I read a lot of stories and articles online, and sometimes I think to tweet a link to the good ones, but sometimes I don’t think of it and then I forget where I read that one story, or I remember but I forget to tell anyone else. So! I am collecting them to share monthly(ish) here. Enjoy! And please send me links to good stuff I should read. (Please note that I will only read stuff by or about white cis men if there’s, like, a reason for their white cis maleness. I don’t like it when homogeny is shoehorned in.)

This month’s reading skewed nonfiction, as most of my fiction reading was books. (Should I also do this roundup for books I read?)

Fiction

Filament by Lyndsie Manusos: Brilliant, sharp, creepy flash fiction horror story. If Shirley Jackson and Samantha Mabry’s stories had a baby, it might be this story.

Five Stories in the Monsoon Night by Nghi Vo: I’m not even sure how to describe this story! It is just really, really good. And there are noodles. If you like being read to, C.S.E. Cooney’s narration is excellent as always.

Unfilial Child by Laurie Tom: A beautifully written story about family, steeped in a Chinese mythology that is totally unfamiliar to me, and with an ending that I might describe as “Lovecraftian, if he’d ever written anything good.”

Nonfiction

The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser: Ten days after calling off her engagement, the author went on a birding trip to observe the dwindling whooping crane population in the gulf coast. Of course, she learned about a lot more than birds.

Dear Internet, The Little Mermaid Also Happens To Be Queer Allegory by Gabrielle Bellot: Did you know Hans Christian Andersen wrote “The Little Mermaid” after the man he pined for married a woman? ME NEITHER.

Excuse Me, May I Raise Your Child? by Farai Chideya: Devastating piece by a three-time adoptive mother with no child, and how the adoption industry fails both birth and adoptive parents.

Honey Bees, Worker Bees, and the Economic Violence of Land Grabs by Melissa Chadburn: Almost dreamlike meditation on exactly what the title says. Are environmental concerns only for people privileged enough to go vegan?

I’m Scared The Darkness That Gripped Me After My Baby Was Born Will Come Roaring Back by Anne Theriault: A devastating examination of the ways the medical system (in this case Canada’s) fails mothers and how that can affect reproductive choice (in this case whether to have a second baby).

The Wildness of Girlhood by Bonnie Mary Liston: An Australian perspective on the wildness that is natural in girls, but ignored by the world at large and suppressed as we grow up.

A Woman’s Greatest Enemy? A Lack of Time to Herself by Brigid Schulte: Fuck. This is not exactly new or groundbreaking, but it’s stark and direct and fuuuuck. (I’ve written about the same thing: The Lives of Literary Wives.)

A little housekeeping note: On August 1, I will adjust the price of paid subscriptions to $8/month or $75/year. If you have been thinking about subscribing, you can still do so for $5/month or $50/year for a few more days! And as always, if you want to subscribe but cannot afford to, please send me a note and we will arrange it.