This one-woman Indigenous-owned bookstore has put out a call for support to stay in business after a long series of family sicknesses and other struggles. If you love books and care about supporting small, BIPOC-owned businesses, check out Paperbacks and Frybread: https://paperbacksandfrybread.com/collections/new-books
For the first (ish) time, I'm missing the birdsite - because I've just finished the most incredible book, and in the past I could have tweeted the author to tell him how much I appreciated it. And I can't now. But I can still shout about it here. Every teacher in every type of context should read "I Heard What You Said" by Jeffrey Boakye - about being a black teacher in the UK. It's astounding. #Books#AmReading#JeffreyBoakye#Education#EduTooter@edutooters
I just finished Ursula LeGuin’s Lathe of Heaven - it’s just fantastic. And her writing … “the endless warm drizzle of spring - the ice of Antarctica, falling softly on the heads of the children of those responsible for melting it” ❤️ 1971. We have known for a long time what we’re doing. #amreading#bookstodon#LeGuin
I have a fantastic opportunity to read Hyperion by Dan Simmons. What wonderful treats lurk in your future? What classics are you looking forward to catching up on?
I just finished Octavia Butler's "The Parable of the Talents." It is a masterful novel and, paired with it's precursor, "The Parable of the Sower," as important a work of fiction as I can imagine. One feels that "The Handmaid's Tale" could fit into this dystopic universe. Interesting that the two most important science fiction works of the last 40 years both take aim at Christofascism in such accurate, prophetic ways.
Harold Ross launched The New Yorker in 1925, and during its early days funds were tight. Dorothy Parker was one of his early writers, and no fan of the financial squeeze.
Ross demanded to know why she had not come into the office as expected one day.
Dorothy’s reply to Harold: “Someone was using the pencil.”
The winners of the Philip K Dick Awards are announced tonight. My book, "Where Rivers Go To Die" was a finalist but didn't win.
Congrats to the winner Bethany Jacobs, "These Burning Stars", and the runner up, Rebekah Bergman, "The Museum of Human History"
Well, I've now been listed 13 times for 9 different awards, without winning any! I'm getting used to it, maybe setting some kind of record of most nominations without winning.
Reading "The World: a Family History" by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and this snippet of history caught my attention.:
"Octavian visited the tomb of Alexander, but when he touched the mummy, he knocked off its nose - a moment that marked the end of the Alexandrian age, the fall of the Roman Empire and the launch of an imperial monarchy."
Reading these stories at night was probably a bad idea 🤣 The story that got me closing the book quickly was the one with the woman's corpse. (Ps: Never a good idea to sleep in a room with a dead body. ☠️)
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" is a famous collection of scary tales was written by a scholar, Pu Songling. He started writing fiction during “the Troubles”, towards the end of the Ming Dynasty and the start of the Qin Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China.
What are your thoughts on DNF (Did Not Finish)-ing books? Do you feel guilty about it? Do you worry you missed out on something? Or are you confident in dropping a book and reaching for the next one?
At what point are you most likely to DNF, if ever? What sorts of things cause you to DNF?
Since #fedibookfair is happening this weekend, let me tell you about my book, it's a collection of short stories, which some people say are horror. Where Rivers Go To Die. I love the cover, and it should convince you to take a look.
I've finished: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is one of those rare authors that stand the test of time. Unlike Heinlein, Asimov, Niven and others her social science background allowed her to envision future societies that reflect progressive ideals that are still relevant today.
The Lathe of Heaven was published in 1971 and unlike many of her other novels is set on Earth. There are many references to years that are long in our past, and to technologies that are out of sync with the developments we've witnessed in the 1980s and 90s, the fact that this is a multiverse novel helps makes this less anachronistic.
The constant threat of global warming, present throughout the novel helps ground it in current apocalyptic threat concerns and mitigate other predictions that seem antiquated today.
Sadly, predictions of war in the Middle East, never seem to go stale
The Lathe of Heaven is an interesting take on the Djinn or Monkey's Paw trope, of wishes going wrong. Bringing it into the realm of science fiction by placing the power to change the world in the chaotic realm of dreams. Making the science of psychology and the struggle to control these dreams the focus of the novel.
Very much worth reading even more then 50 years later.
Do BIPOC writers have to reject the aesthetic and influence of white writers? Can we separate Native literature and sovereignty from the story of America?
No, says Sterling HolyWhiteMountain in this breathtaking essay on Cormac MacCarthy.
"Our politics cannot rise to the majesty or horror of this world... only art is worthy of the task. There is a pain in America we can’t be rid of. We must bear it. And we must go beyond it."
Terry Bisson was a brilliant writer. He wrote They're Made Out of Meat. You should read it. http://www.terrybisson.com/theyre-made-out-of-meat-2/
Terry Bisson died today. He was living in Oakland. As far as I know, we never met. I wish I had met him. I learned about his death from Dan Berger on Twitter who is also a good writer. #sfba#amreading
"Because Greater Idaho is unlikely to become a reality, 'people dismiss it,' said Stephen Piggott, a program director with Western States Center. And that, he believes, is dangerous: 'People are not connecting the dots,' he said. 'The people who want to create a white homeland are backing it.'”
The indomitable Leah Sottile brings a depth of reporting to the Greater Idaho movement found nowhere else.