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    January, February, March 2020: 15(+) Most-Anticipated Books

    January 8, 2020 /

    Here we are again: Finally, I put together my list with most-anticipated books for the first three months of 2020. I am very much excited for all the books listed (and I am also excited to still discover books I don’t know of yet). I share brief descriptions of the book (either from Goodreads or the publisher’s page, sometimes abridged) and in a few words why I am excited about this book in particular! January The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir (E. J. Koh) Synopsis: “After living in America for over a decade, Eun Ji Koh’s parents return to South Korea for work, leaving fifteen-year-old Eun Ji and her…

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Almost done with Paradise, my seventh Ton Morrison Almost done with Paradise, my seventh Ton Morrison this year and the one I am struggeling with most. This book about a small town, Ruby, and its nine founding families aswell as other people connected the town has got so many characters and side stories I get lost at times. There are also a lot of scenes and themes I love reading about and engaging with. But overall it feels a bit scattered. Though it might also be my brain right now. I do plan to reread it at some point. Those of you you have read lots/ all of Morrison's novels where does this one stand for you? (My three favourites so far are Sula, Beloved and Song of Solomon.) #ToniMorrison #igreads #bookstagram #currentlyreading #instaread #goodreads #booklover
The first thing I saw this morning at 5 am when I The first thing I saw this morning at 5 am when I briefly checked my phone before leaving the house was the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. So many feelings (and I think it's important to feel them) - and it's difficult to not immediately also think about the possible consequences for the US Supreme court, all kinds of laws, the impact on many marginalized groups, the entire democratic system in the US, etc. And of course, that, once again, points to bigger problem: those things shouldn't depend in that way on one 87-year old cancer surviving woman. I am wishing all the best for all my US friends keeping up the fight for a more just society. I am not for hero worship and Ruth Bader Ginsburg has not always supported all the causes one would have liked to see. But it is fair to say that she has accomplished so much in her life and had an incredible impact on many important issues such as women's and disability rights, and through her dissents showed the her clear-sighted views on reproductive rights and voting discrimination, @irincarmon, one of the authors of Notorious RBG, has written a beautiful obituary chronicling Bader Ginsburg's life. 💔 #ruthbaderginsburg #notoriousrbg #igreads #bookstagram #feministshelfie
"MOLLY BOLT. She's funny, reckless, gutsy, and wil "MOLLY BOLT. She's funny, reckless, gutsy, and wild. A full-blooded, all-American, 100% true-blue gay - and proud of it!", screams the back of my Rubyfruit Jungle copy from 1980 (the book was first published in 1973) This classic lesbian novel follows Molly Bolt, a working-class adoptee, from her childhood to her twenties, from life in rural Pennsylvania and Florida to following her dream to become a filmmaker in New York. Molly is a singular character: unapologetic about who she is from a young age, loud, fierce, and very funny. While the book does not shy away from tackling difficult topics like Molly's strained relationship with her adopted mother and loss, the novel overall maintains a light, conversational tone. What makes the novel stand out is the way the hetero norm is always named as such and constantly ridiculed like when Molly describes a family driving away into their "nuclear family sun-set". But Molly is also a very judgmental character and it does not become clear if the (very autobiographical inspired) book is meant to share all her values: Molly berates butches, fat bodies, and older women (the latter less because of specific power-relations in the portrayed relationships, which is fair, but looks). There is also a very uncomfortable endorsement of incest - again devoid of any look at power dynamics. Lastly, I felt this book glorifies sexual assault. There are multiple scenes in which women are violently forced into sex by other women-but they always think it was great in the end. So, would I recommend picking up the novel? Not without giving an elaborate explanation. But I am glad that I have read it because it gives a great glimpse into 1970s queer discourse (and for most parts an entertaining one). #SapphicSeptember #QueerLitEveryMonth #igreads #RitaMaeBrown #RubyfruitJungle #goodreads #bookreview #queerliterature #queerlit #igbooks #bookish
I absolutely loved Kate Manne's Down Girl. I read I absolutely loved Kate Manne's Down Girl. I read this book twice. Its analyses have strengthened my arguments around misogyny and she introduced terminology for phenomenons I had witnessed before but can now describe in one easy word like 'himpathy'. So I am very excited to read Manne's new book called "Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women" in which she turns her sharp analyses on everything from the Kavanaugh hearing, Elisabeth Warren's loss, and that "Cat Person" short story. #KateManne #DownGirl #Entitled #MalePrivilege #feministread #feminism #feministshelfie #igreads #goodreads #bitchreads #bookworm
"But to be alive in the world, every day, as we ar "But to be alive in the world, every day, as we are given more and more and more, as the nature of "what we can handle" changes and our methods for how we handle it change, too, that's something of a miracle." This quote of Yaa Gyasi's sophomore novel spoke deeply to me and is indicative of the kind of novel - wondering, questioning, philosophising - "Transcendent Kingdom" is. In this book we meet Giffy, a young woman who had grown up in Alabama with Ghanaian parents, and now works on her doctoral thesis in neuroscience. When she takes in her mother who is deep in depression, Giffy needs to confront how her family of four (mother, father, brother, and her) has become basically a family of two.  This is a complex family and somewhat coming-of-age novel about migration, racism, mental health, grief and addiction. In it, Giffy tries to understand if and how faith or science can help her get a grasp on life's complications. Through flashbacks and on-going ruminations, Giffy circles around her own research, her daughter-mother relationship and how the unresolved trauma in her life has affected her romantic relationships (with men and women) and friendships. Gyasi has constructed a narrative which is very readable and sucks you in but at the same time allows you to ponder some of the more complex questions in life. This is an absolutely stunning novel - though once again, Gyasi loses me a bit with her too neat ending. #YaaGyasi #TranscendentKingdom #bookstagram #bookreview #igreads #readerslife #igbooks #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads #booklover
I had reading plans for this weekend but then Clau I had reading plans for this weekend but then Claudia Rankine's Just Us arrived and everything else has to take a backseat. I opened this book this morning to just have a glimpse and suddenly found myself 100 pages in. After 15 pages I had already mumbled: "I am sure this will be a five-star read." I will review the book in its entirety once I am done but I want already share a few more thoughts now. Just Us contains mostly essays and some poems in all of which Rankine thinks about whiteness. The essays are typeset very interestingly: you have the main text on the right page and on the left page you find images, photography, fact checks, or notes with further studies and quotes. In this way, the text seems to be in conversation with itself (more than if these things would have been put into footnotes). The layout makes you pause and look up and reconsider. This fits perfectly to the content, as Rankine dissects conversations and experiences she had, offers analyses but also asks a lot of open-ended questions.  I will write a bit more about the specifics of the content soon. But I already want to press this book in the hands of a lot of people. #bookstagram #igreads #ClaudiaRankine #booklover #JustUs #bookworm #essays #readerslife #criticalwhiteness #igbooks #justread #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads
Trying to catch as much sun as possible before we Trying to catch as much sun as possible before we enter the dark months... Norman Erikson Pasaribu's poetry collection is so layered and full of stories. In a few lines Pasaribu invokes narratives - between contemporary and speculative - rich as novels. Interwoven are biblical motives which queer-ed and re-imagened. Very interesting is also Tiffany Tsao's translator's note. She writes about how she worked on the translations with Pasaribu and how he should be considered translator as well and about the Indonesian gender-neutral 3rd person pronoun into English. She also acknowledges how she had to unlearn deep-set heteronomative assumptions. I can't wait to re-visit this collection. #SergiusSeeksBacchus #NormanEriksonPasaribu #tiltedaxispress #tiltedaxisbooks #bookstagram #review #igreads #booklover #bookworm #readerslife #igbooks #justread #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads #QueerLitEveryMonth #queerliterature #queerbooks #readqueer #queerlit #lgbt #translatedliterature
Queer comics 🌈 So far, this month has been abo Queer comics 🌈 So far, this month has been about getting back into comics. I do love comics but for some reason haven't kept up for the last two or three years (wow time). But now I finished all of The Wicked + The Divine and Bitch Planet. I read and loved Heavy Vinyl (and am sad there is no more of it?). I also read the first in the Goldie Vance series. Very excited to continue. Lumberjanes was a reread. I own the first 30 single issues but decided to get the bind-ups and start catching up (I think there are more than 60 issues by now). I am still kind of stuck in 2015-2018 with my comics. Have you any recommendations for comic series started more recently? (I got the Nnedi Okorafor one on my list.) #bookstagram #QueerLitEveryMonth #igreads #queerliterature #bookish #queercomics #queerlit #GoldieVance #Lumberjanes #BitchPlanet #WicDiv #HeavyVinyl
How beautiful is this cover? This is a collection How beautiful is this cover? This is a collection of re-tellings of mythical, legendary, fairytale-y love stories (and I believe three 'new' stories). @reads.and.reveries posted her review today and she loved it. I got my copy yesterday and plan to read it early in October. #bookstagram #igreads #booklover #bookworm #readerslife #igbooks #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads #LoveInColour #BoluBabalola
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