Book List

This is my list of books I've read starting in 2025.

I'm using WorldCat links to the specific format (sometimes it's audiobook, and sometimes it's ebook).

I mainly consume books using my library card and Libby app, who have their own BlueSky account.

Starting Soon

• Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval (translated by Marjam Idriss; narrated by Brie Jackman)
• Tentacles Longer Than Night by Eugene Thacker

Read

• Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison: Supernatural horror. I always kind of suspected the gate to hell would open in New Jersey. 7 out of 10. Plot is generally well-paced but at times lost on worldbuilding minutiae.
• The Girls in 3-B by Valerie Taylor: Lesbian pulp. By repute, this is one of few books in the genre that comes up with a happy ending for the lesbians. The suffocating world described here is like a survey of what kind of pressures led to Stonewall.
• Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett, David Boyd; narrated by Scott Keiji Takeda): Literary fiction. Kawakami effectively describes what is most beautiful in the ugliest side of adolescence. Like reading a martyrology.
• Neuromancer by William Gibson: Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk. Building an entire genre essentially from scratch requires a lot of worldbuilding. In this instance, it is so much worldbuilding that I can't make out much of the plot or characters.
• Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh: Literary fiction / Fantasy. Game of Thrones as told by the anarchist peasant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Disgusting and fun.

These are the books I read before I started using WhiteWind:

Brother by Ania Ahlborn: going to give this a 4 out of 10; splatter-by-numbers horror; tropes arranged and used creatively, but predictable. Strains too hard to establish setting and prone to exposition-by-simile.

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 7:47 PM

Starry Speculative Corpse by Eugene Thacker: 8 out of 10. Fun for the philosophy-literate, maybe too much German Idealism for casual readers. At its most substantial when it dares to talk about Nothing(ness)

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 8:11 PM

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Crash (audiobook): 7.5 out of 10.

Find you someone who loves you like Ballard loves the phrase "hard buttocks."

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 6:53 PM

Verdict on van der Lugt's Begetting: 8 out 10. This is one of the best books on the ethics of procreation; avoids extremist rhetoric and is grounded in the practical questions rather than edge case hypotheticals.

My sole criticism of the book is its wordiness / repetitive nature.

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 10:49 AM

"We know too much about ourselves as a species to be truly optimistic."

Infinite Resignation / Eugene Thacker: 8 out of 10. A book of hours for philosophical pessimism. I enjoyed the aphorisms at the beginning. The hagiography is stilted but still useful.

search.worldcat.org/title/100756...

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) September 3, 2025 at 8:07 PM

Done. Verdict: 9/10 thanks to being able to concentrate on a singular character, this was a much better novel than Lapvona.

Also, about that character; but I think the idea of her as "disgusting" or "unlikeable" has been overstated. Maybe the idea of a gruff anti-heroine is just harder to take?

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) August 6, 2025 at 9:16 PM

Finished Tender Is the Flesh.

Part 1 was interesting worldbuilding that gives the stakes; Part 2 was a shift toward set pieces; IMHO several of these added bursts of color while not adding much else.

The male audiobook narrator was less of an issue in this part.

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— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 9:50 PM

Finished Earthlings. Loved it. I feel like so many of the reviews emphasizing the gross or taboo parts are missing the basic points about issues of social control and bodily autonomy, mortification and enjoyment.

— Asperas Bompar (@asperasbompar.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 11:21 AM