Perfect Victims And The Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Currently reading Food And Society In Classical Antiquity.
Lonesome Dove on audiobook. The production quality is pretty bad, but the story is good.
Reading the Patternmaster books by Octavia E. Butler. Weird but interesting. Definitely not hitting like the Xenogenesis books did but still seem good so far.
Also re-reading the Expanse books because I just read The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey and it made my love of the expanse series resurface.
Finished the fifth book in the "dungeon crawler Carl" series, and decide to step away from that for a while. The fifth book was a lot longer than the previous four, and this doesn't work out for me (I know, just weeks ago I complained about the novella format of most murderbot books:)). After that read through "midnight black" by Mark Greaney, which was nice, but not the best in the gray man series imo. Now about a third through John Scalzi's "the collapsing empire". So far a nice book, but I liked most books in the "old man's war" series better.
Not Till We Are Lost
Latest book in the bobiverse.
Great book!
I just finished reading The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey (authors of the Expanse series). Overall I really liked it and am excited for this series! I feel like the characters haven’t hooked me as much as the characters from the Expanse series, but I’m going to give them more time to develop.
I am now reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This one has surprised me how much I’ve enjoyed it so far. I have read his Founders trilogy and Divine Cities books and found them hit or miss.
Felt exactly the same about the Mercy of Gods.
Listening to Project Hail Mary. I've been utterly absorbed by the story and the scientific concepts being pushed around.
I never took physics and didn't take much math for my job but am jealous of people who have a natural, stronger affinity for those subjects
Shout out to my boy Rocky
I never could get this one checked out at the library.
Just started Holly by Stephen King. I have no idea what’s happening. I got it as a gift for Christmas and left the book cover at home so no summary.
Just finished The Will of the Many by James Islington. Fantastic book. Gonna be champing at the bit until the next one releases in November.
Next up will be The Fifth Age, but I haven't cracked it open yet. I will later tonight.
I have started reading 'The Master and Margarita'. I am only a couple of chapters in and its pretty wild already.
It's been a long time, but I once read a paperback copy I found. I remember enjoying it.
Speaking Bones - Book 4 of the Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu. This is probably one of the best fantasy I've read. The setting is based off of ancient China. It's similar to Game of Thrones in the sense that there's a lot of world building, there's no main character, no one is safe from death and the fantasy is lightly applied.
It introduces interesting ideas like storing electricity in objects made with glass, intestines and gold, then utilizing it in warfare. Also logic gates implemented with just basic materials like wood and ropes. Basic AI (non-ML). Etc.
I'm quite confident anyone who enjoys programming will enjoy this series.
How dark is it? One of my issue with Game of Thrones is that it was too dark / depressing and things just kept getting worse and worse.
It's quite mild compared to game of thrones. The 'dark' parts are not personalized, but description of things happening at a population level.
Wow I'm going to go read this now. I've been in between bigger reads, doing shorter stories, and doom scrolling, but definitely looking for something to escape for a bit!
Yeah I'd definitely recommend it. Loved that when there's a fantasy-based beast, people investigate how it works from a basic science perspective, then derive a new weapon that play crucial role in combat.
Also loved that alliances shift and change. The story likes to lull you into complacency before pouring cold water over you.
I just finished Shades of grey by Jasper Fforde. What a weird fascist dystopian future. It took a long time to get interesting and only the last 15% got me to actually want to know more. I don’t think I will read the rest of the trilogy.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
It is part of the "Bobiverse" so with a name like that I honestly couldn't help but have low expectations but so far it is a really fun read.
It's a truly excellent series!
That's good to know. I'm a third of the way through now and I love the premise and how straight to the point it is.
Many people here generally start the series with low expectations but end up liking it. Let us know how it goes for you.
Careless People - Satah Wynn-Williams
Not only it is a fascinating look into Facebook, it touches me personally because I'm a Canadian female tech worker in a US based company and her perspective on a lot of thing is very relatable to me.
I recently started The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I'm a 100 or so pages in, and slowly getting a feel for the characters. It's a large book, but I've got some long flights coming up so hopefully I'll make a good dent in it :)
Listening to the Salvation sequence by Peter F Hamilton.
And reading, A most elegant equation by David Stipp.
Reading (listening to) War of the Noobs, and honestly it's getting a bit stale. It didn't hook or make me really laugh like earlier books on the series.
Recently finished This Inevitable Ruin, and DCC is always a good time.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. About halfway through, really enjoying it. The audiobook narrator is great.
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Can't believe I never got around to it on the first go-round, but Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity."
I'm just continuing with Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. I finished Oathbringer and Dawnshard and will start Rhythm of War next.
Shout out to my boy Rock
He's great! I saw that Sanderson is planning to write a novella about him in a year or two.
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How Music Works by David Byrne. It was recommended to me by a colleague when asked about good resources on learning more about music.
I'm only in chapter 3, so far it's been interesting. About how music has adapted since the introduction of recordings, about the shifting perceptions, not only in music but also showmanship, size of venues, choice of instruments. The current chapter is about the different recording media and their impact on the music.
All very interesting, although I do hope it will soon delve deeper into the nitty gritty: notes and intervals, progressions, and all the things I'm still totally unaware of.
Children of Dune, Frank Herbert.
I'm reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, the fourth book in The Wheel of Time series. I'm starting to get a bit sick of the characters, frankly. Petty, angry, dishonest liars most of them, looking to make the worst decisions for any given situation. I still like the book, oddly enough, but I wish the characters like, grow up sometime soon.
I gave up near the beginning of this book. Just wasn’t enjoying it and didn’t relish the idea of spending hours and hours on something I wasn’t enjoying.
Currently in the middle of house of chains by Steven Erikson.
How are you liking the series?
I do enjoy the series a lot, but I would be lying if I said I find it relaxing. The world building is almost realistic, and as such it becomes quite the task to keep track of all the characters, races and the history of it all. I almost always have the Malazan wiki at hand so I can do some research.
I just finished reading Dilla Time by Dan Charnas- it’s a must read if you’re a disciple of J Dilla.
I’m currently listening to War and Peace by Tolstoy
Just started The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison, as a palate cleanser. I expect it'll be cozy.
Finished Fever House by Ken Rosson. This started very fast-paced, but (imo) got bogged down by (interesting) flashbacks. I enjoyed it, but would have liked it to be shorter, somehow. Not sure I'll read the sequel, since this one swerved into a sub-genre I don't usually go for.
I've barely read or listened to anything for over a year, now suddenly I have 9 books/audiobooks on the go. Most are things that everyone has read or heard about anyway, and almost all are part of a series Ive talked about too much over the years so I don't have too much to say 🤷♂️
Audio:
The Wise Man's Fear by Pat Rothfuss when I'm jogging
Words of Radiance by Sanderson at work
Daughter of the Dragon by Michael G Manning at home
Books on rotation chapter by chapter:
White Night by Jim Butcher
River Marked by Patricia Briggs
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Hungry Isle by Emily Rodda
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Manga: Uzumaki by Junji Ito
How are you enjoying Dresden Files so far? I'm on Battle Ground for audiobook.
I like it, this is my third time through the series. The first two were audiobooks but since then I got my own place and was able to start a proper book collection, so this time through I'm taking my time and reading physically. The next book should be out this year hopefully, Butcher has finished writing it according to his site.
Currently I'm reading The Rebel by Albert Camus. I was reading it last month but got interrupted by a hold being available from the library. I'm determined to finish it in the next week or so.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's latest: Shroud. So far, it hasn't grabbed me in the same way that Children of Time did, but I'm enjoying it and am interested to see how the worldbuilding goes.
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