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An excellent book about how transportation policy had become so car-centric, and ways that we are moving away from that. What I liked most in the book were Schwartz's stories about his time as traffic commissioner in New York City, including his initial push to get congestion pricing implemented in New York City, which was not implemented at the time of writing, but is now, (and it only took fifteen years to get through!). I also really liked his story of how they got a new stadium built with minimal parking and made it work by placing it next to a metro stop and giving attendees free access to the metro along with their ticket. Schwartz also talks about the future of transportation in this book, which is kind of fun, but more speculative.

New episode of If Books Could Kill podcast dropped this week, featuring this fawning biography of a very ugly man. Now added to the If Books Could Kill list on SFBA.club and other fine Bookwyrm servers.

new vocabulary: buss

1. kiss

A "beach read" I failed to start when I was on the beach.

First published at Tor.com as an online read and EPUB download, Tor now formally publishes it through ebook retailers.

Ponies here have wings, a horn and can talk. An allegory on what happens when people give things up to fit in.

After the story of Money Shot, Angel Dare is supposed to be in witness protection, but they didn't protect her enough, so she's on the run trying to hide. On the run, she stumbles into another hit on her ex Thick Vic and his son Cody. Because of her fondness for Vic, she helps Cody. The entire story about her and Cody is orthogonal to her story, except that she's trying to lie low for her own protection. Angel is quite willing to dispense with morals about sex, truth and the sanctity of life to survive, or help Cody survive.

@Tuhnsoo@bookwyrm.social Loved the first two books, hated this one. Will write reviews for the last two later today. But the short version is the first two have a main character that is morally flexible (while understanding what morals she wants to have), and takes her opportunities. The third book she's lost most of her agency and is swept along from scene to scene, and those scenes are jarringly disconnected as well.

I enjoyed this thoroughly and don't think I've ever read anything else which so aptly weaves relatable examples of how to be kind into an engaging story. That said, it's not just a story which is a container for giving examples of #kindness. The worldbuilding seems quite strong and consistent to me and reminded me favorably of Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought, right down to the way data streams are presented, but containing a lot more admirable behavior.

I listened to the #Booktrack edition, which gave the audiobook a pleasantly cinematic feel. Some of the choices for background music didn't really seem to fit, but in most cases the production was nicely done, especially the sound effects.

OK, so the character gets why I am annoyed. Thankfully, sounds like Faust has a redemption arc coming.

The vibe so far on this book is nowhere near as good as the first two books. It's not just Angel Dare on the run. it's Angel Dare pregnant and turning tricks and no criminals even after her. Cops are, because the author had her kill a rando cop about 5 pages in. I'm in through the end, but without improvement I'm going to rate this a lot lower.

Book 2 ends with a clear "more to the story" so I'm going to jump right into book 3.