catteonbookhttps://amplifi.casa/@/catteonbook@cafe.sunbeam.city/atom.xml2019-11-15T19:08:32.374021+00:00<![CDATA[Read: Land of a Thousand Dances by Evelyn Applegate]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-land-of-a-thousand-dances-by-evelyn-applegate/2019-11-15T19:08:32.374021+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-11-15T19:08:32.374021+00:00<![CDATA[<p>I have no idea where I got this from, or the idea that I wanted to read it. But it has been in my ebook library for a while, and since I wanted somethibg lewd today, I finally read it. I'm bad at researching stuff on my phone but as far as I could see, it's gone from the publisher's site and it's not sold on Amazon anymore. A rarity!</p>
<p>What this is is a short thing about a romantic and sexual relationship between two women, and one of them is a troll who steals from shitty duded because it's become hard to hide a body. Great!</p>
<p>It's pretty awkward to read, but imo that doesn't hinder it's charm. That one remark that reduces being a lesbian to not liking penises does, though. Anyway. It's a bit of a mess and I like it. Give me more short awkward fairy tale erotica, please.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Animorphs 8 & 9]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-8-9/2019-10-30T16:56:08.057639+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-10-30T16:56:08.057639+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Ok so I just read a book for the first time in… ok aktually less than I thought! But still!</p>
<p>I finished <em>The Alien</em>, and uuuh I have no idea how it started, but the ending was rly… idk it was nice, things moving along, Ax and Tobias bonding.</p>
<p>Theeen <em>The Secret</em>, which, hhhhh. I like it in some ways! I like all Animorphs books in some ways. But it has a lot of, hm. Suddenly the words "male" and "female" get used so much, which is rly annoying. Aaand, this is not new, but maybe it gets stronger? The thing where species = culture. Aaand there is some philosophical talk on what it means to be good/bad, and what nature is and how predators and prey coexist, and, not in a way that I enjoyed. But… cute skunks.</p>
<p>My goal is to read all 50-ish Animorphs books really fast so I can move on to queer fanfiction (I hope it exists!), because this is also getting very straight somehow.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: True Trans Bike Rebel (Taking the Lane #15)]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-true-trans-bike-rebel-taking-the-lane-15/2019-10-17T16:53:04.360498+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-10-17T16:53:04.360498+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Standing in my local feminist bookstore, I definitely chose <a href="https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/9712" rel="noopener noreferrer">True Trans Bike Rebel</a> for its cover. The cover is glorious – it is pastel blue and pastel pink and features a happy-smirking anthropomorphic cat on a bike. I am always there for cute trans furry art, so that was my choice!</p>
<p>Buying a book/zine about bikes felt weird because I am not a bike person. But that didn't keep me from really enjoying this read. Funnily enough, I just looked up that one other book about bikes that I once read and liked – it was <a href="https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3902/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everyday Bicycling</a> by Elly Blue, who also edited True Trans Bike Rebel together with Lydia Rogue.</p>
<p>First things first, the kitty does appear inside the book as well. There is a paper-doll-like thing on the inner covers (very cute! dress the kitty!), and there is even a whole comic about it, "True Trans Bike Rebel" by Trista Vercher.</p>
<p>Other than that cat, I really enjoyed the range of perspectives in these texts. I somehow expected a bunch of tough "I always rode bikes and they are my life" queers, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I can't relate to it much either. What I found was much more nuanced and cozy-feeling. People seem to have a lot of different experiences with different kinds of cycling, and I enjoyed that so much. The stories are not always fluffy, a lot of them have some pretty painful parts. Their scratchy, fighty, deeply aware-of-shit energy made me feel hopefully close to them, though, bikes or not.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Gelesen: Ein Schädlicher Einfluss von Kate Bornstein]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/gelesen-ein-schädlicher-einfluss-von-kate-bornstein/2019-08-24T17:50:24.323789+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-08-24T17:50:24.323789+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Ich hab was übrig für Gebrauchtbuchseiten, oke. Jedenfalls, die deutsche Übersetzung der <a href="https://www.edenbooks.de/kate-bornstein-ein-schaedlicher-einfluss/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Autobiografie von Kate Bornstein</a> war billig, und dann hab ich sie mir besorgt und auch verhältnismäßig bald gelesen. Der Titel, "Ein schädlicher Einfluss", ist schon cute, aber das originale "A Queer and Pleasant Danger" ist einfach einer der schönsten TItel für Dinge überhaupt, naja. Der Untertitel ist "Die wahre Geschichte eines netten jüdischen Knaben, der bei Scientology landete und zwölf Jahre später zu der hinreißenden Lady wurde, die sie heute ist", genau wie auf Englisch, und der sagt auch viel über den Tonfall und die Themen aus.</p>
<p>Jedenfalls. Es geht sehr, sehr viel um Scientology, denn Kate Bornstein hat dort 12 Jahre verbracht. Es geht um Strukturen, Taktiken, Alltag, alles mögliche, und eben darum, wie sie die Gruppe verlassen hat und was danach passierte. Danach geht es viel um BDSM. Obwohl ich die meisten von Kates Vorlieben nicht teile und ein bisschen squicky finde, war auch das für mich nett und spannend und so. Und zwischendurch immer wieder um Essstörungen und andere psychische Dinge, auf eine Art, die ich gegen Ende des Buchs immer weniger anstrengend und mehr schön zu lesen fand.</p>
<p>Die Übersetzung ist schon oke, aber einige Nuancen machen, dass der Text für mich anders rüber kommt, als ich das erwartet hätte, weswegen ich immer wieder ein, zwei Worte mit dem Original verglichen habe. "Queer" wird irgendwann als "schwul" übersetzt und "people of color" als "Afroamerikaner", solche Dinge.</p>
<p>Ich hab keine großen Meinungen dazu, ich mein, ist halt jemandes Lebensgeschichte. Aber, fand es schon süß und witzig und mitreißend geschrieben, und wie sie einige ihrer Entwicklungen beschreibt sehr, dare I say it, inspirierend.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read Recently: Animorphs and trans stuff]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-recently-animorphs-and-trans-stuff/2019-08-20T18:18:43.855006+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-08-20T18:18:43.855006+00:00<![CDATA[<h2><em>Megamorphs 1: The Andalite's Gift</em> by K. A. Applegate</h2>
<p>So I think the main difference between Megamorphs and the main Animorphs series is that Megamorphs switches between all the Animorph's perspectives? It got a bit tedious at times, and the monster seemed a bit over the top at first. But I ended up liking this one.</p>
<h2><em>George</em> by Alex Gino</h2>
<p>It's a cute story about a trans girl being herself. A fairly typical coming out story, but I liked that while her best friend and her mum react in shitty ways at first, they both get it really soon after that and also there are other supportive people who get it right away. I thought it was a bit odd that girlhood is marked mainly by clothes that are coded as feminine, but then again, one book doesn't have to talk about all the nuances of trans existence probably. That's what <em>more books about trans people</em> are there for.</p>
<h2><em>Tranny</em> by Laura Jane Grace</h2>
<p>Autobiographies by trans people, yay! I had no idea what to expect since I'm not really an Against Me! fan. Sure, I've listened to <em>Transgender Dysphoria Blues</em> a lot because Laura Jane Grace yelling about trans things is such a mood, but I didn't really know much about the band before that album.</p>
<p>Well… I got an extensive historical overview from this book. It was odd to read, a few times I asked myself what I was doing, but overall it was really enjoyable to just… learn about a band I don't even really listen to that much. Between all the band history the painful story of Laura coming out as a woman to herself and others, and the the things that happened after that.</p>
<p>Gosh I was so glad to read in the last chapter that things changed for the better, and that her anarchist approach could win over all the shame and pain surrounding her transness. Also, gosh, did I feel all that hatred for gatekeepers of body mods. Ugh.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Animorphs 6 & 7]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-6-7/2019-06-23T13:31:53.921973+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-06-23T13:31:53.921973+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Book 6, The Capture, is such a perfect hurt/comfort fantasy. I can't say more without spoilers, but it is just. Your friends knowing exactly what you need without you telling them. This floofed my heart.</p>
<p>Book 7, The Stranger, is hecking strange. I'm not sure if I like the direction this is taking? Probably not. But I still love it.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Animorphs Book 5, The Predator]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-book-5-the-predator/2019-06-17T15:33:26.898061+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-06-17T15:33:26.898061+00:00<![CDATA[<p><em>Content Warning: I talk about trauma stuff in the last two paragraphs</em></p>
<p>I started this a long time ago and totally forgot that I was reading it. Sooo a few days ago I discovered that and finished it!</p>
<p>And I don't have much to say about the plot. It's cool though to see <strong>Marco's perspective</strong>! He's this asshole dude but also also ok, and his main motivation is not dying because that would really hurt his dad who has been depressed since his mom died, so of course, everything escalates terribly. It's a lot of fun!</p>
<p>Mostly though, I <strong>noticed a thing about Animorphs stories</strong> and why they feel so good to me! The other book that I'm currently reading is very non-fiction and pretty self help, "Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving" by Pete Walker. And it's taught me both to recognize emotional flashbacks more easily, and to notice when they are over and how that feels and that there's a difference, which is.... very good to know actually.</p>
<p>And. Animorphs plots, to me, often <strong>feel exactly like getting out of one of those, except without the actual shitty flashback part</strong>, and instead there's a super exciting and incredibly unrealistic adventure! You get all the relief of "actually, things are more or less ok. Some things are dreadful but there is no disaster happening rn. Everything felt like it was the end of everything and also burning, but we're safe for now" without actually having to feel all that about yourself and your own life. It is the best!! I love it and I can fully recommend it!! </p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Every River Runs to Salt by Rachael K. Jones]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-every-river-runs-to-salt-by-rachael-k-jones/2019-05-13T17:55:07.044136+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-05-13T17:55:07.044136+00:00<![CDATA[<p>I didn't love <a href="https://firesidefiction.com/book/every-river-runs-to-salt" rel="noopener noreferrer">Every River Runs to Salt</a>, mostly because I couldn't bring myself to not be weirded out by the concept of anthropomorphic US states. But it does have a lot of things that I like, including women who are also bodies of water, and <strong>love between all combinations of "woman" and "body of water"</strong>. And spooky things. And monsters who aren't evil. And destroying capitalism, sort of. So if you want to read a novella about those things, definitely go for it.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/all-the-birds-in-the-sky-by-charlie-jane-anders/2019-05-03T16:05:20.518815+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-05-03T16:05:20.518815+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Well, to be honest, <a href="https://charliejane-anders.tumblr.com/buythebook" rel="noopener noreferrer">All the Birds in the Sky</a> grew <em>very</em> slowly on me. But it did grow on me. I really <strong>actually liked it in the end</strong>. Let me try to explain.</p>
<p>What this is is many things. It's a book with a lot of very low key jokes about tech culture<sup><a href="#postcontent-1" rel="noopener noreferrer">1</a></sup> that made me grin on the inside. It's a straight love story, but imo not a bad one. It's about a war between magic slash nature and science, which is like, one of my least favourite tropes, but I didn't hate it, not at all. It's about ethics and being a grown up and how people become bad, maybe. It is set firmly in a time of <strong>inescapable climate crisis, so, basically in our now</strong>. Also, cute non-evil AI.</p>
<p>To me, it started out incredibly <em>annoying</em>. Not bad, I never thought "this is bad", just <strong>"I'm not sure if I want to be reading this, but I sure am vaguely interested".</strong> It starts out with a little girl who talks to a boy in the woods and might be a witch, and a little boy who skips school to see a rocket launch, and both are bullied a lot. They become friends, and are very good for each other.</p>
<p>I was at 25% when I first thought <strong>"actually, I care about this, I think I'll stick with it"</strong>. By this point, a <em>lot</em> has happened. Laurence has built a really got chat bot, and Patricia has probably turned it sentient by talking to it, oopsie. They are both in grave danger from a rather annoying and kind of mysterious fellow, the bullying continues, their friendship has had its ups and downs, and Patricia is being framed as a witch. Oopsie.</p>
<p>Then <strong>suddenly, everything is much later</strong>. Patricia is a young witch living in a flatshare and working a bunch of different jobs. Laurence is a young tech guy working on super futuristic oooh stuff in a diverse team of folks who know what is best for humanity. Their world is still pretty much like nowadays, except for Caddies, which are like tablets with some creepy software that tries to manage your day, but actually helpful and unintrusive. And exteme weather conditions have become the kind of news you expect.</p>
<p>Patricia and Laurence keep meeting up by ~accident~ that is <strong>totally not controlled by a benevolent AI, of course</strong>. They have all these terribly awkward conversations, where they just fundamentally disagree on a thing, but can kind of figure it out. Laurence learns a bunch from Patricia, but you know, he's a techbro at heart, albeit a nice one, so things move faster than he can challenge his believes around his grand plans for the whole world.</p>
<p>When climate stuff continues to be bad, both have their <strong>obligations towards saving like the planet or humanity or whatever</strong> each one's priorities are, and of course, everything escalates horribly, but yeah, it kind of works out despite the horrors.</p>
<p>And I'm trying and failing to explain how, despite having so many elements that I usually dislike, I really ended up liking this thing. It's the tech culture jokes. It's the obnoxious details of witch society. And I totally enjoyed the everyday-ness of the story. And that never is ever really only right or only wrong, only good or only bad, they both do both terrible and really nice stuff, etc etc. And I guess a <strong>wholesome-feeling climate apocalypse story</strong> isn't bad to read, either.</p>
<hr>
<div id="postcontent-1"><sup>1</sup>
<p>Seriously, I have to quote two of these.</p>
</div>
<p>First, at a party, "The Caddy engineers had gotten into a fist fight with the open-source Artichoke BSD developers on the balcony."</p>
<p>And then, in some hackspace iirc, "She constructed some kind of wireless-enabled burrowing robot that could hide small objects where you'd never find them without the right PGP key."</p>
<p>Hah. I love those. They're so clearly poking fun at stuff, but not in a mean way. I got the same feeling I got when reading Douglas Adams' lovingly hateful writing about computers in Dirk Gently, just without the hate, more like, a deep and loving exasperation, and like, fewer pages of it.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Gelesen: Biskaya von SchwarzRund ]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/gelesen-biskaya-von-schwarz-rund/2019-04-19T14:02:08.597301+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-04-19T14:02:08.597301+00:00<![CDATA[<p><a href="https://schwarzrund.de/biskaya-roman/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biskaya</a> hat mir meine Mama zum Geburtstag geschenkt, nachdem es schon lange auf meiner Will-ich-lesen-Liste steht.</p>
<p>Namensgebend für den Roman ist Biskaya, in dieser Version der Welt eine Insel und <strong>Ort der Zuflucht und des Widerstands für Schwarze Europäer_innen</strong>. Biskayani konnten sich die EU-Bürger_innenschaft erkämpfen, doch die komplette Abtrennung vom europäischen Festland, das Biskaya für seine Rohstoffe schätzt, wird immer wieder ein Thema. Tue und Dwayne, denen die zwei Handlungsstänge folgen, haben beide Bezug zu Biskaya, leben aber in Deutschland und müssen sich mit den dortigen rassistischen Bedingungen herumschlagen.</p>
<p>Tue musste schon früh die Insel verlassen und zu ihrer Großmutter nach Berlin ziehen. Sie singt und schreibt gut bezahlt für eine Mackerband, in der sie sich eher für Diversitätspunkte benutzt fühlt und für die sie ihre Themen, Gefühle und Performance zurechtstutzen muss. <strong>Weder ihre Kolleg_innen noch der Großteil ihres Publikums wollen ihr Daseins als queere Schwarze neurodivergente Frau so genau mitbekommen</strong>, solange das sich nicht für ihre Zwecke instrumentalisieren lässt. Es geht um Gewalt, Überleben, Community und den fortlaufenden Gewinn und Verlust von Wahl- und Herkunftsfamilie.</p>
<p>Parallel dazu verfolgen wir Dwayne, der seinen vernünftigen Job unfreiwillig aufgeben muss und sich wieder der Fotografie widmet. Wie auch Tue findet er einen <strong>Weg zu seiner Wut über die rassistischen Zustände</strong>, denen er im Kunstumfeld genauso wie in der restlichen Welt ausgesetzt ist, aber auch Zärtlichkeit und Gemeinsamkeit.</p>
<p>Die Umfelder der beiden überschneiden sich immer wieder und ein Zusammentreffen wirkt unausweichlich. Eine Ahnung, die den Plot sanft vorantreibt, aber nie die Geschehnisse im Leben der Charaktere überschattet.</p>
<p>Die Geschichte hat mich <strong>mitgerissen, aber auch berührt</strong>, so sehr, dass ich zwischendrin viel zu lange Pausen gemacht hab und ein bisschen aus dem Lesefluss rausgekommen bin, leider. Die großen Auseinandersetzungen der Protagonist_innen mit Kolonialismus und Rassismus kann ich nur aus nicht negativ betroffener, <em>weißer</em> Perspektive nachempfinden, und trotzdem war das Buch an verschiedensten Stellen ganz enorm emotional für mich.
Nach Tues Gefangenschaft in einem Umfeld voller Gewalt musste ich eine Pause machen, weil ich das Gefühl hatte, mich nicht mehr ausreichend auf die Geschehnisse einlassen zu können. Als rassistische, homofeindliche und femininitätsfeindliche Anwandlungen eine Hand voll Akademiker_innen über Dwayne urteilen lassen, legte ich das Buch erstmal vor Wut ab. Die verlorenen und gewonnenen Wahlfamilien-Verbindungen verknoteten mir mein Innenleben auf die beste Art. Matth ist einfach wundervoll.</p>
<p>Biskaya ist einer der umwerfendsten und begeisterndsten Romane, die ich in den letzten Jahren gelesen habe. Daneben ist es auch die Art <strong>queerer Geschichte, nach der ich mich so sehr sehne</strong>: Die Hauptfiguren sind alle sehr klar, zentral und nicht-nebenbei queer, und trotzdem geht es weder hauptsächlich um Liebesbeziehungen undoder Sex, noch ist es eine Problemgeschichte. Alle haben ihr Leben, ihre Struggles, und Queer-Sein ist einfach ein zentraler Teil davon. In diesem Punkt erinnerte es mich an den autobiografischen Manga <a href="https://www.carlsen.de/hardcover/meine-lesbische-erfahrung-mit-einsamkeit/101201" rel="noopener noreferrer">Meine lesbische Erfahrung mit Einsamkeit</a> (<a href="https://cafe.sunbeam.city/%7E/CatOnBook/read-recently" rel="noopener noreferrer">hier</a> hab ich den schoneinmal erwähnt), in dem es hauptsächlich um Depression und andere Probleme mit der psychischen Gesundheit geht, der mich aber überwältigte mit der Erkenntnis, wie sehr mir exakt diese Art queerer Erzählung gefehlt hatte.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Played: EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER (Season 1) by Heather Flowers]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/played-extreme-meatpunks-forever-season-1-by-heather-flowers/2019-04-07T18:42:53.322494+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-04-07T18:42:53.322494+00:00<![CDATA[<p>I waited a long time to play <a href="https://hthr.itch.io/extreme-meatpunks-forever" rel="noopener noreferrer">EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER</a>, mainly because Paypal didn't let me buy it for a while. Then it did let me (the trick is to have credit on your Paypal account). But that was… I think many months ago? Ok no I checked and it was only two months ago. But a lot happened in that time.</p>
<p>EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER is a game about a bunch of queers beating up fash. It is lovely! Very pretty and very fighty, and all the characters are wonderful and communicate in a really distinctive way. Also, while the fights are kind of important for the game, it is possible to skip them! And I did that a lot, like sometimes I didn't win them at the first or second try and got frustrated and usually, I'd just have stopped playing, but here I could just skip them and that was rly good.</p>
<p>Anyway. I played most of it then, and uh, THEN I had the glorious idea to save the last episode for when I actually felt like it. Such a bad idea!! You know, I LOVED EVERYTHING about it. And then I just… never found the perfect moment to finish playing it. Until today, when I was dissociated as heck and thinking "uuh, why not" when looking at my options of game things.</p>
<p>And of course I had FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. Like, not everything everything, but remembering all the things and getting back into the mood didn't work for me. So, another "review" where I totally don't do the thing justice! Also, I'd like to talk about how great the characters are, but I'm really not in the damn mood for that, so like just believe me, it is pretty much wonderful and like, one of the nicest story things I've ever played. <a href="https://situational.softi.city/@catte/101530055636124122" rel="noopener noreferrer">Here are some thoughts from when I played most of it</a>, but honestly, I was busy enjoying the thing and had to many feels to write much.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Animorphs book 4 – The Message by K. A. Applegate ]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-book-4-the-message-by-k-a-applegate/2019-04-03T17:58:18.107277+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-04-03T17:58:18.107277+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Uh, these Animorphs reviews get more spoilery by the volume, alright? It's just impossible to avoid. I'm trying to be subtle.</p>
<hr>
<p>Since I'm sniffing and sneezing a lot today, and not really up for non-casual reading, I finished <a href="https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/animorphs-04-the-message-9780545291569.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Message</a>. In this one, there's just so many ups and downs. Being a dolphin is great, but the usual threats to the Animorphs' lives are still a bit annoying to them I think.</p>
<p>So, there is, as the title suggests, a Message that Cassie and Tobias get. A broadcast of someone who's trapped under water and needs help. And sends <strong>telepathic messages</strong>. Hmm, wonder what kind of creature that might be.</p>
<p>This book is written from Cassie's perspective, and I really enjoyed that, but to be honest, I enjoy all of their perspectives. Anyway, Cassie, after hearing the call in her dreams, and one time fainting from it, has to decide if it is <strong>real enough</strong> to go looking for its sender. Well, Tobias could decide too, but being a bird, he decides to stay out of it for the most part, since he can't go on dangerous ocean missions and doesn't want to push the others into it.</p>
<p>We get some awkward talk about instincts and intelligence, but I really like that in the end, it is clear to Cassie that it doesn't matter if a whale is "smart", because whales are awesome and <strong>intelligence is not a good measure for a creature's worth</strong>. Also, I suuuper loved the magical "whale communicates with fake dolphin" bit. It was so nice!! Totally pulled me in.</p>
<p>When one of them gets injured in dolphin morph, it becomes clear that each time they morph, a new animal is made from the DNA they acquired and injuries don't carry over. That's nice, but made me wonder how age and stuff works? I don't know much about genetics, but many things about what an animal is like are not just a translation of genes to looks. <strong>Why don't the Animorphs ever end up as tiny baby elephants?</strong> Where do they store this additional information? I hope we'll find out.</p>
<p>The delightful Eliza moments in the last bit were sadly dulled by cisnormativity. Well, let's hope that trope made a one time appearance. <strong>Let Andalites Be All/No Genders</strong> (and wear boxers on their head).</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Animorphs book 3 – The Encounter by K. A. Applegate]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-animorphs-book-3-the-encounter-by-k-a-applegate/2019-03-31T14:33:05.749150+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-03-31T14:33:05.749150+00:00<![CDATA[<p>I took a break from the wonderful, but incredibly intense <a href="https://schwarzrund.de/biskaya-roman/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biskaya</a> to finish <strong><a href="https://www.scholastic.com/kids/book/the-encounter-by-k-a-applegate/" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Encounter</a></strong>, the third Animorphs book, as some lighter reading. By the way, <a href="https://cafe.sunbeam.city/%7E/CatOnBook/read-recently" rel="noopener noreferrer">the last time I mentioned Animorphs</a>, I linked to the <a href="http://animorphsforum.com/ebooks/order.php" rel="noopener noreferrer">free ebook downloads</a> because I remembered Katherine Applegate having said that it's ok to pirate her books. Now, when I checked, I saw that <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gzhau/iam_ka_applegate_author_of_animorphs_and_many/c1rfte1/" rel="noopener noreferrer">she said that while the books were out of print and not available as official ebooks</a>. So, while Applegate and I seem to agree that pirating a book is better than not reading it, I am going to link to the publisher from now on.</p>
<p>And. Let me tell you. Sure, the Animorphs series is lighter than Biskaya in most ways, but The Encounter is <strong>intense in exactly the way that I remember</strong> the Animorphs series from when I read it as a kid. I read the first two books from a distance, mostly just remembering what they had made me feel back then. But this one, this one hit my feels.</p>
<p>Each of the Animorphs books is told from the perspective of one of those unfortunate kids who got alien morphing powers to save the earth from aliens. In this one, it's Tobias' turn. Tobias used to have one of those usual human bodies, but got stuck in hawk form early on. Up to now, we got brief glimpses into what this might be like for him. That he missed some human things, but didn't mind that much, because his human life wasn't that great anyway. In this one, we get to hear everything about how shitty and hard it is when you are <strong>stuck in birdshape and unsure about your own humanity</strong>, while your friends continue to very clearly be humans. And wolves. And fish, fish in grave danger.</p>
<p>His <strong>hawk feelings are strong</strong> and he can't just lock them out. He hunts for the first time and has trouble processing that. Feeling far removed from humanity, he gives in fully to his hawk part for a while. He feels attraction to another hawk, and is torn between the comfort it promises and the human friends/alien missions that need his attention.</p>
<p>I love how it's not just one thing. Sure, Tobias has a lot of bad feels. But he's also, you know, a happy bird and a <strong>loving and loved</strong> human.</p>
<p>Other than that, The Encounter is a highly captivating story about <strong>the virtue of sabotage</strong>. Everything is hecka dangerous and people mostly survive by chance, and I was going "aaaaaaaah" a lot of the time. It's wonderful.</p>
<p>Again, sometimes I'm a bit annoyed by the way animal instincts and behaviors are portrayed, but of course, these things will always be heavily colored by any writer's views on human society, and honestly, it's not bad. Yeah, <a href="http://davemech.org/wolf-news-and-information/" rel="noopener noreferrer">wolves work differently</a> and stuff, but we can just imagine that part.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: the things i am thinking while smiling politely and Synchronicity by Sharon Dodua Otoo]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/read-the-things-i-am-thinking-while-smiling-politely-and-synchronicity-by-sharon-dodua-otoo/2019-03-25T17:50:46.000638+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-03-25T17:50:46.000638+00:00<![CDATA[<p>So, first of all, I read both of them in German because there is <a href="https://www.fischerverlage.de/buch/die_dinge_die_ich_denke_waehrend_ich_hoeflich_laechle_und_synchronicity/9783596298747" rel="noopener noreferrer">this lovely edition</a> that combines both of them in one volume, and because honestly, remembering Otoo as the winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann price, I had kind of forgotten that not all of her work was originally written in German. The English originals are here: <a href="https://www.edition-assemblage.de/buecher/the-things-i-am-thinking-while-smiling-politely/" rel="noopener noreferrer">the things i am thinking while smiling politely</a> and <a href="https://www.edition-assemblage.de/buecher/synchronicity-the-original-story/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Synchronicity</a>.</p>
<p>These two novellas have some things in common, such as the Berlin setting (at least I think it is Berlin in Synchronicity, too? Well, some German city at least), the reflections on family and motherhood and the Black protagonists' struggles with a racist society, but they read very differently, and I found very different approaches to them.</p>
<p><em>the things i am thinking while smiling politely</em> is, in some ways, the type of story that I read a lot of 8-ish years ago: Important-literature-feeling and serious. About real-ish people in real-ish worlds. I haven't read many of those recently, and I was unsure if I'd like it. Luckily, the things i am thinking while smiling politely is pretty great. Sure, it's one of those serious stories, but it's one where <strong>the language flows nicely and I can't help but be genuinely interested in the characters</strong> and their conflicts (and oh gosh, those are some conflicts). It's good, and that I don't love-love it is merely a genre preference.</p>
<p><em>Synchronicity</em>, on the other hand, is pleasantly bizarre and made me think "heck yes" a lot. I loved that story. Originally an advent calendar like story for Otoo's friends, it's about a woman who each day loses her ability to perceive another color, until, well, all of her colors are gone and other things happen. This one went at my feelings. It's about loneliness, about hurting people that you love, and about the world feeling strange, among many other things. <strong>I loved every second and every word of it</strong>. I guess this is magical realism? But the kind that I'm not bored and annoyed by. It is just lovely. Lovely magical realism that hurts and feels good. I'm sure that I'm going to read it again.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Read: Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters]]>https://cafe.sunbeam.city/~/CatOnBook/infect-your-friends-and-loved-ones-by-torrey-peters/2019-03-21T11:53:02.943877+00:00catteonbookhttps://cafe.sunbeam.city/@/catteonbook/2019-03-21T11:53:02.943877+00:00<![CDATA[<p>I was planning to put this with <a href="https://cafe.sunbeam.city/%7E/CatOnBook/read-recently" rel="noopener noreferrer">the other books I read recently</a>, because I don't feel like I have something profound to say about it. But <a href="https://cafe.sunbeam.city/%7E/CatOnBook/read-the-jewels-of-aptor-by-samuel-r-delany" rel="noopener noreferrer">when has that ever stopped me</a>. So when my inadequate review didn't get shorter than three paragraphs no matter how hard I tried, I decided to give it its own post.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.torreypeters.com/book/infect-your-friends-and-loved-ones/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones</a> by Torrey Peters, joking revenge plans on The Cis go a bit too far, and two trans women start the apocalypse – they spread a thing that makes people unable to produce the hormones that shape bodies into gendered forms. <strong>Everyone depends on externally produced hormones</strong> their entire life, and, theoretically, has to choose which kind they prefer. It's such a nicely bizarre plot that I was incredibly excited to read this, and even more excited when a friend got me the paper book.</p>
<p>Even though nicely bizarre, it was also a hard-ish read, and not just because of the still sexist and anti-trans society, or the not-so-great relationship of the main characters. There are <strong>discussions, winks and nods to issues that tend to pop up in trans spaces</strong>, and I couldn't keep myself from trying to figure out if I'd get along with the main character and with the author. This isn't a great approach imo, but I totally got stuck in that mindset. And then there are the essentialist views of the main character, where for example, testosterone makes people aggressive or violent. (I am decidedly not talking about the clueless trans guy here, I thought he was a rather good representation of that type of trans man.)</p>
<p>Some things were super fun, like how boobs are carried proudly by people who take T, because <em>look, I'm taking so much T that my body converts it, soooo much T, look</em>.</p>
<p>In the end, my opinion doesn't matter much, since I'm <strong>not the intended audience</strong> – I'm pretty sure that this story is written mostly for an audience of people who personally experience transmisogyny. I read it from a distance, and confusion about positions aside, I definitely enjoyed that. Especially the ending, where two women get a chance to finally work to improve their relationship, now that the world has ended.</p>
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