Exploring and supporting Community Informatics and Youth Power for just futures.
Loving hard sci-fi, queer & BIPOC-authored sci-fi, abolition and abolitionist futures, Afrofuturism, Solarpunk, cooperativism, pedagogy, social change.
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Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed …
Was fine and some interesting ideas. Kinda a slog through, never got deeply hooked, just kept kinda wondering when it would end. It felt like the whole premise of the book was kinda given up in the first 1/3, then the rest was just playing out what you expected, hoping for some fun surprise.
1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne and epic fantasy in …
Was a fun ride on a rare Brandon Sanderson sci-fi. Not part of the cosmere. Never was terribly enchanted by it, but fun and light.
"She answered the Emperor's call.
She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only …
A wonderful follow-up to the first book. Ate it up. Stayed up into the wee hours and finally put myself to sleep so I could finish it this morning before work. Muir's descriptions must come from the King Undying himself.
"The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some …
I'm not into horror. Period. Don't like to read it, don't like to watch it. Don't even really like to hear it talked about. But this was a good ride, engaging, with profoundly beautiful visual description. It managed to be quite long and complex, and yet still relatively simple too. It turned cliches about and brought them back with something new.
Fun fast novella coming after Steelheart
A violent book, but the typical Sanderson cleverness and engagement.
1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us deeper into the Cosmere universe …
Loved it. Gentle and fun. Echoes of the Princess Bride, but with Brandon Sanderson flair.
I’m stranded on Mars.
I have no way to communicate with Earth.
I’m in a …
And probably at least semi realistic? Didn't like it as much as Project Hail Mary by the same author. This sorta read as a sequence of "oh crap, another thing went wrong" problems, followed by solutions. I'm certain this is realistic - or even still overly optimistic, given what they were surviving through - but kinda made for an overly long, repetitive narrative. I suspect this is part of why they cut some of these out of the movie (and to save time, but also it got repetitive). Nevertheless, a fun read if you enjoy sci-fi that sticks close to contemporary science.
This is a collection of essays, reflections and poems by Nora Bateson, the noted research …
Close echoes to Gregory Bateson and Gilles Deleuze both. Easier to understand than both, I think. Nora Bateson's prose is often lovely, compelling, poetic. It represents in form the ideas she espouses. Symmathesy and Warm Data are her concepts and she circles them, especially in the latter half of the book. A worthwhile read to those who want to think differently as they work on the problems of our world. And a different way in to understanding Deleuze than Deleuze himself. I'll return to some of the essays in here over the next years, I'm certain. Can be read in small sections.
This dialogue between two of the most prominent thinkers on social change in the twentieth …
This is at least my second reading of this book and I still love it. I see new things in it each time. This time, I see how much Paulo Freire prompted Myles Horton with questions about his work. According to the introduction, Freire wanted to introduce Horton to thinkers in Latin America. And Horton wanted to do the same with Freire, but either the editors were siding with Freire's prompting or he did more to ask the questions, because I do feel like Horton is a bit more primary in terms of representation in this dialogue. As always before, I find Horton's starting every response with a story and sticking to stories is so compelling and so clear that he lived what he practiced. I don't know that a reader walks away getting any clear sense of what Freire or Horton were up to in specifics from this book, …
This is at least my second reading of this book and I still love it. I see new things in it each time. This time, I see how much Paulo Freire prompted Myles Horton with questions about his work. According to the introduction, Freire wanted to introduce Horton to thinkers in Latin America. And Horton wanted to do the same with Freire, but either the editors were siding with Freire's prompting or he did more to ask the questions, because I do feel like Horton is a bit more primary in terms of representation in this dialogue. As always before, I find Horton's starting every response with a story and sticking to stories is so compelling and so clear that he lived what he practiced. I don't know that a reader walks away getting any clear sense of what Freire or Horton were up to in specifics from this book, but I do think they get a sense of some of the overall influences and important ideas that the two held more or less in common when it came to popular education. Horton is also very careful to highlight the influences and work of Bernice Robinson, Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, and others that were involved at Highlander and in Highlander's work. It's a quick read - and maybe would make a nice introduction to the two authors. I still love The Long Haul, written about the work of Highlander and a sort of biography of Myles Horton. It leans on his signature storytelling style and gets much more into the specifics of the kinds of work and practices they were doing and using at Highlander.
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving every day. James …
Like many self help books, this could be an article and just as usefully make all the points. I've found what was said to be true to my learning about creating and keeping productive habits. So it is useful if this is what you are trying to do - or at least would be to someone like me. I think you can probably generally just skim, dive into interesting parts, and read chapter summaries to save time.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity …
A fun book, and surprisingly gentle and light for apocalyptic sci-fi.
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s …
Solidly in the rom-com genre, with a gay romance at the heart of the story. It seems like the real emphasis though is on the mental health struggles of both characters - and the ways they help and support each other through them. In that sense, it warps the genre some, because so few emphasize mental health almost exclusively. However, for me at least, the story started to drag about half way through and was kind of slow to the finish. Loved the idea more than the execution.
From Attica Locke, a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire, this sophisticated thriller sees lawyer …
Never read anything by Locke I didn't love. She's a genius in her writing and description, and also for the profound complexity through which her stories unfold. I don't like the detective/mystery/crime genre, but I love her work. That she can bring in race and racism in a tale of the modern U.S. and bend but not break the detective genre is an awesome feat. I'll read everything she publishes.
If no one notices Marya Lupu, is likely because of her brother, Luka. And that’s …
I think the author does a nice job of capturing a dystopian universe, alongside the strengths of characters coming into their own and making sense of a world through a critical lens. A quick read, series and playful at the same time. Ursu follows YA adventure fantasy genre... and also busts it up.