Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill. Every school on the continent needs copies of this. It's an accessible overview of the history of Indigenous resistance against European colonizers across Turtle Island. The narrative that gets pushed generally is "we came, we fucked them over (but we meant well!!!), they put up no resistance because they didn't understand how European colonization or capitalism worked, and it's sad but we get their stuff now 'cause they're basically vanquished peoples." Obviously this isn't the case, and I think the portrait of diverse Indigenous cultures continuing to fight back is a critical pushback against that. The art is graphic and punchy and works perfectly with the themes.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. This was a quick and fun read about supervillains. Two college friends discover that the way to get superpowers is through near-death experiences, so they do that, and everything goes horribly wrong. They both go down the supervillain route in a fight that's grey vs. darker grey. I was a bit put off by the fridging of a character early in on the story and the characters' casual misogyny, though I guess that's a longstanding genre trope, but it's balanced a bit by some other decently written female characters. I'll probably read the sequel too.

Currently reading: Nothing yet, got another big pile of Indigenous lit on my shelf to read next.

Comments

[rdi]

I have The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, along with the The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book and The Antifa Comic Book, all of which I picked up at TCAF last year, but like most stuff I pick up at TCAF they're sitting a pile of things picked up at TCAF waiting to be read.

[sabotabby]

This is why I’ve mostly stopped buying books/going to TCAF.

[joymoose]

I forget - are you on Goodreads? I don’t think you are on my list there.

[sabotabby]

I’m not. I keep meaning to join but then questioning whether I need another social media.

[joymoose]

Seeing your friends reviews when you look at a book’s page is the 1 and only social aspect I love.

[sabotabby]

It's definitely got its appeal.