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cartograffiti · 2 months

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February '24 reading diary

I finished 19 books in February, which sounded like a mistake until I realized I read most of them as audiobooks while doing manual tasks. It's always nice when my ears are on my side (says someone with a hearing disorder).

I like poetry, but I don't read enough to feel knowledgeable about it. I've been trying to read a bit from various countries, and after I enjoyed the Pablo Neruda collection so much in January, I went on to read three other poetry books.

Khalil Gibran's The Prophet is one of those works that I've seen quoted out of context so much that I was shocked to discover I didn't actually know what it's about. It's a series of prose poetry fables with a linking plot in which the titular prophet converses with the people of a city he is departing about different aspects of life. A lot of it is really beautiful and thought-provoking, and I thought it was great. It's become a popular source of quotes for weddings and inspirational goods, but I was surprised and moved to find it's also a text about multi-faith unity; Gibran was Lebanese, and Lebanon had and has striking diversity of religions.

I also really enjoyed The Poetess Counts to 100 and Bows Out, a collection by the important Venezuelan poet Ana Enriqueta Terán. I find her wordplay unusual and her subjects interesting, and even in translation, I found her work to give a powerful sense of humor and hopefulness, and a gift for creating a scene.

I did not enjoy Rupi Kaur's Milk and Honey. Kaur is one of the most famous living poets, and I had read so much praise and disdain for her work that I wanted to form my own opinion. There are turns of phrase I really liked, and it is laid out in an interesting way that means some related poems could be read either distinctly or as sections of a longer thought, which I found neat. But I found myself so grumpy the more I read of it that I ended up also reading a lot about Kaur and other people's analysis of her work, trying to contextualize why I bounced so hard off it. Many critics wrote about trying to separate her style from her content, and chose to praise just one or the other, but I am critical of both. Her style lacks personality that would tell me it was her work as opposed to any other poet's, and her content is full of basic, played-out sentiments of popular feminism and bathetic viral posts. Being reminded of "take me to a museum and then make out with me," "but they said not to touch the masterpieces," is not what I'd hoped for out of this. I do think it's a good thing and a strength of Kaur's that she is able to speak to so many people's common experiences through her clarity and intimate tone; it's a shame it didn't click with me. And unlike several professional opinions I read, I think she's completely entitled to write poetry that is not all self-revealing confessional pieces; that should not be something we demand of any art form. But it's a shame some of her verses suggest that certain kinds of shame and violence are a collective and integral part of womanhood and South Asian identity. She's only a little older than I am, and we were both students when she wrote these. I wonder whether her recent work is more sophisticated. I'm not motivated to find out.

The title of the Kaur book reminded me of some enthusiastic praise I'd read for Mary Robinette Kowal's Regency fantasy romance Shades of Milk and Honey, and I found that disappointing, too. I almost liked it; there's some great bits about making art with magic, and it's a good little world. The most interesting character doesn't get enough page time, a lot of secondary characters feel like flat loans from Austen, and the late-book resolution was forced and rushed.

In the Emelan group read, we finished! We read Melting Stones, an Evvy-centered book that I really enjoyed until it became repetitive in the second half, and feel pretty mild about, and The Will of the Empress, reuniting all the original kids as older teens, which I thought was just great. Pierce in top form, and one of the best of this setting.

Lois McMaster Bujold has a new Penric & Desdemona novella out that I haven't been able to borrow yet, but in the meantime I discovered there was one I missed. Penric is a physician mage devoted to an unusual god, which means he's benignly possessed by his demon friend Desdemona, and they have adventures and solve mysteries. This one was Knot of Shadows, about a puzzling corpse and curses. Great fun. Don't start here.

In the land of romance, I've been really enjoying Mimi Matthews's Belles of London series, about a friend group of interesting Victorian horse girls, so I read The Lily of Ludgate Hill as soon as I could. These are no-sex but sexy books with a lot of skill. I've been easily invested in each couple so far, the friends are well integrated into each other's lives even after resolving their own storylines, and their new beaus are introduced smoothly. More than that, there is a lot of consideration for the social issues and new ideas of the period. My favorite is still the first, but Anne and Felix have a strong second chance romance backstory and they're fun to see squabble and cooperate.

More romance: I finished another Gail Carriger novella, this time Defy or Defend. Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott in the Finishing School series was only learning to be a spy because her evil genius parents wanted it. Her actual dream was to marry a nice politician of not too much importance and be a domestic goddess and social power. Now an adult working for the government, her professional partner is also her perfect man, and she hopes he'll admit to mutual feelings while they're on a mission to rescue a vampire hive from dangerous disintegration. It's very much a Cold Comfort Farm or The Grand Sophy plot of a cheerful girl solving everyone's problems, which is perfect for Dimity: I love her and I love this premise. Felix's internal conflict is a bit of a nonentity, but I don't care, he's too busy adoring Dimity and taking the trans vampire to buy new clothes.

And the last romance for the month, The Companion by E.E. Ottoman. An extraordinarily efficient novella about Madeline, a writer whose spirit has been crushed by trying to break into the industry in NYC in the 1940s. A friend arranges for her to go stay with Victor, a successful author lonely in a too-big inherited house upstate. She is quickly attracted to both him and his artist neighbor Audrey, and they adore her. All three are trans, and the core of the plot is Madeline navigating these new relationships while settling into the unfamiliar safety and encouragement offered to her. In Madeline's POV, Ottoman very much treats the poly triangle as two distinct romances and a third observed at a close distance, which means doing about 2.5 times the work of most. I went wild for the execution, which felt like magic. You do have to like reading about people trying to write and cooking, which fortunately I do. Highly recommended.

A very different book about a writer that I was impressed with this month is Malice by Higashino Keigo. In translation, this is the "first" of a longer detective series that I can't remember where I heard about. That was to my advantage, because I wasn't primed for the premise, alternating between the deductions of Detective Kaga and witness statements. It quickly becomes apparent who did it, fitting best into the why-dunnit class, and using my expectations as a mystery fan against me. Higashino does not idly use an author as one of the POV characters; his profession creates a surprise that taught me something about how writing works mechanically. Very cool.

Also a book about books: Sunyi Dean's The Book Eaters. My oldest friend and I both listened to this as the audiobook wonderfully read by Katie Erich, and we both complained that the interview in the bonus material killed a little of the mystery for us. Despite that, we loved the main character, Devon, and it's full of interesting ideas. It's about a group of families who eat information instead of food. It's about...fairy tales and it has a unique form of dragon and vampire myths and a slow-burn escape from Christian cults. It's about figuring out you're gay when you're already a parent. It's weird and fascinating and upsetting. I think Dean made very smart choices about when to reveal information through flashbacks, and I think Dean sometimes over-explains things to the reader in the narration that would have been stronger if I was left to interpret them myself. L and I both think we'd be interested in another Sunyi Dean book, but not a sequel to this one. It is a complete concept.

I feel that way about Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi, too. This one is a fantasy heist with lots of backstory starring Shigidi, who is a kind of minor nightmare god, and Nnemoa, who is a kind of succubus. They have gone freelance, breaking from the corporation of Orisha and taking their own jobs through the living and spirit worlds. I particularly like Nnemoa's backstory chapters and the heist, but Aleister Crowley is involved for some reason and much less repulsive than in real life, and I was disappointed the heist is a pretty brief element. I'd like to read another Talabi book, though, and this was the first adult book I've read that features the orishas of the Yoruba religion which have been a welcome part of several recent YA fantasy books.

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water is not the Zen Cho book I thought it was when I checked it out, but I'm glad to have read it. It's a wuxia novella about a nun and some bandits involved in rebellion, told with a lot of humor and thoughtfulness about the role of holy objects through the POV of a trans bandit with his own history with the nun's order. I love Cho's style!

That was a one-sitting project audiobook, as was a full-cast play recording of The Importance of Being Earnest. This is a sensational play that I had put off reading because I thought it had probably been overhyped. It hadn't. This is the source of a lot of Oscar Wilde's best quotes, and it's a jewel of drawing-room comedy and dialogue that operates on multiple levels of significance. I'm glad I happened to listen to actors doing it, which I wasn't expecting when I tapped on the first audiobook that came up.

More old books: I found an Agatha Christie mystery I didn't like! How sad! This was The Big Four, a series of spy short stories starring Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings, compiled together into a loose novel. The effect is somewhat disjointed, and not every story shows her ingenuity. It's full of 20th century political paranoia of conspiracies and spies, with anti-Asian racism and antisemitic tropes I can often count on Christie to avoid or subvert.

And Steppenwolf, by Herman Hesse, which is a very strange and influential work of literary fiction about a man who believes--not to minimize it by putting it this way--that he has a secret wolf-self inside him, much like certain middle schoolers of my acquaintance. The edition I listened to opens with a letter from Hesse in which he remarks that this book is frequently misunderstood, which I will admit put my back up. Maybe there's stuff in your book you didn't intend, Herman! I enjoyed its vagueness, I adored the complexity embodied by Harry Haller's friend/alter-ego/mother/girlfriend/boyfriend Hermine, and I got a lot out of reading literary analysis that gave me better context for the transmigration of souls and Jungian theory. It also suffers from didactic passages, racism and antisemitism, and dogmatism about artistic quality. Very worth reading, difficult to say whether I "liked" the book.

Carrying on with Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond books, I went straight from GK into Queens' Play, which I loved every moment of. It's easier to read than the first book, as she pulled back on stylized spellings and puzzling quotations, without losing any sparkle or punch. It's sooo fun. It's sooo distressing. Spies! Plots! Assassins! Disguises! Escapes! Messy bisexuals! I told my Lymond friends this book was funnier, but that feels like the wrong word for some of the things that happen in it. Giggling and kicking my feet and crying.

And a book I am very solidly neutral on: The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros, full of vibrant personality and a great premise, but the plot gets in its own way in complexity and the pacing was a real struggle for my taste. The core cast is really strongly varied Jewish immigrant characters in Chicago in the 1890s, some teens have been murdered, there's a dybbuk, and gay kissing. I think I would have enjoyed it more when I was a teen; some YA takes me that way.

#This February fit a lot of February into it #reading diary #bookblr

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imslowlydisintegrating · 3 months

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MADE OF OUR OWN STORMS

He was alone now, dangling from the side of a building, clinging onto a thin metal wire that was tearing the skin on his hands open. Art swung his leg to the side until he managed to plant his foot on the sill of the window that's glass had long since shattered.

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genre: soft apocalypse (yes ik that's an aesthetic but that's bascially the genre)

pov: 3rd limited; switches between characters

setting: it changes a lot but i think mostly post-apocalyptic north/central america and some post-apocalyptic asia

content warnings: gore, death, violence, self-harm, sui ideation, swearing, depictions of panic attacks, descriptions of dissociation

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blurb, characters + worldbuilding under the cut

BLURB

Some say the virus brought it on. Some say it was global warming. Some say it was a divine intervention. Whatever it was, it tore the world apart. A torrent of natural disasters struck across the globe on December 21, 2023. Billions died, and the few that survived were left to pick up the pieces of a broken world. After 100 years of successful survival in the post-apocalypse, society has been re-built into something manageable.

But it's not perfect. Hardly anything is.

ART O'CAHAN is a boy who was raised on curious looks and unhappy fathers.

ARUN NIDHI is a person who was raised on 'quiet down' and 'stop moving around so much.'

CY SEGAL is someone who was raised to be a happy person and still wasn’t able to be.

DAYA DA SILVA IGLESIAS is a girl who was raised to have a smile on her face despite her sleepless nights.

AZI TYALI is a girl who was raised to understand emotions but never learned how to express them.

These people aren't made for each other. They weren't destined to meet. But they did, and they fell in love with each other.

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CHARACTERS

Art O'Cahan (he/him)

Art was raised in a nomadic group of mainly Irish people like himself and Polish people. The death of his mother in childbirth solidified him as a social outcast from birth. His father never stepped forward to take care of him, too angry and grief-filled, so his aunt Indie stepped forward instead. The rejection from the group as a whole and his father resulted in self-esteem issues that started nearly from birth. As he got older, he became more and more distant from the group until he ran away at six. A traveling Claude and Cy found him half-starved and took him in. Claude was the first person who actually cared about him beyond familial necessity and helped him figure out he had inattentive type ADHD and taught him Muay Thai. Art is semi-neurotic, kind of the "Debbie Downer" of the group (along with Azi), and a terrible insomniac. Although he's the one to snap his siblings back to reality, he's very protective of them, which works since he has a very intimidating appearance at 6'3" with nearly black eyes and taped hands. He's one of the most touchy of his siblings and is INCREDIBLY touch-starved (give this little guy a hug bro). One of his most prevalent symptoms of ADHD is memory loss and often loses gaps in his recent memory, leading to one of his biggest fears of forgetting the people he loves.

Arun Nidhi (they/them)

Arun was born in Chennai, India, one of the few Indian cities left on earth. They met Claude, Cy, and Art when they were seven after leaving Chennai and traveling Southern Asia with a few other nomads. Arun pretty much to one look at Claude, Cy and Art and said 'later' to the other nomads and let themself into their group. Cy liked them immediately and Art was annoyed with them immediately. Arun is a very energetic, self-confident person. They butt heads with Art the most, usually just because they can and Art humors them. They're one of the more eccentric ones of the group, and can be described as an 'acquired taste'. They love to talk shit about anything and anyone, and cannot keep a secret to save their life. With unfamiliar people, they're more sarcastic and rougher overall, but with their siblings, they're generally a proud nuisance. They have a fondness for stick bugs and generally only eat canned food even if better food is available to them. Their energetic and excitable nature is used as a mask to hide their depression.

Cypress "Cy" Segal (she/he/they)

Cy had been with Claude pretty much since birth. She was born and raised in Halifax, Canada until she turned five and then Claude basically hauled ass to explore to world with her. Cy is Art's best friend and very much fills the role of middle child to Art's oldest brother. He's more calm and collected than most of his siblings and he is very grounded and aware of what happens around him. Overall, they're just a very steady person, not really a head-in-the-clouds type. She has memory problems and often collects natural items from specific places she wants to remember. He always has some form of jacket on and is perpetually cold. They're the semi-peacemaker of the group, so when there are fights they put in a half-assed attempt to stop it and somehow it usually works. She's heterochromatic with one green eye and one brown eye and has different levels of vision in different eyes. Due to a fight as a child, his hearing got damaged in his right ear, which led to him and his siblings learning ASL after it eventually got worse and he lost total hearing in his right ear. They also struggle with suicidal thoughts.

Daya da Silva Iglesias (she/her)

Daya was born and raised by a nomadic group of primarly Chilean and Angolan people in Santiago de Chile, Chile. Eventually, they began traveling again when Daya was around six. When Daya was seven she accidentally wandered away from the group in the Guatemala-Belize area. After a few days, she managed to find a Belizean city where Claude, Cy, Art, and Arun found her dehydrated and confused and nursed her back to health. Daya trusts people to a fault and gives them too much grace when they take advantage of her. She's definitely like the youngest child of her siblings and is very much the happy sweetheart of the group despite the trauma she experienced. Daya is on the autism spectrum, and some of her stims include clapping, tapping, humming, cracking bones, snapping, clicking her tongue, etc. Her bones crack a lot, if due to some physical condition, she doesn't know, she never experiences extreme pain from it. She makes bracelets and crochets beanies for all her siblings and carries around a bag that holds the mushrooms, pretty rocks, bird feathers, and butterfly wings that she finds. Daya struggles with chronic nightmares and insomnia as a result. Art started staying up with her to help her fall asleep and eventually, insomnia stuck with him too.

Vuyokazi "Azi" Tyali (she/her)

Azi was born into a nomadic group in South Africa of mainly Xhosa and Zulu people. When she was seven, she snuck away due to treatment from the group and survived in Cape Town for a few months. When she saw Claude, Cy, Art, Arun, and Daya in the port she was interested and followed them through the city. A few days later, Cy found her and offered to let her join them. Azi hesitantly agreed but found herself perfectly at home with them. When she started traveling with them, Claude taught her how to throw knives. She’s a really indecisive person, usually letting Daya decide things for her. Azi is incredibly perceptive of other people's body language and can detect emotions relatively easily. Out of all her siblings, Azi is the coldest and the most intimidating with her hooded eyes and piercing stare. She has a certain fondness for subway trains and graffitied places. Similarly, she likes to paint herself and let it dry to feel the paint crack against her skin. She only ever wears necklaces she can slip over her head and never ones with clasps. Azi has a panic disorder and suffers from panic attacks, leaving her in the state she hates most — vulnerable.

Dominique "Domi" Larieux Morais (he/they)

Domi was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he was raised with his sister five years his senior. When they were nine, they moved to New Orleans, U.S.A. He left New Orleans to travel as a nomad when he was fifteen. Later, when they were nineteen, Domi met Art while he was separated from his siblings. Domi followed him until Art decided to just ask Domi if he wanted to travel with him. Domi agreed and the two traveled together for about a year and a half until Art found his siblings again. Domi isn’t necessarily social, but they do talk a lot when they’re alone by themself, to the point they’d started talking to themself constantly. When Art started traveling with him, he wouldn’t talk for hours, sometimes days on end. Eventually they loosened up and started talking to Art more. Domi is an artist, usually drawing natural items around him or random people that stick out to him in cities. They like the feeling of weight on their bones, so they wear large, chunky rings and baggy jackets with weights they have sewn into the collars. Domi carries a hollow metal pipe around with him as a form of protection (and almost broke Art’s ribs with it when he first met him). Domi also suffers from intrusive thoughts and occasionally SHs.

Naia Zorita (she/they)

Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Naia was raised by a group of women that owned a fightclub where they taught her Rumi Maki boxing. When she was twelve, she left the city to travel around South America. After traveling for about six years, Naia met Azi in Fortaleza, Brazil. After annoying her for several days, Azi finally relented and let Naia travel with them. She immediately got along with Arun, much to Azi’s displeasure. Despite her short stature, leading some to believe she isn’t a threat, Naia is a competitive, proud fighter with a knack for getting into situations Cy has to drag her out of. She likes to walk through the cities that haven’t been saved, the cities that were left to crumble into the ground, and examine all the old cars that are now ruined. Sometimes she sits in them and imagines what it would be like if she ever learned to drive. She adores old churches with stained glass windows, often breaking the windows with a dented metal baseball bat she carries around with her and stealing glass to keep in her pockets. Naia suffers from dissociation and struggles with depression.

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Worldbuilding

Cities

Cities only have one ruler, and positions of power are passed onto people through a series of games (with no official name, but most people call them the Election, even though no voting is taking place). that singler ruler works under the name King (regardless of gender) [insert first name] (ex. the ruler of Chennai would be King Tharahi/this isn’t true, it’s just an example). Of course, it varies by region, but rulers are often on the same economic level as civilians (as a way to deter people who would just participate to become richer) and are people that you have a chance of seeing in day-to-day life. Each ruler’s personality varies but they are always very involved in the happenings of their city.

Nomads

Large nomad groups (30-70 people) usually have a group of 2-4 people leading, with one main leader of that group. for ex. Art’s nomad group is led by Maja (she/they), Bazyli (he/him), and Ayda (they/them). Extra fact: in nomad groups, (adult) people w/ uteruses are highly respected as they are the only people who can reproduce and keep the group alive (including trans men/intersex/afab nonbinary people), which is why Art is an outcast, since his mother died in childbirth. Obviously no one is held to a higher status than others but the respect is still there. Extra extra fact: people are considered mature at 14, but only considered adults at 20.

Smaller nomad groups (5-20 people) don’t usually have set leaders, instead making decisions as a group. Extra fact: if only one family is traveling, no matter how big, they are not legally or culturally recognized as a nomad group, instead as just a traveling family.

Customs

While many nomadic groups have different customs, there are some customs used globally by nomads and city-folk alike. Following the apocalypse, many people started collecting shiny things as a beacon of hope for a brighter future. The tradition stuck, and collecting pretty items became a custom even long after major reconstruction. Nomads also started wearing more natural tones to blend in with the world around them. Traditional currency never resurfaced, leaving barter and trade the main form of buy-and-pay. Most forms of working appear as volunteering. Plants became one of the main destructors of cities not rebuilt, so, when religion resurfaced, lots of the deities were plant-oriented. Weather also became a prominent motif in religion post-2023. Dates were tracked in a new way, with a refresh on the years, making what was supposed to be 2024 now zero — (day, month), year (year number).

#wip intro #mooos #art o'cahan #arun nidhi #cy segal #daya da silva iglesias #azi tyali #domi larieux morais #naia zorita #writerblr #evvy is typing

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