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   Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Oct-2024 23:43:57 JST Jessamyn

   Book 103: The Seep. This is a weird (in a good way) novella about a world in which aliens kinda sorta come and take over but all they mainly do is help people understand that we're all in it together. We watch society transform as people make "better choices" en masse. They also enable some magic so that you can grow horns or have hooves or become a baby again. One woman's wife decides to become a baby and we're watching her manage that grief (and her right to be sad) in a post-scarcity world.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Oct-2024 23:43:55 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

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     @jessamyn Cool!

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Saturday, 12-Oct-2024 00:26:20 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 106: Pathogenesis, A History of the World in Eight Plagues. Definitely a book up my street. This dense discussion of science and history talks about how some major world shifts happened because of situations involving illness and widespread disease. Like who was able to take over whom because disease had ravaged the part of the population who might fight back. Why some colonized areas get settled and some just get resource-extracted. What helps and what doesn't. A great read.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Saturday, 12-Oct-2024 00:26:21 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 105: The Left-Handed Bookseller of London. Again, I read most books I see that are about books. This one is mostly not about books, it sort of fits into the Rivers of London type of "What if London were more magical?" genre only with fewer cops. I liked the bones of this story quite a lot, but ultimately I am not much of a fantasy reader and it felt too "dragons vs wizards" for me at the end (i.e. magical conflicts where it all feels kind of random) but a good book overall.

     Beach Witch :ufo: repeated this.
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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Saturday, 12-Oct-2024 00:26:22 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 104: The Lost Bookshop. I'll read nearly any book with a library /bookshop in it even if it's in a genre (romance) not normally my jam. This was one of those "two stories converge" novels where one story takes place in the past and one is taking place pretty much nowadays. I liked the bones of this story a lot, some of the implementation a little less so. There is a lot of trauma (domestic abuse, involuntary commitment) as a backdrop as well as people wearing white gloves to read old books.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:51 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 124: Absolution. I enjoyed VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy ten years ago and was excited for this. Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I wasn't sure if this was because I didn't remember the original books well (who are these people), or if he needed an editor, or if it was the fact that the narrator (and the story, mostly) takes a dramatic shift 60% through the book (who does that) and the 2nd narrator is significantly less fun to listen to. What was this? Long, was what it was.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:52 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 123: Lucy Undying. As someone who used to live in Transylvania, I am abashed that I don't know more about the original Dracula story. I still loved this story which postulates "Hey what if his first victim... lived?" It's a sapphic vampire tale of female empowerment (unlike the original) which takes place both through journals at or about the time of her original death and then a more modern day story. The stories converge in sometimes expected and other times unexpected ways.

     Bill repeated this.
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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:53 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 122: The Cemetery of Untold Stories. An author from the Dominican Republic retires from her job teaching writing in Vermont and decides to go back to her homeland and say goodbye to all of her unfinished projects by building a cemetery for them. But the stories sometimes demand to be told. A tinge of magical realism enhances this look at the history of the Dominican Republic and the people who stayed, and left.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:54 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 121: Whale Fall. No actual whale fall, one star! More seriously... this is a very good mood piece about an island in the UK which is five miles off of the mainland and has a dwindling population which is now around 50 people. A few ethnographers come to the island. It's told first person through the eyes of an eighteen year old girl who has a dawning realization of they chasm between her life and the lives of more mainstream people. There is a whale, but it is beached. Very good.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:55 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 120: Gasa-Gasa Girl. Realized when making some book suggestions that I'd read this book in March (thanks email!) and somehow never written it down. This book was the second in the Mas Arai series about a Japanese-American gardener who sometimes gets mixed up in stuff which he helps figure out. This one involves his daughter which he had a somewhat distant relationship with. I liked it a lot and enjoy this series generally.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:56 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 119: Liquid, Fragile, Perishable. This is a novel that takes place in Vermont which has an affected style (each paragraph is one or two sentences) but I pushed through it and really liked the story. It's about a bunch of quirky individuals whose lives are intertwined sort of whether they like it or not (folks from New York, Christian beekeepers, "townies" lady who runs the post office. There is a tragedy and people react to stressors and the town changes but also stays the same.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:57 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 118: Brownstone. A graphic novel about a 14 year old girl who doesn't know much about her background (a white mom and a mystery dad she hasn't met) who winds up spending the summer with her Guatemalan father helping him renovate a brownstone in a "bad" neighborhood. There are a lot of complex relationships, a few positive queer characters and some really satisfying home renovations. Ultimately a positive story which also has messages about the evils of gentrification.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:58 JST Jessamyn

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     DNF: How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. This book started out with a few content warnings (talk of suicide, talk of sexual assault) which I figured I could handle but got two pages into it and the story opens with sort of what I can only describe as a jokey sadistic torture scene? I don't know what this book is about and don't care, it was clearly not for me.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:55:59 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 117: Young Hag and the Witches’ Quest. This is a graphic novel by the author of The Encyclopedia of Early Earth which is one of my faves. It's basically "What if we told the King Arthur story but mostly focused on female characters?" I mean, it's more than that, but that's the central theme and a lot grows out of it. There's a problem with the flow of magic in the world, and the goblins are up to no good. What to do?

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:00 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 116: The Grey Wolf. The newest from Penny, I have to say if you are stressed out by recent events and are looking for some escapist reading it is NOT THIS BOOK, another good story about our friends in Three Pines but this time they have a mysterious vague and possibly deeply worrisome and catastrophic terrorist plot to contend with. And they're not sure where to start looking, so they look a lot of places. Clearly meant to be a partner with a second book so it's got one of *those* endings.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:01 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 115: The Invisible History of the Human Race. This was a nice ten-year old book that segued nicely with the plague book, about what we can tell about human history from "DNA stuff." It's a pop science book so not too in the weeds and combines the things we know from science with anecdotes about why individual people might care, or stories about using DNA to find long-lost family, that sort of thing. The author is Australian so more about their history than US stuff which is just fine by me!

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:02 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 114: Hum. In a future where we all have access to sentient robots but we have less access to jobs and prosperity, a woman undergoes a procedure to bring in some extra cash for her family and takes them on an extravagant "vacation" (a wild area inside the city, in a ruined world) and things go a little wrong and then go VERY wrong. A commentary on our use and abuse of technology and consumerism and how we care for one another (children in particular). Surprisingly non-didactic, well written.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:03 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 113: You Sexy Thing. This is a space romp. A fancy restaurant made up of (mostly) former soldiers with a hive mind-like entity wind up with a new mystery guest, a bioship and a few things they need to take care of in the wilds of space I liked this book a lot though sometimes I had trouble keeping track of the characters (many of whom were non-human or only humanoid) but ultimately it's a story about relationships and redemption and worth a read.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:04 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 112: Agony Hill. This book sounds like it's going to be rough from the title, but is not that rough. It's a 1960's-era Vermont small town mystery that had a very "this feels real" vibe to it. Of course, I got to the end and realized I know the author's husband and they live kind of near here, so that might explain some of it. Clearly setting the stage for more stories to come and I'll be happy to read them.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:05 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 111: One Hundred Shadows. A short novel which was written in a response to an event that had happened in Korea. I did not know that aspect of the book and so it just felt like an odd mood piece of a novel that I wasn't sure I was understanding. The loose idea is that people's shadows can rise, and it's very important not to follow them. Also there is a young couple who are just starting dating. Once I read the author's statement at the end, a lot of it clicked into place for me.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:06 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 110: All This And More. Not sure I finished this. It's a "choose your own adventure" (ambitious). A note at the beginning says you can also just read it straight through. I made a "choice" near the beginning that propelled me close to the end and there seemed to be plot points I had missed. Was this b/c I was on an old Kindle? I hit a few "error" pages saying go back. One chapter was there twice. Was this part of the story? Ultimately confusing, too bad b/c I really like Shepherd's stuff

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:07 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 109: I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom. Pargin is someone known to many people online but I didn't know him. This book is a romp of a weird road trip with a mystery box with a cast of characters many of whom are or were part of the army of the Extremely Online. The story itself is told somewhat through Reddit forum posts which I found charming and real-feeling but might not be to others' tastes. A lot of discussion about online factionalism, with a few good jokes in there.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:08 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 108: We Saw Scenery. Markoe tries to get back into her own head as a teen by going through her diaries and sketching out her first graphic novel combining what she remembers with what she thought then. She was a horribly awkward pre-teen and teen with a lousy (maybe?) family and the usual "I am out of place, feel weird about boys" feels as well as some actual "I dealt with antisemitism at my school from the school administration" experiences. Illustrations very individualistic and quirky.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Monday, 02-Dec-2024 01:56:09 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 107: Devil in a Blue Dress. I've had this book suggested to me for a long time now and finally read it. It's the first in a series. This one is about a guy who gets laid off from his job and had to scramble to find money, gets wrapped up with some unsavory white men (he's a black man, WWII vet) and a woman who is nothing but trouble. They're in LA, but a lot of his friends are from the South and many people move back and forth between locales. A good story, I'll pick up the next one.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:43 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 133: Hidden Libraries. This book should have been SO up my street but instead it was a collection of "interesting book rooms" many of which operate(d) with little human intervention with a few subtle jabs at existing public libraries which I didn't appreciate. Many gorgeous (stock) photos and only a few original interviews, the rest gleaned from blogs, news and YouTube which, if you're a real bibliophile, you've probably already read. Lovely, not much new in here.

     Adrianna Tan repeated this.
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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:44 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 132: Loka. A sequel to a book I'd already read. It's an "epic journey" story involving two teens who decide to circumnavigate the globe for an Anthro Challenge. The catch: one has sickle cell and has never been on Earth before, having been raised on a massive space station. It also takes place in a future time where the earth is primarily (I think?) inhabited by post-human "alloys" which can transfer their consciousness into various bodies. Felt a bit too YA for me, but def, worth reading.

     Bill repeated this.
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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:45 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 131: I'd Rather Be Reading. This was a fine short collection of essays by a woman who likes to read and also just likes to immerse herself in the possibilities of books. As a person who reads a lot of these books, there wasn't a lot that was new for me here, but I always appreciate someone's fresh enthusiasms. Apparently the woman has a popular book blog which is well liked though i had never heard of it. A nice gift-y sort of book.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:46 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 130: The Future. A story about some overly-powerful billionaires, the potential end of the world, and a possible way around it. Hard to tell more without giving away some story arcs. It was a bit tough to hang with some parts of this because there are both truly awful people as well as some lengthy reddit-type-posts-as-exposition which would not have been my choice. But! The way it all "works out" is fun and ingenious and kept me happily reading.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:47 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 129: Transitions. A graphic novel translated from the French mostly about a mother trying to come to terms with her 19 year old son who has come out to her as trans. She gets there, but it takes her a long time. This book may not be for everyone because there's a lot of using the wrong pronouns/names and "...but what about MY feelings...?" but I think it's also honest and real and may resonate with some people who are less far along in their acceptance journey. Beautifully drawn.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:48 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 128: The Noble Hustle. I picked this up thinking (somehow) that it was fiction by Whitehead. It's actually about the time he got staked to play in the World Series of Poker. It's interesting in that it talks about poker culture. It wasn't interesting in that I don't entirely know how to play poker and the book claims it tells you how to play but doesn't really. I liked getting to know more about Whitehead (just out of a relationship at the time, and in his feels about that and other things)

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:49 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 127: The Naturalist Society. This book goes a bunch of unexpected places. Nominally about a woman whose husband dies, the man who has been promoting himself as a great naturalist when she does all the work (and the only way she can get her work out there). He has some "friends" (one in the more-than-friends sense) who become her friends. There's a background of Arctic exploration and old New York City. And wonderful birds, many of them, and a small bit of magic. Memorable, miss it already.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:50 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 126: The Deep Dark. A mildly supernatural story about growing up and figuring out that the boundaries which you make for yourself don't have to be the ones which other people made for you in the past. Gorgeously drawn with a lot of queer characters just being themselves but the metaphor about figuring out what you want is told in another way entirely. I really enjoyed being immersed in this story and even though it was 500 pages long, it went by so quickly.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:51 JST Jessamyn

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     (whoops, screwed up threading and I'm going to just add the last four books again because I Like Things A Certain Way, sorry about the little firehose....)

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Sunday, 29-Dec-2024 02:22:52 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 125: Milk! A 10,000 Year Food Fracas. Kurlansky writes nice predictable books on broad topics, full of trivia that is interesting and not too judgey. That can be tricky to do with a topic like milk which has a history which is full of drama! He goes to places where they make artisanal cheeses, talks to people who are raw milk enthusiasts, talks about the history of "swill milk" (did you know about this? I did not) and includes a lot of hand-drawn pictures of cows.

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     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Tuesday, 31-Dec-2024 05:14:04 JST Jessamyn

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     Book 134: There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job. This was a story about a middle aged woman who burns out of a job and goes to an employment agency and takes a string of odd jobs: bus ad writer, surveillance footage reviewer, park hut space-filler &c. It's quirky and goes places you wouldn't expect. It's translated from Japanese into British English which took me a few pages to get used to, but overall it was a good relatable read.