Reading for fun, threads over the years of scifi, history, social movements and justice, farming, philosophy. I actively work to balance out the white male default in what I read, but have a long way to go.
He/they for the praxis.
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When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting …
Remarkable survey of mycology by a curious scientist, emphasizing the paradigm shift from individualistic biology to ecological symbiosis, and the challenges fungi have thrown at drawing any firm boundaries within ecosystems and between ourselves.
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal …
Well, chapter one was hilarious and has me cheering. Human possibilty.
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, …
Irreverent and sweet 90s Manhattan nostalgia and meditation on the desire for more time as we become more adult.
A curiosity, easy to picture 18yo Bruce reading Dune and Moby Dick and getting creative with a world of oddities... but not very creative.
Fire burns bright and has a long memory….
Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away …
Fine intrigue and negotiation and feint, finding yourself.
For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian …
Lovely for craft appreciation, I probably would bounce off most of the Russian short stories without the commentary, which sets a path for writing of selecting and questioning and following every choice and voice towards some truth, true to your character or your whim? Complications and deeper connections to how to live creep in, but this is mostly about finding the good in writing.
The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 …
Definitely the most famous Orwell book that I have not read.
After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) …
What do you need? A robot bodhisattva.
Even the Wild Man of Greenhollow can’t ignore a summons from his mother, when that …
darkly childish in folklorish eternity, entangled and distrusted, with sharp narrative turns precisely placed.
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary …
Content warning discussion of what I didn't like, which might spoil your appreciation
The theme of chosen family and the bright possibility of magical/other children raised outside society's fears and condemnation sets up some enjoyable characters, but the story-telling, the authorial interjections over the ham-fisted oblivious protagonist, and the plausibility of every tense interaction either being ignored or deferred to a handy ultimately benevolent existing power at any level... all the worst aspects of YA that wants to tackle hard topics with a heavy simplifying gloss.
Eleanor Bennett won't let her own death get in the way of the truth. When …
A family's secrets through layers of immigration and patriarchy. Appreciated the overlapped generational perspectives and themes of sea and sugar.
Oy, kinda fated myself into picking this up by reading Moby Dick and Schismatrix simultaneously.
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, …
Walls beyond walls.
Re-read 2024: So much to sit with and contemplate on each reading, come to it with empty hands.
Re-read 2020: Upped to 5 stars. Still a bit of a slow start and interspersed philosophical explainers, but I appreciate the complexities of this "evolving utopia" more than before, the human and social and intergenerational tensions she walks through in making the case complicated.
A sweet and intense french love story, with a wonderful style moving easily in and out of the characters' minds and relationships. Lovingly translated with a long translator's note that captures a small sense of Hofstadter's "Le Ton Beau de Marot".
"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the …