Steve's Book Stuff

🏳‍🌈 bookblogger, #nonfiction mostly but give me time I'll #readallthebooks. He/Him. Reviews & stuff at http://stevesbookstuff.com

[stevesbookstuff]

Supermajority is a call to action against the overreach of our current conservative Supreme Court, which is creating its own backlash.

Read my full review here.

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A coming of age novel of a young black man working on an historic presidential campaign in 2008. Filled with well-constructed vignettes told against the backdrop of the campaign, the book ultimately let me down as the stories did not build on each other nor yield any deeper meaning.

Find my full review here.

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A short read on a topic that deserves a longer treatment. Well written though not as lyrical as the cover blurbs will lead you to believe.

Read my full review here.

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An interesting and readable overview of the UFO phenomenon and the search for intelligent life in the universe, but ultimately it disappointed me. The author maintains a “just the facts” journalistically neutral approach, which can at times frustrate, and the book lacks a coherent arc. Find the full review on my newsletter.

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Invisible Trillions is a timely and important book for anyone interested in the problems of our modern system of capitalism, its lack of transparency, its embrace of secrecy, and, above all, the challenges it poses to democracy itself. Find my full review here.

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A quick read and an important book providing the first-hand account of the January 6th riot from the viewpoint of one of those who defended our Capital. Find the full review on my newsletter.

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The book follows a single ship from commissioning to sinking and beyond. That approach is unique (at least in my experience) and made a great frame for Palin’s storytelling. If you are not familiar with the Ross or Franklin expeditions then this Michael Palin's Erebus would serve as an excellent introduction. Find the full review on my newsletter.

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Broadway Butterfly novelizes an unsolved murder from the 1920s and tracks its shady characters all the way to the White House. Find the full review on my newsletter.

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An excellent biography of Samuel Adams. The book drags just a bit in the middle but is nevertheless a compelling read for what it reveals about how the American Revolution was birthed. Find my full review on my newsletter.

[stevesbookstuff]

Murderbot Feels Your Pain

ARC Review of The Murderbot Diaries #7 - System Collapse

The latest Murderbot Diaries novel by Martha Wells is out today, and so is my review. I found the story to be an excellent evolution of Murderbot's journey, and a great addition to the series.

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There's a New 'Murderbot Diaries' Coming & I'm Playing Catch Up

Audiobook Reviews of The Murderbot Diaries #5 and #6

The latest book in the Murderbot Diaries series is out next week, and I was fortunate enough to snag an advanced copy to read and review. But first I needed to catch up on the series. Reviews of books 5 and 6 - Network Effect and Fugitive Telemetry - are up on my site today. Check them out!

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ARC Review - Eve

How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

Cat Bohannon’s Eve will have you rethinking your understanding of what it means to have evolved to be human. The author takes you on an evolutionary journey that led to modern humans, viewed through the lens of the female body. It’s a brilliant book and the best nonfiction book I’ve read so are this year. Highly recommended - Whether you were born with a female body or not.

RATING: Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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ARC Review - Eclipse: Fractured Orbit Book 1

Reviews of Books I've Been Reading - Mostly Nonfiction and Sci Fi / Fantasy, but occasionally other genres too.

Eclipse is the first book in a series of sci-fi adventures. You might think from the cover that this will be a typical space opera / military sci fi. Instead, what you get is a thoughtful plot that blends familiar sci-fi elements to come up with something truly unique.

Thanks to Escapist Book Co, and the author Herman Steuernagel for a great read.

Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[stevesbookstuff]

Book Review: A History of South Australia

Hello everyone! It’s been two months since my last book review, and for that I apologize. It’s also been a very slow reading and reviewing year so far — I’ve only covered nine books year-to-date. That’s hardly a lot of reading for me - over the last couple of years nine books for me has been close to the typical number for a single month.

So, what happened? Well, my husband and I spent much of the winter visiting with family in warmer climes. We packed a lot into those winter months, including my writing of a travel blog for friends and family. With all of that going on I let my reading and reviewing fall by the wayside, and it’s been a challenge to pick it back up.

But here I am with another review so that means I’m giving it another go. My goal is to read at least 50 books this year, which is half of my reading pace over the last two years.

I’m also taking this opportunity to try something new to get my book reviews out to you - I’m switching from a blog to a newsletter as the home for my reviews. Beehiiv, the new home for my reviews, is a tool I’m using in other areas of my life, and so far I like it a lot. I’ve imported all my content from my blog to my beehiiv account so it’s still all in one place.

So enough about me. You can dive into the review at the link, and feel free to sign up there if you are interested in getting my book reviews in your inbox. I will be moving back to my (mostly) Tuesday and Thursday postings.

[stevesbookstuff]

ARC Review: For the First Time, Again

For the First Time, Again by Sylvain Neuvel This is the final book in Sylvain Neuvel's Take Them to the Stars trilogy. The series follows ...

The third book in Neuvel's SFF 'Take Them to the Stars' trilogy. Love his books but this one let me down a bit - some plot holes, and I felt the ending didn't fully satisfy the build up from the first two books. And the hero of this book seemed less fully fleshed out than her predecessors. Nevertheless a fun read with a fantasy story line tied into real world events. Four Stars.

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Book Tour - Lesser Known Monsters

Lesser Known Monsters by Rory Michaelson About the 2022 BBNYA BBNYA stands for the Book Bloggers Novel of the Year Award . As the ...

Lesser Known Monsters has been on my radar, and somewhere in my To Be Read list almost since it first came out. Between the title, the cover art, and the reviews of others that I've read, it seemed like a fantasy book I would like. When TheWriteReads announced they were going to tour the book I immediately got on board. Broadly speaking, Rory Michaelson's Lesser Known Monsters is a horror / fantasy story. But it's also a love story. The trio of young adult friends engaged in solving the story's puzzles sometimes read like the chums from a Hardy Boys mystery. But they are also gay adults - characters who banter realistically with each other, and are not afraid to drop a few swear words or engage in a bit of hanky-panky. The main character is a anxiety riven shy guy who stumbles from one danger to the next. But he's also the chosen one - the link between this word and the monsters who lurk beyond the pale. It's scary and dark but also funny and heartwarming. In short, it's hard to put this book into a box. Except maybe the box labelled "Great Debut Novels".

Read the rest of my review on my blog!

[stevesbookstuff]

ARC Review: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles Right up front I want to tell you that this is not my usual read - it's a full on roman...

Right up front I want to tell you that this is not my usual read - it's a full-on romance novel. People have strong reactions to the romance genre - they either love romance books or they hate them. And I get that. The last romance novel I attempted to read was about a million years ago. In my teens one of my sisters left a romance novel, based in Australia's Outback, laying around the house. I was intrigued enough by the setting to give it a try. I was a rabid reader of American Westerns at the time and wondered how a book set in the Australian Outback would compare. But I didn't get far in the book - hated it in fact - and found that all that "bodice ripping" stuff was NOT for me. I do have to admit though that in my later years I've become a sucker for love stories - particularly gay love stories. Just not so much in my reading. The profusion of gay love stories on television and in movies over the last several years has been great to see. "Love, Simon" and "Heartstopper" and stories like them have caught my attention on the screen. A lot of the people who follow me on Bookstagram are big readers of gay romance, and I've seen KJ Charles' novels popping up quite a bit on Insta and the other socials. It was through those posts that I became interested in Charles' "Will Darling Adventure" series and thought that at some point I should give them a try. They are action-adventure stories while also being gay romances. So when a KJ Charles title showed up on NetGalley I decided to give it a try. It's not part of the Will Darling series, but is the first of a new series - the Doomsday Books. It's has turned out to be a good introduction to KJ Charles... Read more of my review of The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen on my blog. The book will be available this Tuesday, March 7th.