Ash

The one where we meet Avasarala. What a badass. I finished this last month and I already don't remember anything about it other than it was a decent sci-fi romp, and I plan to continue the series.

Had an interesting premise at the start but it ran out of steam after the first few chapters and became insufferably repetitive.

I don't know how to rate this. It's a queer romance: check. But it's set over a span of 7 or so years and they're kids at the beginning which is a bit of an ick factor. While everything's above board and it's handled ok, I kinda hate that. Beyond that it's a bunch of werewolves being cool and finding connection and having fated romance and moon magic. It's not gonna change the world, but the book is a masterclass in emotion, the love, yearning, heartbreak, sorrow, gratitude; and it's an easy read.

I didn't realise Nick Frost was of the ADHD persuasion. Apparently he suffers from insomnia and has spent night after night teaching himself to make the perfect foccacia. Part memoir, part flight of fancy, and part recipe book, it's a very funny read but I could only take it in small parts.

The book is filled with his quirks; his need to people-please while not wanting to actually engage with anyone, his aversion to undercooked eggs becomes a running joke throughout, and after describing how to wrap garlic bread in foil he writes “sorry to be obvious, but some people are really fucking stupid.” I suspect the stupid ones might be all of us readers, but there's a joy in letting the absurdity take you for an adventure. And I learned some culinary techniques along the way.

This was an unexpected treat. My last encounter with Tsiolkas was in Dead Europe which I forced myself to read on a deadline for a book club, and it was a harrowing fever dream I didn't understand. This, on the other hand, I finished in a few days because it was a delight.

I was drawn in by the queer joy, but I appreciated the narratives of how we live through trauma. How we pick up and persevere despite the fucked uppedness of the queer experience. This book was kind, and each chapter was filled with such emotion.

Not all of it resonated. Some of it was shocking. But It was a beautiful read.

As much as I enjoy the cleverness of these books, I don't find myself enjoying them. It feels like a bunch of disconnected chapters, fun in their own right, but strung together into a novel they don't entirely work. I just wish there was a bit more cohesion. That said, death by misspelling is definitely one of the funnier ways to go.

You sort of go through life with the understanding this is how it's always been, that the past is a foreign land. But it's so much closer than we imagine. This was a difficult read, but it put a lot of things in perspective for me.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the potential big crunch or heat death scenarios for the end of the universe, but this book does a great job explaining the evidence and high-level physics behind each theory. As well as a few other potentially catastrophic end time scenarios I'd never heard of.

This is a very accessible book, it has a certain humour to it. iI's the kind of thing that makes you feel smarter and have fun at the same time.

This is such a tough one. I enjoyed it when I was younger, and I thoroughly enjoyed it again.

Vague conceptual spoiler: the ending is the very epitome of deus ex machina. This is a low point of the whole trilogy. But already knowing that when I went in took the disappointment out and allowed me to just ride the thrilling existential pandemic-adjacent sci-fi romp to its conclusion.

The characters are not super deep, the ending is a bit of a cop out, there's the 90s edginess that's no longer au fait by modern standards. But the story and creativity in the universe and breadth of experiences in this series are what did it for me.

It's a full grand space opera and you know what, that might just be my thing.

A little pop sci, a little self-help. Some of the writing is a little bit exaggerated, but the concepts are sound and I can see bits being useful in my life.

The description of the mind body connection really helped me build a better mental model of how the brain and body work together. Particularly how the brain can be completely fine, yet the body wracked with senseless anxiety.

I appreciate the author took several moments to step back and advocate for a science-based, medical-based approach to healing. It's not trying to be an all-in solution to life's problems, rather a tool in the tool belt.

Overall I enjoyed it. I'd recommend this if you're interested in the subject.

This was fine. It's a little bit dated now and there are a couple of mistakes. But it was otherwise a nice, optimistic look at a possible, better future. Definitely worth a read if you want to know more about what it says on the cover.

I read this as a teen, and I find myself enjoying it just as much today as I revisit it some twenty years later. It's not set in a dystopia for the most part, it's a colourful patchwork of new and interesting worlds to explore. I think that's why I enjoy it so much.

But it hasn't aged super well. Culturally it sort of represents where the UK when it was published in 1996. There's a queer villain with whom gay sex is used for shock value (but lesbians are fine). Also a bit of dated racial language which stands out today.

But it's still a fun space opera romp with great world building and it's a pretty easy read despite the length. Since I already know how it ends and I was not especially impressed with the conclusion, I could recommend it with caveats.

This one caught me at a particular moment and left me shattered. I mean, you would expect a title like that to be a giveaway, but here we are. But I thought it was a great, cute, queer, easy read.

It's a pretty plainly laid out argument that Australia can take action on climate change right now with current technology by replacing all our fossil powered machines with electric ones, putting solar on our roofs, using electric cars to power our houses at night, and save huge amounts of money in the long run. Obviously there's nuances, but the point is to go all in on the technologies we currently have, while we develop the solutions to the harder climate problems. And the government is listening.

Stephen Fry's Mythos was interesting because I'd never studied greek mythology before, and it was an okay introduction to it. I found it a bit of a slow going, something about milllenia-old stories not having all the hooks of a modern page-turner. But it was interesting connecting the dots on concepts that trace back all the way back.

I don't even know how to summarise this one, other than to say it's a neat summary of what led to our current day political clusterfuck through a socialist lens. It was a surprise.

Frustrating, but probably worth it. I don't think I fully understand what's going on, first read.

It's a travel journal along the second-longest rail journey in Australia, from Queensland to Western Australia. (Fun* fact, the longest is from Queensland to the Northern Territory just due to the inefficient route, but that's not as exciting)

Years later, I still find myself occasionally thinking about the ending to this book.

The story was very cute, a perfectly executed M/M romance. But I found myself skipping through the sexy bits. Maybe I'm a bit prudish but it was pretty explicit and I wasn't suuuper into it. But overall it was a good read and I can't wait for Drakes' next one in March.

Seems overly contrived and the plot wouldn't stand up to too much criticism, but when it's not blatantly preaching Doctrow's ideology it's a bit of fun.