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unsuspicious@wyrms.de

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The Bell Jar (Paperback, 2003, HarperLargePrint) 3 stars

The Bell Jar chronicles the breakdown of the brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful Esther …

holy shit this is so depressing I need a break. I can so easily imagine myself in Esther's place. If career paths (or basically any path in life except marrying and having kids) had been as closed for me as it was for women in the 50s, and if treatment of mental health issues would still be as bad, I think I would have ended up like her.

Her Body and Other Parties (Hardcover, 2017, Graywolf Press) 4 stars

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders …

Weird Stories

4 stars

I'm not a fan of short stories, but these were so well written that it was enough for me to finish the book. Most of the stories are very dark and scary. As far as I can remember all of them are magical realism from the pov of lesbian women, and mostly they revolve around sexism, sex, physical and mental illnesses. I skipped one of them though ("Especially Heinous" since I don't know the Law&Order series and figured the story would make not much sense to me). I really liked "The Husband Stitch" (omg it made me angry enough to kill), "Inventory" and "The Resident".

Being Seen (AudiobookFormat, 2022, Tiller Press) 4 stars

A Deafblind writer and professor explores how the misrepresentation of disability in books, movies, and …

mostly a media analysis

4 stars

ok so when I started this book it was very reluctantly. i am abled and have not confronted my own ableism a lot, so i was expecting it to make me feel guilt, shame, the whole fragility shebang when confronted with one's own bigotry. but actually, i did not because a) this is a very funny book as elsa sjunneson writes in a very snarky way b) it is mostly about ableism in the media, so it didn't really teach me to change something about my behavior, specifically, but still got me to question some assumptions and thought patterns

The Seventh Bride (2015, 47North) 4 stars

Young Rhea is a miller's daughter of low birth, so she is understandably surprised when …

light reading

4 stars

I liked this a lot - maybe a little less than "Nettle and Bone" by the same author because it's not quite as snarky. It's super wholesome and put me in a light mood. The characters are very likable and down to earth, plus it has a lot of fresh ideas and plays on common fantasy tropes, which I liked.

Imago (1997, Aspect) 4 stars

Child of two species, but part of neither, a new being must find his way. …

satisfying

4 stars

it is really interesting how I ended up being sympathetic with jodahs, my perspective towards the ooloi has changed a lot over the course of the story. some very interesting thoughts on biopolitics and human nature (the "human conflict" especially) and an entertaining read. as it has already been pointed out by other readers the gender essentialism is hard to endure sometimes. i think ooloi is a pretty cool gender though ^^