Then and Now #21 (2/21/22 - 2/27/22)

Happy Sunday! The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

Last Week

Happy Sunday. We're almost in March which is honestly insane... I managed to make it to Germany, despite the storm causing havoc on the rails earlier this week. And then I had two lovely days in Germany with my granddad and then Russia invaded the Ukraine and started a war, and everything changed. I've been glued to the TV and my phone ever since and I am honestly in awe of the Ukrainian people and how they are dealing with this situation. There is a determination and desire to maintain their autonomy and sovereignty that is truly inspirational and is hopefully a stark reminder to all those who are currently feeling "threatened" by things like mask mandates. A lot of the news is scary and it is a different world now. I also feel deeply sorry for the Russian people, who are not responsible for this war and this madness. That is solely the fault of Putin, who has clearly entered his mad tyrant phase. I hope the Ukrainian army is able to continue fighting off this invasion and that they receive all the help they need. I do also hope for some diplomatic solution to still be possible, that Putin's wings are clipped and he is removed. Perhaps it's foolish to still hope for peace to return, but I'm going to keep doing it.

I only posted one review this week, of the brilliant Sorrowlands by Rivers Solomon, which is a beautiful and fascinating book, all about freedom. Another review was posted for Atlas of Forgotten Places by Travis Elborough, which was lovely but not quite what I was looking for.

Recommendation

Our queen Florence Welch has returned with music that has watered my crops and cleared my skin. I adore her and I adore everything about this video as well!

Can't wait for the rest of the album!

Mailbox Monday

Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories by Gwen E. Kirby

Cassandra may have seen the future, but it doesn't mean she's resigned to telling the Trojans everything she knows. In this ebullient collection, virgins escape from being sacrificed, witches refuse to be burned, whores aren't ashamed, and every woman gets a chance to be a radioactive cockroach warrior who snaps back at catcallers. Gwen E. Kirby experiments with found structures--a Yelp review, a WikiHow article--which her fierce, irreverent narrators push against, showing how creativity within an enclosed space undermines and deconstructs the constraints themselves. When these women tell the stories of their triumphs as well as their pain, they emerge as funny, angry, loud, horny, lonely, strong protagonists who refuse be secondary characters a moment longer. From "The Best and Only Whore of Cym Hyfryd, 1886" to the "Midwestern Girl [who] is Tired of Appearing in Your Short Stories," Kirby is playing and laughing with the women who have come before her and they are telling her, we have always been this way. You just had to know where to look.

I saw this book in a bookstore here in Germany and immediately knew I wanted to devour it. I started it last night and I have well and truly fallen in love with Gwen Kirby.

Utopia for Realists, And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman, narr. by Peter Noble

We live in a time of unprecedented upheaval, when technology and so-called progress have made us richer but more uncertain than ever before. We have questions about the future, society, work, happiness, family and money, and yet no political party of the right or left is providing us with answers. So, too, does the time seem to be coming to an end when we looked to economists to help us define the qualities necessary to create a successful society.

We need a new movement. One defined by a young historian who can tell us the truth about how we got here. They'd be a political outsider, the voice of their generation, one who doesn't harness rage or agitate grievances but who provides us with the answers for which we've been looking. That person is Rutger Bregman, and his vision is Utopia for Realists.

As a Dutch person I always get weirdly proud when I remember Rutger Bregman telling off rich people at Davos. I am deeply fond of the man, so I figured it is about time I actually get into his work. And this is really working for me as an audiobook. If it was a book I probably would be writing all over it.

Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1) by Octavia E. Butler, narr. by Aldrich Barrett

In a world devastated by nuclear war with humanity on the edge of extinction, aliens finally make contact. They rescue those humans they can, keeping most survivors in suspended animation while the aliens begin the slow process of rehabilitating the planet. When Lilith Iyapo is "awakened", she finds that she has been chosen to revive her fellow humans in small groups by first preparing them to meet the utterly terrifying aliens, then training them to survive on the wilderness that the planet has become. But the aliens cannot help humanity without altering it forever.

Bonded to the aliens in ways no human has ever known, Lilith tries to fight them even as her own species comes to fear and loathe her. A stunning story of invasion and alien contact by one of science fiction's finest writers.

Another audiobook I got off Audible when they had a big 2-for-1 sale earlier this month. I can't wait to finally get familiar with Butler's work, since it's another author I've been meaning to get into for a while now. She is a legend, a giant in Science Fiction, so it's overdue!

That's me! Let's all keep the hope that the Russian invasion of the Ukraine will come to an end soon and not too many people will have to suffer or be displaced.