Phil in SF finished reading Birdman by Mo Hayder (Jack Caffery, #1)
In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Jack Caffery …
Really liked this. review this weekend.
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aka @kingrat@sfba.social. I'm following a lot of bookwyrm accounts, since that seems to be the only way to get reviews from larger servers to this small server. I make a lot of Bookwyrm lists. I will like & boost a lot of reviews that come across my feed. I will follow most bookwyrm accounts back if they review & comment. Social reading should be social.
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2026 Reading Goal
53% complete! Phil in SF has read 16 of 30 books.
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Divya Manian reviewed Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht
Great mystery set during the 60s
5 stars
Set in the 60s, Vera Kelley is a lesbian spy in the CIA who leaves CIA when they leave her hanging during a hairy time in Argentina. She loses her next job when the manager finds out she is lesbian. She turns to being a private investigator putting her spying skills to good use. This book touches upon the US intervention in Dominican Republic and how much it did to prop up a dictator while also being a mystery that touches on the foster care system and how screwed up it is. Really loved the atmosphere setting which felt very lived in and how difficult it must have been for LGBTQ+ folks to be surviving in the middle of it all and yet they did.
Phil in SF commented on Birdman by Mo Hayder (Jack Caffery, #1)
In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Jack Caffery …
Content warning spoiler for what's happened so far
The police have already figured out the murders that happened at the beginning of the book. But there's 16 chapters to go, so something is up. It's been quite good so far.
Phil in SF started reading Birdman by Mo Hayder (Jack Caffery, #1)
Phil in SF reviewed A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton (Merry Gentry, #1)
Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in …
Tedious
2 stars
There's a lot of sex in the first 31% (according to Kobo) of this book and I have to put it down because writing that makes sex this tedious ain't for me.
So far, Merry Gentry:
- gets a microphone implanted in her bra with a roomful of men, many of whom leer because it's just polite to harass a faery
- goes undercover and we get a magically caused but still lustful rape including a mysterious magical faery occluded in a darkened mirror and spiders
- a near orgy when being questioned by skeptical police
- magical sex that restores a seal faery's ability to become a seal again
- an exhibitionist shower scene for the benefit of the boss
- a boring ass chase scene on Sepulveda Blvd where unseen monsters poke holes in the side of a van
- and an I'll show you mine if you show me yours scene with a stomach …
There's a lot of sex in the first 31% (according to Kobo) of this book and I have to put it down because writing that makes sex this tedious ain't for me.
So far, Merry Gentry:
- gets a microphone implanted in her bra with a roomful of men, many of whom leer because it's just polite to harass a faery
- goes undercover and we get a magically caused but still lustful rape including a mysterious magical faery occluded in a darkened mirror and spiders
- a near orgy when being questioned by skeptical police
- magical sex that restores a seal faery's ability to become a seal again
- an exhibitionist shower scene for the benefit of the boss
- a boring ass chase scene on Sepulveda Blvd where unseen monsters poke holes in the side of a van
- and an I'll show you mine if you show me yours scene with a stomach snake faery
None of them make much sense and drag on with how sexy and good at sex faeries are because eye color and auras and somesuch
I gave up.
Phil in SF
boosted
soaproot Books reviewed San Bruno Mountain by Doug Allshouse
San Bruno Mountain, located in the center of the San Francisco Bay Area, is a …
Lovely guide to a biodiversity hotspot in our backyard
5 stars
This book describes the plants (and some other things like geology and animals) of San Bruno Mountain, a park nestled between San Francisco, San Francisco Airport, and Daly City. San Bruno Mountain contains more species than most pieces of land its size and features diverse microclimates, for example from the foggy west to the drier parts near the bay, or from shaded canyons to exposed mountaintops.
This book is up to date, contains beautiful photographs, and great information on what is found on the mountain.
Phil in SF reviewed Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine (Never Tell Collection, #1)
All it takes is one shocking revelation on a New York street for a woman …
Flat & uncreative
2 stars
Jade's life has been unraveling since her father died a decade ago. A rare illness causes her to drop out of medical school track. A breakup with a shitty self-help guru leaves Jade effectively homeless. And then, Jade sees her father through the window of a restaurant on her annual pilgrimage to New York City to remember him. Could her father be alive?
Cardboard-thin caricatures for the characters in this story, and card-board thin machinations comprise the plot, and the last third of the book is exposition on what really happened and that's done in a flat and uncreative fashion.
Phil in SF finished reading Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine (Never Tell Collection, #1)
Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine (Never Tell Collection, #1)
All it takes is one shocking revelation on a New York street for a woman to unlock the secrets and …
Jon and Toku travel the universe suspended in Interdream, only waking up to check up …
We are the product of aliens
4 stars
A pair of aliens show up to Earth expecting a planet where humans have killed each other off and they can harvest all the leftovers. The incredulity of the aliens toward the still living humans reminds me a bit of They're Made of Out of Meat by Terry Bisson.
Phil in SF started reading Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine (Never Tell Collection, #1)
Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine (Never Tell Collection, #1)
All it takes is one shocking revelation on a New York street for a woman to unlock the secrets and …
Phil in SF reviewed Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Humans live deep within an apparently lifeless planet covered by massive ice sheets. Having to …
Exploring a water planet
4 stars
Osaji feels stifled by life on Benn, a water planet where humans live in biological arks that float beneath the surface and which supply their needs in the water environment. Benn is very polite, and people are not adventurous. Jack Halliday is an offworlder stuck on Benn for some reason which I've forgotten, and he feels even more stifled.
A disaster strikes the cluster of arks, and Osaji, her grandmother Mota, and Jack find themselves on a disconnected ark outside the protected gulf where everyone lives. They get to go on an adventures, reconcile their differing viewpoints on life, and along the way get to view the unknown life that populates the wilder parts of the Bennite ocean that noone has ever encountered.
Solid hard-SF novella. Everyone has a personality, even if they are a bit archetypical. Fun imagining of a human society and its biological support that could be …
Osaji feels stifled by life on Benn, a water planet where humans live in biological arks that float beneath the surface and which supply their needs in the water environment. Benn is very polite, and people are not adventurous. Jack Halliday is an offworlder stuck on Benn for some reason which I've forgotten, and he feels even more stifled.
A disaster strikes the cluster of arks, and Osaji, her grandmother Mota, and Jack find themselves on a disconnected ark outside the protected gulf where everyone lives. They get to go on an adventures, reconcile their differing viewpoints on life, and along the way get to view the unknown life that populates the wilder parts of the Bennite ocean that noone has ever encountered.
Solid hard-SF novella. Everyone has a personality, even if they are a bit archetypical. Fun imagining of a human society and its biological support that could be on an underwater world. That everyone lives in one protected area and noone has surveyed the rest of the planet seems a little contrived in order to tell a story of exploration & adventure. But I've also seen worse setups.
Phil in SF started reading A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton (Merry Gentry, #1)
Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in …
Had this in my TBR for a while (since like 2009). Let's see if I like it.
Phil in SF finished reading Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by …
Phil in SF quoted Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …
Next week: another deputy minister caught out on charges of peculation, or whatever.
— Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) (84%)
New vocabulary: peculate
embezzle or steal (money, especially public funds)
Phil in SF quoted Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, …
Beside her, Pilot Officer Parnell adjusted the leads and cannulas to his headset and settled more comfortably into his padded chair, ready for the neurological control of the upcoming wormhole jump.
— Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) (37%)
new vocabulary: cannula
a thin tube inserted into a vein or body cavity to administer medication, drain off fluid, or insert a surgical instrument.