#joseph hopkinson

[shannonselin]

Joseph Hopkinson by Thomas Sully

Joseph Hopkinson, a close friend of Napoleon’s brother Joseph, was born in Philadelphia on November 12, 1770. Hopkinson was a lawyer, musician, writer, politician and judge. He and his wife, Emily, hosted a lively salon and mentored artists and writers.  One of the things Hopkinson was renowned for during his lifetime was writing “Hail Columbia.” This was the de facto national anthem of the United States for most of the 19th century. It remained a contender until 1931, when “The Star-Spangled Banner” officially gained the title. “Hail Columbia” is now the official Vice Presidential anthem. For details, see “Joseph Hopkinson, Joseph Bonaparte’s Great Friend.”

[lizabethstucker]

The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2022 edited by Rebecca Roanhorse (guest) & John Joseph Adams

4 out of 5 stars.

This is a collection of twenty of the best science fiction and fantasy short stories published in North America during 2021 as selected by guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse, author of "Black Sun", among other books.

A Netgalley ARC provided courtesy of HarperCollins, the scheduled publication date is November 1, 2022.

Contents:

"10 Steps to a Whole New You" by Tonya Liburd "The Pizza Boy" by Meg Elison "If the Martians Have Magic" by P. Djeli Clark "Delete Your First Memory for Free" by Kel Colman "The Red Mother" by Elizabeth Bear "The Cold Calculations" by Aimee Ogden "The Captain and the Quartermaster" by C. L. Clark "Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story" by Nalo Hopkinson "I Was a Teenage Space Jockey" by Stephen Graham Jones "Let All the Children Boogie" by Sam J. Miller "Skinder's Veil" by Kelly Link "The Algorithm Will See You Now" by Justin C. Key "The Cloud Lake Unicorn" by Karen Russel "Proof by Induction" by Jose Pablo Iriarte "Colors of the Immortal Palette" by Caroline M. Yoachim "The Future Library" by Peng Shepherd "L'Esprit de L'Escalier" by Catherynne M. Valente "Tripping Through Time" by Rich Larson "The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han" by Maria Dong "Root Rot" by Fargo Tbakhi

A fantastic collection of stories with varying degrees of fantasy and science fiction woven within. The collection, in my opinion, tends to lean more towards fantasy or a mixture of the two rather than pure SF. A couple even have subtle touches of horror elements.

The main focus of all the stories is people, not hardware, not technology, and not magic, although all three do enter into the kickoff of many of the stories. People, as all really good SF and Fantasy should center on, their emotions, their reactions to what is happening, and their interpersonal relationships to others. Some of these stories touched me deeply, one made me cry, and all made me think.

In all honesty, I couldn't pick a favorite. In various ways they all had something important to say, many of them falling under the increasingly popular and widespread environmental science fiction subcategory. Would I recommend this collection and to whom? Yes, most definitely I would to all readers who like thought provoking fiction, no love or even experience with SFF required.

[brokehorrorfan]

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror will be published on October 3 via Random House. It's curated by filmmaker Jordan Peele, who also provides an introduction and serves as editor with John Joseph Adams.

It features short stories by Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L.D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.

The 400-page book will be available in hardcover, e-book, and audio book. The synopsis is below.

The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation. A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world... and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Pre-order Out There Screaming.

[usunezukoinezu]

Orlando di Lasso - Gloria della 'Missa dixit Joseph'

Hopkinson Smith & Paul O'Dette - lute

Duetti Italiani

[bookclub4m]

Episode 158 - Audiobook Fiction

This episode we’re talking about Audiobook Fiction! We discuss narrators vs casts, sound effects, music, adaptations, footnotes, and more! Plus: How do you picture the hosts in your mind when you listen to us?

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, narrated by a full cast

Coasting Trade by Robin McGrath, narrated by Robert Joy, Rick Boland, and Anita Best 

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell, narrated by Tanya Eby

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, narrated by Nancy Wu

What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, narrated by Hillary Huber

Other Media We Mentioned

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Hexagonal Phases (Wikipedia)

The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama) (Wikipedia)

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

Welcome to Nightvale (podcast)

Mostly Void, Partially Stars: Welcome to Night Vale Episodes #1 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

99% Invisible (podcast)

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt

The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Control (video game)

Control || Talking Simulator

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson, narrated by Rebecca Soler, Jonathan Davis, and Marc Thompson

The Stanley Parable (Wikipedia) (it’s not quite as narrated as Matthew and Jam implied)

Official website

Gadsby (novel) by Ernest Vincent Wright (Wikipedia)

“does not include any words that contain the letter E”

A Void by Georges Perec (Wikipedia)

“entirely without using the letter e”

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My Brain is Different: Histoires of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders by MONNZUSU

Project X: Challengers - Seven Eleven by Tadashi Ikuta and Namoi Kimura

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, narrated by Ray Porter

The Sandman (audiobook version)

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, narrated by Marin Ireland

 House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Links, Articles, and Things

Episode 133 - Flash Fiction

Episode 108 - Visual Novels

Serre - Kinda bilingual anglos play French-language Visual Novel

Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks

Audie Awards

Turns Out Not Everyone Can Picture Things In Their Mind And Sorry, What?

Lowly Worm (Wikipedia)

Let's Play (Wikipedia)

Oulipo (Wikipedia)

24-hour comic

Episode 047b - Terrible Stories by Matthew (you have been warned)

Episode 142 - Sequels and 2022: The Year of Book Two

ISO 8601 (Wikipedia) (date standard)

June Is #audiomonth: Narrator Trading Cards Giveaway

Two-Fisted Library Stories (Twitter bot) 

Digital Accessible Information System (Wikipedia)

20 Fiction Audiobooks written & read by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors and Narrators

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen, narrated by Catherine Ho

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, narrated by the author

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson, narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe, Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Sheree Renée Thomas; narrated by Janelle Monae and Bahni Turpin

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley, narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, narrated by Nancy Wu

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, narrated by Robin Miles

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi, narrated by Adepero Oduye

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka, narrated by Traci Kato-Kiriyama

The Beadworkers by Beth Piatote narrated by the author, Christian Nagler, Fantasia Painter, Drew Woodson, Phillip Cash Cash and Keevin Hesuse

Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma, narrated by Soneela Nankani, Sunil Malhotra and Vikas Adam

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, narrated by Cherise Boothe

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto, narrated by Risa Mei

The Strangers by Katherena Vermette, narrated by Michaela Washburn

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, narrated by the author

Zone One by Colson Whitehead, narrated by Beresford Bennett

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, narrated by Kyla Garcia

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, narrated by Joel de la Fuente

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, September 20th when we’ll be discussing the winner of our “we all read the same book” poll and discussing Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart!

Then on Tuesday, October 4th we’ll be talking about the genre of Fictional Biographies!

[ultraheydudemestuff]

Alta Public Library

12510 Mayfield Rd.

Cleveland , OH

Alta Public Library is a historic library building in Cleveland, Ohio. Designed by noted New York City architect George B. Post, the building (completed in 1914) was an addition to the existing Alta House, a settlement house for the Italian American community in Cleveland. Although Alta House burned in 1980 and was demolished in 1981, the library survived undamaged. In 1895, billionaire oilman John D. Rockefeller, Sr. agreed to fund the construction of a settlement house consisting of a kindergarten and day care nursery in the Little Italy area of Cleveland, Ohio. It was named Alta House, in honor of Rockefeller's daughter, Alta. Charles W. Hopkinson, a noted local architect, was commissioned to design the building, which opened in 1899. In 1910, Rockefeller agreed to fund the expansion of Alta House to include a gym, library, and swimming pool. George B. Post designed the Neoclassical addition to Alta House as well as the library. The library opened on February 10, 1914.

    A fire struck the Alta House portion of the complex on June 22, 1980, doing $40,000 in damage. A second fire on July 1 caused $8,000 in damages.   Both fires were later believed to be arson, although over time an electrical fault was found to be the cause of the first fire.   Arsonists struck the building again twice more in the following weeks, although each blaze was small. The cumulative effect of the fires was to force Alta House programs to use the Alta Public Library building for programming. City officials determined that the damage to Alta House was too extensive, and condemned the structure on November 12, 1980. Alta House officials decided to tear down the structure after determining that the cost of repairs would be more than $1 million, and that no company would insure the structure.  Only the main building was razed, saving the Alta House swimming pool and gymnasium. The Alta Public Library was undamaged.

     A new structure to house Alta House opened in May 1982. This consisted of a much smaller building (essentially a wing of the library), two stories in height.  Bocce courts replaced much of the site of the old building. The Alta Public Library was listed with the National Register of Historic Places on October 4, 2005.  In 2016, the Alta Public Library received a major refurbishment. Overseen by Cleveland architect Joseph Linek, the $1.6 million renovation (partially funded by $240,000 in historic preservation tax credits) included conservation, restoration, and refurbishment of the original oak floors, window wells, windows, and cornice brickwork. The Cleveland Montessori School joined the library in taking up residence in the renovated structure.

[resilientgatevalve]

Revolutionizing Steam Engines The Power of the Parallel Slide Valve

Introduction

In the annals of engineering history, few inventions have had as profound an impact on the industrial revolution as the steam engine. Its ability to harness the power of steam revolutionized transportation, manufacturing, and changed the very fabric of society. A key component in the advancement of steam engine technology was the development of the parallel slide valve. This ingenious device enabled greater efficiency, enhanced control, and paved the way for a new era of industrial progress. In this article, we will delve into the remarkable story of the parallel slide valve and its transformative effects on steam engines.

The Birth of the Parallel Slide Valve

In the early 19th century, the steam engine underwent numerous improvements, but the search for a valve that could efficiently control the flow of steam persisted. Engineers sought a valve design that would minimize energy loss, ensure optimal steam distribution, and allow for precise control over the engine's performance. The breakthrough came with the invention of the parallel slide valve, credited to engineer Joseph Hopkinson in 1829.

The parallel slide valve was a significant departure from previous valve designs. Its distinguishing feature was the use of two slides, each moving parallel to the other. This design offered advantages over the traditional single-slide valves, as it dramatically reduced friction, steam leakage, and wear, leading to a more efficient and reliable steam engine.

Enhanced Efficiency and Power

One of the primary reasons for the parallel slide valve's success was its ability to significantly improve the efficiency of steam engines. By minimizing energy losses through reduced friction and steam leakage, the parallel slide valve maximized the conversion of steam energy into useful mechanical work. This improvement was particularly crucial in locomotives and steamships, where every ounce of energy translated directly into increased speed and power.

Moreover, the parallel slide valve allowed for more precise control of steam distribution within the engine. This control not only enhanced the overall efficiency but also provided engineers with the means to fine-tune the engine's performance based on specific requirements, whether it be powering heavy machinery in factories or driving locomotives across varying terrains.

Industrial Revolution and Beyond

The widespread adoption of the parallel slide valve coincided with the peak of the industrial revolution, and its impact was felt across all sectors of the economy. Factories could now operate more efficiently, transportation networks expanded rapidly, and global trade flourished as steamships connected distant continents. The parallel slide valve was at the heart of this progress, driving the wheels of innovation and shaping the modern world.

Cair Euro: Pioneering Valve Technology

As the demand for steam engines and valve technology surged, numerous companies emerged to meet this need. Among these pioneering enterprises is Cair Euro, a global leader in manufacturing high-quality valves, including the legendary parallel slide valve.

Cair Euro was founded on the principles of innovation, precision engineering, and dedication to excellence. With a legacy spanning several decades, the company has been at the forefront of valve technology, continually pushing the boundaries of performance and reliability.

Specializing in the production of parallel slide valves for industrial applications, Cair Euro has gained a reputation for delivering top-notch products that exceed customer expectations. The company's parallel slide valves incorporate cutting-edge materials and advanced manufacturing techniques, ensuring optimal performance, minimal maintenance, and longevity.

Moreover, Cair Euro's commitment to research and development ensures that their valves remain at the forefront of technological advancements. By staying ahead of the curve, the company can cater to the evolving needs of various industries and offer tailor-made solutions that enhance productivity and efficiency.

Conclusion

The parallel slide valve's advent was a watershed moment in the history of steam engines and the industrial revolution as a whole. Its revolutionary design brought unparalleled efficiency, power, and control to steam-driven machinery, propelling humanity into a new era of progress.

With companies like Cair Euro leading the charge in valve technology, the legacy of the parallel slide valve continues to endure. As technology advances further and new challenges arise, the parallel slide valve remains a timeless symbol of human ingenuity and engineering excellence, a testament to the remarkable potential we can unlock when innovation and expertise converge.

[aswithasunbeam]

Hi! I love your blog, very informative. Since you know a lot about this topic I was wondering when Eliza first looked for someone to write a biography on Alexander & when John got involved?

Thanks! This is such a fascinating topic! Eliza’s thoughts seemed to turn to preserving Hamilton’s legacy pretty quickly. Hamilton’s friend, the Reverend John Mason seemed to toy with the idea of writing the biography sometime around 1809. He wrote to Hamilton’s college roommate and life long friend, Robert Troup asking him to put on paper “a few particulars of General Hamilton’s life and character.” (Troup to Mason, 22 March 1810). When Mason failed to take up the job, Eliza considered Joseph Hopkinson. She consulted Bushrod Washington for advice as to this arrangement in 1819, and he replied on December 14, 1819:

It affords me great pleasure to know Mr. Hopkinson has undertaken to write the life of Genl. Hamilton, not only because his fine talents will enable him to do justice to the work, but because he admired, in common with every American patriot, the virtues, and the distinguished talents of that Great man.

The contract which I made with Mr. Wayne, the publisher of the life of Gen’l Washington was, to assign the copyrights of the work to him, and to receive from him one dollar per volume, for every volume subscribed for, or sold during the period of the copyright. The dollar per volume was equally divided between C. Justice Marshall, the author, & myself. There were 7000 copies subscribed for, and Mr. Marshall and myself received from Mr. Wayne the amount calculated it at one dollar each volume. I think that, as to all sales that were made over that number, we made a compromise with Mr. Wayne & received from him $4000. I should expect that a contract of this nature would be as favorable to you as you could expect to make. (Bushrod Washington to Eliza Hamilton, 14 December 1819). 

Hopkinson didn’t fulfill the contract, either, though. In the mid-1820′s, Timothy Pickering next picked up the mantle. For a little background, Pickering met Hamilton during the revolution in 1777, when Hamilton was twenty years old. Pickering went on to be Secretary of War and Secretary of State under George Washington, and Secretary of State under John Adams. A die-hard Federalist from Massachusetts, Pickering was more loyal to Hamilton than Adams, and ended up being fired from Adams’ cabinet. When Jefferson won in the election of 1800, he started a movement encouraging the Northern states to secede from the union, a notion Hamilton did not take kindly to. John Church Hamilton recalled Hamilton remarking to John Trumbull:

You are going to Boston. You will see the principal men there. Tell them from ME, at MY request, for God’s sake to cease these conversations and threatenings about a separation of the union. It must hang together as long as it can be made to. (Life of Alexander Hamilton, v.7, p. 823).

The Federalist party was basically defunct by the 1820′s, and Pickering’s legacy was severely threatened by the negative statements made about him by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in their papers. But then, on July 4, 1826, Adams and Jefferson both died, leaving Pickering the opportunity to use Hamilton’s legacy to ensure his own. On August 1, 1827, Pickering signed a contract with Eliza to write the Hamilton biography.

Pickering dove into the job with gusto. Pickering’s son, Octavius, recalled this of his father’s preparation process:

He commenced an extensive course of reading. He sought to catch the spirit, and cast his thoughts and style after the model, of the masters of history, both ancient and modern. He read over Sallust, Caesar, Cicero’s letters, Horace, Livy and Tacitus, the last two with particular interest, as prepatory to his life of Hamilton. (Octavius Pickering, Life of Timothy Pickering, v. II, p. 344).

Unfortunately, Pickering died in 1829 before he completed the work, but I sincerely wish he’d finished. He left behind a notebook full of his thoughts and memories of the time as he prepared to write the book, and based on those notes, the biography would have been a wild read, though not necessarily an accurate one. Hamilton is described as “endowed with superior and exalted talents; a ready and clear discernment, correct judgement, pure integrity, and disinterested patriotism.” (”John Adams Hated Alexander Hamilton”, Timothy Pickering Papers, reel 47, p.129.) Hamilton’s extraordinary abilities are juxtaposed with the awful incompetence of his contemporaries: Jefferson is described as dishonest, notorious, shallow, crafty, and possessing “a character black as hell”; Adams is envious, hateful, jealous, and a “hoarder of gossiping tales”; Washington is romanticized, merely human, and “not Hercules.” (Pickering’s notes and his motivations for taking up the project are a fascinating area to explore–I actually wrote a term paper on this topic when I was in college!)

The job of organizing Hamilton’s papers and writing the biography seems to have fallen to John Church Hamilton sometime in the 1840s. Around that same time, Eliza was taking matters into her own hands, traveling to speak with contemporaries of her husband and putting out requests for people who knew him to write down their recollections. For example, she wrote to her nephew, Philip Church, in 1840,

From the situation in which you was with your Uncle Hamilton, I think you must be in possession of much private anecdote relating to him and so interesting to me. I wish you to recall them and would be pleased you should give me some memorandums of them. (credit to runawayforthesummer for transcribing from the Hamilton Family Papers at Columbia.) 

John Church Hamilton did publish a set of Hamilton’s papers in the 1850s before Eliza’s death, but it wasn’t well put together and had a very limited publishing run. He did eventually publish his father’s works along with the Life of Alexander Hamilton in the 1860s and 1870s, but of course, that was long after Eliza’s death.

[musicollage]

Fasch · Haydn · Kohaut · Hagen. Hopkinson Smith. Lute Concertos, 1999. Auvidis-Astrée.

[todaysdocument]

Happy Fourth of July! 

The Engrossed Declaration of Independence: 

Series: Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774 - 1789

Record Group 360: Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, 1765 - 1821

Transcription: 

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

                                                                                               The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

                                 When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.____________ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.__ That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security. __Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. _________ He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good._______ He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.________ He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only._______ He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. _______He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.______ He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. _____He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. ______He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.________ He has made judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the Amount and Payment of their salaries. ________ He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance. ____He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislature._____ He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. _______He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:__For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:__For protecting them, by mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:__For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:__For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:__For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:__ For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:___ For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these Colonies:___ For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:____For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.__ He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us._____He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.____He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.____He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.____He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.       In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.  A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.     Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends._____

        We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Sates; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which the Independent States may of right do. ___ And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.    

Button Gwinnett                            Wm Hooper                                    John Hancock                          Rob Morris                        Wm Floyd             Josiah Bartlett

                        Lyman Hall                                      Joseph Hewes                                 Samuel  Chase                         Benjamin Rush          Philip Livingston     Wm Whipple

                        Geo Walton                                     John Penn                                         Wm Paca                                    Benj Franklin                  Fran Lewis              Sam Adams

                                                                                                                                                    Tho Stone                                  John Morton                  Lewis Morris           John Adams

                                                                                      Edward Rutledge                        Charles Carrol of Carrollton  Geo Clymer                                                          Rob Treat Paine

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ja. Smith                                                    Elbridge Gerry

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Geo Taylor                                                   Step. Hopkins

                                                                                     Tho Heyward Jnr                                                                                     James Wilson          Rich Stockton             William Ellery

                                                                                      Thomas Lynch Jnr                    George Wythe                                    Gro. Ross               Jn Witherspoon          Roger Sherman

                                                                                                                                             Richard Henry Lee

                                                                                      Arthur Middleton                    Th Jefferson                              Ceasar Rodney                Fra. Hopkinson           Sam Huntington

                                                                                                                                             Benj Harrison                            Geo Read                        John Hart                      Wm Williams

                                                                                                                                             Th Nelson jr.                              Tho M Kean                     Abra Clark                     Oliver Wolcott

                                                                                                                                              Francis Lightfoot Lee                                                                                                   Matthew  Thornton

                                                                                                                                              Carter Braxton

[thomas-sully]

Joseph Hopkinson, 1835, Thomas Sully

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

2020 reading roundup

feat: every book I read this year!

Favorite fiction:

Witchmark (C.L. Polk) 

Kindred (Octavia E. Butler) 

Fledgling (Octavia E. Butler)

The Killing Moon (N.K. Jemisin)

The Shadowed Sun (N.K. Jemisin) 

Circe (Madeline Miller) 

Freshwater (Akwaeke Emezi) 

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T.J. Klune) 

My Sister, the Serial Killer (Oyinkan Braithwaite) 

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter (Alexis Hall) 

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir) 

The Traitor Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson)

Further fun/fabulous/fruity fiction:

The Beautiful Ones (Silvia Moreno-Garcia)

Stormsong (C.L. Polk)

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home (Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor)  

Rat Queens, vol. 1-4 (Kurtis J. Wiebe)

The Deep (Rivers Solomon)  

The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) 

Gods of Jade and Shadow (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) 

Books that left me furious at death for taking Octavia Butler before she could write another sequel and tell us just what the hell Earthseed was getting up to out there in space:

Parable of the Talents (Octavia E. Butler)

Books that gave me a new appreciation for the short story as an art form:

Falling In Love with Hominids (Nalo Hopkinson)

Books that I didn’t get into right away but then they REALLY picked up and by the time the Big Reveal happened I was screaming like a howler monkey and feeling like a fool for not catching on sooner:

The City We Became (N.K. Jemisin)

Novellas that made me cry in record time, which is entirely unsurprising given the author:

To Be Taught, If Fortune (Becky Chambers) 

Books that frankly took me by surprise and made me think I should be reading more horror, or at least more Stephen Graham Jones:

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones) 

Sequels that were good but also made my head hurt because Jesus Christ, oh my god, WHAT is going on:

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

Books that I LIKED but wanted to like more than I actually did:

The Taste of Marrow (Sarah Gailey)

The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle) 

In the Vanishers’ Palace (Aliette de Bodard) 

Upright Women Wanted (Sarah Gailey)

The Devourers (Indra Das) 

Sister Mine (Nalo Hopkinson) 

Mexican Gothic (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) 

Axiom’s End (Lindsay Ellis)

Totally respectable literary fiction that I cannot in good conscience lump into literally any other category:

Real Life (Brandon Taylor)

It was fine and I feel bad for not having anything particularly positive or negative or interesting at all to say about it, but it really and truly was just kind of alright:

My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel (Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris)

Favorite nonfiction:

In the Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado)

How We Fight for Our Lives (Saeed Jones)

An Autobiography (Angela Y. Davis)

Feed (Tommy Pico)

Ace: What Aseuxality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen)

Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage (Dianne M. Stewart)

Heavy: An American Memoir (Kiese Laymon)

Notable nifty nonfictions: 

The Dark Fantastic: Race and Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (Ebony Elizabeth Thomas) 

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death (Caitlin Doughty)

So You Want to Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo)

A Curious History of Sex (Kate Lister)

Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power (Anna Merlan) 

Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press (Kim T. Gallon) 

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot (Mikki Kendall) 

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (Brittney Cooper) 

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (Jane Ward)

Other people’s lives that I happily devoured:

Dear America: Notes From an Undocumented Citizen (Jose Antonio Vargas)  

Wow, No Thank You (Samantha Irby)  

I’m Afraid of Men (Vivek Shraya)

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays (Esmé Weijun Wang) 

Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman (Laura Kate Dale) 

Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson)

When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (Patrisse Khan-Cullors) 

Poetry & personal essays that I wanted to Get but didn’t quite:

Homie (Danez Smith)

Something That May Shock and Discredit You (Daniel M. Lavery)  

More Than Organs (Kay Ulanday Barrett) 

Junk (Tommy Pico)

Nonfiction that was interesting but also incomprehensible in many places because I don’t have a degree in biology, which I guess is my bad:

Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation (Olivia Judson) 

Nonfiction that was interesting but also felt lacking in its analysis, perhaps as an inevitable side effect of trying to publish it quickly enough to stay topical:

Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger (Soraya Chemaly) 

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger (Rebecca Traister)

Sweet graphic novels:

The Prince and the Dressmaker (Jen Wang) 

Shadow of the Batgirl (Sarah Kuhn)

Books that are significant for various reasons and good to read but sort of felt like homework:

Stone Butch Blues (Leslie Feinberg) 

Are Prisons Obsolete? (Angela Y. Davis)

Books I reread during quarantine even though I am not generally much of a rereader:

Her Body and Other Parties (Carmen Maria Machado)

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) 

A Small Place (Jamaica Kincaid)

Books that weren’t really for me but probably would have rocked my socks if I read them when I was like 14:

Internment (Samira Ahmed) 

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls (Mona Eltahawy) 

Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity (Jennifer Weiss-Wolf) 

The Bone Witch (Rin Chupeco) 

Pet (Akwaeke Emezi) 

[the-daily-tizzy]

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) 

The spelling and punctuation reflects the original.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

[iloveslasher]

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

(I'm sorry)

What is this tho?!

I am confusión!

[doormouseetcappendix]

Afro-Futurist Reading List Vol 2.

Afro Futurism Reading List Vol 1:

Afro Futurism Reading List Vol 2:

Black Speculative Fiction Breakdown by Genre

African Fantasy (early myths and fables from the continent): Forest Of A Thousand Deamons: A Hunter's Saga by Daniel O. Fagunwa The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle by Amos Tutuola The Brave African Huntress by Amos Tutuola Feather Woman of the Jungle by Amos Tutuola Ajaiyi and his Inherited Poverty by Amos Tutuola The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town by Amos Tutuola

Utopia (alternate histories written during the jim crow & antebellum eras): Blake Or The Huts Of Africa by Martin Delany Imperium In Imperio by Sutton E Griggs Light Ahead For The Negro Edward A Johnson One One Blood by Pauline Hopkins Black No More by George Shuyler Lord Of The Sea by MP Sheil

Space Opera (far future sci fi worlds of interplanetary travel): Nova by Samuel R Delany Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand by Samuel R. Delany Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor An Unkindness Of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson Rayla 2122 Series by Ytasha Womack Trouble On Triton by Samuel R. Delany Babel 17 by Samuel R Delany Empire Star by Samuel R Delany The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord The Best Of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord Ancient Ancient by Klini Iburu Salaam Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden Ascension: Tangled Axon by Jacqueline Koyanagi Teleportality by T Cisco Nadine's Bible Seris by T Lindsey-Billingsley Nigerians In Space Series by Deji Bryce Olukotun

Aliens (alien encounters): Lilith's Brood Trilogy by Octavia Butler Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor Rosewater Trilogy by Tade Thompson The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbell The Wave by Walter Mosley

Dystopia (oppressive futures and realities): Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjie Brenyah Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi War Girls Series by Tochi Onyebuchi Sunshine Patriots by Bill Campbell Gunmen's Peace by Milton J Davis Dragon Variation by T Cisco

Experimental (literary tricksters): The Ravicka Series by Renee Gladman The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri The Structure Of Dante's Hells by LeRoi Jones The House Of Hunger by Dumbudzo Marachera Black Sunlight By Dumbudzo Marachera Yellow Back Radio Broke Down by Ishmaeel Reed The Last Days Of Louisiana Red by Ishmaeel Reed The Sellout by Paul Beatty Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell The African Origin Of UFOs by Anthony Joseph Quantum Black Futurism(Theory & Practice Volume 1) by Rasheeda Philips by Rasheeda Philips Spacetime Collapse: From The Congo to Carolinas Spacetime Collapse II: Community Futurisms by Rasheeda Philips consent not to be a single being trilogy by Fred Mot

Post-Apocalyptic (worlds falling apart): The Purple Cloud by MP Shiel Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany The Parable Series by Octavia Butler Brown Girl In The Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Dying Earth (far future post-apocalyptic worlds + magic):

The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin The Einstien Intersection by Samuel R. Delany The Jewels Of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany The Fall Of The Towers Trilogy by Samuel R. Delany Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorofor The Book Of Phoenix by Nnededi Okorofor The Prey Of Gods by Nicky Drayden

Alternate History (alternate timelines and what-ifs): Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed Everfair by Nisi Shawl The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Insh'Allah Series by Steven Barnes Ring Shout by P Djelia Clark A Dead Djinn In Cairo by P Djelia Clark The Black God's Drum by P Djelia Clark Washington Black by Esi Edugyan Pimp My Airship: A Naptown By Airship Story by Maurice Beaudice The Dream Of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer Pym by Matt Johnson, Dread Nation Series by Justina Ireland From Here to Timbuktu by Milton J Davis

High Fantasy (magical kindoms and high adventures): The Neveryorn Series by Samuel R. Delany Black Leapard Red Wolf by Marlon James The Deep by Rivers Solomon & Clipping Imaro Series by Charles R. Saunders The Children Of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi The Children Of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi The Sorcerer Of The Wildeeps by Kai Ashai Washington A Taste Of Honey by Kai Ashai Washington Beasts Made Of Night Series by Tochi Onyebuchi A Place Of Nights: War & Ressurection by Oloye Karade, Woman Of The Woods: A Sword & Soul Epic by Milton J Davis Temper by Nicky Drayden They Fly At Ciron by Samuel R. Delany Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman The House Of Discarded Dreams by Etakterina Sedia

Magic Realism (literary naturalism with surreal, dreamlike, and mythic imagery): The Echo Tree & Other Stories by Henry Dumas The Kingdom Of This World by Alejo Carpentier General Sun My Brother by Jacques Stephen Alexis The Famished Road Series by Ben Okri The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson Montaro Caine by Sydney Portier Mama Day by Gloria Naylor Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord Mem by Bethany C Morrow

Urban Fantasy (modern citybound fantasy): The City We Became by NK Jemisin  Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead Blue Light By Walter Mosley Fire Baptized by Kenya Wright

Time Travel (stories unstuck in time): Kindred by Octavia Butler Version Control by Dexter Palmer Recurrence Plot by Rasheedah Phillips

Horror (nightmare, terrors, and hauntings): Beloved by Toni Morisson African Immortals by Tananarivue Due Fledgling by Octavia Butler The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez Lakewood by Meggan Giddings The Ballad Of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff The Changeling by Victor Lavealle Zone One by Colson Whitehead The Between by Tananarive Due The Good House by Tananarive Due Ghost Summers: Stories by Tananarive Due Unhollowed Graves by Nunzo Onho Catfish Lullaby by AC Wise

Young Adult (books for young adults): Akata Witch Series by Nnedi Okorofor Zarah The Windseeker & The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorofor Long Juju Man by Nnedi Okorofor Ikenga by Nnedi Okorofor Tristan Strong Series by Kwame Mbalia A Song Below Water by Bethany C Morrow Daughters Of Nri by Reni K. Amayo A River Of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy 47 by Walter Mosley

Comics (graphic storytelling) George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz (1919-1921) by George Herriman The Boondocks Complete Collection by Aaron Mcgruder Birth Of A Nation by Aaron Mcgrudger, Reginald Hudlin, & Kyle Baker Prince Of Cats by Ronald Wimberly Concrete Park by Erika Alexander & Tony Puryear Incognegro Series by Matt Johnson Your Black Friend & Other Stories by Ben Passmore Bttm Fdrs Ezra Clayton Daniels & Ben Passmore Sports Is Hell is Ben Passmore LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorofor & Tana Ford Bread & Wine: An Erotic Tale Of New York by Samuel R Delany & Mia Wolff Empire by Samuel R Delany & Howard Chaykin Excellence by Brandon Thomas Bitteroot by David F Walker, Chuck Brown & Sanford Greene Black by Kwanza Osajyefo Niobe: She Is Life by Amandla Stenberg & Sebastian A Jones Black Panther by Christopher Priest Black Panther by Reginald Hudlin Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates Shuri by Nnedi Okorofor World Of Wakanda by Roxane Gay Truth: Red, White, & Black by Kyle Baker House Of Whispers by Nalo Hopkinson & Neil Gaiman Naomi by David F Walker, Brian Micheal Bendis, & Jamal Campbell Far Sector by NK Jemison & Jamal Campbell

Short Stories (collections by single authors): Driftglass by Samuel R Delany, Distant Stars by Samuel R Delany Bloodchild & Other Stories by Octavia Butler Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler Falling In Love With Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson, Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorofor, How Long Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin Nine Bar Blues by Sheree Reneee Thomas

Anthologies (collections from multiple authors) Dark Matter edited by Sheree Renee Thomas So Long Been Dreaming edited by Nalo Hopkinson Conjure Stories edited by Nalo Hopkinso Whispers From The Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction edited by Nalo Hopkinson Afro SF: Science Fiction by African Writers edited by Wor. W. Hartmaan Stories For Chip: A Tribute To Samuel R Delany edited by Nisi Shawl Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movement edited by Adrienne Marie Brown & Walidah Imarisha Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond edited by Bill Campbell The City: Cyberfunk Antholoy edited by Milton J Davis Steamfunk edited by Milton J Davis Dieselfunk edited by Milton J Davis Griots: A Sword & Soul Anthology by Milton J Davis & Charles R Saunders Griots: Sisters Of The Spear by Milton J Davis & Charles R Saunders

Non-Fiction (histories, essays, and arguments) Afrofuturism And The World Of Black Sci-Fi & Fantasy Culture by Ytasha Womack Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise Of Astral Blackness edited by Reynaldo Anderson & Charles E Jones The Black Imagination: Science Fiction, The Future, and The Speculative by Sandra Jackson & Julie E Woody-Freeman Afro-Futures & Astral Black Travel by Juice Aleem The Sound Of Culture: Diaspora & Black Technopoetics by Louis Cude Soke Black Utopia: The History Of An Idea From Black Nationalism To Afrofuturism by Alex Zamalin Afrouturism Rising: The Literary Pre-History Of A Movement by Isiah Lavendar III A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra & The Birth Of Afrofuturism by Paul Youngquist Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before: Subversive Poryrals In Speculative Film & TV by Diana Adesola Mafe Black Kirby: In Search Of The Motherbox Connection by John Jennings & Stacey Robinson Super Black: American Pop Culture & Black Super-Heroes by Adilifu Nama Black Space: Imagining Race In Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama Black Super-Heroes, Milestone Comics, And Their Fans by Jeffery A Brown Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changin Worlds by Adrienne Marie Brown

*cover image from Ytasha Womack’s “Afrofuturism: The World Of Black Sci-Fi & Fantasy Culture”

(please post anything I might have left out in the comments) 

[bookclub4m]

Episode 167 (version 2) - 2023 Reading Goals & 2022 Reading Report

(Hello! This is a re-upload. The first version had a syncing error that snuck in at the very end of the editing process. We've re-exported it and this version sounds much better!)

This episode we’re talking about our 2023 Reading Goals! We discuss intentions, resolutions, anti-resolutions, and give a report on how well we fulfilled our reading goals last year.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

2022: Year of Book Two

Episode 142 - Sequels and 2022: The Year of Book Two

2023 Resolutions

  Matthew:

Read more non-fiction

Meghan:

Quit trying to read fiction when she doesn’t feel like it

Read more of what she owns (borrow less from the library)

Anna:

Read more graphic novels

Take pictures of favourite reads

Jam: 

Theme for the year: Intention

Return to tracking picture book reading

Media We Mentioned

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, narrated by Kim Mai Guest, Johnathan McClain, Candice Moll, Lincoln Hoppe, Donnabella Mortel, Jonathan Todd Ross, Erin Spencer & Steve West

Illuminae Files (books 1-3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, narrated by Moira Quirk

Steven Erikson

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol 1 by Kamome Shirahama, translated by Stephen Kohler

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol 1 by Ryoko Kui, translated by Sébastien Ludmann 

Links, Articles, and Things

Which Pokemon are the Most Goth?

Matthew reviews his manga reading from 2022 on Twitter

List of One Piece manga volumes - Wikipedia

25 Dystopian Fiction books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors to help our listeners diversify their readers’ advisory. All of the lists can be found here.

Leila by Prayaag Akbar

Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Caster by Elsie Chapman

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee

Legend by Marie Lu

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza & Abby Sher

Futureland by Walter Mosley

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

We Light Up the Sky by Lilliam Rivera

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Freedom Race by Lucinda Roy

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

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Join us again on Tuesday, February 7th. It'll be our annual Valentine’s Day episode, and we’ll be talking about the genre of Holiday Romance!

Then on Tuesday, February 21st join us for What is a Book? (part 2)!