OSBR #54: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
The aliens were problematic in the usual ways that aliens are problematic, which was an unfortunate distraction in this otherwise top-notch, page-turning space opera.
OSBR #53 Never Let Me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
If this had been a novella, I would have still cared about the characters at the end.
OSBR #52: Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
The first half of this book will help you understand how the illusion that your conscious brain is the seat of decision-making actually works; the second half of this book […]
OSBR #51: Who’s in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain by Michael S. Gazzanipa
After a fascinating overview of quantum theory and split-brain studies, Gazzaniga slides into a series of conclusions, many of which are unsupported or even disproved by the same research he […]
OSBR #50: Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
A cursed tattoo makes for both a good story and an extended metaphor on sexual assault and recovery in this book that’s a little darker – and, in my opinion, […]
OSBR #49: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (YA)
I’d recommend this story for Marr’s slyly feminist re-imagining of both an old fairy tale and the “young woman choosing between two guys who like her” storyline.
OSBR #48: Women’s Anatomy of Arousal: Secret Maps to Buried Treasure by Sheri Winston
I should have known by the subtitle that whatever information I got from this book would be buried in a multitude of tone-deaf (and sometimes conflicting) analogies written in an […]
OSBR #47: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemison
A smart heroine, otherworldly court intrigue, a bevy of complicated (and gender dynamic) gods, and an author who knows how to tell a tale kept me up until 2am reading.
OSBR #46: Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman
Forty brief but entertaining glimpses of what the afterlife may look like (from heavenly wars to harps to explorations of macro- and microcosms) made for a particularly ideal audio book […]
OSBR #45: Vagina: A Cultural History by Naomi Wolf
As Wolf piled unsupportable assertions on top of interesting facts, I wished she’d been better able to discern the difference between her feelings and, well, science.