Music Monday (250): Stevie B., Meet Me @ The Altar, & Sylvan Esso

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I've been searching for new music to add to my playlist lately, and one of the songs I discovered was Radio by Sylvan Esso.

Adri: This week I'm listening to Give It Up by Meet Me @ The Altar. They're releasing a deluxe version of their album Past // Present // Future. I'm looking forward to it.

Andrea: Hi all! This week I'm listening to Springlove by Stevie B. Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

Short Stories I Read In June

It’s the twenty-ninth of July. So it’s time to talk about the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read or listened to in June.

Four Steps To Hunt A God by Athar Fikry (Strange Horizons; Issue: 12 June 2023)

The opening of Four Steps To Hunt A God by Athar Fikry had me going there for a second. From the title, I assumed it was going to be a short story that’s structured like a how-to guide to do, get, or navigate something or another. It was, but, after the first three paragraphs, I quickly realized it was also so much more than that. The instructions are delivered by a nameless narrator who was a little trite, but mostly there to offer sound advice. I felt the story asked: What would you do to survive? And the way it delved into that through the narrative, combined with some pretty interesting utilization of fantasy elements—like gods, etc.—made for an enjoyable read.

Mirror View by Rajeev Prasad (Clarkesworld; Issue 201—June 2023)

This next one (and last short story I read in June) is about first contact, but the author flipped that around and the story comes from the point of view of a “being” that referred to itself as Foto. It was the kind of narrative that explored topics such as emotions, humanity, connection, and so forth—almost like a character study—except it was through the POV of something that was complex but also looked at those concepts as a novelty. The way Foto gradually built an understanding of its surroundings and the people that lived there made it a really endearing character. So, all-in-all, Mirror View is one of my favorite short stories that I’ve read so far in 2023.

From around the web…

• How I learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the TBR Pile [Molly Templeton; Tor.com; June 15, 2023]
• The Art That Doesn't Yet Exist [Caroline M. Yoachim; Uncanny Magazine; Issue Fifty-Two]

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

Title: The Only Harmless Great Thing
Series: n/a
Author: Brooke Bolander
Source/Format: Tor.com ebook club; eBook
More Details: Alternative History; Science Fiction
Publisher/Publication Date: Tor.com; January 23, 2018 

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads...

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.

I’m steadily making my way through all of the old Tor.com ebook club freebie titles that I haven’t read. The next one I wanted to mark off my TBR list this year was this one.

If, like me, you’ve read a book called The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women—Kate Moore’s eye-opening historical nonfiction about the women who worked at radium-dial factories—then you can already guess the exact kind of tragedies that take place in Brooke Bolander’s 2018 novella, The Only Harmless Great Thing.

I was hooked, and I quickly got invested in some of the cast of characters. But that was because I found the side of the story that took place in the past particularly riveting—including the perspective of Topsy, and the other elephant related passages. I wanted to root for them, and I wanted it to work out. But, going into the novella, I knew it wasn’t going to be that kind of story. This one, through its tragedy, was about the message, but that’s exactly what made The Only Harmless Great Thing memorable for me. And, as I was reading it, I was strongly reminded of my experience with The Radium Girls. The story was very good in a lot of respects, as a work of fiction. But it also captured the same infuriating tone and behavior—just like the actual history it was partially based on—with the injustice of the situation and the open callousness of the people in charge.

At the end of the day, The Only Harmless Great Thing was meaningful and poignant, and I'm glad I finally read it. 

 

Music Monday (249): Remi Wolf, Tevin Campbell, Gaelle

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I wanted to mention another one of my favorite songs by Remi Wolf. This one is called Buzz Me In, and, just like Volkiano, it comes from her Juno album. Give it a listen!

Adri: I've been listening to Rain by Gaelle. I like how chill and soft it is.

Andrea: Hi all! This week, I'm listening to Can We Talk by Tevin Campbell. Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (238) & Book Beginnings: The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.

Beginning: "There is a secret beneath the mountain's gray skin."

56: "The morning gets hotter. Sweat pops on her forehead, running down into her eyes to sting them shut."

Comments: A while ago, this novella was a Tor.com eBook Club title, but I've known about it since it came out in 2018. I kept telling myself I was going to read it but didn't. But, last month, I finally got around to The Only Harmless Great Thing! My 56 comes from page 46, because the story is very short. What are you reading this week?