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Author: Jenny Hamilton

Not Being a Dick: A links round-up

Since the theme of today is Not Being a Dick, this is your annual reminder that there are very few April Fool’s Day jokes that are actually funny (though Social Sister is in the midst of perpetrating one now), so you should probably just not do them at all. How to not be a dick to women who write comics criticism. (Good news: It ain’t even that hard.) Yes, Lovecraft was a product of his times. That doesn’t mean we have to be okay with his racism. A thoughtful response to the recent “I don’t want to be Black Spiderman”…

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The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

It has taken me some time to put my finger on the problem I had with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, but let me say before I start on that, I liked The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. It’s hard not to like a book that wears its heart on its sleeve the way this one does, dripping earnestness and longing to do the right thing from every page. Ashby Santoso is the captain of the Wayfarer, which bores holes in space to permit rapid travel between far-distant planets. In this world, humans are a…

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Gemsigns, Stephanie Saulter

Can we have more sociopolitical speculative fiction, y’all? Can that be a thing we ask the book gods for? I read about Stephanie Saulter’s Gemsigns on Tor.com a while ago, and I had basically this exact reaction to it: @Nymeth @xicanti @readingtheend I admit gemsigns as a title makes me think of animated 80s Rock bands — Aarti (@aartichapati) March 11, 2016 But it happened to be lying around my Overdrive wishlist when I was picking out books for a long trip, and I happened to choose it out of all the books on my Nook on a train ride…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.57: Dystopian Fiction and the Forcening Continues

This week, the Reading the End Bookcast has a very special announcement! But you’ll have to wait until the end of the episode to hear what it is. Meanwhile, we’re talking about dystopian fiction and finishing up the Forcening1 with Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go (sorry, Whiskey Jenny). You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 57 What We’re Reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers (also, I watched Ex Machina and it was creepy) Does Jesus…

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The Nurses, Alexandra Robbins

In today’s review of The Nurses, by Alexander Robbins (author of Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities), we shall play a game of, Why Didn’t Someone Stop This White Lady? The Nurses has a similar structure to Pledged, in which chapters following four individual nurses through their work days alternate with chapters that offer contextual information based in research and interviews. For instance, one chapter may address a specific nurse’s concern that her coworker is stealing narcotics from patients, and the next will discuss narcotics addictions in the nursing profession. I love reading about jobs that are not my job, and I found…

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Blood Magic and Apocalypses: A Romance Novels Round-Up

Welp, here it is somehow Friday already, and I do not feel that I have accomplished anything this week. Anyone have good weekend plans? Mine focus heavily on hibernation. In the meantime, here are some romance novels I’ve been reading lately. Rag and Bone, KJ Charles (I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.) KJ Charles writes about half-and-half straight historical romance novels and creepy magic creepiness romance novels, and I would be hard-pressed to say which genre I prefer. Rag and Bone is in the latter category, a companion novel to her “Charm of…

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We Love You, Charlie Freeman, Kaitlyn Greenidge

Note: I received a copy of We Love You Charlie Freeman from the publisher for review consideration. You know what there aren’t enough of, team? Books about chimp language research. I would read one a day on all the days if that were a possible thing, ever since I listened to the Lucy episode of RadioLab in 2010. And I lovety-love-loved a book that it’s a spoiler to tell you is about chimp language research even though that’s the only reason why I read it in the first place (don’t click the link if you are uptight about spoilers), and…

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Bad News, Anjan Sundaram

“We have an oral culture,” he said. “People get nervous when you write. Writing also leaves proof. If you don’t write notes the world can be made different. People’s memories can always be questioned, molded.” Holy hell, this book. While I may have gripes with the author here and there, Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of journalism in Rwanda. Sundaram opens the book with a story of traveling down a road in Kigali and hearing an explosion. When he goes to investigate, he witnesses a clean-up in progress, shards of glass being swept from…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.56: What We Missed in 2015, and the Forcening Begins

The Forcening begins! Whiskey Jenny Forcens me to read Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, and you can see for yourself how that goes. But first, we recap a few of the things we didn’t get to in 2015. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 56 What We’re Reading Sister Mine, Nalo Hopkinson (because of how much I liked Falling in Love with Hominids) Spectacle, Pamela Newkirk City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg What We Missed in 2015 The Jinx (HBO series) Oreo,…

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The Dark Net, Jamie Bartlett

One theme that came out of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (thanks to everyone, again, for making it awesome!) was that there are a lot of bloggers who read nonfiction and wish for more nonfiction reviews by other bloggers, without in fact themselves reviewing all that much nonfiction. Leaving the week, I promised myself that I would write more often about the nonfiction I’m reading. Hence: Jamie Bartlett’s The Dark Net. Bartlett, a journalist and droplet for a UK think-tank, explores the grim and hidden corners, cultures, and economies of the internet, from neo-Nazis to drug dealers to amateur pornographers. This…

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