back
book thoughts
- omniscient reader's viewpoint (not yet finished reading it but process on-going) by sing shong
- crying for 10 million years
- gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir
- harrow the ninth
- gay. also the **** scene makes me feel like i am dying.
- nona the ninth
- gay. also the way that nona describes beauty and talks about the things she finds interesting and beautiful and fascinating about people makes me very emotional. it feels like how i talk about things, feels very specifically ace and autistic in alignment with my experiences as an ace/autistic person.
- this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone
- recommended by a friend. gay. god i love reading about freaks.
- station eleven by emily st. john mandel
- i read this after watching the show. it was interesting how different it was in some ways to the show. i think, while i really enjoyed some moments in the book, that i enjoyed the story the show told more, and appreciated the changes they made. the way the stories weave in and out and connect, the way everybody has an impact on everybody else even from the other side of the world, even after death, and the way art was transformed to fit a new need and to connect with people where they were in the present was really moving. the conflict and friction between needs/memories/traumas/healing of the past/people born before things ended and needs/curiosities/realities/frustrations of the future/people born after were difficult and interesting to watch. kirsten waving goodbye multiple times at the end of the show made me cry.
- the host by stephenie meyer (reread for the first time since middle or high school)
- loved this book in middle school. stephenie meyer have a normal age diff and be normal about gender roles/ages of partners in a relationship challenge, difficulty level apparently impossible. however, humiliatingly... i did have some fun reading it. there are still things i find compelling. everything compelling in this book is compelling despite s meyer's best efforts. how is there not a huge queer following for this book, honestly.
- exhalation by ted chiang (started a year or two ago, returned to it and finished this year)
- the story about the predictor box has been buzzing around in my brain since i first started the book maybe 2 years ago, and i think about the motif of harmful sensation a lot. the audiobook includes notes from the author after every story.
- reputation by lex croucher
- princess floralinda and the forty-flight tower by tamsyn muir
- the hunger games by suzanne collins (reread)
- interesting to return to this one after so long. don't think i've read it since it first came out. hadn't heard the story before that the premise was in part inspired by the disorientation of flipping back and forth between news broadcasts about war and the super bowl or some similar big sporting event.
- infamous by lex croucher
- sea of tranquility by emily st. john mandel
- the circles of storytelling were interesting. the author insert character and covid trauma elements i had complicated feelings about, largely in that it reminded me quite a bit of a very specific brand of early pandemic panic, which is strange for me to read and feel again now as i see more and more people and institutions and organizations pretend that the pandemic is over. there's a corner of the city where, every time i pass it, i think about the book, because i was listening to it there while waiting for the bus.
- harrow by joy williams
- the lightest object in the universe by kimi eisele
- honestly, i found the characters in this a little annoying, tbh - especially beatrix at points.
- gwen & art are not in love by lex croucher
- my fav of lex croucher's books.
- ace by angela chen
- recomnended by a friend. while it didn't really touch on much that i didn't already know, i'm glad i read it and would recommend it as a resource.
- catching fire by suzanne collins (reread)
- i always found the clock ticking arena so fascinating. i also remember, as a kid, being so frustrated with everybody giving katniss such a hard time about romance. like, jesus christ, leave her alone, she's going through something. maybe that says something about me then?
- the santaroga barrier by frank herbert
- recommended by a relative. hm. some parts didn't age well. it was interesting, though.
- earth abides by george r. stewart
- recommended by a relative. again, some parts def didn't age well, but it was interesting. the main character was in moments insufferable, and i truly don't know if he was intended to be read as such or not. i think it's interesting to read him as intentionally insufferable - like, as the author knowing he's insufferable and presenting him as an imperfect person after an apocalypse. also interesting reading another book set around here (santaroga barrier is set around here-ish as well). the way time moves in this book is so fascinating, as is the evolution of language near the end. i found the last sections of the book really emotional.
- mockingjay by suzanne collins (reread)
- am i misremembering, or did people have an issue with katniss deciding to have kids in the end? i don't really understand why that would be an issue.
- cemetery boys by aiden thomas
- recommended by several friends. very sweet.
- catch-22 by joseph heller
- i know this book is quite old so this isn't headline news but this was prob one of the best books i've read in this big list of books. obviously some parts haven't aged well, but so many parts strikingly have. i watched the movie after, and talked everybody's ear off about how i think the way they depicted some things was interesting but i ultimately think the book is still much better, and don't like some of the changes they made in the movie. i read about the miniseries online and will never watch it but jesus christ some of those changes they apparently made are so bonkers. why does the miniseries end with him deciding to keep bombing even as doing so breaks him? what's the point of that change? i tried to think, "ok, is there a reason they decided to do that, some change in the years that made that seem more poignant?" but honestly, coming from a big celebrity as a director and being made/put out on a big platform, i don't really put much stock in their creative vision, and think any argument they might make for such a wild change would probably ring hollow.
- timequake by kurt vonnegut
- some parts obv haven't aged well. interesting to hear some quotes i've heard a million times in context.
- the hundred year's war on palestine by rashid khalidi
- took a long time to get this one off hold from the library, which seems good, like lots of people are reading it. i've always been bad at keeping dates in my head and that remains true but this gave some valuable context i hadn't had.
- out there screaming, edited by jordan peele and john joseph adams
- recommended by a friend. really loved this anthology. some very heavy stories. i think my favorite was invasion of the baby snatchers - really sent some chills up my spine i think.
- a canticle for leibowitz by walter m. miller jr.
- recommended by a relative. the way time moves in this book is fascinating. seems to be the case with a lot of the post-apocalyptic or apocalyptic books i've been reading.
- the future is disabled by leah lakshmi piepzna-samarasinha
- really loved this book. i talked about it so much in therapy that my therapist wrote it down to read. coincidentally i was reading it during one of my many weeks where i suddenly remember "oh, right, i'm disabled, huh?" because i still spend so much time ignoring my own needs. also coincidentally read it during a period of time where i've been thinking about interdependence and indepedence and community and how those things look different in different places, with different people, how they feel different in my life depending on context. i loved the sections on how mutual aid, outside of the more recent buzz around the term, often is quiet, or small, or one-on-one, or in a small group, and can look like so many different things. i loved the parts describing beautiful moments of crip solidarity. i loved the section filled with questions about what internal crip shit you've figured out this week, what your needs are, what needs are, honoring the ways forcing yourself to have no needs and to make do can be necessary to survival, and the parts about what you have to offer, build, create, share. i'd been thinking again about the idea of creating a radical community space in my hometown. i've talked to friends from there about it. several think the city council would try to shut it down. but just imagining a free community fridge and pantry in that space, or a single openly queer space in town, gives me so much energy sometimes. maybe i'll write more about this sometime. i tend not to share certain things but, actually, maybe saying things out loud can be good - needs and hopes and wants and wishes.
- the vanished birds by simon jimenez
- recommended by a friend. another one where time moves very interestingly, though not apocalyptic this time.
- refusing compulsory sexuality by sherronda j. brown
- recommended by a friend. some heavy sections, certainly, but really valuable resource. definitely recommend.
- the daughter of doctor moreau by silvia moreno-garcia
- despite not being especially short, it felt quite short. maybe it was the sort of fable/fairy tale air of the story.
- my heart is a chainsaw by stephen graham jones
- recommended by a friend. jesus christ. this book had some incredibly beautiful moments. i'm reading the second book soon, and have the third on hold, though since i believe it just recently came out the waitlist is quite long. i haven't entirely collected my thoughts around this book yet. there were some lines and moments i found so meaningful. it's so painful and emotional and meaningful to watch a well-written teenager struggle with internalized shame around their trauma. on top of that, it's a really well-done slasher.
- parable of the sower by octavia e. butler
- also set at points around here, also an interesting sense of time, though less constantly shifting than other apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic books on this list. i wonder if they walked through my hometown. i have the second book on hold. this one's got some very heavy moments. i started in a while ago and then had to pause it, returned to it only now.
- currently reading: beyond survival, edited by ejeris dixon and leah lakshmi piepzna-samarasinha