Format: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5261-5155-1 Pages: 304 Price: £19.99 Published Date: June 2023 Published by Manchester University Press
DESCRIPTION
In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the crusade against sugar rose to prominence as an urgent societal problem about which something needed to be done. Sugar was transformed into the common enemy in a revived ‘war on obesity’ levelled at ‘unhealthy’ foods and the people who enjoy them. Are the evils of sugar based on purely scientific fact, or are other forces at play?
Sugar rush explores the social life of sugar in its rise to infamy. The book reveals how competing understandings of the ‘problem’ of sugar are smoothed over through appeals to science and the demonization of fatness, with politics and popular culture preying on our anxieties about what we eat. Drawing on journalism, government policy, public health campaigns, self-help books, autobiographies and documentaries, the book argues that this rush to blame sugar is a phenomenon of its time, finding fertile ground in the era of austerity and its attendant inequalities.
Inviting readers to resist the comforting certainties of the attack on sugar, Sugar Rush shows how this actually represents a politics of despair, entrenching rather than disrupting the inequality-riddled status quo.
My Review
Throsby uses a variety of sources from 2016 to 2019 to interrogate the focus on sugar are ‘the’ bad nutrient. She links this to pre-existing food hysterias, and austerity, with its focus on punishing the poor, the fat, the abject Other.
The structure of this book is that of an academic textbook, with an introduction, sources used, and chapter conclusions, while the writing is more like that one would find in a popular science book, easy to read and understand. The tone is one of enquiry and interest, rather than anger or scoffing at the writers of the source materials. The arguments and conclusions are supported strongly and are convincing, at least to this reader.
I highly recommend this to fat activists, disability rights activists, anyone interested in social equity, and dietitians. Really considering buying a copy to give my dietitian…
Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City – a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition is free, the food is plentiful, and folk are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream, until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric.
Once a powerful AI in Salt Lake City, Osric has been forced into an android body against his will and sent into the wasteland to offer Valentine a job on behalf of his new employer – an escort service seeking to retrieve their stolen androids. The reward is a visa into the city, and a chance at the life Valentine’s always dreamed of. But as they attempt to recover the “merchandise”, they encounter a problem: the android ladies are becoming self-aware, and have no interest in returning to their old lives.
The prize is tempting, but carrying out the job would go against everything Valentine stands for, and would threaten the fragile found family that’s kept him alive so far. He’ll need to decide whether to risk his own dream in order to give the AI a chance to live theirs.
World Running Down is Al Hess’s first traditionally published novel; he is also an incredible artist. Check out his instagram! He also has a website.
Content warnings (from Al Hess’ website):profanity; alcohol use; M/M open door sex and sexual elements; brief violence; brief misgendering and transphobia; body dysphoria; abduction; classism; risk of forced sex trafficking; toxic friendship/codependency; a fictional denomination of Mormonism and discussion of religion
Rep: trans, gay, lesbian, non-binary, and (briefly mentioned) polyamorous rep; M/M romance ADHD main character (some people have claimed Valentine for Team Autistic as well, and I am totally okay with that!)
My Review
I picked this book up from the Angry Robot Books stall at FantasyCon, and got a very cool art card with it, drawings of Valentine and Osric. Al Hess did the drawings and the cover of his book. I want the rest of the postcards Al drew for the characters but I don’t think they’re available anymore. I think I’m part of the Angry Robot blog tour for Al Hess’ next book, Key Lime Sky, later in the year. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve also signed up for Hess’ newsletter, so I’ve got the ebook for a pre-curser to World Running Down to read.
The plot: Valentine Weiss is a scavenger in a future Utah, where the cities are a haven of free healthcare, transport and education, where there is food in abundance and stable housing. Outside of the heavily guarded cities are small settlements and encampments living on marginalised land, home to marginalised people – the religious conservatives, the social conservatives, the Queer and the poor. To get in to Salt Lake City, with the medical care he needs – testosterone and surgery – he needs a visa and to pass a citizenship test. But that requires money.
With his friend, Ace, or Audrey, who is hoping to get a visa so she can join her distant family in the city, he takes on various jobs out in the dangerous salt flats and mountains. The pair run fuel runs for small settlements, fight off salt pirates, and search for anyway to make money. One a job to drop off fuel, they find a messenger waiting for them.
This is Osric, an AI Steward forced into an android body. Osric doesn’t understand his body, or what it needs – food, water, sleep, going to the toilet. He’s overwhelmed by all the sensations, and irritated by clothes. So he spends a lot of time taking his clothes off, and only putting them on when he really has to.
Valentine is very attracted to Osric, first physically, and then, getting to know him, to his kindness, intelligence and empathy. Valentine feels so much empathy for his new friend, he’s overwhelmed by care for him, and for everyone else. He helps Osric with basic human tasks and then listens to his message. A job, as yet unknown, for a wealthy person in Salt Lake, with the reward of clothes and a visa.
The clothes are important. Valentine feels more himself in a suit. It helps him cope with his dysphoria. Ace loves the dresses. The trio head to Salt Lake, where an interaction with another Steward at the reception centre helps Osric understand more about how he ended up in an android body, and to set in motion events that would change society, although they don’t know it. The job turns out to be a retrieval of goods – eight female androids stolen by a former brothel manager. Osric, we discover, has been embodied to be the new manager, while Valentine and Audrey are need to recover the androids.
The trio go back out on the road after some contretemps in the brothel, and soon find the androids in a camp of Mormon salt pirates. An awl used as a weapon brings about the discovery that the androids are gaining sentience, and they really don’t want to go back to the brothel.
This brings Audrey and Valentine into conflict. He won’t force sentient beings into being escorts if they don’t want to, but she is desperate for the visa that will get her to her family. Osric needs to go back whether he wants to or not. His body is owned by the brothel, and he wants to return to the collective of the Stewards. What will they do?
Hess is an autistic, trans writer, and I can tell. Not that I’m judging, I really appreciate the representation. Osric is right; clothes are itchy and uncomfortable! I often don’t wear clothes if I can avoid it.
Not being a dread pirate, I can’t tell you how accurate his portrayal of the internal experience of ADHD is, or the struggles with dyscalculia the Valentine clearly has. I do have a lot of AuADHD and ADHD colleagues, friends and relatives, so I can recognise the external manifestations. I also get the frustrations with the world and with people who don’t get it, or won’t take the time to understand.
I identified strongly with both Valentine and Osric, and their struggles with embodiment and identity. It brought up some stuff, okay, I’m working on it. Can I be an android, please? There’s a lot of emotional angst and conflict while the pair work out what they feel and what they want to do. It hurt. I loved it.
Al Hess writes ‘cosy sci-fi’ and I like it. The story are domestic and emotionally charged, placed in a future world that is both better and worse. In the cities, life is materially great, if you don’t think about what’s outside. Life outside if the cities is brutal, but there is love and community, even if it’s hard to get food and medical care. It’s morally complex and questions the utopian ideals of some sci fi.
It’s cosy, gay and neurodivergent adventure in the desert and I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading more by Hess. I have already ordered a copy for someone and recommended it be added to the fiction section of the Little Neurodivergent Library at work.
Format: 392 pages, Paperback Published: January 1, 2014 by Heron Books ISBN: 9781848664791 (ISBN10: 1848664796) Language: English
Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It’s a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes – including why as embroyos we have what look like gills – to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.
My Review
The book takes the foetal development from before ovum and sperm meet to birth, and going from head to toe, to discuss both foetal development and evolution. The author is uniquely place to write this sort of book, having spent years as both a scientist and a science communicator. I enjoyed Alice Roberts’ documentaries that I’ve seen, and this book from ten years ago holds up well, although the science continues to move on.
I found this book really interesting. I have some background in biology, but not a huge amount, I only did a year of university chemistry, mostly biochemistry and molecular biology. I suspect if you didn’t manage to pass GCSE biology and don’t watch documentaries, you might struggle with this book, but for the reasonably educated, it’s a good book. It’s a foundation at least, for university study. It’s not a textbook however, it is written with a general audience on mind. If you enjoy Dr Roberts’ documentary series’ you’ll be fine with this book.
I giggled at the occasional digs at creationists, because they deserve it for their wilful ignorance. If you’re sensitive about that, you probably need a slightly less advanced book before you get to this one. And you need to escape whatever cult you’re in that’s stopping you from getting an education…
Format: 224 pages, Paperback Published: November 30, 2023 by Pluto Press ISBN: 9780745348667 (ISBN10: 0745348661) Language: English
Blurb
Neurodiversity is on the rise. Awareness and diagnoses have exploded in recent years, but we are still missing a wider understanding of how we got here and why. Beyond simplistic narratives of normativity and difference, this groundbreaking book exposes the very myth of the ‘normal’ brain as a product of intensified capitalism.
Exploring the rich histories of the neurodiversity and disability movements, Robert Chapman shows how the rise of capitalism created an ‘empire of normality’ that transformed our understanding of the body into that of a productivity machine. Neurodivergent liberation is possible – but only by challenging the deepest logics of capitalism. Empire of Normality is an essential guide to understanding the systems that shape our bodies, minds and deepest selves – and how we can undo them.
Robert Chapman is a neurodivergent philosopher who has taught at King’s College London and Bristol University. They are currently Assistant Professor in Critical Neurodiversity Studies at Durham University. They blog at Psychology Today and at Critical Neurodiversity .
My Review
Robert Chapman works with a couple of neurodivergent academics (Hi Louise and Anna 1 )I know, so I heard about this book months before it was published and pre-ordered it as soon as I could. There was a problem with the publisher’s computer system and my pre-order was lost so I had to re-order it. I did end up getting a discount because of that though, so I’m not complaining. I also ordered a few other books from Pluto Press, which I will get around to reading and reviewing. Eventually.
This book was an absolute joy to read. Chapman explores the history of neurodivergent people and the disability and neurodiversity rights movements. They explicate and critique anti-psychiatry, Freudianism and other areas of psychiatry, and confirming what I’ve said for years, capitalism is to blame for everything!
No, seriously, think about it.
Why do we have to be machines that happily work set shifts every day doing repetitive uncreative tasks? Capitalism.
Why do we have to fight for any form of social support? Capitalism.
Why are so many more people struggling with their mental health? Capitalism.
We live in a society where everything has a price and if you can’t produce you are a drain on society. The Tories have placed the blame and burden of austerity firmly on disabled people. Neolibralism, that monster set loose by Thatcher on our social and educational systems, pushes things further than ever before, and now we have fascism rearing its ugly head again. This is not hyperbole and if you think it is, you haven’t been listening to disability rights and neurodivergent rights activists, anyone who gives a damn about civil society or social equity.
I tried to say similar things to Chapman in my booklet about neurodivergent history, and couldn’t quite express myself the way I wanted to or get the message I wanted across. Part of that was lack of theoretical background (I am not a philosopher) and part was the funding source. Can’t write a socialist history or a manifesto for neurodivergent equality when you’re getting government funding and working for a non-partisan charity.
Yes, I liked this book because it agrees with my personal politics2, but that’s not the only reason. Chapman writes clearly, fluently, and makes convincing arguments for their position. They explain and explore history, making connections between different areas that might not be clear, although their examples show that other people have made those same connections in the past. By putting the neurodivergent experience in the context of capitalism, viewing the changing place of neurodivergent people through a Marxist lens, we can see the connections between the way capitalism has narrowed our lives and shaped the paradigm through which we are viewed by society, the medical and political system, and how they choose to treat us.
I have already recommended this book to several people and will be asking for a copy for our Little Neurodivergent Library at work.
Insert mad waving here. They’re all a part of the Medical Humanities Department at the University of Durham, my alma mater, not that Durham would admit that I ever went there. ↩︎
Burn it down, pull it out by the roots, start all over again with an equitable society from the beginning. ↩︎
Format: 120 pages, Hardcover Published: September 12, 2023 by Tordotcom ISBN: 781250851437 (ISBN10: 1250851432)
Description
The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest.
Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass – and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honouring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve.
But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . .
The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entrypoint.
Format: 245 pages, Hardcover Published: November 14, 2023 by Tor Publishing Group/Tordotcom ISBN:9781250826978 (ISBN10: 1250826977)
Description
Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.
Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.
But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 