Categories
Review

“Ocean of Storms”

Christopher Mari, Jeremy K. Brown

Picked at random out of my library of science fiction ebooks, and came up with a good one! The general vibe I have of this book is that, while it could use one more pass from a good editor, it’s got solid bones; the plot tracks fairly well, and feels engaging all the way through, and I was delighted to find that I couldn’t predict the ending ahead of time.

My notes to the authors, should they ever read them:

  • There’s a little of “as you know, Bob” at times—the explanation of the difference between a fission and fusion reactor felt a bit silly, given that it was happening on the moon. By the time you’re there, you’ve probably picked up enough background knowledge about science in general to get the concept.
  • Not every story needs a romance arc!1 The first time around I actually, for the benefit of nobody but myself, pantomimed gagging. It felt forced, and also highlighted how thoroughly male-dominated the cast is.2
  • The pacing feels a bit odd towards the end—about 50 pages from the end, I started wondering if this was going to end on a cliffhanger to set up the next book.3

Editing notes aside, however, I really enjoyed it! I should come up with some kind of pseudo-award to give out to books that successfully trick me into staying up late reading; this would be a winner. And really, what higher praise can I give? Give it a read.4

  1. Well, if you’re writing a romance novel, maybe it does — although, come to think of it, a romance novel without a love story does sound like a pretty interesting exploration of genre.
  2. The president being a woman is a nice touch, but a) I can’t recall her actually having a name other than “the President”, and b) I don’t think she ever talks to another woman, so, there goes the Bechdel test.
  3. Spoiler: It didn’t, the book actually tied things together reasonably well; while it feels like there’s still room for more, it’s less “second movie” and more “spin-off TV series” territory.
  4. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Review

“The John McPhee Reader”

John McPhee

To date, The Control of Nature remains my favorite McPhee book, and the one I’m most likely to recommend to a new reader, but this is a very strong contender. It is, as the title implies, something of a sampler platter of his work; subsections of a variety of pieces, and as a result, covering a far broader topic area than any of his other books. The books are usually more focused, tied around a single theme; in this one, that single theme is John McPhee.

It’s a broader swathe of his work than I’ve read before; if you skim through what I’ve read of his in the past, it definitely has that naturalist perspective locked in, but I haven’t spent time with his “focus on a single person” type things, or his sports coverage. It’s an interesting change of pace; I don’t really expect I’m going to dive into those as much as I have the outdoors, but I won’t go out of my way to avoid it, either.1

One part really captured me, and immediately added a book to my wish list: the excerpt from The Curve of Binding Energy. Somehow I hadn’t yet found out that he did an entire piece on the progenitor of Project Orion. My favorite nonfiction author, writing about one of my favorite topics? Sign me up.

Overall, I continue to love everything McPhee wrote. I’ve got another of his books in my queue, but I’m deliberately holding off on it, trying to space them out. If I haven’t yet convinced you to read some of his work, give this one a try; it is, like I said, a great introduction to his writing.2

  1. And I figure I will eventually read his entire oeuvre, it does seem to be what I’m working my way towards at this point.
  2. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Review

“Urban Trails: Portland”

Eli Boschetto

This was something of an impulse buy, but in the spirit of something I’ve been trying to do more of lately: ‘be a tourist in your own city.’ Get out and explore, find new things that you didn’t know about, generally just get yourself out your ruts.

Now, I’m aware that this post is going up at maybe not the best time of year for being outdoors in the Pacific Northwest, but that’s not a permanent state of affairs, and it’s a perfectly reasonable time to start putting together a todo list for nicer weather. And hey, some people are into the rainy-and-cold outdoorsmanship!1

Regardless, this was a fun read, and I’ve definitely taken notes for areas I’d like to explore myself. I also had the chance to do some of the exploring already—as I’m writing this, it’s the afternoon of a day where I spent the morning wandering around Hoyt Arboretum, entirely on the recommendation of this book. It’s a good little piece of reference material, and I recommend it!2 I’m also looking at another book by the same publisher about biking in Portland, because the mentions of biking in this one are something of an afterthought.

  1. I am not one of those people, but I’m told they exist.
  2. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Review

“L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 31”

(Various authors)

I’m not a big fan of the whole ‘death of the author’ thing, and this book really drove home just why I feel that way. It’s a great example of it, really. It’s a collection of stories written by different authors, so surely we can view it separately from the name on the cover, right?

But to set aside the name on the cover, you have to set aside a great deal of context. The people choosing which stories made it into this collection… work for the L. Ron Hubbard foundation. They chose to work there. They looked at that name, and the legacy of it, and thought “yes, I want to be associated with this.” And, a step beyond that, everyone who submitted a story to this contest did so having, again, looked at the name L. Ron Hubbard and thought “yeah, I’m fine with being associated with that.”

That’s a lot of context to throw away, is it not? And it provides a certain amount of explanation for why some of these stories were the way they were. There’s one in here that reminded me of what I don’t like about Orson Scott Card—it treats the female protagonist as if her only purpose for existence is to make babies. Given that the setting feels like it started from the inspiration “what if Handmaiden’s Tale, but in space?” it takes some gall to have the story end with “anyways then she found the right man and they had kids and then happily ever after!”

When it comes to science fiction, I’d rather read hopeful things. This anthology did not deliver on that; I think the most hopeful story in there was one that’s a man in a mental institution, starting to recover from the fact that his sister responded to their parents dying by trying to murder him for the inheritance. Cheery!

Unlike most of my reviews, I’m not gonna end this with a call to action. This wasn’t a good book. Don’t pick it up—Hubbard’s legacy doesn’t deserve that kind of support. Go look for an anthology of queer fiction instead, those are usually better.

Categories
Review

“The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet”

Becky Chambers

The first chapter sorta set me on the wrong mindset for this book; I think, actually, that’s why I bounced off it the first time I tried reading it. It feels like it’s going to be a lot grittier than the book turned out to be. Someone with Secrets, having just done Crimes to escape their Mysterious Past? That’s a very specific vibe, one that, quite frankly, feels rather generic at this point.

That isn’t what this book is.

This book is a study in characters. It’s an exploration of cultural differences on all sorts of different scales, from the ancestral privilege enjoyed by the Martian subset of humanity to the interspecies differences in what the concept of love means.

It’s about found family, and biological family, and how the former can help replace the latter, or heal the wounds imposed by them.

It’s a collection of vignettes, a journey—no, an odyssey—of over a year, the moments of excitement along the titular long way to what does turn out to be a small and angry planet.

Overall, it’s an absolutely beautiful read. I devoured it in an afternoon, and finished reading it watching the sun set and the stars come out, and that’s maybe the perfect way to have done so. It fit the flow of the story. So much of the science fiction I read is about action sequences and big things happening. ‘Ordinary people reacting to extraordinary circumstances.’ This felt like it was starting to fall into the other side of that quote—‘extraordinary people reacting to ordinary circumstances.’ For all that the setting is so very, very much built around the fact that it’s in space, in the future, that isn’t important. What’s important is the people you’re traveling with, and the way you feel about one another.

I loved this book, and I highly recommend it. Go give it a read.1

  1. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: November 2024

A single Christmas song sneaking in, added after Thanksgiving, thank you. Hold the line.

How It Was – Yoste on A Few Brief Moments – EP

twentyfive – Yoste on twentyfive – Single

Save Me – Majik on It’s Alright / Save Me – Single

Friends – Yoste on Friends – Single

Kahan (Last Year) [feat. Kodak Black] – Fred again.. on Actual Life 2 (February 2 – October 15 2021)

gatsby – Daniel Leggs on gatsby – Single

If You Want Somebody – Elderbrook on Little Love

Oslo – Yoste on Oslo – Single

I Don’t Want To Lie – Yoste & Vandelux on I Don’t Want To Lie – Single

Hallelujah Anyway – Luke Sital-Singh on Hallelujah Anyway – Single

Titanic – Atli on Epilogue Of Something Beautiful

Lazy – Elliot Moss on Lazy – Single

Buzzcut Season – Lorde on Pure Heroine

Call Your Mom – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Sea Shanty Medley – Home Free on Sea Shanty Medley – Single

Bad Dancer – Slopes on Bad Dancer – EP

Into the Night – Thorin Loeks on Into the Night – Single

You’re Gonna Go Far – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”] – Billie Eilish on What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”] – Single

Jericho – Iniko on Jericho – Single

Hoo Art ‘n Hevan – Moko on Two46 – Single

Something Real – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

For My Help (Rework) – Hayden Calnin on Of Collingwood (Reworks) – Single

So You Are Tired – Sufjan Stevens on Javelin

All of the People – Grian Chatten on Chaos For the Fly

I Smoked Away My Brain (I’m God x Demons Mashup) [feat. Imogen Heap & Clams Casino] – A$AP Rocky on I Smoked Away My Brain (I’m God x Demons Mashup) [feat. Imogen Heap & Clams Casino] – Single

Coal – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

Lost Boy (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Trauma Queen (LC Version) – Durry on Trauma Queen (LC Version) – Single

Want You – Yoste on Want You – Single

Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes) – Kim Carnes on Best of Kim Carnes

Good in Red (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Brooklyn. Friday. Love. (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Get Up Kid – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

Laugh It Off – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

Transient – S. Carey, John Raymond & Aaron Parks on Shadowlands

I Want to Fly Away – Emmit Fenn on I Want to Fly Away (Slowed) – Single

Padam Padam – Kylie Minogue on Tension (Deluxe)

Electric – Timecop1983 on Searching for Tomorrow

Minotaur’s Song – 1017 ALYX 9SM & Montell Fish on COMPILATION V1

The Star Room (OG Version) [Bonus Track] – Mac Miller & Earl Sweatshirt on Watching Movies with the Sound Off (10th Anniversary)

Yo Babes – Moko on Yo Babes – Single

Tell a Lie – Ed Prosek on The Foreigner – EP

Love These Days – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

Wonders – S. J. Tucker on Wonders

The Queen of Everything – Emmit Fenn on How to Fly on the Ground

The Fight – Explosions In the Sky on End

Machine Learning – J. Maya on Machine Learning – Single

Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes on Best of 80s

Trouble In Your Eyes – Yoste on Trouble In Your Eyes – Single

Sinking Deeper – Vide on Sinking Deeper – Single

Where We’ve Been – Thorin Loeks on The Light – EP

Dark Days – Timecop1983 on Searching for Tomorrow

Empty – Ed Tullett on Lack Thereof

Did I Mention I’m Sorry – Petey on USA

Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake) – JAY-Z on Magna Carta… Holy Grail

Don’t Understand – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

The Freedom to F**k Off – Petey on USA

Righteous – Juice WRLD on Legends Never Die

find it – Wrabel on chapter of you – EP

I Will Follow You into the Dark – Luke Sital-Singh on I Will Follow You into the Dark – Single

Green Thumb – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

You’re Beautiful – James Blunt on Back to Bedlam

DON’T TELL THE BOYS – Petey on Lean Into Life

Holy Ghost and Hallelujah – flora cash on Our Generation

don’t be so hard on yourself – Wrabel on chapter of you – EP

Miss Belladonna – Slayyyter on S********R

Nada – 4T7 on Nada – Single

The King – Anjimile on The King1

whose you are – jake minch on how many – EP

Let Me Down Slowly – Alec Benjamin on Narrated for You

Ride It – Regard on Ride It – Single

White Summer – CHVRCHES on The Bones of What You Believe (10th Anniversary Edition)

Redshift – Dave Thomas Junior on Promises

All My Life (feat. Kid Cudi) – 1017 ALYX 9SM on COMPILATION V1

IZ-US – Aphex Twin on Come to Daddy

I Tried to Draw a Straight Line – Petey on USA

Jeg Slutter Meg Selv – Lost Girls on Selvutsletter

Scotch Tape – Portair on The Place to Start – EP

Glass House – Joe P on Glass House – Single

Beneath Oak Trees – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP2

COCKTAIL D’AMORE – Mahmood on COCKTAIL D’AMORE – Single

The Girl That Never Was – James Blunt on Who We Used To Be (Deluxe)3

You Haunt Me (Amtrac Remix) – Sir Sly on You Haunt Me (Remixes) – EP

Everglades – Elliot Moss on Everglades – Single

Hello – Bre Kennedy on Hello – Single

Hopes (feat. Rosie H Sullivan) [Alternative Version] – Jolé on Let Go (feat. Rosie H Sullivan) [Alternative Versions] – Single

HOLY WATER – flora cash on HOLY WATER – Single

Summer – Yoste on A Place To Exist4

Escapar – Enrique Iglesias on Escape5

Moths – RY X on Moths – Single

Bliss – Fractures on Bliss – Single

London – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Blue Marbled Elm Trees – King Creosote on I DES6

Goodbye – Imanbek & Goodboys on Goodbye – Single

Linked – Bonobo on Linked – Single

Pushkar – Matthew and the Atlas on This Place We Live

I Get You – Yoste on A Place To Exist

The King’s Affirmation – Iniko on The King’s Affirmation – Single

Dissolve (Days Lost) – Essenger on Dissolve (Days Lost) – Single

Sentimental – SYML on Sentimental – Single

Héroe – Enrique Iglesias on Escape

No Apagues la Luz – Enrique Iglesias on Escape

Love to See You Cry – Enrique Iglesias on Escape

Without You – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Anywhere for You – BANNERS on Anywhere for You – Single

Protégé – Yoke Lore on Toward a Never Ending New Beginning

Casey – Jordan Klassen on Marginalia

New Day (Intro) – Skott on A Letter from the Universe

Butchered Tongue – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Hearts Lose – Elliot Moss on Hearts Lose – Single7

x – Charles Fauna on x – Single

Stockholm – Maïa Davies on Stockholm – Single

Carolina Lies – All The Damn Vampires, Pensacola Mist & Andy James on Carolina Lies – Single

The Hanging Tree – James Newton Howard on The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Pt. 1 (Original Motion Picture Score)8

Tokyo Drifting – Glass Animals & Denzel Curry on Dreamland

Skip This One – Petey on USA

Can I Ask – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Time Bomb – Pylot & Tyler Lyle on Axiom

Auld Lang Syne – Sleeping At Last on Auld Lang Syne – Single

I’m Gonna Cry – Vide on I’m Gonna Cry – Single

New Meaning (feat. Gordi) – S. Carey, John Raymond & Aaron Parks on Shadowlands

Who Could It Be? – Munn on Who Could It Be? – Single

Lovin On Me – Jack Harlow on Lovin On Me – Single

The Light – Thorin Loeks on The Light – EP

Northern Attitude – Noah Kahan & Hozier on Northern Attitude – Single

Tonight – Shallou & syd B on Tonight – Single

Cycles – Banyan & LeyeT on Cycles – Single

G-LAY – Joe James on G-LAY – Single

Midnight (re-Vamped Edition) – The Motion Epic on Midnight (re-Vamped Edition)

Beholding – S. Carey, John Raymond, Aaron Parks & Chris Morrissey on Shadowlands

Say Don’t Go (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault] – Taylor Swift on 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

  1. Some spooky vibes spilling over from last month, but I dig it. Instrumentation kinda makes me think of the castle levels in Crash Bandicoot.
  2. “We’ll stay for good” is the point where I always find myself singing along. Maybe earlier, sure, but that’s the bit that I just can’t help myself on.
  3. Apparently I exclusively listen to James Blunt songs that sound kinda cheerful but have very sad lyrics.
  4. A whole album! I’m so happy about Yoste. Coincidentally, I did my Apple Music Wrapped thing and am wondering if it would tell me if I’m in the top 10 of his listeners on Apple Music, or if it caps out at top 100.
  5. The fact that he just wrote this song in both English and Spanish is wild. I do enjoy where the lyrics differ a little, though. Hero vs. Héroe has some good “that doesn’t mean quite the same thing!” moments.
  6. Extremely fun to sing along to. Do the accent!
  7. “Now I’m driving home/ And the sad part’s coming” is a weirdly familiar feeling — the comedown after spending time with people.
  8. This sound track was way better than it had any right to be.
Categories
Review

“97 Things Every Programmer Should Know”

ed. Kevlin Henney

Reviewing a “collected wisdom” book like this is rather difficult, as not only is there not a single plot line throughout it, there’s not even a single core idea to it. It is, in fact, 97 core ideas, each told in a couple of pages. Which does make it easy to pick up and put down, and read in fits and starts. The quality and relevancy of the advice varied, although not in precisely the way you’d expect—there’s a fair few that, with what they referenced, felt very dated but gave advice that remains useful, and then there were a couple that felt dated and gave dated advice. Itself a useful reminder that, for all the field likes being the latest and greatest, newest shiniest, age does not mandate that a piece of wisdom has grown less useful over time.

So hey, the book club at work continues to provide interesting books to read, and this was another one. Give it a read – you can pick up a physical copy1 or read it online through the O’Reilly library.

  1. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Review

“Negotiating the Impossible”

Deepak Malhotra

As with every business book, it’s certainly of the genre, and that winds up coloring my review with a certain amount of “for a business book…” a lot of the time. Still kinda applicable here, in that you have to know it’s a business book, but Malhotra actually does a great job of not feeling like he’s writing a business book most of the time. It’s impossible to entirely escape the trappings, but he at least avoids the “this is a backdoor memoir of someone who isn’t actually that interesting” problem that plagues a lot of these. Turns out, using stories from history and politics makes this kind of thing a bit more interesting! Use your own stories occasionally, but—especially with the amount of non-disclosure agreements clearly in play—they aren’t actually as interesting as hearing about, say, how JFK approached the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The actual “business advice” aspect isn’t bad, either. You can tell the guy is a teacher, and has had time to practice teaching this in order to actually boil it down well. I can actually kinda feel the structure of the class, which unit happens at which part of the term, each chapter being a week or two of class. The ideas have been boiled down through that practice, and he’s got a nice overview kind of thing at the end of each section.

All in all, this was a surprisingly interesting read, and I do recommend it. Can’t hurt to know a little bit more about how to handle negotiations, as they’re more common in life than you’d think. Give it a read.1

  1. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
Categories
Review

“Quantum”

Patricia Cornwell

This was a slow burn of a book; I nearly gave up on it multiple times at the beginning, but I wound up totally caught up in it, and very glad I’d stuck through. The writing style takes a lot of getting used to—it feels very stream-of-consciousness, but in a specifically neuroatypical way. Neuroatypical, and very stressed out, which fits very well with the actual events in the book. Especially given, as I realized something like 230 pages in, the entire contents of the book, a whole lot of events, took place in a single day. I, too, would be feeling fragmented and jittery if my day started with a morning presentation to an audience that included a surprise four-star general and ended after midnight with being part of Mission Control for a particularly dangerous spacewalk!

There’s also the core aspect of crime thriller to the book, and I also found that quite engaging once it actually started up. This book has my favorite bit of foreshadowing I’ve seen in quite a while, and I spent a large amount of my reading time repeating that one line to myself, waiting for the protagonist to figure it out. Because, like I said, she’s having a very long day; I am comfortably at home, doing some leisurely reading, but she is cramming two weeks’ worth of events into one 30-hour day. It makes sense that she’d miss it.1 It was so very satisfying to see that one line come back to help things click together.

My only complaint with this book is that it feels like it ended too early. There’s a sequel, of course, which I suspect I’m going to pick up at some point, but the amount of threads remaining doesn’t feel quite right for that. I don’t feel enough closure at the end of this book for it to be complete, but I also don’t feel enough open questions that I think there’s room for an entire second book. It’s the “cliffhanger at the end of the season” thing, really, it feels contrived to get you to come back next time. The story itself doesn’t want another book, it just wants another 100 pages.

Still, that’s not a terrible complaint to have, and I did very much enjoy the read. The setting is cool, the use of flashbacks—and, eventually, flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks—is a really interesting way to develop the backstory, and all the characters feel like real people with real problems. It was a good read, check it out.2

  1. Here’s the spoiler: the line is “playing musical cars today, ma’am?” It registers as a throwaway line from a background character who is particularly an asshole, and so with all that context it, again, makes perfect sense that the protagonist misses it. But oh, the payoff…
  2. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Review

“The Velvet Rage”

Alan Downs

Somehow I thought this book was a history of the gay rights movement, and I didn’t so much as read the subtitle to disabuse myself of that notion, so once I got into the book proper, it was a heck of surprise. Although, really, “the book proper” is the wrong way to put it, because, out of everything, I found the preface to be maybe the most powerful part. It certainly made for an effective hook!

For the majority of gay men who are out of the closet, shame is no longer felt. What was once a feeling has become something deeper and more sinister in our psyches—it is a deeply and rigidly held belief in our own unworthiness for love. We were taught by the experience of shame during those tender and formative years of adolescence that there was something about us that was flawed, in essence unlovable, and that we must go about the business of making ourselves lovable if we are to survive.

It was at about this point in the book—you know, a handful of pages into the preface, not even the introduction yet, that I realized I may have been wrong about what the topic of the book was.

Very few of us feel the shame, but almost all of us struggle with the private belief that “if you really knew the whole, unvarnished truth about me, you would know that I am unlovable.” It is this belief that pushes us, even dominates us with its tyranny of existential angst. In our own way, young and old alike, we set about the business of “earning” love, and escaping the pain of believing we are unlovable. It is this damned quest that pushes us to the highest of highs, and simultaneously brings us to the brink. This is both the creator of the fabulous gay man and his destroyer.

The thing that it brings to mind most, for me, is my favorite article of political coverage I have ever read—that description of Pete Buttigieg as the Best Little Boy In The Whole World. And it really is the same concept:

What would you like me to be? A great student? A priest in the church? Mother’s little man? The first-chair violinist? We became dependent on adopting the skin our environment imposed upon us to earn the love and affection we craved. How could we love ourselves when everything around us told us that we were unlovable? Instead, we chased the affection, approval, and attention doled out by others.

I’ve selected quotes, almost exclusively, from the preface. It was unquestionably the most powerful part of the book, and, again, an immensely effective hook. Which isn’t to say that the remainder of the book had no value—it’s just less quotable, and less immediately impactful. It’s a great example of one of the key points the book makes, actually: here’s the problem, and here’s the much more drawn-out solution. As with most things, solving the problem is a lot harder than just identifying it, and is the sort of thing that takes lots of small changes over a long time.

All in all, I am very glad I read this book. It opens with so accurate a summary of the gay experience that, as I said to someone, “I thought I was going to read this book, but instead it read me.” Or, to go with the more memeable syntax, the text message I sent to someone with the first quote, above: “this book walked into my living room and shot me”

If any of the quotes above hit for you like they did for me, go read this book.1 Right now. There’s no immediate, change-your-life-by-snapping-your-fingers advice in there… but 1% better, every day, adds up real fast. Or, as the last line of the book says:

I invite you to consider making a change for the better.

  1. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
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Review

“Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins”

Randolph Lalonde

The problem with a book being Book 0 is that you know it’s all setting you up for something. It’s a prologue! Prologues don’t tend to end on “and then everything was great and there was no major conflict left, they all lived happily ever after.”

Which was pretty rough, because I absolutely loved this book and the characters. This feels like the love-child of my favorite parts of Star Trek and FTL. From the former, you’ve got a cast who are all very smart people that are passionate about what they’re doing; that sense of exploration, of a great big galaxy in which there’s trillions of people living their lives, and this group in particular is doing their best to make it a better place for all of them. And from the latter, that feeling of building up, starting with a Default Starship and then customizing it into a lean, mean, fighting machine.1 And, as the plot goes on, the feeling that even after all the upgrades you’ve put into it, there’s still always a bigger bad out there — you remain the scrappy underdog, punching above their weight class, trying to fight the evil hypercorporation.

This is a really fun universe to play around in, is the thought I kept having. I want to see more of it, I want to see where else the characters go to explore. It’s book 0, and I think right now there’s something like 9 more, and I’m hooked; at some point, once I finish reading through my whole gigantic backlog, I’m gonna have to pick up at least Book 1 and see how it is.2

All in all, I loved this book; my biggest complaint is that it was setting me up for the rest of the series, and if the series turns out to be this good, that’s a pretty nice problem to have. Give it a go.3

  1. The fact that the hull is made of “ergranian steel,” which has the never-really-explained property of being able to regenerate when charged with energy from the reactor, adds to that videogame-y feeling – you can heal up in between fights! All it takes is energy, which you have a limitless free supply of courtesy of “the reactors” and some big collecting scoops on the front of the ship that gather space dust.
  2. The transition from Prologue to Main Story feels like it’s gonna be something on the other side, and that’s about all I’m gonna say to avoid spoilers.
  3. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
Categories
Review

“Byzantium: The Decline and Fall”

John Julius Norwich

I do like this bit from the epilogue, as Norwich sums up the various rulers the empire had over its 1,100-odd years of existence:

Of those eight-eighty [emperors], a few – Constantine himself, Justinian, Heraclius, the two basils, Alexius Comnenus – possessed true greatness; a few – Phocas, Michael III, Zoe and the Angeli – were contemptible; the vast majority were brave, upright, God-fearing, unimaginative men who did their best, with greater or lesser degrees of success.

Just the word “unimaginative” in there really got to me. What a painful legacy to leave!

It is, though, pretty fitting. A lot of the events of this book boil down to “and then something else went wrong, which would’ve been quite manageable if the Emperor had been slightly better at being Emperor.” Though, admittedly, there’s also a whole lot of them where the “would’ve been quite manageable” leads instead to “if the Who’s Who of Constantinople could’ve taken a break for one month from squabbling with each other in order to keep the Empire from slowly dissolving.” So much of the decline of the Byzantine Empire feels like a testament to selfishness. The Emperor is off trying to consolidate the recapture of some of the critical agricultural heartland of the empire? Sure, that’s probably important and all, but it also means he’s distracted, and now’s your chance to stab him in the back!

I think I’ll place this book at second place of the trilogy; the first was just overwhelming, the second did a better job at storytelling, and the third did an even better job at telling the story… but by this point in history, it was a really depressing story. That said, if you want to read about the slow decline of the Byzantine Empire, this is a pretty solid way to do so, and you’re welcome to give it a try.1

  1. This is an Amazon affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I prefer Bookshop affiliate links to Amazon when possible, but in this case, the book wasn’t available there, so it’ll have to do.
Categories
Review

“Byzantium: The Apogee”

John Julius Norwich

Continuing my reading of history, we’ve got Byzantium Part II. (Although, really, Byzantium is Rome 2.) I found this more readable than the previous book, which I suspect has a great deal to do with the fact that this one is covering less ground. One emperor per chapter, roughly, worked well as a way to split things up, though it did occasionally make for strange ends and beginnings of chapters when there was a great deal of action taking place in the changeover. Someone dies and their son assumes the throne with no arguments, perfectly fine; someone is assassinated by their wife and her lover who wants the throne, but wait, maybe there’s someone else who’s going to take the throne, and oh wait the Church has arrived to add some drama… less of a coherent chapter split.

I did at some point realize that I need a bit more visual of this and went to find some maps of the Byzantine Empire at various points in time, which helped; probably should’ve done that before, oh, the second-to-last chapter or so. Hard to visualize the changing borders when I’m not great at geography to start with, and all the names are different because it’s 1,000 years in the past.

Reviewing the empire itself, rather than the book, there’s still a feeling of “1,000 years, three continents, and somehow there’s only 4 first names to go around?” to it. I would not have survived as a history major, I simply cannot deal with the repetition. I’ve also got a great deal of frustration for some of the wondrous things that were built and utterly lost to history; there’s a description in the book of a throne room full of mechanical animals that I would love to see, but alas, we have yet to invent a time machine that would allow that. Science should really get on that.

Overall, this was a much nicer read than the first book, and I may actually jump right into the third as a result; I didn’t end the book feeling like I’m still interest yet need a break. So hey, this time, I’ll go ahead and recommend that you check it out.1

  1. This is an Amazon affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I prefer Bookshop affiliate links to Amazon when possible, but in this case, the book wasn’t available there, so it’ll have to do.
Categories
Review

“The Flavor Bible”

Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg

As it turns out, this book was uniquely ill-suited for an e-reader; this is a book that was written around the concept of being heavily laid out, and it didn’t make it through the process of ePUB-ification very well. Get the print edition, if you’re going to get it—while there’s something to be said, with this format, for searchability, it’s all alphabetized, so the print edition doesn’t lose much that way.

Entertainingly, the thing I kept thinking off all through the book was Pokémon type charts. (Really, go grab that link to see the example, I’m not going to be able to explain this well.) Basically, take a list, repeat it as both the rows and columns of a table, and then throughout the table mark which things go well together and to which degree. A very small example, off the top of my head:

Balsamic Vinegar Chocolate Strawberries Zucchini
Balsamic Vinegar x ★ ★
Chocolate x ★ ★
Strawberries ★ ★ ★ ★ x
Zucchini x

That’s kinda what the book is, on a much larger scale. Look up an ingredient, see a couple quick facts about it, where it falls in some broad categories, maybe a few recipe ideas and some anecdotes from chefs… and then get a list of which things it works well with.

Honestly, I think this would make a pretty good coffee-table book, and a useful reference if you’ve got one ingredient in mind and want some inspiration for what to make using it. Check it out.1

  1. This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores.
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: September 2023

It’s been a month this month, but I am delighted to report that it is time for fall weather. Don’t mind me while I explode into a cloud of apple cider and autumnal vibes.

How It Was – Yoste on A Few Brief Moments – EP

twentyfive – Yoste on twentyfive – Single

Save Me – Majik on It’s Alright / Save Me – Single

Friends – Yoste on Friends – Single

Kahan (Last Year) [feat. Kodak Black] – Fred again.. on Actual Life 2 (February 2 – October 15 2021)

gatsby – Daniel Leggs on gatsby – Single

TRAP PHONE – BERWYN on TRAP PHONE – Single

Crumble – Thomas LaVine on Crumble – Single

Mike (desert island duvet) – Fred again.., The Streets & Dermot Kennedy on Mike (desert island duvet) – Single

Wisdom, Justice, And Love – Linkin Park on A Thousand Suns

If You Want Somebody – Elderbrook on Little Love

If It’s Time – Hayden Calnin on If It’s Time – Single

Oslo – Yoste on Oslo – Single

Acoustic – Billy Raffoul on 1975 – EP

White Ferrari – Isak Danielson & Alba August on White Ferrari – Single

Drive You Home – Billy Raffoul on Drive You Home – Single

Eat The Acid – Kesha on Gag Order

I Don’t Want To Lie – Yoste & Vandelux on I Don’t Want To Lie – Single

Hallelujah Anyway – Luke Sital-Singh on Hallelujah Anyway – Single

Sprinter – Central Cee & Dave on Sprinter – Single

Titanic – Atli on Epilogue Of Something Beautiful

Mourning – Post Malone on AUSTIN

Lazy – Elliot Moss on Lazy – Single

14 – Water From Your Eyes on Everyone’s Crushed

Dial Drunk – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Stay Here – Yoste on Stay Here – Single

My Old Man – Billy Raffoul on My Old Man – Single

Buzzcut Season – Lorde on Pure Heroine

Little Bit of This (feat. Vince Staples) – Good Times Ahead on Good Times Ahead

Beautiful Life – Emmit Fenn on Beautiful Life – Single

Call Your Mom – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Sea Shanty Medley – Home Free on Sea Shanty Medley – Single

the banker – Daniel Leggs on the banker – Single

Bad Dancer – Slopes on Bad Dancer – EP

Fairlies – Grian Chatten on Chaos For the Fly

Rush – Troye Sivan on Something To Give Each Other

Oliveira Dos Cen Años – C. Tangana on Oliveira Dos Cen Años – Single

Into the Night – Thorin Loeks on Into the Night – Single

You’re Gonna Go Far – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

It Hurts to Love – Slopes on Bad Dancer – EP

What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”] – Billie Eilish on What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”] – Single

Magic – Elliot Moss on Magic – Single

Khmerica – No-No Boy on 1975

Jericho – Iniko on Jericho – Single

Hoo Art ‘n Hevan – Moko on Two46 – Single

Voicenote 2 (LMTBTA) – Atli on Epilogue Of Something Beautiful

In My Arms – Billy Raffoul on In My Arms – Single

Hold Me – Slopes on Bad Dancer – EP

Chasing Birds – Arliston on How In Heaven – EP

Feel Again – Braaheim on Feel Again – Single

El suïcidi i el cant – Tarta Relena on Fiat Lux

Stabat mater – Tarta Relena on Fiat Lux

No Time Like Now (Yoste Remix) – ILLENIUM on Awake (Remixes)

No Complaints – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Blame The Moon – Hazlett on Blame The Moon – Single

Something Real – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

Francesca – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Tell a Lie – Ed Prosek on Tell a Lie – Single

An Arrow In The Wall – Death Cab for Cutie on An Arrow In The Wall – Single

For My Help (Rework) – Hayden Calnin on Of Collingwood (Reworks) – Single

Kaonashi – Yoste on Kaonashi – Single

So You Are Tired – Sufjan Stevens on Javelin

Abstract (Psychopomp) – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

All of the People – Grian Chatten on Chaos For the Fly

Ephemera – Vallis Alps on Cleave

Imperayritz de la ciutat joyosa – Tarta Relena on Fiat Lux

Caution Cares (Rework) – Hayden Calnin on Of Collingwood (Reworks) – Single

How I Fell – Elliot Moss on How I Fell – Single

I Smoked Away My Brain (I’m God x Demons Mashup) [feat. Imogen Heap & Clams Casino] – A$AP Rocky on I Smoked Away My Brain (I’m God x Demons Mashup) [feat. Imogen Heap & Clams Casino] – Single1

Bahrain – Bridges on Bahrain / Magnetic – EP

All Things End – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Anything But – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

De Selby (Part 2) – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Coal – Dylan Gossett on Coal – Single2

Neon Medusa (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Days of Thunder (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live3

Lost Boy (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Deep Blue (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

A Heart Beating – Mother Tongues on Love in a Vicious Way

Perfect Darkness – Fink on Perfect Darkness (Bonus Video Version)

The Comeback Kid (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Shadows (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

All The Worlds – Vallis Alps on Cleave

Heroes (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Fever – Sonnee on Fever – Single4

You & I – Vallis Alps on Cleave

Trauma Queen – Durry on Trauma Queen – Single5

adore u – Fred again.. & Obongjayar on adore u – Single

Want You – Yoste on Want You – Single

Been Through – Lonely in the Rain & Manil on Been Through – Single

Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes) – Kim Carnes on Best of Kim Carnes6

Eat Your Young – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Vampires (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Coward (Rework) – Hayden Calnin on Of Collingwood (Reworks) – Single

I Need You (Chill Mix) – Elderbrook on Chill Mixes – Single

This Way – Emmit Fenn on How to Fly on the Ground

Higher Than This – Vallis Alps on Cleave

Nunc aperuit nobis – Tarta Relena on Fiat Lux

Lune – Colouring on Lune – Single

Howl (Chill Mix) – Elderbrook & Tourist on Chill Mixes – Single7

Gloria (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

Here with Me (feat. Miya Folick) – Goodwerks & SYML on Broken Glass, Vol. 4 – Single

Good in Red (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live8

Barbie World (with Aqua) [From Barbie The Album] – Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice on Barbie World (with Aqua) [From Barbie The Album] [Versions] – EP

On Highways (aug 4) – Vallis Alps on Cleave

An Arrow In The Wall (CHVRCHES Remix) – Death Cab for Cutie on An Arrow In The Wall – Single

Unaffected – Betcha on Placebo

At Least I Tried – Betcha on Placebo

I Wish You Would – Betcha on Placebo

I’ll Be Around (Chill Mix) – Elderbrook & Amtrac on Chill Mixes – Single

Forever – OTR & Lizzy Land on Be Quiet, They’re Listening

in the dark – gavn! on in the dark – Single

American Dark – Cujo Moon on American Dark – Single

Ending Credits – By The Coast on Some Other Place

Existence – The Cave & Julian Lamadrid on The Cave – EP9

Brooklyn. Friday. Love. (Live) – The Midnight on Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live

RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n) – A$AP Rocky on RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n) – Single

Me yelassan – Tarta Relena on Fiat Lux

Tu ase t’urpa – Tarta Relena on Fiat Lux

Waves – Mr. Probz on Waves – Single

Hurricane – Thirty Seconds to Mars on This Is War

Baby Blue – Rence on Baby Blue – Single

I Believe in Something More – Hayden Calnin on A Turning of the Tide: Side B – EP

Get Up Kid – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day10

Midnight Prayer – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

I, Carrion (Icarian) – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Peace Or Quiet – Explosions In the Sky on End

Below Water – Cal Trask on Below Water – Single

Alphabet City – The National on Alphabet City – Single

Cold Air – Brendan Scott Friel on Cold Air – Single

Driver’s Seat – Sonnee on Driver’s Seat – Single

Lost These Days – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

Who We Are – Hozier on Unreal Unearth

Avalanche – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

For You It Was Him – Nick Wilson on For You It Was Him – Single

Call Me Back – Betcha on Placebo

The Bit Between – Hayden Calnin on A Turning of the Tide: Side B – EP

In The Rain – ODESZA on In The Rain – Single

7:1 – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

Moving On – Explosions In the Sky on End

Laugh It Off – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

Got Me Obsessed – Jade LeMac on Got Me Obsessed – Single

Good Things Will Come ‘Round – Hayden Calnin on A Turning of the Tide: Side B – EP

Backwards – Arliston on How In Heaven – EP

Transient – S. Carey, John Raymond & Aaron Parks on Shadowlands11

Seasons – Thirty Seconds to Mars on It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

About You (feat. Evangeline) – Yoste on About You (feat. Evangeline) – Single

You Make Everything Feel Better – Vide on You Make Everything Feel Better – Single

The Home We Built – EMBRZ on In Our Own Way

9Bar – Moko on 9Bar – Single

Numb – LINKIN PARK on Meteora 20th Anniversary Edition12

  1. I love the chain of sampling necessary for this track to show up for me – it’s here because of the Imogen Heap, but boy is she ever at a remove.
  2. “They say pressure makes diamonds, how the hell am I still coal” is a good line
  3. This live album is excellent, I’m gonna have to keep an eye out for their next tour.
  4. Kinda convinced I’ve found a fred again.. side project here.
  5. I’m a big fan of this track, A+ lyrics once you tune in, and also just good for listening to.
  6. This is just a childhood jam for me
  7. Elderbrook feels rather autumnal to me. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s a thing.
  8. “Kill your demons, kill ‘em dead…” very sing-along-able
  9. Feels fairly Daft Punk, at least lyrically.
  10. I enjoy that every Thirty Seconds to Mars album has a significantly different feel than the previous.
  11. Extremely fall vibes
  12. In the playlist because my roommate’s Spotify put up a cover and it was not as satisfying to sing along to as the source material.