didn’t finish

Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir

by Lisa Crystal Carver

DNF 27%

A specific era and milieu of pre-internet edgelords. Empty, mean, and aboundingly white.

★¾

Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World

by Carolyn Steel

DNF 8%

She invokves fucking Malthus in chapter 1, extending the idea that reproduction rates and the ‘lack of infrastrucutre’ are responsible for hunger and food waste in the Global South, deflecting blame from neo/colonialist capture, wealth extraction, and exploitation. She has some puzzle pieces with decent stats … Read more

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

by Walter Rodney

DNF 12%

Excruciatingly of another era. Starts from false premises, does not question that man must dominate nature and that progress follows a single inexorable path from hunting communalism to slave-owning states to feudalism to capitalism to socialism. Permanent growth and producing for an anonymous market remain the … Read more

At the Mouth of the River of Bees

by Kij Johnson

★½

How Long ’til Black Future Month?

by N.K. Jemisin

I managed to finish six of the stories. Generally too on the nose and yielding to stock themes of science fiction. “Walking Awake” was the most engaging even with all the hand-holding, with allusions to Get Out and TNG’s “Conspiracy”.

So far Jemisin’s not for me.

Corregidora

by Gayl Jones

★½

Common People: An Anthology of Working Class Writers

by Kit de Waal (Editor)

Read: Jill Dawson, Louise Doughty, Katy Massey, Jodie Russian-Red, Adam Sharp, Eva Verde, Tony Walsh

Traplines

by Eden Robinson

Only finished the title story, which was excellent.

Surge

by Jay Bernard

★★½

The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

by Toni Morrison

At least three works in a row are variations of the same essay on globalism. The introduction on the power of art is trenchant. The rest I skimmed were meandering, dense, and glancing, even when I wanted them to pierce me. The repetition and lack of notes of … Read more

Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Laksa Anthology Series #3)

by Lucas K. Law, Derwin Mak (Editors)

Read:

“DNR” by Gabriele Lee ★★★
“Meridian” by Karin Lowachee ★★★
“Crash” by Melissa Yuan-Innis ★★★
“Memoriam” by Priya Sridhar ★★
“Decision” by Joyce Chng ★
“Moon Halves” by Anne Carly Abad ★★
“The Bridge of Dangerous Longings” by Rati

Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

by Pénélope Bagieu

I like the artwork and intention but the writing is awkward to troublesome. There’s a white feminist implication that ‘of course’ racism didn’t exist in France. Two women incidental to a featured woman are called ‘jealous shrews’. Just a couple of examples.

Paper Teeth

by Lauralyn Chow

★

Desperate Games

by Pierre Boulle

Five pages in, fully invested in the myth of meritocracy. A ratio of one to twelve signals neither sexism nor racism, and the Nobel prize is apolitical.

Category archives: didn’t finish