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freelop posted:1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge: 5/12 moana fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Mar 23, 2024 |
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Mar 23, 2024 22:37
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moana posted:Somebody give me a wildcard book/author that is super gay, I don't know how many of my list are LGBTQ+ so I've got to figure that out but might as well get ahead. Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends. Doesn't get much gayer. Plus it's good
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Mar 24, 2024 07:39
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I haven't read in any real capacity (unless you coung RPG manuals, which you really shouldn't) in years, especially after uni. I would love to get back into it again. I'm assuming that it's against the spirit of the Booklord 2024 challenge to reread old books?
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Mar 24, 2024 10:24
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paradoxGentleman posted:I haven't read in any real capacity (unless you coung RPG manuals, which you really shouldn't) in years, especially after uni. I would love to get back into it again. I'm new to this, but I don't see why it should be. Reading is reading, it does the mind good.
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Mar 24, 2024 11:25
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paradoxGentleman posted:I haven't read in any real capacity (unless you coung RPG manuals, which you really shouldn't) in years, especially after uni. I would love to get back into it again. As the OP I decree you should do whatever the hell you want, the challenge is for you to define as you wish, and re-reading is still reading. e: I also love re-reading generally. You're going to be coming to a book with a different perspective now than the first time you read it so it'll be a different experience too, even if only subtly.
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Mar 24, 2024 14:28
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends. Doesn't get much gayer. Plus it's good
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Mar 26, 2024 14:24
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Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi So I missed last month's update. In February and March, with the help of binge-reading some comics, I finished twenty-six books... 27-33 - Dorohedoro, vol. 17-23, by Q. Hayashida. It's finally over. A fantastic, preposterous ending, where everything finally FINALLY came together. I love Caiman, I love Nikaido, I love Shin and Noi, I even came around to tolerating En. At the final hour Hayashida still takes delight in throwing ridiculous things into the mix, but it all somehow made sense, the whole chaotic overstuffed mess of it all. A huge, ambitious 18-year project that I am so glad I got to experience. The horrors are horrible, the comedy is genuinely funny, and the melodrama hits extra-hard without being undercut. Caiman and Nikaido's relationship returns to the fore in the final conflict, and there is so much catharsis. I love Dorohedoro!!!! Gyoza is life, life is gyoza. 34 - TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, by Hakim Bey. Furious and beautiful and deeply capital-P Problematic, this collection of pamphlets and essays was a great introduction to Bey's most enduring writing. A sense of fun and excitement runs through his urgings of direct artistic action and culture-jamming through random acts of creativity and total rejection of societal norms, almost all of which are interesting and inspiring. Almost. The most frustrating part is Bey's consistent references to being a 'lover of boys', of the liberatory power of childhood sexuality. Whenever it comes up, and always in passing as a casual reference, it's jarring. Obviously there is a beautiful freedom of childhood where you haven't been ground down by the norms of society, and that can be something to aspire to reattain. But also how was a lifelong anarchist not cognisant of the immense power imbalance and exploitation inherent in NAMbLA bullshit? It's such a shame because so much of the rest of it is built on beautiful, vital dreams and visions of liberated ways of living. There is a lot to say about Bey's rejection of any kind of materialism, and the limits of the hyper-individualistic anarchism he espouses, and he seems not just aware of these contradictions but happy to embrace them in the name of being troublesome and causing artistic or philosophical mischief. I kept thinking about Alan Ginsberg while reading (sure enough he's quoted on the back cover): emotional and blistering writing sabotaged by the writer's inescapable sketchiness. 35 - 21st Century Yokel, by Tom Cox. Part nature writing, part memoir, Cox's writing is full of pleasant anecdotes, gentle humour and a deep appreciation for place. So much of the book is about walking getting lost and discovering new things that aren't marked on maps or mentioned in travel guides, and so much of it is about his family, that even when angry or melancholic, there is still a sense of closeness and cosiness. The stand-out character is, of course, Cox's father, an enigmatic and bellowing comic figure to whom I grew quite attached - there is a section about his own childhood that features ripping-yarn capers that was particularly fun. Cox is also very conscious of his circumstances in life - I've seen some critics describe this as a "middle aged" or "mid-life" book, and there are worries about aging and family heritage throughout the book. There are hints at crisis - whatever happened to uproot his life and drive him to move into a solitary life beside Dartmoor is left unspoken, but it hangs in the background as a sadness that sometimes peeks through. His role as a human and his relationship with non-human animals comes up a lot, too, with a wonderful animal cast included in the storytelling, especially his cats. I enjoyed this a lot, and I will track down more of his books. 36 - The Black God's Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark. Alt-history/steampunk novella set in late-19th-Century New Orleans. A world where Haitian super-science allowed them to gain full independence from Napoleonic France, the American Civil War ended in a truce and an independent slave-owning nation that keeps the enslaved drugged into compliance. There are a lot of interesting details woven through the narrative, which is mostly about a scrappy teenager with Oya in her head going on a cool airship adventure. It's fun! It's short but I could imagine many more stories in this setting. 37 - Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, by Anne Washburn. drat, what a piece of work. Set immediately post-apocalypse, a group of characters try to remember a Simpsons episode while the world crumbles around them. And then seven years later, a travelling theatre group puts on a show with what remains of Simpsons scripts. And then seventy-five years later... Washburn put a lot of thought and care into exploring what roles media and memory play in society, how pop culture may survive and change when extrapolated past the society that made it. I would love to see a live production of this sometime! 38 - Hogg, by Samuel R. Delany. loving hell, this one was rough. A nonstop assault of sex, violence, abuse, rape, child abuse, and abysmal lack of bodily hygeine. There are beautiful turns of phrase peppered throughout, like panning for gold in a sewer. Not for the faint of heart, or for anyone, really. 39 - Cage!, by Genndy Tartakovsky & Stephen DeStefano. One of my favourite animators paying homage to the over-the-top action and wild characters of 70s Marvel? I was sold as soon as I heard about this book. And the result is pretty drat cool, action-packed, and silly. Tartakovsky's style shines through on the page, with dynamic action and exaggerated character motion matching his angular, thick-lined style. The jokes are funny and the cast are fun, though it's mostly Luke Cage himself going on a medium-sized adventure that culminates in a big tournament that he (naturally) dominates. A celebration of the character that clearly had a lot of love poured into it. And then the volume concludes with Cage's original introduction comic, which is so much more grounded and heavy than the preceding issues that the whiplash is palpable. It kind of illustrates that the character is more than just action-packed wisecracks, that Cage was conceived to appeal to blaxploitation audiences and tackle the same kind of issues and themes. It's an odd choice to put these in the same volume. 40 - Pink, by Gus Van Sant. Middle-aged gay infomercial (sorry, 'filmmercial') director mourning the loss of his boyfriend-collaborator meets a young filmmaker who looks exactly like him. This is a book of loss and disconnection: generational divides, the in- versus the out-crowd in pop culture and fame. There's also a supernatural element that gets slowly introduced. The perspective switches between our hero Spunky and the last days of a depressive megastar musician who's addicted to buying construction equipment. Despite moments of comedy this is a sad novel, and Spunky's attempts to (re)kindle relationships are tragic and relatable. I saw a couple of places saying this was about Van Sant's grief over the death of River Phoenix, and I can definitely see that. There are also passages in the book that are taken from Spunky's work-in-progress screenplay, a bizarre sci-fi epic full of sexual excess and other odd fixations. I hope somehow Van Sant can turn that into a film. Oh, and also there's a flip-book in the corner! This is far from a great book, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it, and it evoked more feelings in me than I expected. 41 - The Free-Lance Pallbearers, by Ishmael Reed. Short and immensely funny satirical novel set in a parodic 60s New York, under the thumb of a malodorous dictator who rules from a gilded commode in Howard Hughes-style isolation. The protagonist stumbles from mishap to misadventure, losing his lover, his job, and his dignity as he's pulled seemingly accidentally into a resistance movement. It's full of hip 60s slang and all-caps shouting, with a cast of oddballs and hypocrites that lampoon everyone from radical artists to patriarchs. The ending is a little messy, and our hero(?) is both a put-upon everyman and a gullible nitwit depending on the scene. That (plus some casual women-be-crazy sexism thrown in to remind you this is indeed from the 60s) makes it a little less fun, but overall it's a good time and sometimes genuinely hilarious. 42 - The Complete Angel Catbird, by Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas & Tamra Bonvillain. Margaret Atwood, literary superstar, turns her hand to writing a superhero comic! I'd never heard of this before, and it turns out there's a good reason: it absolutely sucks. Three hundred pages of awkward exposition, overwritten dialogue, and an endless machine-gun barrage of bad jokes. Angel Catbird is based on a character Atwood daydreamed as a young child (we even get to see some of her original six-year-old-Margaret art of some winged cats). So for this project she set herself the task of bringing this childhood fixation into the 2010s, and transforming an adorable flight of fancy into a spunky, handsome hero for herself and all the other 78-year-old cat ladies out there. Despite its relentless crappiness, I am happy I read this, as it is a good reminder that even the greatest creative minds can produce absolute stinkers, especially when given carte blanche. I feel bad for Christmas and Bonvillain, who did their best with a big pile of bad ideas. A dreadful, tedious, unfunny vanity project produced by a great writer whose brain must have been riddled with toxoplasmosis. 43 - Noor, by Nnedi Okorafor. Cyberpunk story about a heavily-augmented woman fleeing from deaedly prejudice into the desert storms of north Nigeria. There are a lot of cool ideas and some really nice set pieces, especially a city hidden within a sandstorm. The story is let down by clunky exposition-dumps in the first half, but it comes together into a solid and earnest near-future SF story. Evil megacorporation shenanigans, the clashes of scientific progress with tradition and superstition, and Cool Technology. 44 - I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!: And Other Things that Strike Me as Funny, by Bob Newhart. This was a surprise little-free-library find and I really liked it. The whole thing reads perfectly as Newhart's voice, and it's full of jokes, observations and even entire classic comedy routines. I laughed out loud a few times which reading this, and there are some great little stories, and it's completely unpretentious and affable. A little kids-these-days crankiness doesn't detract from how pleasant my experience with this book was overall. Thanks Bob! 45 - The Doors of Perception / Heaven And Hell, by Aldous Huxley. Revisiting this after more than a decade, this is still a really interesting and earnest exploration of psychedelics and spirituality. Huxley's perspective as a scientifically- and philosophically-minded man make this more accessible than I remembered, and the advocation of tolerance and empathy are pleasant. I can see why this was such an important text for psychonauts of the 20th Century, of course. It's neat! 46-51 - Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam, vol. 1-6, by Yoshiyuki Tomino & Yuuichi Hasegawa. It's a Gundam! I've watched a lot of Gundams, but never read any - and this was pretty dang good. A sequel to the F91 film, this is about space pirates with mobile suits, which is already an excellently cool idea. And the execution is really solid, with a few caveats. Unfortunately this does have some unnecessary nude scenes and some unnecessarily long exposition, which are thankfully few in number but still offputting. For the most part though this is a fine piece of Gundam storytelling, exploring a lot of the themes you might expect, and with an even more over-the-top villain than usual. The art style is kind of a Tezuka-esque throwback, and there's a weird juxtaposition between the cute, toyetic humans and the gloriously detailed tech. Mobile suits, spaceships, colonies, weird gadgets, all rendered in loving excitement which makes the action scenes really hit. High octane, high stakes, and a fun cast. 52 - Rainbear!!!!!!!!!, by Never Evangeline North. Bizarre dreamlike novella vaguely infused with Jewish mysticism and a warped fairytale-parable. I think it's about regressing for comfort/coping after escaping a traumatic status quo. But also it's about a grand adventure and a magical colour mountain, and different visions of intimacy and vulnerability. This feels like a confessional story refracted through a hundred prisms made of primary school art supplies. There's also a penis fountain in it? I think it tells a story of travelling through absurd hardship to find yourself irrevocably changed (matured? purified?) on the other side. I liked it well enough. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 22 - 1, 3, 17-33, 37, 42, 43, 52 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 36 - 1, 4-12, 17-33, 36, 38, 41, 43, 46-51 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 5 - 3, 34, 38, 40, 52 7. Read something that is referenced in something else (a movie, a tv show, another book, etc.) - 10. Read something you think is probably overhyped 12. Read two works by different authors who have a matching name (initials, first, last, middle, whatever) 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read something with exactly four (4) words in the title (since it's 2024)
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Apr 1, 2024 22:07
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I've been meaning to read Gundam Crossbone forever, cool that you read it and dug it. Tomino, whatta legend.
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Apr 2, 2024 01:14
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Heavy Metal posted:I've been meaning to read Gundam Crossbone forever, cool that you read it and dug it. Tomino, whatta legend. As far as I understand, Tomino only gave story beats and general concepts, while Hasegawa did the actual writing/art. Which means I can choose to blame the stuff I didn't like (weird teenage-girl nudes) on Hasegawa.
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Apr 2, 2024 02:44
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Gotcha, makes sense. Are you gonna read the sequels and I think prequel Skull Heart or was it a decent ending spot as is? Also cool to hear Dorohedoro got an ending.
Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Apr 2, 2024 |
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Apr 2, 2024 06:30
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I might read the sequels? I was totally satisfied with where Crossbone finished up though. But it's Gundam, so there are always more stories.
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Apr 2, 2024 08:31
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Right on, definitely a lotta Gundam to go around. Big fan of the classic anime, Tomino series especially.
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Apr 2, 2024 08:48
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Man, totally forgot March, so two months worth here: 7. Exordia by Seth Dickinson - First contact, mil-scifi, big dumb object. Classic sci fi tropes. Here used in the sort of rebuttal to Blind Sight of what if consciousness, and indeed a soul, were not flukes, but inevitable. This was real good! I anticipate it being nominated for things. 8. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by TL Huchu - The follow up to Library of the Dead, which I kinda forgot I'd read. This was a pretty enjoyable read with a historical treasure hunt playing it's role. 9. The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler - In the future mammoths have been brought back from extinction, but are having a hard time surviving because they don't know how to be mammoths. The premier game warden protecting elephants has her brain scan uploaded (?) into a matriarch mammoth to try to help. This is short and interesting. 10. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez - Because I really enjoyed The Friend by Nunez whenever that won awards some years ago. This is a novel of the lockdown, with an older woman keeping a friends parrot while said friend was stuck in California unable to return. It's meditative, with digressions on all sorts of topics, but particularly writing. Enjoyed this. 11. Blackman's Coffin by Mark de Castrique -A middle east vet recovering from losing a leg to an IED tries to solve a murder mystery, which seems linked to a diary from 1919. The historical mystery twines with the more modern day. Solid read. The protagonist was surly in a good way and it was interesting. I tend to like this sort of deal with historical and present day mysteries linked. 12. A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma - Hugo Contreras is a widower haunted by guilt and by debt. He works in a botanica often exorcizing spirits, though he is not himself a believer. The debt collector offers to forgive Hugo's debt if he will clear up the entirely nonmetaphorical haunting. Solid read with a lot to say about guilt and debt. 13. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride - This won an award, so I'm assuming it was nominated as part of that process. Set in eastern Pennsylvania, just outside of town. The town used to be mostly Jews, but as more Blacks moved in, many Jews moved off the hill and into town. The overarching narrative here is of these oppressed groups coming together to rescue a kid. It's told primarily through anecdotes, so you may read about a temple meeting that sort of advances part of the narrative, but obliquely. Mainly it's about a disruptive bullfrog. The story goes on and weaves a rich tapestry of the town and its inhabitants. Really liked this one, it's a standout of these 2 months. 14. The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Ann Older- The sequel to Mimicking of Known Successes. A sci-fi, sapphic, murder mystery. These are quick reads with decent mysteries and some philosophy of a post Earth humanity. Good. 15. As She Crawled Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem - Weird satire type thing about a humanities prof whose girlfriend falls in love with a anomaly of physics. A "lack" which initially defined by which particles it "consumed" and which it did not. 16. Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block - Saw this recommended somewhere. It's about a burglar framed for murder who tries to solve the murder, and thus get himself out of hot water. Lightly comedic, decent mystery. My big qualm is that sometimes some evidence is hidden from the reader. I really want to know if I'd have found the correct solution had I gotten the final piece that made it click. Will read more of the series though. 17. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - The sequel to Gideon the Ninth. Entirely different in tone, though not bereft of memes. Hard to review much otherwise because it feels like spoilers would be needed. Good Read. I'll get to Nona someday. 18. Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan - Set in London in the 90s, a newpaper man named Tom sets out to get the dirty backstory on a horrific child murder. He puts the family of the perpetrator up in a hotel to try and gain the confidence. And her it delved into backstories of family members. It critiques out taste for tragedy in news and lays out that for the most part tragedies are just the result of ordinary human failings. Ben Nevis posted:1. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
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Apr 5, 2024 22:39
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I only finished two books in March. That's the lowest number I've finished in a very long time. I did start a lot of books that I'm still in the middle of, and probably the biggest explanation is that I started learning to play the banjo which is apparently taking up a lot more of my brain's focus than I would have expected! 14. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison I know this is far from a majority opinion but I kind of hated this book hah. This gets lauded as a 'cozy' fantasy focused on court politics. The basic gist is that the youngest and least-favored (and half-goblin) son of an elf emperor suddenly inherits the throne after his father and all of his brothers die, and he has no clue how to rule or how court works because he lived essentially in exile his whole life. It's not a bad pitch, but imo none of the worldbuilding or court politics really make sense if you dig a little below the surface (which is important for a book heavily focused court politics to really work!), and a lot of it just seems really out of touch and woefully under-researched (I even found an interview with the author where she explicitly said she made it about elves and goblins because she didn't want to do any research on actual medieval courts  ). I could go on for a very long time nitpicking it but I'll stop there.15. Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo Another Singing Hills Cycle book! This series is still really neat. I'm still enjoying the conceit of how the stories the main character collects weave into their own life and adventures. This was one of the more somber entries so far, about death and legacy and how often we only know and understand other people through stories we know (or later find out) about them rather than direct experience. Looking forward to the next one! 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 15/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~11/15 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. ~4/15 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~6/15 5. Read a work in translation -- The Revolt (from French) 6. Read something that was nominated for an award -- The Goblin Emperor 7. Read something that is referenced in something else (a movie, a tv show, another book, etc.) 8. Read some poetry OR a play -- Citizens of the Mausoleum (poetry) 9. Read something in the public domain 10. Read something you think is probably overhyped -- The Goblin Emperor 11. Read something illustrated (whether it's a few splash pages or a comic, do whatever you like here!) 12. Read two works by different authors who have a matching name (initials, first, last, middle, whatever) -- Stephen R. Brown / Daniel James Brown 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read something with exactly four (4) words in the title (since it's 2024) -- The Salt Grows Heavy DurianGray fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 14:12
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3 books completed in March. I'm getting through more than anticipted. 6. Words of Radiance: Part Two by Brandon Sanderson - Continuing directly on from part one, the plot is really going now and I'm totally sucked in. 7. Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan - Ladylop had read this and recommended it as the author was attending a convention. It was a fun children's book. Darren Shan was a nice guy to chat with as well 8. The Fall of the Towers by Samuel R. Delany - Technically 3 books spanning an upheavel in a distand post-post apocalyptical Earth (or specifically the last known functioning city within an area of the Earth that is still inhabitable. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge: 8/12 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men: 1/3 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color: 2/3 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers: 1/1 7. Read something that is referenced in something else (a movie, a tv show, another book, etc.) 8. Read some poetry OR a play 9. Read something in the public domain 10. Read something you think is probably overhyped 12. Read two works by different authors who have a matching name (initials, first, last, middle, whatever) 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - Going to pick up Don't Call Us Dead, by Danez Smith as suggested by moana
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Apr 9, 2024 21:12
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends. Doesn't get much gayer. Plus it's good
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Apr 9, 2024 23:57
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moana posted:Just finished this one, and agreed - gayest book I've ever read! Also some great writing. Kinda like a Tales of the City cranked up to eleven in every direction. I've never read any Maupin but I'm glad you enjoyed! Purnell is a hell of a writer.
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Apr 10, 2024 01:40
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G) Gyo - Junji Ito I think this one is a lot weaker than Uzumaki, which I also read this year. The art was excellent, but the story felt underbaked comparatively. The dialogue and plot were razor thin and the overarching story was kind of like a horror flick that went on too long instead of making it point and being done with it. The volume of this that I read did, however, contain "Amigara Fault" - the "this hole was made for me" one. THAT one was very tightly put-together, creepy as hell for someone with even minor claustrophobia like me, and lent itself to a great sense of mystery giving way to horror. It's a slight and sutble as something can be that goes by this quickly due to the format. Loved it. H) A Feast for Crows - GRRM This is probably my favorite Ice and Fire novel to date. Instead of casting itself around the globe of Westeros, it focuses on the brutal, rotting aftermath of the big war precipitated by the first few books. As much as I wanted to learn more about what Dany and Tyrion and Jon were up to, this is targeted on how the West has been decimated by said wars. While the common people are picking up the pieces and trying to find ways to survive to tomorrow, the nobles are still plotting and scheming and being horrible little loving shits as they always have been. Cersei is a utter paranoid psychopath, blaming her servants for "shrinking her clothes" when she's probably just porking up from drinking like a fish for 2 years. Religious zealots overtake the capitol, and the entire continent feels like it's dying in a post-war decay. I didn't care at all for the Iron Islands stuff, but I guess it's going somewhere. Time will tell when I get to Dance with Dragons / GRRM finally writes the last book in 2035. Brienne of Tarth is a captivating character, and I hope she doesn't meet the ingnominious end that it seems she did. She's wonderful. I) Julie, or the New Heloise - Rousseau I chose this one thank to this thread's "public domain" guideline! I did not expect to like this one as much as I did. An epistolary about class-forbidden love, the density of the prose kept me reading more than the plot. It led me down some wiki-holes that encouraged me to learn more about the setting and contemporary backdrop that I would never have read about before. J) The Rainbow Abyss - Barbara Hambly A very, very weird low fantasy pulp story about how magic is real but incredibly rare, takes reagents, can only be worked by certain people who have specific... phenotypes? It's very charming & has lovecraftian elements. The people who are able to use magic reliably are both subject to pogroms, and also sought out by the nobility for their uses. It has political intrigue, a very vivid history, and a Brian-Jacques level of describing things through the senses. I liked this one way more than i thought i would. --- 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 10/30 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. B, C, E, J= 40% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. C, D = 10% 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. 5. Read a work in translation - D, G, I 6. Read something that was nominated for an award A, C, D 7. Read something that is referenced in something else (a movie, a tv show, another book, etc.) H 8. Read some poetry OR a play 9. Read something in the public domain I 10. Read something you think is probably overhyped 11. Read something illustrated (whether it's a few splash pages or a comic, do whatever you like here!) D, G 12. Read two works by different authors who have a matching name (initials, first, last, middle, whatever) 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read something with exactly four (4) words in the title (since it's 2024) - F, H --- Can I get some more Gay Book recommendations? It's a major blind spot in my normal perusing of stuff to read. If it helps, I like Sci Fi, Fantasy, and historical nonfiction works. Thank you!
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Apr 15, 2024 07:17
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UltraShame posted:
Queer SFF authors to check out that I've enjoyed, vaguely listed from most to least accessible: Sarah Gailey Becky Chambers Rivers Solomon Charlie Jane Anders Tamsyn Muir And of course Samuel R. Delany ...but there are loads more of course. For a formal Wildcard, check out Riley Black, The Last Days of the Dinosaurs.
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Apr 16, 2024 23:59
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Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge: 12/30 Beowulf - Seamus Heaney translation I read this slowly over a couple months as part of an online reading group (Catherine Project), and it was an amazing way to experience this poem. Reading only pieces at a time forced us to talk about all the stuff inbetween the exciting action bits, and those discussions really honed my understanding of this poem. Like what treasure actually means, what the digressions meant, what the culture meant, what monsters were, what is civilization and what is chaos. It was great. Readings on Beowulf Turns out this is a selection of pieces of larger works, intended for high school students. Most of it was review, but one essay did have a really good point on the stolen goblet. The Other Side Of The Mountain by Michael Bernanos and The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria A couple books that came up in a list of weird horror. In a strange way they remind me of Neon Genesis Evangelion, in that they're using things that come loaded with religious symbolism, but they're not using that symbolism, they're taking iconic things and using them in their own ways. Like, Beranos has people being calcified in ways that seems like the pillars of salt in Sodom and Gomorrah, but I don't think reading it biblically is helpful to understanding the book. Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher I picked this up randomly because I was bored a library while watching my kids play, and libraries always have parenting books in the kids play area. I flipped through it, and thought I'd just read the chapter on fatherhood, but I suddenly found myself sucked in. My daughter is a toddler, so it'll be a long time till any of this is useful, but there are ideas that'll stick with me for a while, and ideas that have already changed the way I read books.
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Apr 17, 2024 17:57
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Queer SFF authors to check out that I've enjoyed, vaguely listed from most to least accessible: I have had Muir's stuff on my poo poo to Read list for a long time but never got around to it, will have to bump this one up the list. Thanks for this, and for the rest of the recs.
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Apr 18, 2024 07:05
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Time to update my list. Last post was March 17. Pace has been pretty steady since then, though in the last few weeks I've hit a bit of a bad patch with not finishing books and having to keep a number going at the same time. Looks like I'm over the worst of it now. 20. Marko Hautala - Kaikki Mitä Tahdot - 3.75/5 21. Jussi Hyvärinen - Olduvain Rotko - 4/5 (Booklord book of poetry) 22. China Mieville - Toiset (The City And The City) - 3.75/5 23. Tuomas Niskakangas - Roihu - 2.75/5 24. Yukito Ayatsuji - The Decagon House Murders - 3.5/5 25. Kati Routa - Vihanpitäjät - 2.5/5 26. Thomas Engström & Margit Richert - Armasjärvi - 2.75/5 27. Mia Couto - Plumeriaveranta (Under The Frangipani) - 3/5 28. Aapo Kukko - Puhumalla Paras - 3.5/5 (Booklord graphical novel) 29. Riitta Salke - Silverstar: Unelmien Siipiväli - 2.25/5 Still looking for wildcard suggestions! At least I don't think I've received any!
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Apr 25, 2024 17:58
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Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi I finished nine books in April. The comic binge continues, with some proper Books sprinkled in there for good measure. 53 - Alone In Space: A Collection, by Tillie Walden. A collection of comics, including an anthology of her earliest work as a student. The three main pieces included here are really very beautiful and deeply sad, especially the small-town gay romance I Love This Part. Walden's writing is sparse but honest, and she's very good at grand vistas and yawning open spaces. The halls of the enormous palace in The End Of Summer dwarf the small, doomed members of the noble family; the sweeping landscapes and cityscapes in I Love This Part are dominated by the young giantesses in love. The third longform comic, A City Inside, didn't hit as hard for me, but is still a really nice and thoughtful story of growth and possibility. These are good! Walden is good! 54 - I Am A Cat, by Sōseki Natsume (trans. by Graeme WIlson & Aiko Ito). One of the most famous works of Meiji-era Japanese literature, a social satire told from the perspective of an anonymous housecat. I was expecting more cat shenanigans and fewer long rambling digressions on social mores, and some of it was a real slog because of this. When it's good, it's very good, funny and sweet and interesting - there's a lot about the tensions between Japanese tradition, modern Western influence, and ideas of imported Western history. There are some fun characters too, even though half the time they seem to be mouthpieces for whichever idiosyncracies or boorish opinions the author wants to explore. The scenes where the cat gets to do cat-things are very sweet, well-observed and charming. I know I'm missing out a lot of the humour and satirical value, and some of the longer conversations are quite entertaining, but this book tried my patience a lot. Maybe I'll revisit it when I'm older and wiser. 55 - Thieves, by Lucie Bryon. A sweet and cosy coming-of-age love story about two teenage girls with a stealing problem. Bryon's art is really lovely, a blend of cuteness and detail that really add to the tone. The story is simple but gives the characters some room to breathe, and the central couple are very cute to follow. Cute describes basically everything in this book! 56 - Thunder 3, vol. 1, by Yuki Ikeda. A toony slice-of-life manga where a portal opens up into a gritty, photorealistic science fiction world. The cartoon kids who go through the portal have cartoon-physics superpowers on the other side. Giant aliens, enormous firepower, and an indestructible preschooler. It's an interesting setup, and I'm interested to see what the creator does with the premise, though the actual story and stakes aren't grabbing me much at this early stage. 57-9 - Bakune Young, vol. 1-3, by Toyokazu Matsunaga (trans. by Yuji Oniki). An ultraviolent and ridiculous caper where the titular thug, a giant with dreams of world domination, starts an explosive campaign against the yakuza that culminates in an extended siege at Osaka Castle...and then, the threat of nuclear war. It's spectacularly ugly, has only one female character, and the start is the closest thing to a Postal game I've read in manga. The action is superb, grisly and dynamic, the art is still unpleasant to look at, and the comedy is at its worst and best depending on the scene. I've already recommended this series to about half a dozen people. 60 - You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty, by Akwaeke Emezi. A messy, torrid romance novel that I liked quite a lot. A young artst still not over the untimely death of her husband suddenly becomes embroiled in a scandalous and forbidden romance with an older man, a famous widower with his own secrets...after meeting him while dating his son. The book and the characters agonise about what a bad idea it is, but the two are drawn inexorably to each other, romantically and sexually, in ways that feel authentically complicated. The exploration of grief, of sexuality, feels earnest and is written quite beautifully. The story does get a little trite towards the end, unfortunately, with the main opponent to the relationship going full arsehole. But then, sometimes guys are like that, so. It felt at the same time a bit too neat and also very messy, and the ending was still emotionally satisfying. No happy-ever-after, but this was never going to be that kind of book. 61 - An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, by Ed Yong. A fascinating, engrossing book about the Umwelten, or "sense-worlds", of different animal species, including humans. Yong interviews all sorts of biologists, zoologists and other researchers, and meets animals as diverse as mantis shrimp, star-nosed moles and harbour seals. There are some mind-blowing facts, interesting stories, and a running theme of the world being so much more than humans can perceive. But throughout the book there is a focus on empathy, understanding that there are limits to our understanding, and that it is still worth exploring the edges of scientific knowledge to appreciate non-human animals. There is, of course, the customary final "here's how humanity has been ravaging the natural world, we are doomed to lose everything unless we act" chapter. Which leaves things on a very sad note, even if it is necessary. The rest of this book is really wonderful, strange, and sometimes quite funny. Yong's endless curiosity really grabbed me, and he writes about complex topics like optics in ways that still really engaged me. Have already lent this book out and will be recommending it to others enthusiastically. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 25 - 1, 3, 17-33, 37, 42, 43, 52, 53, 55, 60 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 43 - 1, 4-12, 17-33, 36, 38, 41, 43, 46-51, 54, 56, 57-9, 60, 61 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 8 - 3, 34, 38, 40, 52, 53, 55, 60 7. Read something that is referenced in something else (a movie, a tv show, another book, etc.) - 10. Read something you think is probably overhyped 12. Read two works by different authors who have a matching name (initials, first, last, middle, whatever) 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard
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May 2, 2024 10:15
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And we're onto May. I'm convinced I lost a book somewhere, but I've no idea what it might have bee. Oh well, read harder I guess. Decent, if unspectacular month. 19. Float Up, Sing Down by Laird Hunt - A set of linked stories exploring the day to day life in a small town. Where they get interesting is sort of revealing the things links and patterns that aren't really talked about so much. It's a pretty good book, but maybe not one I'm telling people to run out and grab. 20. Burglar in the Closet by Lawrence Block - 2nd Bernie Rhodenbarr. Shorter, quicker read than the first, but enjoyable nonetheless. 21. The First Bright Thing by JR Dawson - A circus running around after WWI, but a WWI in which some people got magic powers. There is some distrust for the "sparks" who are more than human. It is an X Men metaphor. Our circus is sort of a queer found family. The competing circus is awful, but people are compelled to go. Also our heroes are trying to stop WWII, by circusing harder. A lot of pieces I like, but it didn't gel. The bad guy is just so evil. The task set is so great. Just didn't land like I hoped. 22. Say Hello To My Little Friend by Jennine Capo Crucet - Ismael, Izzy, is a young man in Miami who has lost his way. When his side hustle as an unlicensed Pitbull impersonator gets c&d'd he decides he needs a plan. The Scarface plan. Dress better, get a henchman, find a shady job where can excel, get the girl, etc. Izzy also has a mystical connection with the orca at the aquarium. In his quest for a shady gig, he starts interviewing people who rode with him on the raft over from Cuba, thinking maybe he can get into that line. The blurb says Scarface meets Moby Dick. I'm tempted to say Fight Club meets Free Willy. I'm really underselling the whale in all this. It's a good one. 23. River Mumma by Zalika Ried-Benta - Three friends must recover the gold comb belonging to the River Mumma. All while being chased by duppy and dealing with visions. A story perhaps of Jamaican diaspora in Toronto. Also mostly a quick moving urban fantasy type thing. Solid read. Ben Nevis posted:1. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
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May 2, 2024 16:38
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Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge: 16/30 When We Cease to Understand the World by Labatut, Benjamín This book is unique. It's novelistic, but non-fiction. Mostly. You can't read this and say "science makes us crazy", and you can't read this and say, "the smartest scientists are crazy." You can say that some science in the 20th century has led to horrors, and some scientists barely survived their own discoveries, and this book is about some (just some) of them. I was kind of surprised Godel didn't make an appearance, because when I think of "not understanding the world," his incompleteness theories are something I return once every few years to remind myself how it works. On Gravity: A Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject by Zee, Anthony After I finished the "When We Cease to Understand the World" I saw this lying on a stack of books, and it seemed an appropriate next book, so I let the universe guide me and picked it up and read it in a day. It's conversational. It hints at further depths. It's about symmetries and the action. It's an intermediate work that's best after you've refreshed yourself the rules you forgotten from that one physics class in college. It'll make you wish you took more classes. The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, Mikhail, translated by Mirra Ginsburg I had a lot of trouble with this one, and I don't know if it's because of the translation I chose. Really this book should have been up my alley, with magic realism and religion. I might try this again later in my life with a different translater. The Passion According to G.H. by Lispector, Clarice I've been reading more spiritual books lately, and this one reads as somewhere between The Ascent of Mount Carmel and an encounter with an involuntary memory that never happened. No... let me start over. A woman squishes a cockroach by accident, and as it dies she starts to have involuntary spiritual revelations regarding everything, one at a time, once chapter at a time.
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May 3, 2024 16:34
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if it's not too late, I'll join in, while cheekily cheating myself to some completion since I've already read some this year. my set goal this year is already at 20, so I'll use that. hopefully I can exceed it like I did last year. 2024 BOOKLORD CHALLENGE PROMPTS 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. 7. Read something that is referenced in something else (a movie, a tv show, another book, etc.) 9. Read something in the public domain 10. Read something you think is probably overhyped 11. Read something illustrated (whether it's a few splash pages or a comic, do whatever you like here!) 12. Read two works by different authors who have a matching name (initials, first, last, middle, whatever) 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard THEMES Themes are returning! We have a new set this year and they are still entirely optional! They're not regular prompts like you see above, but you could treat them like extra prompts if you like! Or you could use them as an addition or modification to the prompts above. They're just here for some extra inspiration, so feel free to use them (or ignore them) however works for you. - Dark - Light - Unconventional - Expected - Complicated - Calm Read so far this year: 13/20 1. Karl Seglem (2022): Djup redsle. Djup ro. 2. Jon Fosse (2019): The septology 3. Solvej Balle (2024): Om udregning af rumfang V 4. John Williams (1965): Stoner 5. Robert Musil (1930): The man without qualities vol. 1 6. Nora Gomringer (2023): Jeg skal gjøre noe med språket 7. Antonio Scurati (2018): M. son of the century 8. Monika Isakstuen (2021): Mine venner 9. Trude Marstein (2022): Egne barn 10. Theis Ørntoft (2023): Jordisk 11. Adania Shibli (2017): A minor detail 12. Enrique Vila-Matas (2022): Montevideo 13. Orhan Pamuk (2021): Nights of plague Currently reading Flights by Olga Tokarzcuk ulvir fucked around with this message at 19:02 on May 3, 2024 |
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May 3, 2024 18:56
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wildcard me, goons
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May 3, 2024 18:56
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ulvir posted:wildcard me, goons Dig by AS King
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May 3, 2024 23:57
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Kuule hain nussivan posted:Still looking for wildcard suggestions! At least I don't think I've received any! Hari Kunzru, My Revolutions edit: typo Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 08:14 on May 6, 2024 |
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May 4, 2024 08:27
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Hari Hunzru, My Revolutions Was not available in my local library system (in finnish or english), but it sounds cool so I'll see what I can sort out.
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May 4, 2024 19:41
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