I think if there is such a sub-genre as “cozy sci-fi”, Becky Chambers is one of it’s lead writers. A Closed and Common Orbit is the sequel to Becky Chambers debut novel, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Even more than it’s predecessor, this book is more concerned with the interactions of it’s characters than with action or adventure. At the end of Small Angry Planet, the Wayfarer’s AI, Lovelace, “Lovey,” is damaged in an unprovoked attack. To save Lovey, she is downloaded into a […]
The (never-ending) End of Food
Paul Roberts has provided an incredibly in depth and comprehensive study of food systems in the modern age. He has charted the progress and missteps that have taken place from the time of farmers and pre-industrialization to our present day globalized food world. From our front yard gardens to increasingly manufactured products and technology, there is a lot of ground to cover. Overall, Roberts painted a pretty dire picture for the future of food and food access. I picked up this book as it is […]
My apology to women authors (with an assist from Amy Poehler)
I have to start this review with a confessional sidenote. As I went to choose my next read after Nick Harkaway’s Tigerman, I ended up with a pool of five potential books, eventually settling on the second in the series of memoirs by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. I’d read the first last year and wanted to get to this next one before I let too much time pass. But as I started to read, something was nagging at me, so I went down my list of […]
This love story does not have a happy ending
They’re like great trees, these violins. Like those from which they’re made. They live through epochs. Min Kym fell in love for the first time as a young child with a violin. Parental expedience demanded that she play either trumpet or violin as those were the only instructors available in the same time slot as Kym’s older sister’s piano lesson. She was immediately taken with the instrument. In the week between settling on the violin and receiving her first, she cut out a paper violin […]