Media Round Up: Baffled by a Cat

Stacking the Stories Reading
I’m so glad I decided to focus on reading short fiction! I’ve mostly been reading The Trans Space Octopus Congregation: Stories by Bogi Takács, since I got an ARC from the author. It comes out July 8 so I will hopefully finish it and write a proper review of it around then. I also have read a couple of online stories. The standout of these is ”Boiled Bones and Black Eggs” by Nghi Vo

Mom fic I read a couple more fics featuring moms. Here are two I’d recommend:
Calling to the wind by Leaf Litter -- An Earthsea fic about Tenar and Apple’s relationship.
#101: "An Inevitable Conclusion; But With Makeouts" by Raven This Murderbot fic features Dr Mensah watching Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon with her daughter and has lots of lovely Mom/Daugher media discussion.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris eps 1-3 This fiction podcast, and the 1st time I’ve listened to such a thing. (I generally go for non-fiction podcasts instead.) It’s like a radio play with different voices for character and sound effects. The characters feel very contemporary like people from the modern day US but in space. Nonetheless I really like then and enjoy their interactions. There's banter. Plus I want to learn more about the mystery.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell YA graphic novel. This was cute but very teen drama which is something I haven’t really been enjoying reading about recently.

Nirvana in Fire eps 10-13 Most of these episodes passed the Bechdel test. We got to see the scheming moms so more -- they are so much fun. And Mu Nihuang had very intense emotional moment which gave me a lot of feelings. There has been much scheming and discussion of morality all of which is excellent. Plus have mentioned how much I enjoy the costuming in this drama? Everyone wears such pretty things.

The 5th gender by G.L. Carriger This is science fiction m/m human alien romance with a mystery. This didn’t quite work for me. The romance went straight to commitment in a way that didn’t leave a lot of room for character development, and the mystery was interesting but didn’t really get started until halfway through the book. And If I think too hard about the biology I have a lot of questions. Also this another science fiction universe that inexplicably does not have artificial wombs. The best bit of this book is at the beginning when our Alien mc is baffled by a cat. I was telling some friends about this and one of them said “Alien baffled by a cat” should be troupe name. So if you would like to use “Alien baffled by cat” for all your non-humans baffled by human culture go right ahead. ( spoilery content notes )

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe Graphic Memoir. This was a mix of things that felt really familiar and things that felt very unfamiliar. The author is a bit younger than I am but we both grew up in Northern California and have some of the same cultural reference points, like Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books and The Last Herald-Mage. And e did high school theater and read a lot as teen. But then e’s experience with eir gender is not like my experience with my gender. And the juxtaposition left me feeling a bit off balance -- in a good way but I need to process my reaction a bit more.

Onibi: Diary of a Yokai Ghost Hunter by Cécile Brun and Olivier Pichard This is a French comic about Japan translated into English. So very transnational. Anyways it was cute and I liked a lot of the art though some of the people were drawn in a way that looked close to racist caricature to my American eyes. But the landscapes where very nice.