This is an incredibly important & hopeful piece of research which proves that debilitating Long COVID symptoms are molecular.

More evidence (see: bsky.app/profile/shak...) that continued dismissal of the dangers of Long COVID is a dangerous scandal.
www.news-medical.net/news/2025093...

The second story in Shubeik Lubeik destroyed me. It was the best representation of depression I had ever seen, done with so much nuance and heart. Need to muster up the courage to read the next part. I know it'll be 5 stars.

The Assassin's Apprentice is another story. It was an easy 5-stars but an emotionally difficult read. So captivating and intriguing and profound at times. A damn good story with great prose and characters I care too much about.

I've finished Equal Rights and Phoenix Extravagant, which were both around 3.5 stars. There were elements I loved and not any to really dislike -- just wasn't that engaging or beautiful. They were pretty good books that succeeded in their respective projects.

I have hit "deliver later" on my Libby hold for Detransition Baby more than once 😭 It's been on my list forever! I'll report back soon

Off to a 🧙🏼‍♀️ witchy vibe 🔮 with (1) Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett and (2) Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. I opened up (3) Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed last night and devoured the first chapter. Unintended shared theme seems to be eerie-yet-mundane magic set against the realism of oppression(s).

September 2025 Reading Thread

Carried over from August:

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

사람들에게 바라는 내 소원 딱 두개 지피티를 검색머신으로 쓰지말고 에겐테토남녀얘기 그만했으면좋겠어

I mean I am constantly collecting content recs from all my friends & the number of people who have watched/read Nimona without calling me immediately is alarming!

I'll have to seek your wisdom and expertise more often

Why did nobody tell my queer ass to watch this sooner

Just watched Nimona because my body decided this was a horizontal day -- I love this film! The queerness and the beautiful art and the humor!

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb: I thought I would breeze through the first book for the world building and gloss over a probably basic coming of age story. 30% in, I have teared up twice and I care so much about this lonely boy and his little animal friends. I love being wrong.

I was starting to feel guilty about how I've maxed out my holds on two library cards but then I saw this reminder 😈

I need those booktok girls to put the Tombs of Atuan (Le Guin) and The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Vo) on a "sad hot girl" list or whatever the kids are doing now. They're looking for mentally ill evil femmes and sad little girls in the wrong places. I'm still mad I ever read One Dark Window. 🤦🏻

No book has made me feel the way that The Tombs of Atuan did eight months ago and I've just been chasing that high ever since...

My first thought was "omg Susanna Clarke also writes sci-fi?" I'm guessing these are dead white men, and my "classics" reading list is already occupied with Mary Shelley, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia E. Butler. Bummer.

There was so much potential to talk about interconnected struggles and intersectional experiences and how to work together to challenge systemic oppression. Instead, we got a whie savior's fever dream after she takes one college class about colonialism. So disappointing.

I liked Thomil's character, but we really did not get to see more of him. He was kind of reduced to a traumatized oppressed character and a device to make the white lady learn a lesson. I got so mad at the author for making things romantic, too. It was giving "she's not like other oppressors."

knew now that this wasn't about her." Like??????????? I was listening to the audiobook and the narrator was trying so hard to make each tell-not-show passage engaging that I cringed and screamed.

I think it's fine for a fantasy book to do a little colonialism 101, where you weave in the nuances and questions through different characters and situations. But don't just convert a lecture outline into repetitive dialogues. The last 1/4 is just "she was scared but decided to be brave. She also

These are fine things to try to say in a book! But why is the author just writing a bad college essay through the mouths of the characters? I've seen some reviewers call the book "too preachy" or "colonialism 101." I see their point, but my gripe is more precisely with the delivery of such content.

Every chapter following the Big Reveal read like the Spark Notes summary. In Chapter 27, Sciona comes to terms with the Truth but still naively believes that those around her are not knowingly complicit. She learns the hard way that perhaps she should center the voices of the oppressed! UGH.

The world-building and magic system, and the allegory to colonial/capitalistic exploitation, were solid. In both plotting, characterization, and dialogue, however, the book completely failed to execute its cool premise.

I get that she would be in denial and act in self-righteous, arrogant ways. But to have the middle 50% of the book be purely her colonizer guilt and tantrums and shenanigans without adequately showing the Kwen/Caldonae people actually suffering and processing? Insufferable.

who was abandoned by her father and bullied in school becomes singularly focused on her academic success. But in the end, I think seeing *only* her POV as the events unfold was a critical mistake. At the very least, it was not handled well.

Rather uncritically. That was consistent with the fact that her qualms about the patriarchy and sexism came not from critical analysis of inequality or a wish to liberate people, but rather a desire to be "someone" and make a name for herself. I could also understand how a gifted autistic woman

I was so on board with the themes. I liked that the book is written from the POV of an unlikeable and complex character: the autistic-coded and working class Girlboss Karen mage named Sciona. Through her, you can experience the nuances of systems/cultures she seeks to challenge vs those she accepts

Blood Over Bright Haven was so tragically disappointing that I had to re-download this app to rant somewhere public.