Sanderson just dropped book 5 might have to binge

Heard good things about Black Sun Rising! I love Dune, it's a lot to get through but a truly singular work of worldbuilding and the sequels are even more rewarding with the knowledge the first book gives you.

William Gibson is one of my fav sci-fi authors (Neuromancer is an incredible book) but it's more grounded than most sci-fi in that it's not space opera. Samuel R. Delaney writes some cool different sci-fi that imagines societies radically different than ours in terms of gender and class. Peter Watts is my number one, he writes really grounded, dark, anti-capitalist sci-fi that's insanely well researched (he's a marine biologist. I would recommend Blindsight, a book about meeting aliens that are wholly unrecognizable to us in a way that I don't often see in sci-fi. The Three Body Problem was also fun as a modern sci-fi trilogy.

Damn, Blindsight seems up my alley from what I just read about it. Neuromancer is queued up, cyberpunk genre seems like something I'd be into.

either way added Blindsight to my Goodreads so I don't forget

Read You Like It Darker recently

not bad for modern King, some stories hit more than others

Yesssir

Wow this was such a fun read! I already liked it a lot and was ready to give it a solid 4 stars but the end of this book catapulted it to 4.7 stars. John Gwynne absolutely stuck the landing in the final quarter of the story. I loved the characters, the action, the setting, and all of the Norse-inspired mythology. I immediately purchased the sequel The Hunger of the Gods!

4.7/5 stars!

Lemme know what you think if you read Blindsight! I've never had anyone else read it so I never get to talk about it\

for sure

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

wanted to read this before James. written in the late 19th century, this classic American novel is definitely a product of its time, with endless use of the n-word and the racism you would expect from that era. with that said, Twain was clearly satirical throughout the book and it had some mild critiques of racism and slavery while mainly telling an adventure story through the eyes of a young boy. can see why it's such an important work, but honestly the writing style and 19th century slang made this a difficult read at times and I just didn't enjoy it that much

7.5/10

James by Percival Everett

the story from Huckleberry Finn retold through the eyes of the runaway enslaved man who accompanied him. I was a bit skeptical of the praise this novel has been getting and had doubts about how he could pull off the reimagining of such a classic novel while still being creative but this one lived up to the hype. It was subversive, witty, and moving with a lot of metaphors and food for thought. by going away from the naive perspective of a child Everett was able to focus on some of the horrors of slavery without leaning into it too much and while creating a complex and interesting protagonist. wasn't too convinced of this book at first but the last third really picked up and was well executed. definitely enjoyed this one and I'll have to add it to my top 10 books read this year. I don't think reading Twain's book is necessary to fully enjoy this one btw

9/10

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

loved the movie and I've had this on my to read shelf for a while now so finally got around to it. there were parts that I really liked and the world building was impressive but overall I was disappointed. felt a little bare and like it needed 50 more pages. the characters especially, besides the narrator, were purposefully left underdeveloped so as the story progressed none of the big moments carried much weight imo. rare case of the film being better than the book. unless somebody tells me the rest of the books in this series are much better don't think I'll read books 2-4

7/10

finish Los funerales de la mama grande de García Márquez, good book of short stories, if you like Kafka check it out.
writing about Kafka...starting to read Letters to Milena, idk about going in the personal things of roachman...buying all the complete drawings books for christmas

I can't think of Huck and Twain without thinking of this

feel like there are better books to read to your kids lol. ending to that bit is crazy too in retrospect

Just finished this one. Quite a complex and provoking book. I remain perplexed but in admiration. And with a desire to cultivate more aretê in my practice of living a Quality life.

5/5

3 more books to wrap up the year.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

4/5

This book raises a lot of fascinating questions about society and how we can nurture or destroy potential with our action or inaction. It takes the idea of humans trying to "play god" through scientific inquiry, or hubris, and makes one question our complicity when things go wrong and we try to shirk off the responsibility as if that will make the problems we create to eventually go away. Because it doesn't.

Victor Frankenstein is the eponymous character who creates the monster, and in popular culture, his monster is often conflated with his name, but after reading this book, it's hard to argue against that. He creates this monster to see the extent of his scientific prowess, and ends up neglecting what he's created. He manifests what he fears of the monster through sheer neglect. It instills an "otherness", an identity crisis, and a loneliness in a monster that only wants to be loved and accepted, but is shunned by everyone, and most hurtful of all, its own creator. And keep in mind this monster didn't ask to exist. Here's what the monster gets to say about its situation at one point of the book:

"But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans"

Mary Shelley wrote this at 19 years old, off the strength of a dare from a Lord who had challenged her while on vacation. That she wrote this masterpiece to pass time is remarkable. Arguably the first science fiction book ever written.

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiroki Kawakami

3.5/5

"Sensei, I hear you like 'em young."

This story follows a woman in her late 30's named Tsukiko, who meets her former high school teacher at a bar. She calls him Sensei. He's about to enter his 70s. What follows is a cozy tale where saké is drank, plans are made, backstories traded, and eventually, a connection felt for Sensei from Tsukiko. It's not quite a slice of life book, even though it has the pacing of one, and it's not quite a romance because that takes a while (and your mileage may vary with this so know your icks). Ultimately, it was a good book for the vibes. I didn't fully go along with this connection between Tsukiko and Sensei because yeesh idk, something about it I guess, but it's a good cozy read.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

3.5/5

Out of print for more than three decades, this scifi novel is often cited as one of the greatest scifi books of its time. I'm not an avid reader of scifi but I can say that I understand the hype.

It follows Redrick Schuart, a "stalker" who goes into The Zone, which is an area near Redrick's small hometown that aliens visited 30 years ago, and left parts and remnants of their culture in that zone, and that's where stalkers like Redrick venture into, so as to get these artefacts for trade. It's a perilous journey, and most of the stalkers die, not to mention their offspring is affected with mutations, but the demand is always there.

I won't spoil much because I do think this is worth a read. What I found fascinating was that the alien's visit is just a backdrop for human drama, and the atmosphere is palpable, but I just want to emphasize that this book does not lean into its horror aspects unlike the video games, and if you go in expecting horror, you will be disappointed.

The book doesn't pass the Bechdel test, if that's something that you're on the lookout for: it's a sausage party with sprinkles of skirt.

That being said, the main character is merely trying to support his family, and is holding on to a past image of a hometown long gone, ravaged by greed and peril. There are some interesting societal questions raised from that, and the book title "Roadside Picnic" has a pretty clever origin.

It's a short read, with three of the four chapters focusing in Redrick, and another (which is my least favorite but also most insightful) focusing on the person who gives Redrick these jobs.

Overall, a solid read.

Showed a girl his p**** when he was 8. You don't say, Louis?

this book was seriously my most fun read of 2024 and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. highly recommend

A coworker recommended this book to me (and they didn’t even know I had recently visited St Malo). Great story and characters. Unique take on WWII fiction

This on my list for 2025, I’ve heard so many good things!!

cant recommend it enough!! already bought the second book too

money shot - christa faust

i really enjoyed this book. i like the noir genre but i definitely like it when it’s done by a female author better. the main character was cool, strong, smart, sexy. i’ll be checking out the next book.

I read Beautiful Things by Hunter Biden

as someone going through a heavy coke addiction right now, his book actually cuts deep, not holding back on the degeneracy that comes with addiction, as well as the well meaning fight addicts tend to struggle with

the ending was a lil too...convenient. Joe won, Hunter found the love of his life and got sober again. Granted, I'll take it as face value in terms of narrative structure, though addiction is a life long battle, and it would be interesting to see where his head at is now and if he's still sober.

6.5/10. Made me laugh/cry, though it's a tough book to get through if you or a loved one went through addiction.

Memory Piece - Lisa Ko: 8/10

I thought this was a pretty interesting read. It's essentially broken up into 3 parts, each following a different one of the main characters, although they do interact with each other throughout the other's chapters. I felt the middle of the book was the strongest part, following the character Jackie mostly because I find her inner monologue to be a bit stronger and more interesting because you can see the juxtaposition of the way her two friends view her, as sort of effortlessly cool and secretive, with the massive amount of anxiety she actually deals with.

Overall thought it did a holding things together throughout the narrative, which spans 60 something years and in my opinion there's a lot of inferences you have to make to see how the author arrived at the dystopian new york that's part of the book's ending. The ending itself was a bit eh to me, probably a bit rushed, didn't really understand the last two chapters (which span like 5 pages total) but I don't think it took away from too much and this was always going to be a hard one to stick the landing on.

Next I'm either reading Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman, The Morningside by Tea Obreht or Babel by R.F. Kuang. If anyone has a suggestion out of those 3 lmk

actually reading this place/that place instead of the aforementioned books

eager to hear your thoughts on Babel as its a pretty politically charged novel.

the cover is great