Recommendations you can check.
Machine learning engineer working on recommender systems, personalization and information retrieval; previously at Mozilla.ai, Duo, Tumblr and Automattic, and author of the 'What are embeddings?' text.
19 things
Cathedral of the SeaBook Ildefonso Falcones
Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones - One of the biggest recent creative impacts of my life was a trip I took to Barcelona in 2023.
Her 'Favorite books of 2024' post, where she tries to balance technical reading with fiction.
2024-12-31·vickiboykis.com ↗
Our Share of NightBook Mariana Enríquez
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez - I was struck to the bone by this book. I thought about it for many weeks after I read it and even had several dreams about it.
Her 'Favorite books of 2024' post, where she tries to balance technical reading with fiction.
2024-12-31·vickiboykis.com ↗
The Tombs of AtuanBook Ursula K. Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan - My only regret is that I came to Ursula K. LeGuin so late in life, and this might be my favorite of all of her books I've read so far.
Her 'Favorite books of 2024' post, where she tries to balance technical reading with fiction.
2024-12-31·vickiboykis.com ↗
Demon CopperheadBook Barbara Kingsolver
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - By far my favorite book of the year.
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and TomorrowBook Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow and tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - A gut punch of a book, beautiful and lyrical.
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
gemma-4-12b-qatSoftware Google
Gemma-4-12b-qat just came out but I've already also really been impressed with its performance relative to its size.
'Running local models is good now' — the local models and harnesses she runs on an M2 Mac.
2026-06-15·vickiboykis.com ↗
GPT-OSSSoftware OpenAI
The idea that local models were severely lagging behind was largely true until, for me, the release of GPT-OSS.
'Running local models is good now' — the local models and harnesses she runs on an M2 Mac.
2026-06-15·vickiboykis.com ↗
The C Programming LanguageBook Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie
The C Programming Language - I've finally gotten to the point in my career where I can appreciate the elegance of this book.
Her 'Favorite books of 2024' post, where she tries to balance technical reading with fiction.
2024-12-31·vickiboykis.com ↗
The OutlawsBook Javier Cercas
The Outlaws by Javier Cercas - This book, translated from Spanish, covers the years of Spain after the Franco dictatorship but only obliquely hints at them.
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
The Last InterviewBook Anthony Bourdain
The Last Interview by Anthony Bourdain - There are some people who I often wish were still alive so I could have their take on things.
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRueBook V. E. Schwab
A wonderful idea for a book and brilliant execution as she lives from Medieval France to modern day.
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
Olga Dies DreamingBook Xochitl Gonzalez
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez - Olga grows up in the Puerto Rican community in New York and becomes enormously successful as a wedding planner, but cannot manage her own relationships
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
Life with PicassoBook Françoise Gilot
A second complementary book was Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot
Her 'Favorite books of 2024' post, where she tries to balance technical reading with fiction.
2024-12-31·vickiboykis.com ↗
The Rattle BagBook Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
The Rattle Bag edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes - In an age of LLM-generated poetry and machine learning curation (even coming from yours truly sometimes), it's refreshing to have real people who love poetry curate it and show you what you need to read to touch grass.
Her 'Favorite books of 2024' post, where she tries to balance technical reading with fiction.
2024-12-31·vickiboykis.com ↗
Becoming a Technical LeaderBook Gerald Weinberg
Becoming a Technical Leader by Gerald Weinberg - I've read and recommended Weinberg before and recommend him yet again.
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
Neural Network Methods for Natural Language ProcessingBook Yoav Goldberg
I also read a ton of technical books last year, but the most impactful one for me was Neural Network Methods for Natural Language processing by Yoav Goldberg
Her 'Favorite books of 2023' post.
2023-12-26·vickiboykis.com ↗
LM StudioSoftware LM Studio
For my local setup, I'm currently using Pi as the agent harness and LM Studio as the inference server
'Running local models is good now' — the local models and harnesses she runs on an M2 Mac.
2026-06-15·vickiboykis.com ↗
piSoftware
For my local setup, I'm currently using Pi as the agent harness and LM Studio as the inference server
'Running local models is good now' — the local models and harnesses she runs on an M2 Mac.
2026-06-15·vickiboykis.com ↗
gemma-4-26b-a4bSoftware Google
I've so far been using gemma-4-26b-a4b LM Studio implementation as my default local model.
'Running local models is good now' — the local models and harnesses she runs on an M2 Mac.
2026-06-15·vickiboykis.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.