ashpoe

sci fi nerd who also loves the classics || autistic artist || graphic novel connoisseur

3317 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

The Black Swan Mystery (Inspector Onitsura, #1)

20%

54%

16%

The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)

30%

22%

44%

98%

The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)

83%

ashpoe TBR'd a book

The Message

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic Politics and the English Language, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities. The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk” city of “old traditions and new machinery,” but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream. He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning” of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating. Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.

ashpoe TBR'd a book

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017

Rashid Khalidi

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

ashpoe is interested in reading...

They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom

Ahed Tamimi

A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir. “What would you do if you grew up seeing your home repeatedly raided? Your parents arrested? Your mother shot? Your uncle killed? Try, for just a moment, to imagine that this was your life. How would you want the world to react?” Ahed Tamimi is a world-renowned Palestinian activist, born and raised in the small West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, which became a center of the resistance to Israeli occupation when an illegal, Jewish-only settlement blocked off its community spring. Tamimi came of age participating in nonviolent demonstrations against this action and the occupation at large. Her global renown reached an apex in December 2017, when, at sixteen years old, she was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier who refused to leave her front yard. The video went viral, and Tamimi was arrested. But this is not just a story of activism or imprisonment. It is the human-scale story of an occupation that has riveted the world and shaped global politics, from a girl who grew up in the middle of it . Tamimi’s father was born in 1967, the year that Israel began its occupation of the West Bank and he grew up immersed in the resistance movement. One of Tamimi’s earliest memories is visiting him in prison, poking her toddler fingers through the fence to touch his hand. She herself would spend her seventeenth birthday behind bars. Living through this greatest test and heightened attacks on her village, Tamimi felt her resolve only deepen, in tension with her attempts to live the normal life of a daughter, sibling, friend, and student. An essential addition to an important conversation, They Called Me a Lioness shows us what is at stake in this struggle and offers a fresh vision for resistance. With their unflinching, riveting storytelling, Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri shine a light on the humanity not just in occupied Palestine but also in the unsung lives of people struggling for freedom around the world.

ashpoe commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

kieva.x

Question of the Day!

Hola Bookaholics!

You're question of the day is a simple one:

Do you reread books or not? ☺️

ashpoe commented on a post

velsaryth

After finishing thoughts

spoilers

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ashpoe commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

14h

chanberryjuice

Spoilers in forums (Reprise/Suggestion)

I'm posting this from a place of pain bc it hurt me twice this week 😮‍💨 and I might have to stay off forums for the rest of ToG- but users will post perspectives and then go back and COMMENT spoilers when they get to later in the book. So when I open someone's thoughts at 30%, they've already come back and commented their updated thoughts from 70% etc. But I'm seeing it at 30%. It seems to be a blindspot and even the vague comments are obvious (as makiki mentioned here before).

If I can make a suggestion, is move the Original Post to later in the forum because the % can be updated. So it can be edited like, "At 30% I thought _____________, but now at 70% ________________." And now it sits at 70% mark. Which consolidates the posts still :) Also I really appreciate everyone who labels Reread/ Entire Series Spoiler warnings so I know not to click on it!

ashpoe commented on ashpoe's update

ashpoe DNF'd a book

14h

Flesh

David Szalay

From Booker Prize finalist David Szalay, a propulsive, hypnotic novel, about a man whose future is derailed by a series of events that he is unable to control.Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbor—a married woman close to his mother’s age, whom he begrudgingly helps with errands—as his only companion. But as these periodical encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, his life soon spirals out of control, ending in a violent accident that leaves a man dead. What follows is a rocky trajectory that sees István emigrate from Hungary to London, where he moves from job to job before finding steady work as a driver for London’s billionaire class. At each juncture, his life is affected by the goodwill or self-interest of strangers. Through it all, István is a calm, detached observer of his own life, and through his eyes we experience a tragic twist on an immigrant “success story,” brightened by moments of sensitivity, softness, and Szalay’s keen observation. Fast-paced and immersive, Flesh reveals István’s life through intimate moments, with lovers, employers, and family members, charted over the course of decades. As the story unfolds, the tension between what is seen and unseen, what can and cannot be said, hurtles forward until finally—with everything at stake—sudden tragedy again throws life as István knows it in jeopardy. Spare and penetrating, Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity.

ashpoe made progress on...

14h

Flesh

David Szalay

ashpoe DNF'd a book

14h

Flesh

David Szalay

ashpoe made progress on...

16h

The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)

Edward Abbey

30%

ashpoe wrote a review...

20h

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

ashpoe

Apr 06, 2026

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: Plot:

🍎

🐦

🔄

"We live in the tension between what is and what is possible." 💚

ashpoe finished a book

20h

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

Robin Wall Kimmerer

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.” As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

Post from the The Black Swan Mystery (Inspector Onitsura, #1) forum

ashpoe

Edited

Thoughts from 20%

"He was devious, an egoist, had absolutely no morals whatsoever, was a terrible womanizer, and, to top it off, he was a paranoiac. How can you respect a man like that?" "Perhaps that's what it takes to rise up in the world of capitalism," Sudo suggested casually, laughing.

laugh so i don't cry

ashpoe made progress on...

The Black Swan Mystery (Inspector Onitsura, #1)

Tetsuya Ayukawa

20%

ashpoe commented on hedgehog's update

hedgehog earned a badge

Spring 2026 Readalong

Read at least 1 book in the Spring 2026 Readalong.

ashpoe commented on a post

The Decagon House Murders (House Murders, #1)

burntsunflowers

Edited

📱Thoughts from 13% - chp1 pt4

I want to publish the new issue of Dead Island a bit sooner than usual, about mid-April.

the cherry blossom festival 2026 pb special event ending at exactly mid-April is making this whole book feel even spookier 😳😳😳😳😳😳

ashpoe commented on a post

pakramsnukas

Edited

Is it a fight against capitalism or is it a misconception of anarchy?

spoilers

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ashpoe commented on a post

mouseinabook

Thoughts from 77%

Reading through the other forums pretty much confirm and expand my thoughts about Mineko. Clearly, there are some aspects of her life (at the time of publication) that there is still denial of the severity of trauma & experiences she went through.

If anything, her strong sense of pride and self-worth is both a coping mechanism & manifestation of her experiences. Again, at the age of three, she thought her parents would've been better off without her (to stop the harassment from both Madame Oima & Yaeko). This little child thought it was her responsibility to bear these adult problems when she barely understood the long-term impacts.

Many times throughout the memoir, we are reminded of the child she was and how young she was when these events occurred. I like to think that in the back of her mind, her perseverance came from not wanting the separation from her parents to be for nought — especially when there are times she mentioned she thought of them.

A lot of people commented on her high strong & biased perspective. It may be that because she was set to be an atotori and would oversee other maiko & geiko, she had such strong judgements (give a little kid any power trip and they will run with it).

Once again, men fail to make any good impression. I do not care for "the times", it was horrible then and it's still horrible now.

ashpoe commented on a post

CoolCat08

Thoughts from 53% (page 149)

spoilers

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ashpoe is interested in reading...

Light and Thread

Han Kang

From Nobel Prize winner Han Kang comes her first work of nonfiction published in English—a singular collection of writings including her inspiring Nobel Lecture. A LITERARY HUB AND ELECTRIC LIT MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR In this light-filled and multi-faceted book, Han Kang draws together the threads of her work and life, tracing the connections between her interior and exterior worlds through a sequence of essays, poems, photographs, and diaries, brilliantly translated by Maya West and e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris. A book of reflections, of words and light, it has at its heart the tiny, north-facing courtyard garden at her home, cultivated solely through the reflected sunlight of the mirrors which she must move throughout the day, as the earth turns on its axis. In a poem written at eight years old, Han Kang imagined a “gold thread” of connection—an idea which she explores here with luminous attention, beginning with her Nobel Lecture. She writes of the wonder of following the thread we call language into the depths of other hearts, and her profound sense of an electric current which joins writer and reader. Both intimate and illuminating, Light and Thread is a book for all readers of Han Kang’s unique body of work.

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