Now that I have a smart phone and I'm listening to audiobooks during my forced commute days, I'm getting through a lot more books.
I finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It was excellent overall. I have a few minor quibbles, but I definitely enjoyed listening to it.
It was more of a character study than a detailed post-apocalypse account. I like the themes about the pursuit & survival of art & the overall hopefulness.
I also finished Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. It's the second book in the Gentleman Bastard series. While they are over-the-top violent at points, I have enjoyed the books. Stories about heists and con men are some of my favorites and these fantasy versions fit the bill well.
I've had this book for a number of years and stalled out in reading it about midway through. I'm not as interested in pirate stories, I guess.
That being said, I think I just needed the right kick in the pants, because the audiobook of Red Seas Under Red Skies -- excellently narrated by Michael Page -- was great.
I would switch between finishing the physical book and listening in the car for the last half of the story and burned through it.
I think it is a little heavy in the middle and there is a lot of buildup for how fast the ending comes, but I still enjoyed it overall and I'm looking forward to the next.
Finally, I just finished @pluralistic's Radicalized novella.
There is a physical copy floating around the house, but at a little over two hours, I finished it in one commute and a lunch break by listening to the audiobook.
Radicalized is a kick to the groin. Doctorow does a good job of explaining how radicalization on the Internet works and exposes one -- of many -- cracks in our increasingly tense and tenuous connections in the US that can be broken apart by it.
@GreatBigTable@pluralistic I’ve never felt such bleak hopefulness reading something before. Both the inevitability of the coming enshittification wave and the hopefulness that we will have the strength and courage to fight it. Really great perspectives in that one!