Stranger than Fiction is a feature here on the blog that looks at recent news stories and technological advances that honestly sounds straight out of science fiction. From the ethics of gene editing in utero to the possible Cylon takeover, this monthly series will dive deep into the many reasons that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.Friends, welcome to my first Stranger Than Fiction post! I've been compiling news articles and stories for several months now and finally have the energy to launch my new baby into the world. One of the reasons that I love science fiction is that it is a genre not only of possibility but also of cautionary tale; it is a genre that looks forward to humanity's potential end and addresses the ways we can avoid that fate. (This is a topic of particular academic interest to me and was the focus of one of my honors theses.) This month I'm talking about how the theme of AI Takeover goes back almost 100 years, the explosion of AI technology in the last 20 years, and how much Sophia the Robot creeps me out. This post originally was about a recent academic article on AI learning improvements, but let's I wandered a bit while writing... so I'll talk about that next month.
Girl Gone Viral by Arvin Ahmadi
Hello, world and welcome to my review of Girl Gone Viral as part Penguin's Blog Tour! I was so excited to be able to read and share my thoughts on this book with you all. Girl Gone Viral is a fantastic coming of age contemporary that includes technology that really roots itself into how tech and social media are a big part of growing up today.
"Be careful putting yourself out there; privacy is hard to get back."
The book is told in the first person perspective of Opal Tal, a 17-year old coding genius who is determined to find the answers to her father's disappearance seven years earlier. She's tried to move on, reinventing herself as Opal Hopper to hide from her past in anonymity, but when a competition comes up with the prize of meeting reclusive tech genius Howie Mendelsohn she can't help but enter for a chance to meet him and get the answers she is sure he can provide.ARC Request Templates (Email & Profile)
Hi friends and welcome to another bookish resource! I've been dubbed the Email Queen 👑 by Soph, and a recent Twitter poll had an overwhelming response for email templates... so I thought that I would share the ones I wrote pertaining to ARCs. And while we are talking about putting your best foot forward on your ARC requests, I have also included some tips on how to make your NetGalley & Edelweiss profile as strong as ever! This post is not meant to be a how-to guide with links to publicity contacts and the general milestones most publishers are looking for before granting review requests. That isn't to say that I won't make that post in the future, but for the purposes of this post I wanted to keep it simple with templates only. If you're looking for that kind of post, I recommend that you check out the amazing guides by A Whisper of Ink, Nose Graze, or Novel Knight.
Here are 8 Anticipated Reads for June 2019
Can we talk for a moment about the fact that it is almost June and the year is nearing its halfway point? Where is time going? And more importantly can I use this to my advantage to travel to 2020 for some much needed sequels? Yes I am still thinking about certain cliffhanger endings and I need answers yesterday. June is the month that lots of mysteries tend to be published, which is good because I am in the mood for some sleuthing 🕵🏻, but have no fear because we still have some solid science fiction and fantasy releases hitting the shelves as well! Prepare your wallets for this month's list of books I need to get my hands on.
📝 In case you are wondering how I manage to keep track of upcoming releases and choose the books I am most excited to highlight, check out my Edelweiss 2.0 Guide!
Reading Around the Globe: Rita in Portugal
"Literacy only became widespread in the mid-20th century here, so literature still isn’t given much value. While I do think that this is changing, it’s happening very slowly."
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Welcome to Reading Around the Globe, a series here on Reader Voracious Blog geared at fostering a culture of understanding in the bookish community about access to books in various countries around the world. Each post in the series highlights a full interview with one international reader. You can read more about this series and catch up on previous interviews on the master post.- What is your name? My name is Rita.
- Blog URL? https://bookishr.wordpress.com
- Twitter handle? @bookishr_
- Where do you live? I live in Lisbon, Portugal!
Reader Voracious Blog 