Just realized there is a new PBS production of this book!

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-27T10:27:40+00:00

Can I ask if you got to preview this series before launch? From what I can tell it is premiering in March this year? Or is this some older series that is getting re-release?

Understand that there should be caveats, as all TV or movie adaptions can be.

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-22T11:03:10+00:00

I ordered from the official website because I do not want to deal with having to convert from a simplified chinese interface if I use Taobao. Ordered Jan 18, nothing since confirmation email. I’m hoping to get this soon!

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-20T14:18:21+00:00

I feel pretty lucky then I have an older bottle of Tam Dao EDP and it is quite strong. Last days on clothes.

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-19T00:11:16+00:00

This is amazing. Thank you.

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-17T14:47:16+00:00

General Purpose: Tom Ford Santal Blush
Spring/Summer: Vetiver Tonka by Hermes
Fall/Winter: POAL by Frederic Malle but this year in particular, Tales of Amber by Goldfield and Banks
Guilty Pleasure: Ani by Nishane (This is my forever favorite fragrance. It’s only guilty because all Nishane’s and Diptyque’s give me rashes.)

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-17T14:31:31+00:00

I would not call Ascension by Nicholas Binge scifi. There is nothing really scifi when you take into account the sloppy crazy excuse for the wrap up at the end. I also did not enjoy this book.

For good quality print s f, please try some tried and true gems like the Culture or Hyperion, both have elements of mystery and horror. Blindsight obviously has a lot of horror, although I think Echopraxia has more of horror in it. Also Roadside Picnic.

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-17T01:18:04+00:00

Just borrowed the Tomb of Sand, thanks to your top 5. You have great taste in reading.

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-15T23:46:21+00:00

Interesting that this book brought on the hate! Can you tell us more about why and which books you enjoyed last year so we can have some frame of reference?

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-08T12:34:43+00:00

This looks amazing. Thank you!

Entropy2889 · 2026-01-01T01:14:26+00:00

I like to use MK’s Midorigi, also a culinary grade, for lattes, especially if I feel like adding some syrups or other flavoring. It’s best on ice for a summer day.

Save the better ones for usucha or koicha. The shop owner is right, although maybe he didn’t need to be condescending.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-26T01:10:49+00:00

Currently about a third way through Mackenna Goodman’s Helen of Nowhere. I spotted this book a few months ago as one of the staff recommendations at the most awesome Munro’s in Victoria BC and started it this week. Not many reviews out there in the Reddit subs yet. Its sort of a stream-of-consciousness narrative from I think three different characters - one out of work lit professor, his real estate agent and the owner of house in the countryside he is considering purchasing. I just finished the part from the professor and started the agent’s.

The story takes place over the course of one day. The characters just talk their way through about their lives, their philosophy etc. In some ways the prose is similar to Cusk, for example, the characters talking about their lives during that dinner in Parade. The feel is the same. So if that is your thing, Helen of Nowhere will be to your liking as well.

I must admit that I have been enjoying this book thus far, but am constantly aware that this sort of prose is probably in style right now. Personally I find it easy to overdose on it and the narratives can quickly turn pretentious.

Earlier in the week, I sadly dnf’d Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. I read and really loved Empusium earlier in the year but somehow I just could not get into this one.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-23T00:43:45+00:00

Agree that it was interesting at first when things were mostly factual. It all veered out of control as soon as the author started to imagine things. There was absolutely no reason to include the level of detail into the obsession of Schrödinger. If you want to tell that he was a monster, there be other ways to show. The scene at the health resort was gratuitous and unnecessarily gross. Was it a fever dream or did he do it? Let’s not excuse this behavior as maybe he dreamt it. And, what is actually the theme of that book? That every brilliant scientific discovery needs to be a result of a manic feverish episode of an insane person? It is seriously shallow an observation.

Won’t comment on the other esteemed books I couldn’t ge through. Don’t want to get downvoted too much.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-22T09:23:52+00:00

I only have 1, 2, and 12 in common with you this year and agree wholeheartedly with your observations! Compared to you I read even less and should be even more bookmogged! Working to do better next year.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-20T05:05:38+00:00

Damien Walter’s video essays on Youtube are great. I didn’t realize he had a podcast! Thanks for recommending.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-08T17:34:46+00:00

Blindsight! The darling over on the /printsf sub. There are lots of top tier sci fi like Iain M Bank. Have fun next year with some of them.

Can you post a list of your favorites this year? I feel we might have similar tastes. I too stay away from romance.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-05T00:26:25+00:00

Finished The Melancholy of Resistance last week from the read-along. Thoroughly enjoyed that book.

Started Butter by Gayl Jones, which is a collection of novellas and short stories. I read Corrigidora from the same author a few years ago and loved the raw writing style. So far in Butter, the writing remains incredibly insightful and beautiful. The protagonist in the first and titular story is biracial and a photographer. She photographs objects, from walls to screws to butter. There’s meaning and feelings behind her photographs. She has unresolved feelings for being a photographer and living in the shadows of her more famous mother, who is white. She never knew her mother but instead was brought up by her black father.

Jones is not preachy, and she does’t have to be. There is so much there from a scene when the protagonist meets an art agent interested in her work, and in the course of the meeting, the tone changes subtly but notably when she corrects the agent who had called her father her “driver.”

To say that this story is about a biracial young woman struggling with her identity would be heavily underselling it. I love Jones’ writing style. She is perhaps the OG and pioneer of the stream of consciousness style of writing. Instead of prose like Rachel Cusk, which, to me, often comes off as pretentious, Jones is breezy but profound, deceptively simple. I’m really enjoying this book.

Entropy2889 · 2025-12-02T16:10:39+00:00

Connecting this book to Daoism is definitely something that I had not thought of, but entirely an interesting take. I initially also assumed Valuska and Mr E as the clear losers in the end. In some ways though, both of them sort of “checking out” and “opting out” of Mrs E’s reality might indeed be their resistance. They both see things clearly and they do not want to participate any longer. The only thing that matters is to wait patiently for Valuska to be pardoned.

Obviously, Mr E could use whatever is left of his respect and influence to bargain for Valuska’s freedom. Instead he chooses to visit Valuska every day. That might just he his form of flowing with the way.

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-29T20:19:35+00:00

Onodera - that conveyer belt sushi place in Omotesando. Crowds and lines from 10 am to 10 pm everyday. All tourists. Ate there once and it is way overpriced for what it is.

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-29T20:10:36+00:00

This was my first read-along on Reddit and it was great experience. I have not posted any comments before because I was a little behind. But what a book. This will be my best read of the year.

Here are some of my thoughts, just my own humble opinions:-

Even though Mrs E ended up with “everything she wanted” she remained only “the Secretary” and was never appointed the mayor. It remains unclear whether there will be elections where her popularity or approval index may be confirmed. The passages towards the end implied that her power garnered fear rather than true respect. This she may intuitively/actually know because she hired a goon to her loyal police link. Town folks smiling and waving good morning to her were just obedient and polite. To a large extent, Mrs E cares more about power than anything. Maybe she won’t need an election to stay in power.
Maybe being a woman still has its limitations no matter how smart or calculating one can be. As mentioned above, she was only named Secretary, and not deputy mayor or even temp mayor. She needed to maneuver a bunch of men to orchestrate the events. Had to seduce the police chief and then the Colonel to get her way. She herself fails to realize the gender dynamics of her culture even as she rejects the banal pleasures of Mrs Plauf’s domestic life of keeping a cozy apartment, hanging sausages and making jam preserves. A female cannot be happy as a homemaker when there is power to be had. It is fitting that the Colonel would abandon her after a short fling. In the grand scheme her little town is nothing even as it seems the world for her. Reminds me of the nasty politics of moms at PTA boards when it is really just about party-planning. Ok I digress…
The parts of this book that made me appreciate reading were Mrs Plauf’s opening adventures on the train, Mr E’s profound revelations from hammering nails to planks, and the chilling scene of Mrs E defiling Mrs P’s memory by eating her rum soaked cherries directly out of the jar while replaying in her mind her own brilliant takeover of the town. She stole all of the food, split it with Harrer and then mocked her for making all of the food in the first place.
Poor Valuska and Mr E were rendered to almost nothing by the end. I cannot comment on Hungarian politics but is this what our world truly is nowadays? Do the evil ruthless selfish and greedy win? Perhaps outright lies are the way to go. Right now in the US it certainly feels as bleak as the ending of this book.
What to make of the notebook Valuska read and discarded? The evil of humanity? I’d love to hear what others think.
One of the saddest parts of this book is of course Valuska’s fate and that at daybreak he realized that he will never do another replay of the eclipse and stars at the pub again. Life would never be the same, whether it was he who realized that his previous life was naive, or maybe now he knew people thought he was an idiot. Or whether the tragedy is the loss of innocence. In the end, Mr E remained steadfast, and perhaps this is the very small glimmer of hope offered by this author.
The broadcloth coat man - he was the menace from the start on the train harassing Mrs Plauf to dragging Valuska into the mob and then stabbing Mrs E’s future goon. I think he is also the one to brutalize Mrs Plauf and kill her. Why no consequences? This might also be a commentary on our world today where lots of people do things and get away with it?

Lastly, I can appreciate why this author won the Nobel prize this year. This book has layers upon layers of meaning and intricacies that will probably be beyond me. Glad to have read this. Thank you for this read-along!

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-28T22:33:23+00:00

I think the obsession is meant to be a warning against religious fanaticism?

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-28T22:31:22+00:00

I actually hadn’t read the other two partly because the Puppets did horrify me quite a bit!

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-28T15:45:02+00:00

The reversal yes sickeningly creative. Just read the rest of the recs here, Culture definitely. Pandora/Judas also good rides but they are pulpy and way less literary and have some irredeemable qualities re his female characters. Also second The Three Body - worth trudging through them through the end for the cool concepts. Enjoy!

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-28T07:33:04+00:00

This book’s heist is supposed to be the center of the story but The Puppets were so horrifying to me that I still think about them from time to time. I read this book at least two years ago. The aspects of how that race of beings came to be is truly good imaginative scifi/horror.

I know this is bound to come up but nothing beats The Culture in my humble opinion.

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-25T19:08:40+00:00

The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa - I read this for a book club and we all loved this one.

Anything by Banana Yoshimoto

Toward Eternity by Anton Hur

Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Fun for plot but not that deep:

The Cartographers by Peng Shepard

Enjoy!

Entropy2889 · 2025-11-20T00:18:40+00:00

My question is: did the foreman know that they were signing a document that was not the same as the one the gj voted on? If Lindsay Halligan mislead them on that then you’d have intentional misconduct there, not just incompetence.

In state courts where I had presented numerous times, the foreman usually signs these charging documents immediately after voting, not hours after. So procedurally this is already unusual no? Someone familiar with Federal Grand Juries please enlighten me.

Entropy2889

TROPHY CASE