I’ve re-read the first Harry Potter. It’s been so long since I last read it. I felt that it really wasn’t poorly written. Sure it’s a children’s book but i looked reading it. And I’ve started reading flatland

I just finished Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.

Last year was particularly hard on me due to some personal failures, and this made me adopt an increasingly pessimistic view of the world and people in general. I decided to pick up Humankind since a friend had recommended it previously. It was intriguing because at the time I was convinced that the world could never get better because human nature is hopeless.

This book was a much-needed antidote to my cynicism. Bregman deconstructs the assumptions that people hold about human nature, clearing the way for a much more optimistic outlook, one where people can be trusted to be good. It’s such a refreshing take that I wish more people read this. This book significantly changed how I view people and interact with them, and I’m super grateful to have read it when I needed it the most.

I just finished No Longer Human last night. Haven’t breezed through a book like that in quite awhile!

Elantris, Warbreaker and started The Way of Kings, all by Brandon Sanderson. Read Mistborn Era 1 a couple years ago and loved it, finally decided to jump head in into the Cosmere.

I just finished No Longer Human last night. Haven’t breezed through a book like that in quite awhile!

I just finished No Longer Human last night. Haven’t breezed through a book like that in quite awhile!

• A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. The audiobook was narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, the author of the Lady Astronaut books. She did a great job voicing the plucky heroine.
• Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism–and What Comes Next by Bradley Onishi. Pretty much what it says on the tin. A history of white Christian nationalism from the civil rights era to today and why the heck did 80% of evangelicals support a president who was the embodiment of everything they oppose?
• Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward. A good psychological thriller with lots of plot twists.
• In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. This was a re-read and Bryson never disappoints.
• The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B. Losos. Interesting read.
• The Blighted Stars by Megan E O’Keefe. A lot of different plot lines in this character driven survival story. A solid 3.5 out of 5.
• Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe by Philip Plait. The author paints beautiful pictures of what it would be like to observe the wonders of our solar system and the universe close-up.

I “read” a lot of audiobooks, so I go through titles pretty quickly.

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch - I really enjoyed this storytelling and plot about multiple dimensions and timelines and murder. Thrilling and exciting.

• Gardens of the moon by Steven Erickson - a reread. Finished the original 10 books a few years ago. Decides to poke around again. This time around has been such a different experience. I’m now thinking I’m gonna do the rest of the other 9 books again.

• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. A really good movie. Decided to try the book. An interesting read for sure. Psychological thriller, with far realm adjacent imagery. About 70% done. Don’t think I’ll be reading the whole trilogy, though.

• Periodo Street Station by China Mieville. I don’t know what I think of this one. It seems to be sort of self masterbatory about how unique and wacky the world is. The actual story is scattered and completely lacks focus. The characterization is C+ at best. Full chapters of just wandering though the streets of the city showing small vignettes of peoplea lives from an omniscient pov, that seems to hint at a connection to the main story but is just tiresome to read. The main characters are a poor knock off of Doc Brown, and his girlfriend, a scarab beetle with a human body. I mean the head is the whole beetle legs and all. They are sort of mad scientist beetniks in socially forbidden love. This book just isn’t for me I think.

• God’s Demon by Wayne Barlow. Barlow is a concept artist who often works with Guillermo del Toro. It’s a sorry about a demon lord in hell. Aka ex-angel who fell with Lucifer. And has decided to find his way back to heaven and is leading an army to get there. It’s okay. The imagery is great. I don’t love the characters so it’s hard to get invested.

Tasha’s cauldron of everything… DnD rulebook.

Demon Magic and a Martini, by Annette Marie

Book 4, first book is Three Mages and a Margarita. After some heavier reads I’d been looking for a lighter story to listen to on my work commute, and the premise of a woman stumbling into a bartending gig for a guild of mythics (people with magic, hidden from the rest of society) by accident and handling it all through sheer force of personality and no small amount of sass sounded fun. It was all that, but it also became an engaging world with interesting and thoughtful characters, individual and mutual character growth, and well, now I’m four books in and trying out some of her other series.

Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang

Kuang’s Poppy War trilogy in fact is among those heavier books I mentioned having read above, so I knew her works were good. With all the recent talk of AI plagiarism plus the ongoing topic of who can tell what stories and so on, I thought this would be an interesting read. Kuang does a good job of painting what exactly the world is like - the publishing world, but also the online world, society in general, the people out of the loop… this book doesn’t answer the questions so much as it makes you think about them from all the different angles. It’s really well written and thought out.

The City of Brass, by S.A. Chakraborty

This kept getting recommended to me when I’d look for steampunk stuff, which is weird, because it’s decidedly not that at all. Still, it seemed interesting enough, and once I picked it up, it was incredibly engaging. Main character Nahri has been hiding a magical talent, accidentally uses a bit too much and summons a djinni, and this lands her smack in the middle of a political mess in the titular city between the various elemental beings of middle eastern mythology. Each time I thought I figured out what this book was going to be, it seemed to veer in another direction, yet always a predictable one if you really thought about the characters and their backgrounds and motivations. Looking forward to book 2. For a more adventurous, sea-faring romp by the same author, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is an incredible story, and the audiobook’s first person narration could not be better (City of Brass I read in epub form, not audio, so I can’t speak to it).

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna

It seems like the subgenre of cozy slice-of-life fantasy has been really popular post-pandemic, and this contemporary fantasy is a pretty great example of one. Finding family, finding acceptance, being a small, positive change in the world, and being able to be yourself around the people you love and who love you. A super cozy read.

Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

I’m a sucker for (post) apocalyptic survival, but overall it wasn’t very good. The first third was fairly engaging, but the other two thirds were relatively predictable. By then end of the book I disliked pretty much every character.

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• The Boys from Biloxi

Michael Connelly:

• The black box
• The concrete blonde
• The last Coyote

I am open for recommendations

I read Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery cos I liked the tv series and wanted to see where it went. By the third book I was bored af so I totally changed to The First Law by Abercrombie. So far it’s really good,

I read the Cradle series by Will Wight. Lots of fun! Interesting magic system, fun progression as the main characters get more and more powerful through the books.