devoured this as an audiobook over less than a week. it's a good book of a comfortable length! yes, it's got its clunky parts (especially that last chapter that feels obligated to provide explanations to stuff that really didn't need too much of an explanation or that could have better been explained throughout), but i feel like that is mostly an issue of different stylistic expectations over a 150 year gap. still though, i enjoyed the book, as evident by the speed i read it, and it's nice to catch up on what is a vital piece of both vampire, gothic and lesbian literature.
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trans, nerd, techie, leftist, classical musician and many more things. my reading involves the interesting combination of classical fantasy, modern sci-fi and speculative fiction, contemporary nonfiction, anarcho-communist theory and John Green books.
my other Fediverse accounts can be found here: keyoxide.org/aspe:keyoxide.org:RUGUW6K7H2SMTY2MFH4FE6QNQM
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Talya (she/her)'s books
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Talya (she/her) reviewed Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Talya (she/her) wants to read Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
the most depressing hopeful book i've ever read
5 stars
it's not fair to give this book 5 stars, because i've given other books 5 stars in the past, and they pale in comparison. i've had my mind blown multiple times every chapter, and there's five of them. it's clear a lot of care was put into this book, and that care paid off. this book is at once depressing, because the solutions are already here, and encouraging, because the solutions are already here. and if that's not the correct way to address the human condition, i don't know what is. at the end of this book, i am left with the taste of the vision in the final chapter, feeling like i've been awoken from the sweetest of dreams - at once sad to find it was but a dream, and happy to have remembered it. now all i have is to wait for the day this dream becomes …
it's not fair to give this book 5 stars, because i've given other books 5 stars in the past, and they pale in comparison. i've had my mind blown multiple times every chapter, and there's five of them. it's clear a lot of care was put into this book, and that care paid off. this book is at once depressing, because the solutions are already here, and encouraging, because the solutions are already here. and if that's not the correct way to address the human condition, i don't know what is. at the end of this book, i am left with the taste of the vision in the final chapter, feeling like i've been awoken from the sweetest of dreams - at once sad to find it was but a dream, and happy to have remembered it. now all i have is to wait for the day this dream becomes reality.
Talya (she/her) wants to read Mavericks by Jenny Draper
Talya (she/her) wants to read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Talya (she/her) finished reading سنتجاوز هذا معًا נעבור את זה ביחד
a brutally honest piece about the harsh reality that is living in this bleeding land. I would have read it even had a friend of mine not been one of the writers, but knowing his story just made it that more impactful. absolutely recommended to absolutely anyone.
Talya (she/her) rated سنتجاوز هذا معًا נעבור את זה ביחד: 5 stars

سنتجاوز هذا معًا נעבור את זה ביחד
ב-7.10.2023 פרצה המלחמה האכזרית ביותר של דורנו וגבתה את חייהם של עשרות אלפי אנשים, ישראלים ופלסטינים. הטרור והטבח איימו לבודד …
Talya (she/her) wants to read A Catalogue for the End of Humanity by Timothy Hickson

A Catalogue for the End of Humanity by Timothy Hickson
For generations, a family has lived with Death in their library. An old lighthouse keeper picks through the Beach, where …
Talya (she/her) reviewed The Right to Be Greedy by For Ourselves
my gut feeling was right about this one
1 star
very early on this book felt iffy to me. it felt like an almost Randian view on anarchism, like an attempt to capture the Thatcher individualists. I gave up on listening to the next chapters when those came up on Audible Anarchist. however, when the chapter on sexuality was released, I decided to give that one a shot. I regret trying. that chapter was immediately disappointing, being extremely heterosexual from the very first sentence. having been written in the 70's is no excuse to me. anarchists of the time should have (and many did) known better. I'll just have to wait for them to finish with this one and move to some actually interesting theory.
Talya (she/her) reviewed The Bolshevik Myth by Alexander Berkman
The Bolshevik Myth - so much more educational than expected
5 stars
I was a bit skeptical at first. a long diary about the Bolshevik ideology that I already don't believe in from a writers whose magnum opus I liked but didn't feel was the best thing ever. But dang, I was wrong. I learned more about that period from a single book than I learned in decades. I even learned about stuff that I as a Jew should have already known of and was surprised to find out how shallow was my knowledge. The best way to know what the Russian revolution was like was to live through it. The second best way might genuinely be this book.
Talya (she/her) wants to read Bat shel mi at? by Yali Hashash
Talya (she/her) wants to read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Toki Pona Edition) by Sonja Lang (Official Toki Pona, #3)
Talya (she/her) wants to read The Left Hand of Dog by Si Clarke
after the incredible recommendation from @GwenfarsGarden@weirder.earth I had to add it to the list.