daumari's reviews
1188 reviews

3.5. I have fond memories of Reading Rainbow so it's interesting seeing the oral history (primarily from Tony Buttino), especially its predecessor programs in the Buffalo area (I didn't know about Mr McFeeley hosting the Television Literacy Club!)

I feel like I should rewatch the documentary to put faces to names.

This one was kind of an odd one- I picked it up from the new books section because I like crosswords and I'm a woman so this sounds like it's relevant to my interests, and... kind of. What I wasn't expecting was this to be part-memoir, as Anna Shechtman also muses over her crossword interest with her anorexia, and meta thoughts on being the Perfect Girl intellectually and through self-discipline. As a former gifted kid I can recognize the intellectualism afoot here, and it feels... like a considered look back at who Anna has been interwoven with other feminist crossword constructors and literary folks. 

Hell yeah Dungeon Crawler Carl (for once, writing the review first on Storygraph than GR). Only detractor for me is the Critical Drinker 's presence in the audiobook- not only is he less dynamic than Jeff Hays, I really don't like shouty ragebait YouTubers who think it's "political" when women and people of the global majority are in projects, but I digress... 


Anyway, this book is mostly a big ol train job.

 

It's a tournament arc~ man, when are we getting a Cradle anime because it would be very fitting for the medium (I'm aware of the kickstarter and i hope the animatic gets some bites!). 3.5 rounded up to 4, love to see the team progressing with new factions/friendships.

 

 

I initially wrote my updates thinking I'd briefly review all stories but 40 is kind of a lot, and a lot of the Imperials/stormtrooper/rebel pilot stories blend together for me, sorry!! I also haven't read the previous FaCPoV collections, foolishly assuming it was one book and picking up this one in the library's new book section which should've been a clue.

Like a box of chocolates, this also was useful as a reminder of authors I really need to get around to reading, like Thea Guanzon's "Dune Sea Songs of Salt and Moonlight" (I've seen Thea's name re: the Cait Corrain downvoting scandal, so she's on my list but so many books to read...) and Charlie Jane Anders' "My Mouth Never Closes" was a funny, short interstitial (and a reminder that I should read CJA). I was starting to feel "hm, do we need a story from EVERY point of view?" only for "The Chronicler" to shut me up about the importance of everyone's story (even namechecking Jess from Thea's short story). "Return of the Whills" made me cackle.

Overall for the collection a 3.5 rounded to 4, enjoyed some stories more than others. I was making jokes about Glup Shitto in some of my updates, but these anthologies are sort of like this, a story for every minute background character, including the vaguely papal-looking fellows in robes that accompany the Emperor. Can't complain too much because I was pleased to see a Dexter Jettster story towards the end, about the immediate aftermath in Coruscant after the fall of the Empire.

I'll get around to the other FaCPoV collections, eventually. Not in any rush, though.

 

 3.5 rounded to 4, was entertained but it probably won't linger in my brain, much like the '00s ephemera this exudes.

I've never read HUNTER S THOMPSON, but as I was reading I thought, "hm, is this gonzo memoir?" I was in high school during this period, but worlds away from Kate Flannery's move to LA from the east coast and her whirlwind first year with American Apparel. I vaguely remember thinking the vertical integration was neat (American made! everything done in house! also the ads are all horny?) but definitely not available in my podunk hometown. Soaked in optimism and conflicting ethos (sexually liberating or exploitative? Empowered by wearing multiple hats or overworked?), Flannery navigates how she wants to move forward in the world, running into assumptions from family and other coworkers about her job and her infamous bossman.

A quick read, a nice slice of memoir. 

Aside from the minotaur peen, this was surprisingly wholesome?? Come for funny horny monster spice, stay for underemployed millennial angst

I really enjoyed this! It's been a while since I read her debut book, Eight Flavors but in Endangered Eating, Sarah takes a more hands on approach and travels seeking out eight (technically nine) American entries from Slow Food International's Ark of Taste list for foodstuffs that are endangered, whether due to the cultivar literally being rare/hardly grown (such as some cider apple varieties and the Carolina ground peanuts) or practices that are in decline except for a few passionate individuals (reefnet salmon fishing by indigenous people on the Salish Sea, fresh grinding filé powder from sassafras leaves). 

A (probably intentional) undercurrent to many of the ones featured in the book are foods and practices by indigenous nations that were then discouraged by the government for forced assimilation and/or eliminating competitors to predominantly white agriculture (Hawaiian sugarcane, Navajo-Churro sheep, the aforementioned reefnets and manoomin wild rice. I'm pleased to see I've read half the references mentioned for the Carolina African Runner peanuts (I'm writing this on my phone so I can't do the book link insert, but they're Southern Provisions by David S. Shields on recovering the Carolina Rice Kitchen and Carolina Gold rice, and The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty- both are excellent blends of history, memoir, and food). The other theme of some of these is incompatibility with modern monoculture practices for bigger, hardier, faster- the variety of dates in the Coachella Valley (an interesting case where farmers intentionally leaned into Orientalism to sell dates but a growing immigrant population may help demand), the cider apple varieties, and the Carolina runner peanuts fall into this one. 

I'll definitely keep an eye out for Lummi salmon and other regional treasures in my area...

Review to come when I sleep on it. It's hard to think of other things besides, "oh, a training arc" when that's the genre, but this was a nice prelude to the upcoming tournament. Glad to see the party reunited for a bit, and learning more about the Akuras and other factions.