Recommended reading

[sophinisba]

I haven't done a recs post in ages, so here's a longish one with no LJ-cut: gen, slash, het, femslash, and a nonfiction book.

I'm having so much angsty fun reading mariole's new Beatles fic, The Space Between Us All. She's been posting two or three chapters a day and as usual with Mariole's fics there's a lot of tension that keeps you (or me, anyway!) really eager to see the next part.

There are a ton of new Harry Potter fics going up for various exchanges and I've only had a chance to read a few of them, but I did want to tell you about two that I've read. Occam's Razor is Harry/Draco with some Harry/Snape and takes place a couple years after DH. I'd clicked on it because there was a very enticing list of kinks in the heading, but I totally got sucked into the plot too. It's quite long and the author does a really nice job keeping you guessing while she moves the story forward and also including lots and lots of smut. Whoo!

I followed someone else's rec to What Makes All the Difference, a wonderful fic that takes place at Hogwarts during DH. It's Padma Patil's POV and has a romance with Seamus (plus a nice look at Neville being his awesome self). I really recommend this one especially to fans of, say, Rubynye's and Dana's fics about hobbits in the Shire during the Troubles – Padma's somewhat like Rosie and other female hobbits in that we see very little of her in canon but this author does a really nice job making her into a three-dimensional character who gives us a new perspective on that world.

Hey, speaking of girls! trascendenza wrote a really lovely Heroes fic, a Claire/May romance called Will Set You Free. (When I first heard her talking about this pairing I had trouble placing May, but she is the pretty Asian-American cheerleader in Costa Verde, the one who tells Claire that she was awesome in try-outs. Wouldn't you rather see Claire with her than with West?) She takes up the theme we see on the show of Claire struggling with her identity and how much she can tell her family or the world and brings that to – get this – a lesbian story that does not end in pain and death! Whoo!

I also wanted to tell you about a book I just finished reading, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino. Yoshino uses the term covering to talk about the pressure in US society for people outside of the "mainstream" (he talks mostly about gay people and racial minorities but also women and people with disabilities) to assimilate and conform. Their difference can be acknowledged (it's not the same as passing) but it shouldn't be "flaunted". He talks about this as a human rights issue but one that's not addressed by our laws, which cover discrimination based on identity categories but not behavior. So, for example, obviously it's illegal to fire/refuse to hire someone for being black, but the courts have upheld American Airlines' right to fire someone a black woman for wearing cornrows. Yoshino is a legal scholar and a Japanese-American gay man, and he writes a lot, and very honestly and beautifully, about his own personal experiences as well as legal cases and larger civil rights histories. I really enjoyed reading this and it's given me a lot to think about.

Comments

[trascendenza]

Aaah, thank you so much for the rec! *dances* And, haha, pain and death really do not sound like fun endings. o_O

Their difference can be acknowledged (it's not the same as passing) but it shouldn't be "flaunted".
I've noticed that so much, especially in my hometown; this idea that it's okay for differences to exist as long as they don't make themselves any more visible than absolutely necessary. I find the concept pretty appalling; it's so cool to see that the phenomenon isn't passing unnoticed. I'll have to keep that book in mind next time I go to the library.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Mariole's story is wonderful, isn't it? I'm enjoying it so much.

[sophinisba]

Thank you very much for betaing it. I know it's in part thanks to you that she's been able to post so many chapters so fast.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Believe me, with her, there's never much to do to beta her fic. She has them as close to perfect as they can be before she sends them to me.

[sophinisba]

Yes, I betaed a short hobbit fic for her once and I don't think I found any errors at all.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I need to read that book, I do believe.

And your recs are wonderful. I can't wait to have time to return to The Space Between Us All.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Ruby. There's no rush, as I've just gone on holiday hiatus. Tomorrow I board a plane, and I doubt I'll have time to proof or post until January. But there's a good chunk posted already, thanks to Mews' great betaing speed!

[sophinisba]

Ah, this is good to know. I hope you have a good trip!

[sophinisba]

Can I send you my copy of the book now that I've finished it?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I think this may be a book I want to own, but thank you very much for offering, my dear!

[mariole.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, Sophi! You're such a help to this community. I've been pulled in too many directions this last year, but it's great to feel that somebody is minding the store. :)

I definitely want to read Yoshino's book. I am very much worried where our society is heading. We seem to be living 1984 right now, and if you mention it, people call you paranoid. Very alarming.

Have a lovely holiday!

[sophinisba]

That is so kind of you to say. I usually feel like I'm not doing nearly enough for the community. Thank you!

I would say Yoshino's book is pretty hopeful. He sees a lot of problems with our culture and the law and the courts as they are now, but he also shows how far civil rights struggles have come in the last few decades. He talks about brought shifts from a demand for conversion (like trying to "cure" people of homosexuality) to passing and now to covering, and he sees this as the next problem that we need to address and overcome.

[random-fandom.livejournal.com]

(http://pics.livejournal.com/random_fandom/pic/017wr76y)