Finished reading: Medieval Horizons by Ian Mortimer makes a good case that the Middle Ages were a dynamic period that made many contributions to our modern world 📚
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Finished reading: Wayward by Blake Crouch does what a second book in a trilogy needs to do. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve read the third book to see if it pays off. 📚
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 →
Finished reading: Frustrating that 1984 by George Orwell is still so relevant 📚
Finished reading: Greener Than Thou by Mark Leiren-Young is a scathing, and funny, look at the Canadian Green Party. I’ve voted for them in some previous elections, but doubt that will happen again📚
Finished reading: Although less cozy than previous books in the series, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older was still entertaining 📚
Finished reading: The Book of the New Sun: Volume 1 by Gene Wolfe is a great mix of fantasy and sci-fi. I enjoyed it and will carry on with the rest of the series 📚
Finished reading: After hearing a recommendation for the Fifth Business by Robertson Davies on The Paul Wells Show, I decided to reread it after about thirty years since the last time. Such a great story. I’m glad I revisited it 📚
Finished reading: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami is a dystopian view of where we’re headed with data-driven algorithms. I enjoyed the story, despite the scary implications 📚
Finished reading: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a really good first contact with aliens story 📚
Finished reading: Pines by Blake Crouch is an exciting start to the series. I appreciated the Twin Peaks vibes 📚
Finished reading: The 51st State Votes by Justin Ling is a good overview of what happened in Canada’s recent, strange election campaign 📚
Finished reading: The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman is great fun: humour, adventure, and imagination, as a thief tries to rescue a queen 📚
Finished reading: I’ll confess that I skipped through parts of Foreign Bodies by Simon Schama. I appreciated the message of the book that vaccination has always been controversial and only diligent science with careful public health communication have been persuasive. I just found the details of the book too overwhelming: so many names, dates, and locations to keep track of, which I wasn’t up for 📚
Finished reading: City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer is an imaginative, richly detailed, and difficult book to read. I appreciated the world building and overall strangeness, but the lack of plot and central characters made for a challenging read 📚
Finished reading: I really enjoyed Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. A clever and poignant story. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading it 📚
Finished reading: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe is a fascinating and disturbing book about The Troubles in Ireland with interesting questions about political violence and accountability 📚
Finished reading: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz is a delight 📚
Finished reading: Superbloom by Nicholas Carr is a fascinating, alarming, and important book about how communication technology and social media are shaping society, mostly for the worse 📚
Finished reading: Canada by Richard Ford is remarkable. A good cottage read 📚
Finished reading: I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne is quite the tour through rock and roll debauchery. Hard to understand how he got anything done. Great excuse to revisit the music though 📚
Finished reading: A Theory of Everyone by Michael Muthukrishna is a compelling and fascinating book about us, our culture, and our future. Any book like this has a unifying principle and I found this one’s focus on Energy Return on Investment intriguing. 📚
Finished reading: I really liked the premise of The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: how would people adjust to being brought from the past into the present? Well written too. The last third was a bit too much standard time travel plot though, which detracted from the cool premise 📚
Finished reading: Although it took two library loan periods, I enjoyed Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan 📚
Finished reading: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older continues a fun series: solving mysteries on a gas giant planet. 📚
Finished reading: Tapper’s Day Off by Dan Moren is a fun short story. I’m glad to read more in this universe 📚
Finished reading: Despite having watched and really enjoyed Slow Horses on Apple TV, reading the first book by Mick Herron was still great fun. 📚
Finished reading: An Immense World by Ed Yong is a remarkable book. A fascinating exploration of the senses and what we can learn by trying to understand the perceptions of other animals📚
Finished reading: A Field Guide to Lies by Daniel J. Levitin is a clear and thorough summary of all the ways we need to be on guard for misinformation. Targeted to beginners though, so not a lot of new information for us veterans of the internet 📚
Finished reading: The Longbow, the Schooner, and the Violin by Marq de Villiers is an interesting exploration of wood via those three objects. A bit clunky in sections, though pretty good overall 📚
Finished reading: The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison continues the great Cemeteries of Amalo series. I’m impressed with how casually and simply such a rich and complex world is created in this series 📚