by Caro Claire Burke
A honking bore. The protagonist is a one-note mean girl through 38 years of characterisation. There’s a tabloid talk show tenor in the text and understanding of the world, sneering from within and without.
Category archives: notes
The Tenant Class
by Ricardo Tranjan
★★★★
Edited excerpts:
There is no housing or affordability crisis. What renders housing unaffordable are landlords who charge too much and governments that allow it to happen. It is a poorly regulated market that extracts income from working-class people and channels it to the capital-owning class. As far … Read more
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
Breasts and Eggs
by Mieko Kawakami
I appreciate that female friendships and fulfilment without a romantic relationship are themes in the author’s work. Writing about poverty and classism from the opening chapter also boded well, but in the end I was disconnected from every one of the characters’ thought processes and motivations. Disengaging scenes … Read more
Absent in the Spring
by Agatha Christie
Racist and colonialist right out of the gate. The author tells us in clumsy, halting self-revelations that the protagonist is smug, controlling, and unable to think outside of conventions, that a man’s vision of life ought to be prime, while her unloving and dishonest family is portrayed as … Read more
Ex-Wife
by Ursula Parrott
** spoiler alert **
The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage
by Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley, and Michael G. Smith
There are white moments even excluding quoting Thoreau. Overall anticapitalist and the opposite of gatekeeping. I especially appreciated the chapters on hand tools and the introduction to codes and permits.
★★★★¼
Jumpnauts
by Hao Jingfang
He repeatedly disrespects boundaries—but she’s intrigued. He also happens to be an astronomer-hacker who is tall, handsome, wealthy, and an expert martial artist. The first 60% doesn’t stretch beyond that level of groundwork. Once they meet extraterrestrials, the interactions still ring petulant. Also I thought Ken Liu was … Read more
The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure
by Katherine Rundell
An excess of ancient superstitions, ill-chosen analogies, and needless asides alongside fine facts
Feminism and Marxism
by Dorothy Ballan
A lot of space is focused on critiquing Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics instead of standing on its own. The antiracism holds up, and the parts about communal social relations that Leslie Feinberg distilled in Transgender Warriors.
Transgender Warriors
by Leslie Feinberg
Feinberg’s writing is energising and accessible as ever. A resonating history of humanity, and a clear-sighted view of interlocking struggles against the capitalist class.
★★★★★
The Emergent
(Cosmic #2)
by Nadia Afifi
My patience for reading action/thriller got used up. Amira is friends with cops. Hadrian’s linguistic affectation, for someone who moved to the States when he was twelve, is still obnoxious.
Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star
by Tracey Thorn
Can read like fiction in memoir form for someone who hadn’t heard any of her music before picking this up. I loved the self-deprecation, thoughts on politics and music in the 70s and 80s, and the irrepressible spirit of creativity.
Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
by Octavia E. Butler
Less a parade of interviewers who haven’t read her work asking the same flat questions than usual. She only had to mention Devil Girl from Mars once out of the ten and refer to Steve Barnes and Samuel R. Delany twice. Delany’s intro is disjointed and abrupt, … Read more
The Book of Witches
by Jonathan Strahan (Editor)
- “What Is a Witch?” Jonathan Strahan ★½
- “Seed of Power” Linda D. Addison ★★
- “What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata” P. Djèlí Clark ★★★½
- “The Luck Thief” Tade Thompson ★★★½
- “Good Spells” Ken Liu ★★★
- “The Liar” Darcie Little Badger ★★★★★
- “Met Swallow” Cassandra Khaw
Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business
by Roxane Gay
Essays I appreciated most:
- “Hate That Doesn’t Hide”
- “Can I Enjoy Art but Denounce the Artist?”
- “Jada Pinkett Smith Shouldn’t Have to Take a Joke. Neither Should You.”
Vulcan’s Glory
by D.C. Fontana
The writing is easy to devour even with apparent tv beats, senseless plot points, and 60s sensibilities including introducing every character like a lech
Passion simple
Annie Ernaux
L’histoire d’une femme qui n’a pas d’autre identité que son obsession pour un homme indisponible et vide de personnalité. Une obsession telle qu’elle ne se lave pas pour conserver son sperme, qu’elle part dans des délires impliquant une femme qu’elle a vue dans un magazine et qu’elle reste figée … Read more
I Am Spock
by Leonard Nimoy
I read this having seen more SNW Spock than TOS. I knew of two contributions by Nimoy that gave me a positive impression and spurred me to read another memoir by someone I wasn’t necessarily a dedicated fan of (following the vibrant Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi). One … Read more
Pretend I’m Dead
by Jen Beagin
Her work is peppered with white moments in otherwise humorous, off-center, compulsive reading. This one includes racist lampshading (‘I choose to have my character say something racist apropos of no theme, but she acknowledges it’s racist so it’s ok’).