#NowReading - john szwed's new harry smith bio "cosmic scholar" is absolutely inspiring, both as a life & a piece of research. insightful inside tour through american bohemia & its chaotic early undergrounds (#folklore! record collecting! #art! #nyc! #magick! #film! #drugs!) with a glorious & chaotic weirdo/polymath who connected them. i think any nonfiction reader would love this, no matter if they've heard of harry smith or not. #books
Another post about this cool book I'm currently reading: "The Sol Majestic" by Ferrett Steinmetz. Gotta love that name.
Have you ever wondered how a top-rated restaurant might function on a space station? Light years from any planet? Well, Ferrett Steinmetz thought about it and came up with:
-artificial gravity used to cook things using the heat generated by enormous planetary-scale pressures instead of direct heat
-stasis fields instead of fridges (duh) but also speeded-up time field used to sneak a week's worth of work into an hour
-an alien sourdough culture that MIGHT be sentient
All of this is an excellent backdrop for a story of a young boy finding (gay) love, seeking independence from his parents, and exploring questions of philosophy, truth, capitalism, and marketing. It's not #SolarPunk, but it has that homey vibe.
Bookshop.org is doing free shipping all weekend! You can order books from them and the proceeds help support local bookstores. I’ve been putting my cash toward Monkey Wrench Books recently. A new female-owned bookstore in Morgantown, West Virginia! They’re not open yet so their Bookshop sales are covering their utilities until they open. Just ordered four new #StarWars hardbacks this morning. #NowReading
This is a series that has come up repeatedly when I read any kind of fantasy recommendation list, and been recommended to me personally by a few folks. Should probably have read this sooner, but no time like the present!
Hope it lives up to the dark Harry Potter vibes it gives off!