Reading not-Wednesday 17/05
May. 17th, 2018 10:43 pmI haven't done a reading Wednesday post for absolutely ages, not this calendar year. Then again, I haven't been doing much reading.
Recently read: An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Pub Akashic Books 2017; ISBN 978-1617755880.
I know the author very slightly (they're local), and several of my partners were enthusiastic about the book, and it sounds like exactly my sort of thing; I'm fond of generation ship stories, especially with non-default characters. Also, Solomon is Campbell nominated, I assume mainly because of this book, because I'm not aware they've published anything else. I borrowed![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ghoti_mhic_uait's copy, and got stuck into it immediately. It's an original take on a fairly standard SF trope, and beautifully written, almost elegiac in tone.
( detailed review )
Currently reading: Womanist Midrash by Wilda C Gafney. I read and enjoyed Gafney's commentary on Genesis, and then put the book down for ages. Then I zipped through Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers while I was travelling withangelofthenorth, when I had a bit more time than usual for reading, and wanted to talk about the book.
Gafney has a lovely accessible style even when she's talking about abstruse textual scholarship. I am very much appreciating her insight into racial dynamics and other social hierarchies; she has a really subtle grasp of how the Israelites were an oppressed minority in their context, but are very much the hegemonic class in the Bible, which of course is the foundational text of the dominant colonizing power in the modern world. And some really interesting interpretations of things like the extremely strange and violent story of Pinchas, Cozbi and Zimri. I've come across plenty of commentary on women in the Bible before, but I think the Womanist rather than more broadly feminist perspective Gafney presents really adds something new. Partly because Gafney doesn't focus only on the (named) female characters, but points out the implications of the fact that women were always present among 'the people' even when not specifically mentioned. I have a few quibbles with the book in terms of accuracy, and a few of the arguments rest on really quite egregious cherry-picking. But it's well worth reading if you're interested in the topic.
Up next:ghoti_mhic_uait lent me Runemarks by Joanne Harris, so probably that. But I'm about to be travelling by budget airline, so I might instead pick something I have available in ebook for ease of transport. Possibly something from the rather amazing Nebula collection I just picked up from Humble Bundle. Some of the books are region locked, but it's worth having a look if you're interested in SF ebooks at all. I'm probably most excited by Jane Yolen, Nalo Hopkinson or Maureen McHugh, but they're all short story collections so I might just dip into them. If anyone wants to recommend me anything from the list I'm certainly interested.
Recently read: An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Pub Akashic Books 2017; ISBN 978-1617755880.
I know the author very slightly (they're local), and several of my partners were enthusiastic about the book, and it sounds like exactly my sort of thing; I'm fond of generation ship stories, especially with non-default characters. Also, Solomon is Campbell nominated, I assume mainly because of this book, because I'm not aware they've published anything else. I borrowed
ghoti_mhic_uait's copy, and got stuck into it immediately. It's an original take on a fairly standard SF trope, and beautifully written, almost elegiac in tone. ( detailed review )
Currently reading: Womanist Midrash by Wilda C Gafney. I read and enjoyed Gafney's commentary on Genesis, and then put the book down for ages. Then I zipped through Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers while I was travelling with
angelofthenorth, when I had a bit more time than usual for reading, and wanted to talk about the book. Gafney has a lovely accessible style even when she's talking about abstruse textual scholarship. I am very much appreciating her insight into racial dynamics and other social hierarchies; she has a really subtle grasp of how the Israelites were an oppressed minority in their context, but are very much the hegemonic class in the Bible, which of course is the foundational text of the dominant colonizing power in the modern world. And some really interesting interpretations of things like the extremely strange and violent story of Pinchas, Cozbi and Zimri. I've come across plenty of commentary on women in the Bible before, but I think the Womanist rather than more broadly feminist perspective Gafney presents really adds something new. Partly because Gafney doesn't focus only on the (named) female characters, but points out the implications of the fact that women were always present among 'the people' even when not specifically mentioned. I have a few quibbles with the book in terms of accuracy, and a few of the arguments rest on really quite egregious cherry-picking. But it's well worth reading if you're interested in the topic.
Up next:
ghoti_mhic_uait lent me Runemarks by Joanne Harris, so probably that. But I'm about to be travelling by budget airline, so I might instead pick something I have available in ebook for ease of transport. Possibly something from the rather amazing Nebula collection I just picked up from Humble Bundle. Some of the books are region locked, but it's worth having a look if you're interested in SF ebooks at all. I'm probably most excited by Jane Yolen, Nalo Hopkinson or Maureen McHugh, but they're all short story collections so I might just dip into them. If anyone wants to recommend me anything from the list I'm certainly interested.