Tildes Book Club Spring and Summer schedule 2025
Next week we will be discussing the City We Became. Our next book discussion after that will be at the end of January.
I've organized this schedule so that longer books are followed by shorter ones. I look forward to reading with you.
Last week in January : Kim Stanley Robinson Ministry for the Future,
Last week in February: Trevor Noah Born a Crime,
Last week in March: Dan Simmons Hyperion,
Last week in April: Adrian Tchaikovsky Elder Race,
Last week in May: Victor LaValle a People's Future of the United States,
Last week in June: T Kingfisher A House with Good Bones,
Last week in July: James McBride the Heaven and Earth grocery Store,
Last week in August: Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Last week in September: Ted Chiang Stories of Your Life and Others
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I just got City We Became in from my library earlier this week, so I've been trying to get through it quickly in time for the discussion. I'm about 25% in now. You'd think I'd have some idea of what's going on by this point, but nope!
I'm actually glad we're taking December off. It's a hectic enough month, and gives me a small chance to get through some of my own backlog. I finally read The Hobbit this month, and I'm excited to move onto the proper Lord of the Rings trilogy now. I can't believe it's taken me this long. I might end up bumping against the January scheduling, but we'll see how it goes.
Excited for much of our upcoming lineup. Some good picks, folks!
I'm trying to get through it in time for the discussion as well... hopefully we'll get there!
I, too, support the choice to take December off. I have a couple books I'm trying to get through and it will be nice to have some time to focus on those during an already hectic month.
Best of luck with Lord of the rings.
I am in chapter 6 (audiobook), same feeling. I think that is par for the course for Jemisin though.
Can confirm that it is. I think some of her earlier works take a bit to build up. In her short story anthology she talks about learning from the experience of developing shorter fiction.
It's sorta like old school fantasy novels where the first 100 pages or so is setup and the next 500 or so pages are the characters interacting with the world.
I think it's particularly appropriate to have the build up in this novel given whose work this is in conversation with.
Sorry, I think I am missing it – whose work is the novel in conversation with?
Spoilers since this isn't the discussion thread for major themes of the book.
here
It's very specifically in conversation with HP Lovecraft. The slower build up makes me think of the similar build up in eldritch horror.
Except the horror is white supremacy and gentrification and the like, instead of the horror of foreign peoples and miscegenation and air conditioning.
Thank you!
I will have to read some of the other author, eventually.
The ebooks for Dan Simmons’s Hyperion are currently on sale for $2 USD. As before, I’m not sure if this deal is available in other countries or not. We’ll be reading this one in March. Links are for US stores:
Probably going to have to skip The City We Became, unfortunately. I left my brand new ereader on a flight recently, and there’s effectively a 0% chance that I’ll get it back. 😭
Looking forward to next year’s lineup though. There are some good titles.
Aw, that really sucks!
If there's any silver lining, this might be the best time to find a replacement for it. I don't know about Boox specifically, though the Kobo Colour is $20 off this week (I was eyeing it earlier). Some Nook and Kindle models are on sale too, though I know you're off the Amazon train.
I prefer audiobooks most of the time, so haven't quite gotten around to buying a dedicated eReader yet. Though Overdrive finally just killed the old loophole I'd been using to download DRM-free MP3s, so my preferred audiobook player is no longer working for library books either. Bah!
I already bought a replacement (the same one — another Boox Page). I was in such a good reading rhythm until I lost it, and I want to get back to that! A big part of that was setting up BookFusion. I like the platform enough that I pulled my books off my Kindle and Kobo accounts and put them up on BookFusion, along with my DRM-free stuff from StoryBundle, Humble Bundle, and a few other publishers. My ebook eggs are now solidly in that basket.
Genuinely: it’s a dream to be able to have my library all “under one roof.” On Kobo and Kindle, the books you bought from them always got premium treatment, while sideloaded stuff got second billing and lacked features (like cloud syncing). BookFusion puts all my books on a level playing field, and it also handles series WAY better. I genuinely love it!
The only downside is needing an Android ereader specifically to run the app. It won’t work on Kobo/Kindle, which is why I got the Boox device in the first place.
Also, I don’t have a workaround for Overdrive, but I figure this is worth a mention in case you’re in the market for it: I subscribe to Libro.fm instead of Audible because all of their audiobooks are DRM-free (and because they’re not Amazon).
It’s not as cheap as the library, of course, but I’m happy to fund content I like that’s provided openly. I just use their default app to listen to them, but you could easily plug them into your preferred one.
Note: Yes, I’m fully aware this comment reads like a sponsored post. I promise that it’s not.
Additional Note: I wish it were though! Libro/BookFusion, if either of you are listening, I’m more than willing to shill for some cash — I’ve got a $200 ereader that I need to pay off! 😂
Downpour.com is another good option for DRM free. They have a monthly subscription where you get one credit per month for $12.99 and you can purchase additional credits for the same price.
They are owned by Blackstone audio, so they don't have everything, but they have been a pretty good supplement to the library for me.
I was recently on vacation in New Mexico and lost a Kindle. I feel your pain. E-readers are convenient but I don't think I will take mine traveling again unless it is an old device I am nearly ready to replace.
Ouch, I’m sorry.
I’m buying a slipcase and an AirTag to go in it for my new one, in hopes that I’ll be notified if I ever absentmindedly leave it somewhere again.
Taking an old one is a good idea too though. I bought an old Kindle on eBay for like, $20 just to download books from my account and de-DRM them. Might be worth buying an old model for cheap as your “travel Kindle.”
The ebook for Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others just went on sale for $2 USD if anyone wants to pick it up for cheap in advance of September. Links are to US stores:
I'm not sure if the deal is available outside of the US (can someone let us know?).
The Audio is also listed as "always available" on Hoopla (app attached to libraries, again likely US only, but free)
I promise I'm not planning these (I wish I had the power to dictate book pricing!). I simply set up price drop notifications for these books earlier this month, and we're getting really lucky.
Anyway, it's a day late and nine dollars short, but the ebook for Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, our January read, has gone on sale for $3 USD. If you didn't pick it up but are still interested in it or if you're like me and pirated it because the line was too long at your library and now you're looking to rid yourself of guilt this is a good opportunity.
Links are to US stores. For Kindle users outside of the US, see this comment about changing your Kindle region to take advantage of US sales.
How's everybody doing with Trevor Noah's Born a Crime so far? I started it last night, and I'm already blown away by the realness and brutality that he describes. It's given me some perspective on my "first world problems" that suddenly don't seem so significant.
It's also given me a much stronger understanding of apartheid, which I only really understood in the simplest of terms before. I didn't appreciate just how orchestrated its creation was.
I'll save most of my thoughts for the discussion topic proper, but I just thought I'd drop this as a reminder that it'll take place sometime next week.
I have mine in hand as an ebook from the library. I have one and a half books to read before it, but I think that will be manageable. Would you be able to say if there are any elements to it that might be viewed better on a color-capable device, like photographs? I'm debating whether or not to send it to my Kindle, which is e-ink and wouldn't be the best for that.
I hope not! I'm listening to it via audiobook, which is narrated by the author. I'm actually appreciating his native pronunciations of many of the African languages, though, which I'm sure I'd have struggled to read.
There hasn't been any indications of there being photographs or other media which would require colour. I think your regular e-ink device should work just fine.
Thank you for the reply! That sounds like a very neat experience. I would love to hear the author read it but unfortunately my library doesn't have the audiobook yet.
Not as great as the other sales we've had, but the ebook for Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle (our choice for August) just went on sale for $7 USD (down from $13 USD).
The ebook for May, A People's Future of the United States, has gone on sale for $2 USD. Links to US stores:
You're killing it with the sale links! Thanks for keeping an eye out and sharing with the class.
Thanks! I'm mostly just getting lucky that so many of our choices are going on sale though.
Can you confirm whether you're getting the sale prices in Canada or not? I'm still not sure if they're just for the US.
Yes, at least for most of them. Kobo I was able to switch to my region and it still had the discount. The others display the discounted price, and I presume if I were to make an account they'd let me buy.
I'm not sure about Apple. It displays the price, but if I login I can't actually find a Buy button anywhere. I don't own an iPhone though, so possibly it's only available through their mobile app?
Amazon/Kindle is a little more tricky. The sale is only on the US site, and they block you if you don't have that region set for your Kindle library. After realizing that all of the sales were on amazon.com though, I switched my library over so I could take advantage of them. I'm still charged in USD (and have to pay the conversion fee), but it is an option for those willing to jump through hoops. The region only determines where you can buy from; you can still read from anywhere.
Wow, you were very thorough! This is super helpful, thanks.
And yeah, Apple does a lot of stuff that's device/app locked, so you can probably only buy through their app (I don't use them, so I'm not entirely sure on this).
Also good tip on setting your Kindle region. That might be helpful to other people out there as well. That also answers my primary question about whether or not these are mostly US-based deals, especially because I assume Kindle is probably the most used ebook platform out there.
Woah. This is a cool idea. I've been toying with the idea of trying to read more in 2025. I've read your first book before, and will pick it up in the library again. I'd love to see if can enjoy this community a bit in be new year.
Would you like to be added to the ping list? It's one ping per thread so not particularly frequent.
Sure!