alib7 commented on kimikat's review of Hum
Hum really said, “What if we took everything currently wrong with society and made it just slightly worse?” And frankly, I believed it.
The most unsettling thing about this book is how little of it feels like science fiction. Constant connectivity, consumerism, targeted advertising, environmental collapse, AI, technology raising children alongside us, people being glued to personalized digital worlds. None of it feels particularly far fetched. It’s giving Black Mirror meets WALL E, and I mean that as both a compliment and a threat to my peace.
I really loved the exploration of what happens when technology becomes so deeply integrated into our lives that we stop noticing how much we’ve handed over to it. Navigation, information, communication, entertainment, memory, attention, even our understanding of ourselves. We don’t necessarily feel dependent because everything is so convenient. Until suddenly it isn’t.
And then there’s the isolation. Everyone is connected to everything all the time, yet somehow people are increasingly disconnected from the people sitting right beside them. Family, partners, children, strangers. There’s something particularly depressing about watching people become so accustomed to mediated experiences that the actual world starts feeling almost secondary.
The consumerism commentary also went absolutely feral. The constant cycle of want → buy → consume → discard → want something else is so deeply embedded into the world of the book that it becomes almost absurd. Except… hello?? Look around?? 😭
The technology and AI themes were especially interesting because Phillips doesn’t make the question as simple as “AI bad.” Instead, Hum seems much more interested in what happens when technology understands us incredibly well and becomes woven into our everyday lives. What do we willingly give it? What does it change about us? And at what point do we stop knowing where our own wants end and the systems around us begin?
As a 5th grade teacher, the conversations around children and technology hit particularly hard. Kids growing up with constant access to personalized technology raises so many questions about attention, boredom, curiosity, independence, and genuine human connection. The book made me think a lot about how important it is to intentionally create space for kids to experience the world without everything being optimized, personalized, or immediately entertaining.
Ultimately, Hum felt less like a warning about some distant dystopian future and more like someone took our current reality, turned the saturation knob to 100, and said, “Look at this. Really look at it.”
And I did. And I too need to go outside now. 🫣
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Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar
alib7 commented on alib7's update
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Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal
Mohammed El-Kurd
alib7 started reading...

Eros/Psyche
Maria Llovet
alib7 is interested in reading...

Exhibitionists
Samantha Quinn
alib7 commented on jslynschapterverse's update
jslynschapterverse started reading...

Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal
Mohammed El-Kurd
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Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal
Mohammed El-Kurd
alib7 is interested in reading...

The Sleeping Sisters: A Novel
Jennifer Givhan
Post from the Death of the Author forum
alib7 commented on a post
I'm only at 3% yet I already can't stand the "gnat" problem being part of every word containing "nat". I get that it's a thing that is supposed to be annoying but it's throwing me off 💀
alib7 commented on a post
I am so excited to start this! I had been wanting to get my hands on it for months, and now that my intimate bestie Dua Lipa set it for her book club (Aug2026), I figured it's time for it. I've been reading some of the posts around and they are making me eaaager!
Running to get my copy from my bag rn (by the way, the edition with the sheep on the cover is so nice 🐏🫀).
alib7 started reading...

Lost Lambs
Madeline Cash
alib7 wrote a review...
Wow - this is the Australian history that should be taught to our kids (and adults).
Initially I was hesitant given the title. I think all the (appropriate) criticisms of framing the genocide of Palestinian people as a “war” shaped my reaction to this title. But I should have just shut up and read it because this is addressed, comprehensively, throughout the book. I found the arguments for why the language of war is used fascinating. War, massacre, genocide, resistance warfare, and survival are all explored in this text, and I found this really interesting.
The history itself is not surprising, though bringing it all together in one book was chilling. I also acknowledge that for a lot of Australians, and probably most non-Aussies, this might actually be very shocking. I was recently in a First Nations (mandatory) training at work and I was shocked by how many of the attendees were surprised by the brutal history that was being shared. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that until Australia can face their shameful history, we can’t repair it. We are sooooooo far away from that, and it is disheartening.
I would have loved to hear more narrative accounts, especially of resistance, but I acknowledge that that was not the purpose of this book (will look for read-on options). It was also quite dry, lots of dates and locations, which again is to be expected for a more informative text such as this.
alib7 finished a book

The Australian Wars: The truth about the bloody battles fought to establish a nation
Rachel Perkins