october scrapbook
Nov. 26th, 2021 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
latespring"I'm doing pretty good!" I said in September. Oh my sweet naive summer child. I'm writing this during the middle of November, and oh boy. Nowhere to go but through! I'm going to nap for ages when I finally get out of this quarter.
In October I managed a fair amount of books! Some of these were for class, some of these were for fun.
Gladiator (2000) (N/A)
I """watched""" half of this while cooking soup on a call, so you can imagine how much I absorbed. The ending was pretty good iirc? Jacks' and Nikita's commentary was the best part.
Ex Machina (2014) ★★★☆☆
Idk, it was ok? I watched this for a class. It's a movie about AI but also about obnoxious tech bros. It… happens? It exists? It doesn't do anything revolutionary but it's watchable.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado ★★★★★
One of my favorite things I've read all year!
It's a memoir about Machado's past abusive relationship but it also meditates on abuse within the LGBT+ community. It talks about the way outside perceptions can shape experiences and how hard it can be to recognize something you have no words for. It also plays with format really interestingly.
The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith ★★★☆☆
This was lots of fun!! It reads kind of like a Percy Jackson book? You can tell it's a first novel, but the rough edges don't detract from it being entertaining and a quick read. Very character driven plot.
(From Goodreads:
Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing—a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.
But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell ... and Earth.)
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar ★★★★★
One of my other favorite things I've read this year!!
I cannot recommend this one enough, it was such a gorgeous story, and it hit some of my favorite themes (family, community, epistolary fiction, names, art, grief, ghosts).
The narrator is a nonbinary syrian trans man haunted by his mother's ghost who uncovers the mystery of a new york painter via her diary. The common thread between the painter, named Laila Z, and his mother is the painting of a bird so rare as to be thought a figment of their imaginations. It covers the mystery of Laila's disappearance, alternating between excerpts from her diary and chapters with the narrator.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao ★★☆☆☆
I wanted to like this book way more than I actually liked this book. The premise is really cool, marketed as a fusion between pacific rim and the handimaid's tale.
I thought the character dynamics were so fun and good!! I really enjoyed the banter and the relationship development.
The rest of the story was a bit hard to swallow--I'm not sure if it's just me, but the pacing and worldbuilding felt quite abrupt, and I often felt like the author was telling me how to feel rather than letting me feel it myself. I hope it succeeds as a book!! I want to see this book do well, even if it wasn't for me.
Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal ★★★★☆
Mary Robinette Kowal's works have been fun to read! The two I've read have been pretty light. This novelette deals with kidnapping, but it's still the same. It also has one of my favorite themes, memory, and deals with it in a cool way!
I enjoyed the premise and the mystery a lot, but if you're not into epistolary mystery fiction, ymmv. I also didn't really examine the plot too hard so I'm not sure if it holds water if you do.
(From Goodreads:
Katya deals in Authenticities and Captures, trading on nostalgia for a past long gone. Her clients are rich and they demand items and experiences with only the finest verifiable provenance. Other people’s lives have value, after all.
But when her A.I. suddenly stops whispering in her ear she finds herself cut off from the grid and loses communication with the rest of the world.
The man who stepped out of the trees while hunting deer cut her off from the cloud, took her A.I., and made her his unwilling guest.
There are no Authenticities or Captures to prove Katya’s story of what happened in the forest. You’ll just have to believe her.)
Side note: I actually read this after I wrote Joshua Hong and the One Body Murder, and the themes are so similar (especially the line "you'll just have to believe her"), I enjoyed the coincidence.
N/A
N/A, though I do have some short story readings from class if anyone's interested in links to those!
At what point do you say you're reading something and at what point is it just on hold for eternity? I'm including this section to publicly shame myself into finishing some of these.
Blue Period (2021), up to ep 3 (this is a currently airing show)
Vincenzo (2021), up to ep 10
Word of Honor (2021), up to ep 19ish?
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, 3/8 through
Sweat Out the Winter by David P Young, 1/8 through
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley P Chan, 1/4 through
Squid Game (2021), up to ep 3
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, 1/3 through
HomeTown Cha Cha Cha (2021), pausing this, halfway through ep 1
Sourdough by Robin Sloan, 1/3 through
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur, still at the beginning
The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1) by John Scalzi, like a 1/3 through this but I haven't picked it up in a month because I got bored
The Devourers by Indra Das, been trying to read this for AGES, keep getting distracted 3 chapters in.
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, 1/2 through, also kind of got bored. the writing is pretty though! Haven't touched this in a while.
I liked so many things from poem-a-day this month!!
Bond by Juana de Ibarbourou (trans. Muna Lee)
Lover by Ada Limón
Not My Ancestors by Bettina Judd
Burden, old story. by francine j. harris
pantoum for aiyana & not a single hashtag by Aurielle Marie
from “Passage” by Shara McCallum
Yesterday and To-Day by Narciso Tondreau (trans. Agnes Blake Poor)
Belt Is Just Another Verb for Song by torrin a. greathouse
Departure by Erika L. Sánchez
What am I allowed to
have? I’m still
here. I’m still hers. I’m
still a body licked by stars.
Driving by Lisa Russ Spaar
Proof by Tiana Clark
People get weird about divorce. Think it’s contagious.
Think it dirty. I don’t need to make it holy, but it purifies—
It’s clear. Sometimes the science is simple. Sometimes
people love each other but don’t need each other
anymore. Though, I think the tenderness can stay
(if you want it too).
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003): A RomanceI̶n̶t̶e̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ by Edil Hassan
This one has a lot of tricky strikethroughs which would be tough to put in here, but go take a look at it!
Running Water by Alfonsina Storni (trans. Muna Lee)
Incantation of the First Order by Rita Dove
To those inclined toward kindness, I say
Come out of your houses drumming. All others,
beware: I have discarded my smile but not my teeth.
Waiting for Your Call by Aria Aber
She, too, was humiliated by her body, that it wanted
such stupid, simple things: food and cherry wine, to touch someone.
On my daily walk, I steal Meyer lemons from my neighbors’ yard,
a small pomegranate. Instead of eating them,
I observe their casual rot on the kitchen counter,
this theatre of good things turning into something else.
One Summer by Ann-Margaret Lim
In the dream, Stephen
you’re thicker than when we were young
but thoughtful, as a first kiss.
A Song on the Water by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
from “Disorient: Children of the Revolution” by Suji Kwock Kim
Aubade on a Ghost Hunt by Traci Brimhall
If we’re sure
something is here, then we have to find out
what it wants. A voice on the recorder, sweet
as gravecake—don’t go. We can admit it wasn’t
proof we came for, it was the question.
Visa by Solmaz Sharif
The Black Finger by Angelina Weld Grimké
SCROBBLES: 3,556 ▼
SCROBBLES PER DAY: 114 ▼
Artists:
In October I managed a fair amount of books! Some of these were for class, some of these were for fun.
Movies
Gladiator (2000) (N/A)
I """watched""" half of this while cooking soup on a call, so you can imagine how much I absorbed. The ending was pretty good iirc? Jacks' and Nikita's commentary was the best part.
Ex Machina (2014) ★★★☆☆
Idk, it was ok? I watched this for a class. It's a movie about AI but also about obnoxious tech bros. It… happens? It exists? It doesn't do anything revolutionary but it's watchable.
Books
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado ★★★★★
One of my favorite things I've read all year!
It's a memoir about Machado's past abusive relationship but it also meditates on abuse within the LGBT+ community. It talks about the way outside perceptions can shape experiences and how hard it can be to recognize something you have no words for. It also plays with format really interestingly.
The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith ★★★☆☆
This was lots of fun!! It reads kind of like a Percy Jackson book? You can tell it's a first novel, but the rough edges don't detract from it being entertaining and a quick read. Very character driven plot.
(From Goodreads:
Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing—a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.
But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell ... and Earth.)
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar ★★★★★
One of my other favorite things I've read this year!!
I cannot recommend this one enough, it was such a gorgeous story, and it hit some of my favorite themes (family, community, epistolary fiction, names, art, grief, ghosts).
The narrator is a nonbinary syrian trans man haunted by his mother's ghost who uncovers the mystery of a new york painter via her diary. The common thread between the painter, named Laila Z, and his mother is the painting of a bird so rare as to be thought a figment of their imaginations. It covers the mystery of Laila's disappearance, alternating between excerpts from her diary and chapters with the narrator.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao ★★☆☆☆
I wanted to like this book way more than I actually liked this book. The premise is really cool, marketed as a fusion between pacific rim and the handimaid's tale.
I thought the character dynamics were so fun and good!! I really enjoyed the banter and the relationship development.
The rest of the story was a bit hard to swallow--I'm not sure if it's just me, but the pacing and worldbuilding felt quite abrupt, and I often felt like the author was telling me how to feel rather than letting me feel it myself. I hope it succeeds as a book!! I want to see this book do well, even if it wasn't for me.
Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal ★★★★☆
Mary Robinette Kowal's works have been fun to read! The two I've read have been pretty light. This novelette deals with kidnapping, but it's still the same. It also has one of my favorite themes, memory, and deals with it in a cool way!
I enjoyed the premise and the mystery a lot, but if you're not into epistolary mystery fiction, ymmv. I also didn't really examine the plot too hard so I'm not sure if it holds water if you do.
(From Goodreads:
Katya deals in Authenticities and Captures, trading on nostalgia for a past long gone. Her clients are rich and they demand items and experiences with only the finest verifiable provenance. Other people’s lives have value, after all.
But when her A.I. suddenly stops whispering in her ear she finds herself cut off from the grid and loses communication with the rest of the world.
The man who stepped out of the trees while hunting deer cut her off from the cloud, took her A.I., and made her his unwilling guest.
There are no Authenticities or Captures to prove Katya’s story of what happened in the forest. You’ll just have to believe her.)
Side note: I actually read this after I wrote Joshua Hong and the One Body Murder, and the themes are so similar (especially the line "you'll just have to believe her"), I enjoyed the coincidence.
TV
N/A
MISC
N/A, though I do have some short story readings from class if anyone's interested in links to those!
In Progress
At what point do you say you're reading something and at what point is it just on hold for eternity? I'm including this section to publicly shame myself into finishing some of these.
Blue Period (2021), up to ep 3 (this is a currently airing show)
Vincenzo (2021), up to ep 10
Word of Honor (2021), up to ep 19ish?
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, 3/8 through
Sweat Out the Winter by David P Young, 1/8 through
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley P Chan, 1/4 through
Squid Game (2021), up to ep 3
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, 1/3 through
HomeTown Cha Cha Cha (2021), pausing this, halfway through ep 1
Sourdough by Robin Sloan, 1/3 through
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur, still at the beginning
The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1) by John Scalzi, like a 1/3 through this but I haven't picked it up in a month because I got bored
The Devourers by Indra Das, been trying to read this for AGES, keep getting distracted 3 chapters in.
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, 1/2 through, also kind of got bored. the writing is pretty though! Haven't touched this in a while.
Poetry
I liked so many things from poem-a-day this month!!
Bond by Juana de Ibarbourou (trans. Muna Lee)
Lover by Ada Limón
Not My Ancestors by Bettina Judd
Burden, old story. by francine j. harris
pantoum for aiyana & not a single hashtag by Aurielle Marie
from “Passage” by Shara McCallum
Yesterday and To-Day by Narciso Tondreau (trans. Agnes Blake Poor)
Belt Is Just Another Verb for Song by torrin a. greathouse
Departure by Erika L. Sánchez
What am I allowed to
have? I’m still
here. I’m still hers. I’m
still a body licked by stars.
Driving by Lisa Russ Spaar
Proof by Tiana Clark
People get weird about divorce. Think it’s contagious.
Think it dirty. I don’t need to make it holy, but it purifies—
It’s clear. Sometimes the science is simple. Sometimes
people love each other but don’t need each other
anymore. Though, I think the tenderness can stay
(if you want it too).
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003): A Romance
This one has a lot of tricky strikethroughs which would be tough to put in here, but go take a look at it!
Running Water by Alfonsina Storni (trans. Muna Lee)
Incantation of the First Order by Rita Dove
To those inclined toward kindness, I say
Come out of your houses drumming. All others,
beware: I have discarded my smile but not my teeth.
Waiting for Your Call by Aria Aber
She, too, was humiliated by her body, that it wanted
such stupid, simple things: food and cherry wine, to touch someone.
On my daily walk, I steal Meyer lemons from my neighbors’ yard,
a small pomegranate. Instead of eating them,
I observe their casual rot on the kitchen counter,
this theatre of good things turning into something else.
One Summer by Ann-Margaret Lim
In the dream, Stephen
you’re thicker than when we were young
but thoughtful, as a first kiss.
A Song on the Water by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
from “Disorient: Children of the Revolution” by Suji Kwock Kim
Aubade on a Ghost Hunt by Traci Brimhall
If we’re sure
something is here, then we have to find out
what it wants. A voice on the recorder, sweet
as gravecake—don’t go. We can admit it wasn’t
proof we came for, it was the question.
Visa by Solmaz Sharif
The Black Finger by Angelina Weld Grimké
Music
SCROBBLES: 3,556 ▼
SCROBBLES PER DAY: 114 ▼
Artists:
- Stray Kids - 161
- THE BOYZ - 159
- Vienna Teng - 152
- TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 130
- Seventeen - 128
- Florence + the Machine - 107
- Youngjae - 85
- Ricky Montgomery - 79
- Key - 78
- N.Flying - 70
- NOEASY by Stray Kids - 148
- COLORS from Ars by Youngjae - 85
- Montgomery Ricky by Ricky Montgomery - 76
- Waking Hour by Vienna Teng - 76
- BAD LOVE by Key - 74
- Eternal by Young K - 54
- DIMENSION : DILEMMA by ENHYPEN - 52
- minisode1 : Blue Hour by TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 50
- Rationale by Rationale - 49
- Attacca by Seventeen - 47
- This December by Ricky Montgomery - 62
- Silent Cry by Stray Kids - 57
- Talia by King Princess - 41
- Ghosting by TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 36
- Zombie by Purple Kiss - 34
- Tussen Die Lakens by Elandré - 33
- The Tower by Vienna Teng - 33
- KINGDOM COME by THE BOYZ - 30
- Don't Let The Neighbourhood Hear by Oh Wonder - 28
- Drink It by THE BOYZ - 28
no subject
Date: 2021-12-02 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-03 02:11 pm (UTC)