Why can't I read all these books!? 🍋🟩
🍵 Lots of nonfiction, literary fiction, poetry, classical literature, speculative fiction, magical realism, etc.
📖 Beaucoup de non-fiction et de fiction, de poésie, des classiques, du spéculatif, du réalisme magique, etc.
💬 they/them ; iel/lo 💌 Find me on Mastodon: silvan.cloud/@gersande
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In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome …
I always forget how much Western Scientist Commentary On The Soviet Union there is. But also, the Soviet scientist, Vaygay Lunacharsky, is both an underdeveloped and underused character and it makes me sad.
Gersande La Flèche
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Un jour, une vie. Tel est le résumé du roman vivifiant et contagieux de Maurice …
Vous avez pu vous en rendre compte, les Vieux-Gués ne racolent pas : des allées qui coupent des taillis, des bouts de plaine tout de suite refermés, un étang modeste et secret que tels de mes amis qualifieraient de margouillat. Mais je les aime tels qu'ils sont. Les genêts, les ajoncs y fleurissent comme en Bretagne ; les hampes des digitales, comme en Sologne en cette saison, embrument du même rose les talus des forêts. Les petites draves du printemps, leurs menues collerettes rondes, leurs fleurs lilliputiennes, d'un blanc si pur… Je voudrais, si j'étais poète, chanter ce monde au ras de l'herbe où rosissent les fleurs de l'érodium, où les petits soucis des vignes éparpillent leurs gouttes orangées. Jaune, bleu, rouge, mauve, à la bonne heure ! Quelle formule d'ordinateur me toucherait comme ces mots-là ?
— Un jour by Maurice Genevoix
Un exemple de description superbe, et cette chute, qui me fait presque imaginer Genevoix prévoyant la naissance des grands modèles de langues. En fait, en 1964, Robert Escarpit avait inventé le littératron, un ordinateur capable de produire automatiquement des discours électoraux après avoir recueilli les préférences des électeurs, puis des romans.
« Cela commençait ainsi: La frêle jeune fille aux yeux pervenche qui descendit a la station de la Porte des Lilas était modestement mais proprement vêtue... La dernière phrase du livre était: Il lut dans son regard extasié la promesse d’un indicible bonheur. »
Gersande La Flèche
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A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, …
Finally, started listening to this while doing yoga this morning (I've been taking an audiobook break by listening to podcasts lately). I enjoy the combination of detailed engineering knowledge with a vulnerable memoir. The way that Chachra builds scenes of our real-world infrastructure having a purpose down to the smallest, easily disregarded, parts reminds me of the in-depth world building of acclaimed sci-fi novels like "Red Mars" yet describing instead the marvels of the real world. Those lengthy paragraphs that set the scene for our characters always strikes me as what sets the immersion into that world apart from any other book, centered far more on the action and drama between characters than anywhere else (should it even matter that they're in space?). What might be even more critical to the form of Chachra's writing is in bringing us out of pure fantasy through the recognition that all this is …
Finally, started listening to this while doing yoga this morning (I've been taking an audiobook break by listening to podcasts lately). I enjoy the combination of detailed engineering knowledge with a vulnerable memoir. The way that Chachra builds scenes of our real-world infrastructure having a purpose down to the smallest, easily disregarded, parts reminds me of the in-depth world building of acclaimed sci-fi novels like "Red Mars" yet describing instead the marvels of the real world. Those lengthy paragraphs that set the scene for our characters always strikes me as what sets the immersion into that world apart from any other book, centered far more on the action and drama between characters than anywhere else (should it even matter that they're in space?). What might be even more critical to the form of Chachra's writing is in bringing us out of pure fantasy through the recognition that all this is intrinsically grounded in racial capitalism.
I like the connection between how nature is often described as "the green stuff" as people with plant awareness disparity (I'm referencing the term from nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.10153 ) may struggle to define the specifics of all that surrounds them until it all blurs into a green blob- to how infrastructure is often lost into its own blur of "grey stuff". As someone who's interested in the formation of identity as a result of the environment and grew up in an urban setting, I'm very interested in bringing attention to the diversity that exists around us at all times, subconsciously influencing what we assume to be the norm, but also empowering us when we are better able to define, enact, and tend to those relations.
Furthermore, I'm reminded of "Detritus, trophic dynamics and biodiversity" ( onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00606.x ) where it notes "This review incorporates the 'brown-world' of detritus into the largely 'green-world' of food web theory by integrating population, community and ecosystem ecology" (Hedin 1991; Pomeroy 1991 as cited by Moore et. al 2004). Being an amateur mycologist, it's important for me to bring attention to how the green could not function without the brown.
@leifur do you know if we have this one squirrelled away somewhere?
In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome …
The Laurel Lekfow narration is so well done. I wonder what other audiobooks she has narrated, because honestly I'm not having much trouble with her narration at all!
Andrea Gibson's dynamic and energetic first book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, challenges us to not only read, but …
Le jeune Loun est laissé pour mort, tabassé à son propre domicile. Les regards se tournent immédiatement vers Edoyo, sa …
In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome …
I think the reason so many young millennials and gen x'ers went feral over this book is because Ellie Arroway's childhood as a girl interested in tech and math but also kind of uninterested in school is so intensely relatable.
In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome …
Listening to the audiobook while I emerge from migraine-brain land, narrated by Laurel Lekfow (what a gorgeous voice, she's great). I don't usually handle audiobooks super well, but I've read Contact before so I'm hoping that will help compensate with my slight audio processing issues!
Gersande La Flèche
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How did a social movement evolve from a small group of young radicals to the …
In the end, history will judge our communities not by how many friends we had in high places, but by what we did to support social justice for all.
Gersande La Flèche
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How did a social movement evolve from a small group of young radicals to the …
With one hand, neo-liberalism offered individual rights; with the other, it took away most people’s ability to enjoy them.
Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life …
Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes …
Started reading this immediately after I closed Bookshops and Bonedust and I did like this better. The « Coffee Shop AU » vibe did not put me off (former barista, I don't find coffee shops cozy, it's a me problem, not a fanfic problem) and I liked all the characters though there was a bit of googling to figure out the contours of this fantasy world. Orcs are unmistakable, but I had no idea what a rattkin or a hob is, for example. I still don't know what the character Calamity is supposed to look like. But it didn't much matter, because I had a blast reading this, and would definitely read it again.
Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life …
When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find …
I really liked Satchel, and the author character was great too. And though I like a lot of the individual ingredients in this particular hot drink, there were parts of this that I stumbled over, I'm not entirely sure I can quite explain it. I wonder if it's because I read it before Legends & Lattes? Maybe I should have gone in order of publication, instead.
