Meanwhile Amazon frequently sends me emails about books I “might like”, that bear no resemblance to anything I’ve ever bought for myself or others.

I seem to get a lot of these type of messages from Goodreads. But if you're not already on it, it'd be a pretty labor-heavy way to get set up with books you've marked "read" and/or authors you follow to get notified of new stuff.

I get a list of books under “continue series you’ve already started” on my kindle, but it’s not comprehensive. I think it did recommend Demon’s Daughter but only after it had been out for a while, when I get month’s of reminders to pre-order books that I’m far less sure I will want (I’m trying to wean myself off of at least some of the series that I just don’t like that much but keep reading out of inertia. It’s a challenging goal). Like many Amazon recommendations , what it mostly does is recommend the thing I just bought. It’s possible that my tendency to binge read everything I can find by an author has messed up the algorithm, but knowing that the automated processes they use to order from vendors is similarly wonky (or appears to be) I suspect it’s an intrinsic issue

Hah yes I get the “you might like” on my kindle but it’s a bit swayed by my tendency to read a lot of trashy romances on kindle unlimited.

In the case of Bujold's Desdemona e-books, they're self-published and I get the impression that she only sends the files to Amazon and other sites when she is satisfied with them. Whereas with books put out by standard publishers get announcements in various forthcoming book places (Locus, etc). Amazon probably gets announcements about them early on just like those places.

Fair! And a few of the other authors I like are self-pubbed as well,and I’d believe that.

I just finished The Mimicking of Known Successes and immediately preordered the sequel. Very good and thinky, in the ways I like my sf to be, with interesting characters and plot to boot.

Nice. I've had a sample of that sitting in my TBR for months but I keep getting distracted and reading something else. Maybe it will actually float to the top, now!

I've been listening to Demon Copperhead in the car. I am enjoying the voice a lot, but worry that it is going to be too depressing. Kid is damn resilient, but I will be most unhappy if the ending sucks. I am enjoying the narrative though so I'll stick with it.

Just finished Mercy by Jodi Picoult for book club. I just didn't believe any of the main characters. The minor characters were fine. I only endured it.

I did post on the condo community board asking if there was interest in a book club and had 6 responses! I thought that was great so on with the organizing. We have a couple of social rooms so we don't have to go to each other's places, which I think is more trouble for all.

Turns out the audiobook for Mimicking of Known Successes is free or included in a subscription or something so that is now Up Next