Lonslibrary

I read a bit of everything and a ton of sci-fi/fantasy

3051 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1)

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)

Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1)

Reading...

How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood

30%

15%

Interesting Times (Discworld, #17; Rincewind, #5)

15%

Lonslibrary commented on a post

Alanna

Edited

Thoughts from 33%

This nightmare vision of “benevolent billionaires” buying up more than 80 buildings in a deliberately hollowed out downtown Detroit in order to remake the city in their image feels so deeply connected to Naomi Klein’s concept of disaster capitalism. It’s harrowing. Them literally saying that the economic growth they bring is “worth a period of suspended democracy” is authoritarianism on a local scale. The wealthy treating cities like their own personal fiefdoms.

Lonslibrary commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

celinewyp

Book Medium and Reading Speed

Does anyone also feel like the medium of the book really influences how fast you can read?

If I'm on my ereader, I feel like I can read so much faster, and the percentage and time left displayed help to motivate me to keep reading. I'm slower if I'm reading a physical book, but not as slow as if I'm trying to listen to an audiobook! I know that audiobooks are very convenient and have helped many people read more but it just does not work for me.

What's your experience? What's your preference? I do like finishing books fast so I can read more, but I do like taking time sometimes so as not to burn myself out.

That said, I really admire the Boundlings who are done with their annual reading goals so quickly!

speed

Post from the How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood forum

Lonslibrary

Thoughts from 24% - Blight Definition

If the city considers a home blighted (which could just mean, for example, it needs a paint job or its grass is overgrown), the city cites it and imposes steep fines... If the owner is unable to bring the property up to code [in time], the city claims the property as its own and puts it up for sale in an online auction. Since 2010 the city has sold off or demolished at least 13,000 properties, most of which were abandoned after Katrina and many of which are in rapidly gentrifying areas.

This feels like the author is unnecessarily padding his argument. Are there actual instances of houses being marked as blighted because of a paint job/poor lawn? Is this trying to emphasize that the definition of blight is left entirely up to individual city employees? The last sentence seems to negate what the author was trying to say at the start.

Lonslibrary made progress on...

How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood

Peter Moskowitz

30%

Lonslibrary commented on a post

forever_liiiyah

Any Books that You've DNF'ed For This Quest

Are there any books for this quest that you have DNF'ed? So far I've only read "Beloved" and the 2nd book that I've tried to read for this quest is "Catcher in the Rye," but it is very hard to finish. I'm kind of bored with the story and the way Holden thinks and talks just annoys me (maybe it's because he's a teenage boy and I'm a 20 year old woman). I'm a little over halfway through the book and am trying so hard to finish but I don't know if I'll make it.

So, if you have DNF'ed any books for this quest, why?

Lonslibrary TBR'd a book

How to Abolish Prisons: Lessons from the Movement Against Imprisonment

Rachel Herzing

An incisive guide to abolitionist strategy, and a love letter to the movement that made this moment possible. Critics of abolition sometimes castigate the movement for its utopianism, but in How to Abolish Prisons, long-time organizers Rachel Herzing and Justin Piché reveal a movement that has made the struggle for abolition as real as the institutions they are fighting against. Drawing on extensive interviews with abolitionist crews all over North America, Herzing and Piché provide a collective reconstruction of what the grassroots movement to abolish prisons actually is, what initiatives it has launched, how it organizes itself, and how its protagonists build the day-to-day practice of politics. Readers sit in on the Winnipeg rideshares of Bar None and the meetings of the Chicago Community Bail Fund as they assess the utility of politicized mutual aid. They follow the campaigns and coalitions of Critical Resistance in Oakland and San Francisco and Survived and Punished in New York City, and learn about the prisoner correspondence projects that keep activists behind bars and outside them in constant coordination.

Lonslibrary is interested in reading...

Now It All Makes Sense: How an ADHD Diagnosis Brought Clarity to My Life

Alex Partridge

Aged just 21, Alex Partridge founded UNILAD and LADBible, social news sites which now have a following of 100 million people around the globe. A legal case over ownership in 2017 tipped him over the edge of the cliff into alcoholism, triggering years of mental health issues until, aged 34, he was diagnosed with ADHD. Now it all makes sense. In his chart-topping podcast, ADHD Chatter, Alex has spoken to dozens of experts on ADHD and related conditions in a bid to understand and improve outcomes for the neurodiverse population - and this groundbreaking book brings them all together, for the first time, in one place. A blend of lived experience and expert insight, this deep dive into ADHD has the power to change your life. If you've ever wondered why you can't remember those critical appointments, how you can be hyper-focused one minute and down a YouTube rabbit-hole 30 seconds later, or why do people walk so slowly? then this relatable and unashamedly honest book is for you. Written with Alex's trademark raw vulnerability, Now It All Makes Sense distils the essence of all the most important need-to-knows, from parenting with (and for) ADHD, to managing your mental health, your finances and even your shopping list. Most importantly it celebrates the opportunities and strengths, unique skillsets and positive traits of ADHD to remind that you that you are NOT broken - and you are enough.

Lonslibrary is interested in reading...

Castle in the Air (Howl's Moving Castle, #2)

Diana Wynne Jones

In which a humble young carpet merchant wins, then loses, the princess of his dreams Far to the south of the land of Ingary, in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, there lived in the city of Zanzib a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer named Abdullah who loved to spend his time daydreaming. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet. That very night, the carpet flew him to an enchanted garden. There, he met and fell in love with the beauteous princess Flower-in-the-Night, only to have her snatched away, right under his very nose, by a wicked djinn. With only his magic carpet and his wits to help him, Abdullah sets off to rescue his princess....

Lonslibrary is interested in reading...

Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)

Laini Taylor

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever. What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving? The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real? Welcome to Weep.

Lonslibrary is interested in reading...

Air Awakens (Air Awakens, #1)

Elise Kova

A library apprentice, a sorcerer prince, and an unbreakable magic bond... The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent, and the rare elemental magic sleeping in seventeen-year-old library apprentice Vhalla Yarl could shift the tides of war. Vhalla has always been taught to fear the Tower of Sorcerers, a mysterious magic society, and has been happy in her quiet world of books. But after she unknowingly saves the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all—the Crown Prince Aldrik—she finds herself enticed into his world. Now she must decide her future: Embrace her sorcery and leave the life she’s known, or eradicate her magic and remain as she’s always been. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla’s indecision could cost her more than she ever imagined.

Lonslibrary made progress on...

How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood

Peter Moskowitz

17%

Lonslibrary is interested in reading...

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle, #2)

Nghi Vo

The cleric Chih finds themself and their companions at the mercy of a band of fierce tigers who ache with hunger. To stay alive until the mammoths can save them, Chih must unwind the intricate, layered story of the tiger and her scholar lover—a woman of courage, intelligence, and beauty—and discover how truth can survive becoming history. Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in this mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune.

Lonslibrary commented on a post

skylarkblue1

Recommendations from this list?

I want to read more from this but every time I go to look up a book it seems to be more romance than anything else (dang romantasy trend..). Anyone got recs from this list that isn't a romantasy/heavy on romance (and isn't the poppy war)? Preferably something not from China or Japan either as I read a ton of those already

Lonslibrary commented on Lonslibrary's update

Lonslibrary earned a badge