"On the Calculation of Volume" by Solvej Balle
Fantastic book. I read it in one day. I don't think I've done that before.
It's a Danish book about a woman stuck in a time loop, like Groundhog Day, but with some notable differences. Like, if she buys things, she might still have them the next time she wakes up.
It's a seven-book series. Two have been translated to English so far. I'll have to learn Danish so I can read the rest 
This week's read was "I Who Have Never Known Men" by Jacqueline Harpman. Again dystopian book, which begins with an interesting setup with a lot of open questions. Throughout the book I was admiring the resilience and the strength of the main character.
#FinishedReading ‘The ultimate guide to parkrun: Everything you need to know about the friendliest 5K in the world’ by Lucy Waterlow.
A fab and insightful read about #parkrun. Some I knew, some I didn’t. I enjoyed the “bucket list(s)” particularly.
#FinishedReading a 1950s vampire novella which, thanks to George A. Romero, ended up setting the blueprint for dozens of zombie movies. The main character, alone amongst the shambling hordes for almost the whole story, is sometimes pretty unpleasant company, but his dark sides, and even his outbursts of bigotry, pay off as we hit the ending of this thematically deep little masterpiece. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #RichardMatheson
#FinishedReading a history of measurement, from notched wolf bones to nilometers, and colonial land surveys to IQ tests. An interesting piece of critical popular history / science by journalist #JamesVincent . I'm mostly not one of the chronic self measurers that are discussed in this book, but I am informed by The Storygraph that I've read 11,634 pages so far this year, across 33 books. Any fellow book counters here? #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading this story of a medium teaming up with a ghost to solve their murder on WW1's western front. I suspect this is perfect comfort reading for somebody, but it didn't do it for me; for all that there are spies, ghosts, and assassins, and lots of characters moving back and forth, it struck me as quite predictable and morally simplistic. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading my latest in a growing pile of completed books by the ridiculously prolific but somehow still reliably good #AdrianTchaivovsky . This is one of the most impressive books about an imagined alien biology I've read, and the central battle of revolutionaries vs totalitarianism is rousing and exciting. I did find the narrator a little annoying, although their quips do provide for some good satire about science, politics, and their intersection. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
Finished reading the last book of The First Law trilogy -- Argument of the Kings by #JoeAbercrombie
Solid read. Well written characters. Never a dull moment in the book. I would say 4.75 out of 5.
#FinishedReading the short stories of #AnnLeckie . The book is split into planetary #SciFi from her Imperial Radch universe, #fantasy fables in the world of Raven Tower, and miscellaneous stories. The connections to her novels are weak enough that you could read them without worrying about spoilers or missing context. If you want a hilarious, albeit not exactly representative, sample, 'The Sad History of the Tearless Onion' is only a page long and available on her website: https://annleckie.com/onion.html. The quality level is maybe not quite as superlative as her incredible novels but I'd still read anything Ann Leckie writes. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading this surrealist psychological novel, in which a delusional amnesiac is hospitalized, with a narrative flicking back and forth between his elaborate fantasies and the attempts of doctors to treat / pacify him. This strange novel swings widely in tone and sometimes has very strong 'person describing their dream to you' energy. At its best, as in the 'briefing' of the title, it is a weirdly compelling blend of environmental panic, mysticism, extreme scepticism about science, and many more things that #DorisLessing throws into the mix. I didn't love it and it is not exactly a book that tries to be loved - at times deliberately repetitive, alienating, or deflating - but it was definitely interesting. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading the 'final' part of #KatherineKerr 's Deverry quadrilogy, providing satisfying closure to the main conflict - which hasn't stopped her writing another 12 sequels, and counting, in the 25 years since! One's tolerance for this one, mostly set across the sea from her usual Welsh-inspired world, will depend on one's tolerance for white fantasy writers doing oriental-inspired societies. I think she does just enough to push past the stereotypes that initially looked likely to dominate, and overall found it a refreshing change from her established formula. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading #PGWodehouse 's 1915 farce of the unflappably loquacious toff Psmith tangling with New York street gangs. It should be entertaining froth, but it's so, so racist. Read one of his (many) other books instead. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading #AnneBrontë 's 1848 novel of domestic cruelty and escape. Huntingdon is a devastatingly sustained portrayal of a 'can't you take a joke, love?' sniggering, if superficially charming, bully, and the passages of the initially naive Helen alternately suffering through, or trying to stand up to, him are compelling. I'm less convinced by the character of Markham who frames the story, and Anne's extremely strongly expressed (if somewhat unconventional) Christianity isn't exactly my thing. Definitely worth the read. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading my first of a subscription to #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine. With its wonky printing (page margins randomly shifting, print changing darkness across each page) it feels a bit like samizdat; I don't mind that, but surely they could have done better with the cover (credited only to image corporation Shutterstock). More importantly the stories were solid and entertaining, although not top tier. My favourites were 'The Hidden God' by #TRNapper and 'On the Night Shift' by #ZoharJacobs , one a satirical thriller of AI attaining sentience and declaring class war, the other a fairly realistic story of mission control for a Mars landing trying to work through a climate change induced superstorm on Earth. #NancyKress , one of my favourite short story writers, has part 1 of a 2 part story so I'm intrigued to see where that goes next issue! @scifi
#FinishedReading #AnnLeckie 's sole novel outside her sci fi universe, a #fantasy told from the perspective of a god, moving between their own millennia-spanning story and their observations of a struggle for power among humans in the (roughly) Bronze age present day. Maybe not her absolute best work - I found it a bit exposition heavy - but given her best work stands among favourite reads ever, that's OK! Incredibly creative world building and a highly entertaining story. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading ‘The Fated Sky’ by Mary Robinette Kowal.
I do love this series. It has history, science fiction, human/social story and adventure. It is (for me) balanced perfectly to not be too heavy or too light.
#FinishedReading a history and literary analysis of walking at nighttime in medieval to Victorian London. It sometimes wanders off track or ambulates in circles, but at its best it reads like an academic textbook crossed with Mervyn Peake: "even in the day, industrial pollutants rendered the air fuliginous". #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading another brick of best-of-the-year picks of #SF #SciFi short stories selected by #GardnerDozois . These are always good, but the two stories from this 2013 collection that really floored me were both by #NancyKress . I need to seek out more of her work - any fans of her here who can recommend where to start with her longer fiction? #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#FinishedReading this delightful fast moving space opera by #AdrianTchaikovsky . Up until now I've only read his shorter work, but this was also a lot of fun, with just enough weird alien stuff and creepy 'unspace' travel to lift it above pure popcorn. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
