Bees & Keys & Swords. Bookish pumpkins are a tradition at this point!
Review from earlier this year: https://shayshortt.com/2020/02/18/the-starless-sea/

At turns touching & introspective, Austen Years is fragmentary, struggling after but not quite achieving cohesion. Cohen is trying to string so much together, and it shows in her sentences which are flighty & rife with commas trying to do the work of more robust punctuation. She is grasping after some kind of sense in the wake of loss, but seems unable to get the disparate parts to coalesce. Life & death are not always neat & orderly in that way.

“Hearts are fickle. Hate is complicated.”

“When we loved, we were our best. We were infinite.

So excited to start this one! I loved her previous novel Bone and Bread, and I am absolutely fascinated to read a pandemic novel that was written and scheduled for publication just before COVID-19 hit.

Although Crosby dedicates a significant amount of the book to medical investigations, I would describe this account of yellow fever as more cultural than epidemiological. She doesn‘t delve deeply into any of the virology or the nitty gritty scientific details. The American Plague has two main subjects; the 1878 outbreak in Memphis & the work of Walter Reed, et al. on the Yellow Fever Board in Havana. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5ga

“Those historians who have examined epidemics and analyzed how societies have responded to them have generally argued that those with power blamed the poor for their own suffering and sometimes tried to stigmatize and isolate them.”

With grace, patience, & occasional humour, Oluo tackles many of the questions you might be too embarrassed to ask about race, for fear of putting your foot in your mouth. So You Want to Talk About Race is a stunning work of emotional labour that takes the time to work privileged readers through hard subjects in a way that may actually have a chance of getting those readers to see it as a question of systemic injustice https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fB

Sissy is Tobia's memoir about growing up in North Carolina, and their years coming into their gender identity and expression as a scholarship student at Duke University. Tobia has a loud love-me-or-leave-me style that you will either jive with, or not; their tone is a whiplash combination of earnestness and irreverence, dropping insights about toxic masculinity in the same breath as a dick joke.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5gh

This graphic memoir follows Kobabe on eir exploration of gender & recounts eir confusion about increasingly gendered expectations in childhood. As e gets older there is an increasing focus on body dysmorphia, particularly body horror related to menstruation & gynecological exams. The memoir comes to an open ending, as Kobabe has realized eir nonbinary identity, but is still struggling with being open about it. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5gh

Felix Love (he/they) has already transitioned to male, but is still exploring their gender identity and coming to terms with some of the nonbinary options. Felix has never been in love, but has a deep romantic streak, and this novel sees him caught between an enemies-to-lovers epistolary romance via Instagram messages, and the possibility that one of their oldest friendships is actually romantic.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5gh

Kelly knows her English history, and uses it to illuminate the context of Austen‘s novels beyond the drawing rooms in which they take place. If her theories are sometimes far-fetched, they are always thought-provoking, and are looking to tie back to that history. No doubt I will be thinking of her ideas the next time I revisit the texts, even as I doubt I will be taking some of her theories to heart. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fv

Hood Feminism provides a broad understanding of why some marginalized women struggle to identify with mainstream feminist organizations & causes. It promotes intersectionality by enhancing our understanding of what constitutes a feminist issue. It calls on the women who have gained the most from white feminism to use that privilege not for our own further gain, but to reach out & help bring other women onto equal footing. https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fg

In a comics kind of mood lately. Getting a lot of use out of hoopla!

Books are...Mirrors. Windows. Sliding glass doors. Stepping stones. Overcoats. Anchors. Springboards. Escape hatches. Quiet corners. Warm blankets. Flying carpets. Beacons to new readers.

Loved this graphic memoir about Maia Kobabe‘s experience exploring gender identity beyond the binary. Particularly enjoyed the evolving relationship with eir parents as e figured out how e identified. Warning: lots of graphic body dysmorphia in this one, if that is a trigger for you.

The Good Immigrant is an American take on the eponymous British best-seller, compiled by the same editors. The book consists of 26 essays about being an immigrant to the US. Long or short, serious or leavened with unexpected humour, they have brought together a diverse collection of voices highlighting the breadth of the American immigrant experience in the midst of an increasingly xenophobic environment. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5eZ

How I Spend Money.

God I miss bookstores.

“Books + Tea = Perfect Weekend”

“Azaad is a funny word in Urdu. In most instances, it means ‘freedom.‘ Freedom from your captors, war, and oppressive regimes. But when used to describe a woman, it is meant to imply that she is too wild to be tamed by those who have the right to tame her: her parents and all the men in her life whose honour it is her duty to prioritize before her own desires.”
#CanadaReads

In this memoir about the intersection of family, religion, and sexual identity, Habib shows an extremely touching thoughtfulness about her relationship with her family. She stands firm in both her acknowledgment of the wrong her parents did her, and her ability to try to understand the circumstances that made them into the kind of people who would engage a teenager to her first cousin.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5g2
#CanadaReads

One more page.

At first, Jared‘s life seems normal. Slowly but surely, however, little bits of weirdness creep in around the edges, and Jared‘s chapters are mixed with bizarre, expansive interludes that hint at a world beyond his day-to-day reality. The magic seeps in until it is almost pervasive, slowly invading every corner of his life until he has no choice but to face the destiny he has been running from.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fX

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson and We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib faced off this morning in the 2020 #CanadaReads finale, defended by Kaniehtiio Horn and Amanda Brugel, respectively. Review and recap: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fX

“The library is my second home.”

Coles can write beautifully, turning out some stark gems of highly polished prose. Everything is carefully described, and her characters are incisively drawn. That being said, I didn‘t find this at all enjoyable to read. By and large, these are not pleasant people, and I would be relieved to leave one behind when the perspective shifted, only to find the next person was equally nasty company.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fS
#CanadaReads

A less tense third day of #CanadaReads debates as the panelists focused on setting, character, resilience and hope, and eliminated another book from the running ahead of tomorrow‘s finale. Review and recap: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fS

Thistle‘s chapters are often short and somewhat fractured, an accurate reflection of a disjointed life punctuated by black outs. It is a chronicle of poor choices informed by pain, loneliness, and heartbreak. Occasional interludes are more like poems, including a disturbing section in which Thistle envisions turning into a wendigo who then cannibalizes himself.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fN
#CanadaReads

#CanadaReads 2020 had a feisty Day Two of debates today! I don't watch a lot of game shows/reality TV, but make it bookish and you are right up my alley. Get the recap here: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fN

Overall, the stories are less than subtle & often fairly didactic. In “Unauthorized Bread,” Wye gives an impromptu 2 page tutorial on public-key cryptography. In “Model Minority,” Lois delivers a 2.5 page rant about racial bias in predictive policing. While didactic, there are certainly people who will find it more palatable to learn these concepts via fiction, which they might not otherwise seek out. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fJ

If you‘re not familiar with #CanadaReads, every year the CBC hosts a game show where five famous Canadians each pick a book to defend, and then engage in a week of debates. One book is eliminated each day until the last one is crowned the winner of Canada‘s annual title fight This year they are looking for the “one book to bring Canada into focus.” Day One review and recap: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fJ

Although written in the third person, Claire Kann‘s style makes the narrative feel personal, and her chatty voice is filled with bracketed asides. As a character, Alice is well-defined beyond her asexuality. She loves television, and her hobby is writing critical essays about her favourite programs. She loves food, but can‘t cook to save her life.
Full review: https://shayshortt.com/2020/07/14/lets-talk-about-love/

Tell Me How it Ends is brief, but illuminating, highlighting a problem that long predates the current US administration, and which swiftly exposes the interconnected nature of the refugee crisis which America persists in viewing as an external problem.
Full review: https://shayshortt.com/2020/07/07/tell-me-how-it-ends/

Recently learned that Tor is reprinting the Kushiel trilogy this summer! Shout out to Giselle at Tor for sending along a copy. I reread it a few years ago, but looking forward to revisiting Terre D‘Ange again. https://shayshortt.com/2017/01/17/kushiels-dart/

In the final volume of the Daevabad trilogy, S.A. Chakraborty delivers a whopping 784 page series ender that upends the established politics of Daevabad by delving into questions of family legacy, intergenerational trauma, monarchy, governance, genocide, authoritarianism and the distribution of power, bringing this sprawling Islamic fantasy to its epic conclusion. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5fa

Couldn‘t decide what to read from my TBR, so I decided it was an opportune time to reread this top pick from my 2018 reading list
https://shayshortt.com/2018/12/27/top-5-non-fiction-2018/

Beautiful bedtime reading.

Libby has a tiny Pride flag!

“Promises were made to those who arrived on this country‘s shores. There were full-throated declarations about equality and all men breathing free. Regardless of how uncomfortable those words may now make some sons of the men who wrote them, we intend to hold those promises to account.” -Walé Oyéjidé, After Migration: The Once and Future Kings

Book three reread under way!

First read of Pride month is this intersectional memoir!

Artist Jane Mount posted this anti-racism reading list on her Instagram, and there are just so many good books here that I can highly recommend, especially So You Want to Talk About Race and White Fragility, but also The Fire This Time, Between the World and Me, The New Jim Crow, and Just Mercy. Looking forward to reading the rest!

The Folio edition has lovely illustrations by Peter Bailey.

“Kira‘s fear overflowed, filling her with a feeling of utter and inescapable doom. If she could have screamed, her cry would have reached the stars.”
New Christopher Paolini novel finally coming this fall, Eragon fans! Sneak peek here: Https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5dY

On to book two in the reread!

Rereading for the first time in many years.

Finished the reread, time for the rewatch. Look at these babies!

Finishing up a lockdown reread of the series. Always fun to revisit. #stayhome

Really enjoying this one so far, and Lauren Fortgang is a consistently good narrator.

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this title.
In general, I was more interested in the events back in the “real” world, rather than the development of The Land. The end of death as we know it has profound effects on Meatspace, not all of which Stephenson takes the time to fully explore. The resulting story is a strange brew of mythology and scripture, meandering at times, and engrossing at others. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-591