FANDOM NAME: Creole Giselle as created and performed by the Dance Theatre of Harlem WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This takes the story of the original ballet and resets it in a free Afro-Creole community in 1840s Louisiana. The themes of love, betrayal, class difference, forgiveness, and revenge are all there, with the added layers lent by the setting and the experiences of DTH's wonderful dancers. WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: It's sadly hard to find in full online, but you can get the filmed production with the marvelous Virginia Johnson as Giselle in various hardcopy formats from local libraries (see WorldCat listings). There are also severalclips of individual sequences and interpretations online. (I really do recommend that interview with Johnson to get an idea of what the ballet's creation was like.)
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FANDOM NAME: Talk Sweetly to Me, by Courtney Milan WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: TSTM lives on my rarified Goodreads shelf of "historical romances with lady astronomers," and this novella so lives up to the wonder implied in that description. Rose Sweetly is a middle-class Black British computer (in the sense of "wicked good at math, so good she can find stars with math") in 1882 London, living with her very pregnant sister, calculating the distances between stars, and being courted by Notorious Rake and Secret Feminist Advice Columnist Stephen Shaughnessy. The book is sweet, full of astronomy, and super romantic, and Rose is a fantastic heroine. It's great! WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: "Wherever books are sold," as they say, and also in your local library.
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FANDOM NAME: The Effluent Engine by N.K. Jemisin. WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a story of spycraft and scientific derring-do in an alternate steampunk New Orleans, as Jessaline, a Haitian spy, tries to make contact with a Créole chemist whose work might make keeping Haiti free in the decades after the Revolution a whole lot easier. This is honestly one of my favorite works by Jemisin -- the science! the fast-paced spy shenanigans! the femslash potential! the alternate history! It's so great. WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: You can actually read this free online at Lightspeed, but if you feel like reading it collected with a bunch of Jemisin's other amazing short works, it's also in her full-length collection How Long 'Til Black Future Month, wherever books are sold/your library/etc.
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FANDOM NAME: Unfit to Print, by K.J. Charles WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: A disenchanted Black British peddler of Victorian pornography and an uptight Indian lawyer meet after years of mysterious separation and must FIGHT CRIME… and fall in love <3. This is a total delight of a book, and Gil Lawless, the erotic bookseller, is a wonderful character with depths you'll be amazed Charles could fit in a novella. WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Wherever books are sold/your library!
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FANDOM NAME: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a deeply compelling book. It is dreamlike and moving and works as an allegory for a million things, including (most near and dear to my heart) mental illness and disability, and all about the importance of art and spirit in human life. It also kind of, to be honest, falls down on the job with its Ghanaian-British-Norwegian protagonist, Matthew Rose Sorensen, in that his Ghanaianness doesn't really seem to impact his character, the world, or the plot at all. To be fair, neither does his Britishness or Norwegianness, but it really rubs the wrong way especially with his Ghanaian heritage. I think this is a book that is ripe for fannish exploration and improvement, in the way that so many flawed but compelling works of art are. And I think Matthew/The Beloved Child of the House/the House itself for that matter provide excellent grounds for further explanation and enrichment. WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Wherever books are sold/your library. It's quite short, actually, right on the line between novel and novella.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-01-11 01:46 am (UTC)WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This takes the story of the original ballet and resets it in a free Afro-Creole community in 1840s Louisiana. The themes of love, betrayal, class difference, forgiveness, and revenge are all there, with the added layers lent by the setting and the experiences of DTH's wonderful dancers.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: It's sadly hard to find in full online, but you can get the filmed production with the marvelous Virginia Johnson as Giselle in various hardcopy formats from local libraries (see WorldCat listings). There are also several clips of individual sequences and interpretations online. (I really do recommend that interview with Johnson to get an idea of what the ballet's creation was like.)
--
FANDOM NAME: Talk Sweetly to Me, by Courtney Milan
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: TSTM lives on my rarified Goodreads shelf of "historical romances with lady astronomers," and this novella so lives up to the wonder implied in that description. Rose Sweetly is a middle-class Black British computer (in the sense of "wicked good at math, so good she can find stars with math") in 1882 London, living with her very pregnant sister, calculating the distances between stars, and being courted by Notorious Rake and Secret Feminist Advice Columnist Stephen Shaughnessy. The book is sweet, full of astronomy, and super romantic, and Rose is a fantastic heroine. It's great!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: "Wherever books are sold," as they say, and also in your local library.
--
FANDOM NAME: The Effluent Engine by N.K. Jemisin.
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a story of spycraft and scientific derring-do in an alternate steampunk New Orleans, as Jessaline, a Haitian spy, tries to make contact with a Créole chemist whose work might make keeping Haiti free in the decades after the Revolution a whole lot easier. This is honestly one of my favorite works by Jemisin -- the science! the fast-paced spy shenanigans! the femslash potential! the alternate history! It's so great.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: You can actually read this free online at Lightspeed, but if you feel like reading it collected with a bunch of Jemisin's other amazing short works, it's also in her full-length collection How Long 'Til Black Future Month, wherever books are sold/your library/etc.
--
FANDOM NAME: Unfit to Print, by K.J. Charles
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: A disenchanted Black British peddler of Victorian pornography and an uptight Indian lawyer meet after years of mysterious separation and must FIGHT CRIME… and fall in love <3. This is a total delight of a book, and Gil Lawless, the erotic bookseller, is a wonderful character with depths you'll be amazed Charles could fit in a novella.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Wherever books are sold/your library!
--
FANDOM NAME: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a deeply compelling book. It is dreamlike and moving and works as an allegory for a million things, including (most near and dear to my heart) mental illness and disability, and all about the importance of art and spirit in human life. It also kind of, to be honest, falls down on the job with its Ghanaian-British-Norwegian protagonist, Matthew Rose Sorensen, in that his Ghanaianness doesn't really seem to impact his character, the world, or the plot at all. To be fair, neither does his Britishness or Norwegianness, but it really rubs the wrong way especially with his Ghanaian heritage. I think this is a book that is ripe for fannish exploration and improvement, in the way that so many flawed but compelling works of art are. And I think Matthew/The Beloved Child of the House/the House itself for that matter provide excellent grounds for further explanation and enrichment.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Wherever books are sold/your library. It's quite short, actually, right on the line between novel and novella.