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Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An easy pleasant read, and definitely worth it for the nature imagery -- surviving alone (more or less) in wilderness is a favorite "genre" of mine, particularly a girl, and this doesn't disappoint in that regard. Some shallow or uneven characterizations, inconsistent treatment of dialect, and an overall tendency for the author to hold the reader's hand through parallels or plot points keeps it from a higher rating, but I did enjoy it.

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The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

a book that once I picked up I couldn't look away

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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

still colescing my thoughts on this one especially on the ending -- perhaps I'll dream a review into existence

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The Deep by Rivers Solomon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I kept wanting more of this book -- more of the lucid immersive world-building, more poetic description of life in the ocean, more exploration of character relationships and the broader underwater society, more about the historical connection to land dwellers, more plot about navigating these relationships and connections... On the surface it's a short simple novel that has much more potential than it is able to follow through on, which is a bit dissatisfying.

The real strength is how the story reverberates, reinterprets, relates to broader connections outside the novel itself -- the real world history and trauma it's based on, the song by clipping., the initial music concept by Drexciya. It's about collectively bearing both the burden and joy of ancestral history, about interpreting heritage together as a group, about the strength that comes from this group connection that is missing when by yourself.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amusing and sly from the start, while the specter of the post-apocalyptic setting haunts throughout. Clever, funny, incredibly thoughtful, and in the end *chilling*. I was quite tickled by the premise of the cockroach nature of the Catholic Church, that whatever happens to the rest of humanity it will pesevere in its traditions for millennia regardless of context, though this does raise further questions: After the conclusion, I'm left wondering about the future of the abbey post-Earth -- by continuing to preserve knowledge and humanity, will we be doomed to begin the cycle of destruction anew, in whatever world we end up? Is that the inevitable nature of humanity, from that first bite of the apple to the splitting of the atom? Can we forgive God for the pain we bring upon ourselves?

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Better Buses, Better Cities: How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit

by Steven Higashide

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent. Delivers on all the title promises, striking a balance between real world examples and illustrative data/statistics, between policy/tech solutions and advocacy tips. Engaging and informative. I take Atlanta public transit whenever possible, and in my experience our bus system is simultaneously more effective/efficient than car-only naysayers proclaim *and* far far more frustrating/difficult then it has the potential for (lots of room for improvement, no doubt). Buses in general get a bad rap, despite being one of the most adaptable and affordable solutions for mobility and access in cities -- nice to see them be treated with their due in this book. I should check out volunteering with the "MARTA army"...

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Forward Collection by (various)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've always preferred a long book to settle into, hundreds of pages to fully explore the concepts/world/characters in play, but lately I've been warming up to scifi short stories. Overall I quite liked this collection. In order of preference:

Summer Frost -- Consciousness, perception, love, life, the nature of reality. The way the ending paralleled the beginning was satisfying and actually surprised me. Covers the usual bases for AI stories, which at times made me frustrated with the protagonist not being entirely aware of the genre's tropes, but still provides rich fodder for contemplation.

Emergency Skin -- Refreshing to read a hopeful future, a utopian endpoint for our current dystopian trends. A bit obvious / heavy-handed, but thoroughly amusing all the same to follow the protagonist's discoveries.

Ark -- Quiet, contemplative. Best character moments, lovely celebration of the diversity/wonder of Earth and nature.

The Last Conversation -- Absorbing, disconcerting, kept me off-balance. I thought the ending was going to be much creepier than it ended up being, but still was affecting.

You Have Arrived at Your Destination -- Interesting thoughts on what makes a life worth living / preferable, the role of choice vs risk. However, the story seemed to go way out of its way to avoid the protagonist having a conversation with his wife which was really distracting -- completely bizarre that it's standard practice for the company to have a couple creating a child together go through the selection practice entirely separately. Had a hard time relating to any of the characters.

Randomize -- I feel bad putting this one last, because I always enjoy the enthusiasm in Weir's stories even when aspects fall flat, but ultimately it comes down to a) couldn't really follow the science explanations and b) couldn't suspend disbelief about the genius woman's incredibly dumb heist plan, that she wouldn't expect them to investigate her background when she won. Although I did really enjoy the negotiation process between her and the CEO guy, their long con plan seemed too risky with too easy connections for others to figure out their scam for me to believe they were as excited about its possibilities as they were.

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The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When considering what I'd write for my review, I kept wanting solely to compare it to other books I've read. It's difficult to say whether this is because it seemed derivative, too much like an amalgamation of books I've already read, or whether this is a strength -- it's a story about the magic of stories after all and perhaps a celebration of all those previous books who still live within me, bubbling to the surface when called upon.

I think an essential approach to this book is *immersion* -- to experience each seemingly tangential story or descriptive scene or possibly metaphorical possibly literal moment as it comes, to enjoy the aesthetic and magic of each piece without being too worried about how it's supposed to fit in -- I became pleasantly surprised at the intertwining of various symbols, story characters, motifs, etc, how the tangents eventually became relevant to the main plot, especially ones that I initially wrote off as nice to read about but unimportant overall.

A pleasure read, if overly indulgent.

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Semiosis by Sue Burke

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Despite the hype, I was quite turned off by the first chapter -- I had doubts that the straightforward terse language could hold my interest or convey nuanced concepts, depths of emotions. But the second chapter peaked my interest plotwise, then by the third chapter I was in love, and each chapter after layered on discoveries in the world, explorations of the plant perspective, riveting plot complications, social dynamics. Truly exactly what I wanted from the promise of "sentient plant life."

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How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

a wonderful sampling of fantasy worlds -- delicious appetizers that make me hungry for more

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Chronin, Vol. 1: The Knife at Your Back by Alison Wilgus

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With graphic novels/comics, it seems like either I can't get into it and then question the point of the entire medium, or I'm drawn in and enticed to devour it all at once. This one was the latter. I'm intrigued by the plot and setting (the best way to bother with historical fiction is through time travel imo) and eager for my hold on the second one to come through. With the art, I really liked how the panels allowed time to breathe, simple and spaced out. Character expressions, however, seemed flat or awkward. I also don't understand why either of the women liked Kuji to begin with since he only ever seems like a butt, or what Kuji's whole deal was with his history obsessions, why he cares so much about the antiquated factions of the conflict.

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More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Intriguing exploration of: being alone vs belonging, morality vs ethics, sense of scale as it relates to evolution/history/society -- to think more on. Structure of the book is neat, though makes it difficult to get into -- a blindered process of discovering pieces of the story of the kids/gestalt through new perspective, in three parts those three becoming the whole. Writing style was surprisingly pretty, lovely little metaphors, though at times sentimental.

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Scarlett's Women: Gone With the Wind and Its Female Fans

by Helen Taylor

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While reading GWTW, I've been in turn engrossed, fascinated, and sickened by the novel, so to untangle some of the more complicated reactions I thought it might be helpful to engage with other perspectives. (Although the fact that I was happy to put the novel aside to read about it instead of continuing on with the second half, is more damning than complimentary...) This book did provide some interesting historical context about: the writing of the novel, making of the movie, reactions at the time, and the breadth of readers/viewers' experiences with it. However, overall it lacked the depth of analysis or critique that I was truly seeking (as well as distracting awkward sentence constructions), so I'm left still unsatisfied.

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Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature

by Wayne Barlowe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I had come across this book as a kid, I would have spent hours pouring over the pages -- imagining my own stories for each of the aliens pictured, inspired to create my own worlds and creatures in encyclopedic form. Evokes a particular nostalgia, unfounded in that I've only read a handful of the source texts. I especially loved the sketchbook drawings at the end.

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And Then There Were None  by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first listened to this (on a physical audio tape!) back in high school, while driving home late at night from work. I remember winding through the dark empty mountain roads and being spooked by the tense drama of stormy Solider Island, even while I would drive a little slower to be able to listen to more of it at a time. To no surprise it's certainly held up, and because I remembered little of what happened (including whodunnit), it had that same tension as the first time.

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Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference

by Cordelia Fine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really wish I could beam this into the minds of everyone who has ever cited a spuriously scientific claim about "hard-wired" gender differences; we'd all be better off.

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