April 2020 Journal (Patreon)

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Laura Jane Grace) - My girlfriend bought this one for me, and I sped through it in a weekend. A stunning work that manages to be elucidating and hopeful about dysphoria without sparing the reader the excruciating torment of gender dysphoria. One of the great works of queer literature ever.

The Impossible Has Happened: The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry (Lance Parkin) - lots of fun. Parkin offers an insightful dash through 20th century science fiction television and early fandom through the lens of a bizarre, complex man's life. Immensely readable.

The Shining (Stephen King) - Maybe Kubrick's film is just extremely dear to me, but I kinda hated this? It's didactic and turgid while also managing to be confused and boring. The decision to humanize Jack is actively infuriating, and Kubrick was right to jettison that element in the movie. Speaking of which, did I mention the movie is so much fucking better?

Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Genesys (John Peel) - Absolutely not.

God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer (Bart D. Ehrman) - Ehrman is always a fun read, and God's Problem is no exception. His infusion of his own struggle with theodicy with the Bible's various answers to the problem of suffering works largely because his questions are the sort of thing people in the ancient world would have asked (take a note, Elaine Pagels). After a lifetime of inadequate theodicies from reactionary Christianity, it's refreshing to encounter a book that (wisely) eschews easy answers while exploring in depth what the Scriptures actually say about evil.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Patrick Radden Keefe) - Yes.

Shakespeare's Sonnets (ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones) - Also yes.