#booklist

starrlikesbooks:

@meninavazzquezzSure!

Fantasy

• Mooncakes
• Snapdragon
• Beetle & the Hollow Bones
• Lightfall
• Tea Dragon Society
• Life of Melody
• Witchlight
• Coming Back
• Tidesong
• Garlic & the Vampire
• The Heart Hunter

Sci-Fi & Paranormal

• Cosmoknights
• The Montague Twins
• Squad
• Specter Inspectors
• Seance Tea Party

Realistic

• Just Roll With It
• The Avant-Guards
• Pumpkinheads
• The Legend of Auntie Po

This week our science fiction pick takes us to medieval China, and the fiction one reunites us with professor Jason Fitger. We discovered that sand is fascinating and found a manifesto that amused us but still left us pondering on the world we live in. And who would have thought that a book about economic matters could be so entertaining? Hope you enjoy this week’s picks.

Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy-Tim Harford 

Award-winning journalist Tim Harford is a master at writing clear and entertaining prose about the economy. With his new book, Harford details the history of economic change since the invention of the plow in China 2000 years ago. He focuses on 50 seminal inventions – from the passport and the bar code to paper money and intellectual property. In short, very  readable chapters, Harford brings all 50 inventions to life, placing them in their proper historical contexts and explaining their significance today. Along the way, he entertains us with fascinating anecdotes and a great sense of humor. Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy is a delight to read and a great gift book for just about everyone! Lew G. 

The Poppy War-RF Kuang 

Fantasy enthusiasts looking for their next epic need look no further. The Poppy War, set in a fantastical version of medieval China invites readers to follow the trials of Rin, a war orphan. Despite her meager existence she aces an Empire-wide test propelling her into the ranks of an elite military school. While studying, she begins to unlock the mysteries of her past and of magic thought long lost. Never too far away is the rumble of renewed war with the Empire’s ancient enemy. Based on Chinese history and filled with pulse racing action, this is an excellent addition to any shelf. Michael T.  

The Chapo Guide to Revolution-Chapo Trap House 

First thing’s first - if you know any internet-addicted young men who you think are prone to being scooped up by the alt-right: here’s the antidote. The quickest and easiest way to describe The Chapo Guide to Revolution - the first book to come out of the leftist comedy podcast Chapo Trap House - is to imagine MAD Magazine if it was edited by Noam Chomsky. Part of the broadly-defined ascendant left, which includes publications like Jacobin and candidates such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chapo’s gleefully nihilistic humor offers barbs in the direction of the monstrous right-wingers who control our government and the paltry technocratic liberalism being offered as an alternative. Beneath the internet humor, however, lies a genuinely thoughtful meditation on the role of social welfare amidst the current crisis of late-stage capitalism and looming environmental disaster. Isaac S.  

The Shakespeare Requirement-Julie Schumacher

If there’s ever a time when a comic novel should be in your “to read” pile it’s now, and I’ve got just the book for you. In The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher we return to some characters you will recognize from Schumacher’s hilarious novel, Dear Committee Members. Professor Jason Fitger is now  the besieged head of the English Department at Payne University. His fellow faculty, students and university administrators are undoubtedly recognizable, whether you are an academic or not. Clever, smart and good for giggles, this novel is sure to be one you come back to again and again when a good laugh is in order. Nancy R.

The World in a Grain-Vince Beiser

The World in a Grain is full of surprises, the main two are that sand is fascinating—and frightening. The fascinating part is the science: some sand is round, some angular, and different types have different uses, from bridges and roads to skyscrapers, bottles, and iPhones. Over the last century we’ve poured some 1.5 billion tons of sand and gravel into U.S. highways. This is the scary part: world use of sand has intensified sand mining, sparked sand disputes, and caused environmental degradation. Aside from desert sand, which doesn’t lend itself to modern uses, sand, like oil, is running out, though our need for it is only increasing—concrete may seem solid and permanent, but most concrete structures have a lifespan of about fifty years. Laurie G. 

More Library goodness, and three more books off my reading wish list. I’ve read a lot of Alice Hoffman, my favourites being Here On Earth, Second Nature and The Probable Future, and so I have high expectations of this novel.

I’m also a huge fan of the magnificent storytelling magic of Louise Erdrich, although I wasn’t expecting to see her sitting on the shelves of my little, local library - this, surely, is more evidence of her far-reaching powers.

And lovely Alys Fowler; I love her style, her gardening tips and her out of control hair, as well as her little dog, and, as if that were not enough, I have the feeling that she is about to make me fall in love with the canals of Birmingham. A definite plot twist. What a stack of beauties.

Feral - George Manbiot

Antifragile - Nassim Taleb*

Critical Mass - Philip Ball*

Letters from a Stoic - Seneca*

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Economics - Ha-Joon Chang

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

The Joyous Cosmology - Alan Watts

Dreams - C.G. Jung

Woodsman - Ben Law

The Rise of Superman - Steven Kotler

Mastery - Robert Greene

The Green Self-Build Book - Jon Broome

Zero to One - Peter Thiel

The Rig Vedas - Various Authors, Penguin Classics (or other publisher)

[To be read in order and as an in-depth study into Taoist Alchemy]

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

Chuang Tzu - Chuang Tzu

The Seal of the Unity of the Three - Author debated, Fabrizio Pregadio (Trans.)

Cultivating the Tao - Liu Yiming, Fabrizio Pregadio (Trans.)

The Tao of Tai-Chi Chuan, way to Rejuvenation - Jou, Tsung Hwa

The Root of Chinese Qigong - Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming

[These are listed from oldest to newest texts - I would highly recommend reading them from new to old and back again or the inverse as each reading gives new meaning to the text before it…]

The Sacred Pipe - Black Elk

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt

What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars  - Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan

The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi

The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  - Robert Pirsig

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

Bushido, The Soul of Japan - Inazo Nitobe

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term Travel - Rolf Potts

*Excellent reads if read together! Wonderful melding of ideas and concurrent thought patterns…

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Theme Song - Darkside, Paper Trails

scaliefox:

magic-in-every-book:

powells:

If you like to play The Last of Us, then try Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

If you like to play Beyond: Two Souls, then try The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

If you like to play Call of Duty: Black Ops (Zombies), then try World War Z by Max Brooks

If you like playing Grand Theft Auto, then try American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

If you like playing Sid Meier’s Civilization, then try A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

If you like playing Final Fantasy, try playing Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

If you like playing Mass Effect, then try Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

If you like playing Alice: Madness Returns, then try Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

If you like playing Halo, then try Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein

If you like playing Portal, then try House Of Stairs by William Sleator

If you like playing Mario Kart, then try The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia 

If you like playing Dark Souls, then try Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

If you like playing Life Is Strange, then try We Are Okay by Nina Lacour

If you like playing Stardew Valley, then try How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

If you like playing Fable, then try Young Elites by Marie Lu

If you like playing Borderlands, then try Velocity by Chris Wooding

If you like playing Dishonored, then try Airman by Eoin Colfer

If you like playing The Oregon Trail, then try Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

If you like playing the Elder Scrolls series, then try The Naming by Alison Croggon

If you like playing Red Dead Redemption, then try Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

If you like playing Bioshock, then try  Dark Life by Kat Falls

If you like playing Fallout, then try Razorland by Ann Aguirre 

If you like playing Assasin’s Creed, then try The Way of Shadows Night by Brent Weeks

If you like playing Dragonage, then try Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

If you like playing The Legend of Zelda, then try Graceling by Kristin Cashore

If you like playing Until Dawn, then try Ten by Gretchen McNeil

If you like playing Sonic, then try Maximum Ride by James Patterson

If you like playing Overwatch, then try Bluescreen by Dan Wells

If you like playing Uncharted, then try Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

If you like playing Pokemon, then try Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by JK Rowling, and Newt Scamander

If you like playing Mario Party, then try Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is amazing!!

I have to reblog for two reasons:

1)This is actually a good way to get people into reading.

2)That passive aggressive joke in the last one is pure genius.