Deborah Pickett wants to read The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N. K. Jemisin
A SEASON OF ENDINGS HAS BEGUN.
IT STARTS WITH THE GREAT RED RIFT across the …
Bought this ebook, queued up to read next.
User Profile
Technical nonfiction and spec fiction. She/her. Melbourne, Australia. Generation X. Admin of Outside of a Dog. BDFL of Hometown (Mastodon) instance Old Mermaid Town (@futzle@old.mermaid.town). Avatar image is of a book that my dog tried to put on their inside.
My rating scale: ★ = I didn't care for it and probably didn't finish it; ★★ = It didn't inspire but I might have finished it anyway; ★★★ = It was fine; ★★★★ = I enjoyed it; ★★★★★ = I couldn't put it down.
This link opens in a pop-up window
Deborah Pickett's books
View all booksUser Activity
RSS feed Back
Deborah Pickett commented on Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Anathem is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major …
This ebook spells it “millenia” all the way through. I’ve half a mind to fire up Calibre and fix it.
Deborah Pickett commented on Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Anathem is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major …
Content warning Anathem spoilers about Millenarians
Anathem feels more familiar and comfortable every time I read it. I'm tickled that I didn't recognize in prior readings how Fraa Orolo's musings about Causal Domain Shear is foreshadowing.
Female representation isn't great in this book, at least at the beginning. I suppose that it's at least plausible, given how the story is told in first person by a male character in an apparently monastic setting.
Deborah Pickett started reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Anathem is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major …
I’ve read this a couple of times before. Helliconia Spring is being a bit of a slog so I’m punctuating it with something more comfortable.
Deborah Pickett commented on Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss
From the back cover:
Imagine a world in a system of twin stars, where Winter …
Aldiss writes in the introduction: “I developed Helliconia: a place much like our world, with only one factor changed—the length of the year.” Also, apparently, a world with no women in it. This is old-school, masculine sf. It’s on notice.
Deborah Pickett started reading Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss
Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss
From the back cover:
Imagine a world in a system of twin stars, where Winter is 600 ice-locked years and …
Deborah Pickett finished reading Dictionary of English down the Ages by Linda Flavell
The arrangement of entries by date was inspired, but it did inevitably lead to a disappointing last century as I already knew the etymologies of the most recent usually-technical neologisms.
This book was, physically, nightmarish to read, with tiny text practically right in the gutter.
Deborah Pickett started reading Shift Happens by Marcin Wichary
Borrowed this amazing tome from a friend. Mesmerizing and humorous, astonishingly well researched.
[on the history of “ginger”] • In the early eighteenth century horse dealers discovered that inserting ginger into a horse's backside made him sprightly and hold his tail well. According to Francis Grose's CLASSICAL DICTIONARY OF THE VULGAR TONGUE (1785), the original term was to feague a horse. (Grose adds that, before ginger was thought of, an eel was reputedly used for the same purpose.) Not surprisingly, to feague was eventually replaced by a new coinage, to ginger, which appeared in print in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. This verb, often with the particularly appropriate addition of up, was soon figuratively extended to mean 'to liven up', and in this sense is now a common colloquialism.
— Dictionary of English down the Ages by Linda Flavell, Roger Flavell (Page 69 - 70)
I have so many questions.
Deborah Pickett started reading Dictionary of English down the Ages by Linda Flavell
Another etymology book. This one is arranged roughly chronologically by first use, with themed chapters (e.g., 1086: The Domesday Book).
Deborah Pickett started reading One Good Turn by Witold Rybczynski
A Christmas present. I’ve heard good things about this book.
Deborah Pickett replied to Dr Ms Kat's status
@pelagikat Thoughts and prayers.
Deborah Pickett stopped reading How did it begin? by R. Brasch
Having recently read POSH and its well-researched debunking of many folk etymologies, I find How Did It Begin full of those same wrong etymologies. Perhaps being from sixty years ago, this book is now outdated. Setting it aside because I can’t trust it.
Deborah Pickett started reading How did it begin? by R. Brasch
Before Dr Karl and before Robyn Williams, the ABC had Rudi Brasch. This compendium of short essays on various customs and superstitions was first published in 1966 and a revised edition in 2006.
Deborah Pickett finished reading The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town where even a sudden outbreak …