Iz a Newsletter #4

IZ A STATUS UPDATE: 

Get ready to get wet in September, because the stars have aligned and I have gotten confirmation that my Reactor story will be out in September, and my Lightspeed story will be in their September issue. 

The reason you will be getting wet is because these two stories are about water-related stuff. Neither will be sexy. Just to be clear. Real profoundly unsexy stories. Sorry, I’m selling this terribly. The stories are actually very sexy (I say, lying). 

Also—I’m going to be at Worldcon this year, for my sins. I’ll post my schedule early Augustish - and if you see me, please do say hi! I’ll probably give you a sticker. 

IZ CONTENT: Reviews of things I’ve been reading/watching/consuming lately 

I started writing a thing about the “vibe universe” you need to curate when you start a writing project and how to signal to the reader that your world is somewhere that [xyz] thing can happen. But that was just taking an abysmally long time to write so, IDK, maybe next month. I took a week and change off from being on the hashtag grindset and read a bunch of things, so, woe. Reviews & reccs be upon you. It’s mostly not SFF, I was on a nonfiction kick. 

Frostbite — Nicola Twilley 

 I read this because I like nonfic about esoterica and also conventionalterica. James Beard Award winning book charting the history of refrigeration. Super compelling, good reporting and research, and I learned a bunch of stuff about the history of “make things cold” as a preservation method. This book’s account of the public reception toward fridged foods convinces me that we’re going to move toward total acceptance of lab grown meat, as a society, eventually, because the response to refrigeration in the early stages of the technology reminds me of the response to lab grown meat. Also, gave me some interesting ideas for food preservation/body preservation in hypothetical space related books. 

The Man Who Folded Himself — David Gerrold 

 I read this because some guy on r/printsf was like oh my god this blew my mind so hard. It did not blow my mind but it was really good and felt very much like a meticulous exploration of how a guy with a time travel belt, too much interiority, and these specific time-travel-universe-rules would behave. The specific scenes of multiplicity (the poker game, the house and the months, the men of august etc, the house in the cretaceous) were wonderful, very filmic. Cool old sff. 

The Will of the Many — James Islington 

 I read this because a friend had read it and loved it like six months ago. I bounced off of it twice before it stuck, and then it stuck hard. I’m always a slut for Roman-related imagery on account of “I did take Latin for like 6 years,” and this goes off with it. It’s super well paced, a little…..overpowered shonen protagonist in a way that I find deeply compelling, and did a good job marrying the school plot with everything else. The protag’s perspective is a good mindspace to view events from. Anyway. Excited about the sequel coming out this year, because the ending hints at things going Mad Weird, which I love. 

Gang Leader for a Day — Sudhir Venkatesh 

 Forget where I got this recc. This is a nonfic account of the author’s experience conducting sociological research among the gangs (and regular people) in one of Chicago’s most notorious housing projects, where he basically…ends up befriending a gang leader and getting the opportunity to direct a gang for a day, and also, spends like ten years embedded in that community. It’s a really interesting account of an academic going into pretty dangerous situations (My Brother In Christ: They Sell Crack) and getting to know the people there and the economies of poverty and what networks step in when the systems fail (If you call for an ambulance it will simply not come, what do you do now?). 

Floating City — Sudhir Venkatesh 

 I read this because the first book he wrote was pretty good, and this one follows his experience in NYC after moving from Chicago, and his experience charting urban poverty in NYC and how it differs from Chicago. Also pretty good! 

The Hunger Games series — Suzanne Collins 

 My podcast cohost has been on a Hunger Games kick recently and we talked on a recent patreon ep about how I haven’t read more than the first book. I figured, what the hell, let’s get into it. And then I read the first three and a half books in three days. Suzanne Collins is honestly an incredible master of pacing, and these books are so…clearly about television and hollywood (along with being about The Cycle of Violence, Exploitation, etc) and also practically made to be filmed. No surprise that the movies did as well as they did, honestly. I also like how she comes out and writes a book when she has More Things To Say and then simply retreats back into her peace. Also I remembered why I didn’t read more than the first book. I, as a teenage girl, got annoyed by Katniss being a teenage girl about things and making suboptimal decisions. Now that I’m no longer also a teenage girl, I have more grace for that.

The Arm — Jeff Passan 

 The other thing my podcast cohost and I share (other than a podcast) is a library card hooked up to Libby, so sometimes when Amanda borrows a book, I also read the book, just for fun. This is a nonfiction book about baseball pitchers and the epidemic of people Fucking Up Their Arm and needing surgery to repair it, and how that surgery ends up fueling more people Fucking Up Their Arm. Interesting sports / subculture narrow window type stuff. I feel like I read a lot of baseball adjacent content despite not really giving a shit about baseball, so maybe this is a sign I should get into baseball.

The Murderbot Diaries series — Martha Wells 

 What can I say? I too loved the tv show, and wanted to reread these. Embarrassingly, Murderbot is my Sanctuary Moon.