Kiddo is really enjoying this series.
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Software engineer from #Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Opinions are my own, not those of my spouse, employer, child, or pets. In fact there are few areas in which we agree.
Interested in #FOSS and #Linux, as well as federated social nonsense like the #Fediverse and #XMPP and #Matrix
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ssweeny's books
2025 Reading Goal
8% complete! ssweeny has read 2 of 25 books.
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ssweeny started reading On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little House) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura and her family move to Minnesota where they live in a dugout until a …
ssweeny rated Wolverine: Old Man Logan: 5 stars
ssweeny finished reading Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar
ssweeny started reading Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal
ssweeny finished reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House, #2)
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House, #2)
A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a …
ssweeny started reading Lifespan by David Sinclair
ssweeny reviewed How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, …
Definitely worth a read and and doesn't require a STEM background to appreciate.
4 stars
I thought this one started off a bit slow and anecdote-heavy which is a complaint I've had about several recent nonfiction books I've read. Fortunately this time those anecdotes were just laying the emotional groundwork for a treatise on how our (humans in general, but particularly humans in wealthier countries) lives are only possible as we know them because of big investments in infrastructure made decades ago.
I appreciated the author's emphasis on needing not just to invest in maintenance of what we have but a hopeful tone about what's possible if we rethink our tendency toward large centralized structures and consider smaller, more localized solutions that can be combined (like a series of smart micro-grids for power that use wind in windy areas or solar in sunny areas but also use storage and interconnects to let those solutions complement and supplement each other).
ssweeny started reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House, #2)
A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the …
Taking a break from the Series of Unfortunate Events, started reading this one to the kiddo.
ssweeny started reading How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us
Infrastructure …
ssweeny reviewed Twilight falling by Paul S. Kemp (The Erevis Cale trilogy ;)
Compelling Dark Fantasy
5 stars
Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend from work and boy howdy was he right about this one.
It's the first of a trilogy but there seem to be references to other stories with the same character. From what I gather there are short stories that happen before this one, and there's another trilogy later as well. The references didn't leave me lost so much as piqued my interest to go read more.
The main character, Erevis Cale, is a former theif who has sworn himself into the service of Mask, the god of shadows. He has also been faithfully serving for a decade as a butler to a rich family he was originally placed to spy on. Just as he feels his time with them is coming to an end he gets pulled into a plot even darker than the villain himself knows.
This is a fun …
Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend from work and boy howdy was he right about this one.
It's the first of a trilogy but there seem to be references to other stories with the same character. From what I gather there are short stories that happen before this one, and there's another trilogy later as well. The references didn't leave me lost so much as piqued my interest to go read more.
The main character, Erevis Cale, is a former theif who has sworn himself into the service of Mask, the god of shadows. He has also been faithfully serving for a decade as a butler to a rich family he was originally placed to spy on. Just as he feels his time with them is coming to an end he gets pulled into a plot even darker than the villain himself knows.
This is a fun read with some thinky bits on it as well. It's in the Forgotten Realms setting, and came out around when D&D was in its 3rd Edition, so there's a fun game to be played where you can try to guess the characters' classes, what spells they are casting from the descriptions, etm.
This doesn't distract from the plot, which has plenty of adventure and mystery. The interplay between the main characters is where the book really shines. Cale teams up with Riven, another acolyte of Mask with very different ideas of morality, and Jak who is a former Harper and acts as Cale's very own Jiminy Cricket.
I will say that the book ends on one hell of a cliffhanger and the only saving grace is that this trilogy was completed years ago and you can dive right into the next one.
ssweeny finished reading Twilight falling by Paul S. Kemp (The Erevis Cale trilogy ;)
Twilight falling by Paul S. Kemp (The Erevis Cale trilogy ;)
ssweeny started reading Witch King by Martha Wells
ssweeny started reading Twilight falling by Paul S. Kemp (The Erevis Cale trilogy ;)
Twilight falling by Paul S. Kemp (The Erevis Cale trilogy ;)
ssweeny reviewed The Miserable Mill (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 4) by Lemony Snicket (Series of Unfortunate Events (4))
Dear Reader,
I hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this …
The Miserable Mill
4 stars
Still enjoying reading these with the kiddo.
I thought it was interesting that Count Olaf is barely in this one, and the misery and cruelty mostly come from the situation and the setting, as well as their caretaker, "Sir".
Still, a fun read full of dark humor and a bit more absurdity this time. Already starting on the next one.