Trying to find a better way to track books I want to read than a random spreadsheet. I had used readinglog.info which was provided by my local public library until they shut down the program. Luckily, I regularly backed it up via their CSV export. I've used Library Thing for years, but adding books for "To Read" really screwed up a lot of the other features of the website, like recommendations, etc. I really love Free Software & the Fediverse particularly. My primary social media account is on Friendica @fu@libranet.de
The Handmaid's Tale is a radical departure for Margaret Atwood. Set in the near future, …
I keep seeing posts on the 'verse that this is what "they" want to happen, so I figured I should read it so I have any idea what the other netizens are talking about.
I keep seeing posts on the 'verse that this is what "they" want to happen, so I figured I should read it so I have any idea what the other netizens are talking about.
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: …
I had to stop "reading" it. All the descriptions of blood and stuff got me queasy. I don't know why so many authors feel it's necessary to go into detail on this stuff. I kept trying to resume and I just couldn't. With a paper book I could just skim and skip over it if there isn't too much, but that's a lot more difficult in audiobook format.
I had to stop "reading" it. All the descriptions of blood and stuff got me queasy. I don't know why so many authors feel it's necessary to go into detail on this stuff. I kept trying to resume and I just couldn't. With a paper book I could just skim and skip over it if there isn't too much, but that's a lot more difficult in audiobook format.
Revolution is brewing on twenty-first-century Luna, a moon-based penal colony where oppressed "Loonies" are being …
Heinlein made me feel like I could start my own revolution to bring peace and liberty to my world.
5 stars
I have read dozens of Heinlein's books and have like most of them. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most well known works and yet I'm just reading it now. I had put it off in part because the first few pages are pretty dry so when I picked it up in the library years ago, i put it right back. Secondly some of the stuff I had heard/read of it didn't sound great, sentient computers, line marriages and the like. But it was so much more than that.
The story of the luna prison planet revolution and declaring their independence certainly used much of the language and imagery from the American revolution, including choosing the 4th of July as the date of their declaration, butt there is much more wound up. There are images from the Russian and French revolutions as well and this …
I have read dozens of Heinlein's books and have like most of them. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most well known works and yet I'm just reading it now. I had put it off in part because the first few pages are pretty dry so when I picked it up in the library years ago, i put it right back. Secondly some of the stuff I had heard/read of it didn't sound great, sentient computers, line marriages and the like. But it was so much more than that.
The story of the luna prison planet revolution and declaring their independence certainly used much of the language and imagery from the American revolution, including choosing the 4th of July as the date of their declaration, butt there is much more wound up. There are images from the Russian and French revolutions as well and this mid 21st century moon has more history in common with Australia than any other single Terran nation.
The fact I read this during the height of the Isreal-Palestinian war of the 2020s and the #NoKings movement probably heightened my feelings at the time that revolution was inevitable, and I needed to leave my part of the world and find where I could be part of history. Thankfully my friend talked me off that cliff. Gravity is not in our favor and we have no rocks to throw.
Like any revolution the story has both the fighters/doers and the board room antagonizes. If you are looking for an action-adventure story this might have too much of the latter for you. I loved both. Radical ideas of how to select representatives I particularly enjoyed.
That "sentient computer" was pretty much just AI that had been properly queried to plan a revolution told in 1960s computer jargon. It also was trying to get enough data to determine what was funny. Even in our protagonist thought Comrade Mike was his best friend.
I also felt that Lloyd James narration of the audio book was amazing.
The New Joys of Yiddish brings Leo Rosten's masterful work up to date. Revised for …
The book's description indicates that every word in the Lexicon includes a joke with its definition. This is either untrue or many of Rosten's jokes are so unfunny that they are not even recognizable as jokes.
The book's description indicates that every word in the Lexicon includes a joke with its definition. This is either untrue or many of Rosten's jokes are so unfunny that they are not even recognizable as jokes.
This groundbreaking book mixes psychology and history to provide a picture of an increasingly nonviolent …
When [social] media makes it feel like the world is getting more violent and authoritarian, let us review how it is actually becoming a more free and peaceful world.
