What are you reading? (July 2023)

The Will to Change by bell hooks.

One of the best feminist explorations of masculinity, the patriarchy and all that entails being an antipatriarchal man in a patriarchal society.

Just picked up the earthsea books (with pictures!) by Le Guin and am having a blast diving back in. I hadn’t read this in a long time, having a great time.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin.

Just started Clara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not the first I read from this well deservedly honored author, and certainly not the last.

"Radical Markets" by Weyl and Posner.

As an anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist I find many of their proposals to be objectionable. I lean towards open borders simply on freedom of association grounds, so I am opposed to their immigration proposals. Their common ownership self-assessed tax on the other hand is very interesting because it allows collectivization of some of the returns to capital while still managing capital in a decentralized fashion.

“Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside”

by Nick Offerman. If you like Nick’s humor, chances are you can enjoy this book. It’s easy enough to put down and pick up between chapters, which has been a benefit lately with my sporadicly available reading time of late.

Just bought Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. Intend to read it this summer. I read about it in a review and was fascinated by the plot. Here’s the Wikipedia plot description:

The novel follows an unnamed narrator and Gaustine, a psychiatrist who creates a clinic for people with Alzheimer's disease in Zürich. Each floor of the clinic recreates a decade in intricate detail, aiming to transport patients back in time to revisit their memories. Tasked with collecting past artifacts for the clinic, the narrator travels across countries.Soon, healthy people turn to the clinic to flee their monotonous lives and the idea becomes widespread when more clinics open. Referendums are held across Europe to decide which past decade each country should live in, in the future.

Unix V7 Manual. Life is pain.

I’m listening (if that counts?) to Lord of the rings (i’m on Return of the King - book 5). Been really enjoying it so far, there are many more significant differences to the movies than I was expecting.

At the moment it’s easier to get time in for audio books (during late night toddler wakes and car journeys etc)

@Kamirose i am currently reading the left hand of darkness, Babylons ashes. And I am listening to the Andy Serkis version of the silmarillion.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson (secret project 3) - it’s obvious by the art direction that there’s a romantic aspect to this and it’s obvious by the book that he enjoys writing this sort of thing for his wife!

Gleanings by Neal Shusterman (Arc of the Scythe 3.5) after finishing the series, this short story collecting fills in gaps that sometimes don’t need to be filled. The main series was a 1-2 punch of a captivating story in a fascinating world. Book 3 did NOT let go.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is a travel audiobook my partner and I are reading during trips throughout the summer. Stellar series so far and this one is so fun to read together as we have to stop every few minutes to go “did she just say that?” Or “wait, so NOW my theory has to be —-, right? Or is it…”

American Gods by Neil Gaiman I’ve barely started, And Small gods by Terry Pratchett I’ve barely started and it’s my only non-audiobook of the bunch.

The Fifth Season, it's an epic fantasy novel by N.K. Jemisin. I originally started it about a month ago but I've just been reading it in fits and starts, though it's not particularly long. The story takes place in a world which gets wiped by a global catastrophe every couple of centuries. Certain people called orogenes have the ability to manipulate the earth in order to bring about or quell earthquakes. They've also got some other interesting abilities. Naturally, the regular people, who are the majority called Stills, are fearful of orogenes and they've formed society such that they can harness but most importantly control orogenes. Bit of a slow start, but since I've made it halfway through, it's been very engaging.