Anne Applebaum - Autocracy Inc.

Sundown Towns, a book about the history of American racism, specifically the number of towns that had signs up warning black citizens not to be there after sundown. Spoiler: it was pretty much most of the towns. All over. It's a sobering read, not a pick-me-up.

I'm currently listening to For We Are Many, the 2nd book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I'd previously read them all, but the newest is currently only an audible exclusive, so I downloaded a copy and listened to it and loved it and am now listening to the rest of the series. Basic plot: a modern guy gets a service to freeze his brain upon death. He then does and is awoken and turned into a self replicating space probe and Earth goes into nuclear war and the probe tries to help where it can and explores. It's a really good and fun read.

I'm also re-working my way through the Anne Rice Vampire series. Haven't read them in a couple decades and wanted to get re-acquainted. currently on book 4. it's crazy what you retain and what gets dropped after many years.

I've found some of the random $1 for a 9 e-book set books that Amazon offers haven't been bad.

You mentioned Animorphs and thats one that I've got to give a re-read at some point. I get partway through another read through every couple of years. I'd love it if Katherine Applegate could re-work the series as an adult series. It's so good.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi was also a great read earlier this year. Absolutely love Scalzi. Basic Plot: Poor guy inherits his Uncles evil villain organization and tries to navigate his way through the shenanigans that ensue.

"The Terror" by Dan Simmons. I already watched the show and enjoyed it, so I picked up the book and am only a few chapters in, but I'm liking it a good bit. There seems to be a good bit of historical facts thrown in, which I personally enjoy.

For those unfamiliar, it is based on the real life Franklin Expedition that disappeared while searching for a way to traverse the Northwest Passage in the Canadian arctic. The story follows the known facts regarding the fates of the expedition crew members, but it tells a paranormal horror story to fill in the blanks.

Just finished The Bell Jar by the talented Sylvia Plath. Her imagery is beautiful. It's a an autobiographical roman à clef with dark themes of her struggling with bipolar disorder/depression. And the only book she wore before taking her life when the love of her life left her for another woman.

Project Hail Mary was much more of an emotional ride than I was expecting.

Orbital, by Samantha Harvey. It's just won the Booker prize so I thought I'd check it out. It's set on the space station, and is basically the astronauts on board thinking. I can't believe how beautiful it is, how gripping.

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. So fascinating. https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

• The Mercy of Gods: The first book in a new trilogy from the guys behind The Expanse.
• How to ADHD: Because I wasn't diagnosed until 40 and now I have to rethink everything about me.
• My War Gone By, I Miss It So: The memoir of a British war zone journalist who covered the Bosnian War and other Balkans conflicts. I originally read it decades ago but was reminded of it after watching Civil War earlier this year. I heard lots of criticism about the main characters in that movie not being relatable or very likable so I picked this back up to confirm that yes, that's accurate, and I think part of the point of the movie...

Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson. An epic fantasy.

I loved it and just started the second book.

Algorithms To Live By, applying computer science and mathematic principles to real life. Helping make better decisions that are provably more efficient. Really interesting and anyone who has any interest in computing can get a lot from the book.

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles. My first time reading an ancient classic, and it's much less scary than I thought. In fact I'm quite enjoying it, and might read The Iliad (Homer's other epic poem) next. The humanness of the characters (well, the human ones!) is very relatable, even though it's 2700 years old. I don't know why I expected it to be crusty and boring. Maybe I assumed it'd be like the Bible.

The intro explains a lot of stuff about the original Greek poem and how it was written in dactylic hexameterwhich bards back then used to be able to improvise in, which is amazing to me. Reminds me of 8 Mile or something. 😅

Watership Down. Way better than I thought 🙂.

I read the Martian. It was at least as good as the very good movie.

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler. Published in 1993 but set in 2024. Definitely resonates with the state of things today.

Learned on Lemmy a couple of weeks ago that Neal Stephenson has a new book out, and I'm still a sucker for them. Polostan is (so far) historical fiction and very readable. The Stephenson-esque infodumps seem to mostly concern the game of Polo and interwar Communism, with healthy dashes of 1930s physics and ranching.

• "Children of God" by Mary Doria Russell: Second and final part of a sci-fi series about a Jesuit mission to an alien culture that goes wrong. Like the first part, it's an emotional rollercoaster with a great cast of characters that you really grow attached to (and who often meet tragic ends). The author also created a really interesting alien society made up of two separate species. Oh, and the title might sound like it's a preachy religious book, but it's very much not. Would never have expected it, but this is now one of my favorite sci-fi series.

• "Memories of Ice" by Steven Erikson: Third book of the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" fantasy series. All three books I've read so far were enjoyable stories, but also very complex and not easy to read for sure. I love how the author creates a fantasy world where stone-age cultures play a pretty big role and where pre-history in many ways shapes the current world of the book. Also, quite a good cast of characters, which I didn't necessarily expect given that it's "epic fantasy".

The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy

The First Law series.

Babel, by R. F. Kuang

By the way, there are also book communities here on Lemmy. Check out

!books@lemmy.world

Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D. Clark. It's a surprisingly fun read.

Mount Chicago by Adam Levin

Not as good as his first book, The Instructions, but I'm enjoying it. Try the forward, it's a good indication for whether you'll like the rest of the book. If you don't, still try The Instructions; it's very good.

The "Semiosis" series. Just finished the second part, the third was published a few weeks ago.

Shattered by Lisa Morgan.

I've been liking Mr. Einstein's Secretary by Matthew Reilly so far. It's far from his usual high octane thrillers (my guilty pleasures) and is written very well.

Recently finished Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Much of the novel is a real slow burner, but the third act hit me right in the feels. I can't stop thinking about the author's wonderful misdirection, which caught me by surprise.