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Sally Strange

SallyStrange@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 11 months ago

Interests: climate, science, sci-fi, fantasy, LGBTQIA+, history, anarchism, anti-racism, labor politics

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Sally Strange's books

Currently Reading (View all 6)

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Simon Stålenhag: Things From the Flood (Hardcover, 2020, Skybound Books)

It started on Christmas Day in 1994. Dark water suddenly rose from the land, invading …

Evocating illustrations of life and things from the Flood.

A follow-up to the author's "Tales from the Loop", it follows the life of a boy whose family is forced to evacuate their home when the underground abandoned Loop starts to flood their area. The book mixes evocative illustrations of robots and abandoned technology in the countryside with tales about wandering robots and conspiracy stories about alien invasions and about possible unknown life in the flood.

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reviewed Grass by Sheri S. Tepper

Sheri S. Tepper: Grass (Paperback, 2022, Orion Publishing Group, Hachette UK)

What could be more innocuous than grass? Or more idyllic than a world covered with …

Unique science fiction story with many facets

When I read the cover, I expected a mix of normal science fiction and horror. Grass, however, is much more than that. It offers fairly detailed descriptions about the world and features many characters with different motives. Religion, politics, personal motives collide and strange metaphysical events happen. The world on Grass feels much more like an episode from the High Middle Ages, although advanced science is discussed in between. The whole is underpinned by complex family drama. Add to that the danger that is omnipresent on the planet. An exciting read that I didn't expect, even if it was a bit lengthy and complex at times.

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Amélie Nothomb: Fear and Trembling (Paperback, 2004, St. Martin's Griffin)

According to ancient Japanese protocol, foreigners deigning to approach the emperor were to adopt a …

"I suddenly wanted to tell her how delighted I was at being the instrument of her pleasure."

Amélie was excited to move to Japan to take an entry level position at a large corporation. However despite starting at the bottom, Amélie's repeated well intentioned and often hilarious blunders send her spiralling ever further down the ladder. Between cultural missteps in the Japanese corporate culture and small but impactful blunders in the even more mundane work assigned to her, she earns the rigorous fury of her manager, one of only three women in the entire company, who sees Amélie's honest mistakes as a deliberate attempt to undermine her.

On the face of it, this book might be about Amélie or a broader contrast to Japanese culture. But at it's centre is the manager, Fubuki, and how her life as an isolated career woman in Japan has shaped her and her world view. The tragedy is how much Amélie worships Fubuki. Despite how much Fubuki starts to hate Amélie, …

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Randall Munroe, Randall Munroe: What If? 2 (2022, Hodder & Stoughton)

A second collection of Fermi problems so ridiculous that Fermi would be disgusted.

Zippy read, but the YT channel might be the ideal form for these

Read through this over the course of a weeklong camping trip. I've been enjoying these since they first started as blog posts, these continue that trend. Some of my favorites include Losing Weight by reducing Earth's size (and gravity), and why compasses don't just point towards the nearest MRI machine.

That said, I reluctantly feel the best format for these explainers might be the YouTube channel (which has published many of these scenarios). The narration and videos are well-done and provide a similar quick bite of pop-sci, in a more accessible way. But if you do read through the book, don't skip the foot notes. One of my favorites is the footnote for "It's very hot close to the Sun" cited as "Santana, C., I.Shur, R. Thomas, Smooth (1999)"

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Marie Vibbert: Galactic Hellcats (Hardcover, 2021, Vernacular Books) No rating

Ki is a petty thief. Her best friend wills her his solo-flyer--call it a space …

Her sergeant had warned her about this exact situation. "When I finished my first tour," her sergeant said, "four of my buddies blew all their saved up pay on solo-flyers and within a year, three of them were dead from crashes and the fourth was paralyzed the rest of his life at twenty-two years old. Stupid kids with money for the first time! Don't be Like that. Save your pay like it was somebody else's money and get a job fast or you'll be back in the service within a year. Like me."

Margot wasn't a stupid kid. She was a good girl. She'd always been a good girl. Top third of her class. No disciplinary hearings in the military. Honorable discharge. She'd done everything right.

Galactic Hellcats by  (9%)

Coughs at the "good girl" statement.

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Chen Qiufan: Waste Tide (Hardcover, 2019, Tor Books)

Mimi is a 'waste girl', a member of the lowest caste on Silicon Isle.

Located …

Review of 'Waste Tide' on 'LibraryThing'

A powerful, gripping book, that suffers a little from leaving some of its most potentially interesting characters insufficiently fleshed out.[return][return]It wonderfully subverts typical hero / saviour narratives, and complicates questions about who holds power and who is on the "good" or "bad" side of a conflict. But it still renders its privileged non-heroes a lot more three-dimensional than any of the less privileged people who as a collective this book is largely about.

started reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (The Clockwork Century, #1)

Cherie Priest: Boneshaker (Paperback, 2009, Tor)

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike …

"Womb City" was so intimately painful. I needed a break, something adventurous and not too serious. This is perfect. Steampunk Seattle with zombies. The main character is a middle-aged woman trying to find her son.

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Matthew Gabriele, David M. Perry: The Bright Ages (Hardcover, 2021, Harper)

A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, …

Love to see historians stand against white supremacy

I'm never going to be mad about a history book written by pasty authors who call out white supremacy, islamophobia, antisemitism, etc. Plus the authors went out of their way to talk about women from the time period. All of these things are wins in my books.

The overall structure of the book is more or less chronological, but when the authors zoom in two specific moments during the Middle Ages, there still aren't a lot of details. It was enough for me in audiobook form, but I can see it being disappointing for somebody who wants to really do a deep dive into the time period. I personally liked it a lot though and had a few good chuckles while reading.

It does look like the two authors got together again for another book that talks about a specific event during the Middle Ages that I definitely want to …