snapbookreviews

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Winter 2023/2024 Behind-the-Scenes Reading

This behind the scenes reading post primarily reflects the beginning of the Spring semester, weirdly enough, because the semester started at the tail end of January. I didn’t read a lot over Winter Break, and what I did ended up becoming other posts. For example, I did a lot of World of Darkness sourcebook reading, but that was for an article of its own, and Half (my beloved), of course, was…

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#aja y. martinez #cherokee stories of the turtle island liars&039; club #christopher b. teuton #counterstory #emily legg #indigenous storywork #jo-ann archibald #junji ito #lee maracle #oratory on oratory #stories of our living ephemera #the enigma of amigara fault

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The Heart of Summer by Danton Remoto

A Filipino author (and scholar, reporter, teacher, actor, etc.), Danton Remoto brings the the complex beauty and stories of the Philippines to an English speaking audience. My favorite two stories (so far), are The Ruined Hotel, which layers the letting go of a loved one with the quieting of the spirit of a woman who died when a hotel collapsed in an earthquake, and The Two Women of Bantayan,…

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#danton remoto #literary fiction #penguin random house #short stories #the heart of summer #urban fantasy

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The Tea Dragon Festival by K. O'Neill

More Tea Dragons abound in K. O'Neill's "The Tea Dragon Festival."

Both of the books in the Tea Dragon series that I’ve read have shared the theme of “finding what you want to do” both personally and in a chosen profession/trade. In The Tea Dragon Society, Greta reaffirms the path she was already on, with the addition of tea dragons. In The Tea Dragon Festival, however, new protagonist Rinn takes a different turn.  The Tea Dragon Festival turns back the clock…

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#fantasy #k. o&039;neill #oni press #the tea dragon festival #the tea dragon society #ya fiction

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Judaism, Vampires, and World of Darkness

What started as a few paragraphs about Jewish elements in Vampire: The Masquerade is now... 4,500+ words of a much larger dive into how Judaism is portrayed in the World of Darkness games.

What is World of Darkness? World of Darkness is a game line that layers the worlds of supernatural beings over our real human world, everything from history to the modern day, and each new edition builds upon the lore of the previous editions. Oh, and also the lore of all the games under the WoD umbrella overlaps. This was a major reason that this had to be its own article, instead of an end…

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#changeling: the dreaming #charnel houses of europe: the shoah #dark ages: vampire #horror #jerusalem by night #judaism #mage: the ascension #paradox interactive #supernatural #ttrpg #vampire: the dark ages #vampire: the masquerade #white wolf studios #world of darkness #wraith: the oblivion

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Half by Jordan Park

Today we bring you a much longer than usual review of a trans/intersex pulp novel from 1953, "Half" by Jordan Park.

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#1950s #cyril m. kornbluth #half #intersex #jordan park #lion books #pulp fiction #pulp smut #queer history #transgender

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Fall 2023 Behind-the-Scenes Reading

Do YOU want to see what I spent my first semester in grad school reading? Of course you do. (There's a lot of Indigenous and queer scholarship.)

Usually, when I finish a reading that I know will be on the quarterly post, I write the small blurb as soon as I’m done, and I did start this semester doing that… but then came the annotated bibliography assignment. I had to stop doing blog write ups of my reading, because I had a big academic write up of my reading to do. But I’m back now! (It’s winter break and I only have teaching prep to…

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#aaron h. devor #adam stranz #autobiographical text archive and activism #bagele chilisa #bodies in flux #brian jackson #cana uluak itchuaqiyaq #christa teston #emily legg #equipping technical communicators for social justice work #girls in flight #i&039;m surprised this hasn&039;t happened before: an indigenous examination of uxd failure during the hawaii missle false alarm #in ceremony with grandmother water spider #indigenous research methodologies #inupiat ilitqusiat: an indigenous ethics approach for working with marginalized knowledges in technical communication #jamie noguchi #jeremy whitley #lara wilson #linda m. morra #out of the closet into the archive #putting trans history on the shelves #queer phenomenology #sarah beth hopton #school for extraterrestrial girls #teaching mindful writers #the tarot of tech: foretelling the social justice impacts of our designs

[snapbookreviews]

Jewish Roleplaying Games 3e

Hanukkah may be over, but there's never a bad time of year to play Jewish tabletop games.

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#beyond the pale #chickadee tales llc #dice #esther and the queens #grandma&039;s drinking song #hanukkah goblins #helka björk unnardottir #heroforge #if i were a lich man #jewish ttrpgs #keeping the lights on #lucian kahn #max fefer #ritualwell #same bat time same bat mitzvah #society of rafa #tabletop miniatures #ttrpg #yochai gal

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The Tea Dragon Society by K. O'Neill

Do you like tea? Do you like dragons? What about tiny dragons that produce magical tea? If you answered yes to any of these questions, try "The Tea Dragon Society" by @strangelykatie

Do you like tea? Do you like tiny dragons? What about tiny dragons that produce magical tea? Well do I have a book for you. Before we meet the dragons, however, we have to meet Greta, a young goblin and blacksmithing apprentice, dedicated to her trade, but still floundering a bit. In a delicious bit of beautifully incorporated world building, we learn that blacksmithing isn’t the industry it…

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#fantasy #k. o&039;neill #oni press #tea dragon society #the tea dragon society

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Some Strange Disturbances: Nob's Tale written by Craig Hurd-McKenney

It's time for more Some Strange Disturbances! This time, a short comic on Nobuyoshi "Nob" Yakamoto.

“Nob’s Tale” is a short comic where we get a little backstory for Prescott’s sumo wrestler boyfriend, Nobuyoshi “Nob” Yakamoto, from the main Some Strange Disturbances story. We learn about Nob’s family and see his encounter with a kappa as he attempts to get it to leave his village and let his family rest in peace. The story takes place in December 1845 during the events of the other collection…

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#craig hurd-mckenney #folklore #headless shakespeare press #horror #japanese mythology #nob&039;s tale #some strange disturbances #supernatural

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Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

Melissa Febos

In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the questions which run through it. How might we go about capturing on the page the relationships that have formed us? How do we write about our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean for an author's way of writing, or living, to be dismissed as "navel-gazing"--or else hailed as "so brave, so raw"? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong? Drawing on her own path from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor--via addiction and recovery, sex work and academia--Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas--and occasional notes of caution--to anyone who has ever hoped to see themselves in a story.

(Affiliate link above)

#to read

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Some Strange Disturbances: The Demon Bride written by Craig Hurd-McKenney

It's the return of my favorite queer horror graphic novel series! "Some Strange Disturbances" volume 3, "The Demon Bride!" It's not only chock full of queer characters, but it's a fabulously written horror story as well.

I thought I had an inkling about what “The Demon Bride,” but let me just say I was surprised at every turn in the best possible way.  We pick up right where we left off. The Comtesse is recovering from her demon attack, but is still living her best life—she and Brandt get married!  Prescott is still struggling with opium and his psychic abilities, but he has Nob and Delilah in his corner.…

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#asexual #craig hurd-mckenney #gay #headless shakespeare press #horror #some strange disturbances #the demon bride #transgender

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Summer 2023 Behind-the-Scenes

We've got a graphic memoir from John Leguizamo, Jewish vampires, the Witcher, and Damon Runyon, as well as a big announcement about life events and things to come.

Ya boy is in grad school! I started on August 28! I have an office! Some changes have already begun. You probably noticed that this month’s review did not come out on the Wednesday schedule. That schedule has gone out the window. We’re now on a schedule based on how much and when I have things due. For these behind-the-scenes reading posts, the biggest change is that I’ve had to pump the breaks…

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#andrzej sapkowski #blood libel #brain jackson #frankenstein #ghetto klown #john leguizamo #leigh ann hussey #mary shelly #sword of destiny #teaching mindful writers

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By joethommas

#hey i love this bookstore

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a queer love story about two Mexican boys that had the misfortune of being released right in the middle of the strikes because the movie hasn’t gotten any promo (because it can’t) and no one but the fans of the books are watching it

I am begging y’all to go watch Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe before it leaves theaters (which will be very soon)

#lets get on this lads

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Sailor Stories by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, trans. Michael Lombardi-Nash

#KarlHeinrichUlrichs was a pioneering gay rights activist in the late 19th century. #SailorStories features four haunting #nautical tales, including the first gay male #vampire story. Translated by #MichaelLombardi-Nash of #UraniaManuscripts.

Sailor Stories was written between 1883 and 1884 while Karl Heinrich Ulrichs—first gay activist in the modern sense of the term—was in self-exile in Italy and was first published in German in 1885. The four stories collected in Sailor Stories are inspired by Old Norse folk tales and beautifully haunting. Haunting is truly the best way to describe them, they aren’t ghost stories and I wouldn’t…

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#atlantis #folklore #gay rights #karl heinrich ulrichs #manor #michael lombardi-nash #nautical fiction #queer history #sailor stories #sulitelma #the monk of sumboe

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We’re winning.

#ulysses grant dietz

[snapbookreviews]

The Radium Girls: The Dark History of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

If you're interested in medical history, labor rights in the early 20th century, or the history of radioactive materials "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore is a must read.

Note: Because I read this as an ebook, I sadly do not have any snaps. It’s not often that I’ll ruin my sleep schedule just in order to finish a book in one sitting, and it’s even rarer for me to tear through an ebook in a single go given how much I struggle with reading on a screen, but that’s exactly what I did with “The Radium Girls.” I tore through this book in a matter of hours, and was…

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#history #kate moore #labor rights #sourcebooks inc #the radium girls #the radium girls: the dark history of america&039;s shining women