Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.
62/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Really good anthology of short comics about historical moments, ideas, and efforts that were unsuccessful. I’d forgotten the premise between the time I ordered this one and when it arrived, so it was a peasant surprise to discover it was all non-fiction, and while a couple of the stories I’d heard of before, much of these little tidbits of history were new to me.
61/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This issue’s standouts were “The 6% Squeeze” by Eddie Robson, “A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due, “¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror” by M. M. Olivas, and “A Menu of First Favorite Meals” by Jo Miles.
59/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
While I wasn’t born with a uterus, roughly half of the people I know and encounter throughout my life were (including my wife, who handed this book to me after she read it), and as most of the ones I’m most familiar with are within a few years of my age (51 as of this moment), this seemed like good info to have. The book is great; very readable and often quite funny, with a wealth of information. I certainly had no idea how much research into menopause has only been done in the past couple decades; I’d guess that even people who think they know what’s up are likely to find something new. This is an excellent, informative, and likely quite validating resource for anyone with a uterus who is approaching or experiencing menopause, who is planning on yeeting their uterus and facing sudden menopause, who never had a uterus but values understanding (as much as possible) what those who do are going through. There’s also a postscript chapter addressing what trans women may expect as they age.
58/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shakespeare, more or less, by way of Pratchett’s Discworld, and quite a lot of fun. Particularly enjoyed the recognition of the power of the word, and how it can bend history out of joint if used unscrupulously.
56/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fascinating collection of novellas following Binti, a young Himba woman, as she leaves her traditional home to journey to a galactic university to study math, only to find herself the sole survivor of an attack and bonded in a mysterious way to one of her attackers. The settings and events combined the traditional lifestyle of the Himba people with far-future technology, living ships, and all manner of alien races, and with some serious questions of prejudice and how people see unfamiliar others as more primitive. I really enjoyed this, and am looking forward to exploring more of Okorafor’s books.
55/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Highlights for me this month were “The Deformed Saint and the Poison Wind” by David McGillveray and “Three Circuits of the Monoceros Ring” by Marisca Pichette.
54/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is one of those that, while unquestionably good, was difficult for me to really get into and ultimately just didn’t resonate with me. Impressively (and sometimes depressingly) prescient in some ways, I think that a lot of it was simply too directly relatable to present social and political realities that it was hard for me to enjoy it.
53/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I picked up the original version of this book ten years ago, during its Kickstarter campaign, when an online acquaintance who contributed a story was promoting it. I enjoyed it then, and it was fun to revisit it a decade later, especially as I hadn’t re-read it since then, so had forgotten the majority of the stories, and the new content looking back at the original project was a nice addition. As with the six other books that now exist in the “Smut Peddler” series (seven if you count this 10th anniversary version separately), all of which live on my shelves, it’s a very enjoyable collection of fun, inclusive, explicit sexytimes.
For fun, my review of the original release: “I actually read this last year when I got the .pdf version from the Kickstarter project, the physical book was delivered earlier this year. I found the Kickstarter when one of my friends announced that she was contributing a piece to the project. Perhaps not my usual reading material, but I really enjoyed all of it — I don’t remember there being a bad entry in the bunch, and quite a few extremely good stories. Not at all disappointed to have it in my collection, and I’ll be adding the second volume when it’s Kickstarter project goes live.”
52/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Almost four stars…but not quite. There are three connected storylines (it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the back cover blurb, right?): A modern-day (2024) true crime podcaster investigating the mysterious disappearance of one Gillian Taylor in 1986, Kirk and company in the third year of their original voyage rescuing an abducted scientist, and Kirk and company escorting envoys to a conference shortly before the events of The Undiscovered Country. Of the three storylines, I found the latter two to be fairly standard Trek adventure, and would occasionally get confused as to which point in time I was in for a moment when I switched chapters. However, the first storyline, as the podcaster tracks down various minor characters from The Voyage Home to try to figure out what happened to Gillian is great. I really enjoyed the glimpse into what happened on Earth after the events of the movie, and it was a lot of fun to build on many of the gags from the film. That storyline is by far the strongest, and the middle story is the weakest, with yet another “landing party beams down to a pre-industrial society and — surprise! — makes a complete hash of the Prime Directive” situation.
Still, even the weaker parts are entertaining, and Cox ties in lots of little nods to a lot of Trek true canon and beta (book) canon.
(This reaches my goal of 52 books read this year, nice and early! We’ll see how many I end up with in a few more months.)
