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What Are You Reading Weekend
Feb. 1st, 2020 08:42 amCurrently Reading:
Fiction: None for fun
Non-fiction: 'Finding Nevo', a trans/queer memoir by a young Australian author. It's engaging, and introspective, but oh my, they are *so* young.
Poetry: Haven't made much further head way with Paradise Lost, got distracted by other podcasts.
Lit Mag: Nothing currently
For work: 'Sometimes We Tell The Truth', still. Biddick's 'The Shock of Medievalism'. Selections out of the new Peter Brown (ed) Companion to Chaucer, and out of the Global Chaucers journal special issue.
Recently Finished: for certain values of recently. In January, shall we say.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Engaging: a novel adaptation with some moments of real gut-wrenching effect. A bit flimsier-feeling then I expected, but that often is the case with novellas for me.
The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cute, carefully thought through trans and ace romance, with enough extra-relational plot to keep it moving at a clip and make it feel more than a Thought Exercise In Historical Queers. As often, KJC's novellas don't grip me the way her fuller length novels do, but a worthwhile read.
Queerstories: Reflections on lives well lived from some of Australia's finest LGBTQIA+ writers by Maeve Marsden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bought this in a fit of Queer Angst, and it definitely helped with that. The oral style from the storytelling nights / podcast comes through particularly well in many of the pieces - David Cunningham's 'Anatomy of a fuck buddy', which began life as this show slot / podcast segment was a particular highlight.
Vicki Melson's piece on youth, sex, promiscuity, the punk scene, cancer, and masectomy will stick with me for a while.
Overall, though, I didn't feel like this collection had quite the depth or cohesiveness (or diversity) of Ben Law's 'Growing Up Queer In Australia'. Except for the diversity lack (and there *are* ethnic and racial minority authors in here, and at least one disabled author, and some diversity of age although not as much as one might hope, but it doesn't feel as well-thought-through as Law's collection in this regard), that's... maybe okay. We can have a range of queer anthologies, these days!
Online essays / nonfiction:
Noah Zazanis (New Inquiry), On hating men (and becoming one anyway). This is a really interesting read, circling around the same issues as Oliver Reesons' Masculinity Crisis: how it feels when you start to look like them, but parsed through and cited back to very specific movements and epistemologies within feminism and leftist politics as Zazanis has experienced them.
Keva York (Lifted Brow), A long distance relationship is a two-player game.
Online fiction:
No short stories this time, but I note that I have caught up on the webcomic Motherlover, which is in the middle of its sixth chapter now.
Up Next: Summer Meanjin. I should probably read some fiction, but all the fiction I have isn't appealing to me now. I might start 'The Queer Child', finally.
Fiction: None for fun
Non-fiction: 'Finding Nevo', a trans/queer memoir by a young Australian author. It's engaging, and introspective, but oh my, they are *so* young.
Poetry: Haven't made much further head way with Paradise Lost, got distracted by other podcasts.
Lit Mag: Nothing currently
For work: 'Sometimes We Tell The Truth', still. Biddick's 'The Shock of Medievalism'. Selections out of the new Peter Brown (ed) Companion to Chaucer, and out of the Global Chaucers journal special issue.
Recently Finished: for certain values of recently. In January, shall we say.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de BodardMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Engaging: a novel adaptation with some moments of real gut-wrenching effect. A bit flimsier-feeling then I expected, but that often is the case with novellas for me.
The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by K.J. CharlesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cute, carefully thought through trans and ace romance, with enough extra-relational plot to keep it moving at a clip and make it feel more than a Thought Exercise In Historical Queers. As often, KJC's novellas don't grip me the way her fuller length novels do, but a worthwhile read.
Queerstories: Reflections on lives well lived from some of Australia's finest LGBTQIA+ writers by Maeve MarsdenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bought this in a fit of Queer Angst, and it definitely helped with that. The oral style from the storytelling nights / podcast comes through particularly well in many of the pieces - David Cunningham's 'Anatomy of a fuck buddy', which began life as this show slot / podcast segment was a particular highlight.
Vicki Melson's piece on youth, sex, promiscuity, the punk scene, cancer, and masectomy will stick with me for a while.
Overall, though, I didn't feel like this collection had quite the depth or cohesiveness (or diversity) of Ben Law's 'Growing Up Queer In Australia'. Except for the diversity lack (and there *are* ethnic and racial minority authors in here, and at least one disabled author, and some diversity of age although not as much as one might hope, but it doesn't feel as well-thought-through as Law's collection in this regard), that's... maybe okay. We can have a range of queer anthologies, these days!
Online essays / nonfiction:
Online fiction:
No short stories this time, but I note that I have caught up on the webcomic Motherlover, which is in the middle of its sixth chapter now.
Up Next: Summer Meanjin. I should probably read some fiction, but all the fiction I have isn't appealing to me now. I might start 'The Queer Child', finally.