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Fatu

Fatu@wyrms.de

Joined 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Reading account for @fatu on scholar [dot] social. Follow me on there for microblogging and all things academia

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Fatu's books

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2023 Reading Goal

50% complete! Fatu has read 6 of 12 books.

Year of the Tiger (2022, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) 5 stars

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF USA TODAY'S MUST-READ BOOKS • This groundbreaking memoir offers a …

Fantastic Memoir

5 stars

Incredible gift from Alice Wong to the world, and especially to those in the disability and other advocacy communities who look to her example. Phenomenal insight into her life, mind, and incredible example at setting boundaries on the abled gaze

reviewed Love after the End by Joshua Whitehead

Love after the End (Paperback, 2020, Arsenal Pulp Press) 4 stars

This exciting and groundbreaking fiction anthology showcases a number of new and emerging 2SQ (Two-Spirit …

Phenomenal Anthology

4 stars

Partner and I started reading this to each other before bed but some of the stories were too stressful for my partner to read at night. Fantastic collection, incredible pieces. There were a few that were a bit hit or miss for me (in the 3 star range) due to either pacing or writing style, but most of the stories were both heart wrenchingly beautiful and incredibly insightful.

reviewed Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Crossroads (Hardcover, 2021, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2 stars

Technically Sound Wreck

2 stars

Unfortunately, the only thing that rescues this book is Franzen's skill with language. That the pacing is off and choice of an ending strange is the least of its issues. It's like he got bored with his commission gig and rushed the end. The book includes everything from misogyny to neolib white saviorism, ableism, fetishization of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx cultures, and insinuations of incest and pedophilia. If I remember "Freedom" correctly, Franzen loves his suburban family tragedies. Even if you do too, this one is NOT worth your time.

Spear Cuts Through Water (2022, Random House Publishing Group) 5 stars

Great queer escapism

5 stars

Jimenez does a phenomenal job at using an unusual mixed narration style (1st person plural, 2nd person singular, 3rd person limited) to draw the reader into a pan-Asian high fantasy depicting the fall of an empire tied to a queer romance and a family's legacy. Beautiful and immersive descriptions, easy to read, and captivating from beginning to end. Content warnings for depictions/descriptions of ableism, violence, gore, and incest.

reviewed Still Life by Sarah Winman

Still Life (2021, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Quaint nostalgia

4 stars

Winman has a knack for vivid and sweeping descriptions. Nostalgic and beautiful if sometimes bordering on pastiche, the narration can be a bit self-indulgent in that "upper middle class American tourist in Europe" way. The main characters are easy to fall in love with though, and the prevalence and normalcy of queer relationships is refreshing. Content warnings for depictions/descriptions of war.