Jun 4, 2024
My outfit 🤝 my current book
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My outfit 🤝 my current book
“Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines -- it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.”
―Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
round 2, poll 200
click for better quality & to see the full image. sometimes they get cut off weirdly!
which cover do you like best?
Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by robin sloan*
A Night in Brooklyn by D. Nurkse
*this cover glows in the dark
remember, you're voting for the cover, not the author or the book!
Catch me at San Francisco Public Library on Mar 13, discussing my new novel "The Bezzle" with Robin Sloan!
At long last, the San Francisco stop of the book tour for my new novel The Bezzle has been finalized: I'll be at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch on Wednesday, March 13th, in conversation with Robin Sloan!
The event starts at 6PM with Cooper Quintin from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, talking about the real horrors of the prison-tech industry, which I fictionalize in The Bezzle.
Attentive readers will know that this event was finalized very late in the day, and it's going to need a little help, given the short timeline. Please consider coming - and be sure to tell your Bay Area friends about the gig!
Oh hey if you've got nothing else to do in the next few hours and need some entertainment while you craft/ hang out/ catalogue your books, go to YouTube and listen to esteemed author Robin Sloan do his annual reading of Gawain and the Green Knight! It's always very cool and relaxing.
On New Year's Day, January 1, 2025, I'll broadcast a live reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Marie Borroff's translation, starting
Favorite Book about Books
Round 2
Long Live Evil (Sarah Rees Brennan) VS Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan)
Long Live Evil
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore
Show results
NO ANTIPROPAGANDA PLEASE
Propaganda under the cut
August 2025 Reading Wrap-Up
Little late on getting this one out, but such is life. Nine books this past month, just like last month. Just with longer books so the page count difference is wild.
1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?
None applicable.
2/10 - Trash
Shinto Meditations For Revering The Earth | Stuard D B Picken
This book sucked shit for so many reasons. The conflation of Shinto with broader animism, the incredibly Christian approach to all of it, being so fucking woo-woo… And the author kept fucking dragging it out forever and ever. This book could have been a blog post or a series of blog posts so you could block the author.
3/10 - Meh
None applicable.
4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier
None applicable.
7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats
A Year In The Life Of A Shinto Shrine | John K Nelson
So, this is a very interesting book, particularly due to its publishing date of 1996 and its overall attention to the messy political history surrounding Shinto, which I've only caught whiffs of in other Shinto books I've been reading recently. However, it being published in the mid-90s does mean that it does have offensive terminology (the g*psy slur, misuse of the word "shamanism", using the term "American Indian") which is just something that happens when you read nonfiction texts from other times. There are a number of helpful diagrams and images and the book is overall pretty clear about what to expect and how you should be skeptical while reading it. Overall, 8 out of 10.
Care And Feeding: A Memoir | Laurie Woolever
This was an utterly fascinating read after Kitchen Confidential, because it was more personal rather than restaurant business but still just as messy because of how intertwined the two were. My only complaint was that it was hard to keep track of what year everything was going on in, but overall this was a very good book.
Also, shoutout to my friend who said "You never read memoirs from people who had uninteresting lives" when I mentioned just how much had gone on in the author's life.
Maggie; Or, A Man And A Woman Walk Into A Bar | Katie Yee
This book hit hard and close as a child of divorce twice over now. The entire time I read it, I was just thinking about how it reminded me of my own parents, just with the genders swapped and the custody arrangement a little different. The kicker is that this was a birthday present to myself with a free credit from a book subscription service I use. Overall, I give it a 7 out of 10, because the caveat is that it hit too close for me. It was a very good stylistic choice for the narrator to never share her name (which is helped by it being in first person).
9/10 - Very Very Good
Snow White With The Red Hair, volumes 24 & 25 | Sorata Akiduki [Young Adult?]
WE'RE SO FUCKING BACK, BABY. I missed these guys so much. It's been so long since I read volume 23 that I was mildly confused about what was going on, but OBI MY BOY YOU'RE BACK. I love watching the characters of these guys develop so much, I missed them.
Destroy All Humans. They Can't Be Regenerated, volume 4 | Katsura Ise, Takuma Yokota
I love these people and their interpersonal relationship drama and settling it through a card game. This is everything to me.
Sourdough | Robin Sloan
This book was a wild ride. I would describe it as slightly-magical contemporary fiction. I had a good time while reading it and struggled to put it down once I really got into the groove. There are several blatantly queer side characters and, despite the shoehorned-in romance thing at the end, the protagonist really does read as aroace. Despite this, I'm very happy with this book. It's also in first person narration, if you care about such a thing. I think it worked just fine here.
10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone
The House Of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest For Freedom | Shari Franke
I feel as though anything I write about this book will glamorize what Shari went through. All I'll say is that I'm so, so sorry that she went through this. She, like everyone else, deserved better. I wholly believe that everyone should read this.
Moonbound: A Novel
By Robin Sloan