• Book title: Sea of Tranquility
• Author: Emily St. John Mandel
• Rating: 4/5

This book is very clearly influenced by the pandemic.

When I picked it up, I did not know it was science fiction. (To be fair, I almost never know what a book is about. I mostly pick randomly.)

There is time travel in it, and I am a sucker for time travel. If I ever write a book, it will have time travel in it. And this was pulled off nicely.

Anyway, this was a good read. Clever ending.

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• Book title: Red Queen
• Author: Christina Henry
• Rating: 3.5/5

I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first book in the series, but at least it was less gruesome. It somehow lacked the charm of Alice; there were fewer characters I recognized from Carroll’s work.

But I want to know what's next for Hatcher and Alice.

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• Book title: House of Leaves
• Author: Mark Z. Danielewski
• Rating: 5/5

I absolutely love this book. I fully understand why this has such a cult following and one week later, I am still thinking about this. So many hidden details, so many mindfucks. Absolute cinema.

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• Book title: Alice
• Author: Christina Henry
• Rating: 3.5/5

Where to buy Alice by Christina Henry:

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• Book title: Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
• Author: Ethan Mollick
• Rating: 2.5/5

Where to buy Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick:

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• Book title: Of Monsters And Mainframes
• Author: Barbara Truelove
• Rating: 4.5/5

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• Book title: Suzy Krause
• Author: I Think We've Been Here Before
• Rating: 4.5/5

Notes & Highlights

“Reality is space and time in all directions forever and ever, including inward, all of the observable things and all of the things too small or too large to be witnessed, all of the things that happen subconsciously and all of the things that cannot be seen but can be felt and sensed and just barely glimpsed: hearts beating, blood flowing, coincidence and happenstance and depthless pain and boundless joy, déjà vu and presque vu and jamais vu. None of it makes a person feel especially ‘grounded,’ no matter what you believe about where it started or how it is going to end. Reality is watery.”

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• Book title: The Book of Lost Hours
• Author: Hayley Gelfuso
• Rating: 4/5

Halfway through, I thought I had this book figured out, but then the book was all like "no, no, no". Quite an enjoyable read.

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• Book title: Red Rising
• Author: Pierce Brown
• Rating: 4/5

Because I like making my life complicated, I started another series, because reading Brando Sando clearly wasn't enough. Pacing was a bit all over the place with this book (especially in the beginning), but the setting is fantastic. The other series I plan to go through in 2026.

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• Book title: Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
• Author: Jesse Q Sutanto
• Rating: 5/5

This is the first time reading a book that made me laugh so hard I started to cry. I love Auntie Vera.

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