Well, not review exactly. There’s not much more to review in James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, given how personal it is, and how tremendously of its time. But it was the first book I read in 2017 (by design), and there are elements of it that I’d like to talk about as we all stagger back to work and try and get moving again after the holidays. One thing that strikes me about James Baldwin is how little ideological slack he’s willing to cut anyone. (That is a compliment.) He’s clearly worked hard to fight free of easy answers,…
14 CommentsReading the End Posts
When the Moon Was Ours is as good an argument as you’ll possibly ever see for the value of #ownvoices in publishing. I say that because I can’t stand magic realism and I’m not that excited about straight-up romance in YA, and When the Moon Was Ours — a magic realism romance — nevertheless still made me feel so happy and grateful for its existence. It’s the story of a Latina girl called Miel and a Pakistani-American trans boy called Sam and their struggles to come to terms with their identities and their feelings about each other and the mystical…
7 CommentsHappy Wednesday! The Jennys are back to chat about what we got for Christmas, which media we didn’t get around to in 2016, and to talk about Alice Pung’s YA novel Lucy and Linh. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go! Episode 74 Two small mistakes to note: I said I received the Rebecca Solnit atlas of New Orleans, and in fact it was the atlas of New York, which is the one I would prefer to have. Also, Whiskey Jenny said John Legend has…
2 CommentsNote: I received Death: An Oral History from the publisher for review consideration. All opinions are my own. So my favorite thing about Death: An Oral History is the story of its genesis. Casey Jarman noticed that he hadn’t yet lost anyone he couldn’t afford to lose, and it started to cause him anxiety about death. He therefore decided to spend the next few years of his life talking, reading, and thinking extensively about death, with the ultimate goal of producing a collection of interviews with people familiar with death. This is very very relatable to me. I have learned…
23 CommentsI’ve been bouncing around the internets with my writing thoughts. Have some of my word-related New Year’s Resolutions over at the Oxford Dictionaries blog! Then enjoy my picks for 2016 Smugglivus, over at Book Smugglers! Maddy Myers is great, y’all. Here she is on on-screen queer kisses over at The Mary Sue. Y’all, you guys, hey everyone, guess what! England is about to get the FIRST EVER Kurdish novel to be translated into English. How cool! How good for the Kurds! I hope it publishes in the US also! This Natalie Luhrs piece for Uncanny Magazine unpacks what’s so great…
12 CommentsWell, Whiskey Jenny and I are going to get into some of what we missed in 2016 in our next podcast, but luckily, there were so many books I meant to read in 2016 and didn’t read that I will NEVER RUN OUT OF ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION. It’s Top Ten Tuesday! 10. Playing Dead: A Journey through the World of Death Fraud, Elizabeth Greenwood. Sarah mentioned this book earlier in the year, and it sounds top-notch, like maybe it would talk about the kind of crimes the Leverage team would be hired to do something about. 9. Burn, Baby,…
32 CommentsThe time: The Year of our Lord 2017. The place: Nick Spencer’s Captain America comic. No, not that one. The Sam Wilson one. The thing: I can’t even bear to summarize it because it’s so embarrassing. You will have to read this Daily Dot overview. But basically, Nick Spencer made some jokes about the rhetorical tactics of women and minorities after a bunch of women and minorities criticized his Hydra!Cap plot twist on ideological grounds. I died of embarrassment for him, and then I came back to life to write this post about why it’s a bad look to parody…
23 CommentsWell, 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…
23 CommentsHappy 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…
2 CommentsHappy 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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