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Reading the End Posts

Review: Golden Boy, Abigail Tarttelin

Well, first up, we just do not have enough books with intersex protagonists, and as always happens when representation is lacking, that puts an impossible amount of pressure on any single book. It’s hard to criticize a book like Abigail Tarttelin’s Golden Boy, even when I think criticisms are merited, because mainstream fiction rarely, rarely features intersex protagonists (and even rarelier do you find #ownvoices intersex fiction, so if y’all know any, get at me in the comments). So let me start by saying what I did like about this book. First of all, Tarttelin lets her protagonist, Max, feel…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.73: 2016 in Review

Happy first Wednesday of 2017! Whiskey Jenny and I are back this week to review what we read in 2016 and think about resolutions and plans for 2017. Before you ask, yes we are reinstituting the Hatening and yes I have a genuinely excellent Hatening pick this year. I am so sure that Whiskey Jenny will hate it. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go! Episode 73 Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on…

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New Year’s Resolutions!

Happy New Year, friends! I’m back in the saddle again and hanging out over at the Oxford Words blog to propose some word-related New Year’s Resolutions. I swear to God this will be the year I figure out “plangent.” What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

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Happy Holidays, Friends!

Well, team, 2016 has been hot garbage. A few good things have happened though. One of my oldest and dearest friends, a woman who I love desperately and whose happiness gets me totally teary, got married this year. My sister and brother-in-law had a baby, so I have a new godson to buy books for. Those were excellent things. In many other, terrifying ways, 2016 was a shitpile. I am trying not to think too much about it during this holiday season, and I hope that you have found some good distractions for yourself too. Stay safe and have wonderful…

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NPR BOOK CONCIERGE TIIIIIIIIME: A Totally Chill Links Round-Up

Good morning! I have started a new thing that I wanted to tell you about, where I thank journalists when I read a story that I particularly like. There is every reason to do this (especially under the new administration, which we already know will be very hostile to journalists) and no reason not to. Try it! The NPR Book Concierge has arrived once again! Every year I get zillions of recommendations from this thing, and you should too! How fantasy movies portray the experience of oppression in near-totally white terms (by the fabulous Zeba Blay). Vann R. Newkirk II…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.72: 2016 Holiday Gift Guide!

Happy holidays, friends! The demographically similar Jennys are here in our last podcast of the year to tell you what to buy your loved ones this holiday season. WE LOVE PRESENTS. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go! Episode 72 Our Own Personal Gift Guides Whiskey Jenny: Classy af laundry products from The Laundress Gin Jenny: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl in trade paperback (You can read Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics here.) Whiskey Jenny: Adorable bathroom accoutrements. This Umbra Kleenex holder: And this Melon Boat…

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Review: Judenstaat, Simone Zelitch

In Simone Zelitch’s book Judenstaat (Tor, 2016), no Jewish state was created in territory that had once belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Instead, Judenstaat was created in Saxony, bordering Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Forty years later, documentary filmmaker Judit Klemmer is creating a film about the state’s creation, while she is haunted by memories of her husband Hans, a Saxon conductor shot years ago as he conducted the National Symphony for the first time. When Judit receives a note saying simply They lied about the murder, she is plunged into a world of conflicting histories and conspiracy. So before I…

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Review: Death by Video Game, Simon Parkin

Who here is a gamer? Show of hands, please! I went into Death by Video Game with a very low level of gaming knowledge, and people with a low level of gaming knowledge is who I recommend this book for. I suspect that readers with knowledge of the gaming world would say “fie” to this book. THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM. I found Death by Video Game during a random, but pleasant, browse through my library’s catalog, and it is exactly what I wanted it to be: A series of journalistic sociology essays about the worlds and possibilities of video…

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Review: Becoming Evil, James E. Waller

A note: I read the first edition of Becoming Evil, published in 2002, because that’s the edition my library had a copy of. Waller did publish a second edition in 2007, which may contain a more robust defense of evolutionary psychology and some refinements to his model. So one of my things for the upcoming year (two years, four years) is that I want to learn more about the historical, social, and scientific contexts for some of the things I’m afraid will happen under President Trump. One thing that scares me is the heightening of racist speech against Muslims and…

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Review: They Can’t Kill Us All, Wesley Lowery

I’m in a strange, post-news-outlet state where I follow individual reporters more than I follow entire news outlets. This is possibly symptomatic of my increasing distrust of institutions in the wake of the recent election? And troubles me because of the echo chamber conservative news media insist that I (but not they) are in. I am not sure what the solution is. (Weirdly, the only outlet besides NPR’s Code Switch that I specifically follow on Twitter is the National Review, for like, ideological balance.) So Wesley Lowery has long been one of my most trusted reporters on the Black Lives…

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