#Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

[stoppit-keepout]

this is a book rec for Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots! It's technically the third in a series of mid-century New York/New England queer romances following members of the fictional Cabot family, but it would stand alone very comfortably. pls check it out!

I read it for the first time last week, and I'm rereading it today because it made me really emotional! Have some emotions:

Daniel is a lovely leading dude--he's a little aimless and a lot kind, occasionally petty and nearly always giving.

Alex, who he loves, starts off thinking of himself as peculiar, cold, rigid, and disappointing.

The reason why I'm making this rec is the scene I just (re)read, in which Alex relates some of that, and Daniel points out that Alex actually loves a lot of things. It's a very sweet scene for a romance, since it gives Daniel a chance to show how well he knows and likes Alex, but it's also just a really sweet scene for anyone who feels as Alex does. Daniel's perspective ('my friend likes pepperoni pizza, vanilla ice cream, and quiet time') is just as grounded in reality as Alex's ('i dislike pizza with veggies, most flavours of ice cream, and being in crowds'), it's the same information entirely, it just takes the onus off Alex to be all-enjoying. The writing appreciates him for what he is and does, rather than scolding him for what he isn't and doesn't. :')

thank u Cat Sebastian, for this reframing that I'm gonna think about forever.

[poisindonottouch]

Queer reads: Cat Sebastian

Continuing my queer books you should read, for day 23, I bring you Cat Sebastian. 

Cat Sebastian writes historical romances, set in the 18th century, the 19th century, and the 20th century. I prefer her books set in the 20th century, by far. (I’ve read her other books, and I have a soft spot for The Queer Principals of Kit Webb, but I found the other ones... forgettable. Like, I read them all, and can’t remember the plots. So, uh, not my favorite.)

But these ones. These ones are excellent. 

The three Cabot books take place in the 1958 (I think?), 1960, and 1973 set in the US. They follow a person from the politically famous Cabot family (think the Kennedys), and three queer members who don’t quite fit into the family. Tommy Cabot Was Here and Peter Cabot Gets Lost are novellas that are more about the vibes than the plot, but I love everything about them. Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots is a longer novel, and is also heavy on the vibes, light on the plot. But they’re so sweet, and so soft, and the writing is so good. (also, A+ on the spicy scenes). 

We Could Be So Good takes place in New York in 1959, and shows slice of life in the queer world before Stonewall. The two main characters are Nick and Andy, and they’re idiots for each other. I love them so much. I read this book when it popped up on my kindle at 10 PM the day before it was released (thank you time zones) and stayed up till 3 AM reading it. 

The Page & Sommers books are set in the UK post WWII, and are murder mysteries. Agatha Christie, but make it gay, according to Cat Sebastian’s website. Aside from the murder, it’s also sweet and soft, and James and Leo are also idiots about each other. 

If you haven’t read any Cat Sebastian, or you’ve only read the regency books, check these out. They’re so good. 

[aurorawest]

Reading update

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 3.75/5 stars

I hate myself a little bit for using this word to describe this book, but it's a meditation on modern (western) culture, the drumbeat of living a purposeful life, and, imo, the millennial condition.

It also, separately from that, made me think of the song 'New Constellations' by Ryn Weaver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13EX7qGdUGI

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

This book features Gareth Inglis, a member of the gentry whose father shipped him off to his uncle when his mother died. Gareth never saw or heard from his father (who remarried and had another child) again, and no one knew he existed because his father was a piece of human garbage. Which meant I couldn't stop thinking about my former father-in-law, who had two sons from his first marriage whom he, as far as I could tell, never had any contact with after remarrying and having another child. Life imitates art?

Anyway, it's KJ Charles, so you pretty much can't go wrong. I saw someone refer to this as enemies-to-lovers and realized my toxic trait is railing against people who want to apply enemies-to-lovers to everything. Spoiler alert, this is not enemies-to-lovers. But it is lovely, and includes Gareth and Joss Doomsday (a smuggler) bonding over beetles.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty - 4.5/5 stars

It was no Daevabad Trilogy, but then again, I remember finishing City of Brass and being like, yeah, it was fine, I'll probably pick up the sequel at some point. It wasn't until Kingdom of Copper that I grew to really love the series, so I'm hoping the same happens with this. This book was a lot of fun, and the fact that all the characters were middle-aged was pretty delightful. I'm definitely excited to see where this series goes.

The Long Run by James Acker - 5/5 stars

Excellent YA book about two lonely jocks in New Jersey.

Feel the Fire by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

His Accidental Cowboy by AM Arthur - 4/5 stars

Brida by Paul Coelho - 1/5 stars

One of the reviews for this book on Storygraph says it 'aged like milk' and I can't put it better than that. This is a soul mate AU where souls undergo cell division, essentially, and your soul mate is from your same base soul from before the soul split in half. Okay, great. Oh but wait, the soul always divides into male and female. And your soul mate is always someone of the opposite sex, even though that doesn't make sense because as souls divide again and again, that means there are a lot of people out there who came from the same original soul as you. Also, witchcraft? Also also, even though the book is called Brida and is ostensibly about the title character, her whole journey was really just to serve the unnamed male character, the Magus. This isn't implicit either, it's completely explicit. At the end it's like, 'sometimes young women come along to show men the way' (I'm paraphrasing but...not much).

This went straight to my give away pile, and I hated it so much that the rest of my Coelho books joined it (except The Alchemist).

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

Or, For The Love Of God Please Give David Lauriston And Murdo Balfour A Break, And Preferably A Happy Ending.

They got one, btw.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao - DNF

Honestly, the Mad Libs YA title should have warned me off of this one, but I always give my Illumicrate books a try. Cartoonish villains and protagonists I find myself liking less the more we get to know them. The prose is quite good but not enough to make up for the character deficiencies.

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel - 5/5 stars

Blurbed by no less than Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness supremacy!), Rainbow Rowell, Freya Marske, and CS Pacat. Did I go into this book with insanely high expectations? Yes. Did it mostly meet them? Yes! If you're a Captive Prince fan, this one's for you.

Siegel tells us up front, before the book even starts, that it's a romance and not historically accurate. So don't go into this expecting a historically accurate love story between King Richard of England and King Philip of France. It is, however, a gorgeous romance. The world-building is top notch. Even if it's not totally accurate to the High Middle Ages, it feels accurate, if that makes sense? Siegel really captures the feeling of being in a different world. Lush writing, amazing sexual/romantic tension, lovely sad boys. Highly, highly recommend.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian - 4.75/5 stars

I docked .25 stars because it bugged me that they didn't move in together at the end. Idk, just felt too 'look, I'm subverting romance conventions!' Still good, obviously.

Like Real People Do by EL Massey - 4/5 stars

A very wholesome and low stakes hockey romance. I found myself often thinking that the interactions of the men on the hockey teams seemed unrealistic, but it was charming and sweet enough that I didn't care.

The book reads like fanfiction, which is because it was fanfiction—but it's in a mostly good way, not a bad way (*cough* All The Way Happy *cough*). Apparently the original version was Check, Please! fanfiction, which I am vaguely familiar with as a thing that exists. Apparently it's a web comic? Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough to pick up the sequel.

[the-final-sentence]

They were all tiny sparks of joy, like those fireflies he had seen a few months earlier, and Alex didn't quite know how his life had become so full of them, but he knew Daniel had something to do with it.

Cat Sebastian, from Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

[pretensesoup]

Queer books, day 14/30

I'm supposed to be finishing up some post-code-review stuff but instead here we go with this bullshit.

I could actually photograph this one, it's upstairs on my bedside table, but I'm le tired.

OKAY so I like Cat Sebastian and I cannot lie. This is the third of the Cabot books and features (as the title maybe gave away) Daniel Cabot, who is the son of Tommy (who features in Tommy Cabot Was Here, which I covered a few days ago), and his friend Alex Savchenko. Over the course of the book, Daniel does some gardening and Alex comes to terms with the fact that one of his fellow doctors is having a baby. And they fall in love (Daniel and Alex, I mean) and have a lot of sex. And that's it, basically. It is very comforting and there is almost no conflict or plot. I don't know that it really speaks to a larger question of human life or whatever. It's just got a lot of vibes, and sometimes that's nice.

This one is set in 1973. In the previous book, Daniel was about 12 in 1959ish, so that makes him like 25 here. Alex is a bit older, because he's a pediatrician with a whole practice. (You could just do that in the '70s, according to my mom. You could finish your residency and open your own practice.

We do get to see here: an intriguing glimpse of NYC (as in Manhattan) and the night life in 1973. Immigrants (this is a theme in my novel too). How people deal with individuals who are crummy or unkind to them. Friends to lovers. What is neurodivergence and how do you deal with it if you/your partner is (is Alex neurodivergent or is he just super normal in that he doesn't like to be around people that much and also hates when his routine gets disrupted? am I unduly riled up by him being labeled as neurodivergent because he is like appropriately kind of frustrated when his routine gets disrupted? am I on a weird voyage of discovery about myself? No.).

There are a lot of sex scenes in this one. I have some quibbles with how Ms. Sebastian writes sex scenes, but I will say that she does super well with handling consent, and in this one the characters also talk about using condoms and their sexual histories sort of in passing, even if ultimately they decide not to use condoms. A little research suggests this was probably atypical behavior for gay men in 1973, but it's nice to see it.

Key quote:

Alex hoped Daniel appreciated exactly how bold and daring he was being in going to the grocery store on Tuesday rather than Saturday. It was like fucking Mardi Gras over here, everything upside down.

Anyway, that's it. 10/10, go read it.

[eccentric-ocean]

Mid april/early may reading list

Beach Read Emily Henry

already mentioned here

Glitterland Alexis Hall

i enjoyed this gay contemporary romance. well, it's 10 years old, and i could tell. it's definitely about the flaws of the main character. who can be a jerk. he's struggling with a mental illness and finally learns to live with it. and be less of a jerk. definitely not cured by love or anything but love makes him want to be a better man. he figures out how to apologize and everything. i feel like i'm not selling it, but i liked it!

Waiting for the Flood / Alexis Hall

Already mentioned here and here.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots Cat Sebastian

Historical gay romance. It's kind of a friends-to-lovers. And I enjoyed it, except for some reason I thought the smut was a bit TOO graphic with this one. Might also have been the fact that Glitterland and the second novella from Waiting for the Flood also had lots of smut and I was overdosing. But still, this one felt a lot more graphic than other C. Sebastian books to me. What I love about her is how she writes her characters, and how funny they are, and the emotional journey she takes us on.

The Last Word Katy Birchall

Hetero enemies-to-lovers but not really. It's obvious early on that this isn't hate. And there's a silly (to me) reason why the characters fell apart, which could've made sense in the moment but in hindsight can't possibly hold up. I still finished the novel and gave it 4 stars so it wasn't bad. I enjoyed the writing. I was just frustrated with the MC there for a while. Right, and there was a scene in there that was like WHAT are we doing here and I'm gonna spoil it cuz I need to talk about it.

So she's a celebrity journalist and there is a chapter in which she and the love interest help a celebrity birth a child in a taxi cab. And it's like, so weird. And the baby gets named after them. I was like, did we NEED this?

The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit

Some non-fiction! Great book, fantastic writing. I can't really say what it's about because it's about so many things: having to take care of your old/sick parent when they hurt you throughout your childhood, moving to iceland because you can, appreciating and making art, facing your own mortality, Che Guevara & leprosy, learning to let people in and let them take care of you, what a community is.... Highly recommend.

You Should Be So Lucky Cat Sebastian

Again, gay historical romance. Baseball player & journalist fall in love. The author is very good at what she does. What she writes about being forced to hide a part of your identity in the 1950s/1960s in the US makes me rethink about the rights of LGBT+ people then and now. Cause we obviously haven't "fixed" it for good.

But this is NOT a depressing read. It's funny, cute & just lovely. I just wish they could be husbands like they obviously want to. Right, there's also a huge part of this that's about grief/grieving someone you can't openly grieve. And about building a circle of gay friends.

Funny Story Emily Henry

So I read yet another romance (!!). MC falls in love with her ex-fiance's new fiance's ex-boyfriend. Makes sense right? No but really, it's good. It feels like reading a hollywood romcom tbh. One of the good ones. But they always end up a little too picture perfect for me. Like, if I were the writer, she'd never speak to her absent father again in her life. And probably wouldn't take her best friend back as a friend, all things considered. But it is what is! I might be a bit too cynical.

[bookbaran]

On that note, I just finished Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots and it was the exact kind of quiet romance that I really like.

[disabled-dragoon]

The Disability Library

I love books, I love literature, and I love this blog, but it's only been recently that I've really been given the option to explore disabled literature, and I hate that. When I was a kid, all I wanted was to be able to read about characters like me, and now as an adult, all I want is to be able to read a book that takes us seriously.

And so, friends, Romans, countrymen, I present, a special disability and chronic illness booklist, compiled by myself and through the contributions of wonderful members from this site!

As always, if there are any at all that you want me to add, please just say. I'm always looking for more!

Edit 20/10/2023: You can now suggest books using the google form at the bottom!

Updated: 31/08/2023

Articles and Chapters

The Drifting Language of Architectural Accessibility in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, Essaka Joshua, 2012

Early Modern Literature and Disability Studies, Allison P. Hobgood, David Houston Wood, 2017

How Do You Develop Whole Object Relations as an Adult?, Elinor Greenburg, 2019

Making Do with What You Don't Have: Disabled Black Motherhood in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, Anna Hinton, 2018

Necropolitics, Achille Mbeme, 2003 OR Necropolitics, Achille Mbeme, 2019

Wasted Lives: Modernity and Its Outcasts, Zygmunt Bauman, 2004

Witchcraft and deformity in early modern English Literature, Scott Eaton, 2020

Books

Fiction:

Misc:

10 Things I Can See From Here, Carrie Mac

A-F:

A Curse So Dark and Lonely, (Series), Brigid Kemmerer

Akata Witch, (Series), Nnedi Okorafor

A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass

Ancillary Justice, (Series), Ann Leckie

An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon

An Unseen Attraction, (Series), K. J. Charles

A Shot in the Dark, Victoria Lee

A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd

A Song of Ice and Fire, (series), George R. R. Martin

A Spindle Splintered, (Series), Alix E. Harrow

A Time to Dance, Padma Venkatraman

Bath Haus, P. J. Vernon

Beasts of Prey, (Series), Ayana Gray

The Bedlam Stacks, (Series), Natasha Pulley

Black Bird, Blue Road, Sofiya Pasternack

Black Sun, (Series), Rebecca Roanhorse

Blood Price, (Series), Tanya Huff

Borderline, (Series), Mishell Baker

Breath, Donna Jo Napoli

The Broken Kingdoms, (Series), N.K. Jemisin

Brute, Kim Fielding

Cafe con Lychee, Emery Lee

Carry the Ocean, (Series), Heidi Cullinan

Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman

Cinder, (Series), Marissa Meyer

Clean, Amy Reed

Connection Error, (Series), Annabeth Albert

Cosima Unfortunate Steals A Star, Laura Noakes

Crazy, Benjamin Lebert

Crooked Kingdom, (Series), Leigh Bardugo

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, (Series), Cat Sebastian

Daniel, Deconstructed, James Ramos

Dead in the Garden, (Series), Dahlia Donovan

Dear Fang, With Love, Rufi Thorpe

Deathless Divide, (Series), Justina Ireland

The Degenerates, J. Albert Mann

The Doctor's Discretion, E.E. Ottoman

Earth Girl, (Series), Janet Edwards

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Emily R. Austin

The Extraordinaries, (Series), T. J. Klune

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, (Series), Trenton Lee Stewart

Fight + Flight, Jules Machias

The Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix

Finding My Voice, (Series), Aoife Dooley

The First Thing About You, Chaz Hayden

Follow My Leader, James B. Garfield

Forever Is Now, Mariama J. Lockington

Fortune Favours the Dead, (Series), Stephen Spotswood

Fresh, Margot Wood

H-0:

Harmony, London Price

Harrow the Ninth, (series), Tamsyn Muir

Hench, (Series), Natalia Zina Walschots

Highly Illogical Behaviour, John Corey Whaley

Honey Girl, Morgan Rogers

How to Become a Planet, Nicole Melleby

How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager, (Series), D. N. Bryn

How to Sell Your Blood & Fall in Love, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites, Joy Demorra

I Am Not Alone, Francisco X. Stork

The Immeasurable Depth of You, Maria Ingrande Mora

In the Ring, Sierra Isley

Into The Drowning Deep, (Series), Mira Grant

Iron Widow, (Series), Xiran Jay Zhao

Izzy at the End of the World, K. A. Reynolds

Jodie's Journey, Colin Thiele

Just by Looking at Him, Ryan O'Connell

Kissing Doorknobs, Terry Spencer Hesser

Lakelore, Anna-Marie McLemore

Learning Curves, (Series), Ceillie Simkiss

Let's Call It a Doomsday, Katie Henry

The Library of the Dead, (Series), TL Huchu

The Lion Hunter, (Series), Elizabeth Wein

Lirael, (Series), Garth Nix

Long Macchiatos and Monsters, Alison Evans

Love from A to Z, (Series), S.K. Ali

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, Kristen O'Neal

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

The Never Tilting World, (Series), Rin Chupeco

The No-Girlfriend Rule, Christen Randall

Nona the Ninth, (series), Tamsyn Muir

Noor, Nnedi Okorafor

Odder Still, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Once Stolen, (Series), D. N. Bryn

One For All, Lillie Lainoff

On the Edge of Gone, Corinne Duyvis

Origami Striptease, Peggy Munson

Our Bloody Pearl, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper

P-T:

Parable of the Sower, (Series), Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents, (Series), Octavia E. Butler

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, (series), Rick Riordan

Pomegranate, Helen Elaine Lee

The Prey of Gods, Nicky Drayden

The Pursuit Of..., (Series), Courtney Milan

The Queen's Thief, (Series), Megan Whalen Turner

The Quiet and the Loud, Helena Fox

The Raging Quiet, Sheryl Jordan

The Reanimator's Heart, (Series), Kara Jorgensen

The Remaking of Corbin Wale, Joan Parrish

Roll with It, (Series), Jamie Sumner

Russian Doll, (Series), Cristelle Comby

The Second Mango, (Series), Shira Glassman

Scar of the Bamboo Leaf, Sieni A.M

Shaman, (Series), Noah Gordon

Sick Kids in Love, Hannah Moskowitz

The Silent Boy, Lois Lowry

Six of Crows, (Series) Leigh Bardugo

Sizzle Reel, Carlyn Greenwald

The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal

The Stagsblood Prince, (Series), Gideon E. Wood

Stake Sauce, Arc 1: The Secret Ingredient is Love. No, Really, (Series), RoAnna Sylver

Stars in Your Eyes, Kacen Callender [Expected release: Oct 2023]

The Storm Runner, (Series), J. C. Cervantes

Stronger Still, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Sweetblood, Pete Hautman

Tarnished Are the Stars, Rosiee Thor

The Theft of Sunlight, (Series), Intisar Khanani

Throwaway Girls, Andrea Contos

Top Ten, Katie Cotugno

Torch, Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Treasure, Rebekah Weatherspoon

Turtles All the Way Down, John Green

U-Z:

Unlicensed Delivery, Will Soulsby-McCreath Expected release October 2023

Verona Comics, Jennifer Dugan

Vorkosigan Saga, (Series), Lois McMaster Bujold

We Are the Ants, (Series), Shaun David Hutchinson

The Weight of Our Sky, Hanna Alkaf

Whip, Stir and Serve, Caitlyn Frost and Henry Drake

The Whispering Dark, Kelly Andrew

Wicked Sweet, Chelsea M. Cameron

Wonder, (Series), R. J. Palacio

Wrong to Need You, (Series), Alisha Rai

Ziggy, Stardust and Me, James Brandon

Graphic Novels:

A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability, (Non-Fiction), A. Andrews

Constellations, Kate Glasheen

Dancing After TEN: a graphic memoir, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Vivian Chong, Georgia Webber

Everything Is an Emergency: An OCD Story in Words Pictures, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Jason Adam Katzenstein

Frankie's World: A Graphic Novel, (Series), Aoife Dooley

The Golden Hour, Niki Smith

Nimona, N. D. Stevenson

The Third Person, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Emma Grove

Magazines and Anthologies:

Artificial Divide, (Anthology), Robert Kingett, Randy Lacey

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #175: Grandmother-nai-Leylit's Cloth of Winds, (Article), R. B. Lemburg

Defying Doomsday, (Anthology), edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, (short story) (anthology), Seiko Tanabe

Nothing Without Us, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson

Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson

Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, (Anthology), edited by Marieke Nijkamp

Uncanny #24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, (Anthology), edited by: Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Dominik Parisien et al.

Uncanny #30: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy, (Anthology), edited by: Nicolette Barischoff, Lisa M. Bradley, Katharine Duckett

We Shall Be Monsters, edited by Derek Newman-Stille

Manga:

Perfect World, (Series), Rie Aruga

The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud, (Short Stories), Kuniko Tsurita

Non-Fiction:

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education, Jay Timothy Dolmage

A Disability History of the United States, Kim E, Nielsen

The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access, David Gissen

Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, Elsa Sjunneson

Black Disability Politics, Sami Schalk

Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety, Dr. Elinor Greenburg

Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure, Eli Clare

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability, Barker, Clare and Stuart Murray, editors.

The Capacity Contract: Intellectual Disability and the Question of Citizenship, Stacy Clifford Simplican

Capitalism and Disability, Martha Russel

Care work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Catatonia, Shutdown and Breakdown in Autism: A Psycho-Ecological Approach, Dr Amitta Shah

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays, Esme Weijun Wang

Crip Kinship, Shayda Kafai

Crip Up the Kitchen: Tools, Tips and Recipes for the Disabled Cook, Jules Sherred

Culture – Theory – Disability: Encounters between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies, Anne Waldschmidt, Hanjo Berressem, Moritz Ingwersen

Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition, Liat Ben-Moshe

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally, Emily Ladau

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World, Ben Mattlin

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From the Twenty-First Century, Alice Wong

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space, Amanda Leduc

Every Cripple a Superhero, Christoph Keller

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, Eli Clare

Feminist Queer Crip, Alison Kafer

The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Growing Up Disabled in Australia, Carly Findlay

It's Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability, Kelly Davio

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

Language Deprivation & Deaf Mental Health, Neil S. Glickman, Wyatte C. Hall

The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability, Elizabeth Barnes

My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That Is Sick, Lyndsey Medford

No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s, Sarah F. Rose

Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment, James I. Charlton

The Pedagogy of Pathologization Dis/abled Girls of Color in the School-prison Nexus, Subini Ancy Annamma

Physical Disability in British Romantic Literature, Essaka Joshua

QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology, Raymond Luczak, Editor.

The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability, Jasbir K. Puar

Sitting Pretty, (memoir), Rebecca Taussig

Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black & Deaf in the South, Mary Herring Wright

Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms, Ilana Jacqueline

The Things We Don't Say: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Truths, Julie Morgenlender

Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability, Scott T. Smith, José Alaniz 

Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman, (memoir), Laura Kate Dale

Unmasking Autism, Devon Price

The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe, Ellen Clifford

We've Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents, Eliza Hull

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, (memoir) (essays) Alice Wong

Picture Books:

A Day With No Words, Tiffany Hammond, Kate Cosgrove-

A Friend for Henry, Jenn Bailey, Mika Song

Ali and the Sea Stars, Ali Stroker, Gillian Reid

All Are Welcome, Alexandra Penfold, Suzanne Kaufman

All the Way to the Top, Annette Bay Pimentel, Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, Nabi Ali

Can Bears Ski?, Raymond Antrobus, Polly Dunbar

Different -- A Great Thing to Be!, Heather Alvis, Sarah Mensinga

Everyone Belongs, Heather Alvis, Sarah Mensinga

I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott, Sydney Smith

Jubilee: The First Therapy Horse and an Olympic Dream, K. T. Johnson, Anabella Ortiz

Just Ask!, Sonia Sotomayor, Rafael López

Kami and the Yaks, Andrea Stenn Stryer, Bert Dodson

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, Cari Best, Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Rescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, Jessica Kensky, Patrick Downes, Scott Magoon

Sam's Super Seats, Keah Brown, Sharee Miller

Small Knight and the Anxiety Monster, Manka Kasha

We Move Together, Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, Eduardo Trejos

We're Different, We're the Same, and We're All Wonderful!, Bobbi Jane Kates, Joe Mathieu

What Happened to You?, James Catchpole, Karen George

The World Needs More Purple People, Kristen Bell, Benjamin Hart, Daniel Wiseman

You Are Enough: A Book About Inclusion, Margaret O'Hair, Sofia Sanchez, Sofia Cardoso

You Are Loved: A Book About Families, Margaret O'Hair, Sofia Sanchez, Sofia Cardoso

The You Kind of Kind, Nina West, Hayden Evans

Zoom!, Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko

Plays:

Peeling, Kate O'Reilly

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With an extra special thank you to @parafoxicalk @craftybookworms @lunod @galaxyaroace @shub-s @trans-axolotl @suspicious-whumping-egg @ya-world-challenge @fictionalgirlsworld @rubyjewelqueen @some-weird-queer-writer @jacensolodjo @cherry-sys @dralthon @thebibliosphere @brynwrites @aj-grimoire @shade-and-sun @ceanothusspinosus @edhelwen1 @waltzofthewifi @spiderleggedhorse @sleepneverheardofher @highladyluck @oftheides @thecouragetobekind @nopoodles @lupadracolis @elusivemellifluence @creativiteaa @moonflowero1 @the-bi-library @chronically-chaotic-cryptid for your absolutely fantastic contributions!

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Submit a Book:

[thedisabilitybookarchive]

Queer Disability in Historical Fiction

[ID: A poster. Large white text in the centre reads "Queer Disability In Historical Fiction". In the upper left corner, smaller black text reads "Disability in Books". The background is a wood grain pattern, with the top and bottom of bordered by a row of book tops. In the upper right corner, the logo for the Disability Book Archive. In the lower left corner, the disability pride flag in the shape of a heart, and the rainbow pride flag, in the shape of smaller heart slightly layered on top. In the lower right corner, a stack of cartoonish books. /end]

[ID: The same poster. The text and stack of books has been removed. The hearts and logo have shrunken in size. There are 7 book covers. From left to right, the covers are: "The Undaunted" by Alan Hart, "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue" by Mackenzi Lee, "An Unseen Attraction" by K. J. Charles, "The Bedlam Stacks" by Natasha Pulley, "Danial Cabot Puts Down Roots" by Cat Sebastian, "Deathless Divide" by Justina Ireland, and "The Degenerates" by J. Albert Mann. /end]

[ID: The same poster. The book covers have been replaced. From left to right, the covers are: "The Doctor's Discretion" by E. E. Ottoman, "Fortune Favors the Dead" by Stephen Spotswood, "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao, "One For All" by Lillie Lainoff, "The Pursuit Of..." by Courtney Milan, "The Reanimator's Heart" by Kara Jorgenson, and "Torch" by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. /end]

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 [22 rainbow pride flag emojis]

A list of 14 historical fiction books featuring queer, disabled, and queer-disabled characters and themes!

I want to note that, at the moment, The Undaunted and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue are yet to be added to the archive, but are on the list.

Also, The Undaunted by Alan Hart is a particularly special addition to this list because it was published in 1936, while the rest are significantly more modern. And! The person who submitted it helpfully gave me some information about Hart himself, detailing how he became one of the first trans men in the USA to undergo a hysterectomy!

The books on this list are:

🏳️‍🌈 "The Undaunted"- Hart, Alan L.

🏳️‍🌈 "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue"- Lee, Mackenzi

🏳️‍🌈 "An Unseen Attraction"- Charles, K. J.

🏳️‍🌈 "The Bedlam Stacks"- Pulley, Natasha

🏳️‍🌈 "Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots"- Sebastian, Cat

🏳️‍🌈 "Deathless Divide"- Ireland, Justina

🏳️‍🌈 "The Degenerates"- Mann, J. Albert

🏳️‍🌈 "The Doctor's Discretion"- Ottoman, E. E.

🏳️‍🌈 "Fortune Favors the Dead"- Spotswood, Stephen

🏳️‍🌈 "Iron Widow"- Zhao, Xiran Jay

🏳️‍🌈 "One For All"- Lainoff, Lillie

🏳️‍🌈 "The Pursuit Of..."- Milan, Courtney

🏳️‍🌈 "The Reanimator's Heart"- Jorgenson, Kara

🏳️‍🌈 "Torch"- Miller-Lachmann, Lyn

Most books on this list can be found on the Disability Book Archive!

Happy Pride Month!

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

March Monthly Recap:

March was complicated because I was traveling for work for a week and I had extremely slim access to the Internet or any of my stuff, so I mostly just read books I'd downloaded on my phone in preparation for the travel when I wasn't working. Which is part of the reason why I read 26 books, because I read 12 books while I was gone.

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee: 3.5/5

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske: 4.5/5

Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese: 4.5/5

Due or Die by Jenn McKinlay: 3.5/5

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard: 3/5

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells: 5/5, audio re-read

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia: 4.5/5

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian: 4.25/5

Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes: 3/5

Proper English by K. J. Charles: 4.25/5

Sweethand by N. G. Peltier: 4.25/5

An Unnatural Vice by K. J. Charles: 4.5/5

Round Midnight by Emma Barry & Genevieve Turner: 2.75/5

Book, Line, and Sinker by Jenn McKinlay: 3.75/5

Only Good Enemies by Jennifer Estep: 3.75/5

The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian: 4/5

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones: 4.25/5

Hooked by Elizabeth Hunter: 4.25/5

The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman: 4/5

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder: 4/5, re-read

Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder: 4/5, re-read

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder: 4/5, re-read

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells: 5/5, audio re-read

Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire: 4.5/5

One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire: 4.5/5

Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire: 4.5/5

Goal progress below the cut:

Complete series: balanced (finished 3 more than started)

Catch up on backlists: 21 books (+2)

Read FIYAH/Nebula/Hugo finalists & awards: 1 book (+0)

Read down TBR: (hard to tell what it was at the beginning of the year, but in August it was 1332) at end of Mar 1445 (not the right direction...)

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (17-23 Dec 2023)

shout out to matt rogers for this delightful new entry to the xmas song canon

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes #0) (Travis Baldree, author & narrator) - prequel novel of Viv's much younger days - just as fun and cozy as Legends & Lattes

🥰 Hashtag Soulmates (everwitch) - 44K, RWRB AU - deliberately tropetastic sort-of meta fic where Henry's a fanfic writer & Alex is one of his biggest fans and they work together but don't know it. Hard to explain but fun to read. Good stuff on the nature of fanfic; also hilarious bits where it walks right up to the crackfic line but doesn't go over. I really enjoyed reading something the author so clearly had a blast writing.

😊 In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life (Amy Schneider, author & narrator) - entertaining read

😍 Tommy Cabot Was Here (The Cabots #1) (Cat Sebastian) - reread, novella; just really in a mood to reread in this universe! Hadn't read this since I read Daniel's book, so it was fun to see him guest star as a 12 yr old

😍 Peter Cabot Gets Lost (The Cabots #2) (Cat Sebastian) - reread; I love all the Cabots but this one is my #1 fave by a smidge. The grumpy/sunshine is *chef's kiss*!

😍 Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots (The Cabots #3) (Cat Sebastian) - reread; Alex & Daniel are actually dating but too oblivious (and busy pining in silence) to realize it. I love these dumbasses.

😍 Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue (The Cabots #3.5) (Cat Sebastian) - reread, set in the Cabots 'verse but with no Cabots in sight. Just two baseball boys pulling their heads out of their asses and figuring out what they mean to one another.

💖💖 +102K of shorter fic 💖💖

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Game Changer - s5, e6

Make Some Noise - s2, e15

Dirty Laundry - s3, e8

D20: Fantasy High: Sophmore Year - e16-20

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - s1, e1-6

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

It's Been a Minute - The IBAMmys: The It's Been A Minute 2023 Culture Awards Show

Today, Explained - EU vs. AI

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Songs To Help You Study

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - A Return to Recipe Graves

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Old City Hall Station

⭐ Switched on Pop - "Did I mention that it's Christmas in this club?" (w Matt Rogers)

The Sporkful - New Year’s Food Resolutions 2024

Today, Explained - How Barnes & Noble survived

Big Gay Fiction Podcast - "Time to Shine" with Rachel Reid

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang - “They Couldn’t Be Nicer Boys” (w/ Seth Meyers)

NPR's Book of the Day - 'Black AF History' examines American history from the perspective of Black people

Code Switch - Here are our favorite Code Switch episodes from 2023

Ed Zitron's 15 Minutes In Hell - Episode 20: Jamelle Bouie

Ologies with Alie Ward - Lemurology (LEMURS) with Lydia Greene

99% Invisible #564 - Mini-Stories: Volume 17

Today, Explained - The stretched-too-thin blue line

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Sniffing out What’s Special with Saskia Wilson Brown

One Year - 1990: The Angry Death of Kimberly Bergalis

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang - "You Can't Trust These Gay Guys"

⭐ Films To Be Buried With - Leslie Jones

Dear Prudence - My Mother-In-Law Doesn’t Wash Her Hands After Using The Bathroom. Help!

Cautionary Tales - When Stalin Killed the Weekend (with The Happiness Lab)

Our Opinions Are Correct - How Doctor Who Stood the Test of Time

Our Opinions Are Correct - BONUS: If You Could Turn Into Any Form of Transportation, What Would You Pick?

It's Been a Minute - Why does flying suck so much?

Off Menu - Ep 217: Ross Noble (Christmas Special)

⭐ Song Exploder - Foo Fighters "The Teacher"

⭐ Overinvested - Ep. 290: The Cutting Edge

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

my christmas playlist

Celtic Christmas

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album [The Beach Boys] {1964}

Merry Axemas & Merry Axemas 2

Orchestral Christmas Pops

Latin Jazz Christmas

Punk Rock Christmas

Lindsey Stirling Christmas

Orchestral Holiday Pops

It's a Holiday Soul Party [Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings] {2015}

my Christmas Divas playlist

Have You Heard of Christmas? [Matt Rogers] {2023}

Simply Christmas [Leslie Odom Jr.] {2016}

The Christmas Album [Leslie Odom Jr.] {2020}

Christmas With You [Laufey & Norah Jones] {2023}

Christmas Island [Jimmy Buffett] {1996}

'Tis The SeaSon [Jimmy Buffett] {2016}

Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family [Nick Lowe] {2013}

The Muppet Christmas Carol (Special Anniversary Edition) {2005}

Punk Rock Christmas

Classical Christmas

Rock & Roll Christmas

[lgbtqreads]

Hi :) can you recommend something with autistic protagonist? I've read 'Daniel Cabot puts down roots' and loved it, but not much else. Non-ya would be ideal, but I'll be happy with any recs. Thanks!

I've got a section for this on the site, so feel free to browse! https://lgbtqreads.com/representation/disability-neurodivergence/

[markwatnae]

2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Monday's Not Coming - Tiffany D. Jackson - Oct. 3 This book ruined my life. No notes. 5 stars.

Slippery Creatures - KJ Charles - Oct. 20 1920s gays solve a crime! One of them is a soldier back from WWI, the other is a conman, they fuck. 5 stars.

The Alpha and His Ace - Ana J. Phoenix - Oct. 24 It was…okay. 1 star.

Luke and Billy Finally Get A Clue - Cat Sebastian - Oct. 26 1950s gay baseball players stuck in a cabin? Sign me up. 5 stars.

Blue Steel Chain - Alex Beecroft - Oct. 26 This one was just absolute nonsense. I had fun though! 2 stars.

Getting It On With Gargoyles - Hazel Mack - Oct 29 Very interesting world-building! I’m personally not a fan of how the sex is written and how the male characters sometimes talk to the female characters, but overall it was fun to read. 4 stars.

Tangling with Trolls - Hazel Mack - Oct 29 Mostly the same as Gargoyles. Except this one had an extra strange element of the troll man being exponentially larger than the human woman so…… 4 stars.

Backstroking with a Tiger Shark - Charlie Richards - Nov 1 A SeaWorld-esque aquarium stocked entirely by marine life that are actually human shapeshifters. GAY human shapeshifters. Amazing. My biggest beef is the abysmal OSHA violations in the first chapter that set off the events. 3 stars.

Floating with a Sea Cow - Charlie Richards - Nov 1 I would personally love to be soulmates with a huge manatee. Sign me up. 3 stars.

Diving with a Hammerhead - Charlie Richards - Nov 2 I would NOT love to be soulmates with a huge hammerhead but I won’t yuck your yum. 3 stars.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen - KJ Charles - Nov 2 There’s a mystery, there’s men in love, there’s generational family drama, it’s good. 4 stars.

Semper Fi - Keira Andrews - Nov 3 This book ruined me. And it was great. I'm still crying. 5 stars.

The Sleeping Soldier - Aster Glen Gray - Nov 4 Absolutely adorable. 5 stars.

Patricia Wants to Cuddle - Samantha Allen - Nov 9 This book can be summed up in one word: Potential. 4 stars.

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides - Nov 10 This book can be summed up in one word: Stupid. 1 star.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space - Karen Miller - Nov 10 Do you like Obi-Wan Kenobi miserable and in pain? Read this book. 5 stars.

A Marvelous Light - Freya Marske - Nov 14 This book series has me in a chokehold right now. I’ve read this trilogy twice and restarted it again. 15 stars.

Tommy Cabot Was Here - Cat Sebastian - Nov 14 First in the Cabot series and super cute. Tommy is gay, his ex-wife is gay, and Everett is the cool gay teacher. 5 stars.

Make You Mine - E.M. Lindsay - Nov 14 A chubby Jewish baker and a hot gay pornstar fall in love in Savannah, GA? Fuck yeah. 4 stars

All Systems Red - Martha Wells - Nov 15 Murderbot is forced to socialize, hates it, and peaces out. Same. 5 stars.

Artificial Condition - Martha Wells - Nov 15 Murderbot makes a friend! ART means everything to me. 5 stars.

Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells - Nov 15 My least favorite of the series, but mostly because there’s no Preservation team or ART. 3 stars.

Exit Strategy - Martha Wells - Nov 16 Murderbot has to rescue Dr. Mensah! It’s fucking pissed! 4 stars.

Network Effect - Martha Wells - Nov 16 Murderbot gets PTSD! Also accidentally releases another SecUnit from its own module. NICE! 5 stars.

Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells - Nov 19 The only thing you need to know about this book is: JollyBaby. #BringBackJollyBaby 5 stars.

System Collapse - Martha Wells - Nov 20 Murderbot learns what PTSD is! Isn’t a fan. But gets a family—begrudgingly. 5 stars.

A Restless Truth - Freya Marske - Nov 25 Lesbians on a cruise ship in 1909! Titanic wishes. 4 stars.

Peter Cabot Gets Lost - Cat Sebastian - Nov 25 We get a classic “fall in love via cross-country road trip” story set in 1960 and it’s adorable. 5 stars.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots - Cat Sebastian - Nov 25 Alex is a probably-autistic doctor and Daniel is finding himself. They realize they’re in love. 5 stars.

A Power Unbound - Freya Marske - Nov 27 Wrecked me. Destroyed me. Put me back together. 5 stars.

Red, White, & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston - Dec 11 Made me believe in love again, if only for a day. 5 stars.

Perfect Ten - K.M. Neuhold - Dec 30 A perfectly fine, fun romance but this time on a super gay island off the coast of South Carolina. 3 stars.

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston - Dec 31 A 1970s lesbian out of time and a protagonist that is actually me. Grabbed me by the heart and squeezed. 5 stars.

[cartograffiti]

July '23 reading diary

I'm reading so many books these days that I've decided monthly posts would be a fun way to think about what books are grabbing me and shove them in front of other people.

In July I finished 12 books, many of them really lovely.

This summer I've been reading all of Cat Sebastian's 20th century romances, because I'd already read all her 18th and 19th century ones. I like her work a lot, because it's full of really powerful romantic gestures and she writes domestic slice of life as well as crimes. In July I read the last three I needed to have read her whole body of work, and found a new favorite.

Peter Cabot Gets Lost and Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots are the second and third in a romance series that can easily be read out of order, all about estranged queer members of a Kennedys-ish political family. Peter's is a 1960s coast-to-coast road trip about fresh college grads with outstanding grumpy for sunshine chemistry, and it's the one that became my new favorite (my previous favorite was A Duke in Disguise). It has a wonderful ease and warmth to it, and I would have cheerfully read a version twice as long.

His cousin Daniel's book has some odd pacing--the last several chapters all feel like bonus codas to the main arc--but I enjoyed it all so much I don't care. This one's a cozy plot of friends who everyone knows are couple except themselves, starring a music critic and a doctor in New York's East Village in the 1970s. This is a great pick for anyone who feels like romances tend to move too fast, since their relationship is well established when they decide to change it. Their attraction to each other has a lot of emphasis on each other's quirks and their opposing personal styles, which is deeply cute.

The third Cat Sebastian I read was We Could Be So Good, which is her new release. It's a touching story about New York newspapermen in the 1950s, with an astonishing amount of pining. Like, Pacific Northwest pine content. I remarked in my liveblog that I felt like I was watching pandas in a zoo: "Please fuck the whole world would love for you to fuck, top scientists are trying to set the mood for you." This was fun! I prefer her faster-moving and more explicit books, which is most of them, but it's nice to read about a personable couple helping each other over hurdles so they can kiss.

The English Eccentrics by Edith Sitwell is a book I read very slowly and finished this month. It's a very odd work of nonfiction from the 1930s, and I wish I could remember how I first got interested in it. It's an overview of a large number of historical people whose "eccentricity" ranged, for me, from delightful to pitiable to repellent. Sitwell's style is a bit dense and full of opinion in a way that made me question her research when she touched on figures I had some familiarity with, like the con artist Princess Caraboo. More intriguing than informative.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff is a more satisfying nonfiction pick, a memoir follow up to the hugely charming 84, Charing Cross Road. This book recounts American writer Hanff's visit to some of the long-distance friends she corresponded with in the first book. I find the first much more moving, as a person with many similar friendships, and I missed the additional voices of her friends, but it's a slim book and Hanff's humor and observations kept me entertained throughout.

And my favorite nonfiction in July was Girls Can Kiss Now, a book of essays on pop culture and queer identity by Jill Gutowitz. Gutowitz is older than I am, but we're close enough in age for events to feel very relevant to me as an individual, and she writes with a lot of approachability and lightness without sacrificing insight. If you're interested in how rapidly media handling of queerness changed in the last 20 years, this is great.

Threshold and Stormhaven by Jordan L. Hawk. I read Widdershins, the first in this series about Victorian boyfriends solving mysteries about eldritch horrors, in 2015. I never quite wanted to invest in buying the whole series, so I was delighted to find one of my libraries has an omnibus of the series in their e-collection. Hawk is very good at writing horror and sex, solid at writing mysteries, and maybe just okay at interpersonal arcs. These first books have some problems common to inexperienced writers and some pet peeves of mine (notably very irritating romantic jealousy), but they're loads of fun and a good amount of disturbing. Is it silly to nervously roll over in bed to cope with an alien shrimp's dialogue? Yes, but that's a selling point.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn is the first Veronica Speedwell novel, and it took me a few months to read because I kept finding it a bit thin and putting it aside. I liked the resolution very much because it made the stakes I'd been missing real, and since Veronica and her love interest(?) have great chemistry, I look forward to reading the next. Pleasingly similar in tone and setting to Gail Carriger, though not Steampunk.

Frederica by Georgette Heyer. One of Heyer's best, I think. Heyer wrote a fairly narrow set of types for her main characters, and both of the romantic leads here are ones I like, who are natural and immediate collaborators and challengers for each other, plus great siblings and a chase after an out-of-control hot air balloon.

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie, who only wrote books I've thought were great so far. This is a 1969 Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver about the suburban murder of a 13 year old, preoccupied with generation gaps and 60s panics about the still fairly new concept of teenagers, ranging from marijuana and early computer technology to sex abuse and suicide. Great insights on the things people blame violent crime on because they don't want to consider malice, and lovely imagery about a famous garden designer's work. It's been adapted by Branagh as Death in Venice, and I'm very puzzled how they got from A to B. Don't pick this up expecting the vibe of that trailer. Do pick it up.

Thinking about young teens and murder brought me back to the Wells and Wong mysteries, an excellent recent middle grade series I started in the fall to surprise a friend with a treat for the Yuletide fic exchange. The second book is Poison is Not Polite in the US, originally Arsenic for Tea--you might want to look for author Robin Stevens instead of futzing around with varying titles to see whether you can borrow this series yourself. Anyway, both books so far are really strong, with cases that have enough subtlety and meat for me as an adult reader, and excellent writing on mystery tropes, race and class, and the particular frustrations of being about 13 years old. I'm deeply invested in Hazel and Daisy, and I loved this take on a classic house party case.

[castalianspring]

I was tagged by @gritkitty, here we go...

Three ships: Only THREE? Impossible, but fine. Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Ed/Stede (OFMD), and Merlin/Arthur (BBC Merlin) are some pairings that have caused extensive brainrot at different times in my fannish life. There are so many more, but I'd be here all day and I don't need to be back in my Hannibal feels or end up rewatching Due South or something.

First ship: Um...probably Mulder/Scully (X-Files)? Idk.

Last song: Мавка by Authentix

Last movie: Glass Onion, loved it

Currently reading: Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, by Cat Sebastian

Currently watching: Just finished the most recent season of What We Do in the Shadows and have kinda stalled out on catching up on anything else, so honestly nothing much (current). I need to watch season two of Only Murders in the Building.

Currently consuming: Water, it's pretty late for snacks sadly

Currently craving: A baked good I don't have to make myself, someone give me pastry or a cookie or something plz

Tagging @ophidiae, @icepixie, @ash-stardust, @kikikonda and whoever else would like to, no pressure

[arwainian]

My Reading This Week

formatting changes, what do we think about italics for book titles and authors to set them apart from what I write about them? (maybe i should try color coding?)

Lots of reading this week because I had half the week off to go home for the holidays, but honestly I spent more time crocheting than reading, which I won't complain about

Finished:

Boy Oh Boy by Zachary Doss

recommended to me by @unfathomabletortoise , and I'm still rotating the themes and such of it around in my head. one that was on my mind this week was where your boyfriend lives literally inside your body. the like... "oh i'm so close to you, i'm with you all the time" but really you're not close at all you're just being used. but ALSO the intimacy of loving someone so much, physical affection as the closest substitute we have to unzipping someone else and living inside them... much to think about. as I said on my Twitter thread, I may recommend this collection to my queer scifi teacher from a few years back

Ambrosia, edited by Tab Kimpton & Jade Sarson

started reading this a while back! i will keep most of my thoughts on this private ;), but i will say I'm glad this exists

Started and Finished:

Lucky Charm by Chase Verity

this was cute, but just. so short. too short. like how short it was really worked to its detriment because I think it could have really benefitted from taking more time to flesh out the characters and their relationship. i really enjoyed the concwpt though and it made me want to look into deaf silent film stars (have yet to do so, someone remind me)

Mob Psycho 100, Vol. 9 by ONE, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian

mp100!! i just. really like this manga. i dont have many longering thoughts from this volume except just like excitement at its existence and god i love reigen and mob and this was fun to read even if i already watched the anime

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian

i was about to say i thought i didnt have much to say about this one. but then i remembered that actually i do, i even started my brand new reading journal saying stuff about it: this was cute and sweet and low stakes! i am technically in the acknowledgements of this book by virtue of being in the author's writing discord server, which she mentions! I will say, there were a few too many [typos/apparent name mix ups/one instance where a character says "fifth disease" in a bit of dialogue which was clearly just meant to be a placeholder for an actual disease to add to the list] for me to fully overlook, so i got a little bit frutrated. doesnt take away from the good character work, but did give it a bit of an unfinished feeling

Uncommon Charm by Emily Bergslien & Kat Weaver

like the above this book is more quiet vignette and low stakes character work than plot-y plot, but this book just hit Perfectly for me. i think because i loved the narrator/pov character so much. i am gently shoving this novella into my bf's hands when i next see him.

Ongoing:

Blood Sisters: Vampire Stories by Women edited by Paula Guran

La Dame by Tanith Lee Chicago 1927 by Jewelle Gomez Renewal by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Blood Freak by Nancy Holder The Power and the Passion by Pat Cadigan The Unicorn Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas This Town Ain't Big Enough by Tanya Huff Vampire King of the Goth Chicks by Nancy A. Collins Learning Curve by Kelley Armstrong The Better Half by Melanie Tem Selling Houses by Laurell K. Hamilton Greedy Choke Puppy by Nalo Hapkinson Tacky by Charlaine Harris Needles by Elizabeth Bear From the Teeth of Strange Children by Lisa L. Hannett

I said last week that I had trouble sitting down and reading multiple stories from this in a row, but that was not a problem for me this time! as of writing i only have five stories left to read from this anthology, and those amount to less than 100 pages.

i've idenfitied a repeated theme (though not one present in even half the stories here) of several lady vampires presenting a sort of 'to defeat a predator you have to become one' rape-revenge sort of monster hunting fantasy. like i said, this is FAR from a uniting theme, but its an interesting motif. also several stories deal with very predatory vampires without being the above, and having read Dracula earlier this year i appreciate vampire fiction grappling with the themes of vampirism and sexual assault that were set up in the classics