FeralAcademic

Dorian. A modern maenad. Gnostic rabblerouser, part time hater, lover of terrible protagonists and niche theological texts. I have no excuse for how I am.

12910 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

In the Shadow of Enlightenment: A Girl's Journey through the Osho Rajneesh Cult

The Hobbits of Tolkien: An Illustrated Exploration of Tolkien's Hobbits, and the Sources that Inspired his Work from Myth, Literature and History

24%

67%

54%

FeralAcademic made progress on...

The Silmarillion

J.R.R. Tolkien

67%

FeralAcademic is interested in reading...

Amatka

Karin Tidbeck

Vanja, a government worker, leaves her home city of Essre for the austere, wintry colony of Amatka on a research assignment. It takes some adjusting: people act differently in Amatka, and citizens are monitored for signs of subversion. Intending to stay just a short while, Vanja finds herself falling in love with her housemate, Nina, and decides to stick around. But when she stumbles on evidence of a growing threat to the colony and a cover-up by its administration, she begins an investigation that puts her at tremendous risk. In Karin Tidbeck's dystopic imagining, language has the power to shape reality. Unless objects, buildings, and the surrounding landscape are repeatedly named, and named properly, everything will fall apart. Trapped in the repressive colony, Vanja dreams of using language to break free, but her individualism may well threaten the very fabric of reality. Amatka is a beguiling and wholly original novel about freedom, love, and artistic creation by an idiosyncratic new voice.

FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's update

FeralAcademic DNF'd a book

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

What would you change if you could go back in time? In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know. But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . . Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

FeralAcademic DNF'd a book

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's update

FeralAcademic is interested in reading...

Goldenhead

Annalinde Matichei

"They say your imaginary friends aren't your real friends.But who stands by you when you lose your physical body?"Did you have imaginary friends? Live in imaginary worlds? Were you sure they were really imaginary? Of course you weren't. Goldenhead crosses the barrier between the "real world" and the world they told her was just her "imagination". She meets the friends she dreamed, and finds that some of them thought they were dreaming her.In an anime-style body in an all-girl world, she finds herself among a group of three loyal friends, each separated from her "real" body and each looking now like an anime schoolgirl.They also discover that their new reality is threatened by a terrible evil, and that each of them has unique powers to help them fight that evil. They are launched on an adventure spanning multiple realities. An adventure that is sometimes terrifying, that brings them into contact with many kinds of being, from warrior-maids to sorcerous musicians to tree-spirits; and places from ancient villages to modern cities to ships of the sky.But among all the things they discover, the most beautiful is a depth of love and friendship, of loyalty and kindness, that formerly they could only dream of.____Annalinde Matichei’s first book, "The Flight of the Silver Vixen" was hailed by the book "This rare and exhilarating book is undeniably a must-read" - Inside a Dog"As a science fiction fan I adored this book" - Everything to do with Books"It’s a fun, all-girl, swashbuckling adventure that makes you giddy with joy" - Bibrary BooklustGoldenhead has all the verve, power and intelligence of "The Flight of the Silver Vixen", while going deeper into the realms of fantasy and imagination

FeralAcademic commented on beauregardsbones's update

beauregardsbones made progress on...

10h

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain

55%

FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's update

FeralAcademic started reading...

10h

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

FeralAcademic started reading...

10h

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

FeralAcademic made progress on...

12h

In the Shadow of Enlightenment: A Girl's Journey through the Osho Rajneesh Cult

Sarito Carroll

FeralAcademic started reading...

12h

In the Shadow of Enlightenment: A Girl's Journey through the Osho Rajneesh Cult

Sarito Carroll

In the Shadow of Enlightenment is the gripping story of Carroll’s childhood inside the Osho Rajneesh cult—one of the most controversial spiritual movements of the 20th century. While in the commune, Sarito was submerged in a world where devotion and freedom clashed with manipulation, sexual misconduct, and neglect. This was the life she knew until the movement collapsed amid scandal and criminal charges in 1985, when sixteen-year-old Sarito was thrust into a society she knew little about.In 1978, nine-year-old Sarito Carroll’s life took an unexpected turn when her mother brought her to India to visit the ashram of guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho). What was intended to be a brief trip over her summer vacation quickly became permanent when her mother decided they would stay and join the ashram. Three years later, when Rajneesh relocated to the United States, twelve-year-old Sarito arrived alone to Oregon, becoming one of the first thirty-five settlers at what would become Rajneeshpuram—a bold and controversial city built on the Big Muddy Ranch. The commune soon attracted thousands of devotees, lured by the guru’s promises of love, spiritual enlightenment, and a utopian society free from conventional constraints.Now, decades later, after battling shame, fear, and self-doubt, Sarito breaks her silence to expose the abuse, exploitation, and disillusionment she endured in the Rajneesh community. She stands up against this formidable spiritual institution that promised liberation while concealing dark secrets behind its facade of love and joy. With raw honesty and heart-wrenching clarity, she recounts her fight to reclaim her identity, confront the community’s betrayal, and heal on her own terms. It is a powerful story of survival, resilience, courage, and hard-won freedom.In the Shadow of Enlightenment is a profoundly moving exposé about the hidden dangers lurking behind charismatic leaders and spiritual movements. It will inspire and challenge you to question where you place your trust.

FeralAcademic commented on Jake99's review of Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

Jake99

May 26, 2026

4.0

Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 4.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 4.0

☕

🪑

⏲️

Somehow I really needed this 😌

FeralAcademic commented on Smilepal's update

Smilepal TBR'd a book

End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America

Chris Jennings

The gripping story of the Ruby Ridge siege, showing how the historic eleven-day standoff in Idaho between federal agents and a white-separatist family began, devolved, and ultimately ended in tragedy—both for its participants, and for the nation that remains warped by its explosive force. On August 21, 1992, federal agents surveilled a cabin in Boundary County, Idaho, as part of an operation to arrest white separatist Randy Weaver for failure to appear in court. What followed was a shootout and eleven-day standoff punctuated by shocking bursts of violence. By the time Weaver surrendered to the authorities, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a US Marshal. In End of Days, Chris Jennings uses the gripping story of Ruby Ridge to examine the long history of apocalyptic faith in America and the way it has changed the nation. The strain of doomsday Christianity that gripped the Weavers, he shows, was grounded in a particular reading of the Book of Revelation that can be traced back to the 1870s and the twentieth century rise of Christian fundamentalism. Today, polling indicates that almost 60 percent of white evangelicals believe the apocalyptic prophecies in the Book of Revelation will soon come to pass. Against that backdrop, the perceived overreaction by federal forces in Idaho galvanized and radicalized many Americans, triggering the birth of the militia movement and propelling the conspiratorial politics that have defined the Trump era. The story of the Weavers holds the key to understanding this downward spiral and, perhaps, to reversing it.

FeralAcademic is interested in reading...

End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America

Chris Jennings

FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's update

FeralAcademic finished a book

A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess

In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, criminals take over after dark. Teen gang leader Alex narrates in fantastically inventive slang that echoes the violent intensity of youth rebelling against society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess’s introduction, “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”

FeralAcademic finished a book

A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess

Post from the A Clockwork Orange forum

FeralAcademic

Thoughts from 40%

“It’s called the Ludovico Technique”

This worked like a sleeper cell trigger phrase for my industrial goth phase oh my god.

FeralAcademic commented on a post

SomeWeirdRabbitThing

Thoughts from 5% (page 12) (The Malaise)

spoilers

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FeralAcademic commented on pixie's update

pixie started reading...

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks

In his most extraordinary book, Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. These are case studies of people who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people or common objects; whose limbs have become alien; who are afflicted and yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. In Dr Sacks' splendid and sympathetic telling, each tale is a unique and deeply human study of life struggling against incredible adversity.

FeralAcademic commented on readingbythestream's review of The Martian

readingbythestream

May 24, 2026

3.0

Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 2.5Characters: 2.5Plot: 2.5

👨‍🚀

🥔

🚀

I was mostly annoyed at this book to be honest. Once again a male genius main character that sometimes does stupid things or to whom something happens, so that everything doesn't go too smoothly. The writing is easily digestible and there are funny moments. I also started enjoying this book more once there were other POVs than the main characters log entries (even if it was just an omniscient third person POV describing what happens to Watney on Mars). I think what annoyed me the most was the portrayal of how a German astronaut speaks English. Instead of using the English "yes" he always said the German "ja" when giving an affirmative. A German astronaut would probably not speak English like this. A little faulty grammar is fine, but that was annoying, it's like the author didn't trust the reader to pick up on the fact that this character was German the first time it was mentioned. This lack of trust towards the reader to pick up the gravity of a situation or anything else that was relevant for the story was quite present throughout the whole book, and annoyed me a lot. Despite my annoyance I enjoyed this somewhat.

FeralAcademic commented on readingbythestream's review of The Martian

readingbythestream

May 24, 2026

3.0

Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 2.5Characters: 2.5Plot: 2.5

👨‍🚀

🥔

🚀

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