Pop Culture Criticism by Natalie Luhrs
I read this book over a year ago—I was lucky enough to get an advance copy—so my memory of specific plot points is a bit on the blurry side, so you’ll have to excuse any inaccuracies on that front.
What I do remember, though, is finding The Obelisk Gate completely riveting and I had a hard time putting it down to do things like sleep, eat, and talk to other people.
[Read more…] about 2017 Hugo Reading:
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
I read Roxane Gay’s Hunger this week. It’s fucking phenomenal and I can’t recommend it highly enough–with the caveat that it is a thoroughly harrowing read. I’m having a lot of thoughts and feelings about it, but it’s going to be a while before I’m going to be able to write about it coherently.
With one obvious exception, all the Hugo short story finalists are stellar and it’s going to be extremely difficult to rank them on my ballot. Extremely difficult.
In case you’ve forgotten, the finalists are:
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders had been on my list since it came out, but I’d been putting off reading it because I found the plot summary on the blurb to be off-putting. Yes, this is a story about a witch and a technologist who are childhood friends and often diametrically opposite in worldview, but for me, that describes a level of conflict between those characters that simply wasn’t there.
[Read more…] about 2017 Hugo Reading:
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Echinacea
Garden report: The salvia’s pretty much done, the bee balm is going gangbusters, the echinacea is blooming and the liatris and agastache are fixing to bloom. The phlox is recovering and next week I think we need to figure out a different solution to the bunny problem, because I’d like to actually see the plants. I think the roses and hydrangeas aren’t getting enough water as the summer heats up, so my project for next week will be researching DIY drip irrigation/soaker hoses and moisture meters. Gardening. It’s an entirely new thing to nerd out about.
