What Are You Reading?

[Ghel]

I finished reading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, which was wonderful and thought-provoking. There was some life advice near the end, delivered by one of the main characters, which I'm going to try to follow.

I'm now reading Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. I downloaded it from the Gutenberg Project. It's only about 20 pages, double sided, but it's very dense. There's also a lot of elitism. But I agree with the basic premise, that we should attempt to increase pleasure and decrease pain and suffering for as many people as possible. So I'm powering through the "it's a product of its time" parts.

[Pixelated]

The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic Murder and the New Forensic Science by Sandra Hempel, who is a medical journalist.

It's the true story of a murder by arsenic (November 2, 1833) and James Marsh, an unknown (but brilliant) chemist, who was given the responsibility of finding a test that could accurately pinpoint the presence of arsenic.

(DO NOT read Chapter 5 while you're eating. The descriptions she gives of the effects of arsenic on the body will put you severely off your dinner. And possibly your next breakfast and lunch as well. 😫🤢 )

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have started reading Atlantis, The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly, first published in 1882.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just finished The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberly. Next will be the other books in the series: The Mouse On The Moon, The Mouse On Wall Street, The Mouse That Saved The West, and Beware Of The Mouse.

The first two books were made into movies

I just finished the second book, The Mouse On The Moon.

That book was written in 1962. In the book their moon rocket launched on July 20. Seven years later we landed on the moon on July 20.

[Pixelated]

I just finished a book I got last Christmas titled "Kay's Lucky Coin Variety" by Ann Y.K. Choi.

The young protagonist and her family have moved to Canada from Korea and her parents (particularly her mother), while not unreasonably strict, are trying to maintain some of their Korean traditions. The kids, of course, are not quite so keen ...

It was the author's first book, I believe, and she did a very good job of bringing her characters to life. My mother was the daughter of immigrants (from central Europe) and I think she might have sympathized with the protagonist (the daughter) in this story.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just finished The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberly. Next will be the other books in the series: The Mouse On The Moon, The Mouse On Wall Street, The Mouse That Saved The West, and Beware Of The Mouse.

The first two books were made into movies

[AnaKhouri]

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, a 'lesbian classic' (though personally I wonder if the MC is actually transgender, though there was no word for it then)

And The Fall of Castle Carrick, a bit of horror from an indie author I know.

[greek_jester]

Just finished "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by T Kingfisher. I cannot recommend it enough. I really, really hope that the author eventually writes a sequel, since there's a couple of plot threads that hint at the possibility of one. I loved the world-building, and the characters just felt real. Plus, while the main protagonist was a teenage girl, she felt like an actual teenage girl in an awful situation as opposed to an idealised teenage girl in an awful situation. Also, no shoe-horned in love interests!

[Mikkel]

The Venus trilogy by Pamela Sargent. I'm at the last book.

[Ghel]

I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora, and I was pretty disappointed by it. I loved the worldbuilding, but it leaned way too heavily on the trope of the boy / young man who resolves everything with his cleverness and luck.

Now I'm starting A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. It's the sequel to his first novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I'm really looking forward to this one. AART explored a lot of the ways in which we use the internet, social media, etc. and how it shapes the way we view the world. I'm expecting similar themes in ABFE.

[Dreamstalker]

I just picked up the first Murderbot book based on recs from here and Ask A Manager, and got another glowing rec from the bookseller as I was being rung up.

[greek_jester]

What with one thing and another the last few years I had forgotten about the series after buying the first book. When I had time to pay attention again I bought the rest and ended up reading through the whole lot. I do love Murderbot. Some of what they think in group situations or of humanity in general reminds me of me!

[It's me]

I just finished the latest Murderbot book, "Network Effect". Lots going on in this one. I should have re-read the prior book in the series first though. There are lots of references to people and events that only make sense if you know what happened in the earlier book.

[Deserted]

I recently found a copy of P.D. Terry's Compilers and Compiler Generators: an introduction with C++ on my hard drive. Super nerdy stuff, but right up my alley. Even though my relevant projects are well along, I've paused them to read through this, in case it can help me.

[greek_jester]

Just finished "This is going to hurt: secret diaries of a junior doctor" by Adam Kay. It's put together from the diary he was required to keep as a doctor working for the NHS.

I laughed (frequently). I cried a few times as well. The final incident that eventually led him to leave the medical profession made me go and hug my dog for a while.

While some of the problems he dealt with (the excessive hours) are now a lot more closely monitored, it still shines a light on what NHS medical staff go through. It also reminds me how grateful I am that the NHS exists.

Oh, just in case you decide to go with the Kindle edition; do not, under any circumstances, eat or plan to eat after you read the extra entries that never made it into the main book. My stomach churned for quite a while after I read the one about the old lady.