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jonn

jonn@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 2 months ago

That doma.dev guy.

Also on: @jonn@social.doma.dev

I don't like cringe stuff.

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jonn's books

To Read (View all 48)

Émile Zola: L'Œuvre (Les Rougon-Macquart, #14) (French language)
Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (Paperback, 2005, Digireads.com)
Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Hardcover, 2021, Tordotcom)

Currently Reading (View all 5)

Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities (Paperback, 1997, Vintage Classics)
Valdis O. Lumans: Latvia in World War II (2006)
Prit Buttar: Between Giants : The Battle for the Baltics in World War II (2013)

Read (View all 129)

Jasper Fforde: Red Side Story (2024, Soho Press, Incorporated)
Jasper Fforde: The Woman Who Died a Lot (Hardcover, 2012, Viking)
Jasper Fforde: First Among Sequels (Paperback, 2008, Hodder & Stoughton)

2025 Reading Goal

58% complete! jonn has read 31 of 53 books.

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commented on The Silverblood Promise by James Logan (The Last Legacy, #1)

James Logan, Logan, James: The Silverblood Promise (Paperback, 2024, Tor) No rating

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and―thanks to a duel that ended badly―the disgraced …

a «volkov family»? omfg. you did not need any fscking russian motives in a fantasy published in 2024, you've got a shitload of other clichés to pick from and still you insist?

i will never understand this fascination wirh the deeply derivative, inhumane, soaked in blood russian «culture» that most westerners can't help exhibiting again and again.

reviewed Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey, #2)

Jasper Fforde: Red Side Story (2024, Soho Press, Incorporated)

Nuanced

Reading this one felt faster than the first one because the world building wasn't so hard to navigate anymore.

It's a wonderful book, I can't get enough of Fforde.

How did you know that whatever I have wasn't infectious?

I didn't.

reviewed Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey, #1)

Jasper Fforde, Jasper Fforde: Shades of Grey (Paperback, 2010, Hodder & Stoughton)

An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday …

Quite Heavy

Fforde can be like Adams, Fforde can be like Orwell. Extremely powerful worldbuilding and writing in the expedition part. I was shocked and felt very strong emotions.

Quote of the book, in line with my personal history:

'No one's ever liked me before, she said, 'so you'll excuse me for becoming suspicious.' 'Jabez liked you.' 'Jabez liked my nose.' 'I like your nose.' 'Yes, but you don't only like my nose. There's a big difference.'

reviewed The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde (Thursday Next, #7)

Jasper Fforde: The Woman Who Died a Lot (Hardcover, 2012, Viking)

The Bookworld's leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been forced into semiretirement following an assassination …

Removes any questions if Fforde is a communist.

And yet, a five star from me.

Is he naive and too fascinated by russia? Yes, but so are most westerners.

Can I certainly say that he read das kapital / communist manifesto? No. But then again, even those who did in the west don't have a lived experience of communism, so I empathise with them falling for barely grounded populism.

And even yet it's a great book! Perhaps the best in the series. It's weird at every corner, includes scrupulous worldbuilding and a ton of calculations. And while we may have the opposite ideas about marxism, we do share unapologetic and relentless sense of anticapitalism. Which, under western labels makes me an intersectional communist, I guess, but western labels can sod off!

Anyway, the book is FUN. The characters are WEIRD. Fforde is an amazing writer.

If you crave Douglas Adams, but ran out, and don't want to make …