01: Mary Robinette Kowel - The Spare Man
02: Becky Chambers - The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet
03: Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice
04: Jule Owen - The Kind
05: Jule Owen - Elidir
06: Stephen Baxter - Flood
07: Stephen Baxter - Ark
08: Ann Leckie - Ancillary Sword
09: Ann Leckie - Ancillary Mercy
I will soon have finished Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Memory and have to go back to more books I have already read.
In this memoir, Alice Hattrick describes her illness and that of her mother and how they were not believed, deemed hysterical by health professionals. She talks of the strain of living with an undiagnosed illness and how this puts huge pressure on them both . Alice goes into detail about how the understanding of ME/CFS has evolved and talks of the frustration felt by patients who were dismissed by doctors over a span of many years.
When diagnosis does come, it comes with mixed feelings as treatment is not straightforward and a range of medication/exercise programmes are tried, often with horrible side effects that can’t be tolerated.
I very much enjoyed the way writers such as Virginia Woolf, Susan Sontag and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are weaved in, alongside other famous figures like Florence Nightingale to illustrate her points.
Louise Bourgeois’s insomnia drawings and writings of the 1990s are discussed alongside her well known spider sculptures.
And I was really interested to read about the origins of the term “crip time” which is something that resonates with me as I live with chronic pain/fatigue. Alison Kafer coined the term and here, Alice states ‘Crip time is different from productive kinds of time, which is really just one … version of time… You do things slowly in waves rather than stages”
Kafer states that “the present takes on more ergency as the future shrinks.” This is something I’ve experienced and which will continue to be part of life I’m sure. It can be hard to explain this to family and friends and find ways to make sense of it yourself in order to ask for accommodations at work for example. Pacing has become a kind of art over the years that I’m still getting wrong all the time!
All in all a powerful read. #bookstodon#Disability@bookstodon@disability
I just wanted to say thanks, #bookstodon! I feel like I've meet and chatted with so many great, interesting people about this topic in the last 24h. I asked the same thing on Twitter (minus the poll) and only one person I already know responded. 🦗 You showed up and showed me what people are talking about when they compare the platforms and the levels of meaningful engagement.
Oi. Moving from Twitter to here and seeing who I follow on Twitter IS here and so far it's been painful. Any suggestions on who to follow #bookstodon in terms of #writing and related topics? :)
Today's indie author review: Casey Morales' I Hear You:
"What I loved about this book - besides the two great dogs and the two amazing humans - was what I learned about the things the deaf have to deal with... I highly recommend this book. Five stars."
It's been a while since I posted about my novel, which is available on Amazon (and soon other places). If you like a strong female detective with plenty of mental problems, give it a try! Boosts are always appreciated.
A Memory of Murder
Some people envision the future. I envision the past.
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, & spectacular #horror#books far & wide.
NARCISSUS is a unique spin on a classic myth with a special resonance in a world that seems to reward vapid, vacuous vanity. This compact and creepy nightmare will keep your gaze transfixed as the gory horrors mount and may even inspire a little self-reflection, after. (Shortwave Pub)
🔥❤️🔥SILVER THROAT - COVER REVEAL! Here it is! Vardari 2, Silver Throat, is released in Norway October 5th, that’s less than 3720 hours! (Can’t wait? Check last post in thread.)
Imagine having stolen the devil from those in power. Robbed them of their source of everlasting life. And started a war, so fuelled by fear and disdain, that you are forced to become what you are hunting.
New review: A data-dense book full of outstanding skeletal reconstructions, The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles completes the informal trilogy.