Category Archives: Compilation Posts

Sunday Funday?

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20180707_1439414047414016741759770.jpgSo I’m trying out something new this week, and in addition to rambling a little bit about my life, I’m also going to include a bunch of links to things I found interesting this week! They might be book-related or not, since I do find a lot of book-related things interesting. (You’d never have guessed, right?)

In life-related things, we had a fantastic weekend at Anthrocon, selling folding fans and leather masks to people and having fun with our friends. (Pictured, one of the fur-suiters with two of our fans!)

20180709_1511147303263380039471796.jpgI got a new pair of glasses with cat-eye frames, which I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while and I’m very happy with! (I should have smiled a little more for that pic, though!)

Links!

So first off, a tab I’ve had open on my browser for quite some time, because I keep going back and reading a story or two at a time: A collection of Rosamund Hodge’s short stories. She wrote Crimson Bound, Cruel Beauty, and Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, all of which I loved, and her short stories are proving to be excellent as well.

The ACLU has made a series of animated shorts to educate people on their rights when it comes to ICE agents and US Immigration enforcement.

This is from last year, but 22 Ambassadors recommended a book to read before visiting their country. It would be a good place to start for any “Reading Around the World” challenge. Which I’m thinking of trying out next year.

The Saga of Antler Guy – an amazing work of fiction that’s still in progress.

A list of Alternative Families in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Book Riot has a Feminist Book Club! They just ended their second session, and the third doesn’t start until September. I’ll be talking about this more on Wednesday.

Because of all the scandal around the Swedish Academy’s sexual assault issues, a new Acadamy has formed to award a prize in Literature. I’m unclear as to whether it will actually be the Nobel, or something new, but you can browse their longlist (and vote on it!) on their website.

A story of very old poisonous books being found in a library!

Queer webcomics you can read online free, right now.

A list of South Asian Speculative Fiction.

Book Riot’s list of 100 Must-Read Bisexual Books.

Barack Obama posted a list of six books about Africa to read over the summer, in advance of his first trip to Africa since he left office.

Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Nanette’ special on Netflix is amazing and heartbreaking and funny and absolutely worth watching.

Did you find any interesting links on the Internet this week? Leave them in the comments!

It’s Ramadan!

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persepolis 1So many things going on this month, I almost forgot it’s also Ramadan! You can read all about it at that link, but basically it’s a month of fasting between sunup and sunset to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad.

love hate and other filtersI’m not Muslim, but I like to link my reading to current events and holidays, so for Ramadan this year I’m reading the graphic novel Persepolis, about a young girl growing up in Iran, and Love, Hate, and Other Filters, a YA novel about a Muslim teen growing up in Chicago.

I’ve read a few novels in the past on the same topics:

City of Brass

Saints and Misfits

The Clothesline Swing

An American Family

A Hundred Veils

Happy Ramadan, if you celebrate it!

Happy Pride Month!

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This month is Pride month, and while I’m only an ally, the vast majority of my friends are some flavor of LGBTQIA+ so I always like to spotlight minority representation in my reads! I’ll be trying to put up more pride-related books this month, but you can always go through my backlog (I have noted intersectionality and own voices books where I knew about them):

Tomboy Survival Guide (nonbinary/trans, trans author)

Radio Silence (asexual)

The Clothesline Swing (gay, Syrian, Refugees)

Girls Made of Snow and Glass (lesbian)

The Merry Spinster (various, but mostly playing with gender, trans author)

Queens of Geek (bisexual)

Bright Smoke, Cold Fire (nonbinary side character)

Reign of the Fallen (bisexual)

The Rules of Magic (gay side character)

That Inevitable Victorian Thing (bisexual, intersex)

Six of Crows (gay)

The Female Persuasion (lesbian side characters)

Autoboyography (gay)

(These should all be under my GLBT tag, too.)

Looking forward this month, I’ll be talking about The Dirty Girls Social Club (lesbian, Hispanic), Island of Exiles (bisexual, non-binary), As The Crow Flies (queer, black, queer black author), The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (bisexual, asexual), and Ellen DeGeneres’ third book, Seriously…I’m Kidding (lesbian and lesbian author). Hopefully more, but those five are what I should be getting (or have already picked up) from the library!

My Book of the Month selections this month also include a lesbian romance (When Katie Met Cassidy) and another book labeled “LGBTQ+ friendly” so I think it might have a plot twist involving a character being gay. (The Book of Essie.) (Update: It did.) Lots of LGBTQ+ books coming up this month!

Happy Pride Month!

TTT – Top Ten Character Names

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Happy Tuesday! The Top Ten Theme this week is your favorite top ten character names! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and she’ll have links to a bunch of Odessa Reign of the Fallenother blogs participating in the Top Ten!

In no particular order:

Odessa of Grenwyr, from Reign of the Fallen.

childrenZélie Adebola, from Children of Blood and Bone.

Vi Moradi and Captain Cardinal from Star Wars: Phasma.

rebel of the sandsAmani Al-Bahadur, the Blue-Eyed Bandit, from Rebel of the Sands.

Greer Kadetsky, from The Female Persuasion.

All of the characters in Mortal Engines, (my review will be up on Saturday!) with names like Bevis Pod, Chudleigh Pomeroy, Dr. Arkengarth, Moira Plym, Katherine Valentine, and Chrysler Peavey.

I can’t not include Zaphod Beeblebrox, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

kushiel's dartPhèdre nó Delaunay from Kushiel’s Dart.

deed of paksenarrionTemeraire from Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon series.

Paksenarrion from The Deed of Paksenarrion.

I couldn’t tell you WHY these are some of my favorite character names, but they are. I like originality, but also names that belong in their respective cultures. I think uniqueness is important, too. If someone mentions Temeraire, you know who they mean. There’s only one Temeraire, or Paksenarrion.

What are your favorite character names?

TTT – Top Ten Books I Disliked but am Glad I Read

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sing unburied singHappy Tuesday! The Top Ten Theme this week is the top ten books you disliked or hated but are really glad you read, even if just for bragging rights. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and she’ll have links to a bunch of other blogs participating in the Top Ten!

Sing, Unburied, Sing wasn’t exactly enjoyable, but it was important.

unbelievableUnbelievable, about a journalist’s experience on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, was exactly that. I didn’t want to believe it, but again, important that we know these things.

Dust Tracks on a Road was odd, and verified that I don’t particularly like Zora Neale Hurston’s writing.

tearsTears We Cannot Stop was a difficult read, but another very important one.

I didn’t like Station Eleven, but a lot of people did. I’m glad I read it so I know what people are talking about, even if I didn’t enjoy it like everyone else seems to.

The Jealousy Workbook is one I’ve talked about very briefly before, 20170626_213011but haven’t given a full review of. It helped a lot when my husband and I started on our polyamorous journey; I had some insecurities I needed to work through, and the questions and worksheets in The Jealousy Workbook are very thought-provoking. It was difficult work and not really enjoyable, but I’m glad I did it. (More Than Two, in the picture, is also excellent, but I mostly enjoyed my time with that one.)

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is something I read very recently for a PopSugar prompt. I’m glad I read it because everyone talks about it being a childhood classic – but reading it as an adult, at least, it felt….eh. Lackluster, really. Shallow and one-dimensional. (But it’s for kids, so I wouldn’t really expect complexity.)

I also read a Biology textbook a few years back, along with a workbook, and worked through it. I’m VERY glad I did that. I was homeschooled until eighth grade, and grew up conservative Christian, so my science education is…lacking. To put it mildly. I’ve been working on furthering my science and history education most of my adult life.

I know that’s only eight books, but that’s all I could think of! I’m looking forward to seeing other people’s lists. I might be reminded of something I missed!

Library Loot Wednesday!

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After a week of not getting anything from the library (I know, crazy, right?!) I checked out nine books this week, and plucked four more off their free shelf for a total of thirteen!

the diabolicI snuck over into the Children’s section and snagged Judy Blume’s “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” for the PopSugar prompt “childhood classic you’ve never read” which will also fill the Litsy prompt for “childhood favorite.”

I picked up the first volume of Batman in the DC Universe Rebirth, I Am Gotham. (Mostly because I’m pretty sure the romance/wedding of Batman and Catwoman is in Rebirth and I WANT TO READ IT!)

traitor to the throneAnd because I saw it on the bargain shelf at Barnes & Noble when I was there for Book Club, but checked my library first, I checked out a YA fantasy called The Diabolic.

The sequel to Rebel of the Sands, Traitor to the Throne, came in, along with Patricia Briggs’ newest, Burn Bright. I love the Alpha and Omega series!

For my steampunk prompt for Booked 2018, I picked up Mortal Engines, which I think is becoming a movie soon – it’s post-apocalyptic steam punk, where cities are now vehicles racing across terrain and gobbling up other cities for resources.

the dirty girls social clubAnd in light of all the #metoo accusations around Junot Diaz, I’ve put holds on several of the books written by the women coming out against him. The first of those, the Dirty Girls Social Club, came in today. It’s written by the author of the blog post I just linked to, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.

Since I walked to the library today, I was in no real hurry to leave, so I browsed the stacks a bit and found The Guns Above, a steampunk fantasy about the first female captain the guns aboveof an airship trying to prove herself, and Dragon Heart, your standard maiden-befriends-a-dragon fantasy.

lord of the wingsThe library’s free shelf had an older edition of Robinson Crusoe in nice condition, and a copy of Elie Wiesel’s Night, which I actually have never read. And I should. The other two from the free shelf are Warriors: A Dangerous Path, about cat warriors (which is apparently fifth in the series, oops!), and Lord of the Wings, which will fill my PopSugar prompt for a book set on Halloween.