Wednesday reading and to-reads

[asakiyume]

I'm reading too many things to do them all justice, and then interrupting them with other things, but the things I've spent most time with are

--More of Life Is Not Useful, by Ailton Krenak. The first essay was good; I felt more at sea in the second and now the third--I can't quite follow the logic of where he goes all the time, and sometimes there are jargonish phrases that I don't get. Even so, there are moments I like very much.

This, for instance, is both serious but also amusingly expressed:

We can inhabit this planet, but we will have to do so otherwise. If we don’t take steps in this direction, it would be as if someone wanted to get to the highest peak of the Himalayas but wanted to take along their house, their fridge, their dog, their parrot, their bicycle. They’ll never arrive with heavy luggage like that. We will have to radically reconceive of ourselves to be here. And we yearn for this newness.

And this I love:

There are people who were fish, there are people who were trees before imagining themselves as human. We were all something else before becoming people.

--I also have been reading Eagle Drums, by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson, a story of an Iñupiaq boy who's compelled to live with eagles to learn what they want to teach if he wants to stay alive. I got this one from the library based on what osprey_archer wrote in this entry, specifically, that it "is built on axioms about how the world works that are vastly different than the ones structuring most modern fiction." She's right! And I'm enjoying that very much.

--I started reading C.S.E. Cooney's Saint Death's Daughter-- I love CSE Cooney's writing so much! I just hope I can maintain momentum on it, because it's long, and somehow I don't apportion as much time to reading as I could (which is a terrible thing for someone who writes to confess to).

Meanwhile, here are some things that I want to read (or have read and want to call attention to):

Aster Glenn Gray's Deck the Halls with Secret Agents. Long-time rival Soviet and US agents meet at a Christmas party! I wonder what happens next ;-)

Iona Datt Sharma's Blood Sweat Glitter --Sapphic romance around roller derby!

This one came to me as a recommendation on Mastodon, and since I follow the author on social media but have never read anything by her, I'm very excited! It's also a podcast--not sure if I will listen or read it: "The Font of Liberty" by Elizabeth Porter Birdsall.

And then there's Kerygma in Waltz Time, which I've read and would recommend to fans of story retellings, fan fiction, and falling into stories--it's by Sherwood Smith, originally published under a pseudonym in It Happened at the Ball, an anthology of ballroom stories.

Comments

[sartorias]

Thank you for the mention!

[asakiyume]

I hope people pick it up!

ETA: D'oh! I meant to make a live link to the BVC page, but it didn't take; I'll try again.

[asakiyume]

There we go! Now if people click on the title, they'll get taken to BVC

[genarti]

There's never as much time to read as one wishes to! This is a truism of life. I have so many books in progress always, and I want to be reading all of them, but I also want to be doing a bunch of other things, and then sometimes I end up flopping around doing nothing instead. Ah well!

(I hope you enjoy the story, though! :D)

[asakiyume]

I am sure I will! I think I will listen to it while ironing ^_^

[asakiyume]

It was fabulous! I adored the view into a printshop ca. 1830--the details were marvelous. I really felt right there for the thump of the press, and I liked what you said about sewing up signatures being easier than sewing shirts--liked "easier on the eyes but harder on the fingers." And you wove it all into the story so gracefully. Everything was woven in gracefully! The printing details, but also Mylène's backstory, her relationship with Sandrine, the contrast between their personalities, Mylène's anxieties--and then the conversations she has, especially the one with Isabelle. The way they talk about the play felt so like a real conversation--it reminded me of conversations in osprey_archer's stories in the respect: like the best real-life discussions: thoughtful and full of substance. And completely relevant for today, of course! (As is the whole situation--which I presume is part of, or most of!, why you wrote it.)

And you think they’re fools.” I tried not to sound glum, but I was feeling it, even though I’d been resenting those same young artists a moment before. Why does everyone of a certain age feel the need to tell the young that they’re starry-eyed fools? --so real! As was Isabelle's reply. I really liked Isabelle a lot!

Anyway, beautiful story <3 So glad it's out in the world. Come the morning I might share some snippets on the socials :-)

[genarti]

Oh gosh, thank you so much!! What an absolutely lovely comment to receive. I'm so, so pleased you enjoyed, and that they worked for you! I grew exceedingly fond of all of them while I was writing it -- it was one of those stories where I knew the cast of characters and I knew the basic story but I had several false starts about pace and starting point and POV as I worked my way into it -- so it's really enormously gratifying when other people like them too, and the story I was telling with them. Thank you again for sharing your reaction! <3

[osprey_archer]

Oh, I'm so glad you're enjoying Eagle Drums! Since the book won a Newbery Honor and all it probably doesn't really NEED me pushing it, but nonetheless I'm glad to have given it a little boost.

I've been meaning to read Blood Sweat Glitter, too.

[asakiyume]

And I would never have found it if it weren't for you! **appreciates**

Re: Blood Sweat Glitter, I love Iona Datt Sharma as a writer, and the set-up sounds like so much fun!