chocochipbiscuit | Entries tagged with books: nonfiction

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It's been another six months since I've yelled about books! I've been very fortunate that a lot of library books I've been waitlisted for have come in, and it finally got me off my butt to write about them! Or more accurately: to post the thoughts I've already written!

Books (Fiction)

( The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk )

( The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang )

( Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nacosta )

( The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo )

( The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo )

( The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo )

( Aunty Lee's Delights by Ovidia Yu )

Graphic Novels

( American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang )

Nonfiction

( Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar )

( Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini )

Good books! Good reads! Even with the occasional good frustration!

I have one more book from the library (Mott Street by Ava Chin, which looks at Chinese-American history through family memoir) and then...I expect I'll need a break from reading. I have a few exchange assignments to finish up, then I look forward to diving into a video game. Probably Bastion, unless Control seduces me first. :')

Please let me know your thoughts if you have read any of these! I love yelling about books!!!!

It's been six months since I last posted about books! I've been reading some fanfic, but it's mostly been library books. Per my usual, I'm only blurbing about the books and stories I actually enjoyed, or at least felt compelled and have opinions on!

Books (Fiction)

( Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin )

( Yellowface by R.F. Kuang )

( The Stand-In by Lily Chu )

( The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji )

( The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter )

( Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo )

( Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo )

( Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia )

Books (Nonfiction)

( The New Guys by Meredith Bagby )

( An Immense World by Ed Yong )

Memoirs

( Eat a Peach by David Chang )

( Fun Home by Alison Bechdel )

( Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller )

Original Work (Short Stories)

So You Want to Kiss Your Nemesis by John Wiswell - 939 words - “Welcome to the Intimate Blade. We find the edge for that special someone in your life. My name is Robin. How can I help you today?”

Umeboshi by Rebecca Nakaba - 3k words - Chain emails, auguries, and disconnection. This is weird and hurty and fucks me up a little.

The Lily and the Horn by Catherynne Valente - War conducted via poisons and antidotes, and two women separated by years and obligation.

I feel like certain patterns in my reading are pretty obvious; I'm always interested in more queer stories of course, but I'm actively trying to read more books written across the Asian diaspora. I love fantasy and science-fiction, but also enjoy historical novels and am trying to broaden my reading genres.

Currently, I'm reading Network Effect by Martha Wells. I feel like I'm one of the few people who doesn't love Murderbot (I just bounced off the short stories and dislike the style. I can recognize the craft in the story, but it's not something I enjoy) so I'm trying the novel instead to see if it works better for me this way.

If you have read or are interested in any of these books, gimme a shout! I love talking books. :D Tell me if you're reading anything interesting too! I can always add to my miles-long TBR pile!

It's been a while since I've posted about books, so I'm going to jump right in!!!

Books (Fiction)

( The Kingston Cycle )

( When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole )

( A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark )

( Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark )

( The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao )

Books: Nonfiction

( Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit )

This was a lot of reading, and I still want to finish a few library books (and the first draft of the Fraud Squad hatemance fic!) before switching over to video games. :')

Hope you've been reading and playing good things, please share if there's anything fun you'd recommend!

In honor of Pride, have some of my favorite F/F and F/NB reads!

Short stories (available online)

Radcliffe Hall by Miyuki Jane Pinckard - 40k word novella, with a Japanese student attending an American women's college in 1908. It's a Gothic novel with the characters encountering the supernatural, which is no less malevolent than systemic racism and homophobia.
The First Stop Is Always the Last by John Wiswell - Short and sweet time loop flirtation!
Scallop by J.L. Akagi - A woman begins growing eyes all over her body, and struggles to hide them. All the warnings for body horror, eye injury, and referenced sexual assault.
The World Ends in Salty Fingers and Sugared Lips by Jen Reese - Time loop story about the end of the world and the ways we try to deal with the crushing uncertainty of the inevitable.

Romance

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - Subway time travel romance! August moves to New York and meets Jane, a butch punk from the 70s who’s trapped on the subway. It’s warm and sweet and funny, with all the feels and queer found family goodness.
Fatal Fidelity by Rien Gray - Dark romance/erotic suspense featuring a bi femme fatale and a nonbinary assassin! The series begins with Love Kills Twice, in which Justine hires an assassin to get rid of her abusive husband…unaware that Campbell was also hired to kill her. Absolutely delicious.
Feminine Pursuits series by Olivia Waite - While I’m listing it as a series, each novel is entirely stand-alone! These are a set of historical F/F novels featuring women in arts and science (and beekeeping!) making their way and falling in love with one another!
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan - Historical romance as two older women (73 and 69 years old, respectively!) plot the downfall of an absolutely Terrible Nephew who deserves everything that happens to him. An absolutely delicious comedic romp.
The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz - An AI repair technician and an autonomous robot who runs a small tea shop, set in a retro-futuristic America. It’s warm and gentle and yearning in very good ways.

Horror/Suspense

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin - Gender apocalypse featuring trans women! A virus has turned anyone with over a certain level of testosterone into cannibal rape monsters, so we’re following our trans protagonists as they try to survive feral men, murderous TERFs, and a sociopathic bunker brat. This deserves a LOT of content warnings but it’s also been blurbed as a ‘bleeding love letter to trans women’ and it really is.
Blackwater Sister by Zen Cho - A Malaysian-American lesbian moves to Malaysia with her family, where she is haunted by her grandmother’s ghost. Her grandmother is out for supernatural revenge, involving our protagonist with gangsters and a terrifying goddess.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - Historical crime novel in which a thief poses as a lady’s maid for a con, and ends up developing feelings for the mark. Except the lady’s not as innocent as she seems, and it’s difficult to add more without spoiling the novel but it’s good!

Science fiction

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - Ambassador Mahit Dzmare travels to the capital of the interstellar Teixcalaanli Empire, discovers that her predecessor has died, and must find not only who murdered him, but why—while trying not to get murdered herself, and trying to maintain her small station’s independence from Teixcalaan’s ever-expanding empire. And there is a sequel but that has its own plot and requires you to read this one anyway!
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages - Set in San Francisco, built on artifice and delight as we follow a group of queer women both present and in the 1940s. Central story is a romance, two women trying to navigate both joy and the brutality of the worlds they inhabit.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone - An epistolary love story across time and space, in far futures and alternative pasts as two rival agents—post-singularity Red and bio-consciousness Blue—foil and thwart one another.

Fantasy

The Burning Kingdoms by Tasha Suri - Indian-inspired fantasy trilogy (third book coming in 2024!) that follows a captive princess and a maidservant with forbidden magic who navigate the the tension between their different loyalties and the politics of empire. Just! So good!
The Kingston Cycle by C.L. Polk - A fantasy trilogy (that’s actually complete!) set in a world where witches are persecuted and placed in asylums…while secretly, the witches of elite families use that power in service of the crown. The first book (Witchmark) starts with a murder mystery and a doctor with PTSD who follows that mystery to government secrets that force him to confront his estranged family. It’s also M/M, but the sequels (Stormsong and Soulstar) center around F/F and F/NB main pairings, respectively.
The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir - The first book starts with swordjock butches and lesbian necromancers in space going through (essentially) a haunted mansion together, and it just keeps going after that! It’s delightful, deranged, and full of fantastic characters I want to gnaw on!
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo - A beautiful frame story with a very fairytale feel, where the cleric Chih is telling the story of a tiger and her lover, a female scholar, to a trio of hungry tigers who threaten to eat them if Chih tells the story incorrectly!
A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark - Mystery and magic and suspense in a steampunk Cairo, set forty years after magic returned to the world! The first female agent for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities is assigned to discover who murdered members of a secret cult. In addition to solving the case, she’s also assigned a rookie partner to train, and navigating the surprise return of her girlfriend, who has her own secrets! This is a really fun romp, full of joy and wonder. (And Fatma’s fabulous suits!)

Nonfiction

In the Dream House by Carmen Machado - A memoir about surviving domestic abuse, with each chapter using a different trope or genre convention to not only explore the way the relationship affected her sense of self, but also about trying (or failing) to find that representation in cultural history. It’s a rough read in places, but absolutely worth it if you’re in a space to handle that sort of content. (And in case it’s not obvious: her ex was another woman. Abuse isn’t limited by gender.)

Happy reading, and I’m happy to take recs too! ;)

So I've been reading Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino, and really enjoying it so far! The writing is engaging and I find the topic interesting, especially as he talks about how the loss of biodiversity risks us losing traditional foodways and more vulnerable to crop losses due to disease and climate change.

I've heard of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault before, but never the world's first seed bank: the Vavilov Institute, founded in 1921 by a Russian scientist dedicated to ending world hunger. His ideas fell out of favor with Stalin and he was sent to a prison camp in 1940. During WW2, though:

….his seed collection came close to being lost as the German Army blockaded Leningrad in a 28-month siege. The Soviets had plans in place to save works of art from the city’s galleries but had done little to protect the seed bank. The Nazis, however, recognised its potential as a future food resource and saw the institute as an asset they needed to target. Fortunately, Vavilov had so inspired his fellow scientists that they moved hundreds of boxes of seeds to a basement and took shifts inside the dark building, in the sub-zero temperatures, to protect he collection. What happened next is well known to botanists, but it’s a story we should all know.

Surrounded by seeds they could have eaten, the caretakers of the collection faced hunger rather than jeopardize the genetic resource. By the end of the 900-day siege, in the spring of 1944, nine of them had died of starvation, including the curator of the rice collection. He was found at his desk surrounded by bags of rice. ‘We were students of Vavilov,’ one survivor said, explaining their heroic efforts to protect the seeds. By then, Nikolai Vavilov was already dead. In 1943, at the age of fifty-five, he was claimed by the very thing he had spent his life working to prevent: starvation. He died in a Soviet prison and was buried in an unmarked grave.

This book includes foods thought to have gone extinct, but which have been brought ‘back to life’ and restored to farmers’ fields because their seeds were collected by Vavilov and his colleagues and kept safe inside the institute. Nearly a century after his dead, a new generation is following in Vavilov’s footsteps.

Just!!! How is this not amazing? It’s sad and heroic and all I can think about is the strength of purpose it must have been to been literally dying of starvation while surrounded by the food that could have saved their lives, but still holding on to hope that these could be useful to replenishing food after the war, and for future generations.

Original Work (Short Stories)
Rabbit Test by Samantha Mills - 7k word story about reproductive rights and autonomy over generations and throughout history. It's dark and biting and uncomfortable, but it's a discomfort I want to sit with. Mind the warnings re: sexual assault, abuse, traumatic miscarriage, psych ward treatment, and suicide.

Unname Me at the Altar by Ashaye Brown - 2.8k words. Three generations of family in one home, and a grandparent whose name changes daily, serving as a living altar to their ancestors. Content warnings for character death and references to war and mass killings. It’s short and bitey and a testament to grief and survival and the impermanence of memory.

Skin by Isha Karki - 4.9k words. The daughter of Nepalese immigrants wears different skins around her wealthy boyfriend, her academic advisor, and her family. Content warnings for body horror, racism, misogyny, and references to sati and death/burning. This gave me such chills, both for its way of depicting assimilation (or the attempt thereof) in the pursuit of safety, and also carries echoes of selkie wives.

The Storyteller by Rhea Roy - 1.4k words. Mala Auntie goes to the crossroads to make a deal with the Devil. She wants her dead husband back; and don’t we know how these stories go? I love how this one plays with folklore (Mala Auntie studied the literature of far-off places during her post-grad!) and riddles. A happy ending and great palate cleanser compared to some of my other recs!

Books (Fiction)
( Radcliffe Hall by Miyuki Jane Pinckard )

( You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo )

( The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz )

( The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia )

( Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin )

( On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong )

( A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine )

( The Demon of the House of Hua by Maria Ying )

Nonfiction
( Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine )

My brain's been mush lately and I plan to read mostly romance novels and fanfic for a bit, maybe play some viddy games. I keep wanting to finish writing Awoo AU too, but...I think that this point I need to accept that I'm just tired and my brain needs a break. I'll keep plinking at it, but am trying to take the pressure off.

If you've read any of these and have thoughts or feels, please feel free to yell about it with me!!!!

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I haven't posted anything that wasn't fanfic-related since March, so...here are some books I've been reading in the interim!

Please note: I do include spoilers under the cut, but will try to separate them when possible.

Short Stories
The Night Dance by Leah Cypress - A retelling of the twelve dancing princesses story, with some gorgeous horror elements.

Ribbons by Natalia Theodoridou - A story about fairy tales and enchantments, following a trans man who's also a sex worker in a city full of magic and veterans of war and various curses. It's powerful and sensual and just packs so much in a short story, I really enjoyed this.

Books (Fiction)
( On the Water by Jerica Taylor )
( Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto )

( The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae )
( Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia )

( The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal )

( Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata )

( Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold )

( Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold )

( Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao )

( Double Exposure by Rien Gray )

( Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan )
( Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau )

( Feminine Pursuits series by Olivia Waite )

Books (Nonfiction)
( Beloved Beasts by Michelle Nijhuis )

( What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo )
( The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson )

I want to make a fanfic rec list before the Black Emporium fics come out...if only so I can start 'fresh' by making a list of BE-specific recs. I also want to reread The Locked Tomb before Nona the Ninth comes out!

Anyone else have books or fics you're looking forward to reading? :D

I've been mixing it up with some non-fanfic, and have been sitting on a bunch of recs for a while!

( Short Stories )

( Poetry )

( Nonfiction (articles) )
( Books (Fiction) )
( Books (nonfiction) )

Beyond that, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts. I finished listening to The Trojan Horse Affair (investigative journalism regarding an incendiary letter that fueled Islamophobia in Britain), and have started listening to The Slowdown (daily poems, read aloud!).

If you've read any of these or have your own recs, please share!

Books….so many good books, so little time!

( Fiction )

( Nonfiction )

( Poetry )
I am currently working on longfic, but once I have more free time for reading again I anticipate catching up on a number of short story magazines. And fanfic, of course. ;)

Hopefully you've all been reading and consuming good stuff as well! Tell me about your current faves? :D

Dang but it's been a while since I posted about what I've been reading!!!

I've shifted from writing about EVERY book I've read to just posting the highlights (therefore, some short stories and romance novels didn't make the cut. Neither did a book about pre-NASA rocketry), but I've read a lot lately! Most of it good! :D

( So many books and stories!!!! )

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The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan is exactly what it says on the tin! He looks at the history of the Great Lakes and tracks the changes in the ecosystem, through waves of invasive species and other human interference. It’s about catastrophe, recovery, and the ways that the largest bodies of fresh water on Earth are still in peril.

It feels difficult to provide even a very incomplete synopsis of the book because it covers many topics, from engineering to agriculture to sport fishing, and all the ways they have affected our relationship to the Great Lakes, but mostly I found it interesting as a lesson in unforeseen consequences. We don’t know the limits of our own knowledge, and it’s absolutely wild to me, reading past accounts, how many people took the abundant resources for granted, or didn’t consider how easy it is to accidentally introduce destructive species. (Or...even deliberately, like the release of bighead and silver carp from a state hatchery. When their research dried up, they just released the fish because ‘the fish were so difficult to breed under even precise hatchery conditions that nobody thought there was any chance that the carp would be able to breed on their own in the wild.’ Like just. Whoa.)

Also, the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. Multiple times. Which...I was vaguely aware of from high school history, but still remains wild to me.

I found this book interesting, but also admit it’s not one I would have picked up on my own if it hadn’t been discussed on Science Friday!

I first heard about Cal Newport’s book Deep Work by listening to Note to Self’s ‘Bored and Brilliant’ series, so figured it was worth a read!

( The usual nattering below the cut. )

So! The newest nonfiction book I've borrowed from the library is The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman. I got this solely because it's on Science Friday's book club. :') And it's super interesting!!! Ackerman organizes each chapter by types of bird cognition and intelligence (ex: tool-making among corvids, song-learning in mockingbirds and chickadees, the adaptability of sparrows) with wonderful examples of each. I spent a lot of time not just reading, but also happily googling because the way she'd describe them made me want to see the birds and behaviors for myself. It also gave me a new appreciation for the mockingbird(s) that like to hang around my parents' backyard, or the goofy little sparrows that keep building their nest on the back porch.

There are illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, and they are absolutely charming. I wish there could have been more (and maybe some actual photos of the birds being described) but also recognize the costs and limitations of that. I found the book entertaining, but also rather dense; I needed to take a break (and possibly a nap) after each chapter. To be fair, I find most nonfiction that way. I need to take my time and chew things over when I'm learning things, rather than when I'm just binge-reading a story and expecting to be entertained.

I don't have a lot else to add, honestly. I am just overflowing with trivia about birds and recommend that you check out bowerbird nests, videos of Caledonian crows making tools, songbird music culture (there are distinct regional dialects!!!) and how birds navigate. It's all just super cool.

I just finished reading I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, and also realized I forgot to write about finishing From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty. Ah well, good thing I'm not officially a book reviewer. :P

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say about From Here to Eternity. It doesn't follow a narrative structure like Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and is more like a sampler platter of interesting stories and facts from around the world. Each section is short, and focuses on modern funerary customs and how those are changing around the world, such as open air pyres in Crestone, Colorado and a mortuary hotel (Lastel, as in the 'last hotel') in Japan. I found it intriguing, but more like an introduction to a wide variety of topics than anything in-depth. I enjoyed it though.

( I Shall Wear Midnight is under a cut for mild spoilers. )

Combat-Ready Kitchen by Anastacia Marx de Salcedo is a book I’ve heard about on various podcasts (Gastropod, Science for the People, and I think a blurb on Backstory?) but haven’t actually read. Until now!

( I enjoyed this book and found it highly informative, but also have some caveats. )

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March 2025

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One (1) biscuit full of yummy choco

A bifurious multifandom shipper.

Entries tagged with books: nonfiction

Things that I've been reading!

Recs! Fanfic, short stories, and books.

Books recs! So many books!

Even more library books!!!

SO MANY LIBRARY BOOKS!!!!

Pride 2023 - F/F and F/NB recs!!!!

Currently reading

[Fic Recs] Short Stories and Books!

[Fic Recs] Books: Fiction and Nonfiction!

[Fic Recs] Books: Fiction and Nonfiction!

[Fic Recs] Books, Nonfiction, and Poetry!

[Fic Recs] Books! Books upon books! Mostly from the library!

[Book Recs] Original Work and Nonfiction!

Machado - In the Dream House

Egan - The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

Newport - Deep Work

Ackerman - The Genius of Birds

[Books] Some good reading

Salcedo - Combat-Ready Kitchen

Doughty - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

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March 2025

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