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Archived in 2022
Book Review
Book Review: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
I thoroughly enjoyed it and was saddened to learn that my library doesn’t have the rest of the series.
Book Review: The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
Jemisin’s infused every page with her love for her home.
Book Review: The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan
A gender-swapped Sherlock set in a fantasy world ought to be my bag, but this one didn’t capture me in the least.
Book Review: Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
It was too gritty, too violent, too angry, and that’s exactly why I read it anyway.
Book Review: Graveyard of the Pacific by Randall Sullivan
I came here for history, not for rich men’s midlife crises.
Book Review: The Expert System’s Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I didn’t dislike it like Spiderlight, but I didn’t love it like Elder Race.
Book Review: The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Clark continues to entertain and impress me with his stories.
Book Review: Material by Nick Kary
I cut my losses and quit reading when I reached chapter three.
Book Review: Hacking Diversity by Christina Dunbar-Hester
The book is laser focused on an academic audience, not a practical one.
Book Review: The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
It was an OK book, and I don’t regret my time spent with it.
Book Review: Year of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub
A vivid and horrifying picture of the trap we’ve built for ourselves.
Book Review: Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz by Garth Nix
It was a fun read with some concepts I’ve not seen in other fantasy books.
Book Review: In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
The entire work is completely charming, in the most magical sense of the word.
Book Review: Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows
On the list of books I want to revisit every few years.
Book Review: Feeding Each Other by Nicole Civita and Michelle Auerbach
Inspirational and unflaggingly optimistic despite the serious nature of the problem addressed.
Book Review: Our Fermented Lives, A History: How Fermented Foods Have Shapes Cultures and Communities by Julia Skinner
This book was a good read that I recommend to anyone who wishes to consume and create more mindfully.
Book Review: The Witch King by Martha Wells
It’s a solid story with well-rounded characters set in a meticulously crafted world.
Book Review: The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi
The story builds well upon the foundation laid in the first book.
Book Review: Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire
It was an entertaining read, worth seeking out if you’re lowercase-b-biblically inclined.
Book Review: The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi
By the end of it, I was grateful to know that I wouldn’t need to wait more than a few weeks for the second book to be available.
Book Review: Danger and Other Unknown Risks: A Graphic Novel by Ryan North and Erica Henderson
There’s magic! And dimension hopping! And a talking dog!
Book Review: The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Liu’s writing remains as skillful here as in his short fiction
Book Review: The Sword of Midras by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott
If you’re looking for the usual fantasy fare, then this will fit the bill in an inoffensive and diverting enough way.
Book Review: The Language of Food by Dan Jurafsky
If you’ve ever wondered about the relationship between macaron, macaroon, and macaroni, then this is the book for you.
Book Review: Digger Unearthed by Ursula Vernon
I enjoyed every single nibble of this work and was sad when it was finally over.
Book Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Jack Zipes
If you like the comparative literature thing, or folk tales, then you’ll probably enjoy this book.
Book Review: Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata
A valuable work that I want to hand to everyone who mentions they’re on a diet
Book Review: Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
It’s a Nnedi Okorafor book. Of course I enjoyed it.
Book Review: Set Phasers on Stun by Steven Casey
This book was a great read. I’m glad I got to it more than ten years after my initial deep dive into failure.
Book Review: How to Slay a Dragon by Cait Stevenson
It’s obvious that the author really knows her stuff and is capable of writing an engaging book, but this one was too burdened by her trying to make her writi...
Book Review: The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander
There are people whose interests intersect more closely with the author’s botanical inclination who will enjoy this book. I found myself largely bored and le...
Book Review: So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane
The story is fine, but the pacing really didn’t work for me.
Book Review: Move the Body, Heal the Mind by Jennifer Heisz, PhD
A good read and a lot of good current science about the many ways that the body and mind cooperate to keep everything operating well.
Book Review: Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
From the very start, this book put me off. Even the ending was disappointing, except that it signified that I was nearly done reading the thing.
Book Review: To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
It’s a thoughtful piece of work and, while it doesn’t shy from difficult situations and questions, I feel it’s an optimistic one as well.
Book Review: The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris
If you enjoy well-researched books about the history of science, don’t pass this one by. Just maybe don’t read it after eating.
Book Review: Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
This book still had me asking myself a lot of questions for which I still don’t have answers that I feel I probably should find.
Book Review: Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 195
Title: Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 195 Author: Various ISBN: n/a
Book Review: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris, Jeff Warren, and Carlye Adler
If you’ve been considering trying meditation—to help you focus, or sleep, or alleviate stress, or whatever—but are turned off by the new age/religious/etc re...
Book Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
I hope the author fell as deeply in love with the world as the rest of us did and can’t help but explore it in more books and stories.
Book Review: The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling by Stephen Denning
I have to assume that this book is a good fit for some people, but I am not one of them.
Book Review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
I’m very glad I have the second book in the series handy, and already sad that there are only two of them so far.
Book Review: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2022
This was my first ever FandSF issue and if it’s at all representative of the rest then I’m looking forward to the next issue in January.
Book Review: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
This book is much more “mystery that happens to be set on a spaceship” than “spaceship where there happens to be a mystery.”
Book Review: Shady Characters: The secret life of punctuation, symbols, & other typographical marks by Keith Houston
Houston steps through the evolution of several different forms of punctuation, and does so in an engaging and friendly way that makes you want to keep reading
Book Review: Fantasy Magazine Issue 85
Title: Fantasy Magazine Issue 85 Author: Various ISBN: n/a
Book Review: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
What if djinn returned to the world in the late 19th Century, settled down, and transformed Cairo into the most modern and innovative city in the world?
Book Review: The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
While I didn’t get what I was expecting out of my time reading this book, I still think it was valuable and enjoyable time spent.
Book Review: Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 194
Title: Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 194 Author: Various ISBN: n/a
Book Review: Make It Clear by Patrick Henry Winston
If I had no experience either doing or training people in public speaking then I may have found this book useful. With my background, it ended up not being a...
Food
How to make yogurt
There’s not much to making yogurt and it’s easy to do in any home with little to no special equipment.
Preserved lemons
A friend asked for the preserved lemon recipe I use, so I figured it’s as good a reason as any to finish fixing up this site. Gotta put the recipe somewhere,...
Random
How does this work, again?
The decline of this blog directly tracks the increase of my Twitter usage. Now that the Man-Child King has put that into a nose dive, I have to keep remindin...