Finished reading: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older continues a fun series: solving mysteries on a gas giant planet. 📚
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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 📚
Finished reading: Blindsight by Peter Watts is an interesting mix of sci-fi, horror, and philosophy. I enjoyed it. Vampires in space!📚
Finished reading: Outlive by Peter Attia is a comprehensive approach to health. Although we need to be careful about influencer nonsense when it comes to health advice, Attia’s work is carefully considered and researched. My main takeaways are the importance of strength training, monitoring my protein consumption, continuing to prioritize sleep, and carefully considering mental resiliency 📚
Finished reading: Livesuit is a fun short story in the Captive’s War series by James S. A. Corey. Based on this and the first book in the series, a promising start 📚
Finished reading: I picked up World War Z by Max Brooks on a whim from the library. Lots of fun and much better than the movie. I enjoyed the unique structure and storytelling 📚
Once again, my library loan timed out on a Robert Jordan book before I finished. The immersion in a long story is part of the appeal. I just have to write down what chapter I was on and wait a few months to check it out again 📚
Finished reading: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds is easy entertainment with pirates in space📚
Finished reading: Moonbound by Robin Sloan is a fun and imaginative sci-fi retelling of the King Arthur story (and much more) 📚
Finished reading: The Crisis of Canadian Democracy by Andrew Coyne has plenty of evidence to make you mad about the state of Canadian democracy, along with many ideas about how to fix it. The trick is to get a political party to do something about the problems 📚
Finished reading: The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison continues a great series. Such great attention to language and precise world building makes these books a joy to read📚
Finished reading: Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is a fun exploration of what makes things spread (ideas, behaviours, viruses). You know what you’re in for with Gladwell and this is a good follow up to The Tipping Point (25 years later!) 📚
Finished reading: A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab is fun and a worthy book in a great series 📚
Finished reading: Orbital by Samantha Harvey is enthralling. Nothing much happens and yet so much about humanity, science, and our place in the universe is explored 📚
Finished reading: At the Trough: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Corporate Welfare Bums by Laurent Carbonneau is a timely read, given Canada’s challenges 📚
Finished reading: The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead by Antony Johnston is a delightful murder mystery. Quite the cleanse after reading The Mercy of Gods 📚
Finished reading: The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey is a really promising (though often bleak) start to a new sci-fi series about humans (presumably) overcoming an alien invasion 📚
Currently reading: Taking a break from a seven-book streak of non-fiction to read The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey 📚
Finished reading: The Future of Us by Jay Ingram is a broad overview of how science and technology is affecting all parts of our lives from food, to transportation, and to health. I’ve read deeper books on the individual topics. This one provides the overview 📚
Finished reading: Matthew Scace tells the harrowing tale of a major forest fire in Jasper on Fire 📚
📚 Finished reading: The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger is a fascinating book about how sophisticated and under appreciated plants are: they can detect relatives, “see” their surroundings, manipulate their environment, and make complex decisions.
Near the end, Schlanger writes:
Now when I spot a tendril that is making its way through a crack in the sidewalk, I internally commend it for its resourcefulness. I feel I know about some of what it took for the plant to do that-the small miracle of its germination, the craning of its elongation, the articulation of the hundreds, maybe thousands of fine root hairs, right now probing its belowground world for sustenance. I think about the stem cells in each of its growing tips, poised and ready to become whatever sort of flesh the plant needs them to be. The whole being a sensitive, decisioning network spread throughout hundreds of limbs, thousands of roots. A body in motion, adapting in real time to every subtle shift, flowing like water through its surroundings and taking note of the shape and smell and texture of it all.
Finished reading: Waves in an Impossible Sea by Matt Strassler is a fascinating, comprehensive, and clear book about field theory in physics. I’ve read a few books on this topic and this is the best one. If you’re curious about particle physics and want to avoid math, you’ll like this one 📚
Finished reading: Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern is a lot of fun 📚
Finished reading: If you like creepy, weird books (and I do), you’ll enjoy Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer. But, you have to read the great Area X trilogy first 📚
A fun episode of The Incomparable on my favourite fiction book of 2024