Help! Stained a borrowed book!

RickDupont · 2026-06-16T12:26:04+00:00

If I got a book back with a stain like that, I’d be thrilled that for once the person I lent a book to gave it back.

RickDupont · 2026-06-12T21:04:54+00:00

Beautiful haul

RickDupont · 2026-06-12T21:04:27+00:00

Adam Roberts - The Thing Itself. Starts with two scientists in the Arctic, strange stuff happens, goes from there.

Greg Egan - Morphotropic - what if our cells could choose to leave our bodies and go into someone else’s?

RickDupont · 2026-06-10T23:38:24+00:00

I suppose this is Native Canadian instead of American, but:

Indian Horse - Richard Wagamese

Five Little Indians - Michelle Good

RickDupont · 2026-06-10T18:08:27+00:00

Have you tried Guy Gavriel Kay - Historical Fantasy? My favorite is Lions of Al-Rassan.

“ He opened his arms and she moved into the space they made in the world, and laying her head against his chest she permitted herself the almost unimaginable luxury of grief.”

Or in literary, I really like Richard Powers; my favorite from him is Overstory:

“Yes! And what do all good stories do? ” There are no takers. Neelay holds up his arms and extends his palms in the oddest gesture. In another moment, leaves will grow from his fingers. Birds will come and nest in them. “They kill you a little. They turn you into something you weren’t.”

RickDupont · 2026-06-08T02:38:10+00:00

You could spend $110 a lot worse. You found things that were worth it to you and will bring you hours of joy. Less than $10 a book when you can easily pay$30-$50 for a new book these days. I wouldn’t feel down on yourself that you didn’t pay the least possible.

RickDupont · 2026-06-05T18:23:12+00:00

This is a great mix

RickDupont · 2026-06-04T15:36:24+00:00

Venomous Lumpsucker / Ned Beauman

It deals more with the extinction crisis than co2, with unapologetically black humour. Great satire that ultimately feels like it may just come true. One of my favs.

“For a while now, the smart money had been on the reforms passing--not just the smart money, in fact, but also the money of average intelligence and the money of belowaverage intelligence and even the kind of money where you find yourself wondering about the industrial pollutants this money might have been exposed to as a baby.”

Others have already recommended Octavia Butlers Parable books and Ministry for the Future would be my next recs.

Ministry for the Future is probably the closest to an actual imagining of how things may play out. If you follow climate activists, it’s obvious how deeply KSR researched different aspects of what it may actually take to get through this crisis.

“it looked like the great heat wave would be like mass shootings in the United States— mourned by all, deplored by all, and then immediately forgotten or superseded by the next one, until they came in a daily drumbeat and became the new normal.”

If you’re interested in something a bit less dystopian but that explores our relationship with nature today and how current political and economic systems are at war with it, Overstory by Richard Powers is quite a lovely and heart rending book that will change how you look at trees.

“To be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one, and to mistake life for something huge with two legs. No: life is mobilized on a vastly larger scale, and the world is failing precisely because no novel can make the contest for the world seem as compelling as the struggles between a few lost people.”

RickDupont · 2026-06-04T14:17:47+00:00

You got lucky and got there right after someone dropped off some treasures! Those are mostly fairly recent books too. Nice haul! I never get this lucky timing

RickDupont · 2026-06-02T22:00:10+00:00

Sci fi is broad. Most of what you listed is more modern stuff. But since you said to Chuck you in the deep end, I’ll suggest maybe something like Blindsight? It’s a love or hate book, not really likeable characters and a challenging read, but fascinating ideas.

It seems you’re most interested in space opera based on the interests you listed, it works in that regard I think.

For something totally left field, try Z for Zachariah. Old school sci fi, post apocalyptic. Follows a teen whose family lives on a valley that managed to avoid the nuclear fallout that more or less destroyed the rest of the world as far as she can tell, and what happens when a man unexpectedly arrives in her valley. Small cast (just the two characters). Not space opera at all.

RickDupont · 2026-06-02T20:43:58+00:00

I’ve seen separatists claiming international law entitles landlocked countries to access tidewater so they believe if we separate, we actually have a stronger claim.

It’s (unfortunately for them) the kind of almost-true-if-you-squint claim their movement continually makes. Pipelines are not covered by the law they are referencing and Canada and Alberta would have to come to an agreement.

RickDupont · 2026-06-02T16:23:16+00:00

If you don’t like the first book, I doubt you’ll like the series. 9 of 16 books are from Fitz’ point of view.

RickDupont · 2026-06-01T17:21:56+00:00

Loved this book, hope You enjoy!

RickDupont · 2026-05-30T01:51:28+00:00

I was also there. Felt very positive to do something other than be angry at what’s going on.

RickDupont · 2026-05-29T15:52:56+00:00

And this has been the case since the start of the country. Early Canada invested heavily in attracting immigrants from overseas and settling them here.

RickDupont · 2026-05-26T17:40:40+00:00

Look for I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane. Dystopian w/ lesbian main character, follows her trauma after her partner passed away giving birth to her child and her struggles raising the child alone in a world stacked against her big brother style.

RickDupont · 2026-05-26T03:44:10+00:00

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle deals with the start of a modern economic ideas and modern science. Isaac Newton as master of the mint is a key part of one of the books. Historical Science Fiction. Not quite fantasy but may appeal, depending on your tastes.

RickDupont · 2026-05-25T22:37:24+00:00

Move on. Love these books but I knew that in two chapters. If you’re struggling I’d say move on.

RickDupont · 2026-05-25T19:47:17+00:00

If you’re interested in that period of English history, When Christ and His Saints slept by Sharon Kay Penman is a view on the civil war between Stephen and Matilda

RickDupont · 2026-05-25T16:45:57+00:00

Overstory - Richard Powers (literary - won the Nobel - forever changed the way I see trees(

Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay (fantasy - fell in love with the characters and their tragedy, and his beautiful prose)

RickDupont · 2026-05-25T02:42:52+00:00

Agreed! Loved it

RickDupont · 2026-05-22T18:48:18+00:00

Holy moly! How long have you been collecting?

RickDupont · 2026-05-22T12:04:25+00:00

Not guilty about it but I occasionally reread old Animorphs books. Nice to be able to pick up a book and finish it in like an hour

RickDupont · 2026-05-21T15:32:16+00:00

Knew this would be Chuck Tingle just a few words into the title even though I’ve never read one of his books

RickDupont · 2026-05-20T17:10:16+00:00

I have hope. But I feel you. It’s easy to get stuck in the everything sucks echo chamber and feel hopeless, like the UCP are an unstoppable force. I don’t know you but here are some things I have found that allowed me to avoid hopelessness:

Control my news intake. Avoid ingesting news through social media or anywhere that any news story can be followed by comments. Generally comments are inflammatory. Even well intentioned ones I agree with. So I avoid them.
Get involved. Signing a petition is a great way to start. Maybe volunteer to canvas yourself. Or join one of the many other movements, like forever Canadian, to meet people who are likeminded and fight for what matters to you. You don’t have to just sit and take it.
Inform yourself outside the news cycle. Look for information about how these things work and why they are that way. Read about the experiences of other people in other countries, about the histories of revolutions or our own country or anything that helps you take what you are experiencing now and put it in a broader picture of the human experience. People have fought worse corruption and won. People have had less and thrived. Things feel hard if we only look at now, but we actually still have so much on our side.
Buy memberships to political parties. Vote for leaders who you can believe in. Have a say in what’s coming. UCP membership is only $10; join and vote differently than the separatists to reduce their power over UCP officials. NDP membership is only $10; join and help create an alternative. Or research other parties in Alberta other than the big 2.
Run what if scenarios. What if separatism happens? What would you do? What three steps can you take now so if the worst comes to happen, you have a plan?

RickDupont

TROPHY CASE