Welcome to Litsy!

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
As you asked for recommendations for upbeat Latin music, I can only really offer Rita Indiana's "Mandinga Times", but I think it's a good one! She's a Dominican musician, author (see tagged) and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights across the Caribbean ❤️?️‍? https://open.spotify.com/album/027cuwNhwK78Agx2K1N5EC?si=IFXmW5ACQ5SGr2-PylclTA
For a more chill bossa nova beat, I like Paul Desmond's "Take Ten" ??

#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #DominicanRepublic 🇩🇴
This had Philip K. Dick feels, with relatively ordinary people getting drawn into mind bending situations, perceptual time/reality slips, and fluidity of personality and body. It takes in politics, art theory, climate catastrophe, challenges a Eurocentric scientific worldview with Afro-Caribbean spirituality, and centres trans experience in the MC.
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Waiting for Mrs B to have an eye test, popped out for a coffee, tempted by the breakfast bagel! ☕🥯📖
#BooksAndCoffee #BooksAndBagels

#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #DominicanRepublic ??
I got this for the challenge, noting it's sci-fi, post-apocalypse, dystopian, time-travel with a trans MC, which was all promising. What I didn't look at before buying was reviews, which flag gory horror and graphic sex, which are not in my bailiwick - the fact I thought the word "bailiwick" is probably an indicator of just how far out of mine it's likely to be!? I'll just have to gird my loins!

"This kind of coincidence ought to have a name. Whenever he heard a word for the first time, a stream of references, information, and associations would rise up out of nowhere, as though the universe were conjuring up the tools necessary for learning, or as though it were giving its approval to a specific path of knowledge."
This always happens to me too.

"Everything was drenched in the light of a late afternoon in which the limits of the flesh dissolved into white and yellow particles in the same way life itself appears to dissolve under a microscope."

Found this in last year‘s to be reads. As I read it I‘m discovering it‘s one of those books whose narrative is so cynical I‘m going to need a sunshine novel afterward to help me feel positive towards humanity again.

Sunday Read! A book in translation that is sci-fi and jumps straight into questions of climate change, technology, Yoruba ritual, queer politics, poverty, colonialism and contemporary art! #mustread #lgbt #translated #booklove #ReadFastDieYoung #bookart #bookstagram

Queer sci-fi and Manhattans 😍🙌

My admiration grows the longer I reflect on this queer, peppy time-travel triple narrative set in the Dominican Republic and #translated by Achy Obejas. Can the past be manipulated to avert future ecological disaster? Can altruism triumph over self-interest? A transgender man, Santera sorcery and a magical sea anemone are key elements in this vertiginous exploration of colonialism, gender, art and greed. #LGBTQ

Los Charamicos was a backwards town, dirty and small, and completely dependent on tourism—in other words, prostitution, in all its varieties.
(Internet photo)

This story takes place in the Dominican Republic, 2024. There is no more life in the oceans we humans have destroyed. We start by following Acilde, a maid, who wants to be male, steal a sacred and rare anemone from her boss who happens to be a representative of a Yoruban deity. What follows is multi layered time travel story that is brash and explicit with an ecological theme throughout. This was bonkers but that last page really got me. Pick!

Partially set in a post apocalyptic dystopia where the ocean is dead, a sacred anemone makes it possible to time travel into the past. Lots here about Dominican Republic culture, queerness and what you're willing to sacrifice for a better planet. One of those books that keeps you thinking.

#booked2019 8. Cli Fi @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage

TENTACLE is one of those SFMALF offerings that works equally well whether you approach it as science fiction or litfic. It‘s weird and deep and exciting. It uses its disparate timelines to consider human motivations and the nature of consciousness. And it only needs 130 pages to accomplish great things.

You should check it out, with the caveat it deals with sexual violence and misogyny with a side of racism. Proceed with caution if necessary.

I‘m seventeen days into a FitBit goals streak and no way was I gonna let my glitchy-ass battery steal that from me, so I grabbed my book and hopped on my stationary bike. I‘ve still got 70 more calories to officially burn, but now the record shows I‘ve met every other goal for today.

I really don‘t know how Rita Indiana managed to put so much into such a short book but it is impressive. It has a hyper-capitalistic post-apocalyptic society experiencing environmental collapse, what I can only describe as mental time travel, the fluidity of gender, colonial history, and future technology mixing with black magic. It‘s a very interesting and disturbing read, if a little hard to follow at times.

I managed a nice, small library haul this week: one book of poetry and one short novel I requested because of Book Riot‘s SFF newsletter.

Acilde‘s past overshadows an uncertain future in the post-apocalyptic landscape that has a grip on the island, the Caribbean, & the world, and the surprise jumps through time drive the story to its certain oblivion. As the story alternately focused on Acilde, art dealer Giorgio and his artist prodigies, one of them the struggling Argenis, and a group of old world buccaneers, I read on in wonder. I bow down Indiana‘s brilliant mind.

It got good near the end, while it was a very strange book I think it sends us a good message regarding our environment.

Hard to review - there were bits that I loved, but i always find I don‘t connect with distopian books that are this grim/violent. It reminded me of China Mieville - a successful writer a lot of people like but I just can‘t get on with. I don‘t think it was a bad book but really the opposite of a lot of what I like about reading fiction.

Still very sick :( this chest infection is a nasty one. Probably won‘t make it back to work til Thursday and for some reason my ears are incredibly painful?? I never even heard of that symptom?? Urgh.

This is blindingly original, very well written, but for my personal tastes I just don‘t enjoy very grisly/violent/icky books. That‘s a personal taste thing that makes it difficult to enjoy for me, but I‘d recommend 1000x if you don‘t mind that!

Tentacle was the bonus book I received from & Other Stories. It won the Grand Prize of the Association of Caribbean Writers. But look at that book description 👀‼️ This one promises to knock your socks off! I can‘t wait to plunge in! 💦