Mid-Month Reading Update: An Early Spring Thaw
Plus, all the good links from around the web that I collected for you this month
Hi, book friends.
Despite the fact that this year’s sick season still hasn’t let go of my household — this week alone, my husband had the stomach bug, the baby got double pink eye, and now I have a hopefully minor head cold — I’m making good progress through the TBR so far! I’m halfway through, at least on paper (and ignoring page counts, lol).
It’s also been warm here this week: I’m talking in the 60s and sun. Funny how all it takes is one walk outside in early spring to make me forget I’ve ever been sad or stressed a day in my life. It never ceases to amaze me how much we really are just complicated houseplants.
All that to say, things are relatively good over here. I hope the same for you, and that your weekend has been cozy and relaxing so far!
What I’ve read so far this month
(I’m actually caught up on full reviews?!? Click each title to read it!)
Cursebound (Faebound, #2) by Saara El-Arifi*† 📖🎧: I want to love this series more than I do — it has so much potential, just not great execution, in my opinion. But they’re fast and fun enough that I’ll probably still read the third.
The Dawn Chorus (The Bone Season, #3.5) by Samantha Shannon 📖: A nice little novella between books 3 and 4. I don’t always read supplementary stories like this, but I’m glad I have read the two Bone Season novellas so far.
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison 📖🎧: A classic among texts on criticism/theory for a reason. I’m really, really glad I read it.
Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices by Travis Rieder*† 🎧: I can only recommend this to people who’ve never taken even an intro class on ethics, like me. But I found it to be extremely helpful and clarifying to learn the basics through the lens of big social problems facing us today (like climate change).
Currently reading
Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods*† 📖🎧
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism*† by Eve L. Ewing 📖🎧
Still on my March TBR
Oathbound (The Legendborn Cycle, #3) by Tracy Deonn† (now that my preordered copy finally popped out of the mail!)
The Antidote*† by Karen Russell
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
Black Woods Blue Sky*† by Eowyn Ivey
*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher
Some good links for your Sunday scroll
Jo and Mal from the House of R podcast did a Valentine’s day special (“quickie,” lol) on the romantasy genre with a special focus on Onyx Storm, and you simply MUST watch it. At one point they attempt to diagram one steamy scene from each Empyrean book on a whiteboard. Hilarity ensues.
From a New Yorker piece on Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower, and the LA wildfires:
“People are not incorrect about Octavia Butler predicting the future, but they’re not always clear about what kind of future she was envisioning. It’s not the fires or drug use or tumbling literacy rates that she invented — all of those problems were simply there for her to see. What ‘Sower’ imagines, rather, is a future in which surviving the seemingly unsurvivable requires people to show some emotional dexterity, some ability to surrender whatever selfishness they’ve been harboring and see if they have something that someone else needs. This is the starting point of mutual aid: What do I have that someone else may need? Butler’s work is outlining a future where posing that question is a requirement. ‘Sower’ isn’t just about a time and a fire and a place; it’s about people deciding what kind of apocalypse they are going to have, and then deciding how to live in its aftermath.”
Miranda July’s All Fours is coming to the small screen.
My friend
, a writer and editor, started a new substack on the crime genre: . Check it out!I really enjoyed this Lit Hub interview with RaMell Ross on Adapting Colson Whitehead, Black Subjectivity, and the Epic Banal. (I can’t wait for Nickel Boys to come to streaming!)
Josh Cool wrote this piece for Lit Hub on what the book world should do in response to this administration and then went on their podcast to talk about it more and whew, is it good.
The Cut at its best: “How Trans Teens Are Dealing With Trump 2.0, in Their Words”
I really enjoyed this interview on
with an audiobook narrator on how she organizes her days (and so much more). A quote:”Because a number of audiobook and AI companies (and even some major publishers) would like nothing more than to eliminate humans from storytelling to pad their executive suite’s bonuses, this beautiful career I love so much constantly feels under threat. I know of quite a few renowned and award-winning narrator friends who cannot get enough work to qualify for health insurance with the union, let alone pay their bills anymore. Some have found their income stream has completely dried up. It’s really scary for many of us. As Audible and Apple and others push their virtual voices (which generally get terrible reviews but still get listened to, I don’t know why) at an extremely low if not free cost to authors, the market is being flooded with AI slop, and narrators are losing their work.”
If you’re an REI member, here’s an easy way to support the union.
- ’s newsletter (psst: they’re all good).
I haven’t listened yet, but Omar El Akkad was on The Stacks with
and I’m hyped.Also in my TBR of tabs: “Speculative Fiction Can Shake Us Awake: A Conversation With Silvia Park and Kelly Link” in Reactor Magazine.
Selections from the ‘gram
^^ I still giggle every time I watch that last one.
As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear how your March reading is going in the comments, too.
Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.
Until next time!
— Deedi (she/her)
Love these thoughts and Sunday scroll recs, Deedi! And thanks for the shout out ❤️
I appreciate the shout out! Hope you like it.