alexseanchai | (no subject)

I can't sleep so I read Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman

It's a f/f contemporary romance novella starring two Jewish women, one's a small-batch yarn dyer and the other's a painter with stuff in art shows, Florida is practically a character in its own right here, they're fannish

Sweetest return on a two-buck investment I've seen in quite a while

Eeeeeeeee

oh and if the yarn dyeing thing interests you

Also re #ownvoices: Glassman is Jewish, and clearly it matters to Glassman that she's Jewish. So of course the Jewish cast are all treating each other's Judaism with the deepest of respect. And I'm not Jewish? But I'm also not a member of the locally dominant religion in the US? And—having in American lit characters who are not Christian being treated respectfully wrt religion by the narrative and the other characters? It just hit me how rarely you get that. With respect to my own (much smaller) religious tradition, I hope to write the sort of story that Glassman wrote here with respect to her Judaism.

(Jesus Haploid Christ I hope either she doesn't see that or she finds it complimentary—it's meant complimentary but that doesn't mean the transposition will be taken that way)

And! Explicitly trans characters exist and are treated respectfully!

...yeah so I'm already taking notes for what to nominate for Yuletide 2018 :P

OH AND! the sisterly relationship! *_* and the leads explicitly respect each other's agency and consent

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Wow, thank you for this rec; it sounds deeply relevant to my interests, and I can swing a $2 Kindle fic! \o/

WOOT I hope you like it!

I also just heard about this, which might be up your alley also?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1042277692/magical-princess-harriet-a-queer-jewish-ya-fantasy

Harriet’s best friend Francis who, despite the fact that she happens to be autistic, refuses to let that fact limit what she can do or get in the way of making connections with the people she loves.

^ was wholly on board until hitting this

it is possible they handle this well, but since I cannot know this thing right now: what I am going to do, since I see the project funded, is make a note of it and see if I can find out, after folks get their backer copies, how Francis is handled wrt being autistic—hoping it's well handled, because it would suck if I were to nope out of such an overall awesome-sounding story because horrid ableism

(and since they did fund already, my dollars are not going to make a difference to whether the project happens, so I do not have to commit to spending money on the book at this time)

You should check out Glassman's Mangoverse books- fantasy adventure/romance stories set in an Everyone's Jewish! fantasy world.

Ok, I'm not much of a romance fan, but I'm tempted. Please tell me there's no Halocaust metaphors in sight. (If you've found a story about Jews that's not about Nazis you've found a unicorn. If it's not about Nazis or sports you've found a rainbow unicorn)

IT'S NOT ABOUT SPORTS and I do not think—recall I read this at four am in kind of a blur—anything vaguely Nazi-ish came up even once? I can skim through it real quick to check if you like?

tbh Glassman's probably quite as sick of Jews -> Holocaust-adjacent-nonsense as you are

tbh Glassman's probably quite as sick of Jews -> Holocaust-adjacent-nonsense as you are

That was my take as well. I don't remember anything about the Holocaust, just about treating other people's expressions of their religions with respect. And there was a kosher deli and pickles. *_*

that there was

I think if it were there you'd remember it. Thanks!

I read this last week too!! It was so sweet and lovely and just what I needed then. Halfway through I made myself some hot chocolate because I needed to savor the story with something else sweet. They were so lovely with one another.

indeed

Fuck yeah, I want to read this (and hopefully write fic for it!) Thanks for the recc!!

ha yes good

oh hey I'd heard vaguely of it before but not about what the protagonists are like. excellent, this is my next book to read.

(like that description just made me go "...wait, I know these people?? and have not ever seen them before in much of any fiction?!" because I know... more than a couple queer creative Jewish women in fandom!!)

woot! enjoy!

I really need to read some Glassman. I hear such good things, and as a queer half-Jewish fannish woman I'm sure I would find a lot to relate to!

(Half-Jewish meaning my father is Jewish, I was raised following a number of Jewish and Lutheran traditions, so I'm ethnically somewhat Jewish and still follow a few traditions, though I do not consider myself a member of the Jewish religion.)

I think you would, yes! I hope so, certainly :)

I love Glassman's stories! :D

:-D

This thing about religion treated respectfully by the narrative and the other characters -- this is actually one of the reasons I have loved watching Grace & Frankie.* half of the characters are Jewish, and they aren't Jewish in one of the three ways you ever see on television:

the Seinfeld representation -- Jewish transposed with New Yorker, as a cultural trope
the Jewish-four-the-sake-of-a-one-liner: Willow mentions it twice in seven years; Annie and Abed are at least slightly Jewish/Muslim, respectively, in season 1 of Community, and then in later seasons, they are both super invested in Christmas
The rare Chassidic one-episode character -- never modern orthodox, even, always full on Chassidic, usually with sexism as a plot point

On Grace and Frankie, they're just... Jewish. It's both a minor and a central element of their lives, because, like many American Jews, it's both a minor thing that rarely touches them, and central to everything.

I mean, I loved Little Mosque on the Prairie, but that was about being Muslim in Canada, and I also love to see characterization where it's central to the person but not to the plot.

* Also, old women as protagonists! With active sexuality! And female friendship! And the problems of aging as present but not the only thing worth discussing!

:)

...yeah, Community failed hard on that. (I haven't seen Grace and Frankie, or more than a couple episodes of Seinfeld and that when I didn't want them on, and while I'm sure I've encountered kind three I can't think of examples offhand. But I have seen lots of Community!) I thiiiink it's secular Christmas Annie and Abed go for, but I can't remember, and even so that doesn't terribly improve matters, you know? Especially since I seem to remember the context of Annie's one-liner is why she doesn't Christmas...