What I've Been Reading

Reminded me a lot of my own childhood growing up in a graveyard raised by friendly Celtic, Roman, and British ghosts. I'll also never forget the lessons taught to me by presumably vampiric badass guardian, like how to look cool and mysterious while leaning against a gravestone, who was a lot like the Silas character in this book when I really think about it. And, when I finally emerged into young adulthood, like the main character Nobody Owens, I also carried with me the ability to Dreamwalk into any one else's dreams, so please say hi next time I haunt your sleep.

"What's this book about - the one you found in someone's give-away pile on our walk yesterday?" asked Pooh, peering over my shoulder at my iPhone. "It's about You, of course, and how people should put down their iPhones and join you for a hum and a stroll to the Enchanted Place at the Top of the Forest," I replied. "Oh, I see - so we'll have some Company then," said Pooh.

I'm short but I run on and on and on, with all sorts of clauses and emdashes and other punctuation trickery, especially because I want to share my new perspective on the planet and our future on it. I remind and I reflect and I give hope, just like this book, which should be a required read for all humans. You've probably guessed it by now, I'm a #3sentence review of Ministry For the Future!

This is the story of Johnny and Klari von Neumann bringing the Big Computer to life, along with a whole host of engineers and mathematicians - and how we're still living in their digital wakes. There's more here than I could ever hope to understand on a first reading. Somehow, it seems right to me that the MANIAC was born in New Jersey - here's to the crazy ones.

First contact - or is it? I am here for Cora and Ampersand’s... whatever it is. This book being set in 2007 was also fun - I’ve always had a feeling that aliens were the real cause of the housing crisis.

A three-part exploration of the people battling over America’s wildernesses - and the strange friendship that emerges between the combatants when they share the elements together. What does it mean to conserve Earth’s resources - we see many sides here, all desperately in love with the land, in their own ways. To win an unwinnable war, Brower - the so-called Archdruid - is driven to emotional, public appeals that cost him his beloved Sierra Club, but saves precious waterways in the process - and we are left wondering if compromise - via this companionship in the outdoors - can ever bridge the gap between preservation and reclamation.

Dark and raw and powerful coming-into-your-power story, ensconced in the military history of China and Japan and East Asia, plus gods and magic and evil spirits locked in mountains. I’m a sucker for any book with a hard-working, unlikely student with unnatural talents studying under a mysterious, trickster professor - and Rin’s story only gets more riveting from there. I’m genuinely worried for her and her friends and her world at this point.

Fantastic overview of the hero’s journey from IC to manager (and perhaps there and back again), along with all the pitfalls and wise old sages you’ll meet along the way. Perfectly approachable and digestible content that packs layers of understanding in a very re-readable manner. This book’s like reading a Unix manual command for being a good manager - I just wish I could easily reference its tips in my terminal.

I sure hope reading this book counts as Deep Work. Provides a good overview of the state of our distractible minds in the internet era, along with some suggestions for escaping them. Flow is the goal, and implementing Newport’s deep work suggestions seem like great guardrails for getting there.

A tiny, delightful memoir of Unix and the people behind its creation and success. It’s wonderful to get such a personal history of Unix from one of its earliest collaborators. I use Unix tools every day and I’ve never been more excited to get back to my computer and make stuff happen.

Terrifying study of the Cold War arms race and what’s still left behind. Lies and spies and science and economics do battle, and there are only casualties along the way. Hints of bravery does come through, but no one is left unscathed and horror still abounds.

The perfect book for a puzzler! If you love books, adventure, San Francisco, riddles, and mysteries, this is a great read that also teaches you about cryptography and ciphers and history. I can’t wait for Emily’s next scavenge.

Spooky, hilarious, and suspenseful with wonderful characters who I legit care about. Discovering this book reminds me of when my mom found the John Bellairs books in the library for me - a new author to completely devour. This book defines page-turner to me.

There’s no room for filler in this tight 1200 page epic. The payoffs are perfect, the shockwaves are tragic, and the journeys always come before the destinations. I loved every storyline and interlude, much more so than the previous three books, maybe because these characters are really becoming my favorites — now if I could only just bring myself to say the Words.

Dark and disturbing window into a dark and disturbing time. You can't turn away as you watch Ambassador Dodd's naive historian's view of the rationality of leaders shatter to pieces, as his daughter Martha follows a similar path -- though her's is filled with slightly more intrigue. This is an important book.

Data-driven, modern take on the “process” of getting pregnant and having a baby. Uses economics and research complemented by Oster’s personal anecdotes to help you realize that you have the power to make your own decisions. A calming, powerful, insightful tool on your parenting bookshelf.

What.. just.. happened. A crystal-clear, hazy dream of obsessions and heartbreak and a 2000-inning baseball game. You’re never not standing in the outfield of a baseball diamond, and I won’t ever forget that magic realization.

A taste of what it might be like to take McPhee’s Creative Nonfiction course at Princeton, in another perfect little paperback. I’ll keep collecting his books, but I need to slow down and savor them instead of racing to the next one. Until then, in this meta-McPhee, I learned a bit more about he structures his stories, and chooses what to include, and how he captures memories, and how he seems to have a damn good time while doing it.

I have no idea when or why or purchased this book (perhaps found in an obscure Father Schall booklist?), but I knew I would find my way to reading it one day, so I kept it near, and I’m glad I did. Provides a literary and historical review of “Outsiders” - those artists and existentialists who struggle to reconcile their inner selves with the outer culture - with some scaffolding towards a religious salvation for them. I now see the Outsider in many things I’ve read, and I think my only advice would be that these Outsiders would all do well to read “Flow.”

My favorite author offers a glimmer into his writing flow - and his ultimate secret: JOY. Bradbury whispers to us, “Live forever!” And we can, we will, we must, because we believe we can, we will, we must.

A portrait of a leader. I’m always a sucker for anything about schools, and I badly want to go back and attend Boyden’s school to meet and learn from him and his wife. This is my second McPhee book, and I expect I’m now about to go deep down the McPhee rabbit hole of narrative non-fiction, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

This is the linking-book to MYST and RIVEN. I’m swept away by what I’ve just read in the last 24 hours. I’m sad, hopeful, scared, excited to go to sleep right now.

Once you start, you can’t stop reading this book. Flow is a framework for happiness in life, and this book explores all sorts of ways that people achieve flow - the “optimal experience” - from coding to sports to reading to friendship to work to everything in between. I’m filing this next to Nichomachean Ethics on my bookshelf.

I fell right into Darius’s Vans, and Sohrab’s borrowed cleats, as he explored his family’s past and present in a trip to Iran to visit his grandparents. Friendship and acceptance and communication and love and depression and growing up and soccer and tea and Lord of the Rings and Star Trek abound in this book. A good friend is a mighty thing indeed.

A town with a curse, mysterious keys, an evil society, a spooky old house, monsters in the night, and three thirteen year old friends who might just be the heroes this town needs. Reminiscent of John Bellairs tales, this book is the perfect spooky October read (or September, in my case). Full of action and also research in the town archives - my favorite kind of action.

A magical train, a mysterious uncle, talking animals, an eleven-year old girl who happens to adore Grace Hopper and her little brother who happens to adore candy — it’s like someone wrote this just for me. Devoured this book in a perfect afternoon. But the big question remains - when are we going to get to read that book with the secret school underneath the regular school?

I’m overwhelmed by the experience of reading this book. From the magical green and purple fonts distinguishing Fantastica and our world to the stunning chapter frontispieces to the gut-wrenching friendship of Bastian, Atreyu, and Falkor, this book is special and I’ll be returning again and again and again. “Shardik” by Richard Adams is the closest comparison I can make, except The Neverending Story offers hope and goodness.

Fairy tales are real, and if you’re not careful, you might end up in one. An odd friendship is at the heart of this story, one that defies expectations at every turn. Nevers for life!

An inside look at the women who programmed, coded, designed, and built the foundations of software engineering, mainframe computing, hypertext, the ARPANET, social networking, and online communities. I particularly enjoyed learning about Elizabeth “Jake” Feinler - who has been absent from my readings on the ARPANET to date - and her role in organizing the ARPANET directory prior to DNS. I also loved the motto of Purple Moon games, and the story of their founder Brenda Laurel.

A perfect little dream-memory-yarn about the mysterious Pine Barrens of New Jersey, and the people who love them. This is the redemption story for New Jersey we’ve been waiting for, one that we’ve had all along, but were already losing 50 years ago. This book is delightful and intelligent and sweet and dreamy and magic in a way that constantly reminds me why I love reading - and my home state - so much.

Kiko’s journey to finding the strength she always held, amid abuse and anxiety and hopes and change. Her story - and the sketch descriptions at the end of each chapter - kept the pages turning, too quickly, as I learned about her growing up as a biracial Japanese American. And the love story throughout is sweet and strong and makes me happy.

I, for one, recommend this teeny little glimpse into the days of future past. As long as it’s okay with the Overlords, that is. Oh wait, is too late, are they reading this review now - I’d better just stop talking and

Dalinar and company in the Tower of Terror. Transformation and identity and forgiveness and growth reverberate throughout this epic. Truly heraldic (hehe) world-building and history-building (and Shallan drawings), too.

Joy - that’s what this book brought me, along with The Thrill and a whole lotta Chulls. Book 2 is very much Shallan’s book, and I’m so glad for it - her journey and character arc kept me turning pages faster than I wanted to. And, of course, Bridge Four continues to be the best darn bunch of buddies there is, thank you very much, Stormfather.

It’s the end of the world, and we broke it. The “magic system” of orogeny is frightening and thrilling and I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to wield a taurus. There’s still so much left to discover and learn in this broken Earth for both me and our heroes.

The seeds of a new galactic empire, hidden in a encyclopedic project. There’s more to be discovered in the future, even if Hari Seldon has it all figured out. As soon as you like a character, it’s time to move on - maybe this is a Seldon crisis in itself.

Lick’s battle against HAL 9000 towards human-computer symbiosis is the computer history book we don’t deserve. Imagination, creativity, collaboration, bravery, exploration, freedom, ideas mostly win over bureaucracy in the battle for the soul of computers, in many parts thanks to Lick’s vision and purse strings while at ARPA. Reading about the past promise of computers and humans together reinvigorates my hopes for their future.

A short but sweet primer on making design decisions for cloud applications. There’s nothing groundbreaking in here, but that’s the point - the book reinforces well-trodden, effective patterns for scale, and doesn’t forget to outline the various trade-offs in any decision. These recommended patterns will become “eventually consistent” with your own instincts and ideas, with enough time.

A delicious bite into sourdough bread baking culture. These are the robotic arms you’re looking for. But perhaps I’m most touched by the Lois Club - and I hereby pledge to seek out my fellow Charlies in the wild and invite them to tea.

It feels good to do the work, to put in the time, to grind through to a flow state - whether that’s running or writing or whatever it is you’re seeking. This book is a tribute to Type 2 fun - the kind where it’s only fun in retrospect. My favorite part was learning the names of Japanese baseball teams - they are like poems from my dreams.

What a year it’s been for Frodo and Company. The Scouring of the Shire remains my favorite — and therefore the best — chapter of the last two books, and yet I’m still glad it wasn’t in the movies (because it makes a re-read that much more satisfying). Do not be sad that our Quest is over, even though Gandalf said it’s alright to cry, because there’s always next summer vacation to read it all over again.

What happens next. Talking trees, angry wizards, #horseenergy, old weary hobbits, and lots of stairs. This used to be my favorite of the three, and I still think it’s a perfect middle, but at this point in my life I just want more hobbit-lore - can’t wait for the Appendices!

You’ll learn to how write a good story - literally, each step that needs to be taken - in this book. I got so excited for each “What To Do” section, because I knew I was going to make some structured breakthrough on my characters and story. This one’s going in the indispensable category, filed on a shelf that’s never out of reach.

Worth every re-read. There’s so many more delightful bits of hobbit-lore and half-whispered memories of the lost kingdom of Arnor than I ever remembered - or appreciated as a middle-schooler during summer vacations, laying down on a couch next to a box fan, devouring both these books and chocolate teddy grams. I swear I even read the songs and poems this time, instead of just skipping anything in italics - I guess that’s called growing up.

Rewind to the turn of the millennium, when Windows programming ruled the world, the dotcoms were doomed, and managing large software projects still suffered from the same problems as they did back at IBM during the Mythical Man-Month era (as they still do now). Hyperbolic and hilarious, Joel tears apart the tropes and renders his own creed for programming, managing, and successfully making things with other people on computers. The hint of web programming at the end of the book is a prescient glimmer of today’s software landscape, and yet mobile is never discussed - fascinating to consider what might already be in our hands but not yet in our focus.

A terrifying look in the mirror for America and our interconnected world during a pandemic, so not exactly the escapism you might be hoping for at the moment, but I still couldn’t put it down for a single second. A true epic, a spiritual sequel to The Stand, a hilarious, moving, tragic take on our politics and technology. I can’t stop thinking about the ending, either.

Forty-five years later, and we’re still in the programming tar pit - although thankfully with a few more implements of creative destruction than Brooks and his team had at IBM building OS/360 in the 1970s. Aspects of this book are woefully dated, but the engineering management challenges remain devastatingly relevant, especially for anyone working on large distributed software development teams. Thank goodness for better tooling nowadays - that we’re not reviewing stacktraces with pencil and paper or only getting to test our code for two hours a day in batches - but it’s also fascinating to see what was still accomplished by the IBM mainframe developers with these constraints.

Frankenstein’s human-dog monster as a lovable crime-fighter, feline cloning experiments gone awry, and a bionic reanimated fish with evil psychokinetic powers - all framed within a redemptive retelling of A Tale of Two Cities. The Flip-O-Ramas and puns are back in full force. Could Lil Petey be any cuter?

Lewis and Clark cross the Atlantic, this time using Clark’s automated sailboat powered by 25 Silicon Graphics computer workstations and a million lines of C++. Things don’t quite go as planned, and yet that feels right on target for Jim Clark and his always-moving, ever-restless entrepreneurial adventures. This old old book still feels new new new in 2020, and should be required beach reading for anyone in tech.

A gripping origin tale of a man with a dog’s head sewn to his body who fights crime and likes to do other dog stuff, too. Filled with super cute illustrations of hot dogs that come to life and try to take over the world. And how could I almost forget to mention the Flip-O-Ramas!!

Meditations on recovery, writing, and growin’ up. Strunk and White and monsters. And I even loved the ending.

Lyra and her daemon go on an adventure. Witches, steampunk, magical devices, heretical unorthodoxy, talking armored bears, Texans, daemons - all your favorites are here. I’ll reread this book forever.

A portrait of wunderkind Bill Gates, written in the early 1990s, when Gates and his Microsoft stand on the peak that may become a precipice. Fascinating to learn about the origins and evolutions of Microsoft BASIC, MS-DOS, Windows, Excel, Word, and whatever else - as long as it’s software (or a computer mouse). Will Microsoft survive the trials of the 1990s - only time will tell.

Mindstorms blew my mind. He clearly outlines my exact frustrations with learning math in school, and demonstrates how learning (exploring, discovery, debugging, playing) with computers can restore the natural way of learning that early children instinctively know - and most lose. Reading this makes me feel like there’s hope for me yet.

The last whiskey priest is on the run from a relentless Javert-like police lieutenant who is hell-bent on ridding Mexico of Catholicism. Except our priest is no saint. Or is he?

The terror of nostalgia for a childhood in Sweden living above a defunct particle accelerator comes to life in pages upon pages of glorious, horrifying, perfect paintings. Is it bad that I want to live in this 1990s mirror world? Or least get to play Doom on one of these old computers, using a parts from a broken robot to bypass my dial-up modem - is that so much to ask?

The most important book in my library, by far, discovered in the Scholastic Book Fair in fourth grade. I used to read this and LOTR once a year at the beginning of every summer, but haven’t read it for at least fifteen years now. Read this book at once, read it again, read it aloud to a child, read at the beginning of a multi-day backpacking adventure in a foreign country, and always keep it in your backpack, just in case of something unexpected.

A whirlwind of spells, cleaning supplies, shooting stars, and everyone wanting marry each other. Felt more like a dream than a normal book does. I hope I’ll see the moving castle one day, stomping through another adventure.

A dreamy adventure through fairy tales and old books, exploring grief, rage, and forgiveness. World-building here is more like world-gathering - lots of familiar heroes and villains inside this one. Beware - the Crooked Man watches, always.

A must-read for anyone who’s ever had a glimmer of nostalgia for a computer from their childhood, no matter if an IBM PC-clone, an Apple II, a Commodore VIC-20, or an Altair kit, and wondered where those magical devices came from. Is the computer a means of freedom or control? You’ll explore this theme throughout the book, beginning with modern computing’s punch-card origins in WW2 through IBM’s dominance in mainframes to the mini-computer and personal computer eras - leaving off just as the Internet and WWW begin to mature in the early 2000s (I anxiously await a volume three that will cover the last two decades - smartphones and cloud computing demand to be covered here) - and ultimately leaving that question as unanswered but hopeful.

Retirement ain’t what it used to be. Turns out, the universe is filled with aliens and they pretty much all want to eat you. But you’ll learn that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

A lament for the lost book stores of San Francisco (Aardvark Books, anyone?). Pokes fun at technology while still amazed at what it can bring us. Adding this one to my list of books with giant, possibly magical, libraries, just as soon as I find myself a NewBagel.

What do unicycles, flaming trumpets, and a robotic, labyrinth-solving mouse named Theseus have to do with computers? Everything (if you’re lucky enough to have discovered the utter joy and delightful weirdness of Bell Labs’ favorite prodigal son, Claude Shannon). This fast-paced dive into Shannon’s life and career will have you exploring the mind of one of humanity’s greatest thinkers, puzzlers, tinkerers, and oddball geniuses and hopefully spark your next big weekend project idea.

Stare into the terrible infinity of childhood. Scream back against nostalgia. Remember the stranger things.

Follow the paths of Kaladin Stormblessed, Shallan Davar, and Dalinar Kholin as walk towards, stumble upon, and unwind hidden secrets of the lost knights Radiant and the coming Desolation. Seeking justice amid betrayal, defending those who cannot, and battling-slash-riding giant crab-monsters for their crystal hearts are the important lessons you’ll learn in this epic fantasy. Bridge Four for life!!

A dreamy, vintage creature compendium for Cape Cod, Long Island, and all the East Coast islands in-between. Perfect companion for a tide pool or kettle pond exploration, with sketches of all the critters and plants you’ll discover. This is the book you’ll return to every summer vacation.

OK Google - what’s the most terrifying near-term outcome of our mono-consumer-corporate culture? Hey Siri - give me a gripping, page-turner of a thriller that I literally can’t put down without putting my Black Mirror star rating at risk. Alexa, remind me to order this book for my friends - and yes, I’ll add in that BBQ grill you know I’ve been eyeing, as long as you throw in Same-Day shipping (I don’t know about you, but mmm, burgers just sound yummy right now).

I utterly devoured the tale of Nettie Lonesome becoming ... whatever it is she damn well pleases, while also, you know, fulfilling her monster-hunting destiny. Hilarious and heart-wrenching, with every chapter packing an punch to the gut and brain and heart and eyeball holes. I’m also glad to finally learn what to do when your coworkers turn into chupacabras: hint, they’re not going to like it.

Back into the woods we go with Prue and Curtis (and, of course, Septimius the Rat). The world of Wildwood expands, unwinds, and goes deeper than we ever knew in this delightfully long book, and looks to be setting up for an epic last battle in book three. OH, HOW COULD I FORGET TO MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVED THE CITY OF MOLES?

A tiny sliver of a book that brings all the kids together for the first time - the Finders and the last of the Old Ones, all under the perfectly absentee watch of their Great Uncle Merry yet again. The Greenwitch fuses Welsh and Celtic folklore with the broader magic of the Dark is Rising series, and I’ll be heading to Wikipedia immediately after finishing them all to sort it out as best I can. This is another excellent book for a hazy summer day sitting directly next to a whirring box fan.

Your memory of reading this book will be a blur - no, your memories of everything else in your life will be a blur. Wait, what was I just doing? We may not be quite ready for traveling the fourth dimension, but my goodness my life sure is better now after Recursion.

Delicious, charming, and uplifting story of an aristocrat under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel of Moscow during the Russian Revolution through the Cold War. You’ll love the Count for his misadventures, cleverness, positivity, erudition, and constantly eroding stubbornness in favor of an open heart towards those who surround him in his hotel. I hope to be as good of a friend and person as the Count - and I know I’ll be thinking of him and Sophia and Nina and the rest of his gang for a long time to come.

A salt-water hymn to New Jersey, rock and roll, and the Promised Land beyond. Above all else, it becomes clear that Bruce has been saved by therapy, medication, and his loving marriage and children, and I’m even more grateful that he can still bring us his music and now his story. This lyrical sea shanty of a book dips and dives through Bruce’s roots, struggles, successes, continued struggles, and continued successes as a musician, friend, son, husband, father, and capital-H human, and he delivers, every step of the way.

A book of books about books. You’ll be ensnared before you know what’s happening, and then you never will, because something else, something here, is now happening and were you ever really there, before now? I don’t know, I’m just as confused, but I feel like I Get It Now.

Stroll through the Zachtronics memory palace, where no idea or fever dream for a game is left behind or forgotten. I’ve heard that learning by teaching is the mark of understanding, but learning by making a game may be the greater insight. You’ll leave this book inspired - and possibly calling your parents to unearth your old notebooks for long lost video game doodles.

A travelogue to another world - part diary, part folklore, part political thriller - by a lone emissary from an intergalactic civilization of humans, where Earth is only one of hundreds of human colonies, to encourage the people of Winter to join their union. But unlike the rest of the humans in this civilization, the people of Winter are genetically ambisexual, and this book catalogues our flawed narrator’s path - both literal and figurative - towards understanding of the culture and people that emerged on a world without fixed sex or gender. His mistakes and mishaps and foibles, along with those of his strongest ally amongst the people of Winter, carry you through this book and drop you off again, ready to start it over immediately, to discover more of this planet and its people.

I laughed - and cried - my way through this manual and mediation on the writing life. Perfect combination of little practical tactics with bigger mindset-shifting frameworks. The chapter on “Giving” knocked my socks off - excuse me, I now have to go get more socks.

The computer manual I wish I had when I was kid for the computer I wish I had when I was a kid. Actually, not true - I’ve been scouring eBay for a good deal, cause this is the computer I need in my life, right now. This guide is a fantastic, friendly tour of your very own personal computer - and it’s everything that’s missing from our gadgets and phones today.

Who is Miles Vorkosigan? I still have no idea. But this against the odds love story continues the skillfully indirect world-building - no, galaxy-building - of the wormhole-jumping human colonies of the somewhat distant future.

Quentin grows up, and I think I did, too. But I know the way back to Fillory. Nothing can keep me out.

Adventure calls - how will you answer? And what will you give up, to join the quest, to be the hero? This nonstop, magic-fueled sequel is more meditative than its predecessor - yet delivers all the same happy-sad nostalgia feels of your favorite childhood books.

Magic is wasted on the magicians. Quentin’s wildest childhood dreams come true (and mine) - but he’s stuck as his own worst enemy. I found myself magically unable to put this book down once I discovered Brakebills, and I’ll be diving right back into Fillory posthaste.

If you've ever seen those YouTube videos of people who created entire computers in Minecraft or Super Mario Maker - and want to be more like them - then look no further. This book demonstrates how computers are built from absolute first principles, along with excellent diagrams, examples, and historical references to put everything in context. This is a book that demands re-reading and will likely reward you handsomely for it.

A bite-sized (byte-sized?) dive into the world of physical computing with Arduino - written by its creator. Approachable for all coding skill levels, the book provides a few simple projects along the way to get you up and running with some nice blinking LEDs - and inspires you to dream of even more. I would have liked to see more detailed diagrams for the placement of items on the breadboard, which was a bit hard to interpret, but the book encourages trial and error, so I guess it’s all part of the master plan.

Stoic philosophy veiled in religious themes hidden in a simple parable about learning sales. This book was given to me by my eighth grade homeroom teacher - Mrs. Laffey - and I’ve treasured it ever since. I recently rediscovered this small book - and the wisdom of the ancient scrolls inside - at just the right time.

Robinson Crusoe as a 12 year old girl on a small island off the coast of Southern California. Dream-like tone throughout, but with flashing moments of adventure, discovery, conflict, defeat, and friendship. Beware the devil-fish.

Tightly-packed, engineering-heavy, self-contained escape escapade with glimmers of a larger galactic military-industrial complex beyond. Frightening look at a potential bioengineering solution to the problems of prolonged zero-G - but luckily our humanity prevails. I have no idea right now how the quaddies will fit into the larger tale of the Miles Vorkosigan saga, but I’m sure excited to find out.

A history of early days of Apple Computer, originally published in 1984. The time-jumping segments between the origin tale and the Macintosh team were an interesting device - but I was left wanting for a convergence of these two stories that never happened. I’ll never get sick of this story, though - that’s the predominant feeling here, I just want more.

This is my bookReview of Darrow’s simultaneous revenge, coming of age, and love stories. If you like greekMythology, schoolRivalries, medievalWeaponry, and camelCase, then this is book for you. Slow burner in the beginning, but great pacing and plot surprises barreled me through the second half, much like a runaway Helldiver losing control beneath the surface of the red planet.

The adventure continues right where we left off in ‘Lirael’ - and doesn’t let up for a single moment. All your best friends are back in this one, from the Disreputable Dog to Sabriel to the Mogget, and I’m still left wanting more - of everything and everyone in the Old Kingdom. Even the tinkling call of Ranna couldn’t stop me from staying up late to finish this book, well past my bedtime, as this book should be read.

Another book that I wished I’d read long before, because I know I’ll be thinking about Lirael and the Disreputable Dog for an even longer time. If you love books with giant libraries filled with hidden, locked, and forbidden doorways, then this is the book for you. I’ve heard the bells, and now I’m spellbound.

Are our children doomed to repeat the sins of their parents? Apparently, yes - particularly if one of those parents happens to be an Ancient Greek god now living in the United States. The wisecracking first-person tale of Percy Jackson seems to have been written exclusively for the sixth-grade version of me, which, like the gods, is also still alive and quite well in the modern era.

A tiny little book about the dark matter beneath our childhood memories. Best read with a flashlight under the covers, long after you’ve been sent to bed. I’ll be rereading this one for the rest of my days.

Fantastic odyssey of bringing a new computer to life in the late 1970s. The metaphors and analogies for computer architecture are appropriate, approachable, and just plain awesome - I’ll be thinking about these explanations for a long time to come. Recommended for anyone who’s ever built anything with a computer and wants to go under the hood a bit deeper - no technical background required, but if you’ve got one, then you’ll dig this book even more.

Christmas in rural England is already pretty magical - let alone when you turn eleven and discover that you’re the last of the Old Ones, with a mythical quest to fulfill before the agents of the Dark prevail. My mom bought me these books when I was a kid, but I never read them for some reason. Like Will, I’ve found my destiny at just the right time.

Frame story? Runaway siblings from Greenwich who hideout in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a week? Check, and check.

It’s not often I read an entire book in one day. This book is weird, hilarious, gross, haunting, and utterly gripping start to finish. So glad I chose this randomly from The Last Bookstore in LA based on its cover alone.

Had to prop up my jaw more than once. I felt compelled to tell anyone I interacted with about what was happening in the book even though I was so fearful of spoiling it for them. Finally, this book caused me a terrible nightmare just a few hours ago about the end of earth but then I woke up and finished the book in bed and smiled myself back to sleep.

Delicious romp through magical woods, replete with talking animals, friendly bandits, beautiful witches, Radio Flyers, and all things adventure. The illustrations are just as magic as the words. Even the book itself *feels* like something special, something that I would have devoured in my childhood bedroom, next to a whirring box fan, in the heat of summer.

Fast-paced take on the id Software arc, focusing on the Beatles-esque partnership of Romero and Carmack. My only wish is that this book came along with shareware copies of all the games. Well, that’s it then for the review, I guess I’m off to go buy Doom II and Commander Keen now.

Raw and powerful. Present tense gave it a dreamlike quality that dipped into nightmares. Excited for more world-building to come in books two and three.

Read this book. And then re-read it. That way you’ll understand what’s unraveling all around Mycroft Canner. At least that’s what I’m hoping happens for me. Among its other positive qualities, this book (series) has the best character names in the business. I’m sad and happy after finishing this book, and isn’t that the best outcome for just about anything?

A delightful and scary little story, perfect for a Halloween evening, summer campfire in the woods, or your routine #SundayScaries evening. Reminded me of my most favorite, most horrifying, and most retold tale in More Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark - The Drum. Be brave and go exploring with Coraline!

Opens up a portal to parallel universe too close to our own. You’ll feel nostalgia for nightmares that may still happen. And you’ll want to learn how to paint.

Another mind-melter for your imagination.

Explores and dispels the myth of the American West for a young Harvard student, lured westward to the frontier of the country by the writings of Emerson. Quick and gripping plot. A dark exploration of the nothingness.