Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Machine Man by Max Berry

I'm a sucker for a weird romance and it doesn't get much weirder than this one. Max Berry is a master of the unexpected love story but they don't always appear in his stories which makes them all the more satisfying when they appear. Berry is really more of a science or speculative fiction satirist. His stories always take some element of society or social trend and twists it. In the case of Machine Man, he's playing with people's obsession with technology and body modification to create a story firmly seated in transhumanist philosophy. The whole idea of it is to used science and technology to become something more than just human. It's not a new idea. The term 'transhuman' was coined in the fifties and I've read several stories and novels that feature it in the plot. Many of those stories are hard to immerse in. While it's an intriguing idea to leave behind messy biology, we do tend to be pretty attached to our bodies. Characters who do so willingly are often hard to relate to.


Charles Neumann is a scientist or an engineer (it's never entirely clear which) who starts thinking about how to improve human functionality after losing a leg in an industrial accident. The (somewhat sinister) company he works for gives him carte blanche to tinker with advanced prosthetics and a massive team to assist. It isn't long before he starts to view the synthetic limbs as superior to the biological ones. It goes from there as one would expect. What's unexpected is the strange little love story that crops up between Charles and his prosthetist, Lola.

The love story is odd for a couple reasons. First, Charles Neumann is incredibly detached about his biological body and ridiculously cut off from other people. It's amazing that Berry gets us to connect with him in the first place and it's quite the feat that he makes it believable that he would fall in love at all. Second, Lola is perhaps an even stranger character. At first, she doesn't seem all that odd. She's a softer, more emotional character. It's tempting to see her as hapless or swept along by Charles, but in reality, it's pretty clear that she knows what he's up to pretty early in the story. She's not swept along, she's a willing, even eager, participant in Charles schemes.

It all should be a little horrifying, and it is on some level, but there is also something sweet and tender in the relationship between Charles and Lola. I think the love story humanizes the two characters and helps us relate to two otherwise alien characters.

I greatly enjoyed the read. I always marvel at Berry's characters.


Monday, June 27, 2022

Packing List (Books) for the Car Trip

Alright, going rogue is all well and good but I need to be at least a little organized for a three week road trip. I was originally going to bring only doorstoppers, and there are still a few in there, but a lot of those fell under "should read" rather than "excited to read." Every book on this list is something I'm excited about for some reason or another and there is limited space in a civic with three passengers. (I'll probably be shipping boxes home as I finish things.)

  1. Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey (Book 3 in The Expanse) - It could be considered a doorstopper but more importantly is the third book in a series and it's been sitting on my list for a few months so I've been staring at it, wanting to find out what happens next and the randomizer just wasn't picking it.
  2. Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey (Book 4 in The Expanse) - Same as Abaddon's Gate.
  3. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas - I've been wanting to read this book actively for over a year but it's been a comedy of errors. On my first attempt I realized that I had a heavily abridged copy, so I put it down. I received this more complete copy and it's just been sitting on my list. Got to love random systems. I've always liked Dumas, I first read The Three Musketeers in middle school.
  4. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - Mom recommended this one to me years ago and because it is a doorstopper, I just haven't picked it up but it does look like a really good book. My literature taste doesn't overlap with Mom's all that much, but where it does I can attest to her excellent sense of writing so I'm looking forward to this one.
  5. The Devil & Sherlock Holmes by David Grann - A year ago or so, I read The Killers of the Flower Moon with my mystery class kids. I'm not a big one for true crime but it was an excellent read and several of my mystery kids became dedicated fans (These were not big readers to begin with.) I tripped across this one, randomly, at a used book store and I'm super psyched to read it just so I can share it with my mystery kids.
  6. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress - I do a lot of research for my Literature Electives and I tripped across this one while researching for Sci Fi. I know there are some content issues with reading it in high school so I didn't select it for the class that year. However, it seemed like an interesting read so I bought a copy. It's sat on a stack ever since. I'm going to read it. I'm teaching Sci Fi again in the spring so maybe I'll get to teach it too.
  7. Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li - TBR recommendation. There are three of these on this list but I really trust my recommender: Amanda. 
  8. John Eyre by Mimi Matthews - Another TBR rec. (Finished 7/15/2022)
  9. The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade - The third TBR rec.
  10. Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton Series Book 4) - I'm not a huge romance reader but when I like them, I really love them. So this is a guilty pleasure that I don't generally make time for. This particular one has been sitting on my lists for a least three months and Rando just wasn't selecting it. I'm preempting it just cause I want to. (Finished 6/28/2022)
  11. To Sir Philip, With Love by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton Series Book 5) - Same as Romancing Mister Bridgerton. (Finished 6/30/2022)
  12. City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab - Victoria Schwab and V.E. Schwab are the same writer. She, wisely, publishes her adult work as V.E. and her YA as Victoria. That's the only difference. She's written so much work that I haven't read yet, but I'm an intense fan of her "Shades of Magic" series. I bought this one for my classroom library but I've been sitting on it because I want to read it. Enough of that; I need to read it and stop hoarding it. (Finished 7/6/2022)
  13. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Doorstopper of all doorstoppers. This one probably seems like it should fit into the category of "literature bran muffin" and I suppose it is, but I also really want to read it. I read Anna Karenina  a few years ago and loved it, even though it was one of the more difficult books I've read. However, picking up War and Peace is this weird proposition. Karenina took me close to a month to get through, and I suspect that this could as much of an undertaking. Nevertheless, I really want to do it.
  14. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson - This is another book I discovered in my research for Sci Fi lit class. This one I did take a risk on and offered to the kids even though I hadn't read it, which is why I have a copy. The kids picked something else, but I'm thinking I might read it and try again. (Finished 7/26/2022)

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Going Rogue

 In general, I like a good system. I like creating rules for myself and applying them. It's fun to construct and satisfying to follow. In the end though, it's just a way of making something intimidating feel more manageable and reading the way I do is intimidating even for me. My rules keep me on track or at least close to on track. Every summer, however, I somehow fall behind in reading and the techniques that keep me on track during the school year fail me. Part of that is distraction for sure, but part of it is also that all my lists and rules are about keeping me moving when I don't have the mental space to make decisions. When I have the time and space to consider my options, it appears that all my lists and rules are a little chafing.

Additionally, I often end up putting off reading things I'm excited about in favor of things I think are good for me. It's the reading equivalent of eating fiber. There's nothing wrong with any of that, but somehow I just get bogged down in it when I actually have the most free time for reading. It started happening again this year too. So, I've gone rogue.

I've dispensed entirely with the randomizer and I'm just picking up whatever excites me. While I'm still grabbing things from my lists, I'm not letting a list stop me from picking something up. Patience is all well and good, but not when I never get around to reading things I'm excited about. 

Since making that decision, I've blasted through three books: 2 brand new ones and one I've been meaning to get around to forever. It's felt really good, so I think I'm going to keep it up which might be a bit of a challenge on the road trip, but still worth doing.

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

June List

Ok, for the sake of variety I'm officially increasing the size of the list to 40. It's still half YA, but that gives me 20 slots for the other categories and other sorts of non YA. This particular list will end when I head out for my massive road trip. I will create a separate road-trip list - I'm thinking dense doorstoppers. I have a lot of those building up in the backlog. 

  1. Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed* (Finished 6/2/2022)
  2. Kids of Appetite by David Arnold* (YA)
  3. Machine Man by Max Barry* (Finished 6/24/2022)
  4. Beard on Food by James Beard* (nonfiction, gift)
  5. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (Borrowed)
  6. Kill All Happies by Rachel Cohn (YA)
  7. Abaddon's Gate by James S. Corey* (Series Book 3)
  8. Circuit of Heaven by Dennis Danvers* (Ryan Pick)
  9. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Corey Doctorow* (YA)
  10. Avatar the Last Airbender: The Official Cookbook by Jenny Dorsey* (Finished 6/4/2022)
  11. Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (Classic)
  12. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke* (YA)
  13. The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman (YA)
  14. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han* (Finished 6/4/2022)
  15. Quest for a Kelpie  by Frances Hendry (YA)
  16. The Fireman by Joe Hill
  17. The Returning by Christine Hinwood* (YA)
  18. The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani (YA)
  19. The Metamorphosis and other Stories by Kafka (classic)
  20. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress*
  21. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu* (Series book 2)
  22. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu*
  23. Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire* (YA)
  24. Wildwood by Colin Meloy (YA, Series Book 1)
  25. Coyote's Pantry by Mark Miller and Mark Kiffin* (Cookbook)
  26. The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and Other Plays by Moliere* (Plays)
  27. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  28. Dragonwatch by Brandon Mull* (YA)
  29. The Borrowers by Mary Norton (YA)
  30. The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton (YA)
  31. Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (YA)
  32. Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (Series book 4)
  33. Maximillian Fly by Angie Sage (YA)
  34. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez* (YA)
  35. City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab* (YA)
  36. School Struggles by Richard Selznick (borrowed Professional Reading)
  37. Science Fiction 101 by Robert Silverberg (borrowed)
  38. What Goes Around by Courtney Summers* (YA)
  39. All the Rage by Courtney Summers* (Finished 6/13/2022)
  40. Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson*
The necessary overflow:
  1. Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson (Finished 6/16/2022)
  2. Dear Bully edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones (Read for my Principal)
  3. Still Life by Louise Penny (Finished 6/8/2022)
  4. The Road Trip Survival Guide by Rob Taylor (Nonfiction)
  5. Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci* (Nonfiction, gift)

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

  (The current list)   Finished April 17, so it's been a minute and the details are fuzzy at this point.  As a reminder, Darrow was born...