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A young woman's workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements …
A strange but enjoyable allegory of a woman seemingly destined to forever be a temp worker, taking on not just the jobs, but also the lives of those she is filling in for.
Lena has always lived in the jungle with Mother. There they look after a holiday …
Heard about this on Little Atoms shows.acast.com/littleatoms/episodes/little-atoms-874-julianne-pachicos-jungle-house
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a 2022 novel by Gabrielle Zevin. Amazon named it …
I had lots of fun reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, like a great video game with an engaging story, but there were just a few, crucial moments in the book that left me unsatisfied.
One of it's central theme, about the eternal cycle of life giving us chances to start, fail, and start again, maybe to succeed this time, like someone playing a video game, is fun, and the parallels with players on a stage (hence the quote from Shakespeare as the title) and another layer of reflection on the other theme, the role games can play in our lives.
I liked the characters but sometimes found them inauthentic, acting in ways to make a point or progress the plot, and not necessarily true to who I thought they were. Ultimately, some key moments in the narrative fell flat, jarring me into disbelief, and breaking the spell. Still a …
I had lots of fun reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, like a great video game with an engaging story, but there were just a few, crucial moments in the book that left me unsatisfied.
One of it's central theme, about the eternal cycle of life giving us chances to start, fail, and start again, maybe to succeed this time, like someone playing a video game, is fun, and the parallels with players on a stage (hence the quote from Shakespeare as the title) and another layer of reflection on the other theme, the role games can play in our lives.
I liked the characters but sometimes found them inauthentic, acting in ways to make a point or progress the plot, and not necessarily true to who I thought they were. Ultimately, some key moments in the narrative fell flat, jarring me into disbelief, and breaking the spell. Still a good read, but missed a bit of it's lofty, and noble, target.
Earth * Air * Water * Fire
These elements have sustained the peaceful people of …
How do you change the world? How do you break cycles of bitterness, revenge, and violence that drag all involved down into despair and misery, even when it temporary masquerades as "justice"?
Those questions are at the heart of this fantasy novel full of vibrant, fully realized queer characters. Each character brings their own history and personal struggles to those questions, with Marks' deft storytelling weaving them into a coherent and touching narrative.
Will definitely be reading the rest of this series asap.
On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles …
Part history of a calamitous fire, part true crime investigation, with sprinkles of snapshots into the life of current public library workers and those of the past.
I enjoyed this book, though not really for what it was supposed to be. I feel like the investigation into the cause of the fire fizzled out quickly, a sort of non-story with no satisfying conclusion.
But the snapshots of the lives of previous and current library staff was absolutely delightful. Some real strong characters in the libraries history who really shine in this book.
Overall, interesting and enjoyable.
A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun
In the holy city of Tova, …
"Born from the obsessive and highly idiosyncratic mind of a cult figure of the Japanese …
Speculative fiction short stories by a mid-20th century feminist Japanese performance artist and writer…what’s not to like? Well, the writing, that’s what. I found myself consistently interested in the ideas but bored by the actual writing. Characters were hollow vehicles for ideas and plot and I just could not get into it.
After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) …
Another sweet and generous tale, so full of heart and the doubts that can fill one. I found myself moved to think about the world differently and literally reconsidered my career choices at one point while reading. The way the author teases out ideas about identity and self-perception really landed for me.
On a less positive note, this book got me trouble when I laughed out loud in bed and woke up my wife who had just nodded off. Thanks Becky!
Inspired by the "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White--in that the authors address those …
I picked this book up on a whim when it was on a free shelf outside a store in a tiny town in New Mexico. I was intrigued by a book about programming from 1976 with a cover that gave a feeling of downright whimsy; cherubs, intricate ornamental patterns along the border. And even the title: "COBOL with Style" gave it a more modern feel. Most older programming books I have encountered have a much dryer, matter-of-fact presentation, setting out to teach you the facts of the language.
Though I've never written a line of COBOL in my life, and never plan to, I decided to read this anyway and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of it felt applicable. It spends most of the first half encouraging you not to just jump into programming, but spending time upfront assessing and fleshing out the actual problem, planning your approach …
I picked this book up on a whim when it was on a free shelf outside a store in a tiny town in New Mexico. I was intrigued by a book about programming from 1976 with a cover that gave a feeling of downright whimsy; cherubs, intricate ornamental patterns along the border. And even the title: "COBOL with Style" gave it a more modern feel. Most older programming books I have encountered have a much dryer, matter-of-fact presentation, setting out to teach you the facts of the language.
Though I've never written a line of COBOL in my life, and never plan to, I decided to read this anyway and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of it felt applicable. It spends most of the first half encouraging you not to just jump into programming, but spending time upfront assessing and fleshing out the actual problem, planning your approach in pseudo-code, and determining your documentation strategy. Then the advice about writing code is mostly about using meaningful variable names, structuring your code with module to make it easier to read, and other strategies for making it easy for others to understand the code.
Anyway, it was an interesting read, giving me a peak into what it must have been like for COBOL programmers, and just how long some ideas about good programming have been around.
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is on the most dangerous quest of his life. With the help …
A fun engaging story to share to with my 11yo.
Joe Mondragon, thirty-six with not much to show for it, a feisty hustler with a …
A wildly entertaining and enthralling story of a small New Mexico town (Milagro) and the effects of money, power, history, and perception, on the lives of both its residents, both poor and wealthy. The author spares no paragraphs in telling the sometimes tragic, sometimes ridiculous, history of the towns residents, many of whose families date back to original Spanish settlers.
What I've really been left thinking about is the statement it makes about the outsized importance that the perception of power plays in determining the towns fate. While the richest person in town (referred to via nicknames and translation from Spanish as "Vulture" Devine ) has accumulated most of the land and power in town, seizing on the times of weakness of the poor, what doomed the residents, and their ancestors, to dispossession was their perception that they were powerless. The crux of the novel is about taking power, even …
A wildly entertaining and enthralling story of a small New Mexico town (Milagro) and the effects of money, power, history, and perception, on the lives of both its residents, both poor and wealthy. The author spares no paragraphs in telling the sometimes tragic, sometimes ridiculous, history of the towns residents, many of whose families date back to original Spanish settlers.
What I've really been left thinking about is the statement it makes about the outsized importance that the perception of power plays in determining the towns fate. While the richest person in town (referred to via nicknames and translation from Spanish as "Vulture" Devine ) has accumulated most of the land and power in town, seizing on the times of weakness of the poor, what doomed the residents, and their ancestors, to dispossession was their perception that they were powerless. The crux of the novel is about taking power, even in small, stupid, spiteful ways that aren't "political statements", but just individual's asserting their power to do something forbidden because it makes them feel less hopeless. Though some of the poorer residents try to transform the small act of refusal into a catalyst for collective progress, they struggle with their communities own divisions, personal histories, and fears. Nonetheless, the powerful residents start to believe the poor are organizing and dangerous, and that perception starts to tilt the balance of power.
Clay and the other four MudWing dragonets were stolen from their homes while they were …
Reading the series with my 11yo, and found the first book perfectly enjoyable. Angsty youth dragons tasked with saving the world learn to make their way in it.
A collection of twenty-eight brilliant and strange stories, inspired by Japanese folk tales and written …
I really enjoyed these spooky fairy tales with mercurial fairy kings, a woman whose soul was a tree, nefarious floating ghost heads, and more. Apparently Hearn collected these tales over his decades settling into a Japanese life, translating and selecting ones he’d thought would be interesting to a Western audience.
I was fascinated by the life of Lafcadio Hearn as described in the introduction. His peripatetic biography was wild, from tiny Greek Island childhood to London pauper, to Midwestern reporter to chronicler of New Orleans backways, and then ultimately settling in Japan. I think I’ll be reading more about him based in this.
"A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and …
A joy to read , even when the stories themselves deal with difficult topics, because of the effortless flow of the narrative in each short tale. As a collection, it gives a kind of kaleidoscopic view of Nigéria: past, present, and future; from hard nosed reality to speculative magical realism; from the homeland to the diaspora. Absolutely loved it and can’t wait to read more from the author.
Black Jesus and Other Superheroes chronicles ordinary people achieving vivid extrasensory perception while under extreme …
A collection of short stories, with an emphasis on short. Many 2 page stories that felt more like an idea for a short story, or a scene from a full story. Perhaps a stylistic choice to go along with the “peek in my on someones life” theme of these stories, but it just felt jarring to me. The author also goes heavy on literary stylistics, using unusual and surprising metaphors and descriptions, which I found distracting and confusing. That said, I really enjoyed he last two stories in this collection which are longer and more fleshed out, where the author’s style is spread out around exposition that helps ground the characters, enriching them to be more than mere vehicles for ideas.