the adventures of jenn I(n) R(eal) L(ife)

Sat, 02 Jun 2018 18:22:56 -0400

Only when we have a full-throated voicing of our vibrant democracy in all of its splendidly cantankerous diversity can we truly claim at last to be American.

What Truth Sounds Like, Michael Eric Dyson

micro-review: INFOMOCRACY by Malka Older is the election-year...

Sun, 24 Jul 2016 11:34:37 -0400

micro-review: INFOMOCRACY by Malka Older is the election-year socio-punk sci-fi thriller i didn’t know i wanted and desperately needed, you should read it. you should especially read it if you like both data-crunching AND bloody fight scenes as pivotal plot points.

additionally: there are so many things to love about this book. she handles all the many character viewpoints well; i never felt like i didn’t know WHY we were with a particular person, and it sure as hell built suspense at key moments. i also really loved the way she handled “The Bad Guy” (but i can’t say how/why without spoilers). and Mishima is just. my. favorite. and it felt like a tonic to the election madness we’re living through, not because the story is any worse (or better for that matter) but because it’s a reminder that things are always fucked up AND that we can make choices about how we want our world to be regardless.

half-year reading stats

Sun, 26 Jun 2016 12:46:20 -0400

crunchy crunchy stats!

current total books finished in 2016: 93

i’ve been reading for work and for Get Booked, and i think you can tell in that my genre distro is ALL OVER THE PLACE. i’ve already got more genres than last year and that’s even with having collapsed YA into 1 rather than 2. and looking ahead, that will only get broader. YA will go up because i’m moderating a couple Lit panels at GeekyCon (COME TO GEEKYCON), and there will be more random questions for Get Booked that i have to go spelunking for, and then there are all the speakers books for Book Riot Live. so i guess what i’m saying is, BOOKS.

"You were my exact. You were my exactly. What I was looking for. You were perfect."

Sat, 09 Jan 2016 20:30:10 -0500

“You were my exact. You were my exactly. What I was looking for. You were perfect.”

- WINGED HISTORIES, Sofia Samatar

Sofia Samatar’s WINGED HISTORIES is killing me in the best...

Sat, 09 Jan 2016 19:52:02 -0500

Sofia Samatar’s WINGED HISTORIES is killing me in the best possible way (out from @smallbeerpress in March 2016)

my year in reading 2015: all the crunchy datamy reading goal for...

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 09:10:44 -0500

my year in reading 2015: all the crunchy data

my reading goal for 2015 was to hit a 2:1 ratio – 2 books by or about persons of color* verses white people. i’m not as happy as i’d like with the results – 55% authors of color, 65% characters of color. that first number should be bigger. it wasn’t because it’s that difficult to read AOC, it’s just SO DAMN EASY to read white people. anyway, i made progress, and the side effect of this project was that i read significantly more broadly across countries and genres than i normally do. so that’s a nice win.

changes from 2014:

increased contemporary fiction by 6%
decreased genre by a bit
nonfiction went up 2%
i didn’t read any plays in 2015 (womp womp) and read significantly less poetry
somehow i didn’t read any chapter books?? how did that happen
romance increased by a whopping 9%
i read about 10% more women this year over last year
author countries of origin went up nicely – 14 vs 9

*it’s incredibly reductive to group all non-white people together, and also centers white people, but i just don’t know how else to get it across or to track for the purposes of this year’s project.

OH ALSO, UPDATE: and for anyone who cares about exact numbers, i read 139 books in 2015.

"“It’s really amazing, you know? You really can make a decision inside yourself. You can..."

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 13:30:19 -0500

“

“It’s really amazing, you know? You really can make a decision inside yourself. You can decide to be one thing or the other.”

The only trouble was that you had to make the decision every hour on the hour. But he would have to find that out for himself.

”

- THE CHILL, Ross Macdonald

"[Society says:] In short, you are doing it wrong. Do it differently. No, that’s wrong too, try..."

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 22:22:22 -0400

“[Society says:] In short, you are doing it wrong. Do it differently. No, that’s wrong too, try something else. Forever.”

- from Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski, on society’s message to women about their bodies and sexuality

"Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two..."

Fri, 01 May 2015 11:08:53 -0400

“Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified. Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip of miseries, and long bouts of boredom, and occasional triumphs. It was feeling honored by the privilege of getting to be present for another person’s most dismal moments, and knowing that you could be dismal around him in return.”

- A LITTLE LIFE, Hanya Yanagihara

"It was better in this life if you weren’t altogether human, I would think, as I heard the..."

Sat, 11 Apr 2015 09:05:40 -0400

“It was better in this life if you weren’t altogether human, I would think, as I heard the sound. It was easier to bear.”

- THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT, by alexanderchee

this. book.

"I have taught myself the recipes of my mother’s people because those foods are for me, as a chef,..."

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 19:58:36 -0400

“I have taught myself the recipes of my mother’s people because those foods are for me, as a chef, the easiest connection to the mysteries of who my mother was. Her identity remains stubbornly shrouded in the past, so I feed myself and the people I love the food that she made. But I cannot see her face.”

- YES, CHEF by Marcus Samuelsson: not just another foodie memoir

"Simply the enemy. And what is required of the enemy’s image? Only that the figures are identical,..."

Wed, 04 Mar 2015 20:30:23 -0500

“Simply the enemy. And what is required of the enemy’s image? Only that the figures are identical, and that they are many.”

- Sofia Samatar, on point as usual in Uncanny Magazine Issue 3

"[I]f the stars are out – and they do seem to be out most every night now – we can sit..."

Sat, 28 Feb 2015 13:00:30 -0500

“[I]f the stars are out – and they do seem to be out most every night now – we can sit together in our backyards and wave a hand to neighbors over the fence and view our favorite programs while sitting in the open air and authentically believe that this stretch of sky sings its chorus of light for us alone.”

- ON SUCH A FULL SEA, Chang-Rae Lee

"We wish and wish and often with fury but never very deeply. For if we did, we’d see how the..."

Sat, 28 Feb 2015 08:23:54 -0500

“We wish and wish and often with fury but never very deeply. For if we did, we’d see how the world can sometimes split open, in just the way we hope. That it and we are, in fact, unbounded. Free.”

- ON SUCH A FULL SEA, Chang-Rae Lee

"[E]very book we had could save us in a different way — only, we had to open it. We had to drop our..."

Sun, 22 Feb 2015 09:55:35 -0500

“[E]very book we had could save us in a different way — only, we had to open it. We had to drop our eyes to the page and drink in the words that were there.”

- THE WALLS AROUND US, Nova Ren Suma