Author: sbhowell
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The Conquest of Happiness
Published: 1930 Pages: 192 Rating: ☆☆☆☆✮ Bertrand Russell’s The Conquest of Happiness has immediately become my #1 favorite self-help book (not that there are a lot of contenders so far, but…). For anybody struggling with depression or an existential crisis, this is literally the best source of inspiration and practical advice. Most people try to defer the conversation…
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Anything You Can Do…
Rating: ☆☆☆✮✮ Today I have an old one for you. Anything You Can Do… by Randall Garrett was written in 1962 and typifies science fiction of that era. It has telepathy, an alien stranded on Earth, a technologically-enhanced superman (we can rebuild him… make him better… stronger… faster…), and an emphasis on psychology as well as…
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Oreo by Fran Ross
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Book Title: Oreo Author: Fran Ross Year Published: Originally 1974, reprinted in 2015 Publisher: New Directions Pagecount: 240 Rating: 4/5 It’s witty, dirty, socially smart and a little bit visionary, but no one’s heard of it. At least until now… Oreo didn’t get a lot of attention when it was first published in 1974 by…
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2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Book Title: 2312 Author: Kim Stanley Robinson Year Published: 2012 Publisher: Hachette (Orbit imprint) Awards: Nebula Pagecount: 657 Rating: 3/5 Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the biggest names in science fiction. He’s written three trilogies (the Three Californias trilogy, the Mars trilogy, and the Science in the Capital series) and nine stand-alone novels. I…
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Nimbus by Tony Marturano
Book Title: Nimbus Author: Tony Marturano Year Published: 2001 Publisher: Glacyk Publishing Rating: 2/5 Nimbus is… just another self-published thriller, I’m sorry to say. I had to read it for a science fiction book club, and while many of the scenes were amusingly campy, it’s too badly put together to win the title of “good”. The editing…
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Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Book Title: Go Set a Watchman Author: Harper Lee Year Published: 2015 (written in the 1950s) Publisher: HarperCollins Rating: 4/5 Go Set a Watchman is Harper Lee’s recently published first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Tonja Carter, Lee’s lawyer, found the manuscript in a safe-deposit box in Lee’s hometown. Since Harper Lee is now…
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The City & The City by China Mieville
Book Title: The City & The City Author: China Mieville Year Published: 2010 Publisher: Random House Rating: ☆☆☆✮✮ I read this book for science fiction club. I’ve seen news about China Mieville on a lot of literary scifi blogs, so I was looking forward to reading this one because I thought the prose would be a…
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On Basilisk Station by David Weber
On Basilisk Station is the first book in David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. It’s a classic space opera written in 1993 that follows the eponymous heroine, Honor Harrington, as she rises through the ranks of the Royal Manticoran Navy (RMS). The book starts off a little slow with a prologue that doesn’t click into place…
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A Brother’s Price by Wen Spencer
Wen Spencer’s A Brother’s Price is the story of a boy named Jerin who falls in love with a girl named Ren. It’s set in a vaguely Victorian/Wild-West/Steampunk alternate history where the ratio of boys to girls is 10:1 (because of some hand-wavey genetic quirk, more girls are born than boys). It’s an interesting world…
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Tomboy by Liz Prince
Reviewer’s Note: I sometimes read modern books. This one was published in 2014! Tomboy is a graphic novel memoir by Liz Prince. In it, she talks about her experiences growing up as a girl who doesn’t fit the standards for behavior and appearance that society expects girls to meet. She writes about hating to wear…