The Fall by Albert Camus

I fell in love with this book in the first couple pages and, like the narrator with his many love affairs, lost interest soon after that. Even with the book’s short length, I found it a bit of a slog to finish. Light on narrative, heavy on pontificating. 💙📚 #booksky

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

One of my favorite authors writing today. No one describes gore & visceral emotions like Khaw and this is them at their most unhinged. Some of the non-linear storytelling didn’t fully work for me, robbing some scenes of tension, but a solid A. #booksky 💙📚

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Read this to my 7yo this month. Probably my third or fourth read, but the first in maybe a decade. Still makes me feel like a kid! I always try to make distinct voices when reading to kids but it’s hard to keep a dozen basically-indistinguishable dwarves straight. #booksky

The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks

In the mood for some capital-C Culture and grabbed this collection. The titular story walks well-trodden paths of what makes humans human, but adds that Culture charm while being a bit tell-don’t-show. I love these hedonistic space-anarchy-communists. #booksky

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

My 3rd Ishiguro of the year. While I didn’t like it as much as Never Let Me Go, it had a similar wistful nostalgia to the prose. He excels at showing us the world through the eyes of an earnest naïf. The ending hit me harder than I expected though. #booksky

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

Stephenson’s Red Mars. Heavily-researched w/ a sweeping vision. There were parts I really loved and parts I really didn’t. 2nd part felt way too navel-gazey for me. All that for a chance to re-make humanity and they decided to keep racism and capitalism. 😭 #booksky 💙📚🪐

If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino

A singular novel. A multitude of novels. A meta novel about novels. Is an author truth teller or fabulist? Is a novel the words, the space between them, the relationship between ink and reader? Calvino really is a wizard. A new favorite. 😍 #booksky

Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor

I read the first a long time ago and am glad that I finally read it all together. The three short novellas combine to almost make one novel (a bit rushed in parts to be a single cohesive volume). I liked parts 2 and 3 a lot. This is great Africanfuturist fiction. 💙📚🪐

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

I liked this one a lot more than the first book in the series. Some new characters like the imperial heir and Swarm help keep it interesting. But it still feels like the plotting is weak. Some threads don’t end up mattering. #booksky