The events in Baltimore and the elections in the UK have been occupying a lot of my internet-browsing time, so this is a shorter links round-up than usual. I tried to keep it positive, because the bad news on top of bad news on top of bad news can really get a girl down after a while. To keep it extra positive, I’m doing a giveaway! My birthday was this week, and I’ve decided to celebrate it hobbit-style. One of my all-time favorite books, Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Greensleeves, was recently put back into print by Nancy Pearl. It’s a dear…
21 CommentsReading the End Posts
We’re back again to talk about books with siblings! We find ourselves mystifed by the relative paucity of books about adult siblings, compared to the rich bounty in children’s, middle grade, and YA novels. And then we review Priya Parmar’s Vanessa and Her Sister, about Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 39 Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. Or if you wish, you can find us…
3 CommentsThe Devil in Silver is something like a horror thriller, set at an inpatient mental health facility in New York City, where the patients are being stalked–and sometimes killed–by the literal devil, who lives in their facility on a locked ward. Our protagonist Pepper teams up with a bipolar teenager called Loochie, a schizophrenic lifer called Dorrie, and a Ugandan immigrant, Coffee, to fight back against both the devil and the rigid structures of the hospital. This book vibrates with anger at the mental health system. The text itself is shot through with anger, and the acknowledgements afterward include a…
18 CommentsBALLET BOOKS, YOU GUYS. Have I told you before how I will read any book set in the world of ballet? Even if everyone says it’s idiotic? This is partly because I love ballet books, and partly because, for reasons passing (my) understanding, there just aren’t that many ballet books out there. Yet my forays into the Alex Awards continue to yield glorious dividends, for a past Alex Award winner was Meg Howrey’s The Cranes Dance, a book about the older of two sisters who dance in a prestigious New York company. Or rather, the only of two sisters who…
23 CommentsHave I told you about my project to read one good history about every African country? It is a project I have had in mind for a while, and I started it this year with my beloved Namibia. Because here is the thing about Namibia: We have been underappreciating it. Sort of a lot. Let’s start with the basics real real quick. This is Namibia: As you can see, it is the country north of South Africa on the west coast of the continent. It was colonized by the Germans, and then after World War I when German colonial holdings were being divvied…
25 CommentsNote: I received a copy of Sunbolt from the publisher, through NetGalley, for review consideration. So all the bloggers have been on and on about the wonders of Intisar Khanani, and I finally got the chance to read one of her books (thanks, NetGalley!). Sunbolt is the novella beginning of a new series, about a street thief named Hitomi who’s part of a resistance force against the oppressive sultanate, and who secretly is the daughter of two (deceased) mages and thus a fairly powerful mage in her own right. I’d have already been in at street thief in a non-Europeanish…
26 CommentsToday, as a pairing to our earlier podcast about books that intimidate us, we’re talking about topics that intimidate us. Whiskey Jenny can’t abide eye stuff, I can’t read anything about floods–share yours in the comments! You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 38 Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating!…
Leave a CommentIt’s time again for a round-up of my comics reading! So many recommendations on this earth! Through the Woods, Emily Carroll Yeah, I can only assume that Emily Carroll knows me personally and designed Through the Woods to cater to my interests. It is a collection of some hella creepy stories about living near a forest. Girls go into the forest, and they come out different, or they don’t come out at all. This may be very shallow of me, but I love graphic novels where the lettering looks like proper handwriting. Though Saga has many charms, an early and prominent draw for me was…
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