whilereadingandwalking

[whilereadingandwalking]

It was an honor to host Kristen Vale’s debut book launch. I loved celebrating A Tale of Mirth & Magic and all its cozy beauty. Seeing a friend experience their debut, and getting to support them through it, is a joy I’ve gotten to experience twice now, and I hope to see it many more times.

And as an added bonus, I got to see my name on Women & Children First’s chalkboard for the first time (and hopefully not the last). Thank you to everyone who sent support, came or tried to make it, and anyone who shared kind words for my hosting and interviewing. This is something I take pride in, that I love to do, and that I hope to do a lot more in the future. Congrats Kristen! Here’s to many more. 🩵

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Now taking applications for Friends With Boats.

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The book shelving has begun!

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“Salt air, and the rust on your door / I never needed anything more…”

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This book view is no more. I’m in new digs! Get ready for new bookshelf photos and some very fun videos of me filling bookcases.

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The Lady Astronaut saga comes to an end with this fourth and (for now) final volume in Elma York's story, The Martian Contingency. I love this series: an alt history where an asteroid dooms earth in the 1950s, and the space race becomes a battle for humanity's future. Elma is finally on Mars, part of the second team of inhabitants to work on preparations for the larger colony. Pushed into a leadership role, she quickly discovers that there's something the first team is hiding from her, and from the larger space community. Is it better that she doesn't know, or will the lack of transparency doom the mission?

A couple of my small critiques from former books follow into this one—wanting to know more about Earth First, an occasional over-emphasis on the rich details that Mary Robinette Kowal researches so heavily and perfectly. But overall, it was a fantastic finale to the series. As Earth issues follow Elma's team to Mars, the team has to decide what kind of community Mars will be, and what values it will refuse to allow to follow them from their former home and planet, juggling issues of racism and abortion, among others. A rich and lovely end to a favorite series.

Content warnings for self-harm, racism, misogyny.

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Bastard Out of Carolina has one of the best first chapters I've read in a long time. Dorothy Allison's writing is rich and colloquial, evoking the poor white South and the unique Boatwright family with its quick-to-anger men and strong enduring women. Young Bone is certified a bastard by the state of South Carolina, to her mother's fury, and grows up learning from her chaotic but wonderful relatives. When her mother remarries a man named Glen, his buried anger and resentment quickly turn on Bone.

The way that this novel unpacks Bone's story and her relationship to her mother, a too-young traumatized woman who just wants security and love, is complex and heartbreaking. It is a rich story of the complicated dynamics of family and trauma. Brutal but kind, and a snapshot of the white poor south at a certain time in history.

This book has been on my list since I wrote the 100 Most Influential LGBTQ+ Books list for Book Riot. The lesbian representation is seemingly small, but the mood and anxieties of being different imbue the entire novel, informed by Allison's own queerness. A note that this book has strong content warnings for childhood sexual assault, domestic abuse, and gaslighting.

Content warnings for sexual assault, pedophilia, domestic abuse, gaslighting, racism, violence, and suicidal ideation.

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The paperback of The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is out, and my blurb (just) made it into the list at the front! So glad since I loved this book, and didn’t have a copy, and now I do, and it has my review in it too.

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Reading and drinking!

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I think about redwoods at least once a day. That’s normal, right?

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It’s the kind of week where no amount of coffee is enough coffee.

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Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard features a navigator from the Rooster clan and an assassin from the Snake clan teaming up to find and defeat a deadly space creature called a tangler. While the sci fi and politics in this one were interesting, the romance at the center of the story felt a little forced, and I wish more time had been spent on the characterization and more companion-esque bonds formed throughout the adventure.

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It was long past time I read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. It's an extremely compelling, propulsive book that powers and informs much of the modern prison abolition movement.

Alexander describes the cycle of racial oppression over the course of history, highlighting how rich privileged classes use racial blame to win over working-class white voters and avoid interracial class solidarity. She digs into why the War on Drugs was racially motivated and unnecessary from the start, how it actually raised crime rates, and how it allowed for the mass incarceration, control, and disenfranchisement of millions of people of color, all under the euphemisms of being "tough on crime" and locking away "criminals." She unpacks how the prejudices and the strict, cruel degradation of rights on reentry serve to control and trap people of color before and after any prison time. And she unpacks why reform is not enough, and how we will need to shift public consensus via mass movements to actually get to where we need to be.

Alexander's writing is to-the-point, detailed, and readable. She unpacks these immense shifts and issues with a determined pace and carefully researched evidence. It is a must-read for those supporting abolition, those curious about the devastating impact of mass incarceration, those willing to open their eyes to the inherent and baked-in biases of our "justice" system, and those who are curious about abolition, but wondering whether we could start with reform. A vivid, shocking book that tells us nothing new but will continue to open our eyes to what's going on around us. The 10th anniversary edition also makes skilled and thought-provoking connections between mass incarceration and the mass deportation projects.

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The Brittle Age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, translated by Ann Goldstein, tells two alternating stories. One is in the past, where young Lucia faces the disappearance of her best friend in the mountains, and her town faces what promises to be a haunting crime. The second is in the 'present,' where Lucia tries to connect to her daughter Amanda, who hasn't been the same since the pandemic forced her to come home from university in Milan.

Well-written as always by Di Pietrantonio, this book is a tale of trauma and the ways we deal with it, the silences that rise out of grief and darkness, and the ways we try (and sometimes fail) to reach out to each other in the face of violence. Sometimes it was hard to follow along with the changes of timeline or scene, and sometimes I felt that Di Pietrantonio was hesitant to probe below the surface of the tension-filled air between mother and daughter, or mother and father, and tell us what Lucia felt, or portray some of the suspense. The story is compelling, but the sparse writing means the reader often has to fill in the mood, and it's not always successful. Still, an interesting novel that kept me hooked. Based on a true story.

Content warnings for sexual assault implied and depicted, depression/grief, police brutality, violence, g-slur, xenophobia.

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Reading at a bar and having a cozy, quiet weekend to make up for the busy, moving weekends soon to come!

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This city! 🩵

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Doesn’t get much cozier.