I’m thrilled to announce that my new novel — Loving Artemis — will be released in August by Thorned Heart Press. The publisher just let me know that there are 25 copies available for download on “Booksprout, which is a free review service that allows users to download a secure copy. Please feel free to share the link below. Ideally, we’d like to get 25 reviews posted on release day! https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/89672/loving-artemis.
These typically go pretty fast (within a few days).”
Loving Artemis is a love story set in the 1970s, in a suburban working-class tract house development against the historic backdrop of events that shaped the U.S. Supreme Court’s long overdue decision to legalize same sex marriage that is under attack today. It’s a novel with a happy ending– let’s keep it that way (or else)!
When a friend gave me a book called Unikorn with the image of a white puffy cloud unicorn on the cover, I read it immediately.
Unikorn, published in 2021 by Scout Comics and Entertainment Inc., created and written by Don Handfield and Joshua Malkin is a graphic novel written for young adults.
As such, it is definitely not in a genre that I usually read. But I kept reading and was pulled into the story. My friend, who I know through the Unitarian Universalist and vegan communities, knows that I am interested in all things unicorn.
Unicorns are magical creatures that disappear in times of strife which we are in now. It’s no surprise that unicorns are so popular because people are searching for the good. In the Middle Ages, most people routinely believed in the existence of unicorns.
In Unikorn, I was moved by a passage on the feelings of animals.
When the teenage girl narrator goes into the creature’s stall, the author writes in conversational bubbles:
“He felt your compassion.
“Animals don’t speak in words
“But understand emotion perfectly.”
When the narrator asks, “What’s that thing on his head?”
The caretaker of the farm responds:
“Just one of the many things that makes him special.”
In the end, the unicorn leads people to be more kind to each other. And when the last page was turned, the Unikorn did not disappoint. I thoroughly recommend Unikorn, published by Scout Comics and Entertainment Inc., and created and written by Don Handfield and Joshua Malkin. It is a force for good in the world.
This is Janet Mason with reviews for Book Tube.
To learn more about my latest published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
In The Last Onea novel by Fatima Daas from Other Press (2021), I both lost and found myself. The book is translated from the French by Lara Vernaud.
The Last One is a novel of identity or of identities—many of them conflicting. It isn’t so much as Walt Whitman said, “I am large—I contain multitudes” as it is “I am not small, I refuse to check one box.”
The author, Fatima Daas, is French and of Algerian ancestry. She visits Algeria and her Algerian relatives occasionally, but she lives in France. In her novel, she proves successively that she can be a girl who looks like a boy but who really is a lesbian. She proves that she can be Muslim as well as lesbian. She shows that she can be polyamorous and at the same time be obsessed with one person.
She is entitled to be anyone she wants—and everyone at once.
Because of her first sentence in each chapter where she repeats the line, “My name is Fatima,” sometimes including her last name and because of the spareness of the language, I was reminded of the poetic form called the ghazal. The ghazal, in which lines are repeated, is a type of Arabic poetry. The ghazal is known because it was used by such well-known poets as Rumi and Hafiz. It was historically sung and was popularized in the West by artists such as Ravi Shanker in the 1960s.
The novel seemingly meanders but comes together in the identity of the author who claims all that she is.
In one passage, Daas writes:
“Cassandra and I both took time off work for Gay Pride.
An activist friend, who heard me boasting about it, grabbed me by the arm to correct me.
“PRIDE, Fatima! Not Gay Pride. You make lesbians and everyone else in the community invisible when you say Gay Pride.”
There was gentleness in her voice, and indignation.
But no aggression.
I learned from her.
I replaced Gay Pride with Pride.”
The Last One is a novel about including and claiming all parts of oneself. The author writes a conversation about her novel that she imagines having with her mother:
“It’s the story of a girl who isn’t really a girl, who isn’t Algerian or French, who isn’t from Clichy (Clisheee) or Paris, a Muslim I think, but not a good Muslim, a lesbian whose homophobia is built into her. What else?”
When I read the novel, published by Other Press, I found a page-turner that made me see and think. The Last One is a small but mighty book. I highly recommend it.
This is Janet Mason writing for Book Tube.
To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
To learn more about my latest published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
I was really delighted to find out that Angela Davis is speaking out about veganism and against abuse of animals in a capitalist context.
Angela Davis is important Civil Rights and feminist activist who shaped my youth. I remember being delighted when she came out as a lesbian. So, we have a few things in common — me and Angela — and you can, too!
My partner and I saw Angela in person several times when we were younger.
I never was much of a meat eater, but I’ve been strictly vegan now (after a health crisis) for two and a half years now. The results have been amazing. My partner and I were thinking of going vegan for some years before that out of compassion for the animals. I’ve heard the argument that one reason is better than the other. But all human beings are animals. So, as a Buddhist, it is easy for me to recognize that veganism is the way for all animals–and for the planet also!
I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did!
To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
To learn more about my latest published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
Every fourth of July, a feeling of sadness descends on me. This year, it is particularly acute.
I found myself thinking about the connections between patriotism and oppression and the following quote came to mind:
As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields. ~ LEO TOLSTOY
I am sharing an extremely short video with you of our cow friend, Sacred, when she was chained up at a dairy farm (where dairy cows are forcibly kept pregnant and are routinely sent to slaughter after three or more years) and another short video of when she became free after going to live in a sanctuary where she can live out the rest of her natural life.
To learn more about my most recently published novel The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
Janet Mason, author 