Many aspects of the writing style annoyed me in this nonfiction book, but most glaring is the author‘s use of past tense when she‘s actually describing current situations:
“The Mam were one of 24 indigenous cultures in Guatemala, a country where nearly 50% of the population were indigenous people, most of whom dwelled in rural areas & depended on subsistence & small-scale agriculture for survival.”

Equity, grief, guilt & search for identity, as seen through 18-year-old Jay Reguero, whose father is Filipino & mother is White American. When his cousin is murdered in the Philippines, Jay travels there to find out what happened. Duterte‘s war on drugs is an important backdrop, while the tensions within Jay‘s extended family are explored & characters are believably developed. One of many strengths: inclusion of queer family members. #ownvoices

#audiodyeing - prepped elecampane flowers today to make yellow dye.

All the stories follow a similar pattern. Someone is accused without evidence. They are killed without mercy. Then the police cover it up without regret. Of course, the official report reads that the suspect resisted arrest, but this is contradicted by videos, anonymous eye witness accounts, or forensic evidence.

#7days7covers #covercrush

I like this marketing. Almost made me buy some.

Growing up as sheltered as I had, books provided a much needed window into worlds I would never experience. They could afford me the comfort, safety, adventure and glamour I didn‘t have access to but so deeply craved. I could travel anywhere in the world, even if in my real life I was barely allowed to leave the house.

An unsettling alternate history set in 1997, with America‘s citizens enthralled to virtual reality and suffering the aftermath of neurological warfare. 18-year-old Michelle is on a road trip mission with her sentient robot, surrounded by eerie additions to the Mojave dessert & mountain landscapes on their way to the Pacific. This oversized illustrated novel has amazing artwork across double pages. Surreal, creepy & beautiful. #graphicnovel

The illustrations in this science fiction novel are outstanding.

…it turned out to be some kind of shooting range, and all the ducks were riddled with impacts from various kinds of large-caliber rounds.

A dog stood between two tree trunks, a lonely little white chihuahua. It was wearing a tiny coat and was trembling and looking at us with its ears pointing straight up.

He left with a bounce in his step. You could call it a limp, but Raju preferred to think of it as a bounce.

#7days7covers #covercrush

It‘s a dyeing day today. Playing with fibre in my garage.

#7days7covers #covercrush

#7days7covers #covercrush

Thanks for tagging me, @arubabookwoman

Our monthly literary salon was tonight. It is always a special evening, a gathering of like-minded friends. One of the men got so emotional reading one of his own pieces that he had to take a short break. (I loved his poem.) I read some poetry from the tagged New Zealand collection.

In the past four months, I‘ve read three books in which young queer people hang out on rooftops to chat. Do any of you know of similar examples? #LGBTQ

Chocolate melon—a flavour combination I first encountered in the tagged book—is my most recent ice cream invention. I was dubious, but it actually tastes good. Recipe: 250 ml heavy cream, whipped; 150 ml sweetened condensed milk; 250 ml very ripe cantaloupe, puréed; 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder. Mix together, freeze. So easy!

“Today we‘re going to make an American pastry—muffins!!”
It was fun to view muffin-making through Japanese eyes.

This #manga series that follows a gay Tokyo couple & their friends & colleagues continues to entertain me. I‘m wrapped up in the characters like it‘s a soap opera. The #translation by Jocelyne Allen continues to be awkward, but I don‘t really mind. Each chapter features the details of food preparation for a menu; I often come away with ideas for something to try at home. This time, it‘s sweet potato rice.

Alternating storylines told from close perspective of 2 main characters in 19th c America: Lurie, orphaned as a child shortly after emigrating from the Ottoman Empire, & Nora, a settler struggling with regrets in Arizona Territory. The 3rd MC is Burke, a camel. It was well worth getting to know them in a tale that gradually gains momentum. I could feel the want, “That vast & immutable want everybody, dead or alive, carried with them all the time.”

“He‘d forgive you soon enough. Boys always do.”
Desma espoused the kind of easy faith in children only held by people who‘d never raised any themselves. And thank God for that, for it was good to be reminded of the merits by someone who lacked the constitution to withstand many of parenthood‘s most profound rewards: the shying & the sulking & the constant ingratitude, & eruptions like the one last night, […]

Congratulations Scott on your Litsy milestone! @GrilledCheeseSamurai I especially Iove seeing so much comics content from you, so I really should have tagged a favourite graphic novel instead of my favourite audiobook of 2019. 🤷‍♀️ #sixdigitsamurai
I would also like to extend a welcome to new user @Hazel2019 One of the great things about Litsy is the supportive and friendly atmosphere. Book nerds are nice.

A quiet, contemporary #ownvoices YA novel set in the American South with a likeable #nonbinary main character dealing with very hard things. The foremost of these is being kicked out of his home, the second is mental health issues. The #audiobook is narrated in the appealing voice of MW Wilson, who doesn‘t overdramatize the angst. LGBTQ

Hmmm. I wonder if there really is a gay bar in Shinjuku called Chocolate Banana? 🧐

The “Be who you are” Dr Seuss quote I spied while having supper in a café/liquor store/clothing & gifts shop in Field, BC is apt for the tagged audiobook that I was listening to at the time.

Spotted this at the Banff Centre Library and read the title story. It‘s great! I would keep going with the rest of the book except that I have too many other books currently on the go AND I neglected to bring my Alberta-wide library card that allows me to borrow here. This book is on the recently-announced Giller prize longlist.

#Comics format is used to share basic etiquette surrounding gender neutral pronoun use. Short and friendly. #LGBTQ

I‘m currently listening to an audiobook with a non-binary central character who uses they/them pronouns, so it was timely to spot the tagged book in a library display.

Shiro‘s boss loves eating alone, not having to think about nutrition for her family. Kenji‘s cholesterol is up. A colleague gets married & asks Shiro‘s advice regarding a weight-loss diet for her husband. From the “mystic healthy aura of yogurt” to eating sweets, chapters in issue 11 are thematically linked by ideas about nutrition. I like that many of the peripheral characters have story arcs here. #LGBT #manga #comics #translation

I had heard that fresh parsley is good for deodorizing garlic from your breath, but this same quality from apples is unfamiliar. 🍎🧐

“Oooooh, spongy! And the colour just screams egg! Looks so yummy ~ ❤️❤️”

(“…the colour just screams egg” Is the humour in this series inadvertent, or is it tongue in cheek?)

The epigraph for the tagged novel.

“This is like a menu for a ladies‘ night out. I never would have thought of it.”

🧐What makes it a lady‘s choice? Too many vegetables? 🧐

I was on page 62 of this novel, thinking maybe I‘m not in the mood right now for a story set in 19th century America. Having just finished the exquisite Weep Not, Child by Ngugi Wa Thiong‘o about the injustices of colonialism, I‘m not exactly willing to open my heart to the hardships of settlers in the Wild West. And then I came upon the sentence above. Téa Obreht can seduce me with her words. I shall continue.

A qualified pick, for its independent women & rich #fantasy setting: an Islamic trade route city in a desert, populated by humans & djinn. Also good: use of Indic & Arabic words throughout, the respect for women & importance of chosen family. Not good: cheesy writing: “The stars glitter, smug in the security of their existence.“ “He kisses her with a heart forevers are made of.” I don‘t have much tolerance for romantic nonsense. #YA #Canadian

“This isn‘t the sort of decision that requires such an intense expression.” Shiro‘s thrifty nature is occasionally a source of humour. In this story arc, he is concerned about Kenji‘s cholesterol levels and the food budget: he is thinking that fish is a more expensive but healthier option instead of meat for meals.

On display at the Banff Centre Library. The covers on these editions are certainly different from the ones I‘m used to on the English language editions.

1️⃣tagged
2️⃣I‘m more into dry humour, rather than the laugh-out-loud kind. Most recently, Bina by Anakana Schofield made me laugh aloud.
3️⃣Maggie Terry by Sarah Schulman (dark, smart & funny)
4️⃣masala dosa
#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

Okay, so now I have learned how to reheat a steamed bun:
“Put 1/4 C water in a deep dish, then place two disposable chopsticks across it. Then place the pork bun on top of the chopsticks. Furthermore, cover it with a damp paper towel & wrap with plastic wrap. Microwave for just a minute & a half!!”
We don‘t get to see much of Shiro‘s boss in this series, but I like it when she gets a scene.

Owuor‘s fragmentary, poetic style shifted my brain into a different gear, not quite like anything I'd experienced before. The effect was visceral. All of my senses engaged. In Dust, desire is coupled with savagery; it's insatiable. Private sorrows entwine with a larger grief for the nation of Kenya. The narrative rambles back & forth through time; the threads come together with breathtaking assurance. Violence is countered with humanity & hope.

I‘ve just started the tagged classic and it is reminding me strongly of another Kenyan novel set in the same era: Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. This bodes well.

If it weren‘t for two things, the important content and the fact that it‘s this month‘s pick for my feminist book club, I doubt I would continue with this. The overwrought writing style is driving me around the bend!
“…her face was like a creased map. […] Elena didn‘t hesitate to move, or speak, or claim the space she occupied. She owned every breath expelled from her lungs, every movement, every word from her lips.”

“Without her, the room was empty.”
“The idea of marrying [redacted] terrifies him, mostly because of how much he wants to.”

I‘m two thirds of the way through and the clichés are irritating, but the setting and characters are compelling enough for me to persevere with this audiobook.

As Bly‘s anecdotes, and my own, indicate, a primary feature of the experience of staying in a psychiatric hospital is that you will not be believed about anything. A corollary to this feature: things will be believed about you that are not at all true.

We were exchanging truths, I realized, which is to say, we were cutting one another.

Heartbreaking autobiographical fiction in the form of a letter by a gay son to his illiterate Vietnamese American mother: “the very impossibility of your reading this at all makes my telling it possible.” It‘s told in tender fragments: “I‘m not telling you a story so much as a shipwreck—the pieces floating, finally legible.” It‘s a yearning for belonging, and a coming to terms with mental illness, queerness & loss. It‘s gorgeous. #LGBTQ

As I grew older and my symptoms worsened, my mother at times expressed deep remorse and guilt at the fact that she had passed this “suffering” on to me, and presently tells me that I would be better off not having children. There are two issues here: one being the act of passing on a genetic burden, and the other being my ability, as a woman living with severe mental illness, to be a good mother.

Yes, there was a war. Yes, we came from its epicentre. In that war, a woman gifted herself a new name—Lan—in that naming claimed herself beautiful, then made that beauty into something worth keeping. From that, a daughter was born, and from that daughter, a son.

All this time I told myself we were born from war—but I was wrong, Ma. We were born from beauty.