Books reviews for 2025

In 2025 I read 68 books, which is par for the course. Number of pages, however, was at a high of 23,142 (data since 2023), for which I thank two book-bricks: Wind & Truth by Brandon Sanderson (1329pg) and The Veiled Throne by Kevin Liu (982pg).

 

 

My average rating dropped to 3.4 stars, notably lower than the 3.5-3.6 of recent years. This year I moved from GoodReads to StoryGraph (coz Amazon) which has been fine except that it's not possible to order my To Read list by average rating, so I'm back to selecting books from that list more at less randomly, as I did before moving to GoodReads in 2019. Hence my average rating has dropped back to pre-2019 levels. I've also been unimpressed with StoryGraph's own recommendations, so I am thinking of moving again, perhaps to Hardcover. 

The gender of authors has remained close to 50-50, at 51.5% male. Average ratings for each gender were virtually identical.

Diversity has continued the gradual decline of the past few years, down to 29% non-white authors. Will have to get back on that horse to counter the anti-DEI forces! Unusually, non-white authors scored lower (3.3 stars) than white authors (3.5 stars), which dragged the overall average down - I blame poor book selection via StoryGraph. 

New for this year, I've started keeping of track of where my book recommendations come from. I've haven't got data for every book I read, so the sample size is small, but a few highlights:

• Books by authors I have previously enjoyed (n=19) 3.6 stars (above par) 
• Friends (n=19) 3.4 stars (on par)
• Books in series that I am reading (n=6) 3.4 stars
• Books listened to as sleep stories (n=6) 3.3 stars (below par)  
• StoryGraph (n=5) 3.2 stars

Will be fascinating to see these numbers as I get more data. And yes, I am keeping track on a person-by-person basis - don't worry, I won't make it public ;P

Notable books for the year:

• Hardest hitting: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (4.5 stars)
• A classic that's actually good: A Room Of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (4.5 stars) 
• Fattest (do not read in bath): Wind & Truth by Brandon Sanderson (3.5 stars) 
• Oldest: The Odyssey by Homer, ~775BCE (3 stars)
• Most blatant ripoff: Just One Damn Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor (3 stars) 
• Most enraging: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (2 stars) 

Here is the full list for the year:

4.5 stars (7 books, 10%)
Material World	Ed Conway	A high-octane tour through the materials that underlie our civilisation: sand, salt, steel, copper, oil & lithium. So many intriguing side notes that sent me off down rabbit holes (African ghost miners!). Really brings home the mammoth scale, complexity & interconnectedness of these critical industries that we take for granted. But also highlights their fragility, the environmental damage they cause, and the immense difficulty of reforming them to be sustainable.
Question 7	Richard Flanagan	An exploration of life & death, love & fate, encompassing everything from his family history to HG Wells and the development of the atomic bomb. Damn he can write! The description of his near-death experience is mesmerising. Didn't fully come together for me, but suspect it will benefit from a revisit.
Pride & Prejudice	Jane Austen	Long-time viewer (BBC only, thank you), but first-time reader (well, listener), and it did not disappoint. If anything the Bennetts are even nuttier. Love Lizzie's snark, and the frission with D'Arcy is frustratingly delectable. Really doesn't work as a #SleepStory though! https://downtosleep.podbean.com/e/pride-and-prejudice-audiobook-part-1-down-to-sleep-122/
Prophet Song	Paul Lynch	A horrifying realistic account of an everyday Western country being gradually consumed by an authoritarian regime. Every moment of encroaching terror is disturbingly relatable. Writing style felt like a monotone ramble, which masked its poignancy.
We Are The Stars	Gina Chick	That wild woman who captivated us on Alone Australia is the product of genes, a generous upbringing, and intense tempering in the crucible of life. A remarkable range of life experience, and an impressive capacity to learn & evolve from life's challenges. Heavy on nebulous metaphor, but fitting. I envy her capacity to inhabit her emotions & body so fully.
A Room of One's Own	Virginia Woolf	A classic that is actually good! An essay on women & fiction (thus, feminism) that rambles along in a relaxed fashion without losing any of its coherency or piercing insight. And damn she can write. Sadly still relevant, nearly 100 years on. (For reference her £500/yr is A$55k/yr today.)
Radical Markets	Eric Posner & Glen Weyl	Proposes a number of dramatic reforms to foundational institutions: including property, voting & migration. A perennial auction of property would result in shared public ownership funding a basic income and ensuring more efficient use of capital - this one challenged my deep set conception of ownership & control. Quadratic voting would enable citizens to give more democratic weight to issues of more concern to them - fantastic, we should do this! Would love to see these ideas get consideration and trial runs. We desperately need more creative thinking along these lines. No consideration given to environmental limits.
4 stars (15 books, 22%)
The Collected Schizophrenias	Esmé Weijun Wang	Essays on the author's experience of schizophrenia (along with bipolar, PTSD & chronic Lyme!) in the US. Fascinating & unsettling view into psychiatric hospitals, mental health 'support' in Ivy League colleges, and what the hell a psychotic break feels like. Blimey.
Home Fire	Kamila Shamsie	A British-Pakistani family gets caught (& distraught) on the three horns of identity, politics & jihad. Deeply immersive for a range of perspectives.
The Tainted Cup	Robert Jackson Bennett	A murder mystery fantasy novel - why is this a first for me?! Fairly standard whodunnit which escalates to political intrigue, made distinctive by very cool world-building: an empire built to defend against leviathans attacking from the sea, whose bodily fluids enable a raft of fantastical bio-enhancements. Interesting characters and the potential for more fleshing out give the series much promise.
Nervous Conditions	Tsitsi Dangarembga	Becoming a familiar refrain in African literature: girl fights for education & freedom against patriarchy & colonialism. This one, set in pre-independence Zimbabwe, might be the original (?) and the best, with carefully crafted & evolving characters. Ends very suddenly, though.
The End and Everything Before It	Finegan Kruckemeyer	A tangled weave of lives lived for love, community, place & simple pleasures. Beautifully written. I didn't quite grasp the ending, worth a revisit.
The Lathe of Heaven	Ursula Le Guin	A man's dreams shape reality, and his therapist uses him as a tool to fix the wrongs in the world. But if utopia lacks free will, diversity & creativity, is it still utopia?
The Season	Helen Garner	The author shadows her grandson's under-16 Aussie Rules team for a season. A glimpse from the boundary line of boys on the cusp on manhood, the solidarity of teammates, the strange spiritual appeal of sport. Wonderfully written & absorbing, but it's still just footy and Melburnians are weird.
The Mars House	Natasha Pulley	A sci-fi romance set on Mars, where recent refugees from climate-riven Earth are so strong in the low gravity that they are a mortal accidental risk to Martians. Excellent premise, and the contradictory reactions of the protagonist feel real & difficult. But some of the underlying science is dubious (MW ≠ MWh!!!), the romance had potential but felt a bit weak and the ending used up its momentum too soon. Mammoths!
The Help	Kathryn Stockett	In 1960s Mississippi, white women and the black maids they employ navigate the upheaval of the civil rights movement. The contrast of ingrained racism and the deep emotional integration of black women into white family life is astounding. Potential for deep analysis, but you can also just enjoy the story.
Playground	Richard Powers	The glorious wonder of the ocean, the fraught love of competitive friends, our tangled dependence on both extraction & love of the natural world, the tempting appeal of AI. Felt like there was too much to wrap up in so short a space, but he pulls it off remarkably, leaving an uncertainty as to what was real and what imagined or simulated.
Once There Were Wolves	Charlotte McConaghy	An attempt to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands faces strong pushback from the locals. In wilderness we fear monsters, but perhaps the true monsters are within. A thoroughly enjoyable thriller featuring the deep connection of twins, a remarkable form of empathy, the evil of domestic & ecological abuse and resultant trauma, and a little mystery. A strange lack of consequences.
I Contain Multitudes	Ed Yong	Delves into the many varied & amazing ways humans & animals have evolved to depend upon microbes. Most of this was familiar to me already, though told in the author's excellent clear & awed way. New was the incredible nesting of microbes within high-order animal cells, with each doing distinct jobs, such that none can survive without the others. Yong is always good for a celebration of life & its complexity.
Becoming Mrs Mulberry	Jackie French	In the aftermath of WW1, a woman strives to build a new life despite the sacrifices she has made. Eventful & enjoyable, if implausible, with an excellent cast of characters and strong Miss Fisher vibes.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow	Gabrielle Zevin	Two friends become productive creative partners in computer game design, but their emotional blocks cause regular estrangements (gets a bit frustrating - grow up already!). I enjoyed the nostalgia of old-school gaming, but would probably still be enjoyable for non-gamers. Now, off to play Oregon Trail ... https://oregontrail.run/
The Hobbit	JRR Tolkien	[re-read] The dwarves are dead weight - it's all Bilbo and Gandalf. Gollum really gets a raw deal in the riddle game.
3.5 stars (19 books, 28%)
The Broken Kingdoms	NK Jemisin	A woman gets caught up in the manoeuvring of gods, godlings and grasping humans. Most notable for the protagonist's blindness, though she has the ability to see magic.
Record of a Spaceborn Few	Becky Chambers	Centuries after sending colonies into space as insurance against Earth's collapse, humans have integrated into alien civilisation. But now what purpose do those colonies serve, and what happens to their distinctive communal culture? Good premise & great world-building but not much plot, with a few too many characters.
Anxious People	Fredrik Backman	A bunch of charming idiots (i.e. everyday people) get thrown together and muddle their way through a crisis in the only way humans can: messily, and hilariously. Occasionally heavy-handed but the portrayal of people and their idiosyncrasies is a joy.
My Father and Other Animals	Sam Vincent	After an unsettled life of freelance writing, the author takes on the family farm. A memoir of his father and the land, an ode to regenerative agriculture, and an example of how to connect with Traditional Owners. The author is only two degrees of separation from me, so I found it easy to imagine myself in his shoes, going down a route that appeals but was not available.
The Grand Sophy	Georgette Heyer	A irrepressible cousin comes to stay and causes a great upheaval, but between cunning plans and good luck it all works out neatly. More wit than romance, but it does that well.
Enemy of God	Bernard Cornwell	The Saxons threaten to overrun Briton; a search for a legendary artifact to bring back the Old Gods; a little blissful romance; Lancelot is a backstabbing, cowardly bastard; oaths, what are they good for? A touch more magic than in the first book, but just as hard, dirty & cynical.
The Mark	Frida Isberg	An attempt to enforce empathic behaviour creates stark divisions at all levels of society. Very effectively conveys the ambiguous ethics and the entrenched positions taken by opposing sides. Strong parallels with toxic masculinity and vaccination.
Messy	Tim Harford	The importance of randomness & spontaneity in creativity & problem-solving. Plans, order & rationality are often counter-productive! So don't beat yourself up about meeting simplistic measures of performance. The tech discussion is a bit dated, but the principles are extremely relevant to AI. Ginormous gender blind-spot.
The Demon in the Machine	Paul Davies	How did life come about, how does it work, how does it seemingly defy entropy, and what has information theory & quantum mechanics got to do with it? Doesn't quite manage the clearest explanations, leaving me on the cusp of comprehension, but then the underlying concepts are at the forefront of human knowledge. Life, even in its simplest forms, is *amazing* and incredibly improbable.
Skyward Flight	Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson	While the hero of the series is lost in the Nowhere, her fellow pilots get on with being awesome and taking the fight to the oppressors. Decent YA fare with lots of dogfights, light humour and a little romance. The hyperslugs are adorable.
Bookshops & Bonedust	Travis Baldree	A worthy prequel to Legends & Lattes. New friends come together to reinvigorate a bookshop, with a couple of baddies dealt with along the way. Loved Satchel the animated skeleton. Moist!
The Scar	China Mieville	An exuberant, barely believeable steampunk world with cactus & mosquito people, underwater & floating cities, and mysterious powers. Very very long, and rather too serious.
The World We Make	NK Jemisin	New York finishes the job against the Multiverse, despite the conservative reticence of the Old Cities. Clunkier and without the freshness of the original. But fun to see more city avatars. I think Mamdani could easily be a character in these books!
Wind and Truth	Brandon Sanderson	An absolute brick of a book - possibly the longest I've ever read. Could certainly have been shorter (successful authors get way too much latitude), with too frequent changes in PoV, and while I appreciate his use of mental health to disrupt tired fantasy tropes, after three weeks of amateur therapy I was a bit over it. But he does pull together sprawling plot lines to a satisfying climax, with an appealing set up for a fresh take on the second half of the series.
Contact	Carl Sagan	A message from outer space is detected, and humanity sets about decoding it, then attempts to make contact with the originators. Delves into the nexus of science & religion, the complexity of international collaboration, and the social upheaval of such a paradigm-shifting discovery. Some excruciating elite-level gaslighting. Surprising ending!
The Shadow of the Wind	Carlos Ruiz Zafon	A rare book sets a teenage boy on a path of mystery, love & revenge. This was nearly great, with an intriguing setup, smooth prose, vibrant characters and an evocative sense of time & place (mid-century Barcelona). But it ran out of steam with repetitive storytelling and too much exposition. And nearly all the men were incorrigible womanisers.
To Be Taught If Fortunate	Becky Chambers	A small crew of scientists leave Earth, and their time period, forever to explore life on distant planets. But what will they do when Earth goes silent? An ode to science, discovery and the inherent worth of knowledge. The lack of interpersonal conflict under such trying conditions feels unrealistic.
Limberlost	Robbie Arnott	With his elder brothers away at war, a teenage boy attempts to fill the uncertain hole of their incommunicado absence by restoring a decrepit sailboat. In it he finds freedom and love for his surroundings. And there's a quoll and a crazy whale. A nice snapshot of mid-century northern Tasmania but I didn't really feel it.
The Veiled Throne	Ken Liu	A silkpunk epic full of far-fetched but fun battles - of both the naval and MasterChef kind! A refreshing change from the usual fantasy fare, although rather too long & detailed. Explores the mess of identity, culture & colonisation.
3 stars (17 books, 25%)
Howl's Moving Castle	Diana Wynne Jones	A young woman gets caught up in magical machinations and is turned old & fabulously crotchety. Great characters and vibe but I lost track of the plot a bit (disclaimer: listened to this as a sleep story), and wasn't really into the romantic ending. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8eOjQ3JrXk&list=PLp6dwtXsi8Pu6G7MT4ajMGB1YrumzQRZ9
Every Secret Thing	Marie Munkara	Mission mob vs bush mob in the Top End. Crude & cutting humour, with occasional glimpses of the raw, traumatic truth of dispossession & cultural genocide.
Mind Of My Mind	Octavia Butler	The god-like mutant Doro finally breeds his race of super-powered telepaths. Can they hold it together, and can he tolerate them? Not much narrative tension or interesting characters, and not a lot happens.
The Odyssey	Homer	Travel back in time for a little insight into the worldview & values of the ancient Greeks. Fickle meddlesome gods, male honour, rampant war and liberal violence, slavery & female subjugation. Easy flowing translation, though I sometimes lost the rhythm.
Sleeping Giants	Sylvain Neuval	An alien artifact triggers a race to harness its immense power. Told mostly via interview transcripts, which kinda works (I liked how the interviewer gradually becomes more of a protagonist, and more invested in the interviewees) but doesn't do justice to the action sequences. Smoking Man X-Files vibes.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches	Sangu Mandanna	A lonely witch finds family & love when she is sought out to tutor three young witchy girls. A cosy romantic fantasy. Some enlivening characters and fun use of magic. Very 'House by the Cerulean Sea'.
The Sound of the Mountain	Yasunari Kawabata	In post-war Japan, an aging man grapples ineffectually with the autumn of his life, the failure of his children's marriages, and his slightly inappropriate relationship with his daughter-in-law. Calmly mellow & unfocussed, much like old age might be.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde	Robert Louis Stevenson	When our baser urges are allowed to run free, they end up dominating. Disturbing, even if the 'science' is a bit amusing. https://downtosleep.podbean.com/e/jekyll-and-hyde-complete-audiobook-with-relaxing-fire-sounds-down-to-sleep/
Slade House	David Mitchell	Every nine years, people disappear into a house which otherwise can't be found. The author's usual layering of stories across different time periods gradually reveals the truth, though it's not particularly clever this time around. Dark arts & illusions, bit creepy, not really my thing.
The Cruel Stars	John Birmingham	Action space opera that doesn't take itself too seriously. Humanity has become a diverse species dangerously dependent on digital & genomic enhancement - a zealous puritan strain plans to change that. A few too many characters to begin with - none of them I connected with, and many of whom die - but they come together nicely.
The Art of Uncertainty	David Spiegelhalter	A fairly readable overview of probability & uncertainty, from the straightforward games of chance through to the deep uncertainty of future risks such as climate change & AI. Not sure who it's aimed at: some of it is too complex for the layman, but not deep enough for the technically minded. Has some good examples, especially from covid. Would have liked some worked examples of how to apply its principles to real life decision-making.
Blackout	Connie Willis	The Oxford time travellers are back, back to the London Blitz in WW2. But they are having trouble returning home, and getting caught up in all sorts of trouble in the meantime. Slow moving and overly detailed, but the near slapstick humour saves it. Only the first half of the story, so unfulfilling.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold	Toshikazu Kawaguchi	In a particular seat in an otherwise unremarkable cafe, it is possible to travel through time. Despite stringent limitations, the customers and workers nonetheless find solace from the travails of life. Its a pleasing enough community of everyday people, but nothing special.
The Lebs	Michael Mohammed Ahmad	A deeply uncomfortable portrayal of Lebanese teenage boys in western Sydney as dumb, racist, misogynistic, sex-obsessed fundamentalists. The last third was more interesting, as the protagonist struggles with the foreignness & ugliness of the White world that he has always idolised.
Drake Hall	Christina Baehr	A fine continuation of the story, but not a standalone book.
Just One Damn Thing After Another	Jodi Taylor	A shameless rip-off of Connie Willis' time travelling historian concept, but with much more chaotic excitement. A bit too much, perhaps, and not enough historic immersion. Don't think too hard, just enjoy the ride.
My Cat Yugoslavia	Pajtim Statovci	Interleaves the story of a young Albanian refugee in Finland, excluded & traumatised, with that of his mother's wedding & her hopes for a future filled with love. The symbolism of the cats & snakes is a bit weird but I think I finally got my head around it. Mostly interesting for its depictions of Albanian culture and Finnish xenophobia.
2.5 stars (8 books, 12%)
The Man Who Died Twice	Richard Osman	More fun times with the crime-solving (& committing!) pensioners. The stakes are higher but doesn't feel so fresh. A bigger role for the inscrutable Bogdan is welcome. Laughs off some pretty substantial abuse of the justice system.
Akarnae	Lynette Noni	Fairly derivative YA fantasy: teenage girl crosses into a parallel world, where she becomes a fish-out-of-water at a school for talented students, and discovers she's the only one who can prevent the obliteration of humanity. Some ingrained patriarchy - why do female heroes always have to be hot? Totally needless. Nice enough but nothing special.
The Erratics	Vicki Laveau-Harvie	Two sisters deal with the aging of their estranged parents, the mother psychopathically unhinged and the father cowed & abused. Morbidly fascinating but scattered and purposeless.
Watership Down	Richard Adams	The trials & adventures of rabbits setting up a new warren: strange cultures, claw-biting escapades and the terror of war. Similar to Wind in the Willows but the anthropomorphism is weaker and the characters less vibrant. It's just as misogynistic: does are thought of as mere 'breeding stock', though worth fighting over. Drags along though it builds to a decent climax.
Comes the Night	Isobelle Carmody	YA dystopian set in Canberra! In a polluted world, cities have been enclosed in domes and pervasive tech & propaganda keep the population in line. A teenage boy gets entangled in mysterious intrigue, and soon starts to wonder if his dreams are more than they seem. Very slow and overly explicatory, except for the ending which was sudden, unclear and too easy.
A Court of Thorns and Roses	Sarah Maas	My first foray into romantasy. The plot is so-so (humans vs faeries, love & intrigue) but finishes strongly. The romance is weak - it's never clear why she loves the faerie lord, except for his sexy man-beastiness. Hopefully this is not the best the genre has to offer.
The Strangest Criminals	Blake Polden	In a world where the Occult lives along side the Ordinary, a magical mafia family turns bad. Has potential, with some fresh creativity, but the writing is too choppy & disrupted.
Sula	Toni Morrison	Tracks a black community from the 1920s onwards, focusing on two women who choose to live life on their own terms. A lot of eccentric characters and matter-of-factly told traumatic events, with a sardonic reflection on life at the bottom of the hierarchy. Never hooked me in though, so fell flat.
2 stars (2 books, 3%)
Spring Snow	Yukio Mishima	A doomed romance in early 20th century Japan. Interminably slow, with frequent tangential digressions into philosophy and description. Nearly gave up but something finally happened 100 pages in. The climax verges on the tragi-comic, but it's mostly just brooding & hopeless. I was intrigued by the nobleman who is so elegant that problems solve themselves, hence effortlessly maintaining said elegance.
The Secret Garden	Frances Hodgson Burnett	[re-read] Illness is all in your head which can be overcome through fresh air & mental fortitude. Fuck that shit ... Surprised it didn't trigger me on my first read (4 stars)! https://downtosleep.podbean.com/e/the-secret-garden-complete-audiobook-with-rain-down-to-sleep/

 

Electrolyte mix for ME/CFS, POTS etc

This is the recipe that I use for my homemade electrolyte mix. I find it takes the edge off my POTS and reduces how frequently I need to pee (water just seems to run straight through me!).

It is based on the WHO's Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS).

Standard recipe, per litre:

13.5g glucose

2.6g salt (sodium chloride)

1.5g potassium chloride

2.9g trisodium citrate  

Glucose is available in bulk from home brew stores as dextrose. PwME tend to eat low-carb diets and so may not like the idea of consuming this much sugar. However, the glucose improves salt absorption, and I noticed it was much less effective when I left it out. Also, it doesn't seem to mess with my blood sugar the way sucrose or other simple carbs do.

I use iodised sea salt to make sure I get enough iodine in my diet. This works out to roughly 100ug of iodine per litre. Depending on how refined the sea salt is, it may also provide a bunch of other elements (notably magnesium).

In some countries, potassium chloride is available in supermarkets as a salt replacement. Not so in Australia, so I buy it from iherb or an online bulk powders supplier. You can substitute with 2.0g/L potassium citrate.

Trisodium citrate is only available from online bulk powders stores, which is annoying. The WHO says you can substitute it with 2.5g/L of sodium bicarbonate, which is much easier to get. The downside of this is that it makes the mix alkaline, rather than neutral. I have stomach acidity issues so I figure the less I mess with my stomach pH the better. 

I make up 20L worth of powder at a time using kitchen scales, which lasts me a few weeks. Each teaspoon (5mL) then makes up one cup (250mL) of solution. I find one litre per day is enough for me, but people with worse POTS might benefit from more. Though if you do, be careful not too consume too much total sodium or potassium.

Balanced potassium version

There might be long-term issues with consuming more sodium than potassium, and PwME already have low potassium. I've adjusted the ORS recipe so that the sodium:potassium ratio is 1:1, rather than the original 2.2:1, while retaining the same osmolality. It seems to work just as well.

13.5g glucose

1.7g salt

2.6g potassium chloride

3.0g trisodium citrate  

Cost 

The cost of the standard recipe works out to 27 cents per litre. This is based on salt at $3.25/kg from my local wholefoods store, dextrose at $5/kg from the homebrew shop, potassium chloride $41/kg and sodium citrate $45/kg, both from BulkSupplements.com.

This compares to 80c/L for BulkNutrient.com's Electrolyte Blend powder (which has no glucose, but has magnesium and calcium and much less sodium). 

Other recipes

LMNT DIY recipe - 5:1 Na:K, some Mg, no sugar. Very similar to Sodii.

 

Book reviews 2024

 Somehow it's already March, but here is my book summary for 2024.

69 books this year! Which is getting up towards the glory days of the late 2010s. In last year's summary I noted that the number of books I had read had dropped, possibly due to reading more news & articles. I went cold-turkey on the news for a good chunk of 2024, so perhaps that helped get my numbers back up.

I read 25,486 pages (70 pages/day), compared to 20,500 in 2023 (56 pages/day).

My average rating is up to 3.6 stars, which is as amongst the highest since records began in 2009. This is due to an unusually high proportion of 4 star books (33%, compared to 20-25% typically), and low proportion of 3 stars books. This isn't explained by a shift in genre, so I've either made some good book choices or was feeling particularly generous.

In keeping with the zeitgeist, I partly fell off the DEI bandwagon by reading more male authors than I have been. But I maintained my level of non-White authors. I had thoughtlessly stopped explicitly selecting from my To Read list based on gender, but had continued to do so based on diversity. Just goes to show that it requires effort to push back against the systemic biases of society (did someone mention DEI?).

My slide into fiction dominance continues. I blame brain fog, and the fact that life is too short to beat yourself up about reading choices.

Notables:

• Cosy fiction is a thing, and it's great: Try "A Prayer For The Crown-Shy" by Becky Chambers (5 stars) and "Legends & Lattes" by Travis Baldree.
• Fun Times in Hobart Town: "The Angry Women's Choir" by Meg Bignell (4.5 stars)
• Too Close to the Bone: "The Deluge" By Stephen Markley (4.5 stars)
• Traumatic Youth: "Lola In The Mirror" by Trent Dalton (5 stars), "Young Mungo" by Douglas Stuart (4.5 stars), "Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey (4.5 stars)
• Horrifyingly Fascinating: "Plagues Upon The Earth" by Kyle Harper (4 stars) and "Nine Lives" by Aimen Dean (both 4 stars).
• Most Somnolent: "The Silmarillion" By JJR Tolkein (3.5 stars)
• Underwhelming: "Leviathan Wakes" by James Corey (first in The Expanse series, 3 stars)
• Formulaic Time-Suck: "An Ember In The Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir. As I finished it I really liked it, but as time passed I realised how empty my absorption had been. 
• Most Controversial: "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (2 stars)

The full list of reviews:

5 stars (2 books, 3%)
A Prayer For The Crown-Shy	Becky Chambers	To be, together, and for each other, is enough. Soulfully therapeutic. Mosscap is gorgeous, charmingly thrilled with the world: 'my very own *satchel*!'
Lola In The Mirror	Trent Dalton	A homeless girl searches for identity while on the run from organised crime, expressing herself through art, finding solace in dreams of a glorious future, with support from Brisbane's idiosyncratic 'houseless' community. A rivetting, energetic story with a distinct & under-heard voice.
4.5 stars (7 books, 10%)
Bloke	Bruce Pascoe	Easy money lands a fisherman in hot water off the coast of SE Aus. The love of a good woman and a the Indigenous community help him through. I loved the narrative voice: a distinctive gentle and self-aware masculinity.
The City We Became	NK Jemisin	New York becomes a sentient being, through six human avatars, but something in the multiverse isn't happy. Explosively creative & often funny. Shares a deep love for the city & its people. Clever use of identity politics and gentrification.
The Angry Women's Choir	Meg Bignell	What a riot! An underappreciated housewife/mother finds friendship, support & unbridled feminism in a Hobartian women's choir. The wanker men soon get their come-uppances. Not subtle but a rollicking good time.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin	Louis de Bernières	Life on a Greek Island during World War 2. Satirises the idiotic incompetence of the warmongers, while celebrating the quirky humanity of the rest.
The Deluge	Stephen Markley	A US-centric view of the coming two decades as the climate and social cohesion rapidly break down. Amplifies the worst of current political & economic trends to create a truly terrifying but not-impossible dystopia. Told from a rich variety of perspectives, though compresses the pace of climate change improbably (I hope!). Intense, scary & draining.
Young Mungo	Douglas Stuart	Similar premise to his first book: gay boy with alcoholic mother in Glasgow. But different enough and also superbly executed. Full of precisely drawn, skin-crawling characters & behaviour, from the psychopathic but protective brother, the deadly Protestant vs Catholic brawls, and the slimey alcoholic older male "role models". Such an unattractive cover!
Jasper Jones	Craig Silvey	A murder mystery & coming-of-age story, with hefty lashes of abuse & racism, set in a small country town, 1960s Australia. Dark stuff, but leavened with teen romance and hilariously on-point best-mate banter (Jeffrey Lu is a legit superhero).
4 stars (23 books, 33%)
The Past Is Red	Catherynne M Valente	The last remnants of humanity are adrift on a flooded earth, clinging to a giant life raft built from the refuse of the 'fuckwits' who destroyed it. Morbid & irreverent, with everything taken to extremes.
The Body Keeps The Score	Bessel van der Kolk	Trauma is a major unrecognised public health issue. Talk therapy and drugs are not effective; emotional & social engagement has to be revived. Not as useful as I hoped for my own issues, but neurofeedback and EMDR are intriguing.
Coraline	Neil Gaiman	A girl is trapped in a mirror world inhabited by doppelgangers with black buttons for eyes. Can she escape becoming a meal for its architect? Creepy! But excellent. Too much tension for a sleep story. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYoEeGYxCzQ
Tress of the Emerald Sea	Brandon Sanderson	A girl with guts goes off to rescue her one true love, finding a crew of supportive friends along the way. Crazy setting with magic spores. Author let his hair down and it feels fresh & joyful.
Abolish the Family	Sophie Lewis	The nuclear family is a patriarchal institution of oppression & capital, and yet remains unquestioned. Thought-provoking & disruptive but short on constructive ideas. Heavy on the lib arts jargon.
Flowers for Algernon	Daniel Keyes	An intellectually disabled man undergoes a procedure that makes him a genius, but the cost of intelligence and self-knowledge is high. Heart-rending & sensitively done.
The Winter King	Bernard Cornwell	A realist telling of the Arthurian legend. With the Romans gone, Britain is failing: its gods weak, its kingdoms squabbling, beset on both side by the conquering Irish and Saxons. Life is squalid & brutal, with Arthur a shining hope, but neither he, nor anyone else, is as perfect as he seems.
Free and Equal	Daniel Chandler	Presents Rawls' philosphical framework for a better & more robust liberal democracy, and real-world policies for bringing it to life. A valuable foundation for considered & effective progressive politics. Convincing & hopeful.
Plagues Upon The Earth	Kyle Harper	A fascinating history of infectious disease, from the paleolithic to covid, and how it has evolved to suit the developing human environment. Gave me a much better understanding of the disease burden & character of hunter-gatherers and how different it is today. And made me incredibly thankful for public health & hygiene infrastructure!
My Family and Other Animals	Gerald Durrell	An English family decamps to the Greek island of Corfu, and manages to make the place madder than it was already. Hilarious vignettes of the family's exploits interspersed with stunning descriptions of the author's observations of the natural world. The encounter between the gecko and the mantis is unparalleled.
Small Things Like These	Claire Keegan	A penetrating snapshot of Irish life under the suffocating weight of Catholic dominance. But true moral strength cannot be suppressed, and every small act erodes that edifice. Beautifully crafted.
Foundryside	Robert Jackson Bennett	Crafts a novel world from steampunkish magic controlled by an oligarchy of aristocratic families. Pleasing allegory for capitalism and AI.
Nine Lives	Aimen Dean	Traces the evolution of a (very) young jihadi from the Bosnian front, to bomb-maker for al-Quada, to (still young) spy for MI6. A lot of extreme living! Valuable insight into motivations & rationalisations of jihadism.
Isaac and the Egg	Bobby Palmer	The mind goes to extreme lengths to protect itself from sudden loss & crippling grief. Everyone needs a good egg to help put the pieces back together again. Touching & distinctive.
Technofeudalism	Yanis Varoufakis	Late-stage capitalism has given way to cloud-based fiefs, and we are the serfs. I need convincing on some of the detail (e.g. how effective are they at manipulating our desires?), but mostly agree with his main argument. Pairs well with Cory Doctorow's #enshittification ideas.
Taming Toxic People	David Gillespie	A notable proportional of people are psychopaths (aka malignant narcissists, sociopaths) and they cause havoc because they have limited empathy and care nothing for social norms. Has given me a valuable appreciation for this form of neurodiversity to help understand and manage those fraught situations that are otherwise inexplicable. The science is interesting - it's more likely neurological than upbringing or trauma. Ironically, the author doesn't show much empathy for the psychopaths!
Black and Blue	Veronica Gorrie	The life & career of an Indigenous police woman. Her upbringing is burdened by no end of horrific substance-fuelled abuse - it's a wonder she came out so functional. Time in Queensland police force in the 2000s is less devastating, but affects her more, with the institutionalised racism and corruption* on top of the job's nature giving her PTSD. (*refer Peter Dutton)
The First Woman	Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi	A teenage girl in 1970s Uganda comes to terms with patriarchy, family & sisterhood. A bit slow without much emotional connection, but the detailed dive into Ugandan culture & history is fascinating.
Wormwood Abbey	Christina Baehr	A period fantasy set in Victorian England - with dragons! Excellent characters who are all very nice to each other and share some fine adventures. A good easy comfort read.
The Trouble With Peace	Joe Abercrombie	A cynical take on the deep power of finance & capitalism in an age of rapid industrialisation. Numerous players (pawns) strive for 'power' with varying degrees of cunning & strategy. Provides his usual hefty dose of backstabbing and dry wit, and a touch less graphic violence.
Ocean's Echo	Everine Maxwell	A queer romance set in a space-faring future where humans have developed telepathic abilities. Two telepaths are thrown together by political expediency, and despite initial incompatibility (they are both very different sorts of neurodiverse) they build a strong partnership, and eventually love. The two protagonists are well portrayed, and very likeable despite their foibles.
Legends & Lattes	Travis Baldree	A lovely little story about an ex-adventurer who turns her orcish hand to opening a coffee shop. Everyone is nice except for the odd dickhead who provides narrative tension. Imagine the Discworld with hygge instead of satire.
Living Democracy	Tim Hollo	"It's the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn't have to be the end of the world." Provides an overview of the roots of the polycrisis (mostly separation & domination) and sketches out the shape of what must replace it: a grassroots democracy inspired by the systemic interdependency of ecology. Both reformism & revolution will just support the current, malignant system. Not much of it was new to me, but it provides a solid framework for many disparate ideas. Take the power back! (Disclaimers: I read this while low on brain juice, and Millie is thanked for her feedback in the acknowledgements.)
3.5 stars (2 books, 29%)
Holding The Man	Tim Conigrave	Growing up gay in an all-boys Catholic school in 70s Australia, then straight into the horrific tragedy of the AIDS epidemic. Lots of explicit sex. Jesuit priests surprisingly supportive. Lost my attention part way through - got a bit then-this-happened. Thankful we provided a supportive medical system for AIDS victims.
Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve	Stanley Rosenberg	Using manual therapy to regulate the nervous system based on polyvagal theory. Worthwhile, but repetitive and long-winded. But most importantly, the self-help exercises actually seem to work, giving me that post-osteo chill.
100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze	Clayton Zane Comber	A dying grandmother gets her autistic grandson to write & complete a list of difficult but everyday challenges. In the process, he engages with a cruel & scary world and finds it full of love & connection. Sweet & reaffirming.
Unbranded	Herb Wharton	Fictionalised autobiography of an Aboriginal stockman in the pastoral outback. Despite simple prose, it absorbingly evokes that long gone world with its tall stories, colourful characters (so much grog!) and damages of colonisation.
The Silmarillion	JRR Tolkien	Biblically dull in parts, making for a perfect sleep story. But some chapters were great standalone stories full of action & high drama. Otherwise, only for world-building nerds. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ-yRQ8_dw8&list=PLp6dwtXsi8Ps6A3vWuaOA9JFOULn-WLzI&index=3&pp=iAQB
Millefiori	Omar Musa	Poetry with a hiphop steetwise feel. On prejudice, a broken world, and lost love. A few were great, but a bunch missed me. 'We know that the world is a horror story, but we also know it's got love notes at the margins.'
The Lincoln Highway	Amor Towles	A road trip novel where the desire for a fresh start gets hijacked by lost boys with wild schemes. Fairly enjoyable. Tragicomic.
Song of the Crocodile	Nardi Simpson	Indigenous life on the edge of a deeply racist outback town. Plot is unremarkable but intriguingly entwines with ancestors and Dreaming to a resounding crescendo which ... hangs, leaving much unclear and unresolved.
Time of Contempt	Andrzej Sapkowski	Much improved on the first book, though still too much banter and an obfuscating flood of names & places.
Radicalized	Cory Doctorow	Four dystopian novellas about the worst parts of Western society: enshittification, systemic racism, dysfunctional healthcare and sociopathic preppers. Gets increasingly dark.
The Thursday Murder Club	Richard Osman	Residents of an old folks home solve crimes with relish. A charming take on the crime fiction formula. Some memorable characters, nearly all of them lovely.
Far Sector	NK Jemisin & Jamal Campbell	An interstellar justice-bringer (a Green Lantern) is called to help a planet that hasn't seen crime in generations due to the use of an emotion-suppressing gene therapy. But that order starts to unravel as she tries to get a handle on the situation, her own emotionality proving invaluable. Brilliant dynamic artwork.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982	Cho Nam-Joo	A straightforward but damning account of the patriarchy in modern Korea. An unusual mix of fictionalised autobiography and footnoted essay.
Ancillary Mercy	Ann Leckie	More with our other favourite (but much less violent) rogue AI. Perhaps too much time spent on emotional intricacies rather than plot. The alien Translator and the Ship/Station AIs are quite pleasing though.
Fathoms	Rebecca Giggs	The extraordinariness of whales, what they mean to us, and their immense connections across the globe and beyond. Beautifully written, but occasionally lapses into flowery waffle and an overload of metaphor. Chapter on plastic is particularly painful.
Weyward	Emilia Hart	A line of women connected by their suffering at the hands of psychopathic men, and their uncanny affinity for the natural world. Witchcraft wins.
The Kiss Quotient	Helen Hoang	An autistic woman decides she needs to learn how to have good sex, and falls big time for the escort she arranges to teach her. All a bit silly & obvious but reasonably well done, and the sex is explicit & steamy without being ridiculous. I do wonder if autistic traits can be magically turned off by Mr Right, though ....
The Island of Missing Trees	Elif Shafak	Through the tragedy of Cyprus, explores the intergenerational trauma of civil war & exile. How the opportunity for a new life is unmoored from culture and weighed down by grief & guilt. I liked the fig tree as narrator.
Resurrection in a Bucket	Margaret Simons	An enthusiastic dive into the compost pile. The history of the organic movement was particularly interesting, while the anecdotes of compost in social life were well-chosen and quite funny. As Danny Rojas would say, "Compost is life!"
When the Pelican Laughed	Alice Nannup	Autobiography of an Indigenous woman who was taken from her family & country as a teenager and 'cared for' (i.e. exploited) by the Aborigines Department. She lived a life full of hard work and undeserved prejudice with grace & strength. Simply told but surprisingly engaging.
3 stars (11 books, 16%)
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning	Lemony Snicket	A dark children's story about three orphans who get farmed out to their evil & conniving relative, who has eyes only for their fortune. The baddies are over-the-top, and the good adults frustratingly disregard the children's inadequate cries for help. Some questionable plot points. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eosuq1lqrg4
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz	L Frank Baum	A colourful little jaunt consisting of a series of slightly ludicrous and easily overcome obstacles. https://downtosleep.podbean.com/e/the-wizard-of-oz-complete-audiobook-down-to-sleep-51/
Purple Hibiscus	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	Religiosity, colonial worship & domestic violence make for a sparse & traumatic family life.
The Book of Longings	Sue Monk Kidd	What if Jesus had a wife? Great premise and recreation of that world, but the characters didn't draw me in, nor did it explore the theological ramifications his marriage would have had.
Frederica	Georgette Heyer	An aromantic period romance. Not a lot of plot, but a lot of sometimes impenetrable banter. Disappointingly, the strong capable female protagonist gradually becomes more & more dependent on the rich & unflappable lord.
Spinning Silver	Naomi Novik	In medieval Russia, three young women, a Jew, a peasant & a noble, harden their hearts and rely on their wits to save themselves & the ones they love. Made much more difficult by the fairy king of winter and a firey demon.
Leviathan Wakes	James Corey	What's all the fuss? Just a space thriller with so-so characters. A gritty future where humanity has colonised the solar system, but it's as corporate, politically riven & prejudiced as today. Some intrigue and a fair bit of action, but to what end?
Harrow the Ninth	Tamsyn Muir	Our favourite necromancer has risen to the ranks of the most powerful, who are rather Machiavellian but disconcertingly human. In the process though, she has lost her marbles, and we are left without any certainty as to what the hell is going on, and doubts undermine our memory of the first book. Which is mostly bearable because it eventually unravels, only to be frustrated by an unwelcome dumping of unresolved head-scratchers which demands some re-reading. More serious than the first book, without the swagger.
The Shadow King	Maaza Mengiste	The invasion of Ethiopia by Italy under Mussolini. Brutal violence and horrific use of modern weaponry against poorly armed but committed defenders. Operatic & impressionist, oft-times too much.
The Labyrinth	Amanda Lohrey	A woman struggles for wholeness after her son commits an unspeakable crime. She finds it through building a labyrinth, and relationships with those that help. Very readable and engaging, but its deeper purpose evaded me.
Scythe	Neal Shusterman	A future where AI has created the perfect world without war, illness or death, and a select group keeps the population in check via 'gleaning'. Great premise but occasionally feels like a parody of itself and missed the opportunity for thought-provoking world building. Not much characterisation.
2.5 stars (3 books, 4%)
An Ember In The Ashes	Sabaa Tahir	Well done, but lacking in originality. All the YA fantasy tropes are there: training school, underground resistance, trials, dark magic, love triangle, disturbing violence. Sucked me in but left me with nothing.
Purple Threads	Jeanine Leane	A fictionalised autobiography of growing up Indigenous on the outskirts of Gundagai. A tribute to her Aunties & Nan, strong & colourful independent women, but otherwise lacks purpose. Telling family stories through dialogue gets a bit boring.
Little Men	Louisa May Alcott	A series of cloyingly moralistic tales from Jo's school of wayward boys, where love & kindness are all that's needed to create fine upstanding gentlemen.
2 stars (2 books, 3%)
Transcendent Kingdom	Yaa Gyasi	Can science and God be reconciled? Why are some people prone to addiction? How not to deal with trauma. Struggled to hold my attention or interest.
The Little Prince	Antoine de Saint-Exupéry	I don't get it. Too obscure for a #SleepStory. https://downtosleep.podbean.com/e/the-little-prince-audiobook-part-1-down-to-sleep-64/
1.5 stars (1 book, 1%)
The Wake	Tom Murphy	An Irish play about a woman's homecoming and family conflict over inheritance. Lots of drinking & moaning, unclear what's actually going on. Not sure how this got on my to read list. Maybe it works on the stage?