Here are the books I finished this past week. I had a bunch of books that I was almost done with, so it looks like I read more than I did. Also, two of these were novellas.

• Vicious, by V.E. Schwab. Lots of memorable characters. An exciting plot. The sequel is coming out at the end of the month, so I wanted to read this.
• A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. I liked this book even more than the first book in the series. I think that I could sympathize with Sidra on lots of things. Not on the whole AI thing, but on a lot of other things. Also, Pepper's story was really sweet.
• The Black Tides of Heaven, by J.Y. Yang. This book was too rushed and wasn't fleshed out enough, which I've noticed happens in a lot of novellas. The novella is hard to get right, I think. The story had a lot of potential.
• Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer. I liked the last chapter of this book. I liked the descriptions. I didn't really like the rest of it. I was disappointed because I loved Borne.
• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler. Lots of interesting ideas. Definitely the product of a different time, but cool to see someone writing about a climate change-caused dystopia in the early 90s. It's like a hipster climate change novel - "I was terrified of climate change before it was cool." I didn't like the main character, Lauren, very much, which made me not like the book as much as I'd hoped.
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. It's a clever book. It's not as hilarious as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and it has more "ideology" in it (if you can call it that). The Electric Monk is now one of my favorite characters ever in any book, though.

I finished both a closed and common orbit and record of a spaceborn few, by Becky Chambers

I loved everything about these books, the Wayfarer series is probably my favourite book series now after the Millennium trilogy. If you're a sci-fi fan, I cannot recommend these books enough.

I started Let the right one in, by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I saw the American remake a few years ago but only recently found it was based on a book. It's the perfect level of horror for me.

Only 100 pages (of ~550) to go in my reread of In the Woods, by Tana French. It's as wonderful as I remember. What sets French apart from most of the mysteries I've read is her focus on the detective(s) involved in the case. Each novel features a pivotal case in a detective's career. It can be their first, their last, a case that solidifies the bond with their partner, ends their partnership, alters their perspective on life or their understanding of the past. This close to the end of In the Woods I think my memory of whodunnit is correct!

I just started the audiobook for A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. It's a loosely connected sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. This sequel focuses on a freshly initiated AI that was transferred to an illegal body kit (basically the AI now has a human appearance instead of being locked to a stationary computer). The AI is under the wing of a tech guru of sorts. It seems like the book is going to explore the idea of AIs as sapients and navigating life without a backlog of knowledge to pull from. It'll be interesting to see how everything unfolds. It's very different from the first novel.

Fools War, by Sarah Zettel - finished. Ok story, trying to recapture some of that Heinlein type space-opera/golden age writing. The characters and story are decent, but there are some rather silly premises that the plot rides on.

A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers - finished. It's better than A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it has an actual conclusion to the story rather than just tapering off, but it still suffers from the low-key desultory pace.

Manifold Time, by Stephen Baxter - started.

Almost done with A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers which is excellent. Also managed to get started again on Arguably, by Christopher Hitchens, a collection of book reviews and sundry I first started years ago but kind of left behind when I switched away from Kindle. Reading it mostly for the elegant language and biting sarcasm.

Finished: The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. I really enjoyed it, especially how the author is able to portray a main character who is both very talented and very flawed. My one gripe is that I saw the ending coming a mile away, but that was in large part because of the publicity/blurbs that I accidentally saw for the next book in the series. If you want to read this book, avoid any news of the next one!

Started: A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers, and I'm almost done with it because I'm enjoying it so much. (Edited on Wednesday: Finished it this morning!) I really loved the first book in this series (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), and it's great to be back in the universe. With its relatively light tone and completely different setting, it's a great antidote to the darkness of my last read.

Also started: A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. I find that authors' attempts to mimic "Victorian writing" can be hit or miss, so I was a bit skeptical when I first picked this book up, but the style isn't throwing me off too much, and it's reasonably entertaining so far.

Finished Artemis, by Andy Weir

I really enjoyed it, loved the whole heist aspect and how when things went wrong, it was a life or death situation.

Also finished the long way to a small angry planet, by Becky Chambers, the first book in her Wayfarer series

Omg I loved this book. The world building was done really well and the characters were amazing, even the ones I didn't really like were really well writing. Cannot recommend this book enough. Sissex is the best.

I started A closed and common orbit, by Becky Chambers the second Wayfarer book and it's bloody amazing. Deals with different characters than the first one but I'm enjoying everything about it and loving exploring this universe more and more.

Finished A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers which was different, interesting and very good.

Made a little bit progress on Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark

Started Provenance, by Ann Leckie in a bid to catch up with award-nominated SF. So far it is competent but a little bland.

Bought 18 new books and how am I ever supposed to get around to them?

The Plague, by Albert Camus

I'm really interested in Camus' idea of needing to shape your own reason for being and seeing what happens when you fail to do that (The Stranger). I think The Plague represents the uncaring universe and we're getting to see how people react to that on a smaller and more obvious scale. Definitely an interesting read. About 1/3 of the way through.

A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

This is my current audiobook and the loosely connected sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I'm almost 2/3 of the way through. Chambers does an excellent job at provoking thought while maintaining a lighthearted story. There are a few major themes in this book, a big one being how we deal with change and new knowledge. There are two POVs in this book. One from the perspective of a newly awakened AI that was shoved in a body-kit (illegal) and is struggling in her new environment and her lack of constant access to the net. It's an interesting look at how we deal with unexpected changes in environment. The second perspective is from a girl escaping a fringe human colony deep into genetic engineering where she was essentially a factory slave. She escapes and finds an ship with an AI. The AI and her are working on repairing the ship and the AI is teaching her all sorts of things deemed 'non-essential' for factory workers.

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells and A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

Finished: A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers and liked it way more than I thought I would. It wasn't what I had expected.

Started: Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark T. Sullivan. This was a recommendation from a co-worker and outside of my comfort zone.

Finished A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

Started The shape of water, by Guillermo Del Toro

Finished: A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

The sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a really fun sci-fi space adventure. I really loved both books, and this one for some reason took a special place in my heart. I love that her writing style is fun, humorous, and real, while at the same time asking the reader to address relevant social issues such as gender, sexuality, and relationships. I highly recommend both of these books!

Started: Burn, Baby, Burn, by Meg Medina

Just finished: Columbine, by Dave Cullen and Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. The first was pretty interesting, but also incredibly depressing. I picked it up hoping to find some insight into the shootings that keep happening, but the main take-away seems to be that one of the killers was a psychopath and the media did a bad job of telling the story...so not a lot to apply to today, since the media continues to make the same mistakes (according to the author). The second I picked up off the sidewalk for free. I'd read a lot of the main messages already in articles online, so i didn't find it particularly informative, but I'm a bit more motivated now to pick up good habits/take better care of myself.

Now I'm trying to decide between What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, by Helen Oyeyemi, A Morbid Taste for Bones, by Ellis Peters, and A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. Looking for a fun an engaging read.

Finally had enough time to finish Wrath of Empire, by Brian Mcclellan really enjoyed it, looking forward to the final book in the trilogy.

Just started A closed and common orbit, by Becky Chambers hoping to get this one finished in a week or so as I'm going to a book signing for the next book in the series on the 26th!