Literature

The Will to Change by bell hooks.

One of the best feminist explorations of masculinity, the patriarchy and all that entails being an antipatriarchal man in a patriarchal society.

Just picked up the earthsea books (with pictures!) by Le Guin and am having a blast diving back in. I hadn’t read this in a long time, having a great time.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin.

“Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside”

by Nick Offerman. If you like Nick’s humor, chances are you can enjoy this book. It’s easy enough to put down and pick up between chapters, which has been a benefit lately with my sporadicly available reading time of late.

So:

• The Wandering Inn - Fun SoL Fantasy, with quality world building
• 裏世界ピクニック - Horror, elements of sci-fi, with references to 2channel creepypastas, and has that atmosphere of unknown, like in Roadside Picnic
• Quarter Share - Sci-fi novel, a bit of weird one, but.. a good one.
• ROLL OVER AND DIE - Dark Fantasy Light Novel with lots of suffering, gruesome stuff and such.

Just bought Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. Intend to read it this summer. I read about it in a review and was fascinated by the plot. Here’s the Wikipedia plot description:

The novel follows an unnamed narrator and Gaustine, a psychiatrist who creates a clinic for people with Alzheimer's disease in Zürich. Each floor of the clinic recreates a decade in intricate detail, aiming to transport patients back in time to revisit their memories. Tasked with collecting past artifacts for the clinic, the narrator travels across countries.Soon, healthy people turn to the clinic to flee their monotonous lives and the idea becomes widespread when more clinics open. Referendums are held across Europe to decide which past decade each country should live in, in the future.

Unix V7 Manual. Life is pain.

Small gods by Terry Pratchett

The Fifth Season, it's an epic fantasy novel by N.K. Jemisin. I originally started it about a month ago but I've just been reading it in fits and starts, though it's not particularly long. The story takes place in a world which gets wiped by a global catastrophe every couple of centuries. Certain people called orogenes have the ability to manipulate the earth in order to bring about or quell earthquakes. They've also got some other interesting abilities. Naturally, the regular people, who are the majority called Stills, are fearful of orogenes and they've formed society such that they can harness but most importantly control orogenes. Bit of a slow start, but since I've made it halfway through, it's been very engaging.

I've been reading and really enjoying Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies by Rossi Anastopoulo and really enjoying it. I was not at all anticipating how far they would dig into how certain pies are connected to social issues, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it

I’m listening (if that counts?) to Lord of the rings (i’m on Return of the King - book 5). Been really enjoying it so far, there are many more significant differences to the movies than I was expecting.

At the moment it’s easier to get time in for audio books (during late night toddler wakes and car journeys etc)

@Kamirose i am currently reading the left hand of darkness, Babylons ashes. And I am listening to the Andy Serkis version of the silmarillion.

Snuff by Terry Pratchett.
I'd read about 35/41 Discworld books out of order, a few many times, but never a full chronological read through and a couple I've missed, so I figured it was time.
It's my favorite series and he's my favorite author, so the prospect of finishing and never having any new Discworld books to read is a bit emotional. It's been a wonderful ride, Snuff is #39 of 41. Thankful there's a few non Discworld books I do still have to read of his when it finish this run. I may save them for a bit though.

GNU Pterry

I just finished a reread of World War Z by Max Brooks. I love how the horror isn't so much from the zombies, but from how humanity dealt with it. Also, I'm incredibly creeped out how the closely the fictional scenario of the zombie plague starting and spreading follows what ACTUALLY happened with covid (it was written in 2006, btw).

Not sure what I'll be reading next. Maybe something here will look good :)

I stopped reading for a long while and gave my Kindle to my wife. She just got a new one for her birthday so I got mine back and will resume reading again. I'm starting with The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin. Only a few pages in right now but I'm making some progress

I’ve been reading This Is How You Lose The Time War and really enjoying it so far.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson (secret project 3) - it’s obvious by the art direction that there’s a romantic aspect to this and it’s obvious by the book that he enjoys writing this sort of thing for his wife!

Gleanings by Neal Shusterman (Arc of the Scythe 3.5) after finishing the series, this short story collecting fills in gaps that sometimes don’t need to be filled. The main series was a 1-2 punch of a captivating story in a fascinating world. Book 3 did NOT let go.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is a travel audiobook my partner and I are reading during trips throughout the summer. Stellar series so far and this one is so fun to read together as we have to stop every few minutes to go “did she just say that?” Or “wait, so NOW my theory has to be —-, right? Or is it…”

American Gods by Neil Gaiman I’ve barely started, And Small gods by Terry Pratchett I’ve barely started and it’s my only non-audiobook of the bunch.

Just started Clara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not the first I read from this well deservedly honored author, and certainly not the last.

Scattered All Over the Earth, by Yoko Tawada. Weirdly delightful. Looking forward to Written in the Stars and Islands in the Sun.

Tik-Tok of Oz, L. Frank Baum (1914). Great series, much more than just the first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

I'm on book 7 of the Toradora light novel series. I liked the anime, but the level of verbal abuse between the characters in the novels really makes me wonder why they're friends. I'm not finding it enjoyable to read about people insulting each other.

Just finished "all the tea in China" by Sarah Rose. Wonderful and colorful history lesson on Robert Fortune, who stole tea plants and knowledge from China and brought them to the Western World.

Just started "Cities: the first 6000 years". It's a nice narrative on the differences and similarities between cities all over the world and all over the last 6000 years. Very interesting, trash focused (you learn a lot of a society by why they toss away!), and an easy read

Struggling to get thru Death's End by Cixin Liu. The character stuff is just kinda dragging ATM. Looking forward to reading Binti next, an afrofuturist book

Just started a Frida Kahlo bio. It's interesting to read about different people whose lives intersected. I've already read Diego & Trotsky's autobiographies, a bio of Tina Modotti, and a few other books about the Mexican modern art scene of the 20s, so it's all starting to connect and make sense...

Audition by Ryu Murakami

"Radical Markets" by Weyl and Posner.

As an anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist I find many of their proposals to be objectionable. I lean towards open borders simply on freedom of association grounds, so I am opposed to their immigration proposals. Their common ownership self-assessed tax on the other hand is very interesting because it allows collectivization of some of the returns to capital while still managing capital in a decentralized fashion.

Mistborn II: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

I'm in the middle of The Destroyer of Worlds by Matt Ruff, sequel to Lovecraft Country.

I'm on vacation and getting to enjoy a lot of quiet book time at the beach. Currently finishing up the Book of the New Sun series and planning to start Anna Karenina next.

I just finished "Last chance to see" by Doughlass Adams good book and has some decent humour in it too planning on reading hitchhikers guide to the galaxy next after a brief break

I just started Caliban and the Witch.

I'm reading Accelerando by Charles Stross - it's getting pretty old, but it's still mind blowing singularity porn - well worth it.

Jane Eyre. Rochester and Jane definitely deserved each other. St John dodged a bullet.

Raised in Captivity by Chuck Klosterman.

Does listening count here? Just started Fred the Vampire Accountant series on Audible. Thoroughly enjoying it...not too serious, but good character development and relationships.

After a very long time being roughly a third through Little, Big by John Crowley, I've finally decided to come back to it later in favor of easier reads. To that end, I'm in the middle of A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon. It's weird! My tactic for reading is to load my Kindle with a bunch of books that sound good to me and then slowly work my way through them. It's fun to figure out what I got myself into.

I've been slowly chipping away at house of leaves. It's been a fun read so far, but I've only been reading it a chapter or two at a time, so it's slow going.

I'm reading Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure - a novel about the former president taking a road from Independence, Missouri to the East Coast with his wife, Bess. No secret service, just the two of them in a car.