The full shelf
48 books I've read and written about. Fantasy, sci-fi, theology, and whatever else pulled me in.
By author
Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Ryan Cahill
Of Blood and Fire made me work for it, and I'm still not convinced I should have had to. The first three quarters move like a guy assembling IKEA furniture with no instructions and…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Richard Swan
Richard Swan's first foray outside the Empire of the Wolf reads like someone handed George Orwell a Star Wars budget and told him not to waste it on spectacle. This is 1984 filtere…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Jesse Aragon
Jesse Aragon wrote the kind of debut novel that should be illegal, the kind where you finish it and immediately go check the author bio for a typo, because surely someone doesn't j…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Every so often a book comes along that doesn't just explain something, it reorganizes the furniture in your head so you can never walk through the room the same way again. That's w…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Andrzej Sapkowski
*Time of Contempt* is the best Witcher book yet, and it's the first one that fully admits what this series actually is. This isn't five standalone novels, it's one long story getti…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Andrzej Sapkowski
*Blood of Elves* is the first time this series asks you to trust it instead of just enjoying it, and the trust mostly gets rewarded. This is the first true novel, and the pace shi…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Andrzej Sapkowski
*Sword of Destiny* is a rougher, more scattered read than *The Last Wish*, and also a more honest one. It spends less time proving Sapkowski can build a world and more time showing…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Andrzej Sapkowski
A short story collection translated from Polish has no business reading like a single unified novel, and *The Last Wish* pulls it off anyway. I finished the last page more attached…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Ethan Mollick
Ethan Mollick manages something most AI books can't: he tells you what he doesn't know. *Co-Intelligence* is a clear-eyed, unhurried explainer that skips the evangelism running thr…
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Finished Itby Isaac Asimov
Foundation is a book you respect more than you feel. Asimov hands science fiction one of its founding ideas, then never bothers to give you a single person worth caring about while…
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Read Past Bedtimeby George Orwell
Andrew Garfield's Winston Smith is the reason I'm no longer willing to write off audiobooks as a lesser way to experience a story. I'm not much of an audiobook guy. Outside of *Du…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares
Yudkowsky and Soares aren't trying to win an argument. They're trying to move you somewhere you've never stood, and for two-thirds of this book, it works. The device they lean on …
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby James Islington
Azure isn't the reason to read this book. The world he's trapped in is, and it's good enough to earn five mugs almost on its own. I went in knowing this wouldn't be another Hierar…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Matt Dinniman
This is the first Dungeon Crawler Carl book I've had to actually wait for. Every other entry was already sitting there fully available the day I discovered the series. Now I get wh…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Matt Dinniman
For several books now, Faction Wars has been the thing on the horizon: the event everyone mentions, prepares for, and quietly dreads. This Inevitable Ruin is finally where Dinniman…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Matt Dinniman
This is the book where Dungeon Crawler Carl stops feeling like a story about one guy and his cat grinding through floors. It reveals itself as the sprawling, intergalactic saga it …
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Finished Itby Phil Christman
Phil Christman has written a book that will land exactly where you already stand. It sharpens the ground under people already committed to Christian leftism far more than it moves …
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby James Islington
The Strength of the Few is a more ambitious and more demanding sequel than its predecessor, and that ambition is both its greatest strength and its biggest hurdle. Where the first …
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Matt Dinniman
An absolutely wild, emotional, brutally brilliant ride The Butcher’s Masquerade somehow manages to raise the bar on a series that already lives on pure chaos, heart, and sweat-soa…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Matt Dinniman
The Gate of the Feral Gods takes the Dungeon Crawler Carl series to new heights. It is intense, emotional, and wildly creative, packed with jaw-dropping twists and unforgettable mo…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Andrew L. Whitehead
American Idolatry is a powerful, timely, and deeply faithful examination of how Christian nationalism distorts the message of Jesus and undermines the witness of the church. Andrew…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Matt Dinniman
Carl's Doomsday Scenario, the second book in Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series, builds perfectly on everything that made the first entry so addictive. The story ramps up …
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Read Past Bedtimeby Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl was a wild ride, my first audiobook that actually clicked, and that alone made the experience memorable. The narration (by Jeff Hays) really brought the charac…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary is a triumph of science fiction. It is heart-pounding, mind-expanding, and surprisingly emotional. Andy Weir takes everything that made The Martian so beloved, in…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Matt Dinniman
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, the third entry in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, absolutely delivers on the chaotic promise of its title. It is packed with high-stakes strateg…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Claudia Gray
The Fallen Star is a masterclass in tension, heartbreak, and character-driven storytelling. Claudia Gray takes the High Republic to its most emotional and devastating heights yet. …
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Finished Itby Charles Soule
Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule is the first book in a brand-new era of Star Wars storytelling, set hundreds of years before the Skywalker saga. It drops us into a time when the…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Rebecca Yarros
Onyx Storm is yet another exhilarating, poignant installment in the Empyrean series. Violet has never been more on a realistic trajectory as she faces losses and new discoveries ke…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension is the rare sequel that doesn’t just continue a story, but deepens it, complicates it, and retroactively makes the first book better. After the explosive endi…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Pierce Brown
Pierce Brown's Red Rising saga is nothing short of a masterpiece, an epic tale that combines the pulse-pounding action of a sci-fi thriller with the poignant introspection of a cha…
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Finished Itby Rebecca Yarros
Iron Flame picks up immediately where Fourth Wing left off, and Rebecca Yarros wastes no time throwing the reader back into Basgiath’s brutal rhythms. The stakes are higher, the se…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Alexander Freed
The Mask of Fear is a gripping and ambitious entry into the Star Wars canon, set in the tumultuous period between Revenge of the Sith and Andor. This first installment of the Reign…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn: The Final Empire is a masterclass in worldbuilding, magic systems, and character development, delivering an epic fantasy experience that lingers long …
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Maxwell King
The Good Neighbor is a heartwarming and inspiring read that captures the essence of a truly remarkable life, offering lessons in empathy and human connection that resonate far beyo…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Marilynne Robinson
Gilead is a masterpiece of contemporary American literature. It is a work of extraordinary spiritual and emotional depth, offering a tender exploration of mortality, faith, and the…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby James S.A. Corey
Let me start by saying that I have never read a book by James S.A. Corey before, nor by either of the authors who write under that pen name. I know of their previous series, The Ex…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby James Islington
I stumbled across The Will of the Many around Christmas 2023, while lining up my TBR for 2024. It made the list, but when the new year started, I dove headfirst into the Red Rising…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Malcolm Foley
This is a transformative read that challenges long-held assumptions about wealth, race, and the role of the Church in addressing systemic injustice. This book is a prophetic call f…
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Told A Stranger About It Unpromptedby Pierce Brown
Light Bringer by Pierce Brown is a powerful entry in the series, blending the emotional weight of past choices with explosive action and political intrigue. The characters are more…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Pierce Brown
Dark Age by Pierce Brown delivers a dark and intense chapter in the Red Rising series. The story plunges deeper into chaos and conflict, with characters facing brutal challenges an…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Pierce Brown
Absolutely loved it. Great follow-up to Red Rising which really increases the scope of the story. I was already hooked after the first, but now I'm not going to be able to stop unt…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Pierce Brown
Iron Gold by Pierce Brown is a thrilling continuation of the Red Rising saga. The story expands the universe with multiple perspectives, adding depth and complexity to the characte…
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Finished Itby Pierce Brown
What a satisfying conclusion to the first Red Rising trilogy. Almost makes me not want to read the follow up series because of how great this ending was.…
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Bought The Sequel Immediatelyby Pierce Brown
Absolutely loved this story. The characters, the plot, the set up for future books. Fantastic.…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Rebecca Yarros
Fourth Wing surprised me. As someone who doesn’t usually gravitate toward romance-heavy stories, I went in expecting solid worldbuilding and dragons, with the romantic elements as …
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Read Past Bedtimeby R.F. Kuang
I support women’s rights, but more importantly… I support women’s wrongs.…
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Read Past Bedtimeby Blake Crouch
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is a thrilling science fiction novel that explores the concept of multiple universes and the consequences of a single decision. It's a rollercoaster of …
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Read Past Bedtimeby Blake Crouch
One of my goals for 2023 is to read more books, specifically fiction. I usually end up reading a few theology books every year, and enough podcasts that surely they count for a few…
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