#FinishedReading

“American Psychosis

An Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy”

by David Corn

#BookWyrm #Books #Bookstodon #Read #BooksofMastodon
@bookstadon https://bookwyrm.social/user/LarryS/generatednote/2490733

#FinishedReading this fascinating look at how indigenous people around the world (but with particular focus on Australia) understand #astronomy , both for storytelling and for practical matters like navigation and tracking seasons - these are not separate concerns, as the stories act in part as mnemonics for the vital skills. Always nice to see references to ANU scientists, in this case indigenous astronomers @karlienoon and Peter Swanton. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #IndigenousKnowledge

#FinishedReading #JaneAusten 's last book, free courtesy of @gutenberg_org . Loved the humanity and humour, although in the gallery of sparkling characters, including the narrator Anne, is it just me or is Captain Wentworth a bit of a cipher? #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading (as an ebook because I'm travelling) #SamanthaShannon's Roots of Chaos series is epic and stunning, but this series is pure popcorn and feels like she was having a holiday writing it: sexy vampire-esque creatures, magical gangsters, constant twists and betrayals, heapings of supernatural violence; it's the sort of book where a villain's most potent weapon is the enslaved poltergeist of Jack the Ripper. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#finishedReading Jennifer Egan's The Candy House. Do I know what it is about, apart from what a reviewer has said: riffs on memory, authenticity and the allure of new technology. No. Did I really like reading it? Yes, it kept pulling me through so that I was surprised how quickly I got to the end.
#bookstodon #JenniferEgan

#FinishedReading

“The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything”

by Mike Rothschild

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@bookstodon

@LarryS https://bookwyrm.social/user/LarryS/generatednote/2339338

#UrsulaKLeGuin packs so much epic scale into 217 pages she makes all other authors in the genre look positively wasteful. Amusingly, the alienness and untrustworthiness of the villainous Shing is shown by them holding what is recognisably a Zoom meeting, as written in 1967! #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi #FinishedReading

#FinishedReading the last book by #IainBanks , about a group of friends visiting a man dying of cancer, in his condemned house about to be swallowed by the next door quarry. Not quite as grim as it sounds, even though Banks's cancer diagnosis came while he was finishing the book; it argues for the value of meeting terrible things with dark humour and even rage. It feels a bit like a stage play with its restricted setting, small cast, and focus on dialogue and monologue. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading a cosy organic farming postapocalypse is visited by a sinister figure in a giant nuclear powered vehicle... and what a great cover by #DexterMaurer . Book was fine but running with a passive and disengaged main character was an odd choice. #JonathanLethem #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

#FinishedReading

“Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution”

by #ElieMystal

#BookWyrm #Books #Bookstodon #Read #BooksofMastodon @bookstodon https://bookwyrm.social/user/LarryS/comment/2142656

#FinishedReading

“#AmericanPrometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert #Oppenheimer”

I didn’t intentionally finish this book on the day that the movie was released!! When you read a 700-plus page book, you finish it when you finish it. Still, pretty cool timing.

This book was amazing. Can’t wait to see the film!

#BookWyrm #Books #Bookstodon #Read #BooksofMastodon @bookstodon

https://bookwyrm.social/user/LarryS https://bookwyrm.social/user/LarryS/comment/2103319

#FinishedReading this self-contained #Fantasy / #SciFi epic by #KatherineKerr . A really nicely handled piece of world building, with secret truths about history, religion, and magic / technology gradually revealed. Vivid characters also. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#FinishedReading it's been more than a decade between A Visit From the Goon Squad and its sequel, so my memory is a bit vague on the characters that connect them, but this set of interlinked short stories, told in a variety if voices and styles, stands up well on its own. #Bookstodon #JenniferEgan

#FinishedReading
“Antisemitism: Here and Now” by Deborah Lipstadt

https://bookwyrm.social/user/LarryS

- #BookWyrm #Books #Bookstodon #Read #BooksofMastodon @bookstodon

https://bookwyrm.social/book/1017939/s/antisemitism-here-and-now

#FinishedReading this pop treatment of #QuantumComputing . Mostly I found it padded and unfocused; do we really need to know every university a scientist ever worked at for half a year when you introduce them? The strongest bits were probably the sections on physical implementation: quantum dots, spintronics etc. #Bookstodon

#FinishedReading #RiversOfLondon by #BenAaronovitch

I loved the dry humour in this one. A darkly funny urban fantasy set in modern London. Mr Aaronovitch is obviously totally in love with the city, and that's infectious :)

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/687d10e0-9713-4bbf-8377-60034b0cd256

#FinishedReading Probably not news to those who follow modern #comics closer than I do, but I've recently discovered #TomKing. He has an unusual biography for a comics writer as an ex-CIA agent, and all three works of his I've read (Mr Miracle, Omega Men, #Supergirl) focus on the impact of grim forever wars on participants and civilians; important in a culture that seemed to start forgetting Iraq / Afghanistan before those wars even ended. Great humour & #BilquisEvely art too! #Bookstodon

#FinishedReading #AlteredCarbon , an entertaining enough mashup of the hardboiled detective and cyberpunk genres, but nothing I'll remember for long, apart from one great scene in which the protagonist gets split into multiple bodies and has a conversation with himself, and some spectacularly embarrassingly written sex scenes #RichardMorgan #Bookstodon

#FinishedReading another big book of curated #scifi (and a few fantasy) short stories. The general standard was pleasingly high, but in particular there was the incredible, funny, surprisingly moving 'All That Robot Shit' by #RichLarson; one of the best short stories I've ever read. #Bookstodon

@bookstodon

#FinishedReading #TheBurglarWhoLikedToQuoteKipling by #LawrenceBlock

One of those light and fluffy murder mysteries. Amusing but not terribly exciting

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/15c34ac8-ac5b-4382-807c-2d46fd0c6c3c