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What an arresting premise. The opening is great too. And it goes in all sorts of unexpected directions. It drags a bit in places while operating in a context I know very little about: Sri Lankan history and Buddhism, by way of fantasy. I still found much of it engaging and learned of the author’s blog post on “Unbuddhism”that should be read once you’re done with this: vajra.me/2021/10/27/%e0%b6%85%e0%b6%b6%e0%b7%9e%e0%b6%af%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%b0%e0%b6%9a%e0%b6%b8-unbuddhism/

Set between Puerto Rico and New Jersey, Isla, our half-Boricua protagonist inherits a gift (or a curse?) from the cuentistas in her family: their stories play themselves out in front of her. Naturally, family secrets are unearthed. Lots and lots of them. Dávila Cardinal’s first adult novel, but it read like YA. There’s a flicker of something meaningful near the end, but it feels a little late.

Terrible. I made myself finish. When I play videogames, I like to find the seams, explore, and test boundaries narratively and programmatically. That’s what kept me reading: to see how this choose-your-adventure format operated in terms of story and reader experience. There’s nothing but this gimmick. And a lead who’s obsessed with editing her life over and over until it’s perfect. Girl, go back to Instagram.

Similar to Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” in its examination of visual thinking, what you can do by combining words and images. Sousanis’ panel structure is amazing. As a cartoonist, I learned a lot from that alone. A bit repetitive in places, and maybe longer than it should be, but an enjoyable example of what one can do with this medium.

Picks up after the first book and does everything a sequel’s supposed to: we go outside the walls of Dinétah, Maggie gets a badass lightning sword, encounters more tricksy gods and a more powerful adversary. Everything feels bigger. But it’s not as good as the first book. Still, a fascinating world with some good character progression.

‘Bout to start some shit: getting tired of non-gay men writing gay male characters. True: there’s a long history of slash, fan-fiction, yaoi, and really great gay stories written by non-gay men. True: not every gay man is hypersexual. But it’s starting to feel sanitized, even tokenizing, to have two hot men who are clearly interested in each other not get it on. Or fantasize, masturbate, get hard, or anything embodied.

Yes, we fought hard to not be defined by the sex we have. But many also fought hard to not be shamed for it either: the sluts, people living with HIV, and other “non-respectable” gays. I’m not asking for non-stop fucking (just this once)—it’s not a binary. Rather, more thinking around gay inclusion. What purpose does it serve, you as a non-gay man, writing these characters? What does the presence/absence of sex mean? Otherwise, it feels exploitative.

Went to a reading and Urrea clearly delighted in his own writing. He convinced me to buy a copy even though I hadn’t read the prior book in this duology. It’s about his great aunt, Teresita, The Saint of Cabora, who either has healing powers or is a dangerous revolutionary, depending on who’s asked. An immigrant story that started in 19th Century Mexico in the first book—I plan on reading it soon.

Three short stories named after streets, which themselves are named after famous people, in East Berlin. Surreal things happen. Tawanda’s writing was slippery for me and I ended up glazing over and skimming. There’s more there for people who know what to look for, but I wasn’t one of them. Finished only because it was so brief.

Set in 18th Century Paris, a man with no scent possesses an incredible sense of smell. If it were written today, it could easily be a super-villain story: scent is the key to power and control here. It avoids those tropes, but gets mired in others that are unfortunately very gendered and tired. Interesting details on perfumery though, and the language can be entertaining in its hyperbole.

A novel about issues that doesn’t hit you over the head with them: undocumented workers, “nice” white people and the harm they blithely cause, Nantucket’s tourist economy and the income inequality with the island’s locals. But it’s mainly about two sisters and the eldest’s rich friend.

Another contemporary book that disposes of quotation marks and indenting paragraphs for new speakers. WHY. Enjoyed it nonetheless.