Saturday, December 9, 2017

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2017: pt.2: Tansy Rayner Roberts




Awesome Books of Joy & Love
by Tansy Rayner Roberts


I’m not going to even pretend to be unbiased here. I am glad these books exist, and you should be too. It’s been a trashfire of a year and some books make the world better. These are some of them.



Luminescent Threads, edited by Alex Pierce & Mimi Mondal, is a joyous tribute to Octavia E. Butler featuring letters and essays about race and identity, by some of today’s most exciting writers including K. Tempest Bradford, Joyce Chng & Steven Barnes.

https://www.amazon.com/Luminescent-Threads-Connections-Octavia-Butler/dp/1922101443




The wonderful, smart, and cynical Liz Bourke has a book out! Sleeping with Monsters is a collection of Liz’s critical work on SF books and culture from her fantastic Tor.com regular column.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Monsters-Readings-Reactions-Science/dp/1619761238/






If romance is your escapism drug of choice, but even enjoying something fluffy and fun in the current political climate feels a bit wrong, check out Rogue Desire and Rogue Affair. These romance anthologies are a direct response to 2017 and the Trump administration by presenting a variety of love stories in a time of protest and Presidential anxiety. Read about grass roots politics, hackers, whistleblowers, policy wonks and whether or not it’s possible to flirt while debating if punching Nazis is OK.




I backed Some Girls by Nelly Thomas and Sarah Dunk on Facebook. This brilliant picture book features vivid art and the important message that girls don’t have to buy into other people’s expectations of their gender.

https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/some-girls







Tansy Rayner Roberts is a SFF author and the co-host of popular feminist podcasts Galactic Suburbia and Verity! Check out her recently-published short story “How To Survive an Epic Journey” at Uncanny Magazine, and her superhero novella Girl Reporter, which will be released on 19 December.

tansyrr.com/
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/survive-epic-journey/
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Reporter-Tansy-Rayner-Roberts-ebook/dp/B077D1MJVL/

1 comment:

Kristin said...

Tansy, it's a bit off-topic but I just wanted to mention how much I delight in hearing your voice on Verity! with all its thoughtfulness, humor, excitement. So many times, listening to everyone's friendly banter about the show I love most has carried me through a rough day. Anyway, now I've got to check out the books you mentioned here, and congratulations on putting out Girl Reporter.