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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63% complete! Phil in SF has read 19 of 30 books.
Roger Gale, a media-monitoring business owner nearing retirement, observes life in early 20th century New …
All of which was nothing but words, reflected Roger pettishly.
— His Family by Ernest Poole (10%)
new vocabulary: pettish
childishly bad-tempered and petulant
Roger Gale, a media-monitoring business owner nearing retirement, observes life in early 20th century New …
He rode "William," a large lazy cob who as he advanced in age had so subtly and insidiously slackened his pace from a trot to a jog that Roger barely noticed how slowly he was riding.
— His Family by Ernest Poole (10%)
new vocabulary: cob
A powerfully built, short-legged horse
Roger Gale, a media-monitoring business owner nearing retirement, observes life in early 20th century New …
One day in the early afternoon, as he entered the house there had been a burst on his ears a perfect gale of laughter; and peering through the portières. he had seen the dining room full of young girls, a crew as wild as Laura herself.
— His Family by Ernest Poole (1%)
new vocabulary: portière
A curtain hung over a door or doorway
Roger Gale, a media-monitoring business owner nearing retirement, observes life in early 20th century New …
First winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.
Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are …
The flap of the bag opens on its own and out spin clear, lenticular discs containing ball bearings.
— Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (26%)
new vocabulary: lenticular
shaped like a lentil, especially by being biconvex
Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are …
[…] one of the older cats with Adidas sweats and Tims hollers while the others dap up Malik and talk softly about stuff I'm not supposed to know about.
— Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (12%)
new vocabulary: dap
an elaborate handshake that typically involves slapping palms, bumping, fists, or snapping fingers
Phil in SF
boosted
"Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling …
Murderbot makes new enemies and finds old friends. Another quick read and entertaining episode in the Murderbot series.
Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural …
Girl trouble got you down? Do bigger guys kick sand in your face? You don’t …
A free short story ebook published by Subterranean Press from horror writer Joe Hill.
Seeking to feel better after his girlfriend Ashley breaks up with him, the narrator carves an Elder Sign into the palm of his hand. Because influencer Tristan Younger, seller of the Maximum Force/Masculine Luxury Lifestyle has a video that says to do it.
It gives him him uncontrollable dark powers. For example, when he plays a video game the monitor cracks open and cockroaches pour out.
One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver license. …
A couple of years ago, Anna Zivarts collected the experiences of nondrivers from each of Washington State's 49 legislative districts. This book is one result of that. She distilled those stories into a review of who nondrivers are, what the barriers are that they face when getting around, and what they need in the transportation realm.
Her effort was driven by the observation that 25% of Washington state residents do not have driver licenses. If you count the people who do have licenses but do not have reliable use of cars (elderly folk where safety is an issue, families with one car for the entire household, etc.), the number of nondrivers becomes even larger.
Well-written, well-organized, well-argued, to the point. There's an epilogue on "what you can do" but thankfully that's short. The target audience seems to be not individual do-gooders, but people involved in transportation planning and transportation organizers.
One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver license. …
Too much text to include as a quote, but I am extremely intrigued by Zivarts' discussion of a measurement called the Level Of Traffic Stress that indicates how stressful it is to be a pedestrian along a route. it's based on a previous measurement called the Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress. Washington State is using this on every state route to assess gaps. i.e. routes with high levels of pedestrian stress are gaps, which are then evaluated against safety, equity and potential user demand metrics.
From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt …
On August 12, 2022, a young radicalized Muslim man stabbed famed author Salman Rushdie some 15 times.
Rushdie explicitly disowns the idea of writing as therapy, but also says that he didn't feel like he could move on to write other work without first writing this book, a memoir of his experience. Much of it is a recounting of his journey to recover from his injuries at the hands of an amateur would-be assassin.
However, it very much veers into therapy during an extended chapter where Rushdie imagines conversations with his attacker in a jailhouse interrogation room over four days. That chapter is the most awkward of the book; it invents the workings of his assailant's mind from common tropes about radicalized Islamists, and then knocks those positions down handily.
The rest is engaging. Rushdie writes with humor and reveals enough of his emotions and frustrations that the experience is …
On August 12, 2022, a young radicalized Muslim man stabbed famed author Salman Rushdie some 15 times.
Rushdie explicitly disowns the idea of writing as therapy, but also says that he didn't feel like he could move on to write other work without first writing this book, a memoir of his experience. Much of it is a recounting of his journey to recover from his injuries at the hands of an amateur would-be assassin.
However, it very much veers into therapy during an extended chapter where Rushdie imagines conversations with his attacker in a jailhouse interrogation room over four days. That chapter is the most awkward of the book; it invents the workings of his assailant's mind from common tropes about radicalized Islamists, and then knocks those positions down handily.
The rest is engaging. Rushdie writes with humor and reveals enough of his emotions and frustrations that the experience is more than mere recitation. Rushdie is his own narrator in the audiobook, and has quite a talent for it. After this, I very much want to try again to read Midnight's Children, a book I've failed to progress beyond about 100 pages on multiple occasions.
From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years …
The City Inside, a near-future epic by the internationally celebrated Samit Basu, pulls no punches as it comes for your …
One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver license. …
I was tired of hearing from elected leaders that "everyone" in their communities drove, so spending more money on bus service or sidewalks just wasn't necessary. I knew it wasn't true, and I wanted to show that there were people – their constituents – on every street, in every community who couldn't drive. I set out to track down, interview, and document the stories of non-drivers from each of our state's legislative districts.
[…]
Finding the people with these experiences took a lot more effort than posting on Facebook. While I knew it would be relatively easy to find car-free urbanists or influencer disability activists to share their stories, the people I most wanted to talk with were unlikely to be connected to the existing networks of transit, biking, or disability activism. But I knew that it was these stories, from people who usually remain invisible to policy makers, that would have the most profound impact on shifting the narrative that our transportation system, and car dependency more broadly, was working for us.
— When Driving Is Not an Option by Anna Letitia Zivarts (7%)
