Serendipity: Colour match in book and weekend snack.

You can't go wrong with a black and red horror cover. Hints of gold and gray, apparently acceptable. White text for contrast seems popular from this sample size. 😏

Subtitle is four speeches. Feels like a more descriptive subtitle would read: four sermons. There are some very memorable, recognizable quotes pulled from this collection. X makes some powerful arguments, and I recognize how much Islam was a part of this man's life for a crucial period of his life, but it felt like what he was attempting to communicate was so often throttled by his obligation to preach. 1/?

Well worn chestnut that needs to be retired. Not a lot of nuance in assuming popular automatically equals dreck.

I mean, rereads (Murderbot, Discworld) do help to stack the deck with winners, but I had some first reading experience bangers (admittedly with authors I'd read from before: Harkaway, Jemisin, Scalzi, Belcourt, Taylor) and one standout from a new-to-me author, that almost beat out Tigerman for fave of the month, in Ella Minnow Pea. Back from traveling and eager to get into June reading!

Have I mentioned I love Wendig's similes?

Fantasy/sci-fi/horror with a tidbit of parable thrown in?
There are a number of aspects of the premise that I find really intriguing. A mystical thief who draws powers from shadows, a world that is half science, and daylight, as we saw the 20th century, and half hellscape, a place of immortals and darkness and soulessness, with some Biblical imagery for good measure. 1/?

As my original reading of the Discworld books was wildly out of order, I wonder whether the strong linkage to Thud! and Snuff stood out to me as much then as it did in this reread. While Moist being himself in another adventure is enjoyable (with his ever growing list of associates), as are any moments with Vimes and the City Watch, there's a fair amount of space made not just for Iron Girder and her attendants, but continuing dwarf intrigue. 1/2

Apple tree grafting described in the style of Borg assimilation. It's giving solid spooky vibes.

I have questions, Chuck.

Gotta love a fun fact mixed in with an unsettling description. 🥀🍎

Nite-Mite! Bitewing! Dick and Barb moments! The Hold?! Speaking truths about private prisons and the injustice of setting bail and basically broken justice system! Batman and Nightwing hug! Mentor moment where Nightwing shows the differences in his training style versus Batman's in encouraging Jon!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this series. 🥰

My fave DC couple. I love how Variant Cover Galleries inevitably include a little spice. 🌶️

Okay, points for creepy extravagance in the decor.

Mmmmmmmm, No. I think there was commentary in there somewhere, but some of it was obscured, and what remained wasn't packaged in a particularly original manner. Just overall not interesting enough to warrant much comment even when I think it was trying to be repellant. Maybe we can put it down to 'just not my style' of art/comics.

Oh baby, Scalzi's done it again! I ripped through this one. I am overjoyed it's the first in a series. Perhaps it's a strange thing to find irksome, but I keep encountering blurbs on Scalzi's books that almost damn with faint praise regarding his 'accessibility'. It's a rotten thing to suggest that because something is easy to read and widely appealing that it's somehow lesser, I don't want to imply that, but 1/?

“Good. Human.“
I'll just be over here in a puddle of happy tears. 🥹

The art was the primary reason for picking this one up, and I was not disappointed. It's always encouraging to see children's picture books, not just with a lot of thought put into the art, but representing a physical multimedia style (digital is cool but I worry about it becoming the exclusive medium), in this case collage. I think the reminder to recognize 'enough', be cautious about waste, be grateful, is perennially useful.

The drama!
Alex White is proficient in telling a sci fi action story, and bringing it back to a human level, but where as I enjoyed the characters and the interplay between them seen in August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, the level of interpersonal tension and exterior agitators in this book was a bit too much for me. 1/?

Absurd and disturbing and fascinating all together.
I mean, anything so centred on words, language is a good bet for me to love, and this is indeed as of now, a 2024 favourite.
To start with such a fanciful promise and then follow it to what history grimly indicates is the next step and then... 1/?

Superb. The eminently frustrating part of reading an author with such a way with words is not being able to convey your admiration in as worthy terms! The characters are searingly alive, yet subtle portraits of struggle, their stories, strains making up the minor chorus, are a mix of heartbreaking and hopeful, joyful, clear testaments, analogues of the realities of Indigenous experience in what is called Canada. 1/?

“...to insist on a form of gender that wasn't a natural disaster but rather a sprawling field where nothing was a coffin someone could fall into.“
DAMN. Again, the way Belcourt uses words leaves me stunned wordless in appreciation.

I know I had a reason for picking this specific volume up, especially as it's the third in a run, but I can't figure out what it was. Unfortunately I'm also not driven to pick up the earlier volumes to get more context to ongoing events. It just didn't grab me. 1/2

Oof. Whiplash from the tone shifts. That I thought this was a picture book by Dave Eggers, and it's actually a short novel that reads more like older middle grade, and the few images are actually famous landscapes that another artist has painted a dog into, is on me. 1/?

Belcourt, man. 👏🏻 He says such relatable things in such an eloquent and original fashion. You recognize it as a thought pulled from your brain, but know you'd never have the words to say it the way he does. 🤌🏻

Today's 'scratched my brain just right' phrase.

OUCH. 🫢

That's not an office, it's a museum! 🫣

Walking in a forest is good because...science!
I'm afraid I had some strong flashbacks to homeopathic type health/self help books I've encountered where there's SOME evidence, but also “is said to“ and “is used for“, which feels like skirting the lack of evidence. I think it's present in the public consciousness that nature is good for us; I don't know that this book convinced me of anything I was not aware of before. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Pleasant narrator.

I'll admit to being a little worried that based on a couple key reveals, this book wouldn't hit the same upon reread. I'm happy to report the impact is still felt. Even knowing what's to come, how the characters act, and particularly what they say, is affecting. It's not just that you're invested in how things turn out, how the characters fare, it's finding out what success would really mean in this situation. 1/?

AGRESSIVE forest management policy!
“During the Edo period, the ruling samurai class protected the trees...the rule of one head for one tree was brought in which meant as you no doubt have correctly guessed, that if you cut down a tree, your head would be cut off.“

I mean, what do you say about what is arguably THE most famous speech in history? I appreciated Gorman's perspective provided in the forward, the significance to her and the role it played in her poetry reading. I feel like there's a point of view gained by reading the actual content of the speech that you cannot have just knowing that it exists and what it is about. 1/?

Having wrangled some gnarly filing systems, I feel this in my BONES.

PSA: Do not use folk songs as life advice. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Take a shot everytime Moomintroll says 'Strike me Pink!'...😆
So many adventures! I admit to being slightly baffled by my library's choices about this series, the first in hardcover, the next only available as an audiobook, but maybe it was a licensing/price thing. 1/?

“It was a funny little path, winding here and there, dashing off in different directions and sometimes even tying a knot in itself from sheer joy. You don't get tired of a path like that, and I'm not sure it doesn't get you home quicker in the end.“ 🚶🏼‍♂️☺️

Decapitation by hand seems to be a theme with this group....

I was pretty sure this reread in particular couldn't hit the same as it did the first time for two reasons that would be major spoilers to include here. I was right.
The burgeoning emotional journey Murderbot is on continues at a believable pace for a being coming to grips with a pretty fraught existence: 1/3

And that doesn't make it any less creepy!

Miki. 🥹

“...the Sun only wants you to bask...“😌🌞☀️

“...just settle for ripping their heads off...“
He's got a plan, and safety protocols!
Well thought out indeed...🥴🧛🏻‍♂️

Well that seems super sketchy.
You may not get out on compassionate release if you're old and sick, but we will help you die.
Tell me again about the lack of the death penalty in Canada? 🤨

I'm not gonna lie, passive absorption of popular culture meant reading the first Moomins book was a bit of a shock as the story was a bit less standard little kid pablum in narration than I was expecting, and the Moomins don't yet look like the Moomins I've seen on the internet (I believe an animated show was produced as well?). 1/?

My luck with short story (and a teeny bit of poetry) collections written by ONE author continues, I found a lot to enjoy here. I wasn't sure what the ratio would be, but I'd say two thirds fantasy, one-third sci fi. I think in future I'd be happy to investigate any sci fi or sci fi/fantasy mixes by this author under a certain length. 1/?

The idea of the Turing test, in its search for humanity, being as much a test of the humans fostering a machine intelligence as it is of the developing machine.
Surprised how it hit me.
The best case scenario of true AI is one which results from humans never forgetting their humanity in the effort to infuse intelligence into a machine, which gives the machine the best chance to reflect the best of us. 🥹

A perspective I hadn't considered on the Turing test.
Probably should have considering how similar it is to rebuttals about the narrow form testing has often taken in gauging the intelligence of living beings other than humans in animal welfare discussions.

In that sense, humans are as likely to be 'programmed' into certain responses as machine intelligence might be.
Social conditioning is some deeply embedded code!

Evocative, lush, and uncomfortable.
An accomplished description!

If you're looking for a sci fi twist on classic noir mystery (and maybe just a smidge less dark), I can highly recommend this one.
A very fast read, the world building dresses up the corners but doesn't let the narrative get bogged down in science talk, the dialogue is snappy, the writing - well, I'm starting to think I'm biased, but I really love the way Harkaway writes: 1/3