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What a joy. This novel is a warm cup of coffee on a rainy day. It's a comfortable shirt with too many holes in it to keep, but which is just too soft to throw out. It's queer coffeshop AU fanfiction for characters you've never heard of before yet immediately feel utterly at home with. Just a fantastic delicious cinnamon roll of a book.

new vocabulary: labile

1. liable to change; easily altered
2. of or characterized by emotions which are easily aroused, freely expressed, and tend to alter quickly and spontaneously

I have a bunch of friends like this. I have a word to describe the phenomenon now.

"Philosophy, though unable to to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases knowledge of what they may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect."

A lovely, lucid, short introduction to some key questions at the heart of philosophy.

new vocabulary: calliope

an American keyboard instrument resembling an organ but with the notes produced by steam whistles, formerly used on showboats and in traveling fairs.

new vocabulary: panmixia

random meeting within a breeding population

Military S.F. in the Captive's War universe. Standard unit-bonds-and-drops-to-a-planet with the James S.A. Corey voice.

It is quite surprising to note that the author is still working on their MFA at San Jose State university. The book is super compelling read. The story is about two sisters who have a bad experience as very young children in a home that they come back to after 10 years or so and confront their fears. There are ghosts & monsters.

The author transitioned after writing this book (so they go by M. M. Olivas now and not what this book club instance tells us). Do read as it's written by a Bay area author too!

locusmag.com/2024/11/spotlight-on-m-m-olivas/

@divya I fixed the author name here and at OpenLibrary.

Poetic, with a fascinating rhythm that made this book feel like it was made for reading aloud. A short amount of time passes for the astronauts on the international space station but it feels like the book takes place over years and years as you learn about each of them. Loved it.

There's an extended argument between characters at this point about whether the scientist-colonists of Mars should follow the hierarchy devised by their governments (the US and Russia) or start fresh.

It occurs to me there's a ton of research into organizational structures, and the closest Robinson comes to including it is a reference to having psychologists evaluate people prior to allowing them to join the mission, and include the head psych on the mission. The managers in charge on board, Maya & Frank, aren't organizational experts. As a manager by trade, not having this expertise on board seems like an oversight.

story about a young man who gets stuck in an ancient wood as it's protector in tree form. if you like faeries and dryads and stories about them, this may be for you. like stories about gods, it's not my thing.

new vocabulary: coppice

an area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber