21st Century Literature discussion

This thread will be for general discussion (background, your experience/familiarity with the author, resources, etc.).

Let us know if you'll be joining in. I was just going to have two threads (the general one and one for discussing the whole book)--if folks would like multiple threads to discuss as they read, let me know, and I'll add a few more.

(Note: Solomon uses "they" as a pronoun.)

RESOURCES
- Author's Website
- NPR review
- Locus Magazine review
- The Rumpus Interview
- The Qwillery Interview
- Paul Semel Interview
- Pen America Interview

Short Solomon Writings Available Online:
- "Blood Is Another Word For Hunger" (short story)
- "Prudent Girl" (short story)
- "Black Girl Going Mad" (essay)
- "Damned & Damaged Vessels" (essay)

Other Books:
- Sorrowland (May 2021)
- The Deep

Glad you'll be joining us Laurie. How did you come across this book?

It's always hard to say what will make for good discussion---I would say this book has all the right ingredients, but sometimes people don't have time (because of work/holidays/pandemics) or the moderator ruins things (I'll try to avoid this approach!)...

I think this was recommended by one of my local bookstores and I decided to buy a copy from them during the pandemic. I'm glad I did!

I listened to this on audiobook, which really didn't do it justice. As Laurie said, there is some difficult prose which doesn't work well on audio, and I missed a lot. I'm going to try and get through it in print in time to join in the discussion here.

I'm in! Just got a copy from my library. At least in the first few pages, there's commonality to Red Dwarf. I'm ready for more!

This one does seem like it might be difficult to pull off as an audiobook. Will be interested to hear from those who tried it in multiple formats!

I wouldn't say I keep up with scifi per se, but Red Dwarf was not even on the radar as a book or a TV series for me. Dr. Who and maybe a couple others were the only BBC shows that seemed to make it "across the pond" around that time. All I remember is that whatever channel aired those shows had a single musical tone/chord sign-off and the giant san serif letters THAMES.

I'm listening to the audiobook too (almost finished) and although the narrator did a pretty good job, especially with all the accents, I thought the same thing about it probably being better in print.

For me it was a challenge to read it around the holidays, with the graphic violence and intense suffering. I probably would have enjoyed it more during a different month. But overall it's a really interesting book and there is a lot to unpack so I look forward to the discussion.

Carol, the discussion of the whole book is here (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/21809382-12-20-an-unkindness-of-ghosts---whole-book), so you can jump in whenever you're ready.

Having not read this before nominating it, I was not aware of the level of violence and suffering that would be depicted. In general, do you think books like this should include warnings of some kind? ("Trigger warnings" are something rather new to me and I'm not sure what I think about them having not really considered them at much length.)

For anyone who would appreciate content warnings for difficult content: follow Allison Hurd (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... she reads lots of SFF, writes great reviews, and always includes content warnings. :-)

Thanks, Eva!

I'm not in favor of trigger warnings on books, but all in favor of people being able to find them if needed. This crowd sourced site "Does the Dog Die" contains just about every category you can conceive of for what people may find upsetting; from serious abuse and torture to the presence of spiders or farting. Very specific, as well; it's interesting to go through to see which categories make you cringe. https://www.doesthedogdie.com

Going into a book with a society based on the antebellum south, I would have been more surprised if there was little or no graphic violence.

I probably would not have read or heeded the trigger warning if it was there, as I usually don't consider myself triggered by violence. Maybe it was more challenging for me due to the already challenging holiday season that we were experiencing.

I've enjoyed the recommendation. The violence and brutality were appropriate for the setting, and the author effectively leavened it with the sort of humor that would be expected there.

I read this in audio and enjoyed it. I thought the narrator did a good job. I'm sure I would "get it" better if I read it in print, as there were a few times when I had to rewind to catch something. I'm going to take advantage of the links to short stories as I want to read something by the author on the page rather than in the ear.

I could see this novel working pretty well as an audiobook---glad to hear you enjoyed it, Linda!