Nothing has ever had the same effect on me.

"Just finished I Who Have Never Known Men. Don't know what to think about it, but I think about it daily trying to figure it out."

"We listened to it when it first came to audiobook, and to this day I'm reflecting on the cause and effects of the events in the book and thinking of different ways I could have possibly tried to do things myself if I had been him. Or just the things I could take advantage of without even trying to change significant events. Phrases and comments are still stuck in both mine and my wife's daily vocabulary. Amazing book!"

"I still imagine myself in the Salinas Valley in the era when John Steinbeck writes about. It’s about love and loss and family and struggle. It’s just the most beautifully written book ever, and I don’t know if I have ever read anything that captures a feeling the way this book has. Literally 10/10."

"Non-fiction, read by the author and enhanced with audio of the people quoted in their own words and voices.

I work in EMS/disaster response, and this book had a profound effect on me. It’s an incredibly well-composed and written book, and an even better audiobook. It discusses concepts of veracity, how humans interact with trust in a social society, and how this has played out in various infamous incidents from the last few decades.

It changed the way I think about communicating with patients, colleagues, adjacent players, and even just various strangers we interact with in everyday life. I think about this book constantly, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve re-listened."

"It’s a YA novel I describe to people as The Handmaid’s Tale meets Lord of the Flies. The aspect of the story that haunts me most, and took me about a year to stop being haunted by, was the knowing selfishness of the males of the society, who manipulated their beliefs and religious system to keep the women subservient and frightened, while also causing the women’s population numbers to be reduced by violence, thereby both increasing their value (supply and demand) and keeping them afraid. It was so cruel, cold, and calculated, and also pretty stomach-churning considering what happened to the girls."

"It's a favourite series I go back to frequently. The first-person narration is by a bot-human construct that has freed itself from corporate slavery and is cast into the wider universe after a planetary survey goes wrong. It’s about self-discovery, what personhood means, and found family. 

There’s a lot of humour and a lot of action, but character development over the course of the series is key (recommended reading order is chronological, not publication date: #6 before #5). The character is coded as neurodivergent, and this has resonated strongly with a lot of readers. It’s an imaginative and well-written series, and is overall hopeful, with an emphasis on how empathy and respect move relationships forward."

"Going into the book blind is a huge benefit, but it is a beautiful story set in a sci-fi space situation, full of feelings and humanity and plot twists, and I still think about the philosophy of it sometimes."

"It technically falls into the horror genre, but it stayed with me because it leaves you asking yourself who the real enemy is to these girls.

The premise of the story is a 'home' for unmarried pregnant girls in the '70s. The type where you visited your far-away “aunt” for the summer (to have the baby), then came home and no one in your real life was the wiser. It was right before these types of homes started to fade away. The main character is a teen girl, who the home names Fern (all girls are given new names upon arrival).

The story of each of the teen girls and how the adults in power treat them is incredible. While there is witchcraft in the story, it almost feels secondary in a strange way because it is so well told. Fern’s story is a very real depiction of what happened to young girls back then. I read the book six months ago and still think about it often. I’ve contemplated re-listening to it already because I enjoyed it so much."

"It was the first of his Culture series I read, and it blew my mind.

It was in another league from any science fiction I’d read up to that point, and while later in the series are arguably better, nothing has ever had the same effect on me.

It was like the part in The Wizard of Oz, where it goes from black and white to colour, only it went to holographic, 7.1, smell-and-touch-o-vision."

"A wealthy family’s history comes to light and they’re discovered to have had some shady connections during the Second World War, but its larger commentary about racism, sexism, and classism, just brilliant social commentary."

"The first book where I rewound every chapter and then rewound the entire book. So many nuances and re-listening helped me connect the lovely dots of this story."

"The very basic premise is you have no idea who you might touch in your everyday life through small actions. And that it's probably not who you think it is."

"A good reminder that you never know what is going on in someone’s life, what they’ve been through, or what they hold in their hearts. I listened to this book months ago and still think about it frequently."

"I’ve been yearning for a positive story for so long. The audiobook is well done, but it’s the story mostly that makes it so mesmerising. I loved the characters, the plot, the surprises… I’m currently listening a second time."

"It is the pillar of my belief in that sufficient quality can overcome style, genre, interest, age, and any other barrier. I have zero interest in anything about that novel and yet I’ve read it several times."

"A novel that has come to my mind many times when I think about how my perception changes when I spend time in distant foreign lands."