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What Are You Reading Wednesday
May. 8th, 2019 07:15 amCurrently Reading:
Fiction: Zen Cho, 'Sorceror to the Crown', which I'm really enjoying so far. Also, in fits and starts, 'Redwall'.
Lit Mag: Still Meanjin summer 2018!
Academic: Nothing
Other non-fiction: Laren Elkin, 'Flanêuse', which... had I not gone to the effort of dragging it around the world, I would have DNF'd with prejudice by now.
Recently Finished:
How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really really enjoyed this collection. The quality does vary a little, and my original rating was skewed down by having in particular not liked the last four or five much. But the total taken together? YES PLEASE.
Loved: 'The Ones Who Stay and Fight', an answer back to 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'. On the banks of the river Lex, which... it's got the whimsy I love in Gaiman short stories, but goes its own places with it. L'alchimista, because I like stories about cooking and magic (Cuisine des Memoires was also notable, but... while it impressed me, I liked it less). I liked the embedded story in 'The Storyteller's Replacement', but wasn't so taken with the frame.
The Narcomancer will stay with me for a long, long time, I think.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't make my mind up about this one! It was engrossing, certainly. Evelyn Hugo's character was fascinating and the sections of the narrative from her perspective were compelling. The frame, though, I liked the frame less: Monique's character was thin, the prose seemed clunky, and... hmm. It seemed like the (white) author was using Monique's biracial identity primarily as a metaphor / parallel to Evelyn's bisexuality. I wasn't happy with that, let us say.
Online Fiction:
Anthony Oliviera (Hazlitt), Dayspring. This is actually categorised as memoir. Which... on narrative level, it's John the Beloved / Jesus slashfic. That's what it is. But (especially if you've read Oliviera's Catholic Angst tweets), it's also not hard to trace the outlines of... I don't actually know if it's a loss of faith thing (that's my Religious Angst filter speaking, perhaps), but something deeply personal about Catholicism and queerness, certainly.
Sarah Gerard, Pussy Hounds, republished in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading. I can't work out if the author *meant* to write a story about bi women being systematically mistreated by lesbians. The alternative is... pretty biphobic, and certainly neither author nor introducing commentator convinced me that biphobia isn't an option here.
Morgan Thomas, Alta's Place, republished in Recommended Reading. I'm... also not sure what to think of this one. The narrator is, quite frankly, a bit pathetic, and a bit of a creep, but here at least I think that author *intentionally* made that reading available.
Up Next: Still haven't touched Educated, or A Hand of Knaves.
Music Notes:
I bought Lady Gaga's 2016 album 'Joanne' and I'm kind of in love with it. Country initially struck me as a weird turn for Lady Gaga, but it works. I remain disappointed that Pinot Grigio Girls isn't a story about a doomed love affair with an older woman, though.
Fiction: Zen Cho, 'Sorceror to the Crown', which I'm really enjoying so far. Also, in fits and starts, 'Redwall'.
Lit Mag: Still Meanjin summer 2018!
Academic: Nothing
Other non-fiction: Laren Elkin, 'Flanêuse', which... had I not gone to the effort of dragging it around the world, I would have DNF'd with prejudice by now.
Recently Finished:
How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. JemisinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really really enjoyed this collection. The quality does vary a little, and my original rating was skewed down by having in particular not liked the last four or five much. But the total taken together? YES PLEASE.
Loved: 'The Ones Who Stay and Fight', an answer back to 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'. On the banks of the river Lex, which... it's got the whimsy I love in Gaiman short stories, but goes its own places with it. L'alchimista, because I like stories about cooking and magic (Cuisine des Memoires was also notable, but... while it impressed me, I liked it less). I liked the embedded story in 'The Storyteller's Replacement', but wasn't so taken with the frame.
The Narcomancer will stay with me for a long, long time, I think.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins ReidMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't make my mind up about this one! It was engrossing, certainly. Evelyn Hugo's character was fascinating and the sections of the narrative from her perspective were compelling. The frame, though, I liked the frame less: Monique's character was thin, the prose seemed clunky, and... hmm. It seemed like the (white) author was using Monique's biracial identity primarily as a metaphor / parallel to Evelyn's bisexuality. I wasn't happy with that, let us say.
Online Fiction:
In front of me their mother’s eyes are still staring, glassing now, and I feel the heat in my cheeks, the embarrassment he never seems to have the decency to feel, that has left me a raw nerve and forever seeping apologies in his wake. But today, for her, I have none. How could I. How could he.
And I know: this is how he will leave me too. A swift, cruel blow that will shatter all my bulk. A surgical strike from above, hurling masonry through the streets like leaves of concrete. I will scream, desperate in the temple precincts, looking for a lost boy I had mistook for kind, who will laugh at my panic: didn’t I know he should be with his father?
And the learned and the holy will praise his wit, and his insight, and the bravery with which he left us behind.
Up Next: Still haven't touched Educated, or A Hand of Knaves.
Music Notes:
I bought Lady Gaga's 2016 album 'Joanne' and I'm kind of in love with it. Country initially struck me as a weird turn for Lady Gaga, but it works. I remain disappointed that Pinot Grigio Girls isn't a story about a doomed love affair with an older woman, though.