Book Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells

Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this title thru NetGalley.

I love the Murderbot Diaries! I have all of them as both ebooks and audiobooks and pre-ordered the audio version of System Collapse before I even got to read the advance copy. This is one of the series I re-listen to as a companion when doing chores or running errands or when I feel like I can’t concentrate on something new: it’s the equivalent of comfort food. I can relate so much with SecUnit: I’m awkward around people, even in regular situations; experience anxiety about things other people treat as normal; have my favorite books and favorite movies and favorite episodes of my favorite serials that I re-read and re-watch repeatedly, again, partly as comfort, partly because they’re just really that good.

That being said, System Collapse isn’t my favorite installment in the series. I read it twice to make sure and while there are some interesting things that happen - especially how SecUnit proposes to get a message to the colonists - and while, as with all the Diaries, there are quotes that crack me up and quotes that highlight societal quirks and quotes that hit home emotionally, it just seemed to me like not a lot happens in this one, especially when compared with Network Effect, which was jam-packed with stuff happening.

I’m still a fan and will continue reading the series because SecUnit and those around it are wonderful characters whom I have grown to care about. Yes, I know I care about fictional characters maybe a little too much, but I'm comfortable with that.

Book Review of The Liberating Arts: Why We Need Liberal Arts Education

 Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this title thru NetGalley.

A bit about me: I am a librarian at a state university which requires students to take courses outside their major (“general education”) so they have a wider range of experiences. I have a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees and am a firm believer in lifelong learning.

It would be great if the people who really need to read this book, The Liberating Arts, would do so and actually consider the arguments put forth, but unfortunately the people who most need to be exposed to the messages in these essays have probably already made up their minds and aren’t open to changing them.

The essay by Rachel B. Griffis titled “Forming Better Professionals and Leaders” in Chapter 8 (“Aren’t Liberal Arts Degrees Unmarketable?”) is one that anyone who even thinks about higher education should be required to read. Even as a naive undergraduate back in the late 1980s I knew that college should be about education and being prepared to adapt to changes, not simply about getting a high-paying job.

I enjoyed, and learned from, most of the essays in this book and will be purchasing a copy for my library. Other passages I highlighted were in essays titled: “Amid the Ruins”, “A History of Liberation” (also examining the idea of education being about more than future financial security), “An Expansive Collection”, “Science as a Human Tradition”, “Why Engineers Need the Liberal Arts”, “Why Liberal Arts Matter in Hiring”, and “Liberating the Least of These”.

Book Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this title thru NetGalley.

I must confess that I didn’t read Kaiju Preservation Society as neither the premise nor beginning grabbed me. But this one I was interested in immediately: a snappy title and a cat dressed in a suit and tie? Count me in! And Starter Villain did not disappoint, delivering what I consider to be Classic Scalzi: fun, funny, (yes, those are separate qualities) snarky, quirky, fast-paced, with timely topical references, some pauses for thought, and plenty of passages to highlight (I love both Scalzi’s fiction and blog writing). Oh, and, of course, one character who says “F*ck” more than even I’m comfortable with (and I cuss more than anyone I know personally), although which character has the potty mouth may surprise you…