Mastodawn

Hoochie Daddy Dec 19

Book 29: “Wait” by #GabriellaBurnham.

A novel about issues that doesn’t hit you over the head with them: undocumented workers, “nice” white people and the harm they blithely cause, Nantucket’s tourist economy and the income inequality of the island’s locals. But it’s mainly about two sisters and the eldest’s rich friend.

Another contemporary book that disposes of quotation marks and indenting paragraphs for new speakers. WHY. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Spoke 🏳️‍🌈Sep 13, 2023

As far as point of view goes, I think I draw the line when the second-person narrator speaks of herself in third person. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should. #ItIsWoodItIsStone #GabriellaBurnham #SecondpersonNarration #BookChat #bookstodon

Spoke 🏳️‍🌈Sep 6, 2023

Second-person narration is evocative, but is it good? #ItIsWoodItIsStone #GabriellaBurnham #BookChat #Bookstodon

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Hoochie Daddy Dec 19

Book 29: “Wait” by #GabriellaBurnham.

A novel about issues that doesn’t hit you over the head with them: undocumented workers, “nice” white people and the harm they blithely cause, Nantucket’s tourist economy and the income inequality of the island’s locals. But it’s mainly about two sisters and the eldest’s rich friend.

Another contemporary book that disposes of quotation marks and indenting paragraphs for new speakers. WHY. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 27

Book 30: “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by #PatrickSüskind.

Set in 18th Century Paris, a man with no scent possesses an incredible sense of smell. If it were written today, it could easily be a super-villain story: scent is the key to power and control here. It avoids those tropes, but gets mired in others that are unfortunately very gendered and tired. Interesting details on perfumery though, and the language can be entertaining in its hyperbole.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 29

Book 31: “3 Streets” by #YokoTawada.

Three short stories named after streets, which themselves are named after famous people, in East Berlin. Surreal things happen. Tawanda’s writing was slippery for me and I ended up glazing over and skimming. There’s more there for people who know what to look for, but I wasn’t one of them. Finished only because it was so brief.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 30

Book 32: “Queen of America” by #LuisAlbertoUrrea.

Went to a reading and Urrea clearly delighted in his own writing. He convinced me to buy a copy even though I hadn’t read the prior book in this duology. It’s about his great aunt, Teresita, The Saint of Cabora, who either has healing powers or is a dangerous revolutionary, depending on who’s asked. An immigrant story that started in 19th Century Mexico in the first book—I plan on reading it soon.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 31

Book 33: “Witchmark” by #CLPolk.

‘Bout to start some shit: getting tired of non-gay men writing gay male characters. True: there’s a long history of slash, fan-fiction, yaoi, and really great gay stories written by non-gay men. True: not every gay man is hypersexual. But it’s starting to feel sanitized, even tokenizing, to have two hot men who are clearly interested in each other not get it on. Or fantasize, masturbate, get hard, or anything embodied. /1

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 31

Yes, we fought hard to not be defined by the sex we have. But many also fought hard to not be shamed for it either: the sluts, people living with HIV, and other “non-respectable” gays. I’m not asking for non-stop fucking (just this once)—it’s not a binary. Rather, more thinking around gay inclusion. What purpose does it serve, you as a non-gay man, writing these characters? What does the presence/absence of sex mean? Otherwise, it feels exploitative. /2

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 31

Book 34: “Storm of Locusts” by #RebeccaRoanhorse.

Picks up after the first book and does everything a sequel’s supposed to: we go outside the walls of Dinétah, Maggie gets a bad-ass lightning sword, encounters more tricksy gods and a more powerful adversary. Everything feels bigger. But it’s not as good as the first book. Still, a fascinating world with some good character progression.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Dec 31

Book 35:”Unflattening” by #NickSousanis.

Similar to Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” in its examination of visual thinking, what you can do by combining words and images. Sousanis’ panel structure is amazing. As a cartoonist, I learned a lot from that alone. A bit repetitive in places, and maybe longer than it should be, but an enjoyable example of what one can do with this medium.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Comics

Hoochie Daddy Jan 1

Book 36: “All This & More” by #PengShepherd.

Terrible. I made myself finish. When I play videogames, I like to find the seams, explore, and test boundaries narratively and programmatically. That’s what kept me reading: to see how this choose-your-adventure format operated in terms of story and reader experience. There’s nothing but this gimmick. And a lead who’s obsessed with editing her life over and over until it’s perfect. Girl, go back to Instagram.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Jan 1

Book 37: “The Storyteller’s Death” by #AnnDávilaCardinal.

Set between Puerto Rico and New Jersey, Isla, our half-Boricua protagonist inherits a gift (or a curse?) from the cuentistas in her family: their stories play themselves out in front of her. Naturally, family secrets are unearthed. Lots and lots of them. Dávila Cardinal’s first adult novel, but it read like YA. There’s a flicker of something meaningful near the end, but it feels a little late.

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Hoochie Daddy Jan 1

Book 38: “The Saint of Bright Doors” by #VajraChandrasekera.

What an arresting premise. The opening is great too. And it goes in all sorts of unexpected directions. It drags a bit in places while operating in a context I know very little about: Sri Lankan history and Buddhism, by way of fantasy. I still found much of it engaging and learned of the author’s blog post on “Unbuddhism”that should be read once you’re done with this: https://vajra.me/2021/10/27/%e0%b6%85%e0%b6%b6%e0%b7%9e%e0%b6%af%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%b0%e0%b6%9a%e0%b6%b8-unbuddhism/

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

අබෞද්ධකම/unbuddhism

you see, like fandom, buddhism is a way of life

Vajra Chandrasekera

Hoochie Daddy Jan 1

And that’s the end of my book thread for 2024. Didn’t read as much because of being exhausted from work, which is pitiful when I think about what matters. Also did poorly on posting about them soon after I finished each one. Sorry for spamming the Bookstodon group on NYE (again!). Here’s the full list on #Bookwyrm:

http://books.theunseen.city/user/otts/2024-in-the-books?key=4221c38361ae4f80b896dc9e436e734f

@bookstodon #Bookstodon #Books

Luis Villa Jan 1

@ottsatwork thanks for sharing that blog post, it’s a powerful pushback on the “atheist Buddhism” that has a lot of readers in the West.

His more recent book, Rake’s Progress, is amazing and well worth a read if you enjoyed Bright Doors — IMHO it has the consistency and through-line that Bright Doors almost had but fell frustratingly short of.

@ottsatwork Good to know, I recently put this on my hold list at the library 🫤

Hoochie Daddy Jan 1

@Likewise If you end up (hate) reading it, would love to hear your take.

John McChesney-Young Jan 1

@ottsatwork @bookstodon Thank you for the warning! I enjoyed The Cartographers more than it objectively deserved but I'll steer clear of this one.

Hoochie Daddy Jan 1

@jmccyoung Yeah, if you value your time. Unlike me lol