What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p> CW: this book discusses the child death that we saw in the previous book<\/a>, and a child living with an abusive parent. This series also deals with bigotry in multiple forms. <\/em><\/p> A book that it feels silly to tease. I gotta save column inches. Hey, one wrinkle about reading a book series is I now have Prestige TV Brain, so I kept thinking empty headed things like \u201cooh now this character gets a starring role after not being around all season one.\u201d That\u2019ll be the stupidest thing I say, because a book like The Obelisk Gate<\/em> by N.K. Jemisin deserves real commentary. This book (about rocks) rocks<\/em>, dudes.<\/p> Nassun, the orogene1<\/a> daughter of main character Essun, makes her grand entrance. I never know how many trigger warnings are appropriate, but know that Nassun\u2019s father is bigoted and abusive. Orogenes can\u2019t help being born orogenes, and regular humans fear them enough to kill them (then again, orogenes who can\u2019t control their magic can easily kill humans, accidentally or on purpose). Nassun\u2019s dad is very much a #GirlDad, except his love is conditional on his daughter \u201ccuring\u201d her orogeny. He can\u2019t love her for who she is. Jemisin writes a pretty sit-in-yr-guts portrayal of what it\u2019s like for a 10-year-old to be on the run with her father, whom she knows beat her younger brother to death, and whom she knows would do the same to her. Nassun\u2019s a pretty amazing kid, but her pain and living situation is brutal. Picture The Road<\/em> crossed with I Saw The TV Glow<\/em> (but with 75% more Fred Durst).<\/p> Meanwhile, Essun and her ragtag road crew are settled into a new underground comm. I don\u2019t want to get spoilery, so suffice to say that Essun learns more magic than The Fulcrum2<\/a> could\u2019ve ever taught her. We learn more about the stone eaters. There\u2019s a Helm\u2019s Deep-esque battle at the end. It\u2019s sick as hell. <\/p> We also learn that this planet\u2014which might as well be our Earth, except mass extinction events happen far more often\u2014is much older than we previously thought. If this series takes place on our Earth, *I would guess* it is multiple millenia in the future3<\/a>. We learn about why the Earth is so angry at humans. We learn what the Earth has lost thanks to humans. And all I want to say is that we need to take care of our planet. The planet is sacred, and it is alive.<\/p> Draw any through lines between that paragraph and the links that you want. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to while you browse? We had a new The Line Break<\/em> podcast with Kansas City Poet Laureate Melissa Ferrer Civil<\/a> (Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>). We also released episode 1.5 of The Lazy & Entitled Podcast<\/em>. These \u201c.5\u201d episodes are going to be a little shorter than the \u201cmain\u201d episodes, and the plan is that they\u2019ll be more guest-heavy. For the first .5 episode, we were very lucky to sit down with Maya Williams<\/a> (former Poet Laureate of Portland, ME\u2014we talk to poet laureates on my podcasts<\/em>) and talk about what you do all day when your job is artist (Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>).<\/p>![\"The](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/cd8ac8b0-ca16-470b-b5bb-d0c262ccb479_3024x4032.heic\")
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