thesaucecat

Just an autistic 30-year-old hanging out with my cat

2315 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

33%

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

15%

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

33%

10%

thesaucecat made progress on...

Eileen

Ottessa Moshfegh

33%

thesaucecat finished a book

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Olga Tokarczuk

In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . . A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice? Duration: 11 hours 39 minutes.

thesaucecat commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

15h

haunting

Buying expensive editions of books

Hi all! I’m curious to hear others’ thoughts on buying expensive special editions of books? I’ve been getting ads for Folio Society recently and I’m on the fence whether to buy one of their editions of a favourite book of mine. On one hand, the art is absolutely beautiful and I would love to have a hardback copy like this of a story I adore. On the other hand — I’m not sure how much I would read that edition, or even look at it. I’ve been partial to ebooks lately, I’m running out of shelf space, and I feel like I’d be nervous to handle such an expensive book.

So I guess my questions are: if you personally buy collector’s editions of books, are they mostly for display or do you read them? What makes it worth it for you? Or if you don’t buy editions like this, what makes you feel they’re not worth it?

thesaucecat made progress on...

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Olga Tokarczuk

100%

thesaucecat made progress on...

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Olga Tokarczuk

40%

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Games & Trials 🏅🎯🏁

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Competitions for power, notoriety, love, or maybe even your life.

thesaucecat commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

sesames

non-fiction book recommendations

hi pagebound friends!

i am making more of an effort to read non-fiction this year, which has been relatively successful (yay!), but i did want to know if there are any non-fiction books that people would recommend.

i'm currently reading perfect victims and the politics of appeal by mohammed el-kurd, which is brilliant so far. of the other non-fiction books i've read this year, i have also thoroughly enjoyed the fire next time by james baldwin! i'd like to know what other non-fiction books people have read and loved, and hopefully it'll introduce me to a whole new world of non-fiction i would never have thought to try.

i don't mind whatever genre of non-fiction book you would recommend, though i am personally not a huge fan of self-help books (the ones like atomic habits i simply don't enjoy). #please come talk to me about it because there are so many and i have no idea where to start !!!

thesaucecat is interested in reading...

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs

Jeffrey Cranor

A fictional autobiography in an alternate twentieth century that chronicles one woman’s unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save. Born at the end of the old world, Miriam grows up during The Great Reckoning, a sprawling, decades-long war that nearly decimates humanity and strips her of friends and family. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she emotionally exiles herself, avoiding relationships or allegiances, and throws herself into her work—disengagement that serves her when the war finally ends, and The New Society arises. To ensure a lasting peace, The New Society forbids anything that may cause tribal loyalties, including traditional families. Suddenly, everyone must live as Miriam has chosen to—disconnected and unattached. A researcher at heart, Miriam becomes involved in implementing this detachment process. She does not know it is the beginning of a darkly sinister program that will transform this new world and the lives of everyone in it. Eventually, the harmful effects of her research become too much for Miriam, and she devises a secret plan to destroy the system from within, endangering her own life. But is her “confession” honest—or is it a fabrication riddled with lies meant to conceal the truth?

thesaucecat commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

mrsalaska

Being 23, life and books 🪩🥂🥳

It is officially 5th August for me and it is my birthday 🥂🥳✨

I just came to the age i dreamed about for years. For some people, this is 18, 21. And 23 is for me! 🤧

How did being 23 treat you? What is the age you dream about? For me, this is my last year of my uni. I kinda feel nervous, excited to see where my journey will go 🙂‍↕️ I sometimes feel late to everything, my peers younger than me by years. I have long education life ahead of me still (master + phd) So yes, i am kinda nerved about all of these, still trying to figure out life. But it is okay, i will set everything right, we have time 😌

Were you like me?

I genuinely wonder about the book i should read, experiences i should have at 23, what did you read/do at 23? I appreciate if you drop by and comment the book/thing i cant miss at 23! :) happy long lives everyone! 🤍🥂

thesaucecat paused reading...

Notes from the Underground

Fyodor Dostoevsky

In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels — Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) penned the darkly fascinating Notes from the Underground. Its nameless hero is a profoundly alienated individual in whose brooding self-analysis there is a search for the true and the good in a world of relative values and few absolutes. Moreover, the novel introduces themes — moral, religious, political and social — that dominated Dostoyevsky's later works. Notes from the Underground, then, aside from its own compelling qualities, offers readers an ideal introduction to the creative imagination, profundity and uncanny psychological penetration of one of the most influential novelists of the nineteenth century. Constance Garnett's authoritative translation is reprinted here, with a new introduction.

thesaucecat is interested in reading...

The Day the World Stops Shopping

J.B. MacKinnon

In a brilliant work of imaginative non-fiction, prize-winning author J.B. MacKinnon asks what would happen--to our economy, our ecology, our products, our selves--if we stopped consuming so much? Is that alternative world one we might actually want to live in? We can't stop shopping. And yet we must. This is the consumer dilemma. The planet says we consume too much: in North America, we burn the earth's resources at a rate five times faster than they can regenerate. And despite our efforts to green our consumption--by recycling, increasing energy efficiency, or using solar power--we have yet to see a decline in global carbon emissions. The economy says we must always consume more, because, as we've seen in the pandemic, even the slightest drop in spending leads to widespread unemployment, bankruptcy and home foreclosures. Addressing this paradox head-on, J.B. MacKinnon asks, What would really happen if we simply stop shopping? Is there a way to reduce our consumption to earth-saving levels without triggering an economic collapse? At first, this question took him around the world, seeking answers: from America's big-box stores, to the hunter-gatherer cultures of Namibia, to communities in Ecuador that consume at an exactly sustainable rate. Then his thought experiment came shockingly true, as the coronavirus brought shopping to a halt and MacKinnon's ideas were tested in real time. Drawing on experts ranging from economists to climate scientists to corporate CEOs, MacKinnon investigates how living with less would change our planet, our society and ourselves. Along the way, he reveals just how much we stand to gain. Imaginative and inspiring, The Day the World Stops Shopping will empower you to imagine another way.

thesaucecat finished a book

Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation

Sim Kern

Part activist memoir, part crash course in Jewish and Palestinian history, Genocide Bad dismantles Zionist propaganda and maps a course towards collective liberation in ten unapologetic essays. Part activist memoir, part crash course in Jewish and Palestinian history, Genocide Bad dismantles Zionist propaganda in ten unapologetic essays. Drawing connections between Biblical promises and exploding pagers, medieval dress codes and modern-day apartheid, Kern sketches a sweeping history of imperialism with their characteristic blend of far-ranging research, pop-culture insights, and scathing humor.Kern, a former teacher, journalist, novelist, and book influencer, gained international recognition as an anti-Zionist Jewish activist in the days after October 7th, 2023. At a time when social media was flooded with “I Stand with Israel” posts, Kern started sharing content encouraging their followers to read Palestinian books, learn Palestinian history, and question Western reporting on Palestine—videos which went viral into tens of millions of views.Despite facing hate messages, death threats, and exile from the Zionist Jewish community, Kern has remained steadfast in their advocacy over the past year. They’ve posted daily videos on Palestinian, Jewish, and colonial history, and they’ve raised over $500,000 in direct aid for families in Gaza—all while navigating the challenges of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting a newborn. In Genocide Bad, Kern reflects on the life experiences that led them to anti-Zionist activism, while capturing and expanding upon their online educational content.Kern doesn’t flinch when confronting the horrors of genocides past and present, but there is also tremendous hope contained in these pages—hope that springs from examples of courage and resilience in the face of extreme violence, and from the kinds of resistance that might just lead to our collective liberation.

thesaucecat is interested in reading...

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Siddharth Kara

The revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award. An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation―and the moral implications that affect us all. Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt. Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo―because we are all implicated.

Post from the Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation forum

thesaucecat

Thoughts from 86% (page 183)

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Post from the Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation forum

thesaucecat

Thoughts from 90% (page 192)

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thesaucecat commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

silvertongues

Edited

what are you dream quests?

if you could pick any quest theme, what would it be? bonus points if you have a list you want to promote in anticipation of the next community quest vote! i would really love the following: • an anti ai/big tech quest! i feel like it makes sense for pagebound to have one, given its anti ai values. i've seen a couple lists about this nominated for the community vote and i'm always sad when they don't win! • a "books about books" nonfiction quest! the history of the book, books on libraries, books on writing and language and storytelling, etc etc. also very appropriate for the pagebound community! • a drama quest. like actual dramas, plays, theatrical scripts, the like. it's the only main literary form (prose, poetry, drama) we don't have a quest for yet!

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thesaucecat is interested in reading...