Books on Brett Seybert

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:16:47 -0500

Finished reading: Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler 📚

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 18:08:26 -0500

Finished reading: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 📚

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 18:46:32 -0500

Finished reading: Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski 📚⚾️

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:04:09 -0500

Finished reading: Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff 📚

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 09:32:16 -0500

Finished reading: Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick 📚

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 23:03:28 -0500

Finished reading: Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald 📚

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 08:29:37 -0500

Finished reading: Joe by Larry Brown 📚

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 13:44:41 -0500

Finished reading: Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer 📚

Thu, 08 May 2025 12:09:05 -0500

Finished reading: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 📚

Mon, 05 May 2025 13:54:48 -0500

Finished reading: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg 📚

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 23:04:36 -0500

Finished reading: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 📚

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 18:26:35 -0500

Finished reading: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 📚

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 09:41:09 -0500

Finished reading: The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef 📚

Had a tough time with this one considering the author provides the following consecutive examples of this mindset in practice: Elon Musk, Trevor Bauer, and Jeff Bezos. The Scout Mindset, at least in some cases, seems to be a secret code for how to be ultra successful in spite of (or maybe because of?) utter moral bankruptcy.

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 21:02:08 -0500

Finished reading: Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer 📚

And just like that I’m sucked back into Area X and planning another re-read of the series, now with additional fascinating backstory.

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 16:52:21 -0500

Finished reading: Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright 📚

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 12:47:33 -0500

Finished reading: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 📚

Sun, 09 Jun 2024 14:04:34 -0500

Finished reading: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers 📚

China Miéville wrote a book with Keanu Reeves

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:11:00 -0500

Excited about this collaboration between Keanu Reeves and–of all people–China Miéville as covered in Wired. The books sounds great (though I refrained from reading anything past the spoiler warning), but I was most interested in the little glimpses into Miéville’s life and process.

Some highlights include this startlingly insightful theory about what defines “nerd culture.”

And, though 51, he still plays with toys. At one point I awkwardly gestured at this, and he told me, “I have a theory. One of the things that tends to distinguish nerds and their interests is, broadly speaking, that they have fidelity to their loves in a way that other people don’t. I don’t mean other people are unfaithful in a flibbertigibbety way, but! The stuff I was into when I was 4 is still the stuff I’m into. From as early as I can remember, it was sea monsters. Aliens …”

Further, I think Miéville perfectly summed up my own personal tastes in fiction over the last few years. What he’s interested in writing about is a direct analog to what I’ve found myself interested in reading (which includes Miéville¹ but also, in my opinion, other contemporary authors like Jeff VanderMeer and Ray Nayler).

He doesn’t write science fiction because he’s a communist or because he wants to bring about the revolution. Instead, he thinks of himself as pursuing “difference” within and across his books: “Alterity. That’s where my heart beats.”

This “alterity” is something that, since reading this article, I realized I’ve been seeking and finding in my favorite literature going back years. When I think of my favorite novels from McCarthy, DeLillo, and Faulkner, this “alterity” and the ways that affects the characters and plot is at the forefront of what I most enjoyed.

While I’ve read only This Census Taker, I loved it so much that I feel no hesitation about placing Miéville among my favorite living authors. Perdido Street Station arrived today and I am excited to start it soon. ↩︎

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 10:59:12 -0500

Finished reading: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar 📚

Mon, 27 May 2024 17:40:46 -0500

Finished reading: Bunny by Mona Awad 📚

Loved this book. Not at all surprised to learn that it’s been optioned for a film by Bad Robot. Super dark and creative and fun with a voice that really leapt out as being ready-made for film or TV. Lots of interesting things to say about friendship and loneliness and college towns and desire and creativity and jealousy and on and on.

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 11:19:25 -0500

Finished reading: Something in the Water by Luke O’Neil 📚

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 19:54:57 -0500

Finished reading: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut 📚

The real action is in novelty 📚 💬

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 23:12:09 -0500

I can’t believe all these animals we have are real and we just take it for granted I said before drinking half of my glass. Growing up our parents tell us there’s no such thing as monsters so we’ll go to sleep but a bear is a monster and a moose is a monster and a bird is a monster too. Every bird in the world would rip your head off if it were somewhat larger and you were somewhat slower.

Imagine if whales didn’t exist and then one showed up out of nowhere? We’d never stop talking about it Joe said. We would never get over it.

It’s probably no coincidence that the most famous novel ever written was about how fucked up a guy got after knowing about one particularly angry whale.

It’s just that we get used to the things that are scary Joe said. The real action is in novelty.”

― Luke O’Neil, “Kingston Street” from A Creature Wanting Form

Finished Reading [The Overstory](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-overstory-richard-powers/17315941) by Richard Powers 📚

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 18:59:00 -0500

Loved the scope of this and its overall kind of aura. But, man, the back third really dragged ass. Satisfying conclusion and it’s the kind of book that has forever changed my brain in good ways. Really wish I could read The Secret Forest — but maybe The Hidden Life of Trees will suffice.

It could be the eternal project of mankind, to learn what forests have figured out.

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 09:59:17 -0500

Finished reading: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler 📚

And maybe something in every single person is broken, and we just keep moving forward as if it were all normal—all of it—like insects with their heads torn off who keep crawling toward a shadow to hide in. Until that thing that has already destroyed us catches up with us, and we stop moving.

Year in books, 2023 📚

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 23:56:32 -0500

Here are the books I finished reading this year.

This was a very good book year for me. Probably the best in a decade or so in terms of both quantity and quality. Here are a few themes and highlights.

I got back into reading physical books this year and realized that this is my preferred medium. Of the 15 books that I finished in 2023, three were on my Kindle and the rest were all physical hard copies. I did not listen to any audiobooks this year.
My favorite book I read this year was, without a doubt, The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. I cannot wait for the follow-up, The Tusks of Extinction, which I’ve already pre-ordered and is scheduled to ship on January 16th. I loved everything about this book.
I also read several others that I would give a full five-stars to: Heat 2, Demon Copperhead, A Walk in the Woods, and This Census-Taker.
Every book I finished this year was worth the time. One of the changes to my approach that I’d credit with this “good book year” was a new policy to give up on a book more easily than I’ve done in the past without any guilt. Sometimes, a book just doesn’t click for whatever reason and I think that’s OK. This has been a sticking point at times in the past where I’ve tried to keep making it happen and felt like I couldn’t' move on to something else until I’d finished what I’d started and then wound up reading nothing instead of just moving on. Life’s too short and there are way too many books for that. The one exception to this was Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock, which I did not like but read to the end anyway, even though it was also the longest book I read this year. Even though I didn’t like it, it had some really interesting ideas and at least one or two interesting characters that made it worth the slog.
I read the two Narnia books with my six-year-old son. He really loved them and I loved experiencing them with him. I even enjoyed revisiting these books, despite some negative associations stemming from an undergraduate C. S. Lewis survey course. I expect that we’ll continue exploring this series together this year.

Looking forward to reading even more in 2024. Bring on the weird.

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 08:40:22 -0500

Finished reading: Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman 📚

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 16:28:13 -0500

Finished reading: Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff 📚

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 17:45:30 -0500

Finished reading: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 📚

One of those books that I just want to climb inside of and live in (despite how unpleasant that would be in the kinds of books that I tend to feel this way about).

Humanity is still afraid the minds we make to do our dirty work for us—our killing, our tearing of minerals from the earth, our raking of the seas for more protein, our smelting of more metal, the collection of our trash, and the fighting of our wars—will rise up against us and take over. That is, humanity calls it fear. But it isn’t fear. It’s guilt (p 266).

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 18:03:50 -0500

Finished reading: Blockade Billy by Stephen King 📚

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 22:12:32 -0500

Finished reading: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 19:55:27 -0500

Finished reading: Heat 2 by Michael Mann 📚

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 15:23:45 -0500

Finished reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚

Huge thanks to @zioibi for choosing this for the sipped ink summer reading club. I’d had it on the list for a while and this proves to be excellent motivation. It was my first time participating in what I understanding is a long-running annual affair and I am already looking forward to next summer. Loved this book. So much hit so close to home (both figuratively and geographically) and it felt authentic in a way that I didn’t quite expect. I don’t know why, but I had not categorized Kingsolver as an “Appalachian” writer previously, despite knowing of her bonafides in terms of being from Kentucky, but this book is clearly written with a love and intimate knowledge for the region and its people. There’s more going on here, too. The social justice angle. The David Copperfield retelling. The language itself. All of it just got me thinking in all of the best ways, even if those ways are also painful.

For anyone who also loved this book who finds themselves interested in learning more about Appalachia or reading more Appalachian literature, Kingsolver put together a really nice reading list for The New York Times¹.

A couple fun, personal notes: Dr. Theresa Lloyd, one of the authors mentioned in Kingsolver’s reading list, was one of my professors years ago and probably did more than anyone else to turn me onto Appalachian Literature as a subject. While studying under Dr. Lloyd, I wrote a paper about the stories of Breece Pancake which remains my one and only academic publication. Thanks for everything, Dr. Lloyd, and congratulations on the big mention in The New York Times! ↩︎

Sun, 02 Jul 2023 18:44:49 -0500

Finished reading: Mooncalves: Strange Stories by John WM Thompson (editor) 📚

Sun, 02 Jul 2023 18:44:29 -0500

Finished reading: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 📚. Truly loved this book.

Wed, 31 May 2023 19:57:21 -0500

📚 Loved “The Stars Have Eaten the Costco Parking Lot” by Chelsea Sutton in the Mooncalves collection.

Sat, 20 May 2023 16:21:42 -0500

Finished reading: Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson 📚

This one felt like it took me about ten years to finish. Pretty good climax and some interesting science to it all, but it was definitely a slog. Was far more interested in one of the storylines (Laks) than the others and those chapters tended to be far shorter throughout most of the book. Also was a bit turned off but what I can only refer to as “dirty old man” humor…

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 16:00:48 -0500

Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚

Really enjoyed this. Could see a TV series or a series of short stories or more novellas set in this world. First I’ve read through a full novel by Emily St. John Mandel (though I started and abandoned Station Eleven, and then watched and throughly enjoyed that HBO series). Was completely hooked and intrigued with the first half and must admit that the back half was not what I expected and left me wanting a bit… but was intriguing and kept me turning pages nonetheless.

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:35:26 -0500

Finished reading: Lark Ascending by Silas House 📚

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 09:55:50 -0500

Finished reading: This Census-taker by China Miéville 📚

Read this for Defector Reads A Book’s February discussion. First book of fiction that I’ve read in physical form (not audio book) in a long, long time so it feels like something of an accomplishment. I absolutely loved this book. First I’ve read by Miéville and now I can’t wait to dig deeper into his catalog.

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 11:06:20 -0500

Finished reading: Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte 📚

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 22:15:40 -0500

Finished reading: Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari 📚

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 19:24:13 -0500

Finished reading: The Gunslinger (Revised Edition): The Dark Tower I by Stephen King 📚

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 20:25:22 -0500

Finished reading: Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny 📚

Turned onto this by a Vox article the other day and it did not disappoint. Looking forward to more in the series.

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 00:01:40 -0500

Finished reading: Dead Astronauts: A Novel (Borne) by Jeff VanderMeer 📚

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:56:47 -0500

Finished reading: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚

Felt like a little bit of a slog through some of the (long) middle section, but the end was poignant, fitting. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 09:54:00 -0500

📚: The MVP Machine by Ben Lindbergh & Travis Sawchik

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 10:27:38 -0500

📚: Impossible Owls by Brian Phillips

If you’ve ever been seventeen, and especially if you’ve ever been seventeen in a small town, you’ve had your own year of dark nights. But when your are seventeen, and especially when you are seventeen in a small town, you believe there is opening before you a mysterious and uncharted realm that exists for you alone. You and your friends are conspirators in a shadow country.

From “In the Dark: Science Fiction in Small Towns"

You and your friends are conspirators in a shadow country

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:00:00 -0500

If you’ve ever been seventeen, and especially if you’ve ever been seventeen in a small town, you’ve had your own year of dark nights. But when your are seventeen, and especially when you are seventeen in a small town, you believe there is opening before you a mysterious and uncharted realm that exists for you alone. You and your friends are conspirators in a shadow country.

From “In the Dark: Science Fiction in Small Towns" in the wonderful Impossible Owls collection by Brian Phillips.

Tue, 29 May 2018 20:17:01 -0500

📚: Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Fri, 25 May 2018 07:16:33 -0500

📚: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

Sparked by the Westworld tie-in. Curious to see how it ties together.

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:24:36 -0500

📚 recommendation: The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. So weird and so good. Looking forward to seeing the film version of Annihilation.

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:24:36 -0500

📚 recommendation: The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. So weird and so good. Looking forward to seeing the film version of Annihilation.