Book 24: Summerwater, by Sarah Moss.
This novel consists of several vignettes in which we are shown the same situation (holiday cabins in the Trossachs, incessant rain) from the point of view of various characters, each with their own troubles and complaints. And then there's that one house with the loud music that seems to unite them in annoyance... Very well written.
The Witch King. By Martha Wells.
You are a demon prince that inhabits mortal bodies in a strange land full of mortals and non- mortals who have access to various powers, which they mostly only use to acquire more mundane powers of social control.
4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈. @bookstodon#bookstodon#reading#fantasy#witches#demons#lgbtq
“Since the Egyptian scribe Ahmes put pen to papyrus some time around 1550BC to explain how to calculate the slope of a pyramid, we’ve had over three millennia of maths literature. So within some level of statistical confidence: here are a subset of the best ever maths books.”
“Classical literature has been reinterpreted for millennia. Different generations have made these works their own by translating the original Greek or Latin into their vernacular, and every translation brings fresh perspectives. While the earliest appearances of these texts are unattainable, the history of printing is peppered with remarkable Classical firsts from a wide array of translators.”
finally getting around to fred moten and stefano harvey's the undercommons, a book i've had for over 3 years. also one that @plainreading recommended when we were recording my pod episode. @bookstodon
@olliethewobbly@bookstodon Holy moly, that's a brilliant, beautifully written book—and I was just citing it this morning in a chapter I'm working on. Among other things, I weep with writerly envy whenever I open it up.
“But the four men who rode atop the wave of the Gilded Age were Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. Their business activities during the final four decades of the nineteenth century drove America’s ascension into the most powerful industrial nation on the planet. And they shaped the rules that governed the US economy for decades to come.”
#JustFinished jPod
I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever worked in IT. Especially, executives and managers.
Also, to anyone who has parents that are incompetent mosters (Incompemonsters TM) and need YOU to fix THEIR problems 😂
"Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeling that the story evokes, the questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described." -- from 'The Vulnerables' by Sigrid Nunez
Book 23 of 2024: Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble
2.75 stars
I expected this to be a cute romance in a charming setting, but this was...not that. The protagonist's anxiety was extreme to the point that I found the book stressful to read. It felt like the central romance was fundamentally incompatible; they spent most of the book upsetting and talking past each other. The bake-off theme was also pretty underutilized, in my opinion. I like to imagine that behind the scenes, those cozy baking shows are friendly and collegial, but the producers in the book were portrayed as mean and predatory.
I was really expecting some low-intensity fluff, so I'm pretty disappointed. It was fairly well-written, it just didn't feel like a romance novel to me.
Book 24 of 2024: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
4.5 stars
I picked this one up because I enjoyed Station Eleven, which means I went in knowing basically nothing about the plot or premise. Honestly I think this is the best way to experience a book like this.
The mystery unfolded like a puzzle, no less enjoyable when it became a little predictable by the end. I loved many of the characters and settings, particularly the lunar colonies and the parts clearly inspired by Mandel's experience writing a book about a pandemic shortly before an actual pandemic.
I admire her lyrical prose and very effective use of spec fic to explore some thought-provoking themes. It actually felt quite similar to Cloud Atlas in scope and structure. And similarly to David Mitchell's books, there's apparently quite a bit of crossover between this book and Glass Hotel. I'll have to read that soon!
There's going to be a joint Sea of Tranquility/Glass Hotel adaptation with the same creative team who adapted Station Eleven. That's one of my favorite TV shows of all time, so I am incredibly excited.
Big Barrel is off to the dumpster to get some grub. Jakub Żulczyk draws a picture of decline in Many Years of Hardships, translated by John and Małgorzata Markoff.
Catch this exclusive short story and listen to Żulczyk stand up for the little guy at https://fictionable.world
For Star Wars fans, I just posted my review of the YA book Path of Deceit, from Phase II of Star Wars High Republic on Goodreads. I would like to know your impressions: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6585279706
God’s Ghostwriters by Candida Moss review – did enslaved scribes write the New Testament?
“And if the Roman family that purchased them as a scribe had subsequently converted to Christianity, either openly or secretly as many did in the first and second centuries CE, they may well then have been drafted in to write down the words of the great Christian missionary preachers who criss-crossed the empire and came to its capital, including of course Paul.”
Book 23: Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch.
Harrowing and heartbreaking. The writing style took a bit of getting used to, but once you get past that, this book draws you in and really puts you through the wringer.
Nice to see Ronald McGillvray's "Tales From The Parkland" hanging in there on Amazon's "Hot New Releases" chart a week after launch. I'd say that's a well-deserved success and would highly encourage any speculative-fiction fans out there to give it a read.