May Wrap-up

I know I say this every month, but literally how the hell is May done???

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Books Read

American Gods by Neil Gaiman: 4 stars

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor: 4.5 stars

Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang: 4 stars

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: 4 stars

Such a good month! I was so happy with everything I read and enjoyed all of them!

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Reviews posted

Book review: Caraval: 2.5 stars. Long overdue and finally posted!

Mini review: Persepolis: 5 stars

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Book discussions posted

Discussion: settings I’d like to see more of: this was so much fun to write, and everyone had such nice things to say!

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Recommendations given

Monthly recommendations: books bloggers made me read

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Other bookish posts

My physical TBR (aka send help) // Throwback faves

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Haul

I took a day trip to Ottawa during my conference this week and had time to kill, so of course I went to Chapters. I bought The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami.

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From around the internet

Julie Lalonde: “It’s Not Up to Women to End the Violence We Experience”: from FLARE magazine, which is a women’s lifestyle and fashion magazine, but sometimes they write surprisingly feminist and intersectional pieces. This one was written after the van attack in Toronto at the end of April, and I definitely recommend giving it a read.

Killers write manifestos, Facebook posts and lengthy blogs detailing their misogynist motivations and we still print headlines asking, “Is hatred of women to blame?”

My favourite line was the following, which really sums up my feelings fairly well:

We live in a contradiction. We are both our feminist Prime Minister and our missing and murdered Indigenous women. We are our gender-balanced budget and a woman murdered by her intimate partner every six days.

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Women of Colour Have Been Warning Us About MRAs for Years. It’s Time to (Finally) Listen: another piece from FLARE following the van attack.

These violent men can organize with impunity because society does not take the concerns of women, especially BIPOC women, seriously. They rely on a society that doesn’t care what Black, Indigenous and women of colour have to say at the best of times, and consistently refuses to act when we describe the racism and misogyny we experience.

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Discussion: F/F Erasure in Fandom and Fanfiction: Natasha did a great post on f/f erasure in fanfiction, and it was super interesting and eye-opening!

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Stock photos of scientists reveal that science is mostly about staring: this one was just too funny. You might have seen it on Twitter, but if not, go take a look!

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I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye: Kanye West wants freedom—white freedom: by one of my faves, Ta-Nehisi Coates. This was so thought provoking and interesting, and I definitely suggest giving it a read.

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Terry Crews: Black Men Aren’t Allowed To Be Victims Until They’re Dead: I love one man other than my father, and it’s Terry Crews. This was so spot-on.

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Medicine’s Women Problem: Please read this!!!! It’s a web comic about women’s experience in the healthcare system, and it’s super interesting.

The system doesn’t have a crack in it. For many women, it has a crater.

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Other news and highlights

For Woman of the Month, I highlighted Graciela Olivarez, a Latina lawyer who fought for civil rights.

Personal highlights (apparently I had a lot this month so sorry this is so long)

• I started work full time again, and it’s been really good! It’s been crazy busy, but I’m happy to be back.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine was cancelled then subsequently picked up by NBC less than 48 hours later.
• I went rock climbing with my brother at Grotto Canyon, which was a ton of fun. (sidenote: if you ever come to Alberta and go hiking, make sure you look up Hiking With Barry to see how difficult the trail is. He’s a sweet old man who hikes everywhere and writes blog posts about it, and they’re usually fairly true to difficulty)
• We went drunk bowling for my friend’s birthday, which was also fun. 10/10, would recommend.
• My boss and I published a paper together!! It was on drug coverage in Canada, and you can read it here if you want!
• I saw Royal Blood in concert!!!!!!! They were so good live, and I would definitely see them again!
• My friends and I went to this club called WURST, which is known for being the worst but also fun, and we danced on tables and drank lots of G&Ts.
• My family went to Banff for the day with some of our family friends. We went hiking and had burgers and fondue and was just an overall great day.
• A paper I published with my mom was one of the top downloaded articles from the journal in 2016-2017 at over 2,800 downloads!
• I reached 500 followers here!! Thank you all so much!
• My friend asked me to be her bridesmaid!!! I’m so excited but it’s also crazy that I’m now at the point in my life that I’m a bridesmaid. We had a good old fashioned sleepover and it was a ton of fun.
• I went to a conference in Montreal which a bunch of my colleagues, and it was a lot of fun!

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How was your month?

Thanks for reading! xx