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Reading The Radical Spanish Empire: How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World

Added Adulthood Is a Myth: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection to a list

Added Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous to a list

Wants to read The Enchanted Greenhouse

Rated Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling 8/10

I found the first third of *Hitman* hard to read, as it often felt more like a bullet-point summary than a personal memoir. Luckily, that changed as the book went on. Hundreds of wrestling personalities make an appearance, as Hart interacted with so many of them throughout his long and storied career.

Hart comes across as self-centered and bitter, always judging other people's actions while justifying his own. The book does not paint him as a very likable person, which is an interesting choice in an autobiography.

Luckily, the author doesn't have to be likable for this to be a fascinating, personal view of a long, eventful period of pro-wrestling history.

My full review: https://puf.io/books/hitman---bret-hart/
All my reviews: https://puf.io/books/

Rated Columbus Day 6/10

Columbus Day mixes space opera pulp of the purest kind with splashes of Hitchhiker’s Guide-esque absurdism, and that’s not a bad thing.

The story is very readable, the plot moves fast, and the interaction between the characters is funny and functional. I enjoyed this book for what it is, but wonder how its lightweight nature and (so far) lack of character development hold up across the series.

Rated The Subtle Knife 6/10

I enjoyed The Subtle Knife, but like The Golden Compass, it didn’t fully live up to my expectations.

The world-building didn’t interest me as much this time, but the plot moves along nicely and has some unexpected twists. It also ends on another big, but darker, cliffhanger.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the story wraps up in The Amber Spyglass.

My full review: https://puf.io/books/the-subtle-knife...

Rated Mother Dearest 6/10

*Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books, who provided an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.*

This is the second epistolary novel I’ve read this year. Is there a 2026 trend that I don’t know about? 🤔

It’s interesting to read Imogene’s explanations of her behavior and choices, and her surprise at ordinary life outside the overbearing environment she grew up in. The deeply warped rules and expectations she has learned make for an unusual perspective.

The prose is easy to read and the epistolary format works well. The plot was a bit too predictable for my taste, but it rolls along nicely, and the final letter was a nice touch to wrap the story up.

Rated Mr. Kiss and Tell 6/10

liked that this book picks up an annoying loose thread from the TV show: whatever happened to Meg Manning's little sister Grace?

Unfortunately the book's main plot didn't grip me very much, and Veronica herself is all over the place - in an annoying way. Wallace and Mac also feel too much like caricatures this time around.

The narration by Rebecca Lowman was fine, but a notch below Kristen Bell's narration in book 1.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/mr.-kiss-and-tel...

Rated The Correspondent 8/10

I found the story itself rather simplistic and the wrap-up a bit too sudden and smooth, but the execution through letters and emails is very well done.

The almost-full-cast narration is well done and really supports the epistolary format, though I found some of the ethnic/regional character accents a bit too in-your-face.

Rated Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity 8/10

Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture shows its age, but its core argument about copyright, creativity, and cultural freedom still lands. A good read for those who care about such things.

My full review: https://puf.io/books/free-culture---l...

Rated Tooth and Nail: A Steampunk Sleeping Beauty 6/10

Fast-paced YA steampunk pulp that mixes classic fairy tales with vampires, gargoyles, and other traditional lore. The initial mystique of the setting is wearing a bit thin by book 3, and the romance is a bit overindulgent, but I still immediately put book 4 on my Kindle. 😄

Full review: https://puf.io/books/tooth-and-nail--...

Rated A Conventional Boy 6/10

At 150 or so pages, Derek’s story is a bit shorter than it deserves (in my opinion). The story is interesting though, and the diverse cast of (mostly new) characters is fun.

I’d already read the two included short stories. The Satanic Panic background was interesting, but overall, the book felt padded.

A fun but skippable entry—I’m more excited for The Regicide Report.

Full review: puf.io/books/a-conventional-boy---cha...

Rated Wyrd Sisters 6/10

The usual plot twists, jokes, and mockery of established practices and tropes are all here. But I found the plot of this book a bit less interesting than the standard set by Pratchett’s later books.

I listened to Indira Varma’s narration, and by now I’ve stopped missing Stephen Briggs’ voice. There isn’t a bad Discworld novel out there, but this wasn’t my favorite.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/wyrd-sisters---t...

Rated The Science of Discworld 6/10

I picked this up as part of my quest to listen to all Discworld audiobooks narrated by Stephen Briggs. It’s far from my favorite Pratchett, but it wasn’t bad either. The science parts were mostly readable, though some were a bit denser than I prefer. The fictional sections, on the other hand, were great - treating serious topics with the irreverence they deserve in a world powered by narrativium.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/the-science-of-d...

Added The Desert Spear

Reading Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers

Rated The Spellshop 9/10

Finished reading The Rise of Christian Kingship in the Early Medieval West

Added Aromantic (love) story. 2 to Read Books

Added Aromantic (love) story. 4 to Read Books

Rated Armageddon 8/10

This book still delivers as a page-turner, but it’s where the series starts to feel overly convoluted, with characters becoming too powerful. That said, the plot developments that *do* happen are satisfying - especially Alex and Dom's arcs. One more book to go!

Full review: https://puf.io/books/armageddon---tra...

Rated Wind and Truth 8/10

Wind and Truth is a solid entry in The Stormlight Archive and a good capstone to its first main story arc. The writing is good and engaging, and the long build-up is very eventful. Still, at 1,330 pages, there is just so much of it. This could easily have been two decent-sized books, and I was somewhat glad to be done with it by the end.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/wind-and-truth--...

All my book reviews: https://puf.io/books/

Rated Hogfather 6/10

While I really (REALLY) miss Stephen Briggs' character work, I love that Bill Nighy is so present as Death in this one, along with the main narration and other characters by Sian Clifford.

The novel itself is fun as usual for Pratchett and there are plenty of new, memorable characters here, but Nighy's Hooo, hooo, hooooos are what made me laugh frequently.

Susan, the Death of Rats (squeak), and Quoth the raven were all great additions to spend time with as well.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/hogfather---terr...

All my reviews: https://puf.io/books/

Reading Dungeon Crawler Carl