I didn't like this.It was heavy handed which I expected.I liked Unauthorized Bread though it was somewhat slow.Model Minority and Radicalized together ironically support white supremacy. Even Unauthorized Bread does as it encourages POC immigrants to quietly and peacefully circumvent a system that is using them for unpaid labor.In Model Minority we have white guilt ahistorically explaining how siding with Black people against white supremacy causes their whiteness to be called into question. Joh...

DisappointingOnly one if the four stories (the first) was strong, and all four were so heavy-handed in their politics, and sometimes heavily didactic, as to detract. Not as good as his novels.

If there was ever a book to get you thinking, this is it! It's comprised of four novellas, three of which I really enjoyed. Doctorow has used these stories to showcase contemporary issues in their extremes and the result is an entertaining and thought-provoking read.

Four wry and not-so-subtle 'fuck you' tales about oppression, capitalism, racism, immigration, and other pressing social issues of the 21st century. Doctorow uses alternate realities and imagined near futures to remind us about the very real happenings that people are experiencing today. As someone privileged to not experience them too directly in real life, these stories feel juxtaposed in its farawayness and its nearness. It forces me to focus my attention and think about them while simultaneo...

It's fun, quick read, politics are too the left, Doctorow-ly.1. Poor people jail-breaking their appliances.2. Someone tells a superhero alien that he isn't white or human, not entirely unlike "The Boys".3. Healthcare terrorist group coalesces on a support group web site for relatives of cancer patients. 4. A plausible outcome for a wealthy survivalist compound post-disaster, but it has a little bird song of hope as well.(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]...

RADICALIZED by Cory Doctorow is the second book shortlisted for Canada READS 2020 that I have read. Four short stories or novellas make up RADICALIZED. UNAUTHORIZED BREAD, the first novella,is the longest and also my favourite. It was easy to become engaged in the story of main characters Salima, Nadifa and Abdirahim. We follow Salima through the years as she struggles against the "system" to move from the refugee camp and finally to an apartment in a luxury high rise tower in Boston. The apartm...

Radicalized ★★★★★ “They say violence never solves anything... that’s only true so long as you ignore all of human history.” Boom! What would it take to get true universal health care in USA? Violence.Masque of the Red Death ★★★★★ “Hell is other people.” Or it could be Solarpunk heaven if you choose correctly. This was the story I was waiting for, the prequel to Walkaway! In the early days of discontent and disruption the rich gather in small groups and arm themselves while the middle class and...

When the #CanadaReads folks picked their shortlist this one felt a bit off. While the other four books seemed to centre stories of marginalized voices, Radicalized felt on the surface like boilerplate sci-fi. Instead Doctrow gives us four short stories that speak the very social breakdown that is engulfing the world. The first follows a poor immigrant woman attempting to undermine the proprietary technology of appliance companies that help keep her and others downtrodden. The second is about a s...

holy SHIT

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow is a finalist in Canada Reads 2020.I question this as it didn't feel like a Canada-focused read. It will be interesting to hear the debate surrounding the decision for this book. Four stories relating to today's social issues and injustices lumped together into different universes - future, science-fiction and dystopic.A quick, dark read!

“Some things, America would tolerate, but other things, it would never, ever forgive.”This was my first Cory Doctorow book, and I think it goes without saying that this guy is extremely smart and has a very keen understanding of how the world works, and how people can get pushed around by said world. This collection of four contemporary dystopias was published in 2019, and two of them are so eerily prescient that I cringed almost the entire time I read them. But I bet that doesn’t make Mr. Docto...

This isn't a book I would have chosen to read on my own had it not been shortlisted for Canada Reads this year. And unlike the other four books on the shortlist (three of which were already on my to-read list and the other one I became interested in when the longlist was announced), I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book.Because I read this for Canada Reads, my overall feelings of it mostly center on how I see it fitting into this year's theme and just the program in general. Havin...

I'll admit, I just enjoy reading pretty much anything from Cory Doctorow. This book is a collection of short stories that are looking at some of the bigger issues facing us now if you set aside global warming. The impact and influence of social media as an echo chamber, social collapse and the long but quick fall of our society into dystopia, hardware as a service and how this might leverage more revenue out of the lowest income population under the false flag of making it affordable, and a disc...

Not my cup of tea. Hated every moment of this reading experience, but wanted to finish it for a book club.

Four short stories. Immigrants to America having to deal with being treated as third class citizens and manipulated via technological advances; racism and police brutality; the criminal failings of the American medical system and the insurance companies who decide who has a right to live and die despite ridiculous premiums, and finally, a survivalist more concerned about his standing as leader than actually helping people survive an Armageddon. The stories themselves were well developed and kept...

Unauthorized Bread was the only meh story. Decent, nice, ok, but in the end meh. A solid 3 stars.Model Minority was gorgeous and uncomfortable. 5 stars.Radicalized was equally gorgeous and uncomfortable. 5 stars.The Masque of the Red Death gorgeous, but not as uncomfortable, still 5 stars. A good-old survivalist story .Highly recommend. Model Minority and Radicalized were *chef's kiss*.

Great little collection of 4 unique stories:1) Unauthorized Bread - 4 Stars - All appliances are "smart" and are used to keep poor people poor. The lower class MC lives in an apartment building where the floors are clearly defined by class. She always has to wait for the automated elevator to pick her up because upper class tenants get picked up first, but just living in that building is considered a privilege. When her toaster stops working, she learns how to jailbreak the operating system, and...

Liked 1st novel only.

(Note: The book description for this on Goodreads only describes one Novella. This is actually 4 stories)This was a brilliantly thought provoking yet hugely entertaining set of novella’s, each one self contained, taking on a meaningful social issue and using speculative fiction to hit home.Some immersively clever writing with a hugely authentic set of characters, yes even the superhero, who you’ll definitely recognise, all thrown into various dangerous situations which they may or may not be abl...

The cops announced that LisasDad1990 had used Tor Browser extensively and had left behind no browser breadcrumbs, nor any records at AT&T's data centres. Inevitably, this set off a whole witch hunt over the “darkweb” and everyone wondering where the mystery man from the video had been “radicalized.” I picked up Radicalized because it's on the shortlist for this year's Canada Reads program – an annual “battle of the books” run by our national broadcaster, meant to encourage Canadians to read a