It started on Christmas Day in 1994. Dark water suddenly rose from the land, invading …
Evocating illustrations of life and things from the Flood.
3 stars
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.
What could be more innocuous than grass? Or more idyllic than a world covered with …
Unique science fiction story with many facets
5 stars
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.
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."
4 stars
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, …
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, torturing her with tasks and verbally humiliating her, Amélie is enchanted with Fubuki. Amélie even relishes the fury at times, and is envious of the men Fubuki tries to earn the attentions of.
Basically, she has a definite "step on me, mommy" vibe which I hope Amélie eventually talked to someone about for her own safety! I'm not sure how much was read into it by others, but I definitely read their relationship through a queer lens. Amélie would hardly be the first sapphic girl to process her feelings by crushing on her older, elegant and authoritative boss without truly acknowledging where those feelings and adoration may be coming from.
I do have reservations, which I think partly relate to that period of late-90s early-00s it was written. Amélie's definitely puts Japanese culture through an exotic lens and leans on cliches. Granted, it is a short book focused exclusively inside the walls of a single office, so it doesn't set out to be broadly representative. However that's not enough to give it a pass; especially when Amélie's adoring descriptions of Fubuki veer too close to the line and one particular long section which was a very blunt and dated view of Japan.
It also engages in the trademark 90s/00s fatphobia and seems disjointed on the topic of sexism. While the ableism largely portrayed as part of the abusive dynamic, the of slurs there may be needlessly triggering to some. I'd hope if written today it would carry all that with more nuance, but taking that into account I did still enjoy the core of the story.
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
3 stars
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)"
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.
Mimi is a 'waste girl', a member of the lowest caste on Silicon Isle.
Located …
Review of 'Waste Tide' on 'LibraryThing'
4 stars
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.
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.
A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, …
Love to see historians stand against white supremacy
4 stars
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 …
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 get my hands on though.
