rcmnd

Cory Doctorow

Science fiction novelist, journalist and technology activist; writes the daily blog and newsletter Pluralistic and coined “enshittification”.

18 things

Music Copyright, Creativity, and CultureBook Jennifer Jenkins

loved

Jenkins understands it, though. I've been reading, writing, and debating about this stuff since the late 1990s, and I learned something new on every page of this delightful book.

His review of Jennifer Jenkins’ book on music copyright, in the daily Pluralistic.

2026-08-17·pluralistic.net ↗

Everybody's PerfectBook Jo Walton

loved

And now it's Everybody's Perfect, a book that pretty much defines what it means for one text to be "in dialog" with another text. In this case, it's Ada Palmer's Inventing the Renaissance, a stunning magnum opus that tells not just the story of the Renaissance, but the story of the story, all the different ways the Renaissance has been used, abused, revised and recovered, starting with the Renaissance itself. It's a book that will make you rethink everything you know about European history, about the world today, and about the very idea of history itself

Pluralistic review of Jo Walton's new novel and its dialogue with Ada Palmer's history.

2026-06-30·pluralistic.net ↗

ObstetrixBook Naomi Kritzer

loved

All told, this is a read-in-one-sitting thriller that does as much to illuminate the workings and dynamics of patriarchy and religion as any gender studies class. It's peak Kritzer (so far), and that's saying something.

Pluralistic review of Naomi Kritzer's cult thriller.

2026-06-09·pluralistic.net ↗

Here Where We Live Is Our CountryBook Molly Crabapple

loved

Crabapple's response to this burgeoning movement is this book, a massive, heroic, brilliant, and pitiless history of the Bund that proposes its own answer to "the Jewish question."

Pluralistic review of Molly Crabapple's history of the Jewish Labour Bund.

2026-06-01·pluralistic.net ↗

CannonBook Lee Lai

loved

The result is something that's beautiful, sharp, critical and lingering. Long after I closed the cover, I found myself mulling over the delicate ways that Lai raised the contradictions, sorrows and beauty of queer love, racial identity, camaraderie, self-control, and self-indulgence. Lai's characters have no answers, only questions that can never be fully resolved. Instead, these questions are the defining puzzles, defeats and triumphs of their lives.

Pluralistic review of Lee Lai's second graphic novel.

2026-05-08·pluralistic.net ↗

Inventing the RenaissanceBook Ada Palmer

loved

Ada Palmer may just be the most bewilderingly talented person I know: a genius sf writer, incredible librettist and singer, wildly innovative educator, and a leading historian of the Renaissance, and last year, she published her magnum opus, Inventing the Renaissance, a stunning book about so much more than history

Pluralistic review of Ada Palmer's history of the Renaissance.

2026-04-25·pluralistic.net ↗

Privacy's DefenderBook Cindy Cohn

loved

This book is a beautiful capstone to a brilliant career that defined the fight for cyber rights, and a deep, accessible dive into the defining tech and human rights battles of this century.

Pluralistic review of the EFF director's memoir.

2026-04-09·pluralistic.net ↗

The Universe BoxBook Michael Swanwick

loved

This is what it means to read a short story collection from an absolute master at the absolute peak of his powers. He can slide you frictionlessly between Icelandic troll tragedies to lethal drone-leopard romantic agonies to battles of the gods and the cigar box that has the universe inside of it. All with the lyricism of Bradbury, the madcap wit of Sturgeon, the unrelenting weirdness of Dick, the heart of Tiptree and the precision of Chiang.

Pluralistic review of Michael Swanwick's short story collection.

2026-02-03·pluralistic.net ↗

Letters From an Imaginary CountryBook Theodora Goss

loved

Theodora Goss's latest book of short stories is 'Letters From an Imaginary Country,' and it manages to be one of the most voraciously, delightfully readable books I've ever read and it's one of the most writerly books, too. What a treat!

Pluralistic review of Theodora Goss's short story collection.

2025-11-11·pluralistic.net ↗

Science Comics Computers: How Digital Hardware WorksBook Perry Metzger, Penelope Spector and Jerel Dye

loved

In Science Comics Computers: How Digital Hardware Works, legendary cypherpunk Perry Metzger teams up with Penelope Spector and illustrator Jerel Dye for a tour-de-force young adult comic book that uses hilarious steampunk dinosaurs to demystify the most foundational building-blocks of computers. It's astounding

Pluralistic review of a young-adult comic explaining computer hardware.

2025-11-05·pluralistic.net ↗

9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped OffBook Raymond Biesinger

loved

Raymond Biesinger's new book 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off is a masterclass in how creative workers can transform the endless, low-grade seething about the endless ripoffs of the industry into something productive and even profound

Pluralistic review of Raymond Biesinger's book about being ripped off.

2025-10-28·pluralistic.net ↗

Fever BeachBook Carl Hiaasen

loved

It's screamingly funny, devilishly inventive, and deeply, profoundly satisfying. With Fever Beach, Hiaasen makes a compelling case for Florida as the perfect microcosm of the terrifying state of America, and an even more compelling case for his position as its supreme storyteller.

Pluralistic review of Carl Hiaasen's Florida crime novel.

2025-10-21·pluralistic.net ↗

The WeightBook Melissa Mendes

loved

The Weight is Mellia Mendes's award-winning webcomic, now collected in a massive, beautifully made graphic novel from Drawn & Quarterly. It will tear your heart out, it will send you to a dreamy world of pastoral utopianism, then it will tear your heart out.

Pluralistic review of Melissa Mendes's graphic novel.

2025-08-21·pluralistic.net ↗

Lessons in Magic and DisasterBook Charlie Jane Anders

loved

Charlie Jane Anders' Lessons in Magic and Disaster drops today: it's a novel about queer academia, the wonder of thinking very hard about very old books, and the terror and joy of ambiguous magic. It's my kind of novel!

Pluralistic review of Charlie Jane Anders' novel.

2025-08-19·pluralistic.net ↗

The Open Copyright CasebookBook Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle

liked

Jenkins' flair for legal communications carries over to her scholarly work, of course, which is why her Open Copyright Casebook is a standard text for American law schools:

His review of Jennifer Jenkins’ book on music copyright, in the daily Pluralistic.

2026-08-17·pluralistic.net ↗

THEFT! A History of MusicBook James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins and Keith Aoki

liked

These examples are liberally illustrated with links to musical excerpts that bring the subject to life (these are presented as hotlinks in the ebook; if you're reading the print edition, you can use the book's companion website:) https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/musiccopyright/ Interspersed with these histories and analysis are lengthy, extremely on-point excerpts from THEFT!

His review of Jennifer Jenkins’ book on music copyright, in the daily Pluralistic.

2026-08-17·pluralistic.net ↗

Kill StickySoftware gala8y

recommended

I've been running gala8y's version for a year now with no problems, and I recommend it as your second line of dickover defense (after Reader Mode)

A how-to post on defeating full-page interstitials and sticky page furniture.

2026-07-21·pluralistic.net ↗

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The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

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