finished reading A Room of One’s Own 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
by Virginia Woolf.
A classic that is actually good! An essay on women & fiction (thus, feminism) that rambles along in a relaxed fashion without losing any of its coherency or piercing insight. And damn she can write. Sadly still relevant, nearly 100 years on. (For reference her £500/yr is A$55k/yr today.)
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
My top favourite books
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Human Acts, Han Kang
No Friend but the Mountains, Berhouz Boochani
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams
Am open to recommendations 😊
finished reading To Be Taught, If Fortunate 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by Becky Chambers.
A small crew of scientists leave Earth, and their time period, forever to explore life on distant planets. But what will they do when Earth goes silent? An ode to science, discovery and the inherent worth of knowledge. The lack of interpersonal conflict under such trying conditions feels unrealistic.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading The Strangest Criminals: A Funny and Heartwarming Cosy Fantasy Mystery About Crime, Magic, and Found Family 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
by Blake Polden.
In a world where the Occult lives along side the Ordinary, a magical mafia family turns bad. Has potential, with some fresh creativity, but the writing is too choppy & disrupted.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
In a particular seat in an otherwise unremarkable cafe, it is possible to travel through time. Despite stringent limitations, the customers and workers nonetheless find solace from the travails of life. Its a pleasing enough community of everyday people, but nothing special.
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@wildwoila@wyrms.de @WildWoila
finished reading I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Ed Yong.
Delves into the many varied & amazing ways humans & animals have evolved to depend upon microbes. Most of this was familiar to me already, though told in the author's excellent clear & awed way. New was the incredible nesting of microbes within high-order animal cells, with each doing distinct jobs, such that none can survive without the others. Yong is always good for a celebration of life & its complexity.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading Becoming Mrs Mulberry 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Jackie French.
In the aftermath of WW1, a woman strives to build a new life despite the sacrifices she has made. Eventful & enjoyable, if implausible, with an excellent cast of characters and strong Miss Fisher vibes.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading The Shadow of the Wind 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
A rare book sets a teenage boy on a path of mystery, love & revenge. This was nearly great, with an intriguing setup, smooth prose, vibrant characters and an evocative sense of time & place (mid-century Barcelona). But it ran out of steam with repetitive storytelling and too much exposition. And nearly all the men were incorrigible womanisers.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading The Lebs 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Michael Mohammed Ahmad.
A deeply uncomfortable portrayal of Lebanese teenage boys in western Sydney as dumb, racist, misogynistic, sex-obsessed fundamentalists. The last third was more interesting, as the protagonist struggles with the foreignness & ugliness of the White world that he has always idolised.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Gabrielle Zevin.
Two friends become productive creative partners in computer game design, but their emotional blocks cause regular estrangements (gets a bit frustrating - grow up already!). I enjoyed the nostalgia of old-school gaming, but would probably still be enjoyable for non-gamers. Now, off to play Oregon Trail ... https://oregontrail.run/
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
finished reading Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
by Eric Posner & Glen Weyl.
Proposes a number of dramatic reforms to foundational institutions: including property, voting & migration. A perennial auction of property would result in shared public ownership funding a basic income and ensuring more efficient use of capital - this one challenged my deep set conception of ownership & control. Quadratic voting would enable citizens to give more democratic weight to issues of more concern to them - fantastic, we should do this! Would love to see these ideas get consideration and trial runs. We desperately need more creative thinking along these lines. No consideration given to environmental limits.
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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de
