So good. My first Octavia Butler novel and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. The aliens are super alien and interesting, the protagonist is fallible and flawed but likeable, and it raises a lot of interesting questions about what makes us human and how much our genetics determine our lives.

Octavia Butler laying down some more hard truths about the human race. 👏🏻

About the human race and why we were always doomed to destroy ourselves. Idk, it certainly hit home for me.

Welp. Mind blown. Will not reveal the spoiler, but even when being told I would not guess who the murderer was I did not guess it. Even when it was revealed that said character has been lying about some things, I jokingly said to my boyfriend "I'm going to lose my mind if x is the killer, there's no way." Alas, mind lost. Thoroughly enjoyable and quotable book. The scene where Poirot is introduced is especially memorable.

I knew the basic (and sometimes not so basic) facts of most of the cases in this book already, but Douglas' perspective often made me consider them in a way I hadn't before, or provided details that I had never heard anywhere else. I enjoyed it a lot, and Douglas is very clearly an expert in his field with a great voice.

Fun and funny science book. I tend to zone out a bit during long technical or mathematical explanations but that's not a huge criticism, and it was made up for by getting the answers to all these weird questions that I didn't know I wanted answered.

I just found this so charming. And yes, I write in my books, fight me. I love buying used books with writing in them as well, or sharing books that are written in. It gives you such an insight into another person's mind.

"The chains of habit. We work to attain an object, and the object gained, we find that what we miss is the daily toil."

Yet another great Malazan book. I don't have much to say as any description of the plot would make no sense without having read the others, but I will say that after the first book the series improves drastically and keeps it up at least through this entry in the series.

I listened to the audio book of this, which was very good. Honestly I think everyone in America should have to read this book in school. It's heartbreaking and sometimes hard to hear, but the way we prevent atrocities from being repeated is by educating ourselves and each other. The story of Chief Joseph in particular affects me, as I grew up in the area he and his people called home.

Like a lot of people, my only previous experience with this book was the movie adaptation. Luckily, the book was great. The plot is largely the same, with some significant differences, but the characters in the book are much less likeable and flawed. Quint, for ex., is still charming and funny, but his behavior toward animals is much more brutal. The movie cut a whole side plot about Hooper which makes him a very unsympathetic character as well.

It was fine. Dr. Feynman definitely seems like he was a fun and interesting man. There was a lot of stuff about women that truly has not aged well... but attitudes were very different in the 40s and 50s, when much of the book takes place, and even in 85, when it was released. I was pleased with how openly Feynman discussed sex and drugs, and with how little racism appears in the book despite its pre-civil-rights, immediately postwar setting.

Very enjoyable. I did at times feel like my autistic brother was describing his most recent obsession to me in way more detail than I wanted. However, as with my brother, I patiently sat through it and nodded as if I cared, knowing that something better would be coming down the pipeline soon. Loved the conversational writing style and now I'm stoked to watch the movie.

Welp. That was depressing. Having read both 1984 and Brave New World over a weekend, I think I need a break from sad dystopian fiction for at least a few days.

I had never read any Wilde before (gasp!) and was pleasantly surprised with how funny this play is. It has definitely borne the passage of time well, and doesn't at all seem like something written over 100 years ago. It's also shockingly dirty at times, which delighted me just like it would to hear my grandma make a raunchy joke. Good job Victorians, didn't know you had it in you.

I read Animal Farm about 10 years ago, and found it to be a boring and heavy-handed extended metaphor. For this reason, I put 1984 off for too long, expecting it to be more of the same. However, it immediately sucked me in. The world-building is immersive and chilling, the plot is engaging, and the dark and difficult truths it presents about society and humanity are heartbreaking.

Final verdict: doubleplusgood.

It was good. I wasn't blown away, probably bc I already knew a lot about the Salem Witch Trials, but it was good. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Not much more to comment on. I'm looking forward to watching the movie and hope to get to see the play live someday.

It was good, it was sad, it was short. Brain doesn't have a lot of extra processing power to contribute right now, unfortunately.

I won a free review copy of the recently released audiobook for this, the sequel to The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic (the print book is coming out this summer!) so now I have to tell everyone how great it is. I loved the first book, and this one didn't disappoint. I listened to all 19 hours of the audiobook in 2 days. The protagonist is occasionally annoying, but the engrossing writing, world, and characters more than make up for it.

I actually read this a couple weeks ago and forgot to review. Oops! The Witches stories are always my favorite of the Discworld universe and this one didn't disappoint. A few really good passages, some witty humor, and an interesting story that actually didn't have an obvious ending. If you're a Discworld fan, don't miss this entry in the series.

Honestly I was really impressed with how well this book stands up 123 years later. It's progressive for its time (there are female characters!) and HG Wells seems to be the rare white male anti-imperialist in 19th century England. So I recommend. Not as scary as I'm sure it was when it came out, but pretty gruesome and certainly interesting from a literary perspective as the first alien invasion story.

"The smug mask of virtue triumphant could be almost as horrible as the face of wickedness revealed."

First off, Schechter is a very engaging writer and I really like his style. While I enjoyed this book, I was slightly disappointed by how short it was and how little information is provided about Belle and her crimes. However, that is definitely a fault of the subject matter being somewhat mysterious, and not a reflection on Schechter. I think he did everything he could with the limited information available.

I love this passage.

Still my favorite HP book after all these years. I've read it probably 7 or 8 times now? Only now I take the jacket off so that no one thinks I condone JKR's transphobia 🙃

First book to give me nightmares since before puberty! High praise. Creepy, gross, hilarious. Sometimes offensively so. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves horror and enjoys a poop or butthole joke from time to time.

"So you see, fear is just another manifestation of insecurity. What humans want most of all, is to be right. Even if we're being right about our own doom. If we believe there are monsters around the next corner ready to tear us apart, we would literally prefer to be right about the monsters, than to be shown to be wrong in the eyes of others and made to look foolish."

I first read this book when I was about 11. The only thing I really remembered when I picked it back up was the death of Randy McDougall, which was horrifying to me as a kid. I honestly appreciate the book a lot more as an adult and I was surprised at how completely I had forgotten the story other than that single scene. It was clearly effective if it stuck with me for almost 20 years, though.

I'm honestly more of a fantasy and horror fan than sci-fi, but I feel like this book had enough fantasy elements to really suck me in. My only complaint is that, while I knew going in that it was a series, I feel like there wasn't really as much of a conclusion as there was a set-up for the next book, which is disappointing since I don't know when or if I'll get around to reading the other two novels in the initial trilogy.

Riots and comedy are but symptoms of the times, profoundly revealing. They betray the psychological tone, the deep uncertainties... and the striving for something better, plus the fear that nothing would come of it all.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

A fun, educational time. Some stories are obviously better than others but only a couple real stinkers. I absolutely love The Family of the Vourdalak and have no idea why it hasn't been optioned for a movie. That said, this book took me like 3 months to read for some reason, and I'm ECSTATIC to be done and move onto something non-vampire.