Scythe is one of the best scifi books I’ve read in a long time. It makes readers think about so many things—death, technology, knowledge—in ways that most of us probably avoid. It was interesting to read about a world most people would consider to be a utopia, no conflict, no sickness, no natural death…one that could so easily be turned upside down—not just by the scythes, but by anyone who decided they wanted to know more. All of mankind’s knowledge is at their fingertips, it isn’t too much of a stretch to think that one day someone will become curious and go looking through the Thunderhead, and then find weaknesses that will bring the Thunderhead and society as they know it crashing down around them. Also, the Scythdom, Scythe Goddard has already proven that there is discontent and a desire for greater power, though most of his immediate followers have been killed in the first book, there are always more looking to grasp on to whatever tendrils of power they can find. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series, but most of all I’m very excited to see if chaos and destruction will reign in the end.
I have long believed that you have to be in the mood to read a certain type of book. Like with any relationship, the timing must be right, otherwise, you won’t be open to the writing voice/style/ content. Hot tea doesn’t quench every thirst and sushi doesn’t sate every palate. It’s possible Katherine Center’s books are the exception to that rule.
In content, the ironically and aptly titled How to Walk AwayandThings to Save in a Fire, are vastly different. How to Walk Away follows a lovelorn protagonist as she suffers quite immediately from a tragic accident throughout her complicated recovery; Things to Save in a Fire follows a stoic firefighter as she navigates a new bro-filled New England landscape.
In style, Center manages to create reading experiences that are simple without being simplistic and heart-warming without being heart-cloying. In short, they are satisfying reads - well crafted with personal triumph at the center, padded with bits of romance, conflict and existential crisis. The books are well-written, practically paced, bittersweet and fluid and with enough complication to keep the pages turning. And what’s particularly gratifying about these books is that the happy endings are not necessarily what you’d expect.
Things You Save in a Fire will be released August 2019, but you can grab a copy of How to Walk Away now. In fact, I just saw it on sale in Barnes & Noble.
It’s refreshing to know that there are books out there that are enjoyable no matter what the season. Like iced tea - a little sweet, a little tart, but extremely satisfying whenever you are thirsty for something tasty.
*B3 would like to thank St. Martin’s Press for the ARCs!
This was such an interesting read, I was honestly really pleasantly surprised by hw much I enjoyed this book. If you’ve been reading my review for a while, then you’ll know that the thing I hate about reading is expectation. If my expectations are too high because of a ‘hype’ then I’m always disappointed - so my outlook is to always go in with low expectation. But this book really took me by surprise. I was kindly sent a copy of this book by Hodder & Stoughton, and I don’t know why, but I’m always a little hesitant when I get sent books by publishing companies and feel a lot of pressure to read them. But I decided that this would be one of my holiday reads…little did I realise that it would be so profound.
The novel is in the form of diary entries, so follows the life of the narrator from when she’s very young through into her adult life in South Africa - her education as a teenager, training as a doctor, her relationship with her mother. But most importantly, the novel also comments on a number of socio-political events and attitudes within South Africa. Throughout the book there’s a lot of commentary on the divide within the community between light and dark skinned South Africans, as well as xenophobic attitudes towards individuals from North African countries and the discrimination that they face/faced.
There are so many interesting comments made throughout the novel, without giving too much of the novel’s plot away (as to prevent spoilers), its interesting to read about the inability to speak out against a majority view or ideology. I became so engrossed in this book that I managed to start, and finish it in a matter of hours. Due to the length and layout of the book, it was very easy to just power read, but the cliff hangers and content also helped keep me hooked too.
I’m so so in love with this book and everything that it discusses and the way it brings taboo subjects into the forefront of narrative, you’d be a fool not to read it. Completely and utterly deserving of its 9/10 rating, Evening Primrose is a touching and thought provoking novel that will leave you completely stunned - a must read this summer.
As a black woman, I don’t often find brilliant works of fiction with black protagonists. They are especially rare in the romance novel genre. But every once in a while, I’ll find an amazing work that takes my breath away. Queen Move is one of those books. I love Kennedy Ryan because her characters are amazing and her romances are epic. Queen Move was brilliant and I enjoyed EVERY SECOND of reading it!! Please check this one out!!
Insider deal! At the Central Avenue Publishing site, for the month of April, get 50% off ALL books—including mine—with code POETRYMONTH50. Go nuts, buy books!
Central Avenue is a small Canada-based press that publishes esteemed writers such as Trista Mateer, Zane Frederick, Catarine Hancock, Iain S. Thomas, F. S. Yousaf, Parker Lee, Makenzie Campbell, Courtney Peppernell, Emily Juniper, C. H. Armstrong, Jennifer Haupt, and Alex Lyttle. Well worth your shopping dollars.
For all who are interested in keeping the planet safe and healthy, I recommend reading nonfiction (and a lot of it!). As a young person (who may not be immediately taken seriously) it will help you educate people on important topics in a way that is factual and sophisticated!
Here are some of my all time favorite nonfiction booksabout our planet, where the future is heading, and what we as a collective can do to take action!
The Ends of The World by Peter Brannen (10/10!!)
This is a FANTASTIC, funny, and highly informative book that came out this year about the historic effects of global warming, and where we might be heading as a result. It reads like a narrative, and gives a really interesting perspective on global warming from a historical, geological and biological perspective! In the words of Michael Pye “This is a book about rocks: a vivid, fascinating, sometimes horrifying book about rocks and the story they tell about all the past and future lives of our planet”.
Things you’ll learn about: climate change, global warming, geology, the past 5 mass extinctions, paleontology, gigantic boney fishes, climate change, dinosaurs, and coral bleaching!
Spineless by Juli Berwald (8/10)
Spineless is an informative, beautifully written book about jellyfish and their effects on the oceans and ourselves. Berwald tells her personal journey studying jellyfish from start to finish in a way that is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes infuriating, and always incredibly interesting!
Things you’ll learn about: jellyfish (literally everything about them, how to catch them, how to eat them, how to raise them, the big, the small, how they broke a nuclear reactor, eating habits, mating, EVERYTHING), global warming, the scientific community, japan, etc. etc.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (10/10)
A classic. Just a classic cornerstone environmentalism book. Everyone should read it sometime in their lives. Rachel Carson is a badass environmentalist who paved the way for female scientists and wrote a startling, unflinchingly honest book about the effects of DDT on wildlife (in the 1960s no less!). I love this book to pieces, please read!
Things you’ll learn about: effects of pesticides on the environment, history, and the effects of widespread human ignorance
the LOST species by Christopher Kemp (7/10)
This book is incredibly unique! It focuses on the importance of natural history museums and collections, and how many species are discovered in the musty boxes and crates of huge natural history collections. The book is broken into small sections, each talking about a different species found in this way. Its full of surprises and narratives!
Things you’ll learn about: endangered species, how natural history collections are built, how said collections are incredibly important and are falling into disrepair because no one cares about them, mass frog extinctions, and 30 ft. parasites that live in the stomachs of sperm whales!
new genre of youtuber should be the sequel to letsplayers. letsreaders. its like an audiobook but the narrator keeps reacting to whats happening in it and has a facecam so you can see their exaggerated reactions
as gregor samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. no wayyyyyyyy. oh my god. he. he became a bug ????? no fucking wayyyy oh my god. thats so. oh my god. anyways if you want to awake to a world of no horrors then check out our sponsor nord vpn who will protect you from all those uneasy dreams of-
Like when Obscurus Lupa livestreamed reading Modelland and the novelization of Theodore Rex?
“’Night Boat to Tangier’ is further evidence that Barry, the Irish author of boisterous dark comedies about gangsters (“City of Bohane”) and rock stars (“Beatlebone”), is a writer of inspired prose, a funny and perceptive artist who can imbue a small story with tremendous depth.” -Kevin Canfield, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Though much about Sandworm remains unknown, including its exact motivations, Greenberg is an adroit investigator and gifted metaphorist. His lucid, dynamic exposé is a must-read for those worried about the vulnerabilities of the digital world.” -Publisher’s Weekly
“This‘unique and chilling novel,’ as John Vernon calls it in his review, is inspired by an 18th-century advertisement in which an aristocratic amateur scientist sought a volunteer to be completely isolated from human society, locked in a basement for seven years. ‘In a novel premised on stagnation,’ Vernon writes, ‘the incremental but inevitable deterioration of both major characters becomes an unexpectedly gripping drama, fueled by the attraction of repulsion.’” -The New York Times
“The Body isn’t just a physical, circulatory, and neurological map. It’s a story about ourselves and how scientists came to discover the intricacies inside us, how everything conspires to keep us upright and walking around despite some common invaders—bacteria, viruses—that constantly seek to undermine us…This fun ride through the human body will have you simultaneously laughing and blushing about how surprisingly little you know about your personal meat suit.” -The Daily Beast
Kevin told me I’d been hating on a lot of books lately. But that’s not totally true! (Though it is sometimes.) You shall see! Today I found a great new cover on a book I often think aboutAND bought two highly recommended novels from readingfriends that I trust. So there.
InAlyssa Cole’s psychological thriller When No One is Watching, Sydney Green is adrift in a Brooklyn changing faster than she can keep up with. Lifelong neighbors are disappearing, white, paranoid, disdainful people are moving in, vulture real estate agents are trying to get her to part with her mother’s home. She teams up (reluctantly) with new white neighbor Theo to put together a more accurate and inclusive tour of the neighborhood and try to preserve some of its real history.
But as they dive deeper, weird things continue to happen in the community. Things get darker, stranger, the treats get bigger. And soon, they’re embroiled in a conspiracy that no one will believe.
I read this book in one day. I started it on the edge of the lake and finished it while eating dinner later that night—I could literally not put it down. Cole brings white woman tears, the slow prowl of a cop car, the microaggressions of neighbors, the frustrating bullshit spouted on a NextDoor page, rising rent, impossible binds, and more into a Get Out–like tale of psychological horror—surveillance, shadows, doubles, threats, set-ups, intruders.
And most of all, Cole infuses her book with an overwhelming dread that is based more in reality than in any conspiracy: the dread of what will go next, which neighborhood institution will fall overnight, which neighbor will disappear without saying goodbye. Cole’s thriller left me buzzing with anxiety and anger in all the right ways.
Content warnings for medical bias and neglect, gentrification, racism, depression, panic attacks, forced institutionalization, gaslighting, deportation threat, land theft.
I know it’s … a bit… late… here are my favourite graphic novel/manga/webtoon reads of 2021 in no particular order (trigger warnings that I noticed in the read more)
Solanin written and illustrated by Inio Asano Death, Car accident, Blood, Sexual content, Grief, Alcohol
Venus in the Blind Spot written and illustrated by Junji Ito translated by Yuji Oniki and Jocelyne Allen Body horror, Gore, Death, Blood, Violence, Murder, Death of a parent, Sexual content, Animal death, Suicide, Sexual assault
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse written and illustrated by Charlie Mackesy None that I noticed
Fangirl, Vol. 1: The Manga written by Rainbow Rowell, illustrated by Gabi Nam and Adapted by Sam Maggs Panic attacks/disorders, Mental Illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Eating disorder
The Reason Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke’s Mansion written by Milcha and illustrated by Gorae Alcohol, Murder, Animal death, Kidnapping
The Tea Dragon Society written and illustrated by K. O'Neill Blood, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief
Happiness vol. 1-10 written and illustrated by by Shūzō Oshimi translated by Kevin Gifford Blood, Murder, Violence, Grief, Death, Gore, Child Death, Cannibalism, Death of Parent, Sexual Content, Kidnapping, Bullying, Panic Attacks, Body horror,Child abuse, Animal Cruelty, Gun Violence, Torture, Confinement and Medical content
The Complete Persepolis written and illustrated by Marjane Satrapi translated by Mattias Ripa, Blake Ferris and Anjali Singh Death, Violence, Misogyny, Police Brutality, Suicide attempt, War, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Sexism, Murder, Xenophobia, Racism, Grief, Islamophobia, Alcohol, Rape, Homophobia, Child death
The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures written and illustrated by Noelle StevensonMental illness, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming
Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind (Vol. 1) written by Yuval Noah Harari illustrated by David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave I can’t really recall
(In…almost… alphabetical order, trigger warnings in the ‘keep reading’)
This year… has been a lot… but at least during the first half I read a lot of good books … anyway here are my top 10 of 2021… (like last year I’ll do a separate one for graphic novels)
Trigger Warnings
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston: Bullying, Racism, Grief, Kidnapping, and Murder
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: Death, Blood, Body Horror, Grief, Ableism
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson Sexual assault, Homophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Deadnaming, Violence, Hate crime, Transphobia, Cancer, Drug use, Terminal illness, Incest, and Bullying
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Infidelity, Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Racism, and Xenophobia
Passing by Nella Larsen Racial slurs, Racism, Infidelity, Toxic Relationship, Murder, Suicide, and Death
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Stalking, Abortion, Miscarriage, Body shaming, and Suicide
Underland by Robert Macfarlane Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Claustrophobia
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Blood, Death, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny , Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Homophobia, Animal death, Child death, and Infidelity
I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya Transphobia, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, Bullying, Hate crime, Misogyny, Infidelity, Racism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Sexual Harassment
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo: Death, Animal Death, Blood, Infidelity, Violence, and Sexual content
Bunny By Mona Awad Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Blood, Death, Violence, Body Horror, Murder, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Mental Illness, Emotional Abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dementia, Hate crime, Violence, Sexual content, Racism, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Murder, and Drug use
Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert: Sexual Content, Chronic Illness, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Toxic Relationship, Ableism, Physical Abuse, Medical Trama, Domestic Abuse, and Mental Illness
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Child death, Suicide, Alcoholism, Grief
This is a book that I think every homesteader will find intriguing. The bottom says:
“Deftly steering clear of dogma, never sounding like a sanctimonious scold, Eric Brende makes a persuasive case that most of us would enjoy life more by radically minimizing our reliance on modern technology. Better Off is a buoyant, thought-provoking, and very entertaining read.” ~ Jon Krakauer
