Taylor > Recent Status Updates

“The true age of sugar had begun, and it was doing more to reshape the world than any ruler, empire, or war had ever done.” / “As production grew and the market increased, the craze for the sweetener gradually trickled down from elites to the laboring poor../the single most important addition to the British working class diet.”

“Black women have always embodied if only in their physical manifestation, an adversary stance to White male rule and have actively resisted its end roads upon them and their communities, in both dramatic and subtle ways.” These women are not sexually licentious, they are victims, and the horrors depicted in this chapter makes my heart and blood boil.

Also, how ironic a part of Virginia was named Point Comfort.

“The extremity of the violence was a symptom of the psychological mechanism necessary to absolve white Americans of their country’s original sin.. They held up a mirror into which the nation preferred not to peer..Black people have seen the worst in America, yet still somehow believe in its best.”

“She is Yuca from the world before, not Emily from now.”

Absolute chills, and so telling of today.

“But having a terrestrial and not a celestial origin, we find no difficulty in ascertaining its meaning, in all the parts which we allege relate to slavery.”

“The simple truth is that most Americans know about the 300-year history of slavery in mainland North America, with respect to peoples of African descent…to argue otherwise among professional historians, is now widely understood to be anachronistic and ahistorical..still wedded to a mythology of our founders as unimpeachable heroes and our founding as divine event.”, can’t wait to read, evocative preface!

(2/) “We were in that rundown neighborhood in the Night City..we were there, in my mother’s words, at least this place had some character to it not like those sterile colonies with the fake lighting.”

Also Talia’s “Sending someone back in time inevitably changes history. the traveler’s presence itself is a disruption.” oh this book is so poignant

“I’ve always loved rain, and knowing that it isn’t coming from clouds doesn’t make me love it any less.” oh how poignant gaspery jacques is

“If I didn’t pay attention to the strange grayish fake cloudy day light, I could pretend I was home.” i personally interpreted this as an allegory of neurodivergent people having to mask emotions to navigate and survive in society. (1/

so they have a 10,000-year lease on the moon? i sure hope the rent is better there because that would never happen in this economy 😭 and how crazy would it be to meet someone with the exact same name as your main character cause i’d freak out..i really love the names given to the settings because the grand luna hotel sounds badass

lowkey the last book tour on earth section reminds me of pluribus, which is funny because my mom and i love that show..olive i feel your pain on not knowing what words to use when describing your writing to others

“Edwin is capable of action, but prone to inertia.” Such passionate portraits of a minimalist life just two chapters in.
“Why do we assume these far-flung places are ours?”
“Because we won them.”
“..Every advantage you’ve ever had in this life is father-sent.”
This book is already a refreshing perspective on the issues of privilege/ assimilation Brit India. Kind of reminds me of Succession lol.

i read a few sherlock stories in college as part of an English course, but this time i listened to an audiobook - not going to lie, have been kind of confused because the voices don’t change for any characters but oh well. “I had neither kiss nor kin in London” is such a fascinating way to establish setting in a book.

(2) “the country would have about $60 per person per year to spend on health, which wouldn’t pay for 2 months of my Lexapro prescription, let alone a functioning healthcare system.” absolutely mind boggling

referring to the West as “the land of new lungs” is truly a choice, a statement choice for sure but fascinating it’s exactly his point which is what makes it so powerful.
“the disease has used social forces and prejudice to thrive wherever power systems devalue human lives.” as someone who lives with a physical disability and subsequent health impacts, this hits home (1)

so maybe starting this book in the hospital was a terrible idea

lowkey have had to take a break from this book bc it’s just so repetitive, but i’m a simon jordan hater first and human second

too gossipy for my taste, although i like how this book is dual-pov to hone in on the importance of community in a time of crisis, although i feel like that sometimes hinders the plot with how repetitive the characters reiterate the info