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Reading the End Posts

Review: Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, Amanda Leduc

I recently began reading fairy tales to my little nephew, on the grounds that everyone should know fairy tales and he hasn’t really experienced them before. He was either into it or giving a good impression of being into it because he’s very into me: We read “Snow White” first and then he picked out “Rumpelstiltskin” and “The Frog Prince” from my book, and on another day he asked me for a story and I told him “Rapunzel.” It should be noted that there are no positive messages in any of these stories. The couple in “Rumpelstiltskin” allegedly live happily…

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Transcript of NK Jemisin’s interview of KM Szpara, Author of Docile

This is a transcript of a conversation between KM Szpara, author of Docile, and NK Jemisin, author of numerous books but most recently The City We Became. Video of the interview can be found here. I am posting the transcript on behalf of the friend who made it (who wishes to remain anonymous), because it’s the only place I’ve really seen where anyone involved in this book has addressed its racial issues in any capacity. Docile is set in a near-future alt-America where, according to its author, racism does not exist. It is about debt slavery in the city of…

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Every Coronavirus Link Is Immediately Out of Date: A Links Round-Up

WELL my friends, we are now a full month into full coronavirus pandemic mode, and I hope that you are all hanging in there. Have we all sort of recognized that we’re going to be inside until the end of May? That’s how I’m reading the situation, but please weigh in if you feel differently. I know officially the end of April is when this stops, but like. Will it? No. Probably not. I am having my toddler godson over to my house later today to PARTY PARTY PARTY, and our agenda includes playing on my main bed, which goes…

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PODCAST, Ep. 129 – Spring Book Preview and The Theory of Everything (a Play!)

Hello, quarantined listeners! It’s us, the quarantined podcasters! We apologize for the audio of this episode, which is not of the high quality to which you have become accustomed. This is because one of us didn’t have a good-quality mic (we are procuring one!) and one of us did have a good quality mic but failed to use it when recording in Zencastr because we, and by we I mean I, Gin Jenny, are gently losing our wits. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, or download it directly to take with you on the go! Episode…

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Review: Realm of Ash, Tasha Suri

Since the death of the Maha, the Ambha Empire has been breaking down. The Emperor is near death, and his sons are preparing to fight to inherit his throne. Arwa is the only survivor of a fearsome supernatural massacre that killed her husband and everyone else at Darez Fort, and she has come to make her life at the widows’ refuge in Numriha. But once she’s there, she realizes that her Amrithi blood — inheritance from the biological mother she never knew; evidence that she is not the good Ambhan noblewoman she has always claimed to be — could help…

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Apparently We’re Two Weeks In: A Links Round-Up

Well! Well! Well, I just simply do not know what to say about *waves hands* all this, except that we are at the end of a second week of Definitely Crisis Mode, and everyone but me seems to be making bread. An admirable goal! Drop into the comments and let me know what else you’re doing to get by. My two main things are listening to “Back to Before,” a Broadway standard from a musical I don’t know, watching The Repair Shop on Netflix, and coloring in my coloring app, which is called Happy Color (it’s worth investing in the…

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PODCAST, Ep. 128 – Interview with Intisar Khanani, Author of Thorn

We are back, my friends, and we have brought you a terrific recommendation for this time of quarantine: Read Thorn, by Intisar Khanani! It’s a glorious YA retelling of “The Goose Girl,” and we can’t recommend it highly enough. In case you need more convincing, we’ve done an interview with its brilliant, funny, and eloquent author, Intisar Khanani. You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go! Episode 128 You can find Intisar at her website, as well as on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. The book…

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Review: Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo

Empress of Salt and Fortune slaps. I review books and I am very professional and Empress of Salt and Fortune fucking slaps. I could honestly end this post here. You would believe me, right? You would just read The Empress of Salt and Fortune based on that! Plus this gorgeous cover! Chih, a cleric from the Singing Hills abbey, has come with their ?familiar? to Thriving Fortune, where they meet an elderly woman with stories to tell about the Empress of Salt and Fortune, who once lived in exile in Thriving Fortune. The elderly woman, Rabbit, offers Chih and their…

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A Link Round-Up of Things to Read Whilst You’re Working Remotely

Do you think Friday the 13th still counts when there’s a global pandemic on? Or do you think we all get a bye on Friday the 13th bad luck because we’re having such terrible luck already? Either way, the important thing is that we all have enough Tylenol and reading material, so pop into the comments and let me know what you’re reading and how it’s treating you. I myself am reading Realm of Ash, by Tasha Suri, and it’s treating me real real good. And now, on to the links! Tumblr’s not dead — no! It is aliiiiiiiive! China…

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My Self-Care Suggestion: Medieval Persian Poetry

You know how there are certain ways in which each of us is That Bitch, and some of those things come up all the time, like how I can’t go for two minutes without talking about cheese fries? And then with others of those things, you are definitely still That Bitch and it’s not like you’re in the closet about it, but time is going by and it hasn’t happened to come up, and then all of a sudden it’s Oscar Wilde’s birthday and you are on Twitter vomiting up every fact you ever learned about him because you never…

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