oh i also wanted to mention that i've been volunteering with the prison library support network and really enjoying it! i thought i would post about it in case anyone else is interested bc i know there are a lot of library/library-adjacent people and abolitionists #onhere.
plsn is an abolitionist volunteer org whose primary service is reference, so answering questions and providing resource access to people inside, and you can volunteer to either be a part of processing their incoming/outgoing mail or otherwise to actually help answer the reference questions, which is what i've been doing. you don't have to be a librarian to volunteer; they will teach you how to do reference and there are templates and faqs to help you every step of the way. plsn is based in new york but they answer mail from facilities all over the country, and you can participate remotely + asynchronously even if you live elsewhere or outside the u.s. it's also a low time commitment - they ask you to answer at least 4 letters per year, though of course you can do as many as you want - the only time-sensitive part is that once you claim a letter, they ask you to answer it within 5 days.
it's an opt-in system where you to choose the letters you'd like to answer and you're never required to answer a letter that you don't want to; i would say based on my experience so far that there is a particular need for volunteers who are interested in helping letter writers access erotica; people frequently write in requesting written erotica, photos of celebrities, pornstars, and cartoon characters, etc. and volunteers' job is to provide that while keeping within whatever specific facility guidelines apply so that the resources can actually make it back into prison without being rejected by censors. there are also so many letters about different games and gaming systems, especially magic the gathering; i had no idea how many people inside are playing magic the gathering! plus tons of requests for different books and articles either in part or in whole, so it is also a lot of straight resource acquisition.
there's information about how to get involved here, how to get trained for reference here, and/or you can check out their instagram -- i'm also happy to chat about my experience if it would be helpful to anyone!
I threw together a little rec list for fans of Murderbot :)
This is aimed at fans of the novellas and the TV show and I tried to capture various different elements of the story and characters.
Text of slides below the cut
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
Adult science fiction novella
Imagine Sherlock and Watson if Watson was a sentient, traumatized spaceship and Sherlock was a human detective investigating a murder
Faster-than-light travel, deep space unreality, mind-altering herbal teas
Spaceship POV
The spaceship really enjoys reading/watching period dramas
Vietnamese-inspired sci fi setting
No romance
One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adult science fiction novella
The grumpy last survivor of a catastrophic time war lives a solitary life…until other time travellers try to disrupt his carefully curated retirement
The main character has a pet dinosaur
Darkly funny, misanthropic narrator
If you liked Murderbot’s first-person POV in the books, you’ll probably enjoy the narrative voice of this novella
The Butterfly Assassin by Finn Longman
Young adult dystopian thriller set in a walled city ruled by assassin guilds
Isabel Ryans is a former child assassin and the daughter of a notorious scientist
Wanting nothing more than to live a normal life, she escapes and assumes a civilian identity…but finds her past and her assassin training harder to leave behind than she’d hoped
“Raised as weapon” character grappling with violence, morality, and friendship
Aromantic asexual main character with PTSD and severe hand scarring
No romance
The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmooor
Adult dark fantasy novella
Scythulf, a wolf shapeshifter, was raised to be nothing more than a pit fighter until he’s rescued by Brennus, a knight who offers him a new life
When Scythulf accidentally kills a corrupted nun, his only chance at redemption is to run with the Wild Hunt, a trial of blood and courage
“Raised to be a weapon” protagonist; aspec rep; strong platonic bonds
Aroace protagonist; aroace nonbinary queerplatonic partner, queernorm fantasy world
No romance
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Adult science fiction novel
A motley spaceship crew finds adventure and friendship on their voyages through the universe
Episodic storytelling and found family dynamics
Interesting alien characters and cultures
Queer characters + F/F relationship
Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura
Adult fantasy novel
Adrien Desfourneax, a disgraced physician turned professor of magic, finds himself investigating a dangerous curse while grappling with his own mental health and a dangerous ally
Gay main character with bipolar disorder; autistic-coded side character
If you love rotating TV!Gurathin in your mind, you will probably find Adrien a very interesting character
Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Young adult fantasy/dystopia
A young ghost hunter joins forces with the ghost of a supersoldier to traverse the underworld in search of the lost ghost of his partner and answers about their post-apocalyptic world
Characters shaped by ruthless dystopian worlds learning to claim their autonomy and identity
Strong M/F friendships that don’t turn into romance
Aroace-coded main character + no romance
Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie
YA science fiction novel
Hundreds of years in the future, the last survivors of the human race travel through space in a fleet of ships, searching for a new habitable planet to settle
When two girls join the order of cyborg soldiers who keep order in the fleet, they find themselves questioning their loyalties as violence brews
Explores bodily autonomy and privacy through sci fi elements
Main characters of color + ace main character
No romance
The Outside by Ada Hoffman
Adult science fiction novel
Cosmic horror x space opera
In a galaxy ruled by AI gods and their ruthless cyborg-angels, young prodigy scientist Yasira develops new technology that could change the trajectory of humanity–until her work backfires and is declared heretical
Offered her life in exchange for hunting down her vanished heretical mentor, Yasira must decide who to trust as her world’s fate hangs in the balance
Autistic lesbian main character of color
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Adult satirical science fiction novel
Ensign Andrew Dahl is excited for his new position on board the the starship Intrepid…until he begins to realize there’s a mysterious pattern of low-level ensigns like himself dramatically dying on missions…and the reason why might reshape his very understanding of reality
For the enjoyers of the TV’s take on Sanctuary Moon being a Star Trek parody
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
Adult science fiction novel
Anti-colonial space heist
Maya Hoshimoto, an art thief turned grad student, finds herself pulled into one last job to retrieve an artifact that could save an alien species–and possibly doom humanity
Alien-human friendships, explorations of sentience and consciousness
Japanese diaspora main character with chronic migraines
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
Adult science fiction inspired by classic horror stories
Demeter is a spaceship that transports humans across galaxies–except her passengers keep dying in mysterious paranormal murders
To prevent herself from being decommissioned, Demeter must track down the ultimate evil behind her passengers’ deaths: Dracula
In a near-future dystopian America, salvager Valentine runs odd jobs in the wastelands of Utah in hopes of earning enough for the gender-affirming care he desperately needs
When he encounters Osric, an AI forced into an android body, he’s offered a job that could pay him everything he needs–but at the cost of his own morals
Explores sentience and autonomy through a science fiction lense
Android/human romance
Gay, trans man main character with ADHD; gay main character
Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot
Adult science fiction novel
In a galaxy ruled by three warring rival factions, gunslinging inventor-turned-thief Rig has abandoned her former faction and is happy as a rebel–until her former faction ransoms her twin sister for what she stole from them
Alongside her librarian girlfriend, a mysterious bounty hunter, and a network of resistance contacts, Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister–and maybe tear down the factions for good
Rip-roaring romp of a sci fi story full of action
Alien protagonists
Lesbian main character; amputee representation
Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden
Adult science fiction novella
Scorn is a state-of-the-art AI investigator who becomes entangled in brewing corporate warfare
When Scorn wakes up one day day on the moon with no memory of zir past ten days, ze begins a hunt into zir own past that leads them to uncover far more explosive truths than ze could have expected
obsessed with mass market paperbacks. their pleasing rectangular proportions. how they fit badly in a hoodie pocket so you can drag them around everywhere with you like a temporary little buddy. the way they fit in your hand because they're MADE for human hands and not as bookshelf decoration. the way the pages feel when you riffle them gently with your thumb. How pristine and crisp they look when you get them and how creased and folded they look when you're done, even if you try to be nice to them. how that wear is okay, how that's correct actually, because they're made with the philosophy that books aren't meant to be PRETTY, they're meant to be read. that little ripple new ones get on the left side from where you hold them when you're reading, the way the ripple only goes as far as you've read, because u change stories by reading as they are changing you. how you can find thousands of these creased and folded and loved little dudes in every thrift store and used book shop and neighborhood library and you can instantly see the ones that someone carried around in a backpack for weeks or read to pieces or gave up on halfway through because they wear being read like fresh snow wears footprints. I love these poorly made, subpar little rectangles so much. truly the people's books.
The group chat officially deemed me an “eccentric” just because I’m doing an Argonian ichthyologist play-through of Skyrim rn where my character is writing a thesis on Cyrodilic Spadetails and I shared the character’s hypothetical research folder that I created to help with my immersion in the role.
Like sorry I take the RP in RPG seriously but how else would I get into the headspace of a character who is only slaying dragons to sell their bones and fund research that will hopefully be published in the Tamriel Journal of Limnetic Science??
There really really ought to be a book about how the staple crops of different civilizations shape and influence those civilizations, and I really want to read it.
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (three are alcohol, three have caffeine) are not quite that, but may still be of interest?
I read Salt back in the day and it's so so good, second the rec. I have heard of 6 Glasses and not read it but I am sure I would probably love it. Gotta see if the library has it. Thank you!
A Short History Of The World According To Sheep by Sally Coulthard blew my mind. So many things are tied to wool and sheep and weaving and so many words and phrases are tied to wool, people have no idea.
Example words which come from textiles/weaving, if not specifically wool (go look them up!): subtle, shoddy, tabby, Brazil, rocket, twit, warped, going batty, on tenterhooks, text...
I'll throw in a rec for Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard - a very interesting look at food preservation and how the availability of different types of food preservation shaped cultures and cuisines.
The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past might also be up your alley. It's about "forgotten" foods and staples. They talk about different types of wheat, sauces, veggies, etc and a little about the cultures from whence they come
DO I HAVE A SERIES FOR YOU. University of California Press has a gift for you and it is a 80+ book series on food studies. There are even some that are open access (legally free), but the rest are in libraries.
I also highly recommend Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It’s about the impact refrigeration has had/is having on food preservation and culture, globally. It was one of my favorite books of this last year.
Well, this is fun: Cards Against Humanity have apparently released a new version where every joke on every card is fully explained, turning the game into an "Informational product" to make it 100% exempt from Trump's tarriffs:
between this and the library that did the "what would we grab in a fire" video (that later ironically actually had a fire), I think librarians promoting their libraries might be the funniest people on the internet.
[Video description: A short-form video set in front of a library circulation desk, with a librarian falling backward in a trust fall. The other librarian, who is supposed to catch their falling coworker, walks away at the last minute. The camera follows them away as a third librarian in the background rushes off screen toward the falling librarian and a loud thud. The librarian who walked away says "You can't trust everyone. But you can trust the New Berlin Public Library to give you access, for free, to hundreds of books, great programming, and resources." The camera cuts back to the fallen librarian sprawled on the ground groaning, while the third librarian looks down at them with her hands on her face in an expression of shock. /description]
New Berlin Public Library doesn't have a tumblr, but they DO have a merch store that includes shirts that say "You can trust us." Amazing.
btw for people asking where I get my reading recs: I recommend IndigenousBookshelf on IG for ideas, and even without IG you can access the Indigenous Bookshelf Bookshop:
Exploring books by Indigenous/POGM/queer/disabled authors from around the world. A space to connect, share stories, and examine works that r
– 92% of respondents reported feeling somewhat to very “calm / peaceful” after visiting the Library
– 74% of respondents reported that their library use positively affects how equipped they feel to cope with the world
– 90% of respondents reported that their Library use positively affects how much they love to learn new things
– 88% of respondents reported that their Library use has supported their personal growth
