A weird thing has befallen me, and I need help understanding how to feel. The Millions finally released their second half of 2020 book preview, and I have read it but yet somehow I have added… very few books to my own TBR list? Is it possible that 2020 has finally broken me? Do I no longer possess the capacity to feel joy? Is that what… Nevertheless: The Millions Book Preview, July – December 2020 Edition. (link) Hope Wabuke on the KKK joke. (link) Isabel Wilkerson considers the persistent caste system and the old, broken-down house that is America. (link)…
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Lulu Shapiro is rather famous on Snapchat Flash, not least because of the video she took of herself kissing another girl — the video that led to her breakup with her boyfriend Owen. In the aftermath of going viral, Lulu has hidden in plain sight, shutting herself off from her real life friends while creating an image on Not!Snapchat of a perfect life of elegant parties and beautifully framed selfies. But at one of those parties, she meets Cass, who takes her to spend time at her rich friend Ryan’s new work-in-progress, The Hotel. No phones are allowed at the…
Leave a CommentLuc never knew his rock star father, but now that his dad’s making a comeback as the judge of a reality music show, Luc himself is back in the spotlight. When he’s photographed falling down outside of a bar (perfectly! innocently!), it threatens to compromise his job. He needs a respectable boyfriend to help clean up his image, and his straight friend has just the person: the only other gay guy she knows, vegetarian (yes) barrister (yes) Oliver Backwood (yep). And as it happens, Oliver could use a date to a family function too. It’s a match made in the…
Leave a CommentIf you are in America, I hope that you have today off in which to read plenty of awesome things, and a quiet weekend where people for God’s sake get their act together and stop shooting off every single firework. I plan to read a bunch of nonsense and hopefully write a book review post for Monday. I probably remember how to write posts of this kind. And maybe I will do something pretend-productive like enter old reviews into Storygraph. Relatedly, I’m on Storygraph! Follow me! “At your best, a companion. At your worst, a danger.” Linda Holmes examines white/black…
1 CommentSo A Black Women’s History of the United States is the latest in a series from Beacon Press that I absolutely love. The first one I read was An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, which btw is also stupendous and y’all should all buy it. Since then I have acquired several other books in the series, so the queer one and the disability one are ON MY SHELVES WAITING FOR ME. Having read two of these books, I would like to report that they are both amazingly concise, readable, and filled with information. I would…
Leave a CommentWhew, it is really summer, isn’t it? And I’m welcoming guest second chair Claire Rousseau to share our Summer 2020 book previews, natter on about our quarantine media, and review NK Jemisin’s latest novel The City We Became. (Spoilers, I loved it, with one reservation that was emotionally big but tiny in the scope of the book.) Claire is a longtime friend, a recent Hugo finalist, and enthusiastic reader of SF, so I feel very lucky to have her on. Unless something goes awry, Whiskey Jenny should be back next time, which will also be lovely! You can listen to…
Leave a CommentOR: Elisabeth House, by Catherine Thomas, which is what I kept calling this book in my mind. Also sometimes Catherine Thomas, by Elisabeth House. Elisabeth and Catherine are both very lovely saint names that I would totally name a child, and this engendered confusion in my quarantine-fogged mind. Ines has gotten a second chance in the form of acceptance to Catherine House, a nontraditional, highly exclusive private university with a specialty in the mysterious “new materials.” All tuition, fees, and housing are paid, but students must agree to give themselves up entirely to Catherine House for the three years of…
Leave a CommentWhen Lena Johnson’s beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed, the black millennial drops out of college to support her family and takes a job in the mysterious and remote town of Lakewood, Michigan. The discoveries made in Lakewood, Lena is told, will change the world—but the consequences for the subjects involved could be devastating. As the truths of the program reveal themselves, Lena learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the sake of her family. Look, let me quickly spoil the gist of this review for y’all. Lakewood! Is! So! Creepy! The…
Leave a CommentIn case you’re thinking “hey where are all the JK Rowling sucks links in this links round-up,” the answer is that I am furious with her and so I have saved all of those links for last. In case you are not sure why I am saying JK Rowling sucks, the answer is that she said a bunch of nakedly transphobic things on Twitter and then when people were like “whoa that’s so transphobic” she wrote a like 3500-word manifesto about why trans people are bad, actually. So. Hell with her. She is an asshole. I never liked ironic detachment.…
Leave a CommentWhilst I continue to dearly miss Whiskey Jenny, I am delighted to welcome Book Riot’s Alice Burton to chat with me about nonfiction, a genre Whiskey Jenny rarely reads! (When I am on a hiatus, Whiskey Jenny can do a series of mystery novel podcasts without me.) We build a nonfiction starter pack for nonfiction newbies, and chat about some of the nonfiction we’re particularly excited for in the back half of the year. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, or download it directly to take with you on the go! Episode 131 Here are…
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