Category Archives: Books

Book Log Roundup February 2025

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I’ve once again fallen behind in my documenting of my book reading. And as a result, I have repurchased books I’ve already read. Darn my memory.

For this catchup, if I’ve read enough to have liked or loved the book, I’m adding links to the bookshop.org site where you can get them. Bookshop.org allows you to purchase books online on behalf of your favorite local bookshop (mine is Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia).

Completed:

  • The Thursday Murder Club: a Novel by Richard Osman [ebook]
    • A fine murder mystery with retired protagonists. Worth a read, and there are more books in the series if you take a hankerin’.
  • The Violinist’s Thumb by Sam Kean
    • Only read recently, and it goes on my favorite non-fiction list. A hilarious tour through the story of DNA and the people who introduced us to it. Absolutely fascinating facts on every page– constantly changed my perception of what humans are. Cannot recommend enough.
  • The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel [ebook]
    • Really engaging true story of a man with an obsession from stealing art right out of museums. Very engaging page turner.
  • Red Rising (Book 1) by Pierce Brown [ebook]
    • Ok science fiction. I struggled to Suspend my Disbelief and accept the world building. But if you like the Hunger Games genre of young people battling each other for survival in artficial circumstances, you’ll dig this.
  • The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann [ebook]
    • Riveting true story of a 1740’s doomed voyage. A view into a very different world that I am not at all disappointed to have left behind.
  • It Ends with Us: A Novel by Colleen Hoover [ebook]
    • Meh.
  • Cursed: Alex Verus, Book 2 by Benedict Jacka [audiobook]
    • These are okay magic/urban fantasy books. I might have stopped listening/reading, but these were what I had loaded up on my phone for a long car trip.

Actively In Progress:

Stalled In Progress:

On Deck

  • Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules by Steve McConnell
  • Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Emily Gregory [eBook, Audio book]
  • The Accidental Alchemist: An Accidental Alchemist Mystery by Gigi Pandian [eBook]
  • The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (EW March 2025 Book Club)
  • Now is Not The Time to Panic [eBook]
  • Congratulations, the Best is Over!: Essays [Paper, Audiobook] – Stacey recommended
  • Boo by Neil Smith [Audiobook, paper] – Grove strongly recommended
  • Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver [audiobook]
  • The New Testament by Bart D. Ehrman (ebook)
  • Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric that Matters by Jeremy Utley, Perry Klebahn [audiobook] rec by coworker
  • Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin – book of the month selection from Nowhere Book Shop.
  • Executive Presence by Syvlia Ann Hewlett
  • The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick
  • The Five Disfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
  • Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
  • Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker
  • Buckaroo Banzai: Against the World Crime League et al., by E.M. Rauch
  • The Madwoman and the Roomba by Sandra Tsing Loh
  • All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
  • Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders
  • Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson
  • Our Biggest Experiment by Alice Bell
  • Ada and the Engine by Lauren Gunderson
  • Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire

Abandoned

  • The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King [audiobook]
  • More Than This by Patrick Ness [audiobook]

Book Log – You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

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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

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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

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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 #15 – Funny Planet

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Funny Planet – How Comedy Ruined Everything by Ken Jennings [Duke University Bookstore]

This book is amazing. Unsurprising for a many multiple time Jeopardy winner, this book is packed full of comedy history, facts, anecdotes, scientific studies and insightful commentary.

I picked it up when my son was doing a summer camp at Duke last year. I read a chapter or two, then for the next year wasn’t in the mood to hear how my last refuge from the state of the world was *also* terrible. With polls trending my way a bit and in the throes of a pleasantly escapist beach vacation, I summoned the will to dive into it again.

And man, was I glad I did. it is easily one of the best books I’ve read in the past few years, despite the rather dire thesis that the current saturation level of comedy permeating our every hour has led to many ills, including our current president.

There is so much to take from this book, both hopeful and disappointing, that I hardly know how to thimbalize it for this post.

One important bit is the evidence that mocking or making light of serious societal dangers, even with the best intentions of raising awareness or opposing them, can have the unintended consequences of dulling our perception of the importance. The Colbert Report in its attempt to point out the foibles of flawed conservative thinking may have helped enable it. John Stewart’s delight at the comedy cornucopia of Trump’s candidacy may have helped obscure the dangers therein. To say nothing of the comedy arms race on Twitter.

Everyone with an interest in comedy should read this book. I’ll loan you my copy.

Book Log #14 – Exhalation: Stories

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Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang [Little Shop of Stories?]

I don’t remember when I read this. I assume I picked it up at Little Shop of Stories as an impulse purchase, there’s no record I purchased it at Amazon or had it on my wishlist. Additional evidence is that this was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and that more often comes from the curated selection at LSOS.

I talked about this book to anyone who would listen, and there are only a handful of books I can say that about. And what’s amazing is I didn’t write about it here. So I’m rectifying that mistake.

I can’t find my copy, but that is almost certainly because I forced someone to borrow it.

This is an amazing collection of literary science fiction stories. The writing is smooth and flawless and the ideas are fun and clever.

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate is one of the best time travel stories I’ve ever read — the problem of suspense in time travel narratives is difficult to come by, but this story’s convention works perfectly for that. The setting is also unique, almost reading like an Aesop’s Fable.

Exhalation, from which the book’s title is taken, is an amazing bit of hard science world building.

It’s been a while, but I don’t remember there being a weak one in the bunch. Funny, poignant, interesting… this book’s got it all.

Go read it. Now.

Book Log #13: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

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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.