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ladybusinessI'm slowly climbing out of the "write about your reading" hole. This version is going to be lackluster because my memory is cheese and I have misplaced my written reading log that I keep while I'm reading, which feels very 2025-coded.
How to Piss Off Men by Kyle Prue | Sourcebooks | September 2024
This was a TikTok series that the creator turned into a short book that's not quite a gag gift, not quite a serious read. I liked it, because I discovered new statements in the book very useful to politics. I have used many of Prue's comments to humble cis men in my organizing work, and I salute him for his contribution to hyper local, voter-suppressed-state politics.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo | Tor | March 2020
This is the first book in the The Singing Hills Cycle, which has a Hugo nomination in Best Novella for The Brides of High Hill, the fifth book in the series. I read The Empress of Salt and Fortune as part of my 2020 Redux reading challenge.
I get why this series is so beloved, because the first book is quiet, but filled with both a deep curiosity and rage as we discover Rabbit's story and In-yo's patient revenge. I find myself thinking about it often even though I read it months ago. Hard to choose a favorite character when there's so many great ones, but tbh I would fight an army for Almost Brilliant.
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar | Tor | April 2024
On a generation ship, a rigid caste system is challenged by a boy from the Chained, laborers in the deep recesses of the ship, and a woman only one generation removed from the Chained who is a college professor with her own, complicated restrictions in society. This book almost felt like poetry, and I imagine for a lot of people it's going to feel impenetrable. One part unlocked it for me:
This won't make much sense outside the story, but as someone who has been inside so many systems, this was when I started to realize part of Samatar's thesis. There are many strands to tug on in this book, but if you're familiar with administrative academic systems—big oof. This story carved a line on my heart underneath my experiences with organizing, both community- and political-wise. The quote above, and a call back to it later in the book, was a wallop.
This is a Hugo Award finalist. I find this extremely funny, because to change the Hugo Awards administration you have to engage a system that operates in a similar way with people who often treat you just like Gil treats the boy and woman in this story. As a parliamentary procedure girlie, I felt both very called out and seen at the same time.
I highly recommend everyone go read Roseanna's incredible essay about this book.
Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz | W.W. Norton & Company | June 2024
The United States is in midst of another civil war, but it doesn't look like traditional war. It's not marked by obvious death and destruction. The causalities are in the margins: millions dead from preventable diseases, laws on books across states to strip people of their civil rights in the ongoing fight against the "other" that leave people fragile and ripe for exploitation, suffering, and even death. We're at war via cultural propaganda and we did it to ourselves. The US refined its own propaganda machine over its long history of colonization and wars and the government was so good at it we've buried the truth of our own history and made everyone ignorant and unable to agree on a shared reality. This is a pretty bleak thesis, although Newitz argues that we can use positive propaganda via stories to claw back to a place where we could start to recover. But given our current historical moment, I'm not feeling very positive!
Newitz's argument is that better stories mean we can change hearts and minds. There's another writer who is tackling these ideas, George Lakoff, who calls this framing. Conservatives are great at framing (otherwise known as storytelling). Our center-left orgs doing political work absolutely blow at it because they're too busy to learn because they're hard at work suppressing the people who are good at framing/storytelling. Newitz and Lakoff insist that things can improve, but I saw Trump supporters watch Wicked when the movie first dropped and place themselves in Elphaba's role. They misunderstand The Hunger Games as a Democrat/Republican binary story. They watch Star Wars and fail to recognize their own behavior reflects the behavior of the Empire. Over and over, they are the oppressed. I don't see how any story, no matter how clear and well-told, rescues people that heavily propagandized.
My favorite part of the book was learning that Cordwainer Smith was actually Paul Linebarger, who wrote Psychological Warfare for the US Army. What a legacy.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson | Del Rey | August 2020
Multiverse travel has been unlocked, but the caveat: you can only travel to other worlds if you are dead in that world. Cara, a poor kid from the slums of her world, is dead in hundreds. She's a perfect candidate for the travel program, which grants her privileges like steady work, housing, and food, and the potential to become a citizen.
This was another book from 2020 Redux reading challenge, and Jenny was the main driver of me finally reading it because she loves it so. It's different than I thought it would be. I thought it was more literary that I expected going in, but in the end that doesn't capture what I mean. The narrative itself is smooth, unhurried, doesn't draw attention to itself. This makes the revelations about Cara's past and her relationships potent and sharp when they drop. The narrative mirrors the way Cara tries to move through the world: easy, cautious, with deliberate and brutal force only when necessary. Within all her relationships: from her sister; her handler Dell; to the inventor of multiverse travel; Cara is navigating a deeply classist culture. Society doesn't value most people much at all. Cara is used to being discarded, but she begins to value herself and her future, and fight for it when powerful people put it at risk.
Weeks after I finished it, my brain popped up out of nowhere and I went to Jenny and said, "Wait, did X happen to Cara because of Y?" (Very spoiler, you'll have to read it!!) She agreed so basically that's canon now. I love when books settle into your head and crop up later with something that makes you see the book and its characters differently (in this case: the villain; what a toad). Highly recommend.
There's also another book set in this world, Those Beyond the Wall, that follows a side character in The Space Between Worlds, which I have now added to my TBR. I will follow Micaiah Johnson anywhere.
That Prince Is Mine by Jayci Lee | St. Martin's Griffin | July 2024
A woman is determined to start her culinary school for Korean food, but gets derailed by her godmother who is at risk of losing her status in the matchmaking community. While going on dates to help her godmother, she meets a secret prince posing as a college professor for a taste of freedom before he, too, has to marry.
This was okay. I seem to be cursed by choosing romance novels where the author does something at the very end to make me go from, "Okay, solid book, 3.5/5." to "WTAF?" and drop it to 2/5. That happened here. As long as you don't care about women's dreams being subsumed under marriage and having babies, you'll probably like this.
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles | Sourcebooks | March 2023
This was a reread I picked up because offline life went wild and I needed something familiar that was accessible, and I happened to have a copy on my trophy shelf. This book holds up pretty well!
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells | Tor | 2017 - 2023
I reread the whole series in preparation for the show (MAY 16!). This was my ninth reread, according to Storygraph. Artificial Condition and Network Effect remain my favorites. Now to rush Martha Wells since I know she's probably busy with other books and helping with an entire show, but my body is ready for a Murderbot & ART adventure story. Hopefully their story involves foiling multiple corporations in clever and creative ways. I really need a capitalism punching bag and Wells is so good at it.
How to Piss Off Men by Kyle Prue | Sourcebooks | September 2024
This was a TikTok series that the creator turned into a short book that's not quite a gag gift, not quite a serious read. I liked it, because I discovered new statements in the book very useful to politics. I have used many of Prue's comments to humble cis men in my organizing work, and I salute him for his contribution to hyper local, voter-suppressed-state politics.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo | Tor | March 2020
This is the first book in the The Singing Hills Cycle, which has a Hugo nomination in Best Novella for The Brides of High Hill, the fifth book in the series. I read The Empress of Salt and Fortune as part of my 2020 Redux reading challenge.
I get why this series is so beloved, because the first book is quiet, but filled with both a deep curiosity and rage as we discover Rabbit's story and In-yo's patient revenge. I find myself thinking about it often even though I read it months ago. Hard to choose a favorite character when there's so many great ones, but tbh I would fight an army for Almost Brilliant.
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar | Tor | April 2024
On a generation ship, a rigid caste system is challenged by a boy from the Chained, laborers in the deep recesses of the ship, and a woman only one generation removed from the Chained who is a college professor with her own, complicated restrictions in society. This book almost felt like poetry, and I imagine for a lot of people it's going to feel impenetrable. One part unlocked it for me:
The task force had been successful, the names changed-not, as the woman had wished, to the Department of Arts and the Department of Sciences, but still, the shift from Old to Older Knowledge was an improvement, and to get those arrogant windbags on the other side of the bridge to call themselves Newer, rather than New, was nothing less than a coup, said Gil.
This won't make much sense outside the story, but as someone who has been inside so many systems, this was when I started to realize part of Samatar's thesis. There are many strands to tug on in this book, but if you're familiar with administrative academic systems—big oof. This story carved a line on my heart underneath my experiences with organizing, both community- and political-wise. The quote above, and a call back to it later in the book, was a wallop.
This is a Hugo Award finalist. I find this extremely funny, because to change the Hugo Awards administration you have to engage a system that operates in a similar way with people who often treat you just like Gil treats the boy and woman in this story. As a parliamentary procedure girlie, I felt both very called out and seen at the same time.
I highly recommend everyone go read Roseanna's incredible essay about this book.
Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz | W.W. Norton & Company | June 2024
The United States is in midst of another civil war, but it doesn't look like traditional war. It's not marked by obvious death and destruction. The causalities are in the margins: millions dead from preventable diseases, laws on books across states to strip people of their civil rights in the ongoing fight against the "other" that leave people fragile and ripe for exploitation, suffering, and even death. We're at war via cultural propaganda and we did it to ourselves. The US refined its own propaganda machine over its long history of colonization and wars and the government was so good at it we've buried the truth of our own history and made everyone ignorant and unable to agree on a shared reality. This is a pretty bleak thesis, although Newitz argues that we can use positive propaganda via stories to claw back to a place where we could start to recover. But given our current historical moment, I'm not feeling very positive!
Newitz's argument is that better stories mean we can change hearts and minds. There's another writer who is tackling these ideas, George Lakoff, who calls this framing. Conservatives are great at framing (otherwise known as storytelling). Our center-left orgs doing political work absolutely blow at it because they're too busy to learn because they're hard at work suppressing the people who are good at framing/storytelling. Newitz and Lakoff insist that things can improve, but I saw Trump supporters watch Wicked when the movie first dropped and place themselves in Elphaba's role. They misunderstand The Hunger Games as a Democrat/Republican binary story. They watch Star Wars and fail to recognize their own behavior reflects the behavior of the Empire. Over and over, they are the oppressed. I don't see how any story, no matter how clear and well-told, rescues people that heavily propagandized.
My favorite part of the book was learning that Cordwainer Smith was actually Paul Linebarger, who wrote Psychological Warfare for the US Army. What a legacy.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson | Del Rey | August 2020
Multiverse travel has been unlocked, but the caveat: you can only travel to other worlds if you are dead in that world. Cara, a poor kid from the slums of her world, is dead in hundreds. She's a perfect candidate for the travel program, which grants her privileges like steady work, housing, and food, and the potential to become a citizen.
This was another book from 2020 Redux reading challenge, and Jenny was the main driver of me finally reading it because she loves it so. It's different than I thought it would be. I thought it was more literary that I expected going in, but in the end that doesn't capture what I mean. The narrative itself is smooth, unhurried, doesn't draw attention to itself. This makes the revelations about Cara's past and her relationships potent and sharp when they drop. The narrative mirrors the way Cara tries to move through the world: easy, cautious, with deliberate and brutal force only when necessary. Within all her relationships: from her sister; her handler Dell; to the inventor of multiverse travel; Cara is navigating a deeply classist culture. Society doesn't value most people much at all. Cara is used to being discarded, but she begins to value herself and her future, and fight for it when powerful people put it at risk.
Weeks after I finished it, my brain popped up out of nowhere and I went to Jenny and said, "Wait, did X happen to Cara because of Y?" (Very spoiler, you'll have to read it!!) She agreed so basically that's canon now. I love when books settle into your head and crop up later with something that makes you see the book and its characters differently (in this case: the villain; what a toad). Highly recommend.
There's also another book set in this world, Those Beyond the Wall, that follows a side character in The Space Between Worlds, which I have now added to my TBR. I will follow Micaiah Johnson anywhere.
That Prince Is Mine by Jayci Lee | St. Martin's Griffin | July 2024
A woman is determined to start her culinary school for Korean food, but gets derailed by her godmother who is at risk of losing her status in the matchmaking community. While going on dates to help her godmother, she meets a secret prince posing as a college professor for a taste of freedom before he, too, has to marry.
This was okay. I seem to be cursed by choosing romance novels where the author does something at the very end to make me go from, "Okay, solid book, 3.5/5." to "WTAF?" and drop it to 2/5. That happened here. As long as you don't care about women's dreams being subsumed under marriage and having babies, you'll probably like this.
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles | Sourcebooks | March 2023
This was a reread I picked up because offline life went wild and I needed something familiar that was accessible, and I happened to have a copy on my trophy shelf. This book holds up pretty well!
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells | Tor | 2017 - 2023
I reread the whole series in preparation for the show (MAY 16!). This was my ninth reread, according to Storygraph. Artificial Condition and Network Effect remain my favorites. Now to rush Martha Wells since I know she's probably busy with other books and helping with an entire show, but my body is ready for a Murderbot & ART adventure story. Hopefully their story involves foiling multiple corporations in clever and creative ways. I really need a capitalism punching bag and Wells is so good at it.
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Date: 2025-05-10 07:03 pm (UTC)