An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard [Little Shop of Stories]
Enjoyable read, felt like the ending kind of wrapped up quickly. Stakes felt low. But the ride was fun.
Category Archives: Book Log
Book Log – I’m Glad My Mom Is Dead
I’m Glad My Mom Is Dead by Jennette McCurdy
Book Log – You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar [Little Shop of Stories]
Amber Ruffin is the current greatest late night host. Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert tie for second. John Oliver is up there, but maybe a different category of show? He’s kind of his own thing.
Thing is, I don’t really watch talk shows on a regular basis. So I bought this book to support her, if indirectly.
It’s a great book. It’s funny, but… even if they encourage us in the book to laugh or be amused, it’s a challenge. Because it’s not funny that this book can exist.
But… great book. Read it. And watch her show.
Book Log 2022 Catchup
Piecing together the missing book logs…
Randomize: Forward by Andy Weir [audible]
I have no memory of this, but audible says I listened to it.
Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman
Enjoyable and witty walk through Adams’ life
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Recommended on Schuler Books’ tiktok page, an well written and entertaining story with a twist that was too easy to figure out early in the book, but didn’t really impact enjoyment. [Audible]
Fated: Alex Verus Series, Book 1 by Benedict Jacka [Audible]
Witty magic-user story in present day. Does not write female characters well, but otherwise good world-building.
Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore [Little Shop of Stories]
Good beach read. C. Moore is always good light fare.
In Process
How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg [Audible]
Dare to Lead by Brene’ Brown [Audible]
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry [Audible]
More Than This by Patrick Hess [Audible]
Cursed: Alex Verus, Book 2 by Benedict Jacka [Audible]
How the South won the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson
Supreme Inequality by Adam Cohen
Improv Nation by Sam Wasson
Termination Shock by Neil Stephenson
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar
Our Biggest Experiment by Alice Bell
She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson
Book Logs 2021
It’s gotten away from me again. It’s been a year since I’ve logged what books I’ve read.
And there’s a reason I do this. I was looking at the log from last year, and noted that I had read the Ocean at the End of the Lane. I had no memory of having read this book. I’ve been noticing it on my bookshelf for months now, going… man, I should read that one. BUT I HAVE.
At any rate, I’ll try to piece together the past in no particular order:
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab
This is a freaking great book. A co-worker recommended it. After I read it, I gushed and thanked her for recommending it, and another coworker asked what book we were talking about. We told him about it, and a couple weeks later, *he’s* gushing about it to us. I was telling that story to another friend, and they got it and read it, and gushed about it.
It’s a great book. Now you know.
365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy by Charla Muller with Betsy Thorpe
Non-fiction memoir of a woman who decided to give her husband the gift of sex every day for a year. No, it’s not graphic or even a little bit tittilating– these are very religious people– it’s a book with some interesting insights into couplehood.
Educated by Tara Westover
FASCINATING autobiography of a woman raised by extremist Mormons, and her rise from not-schooled childhood to PhD. Riveting story.
In process:
The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson
Law 101 by Jay M. Feinman
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
You’ll Never Believe What HAppened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
On the metaphorical bedside table:
The Madwoman and the Roomba by Sandra Tsing Loh
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Book Log #13: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Elise Hurst [Free, Gift]
This book is very Neil Gaiman-y, with perhaps a touch of the Terry Pratchetesque thrown in. Not too much Terry Pratchett, but perhaps some echoes of Granny Weatherwax here.
This is not a book I would read repeatedly, but it was an enjoyable distraction in the downtime between tournament softball games one Saturday.
What I have is a signed, hardback edition gifted to me by a co-worker, who had three signed copies, which was two more than he needed. (His wife likes Gaiman, he is indifferent). How does one accidentally end up with three signed copies? Well, he is an Englishman. So I assume they are given out as part of their socialist hellscape healthcare system, or something like that.
I will heap praise on the illustrations of this edition. Elise Hurst’s pen and ink work is haunting, and adds to the experience greatly. I felt a little self conscious as some of the pages are borderline picture book status, but no one at the softball tournament noticed, I don’t think.
Book Log #10 – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A friend of the family send this book to us for Scout to read, adding that it was her very favorite book. This is no small praise coming from a person as well-read as she.
It sat on our counter for several months before I took pity on the poor book and decided to give it a try. I knew nothing about the novel, which I think is really the best way to read something.
It is a tremendous book that, had it been described to me, I would never have sought out on my own. In short, it is a coming-of-age novel of a young impoverished girl in Brooklyn in the 1910’s. Sounds depressing, right? I’m not too in to depressing books. I’m looking for escapism; if I want to be sad, I can pick up a newspaper.
But the world our heroine inhabits is fascinating and foreign. It’s I-had-to-walk-uphill-through-the-snow-both-ways but told deftly and with humor and insight.
The writing is well done, and I’ll highlight something that should have bothered me, but didn’t– when a character’s thought processes were being described, they were written in a very matter of fact and stilted way that just… worked, for some reason. I don’t know why, and I never would have tried it myself.
When I was done with the book, I wondered how accurate it could possibly be– where did the author get this incredible detail of Brooklyn life of this time? Even my grandmothers wouldn’t have been old enough to experience it firsthand.
But of course, the answer is that this book is fairly old, written in 1943. I would have known that had I bothered to pay any attention to the cover, with the words “75th Anniversary Edition” printed across the top.
So, in summary, it’s nice the human race writes things down so we can learn about them 100 years later.
Highly recommended.
Book Log 2019: The Year in Review
Books read in 2004: 21
Books read in 2005: 28
Books read in 2006: 40
Books read in 2007: 30
Books read in 2008: 41
Books read in 2009: 22
Books read in 2010: 44
Books read in 2011: 28
Books read in 2012: 31
Books read in 2013: 8
Books read in 2014: 13
Books read in 2015: 18
Books read in 2016: 52
Books read in 2017: ~24
Books read in 2018: ~28
Books read in 2019: ~24
Last year was my 15th year of logging books. Should have commemorated that, I guess. Perhaps a small party? No speeches. No long ones, anyway. Perhaps just a few words about the importance of reading. I mean, I guess I think it’s important. But I’ve also read (ha!) that learning to read causes you to repurpose the part of your brain that recognizes faces. And quite honestly, I could use some better facial recognition skills. It gets embarrassing.
It’s obvious I’m not tracking my reading like I used to. You can tell by the little approximation squiggles before the numbers above. It is because in 2016 I attempted the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, and I just got burned out for three years?? Possible. That was a hell of a marathon, reading-wise.
I only have one non-digital book on the lineup this year. That is probably because I used my Amazon account to figure out what I read. If I bought something at my favorite bookstore, Little Shop of Stories, and read it– it’s lost to history.
A lotta series books this year. It’s just… easier. Finished one book? Well, here’s another just like it. Rinse, repeat. They weren’t great series, just fine.
Really, nothing on this list blew me away. Fall, or Dodge in Hell was probably my favorite, but I’m a Stephenson-o-phile, and I felt like this book redeemed the previous book with the same characters, REAMDE. Not that the stories had anything to do with each other, beyond using the same characters. Sortof. Anyway, I liked it.
I’m reading a couple of great book now, here in 2020. So the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades. Especially because of the harsh glare of my phone screen.
1. Down and Out in The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow [borrowed]
I’d never read a Cory Doctorow, so I need to see what all the jokes in XKCD were about.
2. Out of Spite, Out of Mind (Magic 2.0 Book 5) by Scott Meyer [Kindle, $4.99]
I like his universe he’s created, but I would really like him to get around to digging deeper into the obvious mysteries. I’m not sure he wants to.
3. The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish [Kindle, $10.99]
Good stuff with interplay between the past and the present. Not my usual, but nice.
4. Replay by Ken Grimwood [Amazon, $13.95]
Recommended by my boss, this is the first of two “people who live their lives over and over again” books I read this year. Both great, with very different takes on the same premise.
5. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North [Kindle, $9.99]
The second of the “people who live their lives over and over again” books of 2019. This was my favorite of the two, probably because it was written recently and the other is like 30 years old.
6. Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas that Shape our Reality by Ben Orlin [Kindle, $14.99] – unfinished?
Interesting, but perhaps shouldn’t have been an e-reader. May need to try to finish it in paper form.
7. Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan [Kindle, $2.99]
I don’t remember this onen at all. I know Robin Sloan wrote a couple other entertaining books, one about sourdough.
8. The Quantum Magician (The Quantum Evolution Book 1) by Derek Kunsken [Kindle, $1.99]
Odd little sci-fi novel with some interesting world building.
9. Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari [Kindle, $14.99] – unfinished
Fascinating, except I stopped reading it. A friend also stopped reading it at the same point, and it was because the author made a weak argument about something, and I sort of lost faith. My friend had the same reaction. But I’ll eventually get back to it.
10. David Mogo Godhunter, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa [Kindle, $5.99]
Okay. A little claustrophic. I just don’t know Africa very well, and it was hard to get a feel for where I was. And a lot of mysticism, so the I couldn’t assess the stakes, couldn’t understand the dangers our hero was facing.
11. Fall, or Dodge in Hell: A Novel, by Neal Stephenson [Kindle, $16.99]
My fav of the year.
12. Beneath the Sugar Sky [Wayward Children Book 3] by Seanan McGuire [Kindle, $2.99]
Meh. Magical orphans from other universes.
13. Atmosphaera Incognita by Neal Stephenson [Kindle, $2.99]
Fine little short story by the master.
The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
-
14.All Systems Red [Kindle, $3.99]
15. Artificial Condition [Kindle, $2.99]
16. Rogue Protocol [Kindle, $9.99]
17. Exit Strategy [Kindle, $9.99]
This series was entertaining mind candy.
Books of Raksura series by Martha Wells
-
18. The Cloud Roads, Book 1 [Kindle, $9.26]
19. The Serpent Sea, Book 2 [Kindle, $10.49]
20. The Siren Depths, Book 3 [Kindle, $9.99]
21. Stories of the Raksura: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud [Kindle, $9.99]
22.Edge of Worlds, Book 4[Kindle, $10.49]
23. The Harbors of the Sun, Book 5 [Kindle, $3.79]
I kept reading this series of half-lizard-people long after I should have stopped, probably. They are fine, and there’s some good worldbuilding. But a couple was probably enough.
24. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone [Kindle, $7.99]
Can’t decide if I liked this one. A sort of epistolary novel, told half in letter form, about two opposing agents in a far flung future time war, each trying to shape the past to bring about their future. The style was a bit too poetical for my taste, but I liked the concept enough to stick with it.
Book Log #4: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North [Kindle]
Loved this book.
Claire North takes a cool premise and explores it wonderfully, with an engaging plot.
The premise: Some people live their life over and over. After they die, they restart at the beginning, remembering their previous loops at age 3 or 4. It gives a time-traveler-esque feel to the story line, and the conceit is well executed.
The butterfly effect is handled ok, but there remains the Grandfather’s Sperm Paradox* which, if considered closely, unravels some of the plot.
But, there is so much awesomeness in this one, I don’t mind a little hand waving.
___
*The Grandfather’s Paradox states you wink out of existence if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, but really all you need to do is bump him a little.
The only portrayal I’ve seen of this is in the very enjoyable movie “About Time”, where a man learns he can travel back along his own timeline and change his history. He discovers if he travels back further than the conception of his child, he ends up with a different child in the present.
Book Log #3: Out of Spite, Out of Mind (Magic 2.0 Book 5)
Out of Spite, Out of Mind (Magic 2.0 Book 5) by Scott Meyer (Kindle)
Decent mind candy as usual. He takes a fun premise (a secret computer file that contains reality, and can be edited, so some people find it and make themselves magicians) and plays with it in amusing ways.
I’m hoping at some point that he starts cracking into the mystery of the file. But maybe he’s going to milk this for as many books as he can before a Big Reveal. Or maybe he hasn’t thought of the Big Reveal.
At any rate, if you like the first 4, you’ll like this one just fine.