Finished reading: The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer 📚

This was a quick and enjoyable read, and a read I think I needed at this point in my life. Work is ramping up. My personal life is hectic. This book was a much needed reminder that we occasionally need to take the time to remain still, look inward and go nowhere.

Finished reading: What Is Wrong with You? by Paul Rudnick 📚

This was a fun read. I enjoyed this one a lot. Great plot, pacing and character development.

Finished reading: The Anomaly by Herv Le Tellier 📚

This was a great read. A gripping story chronicling the duplicate lives of passengers on an Air France flight from Paris to NYC.

Finished reading: Hum by Helen Phillips 📚

This was fantastic. Like most good futuristic takes, the story of May Webb and her family is rooted in the truth of today. Hum examines our relationships with technology, nature, and ultimately ourselves through a timeless lens:

Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either poison or remedy. — Parcelus

Hands down, one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Finished reading: Dark Wire by Joseph Cox 📚

I learned about this book through Cox’s work at 404 Media. This book is for anyone interested in true crime, emerging tech, privacy & surveillance. A great read.

Finished reading: Empire of AI by Karen Hao 📚

This was a fantastic, albeit frightening, piece of investigative journalism. Extremely well written & researched. An enjoyable read.

Finished reading: Mood Machine by Liz Pelly 📚

As if you needed any more reasons to delete your Spotify account, here’s an entire book describing the harm Spotify afflicts on artists and the culture of listening. It’s academic at times, but super informative and I enjoyed it. Long live Bandcamp.

I finished reading: In on the Kill Taker by Joe Gross 📚

This was an extremely in-depth analysis and chronicle that follows the making of Fugazi’s masterpiece. A wonderful, quick read. Highly recommended for any Fugazi fans out there.

Finished reading: The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz 📚

I feel like it took me forever to get through this book but I absolutely loved this punk rock Quantum Leap storyline.

Just finished Red Letter Days, the debut memoir from Matt Pryor, guitarist & songwriter best known for his work with seminal post-hardcore band The Get Up Kids.

I’ve been a fan of TGUK since 1997. It was great learning about the early days & little known stories of the road. Recommended!

Finished reading: Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes 📚

I just could not gain traction with this one. That likely had to do with the format of the prose: an extremely long chain of emails written back and forth between the main characters. A novel and experimental approach, but ultimately I think the story suffered a bit due to the format. Anyhoo, a bummer for me.

Finished Reading: Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown 📚

With the shift into my new role, I’m re-energizing my people leader brain. This was a quick read and I love the perspective on vulnerability Brown brings to leadership. Daring leadership is a mindset I’m eager to put into practice.

Finished reading: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler 📚

I just could not get into this one. The story was too futuristic and far-fetched for my tastes, and I was unable to generate any traction on the page turns.

Finished reading: Make Something Up by Chuck Palahniuk 📚

This was a nice change of pace from my previous few reads. I’ve always been a fan of Palahniuk’s style and this collection of short stories did not disappoint. True to form, it was a wild ride, particularly the story about a college frat brother competing on The Price Is Right while tripping face.

Finished reading: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 📚

OK, there is a lot going on in this one. Taking place in a futuristic dystopia where AI has run rampant, we follow three seemingly disconnected stories – a biologist studying sentient cuttlefish, a slave trade vessel controlled by an algorithm, and a cerebral hacker who can enter portals in artificial minds – that converge in the final pages. The overarching theme of ‘consciousness’ ties it all together. An enjoyable read, however I’m left with more questions than answers. I guess that’s the point, right?

Finished Reading: Walking by Erling Kagge 📚

This one was in my queue for quite some time and when my Libby hold came free I jumped on it. What a wonderful, spirited read! I’ve been struggling recently with my inability to run and this book worked wonders on my mental perspective. Movement is movement. As long as you’re moving, that’s all that matters.

Finished reading: Sourdough by Robin Sloan 📚

This was a fun read. Walking away from a career in technology and transitioning to an artisanal career is something I think about a lot. I found myself living vicariously through Lois (the protagonist) as she gave up coding to throw herself into baking bread full-time.

Finished reading: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa 📚

Just wow. What a strikingly beautiful, yet surprisingly alarming story. Surreal in a sense, but threads throughout give nods to our current reality. Dynamic, layered and written with rhythm. Loved it.

Finished reading: Our Moon by Rebecca Boyle 📚

A superbly fascinating deep-dive into the role our moon has played in Earth’s history and present, and its impact on our future. This had a great narrative flow for a NF title. Highly recommended for any astronomy nerds (lovingly said) out there.

Finished reading: It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken 📚

Simply the best book I’ve read this year. Part zombie apocalypse, part love-laced pilgrimage, the story is told from the perspective of an undead narrator yearning to be with the partner they left behind in the world of the living.

Finished reading: I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue 📚

I wanted to like this more than I did. The teaser gave me “modern Office” vibes, but unfortunately it didn’t meet those expectations. I also found the plot to be a bit contrived at times.

Finished reading: The Universe in a Single Atom by Dalai Lama 📚

This was a dense read and I didn’t completely grasp the entirety of it, but nonetheless it was a great perspective on balance in the universe. We are all equal parts science and soul!

Finished reading: Small Game by Blair Braverman 📚

An intense story of a group of survivalists selected for a Survivor-like reality show that ultimately goes off the rails. The group must not only survive in the wilderness, but also among themselves.

Finished reading: Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano 📚

I really enjoyed this one. It’s definitely not a light-hearted story, but I found myself identifying with the protagonist and his post-traumatic journey. I also found the narrative flow to be engaging. Thanks to Jilly for recommending it to me.

Finished reading: Filterworld by Kyle Chayka 📚

This book scratched the right itch for me at precisely the right time. It affirms my choice to walk away from corporate social media and go all-in on the indie or open social web. Chayka’s thesis asserts that proliferation of algorithmic recommendations flattens and homogenizes culture. He weaves a detailed thread from the origins of algorithmic thinking in ancient times, through the early days of Facebook’s News Feed which brought algorithms into every home, through the current algorithmic landscape that feeds from people’s time and attention at every turn. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in mindfulness & digital culture.