Category: Books

  • Review: The Mongoliad: Book Two (Foreworld, #2)

    The Mongoliad: Book Two by Neal Stephenson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a very hard book to properly review. Unlike a typical book in a trilogy (or however many books it ends up being – at the time this book was published it was a trilogy), this book does not contain a…

  • Review: Childhood’s End

    Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is some old-ass science fiction. It’s interesting that on my recent trip I ended up reading 3 SF stories from my to-read list that were all from the 1950s. It’s definitely got a lot of that Zeerust where we’re incredibly far into…

  • Review: The Eyes Have It

    The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick My rating: 4 of 5 stars This story is so short, the Gutenberg license at the end takes up the majority of the pages, but it’s still a fun story. Or, well it is to me and I imageine my boss would also love it. But we’re…

  • Review: Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1)

    Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie My rating: 5 of 5 stars Only my third 5-star review for 2019, but boy does Ms. Leckie deserve it here. It’s everything I love about SF including a gigantic, fully realized world with a culture that makes sense as a consequence of the world she’s created. It really reminded…

  • Review: Sirena

    Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another book that was on my To-Read list since 2014. I *think* I heard about it on Boing-Boing, but I wasn’t making good use of my GR shelves that way back then to keep track of such things. Wherever I heard about it, I…

  • Review: Dead Man’s Deal (The Asylum Tales, #2)

    Dead Man’s Deal by Jocelynn Drake My rating: 4 of 5 stars Wow, Ms. jocelynn Drake did something pretty rare among the trilogies I’ve been reading for the past half decade – she made a second book in the trilogy that doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. My memories of books I read when I was…

  • Review: Kingdom Hearts II (Boss Fight Books, #16)

    Kingdom Hearts II by Alexa Ray Corriea My rating: 4 of 5 stars As with the best books in this series, Ms. Corriea has a deep passion for the game she’s writing about and it had a profound impact in her life. Over a number of chapters, she makes a great case for why this…

  • Review: Aces High (Wild Cards, #2)

    Aces High by George R.R. Martin My rating: 4 of 5 stars As usual for an anthology, I’m going to post my thoughts on each story, but before I get to that, my thoughts on the book as a whole. It was a big change from the previous book and that might be good, bad,…

  • Review: His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, #1)

    His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik My rating: 4 of 5 stars I added this book to my Goodreads To Read list in 2014. The reasons for doing so are lost to time and slightly baffling. I don’t believe I had any previous experience with Ms. Naomi Novik. I’m not a big fantasy person (I’m…

  • Review: Huckleberry: Recipes, Stories, and Secrets from Our Kitchen

    Huckleberry: Recipes, Stories, and Secrets from Our Kitchen by Zoe Nathan My rating: 4 of 5 stars My favorite part of this cookbook has been the intros to each chapter. Mrs Zoe Nathan has organized the chapters into the time of day needed to start working on the items to be ready to open Huckleberry…

  • Review: The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1)

    The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal My rating: 4 of 5 stars I decided to participate with the Sword and Laser book club for the February 2018 pick. Before I get to the review proper this was a very interesting time to be reading this particular book. At Farpoint 2019 I attended a panel…

  • Review: Grilled Cheese Kitchen: Bread + Cheese + Everything in Between (Grilled Cheese Cookbooks, Sandwich Recipes, Creative Recipe Books, Gifts for Cooks)

    Grilled Cheese Kitchen: Bread + Cheese + Everything in Between by Heidi Gibson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I didn’t know there could be so many kinds of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, although as a coworker remarked – “Technically, most of those are melts, not grilled cheese.” Fair enough, but I still loved the various…

  • Review: Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook

    Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook by Rachel Khoo My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the first time I’ve read a cookbook written by a European and it was interesting to see where they are similar and different. Some of them really intrigued me and some of them were a bit too far. But I…

  • Review: The Just City (Thessaly, #1)

    The Just City by Jo Walton My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’d had this book on my To Read list since 2014 when I read about it on Boing-Boing. I don’t remember what they said about, but something piqued my interest. Of course, when you have a To Read list that’s hovering near 400…

  • Review: Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)

    Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey My rating: 4 of 5 stars Holy Time-Skip, Batman! As is clear from the first chapter (and maybe the synopsis? I never read those once I know I’m going to read a book because they tend to spoil a bit or mess with my expectations) we’ve jumped 30 years…