Neil Gaiman ( @neilhimself when he's posting here - which isn't often) is one of my favorite authors, and I'm usually in awe of just about everything he does. It was a cinch, then, that I picked up Unnatural Creatures, an arrangement of short stories that he picked out. So far, all of the stories are good. Surprisingly, I would say that Gaiman's own contribution is the weakest of the bunch, but still entertaining. #FridayReads#AmReading#Books#ShortStories#Bookstodon@bookstodon
#amreading@bookstodon
Thank you to the lovely german who read my book! What did you think? (Amazon tells me these things like "country x read y pages of your book.")
Have a cute cat (Simon's Cat specifically) as thanks.
#JASNA of NorCal is offering a free virtual meeting on, “How Happy Are Jane Austen’s Endings Anyway?” The event is on March 24 and starts at 4:30 p.m. EST (1:30 p.m. PST). You can register here:
#JASNA Pittsburgh is presenting a virtual tea on Saturday March 23 at 1:30 p.m. EST The event features two talks about #JaneAusten inspired fan fiction and retellings, originally presented at the 2023 national annual meeting. The event is free.
Here is a list of over two dozen virtual talks and presentations happening this spring. Check the events' websites for more information and to register.
“There is no water in the City of Lies”
I just finished this powerful and beautiful novella, The Lies of the Ajungo, by Moses Ose Utomi. Absolutely worth reading. @bookstodon#amreading
Oh, look... another book with "girl" in the title. 🙄
This was added to my TBR in May of 2015, probably on the strength of Entertainment Weekly's recommendation (I used to subscribe to that magazine. We'll see if it's actually "unputodownable" as stated on the cover. I hope so, because the last book I finished was definitely not.
anyone who's read Deborah Crombie's Kindcaid and James series: I loved the first 7, but 8 & 9 both went VERY heavy on the past timeline device AND blended it with the present via various forms of psychic/paranormal woo-woo. I'm very much not a fan of either, so both together is just is ugh. Are subsequent books in the series similar? #AmReading#Mystery@bookstodon
Blog post: Rachel Cohen's "A Chance Meeting: American Encounters" is a wonderful book offering vignettes of meetings between individuals who helped to shape American culture. Mark Twain and Willa Cather, William James and Gertrude Stein, and others. The conversations are interesting in themselves; they also have me thinking about how encounters with people and books have shaped the person I've become.
I tried reading Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks but couldn’t get more than a few pages in to it. It got great reviews so it’s just not my cup of tea 🫖.
Instead I started The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi and am liking it so far. #amreading@bookstodon
Yesterday I finished Jacqueline Carey’s The Starless Sky. It was an enjoyable read with a good story, relatable characters, and a hopeful ending. #amreading@bookstodon
I enjoy nonfiction about cultural heritage crimes because it's basically low stakes, less violent and gendered true crime. The bare bones of the story are compelling: a working class amateur art connoisseur who steals art at an astonishing pace for several years. I was intrigued by the short passages on the psychology of art theft and personal art collections, so am looking forward to mining the bibliography.
Book 12: The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life
5 stars
One of the best biographies I've ever read. Carlisle is a philosopher, which provides a rich lens for analyzing Eliot's life and work. She articulates things about Eliot's style and influences that I've sensed but been unable to verbalize. I identified with the way Eliot's creative life was shaped by her simultaneous awareness of her own talent, self-doubt, and shame about her ambition.
Book 13 of 2024: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
4 stars
This was a lovely cozy fantasy with some truly funny moments and creative trope subversion. The characters were deeper, the themes more complex, and the world building more interesting than I was expecting from the fluffy marketing. At the outset I wasn't sure whether I'd bother reading the sequel, but I certainly want to now!
Only a true genius could dedicate an entire book to addressing the plot holes of her own setting. Le Guin confronted these contradictions, saw the pain and oppression at the root of them, and used them to craft a beautiful narrative of reconciliation.
I'm dealing with several losses, so the book's focus on the naturalness and necessity of true death, without resurrection or afterlife, has been very cathartic.
#BookReview Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, tr. Angela Rodel
Read on audio
Pub. 2020
This book centres around the narrator and someone he meets throughout the novel, Gaustine, who’s obsessed with the past and how people relate to it as they age, particularly those who develop conditions like Dementia or Alzheimer’s. He sets up “clinics of the past” where people can immerse themselves in a decade that brings them comfort.
This is such an engaging idea and the 1st part of the book which explores how it could work is so enjoyable:
“Reading magazines and newspapers from 30 or 40 years ago, what was worrisome then is not worrisome now.news has become history. Breaking news has long since broken. The paper is slightly yellowed, the scent of damp wafts from the magazine’s glossy pages. But what is going on with the ads? The ones we passed by with annoyance back then have now taken on a new value. Suddenly the ads have become the true news about that time.”
The aim of the therapy is to draw out conversation from the patient as they recognise items, allowing them to recall lost memories. This improves their mood and they relate better to their family.
Following the popularity of the clinic, Gaustine decides to create entire cities set in the past. In one based in the 70s, a patient runs away, and when he returns he reports:
“everyone was being subjected to an experiment. They were playing out the future if you can believe it guys? Some people are walking around with wires in their ears and little TV sets in their hands and they never look up”
Word of the clinics spreads and people want to join who have no memory problems and things then start to get really twisted! some want to join out of nostalgia and others through fear of the future.
The 2nd part pushes things further, exploring a world where European countries decide to hold referendums about living in the past.
This is a novel full of ideas; disturbing, funny and poetic. #bookstodon@bookstodon
@sarahmatthews@bookstodon Had bookmarked you review. Thank you for that. Am now just getting into Time Shelter. Love that it is shaping up as a book of ideas and challenges the reader to focus on the many thread and notions associated with the past and memory.