#ThursdayBookChat

Cover for Vicky Osterweil's "The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World". Salmon-colored background, with author and title text on the left and then underneath an image of Mickey Mouse from the back, peeling off a glove to reveal a raw-looking paw.

Eating up Vicky Osterweil's "The Extended Universe:
How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World". Had been waiting not so patiently for its release and it does not disappoint! #ThursdayBookChat

Against a black background of golden outlined small flowers , a central image of four young people in fuschia, one holding a fan, and aSeattle landmarks below

Enjoyed very much his teen graphic novel Flamer, so am excited to start Gaysians by Mike Curato, adult level debut. Moving to Seattle in 2003, AJ develops strong friendships and chosen family which will be sorely needed. What can you share this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Two books. On the left, Hiroko Oyamada's "The Factory". Pink background, green trash bin with the lid open and steam rising out. On the right, John Scalzi's "Starter Villain". Black background, then a painting of a cat wearing a suit and tie, similar to official portraits of CEOs.

Current library reads - The Factory, by Hiroko Oyamada, and Starter Villain, by John Scalzi. Two very different books, both very enjoyable, and both have me wanting to read more by those authors. #ThursdayBookChat

Blue square Archipelago books design with a striking red abstract design in the center of interlocking sticks with an abstract shape in its center.

Started Tali Girls: A Novel of AfghanIstan, another read the world pick. It is Siamak Herawi’s first novel published in English, translated from Farsi by Sara Khalili.
Narratives shift as Kowsar and her community grapple with drastic, swift change. What’s up #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Cover for Sally Wen Mao's "Ninetails". Luminous painting of various objects against a dark blue background, connected to each other with threads, with a nine-tailed upside-down fox in the center.

Just finished Sally Wen Mao's "Ninetails". Glorious! One set of connecting stories taking place on Angel Island with other stories in between, all with fox spirits, all marvelous. I've read her poetry before and loved it - this was a surprise find at the bookstore and I'm so glad.

#ThursdayBookChat

Against a yellow background, a figure with one leg bent and up, clothed in gold and with a headdress. Surrounded by many small images including ceremonial figures in clouds, a rooster, chair, microphone, chair, Elvis impersonator and more.

Reading the world challenge with the interlocking stories Welcome Me to the Kingdom by Mai Nardone. From the 1980’s to more recently, people navigate survival in Thailand.
What have you read or look forward to #ThursdayBookChat?

Cover of the journal Mizna: SWANA Literature & Art (Futurities, Vol. 25.2). A painting in predominantly blue, gray, and green, of a fenced courtyard with tree and fenced pool.

I just finished Mizna (Futurities, Vol. 25.2) and in particular I'm living with Umniya Majaer's essay, "DISARM HUMANITY (dreaming of a future without blood on our hands)". A number of points I want to return to and meditate on.

But every issue I have ever read has been treasure.
#ThursdayBookChat

Title of McLarin is blue all caps handwriting font on black background. Chopra is the author from the back in a skirt looking through the movie camera view at a sculpture between two buildings.

Every day is #WomensHistoryMonth! Two more on the go are Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed: Notes from Periracial America, Kim McLarin. And Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond, Joyce Chopra. What are you looking forward to #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

On a buff background, the collage and ink work by Lorna Simpson, “Jet Ametista”. Cut out head and shoulders of a young woman, with a swath of purple ink behind her head.

Having recently seen and loved her pioneering film Losing Ground, I was eager to start her rediscovered stories. These have such sharp points of view!
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love, Kathleen Collins.
Celebrating #WomensHistoryMonth on this #ThursdayBookChat. 📚💙

I picked this image instead of the movie-tie in, featuring Jack Nicholson's face grimacing. Foggy mountains in the distance with tall evergreen trees in the foreground.

Reading from my often-neglected shelves, The Pledge, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, translated by Joel Agee. Its original subtitle was Requiem for the Detective Novel, as critique and frustration with the 'typical' detective story beats and endings. What will you share this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Cover of "Conundrums for the Long Week-End: England, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey" by Robert Kuhn McGregor.

I should say, I'm on "Clouds of Witness" in my reread, and oh my gosh, there's just so much I missed when reading it these as a youth.

So now I have on hold "Conundrums for the Long Week-End: England, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey" for a little light adjacent reading.

#ThursdayBookChat

Against a red blanket background (with multicolored hearts), mass market paperback editions of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books (clockwise from top left): Whose Body? Clouds of Witness Unnatural Death The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

Against a red blanket background (with multicolored hearts), mass market paperback editions of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books (clockwise from top left): Strong Poison Have His Carcase Five Red Herrings Murder Must Advertise

Against a red blanket background (with multicolored hearts), mass market paperback editions of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books (clockwise from top left): The Nine Tailors Gaudy Night Busman's Honeymoon Lord Peter (collected stories)

#ThursdayBookChat

I had a birthday recently, and this year I got all the Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books as my gift to myself.

But because I don't like the modern editions, since January I've been scouting out older mass market paperbacks of them.

Last week the last one arrived!

Sepia toned photo of a fairly dense wood with a path through a low gate.Credited as Castle Drogo, England. 1991 Lynn Geesaman

Just finished The Photograph, Penelope Lively. Masterly, precise excavation of people, memory, relationships, loss with a photograph its catalyst. This one will linger. Do you have something to share this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Listening to Unabridged: the Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary, Stefan Fatsis. Read by the fantastic Kevin R. Free, it’s a lively history, love letter to shifting words and definitions, and exploration of print and online going forward. What do you have #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Cover for "Noopiming" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Light gray background. Author and title text in white with subtext smaller in black. At the bottom of the page we see the back of a woman, lying on a white sheet, her head on a pillowcase and a white cloth covering her hips and thighs. Across her back is the appearance of stitching, with red thread that on first glimpse looks like trails of blood.

Just finished reading the luminous "Noopiming" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. I could feel my heart spreading open as I read. #ThursdayBookChat

Cover doesn’t quite match the more subtle and toned down story. Two people on red satin sheets, she a blonde in red gown looking out, man ripped and shirtless, eyes closed

Tribute to the mmpb with the great A Woman Entangled, Cecilia Grant. They needed to grow! “Love meant more when it followed upon a thorough knowledge of the other person, flaws as well as graces, small charms as well as large, scandalous connections and all.” What’s up #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

The cover of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America. Yellow background, title text in red, at the bottom is a detail of a lion from Antonio Frasconi's woodcut "The Gnat, the Lion, and the Spiderweb".

For romance, this month I am rereading Swordheart (T Kingfisher) and Courtney Milan's Brothers Sinister series. #Romancelandia

Otherwise, to go along with last week's choices & take part in Pilsen Community Bookstore's PUÑO Book Club, Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America. #ThursdayBookChat

Light blue background with a smiling woman in white blouse and purple skirt, with big dark hair. On either side are shadowed silhouettes of men

Accept no pretenders or substitutes in February or any other month! Try genuine genre Romance ™️ today!
IYKYK.🤗💜

The Many Dates of Indigo, Amber D. Samuel

What do you have this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙
#Romancelandia

Cover of Francoise Vergès' "A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonizing the Museum". A simplified pastel version of the Mona Lisa serves as background, with the author and title text overlaid in bright yellow and black.

New month, new books! So many to choose from...

I'll go with Francoise Vergès' "A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonizing the Museum". I've read some of her other works and always find my mind stretched in good ways, I find myself thinking of what she says long afterwards.

#ThursdayBookChat

Photo of woman with backpack, receding in the distance while waking in an alley between buildings. It’s in a wash of bright yellow and orange.

A mysterious and enigmatic opening for The Parking Lot Attendant, involving the island of B—-, a sojourn in Boston, and roots in Addis Ababa. A debut novel by Nafkote Tamirat. What are you reading or looking forward to this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

The cover of Yuri Herrera's "Season of the Swamp". The title is in bright yellow letters laid on top of a colorized print of New Orleans docks from the 1800s. There are many people, all in movement, and dark smoke from the river boats extends across the top.

Cover of Greg Grandin's "America, América: A New History of the New World". The top third of the cover shows details from a Diego Rivera painting, the bottom two thirds have an orange background with the title and author texts in green and white.

A two-parter! I started Yuri Herrera's "Season of the Swamp". Loving it! Just want to roll around in his language. But that reminded me that my Central & South American knowledge of history is piecemeal, so I finally pulled Greg Grandin's "America, América" off the shelf. #ThursdayBookChat

Red haired woman in a green gown sitting on a throne leans forward as hands in front Hold a sword blade. A disgruntled looking man in the rear wears a red sash

Starting Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, loaned me by @octopodiformes.bsky.social. 🤗It combines Shards of Honor and Barrayar, promising me exciting space adventure and intrigue! What are you reading or looking forward to this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Cover for Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal". Red cover, mass market paperback. The central design is made to look like a postmarked letter, with a figure of a white man in a gold uniform, wearing a winged helmet, riding a horse, with a leather satchel over his shoulder with mail shipping out of it.

I'm reading more light fantasy this winter, especially right before bed to keep me off my phone. Picked up my first Terry Pratchett, "Going Postal". I've been curious about his books but have not known where to start (and also found some a bit Too Much) - this is right up my alley. #ThursdayBookChat

Title in pink against a yellow background, as the word Raceless progresses into a blur going down the cover

About to start Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong, by Georgina Lawton. From a “color-blind” household upbringing and all-white community, Lawton seeks answers and belonging. What can you share this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Cedric Robinson's "Black Marxism". Cover artwork is Barbara Walker's "Vanishing Point 2 (Van Herp)". A woman holding bread? in her arms is looking over her shoulder. Around her is impressions in the paper, resembling people. At the top of the cover is the author's name in light green, underneath is the title in black.

My big 2026 book goal is Cedric Robinson's Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Big as I've been wanting to for a while - big as it will probably take me all year! Now I'm underway I'm glad I didn't try before, there are many references I would not have known. #ThursdayBookChat

Compact edition, featuring a pale hand holding a red hand, finger interlaced from behind against a black background.

On my longtime TBR has been The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard. Got this Picador Classic because I liked the feel in my hand! Waits for the conclusion, at the least, of my four February book discussions 😁😭 What do you have this #ThursdayBookChat? 📚💙

Cover of "Scattered & Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History" by Laura Helton. Title at top, black text against a white background. Then a yellow box has the subtitle in black on the right side, next to a black-and-white reproduction of Winold Reiss' "The Librarian": a Black woman is pictured in hat, fur-collared coat, and gloves, with a book cradled in her left arm. Author text is underneath the yellow box, black against a white background.

I don't remember why I bought Laura Helton's "Scattered & Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives & Remade History", but I'm so glad I did! #ThursdayBookChat

"As a practice of abundance, archiving was alive in the Black present, a site of intellectual risk and political possibility."

Spine of Strange Love, Anne Aguirre, blue with green title author font and thumbnail of off-Earth being, and Spine of Sex, Lies and Sensibility, Nikki Payne, with autumn leaves, orange, and thumbnail of drawing of a woman

For next romance book clubs, Sex, Lies and Sensibility, Nikki Payne, and Strange Love, Ann Aguirre.
Sisters tackling renovating a rural Maine inn under deadline with a Jane Austen flavor.
AI screws up, sending Zylar to Earth instead of the expected match for partnering. #ThursdayBookChat 📚💙

Photo of long body of water with people walking on a sidewalk on one side, while others gather across the way

Soon to start Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine, composed of essays, poems, images, other documents. Anticipating this will be as powerful as I found ‘Citizen’ to be. #ThursdayBookChat 📚💙

Cover of Ernst Toller's "A Youth in Germany", translated by Eoin & Eva Bourke. Black + white photo of a young man looking to his left. Author, title, and translator text is in a white box set off in the lower left corner.

Reading Ernst Toller's "A Youth in Germany" (tr. Eoin & Eva Bourke).

From 1933 (about Europe): "The nations are silent because a thousand speculators earn billions from grenades & bombs, poison gas & chemical warfare, and because these blood billions are called national assets."

#ThursdayBookChat