#Sri Lankan books

[girlinaswing]

My Bookish World Tour- ASIA

12 done and 38 to go… YemenChinaSouth Korea JapanPhilippinesTajikistanUzbekistanKazakhstanKyrgyzstanNorth KoreaMalaysiaThailandMyanmarNepalBangladeshPakistanAfghanistanJordanCambodiaLaosVietnamTurkmenistanSri LankaIndonesiaBruneiArmeniaHong KongAzerbaijanBahrainCyprusEast TimorPalestineIranMaldivesTimor-LesteLebanonIraqSaudi ArabiaGeorgiaBhutanSingaporeIsraelKuwaitQatarOmanSyriaUnited Arab…

[gennsoup]

I, too, have come to half believe that we sometimes make choices inexplicable to us.

Shyam Selvadurai, The Hungry Ghosts

[metamatar]

usamerican public library contemporary world history section be like: you can only read about countries we have been at war with and/or intend to invade.

[alexanderpearce]

language, culture, and translation by eugene a. nida

[zelihatrifles]

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Every civilisation begins with a genocide. It is the rule of the universe. The immutable law of the jungle, even this one made of concrete."

A bestseller that begins so is bound to get your attention. You can think of the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose civilisations flourished precisely because they had slaves whom they forced to do everything, leaving them leisure to excel in intellect an aesthetics. Or you may think of today's world married to capitalism where everything hinges on production but those who do the actual production have no power.

"Power is when you can issue threats without speaking them."

So, the least you can do is be aware of things. To do something knowing what the consequences and the implications can be.

"You expected the worst... Asked the laws of probability to swing your way, which isn't the same as pleading to an invisible God. Or, is it?"

Karunatilaka makes you question fate and life in equal measure, forcing you to think of death and how the greatest killer in this universe is just bad luck. Hence, that is what you pray against. Instead, you can pray for what this fuckboy Maali had.

"'I make what all the world's millionaires do not.'

Stanley raised an eyebrow. 'What is that?'

'Enough.'"

To be content or to be ambitious? To stay complacent or to keep striving? You must decide.

"We are a flicker of light between two long sleeps.

We must all find pointless causes to live for, or why bother with breath?"

[the-kapok-kid]

We must all find pointless causes to live for, or why bother with breath?

Because, on reflection, once you have seen your own face and recognised the colour of your eyes, tasted the air and smelled the soil, drunk from the purest fountains and the dirtiest wells, this is the kindest thing you can say about life.

It's not nothing.

- Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

[wordsmithie]

"Everyone's a pacifist. Everyone claims non-violence. Except when it comes to mosquitoes or rats or roaches. Or terrorists. Then it is kill or be killed. As if some lives mean more than others, which, of course, they do. Mosquitoes have killed half of humanity. I have no problem using DDT. And I will answer to any god that questions me."

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka

[elysiumaze]

[...] pictures his blossoming lips. What would it mean to press a fingertip against them? Would they spring back? Would he bite with those perfectly white, slightly wolfish teeth?

Nayomi Munaweera in, Island of a Thousand Mirrors.

[teook]

MAALI ALMEIDA YOU'LL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS

[rrcraft-and-lore]

For anyone wanting something nifty and free, this is a comic I made with the lovely Sachi Ediriweera -- Gang Violence (inspired by Bollywood tropes & tales about a good cop come to town with a supernatural twist.

Whole comic is free!

[theinyshlobster]

StoryGraph Reads the World Challenge (2024)

Prompts Met:

Germany:

You Should Have Left by Daniel Kelhmann

Genres; Contemporary, Horror, Thriller

128 Pages

Finished Jan. 8th

★/5 Stars

Indonesia:

Kitchen Curses by Eka Kurniawan

Genres; Short Stories

137 Pages

Finished Jan. 27th

★★/5

Jamaica:

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Genres; Magical Realism, Young Adult, Romance

285 Pages

Finished July 31st

★★★/5

Sri Lanka:

Your Driver is Waiting by Priya Guns

Genres; Contemporary, Literary, LGBT+

320 Pages

Finished May 18th

★★★★/5

[gennsoup]

In front of us the way is seen, but behind us the road is gone.

Shyam Selvadurai, The Hungry Ghosts

[rosesteeth]

— mosquito; by roma tearne

[fazcinatingblog]

What I'm afraid of, Tumblr, is that if I tell my boss that the ATO correspondence is up to shit or say I'm struggling or mention that everyone keeps bothering me or anything else, then she'll just deal with it in the /wrong way/. I don't know what the solution is but I know she won't be able to help because what I want isn't possible and I know that and I know I don't have an excuse for only charging $100 plus GST for a BAS, I know I did the wrong thing, I just felt using the timesheets was too much of a jump ($190 X 2.5 hours) compared to the previous invoice and

[torpublishinggroup]

Celebrate Pride with Tor Publishing Group!

Rakesfall by @adamantine

They met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. Later, in a demon-haunted wood, an act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey through the ages. As they reincarnate ever deeper into the future, a truth emerges: Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell.

Running Close to the Wind by @ariaste

In this queer pirate fantasy, Avra Helvaçi has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world. To avoid capture, he flees to the open sea, where only his on-again, off-again ex aka pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār can help him survive, profit, and become a legend.

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body and wears your skin. Welcome to Camp Resolution, a queer conversion center where everyone leaves a different person. In 1995, seven queer teens were abandoned here by their parents, but survived. Sixteen years later, they’re scarred and broken, but back to face an evil that threatens the world. 

Kinning by Nisi Shawl

In this alternate history where barkcloth airships soar and former colonies claim freedom from imperialist tyrants, the identity of the island of Everfair still wavers. Victorious in the wake of the Great War, a new threat looms. Can Everfair continue to serve as a symbol of hope for anticolonial movements around the world, or will it fall to forces within and without? 

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by @rebeccathornewrites

Can one of the Queen’s private guard and the most powerful mage in existence leave their lives behind to settle down in their new bookshop that serves tea? This cozy fantasy is steeped in sapphic romance and nestled on the edge of dragon country. 

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

Once there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. After a desperate attempt to prevent corruption and ruin in the four Londons, there are only three. Now the worlds are going to collide anew—brought to a dangerous precipice by the discoveries of three remarkable magicians.

Now available in paperback!

The Archive Undying by @emcandon

This is a story about misplaced faith, complicated love, so much self-loathing, and yeah—giant robots. Plugged into his AI god when its apocalyptic corruption renders him unfortunately immortal, sad gay disaster Sunai takes a die-again-or-die-trying approach to things. Unending life’s tough when intimacy is somehow scarier even than either of the warring police states set on turning you into a weapon or the rogue undead mecha-fragment of your old god that wants to eat you. 

Now available in paperback!

The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen

A dazzling historical mystery that dives into the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, emerging in the gay bars of the city. It’s a whirlpool of missing people, violent strangers, and scandalous photos in 1952 San Francisco. 

Now available in paperback!

Celebrate Pride with more titles from Tor Publishing Group here!

[booksperience]

(via What is, is...)

“You considered neither ‘faggot’ nor ‘homo’ nor ‘queer’ as slurs because you were none of these things. You were simply a handsome man who enjoyed beautiful boys” – The Seven Moon of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka I feel this quote is simple yet stunningly beautiful (not for its homosexuality content) because it points to the meaninglessness of naming and defining things and how far names and categorizations could stray from the truth. It mocks compartmentalizations and isms and rips straitjackets. Your emotions and the essence of your existence are dynamic and fluctuating every moment as the universe itself (And concerning ‘moment’ I’m yet to know if it is a second or a millisecond or a femtosecond or even smaller). By the time you call someone gay, their state of mind might have slipped into some other shade of sexuality or even one of the million subtle nuances of being gay itself. Language falls short and proves inadequate as it struggles to label and define everything. What is, is. You cannot be someone specific all the time. Like Walt Whitman, you must be containing multitudes. Names and definitions build identities. And names and definitions that are false – which is often the case – bestow false identities on you. And you get perfectly qualified to get hurt at the drop of a hat. When you believe you are an Indian (whatever that is) and someone despises India, you get hurt. When you identify yourself as a Muslim and someone lampoons your Prophet, you get hurt. And then you go around returning the hurt to others. Identities and labels cloud your vision. When you leave them behind, you emerge from your blindness. The quote could be politically incorrect too. The book has many such political incorrectnesses. Whe... (Read full text on booksperience.org)