Phil in SF stopped reading

Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley's talent knows no bounds. Inside a Silver Box continues to explore the cosmic questions entertainingly discussed in his …
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.
This link opens in a pop-up window
Success! Phil in SF has read 62 of 28 books.

Walter Mosley's talent knows no bounds. Inside a Silver Box continues to explore the cosmic questions entertainingly discussed in his …
Construction-Paper Moon by Michael J. DeLuca
A comet knocks the moon out of Earth's orbit, and a decade or two later affects a father's relationship with his daughter who is too young to remember the moon.
Impracticable Dreams by Jason S. Ridler
A comic's best material comes from purging into a bottomless hat, but he's so empty now he may not be able to get enough material in time to hit the big-time with an agent who is to be in his audience tomorrow.
Colonized by Scott H. Andrews
What if the Chinese colonized America and Anglos were the immigrants who didn't fit in with the majority?
The Recurrence of Orpheus by Erin Hoffman
Whoosh. This went so far over my head I don't know what it is.
Welcome to Foreign Lands by Justin Howe
A man journeys to the land on the inside of Earth's crust and participates in …
Construction-Paper Moon by Michael J. DeLuca
A comet knocks the moon out of Earth's orbit, and a decade or two later affects a father's relationship with his daughter who is too young to remember the moon.
Impracticable Dreams by Jason S. Ridler
A comic's best material comes from purging into a bottomless hat, but he's so empty now he may not be able to get enough material in time to hit the big-time with an agent who is to be in his audience tomorrow.
Colonized by Scott H. Andrews
What if the Chinese colonized America and Anglos were the immigrants who didn't fit in with the majority?
The Recurrence of Orpheus by Erin Hoffman
Whoosh. This went so far over my head I don't know what it is.
Welcome to Foreign Lands by Justin Howe
A man journeys to the land on the inside of Earth's crust and participates in a societal ritual that brings him to feel at home inside, rather than on the surface world.
Not a bad little chapbook of stories, even if I didn't get the one at all. The Homeless Moon chapbook PDF is available free from the authors' web site, and is Creative Commons licensed.

The five Odyssey grads who make up The Homeless Moon join together like a piecemeal mutant Voltron to bring you …

The five Odyssey grads who make up The Homeless Moon join together like a piecemeal mutant Voltron to bring you …

Walter Mosley's talent knows no bounds. Inside a Silver Box continues to explore the cosmic questions entertainingly discussed in his …
Charles, a robot valet, unexpectedly murders his employer. He then sets out on a journey to Diagnostics to find out why he did it, and starts a heroes journey of sorts. Through seven episodes, mostly accompanied by the Wonk, who he meets at Diagnostics, he journeys through a societal landscape where humans are mostly dead or scrabbling to survive.
So what happened? The Wonk wants it to be that robots have obtained self-awareness. Charles just wants to be a valet for a human, but is complex enough to act unhappily at some of his opportunities. Even though he claims to be incapable of unhappiness.
I found myself really liking Charles, but that may be my internal tendency toward the satisfaction of ticking off tasks on a task list, which is what a lot of Charles' internal monologue is about. The overall story is good, but it is overly long (7 …
Charles, a robot valet, unexpectedly murders his employer. He then sets out on a journey to Diagnostics to find out why he did it, and starts a heroes journey of sorts. Through seven episodes, mostly accompanied by the Wonk, who he meets at Diagnostics, he journeys through a societal landscape where humans are mostly dead or scrabbling to survive.
So what happened? The Wonk wants it to be that robots have obtained self-awareness. Charles just wants to be a valet for a human, but is complex enough to act unhappily at some of his opportunities. Even though he claims to be incapable of unhappiness.
I found myself really liking Charles, but that may be my internal tendency toward the satisfaction of ticking off tasks on a task list, which is what a lot of Charles' internal monologue is about. The overall story is good, but it is overly long (7 episodes in Charles' quest) and I just wanted to get on with it in a few places.
Tony campolo had a huge impact on me as a kid, and the Christianity I fell for and into was the one he presented. I remember the relief I felt when he came out in support of same sex marriage - that I could still be Christian. The best bits of this book were where they explored common ground. The worst were where tony seemed to make sweeping generalisations about what humanism means. He seemed naive and cocky in his arguements. It’s not the best book for these topics but unique I think, in reflecting real depth of love and conversation betweeen two folk that could have ended up drifting further and further apart. So a good read, even for that alone.

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children …
Content warning Spoilers for season 5 of The Walking Dead
In Walking Dead, Rick's group finds Alexandria about halfway through season 5. there's so much of the season left that you know Alexandria is going to turn out poorly.
Completely unrelated, but at 58% of this book Uncharles and the Wonk find the utopia of the Central Library.
Those frames not restraining the Art held a variety of printed certificates and qualifications, all of which asserted that Dominic Washburn had completed this or that footling management course or further professional development quota, or that he had earned a doctorate in some abstruse field of socio-historiography from the University of Somewhere Not Featured in Uncharles' Map Library.
— Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (37%)
new vocabulary: footling
trivial and irritating
Each one was almost entirely illegible owing to the effluxion of time and all its attendant devils.
— Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (30%)
new vocabulary: effluxion
The expiration of a limited-time agreement or contract
Perhaps I could be employed at a more murder-tolerant manor.
— Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (12%)
This book is funny

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children …
This was a giveaway from Verso Books shortly after the current war against Gaza started in October 2022. It consists of 40 op-eds from Gideon Levy, published from 2006 to 2009 in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The op-eds are critical of the war against Gaza during that period. Well-written, but they are not informative. That's to be expected, as normally such opinion pieces assume the reader is keeping up with current news that appears in other pages of the newspaper.

The story behind Israel’s assault on Gaza, by acclaimed Ha’aretz journalist
Israel’s 2009 invasion of Gaza was an act of …