Thomas

I thought this book was OK but not great. I almost stopped reading during the prolog when I encountered terrible grammar. I experienced some buyer's remorse. but it was a sword and laser pick so I plowed on. it got somewhat better, grammatically. the story left me shaking my head. the idea that Then Fellhorn is a super guild master, feared by all, which is emphasized over and over (enough already, we get it), isn't consistent with the number of times he screws up. I was left with the impression that the screw-ups were simply required for the plot and so had to be. but I just could not reconcile that with the fearsome reputation he was supposed to have not just for ruthlessness but for competent ruthlessness. there is more that doesn't add up for me in the book but that seemed the most glaring to me. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series.

To say the least, gripping. I finished it (in three days) wanting more and wondering where Collins might be taking Katniss in the rest of the series. I can see why B&N allow the first in a series to be loaned out (or is it more than the first? So far I've only seen book #1's): it'll keep ‘em buying the rest of the series, at least in this case.
Collins ably evokes the horror of placing young people in violent situations. Weaving in a variety of approaches to preparing the young to kill or be killed, she ultimately finds them all wanting. Reading Collins' prose I found myself rooting for the protagonist and constantly checking myself, saying of course only in context. A horrifying and somehow still endearing story. Quite an achievement.

A caper that involves metallurgy and chemistry? And EVA safety protocols? On the moon? Sounds like it could be dry reading, right? Wrong! Weir successfully uses the high stakes involved to make scenes that revolve around welding gripping reading. Compelling characters that science their way through what could otherwise be a Raymond Chandler novel make this book and helped me not mind too much the time or two when I saw what was coming a little too easily. Ymmv.

I enjoyed it. It kept me interested, even though I figured out the ending pretty early on.

Eddo-Lodge's book came in a lot of lists in the spring of 2020 as the pandemic raged and George Floyd's killing sparked demonstrations and organizing around the world for the Black Lives Matter movement. The book is written by a Black British feminist and as such has interesting historical details about race relations in the UK that were new to me in the specifics if not the contours, which mirror those in the US to a remarkable degree. This sets up chapters about systemic racism, white supremacy and white nationalism. The author recounts some of the “good trouble” she's gotten into by confronting white feminism in the UK, as well as the intersections between race gender and class in the process of gentrification. She wraps up with some hopeful reflections on the changes in public discourse on race, though it is an understandably reserved hopefulness. Well-written and clear, with examples and reflections from her own experience that illustrate the analysis, this is a book that earns it's praises.