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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Borrowed this amazing tome from a friend. Mesmerizing and humorous, astonishingly well researched.
Another etymology book. This one is arranged roughly chronologically by first use, with themed chapters (e.g., 1086: The Domesday Book).
A Christmas present. I’ve heard good things about this book.
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.
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.
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town …
I never got into this story or any of the characters. It’s only technically a Miss Marple story as she has such a small part in it. Written in 1942, it’s very dated now with respect to gender and relationships.
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town …
Oh, first person, this'll be a change.
An old-fashioned London Hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out… When Miss …
Didn’t go at all where I thought it would. Marred again by pacing issues.
An old-fashioned London Hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out… When Miss …
Book three in the Miss Marple omnibus.
In Agatha Christie’s classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial …
Content warning Spoilers Agatha Christie “A Pocketful of Rye”
More an Inspector Neele book than a Miss Marple book, though it’s interesting to see their two investigative styles in counterpoint. It feels that the nursery rhyme alluded to in the title was grafted on a bit. Pacing was a bit better than “The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side” but the ending was again a mite abrupt.