W końcu przeczytałem „Całkiem zwyczajny kraj: historia Polski bez martyrologii” i mogę się podzielić swoją opinią. Książka przedstawia w uproszczony sposób historię najnowszą, począwszy od okresu rozbiorów po drugą dekadę XXI w. starając się przeciwstawić dominującej narracji o dziejach Polski, narzucaną w szkołach przez politykę historyczną. Bynajmniej nie jest to zarzut: dzięki temu książka nie nudzi, ale też nie oszczędza rzetelności przekazu dzięki czemu jest idealna dla osób, które na co dzień nie interesują się historią, ale czują że coś w tej „swojskości” męczeństwa i unikalności naszej historii jest przerysowane. To co jest największym atutem książki jest nadawanie historii bogactwa kontekstów, bez którego trudno jest zrozumieć następujące po sobie wydarzenia. Dla historyka będzie to zbyt ogólna lektura, dla każdego innego czytelnika będzie to otwierająca oczy podróż wgłąb złożoności życia, z którego odarta jest historia narodowa.
Elizabeth Duval: "Pablo Iglesias ha sido importantísimo en la política, pero no ve que hoy es un jarrón chino"
La escritora y analista política, que publica su nuevo ensayo 'Melancolía' (Temas de Hoy), reflexiona sobre la desmovilización de la izquierda, las políticas identitarias y la forma de recuperar la capacidad de imaginar un futuro mejor
I may have just finished all three books of this series over 3 nights. I was enthralled by the worldbuilding, especially the cool magic system the author built; then you add themes of found family and a slow-burn M/M romance? OH BOY, I'M SOLD. Need a new fantasy read? Fully recommend the Tarot Sequence by K.D. Edwards. #booktodon#TarotSequence#TheLastSun
Flush by Bryn Nelson. Interesting look at feces both in the body and afterwards. I enjoyed the book, though parts of it felt a bit repetitive, and as a different review noted there didn't seem to be a lot of checking the "marketing" claims by companies in the book. That being said, I think it's worth a read to at least inform you about all the ways your poop could be used. #booktodonhttps://www.librarything.com/work/book/234774854
I accidentally posted something under my 2022 #book thread but it's time to live in the future! So this is officially the beginning of my 2023 book thread!
Baba Yaga was my favorite character in fiction since I was a kid so I pretty much had to read this one. I liked the setting where catastrophe regularly animates houses with gills or wings to aid in survival, but I wasn’t as keen about the glass-half-full angle on genocide near the end.
Sometimes Chambers books are so good. No plot, but they ask "how would decolonial space exploration work?" or "how could anarchocommunists manage immigration?" And then there's this series which is just "you should value yourself even if you're not productive". Profoundly ok.
Really good. Most of these horror stories fall under the plot “boy loves boy, is horrible”. But my favorite was “When Your Child Strays from God”, which is so sweet: A redemption story about a bad mom connecting with her child and truly accepting him for the first time (with hallucinogens and dinosaurs).
Riding the Lightning: A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic by Anthony Almojera #booktodon#books
Surprised that Emergency Medical Services is part of FDNY. More importantly, that FDNY treats firefighters as heroes but EMS as disposable trash. Firefighters are medic first responders, but in 2020 FDNY kept them back while overworked, underpaid EMTs handled high risk 911 calls.
Top notch alien companions, good worldbuilding. The protagonist is an annoying arrogant creep, but once I understood he was---canonically---a plot device for someone else’s character arc I could tolerate him.
Written like the denouement of a grand fantasy, with the protagonist grieving and moving on and building an ordinary life. It's fantasy, but the mundane gets all the intimately detail, so the book is less about magic than about every SF novel Jo Walton read in 1979.
Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong #books#booktodon
Listened to the audiobook. No ideas were new to me personally, but it triggered some kind of slow ball rolling that turned into me realizing I'd like to write a short scifi story about disability, so I think it gets credit as inspiration. (Only WE can use the "i" word, ableds!)
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild #books#booktodon
I knew it would be bad, but I was surprised by what horrified me the most: I had the impression that Belgium's colonies were the WORST, that colonialism was BAD but they were SPECIAL. In fact, every rubber colony (incl French/Portuguese) saw a similar population decline of ~50%.
I'm a skater so this was pretty much the story of literally every skater I know, but I did NOT know that RollerCon has an annual themed exhibition match of recovered injured skaters called Robots vs. Zombies:
(people with metal implants) vs. (people with grafts from corpses)
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian #booktodon#books
This book destroyed me. After the last brother found out all of his siblings had been murdered, I started crying but couldn't stop reading.
Texas CPS foster policy is to immediately initiate outside adoption in tandem with family reunification. They do whichever finishes first.
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany #booktodon#scifi
I love Delany, but was pretty confused by the ending until I found out it was supposed to be a duology. His relationship with the boyfriend who inspired the protagonist ended, so he gave up on it and wrote high fantasy instead!
A Thousand Naked Strangers: a Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back by Kevin Hazzard #books#booktodon
I guess on reflection, make sense that a lot of paramedics are just jerks addicted to adrenaline. Unironically bodes well for the hope that we could find workers for even emotionally and physically difficult hazardous jobs under UBI / voluntary workforce participation.
Great audiobook narration. Really drives home one of my favorite complaints with modern Discourse: therapeutic language makes it easier to justify selfish behavior than to reinforce community through our obligations to each other as family, friends, and humans.