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
A Song for a New Day
by Sarah Pinsker
Luce is a Mary Sue of a musician and the book doesn’t let up on the cheese factor, but its earnestness and apposite themes (a wide net is cast with terrorist bombings plus a pox-like epidemic leading to anti-congregation laws) make it well-aligned for lockdown reading.
Conversations with Octavia Butler
by Octavia E. Butler, Conseula Francis (Editor)
The interviewers are on the whole unimaginative so there is a lot of repetition.
Octavia remains inspirational as a feminist hermit visionary!
Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West
by Cheryl Foggo
★★★★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
Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call
by Arthur Manuel
★★★★
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come: One Introvert’s Year of Saying Yes
by Jessica Pan
I’m largely resistant to labels, self-mythologising, and platitudes of self-help, but these aspects were balanced out with a respect for embracing uncertainty and Jessica’s comic tone.
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
by Amanda Montell
There is a lot of repetition of the linguist’s mantra describe don’t prescribe. Chapter eight includes a wincing mess about how we have rebellious sexist insults because our mothers were our first examples of authority figures who restricted our freedoms.
Interior Chinatown
by Charles Yu
★★★
The Whale Rider
by Witi Ihimaera
★★★
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America
by Darnell L. Moore
★★★★
The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State
by Nadia Murad
★★★★
Danses de Guerre
by Sherman Alexie
★★★½
Traplines
by Eden Robinson
Only finished the title story, which was excellent.
The Seep
by Chana Porter
★★★
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
by Cathy Park Hong
★★★
Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid
★★★★
Whose Story Is This? Old Conflicts, New Chapters
by Rebecca Solnit
Her metaphors seem to take on the teetering logic of numerology. “Voter Suppression Begins at Home” brought up something I never thought about before though.