harry Potter","sn":"5","a":["J.K. Rowling","Mary GrandPré"],"as":"Rowling, J.K.","y":2003,"p":576,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-04-05","cv":"covers/2.avif","cw":280,"ch":330,"avg":4.5,"n":3939071,"dist":[25858,58980,338888,999007,2516338],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Harry Potter","Magic","Childrens","Adventure","Middle Grade","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Bram Stoker Award","cat":"Works for Young Readers","year":2003,"won":true},{"name":"Anthony Award","cat":"Young Adult","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Children's Literature","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Audiobook of the Year","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards","cat":"Older Readers","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award","cat":"","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"Golden Archer Award","cat":"Middle/Junior High","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis","cat":"Preis der Jugendjury","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"Carnegie Medal","cat":null,"year":2003,"won":false}],"ol":"OL31555658W","wp":"Harry_Potter_and_the_Order_of_the_Phoenix","isf":"19767"},{"id":5,"t":"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban","sl":"harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban","se":"Harry Potter","sn":"3","a":["J.K. Rowling","Mary GrandPré"],"as":"Rowling, J.K.","y":1999,"p":547,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2015-04-05","cv":"covers/5.avif","cw":280,"ch":459,"avg":4.58,"n":5063929,"dist":[31595,48827,341289,1167319,3474899],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Harry Potter","Magic","Childrens","Middle Grade","Adventure","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Bram Stoker Award","cat":"Best Work for Young Readers","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2000,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2000,"won":true},{"name":"Whitbread Award","cat":"Children's Book of the Year","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Children's Literature","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards","cat":"Older Readers","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award","cat":"","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Maine Student Book Award","cat":"","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Golden Archer Award","cat":"Intermediate","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Indian Paintbrush Book Award","cat":"","year":2004,"won":true},{"name":"Soaring Eagle Book Award","cat":"","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"Hotze de Roosprijs","cat":"","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Nestlé Smarties Book Prize","cat":"9–11 years","year":1999,"won":true}],"ol":"OL82536W","wp":"Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban","isf":"19765"},{"id":6,"t":"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire","sl":"harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire","se":"Harry Potter","sn":"4","a":["J.K. Rowling","Mary GrandPré"],"as":"Rowling, J.K.","y":2000,"p":734,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-04-05","cv":"covers/6.avif","cw":280,"ch":409,"avg":4.57,"n":4366113,"dist":[25935,44905,301361,1056152,2937760],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Harry Potter","Magic","Childrens","Middle Grade","Adventure","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Children's Literature","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Publieksprijs voor het Nederlandse Boek","cat":null,"year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Solo Narration - Male","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA)","cat":"Younger Readers","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Golden Archer Award","cat":"Middle/Junior High","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"Indian Paintbrush Book Award","cat":"","year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"Deutscher Buchpreis (German Book Prize)","cat":"Publikumspreis","year":null,"won":true},{"name":"Corine Internationaler Buchpreis","cat":"Kinder- und Jugendbuch","year":2001,"won":true}],"ol":"OL82560W","wp":"Harry_Potter_and_the_Goblet_of_Fire","isf":"19766"},{"id":15881,"t":"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets","sl":"harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets","se":"Harry Potter","sn":"2","a":["J.K. Rowling","Mary GrandPré"],"as":"Rowling, J.K.","y":1998,"p":341,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-04-05","cv":"covers/15881.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.43,"n":4684308,"dist":[29643,84630,503778,1304112,2762145],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Harry Potter","Magic","Childrens","Middle Grade","Adventure","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Mythopoeic Fantasy Award","cat":"Children's Literature","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"British Book Award","cat":null,"year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Prijs van de Jonge Jury","cat":null,"year":2002,"won":true},{"name":"Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards","cat":"Older Readers","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award","cat":"","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Golden Archer Award","cat":"Middle/Junior High","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Nestlé Smarties Book Prize","cat":"9–11 years","year":1998,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Euskadi de Literatura","cat":"Traduccion","year":2002,"won":true}],"ol":"OL82537W","wp":"Harry_Potter_and_the_Chamber_of_Secrets","isf":"19764"},{"id":136251,"t":"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows","sl":"harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows","se":"Harry Potter","sn":"7","a":["J.K. Rowling"],"as":"Rowling, J.K.","y":2007,"p":759,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2015-04-05","cv":"covers/136251.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.62,"n":4243483,"dist":[34830,48522,236897,840047,3083187],"g":["Fantasy","Young Adult","Harry Potter","Magic","Childrens","Adventure","Middle Grade","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Young Adult Novel","year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Odyssey Award","cat":"","year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards","cat":"Older Readers","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Teen Read Award","cat":"Best All-Time-Fave","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Puddly Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Andre Norton Award","cat":"","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Carnegie Medal","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":false}],"ol":"OL82586W","wp":"Harry_Potter_and_the_Deathly_Hallows","isf":"231461"},{"id":124430,"t":"City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi","sl":"city-of-djinns","a":["William Dalrymple","Olivia Fraser"],"as":"Dalrymple, William","y":1993,"p":350,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-04-02","d":"2015-04-02","rev":"Read this along with a trip to India. Or tried to, it took three goes to finish. I liked the book and am hugely impressed with Dalrymple's scholarship, but the writing is a bit uneven. Parts are an amusing travelogue, parts are a slightly tedious recitation of history, and the whole doesn't quite hold together for me. Also was a bit bugged by the way he was channelling Mark Twain's "Tramp Abroad" in some of his amusing anecdotes about the natives. Overall it should be a fantastic book, Dalrymple's knowledge and intelligence makes for a unique and compelling perspective. But somehow it just didn't quite get there for me.
\n","w":109,"cv":"covers/124430.avif","cw":280,"ch":468,"avg":4.13,"n":13697,"dist":[154,397,2121,5817,5208],"g":["India","Travel","History","Memoir","Travelogue","Asia","Indian Literature","Historical","Cities"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Thomas Cook Travel Book Award","cat":null,"year":1994,"won":true},{"name":"Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award","cat":null,"year":1994,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2322470W","wp":"City_of_Djinns"},{"id":40364,"t":"The Martians","sl":"the-martians","se":"Mars Trilogy","sn":"3.5","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":1999,"p":434,"sh":"to-read","d":"2015-03-31","cv":"covers/40364.avif","cw":269,"ch":475,"avg":3.6,"n":2374,"dist":[50,196,836,855,437],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Collections","Speculative Fiction","Space","Hard Science Fiction","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2000,"won":true}],"ol":"OL81669W","isf":"38877"},{"id":18512006,"t":"In Bed with Gore Vidal","sl":"in-bed-with-gore-vidal","a":["Tim Teeman"],"as":"Teeman, Tim","y":2013,"p":296,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-03-17","d":"2015-03-17","rev":"I've been fascinated by Gore Vidal. Not his own writing but him as a persona, a public intellectual. Particularly one with heterodox opinions on homosexuality.
\nThis book starts out as a sort of trashy expose on Vidal's sex life and personal relationships. (The big revelations are that he liked to pay young men for sex and that he claimed to be a total top; not so shocking, but amusing enough.) This part of the book is really poorly written and edited. Page after page of meandering paragraphs, each paragraph often containing two or three unrelated anecdotes strung together as non-sequiturs. Each little story is interesting enough but they don't come together coherently.
\nSurprisingly, the book gets a lot stronger when it moves past the gossip-rag stuff in to Vidal's conception of himself and homosexuality. Both his own personal life and his public writing and speaking about homosexuality. Vidal's a complicated man, and apparently somewhat of a miserable self-loathing man, and Teeman brings this out with insight and compassion. Even the parts where Vidal has degenerated into foul drunkenness, the author finds interesting and sympathetic things to say.
\nTotally worth a read if you want to know more about Vidal or are fascinated by this pre-gay-lib version of the public homosexual. Just bring some patience for a book that doesn't quite hold together.
\n","w":222,"cv":"covers/18512006.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.5,"n":237,"dist":[12,24,81,73,47],"g":["Biography","LGBT","Gay","Biography Memoir","Sexuality","History","Essays","Queer"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Memoir/Biography","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19975097W"},{"id":872586,"t":"The Crucible of Time","sl":"the-crucible-of-time","a":["John Brunner"],"as":"Brunner, John","y":1983,"p":304,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-02-26","d":"2015-02-26","rev":"Very compelling read. I like the basic theme of the inevitable march of scientific progress, the struggle of visionaries against circumstance and ignorant people. It's a good story, a race doomed to extinction by the bad luck of their planet being in the path of meteors. The repetition of events through different generations got a bit much, I think the book could have been 20% shorter without losing anything. But as a nice allegory to humans sticking their head in their sand about environmental disaster, it's good.
\nOne side theme I really liked; the idea that the people in the book have periods of mass insanity. Brought on by famine, or deliberate fasting, or occasionally the pheromones of other insane people. A more explicit cause for a society acting insanely, I like that it was such a binary off/on thing. If only humanity were so simple.
\n","w":146,"cv":"covers/872586.avif","cw":280,"ch":403,"avg":3.72,"n":1241,"dist":[35,100,324,496,286],"g":["Science Fiction","Time Travel","Fantasy","Aliens","Speculative Fiction","Hard Science Fiction","Adventure","Solarpunk"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20894029W","wp":"The_Crucible_of_Time","isf":"2185"},{"id":156783,"t":"Axiomatic","sl":"axiomatic","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":1995,"p":293,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-02-18","d":"2015-02-18","rev":"Enjoyable read, I'd say about 1/3 of the stories were actually pretty good. Strange to read Egan's high concept SF reduced to short stories. It doesn't work as well as I'd think, too often they come across as gimmicks. The stories that work best are the ones that build emotional connection, particularly the two concerning the Ndoli device (a jewel that replaces the brain as the home of consciousness).
\n","w":69,"cv":"covers/156783.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.26,"n":6876,"dist":[52,146,938,2592,3148],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Speculative Fiction","Anthologies","Hard Science Fiction","Philosophy","Short Story Collection"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection (1996) and","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Nouvelle étrangère","year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Antología","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus for Mejor Cuento Extranjero for \"Aprendiendo a ser yo\"","cat":null,"year":2007,"won":true}],"ol":"OL115333W","wp":"Axiomatic_(short_story_collection)","isf":"36852"},{"id":174501,"t":"India: A History","sl":"india","a":["John Keay"],"as":"Keay, John","y":2000,"p":578,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2015-02-01","d":"2015-02-01","rev":"Hate to be so negative, but I only managed a third of the book before I totally lost interest and quit. Bought this to read ahead of a trip to India. It started off strong and I'm glad I read the section on Ashoka. But then it got deep in the weeds of the details of specific princes who are only remembered for one specific thing. Too much detail, not enough story. In retrospect I probably wanted the 200 page history of India, not the 600 page one.
\n","w":88,"cv":"covers/174501.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.92,"n":4192,"dist":[85,201,936,1721,1249],"g":["History","India","Asia","World History","Indian Literature","Ancient History","Historical","Politics","Travel"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL114575W"},{"id":156784,"t":"Permutation City","sl":"permutation-city","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":1994,"p":341,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-11-25","d":"2014-11-25","rev":"Enjoyable, thoughtful exploration of the existential dread of being able to upload your consciousness to a computer. What does it mean to copy your soul? To run that copy slower than real time, or faster? What happens to society? It's a great theme and Egan has a very thoughtful treatment of it.
\nThe part of the book that didn't work for me was the somewhat mystical explanation for a transcendetal computer, a machine with effectively infinite computing power. I'm OK just accepting that device to let the rest of the story be told, but he spends a lot of pages and character on trying to explain how it comes to be. And it just made no sense to me, I never did understand it. Maybe that's me.
\nReasonably good characters, although the first 100 pages I was having a hard time keeping them straight. Good plotting and narrative structure. Overall quite an enjoyable book.
\n","w":154,"cv":"covers/156784.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"avg":4.04,"n":14019,"dist":[201,663,2694,5273,5188],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Hard Science Fiction","Philosophy","Artificial Intelligence","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1995,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bester ausländischer SF-Roman","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1994,"won":false},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":"","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"","year":1995,"won":true},{"name":"Ditmar Award","cat":"Best Australian Long Fiction","year":1995,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera","year":1999,"won":false}],"ol":"OL115336W","wp":"Permutation_City","isf":"1398"},{"id":349429,"t":"South Sea Tales (Modern Library Classics)","sl":"south-sea-tales-modern-library-classics","a":["Jack London","Tony Horwitz","Christopher Gair"],"as":"London, Jack","y":1911,"p":384,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-11-14","d":"2014-11-14","rev":"Entertaining and lively prose, but fraught with inaccuracies and troubling historical attitudes.
\nFrom start to finish the trouble here is London's portrayal of whites enslaving Melanesians. His stories lend his sympathies evenly to all men, with the islanders having dignity and some of the whites being horrible brutes. But he still falls into the trap of portraying the islanders as Noble Savages. Or good servants, particularly troubling in the story The Heathen. I should be generous and say London was a man of his time but we look to fiction like this to elevate, to give insight, and I don't think London did.
\nThe story that I liked best was The Seed of McCoy. Mostly because it doesn't revolve around the blackbirding slave trade. It's a straight-up two fisted tail of adventure on the High Seas, and very well written for that. His writing is so clean and smooth too, words honed for the craft.
\nAlso troubled by inaccuracy, because we look to writing from 100 years ago for insight into its time. But Jack London never went to the South Pacific, so all these stories are secondhand. I think that's part of why his portrayal of islanders is so frustrating. Also I got stuck particularly on "Mauki"; a central plot point is the geography of Lord Howe Island, how it's flat and with no bush to hide. Only Lord Howe is a mountainous island, with plenty of bush. It's a tiny point, just change the island name and the story works, but it irritated me and made me wonder what else was inaccurate.
\n","w":264,"cv":"covers/349429.avif","cw":280,"ch":363,"avg":3.81,"n":2695,"dist":[46,179,729,1036,705],"g":["Classics","Short Stories","Adventure","Historical Fiction","Travel","American","Literature","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL74500W","wp":"South_Sea_Tales_(London_collection)"},{"id":333867,"t":"The Stars My Destination","sl":"the-stars-my-destination","a":["Alfred Bester"],"as":"Bester, Alfred","y":1956,"p":258,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-11-07","d":"2014-11-07","rev":"I did not like this book. I'd give it 1 star but I did manage to finish it, and there are some neat ideas.
\nWhat I hate is the plotting. I could barely follow the book. Also hated the characters. Gully Foyle is annoying and confusing. Maybe the book makes more sense if you think of him as not even human? The switch to Fourmyle was really weird to me, the idea he's living a secret identity using the very name his enemies had imprinted on him. I picked that up the moment it was introduced but Bester saves it for the Big Reveal 100 pages later. Grr.
\nIt is classic sci-fi though, and there are some good things. I like sci-fi focussed more on human potential than technological. I also see bits of Gilliam's Brazil in here, not to mention a bunch of PK Dick style paranoia. Only I've got that reversed, Bester comes first, so credit to him for laying the groundwork for sci-fi that I do like.
\n","w":170,"cv":"covers/333867.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":4.05,"n":57067,"dist":[933,2911,10757,20237,22229],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Cyberpunk","Space Opera","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Prometheus Hall of Fame Award","cat":null,"year":1988,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1819353W","wp":"The_Stars_My_Destination","isf":"1117"},{"id":1971304,"t":"City of Thieves","sl":"city-of-thieves","a":["David Benioff"],"as":"Benioff, David","y":2008,"p":258,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-11-07","cv":"covers/1971304.avif","cw":280,"ch":444,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL5730339W","wp":"City_of_Thieves_(novel)"},{"id":12011053,"t":"The Book of Drugs: A Memoir","sl":"the-book-of-drugs","a":["Mike Doughty"],"as":"Doughty, Mike","y":2012,"p":256,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-10-28","d":"2014-10-28","rev":"Good read, of interest if you want an honest book written by a nerdy arty former addict rock star. Or are particularly interested in Mike Doughty and Soul Coughing. It's not a very well structured book; each paragraph is clear and coherent but the only overall narrative is the author's life itself. Some of the anecdotes were uninteresting to me but the middle part as his band gets successful and he stats fucking up with drugs, that part was really compelling and great. All written with a clear honesty. I particularly like that I finished the book having some negative judgments about parts of the way he describes his life, but also admiring his honesty and being able to clean up. I read this because I myself am a fan of Doughty, so that was enough for me, but I got more out of the book than just a memoir from someone whose music I like.
\n","w":156,"cv":"covers/12011053.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":3.63,"n":1628,"dist":[29,165,501,610,323],"g":["Memoir","Music","Biography","Addiction","Biography Memoir","Drugs","Cultural"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL15952181W","wp":"The_Book_of_Drugs"},{"id":18999,"t":"Smiley's People","sl":"smileys-people","se":"George Smiley, #7; Karla Trilogy","sn":"3","a":["John le Carré"],"as":"Carré, John le","y":1979,"p":397,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-10-23","d":"2014-10-23","rev":"I am jealously hoarding the le Carré novels, for his lifetime for writing more is shorter than my lifetime for reading what he writes. But I finally read this one, motivated by enjoying the new season of the TV show Homeland and wanting to read a more nuanced spy novel.
\nSo lovely, what a wonderfully humble meditation. I love the narrative device, of Smiley's own investigation and his chapter-by-chapter visiting of old friends. Also the complete lack of mythologizing of Smiley himself. Particularly his miserable life with Ann, written with such empathy. It's all just a sort of writing and tone you can't find in most modern storytelling. Great actual story too, with nothing really happening so much as trace facts being discovered. Excellent book.
\n","w":125,"cv":"covers/18999.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.3,"n":43325,"dist":[363,855,5447,15620,21040],"g":["Espionage","Thriller","Mystery","Spy Thriller","Mystery Thriller","Suspense","Crime"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":1980,"won":false}],"ol":"OL15723133W","wp":"Smiley's_People"},{"id":414999,"t":"Childhood’s End","sl":"childhoods-end","a":["Arthur C. Clarke"],"as":"Clarke, Arthur C.","y":1953,"p":224,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-10-16","d":"2014-10-16","rev":"A pleasant and thoughtful sci-fi book, although it feels a bit dated now. I particularly liked the Singularity theme, also the mystery of the benevolent invading aliens. Clarke gets a bit preachy at times, clumsily explaining his particular world building or grinding some political ax. But it's never more than a few pages and balanced by his curiously empathetic male protagonists. A nice light read.
\n","w":65,"cv":"covers/414999.avif","cw":280,"ch":467,"avg":4.12,"n":179126,"dist":[1784,6287,31604,68163,71288],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Dystopia","Aliens","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Retro Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17415W","wp":"Childhood's_End","isf":"2248"},{"id":222093,"t":"City","sl":"city","a":["Clifford D. Simak"],"as":"Simak, Clifford D.","y":1952,"p":251,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-10-06","d":"2014-10-06","rev":"A lovely and meditative series of short stories, about evolution and culture and man's fundamental nature. Presages some popular modern sci-fi themes, particularly The Singularity. The prose is a bit dated, not to mention the science (animals walking on the surface of Jupiter!) but that just lends to the charm, and the themes of the book carry through. It reminds me in some ways of Cloud Atlas, the series of interlocking stories, it would be lovely to see a similar film treatment.
\n","w":82,"cv":"covers/222093.avif","cw":280,"ch":476,"avg":4.07,"n":19653,"dist":[325,905,3610,6983,7830],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Fantasy","Classics","Speculative Fiction","Dystopia","Animals","Dogs"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"International Fantasy Award","cat":"Fiction","year":1953,"won":true}],"ol":"OL4088358W","wp":"City_(novel)","isf":"23788"},{"id":45244,"t":"Judas Unchained","sl":"judas-unchained","se":"Commonwealth Saga","sn":"2","a":["Peter F. Hamilton","Marta García Martínez"],"as":"Hamilton, Peter F.","y":2005,"p":827,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-09-30","d":"2014-09-30","rev":"I read this back to back with Pandora's Star. The first book is better, it contains most of the world building and fun hard sci-fi. Half of this book is consumed to a detective story, Hunting the Bad Guy, only the book fails at the detective story trick of dangling the clues out to the reader to keep them interested. Also too much emphasis on the soap opera side of space opera in this book, all the silly characters running into each other and squabbling and coupling and blah blah. Very tedious. The core plot itself, the main story, was engaging and fun and certainly held my attention. But I could have done with 300 pages instead of 1200.
\n","w":119,"cv":"covers/45244.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":4.3,"n":41460,"dist":[328,963,4963,14978,20228],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Aliens","Space","Epic","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL474023W","isf":"180477"},{"id":4517,"t":"The Ruby in Her Navel","sl":"the-ruby-in-her-navel","a":["Barry Unsworth"],"as":"Unsworth, Barry","y":2006,"p":416,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-09-21","cv":"covers/4517.avif","cw":280,"ch":405,"avg":3.43,"n":885,"dist":[35,112,313,289,136],"g":["Historical Fiction","Italy","Historical","Medieval","Literature","Romance","Mystery","12th Century","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"Longlist","year":2006,"won":false}],"ol":"OL452765W","wp":"The_Ruby_in_Her_Navel"},{"id":23012669,"t":"Annihilator","sl":"annihilator","a":["Grant Morrison","Frazer Irving","Jared K. Fletcher"],"as":"Morrison, Grant","y":2015,"p":224,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-09-10","cv":"covers/23012669.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"ol":"OL20010487W"},{"id":45252,"t":"Pandora's Star","sl":"pandoras-star","se":"Commonwealth Saga","sn":"1","a":["Peter F. Hamilton","Marta García Martínez"],"as":"Hamilton, Peter F.","y":2004,"p":768,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-09-06","d":"2014-09-06","rev":"Very smart sci-fi with lots of high concept stuff. Particularly the device of an interstellar society connected with wormholes. The soap opera parts got a little too much at times and the writing was quite uneven. But overall a very fun read with some interesting ideas explored.
\n","w":47,"cv":"covers/45252.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":4.22,"n":55216,"dist":[800,1947,7104,19572,25793],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space","Aliens","Adventure","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL474061W","isf":"154552"},{"id":41069,"t":"Stand on Zanzibar","sl":"stand-on-zanzibar","se":"Club of Rome Quartet","a":["John Brunner"],"as":"Brunner, John","y":1968,"p":672,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-09-04","cv":"covers/41069.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.93,"n":17635,"dist":[529,1177,3549,6085,6295],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Hugo Awards","Classics","Cyberpunk","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1969,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1968,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1969,"won":true},{"name":"Prix Tour-Apollo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1973,"won":true}],"ol":"OL3521966W","wp":"Stand_on_Zanzibar","isf":"1149"},{"id":189147,"t":"To Your Scattered Bodies Go","sl":"to-your-scattered-bodies-go","se":"Riverworld","sn":"1","a":["Philip José Farmer"],"as":"Farmer, Philip José","y":1971,"p":220,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-09-04","cv":"covers/189147.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL273080W","wp":"To_Your_Scattered_Bodies_Go","isf":"990"},{"id":392566,"t":"The Space Merchants","sl":"the-space-merchants","se":"The Space Merchants","sn":"1","a":["Frederik Pohl","C.M. Kornbluth"],"as":"Pohl, Frederik","y":1952,"p":186,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-09-04","cv":"covers/392566.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL60943W","wp":"The_Space_Merchants","isf":"1159"},{"id":525285,"t":"Mission of Gravity","sl":"mission-of-gravity","se":"Mesklin","sn":"1","a":["Hal Clement"],"as":"Clement, Hal","y":1954,"p":174,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-09-04","cv":"covers/525285.avif","cw":280,"ch":471,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL60884W","wp":"Mission_of_Gravity","isf":"1511"},{"id":541024,"t":"More Than Human","sl":"more-than-human","a":["Theodore Sturgeon"],"as":"Sturgeon, Theodore","y":1953,"p":186,"sh":"currently-reading","d":"2014-09-04","rc":2,"cv":"covers/541024.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.93,"n":19886,"dist":[425,1211,4233,7448,6569],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Classics","Speculative Fiction","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"International Fantasy Award","cat":"Fiction","year":1954,"won":true},{"name":"Retro Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL14868264W","wp":"More_Than_Human","isf":"1499"},{"id":48484,"t":"Blindsight","sl":"blindsight","se":"Firefall","sn":"1","a":["Peter Watts"],"as":"Watts, Peter","y":2006,"p":384,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2014-08-25","rev":"I barely remember reading this, other than I know I finished it and therefore must have enjoyed it. And that it was kind of clumsy.
\n","w":25,"cv":"covers/48484.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":4.0,"n":59535,"dist":[1328,3634,11354,20774,22445],"g":["Science Fiction","Horror","Vampires","Fantasy","Aliens","Space","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL8514692W","wp":"Blindsight_(Watts_novel)","isf":"186521"},{"id":12814333,"t":"A Stranger in Olondria","sl":"a-stranger-in-olondria","se":"Olondria","a":["Sofia Samatar"],"as":"Samatar, Sofia","y":2013,"p":299,"r":1,"sh":"read","d":"2014-08-20","rev":"I am making the liberating decision to not finish this book, something I rarely do. I got halfway through and am just not feeling it. The problem is the main character and the story, they just don't engage me. I really could care less about the protagonist. And there's precious few other characters.
\nThe other problem for me is the prose. Everyone's falling over how beautiful the language is. And some of it is, but in the same way a flashy guitar solo in an anthem rock song is beautiful. For a bit, then it becomes tedious because it shreds the same licks one time too many. And sometimes the prose is more like a drum solo that just never ends. I know people love this book, and I can see why, but it's just not for me.
\n","w":138,"cv":"covers/12814333.avif","cw":280,"ch":453,"avg":3.65,"n":3179,"dist":[106,368,869,1020,816],"g":["Fantasy","Books About Books","Speculative Fiction","Science Fiction","Ghosts","High Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)","year":2014,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16654685W","isf":"1448141"},{"id":18144124,"t":"I Am Pilgrim","sl":"i-am-pilgrim","a":["Terry Hayes"],"as":"Hayes, Terry","y":2013,"p":612,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-08-11","d":"2014-08-11","rev":"Excellent two-fisted reading, a thriller. I seldom read page turners and this book was a real pleasure. Intelligent, somewhat nuanced in its telling, and ultimately a great spy / murder / ticking bomb story. It was a bit clumsy at the start (seriously, krav maga?) and the writer's habit of ending every chapter with a hook got a little cheesy. But there I was reading the next chapter way past bedtime.
\n","w":71,"cv":"covers/18144124.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.31,"n":209673,"dist":[4643,7202,22088,61217,114523],"g":["Thriller","Mystery","Crime","Mystery Thriller","Suspense","Espionage","Action"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Specsavers National Book Award","cat":"Crime/Thriller Book of the Year","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Mystery & Thriller","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19976660W","wp":"I_Am_Pilgrim"},{"id":60934,"t":"Imago","sl":"imago","se":"Xenogenesis","sn":"3","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1989,"p":220,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-08-02","d":"2014-08-02","rev":"Worked my way through this because I wanted to finish the trilogy, but in retrospect maybe reading all 3 in a row was a mistake. Too much of a sameness with the first two books in terms of themes, etc. Yes, more alien, and a different perspective. But also too much forced plot, etc.
\nSexual coercion. This book dwelt even more on the coercive aspect of Oankali mating than the previous books. Here we have a colony of pristine humans, true resisters untainted by alien meddling. And they clearly want to stay separate. And then the aliens come in and with magic pheromones completely and fully possess them sexually, mentally, emotionally. And those rapist aliens are our protagonists, the ones we identify with. And that happens without comment.
\nButler's not a stupid author, and certainly not some guy with dumb fantasies about seduction. I assume the coerciveness was intentional writing on her part. It's also really disturbing to me, rape culture stuff, and I don't know what to make of it.
\n","w":171,"cv":"covers/60934.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":4.19,"n":26554,"dist":[131,681,4281,10448,11013],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Aliens","Speculative Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1990,"won":false}],"ol":"OL35613W","isf":"1734"},{"id":116249,"t":"Adulthood Rites","sl":"adulthood-rites","se":"Xenogenesis","sn":"2","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1988,"p":277,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-07-29","d":"2014-07-29","rev":"Enjoyed this book, but not as much as Dawn. The first book is full of the creepy alienness of the new race as mediated through a normal, resistant human. This book shifts the perspective to an alien character and it's not as personal. Butler does an amazing job thoroughly exploring this weird other race, and the characters are sympathetic, it's just a little too distant for me.
\n","w":67,"cv":"covers/116249.avif","cw":280,"ch":459,"avg":4.18,"n":31066,"dist":[116,593,4884,13320,12153],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Aliens","Speculative Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Classics"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1989,"won":false}],"ol":"OL35625W","isf":"2474"},{"id":60929,"t":"Dawn","sl":"dawn","se":"Xenogenesis","sn":"1","a":["Octavia E. Butler"],"as":"Butler, Octavia E.","y":1987,"p":248,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-07-23","d":"2014-07-23","rev":"Great creepy sci-fi. Really uncomfortable situation of humans being held as prey / captives / pets by powerful aliens. It has some of the same horror that the movie Alien does, only instead of being a dumb slasher film with sci-fi overtones it's a thoughtful human story with good characters and a strong sci-fi backbone. Good reading.
\n","w":57,"cv":"covers/60929.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"avg":4.15,"n":68656,"dist":[659,2195,10695,27982,27125],"g":["Science Fiction","Fantasy","Aliens","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Horror"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1988,"won":false},{"name":"Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis","cat":"Bestes ausländischer SF-Roman","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"Ditmar Award","cat":"Best International Long Fiction","year":1989,"won":false},{"name":"Premi Ictineu","cat":"Millor novel·la traduïda","year":2020,"won":true},{"name":"Prêmio LeBlanc","cat":"Romance Estrangeiro de Fantasia, Ficção Científica ou Terror Publicado em Língua Portuguesa","year":2019,"won":true}],"ol":"OL35628W","isf":"2145"},{"id":17333324,"t":"Ancillary Justice","sl":"ancillary-justice","se":"Imperial Radch","sn":"1","a":["Ann Leckie"],"as":"Leckie, Ann","y":2013,"p":386,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-07-09","d":"2014-07-09","rev":"Interesting space opera novel, compelling and with great characters. Parts of it don't quite gel for me, but compared to the competition it's a very well written book. There's an interesting idea at the center of the book about AI and multiply embodied minds that was good, but could have been brilliant with a bit more exploration. I really liked the main character Breq, and her relationships with the people she met. OTOH the whole book has a total of like 5 characters which in the grand tradition of Space Opera, isn't very much. Also the plot relies on an unlikely re-coincidence of characters 20 years later, which she sort of passes off as mystical fate but clearly was just the author having written herself into a corner. Minor quibbles though, overall it's an entertaining book with some good ideas.
\n","w":140,"cv":"covers/17333324.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.99,"n":123764,"dist":[2853,6806,22856,47839,43410],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":"","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":null,"year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera","year":2016,"won":false},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds Award)","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"The Kitschies","cat":"Golden Tentacle (Debut)","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":2016,"won":true}],"ol":"OL17062644W","wp":"Ancillary_Justice","isf":"1632550"},{"id":92625,"t":"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas","sl":"the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas","a":["Ursula K. Le Guin"],"as":"Guin, Ursula K. Le","y":1973,"p":32,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-07-06","d":"2014-07-06","rev":"Lovely, spare little story. Helps put the Wool series in context for me.
\n","w":13,"cv":"covers/92625.avif","cw":128,"ch":177,"avg":4.37,"n":58701,"dist":[321,1067,5972,20782,30559],"g":["Short Stories","Classics","Fantasy","Science Fiction","Philosophy","Dystopia","Horror","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Short Story","year":1974,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15056584W","wp":"The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas","isf":"58836"},{"id":70583,"t":"Bone Dance","sl":"bone-dance","a":["Emma Bull"],"as":"Bull, Emma","y":1991,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-30","cv":"covers/70583.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.86,"n":1712,"dist":[25,111,460,600,516],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Urban Fantasy","Cyberpunk","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Queer","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1991,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1992,"won":false},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":"Special Citation","year":1992,"won":true}],"ol":"OL3924625W","wp":"Bone_Dance","isf":"2329"},{"id":12160759,"t":"The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration","sl":"the-ice-balloon","a":["Alec Wilkinson"],"as":"Wilkinson, Alec","y":2012,"p":246,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-06-27","d":"2014-06-27","rev":"Fascinating story, but not well told in this book. Half the book is confusingly about other Arctic explorers. Which is great for the context and they are interesting stories as well, but the author doesn't do a good job weaving it into a narrative. Then the Andree sections are kind of stilted too. Again, the story itself is fascinating and this is a solid enough English treatment of it, but it's just not great. There's a new book in Swedish that is being translated now to English (October 2014 release?) that may be more interesting.
\n","w":95,"cv":"covers/12160759.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.54,"n":1059,"dist":[12,119,370,404,154],"g":["History","Adventure","Biography","Travel","Survival","Science","Aviation","19th Century"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL16540392W"},{"id":13046772,"t":"Throne of the Crescent Moon","sl":"throne-of-the-crescent-moon","se":"The Crescent Moon Kingdoms","sn":"1","a":["Saladin Ahmed"],"as":"Ahmed, Saladin","y":2012,"p":285,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-06-27","d":"2014-06-27","rev":"A fine two fisted fantasy tale. Particularly fun to have a setting inspired by the Caliphate instead of medieval Christian Europe, although that nuance is pretty gently done. And a fun narrative with good hijinks, interesting magic, etc. But something about the characters just really bugged me, I never felt particularly drawn into the people. Entertaining book, just not terrific.
\n","w":60,"cv":"covers/13046772.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.65,"n":12048,"dist":[336,1011,3671,4594,2436],"g":["Fantasy","High Fantasy","Adventure","Epic Fantasy","Magic","Sword and Sorcery"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"David Gemmell Morningstar Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Newcomer","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Reddit r/fantasy Stabby Award","cat":"Best Debut Novel","year":2012,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16810035W","wp":"Throne_of_the_Crescent_Moon","isf":"1363996"},{"id":6658986,"t":"The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within","sl":"the-ode-less-travelled","a":["Stephen Fry"],"as":"Fry, Stephen","y":2005,"p":396,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/6658986.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL1933643W","wp":"The_Ode_Less_Travelled"},{"id":7677574,"t":"Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life","sl":"privacy-in-context","a":["Helen Nissenbaum"],"as":"Nissenbaum, Helen","y":2009,"p":304,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/7677574.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"ol":"OL15299700W"},{"id":8171921,"t":"Wolf Hall","sl":"wolf-hall","se":"Thomas Cromwell","sn":"1","a":["Hilary Mantel"],"as":"Mantel, Hilary","y":2009,"p":653,"r":1,"sh":"read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/8171921.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":3.92,"n":241387,"dist":[11186,18439,42852,75927,92983],"g":["Historical Fiction","Historical","British Literature","Literary Fiction","Literature","Tudor Period"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":null,"year":2009,"won":true},{"name":"Orange Prize","cat":"Fiction Shortlist","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"James Tait Black Memorial Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2009,"won":false},{"name":"Costa Book Award","cat":"Novel ","year":2009,"won":false},{"name":"Magnesia Litera","cat":"Translation (Litera za překladovou knihu)","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Literary Fiction","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2009,"won":true},{"name":"Walter Scott Prize","cat":null,"year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Golden Man Booker Prize","cat":null,"year":2018,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"","year":2010,"won":true}],"ol":"OL464512W","wp":"Wolf_Hall"},{"id":9283615,"t":"A Corpse in the Koryo","sl":"a-corpse-in-the-koryo","se":"Inspector O","sn":"1","a":["James Church"],"as":"Church, James","y":2006,"p":292,"r":1,"sh":"read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/9283615.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.45,"n":1788,"dist":[61,215,628,619,265],"g":["Mystery","Crime","Asia","Mystery Thriller","Thriller","Procedural","Espionage","Detective"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL8568571W"},{"id":9298895,"t":"Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade","sl":"secret-historian","a":["Justin Spring"],"as":"Spring, Justin","y":2010,"p":496,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/9298895.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"ol":"OL16799820W"},{"id":11353724,"t":"Predator: The Remote-Control Air War Over Iraq and Afghanistan: A Pilot's Story","sl":"predator","a":["Matthew J. Martin","Charles Sasser"],"as":"Martin, Matthew J.","y":2010,"p":322,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/11353724.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.8,"n":121,"dist":[3,11,26,48,33],"g":["Military Fiction","History","War"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL27444241W"},{"id":11952071,"t":"Fit to Serve: Reflections on a Secret Life, Private Struggle, and Public Battle to Become the First Openly Gay U.S. Ambassador","sl":"fit-to-serve","a":["James C. Hormel","Erin Martin"],"as":"Hormel, James C.","y":2011,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/11952071.avif","cw":280,"ch":468,"q":1,"ol":"OL16014606W"},{"id":12349533,"t":"Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World","sl":"boomerang","a":["Michael Lewis"],"as":"Lewis, Michael","y":2011,"p":212,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/12349533.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL16102036W","wp":"Boomerang:_Travels_in_the_New_Third_World"},{"id":13235689,"t":"How Music Works","sl":"how-music-works","a":["David Byrne"],"as":"Byrne, David","y":2012,"p":345,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/13235689.avif","cw":280,"ch":359,"ol":"OL17068219W","wp":"How_Music_Works"},{"id":13588394,"t":"The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't","sl":"the-signal-and-the-noise","a":["Nate Silver"],"as":"Silver, Nate","y":2012,"p":544,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/13588394.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"ol":"OL16700318W","wp":"The_Signal_and_the_Noise"},{"id":16059425,"t":"Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco","sl":"cool-gray-city-of-love","a":["Gary Kamiya"],"as":"Kamiya, Gary","y":2013,"p":385,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/16059425.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"ol":"OL19341955W"},{"id":18656827,"t":"Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal","sl":"hatching-twitter","a":["Nick Bilton"],"as":"Bilton, Nick","y":2013,"p":299,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/18656827.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.04,"n":19199,"dist":[436,792,3384,7524,7063],"g":["Business","Technology","Biography","History","Entrepreneurship","Startup","Management","Social Media"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL16815225W"},{"id":19119826,"t":"The Werewolf of Paris","sl":"the-werewolf-of-paris","a":["Guy Endore"],"as":"Endore, Guy","y":1933,"p":288,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/19119826.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":3.62,"n":1527,"dist":[31,143,502,547,304],"g":["Horror","Werewolves","Classics","Historical Fiction","Gothic","Fantasy","Historical","Horror Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL20116099W","wp":"The_Werewolf_of_Paris","isf":"18578"},{"id":19705922,"t":"Decoded","sl":"decoded","a":["Mai Jia","Olivia Milburn","Christopher Payne"],"as":"Jia, Mai","y":2014,"p":321,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/19705922.avif","cw":280,"ch":458,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17887328W","wp":"Decoded_(novel)"},{"id":20746099,"t":"The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man","sl":"the-snowden-files","a":["Luke Harding"],"as":"Harding, Luke","y":2014,"p":354,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-06-12","cv":"covers/20746099.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"ol":"OL21090548W","wp":"The_Snowden_Files"},{"id":260091,"t":"Tricks","sl":"tricks","a":["Renaud Camus","Tim Dlugos","Richard Howard"],"as":"Camus, Renaud","y":1981,"p":252,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2014-06-03","rev":"Been a long time since I read this, but my memory is that it was very sweet and funny and personal. I particularly like how he turns the trick / hookup / one night stand trope on its head and gets very deep into the lives of some of his casual sex partners.
\nIt's worth noting the author later in his life became an odious piece of shit, a true philosopher of hate. My enjoyment of his book about casual gay sex is not an endorsement of his horrible racist later writing.
\n","w":92,"cv":"covers/260091.avif","cw":280,"ch":461,"avg":3.69,"n":99,"dist":[2,10,30,32,25],"g":["France","Short Stories","LGBT","Gay","Erotica","Queer","Literature","Gay Fiction","Paris"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL711259W"},{"id":840,"t":"The Design of Everyday Things","sl":"the-design-of-everyday-things","a":["Donald A. Norman"],"as":"Norman, Donald A.","y":1988,"p":257,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2014-04-10","rev":"One of those highly recommended books that when you finally read it is disappointing. The premise is great - talk about designing those objects we use everyday, doors and stereos and light switches. The spin is right - the author points out how stupid it is that so many of the things we use everyday are poorly designed. Objects should be simple to use. But that's where the book poops out, at least for me. He has suprisingly little insight into how to actually design things well and his few attempts at cognitive science explanations seem pretty weak. I think this would make a better 20 page essay than a book.
\n","w":111,"cv":"covers/840.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.15,"n":49391,"dist":[629,1784,7929,18317,20732],"g":["Design","Business","Psychology","Science","Art","Engineering","Technology","Art Design"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL1879162W","wp":"The_Design_of_Everyday_Things"},{"id":457107,"t":"Structured Computer Organization","sl":"structured-computer-organization","a":["Andrew S. Tanenbaum"],"as":"Tanenbaum, Andrew S.","y":1976,"p":813,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2014-04-10","rev":"I've been hacking pretty deep on computers for more than half my life - I wrote my first 6502 assembly code at age 12, back in 1984 or so. But I never understood any of the details of what was going inside the box, I've never gone below the assembly code level before. I have to take the Computer Science GRE (bleah!) soon, though, so that was a good excuse to learn a little computer architecture. (I did fine on it, btw!).
\nTanenbaum is a great book to learn that from. It's a bit simplistic (perfect sophomore CS textbook, I think), but the organization that he presents is excellent and it's fun to read. He starts from the bottom, a transistor (sadly, no quantum mechanics), and moves up through logic gates, LSI, simple computer design, VLSI, microcode, and then up to the software that runs on the hardware. Hardware makes sense to me now! Well, at least more so.
\n","w":159,"cv":"covers/457107.avif","cw":280,"ch":395,"avg":4.03,"n":599,"dist":[21,33,104,191,250],"g":["Computer Science","Programming","Textbooks","Computers","Technology","Reference","Technical","Science","Software"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL1970690W"},{"id":474926,"t":"American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks","sl":"american-bar","a":["Charles Schumann"],"as":"Schumann, Charles","y":1995,"p":408,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2014-04-10","cv":"covers/474926.avif","cw":280,"ch":401,"avg":4.15,"n":97,"dist":[2,4,17,28,46],"g":["Cocktails","Cookbooks","Reference","Food","Cooking"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2928637W"},{"id":2226760,"t":"Hugh Johnson's Modern Encyclopedia of Wine","sl":"hugh-johnsons-modern-encyclopedia-of-wine","a":["Hugh Johnson"],"as":"Johnson, Hugh","y":1983,"p":592,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2014-04-10","cv":"covers/2226760.avif","cw":280,"ch":401,"avg":3.86,"n":14,"dist":[0,2,1,8,3],"g":["Wine"],"ol":"OL121707W"},{"id":13578175,"t":"The Emperor's Soul","sl":"the-emperors-soul","se":"Elantris","a":["Brandon Sanderson"],"as":"Sanderson, Brandon","y":2012,"p":175,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-03-20","d":"2014-03-20","rev":"A little jewel of a novella, very clever high concept and well executed. Good characters.
\n","w":15,"cv":"covers/13578175.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.37,"n":142303,"dist":[442,1652,14924,53428,71857],"g":["Fantasy","Novella","High Fantasy","Short Stories","Magic","Epic Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Novella","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy","year":2012,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19960448W","wp":"The_Emperor's_Soul","isf":"1495896"},{"id":17986406,"t":"Orfeo","sl":"orfeo","a":["Richard Powers"],"as":"Powers, Richard","y":2014,"p":384,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-03-10","d":"2014-03-10","rev":"A delicious novel. Mostly a good reflection on an artist getting older, reviewing his life and his mistakes in a melancholic way. But then mixed in is amazing text honoring the exciting emotional impact of 20th century classical music. The connection to Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time is what drew me to this book in the first place and I really enjoyed the references and discussion of Cage, Stockhausen, Carter, etc. Interesting source material for a novel!
\n","w":79,"cv":"covers/17986406.avif","cw":220,"ch":293,"avg":3.65,"n":7106,"dist":[285,703,1927,2463,1728],"g":["Music","Literary Fiction","Literature","Contemporary","American","Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Booker Prize","cat":"Longlist","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"California Book Award","cat":"Fiction (Silver)","year":2014,"won":true},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2015,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17046891W","wp":"Orfeo_(novel)","isf":"1715046"},{"id":2133815,"t":"Poems of a Penisist","sl":"poems-of-a-penisist","a":["Mutsuo Takahashi","Hiroaki Sato","Burton Watson"],"as":"Takahashi, Mutsuo","y":1975,"p":108,"sh":"to-read","d":"2014-03-04","cv":"covers/2133815.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"q":1,"ol":"OL20392009W"},{"id":17669062,"t":"Shaman","sl":"shaman","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":2013,"p":456,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-02-04","d":"2014-02-04","rev":"Curious book, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I love Robinson's Mars Trilogy but every time I've dipped into anything else he's written it hasn't worked for me. Shaman seems the furthest from the hard sci-fi I'd prefer, it's a straight up Clan of the Cave Bear kind of pre-civilization story. (Or possibly post-apocalyptic, although there's no tokens of that). But something about the personification of the main character worked well for me. It's also a fun coming of age / heroic journey narrative, particularly the twist where our hero pretty much only ever survives because of the help of the people around him. All in all a pretty solid book. I'd be glad to read a sequel.
\n","w":121,"cv":"covers/17669062.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":3.78,"n":5014,"dist":[163,387,1218,1887,1359],"g":["Historical Fiction","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Historical","Speculative Fiction","Prehistory","Prehistoric"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL19086393W","wp":"Shaman_(novel)","isf":"1620114"},{"id":2425528,"t":"Incandescence","sl":"incandescence","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":2008,"p":300,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-01-26","d":"2014-01-26","rev":"Chosen because it's another story about the Amalgam, a setup I like. But it's not so great. Two separate stories only tangentially related. One of them (the Amalgam side) is sort of OK, but the characters are not well written and strangely passive. The other story probably seems great to some people, it's basically about a civilization discovering the theory of Relativity for themselves only in a weird world orbiting a neutron star. Lots of chapters of explaining the development of a scientific theory in great sci-fi detail, and while it may have been well done I just found it tedious. Overall didn't work for me.
\n","w":106,"cv":"covers/2425528.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":3.67,"n":2348,"dist":[69,218,669,844,548],"g":["Science Fiction","Aliens","Space Opera","Hard Science Fiction","Speculative Fiction","Physics"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL447381W","wp":"Incandescence_(novel)","isf":"829009"},{"id":6741362,"t":"Oceanic","sl":"oceanic","a":["Greg Egan"],"as":"Egan, Greg","y":2005,"p":496,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-01-21","d":"2014-01-21","rev":"Excellent hard sci-fi story collection, of the 12 stories I thought 11 were great. I particularly liked "Hot Rock" for its weirdness, Egan's not afraid to depict truly alien species, cultures, etc. All the stories are excellently speculative. Sometimes he indulges a bit too much in nerdy world-building and a few of the stories could use a more human touch on the characters, but overall it's really solid writing. File next to "Vernor Vinge".
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/6741362.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.98,"n":1186,"dist":[13,47,249,516,361],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Speculative Fiction","Literature","Hard Science Fiction","Anthologies","Collections"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":1999,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Short Fiction for \"Singleton\"","year":2002,"won":false},{"name":"Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award","cat":"\"Singleton\"","year":2003,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Nouvelle étrangère","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Aurealis Award","cat":"SF Short Story","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"Asimov's Readers' Poll Award","cat":"Best Novella","year":1999,"won":false},{"name":"HOMer Award","cat":"Novella","year":1998,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Short Story","year":2001,"won":true}],"ol":"OL20111010W","wp":"Oceanic_(novella)","isf":"82545"},{"id":3398625,"t":"The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon","sl":"the-lost-city-of-z","a":["David Grann"],"as":"Grann, David","y":2009,"p":339,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-01-14","d":"2014-01-14","rev":"Good story well told. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch! (No, really).
\nAn interesting combination of the history of 1900s era exploration of the Amazon and the author's modern story of retracing their footsteps. A bit too much of the author's own experience but the payoff about modern archaeology is worth it. (Sadly there's very little on the modern work; see 1491 for a better treatment of current thinking on New World anthropology). This book is a slightly expanded form of the New Yorker article. There's a few more stories in the book version, but the article is honestly enough.
\n","w":105,"cv":"covers/3398625.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.9,"n":116139,"dist":[1927,5610,26982,48997,32623],"g":["History","Adventure","Travel","Biography","Historical","Mystery","Science"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Indies Choice Book Award","cat":"Adult Nonfiction","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2009,"won":false},{"name":"The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction","cat":null,"year":2009,"won":false}],"ol":"OL11930023W","wp":"The_Lost_City_of_Z_(book)"},{"id":1309238,"t":"A House in Bali","sl":"a-house-in-bali","a":["Colin McPhee","James Murdoch"],"as":"McPhee, Colin","y":1946,"p":224,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2014-01-02","d":"2014-01-02","rev":"A lovely memoir of a Canadian's few years residence in Bali, a perfect read for my own trip to Bali trying to learn a little something about the culture and music. The author's ethnography and music background makes his observations unusually insightful. But the book remains a personal and readable account, not academically dry. So (for instance) there are several lovely expositions on how to properly build a Balinese house, but they're told in terms of his friendships and quarrels with various locals.
\nThe centerpiece of the book is the descriptions of music and musical culture; McPhee's studies in Bali were central to teaching North Americans about Balinese music. Unfortunately these descriptions are by necessity a bit limited, being neither technical nor accompanied with actual music. I'd love to experience a version of this book that came combined with musical samples, that'd be amazing.
\nThe other centerpiece of this book is the young dancing boy Sampih. A lot has written about the presumed pedophilic nature of this relationship. Of course the book never says anything directly about that but it's clear McPhee was quite enraptured with the boy. Sort of a Death in Venice, only without the ironic distance from the narrator. I found the author's writing about Sampih more sweet than creepy but it's definitely eyebrow raising. There's film online of Sampih dancing shot by McPhee; he's an amazing dancer.
\n","w":231,"cv":"covers/1309238.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":3.84,"n":389,"dist":[7,22,110,136,114],"g":["Music","Travel","Asia","Memoir","History","Biography","Indonesian Literature"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL8007607W"},{"id":2294631,"t":"Chrome","sl":"chrome","a":["George Nader"],"as":"Nader, George","y":1978,"p":383,"r":1,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-12-12","d":"2013-12-12","rev":"Got about halfway through, couldn't finish it. The book is this weird gay scifi novel from a nontraditional author. But Samuel Delaney it ain't. Sort of a rolicking scifi adventure, with some fun erotic moments, but a whole lot of terrible writing. The whole plot took a left turn and left me behind. Not interesting, even as a novelty.
\n","w":59,"cv":"covers/2294631.avif","cw":280,"ch":452,"avg":3.53,"n":197,"dist":[14,24,51,59,49],"g":["Science Fiction","LGBT","Romance","Gay","Queer","M M Romance","Fantasy","Gay Fiction","Drama"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL6673188W"},{"id":168642,"t":"In Cold Blood","sl":"in-cold-blood","a":["Truman Capote"],"as":"Capote, Truman","y":1966,"p":343,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-12-11","d":"2013-12-11","rev":"Entertaining, strangely dated true crime novel. The book is strongest when it describes the strange, aimless life of a couple of scoundrel drifters who end up committing a horrific murder. That part of the book is entertaining and novelistic, which raises awkward questions about veracity. But then the book meanders into details of the trial and awaiting execution and it gets fairly tedious. Still it's an interesting depiction of late-50s small town Kansas, and the more narrative parts are fun reading.
\nI read this book after my nephew read it in high school and he mentioned there was a homosexual angle, the idea that Capote was in love with one of the killers or maybe had a relationship with him. The relationship between the two male killers is fascinatingly portrayed, but so dated through the veil of 50s propriety. There's a lot of talk between the two killers about sex with women. But then also the men are clearly fairly intimate, and Capote frequently has one calling the other "honey" (sometimes derisively, sometimes sweetly). It's all kind of weird and coded. As for Capote's own relationship with the murderers there's really nothing about that on display other than an author's natural affinity for his subject material.
\n","w":206,"cv":"covers/168642.avif","cw":181,"ch":280,"avg":4.09,"n":758053,"dist":[16940,31292,125815,275015,308991],"g":["Classics","True Crime","Crime","Mystery","History","Thriller","Literature"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Edgar Allan Poe Award","cat":"Best Fact Crime","year":1966,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1992198W","wp":"In_Cold_Blood"},{"id":471045,"t":"The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion that Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest","sl":"the-pueblo-revolt","a":["David Roberts"],"as":"Roberts, David","y":2004,"p":288,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-11-25","cv":"covers/471045.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"ol":"OL2261609W"},{"id":1497532,"t":"Atlas of Men: A guide for somatotyping the adult male at all ages","sl":"atlas-of-men","a":["William H. Sheldon"],"as":"Sheldon, William H.","y":1949,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-11-09","rev":"Fascinating and weird quack science, featuring many pictures of naked men.
\n","w":11,"cv":"covers/1497532.avif","cw":280,"ch":380,"avg":2.8,"n":15,"dist":[4,1,6,2,2],"g":["Psychology"],"ol":"OL6584671W"},{"id":6150726,"t":"Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe","sl":"einsteins-telescope","a":["Evalyn Gates"],"as":"Gates, Evalyn","y":2009,"p":320,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-10-31","cv":"covers/6150726.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"ol":"OL13645289W"},{"id":2754646,"t":"Black Ulysses","sl":"black-ulysses","a":["Daniel Panger"],"as":"Panger, Daniel","y":1982,"p":402,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-10-13","cv":"covers/2754646.avif","cw":128,"ch":193,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL4991009W"},{"id":3182068,"t":"Vaka Moana, Voyages of the Ancestors: The Discovery and Settlement of the Pacific","sl":"vaka-moana-voyages-of-the-ancestors","a":["K.R. Howe"],"as":"Howe, K.R.","y":2007,"p":368,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-09-01","d":"2013-09-01","rev":"Solid, readable summary of the state of history, anthropology, and archaeology for Polynesia. Really useful for understanding the historical context of Hawai'i and New Zealand. Also just interesting. My favorite part was chapter 3, Geoffrey Irwin's chapter on the archaeological record. Particularly interesting how there's a strong case to be made for deliberate exploratory voyages, Polynesians cautiously sailing westward probing for new lands while ensuring they could return home. Combined with the necessity of planned colonization trips (bringing women, plants, livestock) and the whole picture is quite different from the "accidental drifting on the ocean" story I vaguely was taught.
\n","w":100,"cv":"covers/3182068.avif","cw":280,"ch":338,"avg":4.45,"n":53,"dist":[0,1,4,18,30],"g":["History","Geography"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Ockham New Zealand Book Awards","cat":"History (Montana NZ Awards)","year":2007,"won":true}],"ol":"OL549779W"},{"id":141655,"t":"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty","sl":"under-the-loving-care-of-the-fatherly-leader","a":["Bradley K. Martin"],"as":"Martin, Bradley K.","y":2004,"p":874,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-08-29","cv":"covers/141655.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.06,"n":2197,"dist":[27,86,393,911,780],"g":["History","Politics","Asia","Biography","Dystopia","International Relations","World History","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL9164358W"},{"id":17855756,"t":"Dust","sl":"dust","se":"Silo","sn":"3","a":["Hugh Howey"],"as":"Howey, Hugh","y":2013,"p":458,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-08-27","d":"2013-08-27","rev":"Solid ending to the series, and fun to read. It's clear the author had a plan in mind from the beginning and told the story through well. It felt a bit long and sprawling to me, or else thin for the details he had, but I did enjoy it.
\n","w":49,"cv":"covers/17855756.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":4.22,"n":151619,"dist":[554,3106,22065,62207,63687],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Fantasy","Apocalyptic","Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2013,"won":false}],"ol":"OL17623070W","isf":"1618654"},{"id":10639,"t":"The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less","sl":"the-paradox-of-choice","a":["Barry Schwartz"],"as":"Schwartz, Barry","y":2004,"p":265,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-08-25","cv":"covers/10639.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":3.83,"n":37622,"dist":[947,2440,9392,14008,10835],"g":["Psychology","Business","Self Help","Economics","Science","Sociology","Philosophy","Personal Development"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL272375W","wp":"The_Paradox_of_Choice"},{"id":222146,"t":"Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture","sl":"masters-of-doom","a":["David Kushner"],"as":"Kushner, David","y":2003,"p":339,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-08-23","cv":"covers/222146.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"ol":"OL5957689W","wp":"Masters_of_Doom"},{"id":17306293,"t":"Shift","sl":"shift","se":"Silo","sn":"2","a":["Hugh Howey"],"as":"Howey, Hugh","y":2013,"p":579,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-08-19","d":"2013-08-19","rev":"I was super-excited by the first book, Wool, it seemed really fresh and entertaining and clever. Shift kind of lagged for me. The biggest problem is I just didn't care for the characters, particularly Donald. The Wool stories were all about complex societies, people interactions. Shift is explicitly about the opposite of that, being alone. But I don't think Howey succeeded in making that interesting. Despite that I enjoyed reading it, tore through it quickly, and am now very excited for Dust.
\n","w":82,"cv":"covers/17306293.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":4.13,"n":169856,"dist":[802,4692,29104,73071,62187],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Fantasy","Apocalyptic","Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17366206W","isf":"1601930"},{"id":16234981,"t":"Data Points: Visualization That Means Something","sl":"data-points","a":["Nathan Yau"],"as":"Yau, Nathan","y":2013,"p":320,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-08-16","d":"2013-08-16","rev":"Good solid introduction to the art of data visualization. Lots of nice examples and exploration of the various questions a data designer should ask themselves. It's an introductory book, I felt I knew most of what I was reading already (and I'm no expert). But it's not a hands-on book in any way, it's something you passively read and learn from. So for someone learning visualization this needs to be paired with implementation exercises.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/16234981.avif","cw":260,"ch":324,"avg":3.83,"n":533,"dist":[6,29,151,211,136],"g":["Design","Science","Business","Technology","Reference","Art","Computer Science","Technical","Art Design"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL17043094W"},{"id":3979734,"t":"The Way It Was: Looking Back at Nevada County (A Collection of Bob Wyckoff Historical Articles from the Pages of the Union","sl":"the-way-it-was","a":["Bob Wyckoff"],"as":"Wyckoff, Bob","y":2007,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-08-10","cv":"covers/3979734.avif","cw":140,"ch":97},{"id":8855321,"t":"Leviathan Wakes","sl":"leviathan-wakes","se":"The Expanse","sn":"1","a":["James S.A. Corey"],"as":"Corey, James S.A.","y":2011,"p":561,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-08-08","d":"2013-08-08","rev":"Solid entertaining space opera. Some nice concepts, good mixing of hardboiled detective and idealistic space captain. Kind of a goofy main plot though and the book is pretty bloated, should have been edited tighter.
\n","w":34,"cv":"covers/8855321.avif","cw":280,"ch":428,"avg":4.31,"n":340255,"dist":[2633,6947,36363,129387,164925],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Space","Mystery","Horror"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2011,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16114008W","wp":"Leviathan_Wakes","isf":"1272563"},{"id":70256,"t":"High-Rise","sl":"high-rise","a":["J.G. Ballard","Ned Beauman"],"as":"Ballard, J.G.","y":1975,"p":272,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2013-08-03","cv":"covers/70256.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":3.65,"n":44090,"dist":[1351,4253,12453,16451,9582],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Horror","Thriller","Classics","Contemporary"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2745965W","wp":"High-Rise_(novel)","isf":"3573"},{"id":18630,"t":"The Player of Games","sl":"the-player-of-games","se":"Culture","sn":"2","a":["Iain M. Banks"],"as":"Banks, Iain M.","y":1988,"p":293,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-07-05","d":"2013-07-05","rev":"Enjoyed this well enough, didn't think it was great. It was entertaining enough, didn't have much to say though.
\n","w":19,"cv":"covers/18630.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.28,"n":84355,"dist":[531,1844,10363,32467,39150],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Cultural","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":1995,"won":true}],"ol":"OL100779W","wp":"The_Player_of_Games","isf":"1380"},{"id":13330761,"t":"The Dog Stars","sl":"the-dog-stars","a":["Peter Heller"],"as":"Heller, Peter","y":2012,"p":336,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-06-25","cv":"covers/13330761.avif","cw":280,"ch":455,"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL16451377W","wp":"The_Dog_Stars","isf":"1479226"},{"id":6288,"t":"The Road","sl":"the-road","a":["Cormac McCarthy"],"as":"McCarthy, Cormac","y":2006,"p":241,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2013-06-24","cv":"covers/6288.avif","cw":280,"ch":460,"avg":4.0,"n":1092381,"dist":[32321,64421,192633,383029,419977],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Classics","Horror","Post Apocalyptic","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Pulitzer Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"James Tait Black Memorial Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"The Quill Award","cat":"General Fiction","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Puddly Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2006,"won":false},{"name":"Believer Book Award","cat":"","year":2006,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":"","year":2009,"won":true},{"name":"Cena Akademie SFFH","cat":"Kniha roku (Book of the Year)","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Prix des libraires du Québec","cat":"Lauréats hors Québec","year":2009,"won":true},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"","year":2007,"won":true},{"name":"Premio La tormenta en un vaso","cat":"Mejor libro escrito en otras lenguas","year":2008,"won":true},{"name":"Premios Fervenzas Literarias","cat":"Traducción ","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Dublin Literary Award","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":false}],"ol":"OL40873W","wp":"The_Road","isf":"263611"},{"id":53061,"t":"Death in Venice","sl":"death-in-venice","a":["Thomas Mann","Michael Henry Heim","Michael Cunningham"],"as":"Mann, Thomas","y":1911,"p":142,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2013-06-24","cv":"covers/53061.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":3.67,"n":74350,"dist":[2353,6885,21163,26247,17702],"g":["Classics","German Literature","Literature","Germany","LGBT","Short Stories","20th Century","Italy"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize","cat":"Michael Henry Heim","year":2005,"won":true},{"name":"Premios Fervenzas Literarias","cat":"Traducción ","year":2015,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16246083W","wp":"Death_in_Venice"},{"id":70875,"t":"Hollywood Babylon","sl":"hollywood-babylon","se":"Hollywood Babylon","sn":"1","a":["Kenneth Anger"],"as":"Anger, Kenneth","y":1959,"p":305,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-06-24","cv":"covers/70875.avif","cw":280,"ch":473,"avg":3.64,"n":7291,"dist":[203,686,2316,2419,1667],"g":["Film","History","Biography","True Crime","Media Tie In","Pop Culture","Crime","Cultural","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL5360006W","wp":"Hollywood_Babylon"},{"id":88884,"t":"The City and the Pillar","sl":"the-city-and-the-pillar","a":["Gore Vidal"],"as":"Vidal, Gore","y":1948,"p":207,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-06-24","cv":"covers/88884.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.84,"n":10737,"dist":[201,689,2681,4263,2903],"g":["LGBT","Queer","Classics","Gay","Historical Fiction","American","Literary Fiction","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL98031W","wp":"The_City_and_the_Pillar","isf":"2342440"},{"id":374224,"t":"The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies","sl":"the-celluloid-closet","a":["Vito Russo"],"as":"Russo, Vito","y":1981,"p":368,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-06-24","cv":"covers/374224.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.19,"n":2452,"dist":[28,67,404,869,1084],"g":["Film","LGBT","Queer","History","Gay","Media Tie In","Sexuality","Art","Queer Studies"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":null,"year":1982,"won":true}],"ol":"OL5280134W","wp":"The_Celluloid_Closet_(book)"},{"id":13642932,"t":"Ghostman","sl":"ghostman","se":"Jack White","sn":"1","a":["Roger Hobbs"],"as":"Hobbs, Roger","y":2013,"p":321,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-06-16","d":"2013-06-16","rev":"Fun heist novel, first novel by an alum of my college. It's not deep writing, but it's entertaining and thoughtful and has some fun characters. Think of it as a Bond novel only without the stupid and with some erudition. There's a few rough edges but overall really enjoyed it.
\n","w":50,"cv":"covers/13642932.avif","cw":280,"ch":423,"avg":3.77,"n":8213,"dist":[138,541,2277,3349,1908],"g":["Thriller","Crime","Mystery","Mystery Thriller","Suspense","Action","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Oregon Book Award","cat":"Fiction (Finalist)","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Anthony Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Edgar Allan Poe Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Strand Critics Award ","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger","cat":"","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Adrenaline","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16704832W"},{"id":13453029,"t":"Wool Omnibus","sl":"wool-omnibus","se":"Silo","sn":"1","a":["Hugh Howey"],"as":"Howey, Hugh","y":2012,"p":509,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-06-01","d":"2013-06-01","rev":"Totally fantastic. The first story is incredibly strong, it gets a bit to soap operaish towards the end. But it's a strong post-apocalyptic story considering the mass psychology of a post-near-extinction humanity. And it's fun to read something written as a cliffhanger serial. Hugely entertaining and not stupid.
\nUpdate re-read this in June 2023, after watching most of the first season of the TV show. Impressed with how entertaining the book still is, really a great page turner. I love the old serialized fiction form being employed so effectively. It should make a great TV show too but the adaptation is pretty rough, on the fence about that. Book is still great though.
\n","w":113,"cv":"covers/13453029.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":4.22,"n":295014,"dist":[2813,8265,38775,115292,129869],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Fantasy","Apocalyptic","Mystery"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Audie Award","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2024,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Prix des libraires du Québec","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":true},{"name":"Bookworm Best Award","cat":"People's Pick","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction and for Goodreads Author","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"RUSA CODES Reading List","cat":"Science Fiction","year":2014,"won":false}],"ol":"OL31204527W","wp":"Silo_(series)"},{"id":11140803,"t":"American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America","sl":"american-nations","a":["Colin Woodard"],"as":"Woodard, Colin","y":2011,"p":371,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-05-24","d":"2013-05-24","rev":"It's OK, not great. Woodward argues North America is best understood as eleven separate distinct “nations” with unique cultural and political identities. The first half of the book gives the origins of these various tribes and argues for their inviolate coherence. This part of the book was insightful and interesting. The second half interprets various recent events in terms of a 400 year old conflict between Yankees and Deep Southerners. This part of the book was boring and ax grindy.
\n","w":80,"cv":"covers/11140803.avif","cw":280,"ch":431,"avg":4.2,"n":15523,"dist":[114,449,2276,6110,6574],"g":["History","Politics","American History","Sociology","American","Cultural","Geography"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Maine Literary Award","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2012,"won":true}],"ol":"OL15936498W","wp":"American_Nations"},{"id":15766601,"t":"The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?","sl":"the-world-until-yesterday","a":["Jared Diamond"],"as":"Diamond, Jared","y":2012,"p":512,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-04-23","cv":"covers/15766601.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"ol":"OL16637581W","wp":"The_World_Until_Yesterday"},{"id":6772577,"t":"The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters","sl":"the-cleanest-race","a":["B.R. Myers"],"as":"Myers, B.R.","y":2010,"p":208,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-04-15","d":"2013-04-15","rev":"Interesting read on internal North Korea propaganda and what it tells us about the mindset of the country's leaders. Terrifying, of course, particularly the "we are a noble pure race" stuff derived from japanese facism. The book itself is not as well written as I hoped, but the research is great and the material and perspective are unique.
\n","w":58,"cv":"covers/6772577.avif","cw":280,"ch":350,"avg":3.91,"n":2100,"dist":[44,89,457,928,582],"g":["History","Politics","Asia","Sociology","Race","Psychology","International Relations","Philosophy"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL16445411W","wp":"The_Cleanest_Race"},{"id":12658,"t":"Hawaii","sl":"hawaii","a":["James A. Michener","Steve Berry"],"as":"Michener, James A.","y":1959,"p":1136,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-04-10","d":"2013-04-10","rev":"Excellent book, a fun sprawling epic read. Perfect for reading on vacation in Hawaii. The book is sort of ridiculously epic and long and a bit potboilery. It also occupies that uncomfortable part of historical fiction where it's easy to confuse the narrative fiction for historical fact. But it's a lot of fun. The book is intensely Americana, heavily relying on themes of the melting pot vs. fighting against racist injustice. It's a lot of fun. I'd love to read the same book written by a woman and told from a feminine perspective.
\n","w":93,"cv":"covers/12658.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.22,"n":82669,"dist":[815,2328,12763,28641,38122],"g":["Historical Fiction","Historical","Classics","Travel","Epic","Literature","American History"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2385321W","wp":"Hawaii_(novel)"},{"id":10880250,"t":"Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook","sl":"hawaii-the-big-island-revealed","a":["Andrew Doughty"],"as":"Doughty, Andrew","y":1996,"p":311,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-03-06","d":"2013-03-06","rev":"Excellent guidebook. Full of detail and humor and good information. It's an unusual guide, written by a real local and not some giant company like Fodor or Frommer. But it's also totally professional and complete. Definitely recommend for any visit to the Big Island, and I imagine their other Hawai'ian guides are just as good.
\n","w":55,"cv":"covers/10880250.avif","cw":280,"ch":468,"avg":4.48,"n":2248,"dist":[11,26,196,648,1367],"g":["Travel","Reference","Guidebook","Collections","History"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2013807W"},{"id":164154,"t":"A Canticle for Leibowitz","sl":"a-canticle-for-leibowitz","se":"St. Leibowitz","sn":"1","a":["Walter M. Miller Jr.","Mary Doria Russell"],"as":"Jr., Walter M. Miller","y":1959,"p":334,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-03-04","d":"2013-03-04","rev":"Liked this a lot, surprised I didn't read it before. Fascinating and somewhat plausible concept; the Catholic Church is the only civilization that survives nuclear war, shepherds the Ancient Knowledge for 600+ years before anyone can understand it again. The storytelling device is interesting too, three interconnected stories a few hundreds of years apart, Cloud Atlas owes a lot to this novel. Unfortunately the second and third stories are a bit weak and some of the themes are a bit messy; I enjoyed the first third of the book the most. But it's a great novel and feels very fresh. Also a good example of scifi that's of broader appeal.
\n","w":110,"cv":"covers/164154.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.99,"n":124324,"dist":[2691,7276,24651,43784,45922],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Classics","Dystopia","Fantasy","Religion","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1961,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"All-Time Best Novel","year":1975,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2626638W","wp":"A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz","isf":"2283"},{"id":2549408,"t":"The Grammar of Graphics (Statistics and Computing)","sl":"the-grammar-of-graphics-statistics-and-computing","a":["Leland Wilkinson","D. Wills","D. Rope","A. Norton","R. Dubbs"],"as":"Wilkinson, Leland","y":1999,"p":709,"sh":"to-read","d":"2013-02-22","cv":"covers/2549408.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"ol":"OL16964990W"},{"id":512662,"t":"Codex Seraphinianus. Ein Orbis Pictus des Universums der Phantasie.","sl":"codex-seraphinianus-ein-orbis-pictus-des-universums-der","a":["Luigi Serafini"],"as":"Serafini, Luigi","y":1981,"p":365,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-19","cv":"covers/512662.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.49,"n":3973,"dist":[60,94,333,824,2662],"g":["Art","Fantasy","Science Fiction","Comics","Graphic Novels","Reference","Design","Italian Literature","Italy"],"f":"Fiction","lang":"German","ol":"OL19092228W","isf":"2031655"},{"id":695427,"t":"The Life of Cardinal Innocenzo Del Monte: A Scandal in Scarlet (Renaissance Studies, V. 2)","sl":"the-life-of-cardinal-innocenzo-del-monte","a":["Francis A. 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Heinlein"],"as":"Heinlein, Robert A.","y":1959,"p":208,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","rev":"Just re-read this as an adult. Enjoyed it as an uncomplicated sci-fi yarn. Well really mostly a story of someone very nostalgic for Army boot camp and esprit d'corps. It's hard to imagine a book like this being written after the Vietnam war.
\nStructurally the book is odd. It's about 60% "tales from boot camp", then 15% "crappy political philosophy", then 25% "exciting battle against the bugs". I think the boot camp section was strongest. The political philosophy is awful; read at face value Heinlein is seriously advocating fascism. Specifically the idea of the state raising children, the important ones at least, an idea that dates all the way back to Plato's Republic. And then the idea that only military veterans can vote, can be real citizens.
\nThere's been a lot written about whether Heinlein intended this book as satire, or irony. As far as I know there's no definitive answer. To me it reads completely straight and to be honest it's consistent with a lot of Heinlein's awful personal politics. I mean maybe he was just doing the scifi thing of taking some idea from modern times and then extending it to an extreme and seeing where it leads. Maybe he wasn't personally advocating it. It's hard to say though, and I fear many of the teenagers this book is intended for won't read it with a critical eye.
\nI was also surprised how little the Verhoeven 1997 film has to do with the book. I mean it borrows a whole lot from it, including the basic plot structure and a lot of thematic beats. But the film is very clearly satire, a glitzy appealing and yet also hideous fascist state. It's one of my favorite scifi movies. Just kind of amazed to see how much Verhoeven added to the novel source material while also staying true to it. And coming down hard with its own political philosophy.
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\nI read the novel last month in preparation and while I enjoyed it, I found it a bit flat and hard to get through. The film picks up on all the interesting themes of the story and tells it more effectively.
\nI particularly like how they re-imagined the book as a movie, changing the narrative structure. The book is a series of 6 nested stories told in halves, ABCDEFEDCBA. The film chops that up and interleaves the stories much more rapidly. That lets them systematically highlight the common themes and narratives between each story that makes the whole work so intriguing. They also play off the stylistic inconsistency of each story, the mix of action, sci-fi, and farce coming fast and furious gives the narrative some much needed variety.
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Morgan"],"as":"Morgan, Richard K.","y":2008,"p":391,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/3314369.avif","cw":280,"ch":432,"avg":3.74,"n":18754,"dist":[661,1540,4575,7163,4815],"g":["Fantasy","LGBT","Dark Fantasy","Queer","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Gay","Dark"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Gaylactic Spectrum Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2010,"won":true}],"ol":"OL5730141W","wp":"The_Steel_Remains","isf":"829562"},{"id":6148028,"t":"Catching Fire","sl":"catching-fire","se":"The Hunger Games","sn":"2","a":["Suzanne Collins"],"as":"Collins, Suzanne","y":2009,"p":391,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/6148028.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":4.36,"n":4346738,"dist":[25348,86790,491942,1416149,2326509],"g":["Young Adult","Dystopia","Fantasy","Science Fiction","Romance","Adventure","Teen","Post Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Young Adult Book","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Golden Duck Award","cat":"Young Adult (Hal Clement Award)","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Soaring Eagle Book Award","cat":null,"year":2011,"won":true},{"name":"Children's Choice Book Award","cat":"Teen Choice Book of the Year","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Indies Choice Book Award","cat":"Young Adult","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Teen Read Award","cat":"Best Read","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"DABWAHA Romance Tournament","cat":"Best Young Adult","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Favorite Book and Young Adult Series (2009) and Nominee for Best of the Best ","year":2018,"won":true},{"name":"Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas","cat":"Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga","year":2010,"won":false}],"ol":"OL5735360W","wp":"Catching_Fire","isf":"1046939"},{"id":6178648,"t":"Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea","sl":"nothing-to-envy","a":["Barbara Demick"],"as":"Demick, Barbara","y":2009,"p":316,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/6178648.avif","cw":102,"ch":152,"avg":4.46,"n":105739,"dist":[669,1106,7271,36478,60215],"g":["History","Politics","Asia","Biography","Journalism","Historical","Travel"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"General Nonfiction","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"Ryszard Kapuściński Prize","cat":"","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Nonfiction","year":2010,"won":true},{"name":"The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction","cat":"","year":2010,"won":true}],"ol":"OL3257622W","wp":"Nothing_to_Envy"},{"id":6329095,"t":"Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi (Penguin Library of American Indian History)","sl":"cahokia","a":["Timothy R. Pauketat"],"as":"Pauketat, Timothy R.","y":2009,"p":194,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/6329095.avif","cw":280,"ch":183,"avg":3.64,"n":1497,"dist":[26,118,526,533,294],"g":["History","Archaeology","Anthropology","American History","Native American","Indigenous","Native American History","Native Americans","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL637173W"},{"id":6465707,"t":"The Walking Dead: Compendium One","sl":"the-walking-dead","se":"The Walking Dead","sn":"1-8","a":["Robert Kirkman"],"as":"Kirkman, Robert","y":2009,"p":1088,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/6465707.avif","cw":220,"ch":330,"avg":4.45,"n":73218,"dist":[925,1421,6414,19662,44796],"g":["Graphic Novels","Comics","Horror","Zombies","Graphic Novels Comics","Post Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Comic Book","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL17722004W","wp":"The_Walking_Dead:_Rise_of_the_Governor","isf":"1320909"},{"id":7260188,"t":"Mockingjay","sl":"mockingjay","se":"The Hunger Games","sn":"3","a":["Suzanne Collins"],"as":"Collins, Suzanne","y":2010,"p":392,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/7260188.avif","cw":280,"ch":424,"avg":4.13,"n":3886050,"dist":[49245,175111,682229,1301775,1677690],"g":["Young Adult","Dystopia","Fantasy","Science Fiction","Romance","Adventure","Teen","Post Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Young Adult Book","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"Children's Choice Book Award","cat":"Teen Choice Book of the Year","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"Andre Norton Award","cat":"","year":2010,"won":false},{"name":"DABWAHA Romance Tournament","cat":"Best Young Adult Romance","year":2011,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Favorite Book and for Young Adult Fantasy","year":2010,"won":true}],"ol":"OL14908941W","wp":"Mockingjay","isf":"1136305"},{"id":7638558,"t":"Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet","sl":"fatal-system-error","a":["Joseph Menn"],"as":"Menn, Joseph","y":2010,"p":249,"r":2,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/7638558.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":3.69,"n":1116,"dist":[25,85,337,434,235],"g":["Technology","Crime","Computers","True Crime","Internet","Hackers","History","Business","Computer Science"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL15183855W","wp":"Fatal_System_Error"},{"id":8050798,"t":"Predator: The Remote-Control Air War over Iraq and Afghanistan: A Pilot's Story","sl":"predator","a":["Matt J. Martin","Charles W. Sasser"],"as":"Martin, Matt J.","y":2010,"p":320,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/8050798.avif","cw":280,"ch":446,"avg":3.8,"n":121,"dist":[3,11,26,48,33],"g":["Military Fiction","History","War"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL15586880W"},{"id":9862761,"t":"1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created","sl":"1493","a":["Charles C. 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Campbell Memorial Award","cat":null,"year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":true},{"name":"ALA Alex Award","cat":null,"year":2012,"won":true},{"name":"Lincoln Award","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work","cat":null,"year":2016,"won":true},{"name":"Premi Ictineu","cat":"Millor novel·la traduïda","year":2017,"won":true},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Science Fiction and for Favorite Book","year":2011,"won":false},{"name":"Green Mountain Book Award","cat":null,"year":2015,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2015,"won":false}],"ol":"OL15936512W","wp":"Ready_Player_One","isf":"1297291"},{"id":10664113,"t":"A Dance with Dragons","sl":"a-dance-with-dragons","se":"A Song of Ice and Fire","sn":"5","a":["George R.R. Martin"],"as":"Martin, George R.R.","y":2011,"p":1125,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/10664113.avif","cw":280,"ch":447,"avg":4.35,"n":757532,"dist":[4977,16145,87201,253297,395912],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dragons","Adventure","Epic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":2012,"won":true},{"name":"World Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"SFX Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":true},{"name":"British Fantasy Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fantasy and Nominee for Favorite Book (2011) and Nominee for Best of the Best ","year":2018,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1955906W","wp":"A_Dance_with_Dragons","isf":"867793"},{"id":11529868,"t":"The Orphan Master's Son","sl":"the-orphan-masters-son","a":["Adam Johnson"],"as":"Johnson, Adam","y":2012,"p":443,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/11529868.avif","cw":280,"ch":415,"avg":4.07,"n":106362,"dist":[2836,5514,16501,38149,43362],"g":["Historical Fiction","Asia","Literary Fiction","Contemporary","Literature","Historical"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Pulitzer Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"California Book Award","cat":"Fiction (Gold)","year":2012,"won":true},{"name":"Dayton Literary Peace Prize","cat":"Fiction","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"National Book Critics Circle Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"Andrew Carnegie Medal","cat":"Fiction","year":2013,"won":false},{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Fiction","year":2012,"won":false},{"name":"The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books","cat":"","year":2013,"won":true},{"name":"Metų verstinė knyga","cat":null,"year":2014,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16419990W","wp":"The_Orphan_Master's_Son"},{"id":11849040,"t":"Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas","sl":"flagrant-conduct","a":["Dale Carpenter"],"as":"Carpenter, Dale","y":2012,"p":345,"r":4,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/11849040.avif","cw":280,"ch":418,"avg":4.09,"n":529,"dist":[2,10,100,242,175],"g":["History","Law","LGBT","Politics","Legal","Queer","American History","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"LGBT Nonfiction","year":2013,"won":true}],"ol":"OL16299424W"},{"id":15814872,"t":"No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden","sl":"no-easy-day","a":["Mark Owen","Kevin Maurer"],"as":"Owen, Mark","y":2012,"p":316,"r":3,"sh":"read","d":"2013-02-12","cv":"covers/15814872.avif","cw":269,"ch":400,"avg":4.04,"n":59326,"dist":[586,2418,12178,23094,21050],"g":["Military Fiction","History","War","Biography","Memoir","Military History","Politics","Autobiography"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Goodreads Choice Award","cat":"Memoir & Autobiography","year":2012,"won":false}],"ol":"OL16803726W","wp":"No_Easy_Day"},{"id":3758,"t":"Casino Royale","sl":"casino-royale","se":"James Bond","sn":"1","a":["Ian Fleming","Jeffery Deaver"],"as":"Fleming, Ian","y":1953,"p":192,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2013-01-01","d":"2013-01-01","rev":"Really didn't like this book; reads like some childish fantasy by a hack. I suppose it's unsurprising to criticize it for sexism but geez, he could have done better. And lots of clumsy prose. Redeemed a bit by what the James Bond series became, of course. Also I loved the central device on Bond betting on baccarat and knowing it was 100% a game of chance, not skill.
\n","w":68,"cv":"covers/3758.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.73,"n":101350,"dist":[2175,7050,29633,39164,23328],"g":["Thriller","Classics","Mystery","Espionage","Adventure","Crime","Mystery Thriller"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL85753W","wp":"Casino_Royale_(novel)"},{"id":45245,"t":"The Reality Dysfunction","sl":"the-reality-dysfunction","se":"Night's Dawn","sn":"1","a":["Peter F. Hamilton"],"as":"Hamilton, Peter F.","y":1996,"p":1223,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2012-01-01","d":"2012-01-01","rev":"Apparently I read this book last year and barely have any memory of it. Vaguely recall it was entertaining, but it must not have stuck with me very much.
\n","w":29,"cv":"covers/45245.avif","cw":280,"ch":450,"avg":4.13,"n":38711,"dist":[927,1872,5645,13244,17023],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Fantasy","Horror","Space","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL474017W","wp":"The_Reality_Dysfunction","isf":"33261"},{"id":944073,"t":"The Blade Itself","sl":"the-blade-itself","se":"The First Law","sn":"1","a":["Joe Abercrombie"],"as":"Abercrombie, Joe","y":2006,"p":515,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2011-01-01","d":"2011-01-01","cv":"covers/944073.avif","cw":280,"ch":429,"avg":4.22,"n":338668,"dist":[3969,9172,43083,134361,148083],"g":["Fantasy","Epic Fantasy","High Fantasy","Dark Fantasy","Adventure","Magic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":2007,"won":false},{"name":"Compton Crook Award","cat":null,"year":2008,"won":false},{"name":"Tähtifantasia Award","cat":null,"year":2010,"won":false}],"ol":"OL8400950W","isf":"351961"},{"id":2010832,"t":"Chartres Cathedral - Hb English","sl":"chartres-cathedral-hb-english","a":["Malcolm B. Miller","Sonia Halliday","Laura Lushington"],"as":"Miller, Malcolm B.","y":1991,"p":96,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"2006-01-01","d":"2006-01-01","rev":"Some books are like keys that unlock a depth of understanding of something. Miller's treatment of the stained glass at Chartres is that kind of thing, both here in this book and in his guided tours which he's been giving for some 50(!) years.
\nThis book excellent photos of all the windows and explains in detail what they mean. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. Before I read that book I'd look at medieval stained glass and think "oooh, pretty". Now I look and think "oh, that's a Jesse Tree, and over here is a very interesting depiction of the life of Saint Eustace see the stag there. And look, it's an oven in the corner of that window, perhaps the local baker's guild helped fund it". It's amazing how much more rewarding a visit is if you understand the meaning of things.
\nI particularly recommend this book for anyone planning a visit to Chartres. Read it before you go so you understand what you're seeing.
\n","w":168,"cv":"covers/2010832.avif","cw":280,"ch":413,"avg":4.22,"n":68,"dist":[0,1,10,30,27],"g":["Art","History","Architecture","Medieval","Religion"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL87469W"},{"id":823,"t":"Quicksilver","sl":"quicksilver","se":"The Baroque Cycle","sn":"1","a":["Neal Stephenson"],"as":"Stephenson, Neal","y":2003,"p":927,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"2004-01-01","d":"2004-01-01","rev":"The man needs an editor.
\n","w":5,"cv":"covers/823.avif","cw":280,"ch":400,"avg":3.92,"n":44076,"dist":[1532,3245,8217,15144,15938],"g":["Historical Fiction","Science Fiction","Fantasy","Historical","Adventure","Alternate History","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":2004,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":2004,"won":true}],"ol":"OL38495W","wp":"Quicksilver_(Stephenson_novel)","isf":"33345"},{"id":68212,"t":"The Oxford Companion to Wine","sl":"the-oxford-companion-to-wine","a":["Jancis Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Jancis","y":1994,"p":840,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1997-01-01","d":"1997-01-01","rev":"An absolutely terrific wine encyclopaedia, containing more minute information about wine production, history, enjoyment, and custom than anyone could ever want to know. The entries feel authoritative, the information is useful and eclectic. The editorial board does a nice job of escaping the hegemony of French wine - there's ample information on the rest of Europe (eastern, too), the US, South American, and Australia. If you really like wine, this book makes a handy reference. Note, though, that its intent is not to help you pick particular bottles of wine to buy. I'm still looking for a good timeless guide for that.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/68212.avif","cw":280,"ch":356,"avg":4.52,"n":713,"dist":[7,9,49,189,459],"g":["Wine","Reference","Cookbooks","Food","Cooking","Food and Drink","Alcohol","Food and Wine","Culinary"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"James Beard Foundation Book Award","cat":"Beverage","year":2016,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2668224W","wp":"The_Oxford_Companion_to_Wine"},{"id":96472,"t":"Sundiver","sl":"sundiver","se":"The Uplift Saga","sn":"1","a":["David Brin"],"as":"Brin, David","y":1980,"p":340,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1997-01-01","d":"1997-01-01","rev":"This is one of those "famous trilogies" people kept referring me to. David Brin is also the author of The Postman. Overall I enjoyed reading these books, they're fun and undemanding and vaguely interesting. But also a bit, well, childish. Especially Sundiver, which suffers from some difficult plot problems. The general theme is humanity's role in a universe populated by galactic civilizations with billions of years of history. We're newcomers and outsiders; our kooky ways of doing things make us interesting and save the world. Some interesting moments, and generally an entertaining read.
\n","w":93,"cv":"covers/96472.avif","cw":280,"ch":467,"avg":3.69,"n":28083,"dist":[618,2263,8663,10170,6369],"g":["Science Fiction","Space Opera","Mystery","Aliens","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Space"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":1981,"won":false}],"ol":"OL58711W","wp":"Sundiver","isf":"1076"},{"id":218571,"t":"Islands in the Net","sl":"islands-in-the-net","a":["Bruce Sterling"],"as":"Sterling, Bruce","y":1988,"p":396,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1997-01-01","d":"1997-01-01","rev":"Somehow in catching up on all that cyberpunk reading last year I skipped over Sterling. So I went to him, with the one I'd heard the most about - Islands in the Net. It's an ok book, enjoyable to read. The spin on cyberpunk here is odd, maybe a bit interesting - the politics of the information future, the dominance of terrorist / pirate states. The narrative is basically a tour of three distopias of the future - Grenada, Singapore, and Mali. His take on these futures is basically believable, if a bit pedantic. I didn't care much for his protagonist - too much like Jane Doe. But some of his other characters, in particular his own version of Steppin' Razor, are really nice.
\n","w":124,"cv":"covers/218571.avif","cw":280,"ch":478,"avg":3.66,"n":5278,"dist":[108,417,1709,1969,1075],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Speculative Fiction","Politics","20th Century","Thriller","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1989,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1989,"won":true}],"ol":"OL1888028W","wp":"Islands_in_the_Net","isf":"1699"},{"id":497199,"t":"Factotum","sl":"factotum","a":["Charles Bukowski"],"as":"Bukowski, Charles","y":1975,"p":205,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1997-01-01","d":"1997-01-01","rev":"I'd never read any Bukowski before, a horrible omission. So I picked one at random - I gather they're all sort of interchangeable. Factotum reads like William S Burroughs if he we straight, a drunk (not a junkie), and wrote linear narratives. I'm not sure if that description is compliment or an insult to Bukowski. I enjoyed reading the book fairly well, at least it made good airplane reading. Then again, I like filth.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/497199.avif","cw":280,"ch":443,"avg":3.91,"n":78181,"dist":[1240,4071,17826,32031,23013],"g":["Classics","Literature","American","Poetry","Contemporary","The United States Of America","Thriller","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL50452W","wp":"Factotum_(novel)"},{"id":3563598,"t":"The Ecology of Computation (Studies in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, No. 2)","sl":"the-ecology-of-computation-studies-in-computer-science-and","a":["B.A. Huberman"],"as":"Huberman, B.A.","y":1988,"p":348,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1997-01-01","d":"1997-01-01","rev":"Broader approaches to computation, from a book with a very suggestive title. This collection of essays inside has been influential to me. In my own research I've been trying to think of computation from different points of view than just the strict Turing machine model, in particular Artificial Life ideas. The ideas here are really helpful, especially the Agoric Computation papers which develop an interesting vision of distributed object computation based on an economic model. The book is hard to find and very expensive. Happily, the Agorics papers are available online.
\n","w":91,"cv":"covers/3563598.avif","cw":128,"ch":184,"avg":3.8,"n":5,"dist":[0,0,2,2,1],"ol":"OL17915188W"},{"id":22200,"t":"Count Zero","sl":"count-zero","se":"Sprawl","sn":"2","a":["William Gibson"],"as":"Gibson, William","y":1986,"p":308,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"Ah, Gibson, patron saint of so many would-be-netheads. After enjoying Neuromancer so much recently, I decided to go ahead and read the two other novels in the trilogy. Definitely not the same quality as the original. Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive don't have the same plot problems as Neuromancer, but he's adopted an interwoven story aspect, switching between plotlines every chapter in both novels. That drives me nuts! I can live with it, but the real criticism is that these newer novels lack the urgency, rawness, and sparkle of Neuromancer. That's ok, it's not a failure, just not the same incredibleness. I do like the overarching theme of all three novels, that we are merely puppets at the hands of Artificial Intelligences. Not even friendly AIs, but trans-godlike beings who don't really understand or care about the actions of their human creators, just use us as tools occasionally. A very dark future, much darker than the typical vision of AIs deliberately destroying humanity (a la Terminator).
\n","w":167,"cv":"covers/22200.avif","cw":280,"ch":420,"avg":4.02,"n":62165,"dist":[387,2125,13160,26800,19693],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Dystopia","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1986,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27256W","wp":"Count_Zero","isf":"2195"},{"id":41128,"t":"The Wild Shore","sl":"the-wild-shore","se":"Three Californias Triptych","sn":"1","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":1984,"p":384,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"Since I liked the Mars trilogy so much, I decided to try out his other famous work, the alternate California novels. I didn't like this first one much. It's, well, not very good. A basic coming of age novel set in a degenerate, post-apocalyptic Ameicna culture. Some of the culture stuff is reasonably well executed, but on the whole I found this book kind of dull. I'm not likely to read the next two.
\n","w":74,"cv":"covers/41128.avif","cw":280,"ch":425,"avg":3.74,"n":4371,"dist":[76,275,1258,1844,918],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Speculative Fiction","Apocalyptic","Alternate History"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":null,"year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best First Novel","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"Philip K. Dick Award","cat":"Special Citation","year":1985,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Novel","year":1985,"won":false}],"ol":"OL81666W","wp":"The_Wild_Shore","isf":"841"},{"id":51590,"t":"Frisk","sl":"frisk","se":"George Miles Cycle","sn":"2","a":["Dennis Cooper"],"as":"Cooper, Dennis","y":1991,"p":240,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"The sleazeball of gay fiction. Dennis Cooper has something of a reputation as a writer of violent, disturbing, pornographic, mostly-well-written fiction. Frisk is the only novel of his that I've read, and it does live to that reputation. I've read a fair amount of disturbing stuff before (I'm a big fan of William S. Burroughs, I spent some time once reading de Sade, and I still try to read Les Chants du Maldoror from time to time.) Stuff like Frisk doesn't really suprise me, so I was suprised at how unpleasant I found the process of reading it. Maybe it's because it's not that well written, or too well written, or so contemporary I can't distance myself from it.
\n","w":119,"cv":"covers/51590.avif","cw":280,"ch":410,"avg":3.66,"n":4502,"dist":[193,412,1188,1653,1056],"g":["Horror","Queer","LGBT","Gay","Dark","American","20th Century","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Men's Fiction","year":1992,"won":false}],"lang":"French","ol":"OL8985370M","wp":"Frisk_(novel)","isf":"1466238"},{"id":77504,"t":"Blue Mars","sl":"blue-mars","se":"Mars Trilogy","sn":"3","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":1996,"p":768,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"The long-awaited final book in the Mars Trilogy. Sadly, this follows the usual rule - the first two books are better than the last. Blue Mars just runs out of steam, becomes static and repetitive and a bit pointless. Interestingly enough, though, the society he describes has itself become static, repetitive, a bit pointless. So maybe the feel of the book isn't entirely accidental. I did enjoy reading this, and I think any fan of the first two will feel compelled to read the third.
\nOne nice thing: I was reading this on my big roadtrip. Canyonlands looks a lot like the planet described in Blue Mars.
\n","w":107,"cv":"covers/77504.avif","cw":280,"ch":457,"avg":3.95,"n":33909,"dist":[572,2019,7466,12257,11595],"g":["Science Fiction","Hugo Awards","Space","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":null,"year":1997,"won":false},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1997,"won":false},{"name":"James Tiptree Jr. Award","cat":"Longlist","year":1996,"won":false},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Translated Novel","year":2018,"won":false}],"ol":"OL81649W","isf":"265"},{"id":719105,"t":"Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe","sl":"same-sex-unions-in-premodern-europe","a":["John Boswell"],"as":"Boswell, John","y":1994,"p":412,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"Hugely important work of gay scholarship. Also readable.
\n","w":8,"cv":"covers/719105.avif","cw":104,"ch":160,"avg":4.01,"n":859,"dist":[17,36,167,343,296],"g":["History","Queer","LGBT","Religion","Gay","Sexuality","Sociology","Medieval","Historical"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Studies","year":1994,"won":false}],"ol":"OL258187W","wp":"Same-Sex_Unions_in_Pre-Modern_Europe"},{"id":991788,"t":"Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.","sl":"gay-american-history","a":["Jonathan Ned Katz"],"as":"Katz, Jonathan Ned","y":1975,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"Essential American history.
\n","w":3,"cv":"covers/991788.avif","cw":280,"ch":354,"avg":4.27,"n":103,"dist":[3,1,11,38,50],"g":["History","LGBT","Queer","Gay","Historical","Sexuality","Lesbian","American History","Reference"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":null,"year":1975,"won":true}],"ol":"OL508872W","wp":"Gay_American_History"},{"id":1188808,"t":"Against My Better Judgement: An Intimate Memoir of an Eminent Gay Psychologist (Haworth Gay & Lesbian Studies)","sl":"against-my-better-judgement","a":["Roger Brown"],"as":"Brown, Roger","y":1996,"p":264,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"A painfully honest autobiographical account of the author's life from ages 62-67 or so, after his lover of 40 years died. The first chapter or two is about his relationship with his lover. This was the most painful part to me - it's quite honest and self critical, full of the minute dissections of life that make the miseries become apparent. At the same time the description is of a relationship with a lot of strength and companionship.
\nAfter his lover's death the author goes on to talk about his new sexual life, the various relationships he has with call boys. The interesting thing to me is that he developed long term relationships with three different hustlers; the narrative is about his experiences with them. It's not spoiling the book to say none of the relationships worked out very well.
\nThe book as a whole is not exactly exuberant. There are moments in it that are quite fun, or funny, or even hopeful. And I really enjoyed the author's ability to analyze and talk about himself. It's worth a read, though, if nothing else than for the voyeuristic pleasure of it.
\n","w":191,"cv":"covers/1188808.avif","cw":280,"ch":391,"avg":3.81,"n":16,"dist":[0,3,4,2,7],"g":["Biography","Memoir","LGBT","Gay"],"q":1,"ol":"OL269721W"},{"id":1778966,"t":"Mind Grenades: Manifestos from the Future","sl":"mind-grenades","a":["John Plunkett"],"as":"Plunkett, John","y":1996,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1996-01-01","d":"1996-01-01","rev":"I'm not quiet sure why I bought this - it's compelling design pornography, I guess. Mind Grenades is the published collection of the front four page graphic spreads that appear in Wired magazine. These little tidbits are often my favourite part of Wired: beautiful, garish, indulgent, interesting. I'm glad they've been reproduced in high quality. It's the kind of book I'll be really glad to own twenty years from now.
\n","w":70,"cv":"covers/1778966.avif","cw":280,"ch":337,"avg":3.76,"n":17,"dist":[1,1,4,6,5],"g":["Design","Pop Culture","Technology"],"ol":"OL17990850W"},{"id":14817,"t":"A Scanner Darkly","sl":"a-scanner-darkly","a":["Philip K. Dick"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1977,"p":217,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"Yet more painful mind-wrenching schizophrenic literature by PK Dick. Scanner Darkly is barely even sci-fi, just a story about paranoid druggies hooked on some a drug, undercover cops trying to find the source. The wonderful thing about Scanner Darkly is that Dick once again communicates the awful fear of not knowing what is real, blurring of identity between two people. The personal message at the end is pretty moving, his explanation that he's writing about his own friends who had their lives screwed up.
\n","w":84,"cv":"covers/14817.avif","cw":280,"ch":435,"avg":4.02,"n":113670,"dist":[1806,5248,21861,44269,40486],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Classics","Cyberpunk","Drugs","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best SF Novel","year":1978,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Novel","year":1978,"won":true},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1978,"won":false},{"name":"Graoully d'Or","cat":"Roman étranger","year":1979,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":1991,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2172433W","wp":"A_Scanner_Darkly","isf":"1262"},{"id":16792,"t":"The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch","sl":"the-tragical-comedy-or-comical-tragedy-of-mr-punch","a":["Neil Gaiman","Dave McKean"],"as":"Gaiman, Neil","y":1994,"p":96,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"More graphic novels from Neil Gaiman, the creator of Sandman. Mr. Punch is even better than Sandman, maybe because it's just more adult. The core of the story revolves around the narrator remembering his childhood, trying to understand things now he didn't comprehend then. The Punch & Judy puppet show serves as a disturbing backdrop for the frightening machinations of the adults in his childhood world. I wish I knew more about Punch & Judy shows.
\nThe story itself is wonderful, and once again the graphic novel format make all the difference as the illustrations augment the narrative. The pen and ink drawings aren't that interesting, but about half the panels are photographs, creepily lit still lifes of Mr. Punch puppets, wire stick figures, and random detritus. The look is really great.
\n","w":132,"cv":"covers/16792.avif","cw":280,"ch":391,"avg":3.76,"n":7741,"dist":[129,581,2277,2800,1954],"g":["Graphic Novels","Comics","Fantasy","Horror","Graphic Novels Comics","Comic Book","Sequential Art","Art","Bande Dessinée"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL679292W","wp":"The_Tragical_Comedy_or_Comical_Tragedy_of_Mr._Punch"},{"id":17745,"t":"Envisioning Information","sl":"envisioning-information","a":["Edward R. Tufte"],"as":"Tufte, Edward R.","y":1990,"p":126,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"A very beautiful book, an elegant presentation of lessons in the layout of graphical and textual information. Anyone who is doing presentation of complex information, particularly people aiming for visual style on Web pages, should read this book. I was disappointed at first that the book isn't a manual for graphic design, but once I realized that wasn't Tufte's goal that was ok. Instead, Tufte points out interesting examples, showing what works and what doesn't. I really like his phrase "information prison" to refer to a presentation that has too many heavy grid lines. I was also impressed with how beautiful the book itself is, high quality heavy paper, excellent illustrations, nice font (Bembo), excellent layout of tables. I guess one would expect that for a book on graphic design, but still quite a pleasure.
\nI've also flipped through Tufte's earlier book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. It's got much the same feel as Envisioning Information, examples and analysis of examples of graphical design. Quantitative Information, though, is only about presenting numerical data, a peculiar focus that shows that data doesn't have to be boring. Also fun reading.
\nReading this book, and looking at a few web pages that actually look good, have made me think about casting off the restraints of proper, boring HTML 2.0 to do some pages that look spiffy. Danger! I wish Tufte would write something about display on low bandwidth devices: computer screens, web pages. The most beautiful examples presented in his books require very high resolution display. Fine for paper, but not clear how to apply these lessons to on-screen design.
\n","w":268,"cv":"covers/17745.avif","cw":280,"ch":337,"avg":4.23,"n":7985,"dist":[92,251,1241,2567,3834],"g":["Design","Science","Reference","Art","Business","Art Design","Communication","Technology","Architecture"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2824011W"},{"id":38310,"t":"How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built","sl":"how-buildings-learn","a":["Stewart Brand"],"as":"Brand, Stewart","y":1994,"p":256,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"A fun book, documenting what changes take place in buildings after people live in them, adapt them to their needs. It's an interesting spin on architecture, looking more at how a building works for people than how it looks as a piece of sculpture. Plenty of practical information here if you're thinking of building a space, and plenty of aesthetic information to change the way you think about buildings.
\nThe coolest thing for me with this book, though, was how it seemed to inform my understanding of writing software. I've always been careful to write my code not just so that it works, but so that the structure of the code itself follows a certain aesthetic. Well-designed source code to me means that foremost it is readable - I don't mean comments, I mean that it's written in a logical, readable way (if something is obscure, comment it thoroughly). My code is designed not just to run right, but to be understandable by others (and by myself later), to be extensible. To adapt to people's needs. Brand's book is about designing buildings that way, and it's interesting to see how well the analogy works. I'm not sure that How Buildings Learn has changed the way I write code, but it has changed the way I talk about it.
\n","w":218,"cv":"covers/38310.avif","cw":280,"ch":226,"avg":4.34,"n":1909,"dist":[22,51,205,600,1031],"g":["Architecture","Design","History","Urbanism","Art","Cities","Urban Planning","Science","Technology"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL823146W","wp":"How_Buildings_Learn"},{"id":76844,"t":"The Songlines","sl":"the-songlines","a":["Bruce Chatwin"],"as":"Chatwin, Bruce","y":1987,"p":304,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"My Australian friend Grant gave me this book when he visited from Sydney - we'd talked a bit about the Aborigines in Australia compared to the Native Americans in the US. I'm not quite sure what to make of The Songlines: it's well written, an interesting portrayal of an outsider slowly coming to understand some aspects of Aborigine thinking. And there are plenty of amusing Australia anecdotes. But then the book also reminds me heavily of The Teachings of Don Juan - I sure hope Chatwin is more honest than Castenada.
\n","w":91,"cv":"covers/76844.avif","cw":280,"ch":440,"avg":3.96,"n":12814,"dist":[206,744,2794,4726,4344],"g":["Travel","Australia","History","Anthropology","Memoir","Adventure","Biography","Philosophy","Literature"],"f":"Nonfiction","aw":[{"name":"Commonwealth Writers' Prize","cat":"Best Book in South Asia and Europe","year":1988,"won":true}],"ol":"OL612496W","wp":"The_Songlines"},{"id":216399,"t":"A Maze of Death","sl":"a-maze-of-death","a":["Philip K. Dick"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1970,"p":192,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"I wouldn't say this is one of Dick's best books, certainly not up to the level of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or Valis. It's just a classic Dick tale, science fiction and psychological intrigue. A bunch of sub-par humans find themselves on an outpost on a new planet, they don't know what they are supposed to be doing there, and something is killing them. The ending is pulled out of a hat, but it's your standard P.K. Dick "reality isn't what we think it is" trick that we love him for. Lots of good Dick theology, not so much schizophrenia.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/216399.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":3.82,"n":10926,"dist":[80,576,3084,4640,2546],"g":["Science Fiction","Mystery","Speculative Fiction","Religion","American","Philosophy","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2172352W","wp":"A_Maze_of_Death","isf":"949"},{"id":243854,"t":"Vacuum Flowers","sl":"vacuum-flowers","a":["Michael Swanwick"],"as":"Swanwick, Michael","y":1987,"p":248,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"An amusing book: the ideas are great, but the execution isn't very convincing. In the future humans are split into various societies, a cultural divergence because of isolation brought on my different space colonies. We've got hive-mind humans at the service of a new consciousness that spans Earth, a bunch of socialists building a worker society on Mars, and lots of free thinkers and personality reprogrammers hanging out in various small colonies. The interesting idea here is the manipulation of personality, especially the new technology whereby people can be entirely reprogrammed. It's a fertile theme, but I don't think Swanwick treated the scarier aspects of that very well. I'd love to see what P.K. Dick could do with this story. Karl recommended this to me, I think because he likes to think about personality manipulation.
\n","w":135,"cv":"covers/243854.avif","cw":280,"ch":465,"avg":3.74,"n":1496,"dist":[44,114,412,550,376],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Space Opera","Speculative Fiction","Dystopia","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL549272W","wp":"Vacuum_Flowers","isf":"932"},{"id":1458753,"t":"Joseph and the Old Man","sl":"joseph-and-the-old-man","a":["Christopher Davis"],"as":"Davis, Christopher","y":1986,"p":195,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"This is the first "gay fiction" I've read in awhile: so much of the genre is writer-workshop prose, a sort of sameness that doesn't inspire. But this book worked for me, if nothing else than as a nice gay romance novel. It gives a particularly good treatment of intergenerational relationships, I think, something that's rare in writing, gay or straight. And the life described, an endless, slow parade of friends on Fire Island; well, it's very appealing, sad to think that it might no longer exist. I hope to visit Fire Island on my big roadtrip this summer, see what it's really like.
\nI like the style of most of the novel, a sort of sensitive gay male Hemmingway. Simple, upfront prose presenting the daily life of the lovers. The book compelled me enough that I stayed up all night to read it instead of sleeping, called a friend it reminded me of and raved about it.
\n","w":157,"cv":"covers/1458753.avif","cw":280,"ch":427,"avg":3.9,"n":41,"dist":[1,2,10,15,13],"g":["LGBT","Gay"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL3944166W"},{"id":4363753,"t":"Digital Money: The New Era of Internet Commerce","sl":"digital-money","a":["Daniel C. Lynch","Leslie Lundquist"],"as":"Lynch, Daniel C.","y":1995,"p":304,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1995-01-01","d":"1995-01-01","rev":"One of several books on how to make a buck on the Internet, focussed in particular on the new technology of digital commerce, what it enables. I think this book is probably better than most, although I haven't sampled the field. The exposition is correct (at least in what I can verify), and gets into enough detail that you can understand what the issues are without becoming overwhelming.
\nIf you've read Schneier then the technical chapter will be too simplistic, but the chapters on economics, social influences, and business plans are great. Chapter 5, "New Business Concepts", was the most valuable for me: exploring what options new technologies make possible. I thought the technotopic vision in the final chapter was a bit facile, but that's just futurist writing. Mostly the book gives a responsible treatment of the implications of moving commerce online. Extra points for addressing concerns about privacy and social equality.
\n","w":152,"cv":"covers/4363753.avif","cw":280,"ch":343,"avg":3.14,"n":7,"dist":[1,0,3,3,0],"g":["Business"],"ol":"OL2420428W"},{"id":28766,"t":"Fiasco: A Haunting Science Fiction Novel of First Contact Where Dark Poetry Descends into a Nightmare of Misunderstanding","sl":"fiasco","a":["Stanisław Lem"],"as":"Lem, Stanisław","y":1986,"p":322,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"This might well be the last Lem novel I ever read: I got a lot out of a couple of his books, but the ones I've read more recently have been lost on me. Fiasco was really difficult for me to finish: the plot was predictable, the characters uninteresting, and even the story itself was only vaguely compelling. Humans find another planet, and through a miracle of time reversal manage to travel there. Lem takes this as an opportunity to tell a story about how difficult it would be for humans to interact with a completely alien world. I think he made the point better in His Master's Voice, personally. Sorry to be such a downer about this.
\n","w":118,"cv":"covers/28766.avif","cw":280,"ch":433,"avg":4.08,"n":5272,"dist":[51,284,966,1884,2087],"g":["Science Fiction","Polish Literature","Fantasy","Classics","Poland","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1988,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2683630W","wp":"Fiasco_(novel)","isf":"1958"},{"id":28768,"t":"Eden","sl":"eden","a":["Stanisław Lem"],"as":"Lem, Stanisław","y":1959,"p":276,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"I sometimes say that everyone who comes to the Santa Fe Institute should read at least two Lem novels. Lem's science fiction is heavily influenced by cybernetics, sort of a precursor to the complex systems work that goes on at SFI. Lem's novels Solaris and His Master's Voice are highly influential for me.
\nEden is pretty good, but I fear I'm beginning to tire of the Stanislaw Lem thing. Six people crash their rocket on a new planet and are forced to learn something about their surroundings before repairing their ship and escaping. The fun here is the complete incomprehensibility of the alien culture: they keep encountering new things and making hypotheses that are clearly wrong. It's a good premise for a book, but I wasn't entirely thrilled with the execution.
\n","w":131,"cv":"covers/28768.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":3.86,"n":7313,"dist":[79,425,1877,2965,1967],"g":["Science Fiction","Polish Literature","Classics","Aliens","Poland","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL109515W","wp":"Eden_(Lem_novel)","isf":"6534"},{"id":41123,"t":"Remaking History and Other Stories","sl":"remaking-history-and-other-stories","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":1991,"p":528,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"Hot off of reading Red Mars, I tried a random other Robinson book, this time a collection of short stories. Can't say I enjoyed this one as much - a couple of the stories seemed pretty good when I read them, but I can't even remember them now. Short stories are frequently about style, but I think Robinson is a better story teller than stylist.
\n","w":65,"cv":"covers/41123.avif","cw":280,"ch":414,"avg":3.79,"n":97,"dist":[1,5,34,30,27],"g":["Science Fiction","Short Stories","Fantasy","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19431523W"},{"id":77505,"t":"Green Mars","sl":"green-mars","se":"Mars Trilogy","sn":"2","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":1993,"p":624,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"The sequel to Red Mars, quite nice. Not as good as Red Mars, I think, a bit more into itself. The biggest problem is that Robinson made a lot of great characters in Red Mars and won't give them up: through the miracle of immortality, they're permanent. Still, he does let some of the characters develop, and the plot is unfolding nicely. I can't wait until Blue Mars comes out so I can finish it up.
\n","w":76,"cv":"covers/77505.avif","cw":280,"ch":468,"avg":3.96,"n":41856,"dist":[655,2209,9123,16179,13690],"g":["Science Fiction","Hugo Awards","Space","Speculative Fiction","Fantasy","Space Opera","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1994,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1994,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1994,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":1998,"won":true}],"ol":"OL81655W","isf":"1840"},{"id":106585,"t":"The Transmigration of Timothy Archer","sl":"the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer","se":"VALIS Trilogy","sn":"3","a":["Philip K. Dick"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1982,"p":255,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"One of the better PK Dick novels I've read, lovely Gnosticism, half-crazy intelligent men, 70s sexual politics, etc. This novel is a bit edgier than most, I think because the backdrop of the story seems so normal but the psychology going on underneath is pretty creepy. It was nice to see Dick write female characters well, usually they're just furniture for him.
\n","w":62,"cv":"covers/106585.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":3.89,"n":8849,"dist":[109,503,2193,3499,2545],"g":["Science Fiction","Philosophy","Religion","Speculative Fiction","American","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"","year":1982,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"","year":1983,"won":false}],"ol":"OL2172490W","wp":"The_Transmigration_of_Timothy_Archer","isf":"968"},{"id":108295,"t":"Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940","sl":"gay-new-york","a":["George Chauncey"],"as":"Chauncey, George","y":1994,"p":496,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"This book is a study of gay society in New York from 1890-1940. It's a wonderful piece of social history, completely destroying the myth that there was no gay life before Stonewall. It also pursues one of my favourite themes, exploring the different ways that men express their homosexuality: "straight" men who would occasionally go out and play, gays who tried to pass, pansies who were outrageous. So much of modern gay consciousness and politics is focussed on "we are all alike", it's refreshing to see a book that reminds us that we aren't.
\nThe book itself is pretty interesting reading for something that's essentially a history book. Much more readable than Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (R.I.P., Boswell). The research Chauncey did is incredible, teasing out lots of information from local papers, diaries, interviews, and crime reports from the police and from private morality enforcement committees. My friend at University of Chicago says that Chauncey's a great professor, too. Look for his next book; it will pick up where this left off.
\n","w":174,"cv":"covers/108295.avif","cw":280,"ch":475,"avg":4.26,"n":3540,"dist":[53,75,457,1255,1700],"g":["History","Queer","LGBT","Gay","American History","Gender","New York","Historical","Sociology"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Stonewall Book Award","cat":"Non-Fiction","year":1995,"won":false},{"name":"Los Angeles Times Book Prize","cat":"History","year":1994,"won":true},{"name":"Lambda Literary Award","cat":"Gay Studies","year":1994,"won":true},{"name":"Merle Curti Award","cat":"","year":1996,"won":true},{"name":"Frederick Jackson Turner Award","cat":"","year":1995,"won":true}],"ol":"OL3459949W","wp":"Gay_New_York"},{"id":216363,"t":"The Man in the High Castle","sl":"the-man-in-the-high-castle","a":["Philip K. Dick"],"as":"Dick, Philip K.","y":1962,"p":259,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"I believe this is one of the first novels that made Dick famous. Alternate present genre - what if Germany and Japan had won the war? For the genre, I thought it was pretty silly: a lot of the development is quite predictable. Dick does write himself into the novel a bit, but he doesn't really run with it in the way that marks his later writing.
\n","w":67,"cv":"covers/216363.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":3.58,"n":245328,"dist":[6992,25974,77414,86437,48511],"g":["Science Fiction","Classics","Dystopia","Alternate History","Historical Fiction","Fantasy"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1963,"won":true},{"name":"Tähtivaeltaja Award","cat":null,"year":1993,"won":true}],"ol":"OL2172403W","wp":"The_Man_in_the_High_Castle","isf":"1574"},{"id":218467,"t":"Lucifer's Hammer","sl":"lucifers-hammer","a":["Larry Niven","Jerry Pournelle"],"as":"Niven, Larry","y":1977,"p":629,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"My friend Karl and I share a love for post-apocalyptic novels. The end of civilization, the destruction of our artifacts and our moral codes, humans facing their mortality. It's a powerful sort of topic. Karl has written a really great page on post apocalyptic novels.
\nKarl calls this a "two fisted tale", that's about right. It's an amusing book, with lots of great tales of California in chaos. Great literature it ain't. Classic post-apocalyptic novel: buildup, horrible cataclysm (a comet), regression to savagery ("throw that dead baby out the window, we aren't going to be hungry enough to eat it") followed by an attempt to recover and preserve civilization. It's about three times as long as it needs to be, but then again pulp is paid by the page.
\n","w":129,"cv":"covers/218467.avif","cw":280,"ch":472,"avg":4.0,"n":46001,"dist":[697,2156,9730,17234,16184],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Fantasy","Survival","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1977,"won":false}],"ol":"OL510435W","wp":"Lucifer's_Hammer","isf":"1601"},{"id":328208,"t":"The Thief's Journal","sl":"the-thiefs-journal","a":["Jean Genet","Bernard Frechtman","Jean-Paul Sartre"],"as":"Genet, Jean","y":1949,"p":268,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"I'd been intending to read this for awhile: one of my favourite films, Poison, is partially based on this novel. That, and a couple of different European friends recommended it. It's my kind of book: seamy queer life, attention to personal interactions, lots of self analysis. Even so, I had a tough time with this one, it was slow for me to make it through it. Maybe Genet doesn't work well in translation, but even factoring for that I had a hard time with the book's general rambling style. It was fun to read it so soon after coming back from visiting Spain, though.
\n","w":104,"cv":"covers/328208.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":3.92,"n":5603,"dist":[95,382,1250,2030,1846],"g":["France","Queer","Classics","LGBT","Literature","French Literature","Gay","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"ol":"OL1281888W","wp":"The_Thief's_Journal"},{"id":351301,"t":"Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C","sl":"applied-cryptography","a":["Bruce Schneier"],"as":"Schneier, Bruce","y":1993,"p":784,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"What a wonderful book! I studied some crypto in college (public key and zero knowledge proofs) and found the field almost incomprehensible: lots of very specific number theories, very little overview information. Applied Cryptography fills this vital gap very successfully, going from completely introductory information to some fairly specific details on particular systems. The 2000 or so references in the back are great when you need to follow up on particular details. It's good this book was published when it was, right at the time that the US government is trying to censor net traffic and stop people from using strong cryptosystems.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/351301.avif","cw":280,"ch":346,"avg":4.21,"n":2143,"dist":[32,67,304,753,987],"g":["Computer Science","Programming","Technical","Technology","Reference","Science","Computers","Mathematics","Hackers"],"f":"Nonfiction","ol":"OL2905639W"},{"id":620927,"t":"Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex","sl":"public-sex","a":["Patrick Califia"],"as":"Califia, Patrick","y":1994,"p":288,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"Fun book of radical essays about sexuality. I like Califia's no bullshit attitude, although of course half of what she says is wrong :-) Still, I'm glad to see someone write challenging essays, and I think her general liberation message is important. Back in my Queer Nation days this was the sort of discourse we were striving for. Maybe it's a bit dated now.
\n","w":64,"cv":"covers/620927.avif","cw":280,"ch":430,"avg":4.01,"n":927,"dist":[22,42,185,336,342],"g":["Sexuality","Queer","Feminism","Essays","LGBT","Gender Studies","Gender","Gender and Sexuality","Sex Work"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL2295870W"},{"id":889284,"t":"The Postman","sl":"the-postman","a":["David Brin"],"as":"Brin, David","y":1985,"p":321,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"Nuclear war, but small, but enough disruption that the US government falls apart and society is fractured. Our unwilling hero finds a Postman uniform and recreates a dream of a civilized country. It's entertaining enough, but simple minded and unsubtle. I think I would have liked it more when I was about 14. Some interesting ideas, but not highbrow.
\n","w":59,"cv":"covers/889284.avif","cw":280,"ch":462,"avg":3.89,"n":38150,"dist":[538,2040,9290,15426,10856],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Apocalyptic","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","Adventure"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1986,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1985,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1986,"won":true},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1986,"won":true},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Novel","year":1986,"won":false}],"ol":"OL58708W","wp":"The_Postman","isf":"1375"},{"id":968827,"t":"Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang","sl":"where-late-the-sweet-birds-sang","a":["Kate Wilhelm"],"as":"Wilhelm, Kate","y":1976,"p":251,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"This is a wonderful book, sensitive and fun to read and somewhat unusual. Karl and I can't decide if the author's gender has something to do with the attention she pays to her characters' emotions and her avoidance of the "bam! crash!" action of a lot of sci-fi. Whatever the reason, Wilhelm's writing style is refreshing.
\nThe novel starts as our normal existence is ending: people have finally poisoned themselves and the world enough that everything becomes sterile, including humans. A small group of people hatch a plan for temporarily building a clone society. The novel follows the psychological progress of the clone society. Lots of interesting writing about the relationships of family members, not so heavy on the post-apocalypse but it makes a great setting.
\n","w":126,"cv":"covers/968827.avif","cw":128,"ch":194,"avg":3.85,"n":11451,"dist":[258,714,2778,4471,3230],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Dystopia","Hugo Awards","Speculative Fiction","Classics","Apocalyptic"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1977,"won":true},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1976,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1977,"won":true},{"name":"Jupiter Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1977,"won":true},{"name":"John W. Campbell Memorial Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1977,"won":false}],"ol":"OL506264W","wp":"Where_Late_the_Sweet_Birds_Sang","isf":"862"},{"id":16234584,"t":"The Drowned World","sl":"the-drowned-world","a":["J.G. Ballard","Martin Amis"],"as":"Ballard, J.G.","y":1962,"p":198,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"I really like Ballard's writing: I've been sold on him ever since seeing the RE/Search edition of The Atrocity Exhibition and then reading Crash, one of my favourite novels ever. The Drowned World is an ok read, a little dull. The apocalypse is the world has gotten hot: ice caps melt, cities flood and then silt in, humans have to move to the poles.
\nThe book itself borrows way too much mood from Heart of Darkness: lots of internal strife and jungles and madmen and all that. Some nice scenes of exploring ruined, underwater London. A bit of breakdown of human morality.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/16234584.avif","cw":280,"ch":438,"avg":3.46,"n":21653,"dist":[845,2776,7217,7117,3698],"g":["Science Fiction","Dystopia","Post Apocalyptic","Classics","Fantasy","Apocalyptic","Speculative Fiction","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL19934972W"},{"id":21122221,"t":"Tales of Nevèrÿon","sl":"tales-of-neveryon","se":"Return to Nevèrÿon","sn":"1","a":["Samuel R. Delany"],"as":"Delany, Samuel R.","y":1979,"p":330,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1994-01-01","d":"1994-01-01","rev":"Delany is one of my favourite authors: Dhalgren is one of the best sci-fi novels I've read, and his autobiography The Motion of Light in Water is quite compelling. Some of the books he's written are pulp trash, though, so it's a bit hard to find the right ones. The Return to Neveryona series is one of the right ones, I think, a nice multifaceted set of tales about the machinations of people in a lords and warriors setting. The biggest interest in this novel is Delany's social commentary. He's set the novel in a time when lots of trappings of modern civilization are being developed: weaving, money, the end of slavery, writing. This gives him a chance to comment interestingly on those topics. The stuff on slavery and sexuality I thought was a bit dull (although when the book was written, it may not have been), but the stuff on the use of money is really interesting, has affected my thinking about adding money to online communities (like MUDs or the Web). I think Tales of Neveryon is stronger, because it is so multifaceted. Neveryona takes on a much more traditional narrative structure, one that I didn't find particularly compelling. I think Delany has a hard time writing women.
\n","w":210,"cv":"covers/21122221.avif","cw":280,"ch":449,"avg":3.93,"n":1737,"dist":[41,101,371,645,579],"g":["Fantasy","Science Fiction","Short Stories","Queer","Sword and Sorcery","Speculative Fiction","LGBT","Literature"],"f":"Fiction","q":1,"aw":[{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Fantasy Novel","year":1980,"won":false},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1982,"won":false},{"name":"National Book Award Finalist","cat":"Science Fiction (Paperback)","year":1980,"won":true}],"ol":"OL56816W","wp":"Tales_of_Nevèrÿon","isf":"1471"},{"id":830,"t":"Snow Crash","sl":"snow-crash","a":["Neal Stephenson"],"as":"Stephenson, Neal","y":1992,"p":576,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1993-01-01","d":"1993-01-01","rev":"This is one of the most-recommended cyberpunk novels I know of. Five or so different friends of mine, all with good taste, recommended this highly. Which is why I regret saying I thought it was pretty disappointing. Most of the novel is pretty silly and needs merciless editing to remove about 200 pages of fluff and to tighten the rest, fix the continuity gaps. It's an ok light read, but not much more.
\nThe thing that makes this book cool, though, is his description of virtual reality ("Metaverse"). It comes the closest to the social environment I really hope will come about as our communication technologies improve. Metaverse stuff is dribbled through the book, but chapters 3, 5, 7, and 9 contain most of it. Those are worth reading, if nothing else than because he has the ideas right.
\nUpdate I should note I wrote this review in, oh, 1993. Since then it's been enshrined as one of the best of the cyberpunk novels and heralded for its creativity in describing cyberspace. And I think that's right and fair. The narrative itself is still a little silly but there's just so much creativity in the book it's a must-read.
\n","w":199,"cv":"covers/830.avif","cw":280,"ch":421,"avg":4.01,"n":304047,"dist":[10746,18020,52002,100897,122382],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Fantasy","Dystopia","Speculative Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1994,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire","cat":"Roman étranger","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"Prometheus Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":2001,"won":true},{"name":"Washington State Book Award","cat":null,"year":1993,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1999,"won":false}],"ol":"OL38501W","wp":"Snow_Crash","isf":"1182"},{"id":3378,"t":"Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture","sl":"generation-x","a":["Douglas Coupland"],"as":"Coupland, Douglas","y":1991,"p":211,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1993-01-01","d":"1993-01-01","rev":"I figured I better finally get around to reading this, since it's supposed to be me and everything. It's a suprisingly good book: entertaining and cleverly written, sometimes a bit too overwritten. It's also a pretty light book, not nearly as "important" as many people were claiming when it came out. It doesn't even contain the genex stuff I know and love, cynicism about advertisement and general hopelessness in the world. But then, to Coupland "Generation X" is people who are early 30s now: I think the term has been misapplied. My main disappointment was that the book is, ultimately, just another character development story. Catcher in the Rye for the next Lost Generation.
\n","w":114,"cv":"covers/3378.avif","cw":280,"ch":439,"avg":3.74,"n":30688,"dist":[656,2364,8647,11647,7374],"g":["Contemporary","Canada","Literature","Short Stories","Classics","Literary Fiction","American","20th Century"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL14854126W","wp":"Generation_X:_Tales_for_an_Accelerated_Culture","isf":"1054147"},{"id":77507,"t":"Red Mars","sl":"red-mars","se":"Mars Trilogy","sn":"1","a":["Kim Stanley Robinson"],"as":"Robinson, Kim Stanley","y":1992,"p":572,"r":5,"sh":"read","dr":"1993-01-01","d":"1993-01-01","rev":"Many thanks to Dave for loaning this to me. I love going back to reading sci-fi, it tends to be so pleasurable. Especially when it's well written and the story is so compelling. Believe me, Genet or Tannenbaum doesn't inspire me to read 200 pages at a sitting. Why not?
\nRed Mars is the story of Earth deciding to colonize Mars, and the people who make it happen. Most of the book centers on the First Hundred, the first group of scientists and engineers who are sent to start up the colony. Robinson's great strength is in his characterizations, as well as his ability to juggle many people and plotlines through a 500 page novel. His writing is a mixture of good scifi and good soap opera: lots of personal and sexual politics, intrigue, and old-fashioned scifi entertainment.
\nOne thing that really stood out for me was the sense of entitlement the First Hundred feel to Mars, especially after it starts to be settled by thousands of people from Earth. They were there first, they created a life, and their loss of control of Mars is the major plot. Robinson almost exactly describes how old-timers talk about the Internet: we built it, and now it's being taken away from us! I'm not sure I have a right to feel that way myself (I've only been on net since 1990), but the parallel between Mars and the Internet was very interesting.
\nI strongly recommend this book to anyone who's a scifi fan, likes good reads with fun characters. I've been waiting to read the sequel Green Mars for a few weeks, spreading out the time until the trilogy is finished.
\n","w":279,"cv":"covers/77507.avif","cw":280,"ch":451,"avg":3.85,"n":91009,"dist":[2458,6893,20650,32492,28516],"g":["Science Fiction","Space","Fantasy","Space Opera","Speculative Fiction","Hard Science Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novel","year":1993,"won":true},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Science Fiction Novel","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"Arthur C. Clarke Award","cat":"","year":1993,"won":false},{"name":"British Science Fiction Association Award","cat":"Novel","year":1992,"won":true},{"name":"Premio Ignotus","cat":"Mejor Novela Extranjera","year":1997,"won":true},{"name":"Seiun Award 星雲賞","cat":"Best Foreign Novel","year":1999,"won":true}],"ol":"OL81665W","isf":"1330"},{"id":257687,"t":"Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (Observations)","sl":"tearoom-trade","a":["Laud Humphreys"],"as":"Humphreys, Laud","y":1975,"p":256,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1993-01-01","d":"1993-01-01","rev":"Now a classic of sociological research and an important document from its time. I read it back in the 90s as a work of gay studies, someone documenting honestly and sympathetically a form of homosexual life that was otherwise clandestine. And I think it served that purpose very well, with insights that would surprise people even now. The book is mostly used now as a prop to talk about sociology research ethics and while there are certainly significant ethical questions in this kind of research, it's a mistake to overlook the primary contribution Humphreys made to understanding one form of homosexual behavior.
\n","w":102,"cv":"covers/257687.avif","cw":280,"ch":426,"avg":3.76,"n":237,"dist":[6,12,70,94,55],"g":["Sociology","Queer","Sexuality","LGBT","Psychology","Ethnography","Anthropology","Theory","Science"],"f":"Nonfiction","q":1,"ol":"OL7136256W","wp":"Tearoom_Trade"},{"id":262359,"t":"The Wind from Nowhere","sl":"the-wind-from-nowhere","a":["J.G. Ballard","David Pelham"],"as":"Ballard, J.G.","y":1962,"p":192,"r":3,"sh":"read","dr":"1993-01-01","d":"1993-01-01","rev":"This was bound together with The Drowned World. I liked it much better. The apocalypse this time is a wind that inexplicably gets faster and faster, ripping cities apart and reducing all of our civilization to rubble in a month. I think Ballard does a good job here creating the feeling of living in a world that is being destroyed out from under you: lots of desolation. He even kills major characters! Not much to the book but mood and action, which given the pretention of The Drowned World was something of a relief.
\n","w":94,"cv":"covers/262359.avif","cw":280,"ch":436,"avg":3.24,"n":1002,"dist":[30,178,416,279,99],"g":["Science Fiction","Post Apocalyptic","Apocalyptic","Speculative Fiction","20th Century","British Literature","Dystopia"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL2745969W","wp":"The_Wind_from_Nowhere","isf":"3567"},{"id":22175,"t":"Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories","sl":"strange-pilgrims","a":["Gabriel García Márquez","Edith Grossman"],"as":"Márquez, Gabriel García","y":1992,"p":188,"r":2,"sh":"read","dr":"1992-01-01","d":"1992-01-01","rev":"This books was given to me about six months ago by a friend after I'd remarked that while I'd read lots of Borges, I'd read no Márquez at all. An embarassing omission. Strange Pilgrims is a collection of short stories written in the last 20 or so years. I enjoyed these stories well enough: some are downright beautiful. None of them really stick in my mind, though, which I regret. My favourite story of the bunch was Sleeping Beauty and the Airplane, a nice snapshot of love from a distance. I frequently feel like that.
\n","w":95,"cv":"covers/22175.avif","cw":116,"ch":180,"avg":4.03,"n":30643,"dist":[220,1054,6443,12786,10140],"g":["Short Stories","Magical Realism","Classics","Spanish Literature","Literature","Latin American","Latin American Literature","Nobel Prize","Literary Fiction"],"f":"Fiction","ol":"OL274515W","wp":"Strange_Pilgrims","isf":"2444754"},{"id":22323,"t":"Burning Chrome","sl":"burning-chrome","se":"Sprawl","sn":"0","a":["William Gibson","Bruce Sterling"],"as":"Gibson, William","y":1986,"p":204,"r":4,"sh":"read","dr":"1992-01-01","d":"1992-01-01","rev":"For the longest time I refused to read "cyberpunk", I was pretty snotty and self-righteous about it. Frankly, I feel like half the time I live that stuff. The graphics aren't as cool, the world isn't as exciting, but I'm doing the sort of work that the Wired set is fauning over. It gets a bit tiresome to hear how glamourous it is, because it's not.
\nAnyway, that's the snottiness. Now I regret it, because I've missed some really great writing. Burning Chrome is a collection of incredible short stories, tight and colourful. The stories themselves are good, but it's the way Gibson communicates that is the strength here. I read Neuromancer several years ago and it didn't make an impression, why I'm not sure. Burning Chrome definitely did, though - maybe Gibson's just more at home in short stories?
\n","w":140,"cv":"covers/22323.avif","cw":280,"ch":422,"avg":4.05,"n":43782,"dist":[330,1445,8905,18005,15097],"g":["Science Fiction","Cyberpunk","Short Stories","Dystopia","Fantasy","Speculative Fiction","American","Anthologies"],"f":"Fiction","aw":[{"name":"Hugo Award","cat":"Best Novelette for \"The Winter Market\"","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"Nebula Award","cat":"Best Novelette for \"Burning Chrome\"","year":1982,"won":false},{"name":"Locus Award","cat":"Best Collection","year":1987,"won":false},{"name":"SF Chronicle Award","cat":"Best Novelette for \"The Winter Market\"","year":1987,"won":false}],"ol":"OL27254W","wp":"Burning_Chrome","isf":"41577"}]