#bookstodon

See tagged statuses in the local Wyrms.de community

Marcello Liscia: Einmal noch (Paperback, German language, Querverlag)

Dem Deutschitaliener Umberto gelingt es nicht, den tragischen Tod seines Mannes zu überwinden, und er …

It's not you, dear book, it's me. We just aren’t meant for each other.

[English below] Das ist so: Ich lese wirklich nicht nur Belletristik und will nicht immer nur hochtrabend über Literatur sprechen. Und vor allen Dingen unterstütze ich gerne kleine Indie-Verlage, wir können uns glücklich schätzen, in Deutschland noch einige zu haben. Dementsprechend auch grundsätzlich all meinen blauglitzernden Support für den Querverlag! Aber. Nicht das, nicht „Einmal noch“, für mich zumindest nicht (das mag ich betonen, it‘s me. Gebt ihr dem Buch bitte selbst eine Chance, es hat allgemein sehr gute Bewertungen! Meine schwankt zwischen 2,5 und 3.) - Hier wurde mit dem Anspruch geschrieben, keine platte Schmonzette, keine platte Schicksalslitanei zu schreiben. Deep soll es sein: Der Background und das zu tragende Päckchen der Figuren. Ihre Dialoge. Ihre Verantwortung füreinander. Bleibt aber eher gewollt und konstruiert, ziemlich steif und sehr frontal auserzählt und manche Fäden gehen dann doch auch verloren. - Dabei kommt all das ungefiltert; manches hätte auch eine CN …

commented on Litany for a Broken World by Karen Conlin (Entangled Realities, #1)

Karen Conlin, L. J. Cohen, Chris Howard: Litany for a Broken World (2025, Interrobang Books) No rating

A young girl's disastrous first foray through the multiverse cleaves her from her family and …

reviewed Star Trek: Picard: Firewall by David Mack (Star Trek: Picard, #6)

Two years after the USS Voyager’s return from the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine finds …

The start of how Seven became the woman we know today (as in ST: Picard)

Content warning Possible spoilers for David Mack's "Star Trek: Picard: Firewall". I don't say anything too specific, and nothing that I would call plot relevant, but some people might still count that as spoilers. Hence this CW.

reviewed A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Andrew Robinson: A Stitch in Time (AudiobookFormat, 2023, Simon & Schuster Audio)

A Stitch in Time (ISBN 0-671-03885-0), published June 5, 2000, is a Star Trek: Deep …

A must read for all Garak fans

Content warning Andrew J. Robinson "A Stitch in Time" -- possible spoilers!

reviewed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr: Cloud Cuckoo Land (Hardcover, 2021, Scribner)

Elaborate but tenuous.

(3 stars = I liked it)

Three time periods are braided together by an ancient Greek tale: 15th century Constantinople, the modern day, and a space-faring future. Elaborate but tenuous. On their own each story has potential, but together they don't quite make a whole. Like Cloud Atlas but less enthralling.

Reading time 7 days, 89 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm #HistoricalFiction #SciFi

reviewed Account Rendered by Melita Maschmann

Melita Maschmann: Account Rendered (Paperback, 2016, Plunkett Lake Press)

A cog in the Nazi machine

Autobiography of a woman who was a committed & diligent National Socialist (#Nazi), of her experience in youth work & propaganda, and her journey coming to terms with the truth of what she participated in. Description of the clinical dispossession of the Poles is disturbing (and new to me), as is the readiness with which everyday mediocre people were led into misguided beliefs, alternative facts & constrained thinking, to do prosaic work with horrifyingly evil outcomes.

Reading time 11 days, 26 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm #Autobiography #Biography #Nazism #WorldWar2 #WW2

Octavia E. Butler: Parable of the Sower (Paperback, 2000, Warner Books)

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful …

Prophetic for its time

Adapting & building community during social collapse. Prophetic for its time, remains unsettling. God as Change could be a genuinely useful belief system. Only half a book, with ending sudden & too convenient (there is a sequel).

Reading time 5 days, 62 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm #CliFi #SciFi

Lively, enlightening & optimistic

Dismantles the many myths & prejudices outsiders hold about monolithic "Africa", along with a startling reminder of its colonial history and an overview of its many forms of dictatorship. Lively, enlightening & optimistic without being overly simplistic.

Reading time 6 days, 59 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm

Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Wizard of the Crow (Paperback, 2007, Anchor)

From the exiled Kenyan novelist, playwright, poet, and literary critic--a magisterial comic novel that is …

Amusing & insightful but long

A satire of African dictatorships and coups. Nearly everyone is stupid, superstitious or greedy. Lightly amusing & insightful but exceeedingly long.

Reading time 24 days, 32 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm