Pretty good so far. I’m only about 10% into The New Yorker, and the only story I did not like was “Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger

The rest have a good mix of fun and suspense, and the writing feels lyrical.

I’m about 30% into Africa Risen, and the stories are a fun mix of sci-fi, magical realism and mythology. My favorite so far is “Rear Mirror” by Nuzo Onoh, which was hilarious.

sounds fascinating, I’ll add this to my TBR📚

I’ve been in the mother of all reading slumps (since I hit my very modest yearly goal of 12+ books), but I’m back and I’m currently reading Orientalism by Edward Said for non-fiction. I’m also reading two short-story collections: A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker edited by Deborah Treisman, and Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction edited by Thomas, Ekpeki and Knight.

I started reading If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution by Vincent Bevins. Given what’s happening around the world in Indonesia, Nepal and others, it feels like we’re in the sequel to the Arab Spring and I want to “catch up on the prequel” so to speak.

I thought his writing was very accessible. In the first few chapters, he lays out the story of the first three minutes after the Big Bang in a very understandable way, and the rest of the book talks about how modern science figured it out (which is probably a more interesting story). Equations and more technical explanations are pushed to the appendix.

I think I’ve been a bit unfair to Coates in the past because I’ve felt like, outside of “The Case for Reparations” his writing reads like “James Baldwin-light”. But I think he listens to criticism and I want to go back and finish Eight Years (I DNF’d it after re-reading the Reparations chapter) and read his new book The Message.

I finished The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe by Steven Weinberg and enjoyed it. It’s actually remarkable that we as a species can tell such a specific story about the beginning of the universe using science.

I’m currently reading A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker: 1925-2025 by Deborah Treisman, which is an 1100-page long short story collection. So far, I enjoyed “The Weeds” by Mary McCarthy, and “Symbols and Signs” by Vladimir Nabokov.

I think I’ll add Never Known Men to my TBR, it sounds interesting.

Basically as a modern-day East India Trading Company. The book frames their actions around a discussion of empires, and she shows Sam Altman as someone who is driven by a desire to accumulate power for himself.

I finished James by Percival Everett and I really enjoyed his sense of humor and use of irony, and I found it to be a fast-paced read.

Up next will be The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe by Steven Weinberg, which was recommended by Neil DeGrasse Tyson on his StarTalk podcast.

I finished Empire of AI by Karen Hao. It was a really eye-opening (and very deeply researched) look at OpenAI, Sam Altman, and the entire AI industry and I was impressed by the fact that she interviewed AI workers in Kenya and Chile.

I’m currently reading James by Percival Everett and so far I like the author’s voice and sense of humor.

you keep responding but i’m taking it seriously😂😂

you mean like they ignored the part of me asking what a “star trek purist” is? maybe you can shed some light on that.

I love that your response to what a “star trek purist” is is a defense of bs opinions on the internet

wtf is a Star Trek “purist” and why should anyone care about your arbitrary opinion?

I have an old Bitbucket that still works, but I’ve migrated to Codeberg. I’m also running a self-hosted Forgejo for personal stuff.

still on Empire of AI by Karen Hao. these tech bros are insufferable🙄

I really liked Broken Earth too, and I have Becky Chambers on the TBR.

You could try sci-fi magazines or short-story collections (like The New Yorker’s Century Of Fiction which is over 1000 pages!) to find new authors you like and check out their work. Or you could double-down on Jemisin’s other books.

this will be my next fiction read, but I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it because I never read Huck Finn.

I finished two short novels and I did not like both: Everyday Is For The Thief by Teju Cole and You Dreamed Of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue.

So it’s back to non-fiction and my next book will be Empire of A.I. by Karen Hao.