#also monstress and because internet

[trekkele]

Ok I've got my pesach books up to 3, +graphic novel, +nonfiction, which is probably enough. I really wanted another heyer tho

[thebestoftragedy]

Tagged by @entertheaardvark, and I tag @thenightmancometh and uhhhh whoever else wants to do this. @jehannewick @joeypotter1998 @lozlemon

Last book I bought: being very technical, it was an ebook of the dumb textbook (Drugs, society, and human behavior) for my substance abuse class. The last book-book I bought to read on purpose I’m not super sure but I think it might be That Scoundrel Emile Dubois which is a gothic romance parody I plan on enjoying on a forthcoming dark and stormy night.

Borrowed: Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes which is a fun looking sci fi horror. @thenightmancometh I will report if there are lesbians

Was gifted: My mother tends to offload her book of the month club books on me, so I have but have not yet read Sistersong, Circus of Wonders, and The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina which I will probably get to… someday.

Gave/lent to someone: I gifted a teen at my fieldwork job a copy of Sabriel a couple months ago, and I hope she enjoys it. She’s a big Leigh Bardugo fan and generally cool kid.

Started: Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu which is a comic. So far I’m not super impressed and it’s got that “good women are beautiful, nonthreateningly gender-conforming, and graceful but evil women are fat, ugly, sadistic dykes with skin conditions” thing going on which is not really my bag. It’s like Berserk for girls who are into Jessica Valenti! They can put that quote on the back cover.

Finished: this is really challenging the limits of my desire to look cool on the internet because it was Once Upon A Moonlit Night by Elizabeth Hoyt, the 10.5th (it’s a novella) entry in a series of romantic suspense novels set in the 1720s-30s. Before that the last full-length book I finished was Lost Among The Living by Simone St. James, an author I do recommend if you are into lady-centric historical mysteries, ghosts, and mild (heterosexual) romantic plots.

Gave five stars: Strangers Drowning by Larissa MacFarquhar which was recommended to me by @iirulancorrino and @invertprivileges and which was engaging and genuinely thought-provoking in a way that nonfiction rarely is. I had also given five stars to The Turnaway Study since then, but I ended up putting it down to 4 after some thinking about things I wish had been explored in more detail. That’s me being nit-picky though, and honestly I might give it back that last star. It’s a pretty good summary of the results of a hugely important study, one which I’m sure will continue to be cited for a long time.

Gave two stars: How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, which is a buzzy current bestseller and which was just a mess of a reading experience. Really childish, derivative knockoff of David Mitchell and Emily St. John Mandel but like, much worse and more solipsistic. Has nothing interesting to say about anything, is casually misogynistic in construction and theme, poorly-written. It’s like if a dude got high and read Mental Floss articles and then wrote spec fic about whichever four caught his stoned attention most.

Didn’t finish: I started Bloody Jack several days ago because someone on here (I forgot who) enjoyed the series as a teen, and I’m always looking for good-quality, female-focused lit to add to my classroom library/recommend to kids. Sadly I just did not vibe with the prose which is clearly meant to emulate old-timey pirate fiction but mostly left me exhausted.

[stilitana]

time for new year's day review of what i read last year...i'm very happy with the reading i did, much of it was so good for me...i read 41 books which sounds like way more than i remember so here are highlights

cannot believe how slippery time has gotten because i was so sure the first book i read this year was stone butch blues, but no, that was 2020. the first book i read was house fires by nancy reisman and i really liked this collection of three parts of interlinked stories. the end made me tear up.

other short story collections i liked:

i hold a wolf by the ears by laura van den berg (very spooky in a low-key way, if it had a soundtrack it would be all synth)

a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan

birds of america by lorrie moore

monstress by lysley tenorio

kolyma stories by varlam shalamov (not all 1k pages but quite a bit)

trash by dorothy allison (one of my favorite things i read this year)

some novels i liked:

interior chinatown by charles yu (this was so fun, so playful and inventive with the form and structure)

milkman by anna burns

the end of days by jenny erpenbeck (this one was really, really good and challenging)

the underground railroad by colson whitehead

there there by tommy orange (i listened to him give a zoom reading and his voice + audio quality sounded like the godspeed you! black emperor monologue in dead flag blues)

luster by raven leilani

housekeeping by marilynne robinson

freshwater by akwaeke emezi

i finished the brothers K but that took me 4 years so don't get full 2021 credit for that one

i also read some novels that were truly atrocious but i don't want to think about them so moving on

novellas: i love novellas so so so much a good novella is such good shit, it gives you the urgency & brutal efficiency of short story but lets it stretch out and simmer like a novel...some of my fav things are novellas

mcglue by ottessa moshfegh (this is my favorite thing i've read of hers so far...perfect length for the story just perfect would likely have been an atrocious novel)

things have gotten worse since we last spoke by eric larocca (honestly didn't know this one was causing minor internet controversies when i read it but tbh getting to analyze reader reactions to the story & author made it more interesting to me, otherwise wouldn't really have thought much of it, but it absorbed me for an evening)

khirbet khizeh by s. yizhar

sofia petrovna by lydia chukovskaya (this was a reread)

minor detail by adania shibli (this is one of my top things i read all year. maybe the best thing i read all year. absolutely astonishing it cracked my brain open. i'm going to read it again some day.)

i didn't read much poetry. i did read mistaken for loud comets by lily someson and it was brilliant, loved it. also IRL by tommy pico

memoirs/essay/nonfic:

i started secondhand time, but i'm going to return to that and give it a fresh start, maybe this year

s/he by minnie bruce patt

butch is a noun by s. bear bergman (i'm in love w him i'm reading the nearest exit may be behind you now)

gender failure by ivan coyote and rae spoon

in the dream house by carmen maria machado

i didn't really read any genre fiction this year...i tried gideon the ninth but didn't get far, maybe another time. i have some i really want to get to, some sci fi stuff, but i guess this year instead of putting in the effort to get cracking on that, i just read fic instead, which is usually my easy go-to when i'm craving what i tend to want when i reach for genre fiction, which is...to not be wherever i currently am, physically or emotionally...which means that honestly i tend not to remember most of the fics i read because i'm devouring them in states of high anxiety & insomnia lol. but one i really really remember and still think about is this blade runner one, conspiracies of the body by geometrician, maybe because the quality and style struck me as so novelistic that it snapped me out of my usual mindless fic speed reading and i actually felt like i was reading a really original gritty neo-noir sci fi cyberpunk type novel. it was good i'll read it again sometime

[olivieblake]

(Not really a question, wasn’t sure if you are comfortable with messages!)

Sending you love and hugs, especially for the miserable and antisocial days. Hope the carpal tunnel rehab will go well too. Here is my resident gentleman cat sending healing vibes.

awww hi kitty! I’ve really come to appreciate cats much more as I’ve gotten older. historically they’ve always seemed really suspicious of me but I’m starting to believe that’s actually fair and right of them to do so yeah, respect

anyway sigh my carpal tunnel is because I'm 9 months pregnant and like, very much a beached whale, so nothing in my wretched mortal cage is working properly and my brain is WELL shy of functional plus my circulation is a joke, all of which I love (note to everyone else: pls assume before submitting asks that you may not catch me in a good mood, as those are notably less frequent in this state, and you also may not hear from me for a few days because if I go on the internet I might cry or my head might explode and there is no telling which)

but thank you for thinking of me!! I am in monstress form but I do deeply appreciate the hugs

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 1 July 2019

Quick Bits:

Aero #1 is an impressive solo debut for the Chinese original heroine spinning out of War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas in North America and her original stories published in China. The first story is an English adaptation of one originally published in Chinese from Zhou Liefen and Keng, with the adaptation by Greg Pak, letters by Joe Caramagna. The artwork from Keng is stunning. There’s also an original back-up from Pak, Pop Mhan, Federico Blee, and Caramagna that ties in more directly to New Agents of Atlas with Aero learning more about Wave’s origin.

| Published by Marvel

Age of X-Man: Prisoner X #5 concludes another of these minis setting up for the finale in Age of X-Man: Omega. Vita Ayala, Germán Peralta, Matt Horak, Mike Spicer, and Joe Sabino deliver an entertaining story here of Bishop and his crew fighting back against their captor and figuring out who put them in this mess. Gorgeous artwork from Peralta, Horak, and Spicer.

| Published by Marvel

Analog #6 returns from the break with this action-packed start to the new arc. Great art from David O’Sullivan and Mike Spicer. Also, an interesting reveal of what people still do post-Internet.

| Published by Image

Crowded #7 kicks off the second arc as Charlie and Vita try to make their way to Las Vegas. Tons of humour, Charlie continues to be someone that you want to strangle, and Dog may just be the best part of the entire series. I love the art from Ro Stein, Ted Brandt, Tríona Farrell, Katie O’Meara, and Holly McKend.

| Published by Image

Deathstroke #45 begins “Deathstroke RIP” from Priest, Fernando Pasarin, Jason Paz, Wade von Grawbadger, Jeromy Cox, and Willie Schubert. This one deals with the legacy of Slade Wilson in a fascinating manner as Rose tries to fulfill her father’s last contract. There’s also a tie-in to the “Year of the Villain” event with someone here listening to Luthor’s offer. Should be an interesting road ahead.

| Published by DC Comics

Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #1 is very much a continuation of the previous volume of Doom Patrol (with this first issue even including a “Thirteen” chapter heading), but it’s both inclusive and weird enough that it doesn’t overly matter if you’ve read the previous stuff. It helps, but this isn’t a bad place to jump in at the deep end. Gerard Way, Jeremy Lambert, James Harvey, Sajan Rai, and a seemingly uncredited letterer deliver an excellent story here, featuring a weird story on a fitness planet and Cliff dealing poorly with being flesh and blood again.

| Published by DC Comics / Young Animal

Giant Days #52 seems to be setting up how the series may see its exit as Esther travels to London for a job interview. It’s going to be sad to see it end, but John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell are ensuring that these final stories contain all of the humour and rich character interaction that has been a hallmark for the book.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Green Lantern #9 is another excellent issue with stunning artwork from Liam Sharp and Steve Oliff. This one sets up a new multiversal threat while also giving us a fun adventure on an otherwise forgotten corner of the DC Universe in Athmoora. 

| Published by DC Comics

Harley Quinn #63 is another “Year of the Villain” tie-in, with the offer being heard on the last two pages of the book. That pretty much seems to be the theme of these tie-ins, so if you’re not normally reading the books, you might otherwise want to skip them if you’re only interested in Year of the Villain. Apart from that, this is an entertaining story of Harley dealing with her mother’s cancer diagnosis from Sam Humphries, Otto Schmidt, and Dave Sharpe.

| Published by DC Comics

Immortal Hulk #20 continues to build on the confrontation between Hulk, Betty, and the new Abomination adding General Fortean’s forces to the mix directly. It’s fairly explosive, while more horrible and horrifying things seem to be happening on the other side of the Green Door and elsewhere. Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Belardino Brabo, Marc Deering, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit continue to deliver Marvel’s best title. Also, there’s an Absolute Carnage teaser from Ewing, Brian Level, Mounts, and Clayton Cowles that gives us a missing body of General Ross and hints at possibly a more nightmarish Red Hulk.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League #27 continues “Apex Predator” from James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Bruno Redondo, Hi-Fi, and Tom Napolitano. It builds further on the new history of Luthor and Martian Manhunter, while the rest of the team continues to try to track down the Monitor and Anti-Monitor.

| Published by DC Comics

Lois Lane #1 is an excellent debut from Greg Rucka, Mike Perkins, Paul Mounts, and Simon Bowland. It focuses well on Lois’ day job, building up on what makes her a creditable threat to shady organizations and the US government alike as she pushes forward to find the truth. A very welcome reappearance of a Questionable character, some topical story threads of the camps at the southern US border, and gorgeous artwork from Perkins and Mounts.

| Published by DC Comics

Red Sonja #6 is the penultimate chapter of this arc with the finale spinning off in the Lord of Fools special. Some interesting developments here as the Zamoran Emperor tries to end the war by offering Sonja a marriage proposal.

| Published by Dynamite

Savage Avengers #3 fully unites the team as Electra and Punisher join the others, complete with an interesting merging for the Venom symbiote. Gerry Duggan tosses out some really great funny lines for this one amidst all of the bloody action.

| Published by Marvel

Sea of Stars #1 is a heartbreaking debut from Jason Aaron, Dennis Hallum, Stephen Green, Rico Renzi, and Jared K. Fletcher. Heartbreaking because it tells the story of a kid and his father, struggling to get by in cruel world through space shipping, and the attack of a weird space creature that tears them apart. Great set-up, beautiful art, and some bizarre events for what happens to the kid.

| Published by Image

Space Bandits #1 is worth it just for the incredible artwork from Matteo Scalera and Marcelo Maiolo. Like Scalera’s work on Black Science, the inventiveness of his art knows no limits and he explores some rich and detailed alien landscapes and characters, with a neat pastel colour palette from Maiolo. This first issue sets up two criminals screwed over by their respective crews.

| Published by Image

Star Wars: Target Vader #1 is a compelling debut that sets up a plot to kill Darth Vader from Robbie Thompson, Marc Laming, Chris Bolson, Neeraj Menon, Jordan Boyd, Andres Mossa, Federico Blee, Erick Arciniega, and Clayton Cowles. This one’s largely a gathering of the team set-up as we follow Valance from Han Solo: Imperial Cadet and learn of an organization running guns against the Empire.

| Published by Marvel

Superman: Up in the Sky #1 begins to collect the original Superman story that was published in those Walmart-exclusive 100-page anthologies from Tom King, Andy Kubert, Sandra Hope, Brad Anderson, and Clayton Cowles. It’s not a bad start, even if it seems a bit weird as to how obsessive Superman seems to be over a missing child stolen from the planet. Some of the best art from Andy Kubert I’ve seen in a while.

| Published by DC Comics

Test #1 is another highly unique and entertaining debut for Vault. Christopher Sebela, Jen Hickman, Harry Saxon, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou introduce us to Aleph, a test subject in some sort of corporate experiment that seems to have some sort of unique powers. Or maybe not. That’s the interesting thing, there are hints that it could all be in Aleph’s mind. Wonderful art from Hickman and Saxon.

| Published by Vault

Thumbs #2 continues this excellent series from Sean Lewis and Hayden Sherman. The world-building in this series is incredible, especially considering how immensely personal it happens to be in regards to being seen through Thumbs’ eyes. The colour scheme in this series of blue-grey washes and hot pink just makes this look and feel wonderfully unique. Also, how the back-up story is presented with spot illustrations and dialogue is a neat use of format.

| Published by Image

Other Highlights: Batgirl #36, Batman/TMNT III #3, Birthright #37, Black Hammer: Age of Doom #11, Captain America and the Invaders: Bahama’s Triangle #1, Charlie’s Angels vs. The Bionic Woman #1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #6, DCeased #3, Dead Man Logan #9, Descendent #3, The Dreaming #11, Fantastic Four: Prodigal Sun #1, Female Furies #6, Hashtag: Danger #3, Heathen #7, Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, KINO #17, The Long Con #10, Ms. Marvel Annual #1, No One Left to Fight #1, Old Man Quill #7, Postal: Deliverance #1, The Punisher #13, Secret Warps: Soldier Supreme Annual #1, Section Zero #4, She Said Destroy #2, Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #10, Star Trek: Year Five #3, Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Finn #1, Star Wars Adventures #23, TMNT #95, Transformers #8, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #46, Uncanny X-Men #21, The World of Black Hammer Encyclopedia

Recommended Collections: Conan the Barbarian - Volume 1: Life and Death of Conan Book One, Conan: The Jewels of Gwahlur & Other Stories, Crimson Lotus, Gasolina - Volume 3, Go Go Power Rangers - Volume 4, Hellboy: 25 Years of Covers, Monstress - Book One

d. emerson eddy thinks that it’s a crime against nature to not bake homemade mac and cheese.

[thewatertowernews]

big mouth: big strides, big controversy

by olivia gamsu

   My shitty high school sex-ed experience wasn’t exactly Mean Girls “if you have sex you will get pregnant and die” level, but, regardless, it was inadequate. Middle school was spent watching Degrassi and internalizing secondhand teen angst, while high school was all about the inner workings of boners, periods, and STIs. Really fun stuff that in no way instilled negative attitudes about the Perils of Sex! I was left to fend for myself, to stumble clumsily through puberty with equally misinformed peers by my side, dodging unrealistic expectations of sex thrown at us by the media and then desperately diving into the internet’s echoing abyss for more information– any information.

  The multi-layered world-wide web is how many unsupervised adolescents educate themselves about sex, sexuality, and gender. That’s because our school programs (and our parents, and the media, and pretty much every authoritative source) fail us. In 2014, only 22 states required schools to teach sex-ed. Only 19 of those states required that the material be medically accurate. The remainder of programs are abstinence-only; a teaching method that has been proven time and time again to absolutely, miserably, completely fail at preventing sexually-transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies. And, even within those programs like mine that were medically accurate, there is rarely any education on LGBTQIA+ experiences, consent, female-specific sexuality, masturbation, or anything outside of purely procreative heterosexual penetrative sex.

  So kids instead turn to other sources– like the internet. As we all know, the internet is an absolute shit-show. One second you’re googling what a monk fish looks like and the next you’re spiraling down a rabbit hole of erotic fan-fiction based off of Tony Shalhoub’s quirky detective drama, Monk. The probability of discovering accurate information while also avoiding the absorption of bull-shit theories churned out by bitter “friend-zoned” guys about female frigidity is an incredibly narrow margin.

  That’s where Netflix’s recently-released animated television series Big Mouth comes in. Following the trend of adult-catered animation, this raunchy, highly-explicit show tackles the rollercoaster that is adolescence and puberty through a cast of relatable pre-teens and the “hormone monsters” that lurk under their beds. And I don’t mean “monster” figuratively– these are horned, clawed, furry-eared creatures. The first, Maury, is the male-identified, hyper-masculine “Hormone Monster.” He terrorizes the boys with unexpected boners, lures the character of Andrew into a pornography addiction, and fuels unnecessary aggression and violence. Maury’s counterpart, Connie, is the ultra-feminine “Hormone Monstress.” Connie first pops into the life of the lead female protagonist, Jessi, when she gets her period for the first time. Connie explores other aspects of growing up, though– including the miraculous discovery of masturbation and female sexuality.

  Besides addressing the often-overlooked pieces of sex-ed that are so valuable to vulnerable pre-teens, Big Mouth is just really fucking funny. It’s packed full of well-known comedians; Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Jordan Peele, Maya Rudolph, and Jenny Slate all voice major characters. Every single line is deliberate, clever, and worthy of gut-busting guffaws.

  One interesting consequence of being so extremely vulgar and explicit, of course, has been the backlash from conservatives. There are currently a number of petitions floating across our aforementioned pal, the internet. The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property is urging Netflix to cancel the show because it “encourages our children to sin” and supports pedophilia. Another petition with even more traction– it already has over 113,000 signatures– has been campaigning to pull the show because it includes “nocturnal ejaculation, crude depictions of menstruation, discussions of the normalcy of homosexual sexual acts, and a number of other horrors.”

  These fools can’t differentiate between real-life monsters and fictional ones (like ones that hide under your bed and whisper dirty thoughts into your ear until you cum, for example). The fact is that one of America’s biggest, most horrific monsters is Sex– we operate under a sexual taboo that saturates homes, televisions, classrooms, and basically every damn feasible place. But circulating dope shows like Big Mouth is a tentative start to flooding our media with realistic, accurate depictions of what it actually means to grow up. As for our enemies who want to squash science? Excuse my vulgarity, but fuck that FUCKING bullshit.