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Marc A. Godin Locked account

AuthorMarcAGodin@bookwyrm.social

Joined 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Gay/queer writer of strange and tender fiction, in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; reader of speculative fiction, horror, and non-fiction; this is my author page.

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Marc A. Godin's books

finished reading The Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Penguin classics -- L35)

Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Devils (1971, Penguin Books) 4 stars

A grim prophecy of the Russian Revolution

'What I am writing now is a tendentious …

Finished my re-read of this last week, I'll return again to it. I love Dostoevsky's characters and the way he piles on layer after layer of small town gossip into a tragic story of murder, suicide, and revolutionary ideals betrayed.

Ivan Coyote: Care Of (Hardcover, 2021, McClelland & Stewart) 5 stars

A balm for your soul

5 stars

Couldn't really put this down, just a sweet and tender and vulnerable book giving us a glimpse into the intimate pandemic correspondence between Ivan Coyote, a nonbinary storyteller, and people who were touched by their words. Sometimes, as a queer person, I can feel a little existentially lonely, and I suspect the next time I do I might pick this up and read a little bit of it for some connection.

finished reading The artist's way by Julia Cameron (Inner workbook)

Julia Cameron: The artist's way (1992, G.P. Putnam's sons) 3 stars

The Artist's Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, …

While I'm not a receptive audience for a certain kind of spirituality talk, I was willing to set aside some skepticism to read this book as a workshop, progressing through the text, tasks, and morning pages week to week. Overall, I found a lot of the tasks useful and engaging, and I did have some personal and creative breakthroughs, enough to keep me overcoming my skepticism and general curmudgeonliness until completing the course. If you like pop-spiritual approaches to art this book might hit all the bases, and even if it isn't quite for you, some of the tasks and tools presented might be worth it anyway.

Christopher Bram: Eminent outlaws (Hardcover, 2012, Twelve) 4 stars

Describes how the trailblazing, post-war gay literary figures, including Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, …

This was such a fun, interesting, and sometimes heart-wrenching read about the gay authors who shaped culture in the US (and beyond) in the second half of the 20th century. Christopher Bram writes with wit and compassion about these sometimes difficult men and their difficult lives, and I think anyone interested in the history of queer literature ought to give this book a read.

Gretchen Felker-Martin: Manhunt (Paperback, 2022, Tor Nightfire) 4 stars

Y: The Last Man meets The Girl With All the Gifts in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt, …

I wrote about this on my blog last year: if a novel is queer zombie apocalypse fiction? I'm in. With all the gross out body horror, gore, and an aggressively delightful take on the various anti-queer and anti-trans villains , this book also brought genuine emotion and stakes to relationships that were heartfelt and real.

Max Brooks: World War Z (Paperback, 2007, Three Rivers Press) 4 stars

An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is …

No idea when I read this, so this is an approximate date. I liked it a lot better than the movie, no big surprise, and remember being stunned at the film's final result. The book believably takes us through different moments of the global zombie war with the framing device of a reporter chronicling an oral history from the survivors as they try to rebuild. It's clever and tense and is worth a read for anyone who likes zombie novels.

Seanan McGuire: Deadline (2011) 5 stars

Deadline, published by Orbit Books in 2011, is the second book in the Newsflesh Trilogy, …

See my previous reviews of the earlier books, but this is a stand-out zombie tale with all the bells and whistles you could want published during the glut of less ambitious and less successful zombie fiction in the 2000s and 2010s. Great series overall.