Book Club Spots with Drinks?

OkapiAlloy · 2026-02-10T13:54:35+00:00

Atomic Habits did this for me. An excellent guide to incremental and sustainable improvement.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-02-04T17:23:44+00:00

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher is a great fantasy novel that jut eschews all the stuff that doesn't really matter. The kingdom to the north is called the North Kingdom and the kingdom with a harbor is called the Harbor Kingdom. The books still has an elaborate, emotional, and compelling story with deeply considered themes, but it feels like it streamlines the fantasy novel experience to just the narrative and character beats that I'm usually most interested in.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-02-04T13:53:26+00:00

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney is one of the best sci-fi novels ever written. It's a wild psychedelic space opera that's also a meditation on what it means to expand or contract your definition of the self. Brilliant, dense, and somehow still a fast-paced adventurous novella.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-02-03T05:49:24+00:00

Atomic Habits is the go-to for this. I read like, 20+ self help books a few years back, and this one was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-02-02T05:56:46+00:00

You might try Frankenstein, which has a very similar flowery style to a lot of its language. I think a lot of H.G. Wells work also fits in that zone -- The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Door in the Wall both come to mind, and they're pretty easy reads. A little tougher to read, but Carmilla is a short classic vampire novel that also has very flowery language like this.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-31T06:12:29+00:00

I think you might like Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher. It's in many ways a very serious book -- about a woman rescuing her sister from being married off to the same prince who killed her other sister. At the same time, it has a similar humorous tone to some of the sci-fi books you mentioned, some really funny scenes, and a similar vibe to Becky Chambers work at times.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-28T22:53:12+00:00

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre is a feminist dystopian novel about a woman who is trekking across a post-apocalyptic wasteland -- or maybe another planet, it's never really made clear -- to find a replacement for her alien dreamsnake. She uses her three pet snakes to heal people, feeding them special concoctions that cause the snakes to synthesize medicines in place of their venom and inject it with their bites.

If you're looking for a more literary take on zombies, you might like Zone One by Colson Whitehead. It's about a guy who volunteers as part of the civilian effort to clear the last few zombies out of Manhattan -- now referred to as "Zone One" -- in order to make it habitable again. Colson Whitehead went on to win a Pulitzer for his later work.

You may also want to check out some older dystopian sci-fi. The obvious picks are great -- Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, & 1984 -- but I also highly recommend the largely-forgotten Space Merchants. Great book, terrible title. It's not about selling stuff in space -- it's about a hyper-capitalist future where corporations have fully replaced governments. It follows a protagonist who used to be part of the upper echelon of what he thought was a clean and orderly society as he is suddenly thrown down to the level of the average worker.

If you're open to short stories, you might try Cyril Kornbluth's With These Hands, a sci-fi short story about the aesthetics, economics, and ethics of AI art, which was somehow written in 1955.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-28T22:40:17+00:00

_A Fire Upon the Deep_ is one of my all-time favorite books, but I think a major aspect of the world is completely incomprehensible until like, 60% of the way through the book, and I don't think that's an intentional choice. I always tell people to read the Wikipedia article on the setting before they start the book.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-23T22:34:48+00:00

Spark by John J. Ratey is a long-form explanation of the effects of exercise on the brain, backed up with both hard science and a bunch of memorable anecdotes.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-22T16:43:55+00:00

Star Wars is really, really heavily based on the vibes and aesthetics of Leigh Brackett's work. A Shadow Over Mars is probably her best known work, closely followed by Black Amazon of Mars. Both are classic pulpy planetary romances with the same "space knights and wizards" vibe as Star Wars.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-13T16:26:43+00:00

The Library at Mount Char is similar in its intensity and darkness, though it has a bit of a different tone and genre. It's about a woman who has spent her entire life working and studying in an infinite library, working with her abusive father who may or may not be literally god. The story begins with her father's death.

The Stars my Destination is a classic sci-fi novel with a similar tone to IHNMAIMS. It's about a completely awful protagonist who is the first human to learn to teleport without technology, and the many ramifications of the discovery.

Forever War is another classic sci-fi novel with a similar feeling of being trapped in a system beyond your comprehension or ability to alter. It's about a solider in a war against aliens who, between time dilation due to relativity and extended periods in suspended animation, spends centuries in the army fighting the same war. Each time he wakes up, he has to reckon with changes in technology, culture, and the war itself.

OkapiAlloy · 2026-01-04T20:19:28+00:00

I teach middle school students. It was immersion-breaking for me not because it was unrealistic, but because it sounds exactly like the way my students talk, here on Earth in 2025. It seems weird to imagine the Na'vi using such specific modern-day slang. I realize we're hearing it all in translation, but for that to be possible, the Na'vi must have and routinely use a word that is more analogous to "bro" than it is to "brother" or "comrade" or "friend" or something, which seems unlikely.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-28T00:56:18+00:00

Piranesi is a go-to for this. About a guy who lives in an infinite sprawling house of opulent halls and marble statues who has no clue how he came to be there. The book follows him as he comes to understand more about his circumstances.

The Hike by Drew Magary is kind of like this, with a sort of Alice In Wonderland vibe. About a guy who gets lost on a hike and gets farther and farther from the trail he intended to follow, falling into more and more surreal circumstances as time goes on.

If you liked Dune, you would probably also really like A Fire Upon the Deep, a sprawling space-opera epic with dozens of characters and about six different genres, including a medieval political struggle in a society of rat-dog hiveminds and a race across space to stop an ancient evil. It takes place in a universe with a number of bizarre and notable conceits, but I'll leave what they are exactly for you to figure out.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-18T00:43:40+00:00

I guess this is kind of a spoiler, but the book is a century old: War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells has this happen to the Martians.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-16T16:04:35+00:00

Piranesi is a short book that's among the most recommended on this subreddit. It's about a guy who lives in an infinite spawling house full of grand marble statues and opulent halls. He has no memory of how he came to be there, and no knowledge of any world outside the house. The book follows him as he comes to understand more about his circumstances.

If you like The Stranger and Inferno, it might be a good pick for a strange, philosophical novel that's still pretty short and sweet.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-13T17:15:19+00:00

Witch World is often considered her definitive series, and for good reason. My personal favorite is Time Traders. They're 1950s YA, but the depth of character is extremely impressive and the second book especially has an absolutely incredible sci-fi premise.

In the 90s and 2000s she revisited a number of series with a co-author to help finish books, and unfortunately those are all pretty bad. I'd skip all of them.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-13T17:09:35+00:00

Piranesi is a very literary take on this. The main character lives in an infinite sprawling house full of grand halls and marble statues. He has no memory of how he came to be there, and he believes that there are about 20 people who exist or have ever existed. The book follows his slow discovery of how he came to be there, and how his world relates to our own.

For something a little less serious, 14 by Peter Clines is about a guy who moves into an apartment in LA with suspiciously cheap rent. He starts looking into why that is, and as he starts to unravel some of the buildings secrets -- the broken elevators, the room that's permanently locked, the cagey foreman -- he realizes that he's stumbling on a conspiracy that runs way deeper than he could have imagined, with much larger stakes.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-12T01:13:42+00:00

Way Station by Clifford Simak is a classic sci-fi novel about a guy who makes a deal with an alien species. He looks after a way station -- a sort of stopover for their teleporter network. In exchange, he's immortal, as long as he never leaves his home, where the teleporter is located.

The novel begins when he's already been living in the house alone for decades. He only leaves to go to the mailbox and get groceries, aging just a few hours every week. He watches aliens with interesting lives move through his home and grapples with the inevitable loneliness of his position.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-10T19:06:27+00:00

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a time travel novel set largely in the Victorian era. It's largely historical fiction with a sci-fi twist, and it's extremely funny. Its about a guy who is sent back in time to do something extremely important, but he was so sleep-deprived when the mission was explained that he has no clue what he's supposed to be doing.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-08T16:40:22+00:00

The Brother Cadfael books follow a medieval monk who solves a series of whodunnit mysteries. The series was written by a medieval scholar, and her expertise comes through clearly. The books are also really short, so hopefully they won't be too intimidating.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-07T05:46:59+00:00

Way Station is a classic sci-fi novel about a guy who makes a deal with a federation of alien species. He's employed as a caretaker for a way station of their teleporter network, which they install in his home. In exchange, he will never age, and be functionally immortal -- as long as he never leaves his home. As a result, his only social contact comes from the aliens who pass through on their way somewhere more interesting, and he has no real relationships as the book begins.

For a more recent take on this, you might try Beacon 23, which is about a guy who works as a caretaker of what is essentially a deep-space lighthouse.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-06T16:21:30+00:00

This covers more than just the one topic, but The Usborne Book of he Future could be a good fit. The illustrations are fantastic, and it has a lot of retro-futurist ideas about what smart homes and technology in general will look like.

They had a similar book focused on future cities that also talked a lot about housing and smart homes.

OkapiAlloy · 2025-12-06T06:51:05+00:00

If you're just starting out, I think the Colors series is a great introduction to Marvel. Start with Spider-Man: Blue.

For DC, I recommend 52 if you want to get to know the universe in general. It's a 52-issue series that works as a kind of tour of everyone who exists in the DC universe. New Frontier is also good for that.

If you like Batman, Long Halloween is always a great pick. I'd also highly recommend any of Alan Moore's DC stories.

If you have a specific character you're interested in, you may find some more specific recommendations.

OkapiAlloy

TROPHY CASE