What I'm Reading: March 2019

posted Mar 6, 2019 | about 3 minutes to read

As my frequent visitors probably already know, I am a voracious reader. Given that, I thought it might be nice to put a recurring feature on this blog for a change, covering books that I’ve read recently. Just quick blurbs, nothing major.

Without further ado, jumping right in:

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

This one was a phenomenal read. Before I dug in on this I was fairly aware of the Theranos scam from reading existing news coverage, but I was truly unaware of its extent before I opened this book. John Carreyrou, this book’s author as well as the author of the initial article exposing the scandal, does an excellent job of outlining everything in a gripping fashion. Well worth my time.

Empty Planet

This one was a really interesting read. The authors go through demographic trend analysis to show that predictions of global population explosion may be misguided. I think it’s at least an interesting read - the realities of demographic change and aging populations and their potential consequences are well-examined, and the authors close with a strong call to action to reject the politics of exclusivity in the interest of building a more vibrant country. Their book is well-researched and comprehensive, and I really enjoyed the read.

Super Late Bloomer

This one may hold less of a universal appeal to most people, but it really spoke to me on a personal level. The author is a trans woman who drew comics illustrating her early transition. From the foreword on, I saw my current feelings in a lot of her experiences. This one really pressed a lot of emotional buttons and while it may not apply to everyone’s lived experience it definitely is worth a read not just for people in transition but probably also for people who have a friend or loved one going through this.

Ancillary Sword

I read the first book in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy a number of years ago and it really resonated with me as excellently written SF, but I never got around to picking up the next one. I ended up getting her novel Provenance when Subterranean Press did their print run (big fan of Subterranean Press, check them out), and that kind of rekindled my interest in finally finishing the trilogy. Finally, I picked this one up last month, and it’s just as good as the first one so far (I’m still not through the whole thing). It’s definitely got me excited to pick up the third book, finish it, and then immediately dive into her new fantasy novel which apparently came out last week.