#Monica Byrne

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Actual Star | Author: Monica Byrne | Publisher: Harper Voyager (2022)

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

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[thehappyscavenger]

Books Read in February 2023

Another high-volume month!

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Well this was whelming. I don’t remember why I requested this but apparently it’s a super popular book and I can see why. A super digestible novel about a 35 year old woman who is depressed and feels she has nothing going for her and decides to try to kill herself and ends up in the titular library which is full of possible lives she might have lived. From here on out it gets super predictable. She tries out a supposedly “great” life, it turns out their are pitfalls, she leaves and tries another life. 

Fine enough but not really exciting in any way. 

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

I heard so many mixed reviews for this one but the thing that convinced me to give it a shot was so many people describing it as a flawed masterpiece. I loved it! It’s less a novel than three repeating stories told roughly 100 years apart with characters with the same names (but different characteristics). It focuses on grandparents whose children have, through death or incompetence, failed to raise their own children leaving it to the grandparents to raise their grandkids. There’s background stuff about pandemics, states becoming more fascistic but I found the repeated grandparent/grandchild recurring motif the most fascinating. I can see why some people don’t like this or find it “messy” but to me Yanagihara seemed totally in control of her prose and I loved it.  

The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley

While this had some real bangers in terms of writing I found this mostly to be a slog. It’s about a man reflecting back on the summer of 1900 when he sort of “lost his innocence” as a child and got entangled giving messages between his friend’s older sister and her lover, a local farmer. Set up is slooooow and the ending is rushed. Will say that while reading this I thought there was no way Ian McEwan wasn’t inspired by this for the first part of Atonement and he’s said so in interviews so I was right! I really like McEwan’s re-interpretation of events over this book.

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

Mixed feelings about this one. This was a bit harder scifi then I’m used to and fell into the typical hard scifi trap of interesting ideas with terrible writing. 

Set at time periods 1000 years apart and heavily based on Mayan culture the novel follows a set of twin siblings, a young Minnesotan teen, and a group of genetically modified humans living in a post-climate catastrophe timeline as they each grapple with significant events in their lives. Byrne put a lot of research into this and I can tell she was trying, as white woman, to be careful about being respectful of past and present Mayan culture but she’s a Catholic and in some respects that really shows in her writing and ideas. 

I did appreciate that by the last 150 or so pages I knew how the story was going to end up and it was a pleasure watching Byrne tie all the knots together. An interesting book. 

The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing by Nicholas Rombes

This was popular on Tumblr when it came out circa 2014 and it’s taken until then for me to read it. A very slim novel set in Ohio the book follows an unnamed narrator who works for an obscure cinema revue who travels to a motel to visit Roberto Laing, a film prof who burned a number of obscure works by famous directors but can recount them in detail. All the films involve loss, mystery, persecution etc. The book reads like a trippy film noir and is more mood than plot. Recommend for people who describe themselves as “cinephiles”.

[what-the-hezmana]

Just finished "The Actual Star" by Monica Byrne, and it's like what next? Read it again immediately? This time taking careful notes? Wait a bit, like a good five minutes, then start reading it again? It's not okay to have read this book and not have a bookclub!

[cecilyacat]

I'm rereading "The Actual Star" by Monica Byrne and I realised that Javier and Xander are just 5 foot (~1,52cm) tall??? What???? I completely missed this on my first way through and pictured them like 1,80-ish, not super tall but yaknow more average man size. But they are tiny. They are Leah's size. They have a "stout build". Hello? Why did I not catch this before? Damn

[prosy-days]

December 29, 2022 - Day 193

Excited to get into these stories.

[odinsblog]

Reminds me of one of my favorite posts on Tumblr:

Monica Byrne

[denizbevan]

Author Monica Byrne is on Patreon!

Watch the video!

Check out The Actual Star!

[kdoxkeic]

Long overdue… Irish women/men have a chokehold on me

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Girl in the Road | Author: Monica Byrne | Publisher: Broadway Books (2015)

[sweetwateriver]

What i really need is to find my next weird book series/author obsession. It used to be that pretty much anything I read from tor was a winner but I’ve had some stinkers lately. I’m trying children of time next. Save me Adrian Tchaikovsky

[smashedpages]

While there's not anything historically noteworthy about Avengers Annual #13 -- no first appearances, no characters deaths, no "big event" crossover tie-ins -- it was a fun comic to buy on this day in 1984 for a couple of reasons:

It was the rare Marvel comic in that era to feature artwork by Steve Ditko -- inked by John Byrne, no less. Combined with a story by Roger Stern, one of the greatest Avengers writers of that era (or any era) and you've got quite the powerhouse creative team.

The Beast was a longtime Avenger who had left the team and ended up leading the Defenders, but this issue had him randomly show up to help out the team with his big brain. The story itself was built around She-Hulk and her relationship to her cousin, more so than the Avengers themselves even though she had migrated over to Fantastic Four in the post-Secret Wars Marvel continuity. Those sorts of guest appearances were always fun, esp. in an annual where the creators had more room to tell a story.

[deathlonging]

the actual star thesis statement of the past is another kind of future i love you forever

[sexcromancy]

the actual star best sex scenes in fiction of all time. niloux is thinking about the philosophy of laviaja and entropy WHILE she is fucking emelle and that's not even the craziest one

[cecilyacat]

Does someone have a book recommendation for me? I finished my last book and have nothing lined up to read next now... I like reading scifi, fantasy and contemporary literature, although no YA recs please. I also enjoy more character-driven than plot-driven books and I'm more in the mood for deep topics than fluff atm.

Suggestions? I have an ereader and am willing to use it :D

[panelshowsource]

rather than who you would like to see on the next taskmaster series, who do you think will be on it? like just your predictions or any inklings you may have!

anon if you're still around then you'll know i really took my time with this hahaha so sorry! i hope anyone reading this takes it as just a bit of fun and nbd, who knows who we'll get or who alex & the network have in mind! i'm answering thoughtfully (bc i always feel guilty not to 😩 so sorry this is long lol) but it's really just fun!!

i will say, of the more recent-ish series, i did get a few right!!! krishnan guru-murthy, nicola coughlan, alan davies, judi love, sue perkins, john robins, and joanne mcnally were people i just knew would eventually be on if the show could get their schedules right, and i was also certain sarah millican and dara ó briain would be asked — though not necessarily that they'd actually agree. when you have a level of seniority and esteem, the "it's such a great opportunity" aspect of the show isn't such a draw 😅 for some reason i feel SO PROUD about guessing nicola! i was just WAITING and wish sooooo much she had done a full series 😭😭😭 (how fun would saoirse-monica jackson be too!)

anyways, as for people who haven't been on yet — and this isn't to say i want them all to be, just that i think it's likeliest they have been asked or will be asked; i talked about who i want to see a little while ago here — it's important to consider the casting 'roles' the network has in mind when working with the producers to form a series, so i will keep that in mind too!

established comedian, typically a straight white man over 40: bill bailey, vic reeves, harry hill, geoff norcott, kevin bridges, adam buxton, ade edmondson, paul whitehouse (tommy tiernan? god i feel bad for not saying ed byrne but why do i feel like he's not gonna make it in the next few series? i'm on the fence with nick helm — unless he's friends with alex, then his chances go up significantly imo — and tom allen for some reason, and i feel like john bishop is almost too much of an ask?)

fresh talent comedian, typically a man under 40: rhys james, huge davies, ahir shah, darren harriott would be my top guesses but tbh any of the semi-recent edinburgh comedy award finalists are good bets as a majority of the winners from the last ~10 years have been on the series + throwing out tom rosenthal (i know he's not fresh fresh and also mostly an actor)...and, like, jazz emu?...just because if taskmaster know how much its audience adores weird little white twinks then they'll cast them

female or non-binary comedian: 100% sarah keyworth + harriet kemsley, maisie adam, jess fostekew, suzi ruffell. i've shifted away from betting on cariad lloyd and catherine bohart for some reason... (joanne was my no.1 lady bet for the last like 4 series hahaha)

non-comedian: this is very, very hard to predict because between comedy actors, non-comedy actors, tv presenters, news people, reality & social media stars... the potential predictions are just so endless! logically, the most likely is an established actor with a lot of comedy connections (think sally phillips, lolly adefope, liza tarbuck, sian gibson, daisy may cooper, susan wokoma; this category is where tm gets quite a few of its female contestants): matt holness, kevin eldon, amanda abbington, tom davis, sharon horgan, kathy burke, georgia tennant (also friends w alex?), su pollard, tom basden, apparently anyone from the cast of ghosts, and so on and so on and so on... + i'll also throw out maggie aderin-pocock as a serious contender + i really feel like one of the spice girls will be on new years treat

friend of alex: john robins was the prediction for the past few series, so just worth keeping in mind other people in this circle include elis james, matthew crosby, tom neenan, and so on

freebie answers because alex/greg have mentioned them before: jack dee, lorraine kelly, joanna lumley (i want jennifer saunders SO BAD give us an epic series w both ade and jen pleaseeee tm gods!!!!)

complete wild card bets that are either my instincts kicking in or my bias taking over: limmy, adam buxton, paddy mcguinness, diane morgan, daniel sloss, joel dommett, jess hynes, spencer jones??, alasdair beckett-king or josh pugh + if suzy izzard wasn't doing a big nyc show i'd say that's a good guess if only bc you know greg & alex grew up big fans

did i mention too many people?? if i had to put my money behind a single person it would be either ahir shah or sarah keyworth

these are almost all of my fr big heavy hitters when it comes to placing bets! but there are of course so many people i didn't name who i could totally see on either a main series or the ny treat — so many people just make sense and that's the beauty of taskmaster!!