I would like to second the John Scalzi recommendation.
This is a picture book I enjoyed reading with my kids. Seeing a couple of posts about people being afraid to call out bad ideas reminded me of “The Very Silly Mayor” by Tom Tomorrow. Unfortunately, it’s out of print.
And for a recommendation at a higher reading level, “A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers was a fun science fiction novel with interesting aliens.
Hrm, I might give this a go, 432 pages is my kind of reading length.
Thanks for the recommendation. I ordered a copy.
I’m currently reading one of Pournelle’s Falkenburg books. I can’t remember the title offhand.
I just started ASR and it is a lot of fun. And like you said, a very quick read.
One other negative review.
I had never read Don Quixote, and decided to give it a try a few years ago. I didn’t make it very far. I don’t understand why anyone thinks a violently demented madman somehow provides a whimsical story of adventure. Maybe if I had read it at another time it would have hit me differently, but when the main character assaults innocent people because he is delusional, I don’t see how.
Currently reading Monster Hunter International series by Larry Correia. I am only on the 3rd book.
But the third book is extra interesting to me because it takes place in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is where I grew up.
The main setting is a fictional place that is almost similar to a couple of places in the U.P.
There is Copper Lake, supposedly a town with a population of 2000 just north of Houghton. But in real life there is a town Copper City a bit north of Houghton, which has a population of 187. Which is significantly smaller than the fictional town.
There is a Quinn Mining company which has some abandoned mines. But in real life, there is the Quincy Mining company. Very similar.
AS for the people, he “almost” got them right. So it is obvious that he did some research, but didn’t go too in depth.
It is super interesting. 
I’m currently working on 3 books.
All’s quiet on the Western Front
Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
Night Train: The Story of the NASCAR-inspired Bobsled that Beat the World
I’m about halfway through the last book in the Belisarius series, by David Drake and Eric Flint. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys alternate history / speculative military fiction.
I’ve read Belisarius series few months back, 
from me too.
I’d love if there were a ‘sequel’ series to it, one gets attached to book characters 
Currently I am reading K.J Parker’s ‘Engineer Trilogy’ and Daniel Suarez’s ‘Delta-V’
duology(so far).
I can also recommend his ‘Daemon/Freedom’, or pretty much everything he wrote,
if you like ‘15 minutes into the future’ SF, meaning the plots and technology are often terrifyingly plausible now, or will be in not-so-far future.
Nice thread. I’ll dip into some of the books mentioned.
I recommend The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian. It’s an interesting read on the history of artificial neural networks such as the Perceptron and AlexNet, with emphasis on their unintended behavior (misalignment) and what how to correct it (or not). It does not require any special expertise in programming.
Dwight
For anyone who enjoyed “All Systems Red” by Martha Wells, the first of the Murderbot Diaries, there is now a series on Apple TV. I enjoyed the first two episodes, but now have to wait for more.
I found an audiobook version of the Louis L’Amour Collection with Willie Nelson reading it with it dramatized with the rest of the Highwaymen, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. If your library has Libby, see if they have this title if you like western short stories.
For a different style of book, The Adventures of Mary Darling, tells how Mary Darling goes to rescue Wendy, John, and Michael from Peter Pan. And how the respectable Victorian housewife came to know how much danger her children were in with Peter Pan. It’s got a bit of a cozy fantasy feel to the writing, but is a good adventure tale.
If you like westerns, and aren’t already familiar with him, you might check out Elmer Kelton. L’Amour was a great writer, but I prefer Kelton. Also, if you can find them, Elmore Leonard wrote some good ones when he was first starting out.
I watched the Murderbot series on Apple over the weekend. It was a lot of fun. Without the intro and credits each episode was about 20 minutes. It had the feel of an old school serial with excitement and action and a small cliff hanger at the end of each episode.
We enjoyed the show too.
I am currently working through John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series. It seems somewhat dated (which isn’t surprising since the earliest ones are 60 years old), but I’m still enjoying them.
@Frederick_Law which novels? I recently read (listened to) the Thrawn trilogy. very good.
as an avid audiobook enthusiast, ive worked my way through all of michael crichton’s books. i’m having trouble finding a suitable replacement that is on the same level as he was. any suggestions? i tried james rollins but his books are so long and drawn out and lack the je ne sais quoi that crichton had
@TK.421 Maybe Ken Follett?
I enjoyed his Kingsbridge series.
If you are into world-building, few authors can do it like Neal Stephenson.
OTOH, he can’t write a ‘proper’ ending to save his life, so be warned 
I still enjoy his books, thou.