BookOwl

  Whew! What a reading year 2023 was! Like the overachiever I am, I overshot my reading goal for 2023, which was 80. Mind you, I offer the usual disclaimers that among these titles, some were graphic novels and short stories.  Also, I used the cover thumbnails as Goodreads presented me in “My Year in Books.” Apologies for the scaling.  With that out of the way, let the dissection begin! Whew! What a reading year 2023 was!   Like the overachiever I am, I overshot my reading goal for 2023, which was 80. Mind you, I offer the usual disclaimers that among these titles, some were graphic novels and short stories. Also, I used the cover thumbnails as Goodreads presented me in “My Year in Books.” Apologies for the scaling. With that out of the way, let the dissection begin!   1. I did some branching out of my comfort zone this year. That being the dipping of my proverbial toes into the deep end that is the romance genre. I chose to start with the friendlier shallow...

  *Spoilers ahead!* 4/5 stars I’m going to start this off by saying how much the third entry in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” series, Children of Memory , reminded me of Star Trek. Why will become more apparent soon. Once again, Tchaikovsky’s trademark superb worldbuilding is at work here, bringing readers through the start and collapse of whole civilizations before zooming in to the more personal perspectives of our main characters exploring said wreckage of previous civilizations. The multispecies coalition we last see form in the previous book, Children of Ruin , is exploring the vastness of space together in an interesting fusion of inorganic and organic technology.  There’s “Humans,” the capitalization indicating that these humans have been infected with an empathy-inducing virus so as to get along with their super-intelligent spider (Portiids) and octopus (Octopus) partners. (The Corvids, an extremely smart species of bird, join this expedition later in the...

As 2022 comes to a close, I wanted to reflect on my reading journey this year. I am an active Goodreads user, so I will be using a snapshot of my reading year on the date 12/28/2022 (I will exclude any books I finish between now and New Year's for our purposes). I set a reading goal of 70 books this year. As I tend to do, I overdid it a bit! I ended up reading 135 books . (Granted, graphic novels really helped me out, but those aren't the majority of the reading I do. Not saying that graphic novels are any less valuable or engaging than their non-illustrated, print counterparts, but they are definitely quicker reads.) See below for a visual look at my 2022. Continue below the visuals for a highlights analysis.  *Spoilers warning for the discussion below. You've been warned!*

It is time...for BookOwl to recommend books about owls! (Books and owls: always a winning combination!) Here are my reading recommendations, both fiction and nonfiction, featuring this fascinating bird of prey.  Wesley the Owl  by Stacy O'Brien Wesley the Owl  is a humorous and poignant story of Caltech biologist Stacey O'Brien taking in a baby barn owl with nerve damage in one wing. Thus begins a two-decade chronicle of Stacey raising the barn owl chick, Wesley, from baby to full-grown adult. It offers not only a moving personal journey from the caretaker's perspective, but an interesting look into barn owl development and the complications of taking on the responsibility of raising an owl that can't survive in the wild. Wesley has his own unique personality, and it was a treat as the reader to get to know this owl and follow his story from beginning to end. I'll admit, this one you need to read with a box of tissues. Owls of the Eastern Ice  by Jonathan C. Slaght ...

  As Star Trek would say: "Space, the final frontier!" The universe is a very big place, but books (and science!) help to bring space down to Earth for its readers. Some of these books can seem over the heads for us non-scientist readers, with all sorts of intimidating jargon in the scientific field present that discourage us from reading further. Not to mention this is a curiosity-killer! Science of all kinds can feel like a realm not meant for us mere mortals, especially when dealing with the mind-boggling scale of the universe. However, the best popular science books are witty and engaging about the big ideas and written in an accessible way, sans jargon. Here is a small selection of space books that I think will be less intimidating (and more fun) journeys through the cosmos. The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Dr. Moiya McTier This is a more recent addition to the popular science canon, published August of 2022. Dr. Moiya McTier, an astrophysicist and folkl...

*Spoilers warning!* 4/5 stars The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)  is an engaging and witty book, and dare I say, fun! Despite the grim subject matter discussed, namely the diverse ways physicists think the universe could end, astrophysicist Katie Mack's enthusiasm for the science involved is contagious. I can tell that she loves the line of work she is in, even when tackling the big existential questions that boil down to:  “How and why are we here, and where are we going?” Optimism and drive are required for those who study the true end times, and besides, people are naturally curious. It is probably the reason that humanity has gotten anywhere, honestly, especially to a point where we can contemplate these questions and figure out how to answer them.  As I write this, the main story in science news has been the first photo taken of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, Sag A*. Scientists had inferred from observations of the movements of...