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It is extremely hot outside. This doesn't prevent me from going outside, but it does mean the hot and humid outdoors-->climate controlled indoors transition knocks me out most evenings, with the result that I'm not accomplishing anywhere near as much as I would like to each day. That said, I still managed a fair amount of reading this week.
What I Finished Reading This Week
Vagina Obscura – Rachel Gross
Five freaking stars. I cop to getting this book for its gorgeous cover. The content is every bit as good, if not better. Early on, Gross says something to the effect that Vagina Obscura is the first book of its kind, which I'd dispute (although its scope is admittedly broader, Natalie Angier’s Woman, An Intimate Geography immediately comes to mind) but it is a long overdue and very welcome update to the question: What do we know about the female reproductive system and its functions? Gross is a consummate author: her prose is crisp, engaging, and informative (and sparingly but delightfully snarky when warranted). She excellently distills centuries of frequently misguided scientific—or really, “scientific”—assumptions about the function and purpose of female anatomy, how those assumptions have led to certain (often suboptimal, and infuriating) cultural and medical outcomes, and lays out how various (often female; often unsung) scientists, researchers, and questioners have revolutionized our understanding of the answers to those questions, as well as how much is still left to be discovered. This book is ultimately about the inclusion of women and women’s bodies in science, and it is inclusive: Gross does justice to the fact that not everyone born with female anatomy is a woman, that not every woman is born with female anatomy, that women and their bodies exist at all points on that spectrum, and the cultural, scientific, and medical implications of these realities. It’s just excellent on all counts. I inhaled this book in a day and I will read it again.
氷の魔物の物語 3 – 杉浦 志保 (Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol. 3 – Sugiura Shiho)
This is one of those seminal books for me. Just, so many firsts. Page after page of, “Oh yeah, this is where I learned that word, and that word, and tore my hair out trying to figure out what that word meant, or how to find that kanji in a character dictionary.” It was also my first taste of how intricate Sugiura’s plotting can get, and how this or that simple little aside is actually setting you up for an emotional gut punch 50 pages down the road. What a great volume.
氷の魔物の物語 4 – 杉浦 志保 (Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol. 4 – Sugiura Shiho)
It's crazy how much of Sugiura-at-her-best is already evident in this volume, so early in her first series. We have the developing relationship between Blood and Ishuca (and how that's driving their individual character development), the introduction of the patented Sugiura Cast of Hundreds and the initial peeks into their personalities and motivations, and the very careful seeding of seemingly minor details and plot points that will become so important later on. And oh, this is the volume that made me love Serugi. That scene. That scene.
What I Still Need To Review: Queer City – Peter Ackroyd
One day…
What I Am Currently Reading
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms – Charlie Holmberg
I’ll probably wrap this up during the weekend.
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill – Rowena Miller
This is a slow read for sure.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 2 – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
I’ve made it all of two pages into this book.
Cattle Lords & Clansmen – Nerys Patterson
So far I’ve tackled the introduction.
氷の魔物の物語 5 – 杉浦 志保 (Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol. 5 – Sugiura Shiho)
I'm trying to read these slowly so the experience lasts longer (hence this week's many books-in-progress), but it's not working very well. You can't put these things down.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I acquired the BBC’s Talk Mandarin Chinese, Douglas Comer’s Networking with TCP/IP, Peter Kim’s The Hacker Playbook 3, Nerys Patterson’s Cattle Lords & Clansmen, and Georgia Weidman’s Penetration Testing.
これで以上です。
What I Finished Reading This Week
Vagina Obscura – Rachel Gross
Five freaking stars. I cop to getting this book for its gorgeous cover. The content is every bit as good, if not better. Early on, Gross says something to the effect that Vagina Obscura is the first book of its kind, which I'd dispute (although its scope is admittedly broader, Natalie Angier’s Woman, An Intimate Geography immediately comes to mind) but it is a long overdue and very welcome update to the question: What do we know about the female reproductive system and its functions? Gross is a consummate author: her prose is crisp, engaging, and informative (and sparingly but delightfully snarky when warranted). She excellently distills centuries of frequently misguided scientific—or really, “scientific”—assumptions about the function and purpose of female anatomy, how those assumptions have led to certain (often suboptimal, and infuriating) cultural and medical outcomes, and lays out how various (often female; often unsung) scientists, researchers, and questioners have revolutionized our understanding of the answers to those questions, as well as how much is still left to be discovered. This book is ultimately about the inclusion of women and women’s bodies in science, and it is inclusive: Gross does justice to the fact that not everyone born with female anatomy is a woman, that not every woman is born with female anatomy, that women and their bodies exist at all points on that spectrum, and the cultural, scientific, and medical implications of these realities. It’s just excellent on all counts. I inhaled this book in a day and I will read it again.
氷の魔物の物語 3 – 杉浦 志保 (Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol. 3 – Sugiura Shiho)
This is one of those seminal books for me. Just, so many firsts. Page after page of, “Oh yeah, this is where I learned that word, and that word, and tore my hair out trying to figure out what that word meant, or how to find that kanji in a character dictionary.” It was also my first taste of how intricate Sugiura’s plotting can get, and how this or that simple little aside is actually setting you up for an emotional gut punch 50 pages down the road. What a great volume.
氷の魔物の物語 4 – 杉浦 志保 (Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol. 4 – Sugiura Shiho)
It's crazy how much of Sugiura-at-her-best is already evident in this volume, so early in her first series. We have the developing relationship between Blood and Ishuca (and how that's driving their individual character development), the introduction of the patented Sugiura Cast of Hundreds and the initial peeks into their personalities and motivations, and the very careful seeding of seemingly minor details and plot points that will become so important later on. And oh, this is the volume that made me love Serugi. That scene. That scene.
What I Still Need To Review: Queer City – Peter Ackroyd
One day…
What I Am Currently Reading
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms – Charlie Holmberg
I’ll probably wrap this up during the weekend.
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill – Rowena Miller
This is a slow read for sure.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 2 – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
I’ve made it all of two pages into this book.
Cattle Lords & Clansmen – Nerys Patterson
So far I’ve tackled the introduction.
氷の魔物の物語 5 – 杉浦 志保 (Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol. 5 – Sugiura Shiho)
I'm trying to read these slowly so the experience lasts longer (hence this week's many books-in-progress), but it's not working very well. You can't put these things down.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I acquired the BBC’s Talk Mandarin Chinese, Douglas Comer’s Networking with TCP/IP, Peter Kim’s The Hacker Playbook 3, Nerys Patterson’s Cattle Lords & Clansmen, and Georgia Weidman’s Penetration Testing.
これで以上です。
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Looking back on it now, it's even sadder, because it seems very likely that both my grandmothers had this stuff in their homes because they were trying to fix something they thought was broken about themselves.
So yeah, VERY lucky to live nowadays, for sure.