Reading for fun, threads over the years of scifi, history, social movements and justice, farming, philosophy. I actively work to balance out the white male default in what I read, but have a long way to go.
He/they for the praxis.
This link opens in a pop-up window
Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in …
Witty low stakes riff, not so noir - the vibe is more 5th Element romp given the cruise ship setting, and the mystery bends to suit - but true to the original in prominent stiff drinks, and comfortably egalitarian in gender roles.
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting …
Remarkable survey of mycology by a curious scientist, emphasizing the paradigm shift from individualistic biology to ecological symbiosis, and the challenges fungi have thrown at drawing any firm boundaries within ecosystems and between ourselves.
Impossible Things is a collection of short stories by Connie Willis, first published in january …
Speculation from another era, these are all well-written, stylistically and structurally varied, and struggle to get past their prompt or conceit or timewarp. Oddly, "Spice Pogrom" was my fave.
"[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling …
At its best, sharp analysis of American conflation of morality and prosperity, less so as a Cold War text criticizing both US and USSR attempts to manage history while making soon-to-be-awkward claims about democracy's defenses against pursuing preventative war, factionalism, and ideological blind hubris.
It began as a sudden strange fancy . . .
Polly Perks had to become …
War and military patriarchy turned upside down and poked full of satirical holes to fill with wit and wordplay, of course, enjoyable as always.
A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this …
Modern dark magic and action richly set in a Malaysian context of spirits, gods, mothers and daughters, family status, face, identity, and revenge.
The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents —telling …
Deeply satisfyingly layered and interwoven, imagined Mayan/Belizean past and future solarpunk Earths, central struggles with violence and disagreement and revolt without compromising voluntary consent, paced like a jaguar moving through ruins.
A man's hard life in Idaho panhandle, briefly carried from one near death to another.
In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins …
Indicting colonial capitalism's responsibility for our modern environmental and poverty dilemma. Quick and smoothly focuses our attention on small acts, then global repercussions, offbeat books, then deep mysticism, to come back to the long-fought war of ideas and omnicidal violence we accept for the modern era's consumption and wealth.
A morality question of harm volleyed between players in broadly medieval conflict from the personal to all out war. Reads as homage to LeGuin than most Banks: while there's only one late line to connect this explicitly to the Culture universe (give or take), it's most clearly asking the same questions.
