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    January, February, March 2021: 15 (+) Most-Anticipated Books

    January 1, 2021 /

    Who is to say what 2021 will have to offer us – and if it will be better than 2020. But one thing I am sure about: There will be some wonderful books to guide us through the year, to make us think (and re-think), feel and question. And also just entertain along the ride. January Alaya Dawn Johnson: Reconstruction: Stories Synopsis: “In Reconstruction, award-winning writer and musician Johnson digs into the lives of those trodden underfoot by the powers that be: from the lives of vampires and those caught in their circle in Hawai’i to a taxonomy of anger put together by Union soldiers in the American Civil War, these…

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#WhatThisWeek 30th of October - 5th of November D #WhatThisWeek 30th of October - 5th of November Doing 🖐️ Last Monday was the last day the pool was open. It was brisk but sunny and I already miss all the swims. Besides that I mainly tried to get through the week. On Saturday I went to see the Alice Springs retrospective. Reading 📖 I didn't have the best reading week but made some progress in New Daughters of Africa which I started years ago and finally want to finish this November. Watching 💻 Another "finally": I watched the 1931 lesbian classic Mädchen in Uniform which I found pretty fascinating. Now planning to finally read the novel (which was published after the film, the film was based on a play) and then to watch the 1958 film with Romy Schneider. I also watched the documentary Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm – Liebe, D-Mark und Tod (Love, Deutschmarks and Death) by Cem Kaya. This film looks at this music created an consumed by migrated workers (and their descendants) in (West) Germany. The film covers 60 years in just 90 minutes with archival material, interviews and a lot of music (of course). Really good. And I would love to see documentaries going into more depth for each of the decades covered. If you haven't watched this yet and you are in Germany you can access the film at Arte until January. Enjoying 💜 I had ordered some stickers from @chronicallycandidmemes and they arrived. Really love these. [Image description in comments]
„Die Frauen verwalten alle Geschichten. Sie webe „Die Frauen verwalten alle Geschichten. Sie weben Legenden auf ihren Zungen und Lügen. Sie geben weiter und entscheiden, was vergessen wird. Alles wird Symbol.“ Messer, Zungen von Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner (SGL) ist ein Buch voller Kraft und Zartheit. In Fragmenten nähert es sich komplexen Familiengeschichten, Geschichtserzählungen zwischen Südafrika und Deutschland und den mit allem verwobenen Traumata an. Der Roman erinnert an Archivarbeit, wo immer neue Erinnerungen, Analysen, Materialien freigelegt und zu einem Gesamtbild zusammengefügt werden. Und auch, wenn mich manche der Fragmente etwas desorientiert zurückgelassen haben, passte das irgendwie zum stimmigen Leseerlebnis. (Ich habe mir auch in Erinnerung gerufen, was Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner einer Karte zum Buch geschrieben hat: "...denk daran, dass du auch in der Mitte anfangen kannst, es ist ja nicht alles linear.") Diesen Roman macht also nicht einzig aus, was erzählt wird (obwohl das interessant genug ist), sondern auch wie hier erzählt wird. Die Erzählstimme lebt von kreativen Wortneuschöpfungen und dem Wechsel zwischen verschiedenen Sprachen. Und der Text ist voller kultureller und literarischer Referenzen - von dem 1980er Film The Gods Must Be Crazy ("[...] und unsere Götter waren nie verrückt.") bis hin zu Celan ("Sie ist gleichzeitig Margarete und Sulamith, das weiß sie, und sie verabscheut gleichzeitig Sulamith und Margarete [...]). Messer, Zungen ist ein Roman, der beim ersten Lesen viel bietet - emotional, ästhetisch, intellektuell -, aber eigentlich auch dazu einlädt immer wieder in die Hand genommen zu werden, ob nun um im gesamten noch einmal gelesen zu werden oder einfach um einzelne der kurzen Kapitel noch einmal auf sich wirken zu lassen. Ich jedenfalls habe auch direkt eine Freundin überzeugt, sich den Roman zu kaufen - und freue mich mit mehr Leuten über dieses komplexe Werk sprechen zu können. Danke @sgl_author und @matthesundseitzberlin für dieses Leseexemplar! [Bildbeschreibung: Meine Hand hält den Roman Messer, Zungen vor einer grünen Wand.]
"The paradox of using platforms that grossly co-op "The paradox of using platforms that grossly co-opt, sensationalize, and capitalize on POC, female-identifying, and queer bodies (and our pain) as a means of advancing urgent political or cultural dialogue about our struggle (in addition to our joys and our journeys) is one that remains impossible to ignore. At these fault lines surface questions of consent - yours, mine, ours - as we continue to "opt-in," feeding our "selves" (e.g., our bodies as represented or performed online) into these channels, To quote poet Nikki Giovanni: "Isn't this counter-revolutionary[?]" Perhaps, yes. However if we assume that Audre Lorde's 1984 declaration that "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" still holds true, then perhaps what these institutions - both online and off - require is not dismantling but rather mutiny in the form of strategic occupation. The glitch challenges us to consider how we can "penetrate... break... puncture... tear" the material of the institution of the body. Thus, hacking the "code" of gender, making binaries blurry, becomes our core objective, a revolutionary catalyst. Glitched bodies - those that do not align with the canon of white cisgender hetero-normativity - pose a threat to social order. Range-full and vast, they cannot be programmed." -- Legacy Russell [Image desccription: The book "Glitch: A Manifesto" by Legacy Russel lies on a laptop decorated with stickers on a stool.] #igreads #Glitch #LegacyRussell #bookstagram #goodreads
"She called the stars her ancestors and said somet "She called the stars her ancestors and said something about them being androgynous or Indigenous or something like that. She went on for a long time about how they had saved her. It sounded nonsensical and poetic and beautiful. I think, like me, she believed that by reaching for the stars, she might grasp their magic, and in grasping their magic, rediscover her father." Digging Stars, the latest novel by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, follows Athandwa Rosa, a girl from Zimbabwe, first as a child on her trip to the US visiting her father, a renowned astronomer working on Bantu geometries, and then, years later, when she herself is admitted to The Program, an elite interdisciplinary graduate cohort doing her own research following in her father's steps. This novel certainly packs a lot in les than 300 pages: among other things, complicated family dynamics and coming to term with who/ how your parents are/were, thoughts on colonisation and different knowledge systems, the question of how to navigate exploitave systems and organisations, mental health struggles, (post)colonial politics. And similiar to House of Stone, Tshuma's previous novel, or may be even more so, it would be difficult to put Digging Stars into one genre box. It is a novel full of ideas and concepts and full of wonder for the world and universe, while also incorporating thrilling elements and elements of a college novel (and, again: more). Everything is hold together by the protagonist and her developement as she needs to reconsider if her father has earned the pedestal she had put him on all his life and which lessons she might take from learning more about his life. In a conversation I watched, Tshuma said that Athandwa "needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into consciousness" by her friends. Digging Stars fully entertained me while also also made me pause, my thoughts drifting towards space, maths and science. I would have loved even more concrete discussion of Bantu geometries in the book - but that is nitpicking. [Image description: My hand holds a copy of the book Digging Stars.] #igreads #bookstagram #goodreads #DiggingStars #NovuyoRosaTshuma #igbooks #bookreview
#OctoberWrapUp For each category below I sorted t #OctoberWrapUp For each category below I sorted the books roughly from what I enjoyed most to least. All books marked by (L) I got from the library and marked with (Li) I read via Libro.fm. Novel/ novellas Moniquill Blackgoose: To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit, #1) (L) Novuyo Rosa Tshuma: Digging Stars Raphaela Edelbauer: Die Inkommensurablen Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner: Messer, Zungen Chencia C. Higgins: D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding (Li) Abdulrazak Gurnah: By The Sea (L) Nicole Barker: I am Sovereign Petina Gappah: Out of the Darkness, Shining Light Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: A Spell of Good Things (L) Mesha Maren: Sugar Run Robin Gow: A Million Quiet Revolutions (L) Poetry Chris Tse: Super Model Minority Gabrielle Octavia Rucker: Dereliction Plays Selma Kay Matter: Grelle Tage Comic/ Manga/ Graphic Kay O'Neill: The Tea Dragon Society (Tea Dragon, #1) Jasmine Walls, Teo Duvall (Illustrator), Bex Glendining (Colorist), Ariana Maher (Letterer): Brooms Kay O'Neill: Aquicorn Cove Sunmi: Firebird (L) Non-Fiction Hami Ngyuen: Das Ende der Unsichtbarkeit: Warum wir über anti-asiatischen Rassismus sprechen müssen BIPoC Voices (ed.): Worte Wie Honig Molly Adams, Sydney Golden Anderson: Birding for a Better World: A Guide to Finding Joy and Community in Nature Joe Vallese (ed.): It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (L) Raúl Aguayo-Krauthausen: Wer Inklusion will, findet einen Weg. Wer sie nicht will, findet Ausreden. (L) Fábio Zuker (transl. by Ezra Fitz): Life and Death of a Minke Whale in the Amazon: Dispatches from the Brazilian Rainforest Legacy Russell: Glitch Feminism Benno Gammerl: anders fühlen: Schwules und lesbisches Leben in der Bundesrepublik. Eine Emotionsgeschichte Larissa Pham: Pop Song. Adventures in Art and Intimacy Sarah Ruhl: Smile: The Story of a Face (L) Elina Penner: Migrantenmutti (L) David Moinina Sengeh: Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home, and World (L) [Image description: All books from the caption, except those marked with (L) or (Li) in a stack on a sideboard.] #bookstagram #igreads #goodreads #readerslife
Vor 30 Jahren starben Saime Genç, Hülya Genç Vor 30 Jahren starben Saime Genç, Hülya Genç, Gürsün İnce, Hatice Genç und Gülüstan Öztürk bei einem rechten Brandanschlag in Solingen. Mevlüde Genç verlor damit zwei Töchter, zwei Enkelinnen und eine Nichte. In den folgenden Jahrzehnten aber setzte sie sich unermüdlich für die Erinnerung und Versöhnung ein. Am 30.10.2022 verstarb Mevlüde Genç. Heute zum ersten Todestag erscheint beim @ldverlag von @bipocvoices herausgegeben die Dankesschrift Worte wie Honig. Dieses Buch ist wirklich ein Geschenk. Es bringt Prosa und Lyrik zusammen, reicht von Zeitzeug*innenberichten zu poetischen Annäherungen. Hier geht es um den konkreten Anschlag in Solingen und Mevlüde Gençs einflussreiches Wirken, es geht um Erinnerungskultur und den Kontext von rechter Gewalt und Politik in Deutschland. Solingen wird auch eingeordnet in die leider lange Liste rechter Morde in diesem Land. Am längsten nachhallen wird bei mir vielleicht 31 Fragmente für Mevlüde hanım von Leyla Sophie Gleissner, wo Zitate von Mevlüde Genç, ein Gespräch der Autorin mit ihrer Mutter, O-Töne von Johannes Rau und Gerd Kaimer, Medienzitate und ein suchend, fragender Chor zu einem stilistisch präzisen und emotional ergreifenden Text zusammengewoben werden. Aber insgesamt ist es gerade die Vielstimmigkeit der zwölf Texte dieser Anthologie, die das Buch so gelungen machen. Trauer und Wut, Dankbarkeit und Gemeinschaft gehen Hand in Hand in Worte wie Honig. Unbedingt lesenswert. [Bildbeschreibung: Meine Hand hält das Buch Wort wie Honig und davor eine Postkarte auf der steht: "Wir gedenken Saime Genç, Hülya Genç, Gürsün İnce, Hatice Genç und Gülüstan Öztürk, die bei dem Brandanschlag 1993 in Solingen ums Leben gekommen sind."] #bookstagram #lesen #bücherliebe #igreads #goodreads
#WhatThisWeek 22nd - 29th of October Doing 🖐️ First things first: Voices in Europe for Peace has a good overview for several countries how to contact your MPs (both national and of the European Parliament) to ask them to demand a ceasfire. The page also share an email template (but if you have time write your own as this often has more impact than a copy-paste message. This week I got to go on a walk with @jenny_lund and her daughter who is just two month old. And today I caught the exhibition on HAËL/ Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein's ceramics on its last day. Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein was a Jewish Bauhaus student (though she wasn't accepted into the workshop). In 1933 her design company was shut down by the Nazis and she was forced to sell it (it was then appropriated as the to this day functioning Bollhagen ceramic studio). Reading 📖 I did read a lot, but my highlight was certainly Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's newest novel Digging Stars which I will review next week. Watching 💻 Over the weekend I caught some papers presented at the African Realisms symposium at the University of Southhampton (my petition to have more academic conferences to just allow people to listen online) which fittingly to my week's reading ended on an interview with Novuyo Rosa Tshuma. I loved hearing her read and talk about this fascinating novel. Listening 🎧 @ubahnleserin doesn't solely share great reviews but also a lot of great music tipps. Thanks to her, I found myself listening to Sarah Kinsley's new EP Ascension on repeat. @ubahnleserin also just shared a playlist with podcasts and other formats on the history of the Congo (in English and German) in her stories. So something else to check out. Enjoying 💜 Last few days that the public pool outdoors is open, so I tried to get in some more swims. I also enjoyed receiving a WhatsApp message by @delfine_der_weide showing she bought a book I had recommended. And then there was the ladybug walking accross my hand. [Image descriptions are in the comments.]
I read The Feminist Bird Club's Birding for a Bett I read The Feminist Bird Club's Birding for a Better World: A Guide to Finding Joy and Community in Nature by Sydney Anderson and Molly Adams earlier this month. I love how this book takes birding (which is by the way a more inclusive word than bird watching - another more commonly used term) as an acces point to community building, re-thinking liveable futures and anti climate change action. As the subtitle says this is actually a guide. It includes many insightful information about barriers (from access barriers for disabled people to racism), how to start birding even without any experience, and how to create inclusive birding experiences which connects to actions caring for the environment. There are also questions for self reflection around birding but also organizing (in an activist sense). In a week like this one (or the past ones) things like this book can feel insignificant (and that is absolutely valid, obviously), but it is a good reminder how change and resistance to power structures is an every day practice and can/ shoud be built into many different activities beyond all the urgent (and important!) action. [Image description: My hand holds the book Birding For A Better World.] #igreads #BirdingForABetterWorld #goodreads #bibliophile #TheFeministBirdingClub #reading #birding
I said that when I got the new Zadie Smith earlier I said that when I got the new Zadie Smith earlier this year: there is a special joy in getting a new book by an author whose work you have deeply enjoyed in the past. Adding now to my stack the new Jesmyn Ward Let Us Descend and Jeanette Winterson's Night Side Of The River: Ghost Stories. Both are now on top of my reading pile for November. (Also, the photo doesn't do it justice but both book covers have really beautiful silver and gold foiling.] [Image description: The two mentioned novels lie on a pillow at the edge of a sofa.] #bookstagram #igreads #JesmynWard #LetUsDescend #JeanetteWinterson #NightSideOfTheRiver #goodreads
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