djwudi's reviews
1086 reviews

What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna

4.0

While I wasn’t born with a uterus, roughly half of the people I know and encounter throughout my life were (including my wife, who handed this book to me after she read it), and as most of the ones I’m most familiar with are within a few years of my age (51 as of this moment), this seemed like good info to have. The book is great; very readable and often quite funny, with a wealth of information. I certainly had no idea how much research into menopause has only been done in the past couple decades; I’d guess that even people who think they know what’s up are likely to find something new. This is an excellent, informative, and likely quite validating resource for anyone with a uterus who is approaching or experiencing menopause, who is planning on yeeting their uterus and facing sudden menopause, or who never had a uterus but values understanding (as much as possible) what those who do are going through.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

4.0

Shakespeare, more or less, by way of Pratchett’s Discworld, and quite a lot of fun. Particularly enjoyed the recognition of the power of the word, and how it can bend history out of joint if used unscrupulously.

The Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett

4.0

Set between TMP and TWoK, this adventure primarily ties together three threads: The Medusans as introduced in TOS, the Aenar as introduced in ENT, and the New Humans as introduced in Roddenberry’s novelization of TMP. Those three threads are woven together with elements, references, and in-jokes from throughout the Star Trek screen and literary universes, as Bennett so often does in his books. It’s also interesting when reading these more recently written books that are able to find ways to drop in references to the newer shows. All in all, another good adventure with some really neat approaches to tying together previously unrelated parts of Trek history in unexpected ways.

Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

4.0

Fascinating collection of novellas following Binti, a young Himba woman, as she leaves her traditional home to journey to a galactic university to study math, only to find herself the sole survivor of an attack and bonded in a mysterious way to one of her attackers. The settings and events combined the traditional lifestyle of the Himba people with far-future technology, living ships, and all manner of alien races, and with some serious questions of prejudice and how people see unfamiliar others as more primitive. I really enjoyed this, and am looking forward to exploring more of Okorafor's books.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 215 by Neil Clarke

For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.

Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

3.0

This is one of those that, while unquestionably good, was difficult for me to really get into and ultimately just didn’t resonate with me. Impressively (and sometimes depressingly) prescient in some ways, I think that a lot of it was simply too directly relatable to present social and political realities that it was hard for me to enjoy it.

Smut Peddler X: Ten Years of Impeccable Pornoglyphics by Andrea Purcell

4.0

I picked up the original version of this book ten years ago, during its Kickstarter campaign, when an online acquaintance who contributed a story was promoting it. I enjoyed it then, and it was fun to revisit it a decade later, especially as I hadn’t re-read it since then, so had forgotten the majority of the stories, and the new content looking back at the original project was a nice addition. As with the six other books that now exist in the “Smut Peddler” series (seven if you count this 10th anniversary version separately), all of which live on my shelves, it’s a very enjoyable collection of fun, inclusive, explicit sexytimes.

For fun, my review of the original release: “I actually read this last year when I got the .pdf version from the Kickstarter project, the physical book was delivered earlier this year. I found the Kickstarter when one of my friends announced that she was contributing a piece to the project. Perhaps not my usual reading material, but I really enjoyed all of it -- I don't remember there being a bad entry in the bunch, and quite a few extremely good stories. Not at all disappointed to have it in my collection, and I'll be adding the second volume when it's Kickstarter project goes live.”

Lost to Eternity by Greg Cox

3.0

Almost four stars…but not quite. There are three connected storylines (it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the back cover blurb, right?): A modern-day (2024) true crime podcaster investigating the mysterious disappearance of one Gillian Taylor in 1986, Kirk and company in the third year of their original voyage rescuing an abducted scientist, and Kirk and company escorting envoys to a conference shortly before the events of The Undiscovered Country. Of the three storylines, I found the latter two to be fairly standard Trek adventure, and would occasionally get confused as to which point in time I was in for a moment when I switched chapters. However, the first storyline, as the podcaster tracks down various minor characters from The Voyage Home to try to figure out what happened to Gillian is great. I really enjoyed the glimpse into what happened on Earth after the events of the movie, and it was a lot of fun to build on many of the gags from the film. That storyline is by far the strongest, and the middle story is the weakest, with yet another “landing party beams down to a pre-industrial society and — surprise! — makes a complete hash of the Prime Directive” situation.
Still, even the weaker parts are entertaining, and Cox ties in lots of little nods to a lot of Trek true canon and beta (book) canon.

Another Fine Myth by Robert Lynn Asprin

3.0

The Myth series has been on my radar for years, so when I saw the first five books at the local library sale a couple months ago, I snapped them up. This first one is…ehh. It’s okay. It’s not bad, but neither did it wow me. Maybe it’s because it’s the first in the series, maybe because it was written in ‘78 and I’m reading it in ‘24, maybe because I’m more of an SF reader, maybe it’s because I’ve fairly recently read the first few Discworld books and enjoyed them more than I did this, and maybe it’s some combination of all of those factors, but I was somewhat underwhelmed. As long as I have the next four, I’ll keep reading and see if they improve, though. (Also, why is Aahz about two feet taller than he should be on the cover art?)

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold

3.0

A little military, a little mystery, and a little romance, as Miles goes along on his first major investigation for his new job...which goes as smoothy as one would expect. As fun as always, with the usual cadre of complex and believable well-rounded characters.