Reading Wednesday 22/07

Recently read

Ada Palmer: Black Death, COVID and Why We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Ages. Palmer has written an absolutely brilliant piece of historiography, basically looking at how the Moderns interpreted the Renaissance, and considering how to build hope for how society might respond to the current pandemic. Both informative and moving; I like Palmer a lot better as a blogger than a novelist and this piece is particularly awesome.

Dani Janae: Anatomy Of A Mango: Skin is both good erotica and cuttingly, brilliantly political. It's about being a fat, Black dyke and I really recommend it. Content notes: brief mentions of past eating disorder; reports of fatphobic attitudes and valourizing weight loss; some racist microaggressions; very explicit though text only.

Currently reading: Mur Lafferty: Ghost train to New Orleans. Lovely light-hearted paranormal romance. Scary things happen but it's well within my (very low) tolerance for gore and horror. I'm finding it good pandemic reading, because it's about coexisting with people who are dangerous to you, plus it's generally hopeful and upbeat and easy to read.

Up next: I think I maybe want to dip into the Queer Jewish anthology, A Rainbow Thread, edited by Noam Sienna. Partly inspired by angelofthenorth enthusing about Queer theology.