95 books like I Need a New Bum!

This poor little boy thinks his butt is broken because there’s a crack at the back. Told in rhyme, little ones and adults alike will love the silliness of this book as the main character searches for a new butt. The giggles will be plenty... they were in our house.

Written in a kid-friendly, conversational style, this book is full of scientific information about how animals’ bottoms are perfectly adapted to their environment. It also has surprising facts that kids won’t forget. Did you know that a wombat’s poop is cube-shaped? As Rish puts it, “They produce 80 to 100 caca cubes per night…” At the end of the book, readers are asked to vote for their choice of the best animal butt. This super-fun nonfiction that will keep elementary students reading past their bedtime. 

I honestly bought this book because the cover was so awesome and fun and design-y, but I stayed up reading it for the intricate research, complexity of thought, and highly engaging voice.

It was both a fun and challenging read, and I was particularly impressed with the way HR used her own lived experience as a lens while resisting making it the subject. I learned so much about many cultural products that I personally have enjoyed and engaged with, and it made me think anew about my relationship to my own body and the degree to which it is culturally dictated.

Anyone who has ever loved or hated a butt, or who has a butt, should read this book.

This series of linked novels and stories—start reading at An Alien Heat—would also be called SF.  They deal with time travel, the end of human civilization, and all kinds of other science-fictiony ideas. But the science is blurred almost into invisibility: the people living at the End of Time have little to no idea of the eons that have passed before them—nor do they much care about the past, except as a source of themes for their decadent parties. (Their ignorance of historical fact is also where a lot of the humor comes from.) The End of Timers have power rings that draw energy from the “ancient cities”, and with them can basically do magic—rearrange geography, create and destroy apparently living beings, and change themselves into any shape they want. So science is way back on the back burner; what we have instead is essentially a society of idiot wizards whiling away the… show more.

I love this book because I routinely see blind spots get in the way of leaders’ performance and effectiveness.

These leaders are blind to how they are perceived or to their ineffective behaviors. The reason is simple – most of us don’t investigate and uncover the hidden perspectives we embody; the deeply reactive, repetitive response we have day-in and day-out, or understand the brilliant defense mechanisms we’ve built. 

The reason I love this book is because it’s easy to read and the concept is simple, but profound. The authors explain clearly why forcing ourselves to look at our blind spots is the first step in correcting them, and paves the way for enhanced communication, increased productivity, and long-term success.

Cultivating the ability to see things from another person’s perspective is among other ways this book helps break the cycle of “self-deception,” that prevents leaders from reaching their full potential. It’s… show more.

I love giant robots, being a fan of the Battle Tech and Gundam franchises, and Hard Reboot is a book involving giant-robot arena fights, so that alone inspired me to check it out. Good worldbuilding is important for any fiction book. And with this book being a novella, I was impressed with how much worldbuilding was done within 150 pages or so. The world within Hard Reboot has its own unique terms, technology, and environments, which made me want to learn more about this world as I read through each page. I also found the two main characters intriguing, two young women from different backgrounds. The evolution of their relationship from frenemies to significant others was totally fun to read. If you like giant-robot battles, pick this book up.

This is a really fun, slim novel set on a moon, Panga, where technology long ago achieved sentience and decided to leave humanity for the wilderness.

The novel opens with a tea monk, Dex, who lives in a gentle utopia and becomes the first human to meet a robot in distant memory. The robot, named Mosscap, asks Dex, “What do humans need?” and what proceeds is a marvelous rolling conversation between robot and monk that spans philosophy, theology, and ecology, providing so much food for thought regarding a happy, nurturing post-transition world.

Software is a zany romp through a 1983 vision of 2020, with sapient AIs living on the moon and maybe invading South Florida. 

Like its author, Software is a rich amalgamation of disparate elements: on the one side, the book is campy fun, while on the other, it’s a legitimate exploration of Artificial Intelligence and identity.  Back when I was first getting into cyberpunk, this was another difficult find, despite having won the Philip K. Dick award; I actually didn’t read it until the late ‘90s! 

The author’s life is nearly as interesting as his books, too: his full name is Rudolf von Bitter Rucker, a descendant of German philosopher Georg Friedrich Hegel, though he grew up in Louisville, KY, and he would eventually develop his own literary movement, Transrealism.

I grew up reading Isaac Asimov, and it must be at least forty years since I first read this.

Far in the future, a New York detective is partnered with a robot to investigate the murder of a leading citizen. At the heart of the book is an intriguing murder mystery. However, what makes this a favourite of mine is the growing relationship between the two investigators.

Asimov wrote this to prove that crime and science fiction are not incompatible genres – and succeeded brilliantly, paving the way for those who have followed him.

One of my philosophy professors said science fiction writers were the new philosophers. I couldn’t agree more. Science fiction authors can create worlds to test hypotheses about social structures. Hogan creates a world seeded with humans with the goal of finding a planet they can move to before the impending self-inflicted destruction of Earth. Without the connection to Earth, the society that forms is a highly productive world without an exchangeable currency. The robots that brought the ship to the planet can build everything they need. After generations, Earthlings make their way to the planet, bringing the ideas and philosophies that destroyed Earth. The locals welcome them and are amused at the absurd ideas. This book does a wonderful job exploring concepts of wealth, social structure, and so much more.