Movie Review: the Terminator

Posted on January 13, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This week’s movie was The Terminator from 1984.

“In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, before she canfulfill her destiny and save mankind.”

I have to say, movies from the 1980s had a lot of style and character and they didn’t just depend on Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) to tell a story – they depended on real effects, lighting, camera angles, and characters to tell often unimaged stories. The Terminator is another such movie, with a completely new and different story. Who would think of a machine that looks human, sent back in time to murder a young woman?

I mean. Early Sarah Connor was not the absolute badass we know today. Early Sarah Connor worked at a diner in a pink uniform while young children stuffed ice cream into her apron. Early Sarah Connor had a pet iguana, lived with her best friend in an apartment, and was dateless on a Friday night. She drove a moped to work. She was absolutely a prime example of a “normal” woman in the 1980s.

Sarah responds better than a lot of people might to the initial violence and change of life trajectory the arrival of the terminator entails. And as Kyle rattles off about his rank and serial number and tries to give Sarah a basic rundown of everything going on, she doesn’t freak out as badly as some people might. She does bite Kyle to try and get away but she still reacts pretty calmly to her new situation.

But then we get flashbacks of the future, courtesy of Kyle Reese, the warrior from the future, sent back through time to protect Sarah Connor. The future shows a variety of different machines and the lengths the humans have to go to in order to fight back against the machines, as well as the cost of that fight. When we first see Kyle Reese, he’s naked and has a ton of scars all over his mostly visible back, which was another thing this movie did very well – it’s one of the few movies I can think of that doesn’t shy away from male nudity.

The Terminator also showed a lot of the reality of living in the 1980s, before we had computers for everything. There were no cell phones, no internet search engines or maps, and when the payphone is out of order at the pizza place Sarah goes to, she then has to find another open public establishment in order to use their payphone. She probably didn’t even know where the closest police department or other emergency services buildings even are and that impacts her decision to go to a dance club, as it was the only place she could find that was open and had a phone. And then her first instinct is to call the police, which results in her eventually winding up at a police station and the deaths of everyone in that police station that night.

This is such an interesting movie with an interesting premise and fantastic characters. The soundtrack is fantastic and I enjoy every rewatch I do of this movie.

Overall, this is a really good movie that holds up well against the test of time, so long as you allows yourself an imagination and don’t expect the 1980s to look like our world today. I definitely rate this as a high four on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it on dvd and I rewatch it frequently.

The Terminator. Directed by James Cameron, performances by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, and Paul Winfield, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), 1984.

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Book Review: the First Sister by Linden A. Lewis

Posted on January 12, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis (science fiction, 342 pages) was another book from my holiday book exchange.

“First Sister has no name and no voice. As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars – the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed as she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain – Saito Ren – whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is so much harder to do when you’re falling in love. Lito sol Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But once he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I have a lot of thoughts about this book and I’m not quite sure which ones will actually show up in this review. As a general rule, I tend to not write up reviews for books not to my taste with living authors, as I understand how hard writing novels is and how much words can cause damage, even words on a tiny website with no influence. So while I have read the entire Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, you will not find any reviews to that series here. When the First Sister arrived as part of the winter holiday book exchange and the comment on the back indicated if you enjoyed Red Rising, you would enjoy this book, I was immediately leery.

The First Sister is a space opera novel, the first in a trilogy, which shows the darkness of humanity’s future in space. Even the idea of being so far in the future we’ve colonized several planets and yet there’s an entire religious organization devoted to enslaving and selling young women as legitimized soldiers’ property is horrifying. The fact that the entire order is of women and anyone on the ship is allowed and encouraged to use these women however they see fit made me angry that we as a species have continued to allow women, and only women, to be subjected to worse and worse religious subjection. And even though this novel takes place far in the future, we have the echoes of that religious subjection right here, right now, in our very own modern world that continues to deny women proper health care and control over our own bodies.

So showing that the universe actually gets WORSE for women?

Yeah.

There are a lower class of men called the Cousins on the ship, and they function as janitors and other people for those on the ship as soldiers to abuse, and they are lower on the hierarchical ladder than the Sisters but it still bothers me that women again bear the brunt of especially sexual abuse. And I guess it bothers me more that in the future, military forces are still seen as base humans who are shallow, crave violence, and are still inclined only towards their animalistic behaviors.

But. I will say that the abuse in the beginning of the novel is perhaps intended to show the overarching cost and stupidity of war, as the warmongers do some legit horrible things to the characters in this novel. I think it’s also a testament to how cult religions and war work hand-in-hand to take everything from everyone. As the book progresses, once you get passed striping a young woman naked in front of the entire ship’s crew and sending her out the airlock so she can die in space in front of everyone, the book does a lot more to show how those in charge of war will often go to great lengths to ensure war continues.

As the book progresses, readers become more familiar with the plight of the Asters, who are a true slave-race in the universe. They are shown in the beginning of the book to be inhuman and as the story progresses and the characters are faced with more challenges, the Asters take a much bigger role and are humanized in ways most “others” in our modern society can relate to, especially since governments, military, and corporations deny their existence, their rights, and even use them for experiments.

It’s a horrible, and accurate, truth about how humans are societally programmed to disdain those they believe are “beneath” them, or at the very least, to turn a blind eye to those they’ve been raised to see as not human at all. There are a lot of populations in our own world right now who are very familiar with living as an “othered” population, QUILTBAG personnel among them.

Overall, the beginning of this book was definitely rough but the end has a more hopeful sense of making the universe a better place. I think I would have to reserve full judgement until reading the entire series, but I think this would be a two on my rating scale. Without knowing how the series ends and addresses a lot of the over-arching concerns, I don’t know that I would read it again.

Lewis, Linden. The First Sister. Skybound Books, 2020.

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Book Review: Love In Color by Bolu Babalola

Posted on January 10, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Today’s book review is Love In Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola (short stories, 278 pages).

“A highborn Nigerian goddess who has been beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover longs to be truly seen. A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company – and an even greater one in her love life. A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart. In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity. Although Babalola focuses mainly on the magical folktales of West Africa, she also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places. With an eye toward decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse perspectives, continents, and genres.”

By now, you should have figured out that my taste in books and entertainment usually tends towards things with dragons, aliens, magic, and not taking place in the real world at all. However, the librarians in my area are working hard to make sure I have things to read, as I tend to go through books very, very quickly. I’ve also told my librarians when recommending things for me that I tend to prefer books with non-male main characters, dragons, and low romance, especially if it’s het.

Basically, this is to say that I would never have picked up this book to read if the librarians hadn’t put it in my hold box. I am glad I read it, though it took me an entire month of reading it a little bit at a time while having my meals or spending time on the stationary bicycle to finish. I’m definitely not used to books taking me this long to read but it was made easier by being a selection of ten short stories.

I will say that this book is something of a love story for men, as all but one of the stories in this collection focused on heterosexual relationships between men and women, and the one story that focused differently was a bisexual woman who had loved her husband very much, but then he died (no, she didn’t kill him), and she was forced to live in a world without him before finding pleasure in women. All the women in these stories are captivated by alluring men who see them for all they are and not just the shallow surface view, and all of the men show themselves to be deeply, truly in love with the women in the stories. I think that this is one of the few times where men are given so much emotional depth and credit and I found it hopeful, in the sense that men are not usually portrayed in such a positive light.

The Author’s Note for this book was also a very interesting read, to see the inspiration for these stories and the basic idea of how the stories were changed to empower the women instead of just allowing women to be the objects of men. I enjoyed seeing the author’s thoughts on the original myths and the retellings here.

Overall, I would say this book is a three on my rating scale. I’m glad I borrowed it from the library, I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I will ever need to revisit it or reread it again, mostly because I really do like books about dragons and I didn’t feel it was fair to this very well-written book to rate it lower just because it’s not what I would normally read.

Babalola, Bolu. Love In Color: Mythical Tales From Around the World, Retold. HarperCollins, 2020.

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Graphic Novel Review: Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione

Posted on January 8, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The next of the holiday book exchange books I read was the graphic novel Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione (graphic novel, 230 pages).

“Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy is the finest school for the art of cooking with magic, and Basil Eyres is determined to be the top student. On the first day of her senior year, Arabella Oregano, the daughter of a renowned chef, joins the academy for her senior year as well. The two are instantly smitten with each other, but Basil senses there’s something Arabella is hiding from her. Still, the two work together to stand out from the class as the end-of-year culinary festival approaches. But when Arabella’s secret is revealed, Basil is faced with the hardest decision of her life, which has the potential to throw her future aspirations in jeopardy.”

This entire graphic novel is a warm, positive, healthy, adorable story about several young magical culinary students and the trials they all face at school. This story was seriously such a cozy story and a fast read that I read the entire book while having breakfast (though, many of my friends would say that I tend to read rather quickly and my reading speed should not be used as a judge for how much time something might actually take you to read).

Every character in this story is diverse and all have their own life situations, which create real-world depth to all their goals, motivations, and conflicts. I also enjoyed the puns or character quirks involved in most of the character names, such as Basil and Oregano, which are two spices. I enjoyed the casual representation of everyone in the entire story, with two dads, two moms, trans and nonbinary, Pride flags hanging from stores when they go into town, and all the other ways this is a supportive QUILTBAG book.

Overall, I’d say this is an easy four on my rating scale. It’s cute, short, and happy with a really quick read. I’m glad I own a copy of it and will likely reread it frequently 🙂

Capriglione, Melissa. Basil and Oregano. Dark Horse, 2023.

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Movie Review: Batteries Not Included

Posted on January 6, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Batteries Not Included is a 1988 movie I remember enjoying when I was growing up and I was truly shocked to find it in a second hand store last week.

“When an unscrupulous real estate developer sends thugs to get rid of the last five tenants of a deteriorating apartment building, they need a miracle to save their building from demolition. One night, when all hope seems lost, tiny visitors from outer space mysteriously glide through their windows and begin to turn the tide with their magical powers. Filled with dazzling special effects, this amazing story of intergalactic warmth stars the acclaimed husband-and-wife team of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as a pair of feisty long-term tenants whose faith is rewarded in ways they never expected.”

I don’t actually remember the beginnings of many of the movies from my childhood in the 1980s so it was rather odd to me when this movie started out with a montage of black and white photos. Those black and white photos and the era music to go with it told a story about the beginnings of a city and the people who dreamed and lived there. Those pictures told a story, showing how a hundred years ago, hardworking people built entire lives from scratch.

I think more and more about how much I miss movies and tv shows not dependent on their CGI to tell a story. This was back in the 1980s, when a lot of effects were still done through practical effects, lighting tricks, and creative camera angles, which I miss. I like the imagination used with practical effects and how much more real things feel to me when I watch some of these older movies because I know no one went back through with an airbrush and cleaned up all the societal expectations of “perfection”.

Everyone in this movie looked like a real human you could pass on the street. Most of the cast would be considered ineligible for starring movie roles these days because of their age and imperfections. Can you imagine modern movies with background characters who are balding, not skinny, older, or wearing non-designer clothes? Personally, I would like to see more of that.

Overall, I think this movie is going to be a two on my rating scale. I’m glad I bought it (used) and I might watch it again at some point in the future, but overall, I found it a little depressing because of how the modern world … well. It hasn’t exactly gotten better, especially in the housing market. I see more and more of my friends and people I know struggling just to survive and the biggest hurdle for everyone is housing. Those rich developers keep buying up properties, raising all the rents or mortgages, and trying to create worlds without “lesser” people so it’s really hard for me to watch a movie like this where a miracle does happen and those people got to keep their home. But I guess that’s why we watch fiction – it’s unrealistic and provides a sense of escapism, where we can all hope that maybe, we’ll be okay.

Batteries Not Included. Directed by Steven Spielberg, performances by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Universal Studios, 1988.

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Book Review: All Out edited by Saundra Mitchell

Posted on January 5, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The first anthology I read this year was All Out: the No Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell (historical fiction, 353 pages).

“Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens. Form a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, or two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.”

I picked up this anthology years ago, before I moved back to the west coast and only just now found it as I was unpacking even more of my boxes. I guess that’s the fun of moving across the country and buying a house – it feels like you’re unpacking boxes forever.

This was a really good anthology and I’m very glad I picked up it. I haven’t actually seen it in stores since I moved, which is maybe odd and maybe not, depending on your perspective. I feel a little bit like it’s getting harder and harder to find QUILTBAG content “in the wild” and this is a bit frustrating. There are even rumors that the current political climate in the U.S. has created a situation where a lot of QUILTBAG authors or stories have been discontinued from their publishers, as pressure from a certain political party who despises everything not like their world view forces more and more book bannings and other freedom-reducing activities.

I think the only story I struggled with was “Every Shade of Red” by Elliot Wake. The story premise was absolutely fascinating but it seemed to me to end on a very depressing note. While I do understand that the depressing note served the narrative, it’s really hard for me to continue to read story after story with queer characters who don’t get a happy ending. Most of this is because of how frequently tropes such as “bury your gays” and “the girlfriend in the fridge” are portrayed in every aspect of modern media.

Some of these stories did a great job of giving me more history on areas and situations I didn’t even know were things, like “Roja” by Anna-Marie McLemore and “Healing Rosa” by Tehlor Kay Mejia.

I think my favorite stories in the anthology were “The Dresser & the Chambermaid” by Robin Talley and “The Girl With the Blue Lantern” by Tess Sharpe. Both of these stories had a bit of amusement mixed in with a little bit of a mystery and I enjoyed them thoroughly.

Overall, I’d say the entire anthology as a whole is a four on my rating scale. I’m glad I bought it and I will likely reread it again in the future.

Mitchell, Saundra, editor. All Out. Harlequin Teen, 2018.

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Book Review: Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit

Posted on January 3, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

My first non-fiction book review for 2024 is Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit (non-fiction, 154 pages), which was a gift to me from one of my bookbinding friends.

I normally don’t read books without dragons, aliens, or magic because I’m often of the opinion that the real world isn’t a very great place and I shouldn’t have to spend my free time there, but this was a gift from a good friend and I am trying to do better about reading things I normally wouldn’t.

“In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf ’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women.”

There’s clearly a lot of research that went into this book and it was published a decade ago, which is both very interesting and very depressing. Why depressing? Because in a lot of ways, we haven’t made the kind of progress the book hopes for. I was particularly thrown when I read on page 110 about the issues with a Senate Judiciary Committee on 11 October 1991 for the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. I actually read this paragraph and then set the book down and stared off into space for a few minutes. See, I was too young to remember any of this when it actually happened, but I have vague memories of knowing the name “Anita Hill.” As it turns out, Anita Hill testified about how her boss, Clarence Thomas, made Anita Hill’s work place incredibly uncomfortable for her (I’m saying it nicely and not quoting the book because if you’re reading this book review, it means you have internet and have the ability to do a search for information on your own). This particular paragraph had such a heavy impact on me because that individual is STILL on the United States Supreme Court right now and there’s a whole bunch of ethical issues with him from my perspective and the fact that the U.S. Senate KNEW he had issues back in *1991* and STILL appointed him to his position?

Well. It’s overwhelming and depressing. And I firmly believe there’s a TON of issues with the current U.S. Supreme Court and that’s even more depressing. Rebecca Solnit in this book mentions Roe vs. Wade and the impact it had on allowing women to have control over their own bodies and lives but now Roe vs. Wade has disintegrated and we’re now living in a country where a criminal gets to run for President and States are going out of their way to make women’s health care and autonomy near impossible. The population as a whole feels like it’s getting more disenfranchised with voting in general and more hopeless as more rights keep getting taken away from minority populations.

[A random note in the middle of my book review: This is your Sign. Please. For the love of actual freedom, liberty, self-determination, and everything you hold dear, VOTE. Participate in the democratic process. Make sure you are registered to vote and vote in ALL local and primary elections. In fact, it’s never too early to make sure you’re registered. Here’s a link to some resources to help you register to vote].

Then, I was thrown back into our modern world of “how did we let things get WORSE” when on page 114, she talks about a certain party’s love affair with calling all elections that don’t work out the way they want “voter fraud.” And I just … stopped again.

While I read this book slowly (for me) and it took me probably a month to read a page or two at a time while eating my meals downstairs, it really started having a lot more context for the world we know right now at the beginning of 2024 closer to the end of the book.

By this time in the book, we’ve already been presented with a history of where we came from to get where we are. We’ve read about internationally acknowledged rape cases, societal and cultural norms getting power from keeping women’s voices out of existence, marriage, Virginia Woolf, feminism, and all the men who are threatened by women being something other than their property.

I feel a little bit like this book is like the movie Idiocracy, which started as a comedy and turned into a terrifying documentary.

Around page 141 when the book talks about Pandora’s Box (which really was actually a jar), the part that really got me here was talking about hope. I think Rebecca Solnit is absolutely correct in talking about how the jar was opened, but Pandora closed it in time to keep hope in. And, really, that’s what we need to focus on. For all that things in the broad spectrum of global events feel extra bleak right now, there are a lot of good things happening. And because we all need that reminder, here‘s a “click bait” link to a website filled with good news. But that’s also kind of the point in this part of the book – women refuse to be silenced again. Near the very, very end of the book on page 149, she talks about this being a war and there might be set backs but that we won’t quit.

And I think that’s something we all need to remember. Keep fighting, no matter how exhausted we all are. We can’t let things get worse, especially not because of easy complacency.

Overall, this is a book I never would have read if it hadn’t been gifted to me as it was, but I am actually glad I read it. I might reference it in the future but I don’t know that I would reread the whole thing, so that makes it probably a 2.5 on my rating scheme.

Solnit, Rebecca. Men Explain Things To Me. Haymarket Books, 2014.

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Book Review: Adrift In Starlight by Mindi Briar

Posted on January 1, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

One of my favorite holiday traditions is to buy two copies of a book and keep one while I send the other to a friend so we can both read the same book at the same time. The first book of my winter holiday book exchange was Adrift In Starlight by Mindi Briar (science fiction romance, 269 pages).

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.

“Titan Valentino has been offered a job they can’t refuse. Tai, a gender-neutral courtesan, receives a scandalous proposition: seduce an actor’s virgin fiancee. The money is enough to pay off Tai’s crushing medical debt, a tantalizing prospect. Too bad Aisha Malik isn’t the easy target they expect. A standoffish historian who hates to be touched, she’s laser-focused on her career, and completely unaware that her marriage has been arranged behind her back. This could be the one instance where Tai’s charm and charisma fail them. Then an accidental heist throws them together as partners in crime. Fleeing from the Authorities, they’re dragged into one adventure after another: alien planets, pirate duels, and narrow escapes from the law. As Tai and Aisha open up to each other, deeper feelings kindle between them. But that reward money still hangs over Tai’s head. Telling Aisha the truth could ruin everything … Their freedom, their career, and their blossoming love all hang in the balance. To save one might mean sacrificing the rest.”

I needed a book for the holiday book exchange and found this book mentioned on a booklist with asexual main characters. I read the poster’s bulleted lists about Adrift In Starlight and decided to give it a chance. The cover art was very gripping and the premise looked interesting. But because I don’t order books online, I went to Barnes and Noble and had them order it and send it directly to my house, which actually worked out quite well. The book arrived within a couple of days and I was able to ship it in time for it to be received before the winter holidays. Then life happened for a little bit and we didn’t wind up starting it until close to the end of the winter holidays.

We both finished reading it the same day we started, which is mildly unheard of for this particular friend. Usually, it’s a struggle to get them to read anything, but this book was instantly addictive and they started it at work and then finished it over breakfast immediately after leaving their shift. I started Adrift In Starlight as a way to pre-warm my bed and then wound up getting about halfway through before I finally needed to actually go to sleep, and then I finished it easily as soon as I woke up.

One of the best parts about this book is how it reads exactly like fanfiction. There’s a warning on the very first page, which is extremely helpful for anticipating potentially problematic content, which is something ao3 tags provide when reading fanfiction, and is very helpful in curating my reading experience.

I also very much enjoyed the black and white artwork throughout the book. I miss seeing paintings and drawings in fiction and it was quite refreshing to see that here.

SPOILERS START HERE.

I found the characters interesting and the world/universe-building fascinating. One of my very favorite parts of this book was when I found about the telepathic, teleporting SPACE DRAGONS! That’s right, you see my words correctly. This science fiction, QUILTBAG-content, space book ALSO HAS DRAGONS!

It’s like a running joke with everyone that the only things I get really distracted by are books, LEGO, and DRAGONS. I also like space a lot so combining space and dragons was pretty awesome. I’m greatly intrigued by the dragons and their relationship to the “Restorers”. I also very much appreciated taking giant space insects, giving them anxiety over being alone, and making them the “good guys” of the galaxy.

One of the reasons I say this reads like fanfiction is because you pretty much know Tai and Aisha are going to find a way to work out their differences. Fanfiction is really good at allowing people to have their emotions and acknowledging those thoughts, feelings, and emotions are valid, but then treating their reactions like mature adults. Tai and Aisha communicate to each other when they are hurt by the other’s actions and they both allow themselves and each other time to process their mistakes and their situation.

Overall, I’d probably rate this book as a four on my individual rating scheme. I’m glad I bought it and I will likely read it again.

Briar, Mindi. Adrift In Starlight. City Owl Press, 2022.

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You Have To Start Somewhere

Posted on December 31, 2023 by C.A. Jacobs

I feel more and more as though every year gets to be a bigger and bigger dumpster fire. Life gets in the way a lot and life happens a lot, and most of it is completely outside any of our control. We all have all the anxiety of a starving, exposed mouse left alone in a frozen field, staring down an equally starving hawk. The rich keep getting richer (at the expense of all those who actually do the work), the poor keep getting poorer (and technology makes it harder for them to escape poverty), and whatever remains of the “middle class” is one catastrophe away from poverty themselves.

A sense of deep hopelessness invades a lot of my conversations with many of my friends. Even though we all come from vastly different backgrounds and are spread out across the country, and even the world, with vastly different situations, we’re all struggling in many of the same ways. Companies and corporations continue to force workers to give up more of their bodies, lives, friends, and families for soul-sucking work that won’t even advance the worker’s careers or do anything other than support corporate waste and the greed of the small few. Affordable housing and the American Dream get farther and farther away from each subsequent generation. And those in power really like being in power so they buy lobbyists and politicians to create laws to benefit those greedy few instead of taking care of the actual populace.

With all that in mind, You Have To Start Somewhere.

You can’t go back in time and make minor changes in order to make things easier for yourself now.

You can only start where you are, in this exact situation, at this exact time.

What does that even mean?

Let’s say Life Happened and your physical health deteriorated more than you are comfortable with, but now you want your wardrobe back, or you want to be able to pick up your adorable puppy as they get older, or you want to be healthier in case this truly is the end of the world as we know it. But the issue with getting healthier (so you don’t get out of breath just walking up a flight of stairs or walking to the bus or whatever) is the length of time and the effort required before you start seeing tangible results. When I talk about starting somewhere, all you need to do is a little at a time. Maybe you could find someone whose company you enjoy and you could start by going on a walk around the neighborhood together. If you don’t have anyone local, maybe find someone you could call and both of you can walk around your own areas wherever it’s safe for you to be a pedestrian. This gives you social time while also getting you out of the house and outside.

Getting started is always the hardest part, at least it is for me. But once I’m moving, the laws of physics seem to apply really well, specifically the part about how an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Once I’ve actually started doing something, it tends to be easier for me to maintain it than it does to just sit around and have anxiety about how much things have changed or how hard things are now.

You have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is wherever you are right now.

This applies to everything, even with everything going on in the world right now (and there’s certainly a LOT of things going on in the world right now).

Dissatisfied with the current political climate? Make sure you vote in your primaries and local elections, or even run for office yourself! Attend school board meetings, local community meetings, question and answer sessions with local representatives, email or write letters to your elected officials, and understand that you have a responsibility to make the world a better place for the generations after us, even if all you have the energy for is to vote. Your vote matters and can do more than you think, especially at the local level and in the early parts of major elections.

Feeling lonely all the time? Go to your library and find just one in-person thing that sounds like fun. Look up local craft guilds, hobbies, clubs, or activities you’ve always wanted to learn about, find out where they’re meeting, then go there. Participate in your community. Meet your neighbors. Send physical cards and letters to people you haven’t heard from. Visit assisted living facilities to play board games with people who may not have visitors. Even stacked with disabilities, there’s almost always a way to connect with other humans. And just using the internet won’t cut it, especially not these days.

Find yourself getting stuck all the time and not making progress on that Huge Thing you want to do? Like writing a book or doing a research project? Write 100 words a day, read one research section a day, or break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

There will never be a perfect time to do That Thing. You will never just magically wake up with the drive, motivation, time, and planning to fulfill your life of “if/then” statements.

But you can start somewhere. You can start here. You can start now. You can start with even the smallest thing, because those small things add up to be much bigger things. Every small thing is progress and is good. There will be days in the future where you might feel like you’re taking two steps backward for every one step forward but there really isn’t a better time to take those tiny small steps.

Don’t give up.
Don’t quit.
Take a tiny step.
I believe in you.
Start somewhere.
Start here.
Start now.

And I’ll be there with you, cheering you on, and taking my own small steps 🙂

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Book Review: The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

Posted on October 17, 2023 by C.A. Jacobs

Earlier this week, I read The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai (fantasy, 368 pages).

“As a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she’s limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go – crushed under her father’s gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into a wealthy merchant family. Her new spouse, Nico, is indifferent and distant and in love with another woman, a bookseller named Giorgina. Giorgina has her own secret, however: she is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. She has no money and no prospects. her only solace comes from her activities with the Daughters of Izdihar, a radical women’s rights group at the forefront of a movement with a simple goal: for women to have a say in their own lives. They live very different lives and come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think. The cause – and Nico – brings them into each other’s orbit, drawn in by the group’s enigmatic leader, Malak Mamdouh, and the urge to do what is right. But their problems may seem small in the broader context of their world, as tensions are rising with a neighboring nation that desires an end to weaving and weavers. As Nehal and Giorgiana fight for their rights, the threat of war looms in the background, and the two women find themselves struggling to earn – and keep – a lasting freedom.”

This books was absolutely fantastic and I enjoyed it thoroughly! This book was recommended to me by my local librarian, who knows I particularly enjoy books with women protagonists without the mandatory cishet romance plot. While there is a male/female relationship in the story, none of the relationships follow traditional western narratives.

I’ve actually discussed this book at length with several of my friends as I recommended it to them. I think one of the most interesting parts of this story is the difference from modern western-style fantasy stories. The main cultures here are strongly based on middle eastern societies and there’s so many cultural differences between my own life and the world-building in this story that I was extremely tempted to do more research, especially in regards to women’s rights. There certainly are a number of cultures in our modern society where women are still seen as only wives, mothers, and caretakers and aren’t allowed their own individual freedom. While this is a fantasy story, I feel as though women’s rights around the world are still mostly seen as an afterthought, even here in the United States.

The main point of discussion for me with this story was how this book clearly shows how difficult living under societally enforced gender standards is for everyone involved. In world of The Daughters of Izdihar, women aren’t allowed to do anything without the permission of their husbands, or if they’re not yet married, their parents. Women are seen as inferior to men and not able to hold their own finances, vote, or have any say in their own lives. Only the approval of the man in your life can grant you the ability to work and women are expected to be slaves to the whims of men.

But one of the most heart-wrenching parts of this book for me was when you have a woman, Giorgina, who has worked so hard to maintain the best reputation and to do all the things she’s supposed to and it still doesn’t protect her from being prodded by a stranger. There were so many other instances of women’s lack of agency but to show how even when you do everything “right”, you can still suffer was a pretty powerful point. I think it’s a little more poignant because there are so many people all over the world who either still view women only as breeders and homemakers and many more in western society who want to return to a world where women have no rights of their own. It’s a dangerous time to be a woman, both in this book and in the real world.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. I’m happy I read it, I will definitely read it again, and I look forward to reading the sequel when it comes out.

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