Books I’ve Read
Jump to a year: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022
All are listed in reverse chronological reading order.
Ratings: 👍 (Enjoyed), 🫳 (Meh), 👎 (Nope), 🚫 (DNF, aka Very nope)
2025
- 👎 Wild Basketry, by Ruby Taylor
- Heavy on the woo, light on the practical. Very glad I didn’t buy this one.
- 👍 The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, by Abraham Flexner
- Not critical enough of scientific responsibility, but still very good all these years later.
- 👍 Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik
- An interesting update of the Rumplestiltskin fairy tale. I enjoyed it much more than I expected.
- 👍 Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
- Really enjoyed! An impressive piece of work for a first novel.
- 🫳 Gryphon King by Sara Omer
- Not my bag. Slow & I did not like the main character at all.
- 👍 A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher
- Deserves all the awards
- 👍 Days of Shattered Faith, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- I’m really enjoying this series and pleased to learn there are two more on the way.
- 🚫 Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake
- Seriously, mate, just get to the bloody point.
- 👍 The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, by Ursula K. Le Guin
- 👍 The Tusks of Extinction, by Ray Nayler
- 👍 Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World, by Guru Madhavan
- 🫳 The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo
- 🚫 The Alchemists Council, by Cynthea Masson
- 👍 The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi Novik
- 👍 Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
- 👍 The Siren Depths, by Martha Wells
- 👍 One Way Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor
- 👍 The Inheritance Trilogy Omnibus, by NK Jemisin (reread)
- 👍 The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik
- 🚫 Navola, by Paolo Bacigalupi
- 👍 The Martian Contingency, by Mary Robinette Kowal
- 👍 Fiasco: A History of Hollywood’s Iconic Flops, by James Robert Parish
- 👍 At the Found of Creation, by Tobi Ogundiran
- 👍 In the Shadow of the Fall, by Tobi Ogundiran
- 👍 The Bones Beneath My Skin, by TJ Klune
- 👍 A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik
- 🫳 The Parliament, by Aimee Pokwatka
- 🫳 The Keeper’s Six, by Kate Elliott
- 👍 The River of Silver, by S. A. Chakraborty
- 👍 House of Open Wounds, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- 👎 Goddess of the River, by Vaishnavi Patel
- 🫳 Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Words, by Eric H. Cline
- 👍 Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor
- 👍 Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells
- 🫳 The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work, by Simone Stolzoff
- 🚫 Someone You Can Build a Nest In, by John Wiswell
- 🫳 On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt
- 🫳 Hand Spinning Cotton, by Olive and Harry Linder, Updated by Joan S. Ruane
- 👍 City of Last Chances, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- 👍 The Serpent Sea, by Martha Wells
- 🚫 The City Inside, by Samit Basu
- 👍 The Wings upon Her Back, by Samantha Mills
2024
- 👍 The Empire of Gold, by S. A. Chakraborty
- 🫳 The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder by Robert L. Sutton and Huggy Rao
- 👍 The Kingdom of Copper, by S. A. Chakraborty
- 👍 The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo
- 👍 Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
- 🫳 Somewhere Beyond the Sea, by TJ Klune
- 👍 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix
- 👍 The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, by Garth Nix
- 👎 Blackheart Man, by Nalo Hopkinson
- 🫳 How Git Works, by Julia Evans
- 👍 Mend It!, by Maureen Goldsworthy
- 🫳 Spinning with a Drop Spindle, by Christine Thresh
- 🫳 The Craft of Handspinning, by Eileen Chadwick
- 👍 The Mythic Dream, by various authors
- 👍 The Mercy of Gods, by James S. A. Corey
- 👍 The City of Brass, by S. A. Chakraborty
- 👍 She Who Knows, by Nnedi Okorafor
- 👍 The Book of Ile-Rien, by Martha Wells
- 👍 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, by P. Djèlí Clark
- 🫳 Black Shield Maiden, by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel
- 👍 Translation State, by Author: Ann Leckie
- 🫳 Forged by Blood, by Ehigbor Okosun
- 🚫 The Daughters of Izdihar, by Hadeer Elsbai
- 👍 The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, by Samit Basu
- 👍 The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, by Michael D. Watkins
- 🫳 Rakesfall, by Vajra Chandrasekera
- 🚫 The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma, by Mustafa Suleyman with Michael Bhaskar
- 👍 Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction, by Xueting Christine Ni (translator and editor)
- 🚫 Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good, by Loretta Napoleoni
- 🫳 Lost Ark Dreaming, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
- 🫳 Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs & Hidden Histories, by Elijah Wald
- 👍 I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons, by Peter S. Beagle
- 🚫 The Water Outlaws, by SL Huang
- 🫳 Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Törzs
- 👍 The Brides of High Hill, by Nghi Vo
- 👍 Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh
- 👍 Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo
- 🫳 You Can’t Market Manure at Lunchtime: And Other Lessons from the Food Industry for Creating a More Sustainable Company, by Maisie Ganzler
- 👎 Kinning, by Nisi Shawl
- 👍 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty
- 🫳 On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age, by Bruce Holsinger
- 👍 Mammoths at the Gates, by Nghi Vo
- 👍 The Deep Sky, by Yume Kitasei
- 🫳 Dead Country, by Max Gladstone
- 👍 Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman
- 🫳 Son of the Storm, by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
- 👍 The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera
- 👍 Koji Alchemy: Rediscovering the Magic of Mild-Based Fermentation, by Rich Shih and Jeremy Umansky
- 👍 The Iliad, by Emily Wilson (translator)
- 👍 How Logic Works: A User’s Guide, by Hans Halvorson
- 👍 Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity, by David Allen
- 👍 Miso, Tempeh, Natto, & Other Tasty Ferments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Fermenting Grains and Beans, by Kirsten K Shockey and Christopher Shockey
- 👍 Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships that Focus on Mutual Benefit, by Johanna Rothman
- 👍 A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
- 👍 Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food that Isn’t Food, by Chris van Tulleken
- 🫳 Seed to Harvest, by Octavia E. Butler
- 👍 System Collapse, by Martha Wells
- 👍 Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, From Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee, by Bee Wilson
- 🫳 The Bright and Breaking Sea, byChloe Neill
- 🫳 How to Write a Grant: Become a Grant Writing Unicorn, by Meredith Noble
- 👍 Wild Seed, by Octavia E. Butler
2023
- 🚫 The Bloodprint, by Ausma Zenahat Khan
- 👍 The Sewing Machine Master Guide: From Basic to Expert, by Clifford L. Blodget
- 👍 Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers
- 🫳 Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, by Wole Talabi
- 👍 Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, by The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Kevin Strait, Kinshasha Holman Conwill
- 👎 The Core of an Onion: Peeling the Rarest Common Food—Featuring More Than 100 Historical Recipes, by Mark Kurlansky
- 👍 The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, by Brandon Sanderson
- 👍 A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers
- 👍 The World We Make, by N. K. Jemisin
- 👍 The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
- 👍 The City We Became, by N. K. Jemisin
- 🚫 The Sin in the Steel, by Ryan Van Loan
- 🫳 Riot Baby, by Tochi Onyebuchi
- 🚫 Graveyard of the Pacific: Shipwreck & Survival on Americas Deadliest Waterway, by Randall Sullivan
- 🫳 The Expert System’s Brother, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- 👍 The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark
- 🚫 Material: Making and the Art of Transformation, by Nick Kary
- 🫳 Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures, by Christina Dunbar-Hester
- 🫳 The Affinity Bridge, by George Mann
- 👍 Year of No Garbage: Recycling Lies, Plastic Problems, and One Woman’s Trashy Journey to Zero Waste, by Eve O. Schaub
- 👍 Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer, by Garth Nix
- 👍 In the Lives of Puppets, by TJ Klune
- 👍 Thinking in Systems, by Donella H. Meadows
- 👍 Feeding Each Other: Shaping Change in Food Systems through Relationship, by Nicole Civita and Michelle Auerbach
- 👍 Our Fermented Lives, A History: How Fermented Foods Have Shapes Cultures and Communities, by Julia Skinner
- 👍 The Witch King, by Martha Wells
- 👍 The Battle Drum, by Saara El-Arifi
- 👍 Once Upon a Tome: the misadventures of a rare bookseller, by Oliver Darkshire
- 👍 The Final Strife, by Saara El-Arifi
- 👍 Danger and Other Unknown Risks, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson
- 👍 The Grace of Kings, by Ken Liu
- 🫳 The Sword of Midras, by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott
- 👍 The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu, by Dan Jurafsky
- 👍 Digger Unearthed: The Complete Tenth Anniversary Collection, Limited Edition, by Ursula Vernon
- 👍 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales, Jack Zipes
- 👍 Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting, by Gina Kolata
- 👍 Noor, by Nnedi Okorafor
- 👍 Set Phasers on Stun, and other true tales of design, technology, and human error (second edition), by Steven Casey
- 🫳 How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages, by Cait Stevenson
- 🫳 The Seed Detective: Uncovering the secret histories of remarkable vegetables, by Adam Alexander
- 🫳 So You Want to be a Wizard - New Millennium Edition, by Diane Duane
- 👍 Move the Body, Heal the Mind, by Jennifer Heisz, Phd
- 👎 Spiderlight, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2022
Incomplete list (didn’t start tracking until November)
- To Be Taught If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers
- The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine, by Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris
- Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari
- Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, by Dan Harris, Jeff Warren, Carlye Adler
- A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers
- The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, by Stephen Denning
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers
- The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Shady Characters, by Keith Houston
- The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark
- The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, by Jonathan Gottschall
- Make It Clear: Speak and Write to Persuade and Inform, by Patrick Henry Winston