Jamie's Updates en-US Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:41:13 -0800 60 Jamie's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg UserFollowing315364866 Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:41:13 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie is now following Kevin]]> /user/show/35434974-kevin Jamie is now following Kevin ]]> Rating791931949 Wed, 20 Nov 2024 10:32:29 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie Harris liked a userstatus]]> /
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ó is on page 77 of 356 of The Saint of Bright Doors: “That’s not how laws *work*, son,� she says. “A visible law is a ploy, a little play. A mummery in waiting, waiting for you to become interesting. Never give them a reason to care who you are.�

This becomes so clear in a protest movement or as an immigrant. Perhaps I hope genre fiction keeps its aura of disrespect so it can stay subversive and educational.
]]> Review6981827786 Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:55:09 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'The Spring before Obergefell']]> /review/show/6981827786 The Spring before Obergefell by Benjamin S. Grossberg Jamie gave 4 stars to The Spring before Obergefell (Paperback) by Benjamin S. Grossberg
bookshelves: arc, historical-context, queerly-beloved, romanticals, therapeutic
It’s strange how a book like this—small-town rural Ohio circa 2015—can feel like an artifact of the past and yet an ongoing present. Mike is middle-aged, gay, single, and lost, with no cultural script for how someone like him can find connection and happiness. He believes the best he can hope for is hookup apps and casual flings, until he meets the capricious Matteo and the enigmatic Dave, who each challenge him in different ways.

What stood out to me is that, just like Mike without a script, this book has no formula. It’s not a romance that would fit in that genre; it’s not quite litfic of a midlife crisis either. It feels like it’s mapping new terrain, page by page, stuck when Mike is stuck, forging new paths as Mike forges them, unpredictable the way real life is. It could have gone any number of ways right up until the end, which makes the outcome all the more poignant. As another review on ŷ says, it opens up portals of possibility, with a tough conversations along the way. I like that. I like the idea that those portals are there to find. New scripts to be written, new paths to forge, new maps to make. With a bit of guts, with a bit of love, with a bit of honesty and vulnerability. May we all be so brave.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ]]> Review5209734995 Mon, 04 Nov 2024 18:49:22 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty']]> /review/show/5209734995 You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi Jamie gave 5 stars to You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty (Hardcover) by Akwaeke Emezi
bookshelves: favorites, latin-america, cover-love, comfort-food, life-and-death, queerly-beloved, romanticals, therapeutic, canonical-bisexuals
Re-read. The widowed Feyi hooks up with a stranger, then dates his best friend Nasir, then falls in love with Nasir’s father, and none of that sentence captures the raw transcendence of this novel. It makes me not just cry, but weep, multiple times—not (only) because of the grief but because of the way it vibrates with life, with pain, with joy, with every raw emotion. The friendship matters, the bisexuality matters. It’s so tender and haunting and vibrant and unlike any other romance I’ve read, grounded wholly in the genre yet wholly its own thing. (And like I said before, not in the pretentious litfic way that purports to do genre better than genre.)

If we don’t get Joy’s book eventually, I will be crushed. I want to read it now.

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Absolutely, exquisitely stunning. This stretches the bounds of what the romance genre can do. Normally that would be a snobby thing to say—like, all the litfic authors who think they can transform a genre but they don’t know the first thing about it, so the attempt actually sucks. But this honors everything the romance genre is, at its best, and transcends the limits of it in a way that’s just heartfelt and stunning. Plus, the writing is exquisite, sentence by sentence and at the structure level too.

I hope so many more books follow in its footsteps. ]]> Review6977342241 Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:33:53 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'Jane Austen, the Secret Radical']]> /review/show/6977342241 Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly Jamie gave 4 stars to Jane Austen, the Secret Radical (Hardcover) by Helena Kelly
bookshelves: historical-context, non-fiction
Superb and long-overdue reevaluation of Jane Austen and the context in which she wrote her beloved novels. For many people, I imagine “radical� is the word in the title that lifts eyebrows; for me, it’s the word “secret.� Austen’s politics have always felt clear on the page, and this is how I’ve read her, even lacking some of the well-researched context Helena Kelly provides here.

I understand romance readers, myself included, who get tetchy at the suggestion that the romance genre is inferior, and a book must earn in its way into the canon by being Serious and Important. But I also stand by my conviction that Jane Austen wrote only one romance�Pride and Prejudice—and had to warp all societal conventions to do it, and it’s important to understand why. She is first and foremost a political writer to me, and however you read her endings, the domestic is political, the economics and hierarchy of society is political, who we’re permitted or forbidden to love is political. When Kelly agrees that Austen deserves to be in the same conversation as Mary Wollstonecraft or Thomas Paine, I cheer. ]]> Review6977330307 Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:27:40 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'I'm Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America']]> /review/show/6977330307 I'm Sorry for My Loss by Rebecca Little and Colleen ... Jamie gave 5 stars to I'm Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America (Hardcover) by Rebecca Little and Colleen Long
bookshelves: arc, activism-and-justice, non-fiction
I know a book is going to be good when it starts off with the way language limits or distorts our understanding of a subject. Recommended to absolutely anyone, with or without a uterus, with or without the intention to procreate. It’s ostensibly about pregnancy loss and miscarriage/stillbirth awareness, but that overlaps with many things—abortion, grief, medical misogyny, racial injustice, human rights. The authors treat a sensitive topic with care and respect, and fury when called for.

U.S. laws around women’s bodies, pregnancy, miscarriage, or abortions are rooted in a lack of understanding of how it all works, and it’s no coincidence that the women I know who are anti-abortion were raised with abstinence-only education. As the authors bluntly put it: “if you don’t even really understand how the fetus gets in there, you don’t sweat the details of how it gets out. Birth, miscarriage, abortion—it’s all a mystery.� Books like this go a long way toward rectifying that lack of understanding, and if we’re gonna stop the spiraling reproductive care crisis, it’s not a moment too soon.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ]]> Review6071586526 Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:23:43 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'Kushiel's Dart']]> /review/show/6071586526 Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey Jamie has read Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1) by Jacqueline Carey
bookshelves: dnf, kinky-books, fanfic-positive, vive-la-france, court-intrigue, medieval-times
My semi-decennial attempt to finish this book. I made it farther this time, with determination, but despite an attempt every three to five years, I still bounce off it like a rubber ball. Taboo, kink, AND court intrigue in the same book?! This should be exactly my thing! It’s overwrought in a way that makes me weary, though. And I wish the BDSM aspect was� more. More creative. More subversive. More than the pseudo-French medieval fanfic with a dash of mystical Jesus-y stuff and some weird moral judgments regarding kink. (All of Phèdre’s clients are bad people; anyone who’s good doesn’t desire the least bit of play in the bedroom. Say what now?) And! Another thing, if courtesans are revered on the level of divinity and a central part of the culture, then why is the language around it still demeaning? It’s hard to turn my brain off and other bits on, is what I’m saying. I think.

(Either that, or I read Tiffany Reisz’s Original Sinners at too impressionable an age. It’s not exactly apples to apples, but her take on “kink, but make it sacred”—and specifically “pain, but make it sacred”—coupled with irreverent humor and a thorough theology imprinted on me in a way that can’t be undone.) ]]> Review6977306401 Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:19:35 -0800 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 1']]> /review/show/6977306401 I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 1 by Kurano Jamie gave 4 stars to I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 1 (I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup, #1-2) by Kurano
bookshelves: gender-bender, asia-major-and-minor, queerly-beloved, arc, illustrated, kids-and-ya
I love seeing what Japanese manga does with gender. Ada Palmer’s has some of the historical context for it, but you don’t need a history lesson to enjoy this fun volume. I particularly liked the seamless inclusion of a trans girl alongside the cross-dressing boys, highlighting the differences and similarities among the two, and the lack of moral panic surrounding cross-dressing and gender in general. When their identities get revealed, it’s not seen as betrayal or deception, but a shared way to bond. Makes me realize how ingrained our expectation is for that betrayal part of the story—why? It’s not necessary. Imagine that, a world where gender isn’t so feared, policed, and politicized. How refreshing. It was great.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ]]> Review6969668920 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 19:50:42 -0700 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'Country Queers: A Love Letter']]> /review/show/6969668920 Country Queers by Rae Garringer Jamie gave 4 stars to Country Queers: A Love Letter (Paperback) by Rae Garringer
bookshelves: the-dirty-south, queerly-beloved, arc, gender-bender, memoir-and-ish, activism-and-justice, historical-context
A book after my little southern queer heart. Garringer crisscrosses the Bible Belt, collecting a scrapbook and oral history of various LGBTQ+ people living in the rural margins. The older interviewees—the elders who survived the AIDS crisis and more—are the best and most emotional part. It’s easy to get miffed when people act like the Brooklyn or San Francisco subcultures are the only ones that matter, or like gay and trans people don’t exist in the south except to be persecuted. Yes, the political climate is often dire, and there is a wealth of queer culture, community, and joy in the smallest and southernest of places. This documents the lived reality of the former with a celebration of the latter.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ]]> Review6969662705 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 19:47:32 -0700 <![CDATA[Jamie added 'Griso: The One and Only']]> /review/show/6969662705 Griso by Roger Mello Jamie gave 4 stars to Griso: The One and Only (Hardcover) by Roger Mello
bookshelves: illustrated, historical-context, poetry-and-art, kids-and-ya, arc
A very brief tale of a unicorn searching for other unicorns, with each spread rendered in a different historical style—Tang dynasty murals, medieval illustrations, cave paintings, African art, surrealist art, and more. The color palette and visual cues make it more cohesive than you’d think. I’d happily have it on my own shelves or gift it to nieces and nephews, both for art and story alike. Gorgeous work.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ]]>