I’m still on a big YA kick, and went ahead through the first volume of Smith’s Night World collection. Again, Smith’s prose is gorgeously lucid, and the plots are quite fun. My one hesitation is that Smith’s got an on-going motif re: female archetypes that’s kinda making me twitch. The whole DID YOU NOTICE XXX IS SO WILD MAGIK IT MAKES YOUR TEETH HURT? THIS IS WHY THEY’RE IEXPLICABLY SEXY!!! as a means of characterization is making me a leeeeeeeetle … READ MORE

Okay, here’s a quick run through of what I’ve been reading..

Magic Study is the sequel to Poison Study, once again following the adventures of Yelena as she continues to encounter political power plays and navigates her new-found magical powers. Interestingly, she discovers that she’s not at all a super-powered demi-goddess. She’s got some neato powers, sure, but she can’t start fires, which is a pretty common magic, and her insistent desire to be independent still gets her into trouble. She’s def … READ MORE

Black_berry623 calls out the implicit privileges described in Leon Logothetis’ 5-dollar-a-day travel plans.

Quotes from the post!

I’ve always had a fascination with people who take extended trips and travel cheaply, relying on ingenuity and ’self-reliance’ to go from place to place. I read Red Dust which is about a Chinese man who kind of drops out of life and spends three years traveling around China and I’ve fantasized about recreating that experience ever since.<strong>But</strong> this 5 dollar a day … READ MORE

RadicalVixen has a interesting interview up where she talks with Craig Seymour working on All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C. In this interview, Seymour describes one of the ways in which to encourage sex worker solidarity.

Quotes from the post:

What do you think is the best way to promote solidarity with fellow sex workers?
It’s the same way you’d promote solidarity among all people — don’t judge, and try to put … READ MORE

Frankel’s memoir is filled with sass. She uses her battle with her weight to frame a hiliarious honest romp through her youth and young adulthood, describing the ways in which her weight impacted things like her relationship with her mother and her burgeoning sexuality. This is actually a memoir within a memoir — Frankel uses her reflections on her weight to guide her grown-up self on a journey towards body acceptance. This fun, quick read includes cameos by Stacy from … READ MORE

Stewart’s amazingly fun advice book offers advice for those of us fabulously committed to remaining single until it’s no longer amusing. She covers topics ranging from the fine art of the one-night-stand to budgeting to maintaining friendships across distance and time. What’s even more fun is that she’s offering all this while talking about experiencing singleness from a variety of age ranges and social locations — this is NOT just a fit for your twenty-something BFF who’s a future cat-lady, … READ MORE

I actually started Deliver Us From Evil: The True Story of Mexico’s Most Famous Kidnapping intending to dislike the author. I have a really hard time reading about the lives of the glamourous without wanting to punch them in the face. I figured it be like Paris’ Confessions of an Heiress, except with, you know, kidnapping. I was extremely, extremely wrong. First, you gotta know I don’t normally like books with heavy themes dealing with spirituality. But seriously? Ernestina’s quiet … READ MORE

A follow-up to For the Love of Letters, Samara O’Shea’s Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits describes her experiences as a chronic journaler, and argues passionately for the usefulness of journaling in one’s journey towards self-discovery. In both, she argues for a brief return to solitude, the very thing William Deresiewicz argues we’ve lost in “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.” Unlike Deresiewicz, her thesis about the loss of this … READ MORE

Under the pseudonym Kate Brennan, a real woman tells her true story of being stalked for thirteen years. In His Sights starts just before Kate meets her stalker, continued through the story of their relationship - a romance that lasted a couple of years, and ends today - at which point we know from the first chapter she is still being stalked.

Her stalker is unusually tenacious. He’s wealthy, so he can afford to hound her as long as he wants … READ MORE

The standard going around now is that America needs to be deeply afraid. China and other countries are on the rise, the terrorists are waiting to get us, and the world is, basically, about the end. This is a scary, scary poison, whose effects can be felt throughout the political world.

The Next American Century: How the US Can Thrive As Other Countries Rise presents a calming antidote to this draught of fear. Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen have combined forces … READ MORE