I find it kind of crushing that the readerly side of book/literary twitter completely failed to make it over the wall, but I'm still going to post about books here sometimes. 🙃
(One of my people is on Mastodon so I can't say that much myself, but my kid's getting the Tiffany Aching books plus whatever the grandparents can scrabble up.)
@kissane Yeah, I probably only manage 25-50 books a year. When I was working at the library someone would take out 20 books every week, and I asked, and she actually did that 2 or 3 times a week and read all of them.
@kissane oh wrong way looks so good — adding it to my list!
I can't stop recommending Black Leopard, Red Wolf plus the sequel Moon Witch, Spider King to everyone. Genre redefining fantasy books, not for kids.
I'm almost through Walkaway by @pluralistic and have really loved it. Dystopian, but in a way that makes me feel hopeful?
I haven't read it yet, but I just got a copy of You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South, about how technology has changed the way we relate to others. Excited!
@kissane@pluralistic I'm so so excited to read that one. The synopsis reminds me of one of my favorite books (in the short story category) of all time, Like Life by Lorrie Moore. Gosh that's a beautiful and desperately sad collection.. probably not for holiday gifting but still a great read!
@kissane I’ve spent years aiming at where “will enjoy” and “haven’t read yet” overlap for my Mom’s partner (gold stars when it’s a mystery book). This year gifted him the first series in the Blanche White series by Barbara Neely, thanks to @shrapnelofme
And gift to myself, I finally found an affordable copy of my undergrad crush, The Natural and The Artefactual by Keekok Lee. Looking forward to seeing if I like the text as much as I like the ideas I spun off of its core concept.
@kissane Me: “what should we get mom for Christmas?”
7yo: “Is there another book in the Moby Dick series?”
Me: “Moby Dick?”
7yo: “You know, the guy who wrote Oranges.”
Me: “John McPhee?”
7yo: “Yes, is there another book in his series?”
so anyway that is why my wife is getting McPhee on writing.
@NoraReed my partner once bought me a paper grocery bag full of the weirdest old fantasy books he could find and it was a.) very heavy and b.) ended up sending me to grad school
@kissane I gave 'Legends & Lattes' by Travis Baldree and 'She Who Became The Sun' by Shelley Parker-Chan to a bunch of my friends last year, both of which had sequels come out this year.
It really depends on the tastes of the recipients, but they seemed pretty well received.
@kissane i gave my sister toad by katherine dunn last year because the cover is so my sister
God Went Like That by Yxta Maya Murray is the book i've been recommending to everyone this year
and, if this counts as a book, (or a book-like object sold at bookstores), this is my favorite present to give friends around the holidays https://slingshotcollective.org/the-organizer/
@tim@kissane Best part of that is just how long into the composition process the mysterious ranger Strider was a mysterious clog-wearing hobbit named Trotter.
@luis_in_brief@kjhealy reading Tolkien's notes was a huge eye-opener for me about the creative process.
It helped me realize that most novels do actually emerge fully formed out of the mind of Zeus, because believe me, that god had no plan and was just winging it.
@kissane always a treehouse building book for my mom, the murderbot diaries for a close friend, Harold McGee's book on the chemistry of smell for my brother.
@smellsofbikes@kissane I recommend The Murderbot Diaries to everyone, especially the audio version read by Kevin R. Free. The observations of humanity from a damaged AI's perspective are fabulous. And the snark factor is just joyous!
@Kittenherder@kissane I really like the concept of "what if The Terminator you have was purchased on Alibaba and so are all the others and it turns out they have feelings"
@kissane got Bea Wolf for my 6 yr old grandkid. It's a cheeky rewrite of Beowulf featuring neighborhood kids and candy-hordes, in meter, from Zach Weinersmith. The art is gorgeous; I have no idea yet whether the kid's gonna be able to handle the kennings, but if they don't, the parents will.
@kissane if I had the energy, I could in theory invite #1book140 to come over, but it has been many years since I had the time to do that kind of thing, alas.
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