User Profile

Fatu

Fatu@wyrms.de

Joined 7 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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2023 Reading Goal

Success! Fatu has read 13 of 12 books.

Equal Rites (Paperback, 2000, HarperTorch) 4 stars

Equal Rites is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is …

Fantastic Writing

4 stars

Pratchett has a great sense of wit and humor and it comes through in this piece. Great for a first foray into the DiscWorld. I appreciated the ending on this one more than I did on the other two I've read, and both my partner and I had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments while reading

Mort (2001) 4 stars

Death takes on an apprentice who's an individual thinker.

Great Writing, Cop-Out Ending

4 stars

I appreciate Pratchett's commitment to the absurd, though I thought the Deus Ex ending was a bit heavy-handed and could've used more nuance and gravitas. Still, it's worth the read, even if you haven't delved too much into the Discworld series

The truth (Paperback, 2001, Corgi) 5 stars

The denizens of Ankh-Morpork fancy they've seen just about everything. But then comes the Ankh-Morpork …

Relevant and Engaging

4 stars

Great piece of work. The first one of Pratchett's I happen to read. The beginning was a little difficult for me given all the characters introduced but it picks up and was actually really engaging and incredibly relevant to issues of mis/disinformation today

Good Marker of a Historical Moment

3 stars

I enjoyed the premise and context - intergenerational authors and advocates joining their voices to the creation of Bear Ears National Monument Park. It's nice to see Native voices included, though it still feels lacking given it was a Tribal Coalition-led endeavor. At times, particularly with the older authors, it's too liberal white-gazey for me to give it more than 3 stars. The few phenomenal pieces peppered in between, and the historical nature of the context make this worth a casual read.

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.