Over the weekend I #read *Women Talking* by Miriam Toews, a Canadian author from a Mennonite family who draws on her family's background in much of her writing. Before I read her latest novel *Fight Night* last year, I had never heard of the author - and I was missing out!
By the nature of its subject - it was inspired by a real-life series of horrific rapes and sexual assaults in a Bolivian Mennonite colony and follows a group of Mennonite women grappling with the aftermath of a similar crime and their role in Mennonite society - "Women Talking" is a lot darker and harder-hitting than "Fight Night". But it is also hopeful, and it speaks to the strength of community and mutual support.
I highly recommend it!
#Bookstodon @bookstodon #books #BookReview #reading #ChaosBooks

Got my pre-order copy of @margaret Killjoy's *Escape from Incel Island* this week and read it all the way through right away.
As you might be able to tell from the brilliant tagline, this book does not take itself too seriously, and nor should you. It's a gory but fun romp through all of the horrors of toxic masculinity, paired with your favourite tropes about secret supervillain islands. I enjoyed it a lot!
The pre-order also came with a little roleplaying game based on the book, which I'd love to try some time with people who have the same sense of humour.
#books #reading #ToxicMasculinity #bookstodon @bookstodon #queer #scifi #ChaosBooks

@bookstodon (2/2) My interpretation - it's how the story reads to me; not sure it's what the author intended - is that the disease is a metaphor for systemic racism in the US. It's been known for a long time that systemic failures (in healthcare, environmental protection, policing, the justice system... the list goes on and on) affect black people in the US worse than any other population, yet (or because of that) there is little societal interest in understanding problems through this lens.
*Grievers* is about how people live under such a system, both as individuals and as a community.
And while the story is immensely sad, it is also full of fierce hope and resistance.
The sequel, *Maroons*, was released earlier this month. I cannot wait how the story continues!
#ChaosBooks

I finished #reading *Grievers* by adrienne maree brown from #AKPress. It's the kind of book that leaves you full of thought and goes around your head for a while.
Before anything else: Big #recommendation go read it!
As a (on the surface) pandemic story released in 2021, it's impossible to read without thinking back to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but this is really not a book about Covid.
For one, the disease is very different: Until the end of the book, it is not clear what causes it nor how it's spread, and there is very little effort from the authorities to study it. The novella is the portrait of a city breaking apart under the strain of this unknown affliction. (1/2 --> more in next post!)
https://www.akpress.org/grievers.html
@bookstodon #bookstodon #BookReview #reading #ChaosBooks

Yesterday's #book haul: I finally got my copies of @margaret Killjoy's Danielle Cain novellas (at the top). I'm a huge fan of both of Margaret's books that I've read so far (and written about here under #ChaosBooks) and can't wait to read these.
I loved Miriam Toews' *Fight Night* last year, so I'm excited to read another one of hers.
*Oryx and Crake* has been on my to-read list for a long time, and the bookshop had this cheap 2nd-hand copy.

I finished #reading *Horse* by Geraldine Brooks, based on the history of the famous Thoroughbred racing horse Lexington. (In spite of being a horse person in a former life, I had not heard of him. But that does not lessen the enjoyment of the story in any way, nor do you need to be interested in horses at all to enjoy this book.)
This is a sweeping historical novel exploring the crucial role of enslaved black people in the South's horse racing industry just before the outbreak of the Civil War, as well as the modern re-discovery of this history.

As it in my view has to, in order to be an honest narrative, it also addresses racism and police violence in modern America.

As a story featuring two black men as main characters written by a white author, the book is controversial, and I have certainly read some valid criticism! *)
But apart from a very shoehorned-in romance and some hamfisted passages (almost all in the contemporary part of the story), I found the narrative fascinating, empathetic, gripping and believable, and I think that it does the history justice.

https://geraldinebrooks.com/horse/
#books #bookstodon @bookstodon
#ChaosBooks

*) Several of the book reviews in large book publications that I read feature discussions and criticisms of Brooks' depiction of her black characters.
But none of these publications actually seemed to have engaged a black book critic to write on the subject. Now, I know that black book critics will have written about this book somewhere, but nowhere that I could find on the first few results pages of a search engine, sadly.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a venue with book reviews by a more diverse group of authors?

I just learned from @pluralistic (https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/21/the-horror-of-white-magic/#anti-lovecraftian) that one if the best books I read last year, *Lovecraft County* by Matt Ruff, is getting a sequel this month!
Can't wait to read it. I loved the first book's large cast of characters, with each of the chapters/stories focusing on one of them, connected by an overarching narrative. It is a collection of Lovecraftian takes, but all the true monsters in it are human, and the ultimate #GreatOldOne is white supremacy.
If you haven't read Lovecraft County yet, this is a great time to do it!
#books #bookstodon @bookstodon #scifi #lovecraft #horror #ChaosBooks

I think I've just read my #favourite #book of the year (early, I know, but it's a hell of a book):
*The Affair of the Mysterious Letter* by Alexis Hall, a #queer Lovecraftian fantasy retelling of #SherlockHolmes.
Shaharazad Haas is honestly the far wittier, more energetic and more brash version of the great detective, and John Wyndham is a lovely prim (if not prudish) counterpoint.
The cultural references (principally to SH, The King in Yellow and Shadow over Innsmouth, as well as historically to Cromwell's England) are all extremely well-done, but with their own clever twist.
My only complaint is that this is stand-alone, with no sequels planned. It really needs to be a whole series!
https://quicunquevult.com/book/the-affair-of-the-mysterious-letter/
#books #reading #bookstodon @bookstodon #mystery #Lovecraft #fantasy #ChaosBooks

@t3rrybowman Oh, I have another one: Helon Habila is a Nigerian author who is pretty well-known internationally (otherwise I wouldn't know about him, let's be honest) but should be much more widely read. I read his *Oil on Water* about 10 years ago, followed by *Measuring Time*, and was very impressed by both. They really leave you with lots to think about.
#ChaosBooks

Also pre-ordered the next instalment in the #BlackDawn series by #AKPress, *Maroons* by adrienne maree brown. Very excited for more instalments in that series!
#books #scifi #reading #ChaosBooks

One of the last #books I read in 2022 was *Joan* by Katherine Chen, a re-imagining of Jeanne d'Arc not as a holy virgin, but a headstrong and physically imposing young woman driven to be a soldier both by a desire for vengeance, as well as knowledge of her own skill and strength.
Of course, everyone familiar with the history knows how any retelling of Jeanne d'Arc's life must inevitably end, but I was grateful to the author for ending the narrative before the truly ugly part.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608696/joan-a-novel-of-joan-of-arc-by-katherine-j-chen/

#ChaosBooks #reading #bookstodon #Historical

- *We Won't be Here Tomorrow* by @margaret :
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109684361711656170

- *How to Take Over the World* by Ryan North:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109700199764650326

Just borrowed a big stack of books from the #library, so more soon!

#ChaosBooks

- *We Won't be Here Tomorrow* by @margaret :
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109684361711656170

- *How to Take Over the World* by Ryan North:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109700199764650326

Just borrowed a big stack of books from the #library, so more soon!

#ChaosBooks

- *Paladin's Hope* by T. Kingfisher:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109474773097285774

- *Act of Oblivion* by Robert Harris: https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109521055129874753

- *Road to Nowhere* by @parismarx:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109532435112951300

- *Ducks* by Kate Beaton:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109546559607878494

#ChaosBooks

Roughly in chronological order of my original posts:

- On *A Country of Ghosts* by @margaret :
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109440101447467459

- *The Queer Principles of Kit Webb* by Cat Sebastian:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109441051249917260

- *Bad Gays* by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109446485318267532

- *The Truth and Other Stories* by Stanislaw Lem:
https://kolektiva.social/@chaostheorie/109446502888875804

#ChaosBooks

Most of my own posts here are about #books I read (and usually enjoyed - if I didn't like a book that much, I'm probably just not going to mention it). Since they get a little lost among all the posts I boost, I'm going to try and collect all the ones I've made so far under this post, and add the hashtag #ChaosBooks to all my future book posts.