Delicate artwork in coloured pencil and watercolour illustrate this graphic memoir about coming out as a lesbian later in life. Translation from French by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle. #CanadianAuthor #LGBTQ #comics
Delicate artwork in coloured pencil and watercolour illustrate this graphic memoir about coming out as a lesbian later in life. Translation from French by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle. #CanadianAuthor #LGBTQ #comics
Throughout this memoir, Delporte references feminist and lesbian writers and filmmakers. In this illustration, she is holding a copy of Dorothy Allison‘s Skin.
What didn‘t kill me didn‘t make me stronger. Time hasn‘t healed all wounds.
And yet here I am, still very much alive.
Recent bails, recent audio and graphic memoir reads, and lots of chat about genre categories in my latest booktube video:
https://youtu.be/6DWRwKxqiKw
A soft pick: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The excellent audio production, with three readers to perform the three storylines, kept me engaged while listening to this feminist tale of witchcraft magic that links women in 1619, 1942 and 2019, even though I wished for more nuance in the vile male characters and a less predictable plot.
Superb storytelling, farcical humour and a vivid sense of place carry this historical / high seas adventure / bildungsroman / romance / heist novel centred on a real 18th-century artifact created in southern India: an automaton in the shape of a tiger eating a man. Serious themes—colonialism, imperialism & racism—give this story of self-reinvention heft. Audiobook read by Shawn K Jain.
“A baby kicks; a bloodshot Raja yowls.
A young man speeds downhill; a father growls.”
Music and languages are highlighted in this chapter. I love how minor characters introduced in earlier chapters come to the fore, deepening themes of cultural, religious and sociopolitical changes happening in India. What about that parakeet? Is it a minor character who will further the plot as well? #SuitableBoy2024
A National Book Award finalist—but I think this could have been shorter. The portrayal of life in northern Finland in 1851 & the culture clash between the Indigenous nomadic Sámi people and the white settlers is well done. I was also fascinated by the real historic figure, Lars Levi Laestadius, and the start of his religious sect, which had come up in other novels that I read. In an NPR interview, Pylväinen says she was raised in Laestadianism.
She always wanted to talk about things. She always wanted to understand them. Pick them up and poke them. She could never be left out of the knowing. […] He wanted to say, what will it matter? What will the knowing do?
The excellent audiobook production has a cast of 9 readers to voice the multiple viewpoints in this moving novel that begins with a Cheyenne survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and his descendants through to contemporary times. Displacement, addiction, home and healing. The novel is linked to the characters in Tommy Orange‘s debut There, There and it‘s every bit as powerful.
… even wisdom, which word she hates, soaked as it is in new-ageyness, or so Native American-sounding you automatically hear the word accompanied by a Native American flute or an eagle‘s cry. Except that the sound effect everyone considers an eagle‘s cry is in fact a red-tailed hawk.
The only one who can save him is himself, and that is true for everyone.
Recent Reads March 13: literary salon; Indigenous stories; audiobooks; poetry; women in translation
https://youtu.be/1PFEt1JRWf8
#booktube #CanadianAuthor
The novel takes place in 1950 and Vikram Seth has skillfully woven into his storylines the political and cultural background of India at the time. In Part 5, the prior information we‘ve gleaned about the Nawab Sahib (a Muslim and one of the largest landowners, and his old friend Mahesh Kapoor (a Hindu, the Minister of Revenue) comes to a head with passing of the legislative bill to end the zamindari system. What‘s the fallout? #SuitableBoy2024
The unusual structure of this novel is part of its appeal: Ada is reborn several times across 7 centuries & a spirit being who takes the form of objects—a broom, a passport—narrates. The disorienting shifts in perspective add texture to the themes of power structures, racism & and search for home. The final Ada, in 2019 Berlin, is such a great character, showing how layers of history affect the present. #audiobook #translation
Withdrawing herself from humiliating situations was not submission for Ada, it was resistance.
I‘ve tagged the most recent audiobook that has accompanied my knitting project. One glove is done, the other still has 3 fingers yet to be knitted. #LitsyCrafters
In 2022, German American illustrator Nora Krug interviewed weekly the same two individuals over the course of a year: a Ukrainian journalist who had been born in Russia, and a Russian artist living in St Petersburg who opposed the war in Ukraine. If you want an idea about the psychological effects of war on individuals, as well as daily practical challenges, this is the book to pick up. Eye-opening and tactful. #comics #nonfiction
Friday Reads March 1: Canadian books, women‘s literature in translation, Sámi people, war in Ukraine, historical fiction, speculative fiction, Black authors & queer mermaids
https://youtu.be/GaYHVvotA7I
Various new characters are introduced—Haresh, Jagat Ram, Dr Durrani—and it‘s a delight to get to know them through their interactions with people we‘ve already met. I‘m struck by Seth‘s ability to give his characters complexity, such as Kedernath‘s attitude: he‘s not anti-Muslim, but against religious zealotry in general, despite what happened to him and his brother when they left Lahore. Question: Is Haresh a suitable boy?
#SuitableBoy2024
In my estimation, Helen Humphreys can do no wrong. Her latest novel recounts the life of Henry David Thoreau, a subject perfectly suited for Humphreys, who has written extensively on human observations of the natural world. Every time I opened this book, I felt a sense of peace and relaxation. #CanadianAuthor
…it was impossible to keep on top of spring. At a certain point, it just raced ahead, and Henry was left stumbling behind, never able to catch up to what was blooming or fruiting or here on the wing. He used to be frustrated by this, but now that he was older, he just gave over to it when it happened. He was even a bit relieved when it did happen, when spring became a green furnace that burned through every hour.
Henry found no comfort in the changing weather or light, but was reassured by the constancy of the lichen on the bark of the trees and the surface of the rocks.
I find myself wishing that Putin will die. This feels bad because I never used to wish death on anyone. Now I feel such a desire. There‘s a cognitive dissonance in my head.
Nine powerhouse authors have contributed to this collection of weird stories about collections for teens. I was so pleased to see that YALSA chose this as the latest Printz winner! Every story is strong yet I have a favourite: David Levithan writes about a boy who steals from other people‘s collections… but only the least valuable item. #YA #shortstories
Six Recent Reads on booktube: Indigenous & queer, fiction & nonfiction, food, flowers & opera
https://youtu.be/GNPMIrW6VQA
(I‘ve tagged my favourite of the bunch)
What happens to young women whose adolescent sexuality is controlled, whose bodies‘ every movement is surveilled? Exit strategies and maps. We draw them up and go over the routes. We try the exits sometimes, at our own peril, too, because it‘s worth it to know that exiting could work. This would be like someone pulling open an exit door on an in-flight plane just to make sure it worked.
[strange to read this passage after seeing news above]
“A couple glide down-river in a boat,
A mother hears that mischief is afloat.”
Playful shenanigans, ridiculous poetry, a sad movie and songs of longing set the mood for romantic trysts and buckets of tears in Part 3. Is there a future for Lata and Kabir?
#SuitableBoy2024
Her mother had gone through two chapters of the Gita that she recited every day at dawn. The Gita asked for detachment, tranquil wisdom, indifference to the fruits of action. This was a lesson that Mrs Rupa Mehra would never learn, could never learn. The lesson did not suit her temperament, even if its recitation did. The day she learned to be detached and indifferent and tranquil she would cease to be herself. #SuitableBoy2024
This electrifying picture book biography of Queen Harish, a Rajasthani drag performer, is told in verse by Jyoti Rajan Gopal. The illustrations by Svabhu Kholi are gorgeous. The message—follow your dreams and you will be rewarded—is inspiring. It was awarded a Stonewall Honor by the American Library Association and has earned many starred reviews. What else do you need to know? #LGBTQ #kidlit
“Svabhu Kohli is an independent visual storyteller. Deeply inspired by the natural world and its mechanics, their work lives on the intersection of magical realism, visual storytelling and community engagement.” —from their website: https://www.svabhukohli.com
I was blown away by Kohli‘s art in the tagged book, so I went to their website to learn more.
My latest booktube episode: Recent Reads February 20: something for every age of reader in these 6 great books!
https://youtu.be/AnPKGOaIAPc
#LGBTQ #picturebooks #kidlit #SFF #comics #memoir #birds #Indigenous #Canadian
A small group of Cree teens sit around a campfire after dark and tell scary stories that draw on traditional folklore as well real life horrors like Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, addictions and mental health demons. Cree cartoonist Christopher Twin grew up on the Swan River First Nation and now lives in Edmonton Alberta. His spiky art and use of dark colours add to the creepy atmosphere in this entertaining graphic novel. #Canadian
I‘m very familiar with people using “clicks” to mean kilometres, talking about either distance or speed, but encountering it in this book by an Alberta author made me stop to consider: is this a Canadianism? Littens, what do you say?
The Mahabharata, one of Hinduism‘s main texts, is about a great war between two sides of the same family, making this the perfect recurrent backdrop to this tragic multigenerational saga of a Tamil family in Sri Lanka and, later, Australia. It starts in the 1930s and ends in contemporary times, with only the youngest family members emerging unscathed by the brutal civil war between Sinhalese and Tamils. #audiobook
She fiddled with the medallion at her neck. It was St Christopher, the Catholic patron of travellers, given to her by Aachi. Her grandmother was a devout Hindu who unashamedly prayed to all gods & saints, just in case. Her grandfather overlooked this religious indiscretion on the grounds that Jesus lived with his mother so he seemed like a good Hindu boy anyway.
Originally published in chapters in a monthly literary journal in 1978-79, this quiet Japanese novel follows a year in the life of a sleep-deprived mother and her child after her husband leaves her. She is not always a good mother, but she does her best. I could relate to her failings, like when she left it to the very last minute to invite guests to her daughter‘s 3rd birthday. The subtle power of this story crept up on me. #womenintranslation
The apartment had windows on all sides.
I spent a year there, with my little daughter, on the top floor of an old four-storey office building. We had the whole fourth floor to ourselves, plus the rooftop terrace.
An elegant, melancholy novel set in near-future Europe, where an art historian recovering from trauma is archiving a private library in a once-grand house that‘s now in ruins. Her journal entries are interspersed with her ekphrastic writings, mostly about sexual violence depicted in paintings by the Old Masters, but also of work by her first love, JMW Turner. Meanwhile, an obscenely rich man is making his way to her. #CanLit
In Tabula Rasa, though the scarred surfaces of the tables bear evidence of mutilation, the rebuilt forms also speak of the need to piece together the fragments of a fractured life. Salcedo has spoken of how the victims of sexual violence live with the constant balance between destruction and mending, the unrelenting effort to overcome disintegration.
Each sculpture was the chaos of memory made tangible. Art as a way of nullifying the past, of moving the self beyond pain.
February 16: poetry as refuge; queer history + fiction from Japan, Finland, Canada, UK & Australia
https://youtu.be/yjknPyadxC8
#booktube #CanLit #womenintranslation #audiobooks
I really enjoyed Maan‘s narrative arc in Part 2: he wakes up smiling in the opening sentence and we can assume he is smiling with the turn of events as the chapter ends too. Although that relationship will likely not end well for him. And I‘m afraid that Maan‘s mischief during Holi will not end well for Pran.
[internet image]. #SuitableBoy2024
An amazing, amusing biography in comics format about one of the most important military leaders in the American Revolution, Baron von Steuben, a flamboyant homosexual who spoke no English, yet took charge of a disorganized Continental army, led them to victory, and wrote a guidebook for training American soldiers that remained in use for a century. #Queer #LGBTQ #GraphicNonfiction
Look at Catherine (the Great) shooting daggers at her husband 😆
“Okay, but how can we call a dead guy from the 1700s gay? Even if he was buried in sequins, is that appropriate? Is it accurate?”
I like that the issue of terminology is discussed in this biography.