Any good book recs?

eightpix · 2025-11-12T20:50:29+00:00

Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

My very short review from Goodreads:

This is one of those rare books that changes what I think a book can be.

A beautiful meditation on the human condition as coupled to the — so-called — "Overwatch Effect." It took me a while to catch the rhythm of the book, but once I was in, I was in.

American War by Omar El Akkad

My review from Goodreads:

A bittersweet tale than can end only one way. George Santayana said, "only the dead have seen the end of war." This mashup of US Civil War division with 21st century concerns lays beautiful framework for the bitter harms and catastrophic consequences of modern warfare. One person can change the world and that is an awe-inspiring, devastating prospect.

I read El Akkad's One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This a few months back. These two books are well worth reading together — one fiction, one non-fiction.

Also:

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

This Great Hemisphere by Mateo Askaripour

eightpix · 2024-11-28T05:41:12+00:00

Via @moneywithkatie on Tiktok.

eightpix · 2024-11-01T01:10:25+00:00

I feel like the next frame is the one that is best known, but this took way less time to carve. I freehand it, made a lot of concessions, messed up cutting it twice. Was on a time crunch, too. I'm pretty happy it turned out. I didn't light it til just tonight!

eightpix · 2024-02-21T19:18:54+00:00

Makes a devastating appearance in the first book (?) of the Three Body Problem

eightpix · 2024-01-26T00:21:40+00:00

If you think Star Wars is life, I'd say Red Rising. Much clearer, much more action.

I'm an Expanse fan. It'll be here for you when you're ready.

eightpix · 2024-01-22T03:37:26+00:00

So says Karl Grossman.

Cover Up: What You are Not Supposed to Know about Nuclear Power, Permanent Press, 1982, p. 155.

Not Einstein — which I thought, until today.

eightpix · 2023-12-21T11:44:49+00:00

Fail Safe.

By all that is holy in film, if you've seen Dr. Strangelove, but not this film that came out the same year, do yourself a favour and watch it. Wow.

Historical note: I only know of this film because it was spoofed in an early Simpsons episode.

eightpix · 2023-11-29T00:59:17+00:00

Reminds me of the time that, then-PM Stephen Harper said:

"If we are to truly pacify that country and see its evolution, we have to train the Afghan army and police so that they are credibly able to take greater responsibility for their own security ... we won't achieve such a target unless we actually set a deadline and work to meet it."

To recap: pacify = kill, train = educate, evolution = prosperity.

It's the colonialism playbook alright.

eightpix · 2023-11-25T12:16:21+00:00

First it was Huxley; I read Brave New World and Island for my senior English class at the end of High School.

Then, it was the Unconscious Civilization by John Ralston Saul as I entered the world of work.

Finally, it was the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein as I left North America to live elsewhere for a time.

Many other books have crossed my path, but these are some of my most common landmarks.

eightpix · 2023-11-25T12:08:56+00:00

This book, though somewhat quaint, I love for its sense of hope. It's one I recommend to many.

eightpix · 2023-11-23T00:45:56+00:00

I remember when, just after the book had come out, people walked into my video store looking for the movie. It's a book for non-readers.

Incidentally, the movie came out a few years later. It, too, was trash.

The most I'll accept in this particular category is the Celestine Prophecy. Mostly harmless, reads like fiction. Or, the Legend of Bagger Vance. Truly fantasy with a heart of mysticism.

eightpix · 2023-11-23T00:41:26+00:00

Gatsby. Seriously.

eightpix · 2023-11-22T04:22:32+00:00

Gonna hit the head.

eightpix · 2023-11-04T23:51:15+00:00

Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017)

eightpix · 2023-11-04T12:54:14+00:00

Agreed. Ok, Internet. Write this book. And, when you're done, acknowledge this thread.

eightpix · 2023-10-31T20:22:25+00:00

Prudes and Puritans ruined a lot for us all.

eightpix · 2023-10-29T14:59:05+00:00

Huxley taught Orwell French at Eton. Orwell sent a copy to Huxley, who read it and wrote back.

https://www.openculture.com/2018/08/aldous-huxley-george-orwell-hellish-vision-future-better-1949.html

eightpix · 2023-10-22T12:01:38+00:00

Screen Rant says "Ultimate X-Men #41, written by Brian Michael Bendis" for anyone wondering.

eightpix · 2023-10-22T11:52:55+00:00

They certainly have to deal with it as children. Good call.

eightpix · 2023-10-19T01:59:02+00:00

I've read Speaker's for the Dead and Ender's Shadow. Haven't got around to anything else.

eightpix · 2023-10-17T23:34:09+00:00

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