✓
kingstoken's 2025 Book Bingo: Free Space - Indigenous Author
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer is a 2016 autobiography that covers writer/activist/artist Ma-Nee Chacaby's life from 1950 to 2014, from her birth in a tuberculosis sanatorium, to her childhood in Ombabika, through her adulthood in Thunder Bay where she's become a community elder and helped lead the city's first Pride parade.
This was the fifth of this year's Canada Reads nominees that I've read, and I saved it for last, feeling like it was a sure thing in terms of something I'd want to read. I wasn't wrong, and I was happy to see it win in the debates, championed by Shayla Stonechild.
The book is very candid, frank, and factually self-reflective, with a conversational tone that feels like sitting in on the friendly interviews that brought these stories forward. The author has lived through a lot of violence, as well as discrimination, addiction, disability and economic hardship. She is also someone who loves truly and deeply, gathers family, and builds community in a way that I really needed to read about right now.
I also really appreciated the book's afterword, which provides a lot of transparency on the writing process, which was assisted by social scientist and friend Mary Louisa Plummer due to Ma-Nee Chacaby being low-vision and speaking English as a fourth language.
( An Excerpt )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer is a 2016 autobiography that covers writer/activist/artist Ma-Nee Chacaby's life from 1950 to 2014, from her birth in a tuberculosis sanatorium, to her childhood in Ombabika, through her adulthood in Thunder Bay where she's become a community elder and helped lead the city's first Pride parade.
This was the fifth of this year's Canada Reads nominees that I've read, and I saved it for last, feeling like it was a sure thing in terms of something I'd want to read. I wasn't wrong, and I was happy to see it win in the debates, championed by Shayla Stonechild.
The book is very candid, frank, and factually self-reflective, with a conversational tone that feels like sitting in on the friendly interviews that brought these stories forward. The author has lived through a lot of violence, as well as discrimination, addiction, disability and economic hardship. She is also someone who loves truly and deeply, gathers family, and builds community in a way that I really needed to read about right now.
I also really appreciated the book's afterword, which provides a lot of transparency on the writing process, which was assisted by social scientist and friend Mary Louisa Plummer due to Ma-Nee Chacaby being low-vision and speaking English as a fourth language.
( An Excerpt )
What I’ve Read
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – This is my fourth time thru this book, and different things stood out to me that the first time. A major turning point for Maia in the novel that I had really not remembered was him shifting from a mindset of, How can I please everyone who is making demands of me? to, Since it’s impossible to please everyone what do I think is the right thing to do? And as a person who only recently discovered that disappointing people is not legally punishable, I felt that in my heart. This audiobook version was great - Kyle McCarley had a lot of character to each voice and it felt like it made sense for the choices he made.
I have also read a good deal of Star Wars fic by Blackkat that are all slightly too short to be counted as novels, but special attention to Cor Cordium - https://archiveofourown.org/works/52209091
What I’m Reading
His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik – I picked this up to keep my post-vacation chill mood intact, and then the library took it back. Treason! I will return to it, tho. Honestly, I feel like this one of those book series that I think I would give to any kid who lives near an ocean.
Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian – Since the library took Novik’s book back too early for me to finish, I figured I would go to the source material that inspired her, and start reading this! It’s about the sea and also about how being English is great because you get to fight people about stuff – wild nonsense. Jack Aubrey is a certified dummy and I think I love him – how can you not notice that the people around you are speaking Catalan and not Spanish, you hot mess of a captain. I think audiobook is the right choice for this, as it allows the longer passages about how a sailing ship works can just glide past my ears.
The Antarctica Conspiracy – Derin Edala made the least normal space ship in the world and the second half of the story is not any less wild. We started with a murder!
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman
What I’ll Read Next
The Memory Librarian - Janelle Monae - crossing book club
HUGOS – This is my first year as a voting member, and I want to try and read everything (that is a single book- too many series and I will fall over). I know there is packet that goes out containing some of the books but I think it might arrive too late for me to get to all the books, so I have decided to start with what my local library can get me and work from there.
I found out about two different interesting nonfiction books recently that I want to read:
Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity by David D Gilmore which is from 1990 and came up in a recent "If Books Could Kill" podcast episode where the host got really interested in the description of how masculine social roles construct nurturing differently than for feminine roles. It sounded interesting!
I also found a book from 1925, The English Language in America by GP Krapp, which came up in a Tumblr post about the way 'eye dialect', aka, phonetically writing out nonstandard spellings to portray dialects in writing, is used to portray people speaking in dialect as ridiculous and stupid (which is a dick move). I started to skim this book after finding the wikipedia article on 'eye dialect' and I found it so interesting in just the portion of the discussion where he gets into New England town hall records as a primary source for linguists to understand how colonial America was using English. I want to read it some time in more detail, or at least skim the interesting points. I realize it is literally a century out of date but I'm not a scholar, I am doing this for fun!
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – This is my fourth time thru this book, and different things stood out to me that the first time. A major turning point for Maia in the novel that I had really not remembered was him shifting from a mindset of, How can I please everyone who is making demands of me? to, Since it’s impossible to please everyone what do I think is the right thing to do? And as a person who only recently discovered that disappointing people is not legally punishable, I felt that in my heart. This audiobook version was great - Kyle McCarley had a lot of character to each voice and it felt like it made sense for the choices he made.
I have also read a good deal of Star Wars fic by Blackkat that are all slightly too short to be counted as novels, but special attention to Cor Cordium - https://archiveofourown.org/works/52209091
What I’m Reading
His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik – I picked this up to keep my post-vacation chill mood intact, and then the library took it back. Treason! I will return to it, tho. Honestly, I feel like this one of those book series that I think I would give to any kid who lives near an ocean.
Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian – Since the library took Novik’s book back too early for me to finish, I figured I would go to the source material that inspired her, and start reading this! It’s about the sea and also about how being English is great because you get to fight people about stuff – wild nonsense. Jack Aubrey is a certified dummy and I think I love him – how can you not notice that the people around you are speaking Catalan and not Spanish, you hot mess of a captain. I think audiobook is the right choice for this, as it allows the longer passages about how a sailing ship works can just glide past my ears.
The Antarctica Conspiracy – Derin Edala made the least normal space ship in the world and the second half of the story is not any less wild. We started with a murder!
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman
What I’ll Read Next
The Memory Librarian - Janelle Monae - crossing book club
HUGOS – This is my first year as a voting member, and I want to try and read everything (that is a single book- too many series and I will fall over). I know there is packet that goes out containing some of the books but I think it might arrive too late for me to get to all the books, so I have decided to start with what my local library can get me and work from there.
I found out about two different interesting nonfiction books recently that I want to read:
Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity by David D Gilmore which is from 1990 and came up in a recent "If Books Could Kill" podcast episode where the host got really interested in the description of how masculine social roles construct nurturing differently than for feminine roles. It sounded interesting!
I also found a book from 1925, The English Language in America by GP Krapp, which came up in a Tumblr post about the way 'eye dialect', aka, phonetically writing out nonstandard spellings to portray dialects in writing, is used to portray people speaking in dialect as ridiculous and stupid (which is a dick move). I started to skim this book after finding the wikipedia article on 'eye dialect' and I found it so interesting in just the portion of the discussion where he gets into New England town hall records as a primary source for linguists to understand how colonial America was using English. I want to read it some time in more detail, or at least skim the interesting points. I realize it is literally a century out of date but I'm not a scholar, I am doing this for fun!
xposted from
ourflagmeansgay
Kiss Fang Weekend (a challenge event with four days of prompts for shippy fanworks about Fang) is running on Bluesky this year!
The official prompts post is here and breaks down as follows:
Thursday, May 8th: Trope Thursday - Fang in an AU or trope of the creator's choice
Friday, May 9th: Captains (and First Mate) on Vacation - Fang/anyone but Ed, Stede, or Izzy
Saturday, May 10th: Time to Kiss Fang - a free space
Sunday, May 11th: Fang in the Middle - for Fang-centred threesomes
Official fills can be posted to the #kissfangweekend tag on Bluesky, but for folks who aren't on there, I think any archive or community will only be made better with some more Fang-kissing.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Kiss Fang Weekend (a challenge event with four days of prompts for shippy fanworks about Fang) is running on Bluesky this year!
The official prompts post is here and breaks down as follows:
Thursday, May 8th: Trope Thursday - Fang in an AU or trope of the creator's choice
Friday, May 9th: Captains (and First Mate) on Vacation - Fang/anyone but Ed, Stede, or Izzy
Saturday, May 10th: Time to Kiss Fang - a free space
Sunday, May 11th: Fang in the Middle - for Fang-centred threesomes
Official fills can be posted to the #kissfangweekend tag on Bluesky, but for folks who aren't on there, I think any archive or community will only be made better with some more Fang-kissing.
REC: Squish That Izzy by lordess-dickery-doof (Our Flag Means Death, The Feral Five)
Apr. 10th, 2025 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Fandom 50 #12
Squish That Izzy by
lordess-dickery-doof
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationships: Izzy Hands & the rest of the Feral Five (Fang, Archie, Frenchie, and Jim)
Medium: Vid
Length: 0:23
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: humour, happy ending, h/c (emotional), animals, cuddling, friendship, touch, trauma, denial/repression
Audio: How to pick up a cat like a pro - Vet advice on cat handling by
HelpfulVancouverVet
Excerpt:
Look, I'm a simple creature. Overlaying vet advice about how to safely pick up a cat on a scene where my fave is distraught and struggling against being hugged is always going to bring me an outsize amount of enjoyment. The editing on this is great, making the most of a short scene without overstaying the life of the bit, and I especially love the zoom in at the end. Squish. That. Cat.
Squish That Izzy by
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationships: Izzy Hands & the rest of the Feral Five (Fang, Archie, Frenchie, and Jim)
Medium: Vid
Length: 0:23
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: humour, happy ending, h/c (emotional), animals, cuddling, friendship, touch, trauma, denial/repression
Audio: How to pick up a cat like a pro - Vet advice on cat handling by
Excerpt:
Squishing is your best friend when dealing with a cat.
Look, I'm a simple creature. Overlaying vet advice about how to safely pick up a cat on a scene where my fave is distraught and struggling against being hugged is always going to bring me an outsize amount of enjoyment. The editing on this is great, making the most of a short scene without overstaying the life of the bit, and I especially love the zoom in at the end. Squish. That. Cat.