Thought Train to Pusan

CBR11 Bingo Square: Banned Books I remember reading Blankets a number of years ago, and if I recall correctly, I liked certain aspects but didn’t love it. But having a copy on my shelves, I decided to re-visit it for my Banned Books square, after learning that both this novel and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home were challenged and subsequently removed from the public library in Marshall, Missouri, after complaints that the novels were “pornographic” and might be read by children. This began a series of discussions about censorship, and the institution of new materials selection policies to the library board, and the novels were returned to the shelves after less than a year being removed. Blankets is an autobiographical story of Craig Thompson’s childhood and adolescence, dealing largely with his personal struggles with faith in an Evangelical Christian family, and searching for meaning and purpose therein. It also centers greatly on Craig’s understanding of lo...

CBR11 Bingo Square: Travel Now perhaps the characters in this story don’t journey far beyond their city (though they do end up in the outskirts) and largely travel within it in a physical sense, but this novel also includes a journey to an unseen world of djinn, and therefore I picked it for the Travel square for CBR bingo. Alif the Unseen centers around a young hacker who goes by the pseudonym Alif, in an unnamed city along the Persian Gulf. This city is a security state, and he provides services to any dissidents who want to speak freely. After getting tangled up in a bit of a mess with a woman, and creating a program that can identify people’s digital footprints, he finds himself in trouble not just romantically, but now with a Prince who goes by the alias of The Hand, who seeks to imprison those who speak against the state. On the run with his neighbour, Dina, who accidentally gets caught up in everything, and with nowhere to hide, Alif finds himself se...

CBR11 Bingo Square: Reader’s Choice (replacing: Classics) Let me begin by saying that I did indeed want to read a classic for my classics square: I really wish I could get into the old language more, but it’s such a struggle for me! And truth be told I did start reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula , but I just kept drifting and realized about a tenth of the way in that I wasn’t up to the task (so instead I connived my friends into watching the movie as a part of our weekly movie-nights Keanu-athon, and boooooy howdy does that movie make some choices ). Anywho, I therefore am using my Reader’s Choice square for the spot of Moonshot . Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection is indeed exactly as described on the tin. This collection of short comics and graphic stories come from indigenous authors and artists (including but not limited to those identifying as Métis, Inuit, Dene, Anishnaabe, Cree, Mi’Kmaq, Caddo, Haida, Sioux, and Suquamish), and largely focus on lesser-known stories a...

CBR11 Bingo Square: Listicle As found on the Book Riot list of “100 Must-Read Bisexual Books” https://bookriot.com/2017/09/21/100-must-read-bisexual-books/ I saw a lot of good reviews for this novel, and was excited to read it, given how it appeared to center on meaningful relationships (my favourite!), as well as the career of a filmmaker (something of great interest to me!). And yet, this is one of those cases where despite seeming like it has a lot of people who love it, I myself just don’t get it, even though I really want to. The Life and Death of Sophie Stark follows the life and filmmaking career of the eponymous Sophie Stark, but through the eyes of five different people she has had some sort of relationship with in her life: her brother, the boy she was obsessed with in college and first person she made a movie about, a girlfriend she coaxed into acting for her, her musician husband, and a film producer who offers her new opportunity. We Sophie...