Skip to main content

What I read -- April 2023

Squirrel with a giant mushroom stump in its mouth

LHC #206: "The City We Became" by N. K. Jemisin. Is this the seventh book I've read by her? This one did not immediately grab me. I, uh, read a Rick Riordan presents book a while back that did the same thing? 

LHC #207: "Blackwater, the complete saga" by Michael McDowell. eBook. More gothic than horror if you ask me. It's was written in the 80's and it's kind of like those epic, sweeping generational sagas that were popular back then (the Thornbirds, e.g.) except in this family, occasionally someone will turn into a water monster and kill somebody (often someone who deserves it). Like others of its genre, it's very long. 

"Radical Candor" by Kim Allen. Read this for the work book club. Walking is clearly a big part of her creative process. It's the first time I've ever been in a book club! 

LHC #208: "Seconds out: Women and fighting" by Alison Dean. This really spoke to me, not just about karate and reffing etc. I quite enjoyed it and will probably try to force it on others. 

Popular posts from this blog

Best TW feedback ever

Over at the dayjob, SMEs are feverishly trying to get documents back to me all marked up, in preparation for the release that's supposed to happen the week I'm back from VP. Today's best comment: Unfortunately not true. SMEs, they're so cute.

What I read: January 2024

"Morgan is my name" by Sophie Keech. Office book club selection. It gets exhausting to read about plucky young heroines who are terrible at needlework all the time. I should probably read some Jo Walton. I mean, you can be good at needlework and other things too! I didn't find this book very surprising. The first half was kind of boring, but it got better towards the end.  LHC #233: "The Shifter" by Janice Hardy. I read her writing advice website regularly, so I thought I should maybe read an actual book to find out if she was worth it. Oh my, the voice of this book grabbed me immediately. The worldbuilding seemed shady but the voice was solid. It wasn't very subtle, but I might not be the target audience.  LHC #234: "Ragnarok: The End of the Gods" by A. S. Byatt. At this point with my library account, I'm just guessing. I know there was something by Byatt there? I suspect there was. I did not know what to make of this book. Strange, but it w

What I read: March 2024

  LHC #240: "Vita Nostra" by  Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko. Translated by Julia Meitov Hersey. All I knew going in was dark academia. This was a neat thing to read after A Deadly Education last month. The students can leave this school at summer and winter break, but maybe they shouldn't. Also, interesting education method, providing Sasha with a CD player and punishing her if she leaves it in the mode where it plays all the tracks in sequence.  "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman. When I finished Ragnarok by AS Byatt (last month? January?) I was thinking it might have made more sense if I had any knowledge of the subject matter. The boy had left this lying around, and it was not a tough read.  LHC #241: "Science on a mission: How Military funding shaped what we do and don't know about the ocean" by Naomi Oreskes.  I deferred this once because it was so long. History of science is challenging for me to read, because of the need to get a grasp on dispr