Best products from r/FCJbookclub

In March, I read some novels for a change!

Famous Men Who Never Lived, a (I think debut) novel by K Chess. It's a sci-fi novel about being an interdimensional refugee. It was slight, but good while it lasted, and thoughtful. Some guy at a mexican restaurant wanted to know if it was about, like Robin Hood. Don't judge a book by its cover.

The City In The Middle Of The Night, by Charlie Jane Anders. This is a follow-two-people-and-meet-in-the-middle science fiction book set on a planet that doesn't rotate and people are forced to live right on the terminator line. It's got some good horror elements and puts some interesting thought into its setting. The story doesn't go where you think it's going, but you'll like where it goes (probably.)

Roadside Picnic, a classic piece of Russian science fiction, which people are probably more familiar with from the things it inspired, like Tarkovsky's film Stalker, and then the STALKER video games that came from that. Aliens visited our planet, but they didn't notice us. They left their trash behind. Bleak in a very Russian way. Excellent.

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denosovich, the book that shocked the USSR by not being samizdat. It's a slim little thing but says a lot.

Hostage by Guy Delisle. This is the "unusual one" for Delisle, whose books are little sketches of life - it's a telling of someone else's story. This dude was kidnapped by Chechens and held hostage for about three months in 1997, until he escaped. An excellent and baffling story, with excellent artwork.

Things I've read, or reread, recently that might be interesting:

[Echopraxia] (https://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/0765328038) by Peter Watts.

"Sequel" to Blindsight, but it doesn't really matter if they're read in order or not. Echopraxia is full of interesting ideas - Vampires (cloned pre-stone age apex predators with superhuman intelligence), technology-enabled hive intelligences, military zombie soldiers, amidst the backdrop of civilization cannibalizes itself in a battle between post-human factions.

It's also difficult to follow, with it's perspective being that of an unmodified human who is functionally incapable of understanding the motivations and actions of the various super-human intelligences that are the driving forces of the story.

The author's background as a biologist add a level of veracity to the story, and the research is near-peerless.

If you like complex hard-science fiction, with a side order of philosophy of mind, you may love this book. If you don't, it might be a huge miss.

[The Fifth Ward: First Watch] (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Athe+fifth+ward%3A+first+watch&keywords=the+fifth+ward%3A+first+watch&triggered-weblabs=SEARCH_SPELLING_122845%3AT1&ie=UTF8&qid=1509561625) by Dale Lucas

Pure escapism. One part detective story, one part middle-earth style fantasy. Elfs, dwarves, orcs and murder.

The writing was solid enough to carry the book, and it was a fun read.

[Easy Strength] (https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Strength-Stronger-Competition-Dominate/dp/0938045806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509561859&sr=1-1&keywords=easy+strength) by Dan John & Pavel Tsatsouline

An easy enjoyable read, with a lot of useful information and anecdotes if you're interested in coaching.

This rekindled my interest in kettle bells for GPP, and has given me a bit to think about regarding programming and athletic development.

It's also made me interested in reading more of Pavels stuff - Pavels writing style made me basically discount him the when I glanced at one of his books in the past, and I suspect I need to re-evaluate that impression.

I read eight books in September. Between travel and general boredom, I finally started digging into the books on Kindle Unlimited and discovered a few series that I enjoyed, even though they are frustratingly incomplete.

The first was the Unsouled series (5 books) by Will Wight. The universe is a combination of high fantasy and sci-fi with an overarching flavor of Asian mythology. At first, I wasn't completely sold on it, but the characters have some interesting arcs, especially Lindon, the protagonist. If you're a fan of anime-style story arcs with underpowered protagonists bumblefucking their way to glory, you'll like it. Also, the books are really easy to read, but engaging enough to keep interest. 4/5 stars

Second, I read the Euphoria Online (2 books) series by Phil Tucker. It's a story about a dystopian future where humanity has surrendered control to an AI to help mitigate the damage that's been done to the environment. The AI has taken over government functions and put together a VR game for humanity. The game allows players who play on "Death March" mode, which can be fatal, to gain a boon from the AI and the protagonist decides to attempt it because his brother is on Death Row. 3.75/5 stars

The last book that I finished just last night is Pandemic by A.G. Riddle. It's a well written in a Tom Clancy/Dan Brown kind of way. The story involves a pandemic (shocking, right?), a secret society, and other airport paperback style shenanigans. It's an entertaining read, but not breaking any new ground. I enjoyed it simply for the rollercoaster ride of the plot. 3.5/5 stars.

I read The Eden Express - a very interesting book written by Kurt Vonnegut's son who started a hippie commune. The book follows Mark who develops paranoid schizophrenia and is institutionalized. All along the way you feel like you're going crazy with Mark, he does a very good job blending his madness at the time with the world around him. I'm not sure how many autobiographical books their are by once crazy hippies, but this is probably the best one.


Who ordered this truckload of dung? is written by a buddhist monk and details some very zen ways of looking at life's problems. There is a lot of light hearted wisdom in this book and it is a short read, I really enjoyed it all. A small grain of insight I highlighted was "thinking about something is often the hardest part of doing it."



Really excited to start digging into the annihilation series as I enjoyed the movie a lot.

I read finished Volume 5 of Churchill's WW2 memoirs, and then took a break and read the first three trades of The Wicked + The Divine and The Rise And Fall of D.O.D.O.

Churchill remains an extremely rewarding read, even though it's taken me ages, I'm really glad I've done it. It really gives a strong perspective on the period, supported by so many documents.

Wicked and Divine is fantastic from the stuff I've read so far. Definitely gonna continue reading it when I get a chance.

Rise and Fall of DODO was kind of disappointing, but it was a halfway decent novel. Just not as good as I was hoping. Having Stephenson co-write is probably a good idea, because there are actual coherent characters other than the Competent Nerd Dude. In point of fact, the Competent Nerd Dude is a super-minor character, and the book is actually written partially first person from a lady's perspective!

Definitely looking forward to August or so, when I finish up the Churchill memoirs and read a whole stack of novels for a break.