Update: Recent posts, blog hops and signposting anti-racism posts

Well, May seems to have evaporated and the May/June crossover has just blurred into a nightmarish landscape of surreal chaos…the latest being Rowling’s disappointing comments (again) about trans people. (See the JKR debacle section below for some great posts about it.)

Recent posts:

• A lot of ‘The School for Good and Evil’-related content: my review of ‘One True King’, the sixth book and series conclusion; my original book tag for SGE, and a bookish playlist for the fifth book!
• Book memes: Top 5 Saturday (books set at sea), First Lines Friday (double feature!) and #5OnMyTBR ft. LGBTQ+ main characters

Blog hopping!

• I really liked reading Kay @ Hammock of Books’ rendition of the Percy Jackson books as characters tag thats been going around! Made me laugh, and we share a godly parent too!
• This post by Arin @ Tomes of Our Lives on Leah Burke (from ‘Leah On the Offbeat’) and the problematic messages about bisexuality and labelling is really worth a read.
• Aditi’s really important post about diversity in the media, and why ‘Never Have I Ever’ is worth a watch.

#BlackLivesMatter

• Luke’s post details so many resources that have helped him in his self-education, anti-racism journey.
• Nuriya’s post is a great resource if you’re a white or non-Black person of colour in the UK looking to support the BLM movement!
• Nish & Ngoc have a detailed post about a whole range of ways to support the BLM movement even if you’ve got no money!
• Laurie compiled a great list of books to educate yourself further about how to be anti-racist, featuring both fiction and non-fiction across a wide range of reading ages.
• Because violent racism isn’t just a USA disease, Abbey added to this reading list with books aimed at British people who want to tackle racism at home too.
• I also just signed this petition asking medical schools to include BAME case examples in clinical teaching! I had no idea about this and it certainly needs to change.

Some insightful posts on the JKR debacle:

This is a really detailed comment by Portarossa on Reddit summarising what’s been going on.

1. JK Rowling is out here saying that trans ppl are trying to erase sex as a concept and that her life experience is as a female. Here’s a thread on why she’s confused.
Firstly, She’s dog whistling that trans ppls very existence denies the existence of sex

— Nim Ralph (@NMRLPH) June 7, 2020

Read the whole thread!

View this post on Instagram

Alot of people from my last post are confused why jk rowling having a fit over the use of the term "people who menstruate" is such a big deal. Because it's not the first time she has done something transphobic and then she defended herself by being more transphobic and if you don't find a problem with that please leave my account. Now here's a list of more problematic things she has smuggled in her books. I love Harry Potter. i grew up with it. But i need to accept that it was written by a woman with extreme prejudices and acknowledge it's shortcomings. . . . . . . . . . #funny #lol #tumblr #textpost #memes #laughs #sharing #follow #haha #humor #procastinating #caption #funnymemes #tumblrgirl #jokes #hp #harrypotter #jkrowling

A post shared by jay/k (@yallsey) on Jun 7, 2020 at 6:40am PDT

I didn’t notice Harry’s bloodline thing because magic being tied to blood is common in fantasy, but it’s true that it seems quite at odds with the rest of Harry Potter’s anti-pureblood agenda message!

TBR and Upcoming Posts:

I’ve been working on my #ReadTheChange TBR list (please let me know if you’ve got recommendations!):

My next review will be of ‘Enduring Chaos’ by Catherine Fitzsimmons, and I expect ‘Descendant of the Crane’ by Joan He and ‘The Unseen Force’ by Catherine Fitzsimmons to follow!

Thanks for reading! It’s a pretty heavy time for most (if not all) of us. As always, let me know any thoughts below…