The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and LIstening in 2025, pt. 25: Kristin King

 

Pleasures of 2025

by Kristin King

 

When I write a story, where does it come from? Not my conscious mind, certainly. It comes from the vast reserve of all the art in the world, metamorphosing as it meets my mind. Something flows through me and emerges transformed. My favorite metaphor is the “sea of stories,” from Salaman Rushdie’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In my understanding of our world, there is an otherworld, a land of dreams, the wellspring of art and music and story and soul. When art occurs, it opens up a portal, pulls back a curtain, and gives us a glimpse of magic. We add the final touches when we perceive it, in a wondrous Aha! moment. Even in the worst of times, it is there for us.

And yes, these are terrible times. But they are not the terrible Orwellian times of “a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” Art always brings curiosity, change, wisdom. The books, shows and movies I mention here do connect me to the wellspring of soul. They have been medicine for me in this time.

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Take a minute and think back to childhood, to the stories and books that shaped your understanding of the world. For many children, the picture book Iván Y Van, by author Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs and illustrator Veronica Eldredge, will be that book. Iván lives in the small town of Hueyapan, Mexico and goes on a grand adventure to the United States. This book brings joy and wonder to the “there and back” story and is a powerful antidote to the colonial travel narrative. Reading it and looking at the illustrations brings me hope. Do you know any kids? Elementary school librarians? Grab a copy and send it to them.  

https://www.chatwinbooks.com/shop/p/ivan-y-van

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I have been playing the music video “No Kings 2.0” by @scaredketchup over and over, belting out the chorus and wishing I knew the verses too. This rousing battle hymn is set to images from the protests. It helps me feel connected to the millions of people who have been cussing out this regime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w3o6oKxQHI

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When family came to town this summer, I hopped on a tour bus that was covered, inside and out, with the fantastical characters of muralist Ryan Henry Ward. The guide took us around to see his murals, most of which are painted on peoples’ houses and fences. It brings me comfort to think of Seattle as being protected by the wise, otherworldly, whimsical beings populating the urban landscape of Seattle.  

https://www.henry.art/

 

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I would love to live in the world of Day and Night Books of Mardou Fox by Nisi Shawl. Mardou Fox is a fictional representation of the Beat Generation poet Alene Lee, and her story is told through the journal entries of her as a young girl just starting to write, along with the entries of her adult self, an artist coming into her own. Dreams link her selves through time, help her know herself, and connect her to her sister.

https://rosariumpublishing.com/novels/novels/the-day-and-night-books-of-mardou-fox.html

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Her Right Foot by author Dave Eggers and illustrator Shawn Harris caught my eye in the library and was a fast but eye-opening read. I’ve stared at the Statue of Liberty thousands of times but missed the most important detail – not the flame or the book or the broken chains, but something else. This book takes the reader by the hand and asks what the right foot of the Statue of Liberty is doing.

https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/her-right-foot

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I’ve enjoyed comedian Rowan Atkinson for a long time, first in his role as the unscrupulous Blackadder and then his mishap-prone, neurodivergent Mr. Bean. In the miniseries Man vs Baby, he plays a character like Mr. Bean in some ways--poor decisions and inept task management leading to fine slapstick--but with one big change. He’s actually competent with cooking, cleaning, and the care and feeding of babies. It’s a predictable but fun story: Hapless man gets stuck with a baby who was left in a nativity and must keep him under wraps while house-sitting for an obscenely rich client.  

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35047134/

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The Woman Dies by Aoko Matsuda is a series of 52 short stories and flash fictions, each one a new surprise. A dying woman reflects: “I wish I’d had the opportunity to deconstruct the vagina, at least once.” A national anthem develops a crush on the only person who refuses to sing it. This is feminism with hardcore whimsy, with many befuddling moments where she tears aside the fabric of reality to reveal the weird underneath.

https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9798889661344/the-woman-dies

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The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor read very differently to me in 2025 than it would have in a previous year, because I’ve never before been so furious at the real-world equivalent of the novel’s “Big Eye” men. We are told from the beginning that Phoenix Okore is the “villain” of the story, and yet, I refuse to believe it. I cheered her on the whole way through.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316942/the-book-of-phoenix-by-nnedi-okorafor/

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I am just starting out with the novel-in-stories Why Stars Burn by Kathleen Alcalá. I love the way she marries the ordinary and the fantastic, seamlessly, the one leading inevitably to the other. I’m already engaged in the story of Sirena Diamond.

https://rosariumpublishing.com/novels/novels/why-stars-burn.html

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I’m mesmerized by singer, songwriter, word-master, and comedian Elle Cordova, who produced the “fonts hanging out” videos. This year she came out with more Grammarian vs Errorist superhero showdown short videos. I must admit, I’m rooting for the Errorist.

https://www.youtube.com/@ElleCordova

Kristin King (http://kristinking.wordpress.com) is a writer, parent, and activist who lives in Seattle. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Calyx, The Pushcart Prize XXII (1998), and other places. Two of her stories appeared in an Aqueduct Press anthology, Missing Links and Secret Histories: A Selection of Wikipedia Entries Lost, Suppressed, or Misplaced in Time. A selection of her short fiction has been collected in Misfits from the Beehive State

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2025, pt. 24: Isabel Schechter

 

Reading and Viewing Pleasures in 2025

by Isabel Schechter

 

Did that really happen? Did that person really exist? My husband and I asked each other this repeatedly while watching The History Channel’s Vikings, our most recent binge viewing. Well aware that historical fiction is, in fact, fiction, we did not let the familiar names, locations, or battles lull us into accepting everything in Vikings as completely factual and instead consulted the internet (an imperfect source, I know) a least once per episode and learned a lot about Vikings, England, and even France. Who knew that a Viking married a Frankish princess and became a duke in Paris? Or that the Vikings sailed to the Mediterranean? Not me.

 Watching Vikings reminded me just how much I like historical fiction, even though I did not know it was considered its own genre. I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and considered it fiction, as in, it was not non-fiction, but I would not have known to label it ‘historical fiction.’ The same applies to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, or Beloved by Toni Morrison, even though those stories were directly tied to a specific time. The father in Little Women is absent only because he is fighting in the US Civil War, Gone with the Wind includes actual events from the war, and Beloved’s main character is an escaped slave whose story takes place after the war.

 Looking back, it seems obvious that these are all historical fiction, and that got me thinking about what other historical fiction I’ve read and watched. Here is some historical fiction I’ve read and watched:

 

 I firmly believe books are a passport to this and other worlds and that libraries are necessary for a country to be a truly free and democratic nation. Books, films, newspapers, research materials, programs like Storytime for children, test prep books, foreign language software, and computers and printers, are just some of the ways that libraries and librarians provide necessary services to their communities. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson tells the story of one woman who served as a traveling librarian to towns in Kentucky during the Depression as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library program. I admire the many women who were brave enough to do such an important job and was glad to learn that such a program existed.

 My mother-in-law and I read Moloka'i by Alan Brennert in our respective book clubs and agreed it was a sad story beautifully told. The story is about Rachel Kalama, who is diagnosed with leprosy as a young girl and is forced to leave her family in Honolulu to go live in Kalaupapa, the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i run by Franciscan nuns in the 1890’s. I had no idea that leprosy (Hansen’s disease) still existed in the 19^th century or that people with the disease were forced to live isolated lives away from their families. In addition to seeing what life is like in the colony, I learned a little about the culture and mythology of Hawaiian people.

 In the Time of the Americans by Oswald Rivera tells the story of several generations of two Puerto Rican families who represent very different perceptions and experiences of the transition of Puerto Rico from a Spanish colony to a US possession. Well-written characters deal with intergenerational strife, love affairs, political battles, and technological advances. The Puerto Rican in me found this to book be both beautiful and informative-not just for Bad Bunny fans!

Phillippa Gregory has been called “the queen of royal fiction” and is the author of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Traitor, and other novels set in the Tudor court of Henry VIII as well Red Queen, White Queen, and White Princess, which are set during the War of the Roses. A film adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl starred Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen, and a BBC adaptation of the other books in the series starred Rebecca Furgeson. I have watched all the adaptations and read some of the novels. For those who like royal intrigue to go along with their history, Gregory’s novels hit the spot.

 Perhaps the most well-known historical fiction novel I have read and watched is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez. Primarily considered ‘magical realism,’ the story covers several generations of the Buendía family and takes place in the mythical town of Macondo. The story is more than magical realism, however, as Macondo is located in Columbia during a time of war and includes an incident based on the real-life Banana Massacre. The book is beautifully written, and I recommend it to everyone. Netflix released an excellent series based on the book. Other books by García Márquez include Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and The Autumn of the Patriarch.

 I intend to read more historical fiction this coming year, including Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which is about Henry VIII’s attempts to divorce Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. I have tickets to see SIX, the Tony Award-winning musical about the six wives of Henry VIII portrayed as members of an all-girls pop band, so this will be a good refresher on Henry’s wives before the show. The novel also includes Thomas Cromwell, who is someone I have wanted to know more about for a while now, and this is another excuse to read the book.

 I am also going to read some classic historical fiction. My husband has been telling me for years to read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas; now that PBS is adapting it, I am finally going to read it. This is a revenge tale (I am a big fan of revenge, which is why my husband thinks I will like this book) in which the main character works an elaborate scheme to get revenge against the man who had him falsely imprisoned and stole his fiancée. Love, betrayal, prison, treasure, and justice-what more could a bloodthirsty person like me ask for?

I suppose I could ask for more time to read the dozen or so historical novels I have on my TBR list, but I’m sure by the time I get through those I will have added more to the list, so I better get going and get started!

 

 Isabel’s essays on race and representation in SF/F have been published in Invisible 2: Essays on Race and Representation in SF/F, Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and several volumes of the WisCon Chronicles; and she is Co-Editor of The WisCon Chronicles Volume 12: Boundaries and Bridges. She is Puerto-Rican, feminist, child-free, Jewish, vegetarian, and a Midwesterner living in Southern California, and embraces the opportunity to represent the fact that no one of those identities excludes any of the others.