I’ll start first: (bear in mind I usually listen to audiobooks)
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir |A guy finds himself stranded in space aboard an international space vessel where he has to remember who he is.
- The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater |A true story about how hanging with the wrong crowd can have life-altering consequences
- The Animorphs series by KJ Applegate |Young adult series in which a group of kids find an alien, get the powers to morph shape into animals, as well as uncover an alien takeover conspiracy (Plus, detailed depictions of how grotesque those transformations are!)
- Saga by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples (Comic, ongoing) |Following the story of Hazel, a baby born from an ex-soldier and an enemy combatant, Saga shows how gowing up and raising a kid in a wartorn universe can have highs and lows.
Edit: added pipes for better separation
I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin. It’s an excellent thriller, with a great exploration of how Internet rumors can spill over into the real world
The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood.
I’ll just steal the description from Amazon "Billie Scott is an artist.
Her debut gallery exhibition opens in a few months.
Within a fortnight she’ll be completely blind.
Zoe Thorogood’s first graphic novel is a story about what it’s like to get something you want, have it immediately taken away from you and then how you put it all back together again. Set in a world of people down on their luck from Middlesbrough to London, it’s a graphic novel that speaks of post-austerity Britain and the problems facing those left behind."
The art is great, the characters feel real, and the issues with it are minor. I read it for a book club and loved reading this and discussing it
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
She is a master of language. I love her style.
Project Hail Mary was much more of an emotional ride than I was expecting.
🎶 Jazzhands 🎶
The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles. My first time reading an ancient classic, and it’s much less scary than I thought. In fact I’m quite enjoying it, and might read The Iliad (Homer’s other epic poem) next. The humanness of the characters (well, the human ones!) is very relatable, even though it’s 2700 years old. I don’t know why I expected it to be crusty and boring. Maybe I assumed it’d be like the Bible.
The intro explains a lot of stuff about the original Greek poem and how it was written in dactylic hexameterwhich bards back then used to be able to improvise in, which is amazing to me. Reminds me of 8 Mile or something. 😅
If you read a modern bible translation from the perspective of christian mythology just as we treat Greek mythology a lot of the stories are actually fantastic reads
interesting… it’s been a while since I’ve tried (as a kid in the 80s probably). Can you recommend a translation (and book/story)?
Watership Down. Way better than I thought 🙂.
I’ll take “Books that made me sob like a baby” for $500, Alex.
I’m currently listening to For We Are Many, the 2nd book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I’d previously read them all, but the newest is currently only an audible exclusive, so I downloaded a copy and listened to it and loved it and am now listening to the rest of the series. Basic plot: a modern guy gets a service to freeze his brain upon death. He then does and is awoken and turned into a self replicating space probe and Earth goes into nuclear war and the probe tries to help where it can and explores. It’s a really good and fun read.
I’m also re-working my way through the Anne Rice Vampire series. Haven’t read them in a couple decades and wanted to get re-acquainted. currently on book 4. it’s crazy what you retain and what gets dropped after many years.
I’ve found some of the random $1 for a 9 e-book set books that Amazon offers haven’t been bad.
You mentioned Animorphs and thats one that I’ve got to give a re-read at some point. I get partway through another read through every couple of years. I’d love it if Katherine Applegate could re-work the series as an adult series. It’s so good.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi was also a great read earlier this year. Absolutely love Scalzi. Basic Plot: Poor guy inherits his Uncles evil villain organization and tries to navigate his way through the shenanigans that ensue.
Look up Theft of Fire by Devon Ericson.
Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson. An epic fantasy.
I loved it and just started the second book.
Oh you are in for a treat. I love that trilogy. Such good books.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Algorithms To Live By, applying computer science and mathematic principles to real life. Helping make better decisions that are provably more efficient. Really interesting and anyone who has any interest in computing can get a lot from the book.
- The Mercy of Gods: The first book in a new trilogy from the guys behind The Expanse.
- How to ADHD: Because I wasn’t diagnosed until 40 and now I have to rethink everything about me.
- My War Gone By, I Miss It So: The memoir of a British war zone journalist who covered the Bosnian War and other Balkans conflicts. I originally read it decades ago but was reminded of it after watching Civil War earlier this year. I heard lots of criticism about the main characters in that movie not being relatable or very likable so I picked this back up to confirm that yes, that’s accurate, and I think part of the point of the movie…
How is the ADHD book? Actually helpful?
Yeah, I would recommend it. My biggest takeaways from it so far have been understanding how many of my habits and personality quirks are actually coping strategies that I just didn’t realize. Like, I always thought I just happened to like chewing gum all the time because I enjoyed the minty flavor. Turns out the repetitive chewing motion can actually stimulate the dopamine I crave. I thought everyone has a collection of rhyming phrases or little songs that they only say in private and we all collectively pretend like we don’t because it’s embarrassing. Turns out that’s verbal or auditory stimming. It’s been great in that regard, helping me understand why I am the way I am.
Can’t really speak to how effective any of the ADHD management techniques in the book are since I’m still working through it and trying to take things onboard, but the author also has a very popular and successful Youtube channel where you can probably find all the same information and more if you’re interested.
Just finished The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Her imagery is beautiful and you can feel her talent. It’s a an autobiographical roman à clef of her struggling with bipolar disorder/depression. And the only book she wore before taking her life when the love of her life left her for another woman.
I read the Martian. It was at least as good as the very good movie.
You will most likely love Project Hail Mary, then, if you haven’t already read it.
I haven’t, so thank you for the recommendation. Both were available at the library as a reward for finishing the summer reading challenge, so I almost got it.
🎶 Jazzhands 🎶
The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy
How is it? I preordered but haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
I love their book club and wanted to support them and picked up a few of their books
Learned on Lemmy a couple of weeks ago that Neal Stephenson has a new book out, and I’m still a sucker for them. Polostan is (so far) historical fiction and very readable. The Stephenson-esque infodumps seem to mostly concern the game of Polo and interwar Communism, with healthy dashes of 1930s physics and ranching.
Fellow sucker here. Will be sure to check it out.
Anne Applebaum - Autocracy Inc.
