Dot

Where are you now?

Elon you bastard

Cover art of "I Was A Teenage Slasher" by Stephen Graham Jones. Text-forward, with the title and author name in a movie-poster style font. The words are superimposed over a figure in a hoodie, whose face cannot be seen.

Enjoyed this one. While I'm not a fan of horror, I don't much mind gore so that wasn't an issue. Well-written, well-observed good flawed protag to be frustrated by and hopeful for.

Cover art of Rejection, by Tony Tulathimutte. No images, just a murky, dark, bluey-green, fuzzy background. Title and author name are in a retro, muted yellow font.

God, THIS BOOK. Read it on @akathembe.bsky.social's recommendation, and GOD. It's a very despair-at-the-state-of humanity kind of anthology (to me). And Ahegao has the unique distinction of being, in the year of our Lord 2025, genuinely shocking. He just kept GOING. Yhu, they gotta give him a prize

Cover art of State of Paradise by Laura Van Den Berg. Dense, lush greenery in the rain.

Dense, botanical, weird. It's described as a pandemic novel, and yeah, it did have that lockdown feel of being unmoored from what we previously called reality.

Cover art of God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, by Joseph Earl Thomas. A muted yellow background. A graffitti-esque painted male face is in 3/4 profile. The lines and planes of the face are in brushstrokes of green, blue, orange and purple. The face is superimposed over similarly sketchy rendition of the front of a building, mostly in pink, mauve and red. Overall the whole image feels like a palimpsest.

Good, change-of-pace read. Mostly stream-of-consciousness, dipping in and out of the narrator's ongoing shift working a hospital A & E, and selected memories. All the mundane tragedy and comedy you would expect. Still we persist, you know?

Cover art of You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. Bright, graphic art style. A blue background, with white line art images of New York-y and baseball-y things: the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, a glove, a taxi cab. In the foreground, a baseball player and journalist stand facing each other. The baseball player is leaning insouciantly on his baseball bat, and the journalist stands with his mic at the ready.

A sweet, queer rom-com. She is very good at these.

Cover art of The Midnight Feast, by Lucy Foley. A dark background, on which can be seen tree branches, some of which bear lit lanterns.

Good gossipy murder mystery.

Cover art of The Book of Love by Kelly Link. A red background on which lines of text are alternated with four rows of moons. Each row shows the moon in five phases, waxing to waning. In one gibbous moon per row, a face in profile is silhouetted.

I read this one several months ago and remember thinking it was a weird, strange and ultimately rather darkly lovely tale.

Cover Art of Funny Story by Emily Henry. A graphic style, blues, oranges and purples. A couple is seated at a bar, tropical cocktails in hand. He is telling a story, her head is thrown back in laughter.

Between you me and the internet, I find Emily Henry just a leeeettle over-rated. But this was good fun: a fairly unique premise, likable characters, dislikeable antagonists, and a satisfying denouement.

Cover of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djeli Clark. A dark colour scheme, photo-realistic portrait of the head and torso of a young Black woman. She wears braids, some of which are cinched with gold beads; and a gold masquerade mask that has cat ears. Her arms are crossed in front of her chest, and in each hand she carries a slim, bloodied dagger.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark -I read this 3 months ago and unfortunately retain very little beyond a certain sense of It-was-alright-ness. Cool cover though

Giving this thread a lil CPR - just gonna post every read so far with whatever impression remains. Perfection is the enemy of done-ness or whatever they said

Sinners was a good fun watch but I tell you hwhat them vampires would have got me with Will You Go Lassie, I'm sorry

Cover art of Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. Much of the cover is taken up by author name and title, but between the two title words is a misty, nighttime cityscape silhouette.

Alternate history, and another good yarn. Mythology, culture, human nature, mystery. The author invokes Ursula K Le Guin, and it's appropriate.

Cover art of The Fox Wife, by Yangsze Choo. A snowy river bank in the nighttime: colours are muted dark blues, grays and whites. A woman in traditional Chinese garb (long tunic, cropped trousers, flat shoes, bamboo hat) is walking alongside the river. Her clothes are red, making her the only spot colour in the tableau. Her reflection in the water is that of a white fox.

Really enjoyed this one, so much so that I went and hunted down her other books. Strands of mythology, human nature, romance, grief, etc, etc, enjoyably woven together

Cover art of Annie Blt by Sierra Grier. The title is in a large elegant font, black lettering over an amorphous, glossy pink, rippling background. It's hard to tell exactly what the material in the background is - it seems smooth and invites touch. It could be fabric, or whipped cream, or silicon.

The ending was a little too neat (IMO) but it did go to some unexpected places and got me genuinely invested in the titular character and her travails. Not bad

Jeremy Corbin recently said as part of a larger tweet that there is no glory in war. It's an attitude that is noticeably absent!

Cover art of Twenty-four Second From Now... by Jason Reynolds. A young Black couple walking, viewed from behind. Her hand is in his back pocket, his arm slung over her shoulder. He is in a blue-and-white hoodie, cargo pants, and sneakers. Her hair is in braids and she has on a colourful overshirt, skinny blue jeans, & sneakers. Slightly ahead, a brown-&-white dog has turned to glance at them over his shoulder.

(Read a couple more non-fiction books that weren't on the list before turning to this because sometimes shit happens and you want easy.)
Short and very, very sweet. Young love, family love, pet love, friends love. Not too saccharine, some bitter in the sugar, balanced and easeful like a good exhale.

One Halloween I drew Juan and I as ghosts and put them on our front door. He wouldn’t let me take them down so I occasionally updated them with accessories.

A Poet’s Worst Nightmare - Vibe Check On this episode of Vibe Check, Sam, Saeed and Zach talk about literary works that they frequently turn to, what purpose they serve in each of their lives, and why. We want to hear from you! Email us ...

pca.st/episode/ee75...

(Yes! Pretty sure I saw a post about it from one of the orgs I follow for it but it was hella discreet for understandable reasons)

Si ati nasema ujaribu kurudi but I do miss your presence on the other app. Enjoy your leave!

One of my podcasts has a concept of New Gospels, where they talk about works they revisit every so often thay help them navigate the world. This is def one for me
(I think Alok did a show recently in Kenya?)

This is such a tender, funny gif 🥹

Cover art of There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib A dreamy, muted photo of the top third of a basketball post - central black pillar, white headboard, red rim and white net. The viewer seems to be just below eye-level with the rim, on top of which is comfortably perched a young Black boy. His clothes are of muted and earthy tones - blue shoes, olive pants, a zipped up grey jacket. We do not see his whole face, only his chin and mouth, just about to smile.

Reading Hanif's almost densely lyrical prose was like taking a new route home - it required a bit of extra attention but was that much more rewarding. Heard about it on one of my fave podcasts which whike also ostensibly about basketball, is really about Life™ (open.spotify.com/episode/3vvk...)

That would be so great! Thank you for your time & response ☺️

Cover art of Magical Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal. A collage style cover composed of photorealistic elements. Colours are muted but cover all corners of the primary/secondary colour wheel: reds, yellows, oranges, blues and greens. In the lower third,a rose garden is bordered by a brown picket fence, one of whose posts is the apex of a sword that dominates the middle third of the cover. Behind the sword is a dark sphere that puts one in mind of a moon, or planet - maybe even a Death Star? In the top third of the cover, a brown hand reaches down, intending to grasp the handle of the sword.

Pop culture with a scifi/fantasy leaning - things that would appeal to a person who occupies the border-spaces of multiple identities. Very cleverly written and arranged, it made me want to hear more of her thoughts (she responded to me on here!) Recommended for nerdy women especially

They both carry their early loves with them, the same lens giving rise to different vistas until arriving at the present moment and the triumph of still being *here*
(It was unsurprising to learn they follow each other on socials, have each read the other, both acknowledge Toni Morrison.)

I read these next two Millenial-Memoirs-As-Essay-Collections in tandem, and they partnered very well. The books acted almost like siblings - one loving fantasy, one loving basketball, both with come-ups that witnessed beauty as well as danger.

@elnorterecuerda.bsky.social It feels infinitely politer to say this on bluesky - I enjoyed reading Magical Realism so much. Thinking alongside you required the good, rewarding kind of effort: thank you.
What did you think of Ursula LeGuin's Always Coming Home? (Asking bc of the Final Boss essay)

He doesn't hesitate, there's no embarrassment, no juvenile pause waiting for acknowledgement. Just pure, gorgeous cussing. Crisply enunciated. What a moment.