I’m listening to Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. This is the first of her Murderbot series. The Murderbot is a genderless cyborg who is the security detail for a human colony on a new planet. I kind of envision a smaller Robocop. It’s shorter than most of the books I listen to at under 4 hours. But, it is entertaining and I expect I’ll continue the series.

I checked out Amy Stewarts’ The Drunken Botanist: the plants that create the world’s great drinks from the library via Libby. It’s more agricultural anthropology than a celebration of cocktails. It’s pretty light reading and entertaining. I have learned that sake is only served hot to cover up the fact that it’s not a particularly good sake and that rye whiskey was developed because it can stand long periods of cold better than others grains.

Noir is a collection of fantasy and scifi short stories, all in the noir style, edited by David B. Coe & John Zakour. I bought the Kindle version because I wanted to read a particular story by one of my favorite fantasy authors and I am having a delightful time with the rest of them.

I paused Moby Dick. I was finding it entertaining until Ahab actually made an appearance and he just sucked all the light from the room. I expect I’ll give it another shot in a week. But, if there isn’t more leavening, I’ll let myself give it up. I get why Melville is so engaging for people. His turn of phrase is wonderful. He was a writer of his time and the racism and misogyny is pretty thick in a story that is lugubrious.

Editting to add: I love Nalo Hopkinson’s alternate reality stories. I finished Blackheart Man, recently, and I was startled to find I had come to the end. Not that it ended abruptly. I was just perfectly happy to continue following the lives of her people.