Welp! Things are very cold here! And everything is awful! 2021 just won’t stop doing things — in this case, dumping a ton of ice on a bunch of places not structurally equipped to deal with ice or extreme cold! If you would like to be of service, Southwest Louisiana has been absolutely slammed by weather in the past few months, and this is a mutual aid organization that continues to supply aid to people who were hit by Hurricane Laura, and then Hurricane Zeta, and now this ice storm. So now here are some links! What I learned in…
Leave a CommentAuthor: Gin Jenny
Welp! No One Is Talking about This is the absolute strangest book I have read in a while! But like, in that way where you’re thinking, “yep, this is who Patricia Lockwood is as a writer. Yep. This checks out.” Her entire career up to this point has followed a trajectory that must always have led to this: a book that is half about the asinine minutiae of the internet, and half about the grief of losing a desperately beloved baby niece, who was born with a rare disability that killed her after six months. A WARNING: If you are…
Leave a CommentAaaaaaaaand romance continues to get all its romance kissing cooties all over the genre of science fiction. Glorious! Long may it reign! Winter’s Orbit is about the rakish prince Kiem, who gets tapped to be part of an arranged marriage with his cousin’s widower, Jainan. Though neither of the two men is particularly interested in getting married, the alliances among their world’s nations depends on their engagement. But soon it comes to light that Jainan’s late husband, Taam, may not have died accidentally; and worse than that, Jainan may be a suspect in Taam’s death. Let’s start with the romance!…
Leave a CommentWell, we have come to the end of another week, and as such we must read some links and think about the world. I am writing this post whilst finally watching WandaVision, and you may expect that my next links round-up will contain lots of links about WandaVision, because I am enjoying it tremendously thus far. Also Teyonah Parris is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I gasp every time she smiles. Anyway, have some links! “It’s disingenuous to say their race doesn’t matter in this world, when the most prominent and numerous people are white.” On the…
Leave a CommentHappy (?) New Year, friends! We are not sure what kind of year to say we hope you’re having, because the events of this year so far have been… really shit! But at least there is a new president in office who actually cares about solving the pandemic and getting all our shit back together, and at least there is such things as dogs and cats, both of which continue to be extremely good species. We Jennys will be coming at you with a joint podcast soon! But first, I had the wonderful Renay of Lady Business on the pod,…
Leave a CommentSo it turns out that 2020 was a pretty amazing reading year? I hadn’t really noticed because there were so many other things to occupy my brain, such as the quarantine and the election and the crumbling of American democracy, but in looking back at my reading spreadsheet I discovered that I had read a shocking number of books that needed a place on my Best Of list. There are, in fact, so many that it has necessitated me breaking this post down into two parts. This one covers my reading through like mid-June or something, and represents the number…
Leave a CommentGuess what I meant to do for several past Fridays! Yes, the answer is “post a links round-up.” So now we have this very belated links round-up but the good news is that it contains lots and lots of genuinely great content, including the first half of the year Millions book preview! Yay! First and most importantly: The Millions Book Preview! (link) Serial killers are in decline, hooray! (link) “Despite the joys of his irreverence, however, it is all too easy to sink in the morass of sexism, if not outright misogyny, muddying the plots of Vonnegut’s novels.” On the…
Leave a CommentI have to say, the Poetry Foundation really came for me with one of their recent poems, and I can’t be alone with it so I’m going to quote it for y’all here as a run-up to this actually very chipper and non-insane podcast. I lived in the first century of world wars. Most mornings I would be more or less insane, The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories, The news would pour out of various devices Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen. I would call my friends on other devices; They would be more or…
Leave a CommentHere’s something that has changed under quarantine: I now place holds on books. I so rarely did it in the olden days! I used to go to the library every Saturday or every second Saturday, and I didn’t need to place holds, because there were always loads of amazing books to read. I would make a list of maybe five specific books that I wanted to get that day, and I’d get them, but then I spent most of my library trip trawling the New Books shelves in every genre. I had a system! Nonfiction first! Then regular fiction! Then…
Leave a CommentThe NPR! Book! Concierge! Has arrived! It has arrived to gladden our days. I have been parceling it out to myself bit by bit to make it last, because NPR Book Concierge comes but once a year. When I have gone all the way through it, I will not have it again for so many years. Here it is (link). Be blessed with its bounty. Watch Ted Lasso, please. I beg you will watch Ted Lasso. I am saying this for your own good, because I want you to feel positive emotions in your life, and frankly where else can…
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