{"id": "a-a-milne/winnie-the-pooh", "state": "reviews", "review": "This book is, of course, adorable in every way. The dorky bear with his friends in various stages being excitable,\nexuberant, worried, forgetful, depressed, busy, or superior are delightful and a neat way to keep a child entertained.\n\nBut clearly the best version of this book is the Latin version by Alexander Lenard (or at home: L\u00e9n\u00e1rd S\u00e1ndor), and\nthat's the one with the four-star rating. It follows the patterns and phrases of classical Latin to very comedic effect,\nand is probably best given to students in or past their fifth year of Latin.\n\nIt's always nice to be reminded that the nerds have always been out there.\n\n## Fun Facts\n\n[Apparently](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/18/books/winnie-ille-pu-nearly-xxv-years-later.html), Lenard had a\nlong-standing correspondence with Robert Graves in Latin \u2013 in character for both of them! For more of Robert Graves, see\n[I, Claudius](https://books.rixx.de/reviews/2020/i-claudius).", "last_date": "2022-07-07", "title": "Winnie ille Pu", "spine_color": "#d44a19", "isbn10": "0525467564", "isbn13": "9780525467564", "source": null, "series": "Winnie-the-Pooh", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1926", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330718769l/1006067.jpg", "pages": 145, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "a-j-hackwith/the-library-of-the-unwritten", "state": "reviews", "review": "The Library of the Unwritten clearly caters to book readers more than every book does in general: Fantasy where the hero\nis a supernatural librarian, on a quest to retrieve souls and books? Starring in a conflict between Hell and Heaven?\nHell yeah.\n\nDespite the tempting setup, it couldn't catch my attention at all: It relies on the natural interest of readers towards\nlibraries, then doesn't back it up. Good-enough characters, not-good-enough dialogue \u2026 there's nothing that stands out\nas bad, but there's nothing that stands out at all. I didn't care about the characters and stopped reading.", "last_date": "2020-10-30", "title": "The Library of the Unwritten", "spine_color": "#86796c", "isbn10": "1984806386", "isbn13": "9781984806383", "source": null, "series": "Hell's Library", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2019", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551259771l/41961994.jpg", "pages": 384, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": "1"}
{"id": "a-k-larkwood/the-unspoken-name", "state": "to-read", "review": "Recommended by [Nerds of a Feather](http://www.nerds-feather.com/2020/01/microreview-book-unspoken-name-by-ak.html) as\nqueer grimdark.", "last_date": "2020-03-26", "title": "The Unspoken Name", "spine_color": "#b49a76", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "The Serpent Gates", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2020", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582270239l/52181559._SX318_SY475_.jpg", "pages": null, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "abbey-mei-otis/sweetheart", "state": "reviews", "review": "A bit on the nose, but still nice: Sweatheart is a well-written very short story by *Abbey Mei Otis* that is first sweet\nand then chilling in the path the story takes \u2013 nothing too special either, just a perfectly fine scifi short.\n\nI'm not sure if the author intends \"yay nightly deportations of aliens are fine\" to be the moral, or if she wanted to\nshow why and how people will come to believe these things are fine. Very mixed feelings \u2013 she does the latter way, but\nI'm worried she actually wants to sell the message that peace is more important than both love and morals. Hmmmm.", "last_date": "2022-07-08", "title": "Sweetheart", "spine_color": "#987e5e", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "https://www.tor.com/2018/08/14/read-abbey-mei-otis-sweetheart/", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2010", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329281136l/13485563.jpg", "pages": 5, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ada-palmer/seven-surrenders", "state": "reviews", "review": "The second volume is a bit less on the 18th century France presumptiousness spree (but adds in some more Greek history to make up for it). Very wow, including how Jehovah/JEDD and Bridger meet, Bridger's choice, the Major's identity and so many little things we learn about Mycroft (\u2665), the hives, and individuals. Also, Utopians forever.", "last_date": "2018-04-17", "title": "Seven Surrenders", "spine_color": "#31537c", "isbn10": "0765378027", "isbn13": "9780765378026", "source": null, "series": "Terra Ignota", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "2017", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517514624l/28220647._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 368, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ada-palmer/the-will-to-battle", "state": "reviews", "review": "The Will to Battle is currently the last volume of *Ada Palmer*'s brilliant **Terra Ignota** series. One volume is missing, and it's supposed to come out next year, and I bloody hope so because this one leaves me aching for more. As with the previous books, I completely get why people would not like this book, at least its style, but to me it's magical. Even three books into the series, we get an astounding amount of worldbuilding, we receive new information on the previous books (in particular their creation, it's all Very Meta), all the while the world heads straight towards the biggest and worst World War imaginable. I love these books dearly, and the world Ada Palmer shows us is filled with wonders.", "last_date": "2018-07-15", "title": "The Will to Battle", "spine_color": "#6e92c2", "isbn10": "0765378043", "isbn13": "9780765378040", "source": null, "series": "Terra Ignota", "series_position": "3", "publication_year": "2017", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484321667l/33517544.jpg", "pages": 368, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ada-palmer/too-like-the-lightning", "state": "reviews", "review": "For me, this was a five star books, plain and simple, but I *completely* understand why it would be a 0-, 1-, 2-star book for others.\n\nIt's pretentious at times. It wants you to have classical knowledge of ancient Rome and 18th century France. It plays on that knowledge, and knowledge of literature in 18th century France explicitly. At least it explains lots of the in-jokes, so it's not terribly arrogant in choosing its readership, but the pretentiousness is there. The storytelling is great, full with an apologising, opinionated actor-narrator, with intermezzi by other characters.\n\nThat said, I loved it. I loved the world, the 24th century world that consits of lots and lots of non-nation based groups (and some nation based ones), and seven major orientations everybody chooses (or becomes a blacklaw, which is fine, too): The Masons who have resurrected ancient Rome, the Humanists who have a flexible democracy, the Mitsubishi super clan who are focussed on land ownership, the Brillists who go ahead and analyse anyone and everyone, the Cousins who are something like the priests of a world that prohibits organised religion, the Europeans, based around a borderless idea of old nations, and the Utopians who are everywhere, especially in space, on the moon, and terraforming Mars.\n\nWe get a complete, complex world, with penal systems, laws, cultures, capital punishments, regular people, and \u2026 special people of all kinds. Emperors, kings, convicts, gods, \u2026Wow.\n\nAnd then it just ends in the middle of it all. *sigh*", "last_date": "2021-12-06", "title": "Too Like the Lightning", "spine_color": "#efba8c", "isbn10": "0765378000", "isbn13": "9780765378002", "source": null, "series": "Terra Ignota", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2016", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443106959l/26114545.jpg", "pages": 432, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "adam-b-seligman-robert-p-weller-michael-puett/ritual-and-its-consequences", "state": "to-read", "review": "Nonfiction. Recommendation by David and joXn.", "last_date": "2020-08-13", "title": "Ritual and its Consequences", "spine_color": "#a0a0a0", "isbn10": "0195336011", "isbn13": "9780195336016", "source": null, "series": "Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity", "series_position": "", "publication_year": "2008", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780195336016-L.jpg", "pages": 229, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "adam-r-shannon/on-the-day-you-spend-forever-with-your-dog", "state": "reviews", "review": "It must be because I never had a dog: On the Day You Spend Forever with your Dog\nis a short story that tries to roll heart-breaking dog love and (emotional) time travel into one, but fell flat for me.", "last_date": "2022-07-08", "title": "Apex Magazine -- December 2018", "spine_color": "#96857d", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "https://www.apex-magazine.com/on-the-day-you-spend-forever-with-your-dog", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2018", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543705355l/43073743._SX318_.jpg", "pages": 95, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "adam-troy-castro/emissaries-from-the-dead", "state": "to-read", "review": "Sci-fi mystery with more sci-fi than mystery, [via](https://www.eblong.com/zarf/bookscan/review/castro_adam-troy_emissaries_from_the_dead.html)", "last_date": "2020-07-26", "title": "Emissaries from the Dead", "spine_color": "#42485f", "isbn10": "0061443727", "isbn13": "9780061443725", "source": null, "series": "Andrea Cort", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2008", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780061443725-L.jpg", "pages": 400, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "adrian-tchaikovsky/children-of-time", "state": "reviews", "review": "With *Adrian Tchaikovsky's* **Children of Time** I've finally come upon a book that most of my friends liked or loved,\nand that I couldn't get into, for \u2026 complex reasons.\n\nChildren of Time tells two stories. On the one hand, a future where humanity is nearly extinct, due to their own \u2026 you\nknow. Look at our planet. All of that. Bad decisions. Ego. Depleting the planet. Depleting other planets. Infighting.\nLots and lots of politics. The last of humanity lives through a deep nuclear winter, then begins to reassemble the\ntraces of the previous technological culture, and finally sets out in big ships because it becomes clear that Earth\nwon't be habitable to humans ever again. This story arc follows the ship, and its characters. None of them are terribly\nlikable. The protagonist is a cowardly \"Classicist\" who studied pre-war Earth, joined with a cynic Engineer, a\nmegalomaniac commander, a god-playing scientist, and the head of security with ambitions of grandeur. Can you spot the\ncharacters below the stereotypes?\n\nOn the other, we get a story about the last human experiement. On the planet in question, a megalomaniac scientist\nwanted to \"uplift\" monkeys, by magically (sorry, genetically) advancing evolution. Sadly the monkeys died a gruesome\ndeath, and the virus/genome/magic entered the local spiders instead, and also ants, some sea creatures, etc. We follow\nthe rise of the spider civilisation over thousands of years, in short episodes. This part of the story was very good.\nThey are weird, alien creatures following their own cultural logic and laws. Brilliant scifi, wonderfully written. It's\nhard to make this millennia spanning episodic style work, but it works very very well.\n\nSo why did I not like the book in the end? It's a couple of things, really. The spider arc was good, the human arc was\npredictable, and flat, and \u2026 somewhat repulsive, really. Part of that is my mood at the time of reading, but I found the\nbook horribly depressing. It shows, over and over and fucking over, the worst of humanity, with honestly nearly no\nredeeming features. The destructiveness of our actions, the lack of collaboration and foresight, the sheer\nself-centeredness \u2026 it was a bit much for me. Couple that with the fact that the ending was a bit cheap and also\nextremely foreshadowed (or just predictable) from the half-way point on, and the book left me with more bad feelings\nthan good, despite its *extremely brilliant* half.", "last_date": "2019-11-15", "title": "Children of Time", "spine_color": "#457e60", "isbn10": "1447273281", "isbn13": "9781447273288", "source": null, "series": "Children of Time", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2015", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781447273288-L.jpg", "pages": 600, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "adrian-tchaikovsky/walking-to-aldebaran", "state": "reviews", "review": "Walking to Aldebaran was my first book by *Adrian Tchaikovsky*, and it certainly was a good book. The story itself was a\nbit on the shallow side, I felt, but the writing, and the protagonist exploring weird alien catacombs, both were well\ndone, so it was a good read. I think all things considered, the protagonist's narration voice was the best part of the\nbook \u2013 without it, it would've been generic grim scifi, but this way it was quite a bit better than that. (A\nreview copy was provided in exchange for an honest review by the publisher, via NetGalley.)", "last_date": "2019-04-08", "title": "Walking to Aldebaran", "spine_color": "#c0b692", "isbn10": "1781087067", "isbn13": "9781781087060", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2019", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781781087060-L.jpg", "pages": 140, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/4-50-from-paddington", "state": "reviews", "review": "There's no way I can think of this book without seeing and hearing the movie. The book veered a bit too far into the\n\"here, have some train schedules\" direction \u2013 I'm not much of a mystery reader, the details bore me and I never try to\npuzzle them out on my own. For good reason: Miss Marple books often work with hazy clues and psychology magic.", "last_date": "2004-05-01", "title": "4:50 from Paddington", "spine_color": "#ddca4a", "isbn10": "1579126936", "isbn13": "9781579126933", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "7", "publication_year": "1957", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781579126933-L.jpg", "pages": 288, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/a-murder-is-announced", "state": "reviews", "review": "One of the generic Miss Marple mysteries, but a rather good one. I liked the premise \u2013 and there's not much more to\nlike. It's one of those books where the author had one good idea (see title), and then follows through. Christie does\nthat very well, and that is that.", "last_date": "2004-01-01", "title": "A Murder Is Announced", "spine_color": "#f2ac22", "isbn10": "1579126294", "isbn13": "9781579126292", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "4", "publication_year": "1950", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781579126292-L.jpg", "pages": 288, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/curtain", "state": "reviews", "review": "After reading the [first Poirot](/agatha-christie/the-mysterious-affair-at-styles/) the other day, I\nthought I'd continue with the last one. Agatha Christie takes Poirot full circle, with the last novel playing in the\nsame place as the first one, with plenty of reminiscing going on.\n\nThis is a good showcase for the better Christie mystery, I think, where she sets up a regular whodunnit,\nand then presents a solution that is unconventional in at least one way. She does the same in Death on the Nile, and\nOrient Express, and of course in Roger Ackroyd. I found this one a little contrived, but nonetheless a nice read, and it\nwas interesting to contrast her later writing with her earlier one.\n\nEven though I enjoyed it, I can already tell that the gimmick of Hastings as narrator is grating after two books. Apart\nfrom that, I thought she handled the transition to an aging <span class=\"spoilers\">and ultimately dying</span> Poirot in\na consistent and even somewhat fun way. As usually, there was a ton of red herrings, but since in this instance they\nwere both meta-addressed and the point, I was okay with it, and found myself unusually interested in the final\nreveal.", "last_date": "2020-06-18", "title": "Curtain", "spine_color": "#784443", "isbn10": "0425173747", "isbn13": "9780425173749", "source": null, "series": "Hercule Poirot", "series_position": "42", "publication_year": "1975", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780425173749-L.jpg", "pages": 215, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/murder-at-the-vicarage", "state": "reviews", "review": "This is where it begins: The tons of Miss Marple book start here, introducing the gentle but sharp old lady who can\nsolve every crime by reducing it to some small village squabble. I generally enjoy the Miss Marple mysteries more than\nthe Poirot ones, mostly because Hastings is so incredibly obnoxious. But both series have in common that the bulk of the\nmysteries are not particularly noteworthy and I often can't remember any details.", "last_date": "2004-07-01", "title": "Murder at the Vicarage", "spine_color": "#097e71", "isbn10": "1579126251", "isbn13": "9781579126254", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1930", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781579126254-L.jpg", "pages": 288, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/murder-on-the-orient-express", "state": "reviews", "review": "The famous Orient Express! As always, Christie has a gimmick and follows it to the end, but this time she adds several\ngood ideas on the side! I particularly liked the <span class=\"spoiler\">Cyrillic writing on the handkerchief</span> that\nthrew everybody off and yet was perfectly visible to the reader.", "last_date": "2005-08-01", "title": "Murder on the Orient Express", "spine_color": "#487f77", "isbn10": "0425200450", "isbn13": "9780425200452", "source": null, "series": "Hercule Poirot", "series_position": "10", "publication_year": "1934", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780425200452-L.jpg", "pages": 322, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/nemesis", "state": "reviews", "review": "Generic Miss Marple mystery \u2013 can't really remember anything about it except for the beginning. The beginning was a lot\nof fun, but it continued as a run-of-the-mill mystery.", "last_date": "2005-06-01", "title": "Nemesis", "spine_color": "#556f8d", "isbn10": "0451200187", "isbn13": "9780451200181", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "12", "publication_year": "1971", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389760569l/31304.jpg", "pages": 224, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/sleeping-murder", "state": "reviews", "review": "This was one of the few Miss Marple mysteries that I remembered for years. It didn't vanish into the blur of \"eh,\nsomebody died and Miss Marple solved it\". Partially because I found it genuinely creepy, and partially because\nit's an unusual setup: New homeowners feel creeped out, and particularly Gwenda feels bad vibes, is scared of the\ndark, remembers doors where none are etc. Good setup, and a neat solution.", "last_date": "2005-05-01", "title": "Sleeping Murder", "spine_color": "#cbd8aa", "isbn10": "0002317850", "isbn13": "9780002317856", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "13", "publication_year": "1976", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780002317856-L.jpg", "pages": 242, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/the-abc-murders", "state": "reviews", "review": "Another Poirot mystery. I liked how self-aware Christie is in this book \u2013 Poirot routinely mocks (gently, even!) mystery\nstereotypes in hilarious ways. Hastings as a narrator continues to be stupid in an intentionally pompous, upper-class\nway, which is tedious if you read too much of it. The case in itself is not terrible, but nothing great either.", "last_date": "2020-06-20", "title": "The ABC Murders", "spine_color": "#0879af", "isbn10": "1579126243", "isbn13": "9781579126247", "source": null, "series": "Hercule Poirot", "series_position": "13", "publication_year": "1936", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781579126247-L.jpg", "pages": 252, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/the-body-in-the-library", "state": "reviews", "review": "The setup for this is so generic that even the book (and literally every other mystery author at the time) had to make\njokes about it. That's \u2026 about all I remember, to be quite honest. Most Miss Marple mysteries are somewhat of a blur to\nme.", "last_date": "2005-07-01", "title": "The Body in the Library", "spine_color": "#e5e0c1", "isbn10": "157912626X", "isbn13": "9781579126261", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "1942", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781579126261-L.jpg", "pages": 191, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd", "state": "reviews", "review": "Truly fun book with low re-read value, because you'll remember the gimmick. Christie does that a lot: she picks *one*\nthing, and then she runs with it until the very end. Some books are good because the thing is good (like this one), and\nsome are disappointing because the thing is disappointing. Oh, and then there are some books that don't have a thing.", "last_date": "2005-02-01", "title": "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", "spine_color": "#82ce68", "isbn10": "1579126278", "isbn13": "9781579126278", "source": null, "series": "Hercule Poirot", "series_position": "4", "publication_year": "1926", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389734015l/16328.jpg", "pages": 288, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/the-mysterious-affair-at-styles", "state": "reviews", "review": "I'm not really one for mysteries, and I enjoyed this book more than I expected.\nThis is the first of the Poirot books, and it is already a near-perfect example of its genre. It opens by describing, at\nlength, the initial setting, implying heavily who will die, and shows off how everybody has means and/or motive to\nbecome a murderer, all the while being very proper and British about it. Then, the murder, then, the curious Belgian\ndetective, then, an unbelievable amount of clues and red herrings. Final clarity to be delivered on the last pages in a\ndramatic manner, exit villain left, curtains.\n\nWhat I enjoyed a lot was how funny Christie was \u2013 she wrote this book during WW1, when she was 26, and showed an\nextremely good eye for people. Particularly the first-person narrator, Hastings, is an upper-class idiot with an\nextremely inflated sense of his importance and intelligence, which she conveys beautifully.\n\n<blockquote>\n\u2018We must be so intelligent that he does not suspect us of being intelligent at all.\u2019\nI acquiesced.\n\u2018There, mon ami, you will be of great assistance to me.\u2019\nI was pleased with the compliment. There had been times when I hardly thought that Poirot appreciated me at my true worth.\n</blockquote>\n\nInteresting how both Watson and Hastings are home, wounded from a war, and decidedly less clever followers of a\nbrilliant detective. I find Watson the much more sympathetic of the two, both because he has some actual qualifications,\nand because he has to live with Holmes' sociopathic abuse. Hastings has less of an excuse for his attitude, and less of\na reason to garner sympathy, so I took an enjoyment \u2013 intended and well-presented \u2013 in seeing his big head deflated a\nbit. He's the very image of the extremely mediocre white (tech, currently) dude, and if you imagine a very clever woman\nliving in the 20s, writing this book, you can see how writing Hastings is an extremely enjoyable form of\ntherapy-cum-punching-bag.\n\nI have read [some Agatha Christie](/agatha-christie/) before, and I'll try to read some more. It's a very nice\ndistraction, no more or less than comfort food.", "last_date": "2020-06-14", "title": "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", "spine_color": "#973c28", "isbn10": "0646418432", "isbn13": "9780646418438", "source": null, "series": "Hercule Poirot", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1920", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922393l/16343.jpg", "pages": 121, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "agatha-christie/the-thirteen-problems", "state": "reviews", "review": "This collection of short Miss Marple stories was enjoyable. While Agatha Christie mostly follows her pattern of\n\"the most vulnerable-looking person is most suspicious\", I don't read mysteries for the plot, so I didn't care all that\nmuch. But the characterisation of poor old Miss Marple was very entertaining to read! I remember how this narration\ndevice got boring and even annoying when I read most of the Miss Marple books in one go, but over longer intervals, it\nworks very well.\n\nAfter reading this book [and a Poirot\none](https://books.rixx.de/reviews/2020/the-mysterious-affair-at-styles) back to back, my current\npreference of the [Detection Club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detection_Club) era that I've read is: Dorothy Sayers,\nAgatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Chesterton. And I think it's no accident that female writers are leading my list:\nFirst off, to be recognised as a good writer as a woman you had to perform to higher standards than men, of course. But\nalso, I think you write better characters if you're more observant, and marginalisation strengthens observation skills.", "last_date": "2020-06-15", "title": "The Thirteen Problems", "spine_color": "#aa9081", "isbn10": "0007120869", "isbn13": "9780007120864", "source": null, "series": "Miss Marple", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "1932", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780007120864-L.jpg", "pages": 315, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aidan-wachter/weaving-fate", "state": "reviews", "review": "Weaving Fate is a woo book. The author believes in magic and assumes you do, too. I found this strangely refreshing, to\nbe honest, and it made it easy to separate out the useful stuff, for my intents and purposes.\n\nWhat I took from it, when you remove the fluff, were two meditation exercises (one of which won't work for me), a\njournaling practice, and a bunch of new entries on my to-read list. That's more than decent for a 170 page book that I\nexpected to feel at best ambiguous about.\n\nEven apart from the useful ideas, I liked several things about this book. For one, it emphasises that there are no\none-size-fits-all solutions, and that the proposed protocols and techniques will probably be modified by the reader \u2013 a\nstrict improvement over most of self-help literature.  He also explains all the words and concepts: \"Liminal means \u2026\",\nand so on. He also cites his sources, and notes where he has a deep or shallow understanding of them, or where he\nchanges his use of their terms. Oh, and he gave me the idea of recording my own guided meditation, which I should've\nthought of on my own.\n\nThese are the four techniques that he introduces, summed up very roughly:\n\n## Black Book\n\nThis is a journaling exercise to support change in your life. You write journal entries from the POV of your future\nself, with lots of details \u2013 so you never express *intent*, you always write about factual experience.\n\nNotes: Don't worry about continuity, instead use it to explore what you really want.  Tone matters more than specifics,\nbut be specific nonetheless. Focus on emotions and sensory details. Follow your dreams/vibes/themes/intentions to their\nconclusions and write about that.  Focus on what outcomes look like and feel like. What are the fruits of your labour,\nwhat do they taste like?  Move the markers of what is possible for you. If you are working on hitting beginner level,\ntalk about going semi-professional.\n\nThe book surrounds the journal with a lot of *magic*, consecrating it, having you alway use the same pen etc etc, but\nthe practice in itself sounds intriguing enough that I'm going to try it.\n\n## Corridor\n\nThis is a visualisation exercise: You visualise a corridor / place with a lot of doors (settings will\nvary).  Stepping through doors gives you access to a situation in your past, which you can then re-interpret or\nre-shape.  This will in turn change how you experience present and future events, since your perception is rooted in\nyour past.  It is not exactly used to create new memories \u2013 more to introduce a dissonance in a comfortable story you've\ntold yourself, and that is keeping you back.\n\nSo you will (after entering a meditative state and walking through one of the doors) encounter your younger self,\nprobably in a less-than-positive situation, and interact to give advice and hugs, recontextualise, tell yourself what\nyou needed to hear back then. Since you're in control, you can (and should) decide in advance that your younger self\nwill be receptive and open, which situation you will visit, and that the whole thing will be beneficial.\n\n## Fever Stone\n\nThis is a trauma visualisation exercise, best I can tell, accompanied by some symbolism (he wants you to keep and use a\nstone. I'm ignoring that part). I didn't enjoy reading this chapter, so this is just the very abridged version:\n\nYou practice visualising a temple/church, seeing yourself laid out in there (alive, tho). Practice visualising a stone\nin your body (frozen trauma), that you remove and burn up. Also practice visualising feeding warmth/energy to\nyourself/your stomach, where it is stored to be released when needed. Combine the two, plus the earlier corridor\nexercise, by stepping into the aftermath of a traumatic event (or for complex trauma, a memory of it activating), and\nvisualise removing the trauma stone, burning it and feeding the energy to yourself.\n\n## Desire inventory\n\nThis technique isn't even listed with a name, and just added in the very end. I'm calling it \"Desire Inventory\", after\nthe Deepest Fear Inventory mentioned in [Existential Kink](https://books.rixx.de/carolyn-elliott/existential-kink/).\n\nWrite a list of everything you want. Big desires, small \"a bagle would be nice\", anything goes. Update constantly. Once\nyou have at least 50 (and whenever you have collected a new batch), transfer them to an index card per desire \u2013 but in\nthe form of affirmations (so \"I'd like a bagle\" turns into \"I'm ecstatic that I have a bagle\"). Read them out loud, in\nthe most enthusiastic over-the-top way you can (practice for some days before proceeding), and pay attention to your\nfelt sense.  Sort into legitimate/not legitimate/maybe legitimate. Discard the ones you don't really feel like (maybe\nrepeat for a few days, if you're not sure), then look at what remains. Maybe re-write as desires. Group in ways that\nfeel right \u2013 look at the clusters, interrogate them, etc.\n\n## Bibliography\n\n- Carroll: Liber null, Liber kaos, Psychonaut [chaos]\n- Thomas Hanna: Somatics\n- Aidan Wachter: Six Ways\n- Ray Sherwin: Theatre of Magic\n- Gordon White: The Chaos Protocols", "last_date": "2021-01-06", "title": "Weaving Fate", "spine_color": "#4b883f", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": "9780999356623", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": null, "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596911413l/54854252._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 171, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aiden-thomas/cemetery-boys", "state": "reviews", "review": "Coming-of-age novel set in an urban fantasy: Yadriel is a Latinx trans boy in the US. His whole family are brujx and\ndon't accept him as a brujo. Naturally, he spends the novel proving himself \u2013 but with a fair bit of reflection and\nfriendships and non-transition related plot thrown in. Intersectional YA is pretty cool and all (most non-Latinx people\nhere are queer by default, delightfully), and my only issue with this was how predictable the plot is and how YA\npossibly just isn't for me anymore.", "last_date": "2021-06-12", "title": "Cemetery Boys", "spine_color": "#e8dd95", "isbn10": "1250250463", "isbn13": "9781250250469", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2020", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781250250469-L.jpg", "pages": 352, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bennett/the-uncommon-reader", "state": "reviews", "review": "Oh wow, that was a charming book (or probably a novella?)! It was enjoyable and funny throughout and then packed a\nmarvellous punchline.", "last_date": "2017-05-16", "title": "The Uncommon Reader", "spine_color": "#9d0302", "isbn10": "0374280967", "isbn13": "9780374280963", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2007", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780374280963-L.jpg", "pages": 120, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/a-red-herring-without-mustard", "state": "reviews", "review": "Still a lot of fun and enjoyable, while being nothing too special.", "last_date": "2017-11-24", "title": "A Red Herring Without Mustard", "spine_color": "#f7e631", "isbn10": "0385342322", "isbn13": "9780385342322", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "3", "publication_year": "2011", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388266441l/8517008.jpg", "pages": 399, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/as-chimney-sweepers-come-to-dust", "state": "reviews", "review": "Even *more* Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm a sucker for training stories, y'know.", "last_date": "2017-11-26", "title": "As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust", "spine_color": "#329fbe", "isbn10": "0345539931", "isbn13": "9780345539939", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "7", "publication_year": "2015", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1406214651l/21874813.jpg", "pages": 392, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/i-am-half-sick-of-shadows", "state": "reviews", "review": "Still funny, still thoroughly enjoyable, but \u2026 not really more than three stars for me. (This one's about a visiting cinema troupe and a dead actress.)", "last_date": "2017-11-25", "title": "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows", "spine_color": "#e82b26", "isbn10": "0385344015", "isbn13": "9780385344012", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "4", "publication_year": "2011", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409945571l/11277218.jpg", "pages": 293, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/speaking-from-among-the-bones", "state": "reviews", "review": "The Flavia de Luce books started blurring together before this one, and even series-changing big reveals didn't\nchange that fact. Too much time spent demonstrating sassy storytelling \u2013 completely in line with the rest of the series,\nbut increasingly less amusing.", "last_date": "2017-11-25", "title": "Speaking from Among the Bones", "spine_color": "#7397c6", "isbn10": "0385344031", "isbn13": "9780385344036", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "5", "publication_year": "2013", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344371922l/13642963.jpg", "pages": 378, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/the-curious-case-of-the-copper-corpse", "state": "reviews", "review": "Copper corpses will never not sound like Dorothy Sayers to me.", "last_date": "2017-11-26", "title": "The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse", "spine_color": "#b68e66", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "6.5", "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414703512l/23480520.jpg", "pages": 27, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/the-dead-in-their-vaulted-arches", "state": "reviews", "review": "Oh-HO, here we go! Suddenly it's much more A Series of Unfortunate Events and less just Kalle Blomkvist!", "last_date": "2017-11-26", "title": "The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches", "spine_color": "#df9932", "isbn10": "0385344058", "isbn13": "9780385344050", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "6", "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432578235l/17834904._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 315, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/the-sweetness-at-the-bottom-of-the-pie", "state": "reviews", "review": "Well, that was fun. I'm not too much of a fan, the rambling style of Flavia's train of thought is annoying, I\nthink. But at the same time it's definitely well-written and just fun to read. I'm looking forward to the next parts.", "last_date": "2017-11-23", "title": "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie", "spine_color": "#acce63", "isbn10": "0385342306", "isbn13": "9780385342308", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2009", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780385342308-L.jpg", "pages": 374, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/the-weed-that-strings-the-hangmans-bag", "state": "reviews", "review": "Continues to be lighthearted and utterly enjoyable.", "last_date": "2017-11-23", "title": "The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag", "spine_color": "#937bb2", "isbn10": "0385342314", "isbn13": "9780385342315", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "2010", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388266442l/6777616.jpg", "pages": 364, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-bradley/thrice-the-brinded-cat-hath-mewd", "state": "reviews", "review": "Woop! I like the slightly-older Flavia, who is more devious, and still terribly clever. Also, evil cliffhanger.", "last_date": "2017-11-28", "title": "Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd", "spine_color": "#cb9028", "isbn10": "1409149501", "isbn13": "9781409149507", "source": null, "series": "Flavia de Luce", "series_position": "8", "publication_year": "2016", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472540479l/26194013._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 307, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alan-dean-foster/the-last-starfighter", "state": "reviews", "review": "I'm sure the movie is much better than this, but the book is just a cheap version of Ender's Game.", "last_date": "2018-04-29", "title": "The Last Starfighter", "spine_color": "#4e5f60", "isbn10": "042507255X", "isbn13": "9780425072554", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1984", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780425072554-L.jpg", "pages": 218, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alastair-reynolds/house-of-suns", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2018-09-06", "title": "House of Suns", "spine_color": "#59585e", "isbn10": "0575099127", "isbn13": "9780575099128", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2008", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447892903l/1126719._SX98_.jpg", "pages": 512, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "albert-camus/the-plague", "state": "reviews", "review": "The curious mood of The Plague is easy to recall even years after reading it. It's got a curious sense of detachment and\nnumbness that I enjoyed reading, as much as I hate symbolic storytelling normally. I'm still a bit annoyed by the plain\nmoralistic nonsense, though.", "last_date": "2010-11-01", "title": "The Plague", "spine_color": "#967063", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1947", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1503362434l/11989._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 308, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aldous-huxley/brave-new-world", "state": "reviews", "review": "Fun fact: It took me three tries to finish Brave New World, because the last third (or so) just had me tune out. It's\ninteresting to contrast this work \u2013 of Huxley's youth, all convinced of things gravitating towards terribleness \u2013 to\n*Island*. He wrote Island much later in life, and it shows. What if \u2026 people could just feel good, for a while? That would\nbe \u2026 good?", "last_date": "2011-01-01", "title": "Brave New World", "spine_color": "#786a7d", "isbn10": "0060929871", "isbn13": "9780060929879", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1932", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780060929879-L.jpg", "pages": 288, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aldous-mercer/the-prince-and-the-program-the-mordred-saga-1", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2022-02-18", "title": "The Prince and the Program (The Mordred Saga, #1)", "spine_color": "#c3c3b1", "isbn10": "1632164426", "isbn13": "9781632164421", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2012", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420009273l/24225668.jpg", "pages": 344, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alessandro-baricco-guido-waldman/silk", "state": "to-read", "review": "Short, historical fiction, poetic. 1860s in France. [via](https://chaos.social/@strangeglyph/104349993600456650)", "last_date": "2020-06-24", "title": "Silk", "spine_color": "#a3946f", "isbn10": "0375703829", "isbn13": "9780375703829", "source": null, "series": "Silk", "series_position": "", "publication_year": "1996", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780375703829-L.jpg", "pages": 91, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alex-gino/george", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2016-05-11", "title": "George", "spine_color": "#e4873d", "isbn10": "0545812542", "isbn13": "9780545812542", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2015", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780545812542-L.jpg", "pages": 208, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alex-white/a-big-ship-at-the-edge-of-the-universe", "state": "to-read", "review": "Look at the title.", "last_date": "2018-12-04", "title": "A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe", "spine_color": "#0d0f20", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "The Salvagers", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2018", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504129587l/35520564._SX98_.jpg", "pages": 480, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alexander-wales/a-bluer-shade-of-white", "state": "reviews", "review": "It's rational fiction on Frozen. Cool, but characterisations are very much on\nthe nose and progression is weird. Enjoyable short read though.", "last_date": "2018-06-30", "title": "A Bluer Shade of White", "spine_color": "#366b95", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411850450l/23276801._SX98_.jpg", "pages": 65, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alexander-wales/the-last-christmas", "state": "reviews", "review": "This story has potential, but rationalists and their aversion to humour ruins it.  The Last Christmas is a fun\npremise, but way too short to build it up properly, and so it ends up all over the place. Still: It's short, and\na nice read, so if you want to see how an engineer deals with suddenly being Santa, go check it out.", "last_date": "2018-09-21", "title": "The Last Christmas", "spine_color": "#92756f", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9915682/1/The-Last-Christmas", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": null, "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446240775l/27396199.jpg", "pages": 54, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alexander-wales/the-metropolitan-man", "state": "reviews", "review": "HPMOR, only for superman. Makes Lex Luthor out as a semi-sensible person.", "last_date": "2018-03-06", "title": "The Metropolitan Man", "spine_color": "#b1b1b1", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407181255l/22872436.jpg", "pages": 241, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alexandre-dumas/the-count-of-monte-cristo", "state": "reviews", "review": "Revenge \u2013 exciting revenge from nearly beyond the grave! I loved this book to pieces when I discovered it, despite being\nconfused by it a lot. I was nine at the time, and many concepts in there confused me. How did cheques work? What on\nearth was a rentier? (They were spelt the same in German, and the word has fallen completely out of use, because Rentier\nalso means reindeer. You can understand my confusion.) And I didn't get the whole Bonaparte arc until I re-read it years\nlater.\n\nBut all those things didn't keep me from just thoroughly enjoying the drama.", "last_date": "2003-05-01", "title": "The Count of Monte Cristo", "spine_color": "#bebdc3", "isbn10": "0140449264", "isbn13": "9780140449266", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1844", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780140449266-L.jpg", "pages": 1276, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alexandre-dumas/the-last-cavalier", "state": "reviews", "review": "Disappointing, but not surprising: I knew that Dumas had written a lot, and even his best works need a lot of\ncompression to be readable. The count of Sainte-Hermine probably would not have been good even with much more work,\nthough. With a *blatant* Mary Sue (much, much worse than Monte Cristo) and a meandering plot at best, finishing this\nbook is an achievement that was not worth it. Trust me.", "last_date": "2005-12-01", "title": "The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon", "spine_color": "#9d9473", "isbn10": "1933648317", "isbn13": "9781933648316", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1870", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781933648316-L.jpg", "pages": 864, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alexandre-dumas/the-three-musketeers", "state": "reviews", "review": "People underestimate how honestly useful Dumas is. Well, if you get the abridged versions, of course, nobody wants to\nread that optimized-for-line-count nonsense. Read up on it, his tricks to stretch dialogue into more lines are\nhilarious, to the point of his writing style changing (and characters with long names suddenly dying) when his\npublishers changed the rules.\n\nThe Musketeers (four, by the way, I counted) are a lot of fun, and worth revisiting if you just want some old-school\nadventuring, with Good Guys, Bad Guys, Evil Women etc etc. It also teaches you a surprising amount of history \u2013 I'm not\nsure when I would have learned of Richelieu, but certainly much later and less memorably.", "last_date": "2003-04-01", "title": "The Three Musketeers", "spine_color": "#78807e", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "The D'Artagnan Romances", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1844", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1630475503l/7190._SX318_.jpg", "pages": 625, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alfred-bester/the-stars-my-destination", "state": "reviews", "review": "The Stars My Destination by *Alfred Bester* is a scifi classic, and most of those don't work for me. This one was better\nthan average, but I still felt like I was in a weird dream. I have a low tolerance for people behaving horribly and/or\nstupidly at the moment, which is certainly part of it. I enjoyed the exploration of what the power of personal\nteleportation at a whim would do to society, and I laughed at the outrageously absurd parts of the novel, but the middle\npart felt like a drag, not due to lack of action, but due to the characters being weird/horrible/stupid or alternating\nbetween those three in rapid succession.", "last_date": "2019-05-05", "title": "The Stars My Destination", "spine_color": "#885f12", "isbn10": "0679767800", "isbn13": "9780679767800", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1955", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780679767800-L.jpg", "pages": 258, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alice-miller-ruth-ward/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child", "state": "reviews", "review": "Some self-help books are for a very specific audience. *The Drama of the Gifted Child* is one of those, and I am not its\naudience. I buy the claim that children do a lot of things to fulfil expectations rather than out of their own desire,\nbut at least for me, this behaviour never reached the pathological levels that this book assumes as the baseline shared\nexperience.\n\nIt's short and polarises early, so it's definitely worth reading the first chapter to see if there's something here for\nyou.", "last_date": "2020-10-25", "title": "The Drama of the Gifted Child", "spine_color": "#441b17", "isbn10": "0465016901", "isbn13": "9780465016907", "source": null, "series": "The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self", "series_position": "", "publication_year": "1979", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780465016907-L.jpg", "pages": 144, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 1, "did_not_finish": "1"}
{"id": "aliette-de-bodard/children-of-thorns-children-of-water", "state": "reviews", "review": "I wasn't aware how tightly this story was coupled with the surrounding universe: Children of Thorns, Children of Water\nsadly doesn't make much sense if you aren't familiar with *Aliette de Bodard*'s **Dominion of the Fallen** series, and\ncomes off hurried and confused (but with potential in the worldbuilding!)", "last_date": "2018-09-20", "title": "Children of Thorns, Children of Water", "spine_color": "#3e4d54", "isbn10": "1473212626", "isbn13": "9781473212626", "source": "https://uncannymagazine.com/article/children-thorns-children-water/", "series": "Dominion of the Fallen", "series_position": "1.5", "publication_year": "2017", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492097640l/34851372.jpg", "pages": 37, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aliette-de-bodard/the-tea-master-and-the-detective", "state": "reviews", "review": "The Tea Master and the Detective by *Aliette de Bodard* is a nie short scifi novella in a world where different sorts of\nteas can have a profound impact on how the human brain works, there is deep space that behaves entirely different from\nnormal space, and we have sentient ships.\n\nI can't really give you an objective review (even less than usually, I mean) because I'm a sucker for sentient space\nships. These ones are very well done, I felt, and the duo of the Tea Master and the Detective worked very well. And if\nit is just Sherlock Holmes coupled with an Ann Leckie world \u2013 so what? I would've read and enjoyed a full novel of\nthis instead of just a novella (though it was very well-paced).", "last_date": "2019-07-07", "title": "The Tea Master and the Detective", "spine_color": "#a16f4e", "isbn10": "1596068647", "isbn13": "9781596068643", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2018", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781596068643-L.jpg", "pages": 96, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "alix-e-harrow/the-ten-thousand-doors-of-january", "state": "reviews", "review": "Coming-of-age stories are possibly just not for me anymore. The book-driven portal fantasy is nice enough, and the\nhelping of \"remember how bad turn-of-the-century racism is\" is not bad if a bit forced, but \u2026 I just didn't care about\nthe predictable story. If only there had been a bigger focus on the portals, or the portal writing, or the\nportal worlds \u2026  I can appreciate why this book is popular, but it felt more generic than it should have to\nme.", "last_date": "2021-05-13", "title": "The Ten Thousand Doors of January", "spine_color": "#8b6e42", "isbn10": "0316421995", "isbn13": "9780316421997", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2019", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780316421997-L.jpg", "pages": 384, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "amal-el-mohtar/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war", "state": "reviews", "review": "This Is How You Lose the Time War was written by *Amal El-Mohtar* and *Max Gladstone*. They must be magic. They can't just write like this without magic. Trust me.\n\nIt's a love letter. No, really: It's a series of love letters.\n\nIt's a war story. No, really: It's a series of war stories.\n\nIt's a fairytale. It's a high-tech dystopia.\n\nIt's none of those. The breathless travel through the time war, seen from opposing agents on both sides, does not leave time for petty worldbuilding, and instead hands us poetical outlines that work far better than a thousand pages of in-depth worldbuilding could. (I want those thousand pages. But they wouldn't improve the book.) It's a book-long poem, or at least half the time it is. I can't do it justice here, but I read it in a day, and I liked it very much. You might, too.", "last_date": "2019-09-21", "title": "This Is How You Lose the Time War", "spine_color": "#532b30", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2019", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545755487l/43352954._SX318_.jpg", "pages": 209, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andre-norton/witch-world", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2019-03-09", "title": "Witch World", "spine_color": "#b97b51", "isbn10": "0441897088", "isbn13": "9780441897087", "source": null, "series": "Witch World Series 1: Estcarp Cycle", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1963", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780441897087-L.jpg", "pages": null, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andrea-wulf/the-invention-of-nature-alexander-von-humboldts-new-world", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2018-08-19", "title": "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World", "spine_color": "#695748", "isbn10": "038535066X", "isbn13": "9780385350662", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2015", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780385350662-L.jpg", "pages": 473, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andreas-eschbach/das-jesus-video", "state": "reviews", "review": "Trashy Dan-Brown-wannabe. Came recommended by a thread on good German fiction, never again.", "last_date": "2021-08-15", "title": "Das Jesus Video", "spine_color": "#6a4d58", "isbn10": "3404142942", "isbn13": "9783404142941", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1998", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9783404142941-L.jpg", "pages": 651, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 1, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andrew-rowe/sufficiently-advanced-magic", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2018-09-15", "title": "Sufficiently Advanced Magic", "spine_color": "#5e6470", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Arcane Ascension", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2017", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1488182235l/34403860._SY475_.jpg", "pages": null, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andrzej-sapkowski/the-last-wish", "state": "reviews", "review": "Finally catching up with some European fantasy \u2013 I haven't watched the show, but I've played some of the games, and I'm\ngenerally aware of what's going on in-universe. I knew the book was fairly episodic going into it, which might have been\na problem otherwise.\n\nIt's really decent fantasy, is what it is. The world feels solid the same way the games do, with actual professions and\npolitics, currencies and distances and other central European shenanigans, while also having clearly a backdrop that is\nalive in the author's mind, without dropping all of the history on us.\n\nThe stories are dark, grim, realistic. There's violence, there's rape, and there are absolutely no damsels in distress\nthankful for their rescue. The Witchers are explained as much as possible, and the fact that they are the last of\ntheir line and that that's not a bad thing gets through better than in the games. The stories do everything:\ninverted Beauty & Beast, mutant Rapunzel, Snow White, \u2026\n\nThe (German) translation is decent, but uneven. The sentences are often off, but the vocabulary is *brilliant* and I\nlearnt several new words while reading this book. Dialogue is the best of it, if and when it works.\n\nBut the pacing is odd, and the protagonist has the worst case of protagonist syndrome I've seen in a while \u2013 I don't\nfeel like I've wasted my time, but I'm also not keen on continuing.", "last_date": "2021-11-04", "title": "The Last Wish", "spine_color": "#b23b2c", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "The Witcher", "series_position": "0.5", "publication_year": "1993", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529591917l/40603587._SX98_.jpg", "pages": 360, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": "0"}
{"id": "andy-weir/project-hail-mary", "state": "reviews", "review": "Andy Weir has a thing he does well, and this is just another instance of this thing. If this had been my first Andy Weir\nbook, I probably would have given it a higher rating, but after The Martian, it felt like a re-run.\n\nThe sun is dying due to mysterious circumstances, and a physics teacher with a suspiciously Mark Watney like\nvoice is part of the desperate effort to find a solution. This part was great \u2013 competency porn for the sci-fi nerd,\nwatching the whole world mobilise together in acknowledgement of an existential threat. (Ha.)\nOur protagonist couldn't make it as a research scientist, but still has critical thinking skills that make him an asset\nto this operation (more competency porn for the institution-averse nerd).\n\nAs always, Weir is great at details: science details, but also human details. Fuel calculations, panic when\nweightlessness kicks in, weird ship design, storage logistics, you name it: Weir has thought about it and I love it.\n\n\nThat said: some things were tedious or broke my suspension of disbelief. Memory loss as an exposition device is tired\neven when it's done well (which it is here). The resulting plot twist was visible half a book away. And what's with the\nprotagonist constantly commenting on his use of imperial units and pop-culture references? All dialogue feels like it's\ntrying way, way too hard to be funny, and rarely hits any kind of rhythm (to say nothing of the stereotypes,\neverywhere), to the point that it hurts. And, most importantly: a huge spoiler block (only read if you're sure you don't\nwant to read the book).\n\n<div class=\"spoiler\">\n\nThe alien feels way, way humanoid despite looking like a mecha spider. The way learning a completely foreign language is\nportrayed ('Tenses, plurals, conditionals') highlights how much Weir is a science nerd, not a language nerd, and how\nextremely human his aliens are. It's disappointing, because there was so much potential there, and in the end, despite\neverything, the way Weir chose was kinda boring.\n\n</div>", "last_date": "2021-09-05", "title": "Project Hail Mary", "spine_color": "#968237", "isbn10": "0593135202", "isbn13": "9780593135204", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2021", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780593135204-L.jpg", "pages": 496, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andy-weir/the-egg", "state": "reviews", "review": "Super-short, not exactly original, but well-done and strangely foundational: The Egg is a wonderful little, tiny, short\nstory. I first read it some years back, but it always stayed with me, just in the back of my head. Now I came across it\nagain, and I thought I should share the goodness with you.\n\n*Note:* As [per](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/z6x211/top_10_freely_available_sf_short_stories/iy4b1ll/),\nthe story is not actually by Andy Weir (and, indeed, it reads extremely out of character).", "last_date": "2019-01-26", "title": "The Egg", "spine_color": "#484737", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2009", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431492647l/17563539.jpg", "pages": 3, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "andy-weir/the-martian", "state": "reviews", "review": "Gods, I already knew they had chosen Matt Damon as lead role, and I can imagine him in that role so very well! Brilliant\nhumor with hard scifi. I seriously hope they won't fuck up the movie.\n\n*Edit: Narrator's voice.* They did not fuck up the movie.", "last_date": "2015-08-06", "title": "The Martian", "spine_color": "#df954b", "isbn10": "0804139024", "isbn13": "9780804139021", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2012", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780804139021-L.jpg", "pages": 369, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "angie-thomas/the-hate-u-give", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2017-11-15", "title": "The Hate U Give", "spine_color": "#5f4942", "isbn10": "0062498533", "isbn13": "9780062498533", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2017", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780062498533-L.jpg", "pages": 464, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ann-leckie/ancillary-justice", "state": "reviews", "review": "Wow wow wow.\n\nWow.\n\nGreat pacing, great characters, great world, great conflict. Great scifi. I'm impressed, and fascinated, and I hope the next books can live up to this one. But even without follow-up books, this would be \u2026 amazing. (Also, hey, meaningful generic femininum was a lot of fun.)", "last_date": "2018-03-13", "title": "Ancillary Justice", "spine_color": "#748079", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Imperial Radch", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2013", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380915234l/18626964.jpg", "pages": 432, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ann-leckie/ancillary-mercy", "state": "reviews", "review": "Wow! A worthy ending to the **Imperial Radch** trilogy ba Ann Leckie. The actions and decisions of the previous volumes find their somewhat logical conclusion in a complicated struggle for independence in an empire that has forgotten what independence even is. This book was a truly amazing mix of fast-paced action (lots of fun and creativitiy in there, too), and deep, deep character development. This series hit my tastes in every way, balancing action, character development, humor, serious issues of personal growth, society, and politics. Wow.", "last_date": "2018-07-13", "title": "Ancillary Mercy", "spine_color": "#cd9814", "isbn10": "0356502422", "isbn13": "9780356502427", "source": null, "series": "Imperial Radch", "series_position": "3", "publication_year": "2015", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780356502427-L.jpg", "pages": 336, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ann-leckie/ancillary-sword", "state": "reviews", "review": "Ancillary Sword was an exceedingly worthy successor to Ancillary Justice. We get a deeper look into the culture of the Radch and (most importantly) the characters we got to know in the first book. Understanding how all of them felt, especially Breq, even while they were navigating treachery, improper (!) annexations, war, and crisis, was a treat. This exploration of characters comes at the cost of action and pace, but the slower pace is made up by the frequent and fast changes of scenery. The book is more linear than the first one, but at the same time the consistent multi-focus storytelling is a different (and great) challenge altogether.", "last_date": "2018-04-14", "title": "Ancillary Sword", "spine_color": "#cc4327", "isbn10": "0316246654", "isbn13": "9780316246651", "source": null, "series": "Imperial Radch", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780316246651-L.jpg", "pages": 356, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ann-leckie/nights-slow-poison", "state": "reviews", "review": "I like *Ann Leckie* a lot, but **Night's Slow Poison** didn't work for me \u2013 the story was either too short or too aimless for me to appreciate.", "last_date": "2018-08-23", "title": "Night's Slow Poison", "spine_color": "#a3200a", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Imperial Radch", "series_position": "0.5", "publication_year": "2012", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1418606162l/22452306.jpg", "pages": 20, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ann-leckie/provenance", "state": "reviews", "review": "Provenance by *Ann Leckie* is set in the Ancillary universe, but doesn't have much to do with the Radch or any of the\nknown characters. Instead, it's a pleasant little space-opera adventure. I enjoyed it a lot, even if it didn't have the\nsame quality as the Ancillary trilogy \u2013 it clearly doesn't aim to be the same book, and that worked for me. The\nprotagonist is young, sometimes clever, but noticeably inexperienced and often wrong. There are a couple of\ninconsistencies in her character, I'd say (both painfully insecure, and sufficiently sure of herself to pull off big\nplots of her own?), but having the inner view on a clever, but anxious person was convincing, all things\nconsidered. As usual for Leckie, relationships are not really fleshed out (because, again, the protagonist is somewhat\nclueless, although we do get a very low-key romance), so it falls to the reader to notice interactions and draw\nconclusions. The worldbuilding was very good, as to be expected, and I'd have loved to see more of it, especially of the\ndifferent human and non-human cultures.\n\nSo, if you like scifi adventures with a believable cast, great worldbuilding, and no Chosen One Saving The World,\nProvenance should fit the bill. Sadly, I have now read everything there is to read from Ann Leckie, and I'll have to\nwait for her next book to come out. Thankfully this isn't a long wait: Her first Fantasy novel will come out in February\nnext year.", "last_date": "2018-10-05", "title": "Provenance", "spine_color": "#afac9c", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2017", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492328037l/25353286._SX318_.jpg", "pages": 448, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "ann-leckie/the-raven-tower", "state": "reviews", "review": "I'm not quite sure where I stand on **The Raven Tower** by *Ann Leckie*. On the plus side: a fantasy story told from the\nperspective of a god (and with a fascinating definition of 'god', to boot), in a consistent voice (good thing I was used\nto second person narration from Ms Jemisin), with a not-quite predictable plot. But while I'm a fan of unusual story\narcs, I found myself wanting more. The story was good, but not enough! I think this is not just me being used to\nSanderson-length epic fantasy. Raven Tower has great world building and narration (and a unique take on \"gods speak the\ntruth\"!), but the plot seemed a bit underdeveloped.\n\nI'm still very happy to have read it, though \u2013 a fantasy book from the perspective of a deity is very Ann Leckie, who\ncontinues to be amazing at writing non-human characters, and letting her readers fill in all the human characters from\nclues the non-human protagonist/narrator doesn't quite understand. A good concept, and it translates very well from\nscifi to fantasy.", "last_date": "2019-03-22", "title": "The Raven Tower", "spine_color": "#695432", "isbn10": "0316388696", "isbn13": "9780316388696", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2019", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780316388696-L.jpg", "pages": 416, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "anne-frank/the-diary-of-a-young-girl", "state": "reviews", "review": "Anne's diary was mandatory reading in school. Our edition included photos of Anne and her family. Contrasting Anne's\nstory with the fact that there are six million of these stories \u2013 an unthinkable number to me, even now \u2013 made me\ndespair of humanity when I was eight. I still find it hard to deal with it.", "last_date": "2003-04-01", "title": "The Diary of a Young Girl", "spine_color": "#4e1014", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1947", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560816565l/48855.jpg", "pages": 283, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "anne-mccaffrey/dragonflight", "state": "reviews", "review": "Okay look. Dragonriders? A whole social group structured around dragons?!! A whole society slowly losing their belief in\nthe ancient threat that made them support and accept the dragon riders? It sounds *so*, so good. But.\n\nThe book, first part in the intimidatingly long Pern series, was a decent read, but shows its age in some meh ways and\nin some other actively uncomfortable ways. I know the 60s were a different time, but also, Babel-17 was published two\nyears before this book, so I'm not inclined to be too understanding. The gender roles are beyond lazy and verge into\nterrible (I kept expecting subversion because this could not possibly be serious). All the women kinda suck, including\nthe protagonist, and I don't even want to go into the way sex is handled. Yikes. Y i k e s.\n\nThe worldbuilding is great and fun, and I want more. The harpers? The ancient traditions showing that spacefaring humans\ncame to Pern and engineered dragons to protect against the extraterrestrial treat? All that slaps.\n\nBut then there's the plot. It's a bit all over the place, I believe because the book was made up from different stories,\nwhich is fine. But why, why the time travel? I'm not sure I'm willing to suspend my disbelief about the arbitrary rules\nof time travel for 23 more books.", "last_date": "2022-03-13", "title": "Dragonflight", "spine_color": "#1c4cd7", "isbn10": "0345484266", "isbn13": "9780345484260", "source": null, "series": "Dragonriders of Pern", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1968", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780345484260-L.jpg", "pages": 299, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": "0"}
{"id": "anne-rice/interview-with-the-vampire", "state": "to-read", "review": "consider linking https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-dec-25-mn-2255-story.html and https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a36386485/tom-cruise-interview-with-a-vampire-anne-rice-sabotage/\nand her war on fanfic", "last_date": "2018-10-12", "title": "Interview with the Vampire", "spine_color": "#6f5728", "isbn10": "0345476875", "isbn13": "9780345476876", "source": null, "series": "The Vampire Chronicles", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1976", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780345476876-L.jpg", "pages": 342, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "annemarie-selinko/desiree", "state": "reviews", "review": "D\u00e9sir\u00e9e got me started on serious historical fiction \u2013 this, or [Klaus Kordon](/klaus-kordon/die-roten-matrosen/), but\nit's a close race. D\u00e9sir\u00e9e is the true tale of D\u00e9sir\u00e9e Clary, told in the form of her fictional diary.\n\nWhy her? Because her life touches on larger-than-life history in many ways: Born as a wealthy silk merchant's daughter\nin Marseille in 1777 (not the best time for wealthy merchants in France), she got first-hand experience of the late days\nof the French revolution.  Her sister and niece married into the Bonaparte family, while D\u00e9sir\u00e9e, who was engaged to\nyou-know-who himself for a while, married Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, a general and Marshal of the Empire.\n\nHer husband, after handling boring everyday life matters like managing cities and contributing significantly to the\nvictory at Austerlitz, was adopted by the Swedish king, and elected as his heir. He aligned Sweden with Napoleon's\nenemies, and planned and executed major parts of the decisive victory over Napoleon at Leipzig. He reigned as King of\nSweden for twenty-six prosperous years.\n\nD\u00e9sir\u00e9e tells this convoluted story in a nuanced, well-researched collection of diary entries. If, at times, it seems\nlike it gives in to name-dropping important historical figures, I can't complain because this vivid parade of people\ninvoved in the fate of France taught me more (or at least more permanently) than my history teachers ever managed.", "last_date": "2008-08-01", "title": "D\u00e9sir\u00e9e", "spine_color": "#cf785d", "isbn10": "8493388335", "isbn13": "9788493388331", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1951", "cover_image_url": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81FRzK3pj6L.jpg", "pages": 607, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "anthony-ryan/blood-song", "state": "reviews", "review": "Blood Song is the start of the **Raven's Shadow** series by *Anthony Ryan*. It was hard to make up my mind about\nthis book \u2013 it changed a lot over the course of the story.\n\nWe start off with a young protagonist who is given by his family to an order of warrior monks to be trained. And while\nthe worldbuilding (which is only hinted at at this point) is solid, we get a third of a book's worth of a mix\nof brutal Hogwarts and training sequences. This isn't bad per se, but I started to see this book as one of those guilty\npleasure fantasy reads: I'm a sucker for training stories, and I know it, and that's fine.\n\nBut then our protagonist grows up, and joins the wider world, and has to contest with larger issues than just learning\nand fighting and dealing with the occasional attempt on his life. This part tends to skip long stretches of time, years\nat times, and only shows us the highlights of our protagonist's experiences in his adult life. And then, the last part\nof the book follows him into battle, and has him face (and eventually follow) his moral qualms. All the while the\nworldbuilding is growing wider and deeper. The content of this book could have easily made a trilogy in the current\nstate of Fantasy, so I'm very happy to see this amount of storytelling. Going from a young boy in training, via a young\nadult struggling with the world, to an adult who stands up for his convictions is no new story by far \u2013 but Ryan\npresents it without making it feel stale. Part of that is that the protagonist isn't always right \u2013 he's certainly\ncapable, and not stupid by far, but he does make mistakes, and not only ones that spell \"I'm only a mistake to advance\nthe plot\".\n\nSo, yes, if you're into fantasy that makes use of known tropes without being stale or boring, you should definitely\ncheck this one out!", "last_date": "2018-10-12", "title": "Blood Song", "spine_color": "#6e4a3d", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Raven's Shadow", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2011", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421573407l/13569581.jpg", "pages": 591, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "anthony-ryan/tower-lord", "state": "reviews", "review": "I thoroughly enjoyed **Tower Lord** (second volume of *Anthony Ryan's* Raven's Shadow series). It's good fantasy, with a careful mix of known elements (the weary hero who is always right, the young fighting gutter princess, the clever queen, superstitions everywhere, evil religion, good agnostics, magic coming true, prophecies, etc), but mixes it up sufficiently that the story arc is never completely clear. We get good character development on two major and a couple of minor fronts, and I enjoyed how the pieces came together in the end. Even though it's no high literature, I'm looking forward to the conclusion.", "last_date": "2019-01-21", "title": "Tower Lord", "spine_color": "#ab9f9c", "isbn10": "0425265625", "isbn13": "9780425265628", "source": null, "series": "Raven's Shadow", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382486392l/18138189.jpg", "pages": 608, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "antoine-de-saint-exupery/flight-to-arras", "state": "reviews", "review": "Published in 1942, Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry talks about his life, experience, thoughts and feelings about being a pilot\nin WWII, while on the defensive and with little hope of surviving. The novella follows one flight, and comments on both\nthe flight itself (mechanically, strategically) and the war in general.\n\nIt's bleak. It's about death: Preparing for death, seeing friends die, seeing people die on a scale that the human brain\ncannot understand. It's about failure modes: A state collapsing in on itself, a mind clinging to protocol and habit.  He\nmixes the visceral despair with lyrical observations of a pilot zoning out: \"The density of aerial warfare? Grains of\ndust in a cathedral.\" (Take notes, sci-fi authors!)\n\nAnd then, in the end, he lost me: After spending most of the book talking about the horrors and absurdity of war, he\nuses the elation at the completed flight to turn around into a praise of the sacrifice and principles involved.\n\"Humanism has neglected the essential role of sacrifice\", and all that.\n\nSome more observations:\n\nAs always, it's disconcerting to read things written in the midst of a big event, particularly while the end is still\nuncertain. In 1942, things looked terrible for France, and I'm awed reading about it.\n\nI'm not sure why I keep trusting English translations.  The translation uses the word \"holocaust\" in some places, and\nI'm not sure how well-chosen it is, given the publication date. \"\u00c7a sauve- rait notre mission d\u2019\u00eatre sacrifi\u00e9e, une\npanne de laryngophone\" is translated as \"A speaking tube out of order would preserve us from the holocaust.\" (and\nanother similar case), or \"Nous nous sommes jet\u00e9s dans l\u2019incendie.\" as \"[We] flung ourselves into the holocaust.\". The\ntranslation is also off-by-two-chapters for some reason, but my French isn't good enough to figure out what happened\nthere.\n\nLastly: when he talks about the absurdity of war, the missing material, the gears that refuse to mesh, the sheer scope\nof astonished terror, he reminds me of Vonnegut: \"After nine months of war we had still not succeeded in persuading the\nindustries concerned that aerial cannon and controls ought to be manufactured with regard to the climate of the upper\naltitudes in which they were employed.\", or: \"\u201cYour death will have no effect at all. Defeat is inescapable. But it is\nproper that a defeat manifest itself by dead. There must be mourning. Your part is to play the dead.\u201d \u201cVery good, sir.\u201d\"", "last_date": "2021-03-10", "title": "Flight to Arras", "spine_color": "#de8b2c", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": "9780156318808", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1942", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780156318808-L.jpg", "pages": 168, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": "0"}
{"id": "antoine-de-saint-exupery/the-little-prince", "state": "reviews", "review": "The adorable faux-philosophical book with delightfully whimsical moments was something I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I would\nimagine that much of its charm is due to my age when reading it though, and if I had read it for the first time now, I\nwouldn't be nearly as enchanted by the rose and the sheep and so on.", "last_date": "2002-04-01", "title": "The Little Prince", "spine_color": "#074f90", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1943", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367545443l/157993.jpg", "pages": 93, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "antonio-r-damasio/descartes-error", "state": "reviews", "review": "Didn't hold much new information for me, because its contents have grown so accepted and foundational in the 25 years\nsince publication. Nevertheless it provides a solid fundamental overview in a very readable way, despite also dealing in\na bit of technical details.", "last_date": "2020-04-18", "title": "Descartes' Error", "spine_color": "#d10606", "isbn10": "014303622X", "isbn13": "9780143036227", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1994", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780143036227-L.jpg", "pages": 336, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arkady-martine/a-desolation-called-peace", "state": "reviews", "review": "Generally, *A Desolation Called Peace* is nearly as good as [A Memory Called\nEmpire](/arkady-martine/a-memory-called-empire). It replaces parts of the intrical cultural commentary with very alien\naliens who need to be communicated with, but surprisingly, the aliens are one of the weakest parts of the book. This is\nbasially the anti-Tchaikovsky, where humans are inevitably more interesting than even hive mind aliens.\n\nThe weak parts of the book echo the first book, really: The story wraps up too neatly, the character development\nis put off too much where inconvenient, and the book would like to spend more time on exploring the culture than on the\nplot. Which works for me, so no complaints there.\n\nI wish the aliens had been more intriguing, but I minded less than I expected. The aliens make a distinction\nbetween being a real person (aka undying hive mind) and the others, who they characterise as \"thinking language\". As\nsomebody with a primarily nonverbal mode of thinking, that was exciting at first with \u2026 zero payoff, which is\na wasted opportunity. In exchange, Martine does an *occasionally* very good job of portraying the trouble of\nlearning an alien language during first contact \u2013 but then goes back to being really more into the culture and politics\nof the empire.\n\nWhat really got me is how Martine continues the commentary on cultural primacy and the feeling of being just outside a\nculture and language that you really love. The protagonist's position and feelings echo my experiences with\nEnglish-speaking people and countries to a degree that is uncanny, particularly as written by an American. Being always\nnot exactly included, never quite on solid ground, even while you feel yourself losing fluency and comfort in your\nnative language hits hard, and made me reconsider some priorities. You may have noticed that in a 3-month, 18 book gap\nin reviews on here. I'll find words for it eventually, please hold the line.", "last_date": "2021-04-11", "title": "A Desolation Called Peace", "spine_color": "#ccbfb3", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Teixcalaan", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "2021", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1591755604l/45154547._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 496, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arkady-martine/a-memory-called-empire", "state": "reviews", "review": "A junior ambassador from one alien nation and planet to another, which boasts of a highly complex language and culture?\nFinding herself scrambling to catch up with her predecessor (rudely murdered, instead of being in her brain as would be\nappropriate), trying not to share his fate? Sudden conspiracies, even more complex cultural games, plus an assistent\nshe's very much into? Hell yes.\n\nA Memory Called Empire by *Arkady Martine* is exactly what I like to read in sci-fi. All people in this novel\nare human \u2013 but they don't necessarily see each other this way. Our protagonist is the ambassador to a sprawling, huge\nempire that has a terribly lyrical culture, where everything is an allusion or a poem or a reference, and probably all\nof these rolled together. She has to come to grips with her new posting, and find her way in this world, while figuring\nout why her predecessor is dead, and \u2026 well, the empire collapses.\n\nThis on its own would be\nfascinating, but we don't only get to see the culture clash between our protagonist and her empire assistant, oh no \u2013\nwithout giving away too much, this story is also about neural implants, and self-modifications, and different\ndefinitions of being human. And as if that wasn't enough, we also get to think about the further reaching implications.\nWhat if my culture says that your culture does hideously brutal things that make it barely human at all \u2013 but I have to\nchoose between allying with you and potentially dooming all thinking galactic life? Yeah, that.\n\nIn one or two places, the book takes the easy way out of these moral quandaries, but then again, that's fair: We do the\nsame in every-day life. We break problems down, or circumvent them, and don't always meet them with intellectual\ncuriosity and honesty head on. I enjoyed this book very much, and I'm extremely impressed that this was the first\npublished book by this author. Apparently a second volume is in the making, which I'm very much looking forward to.\n\nBut to be honest, what spoke most to me in this book is how it mirrors exactly how I feel about interacting with English\nnative speakers on the one hand and English-speaking culture on the other hand. The casual talking-down, the constant\ntaking-for-granted and the occasional cutting inadequacy are stunningly the same, just as the constant threat of\ncultural and non-cultural imperialism. Language works slightly differently, but so does EVERYTHING ELSE. Smiles. Hints.\nPoliteness. It's absurd, and hard, and the way the (don't take this the wrong way) cultural primacy handles it is *not*\nenjoyable. The way the protagonist struggles between her culture and her love for the Teixcalaan culture (and her desire\nto be somewhat accepted or at least acknowledged, knowing how impossible it is) is *painful* because yes, this is me.", "last_date": "2021-03-26", "title": "A Memory Called Empire", "spine_color": "#c4bba2", "isbn10": "1250186439", "isbn13": "9781250186430", "source": null, "series": "Teixcalaan", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2019", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781250186430-L.jpg", "pages": 462, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arkady-strugatsky/roadside-picnic", "state": "reviews", "review": "Roadside picnic was a good book to read, and I was surprised that I didn't find it depressing. It takes place in\na small town in roughly-Canada, where an alien exclusion zone has spawned that is very much like a radioactive dump:\nPeople around it experience mutations, people at the site when it spawned lost their lives or were injured in weird\nways, you should only enter the zone in a special suit, but of course people do enter without one anyways. This was\npublished 14 years before Chernobyl, mind.\n\nOur protagonist a is working for the institute investigating the zone when he's not busy being in prison for his\nsmuggling activities. He has a wife and a daughter <span class=\"spoilers\">who looks like a little monkey. As I said,\nChernobyl feeling</span>. He's extremely irreverent and snarky and his inner monologue was a joy to read. I read the\nGerman translation, but I've been told this goes for the English one, too. The German translation is an utter joy to\nread.\n\nI've been trying to put into words why this book is so very, very Russian. I think it's the interactions between\npeople. There's a common assumption that everybody is scavenging and finding semi-legal ways of making do, and also that\neverybody could be an informer about to tattle. This common assumption is born with equanimy and alcohol, and a strong\nreliance on community bonds. While the protagonist is in prison, friends check in on his wife and stand up to her\nneighbours to end the ongoing bullying, for example. I'm waving hands here, but trust me: The whole book feels like it's\ntaking place in the Russian steppe, not in Canada. I'm not sure I could've pointed this out before moving to Western\nGermany. I'm still trying to find better words.\n\nThe book, of course, is slice-of-life \u2013 everything else would feel pretentious and wrong. There are starts and stops,\nand there is an end, but it doesn't follow a dramatic arc: one thing happens, and then the next. Sometimes one thing\nleads to the next, but sometimes it doesn't. It makes the book more real, more serious \u2013 more life-like. It could've\neasily felt depressing and kafkaesque, but it didn't, so here I am, liking it a whole lot. Also: Look at that cover!", "last_date": "2020-08-03", "title": "Roadside Picnic", "spine_color": "#dbd19b", "isbn10": "0575070536", "isbn13": "9780575070530", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1972", "cover_image_url": "https://drop.rixx.de/aT0H/", "pages": 145, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arno-gruen/wider-den-gehorsam", "state": "to-read", "review": "nonfiction.", "last_date": "2019-10-22", "title": "Wider den Gehorsam", "spine_color": "#ee3d22", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "2014", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1419826884l/24160407.jpg", "pages": null, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey", "state": "to-read", "review": "", "last_date": "2018-07-31", "title": "2001: A Space Odyssey", "spine_color": "#cac2a7", "isbn10": "0451457994", "isbn13": "9780451457998", "source": null, "series": "Space Odyssey", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1968", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432468943l/70535._SY475_.jpg", "pages": 297, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": null, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arthur-c-clarke/the-nine-billion-names-of-god", "state": "reviews", "review": "I appreciated the woo, but. The Nine Billion Names of God is a short story typical of the Arthur C. Clarke times\nof scifi. Doesn't hurt to read, but by now it's predictable, and the premise was new then, but is ehhh\ntoday.", "last_date": "2019-02-19", "title": "The Nine Billion Names of God", "spine_color": "#dba65b", "isbn10": "0451147553", "isbn13": "9780451147554", "source": "https://urbigenous.net/library/nine_billion_names_of_god.html", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1967", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1224576760l/149075.jpg", "pages": 240, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arthur-c-clarke/the-songs-of-distant-earth", "state": "reviews", "review": "A future human settlement gets visited by the last travellers from the doomed planet earth, on their way to their final\ndestination, a new earth. Very calm, slow, slightly utopian.\n\nI'm not really sure what to make of this book. On the one hand, it was utterly lovely: The calm, nearly slice-of-life\nstory of the surviving members of the human race. Touching, simple, optimistic, \u2026 sweet? At the same time, the lack of\ntension made me take a long time reading this book, and the parts that were interesting to me (the other planet! the\nALIEN LIFE!) were only mentioned in passing. Weirdly frustrating for such a nice and optimistic book.", "last_date": "2020-01-24", "title": "The Songs of Distant Earth", "spine_color": "#59729b", "isbn10": "0007115865", "isbn13": "9780007115860", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1986", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780007115860-L.jpg", "pages": 256, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arthur-c-clarke/the-star", "state": "reviews", "review": "A solid scifi short story. I probably shouldn't be surprised at Clarke's knowledge of the Jesuits. At only four pages,\nit felt well-written (but not quite as moving as it wants to be).", "last_date": "2022-03-05", "title": "The Star", "spine_color": "#2a91ba", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf", "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1955", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451214185l/13598725.jpg", "pages": 6, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arthur-c-clarke/trouble-with-time", "state": "reviews", "review": "Trouble with Time is a nice enough short story by *Arthur C. Clarke*. My impression is good idea, okay-ish execution,\nnothing special.", "last_date": "2019-10-13", "title": "Trouble with Time", "spine_color": null, "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1960", "cover_image_url": null, "pages": 10, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "arthur-conan-doyle/sherlock-holmes", "state": "reviews", "review": "Reading Sherlock Holmes was a milestone in growing up. I remember starting the first story when I was barely eight. It\nstarted \u201cTo Sherlock Holmes, she is always THE woman.\u201d I stopped reading and ran to my mother to complain that she\nhadn't handed me the first part: obviously there had to be another part beforehand! She explained to me that books for\nadults often worked in a less linear fashion, and that I should stick with it. Which I did.\n\nI read all the Sherlock Holmes stories during a particularly uneventful summer. I remember how the books smelled and\nbehaved when I got sand between the pages. I remember the sun and the sea and the constant lure of the books. I remember\nmy family poking fun at the fact that they never saw me and had to drag me outside (a lie! I could read outside) and\ninto the water (true).\n\nMy second stop that summer was visiting my father, who had moved to a new home. I got to stay in a tiny room that I had\njust to myself, and I loved everything about it. During the first night, I continued reading, and came to the tale of\nthe Speckled Band \u2013 which takes place in tiny rooms where people get bitten by venomous snakes. I panicked, and had to\nbe calmed down by the adults.\n\nEvery other mystery had to measure up to Sherlock Holmes for years after that, until I found Dorothy Sayers.", "last_date": "2003-09-01", "title": "The Complete Sherlock Holmes: Volume II", "spine_color": "#d7403b", "isbn10": "1593082045", "isbn13": "9781593082048", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1914", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9781593082048-L.jpg", "pages": 752, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aspen-in-the-sunlight/a-family-like-none-other", "state": "reviews", "review": "Look, this is still farly decent in writing (though it continues the big fault of spending 90% of time on telling, not showing, and processing). But the \"problems\" posed are so contrived, so frustrating, that I really fail to see the point. An author is supposed to chase the protagonist up the tree and pelt them with coconuts, yes, but making the floor magically vanish, have them fall onto a tree, and have it rain coconuts is a bit much.", "last_date": "2020-02-29", "title": "A Family Like None Other", "spine_color": null, "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Like None Other", "series_position": "3", "publication_year": null, "cover_image_url": null, "pages": 1786, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 1, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aspen-in-the-sunlight/a-summer-like-none-other", "state": "reviews", "review": "Doubles down on the weaknesses of the first part: excessive processing, repetitive and predictable. Okay writing, occasionally humorous dialogue, bug still little action spread out by virtue of extreme blathering.", "last_date": "2020-02-28", "title": "A Summer Like None Other", "spine_color": "#8a7559", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": null, "series": "Like None Other", "series_position": "2", "publication_year": "2008", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1416158403l/16171523.jpg", "pages": 898, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 1, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "aspen-in-the-sunlight/a-year-like-none-other", "state": "reviews", "review": "Decent Severitus, I suppose \u2013 okay writing, absurd amounts of processing, and follows the hurt/comfort rules to a t.", "last_date": "2020-02-28", "title": "A Year Like None Other", "spine_color": "#16350e", "isbn10": null, "isbn13": null, "source": "https://archiveofourown.org/works/742072", "series": "Like None Other", "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "2006", "cover_image_url": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1416158195i/16171495.jpg", "pages": 3160, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 2, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/emil-in-the-soup-tureen", "state": "reviews", "review": "Adorable book for kids. Emil is wonderful, as is everybody else. As usual, Astrid Lindgren doesn't flinch away from real\nlife, so Emil is for instance regularly locked away because his parents don't know how to deal with him.\n\n## Fun Fact\n\nEmil is called Michel in German, because [Emil](/erich-kastner/emil-and-the-detectives) was already\ntaken.", "last_date": "2001-04-01", "title": "Emil in the Soup Tureen", "spine_color": "#d1c140", "isbn10": "0670826588", "isbn13": "9780670826582", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1963", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780670826582-L.jpg", "pages": 96, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/immer-dieser-michel", "state": "reviews", "review": "Michel is delightful and sweet and a prankster and a rascal. He's never malicious, but always in the thick of it. I\nliked him a lot, and have always been impressed how much Lindgren can make me feel like I too live on a farm in the\nmiddle of Sweden. It's all so real and true.\n\n## Fun Fact\n\nEmil is called Michel in German, because [Emil](https://books.rixx.de/erich-kastner/emil-and-the-detectives) was already\ntaken.", "last_date": "2001-12-01", "title": "Immer dieser Michel", "spine_color": "#fac122", "isbn10": "3789129461", "isbn13": "9783789129469", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": null, "cover_image_url": "https://bilder.buecher.de/produkte/00/00358/00358471z.jpg", "pages": 335, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 4, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/kalle-blomquist", "state": "reviews", "review": "My first, own, **serious** book! Serious in that it was long, and the book I got for my first day at school. Despite\nits length \u2013 it's a collection of three individual books \u2013 I got through it within the first week of school.\n\nI re-read it often after that. The stories are so vivid and real and relevant \u2013 Astrid Lindgren was an author who never\ntalked down to kids, and I loved her to pieces. I read all of her books, in time. But this one, with the epic fights and\ndiscoveries and sneaking, and undiluted childhood has a very special place for me.\n\nApparently he's known as [Bill Bergson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bergson) in English.\n\n## Further Reading\n\nKalle Blomquist alway stood out to me for being real in a way that other detective books did not and could not reach.\nThe three ???, or TKKG, or similar books could not compete because they were too excited, too dramatised. The best I can\nrecommend are all the other books by [Astrid\nLindgred](https://books.rixx.de/astrid-lindgren/), who is consistently good or great.", "last_date": "1998-09-01", "title": "Kalle Blomquist", "spine_color": "#f5ba05", "isbn10": "3789141305", "isbn13": "9783789141300", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": "1", "publication_year": "1946", "cover_image_url": "https://drop.rixx.de/ia0/", "pages": 473, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/lotta-on-troublemaker-street", "state": "reviews", "review": "Lotta and her siblings are some of Lindgren's most adorable characters. Her teddy (which looks suspiciously like a pig,\nbut don't tell her!), her siblings, their games, their whole family \u2013 it's all lovely without being overly sweet. Lotta\nis very real, often angry and finds creative (and not always nice) ways to deal with her anger. And the adults are just\nthat: adult about it. It's great.", "last_date": "2003-06-01", "title": "Lotta on Troublemaker Street", "spine_color": "#efce0b", "isbn10": "0689846738", "isbn13": "9780689846731", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1958", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780689846731-L.jpg", "pages": 55, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/madita", "state": "reviews", "review": "Madita is a somewhat less intense Pippi: she has a younger sister and is up to all sorts of ridiculous nonsense, but\ndoesn't go to society-breaking extremes. Well, usually.\n\nI really admire how Lindgren just manages to make children sound exactly their age, without making them seem stupid or\nannoying (much). She manages to make their thoughts relatable to anybody, and it's just magic. The German translation is\nalso, by several accounts, really good, while you should skip the English one.", "last_date": "2021-01-12", "title": "Madita", "spine_color": "#bf402c", "isbn10": "3423712694", "isbn13": "9783423712699", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1960", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9783423712699-L.jpg", "pages": 222, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 3, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/marchen", "state": "reviews", "review": "Lindgren is best known for her books for children: They are beautiful, sometimes hauntingly so. They are deep and won't\nseem cheap after you grow up. They are always grounded in reality, and everybody talks and acts like a real person.\n\nHer fairy tales are the same, only more so. They are also grounded in reality, only in the darker and scarier parts.\nChildren who feel alone, who are poor, who are abandoned. Children who die (never outright, but it's blatantly between\nthe lines). Children who are poor and nearly die of a fever, and the fairy tale is their fever dream (this is my\nfavourite one).\n\nAnd yet: It's never quite too dark. Both Lindgren's humanity and her grounding in reality and her dedication to\nstorytelling always show through. I have never forgotten even a single of the stories in this book. Not all are amazing,\nbut all are wildly above fairy tale average, and there are several that are vividly part of my \u2026 fantastical grounding?\nMy ambient knowledge of fantasy realms? If you consider reading this book, take this as your +1.", "last_date": "2007-05-01", "title": "M\u00e4rchen", "spine_color": "#8ada5e", "isbn10": "378912947X", "isbn13": "9783789129476", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1989", "cover_image_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9783789129476-L.jpg", "pages": 222, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}
{"id": "astrid-lindgren/mio-my-son", "state": "reviews", "review": "Mio, my Mio. A book for children, with heart-breaking beauty. The beauty is in how it uses fairytale and lyrical\nresonance to spin a story that is both familiar and strange. It meant a lot to me: The unhappy boy who runs away from\nhome, only to find out that he's the prince of a magical realm \u2013 but the realm is in trouble. There is love in every\nword. It's *This Is How You Lose The Time War*, only for children.", "last_date": "2001-02-01", "title": "Mio, My Son", "spine_color": "#ec8927", "isbn10": "1930900236", "isbn13": "9781930900233", "source": null, "series": null, "series_position": null, "publication_year": "1954", "cover_image_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388962567l/181087.jpg", "pages": 178, "goodreads_id": null, "rating": 5, "did_not_finish": null}