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Reading The Lost and the Damned

Added Seven surrenders to Currently Reading

Rated Too like the lightning 9/10

Rated Parable of the Talents 8/10

Parable of the Talents started showing up in my book recommendations regularly in the past year and a half. First published in 1998, its recent resurgence likely has to do with its parallels with the current religious and political climate in the US.

I found the Earthseed philosophy interesting, as it's the second novel I read recently that takes a nontheist view of religion. That and its political parallels made Parable of the Talents a hard book to read, for all the right reasons.

Rated Lords and Ladies 8/10

I loved this one. It combines hilarious comedy with deeper ideas about beauty, goodness, respect, and worth, all through interesting characters. Granny Weatherwax is at her kind-but-not-nice best, while Magrat gets a particularly strong arc.

By now I've also really gotten used to Indira Varma's narration, and especially enjoy the way she voices the three witches.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/lords-and-ladies...

Rated Babel 6/10

This had the makings of a four-star read for me. Kuang's talent for building wonderful alternate worlds and histories remains the thing that keeps bringing me back to her work.

What holds it back is also familiar: I find her characters incredibly one-dimensional, the story somewhat predictable, and the writing often too pedantic. I regularly find myself fascinated by the worlds Kuang creates while wishing somebody else would write the stories in them.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/babel---r.f.-kuang/

Added Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary to Read Books

Added ADHD is awesome: a guide to (mostly) thriving with ADHD to Currently Reading

Added The Faith of Beasts to Read Books

Wants to read Understanding Deep Learning

Wants to read River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Finished reading The Long Game

Finished reading Great Big Beautiful Life

Finished reading Love Off Script

Added Game Changer to Read Books

Wants to read The Enchanted Greenhouse

Rated Witches Abroad 6/10

I’m reading Discworld starting from the highest rated subseries and working backwards, and Witches Abroad was an interesting point in Pratchett’s evolution.

The deeper moral ideas are very much there in this book, especially around good intentions, expected roles, free will, and self-restraint. His treatment of them still feels a bit more obvious and less nuanced than in many of the later Discworld books I’ve read, but it’s already a long way from the earliest works in the series.

Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels in 32 years, and I find it fascinating, if not always satisfying, to backtrack through his evolving style and craftsmanship.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/witches-abroad--...

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 Fugitive Telemetry 6/10

All Murderbot books are relatively short, and this one is a novella rather than a full novel. I don't mind, as any story about a rogue security robot figuring out its place among humans is fun.

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as previous entries, though. The self-narration around feelings and TV shows feels repetitive by now, especially in such a short book. Still interesting overall, but I hope future entries pick up the pace a bit more.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/fugitive-telemet...

Rated A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction 6/10

Much to my surprise, I didn’t enjoy this collection as much as most of Pratchett’s other works. Most likely, his short stories are just not my thing. In fact, the longer the story, the more I enjoyed it.

The Sea and Little Fishes was the clear standout for me, but I also liked The Hades Business. Stephen Briggs’s narration is excellent, as usual, and Michael Fenton Stevens handles the non-Discworld pieces well.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/a-blink-of-the-s...

Rated The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life 8/10

I often find myself smiling at small things in daily life: a funny dog dragging a piece of cardboard around, patterns in flower petals, the colors of houses. Finding joy in everyday experiences is something dear to me, so The Small Stuff was very much in my wheelhouse.

As I often find with books built around a single central idea, the entire idea could probably have fit in a single essay or a series of blog posts. At 240 pages it is already a relatively thin book, but it still felt a little stretched in places. I still enjoyed reading it though, and hope it helps more people find job in the small stuff.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/the-small-stuff-...

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.