pocketbard's reviews
520 reviews

February 2025 reread: A murder mystery on Preservation Station! While the main crew make some cameos here and there, for the most part MurderBot is working with a new team and learning how to interact with yet more humans. (Grudgingly but ultimately effectively.) I really love MurderBot’s slow character growth through the various books, and how it keeps finding new and creative ways to use its surroundings. And, of course, all the sarcastic internal monologues. I love them so very much. 

This one took me a while to get through. I had to read it in bits and pieces, because it was very emotionally affecting for me – especially now, at a time when it is pertinent to both the global situation and my personal life. Defy is about how we can move from our default state of compliance (in which we go along with what is expected of us, even if we feel uneasy about it) to one of conscious consent (a “true yes”) or defiance (a “true no”). At its core, defiance (or consent) means living in accordance with our true values, of being fully ourselves. Sah makes the case that not all defiance needs to be big, flashy, and headline-making. Even small acts – like saying “no” to an unethical request or pushing back against a bigoted slur – can have big ripple effects. Moreover, Sah makes the case that you don’t need to be brave or superhuman to defy (though in some cases, you might); you just need to practice. Little acts of defiance (living in accordance with your true values) will make it easier to do it again. I found this book both timely and inspiring, and I recommend it. 

One of the Penric books on the more serious side of the spectrum. I wouldn’t say that it was bad, but it definitely had fewer lighthearted moments than some of the previous stories, since the whole plot revolves around a plague of unknown origin, and Penric’s increasing deterioration as he attempts to save everyone. I like how it was ultimate.to despair. (Before it’s ultimately resolved with a happy ending, 

I’m a big fan of the Heath brothers’ work, and Reset is no exception. While Switch (one of their previous books) was primarily about personal change, Reset is more about organizational change. While it can be applied to personal growth, it’s really more for businesses, teams, and similar groups. It aims to help these organizations get moving when they feel stuck, focusing on how they can find and leverage small changes that get big results. (Heath calls this “finding leverage points” and “restacking resources.”) I thought the examples were interesting and the chapter summaries were especially useful. As someone who’s going through a period of transition at my own job, I hope I can put some of Heath’s principles into practice in the coming months. 

The DNF status of this book isn’t a slight against Crichton – Jurassic Park is a good book and I’m sure that under other circumstances, I’d have enjoyed it. But it was a book for a book club meeting that I wasn’t sure I would be able to attend, and beyond that it’s a very tense, stressful book that I was trying to read at a time when my life was already tense and stressful. I decided I didn’t need to give myself MORE stress on top of what I was already experiencing, and allowed myself to put this one down after only 15%. Maybe one day I’ll come back to it. 

An informative, useful book. Edmans attempts to show us the danger in statements like “studies show that…” Do they? How do we know? How can we avoid falling for misinformation or disinformation? He begins the book with a warning against two cognitive biases: confirmation bias and black-and-white thinking. He then goes through a lengthy process of explaining how to climb the “ladder of misinference,” showing how to go from statement, to fact, to evidence, to proof. (Or, rather, NOT to proof, since it’s very hard to definitively “prove” most things outside of a hard science context.) He ends with some ideas of what we can do as individuals, organizations, and societies in order to better evaluate information and make better decisions. I especially liked the quick-reference checklist in the appendix. To be clear: none of this is groundbreaking methodology. But it’s neatly laid out in one place and an excellent primer for how to evaluate claims you encounter in your everyday life, whether in a Facebook post, a news segment, a self-help book, or a water-cooler argument. 

This was an odd one, since it wasn’t actually set in the Scholomance for the most part, but in the wider wizard world. I’m not sure I liked the change. Part of me wishes that we’d had a first trilogy set in the Scholomance, and then a second set in the world outside, but admittedly I don’t think Novik could have told the story she was aiming to tell with that structure. I thought El went back to being a somewhat one-note character (she is ALWAYS ANGRY), and also I started to get seriously frustrated with the pages-long internal monologues as El sorted through her feelings, ruminated on Orion, or tried to figure out (usually incorrectly) what other people were thinking or planning. I think my favourite character was the no-nonsense and practical Liesel, who could figure out the most efficient path forward, nod, and get on with it, in a way most of the other characters in the book could not. For all my quibbles with El, the wizard world is evocative, I enjoyed seeing the various enclaves, and I appreciated how everything pulled together in the ending. 

One of the better Penric books, in my opinion. Certainly better than Masquerade in Lodi, which is the one I read just before this one. It was tremendously satisfying watching Desdemona (and Penric) really go to town on people who deserved it. And I’m looking forward to (hopefully) seeing more of the titular orphans as the series continues. Definitely worth the read. 

I enjoyed the further exploration into the world of the Scholomance, and I found El a more sympathetic character than in the first novel. I did find the writing style to be a little rambling at times, and I thought the pacing was sometimes a bit off, especially since some crucial revelations happen very late in the book. But the world is interesting and I enjoyed getting to learn about the Scholomance itself as a semi-sentient being. Fair warning: this book ends on a cliffhanger, so be prepared to want to immediately launch into book 3. 

A fun read! I really enjoyed the worldbuilding on this one – one of the more interesting settings I’ve read lately. Kind of like what Fourth Wing was going for in terms of “deadly fantasy school,” but with an actual in-world reason for it, and without the romance. I thought it was particularly interesting that there were no actual adults around: the school acts as teacher for all students, in the sort of personalized AI education that the tech bros have been aspiring to for the last 30 years. (Though of course, more deadly.) I wasn’t especially keen on the protagonist for most of the book – I didn’t like how snappish she was with everyone. And, yes, I understand there are trauma-based reasons for that, but that sort of attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy at a certain point, when you violently push away even the people who are nice to you. (As they say in parenting: don’t pushing the behaviour you want to see.) Anyway, I thought she settled down into being a less annoying character around the 60% mark when

she joins an alliance with some other girls in her year

.  All told, I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.