The Shades of Magic series continues to be a delight. A Gathering of Shadows picks up a few months after the end of A Darker Shade of Magic, with Lila maybe going down with a sinking lifeboat. “I am Delilah Bard, she thought, as the ropes cut into her skin. I am a thief and a pirate and a traveler. I have set foot in three different worlds, and lived. I have shed the blood of royals and held magic in my hands. A ship […]
Thinking About Thinking
In this book, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman presents his decades of research into cognitive biases and how the mind functions. He illustrates each concept with exercises, which is helpful for understanding the ideas, although it also made the audiobook experience a little confusing. I checked out Thinking, Fast and Slow after hearing the Book Riot podcast hosts refer to it as a life-changer multiple times—they even made a podcast about it—and though I wouldn’t quite promote it to that level, it was still an interesting […]
“And then Sherlock Holmes had turned out to be a woman with loose morals and no remorse.”
In the second book of Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Charlotte Holmes (not to be confused with the Charlotte Holmes series, which also started in 2016 and also includes a book checked out to my Libby account right now) solves a fun, twisty mystery and flirts some more with Lord Ingram. If you haven’t read A Study in Scarlet Women, go do that before reading this review. A Conspiracy in Belgravia serves as a worthy follow-up to the first book, which is fairly high praise […]
Apparently Anarchists Can’t Fight Without Their Leader?
Renegades, the first book of a superhero duology by Lunar Chronicles writer Marissa Meyer, starts out a bit rough, but it ends up becoming an enjoyable enough read that I’ll probably check out the second one whenever it comes out. The story is told from two perspectives: Nova, aka Nightmare, who can cause people to fall asleep with her touch, and Adrian, aka the Sentinel, scion of the reigning superheroes in a fictional city. The setting is our world at some point in thefuture, as […]
Ghosts on the Gulf Coast
Sing, Unburied, Sing is the story of three generations of a black family in a fictitious town on the Mississippi coast, told from three perspectives. Jojo is a biracial 13-year-old boy living with his grandparents, his mother and his young sister. He idolizes his grandfather but only tolerates his mother, who leaves him with the responsibility of caring for 3-year-old Michaela. His mother, Leonie, soothes her pains with drugs while she waits for her white boyfriend (and Jojo and Michaela’s father) to get out of […]
I suppose maybe the Nobel Committee knows what they’re doing
I didn’t expect to appreciate this one as much as I did. I started The Remains of the Day as an audiobook a few months ago while unpacking at a new apartment, and I realized it would require a bit more attention than I was able to give it then. It seemed fine, maybe a little wandering… but when I picked it back up again this year, I zoomed right through it. The quick summary: Stevens, a butler at a great house in England, goes on […]