Good resource on TJ
5 stars
Recommend. This compilation of essays has a lot of viewpoints and many good tips for folks starting out in TJ.
Reviews and Comments
Checking this out! I don't read fast but I am consistent :D
For work I read a lot of scientific papers so sadly I don't have too much energy to come home and read much of the political stuff that is still on my wish list. So there will probably be quite a lot of (science) fiction ...
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Verglas started reading The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
Rebecca meets Fatima Farheen Mirza in this sweeping, gorgeously atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion …
So far enjoying it. Written in a very lush style, recommend if you like evocative writing.
Verglas finished reading Anarcho-Indigenism by Francis Dupuis-Déri
Overall I am happy I read this though I have a few issues with some of the content. As someone who lived in Winnipeg, the city that stands on the remnants of the town that saw the birth of the Red River Métis, hearing someone suggest that the term Métis simply means 'mixed race' feels offensive.
Besides such qualms (which are not my place to comment on at all anyway), I am sad about most of the interviews being within a small subset of cultures and highly focused on the northern Turtle Island context. I would have appreciated some additions from communities in other parts of the world.
Overall though, I learned some things and these are all important conversations to have so it is a worthwhile read.
Overall I am happy I read this though I have a few issues with some of the content. As someone who lived in Winnipeg, the city that stands on the remnants of the town that saw the birth of the Red River Métis, hearing someone suggest that the term Métis simply means 'mixed race' feels offensive.
Besides such qualms (which are not my place to comment on at all anyway), I am sad about most of the interviews being within a small subset of cultures and highly focused on the northern Turtle Island context. I would have appreciated some additions from communities in other parts of the world.
Overall though, I learned some things and these are all important conversations to have so it is a worthwhile read.
Verglas rated Hammajang Luck: 2 stars
Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person—costs them too much time with too many of …
Verglas finished reading Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person—costs them too much …
Content warning I enjoyed the first part of this book more than the conclusion which I felt was dragged out a bit too much.
Personally, although I liked reading a book that has a Lesbian and Transmasc* cast, the cliché way in which butch-femme dynamics played out within that felt a little old fashioned to me. It reminded me of strict lesbian gender roles in the 1990s in a way that I am happy we no longer have to put up with.
I am simultaneously sad there were no Transfem characters since the choice of cast made the book feel a type of way as a transmasc* person, like pronouns are respected but we're still not really seen as our gender. But that might say more about where I am in my journey than about the book.
My biggest gripe is that the idea that people who operate in an established criminal circuit would agree work for a known snitch ever, is wild to me. And people would certainly know, there's no way that could have been kept secret. Even the sister accepted the person who snitched and put their sister in jail for 8 years back into the house without an argument. Really unrealistic imo, there should have been words. I don't feel like that was dealt with appropriately and it made everyone except for the main character feel like props without their own emotional world rather than real people.
Verglas started reading Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person—costs them too much …
Picked this up together with another book. Queer Hawaiʻian authorship peaked my interest plus it's been a while since I sat and read some scifi. So far I am enjoying the book.
Picked this up together with another book. Queer Hawaiʻian authorship peaked my interest plus it's been a while since I sat and read some scifi. So far I am enjoying the book.
Verglas rated Anarcho-Blackness: 5 stars
Verglas finished reading Anarcho-Blackness by Marquis Bey
I recommend this book. Very insightful.
What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo''s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. But she …
Wholesome
5 stars
Just a very nice and easy to read short interwoven story collection.. No real hard edges. Recommending as a good read in these increasingly dark times.
Just a very nice and easy to read short interwoven story collection.. No real hard edges. Recommending as a good read in these increasingly dark times.
Verglas started reading What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Alison Watts
What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo''s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. But she …
So far enjoying these. Several short stories about people profoundly changed by their interaction with a librarian. quite wholesome.
Verglas started reading Anarcho-Blackness by Marquis Bey
Just finished the Introduction. So far this book feels solid and well sourced. Looking forward to having this opportunity to further edit/hone editing my perspective.
Verglas finished reading Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson
Great book, really enjoyed it. Would love to hear from someone who actually knows Jamaica how they perceive it though. Of course since I have not been there I don't know the neighbourhoods described in the book or the culture it describes.
Definitely recommend this!
Great book, really enjoyed it. Would love to hear from someone who actually knows Jamaica how they perceive it though. Of course since I have not been there I don't know the neighbourhoods described in the book or the culture it describes.
Definitely recommend this!
Verglas started reading Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson
Read the first 60 pages in like an hour. Pretty dark but reads away easily so far.
Verglas finished reading The Vegetarian by Kang Han
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions …
Finished it. Not really my cup of tea. It reads like exploitation (as in the movie genre). I think I understand where the author is going in terms of the central point of the book, I just tend to think that using certain forms of shock and gore to get there is too easy, especially when much of it centres around sexual violence toward women (irrespective of the gender of the author).
Verglas started reading The Vegetarian by Kang Han
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions …
Two pages in, not a lot I can say yet!