Rating: Recommended
The Outrun – Amy Liptrot
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The Outrun follows the author as she deals with recovery from alcoholism. Part of her journey is heading back to the quiet island she grew up on, Orkney, and then going to an even quieter island to live in a seasonal cabin that is vacant for the winter “off” season. I enjoyed Amy’s reflections on
Kill it with Fire – Marianne Bellotti
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Kill it with Fire is all about how to manage legacy software projects. How do you determine if you need to rewrite it? How do you keep a team motivated while working on a legacy project? How do you stop a current project from becoming legacy full of dead code ready to die? I found
Defiant – Brandon Sanderson
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Defiant brings us the final face off between The Superiority and the few races that have gathered with Humanity to say no to the enslavement of everyone. Our protagonist, Spensa, has to wrangle with her reality warping powers as a second being has melded with her soul and she now has to provide the control
Elantris – Brandon Sanderson
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This is the oldest book in Brandon Sanderson’s writing that I’ve read, being published first in 2005. As such I found a few parts of the writing clearly still in development. Unlike other more current books, I was easily able to guess where the author was going early in the book. This didn’t diminish my
Translation State – Ann Leckie
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Translation state takes a look at what it means to be human, and in this case, what it means to belong somewhere. We start meeting our 3 main characters, Enae, Reet and Qven and slowly are exposed to how they don’t belong in the place that they exist. For Qven specifically we see how they’ve
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
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The Color of Law looks at how redlining affected the wealth of Black Americans after Word War 2. From not letting Black Vetrans get the financing that all Vetrans were supposed to be eligible for, to breaking up Black neighbourhoods for “public projects” this is a sobering look at how white people stole wealth from
The Promise of Access – Daniel Greene
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Daniel Greene looks at the politically expedient idea that the problem with the workforce is that they don’t have access to computers (technology) and the skills to use said electronic devices. This lets politicians off the hook in addressing the structural problems (poverty, homelessness) that contributes to lack of work and skill development and simply
Gardens of the Moon – Steven Erikson
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Welcome to a land of magic and gods that sometimes walk among humans, at the very least they spend a bunch of energy influencing human affairs to their liking. We start by joining the Malazan Empire’s forces as they are decimated in at the city of Pale by the Moon King, but we quickly learn
Dark PR – Grant Ennis
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Dark PR walks readers through all the “framing” companies do to minimize their responsibility so that they can keep doing the terrible shit they are doing. From car companies showing us all their “magic” features that will save lives, to blaming some random person walking on the street for not being visible enough (victim blaming)
Foreverism – Grafton Tanner
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In Foreverism, Grafton Tanner, examines the push towards nostalgia shown in society today. From endless reboots, which are safer than new properties thus more likely to profit, to gadgets that continue to get improved so that we always have a fresh one to purchase, capitalism doesn’t want our consumerism to die as that would stop
