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Catship

catship@books.theunseen.city

Joined 3 years, 4 months ago

We're a plural system who loves queer & anarchist scifi.

But recently we just read a few randomly picked up mystery books in a row, in German, and we tend to review books in the language we read them in. That or similar may happen again, be warned.

No reading goals, just feelings.

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Catship's books

Currently Reading (View all 5)

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Jonas Goonface, Margaret Killjoy: Escape from Incel Island (Paperback, 2023, Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness) 4 stars

To cope with rising misogynist violence, the US government offered people a golden opportunity: any …

They don't call me Mankiller Jones for nothing. They call me Mankiller Jones because I tell people that's my name and I throw kind of a fit if anyone calls me anything else. Honestly, I have a feeling most people call me Shirley behind my back. Or Mx. Jones if they're feeling formal.

Escape from Incel Island by , (Page 1)

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Lydia Meyer: Die Zukunft ist nicht binär (Paperback, German language, 2023, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag) 2 stars

Es gibt nur zwei Geschlechter? Von wegen!

Menschen sind mehr als entweder oder. Dennoch sind …

Laut dem Journalisten Tom Ehrhardt (er/ihn), der einen ganzen Podcast über Lana Kaisers Geschichte geschrieben hat, war Lana Kaiser die erste queer geoutete Person, die in Deutschland einen Nummer-eins-Hit hatte. Und ich finde, darüber wird viel zu wenig geredet. Statt ihr die visionäre Rolle zuzugestehen, die sie damals auch innehatte, wurde Kaiser in den Medien zur schrägen Außenseiterin mit psychischen Problemen hochstilisiert. Lana Kaiser wurde und wird – auch innerhalb der queeren Bubble – nicht als Ikone gefeiert, sondern vor allem pathologisiert und als Fall für die Boulevardpresse behandelt: eine verrückte Querschlägerin mit psychischen Problemen auf der Jagd nach Aufmerksamkeit.

Die Zukunft ist nicht binär by 

Lana Kaiser hat damals (noch unter ihrem Deadname) bei der ersten Staffel "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" auf Platz drei geschafft.

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Angela Chen: Ace (2020, Beacon Press) 5 stars

An engaging exploration of what it means to be asexual in a world that’s obsessed …

The disabled community has spent a long time fighting the idea that disabled people are, or should be, asexual. The ace community has struggled for as long as it has existed to prove that asexuality has nothing to do with disability. A disabled ace woman complicates both these political agendas, and it is perhaps in a situation like this that the question of legitimacy and in-group loyalty are most acute.

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by 

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Angela Chen: Ace (2020, Beacon Press) 5 stars

An engaging exploration of what it means to be asexual in a world that’s obsessed …

Not all aces have been welcoming of people like Cara. Members of the ace community, especially in early years, rejected disabled aces completely, insisting that they would delegitimize asexuality and make it impossible to prove that asexuality is not related to (or caused by) disability and sickness. Even the efforts to add the asexual exception to the DSM ended up being subtly ableist by focusing on how happy aces are. "Rather than challenging stigma against both mental illness and asexuality, it seeks instead to rid asexuality of the stigma of mental illness," writes Wake Forest gender studies scholar Kristina Gupta. "Such normalizing tactics may come at the cost of intersectional analyses and coalitional possibilities."

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by 

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Angela Chen: Ace (2020, Beacon Press) 5 stars

An engaging exploration of what it means to be asexual in a world that’s obsessed …

Judith Holofernes: Die Träume anderer Leute (EBook, Deutsch language, 2022, Kiepenheuer & Witsch) No rating

Album, Promotion, Tour. Beinahe zwanzig Jahre lang bestimmt die Dynamik des Musikbetriebs Judith Holofernes‘ Leben. …

Ich bin erstaunlich froh, es gelesen zu haben

No rating

Es geht viel darum, wie Judith Holofernes gelernt hat, zu chillen und Sachen zu machen, die ihr gut tun. Dazwischen geht es zB um danebene Ärzt_innen, as ich einfach relatable finde.

Es sind ganz viele Anspielungen auf Liedtexte (solche von ihr alleine und solche von Wir Sind Helden) und ich hab die manchmal erst am nächsten Tag gecheckt wenn mir zB "wir kommen um die andern Helden abzumelden!" im Kopf herum gewabert ist bis mir auffiel ah, deswegen "abmelden", deswegen vom Heldin sein abmelden.

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T. Kingfisher, .: The Hollow Places (2020) 4 stars

A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and …

The Hollow Places

4 stars

The Hollow Places is a horror novel by T. Kingfisher. The premise is that newly divorced Kara goes back to live in her uncle's curio museum; when a mysterious hole in the wall appears and goes to what seems to be another dimension, she and her barista friend investigate. Overall, horror is not usually my cuppa but this was an enjoyable creepy ride (and I'll read anything by T. Kingfisher at this point).

But he groaned and stomped around the hall for a few minutes, then said, "Okay. But this is how people die in horror movies, you know."

"You're not the teensiest bit curious?

"I'm incredibly curious! I've just also seen horror movies!"

This book is intensely creepy at times, and the horror elements all the more unsettling for being fuzzy and unseen and unknowable. I wish a little that there was a little bit more character development or …

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reviewed Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

Lee Mandelo: Feed Them Silence (2023, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 4 stars

What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s …

Feed Them Silence

5 stars

Feed Them Silence is the best fiction I have read all year.

It's a near-future sf novella about a researcher who is using new technology to neurologically interface with a near-extinct wolf pack, in order to "become in kind" with them and understand how they make their way in a tough world. Thematically, this novella is dense and chewy and interleaves so much into such a short length. It's about relationships and power dynamics, the fantasy of truly understanding animals (and other humans [and ourselves]), but also about global warming and the objectivity of research.

For me, this is science fiction at its best, using a what-if future science to ask troubling and incisive questions. Even as it presents its own conflicting opinions, it asks far more questions than it has answers for. The novella also walks a tight line in generating compassion and understanding for the protagonist Sean, even …