What I’m Reading Right Now (#1)
I’m always asking, “What are you reading?” so I figured I’d better return the favor by answering the question myself. I’m always in the middle of at least a dozen books, but here’s what I’m actively reading this weekend:
Making Violence Sexy edited by Diana Russell… For a follow-up project to the “Trauma Culture” section of Aftershock, looking closely at the deepest and most disturbing intersections among the oppressions, one of which is sexualized violence. Diana Russell is one of my heroes, for spending so many years looking at what nobody wants to look at and talking about what nobody wants to hear.
A Little Yes and a Big No by George Grosz… For an article I’m working on about Dada, Tropicalia, and other transgressive and transformative arts movements.
Moghul Buffet by Cheryl Benard… A feminist murder mystery. I like it because it’s written with wry humor and because it’s set in Pakistan, where I’ve been.
I’ll try to do this every week. Of course, I’m curious to know what you’re reading too.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I’m reading “From Yale To Jail”, “How Non-Violence Protects the State”, and I want to start “Pacifism as Pathology”, which was part of my monthly package from AK Press this past month. (I am educating myself on pacifism and so I have to read both sides of the issue. I don’t have my hands on the books on the peace movement yet, so for now, it is the ward churhills that I’m reading.)
Making Violence Sexy sounds like something I will definitely want to read. (I have so many books on my list, and on my piles, but then I think we all do!)
Neva vegan also mentioned a couple books, Rachel Simmons’ Odd Girl Out and Girl Wars by Cheryl Dellasega and Charisse Nixon, which are about how brutal young girls are to each other. I definitely want to get started reading them as well.
May 20th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I have been in a reading rut, nothing too intellecutal, just lesbian mystery novels. Recently the Kate Martinelli Series from Laurie King. The one I just finished is Night Work. Anyone read it? It’s interesting… It has a discussion on womens rage. And a discussion on Hindu culture, and bride burning. I need to do research on that, I hadn’t heard of it until this book.
May 20th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I’m finishing one of Sheri Tepper’s earlier books, called “Wizard’s Eleven.” If you haven’t read Tepper before, and you like speculative fiction AT ALL, you MUST READ HER. NOW. She is amazing. Frankly, even if you don’t like the genre in general, you might well like her. She is very feminist (on one of her worlds, the men feed on the blood of women, which is a very nice metaphor), and while not explicitly animal-rights oriented, has nothing much nice to say about how humans oppress and destroy other animals and the rest of the world (in one of her books, humans spend 3,000 years atoning for our obscenities toward everyone else).
Anyway — that’s what I’m reading now.
May 20th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Angie, I read all of that series a few years back. I don’t remember specific titles, though that one sounds very familiar. I can almost guarantee I read it. Unless it is a new book in that series? I love the way Laurie King writes, and the stories in general. Great books. I wish she’d do more. (maybe she has, and I haven’t been paying enough attention, though I tend to browse my favorite authors, and I don’t think I have seen anything new in that series.) Actually, I know I read that one, because I remember the hindu culture/bride burning discussion.
Charlotte, what is speculative fiction?
For fiction I’ve been reading vampire fiction. heh. Doubt anyone would be especially interested in the vampire fiction I’ve been reading!
May 20th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Nevada Barr is another mystery author I have enjoyed. She has written one lesbian novel, Bittersweet, and a series featuring a ranger named Anna Pigeon. Anna is usually vegetarian (she has eaten meat a few times and it is usually an issue for her), and the books are fun as they take place at different national parks for each book, and there are a ton of books to get through. I haven’t read much vampire fiction, not since Anne Rice was popular. Who’s an author you’d recommend? And what is speculative fiction? I’m intrigued.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Angie, we have the same taste in fiction! I love the nevada barr books. i’m not sure if i’ve read bittersweet. I think i’ve only read her anna pigeon stuff.
something common in many vampire books is a rather open sexuality. you see it in anne rice’s stuff (and her son, christopher rice, has some excellent writing out there as well, not vampire stuff, but just as intense and lushly written as anne’s stuff). the vampire stuff i’ve been reading lately is Kim Harrison. Though really it is witches, and vampires, and pixies, and elves, and werewolves, and…well, the whole cast, really. the vampires are strongly represented though! i can’t claim that is why i read vampire books - I tend to be drawn towards novels that are that extra step further from reality as possible, i guess.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Kim Harrison, I just looked her up on my library’s website, and I only have access to 2 books: Dates From Hell and For A few demons more; the reviews tell me these are the latest from a series? Is there a title I should start with? Have you read bending the landscape? That was fun.
May 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Since I’m interested in vegangelizing to evangelists, Keith Akers’ The Lost Religion of Jesus. His thesis is that, based on historical documents, Jesus and the earliest Christians were pacifist vegetarians. Also, On Subbing by David Roche, a not-too-intense diary of substitute teaching for special needs students in Portland, OR. (Deb has read that one.)
May 21st, 2007 at 8:53 am
I started to look for that anti-lawn poem by Chrystos, but then I stumbled upon her anti-vegetarian poem and got too mad at her to continue thumbing through her books. It’s a shame when such a smart and powerful writer authors something so snide and small-minded. Not to mention silly. She sarcastically uses the old “plants have feelings too” argument, thereby insulting not only ethical vegetarians (as she intended to do) but also environmental veg*ns (who know that meat-eaters consume more plants than we do) and people who really do respect the different-than-ours-but-still-very-real feelings of plants.
Still, I’ve rarely read any poem more powerful than Chrystos’ “Today was a bad day like TB,” which anybody tempted to misappropriate Native American cultural practices ought to read along with Ward Churchill’s Indians Are Us?
There’s one and only one vampire book I can recommend, and I recommend it strongly: The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez. I usually hate, hate, hate anything having anything to do with vampires but I loved, loved, loved that book!
May 21st, 2007 at 10:44 am
Angie, I haven’t read “bending the landscape”, but I just looked it up, and I’m going to have to see if my library has it! It sounds really interesting.
As for the Kim Harrison books, they are a series, but they don’t necessarily need to be read in order. The back stories, for the most part, are explained enough in each book that you won’t be lost. The only thing you miss is getting to know the characters, but then again, the main character in that series is more honest and self-aware in the later books, so you might like her better if you meet her then.
pattrice, that sounds like an interesting vampire book! I don’t really expect most people to like vampire books, it just happens that I can’t get enough lately! I’ll have to look for that one. Though I need to get back to the rest of the piles of books I have waiting for me.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Here’s a comment that again links this thread to the comments about gardening and weedy yards. Charlotte mentioned Sheri Tepper. I usually don’t care for speculative fiction, but I do like most of what I’ve read by Tepper, especially her book called The Family Tree. This quote from the Library Journal review of the book should explain why: “While investigating the separate murders of three geneticists, police sergeant Dora Henry stumbles upon talking animals from the future who have come 3000 years into their past to prevent the extinction of their species before a plague destroys most humans. Overnight, sentient weeds and trees begins taking over the suburbs and carrying off babies from families with more than two children.”
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:32 am
Tepper sounds amazing! And my library carries some of her titles, but not family tree. One book I forgot to mention that I’ve read, probably because it is a book on photography and it took me all of 2 hours to read, is nothing but the girl. Any one else read it or familar with Jill Posener or Suzie Bright? It was the first time I had really read anything that was pro-erotica, queer, and critical of feminism. I am still processing. I picked it up because of the cover, that image is intense. Any thoughts?