Recent reading

[luzula]

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (Murderbot #3, 2018)
Like the others, this one is a pageturner and I stayed awake at night to finish it. The whole series has really compelling action and suspense!

Skogsträdgården by Philip Weiss and Annevi Sjöberg (2018) [The Forest Garden, only in Swedish]
It's not like me to read gardening/food-growing handbooks, since I don't actually garden at this point in my life. But this is a seriously impressive and scientifically well-researched book, and I'm not just saying that because it quotes my own research. *g* It goes into detail in how soils work and how to maintain soils with the help of biodiversity, in how hydrology works in small-scale landscapes, etc, and then there's the section on different trees/shrubs/herbs and their properties. I learned a lot about edibility of plants that I actually didn't know. Sadly they recommend that we don't eat rhubarb stems, which I love. : ( The oxalate content is apparently up to 20 times higher than in spinach.

Människor har alltid vandrat by Jeanette Varberg (2018) [People Have Always Wandered, probably not available in English]
Picked up on a whim at the library. This is a short book by a Danish archaeologist about the movements and migrations of people, mostly in and around Europe, since humans moved out of Africa. Some of it was stuff I'd read about elsewhere, but some was new to me.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I realized one reason I love Murderbot so much is that its experience of embodiment is familiar to me as a disabled person with unpredictable abilities. Murderbot talks its way through its problems, is surprised when bits break or work well.

Tragic news re: rhubarb. Local research claims that oxalate reduction to prevent kidney stones is over-advised:

However, the vast majority of those with calcium oxalate stones, whose urine oxalate is normal, do not benefit from a restriction of high-oxalate foods. As foods containing oxalate also happen to be quite beneficial for overall health, providing essential nutrients, fiber, antioxidants and other important phytochemicals, an oxalate restriction should be considered individually, based on the individual stone former's unique risk factors.

https://www.uwhealth.org/urology/oxalate/11252

[luzula]

Gah, I fail at comment replies.

Re: embodiment, maybe you would enjoy Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit? It has an AI who struggles with being in a body. The audiobook is good, too, I'm listening to it right now.