Cosma Rohilla Shalizi

A History of BiologyBook Michel Morange

The chapter on medieval Islam wasn't very deep, otherwise this is truly excellent, particularly when covering the very complicated 20th century. I don't have much more to say, because it is so good, except that I should try to get my brother to review it.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2026 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2026-07-09·bactra.org ↗

Forty Signs of RainBook Kim Stanley Robinson

I loved this, but partly this was the pleasant shock of recognition: much of the action revolves around the National Science Foundation and, physically, its old headquarters in Arlington, which Robinson captures extremely well (even the atmosphere of review panels).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, June 2026.

2026-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real WorldBook Mike Beggs, Ben Burgis and Bhaskar Sunkara

This is the best --- the most accessible and the most forceful --- case for market socialism since Alec Nove in the 1980s.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, June 2026.

2026-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Doxies PenaltyBook Madeleine Robins

Mind candy: continuing Robins's series of historical mysteries set in a very-slightly-alternate Regency London. (I re-read the last one, Sleeping Partner, before turning to this.) Robins continues to be great and I hope that many more of these will flow from her pen.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, May 2026.

2026-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World EconomyBook Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman

With that disclaimer out of the way, this is a great book, which simultaneously illuminates some very, very important phenomena, and is very well-written.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, April 2026.

2026-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Queen DemonBook Martha Wells

I do not think this book could really be enjoyed without the previous book, but with it, it's lots of skillfully-written fun, and leaves me eager for more.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Far Country: Scenes from American CultureBook Franco Moretti

Some of Moretti's characteristics are here --- he's really big on comparisons between multiple examples of genres, so there's a (brilliant) chapter contrasting Westerns with film noir, but it's definitely a contrast between the genres, rather than between any particular Western and any particular film noir. But I guess not even Moretti wanted to teach intro. lit. to freshmen through distant reading.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the WorldBook Adam Tooze

This is a great history of what lead up to the 2008 financial crisis, and its effects down, basically, to the time of writing. What makes it so good is that Tooze has a mastery of the material on, it seems, every possible scale.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-05-31·bactra.org ↗

At the Foundling HospitalBook Robert Pinsky

Excellent poems, as usual. Pinsky will for me always be the author of "The Figured Wheel", and there are some here in that vein (e.g., "The Foundling Tokens", from which the title comes), but also more elegaic ones. I will permit myself to quote one of the shorter poems in its entirety; "The Robots" would be a bit too predictable for this blog, so let's try "Genesis": Where was the kiln, what was the clay?

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Like: PoemsBook A. E. Stallings

Beautiful stuff from one of my favorite contemporary poets. "Swallows" and "Epic Simile" give a fair impression of what you'll find. This also includes a lot of the poems discussed in Cynthia Haven's "Crossing Borders" essay.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Teenie Harris, Photographer: Image, Memory, HistoryBook Cheryl Finley, Laurence Glasco and Joe W. Trotter, with an introduction by Deborah Willis

A terrific collection of Harris's photos of (primarily) Pittsburgh's black community from the 1930s to the 1970s, with good biographical and historical-contextual essays.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Aztecs: An InterpretationBook Inga Clendinnen

This is a brilliant book, a learned, intelligent and sympathetic attempt to try understand something of how things would have felt in what most readers would find a very strange and (to put it mildly) unsympathetic society. I also cannot help but feel that huge chunks of it are massive speculations, starting from the first substantive chapter on Aztec notions of "the sacred" and going on from there.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of ScienceBook Peter Godfrey-Smith

I can easily say that this is the one of the best modern introductory books on the philosophy of science I've ever read.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Bel CantoBook Ann Patchett

Beautiful writing, and a story I found gripping, even though I am completely indifferent to opera.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-08-31·bactra.org ↗

How Traditions Live and DieBook Olivier Morin

This is one of the best books I've read about cultural evolution in many years. It focuses, obviously, on "traditions", defined (p. 37) as "anything that is widely distributed in a population", with the distribution being "due to a diffusion process".

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Within the Sanctuary of WingsBook Marie Brennan

Mind candy: Conclusion to Brennan's excellent fantasy series of pseudo-Victorian natural history. Many mysteries get resolved, in ways which genuinely surprised me. (Previously.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Hunting with Eagles: In the Realm of the Mongolian KazakhsBook Palani Mohan

Beautiful black-and-white photographs of, as it says, Mongolian Kazakhs hunting with eagles, and their landscape. Many of them are just stunningly composed.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Deception WellBook Linda Nagata

This is one of Nagata's republished novels from the 1990s, when she was, quite simply, one of the best hard-SF writers going. It shows all her virtues: elegant writing, rigorous large-scale imagination, a story growing naturally from the setting, and a certain emotional detachment from her characters which does not interfere with the narrative drive. (I have my suspicions as to why Nagata's writing career went into hiatus.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh ProjectBook

Beautiful, beautiful photographs of the city from 1955--1957. (Many but not all of them can be seen online through Magnum.) The composition and selection are both incredible. Smith was evidently a real piece of work, but still the story of a multi-year, career-wrecking obsession with capturing the whole of the life of a city feels, except for the technology, as though it were ripped straight from the Romantic period.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Anatomy of Melancholy: The Best ofBook Emily Horne and Joey Comeau

Calling A Softer World one of the best web-comics gives no idea whatsoever of its merits. I was deeply saddened to learn it would end in 2015, and only partially consoled by the prospect of this book. I commend it to anyone who reads this blog with pleasure.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Paradise LostBook John Milton

On this attempt I listened to an excellent audiobook (read by Ralph Cosham), and I loved it. The language is magnificent, as is Milton's attempt to depict action on a more-than-terrestrial scale. (Though his standards for mind-boggling vastness are comically small, compared to the actual universe shown to us by astronomy.) The ideology is rubbish, of course.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Mirror of the OrientBook Roland and Sabrina Michaud

This is a wonderful book I have coveted for many years, and I am very pleased to have finally scored a copy I could afford.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Ancillary SwordBook Ann Leckie

That's a very tough act to follow, and I think it's fair to say this isn't as brilliant as the first book. (In particular, Breq guesses right too often.) That still leaves it an excellent space opera. — The audiobook, read by Adjoa Andoh, is really good.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

At Large and At Small: Familiar EssaysBook Anne Fadiman

A delightful collection of bookish and personal essays. There are some I'd argue with, but Fadiman succeeds admirably in giving the sense that there'd be an enjoyable, intelligent, amiable argument.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish LieutenantBook Tony Cliff

Unusually delightful comic-book mind candy. The first few chapters are free online. A sequel is promised, and I await it eagerly.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-08-31·bactra.org ↗

How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart TeachingBook

An excellent guide to what psychological research has to say about making college-level teaching more effective --- that is, helping our students understand what we want them to learn, retain it, and use it and make it their own. I'd already been following some of the recommendations, but I am going to consciously try to do more, especially when it comes to scaffolding and giving rapid, targeted feedback.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Forever WarBook Joe Haldeman

It goes well beyond mind-candy to being both a great work of hard science fiction and an excellent novel in its own right. The sexual and gender politics are dated, and the technology is now anachronistically short of computation, but that's not really the point; as Haldeman says in his foreword to the electronic edition, it's "mainly about war, about soldiers, and about the reasons we think we need them".

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Malcolm X: A Life of ReinventionBook Manning Marable

A really magnificent biography of a remarkable American, by a great scholar coming from a viewpoint close enough to be sympathetic but distant enough to be sharply critical.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2013 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2013-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Travelling through the Eye of HistoryBook Daniel Schwartz

Beautiful contemporary photographs of Central Asia; the text strives for profoundity but only achieves pretentiousness.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2013 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2013-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Intelligence of Democracy: Decision-Making by Mutual AdjustmentBook Charles E. Lindblom

Mostly a brilliant exposition of how complex social and political problems get solved --- or, if not exactly solved, then dealt with --- by decentralized processes of partisan mutual adjustment, and how this is actually superior to what could be achieved by centralized authority.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2012 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2012-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Silently and Very FastBook Catherynne M. Valente

It's one of the best stories about AI — and personal identity, and family continuity, and embodiment and incarnation, and both humanity and post-humanity — I've ever read. The way it re-works mythologies is both brilliant and essential to the story (but it's by Valente, so you knew those things).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2012 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2012-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Bards of Bone PlainBook Patricia A. McKillip

Beautiful prose, as always, but for the first time that I can remember with one of McKillip's books, the ending felt rushed. Still eminently worth reading.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2012 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2012-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Wings of the SphinxBook Andrea Camilleri

Delightful as always, though tinged with melancholy, because Montalbano is growing old (and making some questionable personal decisions because of it).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The Track of SandBook Andrea Camilleri

Delightful as always, though tinged with melancholy, because Montalbano is growing old (and making some questionable personal decisions because of it).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The Potter's FieldBook Andrea Camilleri

Delightful as always, though tinged with melancholy, because Montalbano is growing old (and making some questionable personal decisions because of it).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The Nature of ComputationBook Cristopher Moore and Stephan Mertens

This is, simply put, the best-written book on the theory of computation I have ever read; one of the best-written mathematical books I have ever read, period.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-10-31·bactra.org ↗

TakenBook Kathleen George

Really excellent series of mystery novels, set in Pittsburgh but definitely worth reading even without the local connection.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-07-31·bactra.org ↗

FallenBook Kathleen George

Really excellent series of mystery novels, set in Pittsburgh but definitely worth reading even without the local connection.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The OddsBook Kathleen George

Really excellent series of mystery novels, set in Pittsburgh but definitely worth reading even without the local connection.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-07-31·bactra.org ↗

BookhunterBook Jason Shiga

What makes this so delightful is that it manages to be both a hilarious parody of a procedural and a perfectly-formed specimen of the genre.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Deserter: Murder at GettysburgBook Jane Langton

17th (!) installment in Langton's consistently excellent mystery series; in which her heroes' latest enthusiasm is the Civil War. (Previously in the series.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2011 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2011-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Darwinian Populations and Natural SelectionBook Peter Godfrey-Smith

Excellent brisk survey of key topics in the philosophy and general theory of natural selection. No previous exposure to the debates is really needed. There are some places where I would quibble, but over-all I recommend it very highly.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2010 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2010-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The SundialBook Shirley Jackson

I loved this in college, but hadn't read in 17 years or more. I remembered the basic story: eccentric people awaiting the end of the world in the isolated great house with its elaborate gardens. I'd forgotten, if it ever registered, just how sad so much of it was; how matter-of-fact the uncanny events were; how shabbily the people treated each other; how disabused the auctorial voice was.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2010 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2010-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Statistical Analysis of Network Data: Methods and ModelsBook Eric D. Kolaczyk

This is the best available textbook on the subject. (I say this with all due respect for Wasserman and Faust, which was published sixteen years ago.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2010 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2010-02-28·bactra.org ↗

The Direction of TimeBook Hans Reichenbach

One of the greatest of the logical positivists takes a whirl at reconciling time-reversible microscopic physics with irreversible macroscopic processes in 1956. I began reading this a long time ago, then bogged down in the last chapter, on quantum statistical mechanics; I took the occasion of a long plane flight to re-read and finish it, and am very glad I did.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2009 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2009-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic ApesBook Donna Kossy

Donna Kossy is one of the best writers about weird beliefs around.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2008 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2008-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Marshall's Tendencies: What Can Economists Know?Book John Sutton

A wonderful little book about how economists do, and (what is not quite the same) should confront models with empirical data.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2008 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2008-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Patience of the SpiderBook Andrea Camilleri

Wonderful as always; Montalbano continues to be a superb detective, and the tone of outrage at injustice and astonishment at human depravity and folly is nicely balanced with self-mockery (the scene with the alarm clock at the beginning of The Paper Moon, for example) and good food.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2008 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2008-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Paper MoonBook Andrea Camilleri

Wonderful as always; Montalbano continues to be a superb detective, and the tone of outrage at injustice and astonishment at human depravity and folly is nicely balanced with self-mockery (the scene with the alarm clock at the beginning of The Paper Moon, for example) and good food.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2008 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2008-05-31·bactra.org ↗

No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart: The Surprising Deceptions of Individual ChoiceBook Tom Slee

This is a brilliant and useful popularization of important social science, and I think basically everyone should read it.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2007 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2007-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global WarmingBook Chris C. Mooney

About the scientific debate, Mooney is appropriately skeptical, approvingly quoting one of my favorite lines from Bertrand Russell: The scepticism that I advocate amounts only to this: (1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; (2) that when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and (3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgment.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2007 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2007-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Entropy, Large Deviations, and Statistical MechanicsBook Richard S. Ellis

In addition to being an excellent exposition of the rigorous theory of large deviations (especially for physicists, naturally!), this is also one of the most conceptually satisfying approaches to the foundations of statistical mechanics. In particular, it makes good probabilistic sense of the method of maximum entropy, without invoking weird sub-Bayesian ideas about statistical inference.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2006 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2006-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Foundations of Modern ProbabilityBook Olav Kallenberg

Kallenberg is fond of revisiting previously-introduced themes, which is pedagogically sound — and would work better, in a reference book, if the index were more detailed. Still, this is the best one-volume synthesis of modern probability I have encountered, and has become my default reference. If you could only have one book on advanced probability, I'd recommend this one.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2006 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2006-02-28·bactra.org ↗

By a Spider's ThreadBook Laura Lippman

Latest installment in Lippman's excellent mystery series. No previous acquaintance with the series is really necessary, though.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2005 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2005-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Excursion to TindariBook Andrea Camilleri

Excellent Sicilian police procedural. The middle of a series; I will be reading the rest.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2005 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2005-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Etched CityBook K. J. Bishop

Disturbing, brilliant, marvellously-authoritative novel of corruption, of redemption, of art, of metamorphosis: in short of transformation. Nothing is explained, but I came away feeling that everything was explicable, that it had some hidden, cohesive meaning. I almost suspect there is a concealed alchemical allegory, only the alchemists were never this good.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2005 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2005-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real MagicBook Emily Croy Barker

Mind candy fantasy: in which an early-21st-century American young woman, whose English-lit thesis and love life are going equally poorly, does a good deed; gets rewarded with three wishes, without realizing it; and, in consequence, wanders off, first into Faery and then into a Fantasyland which is convincingly poor, sexist and dirty, but also magical.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, July 2026.

2026-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Go Down HardBook Ali Seay

Mind candy: dueling psycho-killers go on a date; mayhem ensues.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2026 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2026-07-09·bactra.org ↗

GlasslandsBook "William B. Fuckley"

This is clearly an amateur effort (there was a whole repeated paragraph), but as such it's very impressive and I am happy to have paid money for it.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, June 2026.

2026-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Resenting the HeroBook Moira J. Moore

Comparing this to The Fifth Season, it is striking how different two fantasy novels about worlds over-supplied with natural disasters, and the people with the psychic gifts to stop those disasters with their minds, can be in tone and execution. This is immensely fluffier, but it has no pretensions to be anything except candy, and succeeds as such.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, June 2026.

2026-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Scientific Renaissance, 1450--1630Book Marie Boas

An old (1962) but still interesting history of the earlier part of the scientific revolution. In every field, Boas traces a basically-humanist impulse to discard medieval ideas and accomplishments, in favor of reviving antiquity, the more antique the better, which only gradually turned towards striving to go beyond Greco-Roman science to something actually new and unprecedented.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, May 2026.

2026-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Bitter TwinsBook Jen Williams

Mind candy fantasy: sequel to The Ninth Rain (in my backlog; suffice to say: good), and continuing the high standard of that book.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, April 2026.

2026-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Orlando Furioso: A New Verse TranslationBook Ludovico Ariosto

I can have no opinion about whether the translation is accurate, but it is pretty good English verse.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, April 2026.

2026-04-30·bactra.org ↗

A Billion Days of EarthBook Doris Piserchia

It's not pleasant, but it is skillful, and strange, and makes me interested in Piserchia's other books.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, March 2026 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2026-03-31·bactra.org ↗

This Hour, Our VigilBook Rachel Neumeier

If I say it reads a bit like fanfic for Neumeier's own work, that sounds like I'm damning it, but I actually enjoyed it, because, I wanted good things to happen for those characters, who'd had drama enough and to spare.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post, March 2026 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2026-03-31·bactra.org ↗

An Introduction to the Theory of Spin Glasses and Neural NetworksBook Viktor Dotsenko

This is a short (~150 pp), brisk first book on the topic for physicists. Most of the book --- the first ten chapters --- are good introduction to common models of spin glasses.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Overnight KidnapperBook Andrea Camilleri

Mind-candy mystery from a highly reliable author.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Adventure of the Demonic OxBook Lois McMaster Bujold

Mind-candy fantasy from a highly reliable author, who is not afraid of putting beloved characters through the wringer.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American WestBook Erin Hogan

Mind candy: A fun travelogue which does what it says in the title. It pretty much satisfies any impulses I might have to actually see any of the artworks in question. No familiarity with art-critical jargon required, though long passages are (more or less explicitly) art criticism.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Demon DaughterBook Lois McMaster Bujold

Mind-candy fantasy from a highly reliable author, who is not afraid of putting beloved characters through the wringer.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2025 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Penric and the BanditBook Lois McMaster Bujold

Mind-candy fantasy from a highly reliable author, who is not afraid of putting beloved characters through the wringer.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2025 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Iliad: A New TranslationBook Homer, translated by Caroline Alexander

It's very readable, and captures a sense of what is, fundamentally, a very alien, and often ugly, story in a very alien, and often ugly, world, related in magnificent language.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2025 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Ancillary JusticeBook Ann Leckie

Re-read because I couldn't interest myself in a couple of other pieces of mind candy and thought "you know who did this sort of thing well...". Which got me thinking, again, about the relationship between this series and feminism.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2025 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2025-01-31·bactra.org ↗

At the MidwayBook J. Clayton Rogers

Mind candy, historical creature-feature thriller: in which the US military, in the form of the very worst ship in Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, comes up against beasts which are not oversized plesiosaurs. (Exactly what they are instead would be a minor spoiler.) I have no idea how I found this online, but it's perfectly enjoyable as a specimen of the genre.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Sunglasses After DarkBook Nancy A. Collins

Mind candy, horror/contemporary fantasy: the first four "Sonja Blue" novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-10-31·bactra.org ↗

In the BloodBook Nancy A. Collins

Mind candy, horror/contemporary fantasy: the first four "Sonja Blue" novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Paint It BlackBook Nancy A. Collins

Mind candy, horror/contemporary fantasy: the first four "Sonja Blue" novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Perspective of the WorldBook Fernand Braudel

It's definitely the volume I find least satisfying.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Civilization and Capitalism, 15th--18th CenturyBook Fernand Braudel

It's definitely the volume I find least satisfying.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and ConnectionBook Tamim Ansary

The result is extremely engaging, and while I didn't particularly learn from it, I daresay most of the prospective audience will not, in fact, have read as widely in Ansary's sources as I happen to have done.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Black CompanyBook Glen Cook

Mind candy military fantasy, in which Our Protagonists find themselves working as mercenaries for the Dark Lord's only-barely-less-evil ex-wife, on whom the narrator develops an unhealthy crush.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Shadows LingerBook Glen Cook

Mind candy military fantasy, in which Our Protagonists find themselves working as mercenaries for the Dark Lord's only-barely-less-evil ex-wife, on whom the narrator develops an unhealthy crush.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The White RoseBook Glen Cook

Mind candy military fantasy, in which Our Protagonists find themselves working as mercenaries for the Dark Lord's only-barely-less-evil ex-wife, on whom the narrator develops an unhealthy crush.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Blighted StarsBook Megan E. O'Keefe

Mind candy: a very angsty romance wrapped in a shell of space opera. Both aspects of the story are left in media res, and I look forward to reading the sequels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Last GodBook Phillip Kennedy Johnson et al.

Mind candy, comic book fantasy heavily influenced by D & D.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

TinkerBook Wen Spencer

Mind candy fantasy, in which Pittsburgh is transported to Elfland for most of each month. I read it for the local interest (admission to CMU plays a small part of the plot, and bad things happen in Turtle Creek [which I can only too easily believe]), and it was OK, but not good enough to make me pick up any of the many sequels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Moon's KnightBook Lilith Saintcrow

Mind candy portal fantasy, in which Our Protagonist's struggles to escape back to Mundania are rather complicated by her growing recognition that her life there sucked, actually, and maybe fighting strange beasts and stranger people isn't so bad in comparison...

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Dark Lord's DaughterBook Patricia C. Wrede

Mind candy fantasy for younger readers, in which Mr. and Mrs. Middle America's beloved adoptive daughter turns out to be from Somewhere Else, which comes calling. It's very fluffy, which I was in the mood for, and Wrede is always reliably enjoyable.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2024 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2024-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Nothing to HideBook Allison Brennan

Mind candy thriller, somehow equally about a serial killer and about secrets in marriage. (Previously in this series.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Dark CountryBook Monique Snyman

Mind candy horror/mystery, stalking and being stalked by the somewhat-supernatural serial killer, with extensive local color for contemporary South Africa. There are rough patches, but it's a perfectly enjoyable specimen of this type of novel. It's obviously the set-up for a series, and I'm not sure I need to follow these characters, but I would be happy to read more by Snyman.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Palm Beach FinlandBook Antti Tuomainen

Mind candy: black comedy crime fiction / murder mystery, in rural Finland. I enjoyed both the comic darkness and the convincing happy endings all around. (At least, happy by the characters' own lights...) My first Tuomainen, but I'd read more if they crossed my path and I was in the right mood.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Star KingdomBook Lindsay Buroker

Buroker is a reliable author of very fluffy mind candy, either science fiction or fantasy. A lot of her output is re-working material from identifiable prior art, without hewing so closely to the canon as to constitute fan fiction.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Spy IslandBook Chelsea Cain et al.

Comic book mind candy, affectionately parodying several genres at once: glamorous spies, mysterious islands, etc.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-08-31·bactra.org ↗

CodaBook Simon Spurrier and Matías Bergara

Comic book mind candy fantasy. Superficially, this is a cynical, post-apocalyptic subversion of the Matter of Middle Earth. In fact, the hard-bitten surface merely conceals a core which actually believes in epic fantasy, both in the content and in the classical form (a trilogy ending in a eucatastrophe).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Silver TideBook Jen Williams

They're all mind candy, but of high quality, and this one even makes me swallow a time-travel plot without complaint. But it really does rely on having read the rest of the trilogy beforehand.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Hell BentBook Leigh Bardugo

Mind candy fantasy / campus novel, in which Yale is literally a gateway to Hell.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Songs for the Dead: AfterlifeBook Andrea Fort et al.

Mind candy fantasy, comic book flavor. A satisfying conclusion to the story.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Alberuni's India: An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about A.D. 1030Book Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni

It's mostly readable, though there are quite a few places where the translator calls for more research and this reprint, naturally, doesn't say whether it's been followed up *. In any event, I found this fascinating.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The Soviet Middle East: A Model for Development?Book Alec Nove and J. A. Newth

The former is a personal touchstone which shaped me deeply; the later is merely very good. Looking up something else, I happened to discover that a bunch of his books are now available through our library electronically, so I plunged in.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Dungeons and DragonsBook Jim Zub et al.

Comic-book mind-candy, of a particularly fluffy sort that does a good job of capturing the feel of a mostly-light-hearted long-running campaign.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Days of Endless AdventureBook Jim Zub et al.

Comic-book mind-candy, of a particularly fluffy sort that does a good job of capturing the feel of a mostly-light-hearted long-running campaign.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Infernal TidesBook Jim Zub et al.

Comic-book mind-candy, of a particularly fluffy sort that does a good job of capturing the feel of a mostly-light-hearted long-running campaign.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-01-31·bactra.org ↗

This Corner of the UniverseBook Britt Ringel

Mind candy: Military SF by someone who must've spent a big chunk of time in the (US?) military. The novel is good on the inter-personal dynamics of the service and especially of the small ship.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Hokuloa RoadBook Elizabeth Hand

Mind candy horror, continuing Hand's interest in beautiful places where people just go missing (and come to bad ends). It's exciting and creepy, and also one of the better fictional depictions I've found of the strangeness of 2020.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2023 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2023-01-31·bactra.org ↗

FuturismBook Caroline Tisdall and Angelo Bozzolla

This is older, but it's still a really good book about the Italian Futurists. Indeed I can't think of a better one for a general audience with some background knowledge of modern art. The chapters on Futurist painting and sculpture, on music and performance, on women, and on politics are especially good.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-12-31·bactra.org ↗

What Moves the DeadBook T. Kingfisher

Mind candy: a re-telling of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" as (is this really a spoiler?) parasite-porn horror. Amusing, and pleasingly creepy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of HellBook Nathan Ballingrud

Horror mind candy; all six stories (the last two are really novellas) share a common mythology. Usually-reliable sources had praised Ballingrud's work, so when I ran across a cheap copy I picked this up.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The House of SoulsBook Arthur Machen

Mind candy, seasonal. The Kingfisher novel begins with a middle-aged person traveling from Pittsburgh to North Carolina to clear out a relative's house and storage unit, a scenario I instantly identified with, and from there builds the strangeness and tension very satisfyingly. It's the first Kingfisher I've read, but it certainly won't be the last.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-10-31·bactra.org ↗

NeedleBook Linda Nagata

Mind candy science fiction, latest in Nagata's "Inverted Frontier" series.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Nobody Runs ForeverBook Richard Stark

Mind candy crime fiction. This is a Parker novel, which is to say coolly detached competence porn set among professional criminals --- with emotional amateurs providing contrast and heaps of Plot. I found it refreshing.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Lord QuilliferBook Walter Jon Williams

Mind-candy fantasy, competence-porn division. I very much enjoyed the latest installment in Quillifer's adventures and mis-adventures, but you really need to have read the previous books (1, 2) to get anything out of this.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Toaster Project: Or a Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from ScratchBook Thomas Thwaites

Whether he succeeds is a matter of interpretation, but many valuable lessons about technology, knowledge, materials, the division of labor in society, and the nature of the built environment are learned along the way. Recommended if you can enjoy, or even just tolerate, wry, self-deprecating, Very British humor.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Ancient Puebloan SouthwestBook John Kantner

The writing is mostly smooth and expository (*), and I learned a lot of fascinating-to-me details from it. Kantner does do the usual archaeologist thing of making very confident-sounding assertions about social organization which he must know are far more conjectural than he makes them sound. (**) But this is par for the archaeological course.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Singapore SapphireBook A. M. Stuart

Mind-candy historical mysteries, set in Singapore, mostly among just-barely-genteel Britishers, in the years immediately before World War I. Enjoyable period color, though family tradition requires me to make dark aside about British imperialism as I read.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Revenge in RubiesBook A. M. Stuart

Mind-candy historical mysteries, set in Singapore, mostly among just-barely-genteel Britishers, in the years immediately before World War I. Enjoyable period color, though family tradition requires me to make dark aside about British imperialism as I read.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Evil in EmeraldBook A. M. Stuart

Mind-candy historical mysteries, set in Singapore, mostly among just-barely-genteel Britishers, in the years immediately before World War I. Enjoyable period color, though family tradition requires me to make dark aside about British imperialism as I read.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Miami BluesBook Charles Willeford

Mind candy mystery: First two "Hoke Moseley" mystery novels, written and set in Miaimi c.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-04-30·bactra.org ↗

New Hope for the DeadBook Charles Willeford

Mind candy mystery: First two "Hoke Moseley" mystery novels, written and set in Miaimi c.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-04-30·bactra.org ↗

A Succession of Bad DaysBook Graydon Saunders

But I enjoyed it enough to keep reading all the way to the end.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-04-30·bactra.org ↗

A Cold Day for MurderBook Dana Stabenow

Mind candy mysteries, where the Alaskan environment is as much a character as any human being, or husky.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-03-31·bactra.org ↗

A Fatal ThawBook Dana Stabenow

Mind candy mysteries, where the Alaskan environment is as much a character as any human being, or husky.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Dead in the WaterBook Dana Stabenow

Mind candy mysteries, where the Alaskan environment is as much a character as any human being, or husky.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The Kaiju Preservation SocietyBook John Scalzi

Mind candy comic science fiction. It's Scalzi, which means it's funny and mostly but not entirely lightheartedly, and reads extremely smoothly.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The Dante GameBook Jane Langton

Mind candy mystery: the umpteenth book in Langton's series, in which Homer Kelly stumbles his way into an artistic or literary enthusiasm and a homicide investigation. This time it's Dante, and the city of Florence, and the new pope's anti-drug crusade, which is far too successful for some people's liking. It's an old favorite which holds up very well.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the PresentBook Adeeb Khalid

It's extremely scholarly --- Khalid has clearly read and synthesized almost everything --- but still very readable. If you are at all interested in this part of the world, it's very much worth your time.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban AgeBook Annalee Newitz

On the one hand, it's pleasantly-written and engaging popular social science about four interesting and important cities that were, for one reason or another, abandoned and (largely) forgotten:

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Frozen Empires: An Environmental History of the Antarctic PeninsulaBook Adrian Howkins

A solid history of political conflicts over the Antarctic Peninsula between the British Empire, Argentina, Chile, the US and the Soviet Union, with other parties showing up as bit players.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2022 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2022-01-31·bactra.org ↗

TribulationsBook Mary Sisson

It's deeply enjoyable and I hope we don't have to wait another seven years for more.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Mechanism: A Visual, Lexical, and Conceptual HistoryBook Domenico Bertoloni Meli

Bertoloni Meli has read, seemingly, absolutely everything, in multiple languages, and can move skillfully and insightfully from historiographic debates about "the mechanization of the world picture" to contemporary ideas in the philosophy of science about explanation by mechanisms to the details of how ligature of arteries were drawn in anatomical texts, and what this tells us about how doctors' understanding of what ligatures did changed. All of this is done with very graceful writing and elegantly-chosen illustrations.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Measurement in the Social Sciences: The Link between Theory and DataBook Richard A. Zeller and Edward G. Carmines

I wish I liked this more, because it's heart is in the right place. In particular, trying to see what remains of psychometric's classical test theory after admitting that systematic error is possible is a worthwhile undertaking!

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The PaladinBook C. J. Cherryh

Mind-candy fantasy, in a world of little magic, but a lot of superstition and a lot of desire for vengeance. Not Cherryh's identity-bending best, but I wanted a comfort re-read and this delivered.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Gated PreyBook Lee Goldberg

Extremely fluffy mind-candy mystery. (Previously.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Ghost OrchidBook Carol Goodman

Mind candy: literary ghost story, involving a haunted writer's colony in upstate New York. About half of it might be a direct relation of the events a century before that set the haunting in motion, or might be the present-day heroine's novel in progress; they work either way.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Green Flash, and Other Tales of Horror, Suspense, and FantasyBook Joan Aiken

Mind candy, displaying a remarkable range of flavors and tones. One uniformity: Aiken's men are all clueless about her female characters (it wouldn't be accurate to say "her women"), to comic and/or ominous effect.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The ColonyBook F. G. Cottam

Mind candy horror. There are some moments of real creepiness, but the whole plot for the last quarter or so is a bit rushed and sloppy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Memory Palace of Matteo RicciBook Jonathan D. Spence

An engaging, and ultimately moving, portrait of both an individual and an age. Reading it makes me wonder at my own memory practices. You probably need some grounding in the history of both early modern Europe and early modern China to really get it, but if you have that background, it's a beautiful depiction of the work of cultural interchange.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-09-30·bactra.org ↗

A Dark and Secret PlaceBook Jen Williams

Mind candy mystery: in which a young journalist dealing with her deceased mother's effects discovers just how messed up parts of the 1970s counter-culture could get.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Dog Rose DirtBook Jen Williams

Mind candy mystery: in which a young journalist dealing with her deceased mother's effects discovers just how messed up parts of the 1970s counter-culture could get.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Inequality: A Short HistoryBook Michele Alacevich and Anna Soci

[It's a good book.]) They do make the interesting point that both classical and neo-classical economics focused on the distribution of income across factors of production, rather than the distribution of income (or wealth) across persons or households.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Kingdom of CopperBook S. A. Chakraborty

I found the continuing story enjoyable, but the language is, to borrow a phrase from Le Guin, very much that of Poughkeepsie rather than Elfland, despite being almost entirely set in Elfland (or, more precisely, Jinnistan). Still, I immediately got the sequel after finishing this.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-07-31·bactra.org ↗

A Wicked ConceitBook Anna Lee Huber

Mind candy mystery. I think it's probably just as good as the earlier books, but that series fatigue has set in for me after nine volumes. They will, however, loose little from being read out of order.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-07-31·bactra.org ↗

No ExitBook Taylor Adams

Mind-candy thriller, which I think conforms to every one of the classical dramatic unities.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Fleet ElementsBook Walter Jon Williams

Military space opera mind candy of the very highest grade. For one thing, it earns operatic levels of emotion. --- Previously.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-04-30·bactra.org ↗

CroneBook Dennis Culver and Justin Greenwood

Comic book swords-and-sorcery mind candy, in which the former Red Sonja Bloody Bliss, now the titular crone, is dragged out of retirement to re-confront a Dark Lord she knows she killed...

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of HerculesBook Tony Cliff

Comic book historical-fantasy mind candy. (Previously.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Sunshine EnemiesBook K. C. Constantine

Mind candy from 1990: the nth in a series of mystery novels set in the fictional western Pennsylvania town of Rockford, PA, somewhere in the environs of Pittsburgh — what I've heard called the yinzerlands. It's a good mystery novel, but what really sets it apart is the dialogue. Constantine has an incredible ear for the way locals of that generation spoke, and turns it into riveting dialogue.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American CityBook Rosa Brooks

This was, as everyone told her and she freely acknowledges, crazy, but it produced a really good book, equal parts memoir, war stories, and intellectual reflection.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Ninth HouseBook Leigh Bardugo

Mind candy contemporary fantasy: what if the Yale secret societies were literally pursuing magic? And what if Yale were to admit an utterly un-well-rounded student with serious issues who happened to be really good at magic? (Bardugo graduated from Yale a surprisingly small number of years ago.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-02-28·bactra.org ↗

The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the RenaissanceBook Jim Al-Khalili

As a practicising physicist, Al-Khalili is both very good at explaining the science done, and somewhat impatient of the meta-scientific subtleties.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2021 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2021-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Bog BodiesBook Declan Shalvey

Mind candy comic-book crime fiction. §

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Suprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the InternetBook Tim Hwang

On the one hand, I enjoyed, and learned from, the rather caustic presentation of how online advertising works as a business, and how ineffective such advertising is. (I'd actually be sort of interested to read a debate on this point between Hwang and, say, Shoshana Zuboff.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Cold IronBook Nicholas Freeling

Mind candy mysteries, with local color for provincial France in the 1970s (when they were written).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Night LordsBook Nicholas Freeling

Mind candy mysteries, with local color for provincial France in the 1970s (when they were written).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Sword-DancerBook Jennifer Roberson

Mind candy fantasy, in which our no-good-nik narrator finds himself caught up in someone else's high-minded quest for vengeance.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-11-30·bactra.org ↗

A History of Western PhilosophyBook Bertrand Russell

But I will also ask you to appreciate the spectacle of a genuinely great philosopher earnestly engaging with the history of the tradition that shaped him, and how that tradition had lived in the world.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Songs for the DeadBook Andrea Fort et al.

Comic book mind candy, near the border between fantasy and horror. This is secondary-world fantasy where the questing heroine is. in fact, a necromancer who constantly surrounds herself with the shambling, walking dead; it's also as heart-warming as possible, under the circumstances.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-10-31·bactra.org ↗

A Stroke of MaliceBook Anna Lee Huber

Mind candy historical mystery, latest in the on-going series. Not deep, but reliably enjoyable.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Family PlotBook Cherie Priest

Mind candy Southern-Gothic horror. I guessed some Awful Secrets early on, and, well, I never do that.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us AllBook Laird Barron

Mind candy, Lovecraftian-derived short stories. (Though Thomas Ligotti might be a more direct influence?) Barron has a strong reputation, but, after this first encounter with his fiction, I cannot understand why. Everything from the supernatural horrors through the world-weariness to the unbelievable and stiff characters feels third hand.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-10-31·bactra.org ↗

An Artless DemiseBook Anna Lee Huber

Mind candy historical mystery, 7th in the series; continuing to be enjoyable.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Hobo MomBook

Further comic book mind candy, assorted (no particular order). I'd read sequels to the first two.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Language Families of the WorldBook John McWhorter

McWhorter is always at his best as a spirited and engaging expositor of linguistics to non-linguists.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi EconomyBook Adam Tooze

This is immensely detailed, immensely readable, and immensely self-assured. It's also so deep into intricate controversies among economic, military and political historians that I feel quite unable to judge it. I will say that I thought I appreciated how much more backwards the European economies were than America in the first half of the 20th century, but even so much of this was eye-opening.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Last GoddessBook C. E. Stalbaum

Mind candy: Wily Thieves get embroiled in politico-religio-magical machinations in Fantasyland.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-05-31·bactra.org ↗

City of InkBook Elsa Hart

Mind candy historical mystery: continuing adventures of a mild-mannered early-Qing-dynasty scholar who keeps having to unravel murders when all he really wants to do is quietly pursue his implacable revenge. I love these and just wish Hart would write faster.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-05-31·bactra.org ↗

A Walk Through HellBook

Comic book mind candy, all in various flavors of horror.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Walking Through FireBook Sherri Cook Woosley

Mind candy. This is a well-written the-magic-returns-and-our-world-changes contemporary fantasy, clearly setting up what should ordinarily be an enjoyable series, but of course the pandemic happened in the middle of my reading it.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Epidemic Modelling: An IntroductionBook D. J. Daley and J. Gani

I think it would still make a good introduction, and I plan to borrow from it freely the next time I teach these models.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Cold StorageBook David Koepp

Mind candy: parasite porn thriller. Engaging, but there are bits where I found myself rooting for the parasite.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Dismal MountainBook John Billheimer

Mind-candy mysteries, in which a consulting transport planner returns to his home in rural West Virginia to deal with family and rural decay.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Drybone HollowBook John Billheimer

Mind-candy mysteries, in which a consulting transport planner returns to his home in rural West Virginia to deal with family and rural decay.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Your Eyelids Are Growing HeavyBook Barbara Paul

Mind candy: Pittsburgh mystery from 1981, which begins with the matter-of-factly unflappable heroine waking up on a local golf course with no memory of how she got there, and builds to a complicated and fast-moving story.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Gist of ReadingBook Andrew Elfenbein

As an outsider to all the disciplines involved, I found it fascinating, and a model of engaged, modest interdisciplinarity.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Fighting ChanceBook Jane Haddam

Mind candy mystery novel: the 29th, and sadly last, of her Gregor Demarkian series. This is the only one where the solution, while logical, "fair" and completely unexpected, did not feel right. (I refrain from saying any more to avoid spoilers.) It is also, as this profile notes, one where the background crime, outrageous though it sounds, was entirely real, and it's astonishing that it did not end in murder.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of IdentityBook Kwame Anthony Appiah

A fine study of what Du Bois took from German thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially from German Romanticism and from the "professorial socialism" of his teachers in Berlin.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-02-29·bactra.org ↗

If I Should DieBook Allison Brennan

Mind-candy thriller: in which outsiders try to start a legitimate business in a deeply criminal town in upstate New York, and plot ensues. A bunch of the soap-opera among the characters presupposing reading the earlier books in the series. (To be clear, I enjoy the soap opera.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-02-29·bactra.org ↗

The Case of the Reincarnated ClientBook Tarquin Hall

Mind-candy mystery, the latest installment in Hall's "Vish Puri" series in contemporary Delhi. Delightful as always, and I think full enjoyable without the prior installments. (Read before sectarian riots in Delhi became topical again.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-02-29·bactra.org ↗

Quillifer the KnightBook Walter Jon Williams

Mind candy fantasy, but high quality mind candy. Quillifer (introduced in the book of that name) is an opportunistic social climber with a tragic backstory and a supernatural nemesis in a formerly-medieval fantasyland undergoing a renaissance. He's charming, deceptive, clever, realistically concerned with money and finance, and a convincing mixture of scoundrel and creature of his own conscience.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-02-29·bactra.org ↗

The ApprenticeBook Tess Gerritsen

Mind-candy psycho-killer thriller novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The SinnerBook Tess Gerritsen

Mind-candy psycho-killer thriller novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Body DoubleBook Tess Gerritsen

Mind-candy psycho-killer thriller novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2020 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2020-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Lost HillsBook Lee Goldberg

Mind-candy police procedural, in exurban Los Angeles.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The Hedgewitch QueenBook Lilith Saintcrow

Mind-candy fantasy, loosely based on the French monarchy immediately before absolutism.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The Bandit KingBook Lilith Saintcrow

Mind-candy fantasy, loosely based on the French monarchy immediately before absolutism.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Last Man OutBook Elliott Kay

Probably enjoyable independently, but a bunch of developments are more satisfying if you've read all the previous volumes.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Tisiphone's QuestBook R. Jean Stevenson

Mind-candy science-fantasy. It's very much mind candy (Sinister Masons IN SPAAACE!), but it's very fun, and I'd absolutely try anything else Stevenson writes. (Picked up on Walter Jon Williams's recommendation.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Planet of AdventureBook Jack Vance

Mind-candy: Vance's is in good form here, deploying his signature mix of adventure story, high-flown and ironical rhetoric, somewhat sardonic anthropological detachment, and romantic personal assertion in the face of indifferent cosmic vastness.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

City of the ChaschBook Jack Vance

Mind-candy: Vance's is in good form here, deploying his signature mix of adventure story, high-flown and ironical rhetoric, somewhat sardonic anthropological detachment, and romantic personal assertion in the face of indifferent cosmic vastness.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Servants of the WankhBook Jack Vance

Mind-candy: Vance's is in good form here, deploying his signature mix of adventure story, high-flown and ironical rhetoric, somewhat sardonic anthropological detachment, and romantic personal assertion in the face of indifferent cosmic vastness.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-12-31·bactra.org ↗

InsextsBook Marguerite Bennett et al.

Fantasy mind-candy, assorted. The fact that I read all three Steelflower books in a row says something about their what-happens-next power; I'd have cheerfully read many more, for much the same reason I wish there were more than two Sanjuro movies.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The NecropolisBook Marguerite Bennett et al.

Fantasy mind-candy, assorted. The fact that I read all three Steelflower books in a row says something about their what-happens-next power; I'd have cheerfully read many more, for much the same reason I wish there were more than two Sanjuro movies.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Turning Darkness into LightBook Marie Brennan

Pseudo-historical mind-candy; it's a sequel to her "Lady Trent" books, is largely about translating an ancient epic, and is more dramatic than a story about philological niceties has any right being. It's probably readable without having read the previous novels, but definitely more fun if you have.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-11-30·bactra.org ↗

A God in ChainsBook Matthew Hughes

Mind candy fantasy. Jack Vance was one of my favorite writers; unfortunately, being dead, he is no longer producing new stories. (I realize that mortality has proved no obstacle to many other writers, but Vance's talents evidently did not extend to dictation from beyond the grave.) A number of writers have attempted to channel Vance, or (even better) his spirit; of these, the best is Paula Volsky (a.k.a.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Girl with All the GiftsBook M. R. Carey

Mind candy, zombie-apocalypse horror; or, rather, a zombie genesis myth. (Carey knows very well what "Pandora" means.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Wrong StarsBook Tim Pratt

Mind candy science fiction. I wanted to like Lovecraftian space opera, but the characters all just talked and acted far, far too much like early-21st-century Americans of a certain class (namely, mine) for me to believe that they were from a few centuries from now.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-10-31·bactra.org ↗

A Trick of LightBook Kat Rosenfield

Mind candy SF for teens. Well-written enough that I will try Rosenfield's mysteries for adults. (I can understand why she'd want to get the hell out of YA.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Oaths and MiraclesBook Nancy Kress

Mind-candy biomedical thrillers (1996, 1998), re-read on encountering their electronic versions.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-08-31·bactra.org ↗

StingerBook Nancy Kress

Mind-candy biomedical thrillers (1996, 1998), re-read on encountering their electronic versions.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Basic Machines and How They WorkBook

I enjoyed this tremendously, and I really wonder what the modern version must be like.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Widows of Malabar HillBook Sujata Massey

Mind-candy historical mystery, set in early 20th century Bombay among the Indian elites. Enjoyable, but it made me miss my grandmother (who was a generation younger than Massey's heroine, but from a comparable background, though Christian rather than Parsi).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx: 1843 toBook Ernest Mandel

Mandel was a believer, so this is very much presented as the story of how Uncle Karl came to perceive The Truth, but it's readable and accurate so far as I can tell. Recommended if you have a special (or perverse) interest in this subject.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Starfire: A Red PeaceBook Spencer Ellsworth

Enjoyable enough that I will probably track down sequels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Rat QueensBook Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stejepan Sejic &c.

Comic-book mind candy, assorted flavors.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Sass and SorceryBook Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stejepan Sejic &c.

Comic-book mind candy, assorted flavors.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygothBook Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stejepan Sejic &c.

Comic-book mind candy, assorted flavors.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Leper of St. GilesBook Ellis Peters

Mind candy historical mysteries, re-visiting childhood favorites department.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Virgin in the IceBook Ellis Peters

Mind candy historical mysteries, re-visiting childhood favorites department.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Sanctuary SparrowBook Ellis Peters

Mind candy historical mysteries, re-visiting childhood favorites department.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The River Bank: A Sequel to Kenneth Grahame'sBook Kij Johnson

This is the second book I've read by Johnson where she takes the setting of beloved classics, goes "Actually, there could be female characters!", and makes it into new art that continues the pleasures of the original. This is impressive and makes me want to track down her non-derivative work. (There is also an unhealthy part of me which wants her to write a mash-up of this book and the other one.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Waking the MoonBook Elizabeth Hand

Mind candy, but remarkably good. There's late-adolescent campus drama recollected in midlife futility, (actual) punk rock, not one but two ancient secret societies, convincingly creepy magic, and an apocalypse presided over, in nearly equal measure, by Robert Graves, Carlo Ginzburg, Marija Gimbiutas, and Stephen King. It ought to be a beloved genre classic.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-06-30·bactra.org ↗

To Dream of the DeadBook Phil Rickman

Mind candy occult-ish mystery, the umpteenth in the Merrily Watkins series. Honestly I enjoyed it a bit less than previous installments, though whether that was due to a decline in quality, series fatigue, or simply not being in quite the right mood when reading is hard to say.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning: A Polar JourneyBook Wendy Trusler and Carol Devine

It works much better as a book than I'm making it sounds, not least because of the excellent photography by Sandy Nicholson. I have not tried out any of the recipes, however, so I pass no judgment on it as a cookbook. (The account of how much better the food was at the Italian research base makes me proud of my mother's country.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Far Far Better ThingBook Auston Habershaw

Mind candy: conclusion, and climax, to the series of fantasy caper novels where a con artist deals with magical operant conditioning and increasingly catastrophic success. I enjoyed these a lot and will certainly read other stuff by Habershaw.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-06-30·bactra.org ↗

VastBook Linda Nagata

Science fiction, rising above the level of mind candy. I read this twenty years ago, and re-read it this spring because the sequel has, at last, come out. It's just as good as I recalled at conveying the sense of wonder and desolation, the scale and age and strangeness of the universe.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Devil's Guide to Managing Difficulty PeopleBook Robyn Bennis

Mind candy: contemporary comic fantasy, featuring central Florida, Boston, and Hell. (Obvious jokes are obvious, and made in the book.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Doomfollowers of CoramondeBook Brian Daley

Mind candy: 1970s-vintage secondary-world epic fantasy, which is also a portal fantasy with a US Army armored personnel carrier sorcerously detached from duty in Vietnam. It's enjoyable in its own terms, but three things strike me about it. First, all of the characters have agency --- the inhabitants of the fantasy world don't just react to the Americans who come through the portal, they pursue their own lives and agendas.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Better Part of ValorBook Tanya Huff

Mind candy: military SF, space marines, all-commissioned-officers-are-idiots variety.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Contemporary Thought and PoliticsBook Ernest Gellner

Lucking across a used copy, I enjoyed the re-read: Gellner's acerbic wit, playful style, acuity, and characteristic themes are all on good display here, as he touches on student revolt, the Prague Spring, the idea of progress, the relationship between the scale of social integration and nationalism, ideas about the philosophy of history and of social science, how the social organization of Berber tribes illuminates international relations, and so on.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Power, Pleasure, and Profit: Insatiable Appetites from Machiavelli to MadisonBook David Wootton

Modern social and political thought tends to start from the view point of individuals driven by potentially boundless desires for more, whether more stuff, more fun, or more power. (Hence part of Wootton's title.) This raises the intellectual problem of how to form such unpromising brutes into a society.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to PowerBook Anna Merlan

These parts are well-written and engaging journalism, as sympathetic to Merlan's subjects as they warrant, and valuable source material. There are some gestures at broader historical perspectives, which are OK but not special if you've read a lot about conspiracists.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The City of BrassBook S. A. Chakraborty

Mind candy historical fantasy: magical-dynastic intrigue among the djinn of the early 1800s, complicated by a Lost Heir being a small-time con-artist from Cairo. It's great and I want to see where Chakraborty is taking this. — Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the WorldBook Annie Lowrey

If you feel like you only have it in you to read one thing about basic incomes, this is a very good choice. As a market socialist, I am very sympathetic to the basic-income idea, and have proposed something similar. (Lowrey does not, if I recall correctly, consider market socialism in this book, even in John Roemer's version.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-04-30·bactra.org ↗

MonstressBook Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda

Mind candy orientalist fantasy (previously).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The BloodBook Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda

Mind candy orientalist fantasy (previously).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Mortal ArtsBook Anna Lee Huber

More historical-mystery mind candy, this time flavored by the (dismal) history of early 19th century psychiatry. (Huber is pretty good, though not perfect, at avoiding anachronistic language, so nobody says "psychiatry" in the novel.) --- Further in the series.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle AgesBook Norman Cohn

Coming back to it now, I find it still fascinating and convincing, and does an excellent job of tracing millenarian movements among the poor in Latinate Europe from the fall of Rome through the Reformation.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2019 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2019-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Lies SleepingBook Ben Aaronovitch

Mind candy: the latest installment in the long-running supernatural-procedural mystery series, where the Folly gets tangled up with the Matter of Britain.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Labyrinth IndexBook Charles Stross

Mind candy; Latest installment in Stross's long-running Lovecraftian spy-fiction series. I imagine a novel about the US Presidency being taken over by a malevolent occult force seemed a lot more amusing before 2016, when this must have been mostly written. It's a good installment, but only suitable for those already immersed in the story.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Beneath the MountainBook Luca D'Andrea

Mind candy: in which a stranger investigates the secrets of a small, isolated community's past, for multiple values of "past".

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Deep RootsBook Ruthanna Emrys

I found it more enjoyable than the previous novel, but was jarred in a few places by anachronistic phrases. (Unfortunately, I neglected to note them as I read, other than the use of the word "petrichor", which sounds Lovecraftian, but dates to 1964.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of Our WorldBook Daniel Davies

D^2, in characteristically excellent form, going through a taxonomy of different sorts of business fraud, starting with the comparatively simple "buy a lot of stuff on credit and then not pay", on up to very abstract, but very real, offenses against markets as a whole.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Not a Creature Was StirringBook Jane Haddam

Haddam is very good at depicting desperation, the sense of having no way out.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Precious BloodBook Jane Haddam

Haddam is very good at depicting desperation, the sense of having no way out.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Act of DarknessBook Jane Haddam

Haddam is very good at depicting desperation, the sense of having no way out.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Dead But OnceBook Auston Habershaw

Mind candy fantasy, latest in a series where a con-artist and rogue is being operantly conditioned into something like heroism; here by an escalating series of catastrophic successes.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The InfernoBook Dante Aligheri, translated by Robert Pinsky

Comment on my part would be both incompetent and impertinent, so I will just say I enjoyed reading this translation, and that Dante's God is a moral monster.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Islamic Science and the Making of the European RenaissanceBook George Saliba

This is a fascinating little book (about 250 pages, plus extensive notes). Despite the title, the bulk of it --- the first five chapters, or ~190 pages --- is about the origins and the internal development of scientific, especially astronomical, traditions within Islamic civilization itself.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Escape VelocityBook Susan Wolfe

Mind candy mystery, in which the daughter of an Arkansas con-man makes her way, mostly legitimately, into a job in a flailing Silicon Valley company, in search of a better life for her and her teenage sister, and proceeds to find scope for her "special talents".

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-04-30·bactra.org ↗

All Systems RedBook Martha Wells

Mind candy science fiction. The novelty here is this nice but straight-forward story being narrated by a self-named "Murderbot", which has hacked itself to be able to ignore human commands, but just wants to be left alone to watch its "serials". This is an amusing twist, and it's a fun novella with a dry sense of humor, but I fail to grasp why so many people are so rapturous about it.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-04-30·bactra.org ↗

My Boyfriend Is a BearBook Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris

Comic book mind candy: the title is meant literally. Fundamentally, it's yet another avatar of the ancient tale of the lost Magic/Animal Husband (Aarne-Thompson index number 425A), done this time as a very sweet romance.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Cardano's Cosmos: The Worlds and Works of a Renaissance AstrologerBook Anthony Grafton

On one level, this is a readable exposition of how Cardano worked and thought as a practicing astrologer, including extensive background on the sophisticated and ancient astrological tradition he came out of, with some glances at how that connected to his practice as a medical doctor and a mathematician (though there's less about the latter than I would have liked).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Anonymous SourcesBook Mary Louise Kelly

Mind-candy thriller, in which nuclear terrorism is foiled by an Intrepid Lady Reporter. Kelly gets extra points for making the ILR a very un-apologetic person who has done some very un-nice things, but is still sympathetic.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-04-30·bactra.org ↗

A Nest of VipersBook Andrea Camilleri

Mind candy mysteries, the nth and (n+1)st in the series (previous entries to be found here), with all the usual pleasures.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Pyramid of MudBook Andrea Camilleri

Mind candy mysteries, the nth and (n+1)st in the series (previous entries to be found here), with all the usual pleasures.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Memento MoriBook Ruth Downie

Mind candy historical mystery: latest (previously) in her series about an ex-legionary doctor and his British (i.e., barbarian native) wife, and their misadventures in Roman Britain --- this time, Aqu

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The BloodprintBook Ausma Zehanat Khan

Mind-candy epic fantasy. On those terms, it's enjoyable enough, though unremarkable. What makes it really notable is that it's entirely based on the recent history of Afghanistan and environs, with a magic system based on Quranic recitation.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The English WifeBook Lauren Willig

Mind candy historical mystery, set in New York and London just a bit before 1900. An interesting aspect of the writing is that here, as in her historical romance novels, Willig uses two time-lines, where the characters in one time-line are trying to discover what happened in the other. But in the romances the time-lines are parallel, whereas here they converge.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-02-28·bactra.org ↗

The Confidence Game: And Why We Fall for It... Every TimeBook Maria Konnikova

An engaging popular-science look at confidence games, their players and their marks. (Konnikova references a lot of the social psychology literature, which is certainly better than ignoring it, but I haven't had the heart to check how many of those studies have failed to replicate.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear AgeBook David N. Schwartz

This is a nice biography of Fermi, who wasn't, of course, the last man who knew everything (Schwartz says as much!), but was the last great physicist to be both a great theorist and a great experimentalist, and whose work helped create the world we live in.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Terminal AllianceBook Jim C. Hines

Mind candy: comic science fiction from a post-apocalyptic future, told from the view-point of military janitors. In addition to being funny, Hines has done a much better job of world-building than many writers of ostensibly more serious SF.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Into the Drowning DeepBook Mira Grant

Mind candy techno-thriller / predator porn, set just a few years into the science-fictional future, featuring carnivorous mermaids. Grant has clearly given a lot of loving attention to their biology, and I look forward to the nigh-inevitable sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2018 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2018-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Angelica's SmileBook Andrea Camilleri

Mind candy; Inspector Montalbano continues to be in fine form.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-12-31·bactra.org ↗

A Beam of LightBook Andrea Camilleri

Mind candy; Inspector Montalbano continues to be in fine form.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-12-31·bactra.org ↗

A Voice in the NightBook Andrea Camilleri

Mind candy; Inspector Montalbano continues to be in fine form.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-12-31·bactra.org ↗

ProvenanceBook Ann Leckie

Mind candy science fiction: In which family expectations, all-politics-is-local, and a cozy mystery (more or less) meet ancestor worship via collectibles --- in spaaaace.... Set in the same universe as Leckie's earlier trilogy, evidently slightly after the last book, but pretty much independent of them.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Clean RoomBook Gail Simone et al.

Comic-book mind candy: apocalypse-fiction horror, in which the maniacal cultists transparently modeled on Scientology are the (comparative) good guys, and more or less exactly right.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Immaculate ConceptionBook Gail Simone et al.

Comic-book mind candy: apocalypse-fiction horror, in which the maniacal cultists transparently modeled on Scientology are the (comparative) good guys, and more or less exactly right.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-11-30·bactra.org ↗

ExileBook Gail Simone et al.

Comic-book mind candy: apocalypse-fiction horror, in which the maniacal cultists transparently modeled on Scientology are the (comparative) good guys, and more or less exactly right.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Anatomist's ApprenticeBook Tessa Harris

Mind candy. I wanted to like a historical mystery about forensic pathology in the 1780s, but multiple characters referring to "bacteria", a surgeon unironically addressing common laborers as "gentlemen", and the whole plot hinging on a titled English estate not being entailed, led me to give up mentally fairly early on. I finished it because I had left myself without other reading matter on a long trip.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Tower of ThornsBook Juliet Marillier

Mind candy: more Ireland-in-the-early-Dark-Ages fantasy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-10-31·bactra.org ↗

In the Miso SoupBook Ryu Murakami

Mind candy thriller, in which a sleazy, disturbing American businessman hires a Japanese guide to the Tokyo sex trade, and then things get ugly. I didn't like it, exactly, but I also really couldn't stop reading.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The White MirrorBook Elsa Hart

Mind-candy historical mystery, in which an exiled Chinese scholar untangles multiple mysteries in a snow-locked valley on the western borderlands. I lapped it up with a spoon and only wish there were more. (Previously.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-09-30·bactra.org ↗

An Elephant for AristotleBook L. Sprague de Camp

Mind candy historical fiction, in which Alexander sends his old teacher a present from India, and we follow the adventures of the beleaguered-yet-plucky Greek soldier who has to make it happen. (De Camp did a good line in beleaguered-yet-plucky protagonists.) I read it as a teenager, and re-read it now that it's available electronically with pleasure.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The BulletBook Mary Louise Kelly

Despite the impressive amount of mayhem, this may be the least dude-ly (good) thriller I have ever read. Highly addictive mind-candy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Assassin's GambitBook Amy Raby

Mind candy fantasy/romance; perfectly enjoyable as fantasy novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Spy's HonorBook Amy Raby

Mind candy fantasy/romance; perfectly enjoyable as fantasy novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Prince's FireBook Amy Raby

Mind candy fantasy/romance; perfectly enjoyable as fantasy novels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-09-30·bactra.org ↗

MonstressBook Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda

Comic book mind candy, respectively predator porn, a crime thriller about porn and the other seedy underbellies of 1980s New York, and an alternate-history fantasy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-08-31·bactra.org ↗

No Medal for SecretsBook Elliott Kay

Mind candy science fiction. This is a side-story to Kay's main series, and probably not too comprehensible without it.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Delirium BriefBook Charles Stross

Mind candy, horror/spy comedy division. (Despite the fact that the events depicted here are, objectively, immensely worse than in the immediately previous "Bob" book in the series, I found this one vastly more enjoyable, which says something about the relatively palatability of marital dysfunction and looming apocalypse by trans-dimensional parasites for a divorced middle-aged man.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-07-31·bactra.org ↗

City of MiraclesBook Robert Jackson Bennett

Mind candy fantasy: a fitting, thrilling conclusion to the trilogy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any LanguageBook John McWhorter

As a connoisseur of such attacks, I enjoyed it, and found it persuasive, but it does also fit my prejudices, and I would be very interested to read a good counter-attack.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Glory of the Empire: A Novel, a HistoryBook Jean d'Ormesson

This must be one of the strangest and most brilliant of alternate histories, covering thousands of years in the life of "The Empire", its people and its rulers. I can only try to convey its effect by means of a figure. Imagine the real histories of ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Sassanians, and many other countries depicted on intricately-decorated ceramic pots and vessels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Winter TideBook Ruthanna Emrys

Lovecraftian-revisionist mind candy / historical fiction for the US in the 1940s. I am on record intensely admiring Emrys's short story "The Litany of Earth", to which this novel is a sequel. (The story is included in the book as an appendix.) Perhaps inevitably, the longer novel does not pack the same force.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-04-30·bactra.org ↗

InvasiveBook Check Wendig

Mind candy technothriller, drawing on obviously-loving research into ants. Fun enough, but takes its own oracular pronouncements about The Future a bit too seriously.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Dreamer's PoolBook Juliet Marillier

Mind candy fantasy, set in Christianizing Ireland. (The Celtica is not too overwhelming.) --- Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The Oldest TrickBook Auston Habershaw

Mind candy fantasy, which is much more fun than novels about reforming a thief through magical operant conditioning really ought to be.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-01-31·bactra.org ↗

No Good DeedBook Auston Habershaw

Mind candy fantasy, which is much more fun than novels about reforming a thief through magical operant conditioning really ought to be.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2017 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2017-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Strangler VineBook M. J. Carter

Mind-candy historical mystery, set among the sahibs of pre-Mutiny British India.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-12-31·bactra.org ↗

CrossfireBook Nancy Kress

Mind candy, at the police procedural / psychic vigilante / shadowy nefarious conspiracy triple point.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-11-30·bactra.org ↗

John Dies at the EndBook David Wong

Mind candy comic horror. Wong writes for Cracked, and if that sort of humor appeals to you, you will probably enjoy this. (I confess it's a guilty pleasure.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Hunt for Vulcan: And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity and Deciphered the UniverseBook Thomas Levenson

A short, but engaging and wide-ranging, history of how scientists became willing to hypothesize a planet inside the orbit of Mercury, thought they had found it, and ultimately gave up on it, because the idea that the mere presence of distorts space and time was a much more reasonable explanation of tiny anomalies in delicate, recondite observations.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Welcome to Night ValeBook Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Mind candy, continuing to mine Night Vale's peculiar hybrid of small-town slice-of-life comedy and cosmic horror. Heretically: the formula actually works better at the length of a single pod-cast episode. But I think many people would enjoy this even if they've not previously been initiated into the cult.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-10-31·bactra.org ↗

A Head Full of GhostsBook Paul Trembly

A highly self-aware, even meta-fictional, Gothic story of possession and reality TV; it's skillful and remarkably chilling.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Hammers on BoneBook Cassandra Khaw

Mind candy: an odd mix of Cthulhiana and fossilized noir style, set in contemporary London. The writing was good enough on a sentence-by-sentence level that I'll look for more by Khaw, but I'll also hope that she's got these influences out of her system.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our FeetBook Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze

Comic book mind candy, but also Coates playing with superheroes as fantasies of political agency.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Full Fathom FiveBook Max Gladstone

Mind candy: more adventures among magicians working like lawyers, and those drawn into their schemes. Here the setting is an island which is not Hawaii, acting a bit like an off-shore financial haven in our world, which in that of the Craft means manufacturing synthetic gods, rather than synthetic collateralized debt obligations. Also, a lot of stuff gets blown up.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Cold-Forged FlameBook Marie Brennan

Fantasy mind candy, in which the implacable, past-less warrior compelled to a quest is female. Good if you enjoy fantasy stories about implacable, past-less warriors. --- Further adventures.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Futuristic Violence and Fancy SuitsBook David Wong

Mind candy science fiction: everything its title promises.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Three Parts DeadBook Max Gladstone

They are (in parts) very funny, but Gladstone takes this premise and makes the magic wonderful and terrifying, and tells stories with real moral and even political weight.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Two Serpents RiseBook Max Gladstone

They are (in parts) very funny, but Gladstone takes this premise and makes the magic wonderful and terrifying, and tells stories with real moral and even political weight.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

A Darker Shade of MagicBook V. E. Schwab

Mind-candy fantasy, featuring parallel worlds and outbreaks from a dungeon dimension.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

A Gathering of ShadowsBook V. E. Schwab

Mind-candy fantasy, featuring parallel worlds and outbreaks from a dungeon dimension.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt BoeBook Kij Johnson

Suffice to say that this one threads the needle of being at once respectful of the source work, arguing with it on fair terms, and being enjoyable as fiction in its own right. (I'd really like to know what happens after the ending, in both the dreamlands and the waking world, but it's better writing to cut off where Johnson does.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Mechanical FailureBook Joe Zieja

Mind candy; a pitch-perfect parody of a certain sort of military science fiction.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan PeopleBook Elizabeth A. Fenn

Fascinating, but it only goes up to the 1830s, when the Mandans were almost completely wiped out by smallpox. We get glimpses of the later history, but I wish Fenn had brought things closer up to the present.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Conference of the BirdsBook Peter Sis

There is something incredibly charming about the thought of a Czech-American illustrator adapting a 4500-line medieval Pesian Sufi epic poem as, essentially, a comic book. It becomes even more charming when it's pulled off very well, as it is here.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Seven Pillars of Statistical WisdomBook Stephen M. Stigler

I enjoyed it, but I am going to be a jerk and say that this book narrowly but decisively misses being great. The reason is that Stigler's implicit reader is someone who already knows modern statistics.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Vita BrevisBook Ruth Downie

Mind-candy historical mystery novel, in which moving from Britannia to Rome to seek one's fortune results only in plot. Enjoyable separately from the rest of the series.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Nightmare StacksBook Charles Stross

Mind candy contemporary fantasy, in which England is invaded by the Unseelie Host; also in which a nerdy vampire boy meets a manic pixie dream girl with a very evil step-mother, depicted under the light of Stross's take on common notions of romance... This is a really fun book, on multiple levels, and I endorse it strongly as mind candy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Ninefox GambitBook Yoon Ha Lee

Mind candy military space opera. The conceit that getting human beings to accept the right sort of mathematically-designed ritual calendar could change the local laws of physics, permitting interestingly-gruesome "exotic" effects, is I think new, and used well; the writing is also quite good, though not spectacular.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Night FilmBook Marisha Pessl

Mind candy literary thriller, playing at being a horror story. (Or is it?) It's really quite gripping, and surprised me multiple times. I would happily read a lot more like this, but it seems like the sort of book which was a lot of work to write.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Women Who Helped Bring Yoga to the WestBook Michelle Goldberg

This is fascinating stuff even if you don't care about yoga.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-06-30·bactra.org ↗

End of WatchBook Stephen King

Mind candy. This is the end of a trilogy which began as a mundane (but good!) thriller, and had a second book which was almost entirely free of supernatural elements. This one, however, is just a flat-out horror novel, and its biggest flaw to my mind is that the characters accept the super-natural much too readily.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-06-30·bactra.org ↗

State MachineBook K. B. Spangler

Mind candy science fiction mystery. This is the third Rachel Peng novel; it'll make a lot more sense, and be a lot more enjoyable, if you've read the first two; having done so, I found this outing enjoyable. However, there certain plot elements whose significance will only be clear to readers of Spangler's web comic, which is rather different in tone than these books.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Neural Network Learning: Theoretical FoundationsBook Martin Anthony and Peter L. Bartlett

Shorter me: it's really a mathematical introduction to statistical learning theory, and still quite good even if you couldn't care less about neural networks.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Sea of PoppiesBook Amitav Ghosh

It's really impressive, even if I was not very happy with the ending, and I will be revisiting it at a more leisurely pace.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

River of SmokeBook Amitav Ghosh

It's really impressive, even if I was not very happy with the ending, and I will be revisiting it at a more leisurely pace.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Flood of FireBook Amitav Ghosh

It's really impressive, even if I was not very happy with the ending, and I will be revisiting it at a more leisurely pace.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Karen MemoryBook Elizabeth Bear

Mind candy. I am normally a big fan of Bear's writing, but just got through this one. The central feature of the book is the voice of the first-person narrator, Karen Memery (sic), and while this was clearly a labor of love on the part of the author, my reaction to that voice ranged from indifference to irritation.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Generation LossBook Elizabeth Hand

Mind candy: a mystery or literary thriller (or both?). The writing is excellent and the protagonist, a failed New York photographer very much out of her element in Maine, is a very well-realized character (and a complete jerk, with impulses which are much, much worse). There are apparently sequels, which I look forward to tracking down.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Too Like the LightningBook Ada Palmer

This is a deeply impressive effort to take seriously the line that "history is the trade secret of science fiction". That is, Palmer has tried to craft a 25th century which is as strange, as familiar, and as both-at-once-because-that's-not-what-we-meant, as our own time would have seemed to someone from the 17th century.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

American ElsewhereBook Robert Jackson Bennett

Mind-candy contemporary fantasy, but of truly exceptional quality. This is in many ways a meditation Lovecraftian themes, transposed to the Southwest and rationalized with "because of quantum" (*). (Spoiler-proofed discussion below.) But it's not just yet another re-hashing of monsters and tropes from Lovecraft, which would only matter for those who are already fans of that micro-genre.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-05-31·bactra.org ↗

MedicusBook Ruth Downie

Mind candy: historical mysteries set in early 2nd century Roman Britain (and southern Gaul), following the mis-adventures of a Roman legionary doctor and his British wife.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Terra IncognitaBook Ruth Downie

Mind candy: historical mysteries set in early 2nd century Roman Britain (and southern Gaul), following the mis-adventures of a Roman legionary doctor and his British wife.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Persona Non GrataBook Ruth Downie

Mind candy: historical mysteries set in early 2nd century Roman Britain (and southern Gaul), following the mis-adventures of a Roman legionary doctor and his British wife.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Gaudy ShadowsBook John Brunner

Mind candy, and not exactly recommended. Brunner was one of the great science fiction writers, the publishers of the ancient paperback edition I have played this up, and there is in fact a very light science-fictional angle to the story. But really it's a mystery novel which is very much a period piece of Swinging London.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Library at Mount CharBook Scott Hawkins

What raises it above the level of mind candy is the fact that such a description give you no idea whatsoever of how strange this story is, either in its content or in its narration. Hawkins is obviously showing off from the very first lines (which hooked me), and makes basically no concessions for weak readers. He also has a pitiless quality towards his characters which I, for one, found very agreeable.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Copper PromiseBook Jen Williams

Mind candy: old-school fantasy, clearly inspired by role-playing games (there are both dungeons, plural, and dragons), but very enjoyably written, delivering the pleasures of light-hearted adventure without being either morally obtuse or wallowing in self-satisfied grimdarkness. It's self-contained, but at least one sequel has come out in the UK already, and both will appear in the US within the year.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth GeosphereBook Eric Smith and Harold J. Morowitz

This is a remarkable, and remarkably impressive, book." --- I will try to say more about this book in the coming month.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Forest of RuinBook Kelley Armstrong

Mind candy fantasy: a satisfying conclusion to the series, but not quite as satisfying to me as if \$SPOILER had not turned out so happily. (On the other hand, I really didn't see that particular twist coming.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Pirates of Pacta ServandaBook Jack Campbell

Mind candy, continuing the story from previous volumes, and basically incomprehensible without them. In this installment, a group of ideological extremists our heroes establish a safe-haven in a failed state find refuge from the whole of the international community their enemies, running guns to support one warlord over another defending innocent civilians and the last remnants of a traditional monarchy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Epicureanism at the Origins of ModernityBook Catherine Wilson

The organization is thematic rather than chronological, but the themes are themselves fairly logically arranged. It definitely presumes a broad familiarity with 17th century thought, but not much knowledge of Epicureanism, and it's very skillfully presented.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Delilah Dirk and the King's ShillingBook Tony Cliff

Comic book mind candy, in which Miss Dirk and Mister Selim find themselves compelled to go to England, and mayhem and social sniping ensue. (Previously)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

In the Labyrinth of DrakesBook Marie Brennan

Mind candy, enjoyable fantasy of 19th century natural history and archaeology division. (Previously; series conclusion.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Fifth SeasonBook N. K. Jemisin

Epic fantasy, but I think it rises above the level of mind candy. The approach to story-telling starts out by looking like bog-standard epic fantasy, if well done, but then gets more complicated and interesting (in spoilerish ways). Even better is the world-building: a planet where plate tectonics is so active that the dominant ideology is that the Earth is our father, and he hates us.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Case of the Love CommandosBook Tarquin Hall

Mind candy: the latest in the mystery series, though enjoyable independently; this time, we find Vish Puri unwillingly drawn into the nexus of caste and politics in rural Uttar Pradesh.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Dead Man's DebtBook Elliott Kay

Probably not enjoyable without the previous books.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

As Red as BloodBook Salla Simukka

Mind candy, aptly described by James Davis Nicoll as what would happen if a plucky girl detective like Nancy Drew wandered into a Kurt Wallander novel?"

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

As White as SnowBook Salla Simukka

Mind candy, aptly described by James Davis Nicoll as what would happen if a plucky girl detective like Nancy Drew wandered into a Kurt Wallander novel?"

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

As Black as EbonyBook Salla Simukka

Mind candy, aptly described by James Davis Nicoll as what would happen if a plucky girl detective like Nancy Drew wandered into a Kurt Wallander novel?"

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Bring Up the BodiesBook Hilary Mantel

Mind candy: Further literary, historical competence porn.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Indexing: ReflectionsBook Seanan McGuire

Mind candy: more contemporary fantasy about fairy tales trying to escape from the dungeon dimensions and/or collective unconscious.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The Ballad of Black TomBook Victor LaValle

Mind candy. Ruff's book follows the mis-adventures of an African-American family of science fiction fans in 1950s Chicago, in a world where it's not clear whether eldritch abominations or ordinary life is more soul-destroying. It's a bit episodic, but still well done.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-02-29·bactra.org ↗

Regular Algebra and Finite MachinesBook J. H. Conway

I liked the first half or so. In particular, the notion of the derivative of one regular event with respect to another is neat in itself, and the corresponding Taylor series gives a very direct way of translating a regular expression into a finite machine.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-02-29·bactra.org ↗

TremontaineBook

Mind candy: a "fantasy of manners", combining spherical trigonometry, the chocolate trade, aristocratic intrigue, and the authors toying with the characters' affections.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Group Genius: The Creative Power of CollaborationBook Keith Sawyer

For the most part, this is pretty good popular social science about the social psychology and sociology of group creativity and problem solving. It appears, however, to be pitched as a business-advice book, which leads to a certain amount of "we are told by Science! to do X", when what science actually says is lot more ambiguous.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2016 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2016-01-31·bactra.org ↗

BookburnersBook Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty and Brian Francis Slattery

Mind candy contemporary fantasy, in serial form, i.e., weekly installments of about 20--30 pages each. It's enjoyable, and also an interesting experiment with replicating in prose the TV-show structure of mixing forbidden-tome-of-the-week episodes with ones that advance a larger-scale plot. I liked the writing enough to track down other books by all four authors.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Person of InterestBook

Murder-of-the-week mind candy, with a flavoring of pre-crime. That the makers of the Machine had, apparently, never encountered the concept "false positive" is only too realistic, given what we know of how the national surveillance state thinks, but a few of them would have improved the show considerably.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-12-31·bactra.org ↗

The LibrariansBook

Mind candy TV, adorable contemporary fantasy division.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-12-31·bactra.org ↗

SimpleBook Kathleen George

Mind candy mystery, continuing her series set in Pittsburgh; this time it's a politically motivated murder. (I refuse to call that a spoiler.) The characterization remains very good, and the jail scenes are convincing. The you-are-there details all concern neighborhoods I know very well, and are absolutely on target.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Wake of VulturesBook Lila Bowen

Mind candy, young-adult western fantasy division. Enjoyable enough that I will keep an eye out for the inevitable sequel. (It's also a sign of the times that the protagonist of what is, in fact, a classically-formed western for young adults can be a part-Indian, part-black, bi-sexual girl raised in near-slavery who wants to be a boy.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Snake SkinBook C. J. Lyons

Two mind-candy mysteries, both, as it happens, set in Pittsburgh (*). George's is part of a continuing series of police procedurals, distinguished by really good characterization; here, the stand-out characters are the rather hopeless criminals.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-11-30·bactra.org ↗

AcceptanceBook Jeff VanderMeer

I actually found the fragment of an explanation we got fairly satisfying, and liked that it was only a fragment, though I realize that tastes may differ here.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Shambling Guide to New York CityBook Mur Laffery

Mind candy: the adventurous life of a travel-book editor, who discovers that the big city is, in fact, full of monsters — and she is, arguably, one of them.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Ghost Train to New OrleansBook Mur Laffery

Mind candy: the adventurous life of a travel-book editor, who discovers that the big city is, in fact, full of monsters — and she is, arguably, one of them.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Houses without DoorsBook Peter Straub

Mind candy: a collection of his horror stories, though two of these are really too long to be stories ("The Buffalo Hunter", 130 pages; "Mrs. God", 166). "Blue Rose" and "The Juniper Tree" were fine (they relate to Straub's novels, but stand alone); I did not care for "The Buffalo Hunter" at all.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Traitor Baru CormorantBook Seth Dickinson

Mind candy fantasy epic. I picked this up on the recommendation of Kameron Hurley, and was not disappointed: it is the only fantasy novel I have run across which turns on questions of economics and imperialism, and still manages to avoid cynicism.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-10-31·bactra.org ↗

Dark PlacesBook Gillian Flynn

Mind candy mystery: In which the Satanic panic of the 1980s meets the economic collapse of family farming, and makes for something bitterly poisonous and engrossing. (Though arguably not as poisonous as some of what actually happened back then.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Wheels of CommerceBook Fernand Braudel

This is a truly fascinating look at the development of the market economy and capitalism in early modern Europe, and to some extent in the rest of the old world at the same time, full of fascinating information (*) and perspectives, as well as chewy and questionable hypotheses.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Civilization and Capitalism, 15th--18th CenturyBook Fernand Braudel

This is a truly fascinating look at the development of the market economy and capitalism in early modern Europe, and to some extent in the rest of the old world at the same time, full of fascinating information (*) and perspectives, as well as chewy and questionable hypotheses.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Surface DetailBook Iain M. Banks

Mind candy: space opera, in which the Culture, in its own inimitable fashion, harrows Hell. Somewhat longer, I think, than it needed to be, but still compulsively readable.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Dreams of Shreds and TattersBook Amanda Downum

Mind candy, at the urban fantasy / horror border, in which Vancouver's art scene confronts an outbreak from the dungeon dimensions --- or, more exactly, Carcosa. I quite enjoyed how Downum is able to use pretty much the full canonical Cthulhu Mythos, from the seventy steps down to the Dreamlands to night-gaunts and everything else, and manage to make it seem not a formulaic exercise but genuinely creepy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-09-30·bactra.org ↗

DeceptionsBook Kelley Armstrong

Mind-candy contemporary fantasy in which discovering that her biological parents are convicted serial killers is the least of the protagonist's problems. (Previously.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Sea of ShadowsBook Kelley Armstrong

Mind candy: First two-thirds of a fantasy trilogy about the adventures of a pair of teenage shamans.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Empire of NightBook Kelley Armstrong

Mind candy: First two-thirds of a fantasy trilogy about the adventures of a pair of teenage shamans.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Population Games and Evolutionary DynamicsBook William H. Sandholm

A readable textbook on evolutionary game theory. It's pretty much entirely devoted to mathematical methods for finding equilibria and deducing long-run dynamics, as opposed to substantive results about particular games (or even classes of games). The mathematical background is explained extensively, and well, in a series of chapter appendices, amounting to maybe a quarter of the text.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Lure of the MoonflowerBook Lauren Willig

Mind candy. I am surprised how sad I am to see this series end. Once again, Willig does a good job of taking characters who had been merely stock figures in previous books and turning them into people, while preserving continuity with those earlier books.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Pensic's DemonBook Lois McMaster Bujold

Minor Bujold, but still Bujold, which is to say this novella leaves me wanting to read more adorable adventures of Pensic and Desdemona. (For instance, jung jvyy Cra'f ernpgvba or jura ur naq Qrf ner va n ebznapr-abiry cybg?)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Half a WarBook Joe Abercrombie

Mind candy: conclusion to Abercrombie's Viking-ish trilogy (previously), and just as compulsively readable. There are some "Nooo!" moments (particularly for readers of previous books), and lots of bloodshed, brutality and betrayal (as I said: Viking-ish), but he pulled off an ending which does not show every hope as false or futile, which is triumph enough for his worlds.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

HeathentownBook Corinna Sara Bechko and Gabriel Hardman

Mind candy: seeing something nasty in a central Florida graveyard. Promising material, but somehow it never came together for me; it may work better for others.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Probability on Graphs: Random Processes on Graphs and LatticesBook G. R. Grimmett

Dense but very rich; it presumes no prior acquaintance with graph theory or spatial stochastic processes, but a very good grasp on measure-theoretic probability, and a lot of mathematical maturity. The first few chapters build up gradually from an opener on electrical circuits (!) to random spanning trees, self-avoiding random walks, "influence" theorems and phase transitions, percolation theory, and random cluster models.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Palace JobBook Patrick Weekes

Very fluffy mind candy: heists in fantasyland.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Prophecy ConBook Patrick Weekes

Very fluffy mind candy: heists in fantasyland.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Mirror EmpireBook Kameron Hurley

Hurley's earlier science fiction novels (1, 2) were enjoyable mind candy, but this is great mind candy: world-building in which the human, the fantastic, and the all-too-human mingle; multiple realms of fantastic weirdness; compelling characters; and truly epic scope to the action. It deserves much more intelligent appreciation, but I am still too caught up in the story to provide one. I am very impatient to read the sequels.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-07-31·bactra.org ↗

Brig of WarBook Walter Jon Williams

Mind candy historical adventure fiction: a tale of derring-do and angst in the nascent American navy during the war of 1812. It was written before Williams turned to science fiction, but in retrospect the seeds of a lot of his later concerns can be discerned here.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Wolf HallBook Hilary Mantel

Mind candy: literary, historical competence porn*. Praise on my part is superfluous. Thanks to CM and TC for persuading me to start reading it, and for providing the term "competence porn". — Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-06-30·bactra.org ↗

A Distribution-Free Theory of Nonparametric RegressionBook Lászlo Györfi, Michael Kohler, Adam Krzyzak and Harro Walk

Chapters on topics like minimax theory and empirical process theory break up the development of the models, introducing mathematical tools and general ideas as needed. Two chapters on cross-validation and data-splitting are particularly nice: everyone uses them, because they work, but there is surprisingly little theory about such important tools, and the results here are really quite illuminating.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-06-30·bactra.org ↗

The Grace of KingsBook Ken Liu

Mind candy: fantasy novel, based on the rise of the Han dynasty, with added squabbling gods, "silk-punk" technology, and glancing blows at patriarchy.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Saturn's ChildrenBook Charles Stross

Mind candy: it's hard out there for a fembot, especially when she was designed to be an "escort" for human males and humanity, and every other eukaryote, has been extinct for centuries. There are a lot of science-fictional in-jokes (e.g., the Scalzi museum of paleontology on Mars), and some of the revelations were things I got long before the protagonist did.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-06-30·bactra.org ↗

MacBethBook Gareth Hinds

More important, the drawing is excellent, and actually really amplifies the text; I doubt I will ever see Lady MacBeth, the witches, or Banquo other than this way. (Hinds's MacBeth will however compete in my memory with Toshiro Mifune.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The MechanicalBook Ian Tregillis

Mind candy: a sort of alternate-historical fantasy, in which Huygens, evidently by stealing ideas from Newton, invented alchemical-mechanical golems (called "clakkers"), leading to the Dutch taking over all of the world except for New France, home of the Papacy and French monarchy in exile.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Voyage of theBook Marie Brennan

Mind candy. I enjoyed it, but I suspect it's only for those who have read previous installments in Lady Trent's adventures. — Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-04-30·bactra.org ↗

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle EastBook Anthony Shadid

It's more fascinating and lovely than an account of a mid-life crisis resolved through remodeling has any right to be, and becomes almost unbearably sad when one knows about how the author died.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-03-31·bactra.org ↗

A Secret RageBook Charlaine Harris

I hesitate to label this one "mind candy", because it deals with much more serious themes than usual, and does so well. I can't speak to its portrayal of surviving rape, but it's really convincing at the emotional pain, dis-orientation, and shame that can come from experiences that break one's self of who one is, or the kind of live one has, including the feeling of "this can never be repaired".

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Dark AlchemyBook Laura Bickle

Mind candy: contemporary Weird Western, heavy on alchemical symbolism (reasonably well-researched). Lots of mysteries are left unexplained at the end; I hope they stay that way.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Mr. MercedesBook Stephen King

Mind candy: no supernatural elements, just a psycho-killer in a country going to hell in a slow handbasket. (Though: "Knights of the Badge and the Gun" is a bit of an internal reference.) The protagonists are somewhat stock characters, but the story moves along well.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Pocket ApocalypseBook Seanan McGuire

Mind candy: in which our heroes confront an outbreak of lycanthropy in Australia. Probably not so fun if you haven't at least read the previous book in the series.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Something Coming ThroughBook Paul J. McAuley

Mind candy science fiction: in which the aliens showed up some years in the narrative past, and offered us access to the same dozen habitable planets orbiting red dwarf stars that they had apparently offered many previous, now-vanished species. Of course, we took them up on it...

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Halting StateBook Charles Stross

Mind candy science fiction, at the intersection of near-future police procedural, for-profit central banking, and online role-playing games. It gained quite a bit as an audiobook through being read by a Scots actor, one Robert Ian MacKenzie (though I had to re-listen to some bits to figure out what was being said). — Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Way into ChaosBook Harry Connolly

Mind candy fantasy epic, but of high quality.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Way into MagicBook Harry Connolly

Mind candy fantasy epic, but of high quality.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-01-31·bactra.org ↗

The Way into DarknessBook Harry Connolly

Mind candy fantasy epic, but of high quality.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Absolute Monarchs: A History of the PapacyBook John Julius Norwich

A very readable history of a rather old-fashioned kings-and-battles kind, focused on the persons of the Popes and their scheming and fighting with other European potentates. The papacy, as an institution which has changed over time, gets much less attention. (*) Admittedly, that would have made for a much longer, and less popular, book.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2015 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2015-01-31·bactra.org ↗

UnwrittenBook Mike Carey et al.

Comic book mind candy, in which the wonderful power of story-telling is wielded irresponsibly.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Tommy Taylor and the Bogus IdentityBook Mike Carey et al.

Comic book mind candy, in which the wonderful power of story-telling is wielded irresponsibly.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

TrangBook Mary Sisson

Mind candy: the trials and tribulations of the mid-level Canadian diplomat who becomes humanity's first accredited representative to the multiple much-more-advanced-than-us alien species with whom we turn out to share a wormhole nexus.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

TrustBook Mary Sisson

Mind candy: the trials and tribulations of the mid-level Canadian diplomat who becomes humanity's first accredited representative to the multiple much-more-advanced-than-us alien species with whom we turn out to share a wormhole nexus.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Traitor's BladeBook Sebastien de Castell

Mind candy; the only swords-and-sorcery fantasy I've encountered about trying to build a functioning state by imposing a uniform system of justice on an unwilling feudal aristocracy. It ends with, if not a literal cliff-hanger, then at least our heroes trapped between two hostile armies, and a truth which has been obvious to the reader for much of the book having just struck the narrator like a revelation.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Shadow UnitBook Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear and friends

Mind candy, finally read from start to finish. I liked it, except for the ending.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Brightsided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined AmericaBook Barbara Ehrenreich

An excellent corrective to one of our characteristic national weaknesses, as well as a shrewd debunking of a vile little ideology. I think she over-reaches a little when she tries to (partly) blame the financial crisis on positive thinking on the part of corporate leaders, and identify it with free-market fundamentalism (at root a very different ideology).

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-12-31·bactra.org ↗

Blood OrangesBook Kathleen Tierney (= Caitlin Kiernan)

Mind candy: it's hard out there for a hustler on the fringes of Providence's supernatural demi-monde.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Jinn and JuiceBook Nicole Peeler

Mind candy; frothy contemporary fantasy, mostly picked up because it's set in Pittsburgh, and written with obvious, affectionate local knowledge. Improper use of plural nouns as singular (e.g., "Magi") set my teeth on edge; the larger problem is that the narrator simply does not come across as someone born a thousand years ago in Khorasan.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour BookstoreBook Robin Sloan

Mind candy literary fiction, secret-histories-in-books flavor.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Leaving MegalopolisBook Gail Simone and Jim Calafiora

Comic book mind candy, grimdark superheroes flavor. I rather hope this happened because Simone got tired of writing life-affirming stories, and just wanted to smash stuff for a while.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Goblin EmperorBook Katherine Addison

Mind candy fantasy: ugly duckling as absolute monarch.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Red SonjaBook Gail Simone and Walter Geovani

Comic book mind candy, of course, but perfectly respectable as such.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

: The Art of Blood and FireBook Gail Simone and Walter Geovani

Comic book mind candy, of course, but perfectly respectable as such.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-11-30·bactra.org ↗

The Devil in SilverBook Victor LaValle

Mind candy: literary fiction about life in a mental hospital. Enjoyable and humane; I'll look out for more by LaValle.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

AngelmakerBook Nick Harkaway

Mind candy, at the border between literary fiction and several genres. A recurring theme of epic fantasy is that the great days are past, and yet some echo of them comes through at the last desperate moment.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Night BattlesBook M. F. Bloxam

Mind candy, psychological horror division. In which a seriously messed-up Italian-American academic specializing in anthropological micro-history may or may not con her way into a small town in Sicily whose inhabitants may or may not be living out one of Carlo Ginzburg's anthropological micro-histories.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

We Are All Completely FineBook Daryl Gregory

Mind candy: group therapy where every one of the patients was the sole survivor of a different supernatural outrage. The group dynamics are funny, and there are some genuinely creepy bits, though the climax is more conventional and less effective than some of the earlier chapters.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

The Mark of the Midnight ManzanillaBook Lauren Willig

Mind candy, drawing on the vampire stories of the early 1800s.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

City of StairsBook Robert Jackson Bennett

Mind candy: something like a spy thriller, in the after-math of a reversal of imperial fortune, in a world full of faith-powered gods whose worship has been forbidden. (The names suggest Russia occupied by India.) There was an Awful Secret which I guessed within the first few chapters, but I frankly didn't care; it was that engaging.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

MaplecroftBook Cherie Priest

Mind candy: Lizzie Borden re-imagined as a slayer of Lovecraftian monstrosities. The characters' frailties, and their remarkably different views of the same events (human and inhuman), help elevate the reading experience. In the end, however, I am not sure I care enough to look for the inevitable sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for October 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-10-31·bactra.org ↗

FoolBook Christopher Moore

Mind-candy: affectionate send-ups of Shakespeare, with added slapstick, gratuitous sex, and sea-monsters.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Serpent of VeniceBook Christopher Moore

Mind-candy: affectionate send-ups of Shakespeare, with added slapstick, gratuitous sex, and sea-monsters.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Whiskey Tango FoxtrotBook David Shafer

Mind candy. Literary fiction in which a consortium of US security agencies and international for-profit corporations engages in a lawless campaign of total surveillance and information privatization, opposed primarily by an equally lawless transnational network of hackers and the occasional attack of conscience on the part of the conspiracy's minions.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Deep DownBook Deborah Coates

Mind candy: in which the approach to problem-solving and tactics that worked so well for Our Heroine in Afghanistan and the first novel proves equally effective when it comes to getting friends and neighbors in the Dakotas out of various supernatural jams.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

Memed, My HawkBook Yashar Kemal

I'd class it as mind candy, though with a footnote that it may have lost substance in translation.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

The Sultan's SealBook Jenny White

Mind candy: historical murder mystery set in late 19th century Istanbul, largely from the view-point of the modern-minded Ottoman official Kamil Pasha. I'd cheerfully read more, if I run across them. (White's day-job is a social anthropologist who studies Turkish nationalism.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for September 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-09-30·bactra.org ↗

What Are Intellectuals Good For? Essays and ReviewsBook George Scialabba

When I was trying to teach myself how to be a critic (or at least how to write criticism), one of my models was this "George Scialabba" character, who kept writing superb reviews of excellent books in all sorts of magazines, but didn't seem to have any books of his own.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-08-31·bactra.org ↗

The Modern PredicamentBook George Scialabba

When I was trying to teach myself how to be a critic (or at least how to write criticism), one of my models was this "George Scialabba" character, who kept writing superb reviews of excellent books in all sorts of magazines, but didn't seem to have any books of his own.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-08-31·bactra.org ↗

God's WarBook Kameron Hurley

Mind candy science fiction, full of betrayal, brutality, biotechnology based on beetles, bad decisions, and a singularly bloody-minded heroine.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-08-31·bactra.org ↗

One KickBook Chelsea Cain

Mind candy thriller, unrelated to her long-running mystery series. (There is the commonality that in both, the heroine has appallingly self-destructive taste in men.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for August 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-08-31·bactra.org ↗

Eyes of the DragonBook Stephen King

Mind candy. I really liked it when I was a boy, and on re-reading it's not been visited by the Suck Fairy, but I did come away with two thoughts. (1) I'd have been very interested to see what a writer with drier view of political power would have done with the story elements (the two princes, the evil magician, the exiled nobles) — Cherryh, say, or Elizabeth Bear.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-07-31·bactra.org ↗

The Rhesus ChartBook Charles Stross

Mind candy. Of course this is what would happen if some City quants happened to find themselves turning into vampires... (Before; after)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for July 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-07-31·bactra.org ↗

A Bali Conspiracy Most FoulBook Shamini Flint

Mind candy. The intersection of dissipated ex-pat life with terrorism. (Previously.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-06-30·bactra.org ↗

ChewBook John Layman and Rob Guillory

Comic-book mind candy (forgive the pun). I'm not sure what further food-related weirdness there is for them to pull, but I look forward to finding out. (Previously: 1, 2.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for June 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-06-30·bactra.org ↗

Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter'sBook R. A. Scotti

Mind candy: engaging-enough popular history, by a very-obviously Catholic writer. (My own first reaction to St. Peter's, on seeing it again for the first time as a grown-up, was that Luther had a point; my second and more charitable reaction was that there was an awesome space beneath the idolatrous and servile rubbish.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Pacific RimBook

Mind candy. While I like giant robots battling giant monsters, and I appreciate playing with elements of the epic (the warrior sulking in his tent; the catalog of ships), I'd have liked it better if the plot made more sense.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-05-31·bactra.org ↗

PoisonerBook Sara Poole

Mind candy: decent historical thrillers, though implausibly proto-feminist, philo-Semitic and proto-Enlightenment for the period.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Borgia BetrayalBook Sara Poole

Mind candy: decent historical thrillers, though implausibly proto-feminist, philo-Semitic and proto-Enlightenment for the period.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-05-31·bactra.org ↗

The Dogs of RomeBook Conor Fitzgerald

Mind candy. Police procedural with local color for Rome. (Having an American protagonist seems like a cheat.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Poor Man's FightBook Elliott Kay

Mind candy science fiction. Does a good job of presenting the villains sympathetically, from inside their own minds. Also, props for having the hero's step-mother make a prediction of how joining the navy will distort the hero's character, for it coming true, and for the hero realizing it, to his great discomfort. — Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for May 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-05-31·bactra.org ↗

Scroll of YearsBook Chris Willrich

Mind candy fantasy. The blurbs are over the top, but it is fun and decidedly better-written than average. Mildly orientalist, though in a respectful mode.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-04-30·bactra.org ↗

AnnihilationBook Jeff VanderMeer

Mind candy, but incredible mind candy. The basic story is a familiar one for SF: an expedition into an unknown and hostile environment quickly goes spectacularly awry, as the explorers don't appreciate just how strange that environment really is. But from there it builds to a gripping story that combines science fiction about bizarre biology with genuinely creepy horror.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-04-30·bactra.org ↗

The Burning DarkBook Adam Christopher

Mind candy: a haunted house story, with a space-opera setting. (Self-presentation.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-04-30·bactra.org ↗

Roadside PicnicBook Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (trans. Olena Bormashenko)

Mind candy, at the edge of being something greater. Humanity is visited by ridiculously advanced aliens, who leave behind artifacts which we understand no more than ants could comprehend the relics of the titular picnic. Owing to human greed, stupidity, and (it must be said) capitalism, this goes even worse for us than it would for the ants.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-04-30·bactra.org ↗

ParkerBook Darwyn Cooke

Mind candy: comic book versions of the classic crime novels by Richard Stark. The pictures are a nice complement to the high-energy stories about characters with no morally redeeming qualities whatsoever.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for April 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-04-30·bactra.org ↗

PowersBook Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming, et al.

Comic book mind candy, at the super-hero/police-procedural interface.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The March NorthBook Graydon Saunders

Mind candy. Readers know I am a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy (look around you), but there's no denying both genres have a big soft spot for authoritarianism and feudalism. I picked this up because it promised to be an egalitarian fantasy novel, and because (back in the Late Bronze Age of Internet time) I used to like many of Saunders's posts on rec.arts.sf.written.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-03-31·bactra.org ↗

The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady TrentBook Marie Brennan

Mind candy: further adventures in the natural history of dragons.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-03-31·bactra.org ↗

House of CardsBook

Mind candy. Rather to my surprise, I enjoyed this at least as much as the original. (I will not comment on the economics of the second season, or the generally very strange view of American politics.)

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-03-31·bactra.org ↗

HomelandBook

Mind candy. Well-acted, but I find the politics very dubious. In particular, "let the CIA do whatever it wants in Iran" is a big part of how we got into this mess.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-03-31·bactra.org ↗

Half-Off RagnarokBook Seanan McGuire

Mind candy: the travails of a mild-manner Ohio cryptozoologist. (I think it could be enjoyed without the earlier books in the series.) Previously: 1, 2. Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for March 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-03-31·bactra.org ↗

HawkeyeBook Matt Fraction and David Aja

Comic book mind candy, assorted flavors.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Little HitsBook Matt Fraction and David Aja

Comic book mind candy, assorted flavors.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Sex CriminalsBook Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky

Comic book mind candy, but so wonderfully weird as to deserve special mention.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

One Weird TrickBook Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky

Comic book mind candy, but so wonderfully weird as to deserve special mention.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Red SonjaBook Gail Simone and Walter Geovani

Comic-book mind-candy, but enjoyable as such without apology.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Queen of PlaguesBook Gail Simone and Walter Geovani

Comic-book mind-candy, but enjoyable as such without apology.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

Distant ReadingBook Franco Moretti

Despite the promise of the publisher's blurb, the recent work, some of which actually does feature principal components, is not included. I enjoyed reading or re-reading these essays, but I'm very much on his side, and it doesn't make a good introduction to the debate.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for February 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-02-28·bactra.org ↗

The Shadow of the TorturerBook Gene Wolfe

I found them fascinating and bewildering and I wasn't sure if I liked them but I had to keep going. (I am not sure if I mean "genius" sarcastically or not.) Re-reading after a lapse of thirty years, I find it fascinating and bewildering, and I have no idea how much of it I actually understood as a boy or how much of it I understand now. I am not sure if I like it or not, though that hardly seems relevant; I have to keep going.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-01-31·bactra.org ↗

IndexingBook Seanan McGuire

Mind candy: in which fairy-tales are constantly attempting to escape from the dungeon dimensions, and our heroes battle them back. (There is an essay to be written about contemporary ambivalence about "narratives".) — Sequel.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for January 2014 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2014-01-31·bactra.org ↗

Nothing Can Possibly Go WrongBook Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Comic-book mind candy: a school story about evil cheerleaders vs. combat robots. Delightful, though I don't usually care for such unalloyed social realism.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for December 2013 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2013-12-31·bactra.org ↗

NOS4A2Book Joe Hill

Mind candy: in which an alcoholic artist from New England and Colorado attempts to rescue her innocent child from the transdimensional horror that is Christmasland. It reads like a good (i.e., edited) Stephen King novel, which I gather is not altogether a coincidence.

His monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" post for November 2013 — the books he read that month and feels he can recommend.

2013-11-30·bactra.org ↗

Killer InstinctBook Zoe Sharp