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NotCool

NotCool

Joined July 2018

review
NotCool
Indigo Children Volume 1 | Curt Pires, Rockwell White
Bailedbailed

Look, I like me some super powered creepy kids with powers on the run from governmental powers. I‘ve read and enjoyed Mai the Physic Girl, The Umbrella Academy, The Girl With Silver Eyes, many iterations of the X-Men, Rising Stars, and more. I‘ve watched many an x-file. But I was unmoved by this. It was a boring, unoriginal, pastiche. Also dudes, when creating your team, consider making more than 1 female character. We‘re 50% of the population.

dabbe #hailthebail! 🤩🤩🤩 4w
9 likes1 comment
review
NotCool
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Pickpick

This was a more in-depth and sensible look at mystery cults then I‘ve found in other sources. By which I mean the answer to what a mystery cult was, wasn‘t simply “mushrooms!”. I have reservations, but, I‘ve read worse books on mystery cults.

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NotCool
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Mehso-so

I need background info. For example the author writes about rickets, as a medical and dietary issue affecting German speaking troops. Then he goes on to scurvy. Did scurvy affect German militaries in the 1500‘s? Were there boats full of German soldiers so long they got scurvy? During a Crusade? In colonizing attempts? Don‘t make me guess! Don‘t make me research!!!!

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NotCool
In Utero | Chris Gooch
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Pickpick

This is so good! This is a great little kaiju story with friendship, quickly drawn but believable characters (I see you military guy, whose mask is resolutely under your nose at a biohazard site), and really striking imagery.

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NotCool
Faint of Heart | Kerilynn Wilson
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Pickpick

This has a unique visual language and sisters who love each other. Two things I enjoy. Reminds me of Repent Harlequin Said The Ticktock Man, in that the world building is more emotive than concrete. I could see someone drawing potentially problematic conclusions from this book, but on the whole I think it‘s sweet and hopeful.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

An interesting look at various awful moments in history. And useful addition to any time traveler‘s collection.

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NotCool
Homer and His Iliad | Robin Lane Fox
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Mehso-so

I like the Odyssey more than the Iliad. So maybe that‘s part of this, but the author is more trope then man. He tells you that he brings the Iliad with him when he travels and it never fails to move him to tears. I‘m picturing him on Southwest Airlines between a overtired toddler and their parent assuring them “It‘s okay! It‘s just…Achilles!” And sobbing.

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NotCool
Starling House | Alix Harrow
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Pickpick

Harrow has a way with prose that sinks into you. If you like Gaiman‘s Sandman for the layering of stories and myths, you might like this. If you like House of Leaves cause houses that are really labyrinths are cool, you might like this. If you‘ve ever looked up on a hill to see a light in a window and wished that was home, this is the book for you.

20 likes1 stack add
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NotCool
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Pickpick

This is a heavy read. The intertwining of racism, patriarchy, ableism, and celebrity makes for a toxic cocktail that echoes through generations. I‘d never really considered the gendered and racial dimensions of the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

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NotCool
The Dead Take the A Train | Richard Kadrey, Cassandra Khaw
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Pickpick

This Urban Fantasy is seeped in body horror with shades of dark academia, or the aftermath of dark academia. There‘s a trend I‘ve noticed (if 3 examples are a trend), an Ivy League education is a magic education, which invariably leads to a “job” in finance, evil finance. Idk, the lack of a magical middle class kinda makes me sad.

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NotCool
Yellowface | R F Kuang
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Pickpick

It feels like the world is trying to tell me something by giving my HBomberguy‘s 4 hour YouTube video on plagiarism AND Yellowface in the same weekend. Yellowface is a good book. But it‘s hard to read, it‘s hard to stay with a character who so consistently does the wrong thing and thinks she‘s righteous.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

This was fun! Light in tone but conscientious. It presented a bunch of stories I‘d never heard of before, like the space suit of the first man in space inflating too much for him to move in, until he released some air, or the woman who invented usable dishwashers and sold them to hotels. It‘s not as scatological as Mary Roach‘s work. But I‘d give it a try if you like her.

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NotCool
Panpan

This book spent way too long insulting its readers and not enough time presenting interesting science. I wonder who it‘s for? The author seems to be convinced that everyone who would read it is deeply stupid and she‘s talking about a statistician who says he‘s unpopular at weddings cause he brings up the statistic that 50% of marriages end in divorce. As if that didn‘t just make him rude and dull.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

I would like to write a pithy short review of this book, because it was excellent. I haven‘t read a space opera this good in awhile and I want you to read it too. If you ever read Ender‘s Game and have some thoughts, this might be for you. If you like dynamic characters who are bad at people but eventually figure out found family, this might be for you. If you like stories where humans are basically Klingons, this might be for you.

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NotCool
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“But the Wisdom is evil” said Kyr. “Not if it‘s ours,” Avi said. “Nothing‘s evil if it‘s on our side.”

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NotCool
Starling House | Alix Harrow
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I can still see the shine of the window through the gate. I step closer…staring up at that light and wishing, childishly, that it was shining for me. Like a porch light left on to welcome me home after a long day. I have no home, no porch light. But I have what I need, and that‘s enough. It‘s just that sometimes, God help me, I want more.

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NotCool
The Bewitching Hour | Ashley Poston
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Pickpick

This is niche, but: Tara, the character, deserved better than she got on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Tara was a quiet person in a show that prized fast dialogue (I love fast dialogue btw, but it wasn‘t the right venue to learn about Tara). A book from her pov, demonstrating both her strength and self doubt, is welcome.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

As someone who would not survive any sort of apocalypse, I always find myself weirded out by them. Especially the ones with tiny Utopias, as if these kind communities can only exist after everyone like me is dead. But this one shows different ways to deal with power; hoard it or share it. And I appreciate that.

blurb
NotCool
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Honestly, I wouldn‘t be opposed to Great British Bake Off cat host

6 likes1 stack add
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NotCool
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Pickpick

This book made me cry. It‘s so good. And I‘m so hungry now.

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NotCool
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Panpan

The artwork in this story is beautiful. But I feel like something was lost in translation. None of the characters seemed like able. There was a scene, off panel, that seemed like sexual assault. It included one of my least favorite versions of Sherlock Holmes. And I just felt kind of gross finishing this story.

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NotCool
Saga #65 | Brian K. Vaughan
This post contains spoilers
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Pickpick

I‘m beginning to wonder if Saga isn‘t about exactly what it says it‘s about, radical pacifism.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

Culinary history graphic novels are wonderful. But it‘s a huge topic to try to cover in a relatively short book and a lot of illustrations of cold cuts.

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NotCool
Know Your Station | Sarah Gailey
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Pickpick

This is a readable and enjoyable noir detective story set in dystopian sci-fi universe, where the morality of art and the morality of capitalism are set against each other and there‘s a clear winner. The plot twist isn‘t in the revelation of the murderer, it‘s in the degree to which oligarchs in the story are held accountable for their crimes.

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NotCool
Know Your Station | Sarah Gailey
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“It‘s going to go great.”
“Let‘s aim lower.”
“It‘s going to go fine.” “…Lower.” “Your life is finite and eventually you will die.” “Perfect.”

review
NotCool
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Pickpick

I was surprised how few movies mentioned in these essays I‘d seen. I wonder if I am just hopelessly ignorant about horror or if these writers were mostly part of a specific genre generational cohort. Not that those two things are mutually exclusive.

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NotCool
Half a Soul | Olivia Atwater
Pickpick

There was nothing wrong with this. But I will, someday, read something where the romantic leads don‘t immediately low-key despise each other.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

This is a fun little travelogue. I appreciate that the writers take such evident enjoyment out of seeing the world, seeing the world as themselves, and that their identities are multilayered enough that they‘ll talk ceaselessly of beer but also mention the Tardis.

Ericalambbrown I ordered this from my local bookshop and keep forgetting to pick it up! I need to do that because I love these two! 5mo
11 likes1 comment
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NotCool
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Pickpick

I am a little baffled by the sense the author builds, sometimes with direct quotes, that police and juries didn‘t know what to do when a woman committed a crime, as if women didn‘t go to prison all the time. Is it the fact that she seemed wealthy? Because there were women‘s prisons at the time but there weren‘t white collar prisons.

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NotCool
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Bailedbailed

Whew, did I hate this. It could be some internalized misogyny in me. Or it could be the weird, dystopian, vapid mess of many of the figures.

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NotCool
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Pickpick

I wrote a whole review and it was erased, so let me boil it down. This is kinda interesting. The moment it‘s set in is kinda cool. But I realized as I read it that I couldn‘t stop comparing it to the Carmilla YouTube series. So, somehow YouTube Carmilla has become my benchmark. I‘m also upset by what happened to Morgan, she deserved better.

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NotCool
Starter Villain | John Scalzi
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Pickpick

This is a lot of fun. The dolphin unionizers were so delightfully tired of human bs. Also I kind of love that truest relationship in this book was between a man and his cat.

Liatrek Listening to the audio now and loving it ❤️🐱🐈 6mo
17 likes1 stack add1 comment
quote
NotCool
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“We believe, in the defiance of all available evidence, that the arc of history bends not only towards justice, but wisdom and clarity. … American history suggests the exact opposite.”

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NotCool
Thornhedge | T. Kingfisher
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“Thorns die from the inside out, like priests”

NotCool I was going to put a picture of the book cover, but there was interference 6mo
7 likes1 comment
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NotCool
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“I didn‘t grow up around a great deal money, and spending all day being responsible for a host of books collectively worth more then I would make in my entire career was initially nerve wracking…the notion that I might accidentally slip and move the decimal point one way or the other still causes me to wake up in the dead of night and reach for my emotional support folio.”

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NotCool
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Mehso-so

This author and I do not read the same books or like the same movies. There‘s some interesting things here. But the author just called Kat from 10 Things I Hate About You a “pick me” twice and I‘m ready to riot.

8 likes1 stack add
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NotCool
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Pickpick

I went looking for this book because a) that is an incredible title and b) the author was on a really excellent episode of the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. It took me awhile to get into though, as the author from deep in socially isolated 2020 tried to prove the universalness and importance of handshaking and I, from 2023, was there for puns and snark.

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NotCool
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“The fist bump: positives - decreased chance of contagion. And upon seeing Obama do it a Fox News anchor declared that it could be seen as a “terrorist fist jab”. So really…it‘s also a litmus test for idiots.”

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NotCool
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Pickpick

The catharsis of watching Katchoo and Tambi team up to destroy a murderous, creepy tech billionaire can not be overstated. I don‘t read a lot of mysteries or true crime, but the investigation aspects of the story felt well done to me. And you just have to give it to Moore, he can draw two women with the same outfit and hair and you can tell them apart!

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NotCool
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Pickpick

This has lots of Willis standbys; the missed connections and building absurdity of romantic comedy, in-depth research into genres, miscommunication, the hapless friend, the guy who isn‘t the one the protagonist was set up with being the one she likes. And I love that all, I do. But I did wonder if the last few years had made me more cynical then I needed to be too enjoy this whole heartedly.

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NotCool
Translation State | Ann Leckie
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Pickpick

I really like this. Leckie does an incredible job of creating truly alien pov and then drawing the reader into them. The story deals with rape culture, trans identities, gender, and adoption in ways that makes me think this is going to be a book the young adults are going to continue to find and find solace in while the US loses its mind. Just an fyi, there is a scene that reads like and is treated like sexual assault.

11 likes2 stack adds
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NotCool
Translation State | Ann Leckie
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“If it was explained to them that I don‘t want-“
“No one is going to explain that to anyone. After all things are working out just fine for those of us in authority.”

review
NotCool
Bailedbailed

I didn‘t get very far into this book. I found the prose kinda purple, the certainty and nostalgia with which the author spoke of the Paleolithic era off-putting. “Everyone ate organic” the author tells us, “if you made it to adulthood you‘d probably get to be 60 to 80 years old”. Unless you develop a tooth abscess, the author doesn‘t mention.

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NotCool
Ride On | Faith Erin Hicks
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That moment when you realize how far apart you and a friend have grown will never not hurt, even if you like how you‘ve grown.

review
NotCool
The Borrower: A Novel | Rebecca Makkai
Mehso-so

Mmm. There were things about this book I though were excellent. Other things felt off. It was anticlimactic. The view of librarians the book presented felt dated, so does its view of evangelical Christians. It reminds me of Huckleberry Finn. There is a character on this huge quest to save another character and then it just kind of fizzles out.

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NotCool
X-Terminators | Leah Williams
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“Get in loser! We‘re going to therapy!”

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NotCool

Someone has played Portal, and it shows.

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NotCool
Saga #62 | Brian K. Vaughan
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“Kids, look at me. Like a lot of really kind, really helpful people you‘re going to meet in your life…Miss Vitch is a gigantic fucking liar.”

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NotCool
Salt Grows Heavy | Cassandra Khaw
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“karmic debt is a contrivance of despair”

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NotCool
Forest Hills Bootleg Society | Nicole Goux, Dave Baker
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There‘s a small part of Brooke that wants to be stuck in some dead-end town…like a really small, dark part…that she‘s probably not even aware of…don‘t judge her; there‘s loads of weird conflicting; unhealthy flaws that you have, and we‘re not giving you the side-eye…