Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: The Complete Lockpick Pornography by Joey Comeau. Be gay do crime. That's it, that's the whole two novellas. I really enjoyed this; it's anarchic and fun and well-written. There's some transphobic stuff (it's a character being transphobic, not the author) and some discussion of sexual and homophobic violence, so, TW I guess.

Whose Land Is It Anyway: A Manual for Decolonization, edited by Peter McFarlane & Nicole Schabus. This is a short, accessible collection of essays by Indigenous authors on decolonization. I wouldn't call it a manual, to be honest; it's about land, and restoring the land to its original stewards, whereas a manual suggests a more detailed analysis of the process. But it's a good overview of the issues involved in land title, education, and culture. What I really liked about it is that I could give it to a student or educator with minimal to no understanding of Indigenous title, and they'd have a good grounding written in plain language as opposed to legal terminology.

Currently reading: Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. Which one of you said I'd like this? You were right. This is exactly my jam. It's a murder mystery set at a magical boarding school, and is really fun so far. Our heroine, Ivy, is a hardboiled noir PI dropped into a magic school that is somewhere between Hogwarts and Brakebills on a sliding scale of genre deconstruction, which so happens to be the institution where her estranged sister, Tabitha, works. Given that I'm writing a mundane-applications-of-magic novel right now, I'm always hella cautious about reading things like this lest they influence me too much, but I'm also really into it.

Comments

[kore]

Be gay do crime. That's it, that's the whole two novellas

I am intrigued!

LOL I am sure I am one of the people who suggested Magic for Liars, I loved it. It pairs nicely with Ninth House. (I just read Catherine House, and as a scifi/ghost story it just doesn't work. But as a kind of allegory about a WoC in a prestige institution, it's rather scathing. Are we seeing the rise of a new sub-genre?)

[sabotabby]

Well, thank you! I've never heard of Ninth House.

[kore]

I liked it a lot! This is a good non-spoilery review: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/06/767335727/ninth-house-keeps-watch-over-bloody-mysteries

[sabotabby]

Oooh, this sounds good! And I liked her Russian fairy tale stuff. Hold placed.

[kore]

Aww yay! I hope you like it (I haven't read anything else by her, I don't think).

[mistersmearcase]

Speaking of kind of Brakebills, I was glancing at my kindle app the other day and think I may have at some point absent mindedly bought that Vita Nostra book. I had started reading a library kindle copy, which expired, and was not as into it as you were but interested, so anyway if I have it, I think I'll try to figure out where I was and start back up.

[sabotabby]

Oh yay! I hope you end up digging it.

It's way more of a deconstruction than even Magicians; it doesn't even fit in my comparison here.

[chagrined]

ooooh magical boarding school AND a noir PI heroine?? that sounds v promising :D

(alas i found the ebook thru my library but there's a 22 week w8 for it haha, GUESS I'LL START W8ING)

[sabotabby]

My reading habits these days:
* Read everyone's Wednesday Reading posts
* Post my own
* Wait until someone makes a "this sounds like this book" comment
* Put a bunch of holds on things

Eventually I get to read the books.

[chagrined]

I finally got to read Magic for Liars! And it was quite good! I managed to guess the ending but not until the slipup of saying "she was dying" instead of "died" haha. And I still hadn't put together EVERY clue. Anyway. Thanks for that rec. :) (I hope the author will write more stuff set in that world.)

[sabotabby]

Yay, I'm glad you liked it! Gailey seems to be quite prolific, so..hopefully?

[chagrined]

Oh cool, this is the 1st book I've read by them, I'll have to look into others. :)