# Brief Book Reviews
###### tags: `documentation`

[Books to read](/7gl5lSB8S6W47mNv7tuJwQ?both)
[Book Reviews](/dbG_bQOUQIyWh-UeGxbVpg)

## The Elements of Computing Systems (a.k.a. From NAND to Tetris in 12 steps)

## The Smart Girls' Guide to Privacy

## Akata Witch (& Akata Warrior), both by Nnedi Okorafor

Think Harry Potter, if Hermione was the main character (and named Sunny), Hogwarts was in Nigeria, and Sunny was an albino raised in New York City. OK, nothing like Harry Potter, but there is a school of magic, danger around every corner, and superb writing.

## City of Brass, by S. A. Chakraborty

Nahri starts out as a small-time thief and con artist in 18th century Cairo, but discovers the magic she fakes is real, Djinn are real, and some *thing* is trying to kill her. She must travel to the fabled city of the Djinn where she may be considered a savior or their worst enemy.

## All Systems Red (and the rest of the Murderbot Diaries), by Martha Wells

Murderbot (as the protagonist calls itself) is part-biological, part-machine, and entirely introverted. It just wants to slack off and watch its favourite pirated shows in peace, but someone keeps trying to kill its’ clients that it cares about despite itself.

## God Stalk (and the rest of the series, 9 so far), by P. C. Hodgell

Jame finds her way out of the haunted wastes into Tai-tastigon, the city of gods, missing her memories and trying to piece together how she got there, while surviving thieves guilds, helping her adopted family’s inn stay competitive, and dealing with pesky gods.

## Sun of Suns (and the rest of the Virga tetralogy), by Karl Schroeder

Part steampunk, part distant future science fiction, taking place in space in a sphere 3,000 kilometers in diameter, filled with orbiting chunks of rock clustering around miniature fusion-reactor “suns” and one main “sun” at the heart of it all. Battle, intrigue, fashion, and friendship, constantly in motion as the many civilizations that make their home in this place collide, sometimes literally.

## Steeplejack (and the rest of the trilogy), by A. J. Hartley

Anglet doesn’t have her one sister’s style and grace, or her other sister’s down-to-earth practicality. But she is small and quick and makes a decent living repairing and cleaning chimneys and spires in Bar-Selehm, hoping to work herself, and maybe her family, out of poverty. Until her new apprentice is murdered and it is somehow tied to the theft of the century, and only Ang can make the connection or solve the mystery, if she can stay alive that long.

## Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

Marcus is a 17 year old hacker caught up in a sweep by the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Despite being innocent he is tortured for information he doesn’t have. When he is released he decides someone has to stop this out of control agency, and since no-one else seems to be ready to do it, begins to do it himself.

## Leviathan (and the rest of this trilogy), by Scott Westerfield

Set in an alternate past, between the Crimean War and World War I, with England breeding huge, living dirigible war creatures and the Austro-Hugarian Emprire fielding steam-powered giant robots. Two teens, from opposite sides in a war and social class, become friends as they fight to keep the world from spiralling back into war.

## Mortal Engines (and the rest of this tetralogy), by Philip Reeve

Centuries after the world was destroyed and rebuilt, cities were built to move, rumbling on giant treads. It was only natural they would try to eat each other. The humans stories of the hungry cities are epic in scale, personal in drama.

## Soon I will be invincible, by Austin Grossman

No-one tells the evil genius super-villain’s point of view. How did he get to be that way? Why is he driven to build robot armies and lasers capable of destroying the moon? And why is the so-called hero such a jerk? Fast-paced and fun.