TGI Filler

There's a Witch in the Word Machine by Jenni Fagan

I don't even have the right vocabulary to write about poetry, but this is an unsettling and powerful little book. Fagan's poems run the gamut from venomous tirades about personal betrayal to heartbreaking laments about the general state of the universe. There's beauty in there as well, not just in the word-by-word craft (which is exceptional), but in the solace the author finds on the streets of Paris. Fagan is one of my favourite writers, and I think one of the most brilliant literary stylists alive today - in any format. Plus, Witch's overall conceit that words are spells is a sentiment I can wholly agree with) 

A few years ago I was travelling to Greenwich alongside the poet Simon Barraclough, and in the time-honoured tradition of "people on long trips saying stupid shit in desperate attempt to make conversation", I came out with something like "I just don't get poetry". To which he (unnecessarily) kindly responded, "You know, I never hear people saying 'I just don't get prose.'" Which is exactly the sort of perspective-slap I needed.

I'm a little less scared of poetry now, and even if I'm still flailing about, I've managed to stumble on contemporary poets that I really enjoy. (Barraclough very much included in their number.) 

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo (2018) 

After ruining her school's prom, Clara finds herself sentenced to hard labour on her father's food truck - working alongside her goodie-goodie archnemesis and favourite victim, Rose. There are all the traditional Young Adult tropes - mistakes made, lessons learned, a romance blossomed, etc, etc. And pretty much everyone turns out to be exactly who you initially think they are. This is not a book about surprises. 

...and that's kind of why it is wonderful. While still operating within the very, very conventional YA framework, The Way is diverse through-and-through. And its omnipresent diversity is never questioned, or even particularly emphasised. It is just the way things are, because of course they are. This is a pleasantly fluffy novel... seemingly sent back in time from a cheerful future where diversity and feminism can simply be taken for granted.

One of the means of encouraging cultural behaviour change is to simply act as the desired new norm is already in play. And that means treating diverse books not as the exception, but as the de facto standard. My closing review at Pornokitsch was very much along these lines: successful diversity means the freedom to be unexceptional. This obviously has broader connotations than just the occasional food-truck buddy-comedy YA, but, still, it is nice to see an example of a nice book, doing nice things, in a charmingly ordinary way.

I'm re-re-re-reading a lot of Georgette Heyer right now, partially inspired by a recent visit to Bath, and mostly because they're exactly on my relaxation wavelength. They're formulaic and silly and utterly lovely and brilliantly written. They make me laugh out loud, and (whispers) sometimes even tear up.

With my fantasy-reader lens on things: Heyer's Georgian romances deserve a lot of credit for exceptional world-building. She is essentially setting the books in a totally alien society, including historical characters, fascinating settings and complex social landscapes - all without ever resorting to the least bit of infodumping. Heyer isn't quite creating language to the same degree, say, Tolkien did, but Georgian slang is just as exotic as Elvish, and Heyer does a much better job of introducing everything contextually. These are fantasy books with rich worlds, but they need neither an appendix nor a map to keep the reader engaged and informed. Budding authors of all shapes and sizes could do a lot worse than reading (and learning from) Heyer.

Some starting points: The Nonesuch and Faro's Daughter (archetypical Heyer, and both currently on sale), Bath Tangle (a hoot), Lady of Quality (wry and Austen-y), The Talisman Ring (a romance/mystery hybrid),  A Civil Contract (I think her best, but it is also a sort of... revisionist Heyer, written by Heyer, and is worth reading after many of the others, I think).

Juicy new survey on American reading habits from YouGov. Not new news, but nor is it great news. Only about 40% of Americans read one book a month or more. Only 6% read a book each week. (That rises to 9% of women, 2% of men.) Oh, and hey, 2/3rds don't read for pleasure - meaning a large chunk of the reading that is happening is in the functional space (work, study, cookery, DIY...).But someone is doing well out of it! Here's an update on Amazon (via MIT Technology Review):

THIS IS FINE. I do see the irony of including Amazon links in an email that also, you know, kvetches about Amazon. But if I actually want people to take action (the point of a link), why would I send people away from where 83% of all similar business is transacted? 

Amazon Smile - wherein a small proportion of every purchase is chucked at a charity of my choice - is a work of perverse genius. It provides just enough moral offsetting for me to feel a little better about not using links to my local-independent-run-by-grad-students-and-has-a-cat-bookshop. Of course, my local independent doesn't do ecommerce, full stop, so, yeah. 

David Simon is really unhappy about Twitter. 

The Guardian is really unhappy about YouTube (this is fascinating, by the way).

The White House is really unhappy about Google.

Pickle juice is really good with sautéed vegetables.

Really nice idea from the NYPL - a library of clothes, to help equip people for job interviews. It isn't even, as the article points out, a radical extension: the library was already helping with interview training and CV writing, so this was a 'logical' next step.

Terrific insight into an immensely popular genre, and the black women that are working to change it so that it better serves its readers (current and future).