Rated The Underworld 8/10
Very much enjoyed this, probably more so because it is a stretch of road with which I am familiar. A book full of grieving, realistically messy people (though the book is not one I'd call a tearjerker at all), doing the best they can, even when the best they can might be a poor decision anyway.
Rated The Vital Abyss 7/10
<div>Some interesting supplemental material.</div>
Rated The War Master: Escape from Reality 10/10
<div>The Master causing problems with fictional characters we already know? Yes of course this is a good time.</div>
Rated The War Master: Rage of the Time Lords 8/10
Poor Eighth Doctor. His brain is like a shredded sponge with all this memory mischief, ha. But this was good.
Rated Three Bags Full 8/10
<div>I heard about this book via Bluesky, maybe a year or so before the movie came out, but I didn't know it came out in 2005 originally! My library hold was very long until they recently got more copies.<br><br>Anyway, I enjoyed this unusual way of approaching a murder mystery story, and the sheep definitely still seemed like sheep, and not very human brains inside sheep bodies. I wouldn't necessarily call this a "cozy" mystery, but it's not grimdark either, and actually, there are a lot of funny parts. Glad I got to it. </div>
Rated This Is How You Lose the Time War 7/10
<div>I don't know that this was exactly the book for me (which surprised me, since I do like a good time travel story), but I very much respect the unusual way this story is told. Count me among the many who picked this up after the posts about it on The Site Formerly Known As Twitter. Glad to see what the hype was about, but I think I wanted the worlds in which Red and Blue exist to be more clear, but that could be on me.</div>
Rated To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction 8/10
I didn't always agree with Lopate (his attitude towards James Baldwin is a bit dismissive, for instance), but this book gave me a lot to think about. Worth a read if you're interested in creative nonfiction, but perhaps not at full cover price.
Wants to read Whiteout Volume 2: Melt – The Definitive Edition
Wants to read Too Cool for School: A Memoir
Rated Torchwood: More Than This 8/10
A really solid "describe the essence of Torchwood" story, though it does not touch quiiiite as heavily on the emotional damage often present in the Torchwood stories. Gwen's stories have been among the best in this audio series.
Rated Torchwood: The Office Of Never Was 8/10
An enjoyable Ianto tale. Makes great use of silence.
Rated Torchwood: The Lost Files 8/10
Really great set of three Torchwood stories. John Barrowman's acting weaknesses are more apparent when you can't see him interacting with others, or aren't distracted by his loveliness, but I'm glad I gave this a listen.
Wants to read The Trick is to Keep Breathing
Rated Unfollowers 8/10
<div>Having female characters make unlikable decisions, as well as adding depth to complex male friendships — without resorting to caricature for anyone — is something I will always be a fan of. The subjects of doubt and colonization are handled in a way that seems believable for these characters, though some of the supporting cast seems to be there only so our main people can see their own reflection. Which is realistic in its own way, but not always necessary. I also wished some of the queerness in certain characters was less danced around, even for characters who don't quite know what to do with such feelings. Still, there's a lot about this book I liked.</div>
Rated Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome 8/10
<div>I'd had this novella kicking around on my kindle for a long time, and it did make me interested in the novel that follows. Weirdly, I've followed John Scalzi on Twitter and now Bluesky, but I hadn't actually read anything by him until now. He writes about a pandemic in a way that we now know, 10 years after this came out, is not unlike how people would behave in real life. </div>
Rated Villager 7/10
<div>I think I enjoy Tom Cox's non-fiction more than his fiction, but I still liked this weird, sprawling look at the fictional (though Dartmoor-inspired) area of Underhill. He jumps around in time through past centuries and our future, occasionally dips into both folk-horror and music journalism, and we meet a lot of different voices along the way. Some I liked more than others, but I respect the scope and strangeness of it all. I'll always want to read what he does next.</div>