Sidetracks - December 28, 2023

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

Renay

1. 2023 favorites from Meg Elison.

2. 2023 Favorites from Maria Haskins.

3. My pal Maureen's favorite adult fiction books of the year.

4. Ancillary Review of Book shares their 2023 Notable Books.

5. 75 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2024 by R.O. Kwon

6. All the 2023 Beneath Ceaseless Skies stories in one handy list!

7. Interview with Martha Wells about Murderbot. My favorite part of this was her going, "ChatGPT isn't AI." Perfectly managed correction!

8. Road to Ruin by Hana Lee now has a cover. It's out from Saga on May 14.

9. Want to be punched in the emotions by an essay about Avatar: The Last Airbender and the air nomads? I stared at the wall for a full five minutes after reading this. h/t yourlibrarian.

10. A round-up of the book banning news throughout the year, plus a late December update from Kelly Jensen. In 2024: check out physical and digital material from authors you love from your public library as often as you can; request materials you want to read or that are relevant to your community; become a member of your Friends of the Library chapter if one exists; volunteer for your library board (or run for a seat if it's elected). This is important especially if you have a rural library, like I do. We can do a lot to strengthen and protect library services if we work together.

11. Dear White Allies: Don’t Appropriate Our Anger by Anoosh Jorjorian was an excellent article recced by Sim Kern. When I was younger I was guilty of this behavior. My anger started from a place of deep betrayal. The people meant to teach how to navigate the world left out so much, through ignorance or their own white supremacy. After that burnt out, it was easy to co-opt the anger of marginalized groups. Anger is useful, but what I have learned (through time and listening) is that its long term function is limited. I wish younger me could have time traveled to read this article.

12. Another example of UBI working (outside the United States this time). As John Rogers said on BlueSky (where I saw this story linked): "We've had decades of research on UBI now, and the only thing holding it back it the insane Calvinist rot at the heart of this country's identity."

13. Imagine if we had invested the $450 million into high speed rail instead of billionaire techbros trying to reinvent the bus/subway. Obviously that's a drop in the bucket of what we'll need for high speed rail in the U.S., but it could have gotten something going somewhere.

14. Amazon will start showing ads on its Prime video service in January 2024. We've really just circled back and recreated cable television, but worse. 2025 is the year I start investing in physical media more heavily even if it does suck to move boxes and boxes of games and movies whenever I change houses.

15. There's only one song for me to include here and it's the most recent release from BTS's Jimin, a fan song he made for us as he begins his required military service. It's been fascinating to watch them develop their skills as individual artists but still call back, with specific intent, that they are a part of a larger collective. Jimin's solo was a fast favorite through the last year of solo releases. I really love his vibe and the obvious references to his classical training.

Watch on YouTube