Akiva Reads

The Oven

Akiva — Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Sophie Goldstein

Mendoza in Hollywood (The Company, #3)

Akiva — Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Kage Baker

Torn between 3 and 4/5. There are so many things I enjoy about this series: secret alternate history, little conspiracy theories everywhere, fitting the sci fi timeline in among things I have always wished were knowable, like prehistorical human culture + the people of the Americas pre-conquest …

Light from Uncommon Stars

Akiva — Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Ryka Aoki

At first I thought this was going to be too dark for me, then I realized it was going to be too saccharine. I slogged through to page 50. I paused and read a couple dozen 4-5 star reviews from people whose opinions I generally find valuable …

Confessions of the Fox

Akiva — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Jordy Rosenberg

You can practically smell this book, which is particularly noticeable coming back to it after tearing through a KJ Charles book that took place maybe 50-75 years later. (Lol what is English history, actually I don't know the time difference. I'm sure London still smelled horrible in …

How to Fake It in Society

Akiva — Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by K.J. Charles

Beautifully constructed plot!

ELADATL: A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines

Akiva — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Sesshu Foster, Arturo Ernesto Romo

I FINISHED IT. I didn't think that was going to happen but then my puzzle-solving brain kicked in and I couldn't leave it alone.

I am a huge fan of epistolary/documentary stories, stuff where you have to make the connections, etc. The biggest …

Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries, #8)

Akiva — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Martha Wells

Starting so extremely in media res made it a bit hard to catch my breath. Altho I think MB feels the same, ao.

A Death in Tokyo (Detective Kaga, #3)

Akiva — Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Keigo Higashino, Giles Murray

China Mountain Zhang

Akiva — Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Maureen F. McHugh

Can't BELIEVE it took me so long to finally read this, one of the best books I've read in a long while and so exactly the kind of book I love. Political but with wonderful characters, alternate history, not utopian or dystopian but has both real …

Second Chances in New Port Stephen

Akiva — Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by T.J. Alexander

Skim-read, not sure why. I don't find anything funny or charming about Christmas kitsch and that's pretty much required for this one.

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

Akiva — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Fumi Nakamura

I would have liked this better had I not read several very similar books already. It would have had to go way above and beyond to stand out, and it didn't. 2.5 rounded up because this feels like a me problem.

Shopping Cart Pantheism

Akiva — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Jeanne Randolph

I love a short weird book but this is 85% Christianity and Freud, two topics I notoriously don't give a fuck about. I think if you title a book "pantheism" it should contain SOME kind of religious reference other than Christians and Christianity and Christian philosophy. (2-3 …

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

Akiva — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Samit Basu

Page 75/chapter 7. The infodumps do not stop coming, and I do not want to read a 400 page book told mostly in infodumps while I also don't like the way the characters talk to each other. Am I supposed to be rooting for Lina when …

Gilded Cage (Lilywhite Boys, #2)

Akiva — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by K.J. Charles

Hijab Butch Blues

Akiva — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Lamya H.

Came for the butch memoir, stayed for the beautifully written midrash, got my lights punched out by that last chapter on Yunus/Jonah and rage at injustice and picking your battles not being the same thing as giving up. (Guess what I'm going to be talking about …

Biography of X

Akiva — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Catherine Lacey

Turns out I can get into an emotionally stressful book about people in bad marriages behaving badly as long as it's got a strong plot and interesting mystery and takes place in a fascinating alternate universe.

The Thirty Names of Night

Akiva — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Zeyn Joukhadar

Probably good art, but I didn't enjoy it. The lavish prose and magical realism were just annoying to read, and I closed it with relief. Several overdone parallels and coincidences, but one of the early central ones (main character's graffiti habit) completely fizzles out. Duolingo Arabic was …

The Deep Dark

Akiva — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

by Lee Knox Ostertag

Yes.

Stag Dance

Akiva — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by Torrey Peters

Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime

Akiva — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by Alex Espinoza

I want just a little more editing for this. Hard to put my finger on why most of the time (a slightly awkward wording here and there, a sentence that's just a little too convoluted, an occasional clunky transition), but on p. 117 I feel pretty confident …

Interior Chinatown

Akiva — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by Charles Yu

Weird and feelings-y. I liked the weird a lot, the Divorced Straight Man parts were a little much for me personally, I just don't have a lot of interest/patience for that in Literature.

The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)

Akiva — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by N.K. Jemisin

Enjoyed this much more than I expected; I have struggled with Jemisin's goriness before, but this was more my speed. I was really impressed with the subtlety until about 60 pages in, when we got 1. some rather explainy trans stuff, and then 2. a villain …

A Trans Man Walks into a Gay Bar

Akiva — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by Harry Nicholas

About 40% of this is good and specific and personal and well written... and the other 60% is the worst most boring and self-righteous trans 101, complete with footnotes linking to webpages. (I would have to check if Nicholas ever cited a book---I don't think so, though …

A Rant About Technology

Akiva — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Short essay here: ursulakleguin[dot]com/a-rant-about-technology

Technology is the active human interface with the material world.

This seems like a good lens to look at something that felt very "fantasy" to me despite its high tech, [b:The Genesis of Misery|59808142|The Genesis …

Sex Change and the City

Akiva — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

by Tuck Woodstock, Niko Stratis

Been reading this gradually since November. Many good bits, I think the blackout poem was surprisingly one of my faves though. Extra points for an extremely funny cover.