Reviews and Comments

technicat

technicat@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 8 months ago

Left goodreads a while back, nice to get organized with my reading again, especially as part of the #fediverse. Links to my other accounts and sites at philipchu.com/

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reviewed The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge (Zones of thought series)

Vernor Vinge: The Children of the Sky (2011, Tor Books)

"Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human …

closure and non closure for A Fire Upon the Deep, and of course, puppies!

Although technically the third of a trilogy (but the end leaves plenty of room for more), this is really a direct sequel to the first book, A Fire Upon the Deep, which was somewhat hazy in my memory. So at the very least, this installment provides a valuable service in reminding me of the cool worldbuilding - all three stories are based in the clever Zones of Thought universe, but the first two books have different sets of aliens. Or rather, humans are the aliens, since they're the ones who drop out of the sky on these worlds. The native species here are the warm fuzzy doggy telepathic group intelligence type, which I might have found a bit confusing if I hadn't read the first book, and it's hard to read without constantly thinking "puppy! puppy!" but just like my neighbor dog who's always trying to take a bite out …

John Bradshaw, Sarah Ellis: The Trainable Cat: A Practical Guide to Making Life Happier for You and Your Cat (2017, Basic Books)

if you want to show your cat who's boss, read this book and then get a dog

Somewhat drily written, not to the extent of an academic paper but long sentences and some with semicolons, so this was a long bit by bit read for me. The authors are anti-indoor cat (which I gather is the general sentiment in England, but maybe living by an LA freeway will change your mind) and, somewhat interestingly but kind of bothers me, propose more selective breeding for cats to tone done their hunting instincts. Admittedly, they are experts who cite a lot of research (and point out the lack of some, e.g. with the accusations that cats are decimating endangered species), have actually trained their cats in a non-forceful manner that respects their independent and paranoid natures (the elaborate training prescriptions may have you thinking might as well get a dog instead), and obviously love their cats. I could have used this book two cats ago, and if I break …

Philipp Meyer: American Rust (Paperback, 2010, Spiegel & Grau)

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel …

moody, introspective, and oh yeah, murder

No rating

Really interesting writing style, described in the author interview at the end as stream of consciousness but I just thought of it as alternating inner monologues (the interview is almost more interesting than the novel, where the author describes his writing journey which was really a life journey, and the rationale behind the character narration), and thus it feels quite different from the TV series (though of course now I can't help but visualize the actors as these characters).

Kai Bird: The Outlier (Hardcover, 2021, Crown)

gimme more Carter bios

I've read one or two of Carter's autobiographical works, the biography by Jonathan Alter, and now this one. From what I can remember of Alter's work, that is the one I still highly recommend, but there's no reason you should read just one Carter bio, and this one is also comprehensive, I would say lighter on the childhood and early years (in fact, the section covering his early political career seemed so choppily written I speculated the author was impeded by a bout of covid, the timing seems right, or an overly aggressive editor), but really digs in through the presidential years, especially, a topic painful to my heart, the likelihood that the Reagan campaign sabotaged the Iranian hostage release. The post-presidential years are some consolation, and my e-reader told me there was another 20 percent of the book covering that but was misled, a huge chunk of that is …

Dennis Lehane: Moonlight Mile (2012)

Moonlight Mile is a crime novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published on November 2, …

chocked full of bullets, banter, and closure

This is a sequel of sorts to Gone Baby Gone, taking place about a decade later with one intervening novel. It's only the second Kenzie and Gennaro book I've read and I'll say it's more fun than the first, dark more in a mid-life crisis way than just plain morbidity. Even the villains are more likeable. Everyone's getting soft in their old age.