outofrange wants to read Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget Read
Multilevel marketing companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife advertise the ultimate business opportunity: the …
From Cory Doctorow's review:
User Profile
Reading for sanity, solace, meaning, meandering. Partial to mountains and desert, climate themes, balancing the heavy with the light.
This link opens in a pop-up window
User Activity
outofrange reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun
In …
Solid Native American inspired fantasy
3 stars
Magic is used fairly judiciously and characters are full of believable ambiguities, as are the cultures they come from.
outofrange wants to read Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw …
Cory Doctorow recommendation
outofrange reviewed The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow
New York Times bestseller Cory Doctorow's The Bezzle is a high stakes thriller where the …
When the scammer and the scammed are both happy
4 stars
I love this concept of "bezzle". How does a hamburger pyramid scheme relate to the California prison system? It's great fun learning, while the very sobering reality is not minimized in the slightest.
outofrange <p>finished reading</p>
The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow
New York Times bestseller Cory Doctorow's The Bezzle is a high stakes thriller where the lives of the hundreds of …
outofrange reviewed Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow
*New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues …
Nostalgic, fun, informative
4 stars
I like reading different perspectives on my early tech experiences regardless, but wrapped in a good tech scam detective story it's pretty irresistible. The fact that it's all chillingly relevant to our current tech world makes this a fable for our times.
I chose to read the series in reverse, which makes the story chronological. Order doesn't seem too important.
outofrange <p>finished reading</p>
Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow
*New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues to bring us the origin …
outofrange wants to read Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a …
Recommendation from Jason Lemieux.
outofrange wants to read Adventure Capitalism by Raymond B. Craib
Adventure Capitalism (2022, PM Press)
Cory Doctorow recommendation.
outofrange reviewed Julia: A Novel by Sandra Newman
An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell’s 1984, from the point of view …
Made me want to re-read 1984
4 stars
It's been so long since I read 1984, the world felt familiar but I had no idea what was coming. Kind of like real life, maybe too much like it?
outofrange <p>finished reading</p>
Julia: A Novel by Sandra Newman
An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell’s 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith’s lover, Julia, …
outofrange wants to read How fascism works by Jason Stanley
As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and …
Recommendation from my cousin David Sudermann.
outofrange wants to read Capital as power by Jonathan Nitzan
FROM THE BACK COVER:
Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after …
A Cory Doctorow recommendation.
outofrange reviewed Dark Wire by Joseph Cox
The inside story of the largest law-enforcement sting operation ever, in which the FBI made …
Drug war becomes encryption war
4 stars
I don't know if I'm just too siloed, but I don't remember ever seeing this pretty jaw-dropping story in the news. It's a good look at how law enforcement is coping with encryption technologies, though the implications for the general public are only touched on. It would be more fun if law enforcement's efforts weren't wasted fighting a futile war on drugs, but I appreciated it more for the investigation than the good guys versus bad guys spin.
outofrange
boosted
Sally Strange reviewed Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford
In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy …
Glorious Use of Alternate History
5 stars
Ultimately, the novel was unsatisfying, but not in the way that comes from careless writing or a lack of vision on the part of the writer. Rather, it's unsatisfying in the same way that life is--you understand why it has to be that way, and although you often wish things could be different, you can't help but glory in the moments that were given.
I don't want a movie of this, I want a video game where the player gets to explore the city of Cahokia. Through it, we get to see the author's vision of Indigenous cultures entering the 20th century but on their own terms. It's colorful, adventurous, brutal, brazen - perfect setting for a politically charged noir murder mystery.