Thoughts tagged "reading"

Short thoughts, notes, links, and musings by . RSS

i never realized that "getting lit", as in getting drunk, dates back at least to the 1930s

“You could have phoned him last night.”
“I could not. I got lit last night. This is the first job I’ve had in a month.”
“Got any expense money left?”
“Enough for a couple of days. I’ve learned self-control.”
“How drunk are you?”
“Hell, how do I know?”
Wolfe’s brow lifted. “Gentlemen?”
Farrell said, “Mike’s all right. Forget him. He’s all right.” Julius Adler the lawyer, about the build of a lead-pencil stub, looking like a necktie clerk except for his eyes and the way he was dressed, put in, “I would say yes. We realize that this is your house, Mr. Wolfe, and that Mr. Ayers is lit, but after all we don’t suppose that you invited us here to censor our private habits. You have something to say to us?”

(via The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout, first published 1935)

This month's fiction: very gay, very outer space.

Highlights included Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove, The Alliance series by Elaine U. Cho, and Charlie Jane Anders' Lessons in Magic and Disaster.

@molly0xfff August reading wrap-up, reviewing the 16 books I read this month (no spoilers) #readingwrapup #augustreadingwrapup #booktok #bookrecommendations #scifibooks ♬ original sound - Molly White
Storygraph August 2025 wrap-up page. Books: 16; pages: 5,756; av. rating 3.34. Highest rated reads: Of Monsters and Mainframes (4 stars), Lessons in Magic and Disaster (4 stars), Teo's Durumi (4 stars). Average book length: 352 pages; average time to finish: 4 days. 100% fiction. 56% digital, 44% audio.
August 2025 reads: Dark Angel, John Sandford (2 stars)
Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells (3 stars)
Righteous Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars)
System Collapse, Martha Wells (3 stars)
Automatic Noodle, Annalee Newitz (3 stars)
Judgment Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars)
How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu	(DNF)
The Bullet That Missed, Richard Osman (3.5 stars)
Ocean's Godori, Elaine U. Cho (4 stars)
Teo's Durumi, Elaine U. Cho (4 stars)
Toxic Prey, John Sandford (3 stars)
Lethal Prey, John Sandford (4 stars)
Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charlie Jane Anders (4 stars)
Of Monsters and Mainframes, Barbara Truelove (4 stars)
The Black Echo, Michael Connelly (3 stars)
Space Team, Barry J. Hutchinson (3 stars)
The Black Ice, Michael Connelly (3.5 stars)

The essay I mention in the video is "On the Joy of Building a Sci-Fi World with a Korean Inflection".

I didn't realize both Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz had new books coming out, and they both look so good!

Automatic Noodle, Analee Newitz (publishing August 5)

This cozy near-future novella speaks to me as someone who watched our Brooklyn neighborhood’s restaurants take care of each other during covid lockdown, but Annalee Newitz’s new book will appeal to anyone who connects food with community. As San Francisco recovers from a devastating war, a band of recently reactivated robots take over a ghost kitchen to make the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the Bay—because even when you’re living through unprecedented times, you gotta eat.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charlie Jane Anders (publishing August 19)

Big queer Practical Magic vibes from Charlie Jane Anders’ new contemporary fantasy novel about Jamie, ostensibly a New England academic but also a witch teaching her mother Serena witchcraft from a three-hundred-year-old book. As with many mother/daughter tales involving magic spells, there’s a dark family history snaking around their bond, and it will take more powerful spellwork than Jamie has ever harnessed to save Serena from her darkness.

Both have DRM-free ebooks published via Tor Books.

Reviewing the 14 books I read in June

So many good books this month, with Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents and Martha Wells’ Artificial Condition leading the pack for fiction.

@molly0xfff June reading wrap-up, reviewing the 14 books I read this month (no spoilers) #readingwrapup #junereadingwrapup #booktok #bookrecommendations #parableofthetalents #murderbot #spaceopera #litrpg #newtanddemon ♬ original sound - Molly White
Storygraph June 2025 wrap-up page. Books: 14; pages: 5,829; av. rating 3.85. Highest rated reads: Artificial Condition (5 stars), Parable of the Talents (5 stars), Newt & Demon III (4.5 stars). Average book length: 389 pages; average time to finish 6 days. 93% fiction, 7% nonfiction. 5 mystery/thriller/crime, 4 science fiction, 2 fantasy. 64% digital, 29% audio, 7% print.
June 2025 reads:
    Storm Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars)
Parable of the Talents, Octavia E. Butler (5 stars)
Stolen Prey, John Sandford (3 stars)
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata (3.5 stars)
Newt & Demon III, E.M. Griffiths (4.5 stars)
Silken Prey, John Sandford (4 stars)
Newt & Demon IV, E.M. Griffiths (4 stars)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (3.5 stars)
Field of Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars)
All Systems Red, Martha Wells (4 stars)
Enshittification, Cory Doctorow (5 stars)
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (5 stars)
Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells (4 stars)
Gathering Prey, John Sandford (3.5 stars)<br><br>

Reviewing the 15 books I read in May

Belated May reading wrap-up. Lots of comfort/escapist reading this month, heavy on the litRPGs and detective novels. Favorite out of the fifteen was probably Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.

@molly0xfff May reading wrap-up, reviewing the 15 books I read this month #litrpg #progressionfantasy #cozyfantasy #detectivebooks #readingwrapup #booktok #bookish #bookrecommendations #mayreadingwrapup ♬ original sound - Molly White