Books

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

It is a bit lengthy, but it seems like each interaction is written around pithy wisdoms interwoven into the lives of interactions of the characters.

Each time it happens, it's like stumbling upon on a gemstone by a river, and keeps me anticipating the next unfolding of the plot.

I'm close to finishing The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This month has been a bit rough in my personal life and I haven't, perhaps, been quite feeling it. Luckily, there's always next year.

I don't know what I'll read next.

very recently got an e-reader so that i can get back into reading, i am excited to be able to post something! hopefully i will find some contemporary fiction to read soonish, it's a bit overwhelming right now so i am just reading stuff that has been sitting in my Calibre library. frankly it has been so long that i am not even sure what i like to read anymore.

anyway, last week i read Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard and now i am chewing through the Standard Ebooks collection of Clark Ashton Smith short fiction. i haven't particularly loved either but that's okay!

The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

finished it yesterday actually. The Book is a compilation of stories, memories and thoughts of John Green in the form of short reviews. Quick read, some stories had me laughing others are very touching, revolving around the loss of a dear friend or concerning his mental problems, but it's mostly about how John Green views Humans and Humanity, he appears to be a big fan which is a suprisingly refreshing take.

Halfway through Dracula. It's strange reading the origin of so much media and tropes, but sometimes the language and hesitation in plot development really slows down the suspense.

Finally got around to start The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Started and continuing as audiobook, but additionally I got the digital at about 10% in, to reread some passages.

Also, just yesterday, I picked up This is how you lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Tried to go in as blind as possible and I'm so glad I did. Really enjoying myself here.

Reading 1984 rn.

The same book as last week. I don't read that fast!

I'm halfway through "Cibola Burn" (The Expanse #4), it's a real page turner! So far my second favorite book of the series.

Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Gate of the Feral Gods

The whole series is excellent thus far. Definitely recommend it

I just started The Muderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.

I'm in the final stretch - reading The Gathering Storm, book 12 in the Wheel of Time series.

This is the first of the three final installments co-authored by Brandon Sanderson.

"Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" by Keith Devlin. Just an interesting (and short) book about the concepts around math.

And I'm slowly getting through a book about the history of Ottawa.

Been reading through the Shadowdark RPG rulebook by Kelsey Dionne, as well as the solo rules supplement and some third party materials. I highly recommend it if you like TTRPGs and want something more streamlined than 5e. I played it for the first time at a convention last month, and it really clicked for me.

Started "The Faith of Beasts" by James S.A. Corey, book 2 of The Captives War. It's okay. Kind of dark though. Less fun than the Expanse.

Last week read "Darksight Dare", book 16 of the Penric & Desdemona series, as well as "Out Law", by Jim Butcher, book, uh, 18.5 of the Dresden Files. The former was fluffy and cozy but also somewhat simple; the latter wasn't bad at all, and I'm curious to see where the setup goes.

I just finished When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. It’s a wonderful little scifi mystery that just draws you right in.

Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and its Struggle to Survive by Chris Horton. Being a student of Taiwan history, there not a whole lot in it that I wasn't already aware of, but the writing is simply excellent. He's a great explainer and he deftly weaves the events that shaped history into a compelling narrative. Also, he was able to get sit-down interviews with some of the giants of Taiwan's democratization movement before they passed away, so the stories are first hand. This book is a gem so far.

I just started Groundskeeping by Lee Cole. A small town love story about a couple of writers. Really good writing so far (~20%)

Last week I finished King Sorrow by Joe Hill. I think the bones were great, but the author struggled to make the final conflict interesting. Too many threads, not woven together nicely. Still a good read, just didn’t quite land the plane.

I also read We the People by Jill Lepore… a history of the US constitution. Great stuff, fascinating to see the back and forth of parties (and sides of the political spectrum) changing their opinions on amendments. Basically, the party who doesn’t control the supreme court demands amendment and the other party fights it tooth and nail. There were some very sad parts looking at the arguments for (and against) women’s suffrage, emancipation and equal rights. Really gross to look back at the 1850s through 1960s opinion on anyone who wasn’t a white man

Gonna stop at the store on the way home today and pick up Event Horizon - Dark Descent

It's a graphic novel prequel to the film. It goes over what happened to the original crew. There's also a sequel to the film coming out this year also in graphic novel format that I am excited for.

I am also still working through Echopraxia by Peter Watts, love it so far.

Update: got the last copy!!

I've been re-listening to the Cradle series by Will Wight. It makes me wish the series had gotten even a tenth the attention DCC did.

Less than Nothing, by Zizek. Very Hegel.

A German "Küsten Krimi" (thrillers set on German islands in the north sea typically read by women in their fifties) which I picked up because the cover was nice, the book was heavily discounted due to defects on the back of the cover, and because I thought it was interesting that it was written by a husband and wife duo. It's not good. I feel like it is to normal books what an Instagram reel is to a movie. The vocab is straight forward, the prose is clear, and things are repeated way too often. The name is Wattenmeerfeuer for the German speakers on here.

There There by Tommy Orange
On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle
The Ontogeny of Information by Susan Oyama

I'm reading Martha Wells, The cloud roads. I think she's going to be my new obsession for a bit. I want to wait till they've finished making telly shows of her Murder Murderbot series before I read them, books are always better, so I digest the worst first.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Really charming and witty, with lots of references to classic Russian literature.

As I continue my journey in Luthadel, I just finished The Final Empire (Mistborn) by Brandon Sanderson. Now I am reading The Well of Ascension (Mistborn) also by Brandon Sanderson.

The first book was epic. So I’m expecting good things of the second.

The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang. A jellyfish specialist travels to a remote island to investigate reports of a massive jellyfish sighting. I'm 1/3 of the way through and it's certainly getting interesting.

Human knowledge by Bertrand Russell. Probably going to keep reading it for a month or two hahahah.

Just finished Gridlinked which was the earliest Polity book I could find.

It still felt like I was reading a sequel. Apparently Asher published some short stories before this one...ugh.

Entertaining, though. It partly had a "007 in space" feel, mixing in a subplot with an alien intelligence manipulating the main character, a villain hell-bent on revenge, and even a surprise (and surprisingly heartwarming) romance between two supporting characters.

I'm in the middle of Restoree by Anne McCaffrey. This one has some elements of mystery, mistaken identity, and political intrigue. It's painfully 60s (which, ok, fair, that's when it was published).

I'm about to start another Robin Hobb "Assassin" novel (part 2 in the last trilogy), and I have Resolute by Jack Campbell queued up. It's another entry in a long line of what I call "Space Captain Popsicle" when talking with my wife. The basic premise is that the main character was in a coldsleep escape pod from his starship for about a century. He gets picked up before its power fails by an allied battle fleet and ends up commanding the fleet in a desperate flight from deep inside enemy territory. Great space battles, infuriating interstellar politics, fascinating glimpses of aliens in a few spots. It's quite a lot of fun :D

I’m currently reading Hamnet. I’m enjoying the book so far. There’s some small stuff I don’t like but overall it’s quite good.

About halfway through Dungeon Crawler Carl book #5, it’s been hot out, so only working for a little bit and reading a bunch more. Kids are in and out of camps all week anyways, so not much time for anything else.

After this, it’s book one of The Black Fleet Crises, which is a Star Wars legends series. Looking forward to this one after a stint of stand alone stories.

I’ve enjoyed the John Scalzi short stories that I’ve read, he’s on my list of authors to check out at the book fair next year.