<–The State of the Reader: 4/20/22         The State of the Reader: 5/18/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

---

Purchased: 2

• Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings – $21.39 @ Amazon
• Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness and Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison – $14.69 @ Amazon

Total: $36.08

---

Books Finished: 0

---

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Ladies of the Secret Circus
Author: Constance Sayers
Date Added: September 4, 2021
Date Started: April 12, 2022

Media: eBook/Kindle

The exposition became too much, especially since the author spends far too much time giving background on side characters, and it throws off the pacing immensely.  What books like this do is teach me what to look out for in my own writing because I tend to be overly descriptive, but I try to not bombard people with too much information about characters who don’t matter.  There’s a scene where someone walks into a store, and there are paragraphs about this woman.  All I could think was “Why do I care?”  Even if it’s going to be pertinent later, info dumping like that is going to be too much for someone to keep track of.

I wound up looking up some of the comments and critiques on Goodreads, and the lower star ratings were saying similar.  I also got the gist of what was going on in the story.  It was actually kind of interesting.  I might go back there to see if I can find out what happened to her fiancé and the guy that disappeared in the prologue.

I have another of her books on my TBR list A Witch in Time.  I hope this one doesn’t suffer from the same issue.  It was published before this one, so I guess we’ll see.

---

Books On Hold: 1

Title: Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth
Author: Mark Williams
Date Added: October 5, 2017
Date Started: December 15, 2021

Media: Hardback
Progress: 32%

Finally finished up Chapter 4.  I don’t know when this book will be back in the rotation, but it most definitely will.  There’s so much good information here.

---

Currently Reading: 7

Title: Ecofeminism
Series Title: Critique Influence Change
Authors: Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva
Date Added: July 13, 2020
Date Started: May 3, 2022

Media: Paperback
Progress: Preface

I’d laugh at the timing of me starting this the day after the SCOTUS leak if I didn’t wish the entire world were on fire…which it kind of is due to climate change ha hahaha 🙃  This is one of the main texts I wanted for my research since FFVII is, among many other things, an eco-parable, and the below in the very prologue solidifies it for me:

“Ecofeminism’s first premise is that the ‘material’ resourcing of women and of nature are structurally interconnected in the capitalist patriarchal systems.”

Yeaaaaah.  I don’t really have any interest in arguing with people who don’t understand capitalism is a system of exploitation.  I don’t have the energy to waste explaining that two plus two is four.

I’m not certain if I’m going to read this one all at once or bounce back and forth as I have been doing with Ireland’s Immortals.  I need to figure that out as I organize my research materials, which is an ongoing task.

Title: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
Author: Da’Shaun Harrison
Date Added: February 11, 2022
Date Started: May 2, 2022

Media: Paperback
Progress: Acknowledgments

CW: Implied diet/eating disorder talk

I have a feeling people reading the title of this are asking “What do those two things have to do with each other?” and while it’s not a question I ever directly asked myself, I always intrinsically knew it when I’d have family members tell me I’d “never look like my white friends.”  I knew it didn’t have anything to do with color, but oh boy was I going to prove them wrong when it came to size…by any means necessary.  There’s a lot I’ve learned about the politics of appearance in both a short time and over my life.  The latter through experience and the former by paying attention.  The more you learn, the more you realize how all of these oppressive instituatins and issues are linked.

Title: Black Hammer, Vol: 4: Age of Doom, Part Two
Series: Black Hammer
Author: Jeff Lemire
Illustrators: Dean Ormston, Rich Tommaso et al
Date Added: May 2, 2019
Date Started: May 1, 2022

Media: Paperback

As per usual there are no page numbers so I can’t give progress percentages.  I’m just happy I finally started reading this.  I’m three books behind now, and even though I’m currently reading seven, most of them are going to take me a while to finish.

The first part of this is quite meta, and I could tell it was drawn by someone else even without seeing the new illustrator.  I’m curious how it’s going to tie into the rest of the story, or if it was just the author’s creative way of telling us why this particular character won’t be around.

Title: The King in Yellow
Author: Robert W. Chambers
Date Added: August 4, 2019
Date Restarted: April 17, 2022

Media: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 5%

I’m not as bored this time.  Maybe because I’m looking at it as a research reference?  Either way I’m at the end of the first story’s first part.

Title: Parasite Eve
Author: Hideaki Sena
Translator: Tyran Grillo
Date Added: June 8, 2017
Date Started: April 14, 2022

Media: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 33%

Sometimes I have to read this after I’ve finished eating lunch, because the medical procedure descriptions are seriously detailed.  I wonder if the author was a surgeon at some point or did some real heavy research into it.  Not that I’d know what details were legit; I just know it makes me squeamish lol.  It’s interesting to see the book go back in time to talk about Kiyomi who literally dies prior to the first chapter.

Title: The Death of Jane Lawrence
Author: Caitlin Starling
Date Added: July 25, 2021
Date Started: April 7, 2022

Media: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 30%

I had to re-borrow this from the library after I ran out of time and there was no option to renew.  It’s weird.  Sometimes they give you that option, sometimes they don’t, and I’m not sure what drives it.  I actually had to put the book back on hold, but it only took a day and was over the weekend so I’ve been able to read it since Monday.  The novel always ends a chapter with something that makes you want more.

Title: House of Sky and Breath
Series: Crescent City
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Date Added: March 7, 2021
Date Started: February 23, 2022

Media: Physical/Hardback
Progress: 19%

Maas remains excellent at portraying PTSD in her characters.  The fact that the wings grow back after they’re cut off in a way is worse like yeah it would obviously suck to lose limbs, but then to have them regenerate to be hacked off again??  Nah, I’ll walk from now on, son *shudders*

---

Long update today.  I started reading a lot of books and most of them heavily political ones.  I feel like it’s my duty to educate myself though, and since the Ecofeminism one doubles as research, I can kill two birds with one stone.

And with that I say goodnight.

---

<–The State of the Reader: 4/20/22         The State of the Reader: 5/18/22–>