perhaps, one day, we will be glad to remember even this
Virgil, Aeneid, Book 1, Line 203
I’m Aerin, and I like to talk about books.
This blog is primarily an outlet for my thoughts and reactions to what I’m reading, book reviews, and occasional reblogs of bookish stuff I like.
I read a little bit of everything, but a lot of science fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction (science and history primarily), and short stories.
You can find me on goodreads here.
I rate books on a 5-star scale, with one star being terrible, three stars being average, five stars being absolutely incredible. I assign ratings for multiple separate criteria, explained below.
For fiction, I rate on:
Plot: high scores for good pacing, satisfying story arcs, well-earned payoffs, etc. lower scores for plots that are either too predictable or just ridiculously unbelievable (per the genre)
Characters: high scores for characters who feel like real people, with depth and complexity and unique voices. extra high scores if the author makes me love them. lower scores if I find them excessively annoying (especially if they’re not intended to be)
Setting/Ambience: high scores for bringing the place and time to life. I want my historical fiction deeply researched, my speculative fiction richly worldbuilt
Ideas: high scores for thought-provoking, thoroughly explored, and well-integrated themes. I want my fiction to have something interesting to say
Prose: high scores for language so beautiful or incisive that I can’t stop reading passages over and over. I am an admitted snob about this. Writers should wield words the way a fine artist wields a paintbrush, otherwise what is the point?
Evocativeness: high scores for books that make me feel things. extra high scores for books that make me cry. low scores for saccharine glurge or heavy-handed tearjerkery. or if I just feel nothing at all
Overall: something of an average of the above, but not entirely. Sometimes there’s just a je ne sais quoi about a book that pulls my overall rating up or down. What can I say, it’s not a science
For short story collections/anthologies, I add:
Cohesiveness: high scores if the stories fit together well, if the whole of the collection is stronger than the sum of its parts. lower scores if the quality of the stories ranges from “very good” to “why is this crap in here, were they just trying to pad out the page count?”
For audiobooks, I add:
Audio narration: high scores for readers who emote, who differentiate the characters with different voices, whose interpretation of the text adds to my experience of it. extra high scores for high audio production values in general. lower scores for readers whose performance actively detracts from my appreciation or understanding of the story
For nonfiction, I rate on:
Information/Ideas: high scores for books that are well-researched and comprehensive, that are either unbiased or very clear about their biases. low scores for misinformation, disinformation, lack of expertise, poorly-supported theses, etc.
Clarity: high scores for prose that is readable, smooth, and readily understandable. extra high scores if the prose is also very beautiful and/or uniquely engaging (funny, warm, confessional, etc). lower scores if I feel like I’m reading a textbook or an academic paper
Novelty: probably the most subjective criteria I rate on; high scores for books that taught me something interesting and new. extra high scores if it’s on a topic I thought I already knew a lot about. lower scores if the book just rehashes things I already knew or could have learned from wikipedia
Overall: as with fiction, something of an average of the above ratings, but not always and not only
so charming of ART to tell amena she could call it ART. especially when she knows its name is perihelion. especially when it knows what ART stands for. imagine telling the teenager your situationship is responsible for "of course you can call me dipshit"
I’ve been sitting here grinning for like five minutes, just picturing ART telling stories, showing vids, being all 😍 this is my best friend 😍 to its beloved humans.
I am seriously hyperventilating from the nonstop character- and relationship-development payoffs Network Effect delivers on every single page. Martha Wells is just setting them up and knocking them down, bam bam bam 😮💨
Seeking recs! (But I'm going to be picky about this one!)
I do not generally listen to audiobooks. I can read silently faster than someone can read out loud, and also for fiction...I like to do my own voices for the characters in my head, if that makes sense? Rather than hear someone else's interpretation.
I DO listen to podcasts, particularly when I am doing some repetitive physical task that doesn't take too much brain power. Solely nonfiction (or, y'know, adjacent - could be chatting about some out-there topic, but not a fictional scripted podcast). I've realized lately that a nonfiction book read by the author might be similar enough...
And I'm starting to feel like I need more listening material! So with all those caveats: What are your favorite nonfiction podcasts OR nonfiction audiobooks read by their own authors?
Some podcasts I listen to, so you have an idea what I already know about:
No Such Thing As a Fish (I'm actually a Patreon subscriber for this one)
We Can Be Weirdos (working my way thru the entire backlist)
And then these ones I listen to eps here and there, but not every episode religiously:
Ologies
Sawbones
various History Hit podcasts (I have listened to parts of the medieval one, the American history one, and the After Dark themed one)
Any additional recs appreciated! Apologies if I get real picky about it!
All of Mary Roach’s books are great on audio (Stiff, Spook, Bonk, Packing for Mars, Gulp, Grunt, Fuzz, Replaceable You). They’re light, humorous, but also really enlightening nonfiction on various topics. Some are read by Roach herself, others are read by a narrator who imo does a great job of inhabiting Roach’s voice.
In a similarish vein (light tone, quirky and interesting subject matter), Jon Ronson’s stuff is also great. (The Men Who Stare at Goats, So You’ve been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, etc)
I also think investigative journalism into misbehaving corporations works particularly well on audio. Books like:
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris
Flying Blind: Boeing’s Max Tragedy and the Lost Soul of an American Icon by Peter Robison
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
