Tag: The Last Gifts of the Universe

Posted in Sunday Songs

Sunday Songs: 9/21/25

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.

Since I’ve been gone for a little while, here are the graphics for the weeks I was absent, because I am nothing if not a creature who lives for making little graphics:

8/24/25:

8/31/25:

9/7/25:

9/14/25:

This week: you’ve been fooled. This is just a front for me yapping about Alien: Earth! BLAH! IT’S ME, THE ALIEN! I’M GONNA GETCHA! I’M THE ALIEN!!

(but really, minor spoilers ahead.)

Enjoy this week’s songs!

SUNDAY SONGS: 9/21/25

“Killer Crane” – TV on the Radio

You guys…Alien: Earth, right???? Oh my god??? Admittedly, the last two episodes have faltered, but I’d say the first five episodes made me remember why I love Noah Hawley so much. Toss him into another franchise and genre, and he adapts to the environment as swiftly as a frog tossed from the land into a freshwater pond. His take on Alien has sprawled into Fargo’s riddled dialogue and character building and Legion’s avant-garde aesthetics, yet easily stays true to Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon’s visions. No notes on the acting (Timothy Olyphant is top tier, Wendy and the Lost Boys are eerily good at playing children in adult bodies, and Babou Ceesay is both a worthy successor to Malvo AND a compelling character on his own). It’s…pushing my limits as far as body horror, for sure (had to knit in silence for an hour after episode 2), but that’s Alien for you.

But one of the more minor aspects of the prospect of new Noah Hawley content that got me going was the needle drops. I joked with my family that I couldn’t wait for the inevitable, devastating Lisa Hannigan cover song to come into the soundtrack, and while that hasn’t happened, I’m more desperate than ever to see this man’s playlist, because my god. For me, nothing’s come close to the pair of needle drops in episode 1 (though “Ocean Size” at the end of episode 4 comes close)—my brother, who has much more metalhead street cred than me, said that “you know Noah Hawley’s a real one because he included ‘E5150’ with ‘The Mob Rules.’”

But “Killer Crane?” Even though it wasn’t a TV on the Radio song that I was initially familiar with, I was instantly just giddy. The whole episode made me giddy, to be honest—with a few minor flaws, it felt like such a stunning, comprehensive intro to the show. GOD!! I already knew that Hawley was a fellow fan after he used “Quartz” in the trailer for season 3 of Legion, but I’m just happy to see it shine in a full-fledged show. I still think it’s one of my favorite needle drops in the show so far. It’s amongst one of the many spectacularly-shot scenes throughout the episode: soon after Marcy’s consciousness is transferred into Wendy’s robot body, we see her performing superhuman cliff-diving feats in the idyllic jungle paradise of Neverland. As a scene, it’s just so luscious with the visual metaphor of Wendy leaping off of a literal precipice, paired with the mental precipice of her transition into a new body. Paired with the glimmering, dewy production of “Killer Crane,” it makes for a perfect scene, as does these lyrics: “Her grace’s glide/Across the sea/Across creation/And over time/Her gracious life/Escapes its station.” But the song belies something much more somber; it was written as a tribute to Gerard Smith, their original bassist, who died of lung cancer nine days after the release of Nine Types of Light at the age of 36. Given the hybrid’s consciousnesses, taken from terminally ill children, it’s a grim, apt introduction for their states of being: “Sunshine, I saw you through the hanging vine/A memory of what was mine fading away.” It’s a bittersweet ode to the simultaneous beauty and impermanence of life; the final line of “I could leave suddenly unafraid” could mean both how death could come at any moment for anyone, or leaving the constantly fearful state of mind that comes with grappling with the transience of all things. Damn you, Noah Hawley!! These needle drops are too good, leave some for the rest of us!!

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

The Arrival of Someday – Jen Malone – grappling with imminent death and soaking up life while one can forms the emotional core of this novel.

“Leaning Against the Wall” – Wolf Alice

I confess that I haven’t been following Wolf Alice too closely, but if my dear friend’s assessment is worth anything (which it obviously is), they’re still going strong. They released a fourth album, The Clearing, in late August. From the snippets I’ve heard, they’ve certainly polished up their sound, but it’s no less candid beneath the sheen. Their indie pop is as hooky as ever. But I can’t shake the feeling that they’re deliberately just making music for Heartstopper at this point. I mean…c’mon. When that moment kicks in at 1:11? Specifically engineered for a shot of Nick and Charlie gazing longingly into each other’s eyes under a string of fairy lights. But as an earnest, bubbly indie love song, “Leaning Against the Wall” perfectly captures that balance of wanting to run and tell everybody about love, but relishing the private moments in tucked-away corners the most. And as a closing track for The Clearing, it eases the listener into a gentle, artfully rearranged outro that leaves you with lingering butterflies in the stomach.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Heartstopper, vol. 1 – Alice Oseman – see above.

“Soft Sounds from Another Planet” – Japanese Breakfast

So…Japanese Breakfast! One of the highlights of my brief hiatus was seeing Japanese Breakfast with a wonderful, dear friend of mine. For an artist touring for an album called For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), I couldn’t have imagined a more joyful show—even without the amazing lighting team, Michelle Zauner and co. truly lit up the room, from the sweeping, romantic new songs to the ecstatic rendition of “Everybody Wants To Love You” with the help of Ginger Root. The sets? Truly a spectacle. The setlist? A perfect balance of her whole career. And Zauner just seemed like such a comforting, joyful presence—concerts are always enhanced when the artist actually feels like they want to be there. She played a deep cut solely because she overheard somebody humming it before the show, and that should give you an idea of her presence. And yes, I fucking lost it when she whipped out the gong for “Paprika.” 100% the highlight of my night.

So without further ado, let’s talk about…a song that wasn’t even on the setlist. Oopsie. Either way, the setlist from the show inspired me to dig into more songs from Soft Sounds from Another Planet, an album with one of the best album titles in Japanese Breakfast’s career (though For Melancholy Brunettes is probably tied for the title). Zauner was initially going to make a sci-fi concept album, and though this vision never came to fruition, the atmosphere remains; the album is shrouded in shoegazey, drifting instrumentals that airily swirl around you (see: “Jimmy Fallon Big!”). With a hushed, dreamy tone, Zauner yearns into a starry abyss, longing for an escape: “In search of a soft sound from another planet/In search of a quiet place to put this to rest/Striving for goodness while the cruel men win…” Ow…yeah. If that hasn’t been what life has been like for me since I was a teenager. I don’t have all the answers, but as far as I know, all you can do is look to people like Zauner: make art, spread joy.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

The Library of Broken Worlds – Alaya Dawn Johnson – “That’s not the way to hurt me/I’ll show you the way to hurt me/In search of a soft sound from another planet/In search of a quiet place to lay this to rest/Striving for goodness while the cruel men win…”

“How Could I Have Known” – Big Thief

This just in: I’m a total Big Thief poser. Well, maybe not since I’ve actually listened to a full album now, but Double Infinity did turn out to be the first album of theirs that I listened to it in full. There’s something so comforting about it; though it has its weak moments here and there, at its best, it feels like the caress of a warm, woolen sweater, secure and fuzzy. It’s got the feel of Christmas music, but not in the way that you might think; not in the sense of the actual structure of most Christmas songs, but in way that the harmonization feels warm, like the feeling of being curled up by the fire as night fades into he falling snow in late December. “Incomprehensible” remains the pinnacle of the album for me (but how can you top “Incomprehensible,” really?), but the tearjerking closing track comes close.

Talking to my brother and his girlfriend (both much more dedicated fans than me…bigger thieves, if you will) about the album made me realize something about songwriting that’s very contradictory to me, specifically. They were lamenting that some of Adrianne Lenker’s more poetic language had gotten lost in the more plainly spoken lyrics on Double Infinity, and having heard an album like songs, I would honestly agree. If this series has proven anything to you all, it’s that I am an absolute sucker for some good ol’ poetic lyricism. Yet sometimes, things are best said so plainly, affirmations or words of comfort. I can think of ways that the themes of “How Could I Have Known” have been sung more poetically—Wilco’s “Say You Love Me” comes to mind. But sometimes words as simply stated as these can be just as impactful: “They say time is the fourth dimension/They say everything lives and dies/But our love will live forever/Though today we said goodbye.” For me, it’s all in the delivery. Lenker and co. have readily embraced their Grateful Dead jam band era, and honestly, it really isn’t a complaint. The mixing makes it so that the instruments sound truly harmonious, warm and blurred at the edges like snow melting into dirt. The harmonies of the singers themselves not only mesh together beautifully, but they’re just ever so slightly out of sync that it feels like “How Could I Have Known” is being sung around a campfire. And that tight-knit feeling of togetherness is all the better for a song about gratitude for the small, improbable miracles that stacked up that allowed us to meet the people we love.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

The Last Gifts of the Universe – Riley August – “And they say time’s the fourth dimension/They say everything lives and dies/But our love will live forever/Though, today, we said goodbye…”

“Strange Brew” (Cream cover) – Noah Hawley & Jeff Russo

“Strange brew/killing what’s inside of you” that would be the water bottle full of alien ticks ❤

And I thought that Legion meant that we were done with Noah Hawley and Jeff Russo making deeply eerie covers of ’60s-’70s songs…no devastating Lisa Hannigan cover yet, but “if you don’t watch out/it’ll stick to you” really does kinda sum up the entire Alien franchise. As always, Noah Hawley continues to impress me by not just being an accomplished author/television writer, but also by having genuinely great pipes…they put too much talent in that man!! I’ve reached my Alien: Earth yap quota for the week, but god, what a great theme song, complete with some subtle creaky spaceship sounds.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Eartheater – Dolores Reyes – “She’s a witch of trouble in electric blue/In her own mad mind, she’s in love with you/With you/Now, what you gonna do?/Strange brew/Killing what’s inside of you…”

Since this post consists entirely of songs, consider all of them to be today’s song.

That’s it for this week’s Sunday Songs! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Review Tuesday

Book Review Tuesday (8/5/25) – On Earth As It Is on Television

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

On Earth As It Is on Television has been on my TBR for at least a few years, and I’ve nearly bought it at least twice at my local Barnes & Noble before settling on it last week. It seemed quirky and interesting, but this novel ended up blowing me away with how inventive, heartfelt, and downright funny it was. The best 5-star reads come out of nowhere, and On Earth As It Is on Television is one of them.

Enjoy this week’s review!

On Earth As It Is on Television – Emily Jane

Aliens have finally come to Earth. Without warning, dozens of spaceships appear over Earth, causing a worldwide panic. Days later, they leave without a word. As the world falls into chaos, the lives of three people intersect as the world struggles to reckon with this occurrence. Blaine struggles to wrangle his TV-addicted children, now convinced that they need to skin people to find the aliens within, and go along with the mercurial plans of his wife, Anne. Catatonic for 30 years, Oliver suddenly regains consciousness, only to be whisked away on a strange journey by a stray cat. Heather, always the outsider among her stepfamily, ponders if the aliens could finally mark the start in the next chapter of her mundane life. All of their journeys converge as the world reckons with their place in the universe—and what could be next for the human race.

TW/CW: car accident, death, imprisonment, suicidal ideation, substance abuse

I did not expect a book with such a massive volume of millennial cat meme-isms to nearly make me cry multiple times. One minute they’re going on about Mr. Meow-Mitts and “himb peets” or something, and 20 pages later I’m a puddle on the floor. What a book.

There’s not a ton I can compare to in terms of On Earth As It Is on Television, but if anything, it’s quite like No One Is Talking About This, a book that also deals with the chaos of 21st century life; there’s a lot of meme-speak, there’s a lot of mindless media consumption, and there’s a whole lot of absurdity. A lot of the humor takes cues from the oversaturation of memes in the 2010’s (cats, bacon, etc.), but it’s a lot funnier than that entails—it’s more about the ridiculousness of that microcosm than it is about the actual humor; for me, it fed into the whole side of the story that was about the ridiculousness of modern life, as we are oversaturated with…well, everything. Plastic, fatty foods, cat memes. (If you have minimal tolerance for phrases like “heckin chonker” and “floofy boi,” this might not be the book for you. It’s a lot, but stay with it, trust me.) Surprisingly, this ends up being very poignant by the end of the novel, but it was both an astute observation on our 21st century state of being in a perpetual deluge of mindless information and content. Jane cranks the absurdity up to its absolute maximum without it feeling overwhelming—it’s totally goofy at times, but it’s great satire as well.

Both of the sci-fi books that I’ve rated in the 4.75-5 star range this year have involved cats in some way. Coincidence? I think not. (Shoutout to The Last Gifts of the Universe and Pumpkin the cat.) The way that On Earth As It Is on Television uses cats was one of the funnier parts of the novel, setting aside the pervasion of cat meme-speak. As well as causing worldwide panic, the alien ships have an unexplained effect on the world’s cat population—they all come back telepathic, and the results are hilarious. It’s clear that Jane is a cat lover, and it came through in every page. It added another wonderful layer of silliness to an already absurd novel, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And honestly, it seemed completely plausible for cats to be the ones to pick up on alien frequencies, out of all the creatures on Earth.

Usually for a 5-star novel, I get super attached to at least a few characters. On Earth As It Is on Television might honestly be an exception, but that’s not a slight against it in the least. I didn’t like all of the characters—in fact, I doubt it was the point for them to be likable—but they all felt real. Blaine didn’t have a distinct personality for the beginnings of the novel, but you come to realize that he’s been so swallowed up by trying to juggle everyone else that it’s become his personality. Avril and Jas are the most insufferable children you could ever dream up, but they feel like the terrible kids you’re stuck sitting next to at the DMV or on the plane. Heather came off dramatic and whiny more often than not, but I could easily see how much her life felt out of her control. All of this is to say that though they were not all likable in the traditional sense, they felt real, and that was what felt refreshing. For a novel that tracked the trajectories of ordinary people, they felt especially authentic. It’s a mass reckoning with the absurdity of life, and Jane makes every detour worth it.

If anything, it was the characters’ journeys that were the most compelling part of the novel. All of the interconnected characters throughout On Earth As It Is on Television were thrown into circumstances outside of their control, both physical and mental, and nowhere that any of them went ended up being predictable. The concrete trajectories ranged from the ordinary (Heather feeling forgotten amongst her stepfamily) to the outright bizarre (a catatonic man regaining consciousness after 20 years and going on the world’s weirdest road trip with a telepathic cat), but all of them presented such rich character development. They crisscrossed all over the country, at times laugh-out-loud funny and other times more grounded and solemn. Wacky as it was, Jane used them all to wring out so much emotional development from a worldwide crisis that affects everyone differently; grappling with the fallout of feeling important in the universe, but then being forgotten just as quickly.

I’m a sucker for fun alien designs, and I didn’t expect On Earth As It Is on Television to deliver as much as it did. The Malorts aren’t peak creature design, but with their three-handed meerkat-like appearances and affinities for plastic crap, they hammered home the themes of the novel excellently. I wasn’t looking for any kind of realism in this novel, which is why I’m so glad that Jane went so bonkers with the design and culture of the Malorts, from their dietary preferences to their fascination with cats. They were a perfect vehicle for the absurdity that this novel emphasizes, and they provided as many laughs as the humans. There was a moment where there was so much plastic involved in the novel that I thought that the wry commentary on consumerism was going to fall flat, but the Malorts ended up turning it into a solution for climate change in-universe: why not give the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to a bunch of aliens who really like plastic for some reason? It was totally wonderful and goofy, but it segued nicely into the novel’s themes of finding joy in unlikely and mundane places and things.

More on that…any book that makes observations of shiny, plastic souvenirs and children repeating meme-isms into something genuinely poignant and moving deserves some kind of praise. But by the end, I loved what it had to say about the nature of life, however absurd it may be: everything is messy and out of your control, but that’s okay. Life is worth living for all of the strange detours and tiny miracles that you can find in every day life—cats, children singing, good food, silly television, and unexpected forks in the road. No matter our place in the universe or what the government does, we can always look to the ordinary to find solace. And beyond that, we can look to each other—our family, our friends, and strangers—to anchor us in the face of upheaval. On Earth As It Is on Television is a novel about many things (cats, TV, road trips, aliens), but above all, it’s about the small miracles that make life worth living—and what better way to end such a strange, beautiful novel? When we are inundated with mindless consumption, what better resistance is there than to notice life’s small, organic miracles? Finding and reading this novel felt exactly how it was intended to be read—on a whim, and being unexpectedly moved by it in so many places.

All in all, a clever, quirky, and unexpectedly moving novel about the biggest and smallest things in our human—and alien—experiences. 4.75 stars, rounded up to 5!

On Earth As It Is on Television is a standalone, but Emily Jane is also the author of Here Beside the Rising Tide and the forthcoming American Werewolves.

Today’s song:

BIOPHILIA ‼️

That’s it for this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Sunday Songs

Sunday Songs: 7/13/25

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.

This week: it’s always the theme of this blog, but I feel like this roundup is a celebration of weirdos who are unafraid to express themselves in wild, creative ways. (Why yes, I am talking about Björk again, how did you guess?)

Enjoy this week’s review!

SUNDAY SONGS: 7/13/25

“Do Things My Own Way” – Sparks

I aspire to be like Sparks. I’m not even a die-hard fan or anything, but they just seem so aspirational in what they’ve done with their long, creative career. They’ve recently come out with their 26th (!!!) album at ages 79 (Ron) and 76 (Russell), and by all accounts, they’ve continued on their decades-long streak of doing nothing but their own thing. They haven’t achieved super mainstream fame, but the brothers have been producing their own brand of creativity, drawing from what seems to be their own never-ending well and the well of the present. Just look at their episode of What’s In My Bag? — I seriously haven’t seen an episode of these with such a wide and diverse range of music, from K-Pop to John Coltrane to Kate Bush. They don’t seem to be stuck in the past—their personal brand of weirdness has just evolved over the decades.

At this point in their career, “Do Things My Own Way” feels like a statement of purpose from them, a propulsive anthem of confidence and being authentically yourself. Standing firm in its defiance, the track strides forward without a care for anyone or anything—nothing will shake the Mael brothers in their creativity. Anyone who’s in the way of them doing their thing is getting pushed out of the way—they’re not answering to anyone anymore. But even in that confidence, they acknowledge the rocky road that staying committed to yourself brings: “My advice, no advice/Gonna do things my own way/Roll the dice, roll the dice/Gonna do things my own way.” It’s always a gamble—there will always be people who look down at art like this as commercially inviable or not worth making. But as Sparks’ career has shown, it’s a risk worth taking. “Anywhere, anytime/Gonna do things my own way/I don’t care, I don’t care/Gonna do things my own way.” Another fantastic weirdo anthem for the books—thank you, Ron and Russell.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath – Moniquill Blackgoose – “My advice, no advice/Gonna do things my own way/Roll the dice, roll the dice/Gonna do things my own way…”

“Wanderlust” – Björk

The Björk deep dive continues…although this is about two weeks after I actually listened to the album, owing to the color palette rules I’ve imposed on myself. Both Volta and Medulla seem to spar in the Björk fandom for one of her least-liked albums, and every time I remember that, I’m baffled. I guess Timbaland’s more pop-sounding production isn’t for everyone, but if this is pop (yeah yeah), then this is the most bizarre pop I’ve ever listened to. Recorded during Björk’s time spent on a houseboat with her family, there’s a stark juxtaposition of the natural with the mechanical. It works both as a sonic tool and as political statement, given this album’s threads of anti-war (“Earth Intruders”) and anti-imperialism (“Declare Independence”) sentiments. It’s so delicious to me as a musical statement; even though she’s spent her whole career melding electronic music with nature, she’s turned it into a strong statement that war and colonialism are invasive and fundamentally against nature. God, I love Björk. I can’t believe I’m the kind of person who would unironically say “erm, ackshually, the foghorn noises contribute immensely to the album’s narrative,” BUT THEY DO. THEY’RE LIVE RECORDINGS OF WHEN SHE WAS ON THE HOUSEBOAT!! GUYS!!

Björk has called “Wanderlust” the heart of Volta, and it’s easy to see why. In a fairytale kind of way, it streamlines her statement of purpose, both in her personal life and in her musical career. Even though “Earth Intruders” is the first track on the album, “Wanderlust” tells its story: “I am leaving this harbor, giving urban a farewell/Its habitants seem too keen on god, I cannot stomach their rights and wrongs/I have lost my origin and I don’t want to find it again/Whether sailing into nature’s laws and be held by ocean’s paws.” I don’t blame her, especially since the move was prompted by living in New York with her family during the Bush administration. But after she breaks free, she revels in exploration and cliff-diving into the unknown, relishing in the act of discovery and intrepid daring. It’s an unabashed ode to not just stepping, but full-on leaping out of your comfort zone and being unafraid to dive headlong into the new and strange.

I originally saw the music video back in May during the Alamo Drafthouse’s Birth, Movies, Death for The Legend of Ochi (a very underrated fairy-tale/finding a creature film with lots of top tier critters, setpieces, and Willem Dafoe deftly proving that masculinity is a very silly construct). Isaiah Saxon co-directed it, and it might be one of my favorite of Björk’s music videos. Dressed in a Studio Ghibli-looking costume, Björk races down the river on the back of a herd of musk oxen, with fantastical scenery that accompanies her as a fabric-like torrent of water pushes her ever-forward into the unknown. After seeing The Legend of Ochi, I can say that yeah, it’s very Isaiah Saxon, but more than that, it’s so Björk. I can’t think of a better pairing for the spirit of the song.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built – Becky Chambers – “I am leaving this harbor, giving urban a farewell/Its habitants seem too keen on god/I cannot stomach their rights and wrongs/I have lost my origin and I don’t want to find it again/Whether sailing into nature’s laws and be held by ocean’s paws…”

“Questionnaire (Demo)” – Studda Bubba

No, this isn’t Instagram Reels music, although in the most abstract sense…I did find it on the Instagram explore page. But listen, if my Instagram is recommending me quirky little folk songs made by a group of Indigenous, trans clowns, then shit, maybe I am giving off the right vibe to the algorithm after all. Amidst the hellscape that is social media, at least sometimes I can find spots of humor and creativity. For once, I found someone with the whimsy in their soul to center the chorus a folk song around the concept of opening up a hyper-capitalist factory and paying workers with the meager stipend of a single NFT. It’s a tender balance between their soft harmonies and the abject silliness of their lyrics (they managed to slip “you wouldn’t download a car” in), but maybe that whimsy is part of what holds the glue of whatever good is left in the rotting, festering wound that is social media. Anything to get us through all this.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

The Last Gifts of the Universe – Riley August – soft and tender, the kind of music I’d imagine playing in the quiet scenes with Scout and Kieran on their ship.

“I Feel Ya’ Strutter” – of Montreal

A late pride month addition, but every month is pride month…especially on this blog. And there’s not a whole lot that’s gayer than a) an of Montreal song, and b) an of Montreal song that absolutely reeks of the ’80s output of both David Bowie and Prince. This is easily one of the grooviest of Montreal tracks that I’ve heard—it doesn’t have the quaint, plinking synth soundscape of something off of Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, but instead boasts more of a slinky, guitar-driven sound. However, nothing can keep Kevin Barnes from having the most delightfully convoluted lyrics. During the verses, her rapid-fire delivery of the lyrics is almost dizzying, as though she crammed in as much as she possibly could: “I know there ain’t no one person that/Everybody else in the world hates or wants to die/Sometimes I do think it’s me/Like, I’m in a flight simulator/And I am crushing the birth of any potential memory, hey.” Like whew, take a breather! You deserve it! But it works once he pivots to the smoother tones of the chorus, where his Prince-like howl is on full display—and he works it. It’s an infectiously catchy tune that never feels to get me on my feet. Never in a million years would I think that the lyrics “We spoke of frontal lobe regression/This is not one of those” would make me shiver with antici…pation before such a wonderful breakdown. That’s the power of Kevin Barnes, right there.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

You Sexy Thing – Cat Rambo – ’70s/’80s music homage, passion, queerness…all in space.

“Metal” – Gary Numan

Happy Disability Pride Month, and remember, kids: you wouldn’t have synth pop as we know it without autism.

It’s often a negative trope to view certain autistic people as like robots; the comparison has long been used to dehumanize those who simply have trouble interacting with neurotypical society, equating a flat affect or a lack of outward emotion to being outright heartless. But if there’s anyone in pop culture who’s turned this on its head and embraced it, it’s Gary Numan. A key figure in new wave music and one of the pioneers of what we now know as synth-pop, Numan often used metaphors of machinery, robots, and androids to relate to his own experience growing up autistic. My sci-fi brain immediately latches onto the lyrics—it’s all a very classic, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? story of a robot being created in a strange factory by ominous “liquid engineers” who tries to assimilate to human life, but is painfully conscious of the fact that “Here inside, I like metal/Don’t you?” It’s a very abjectly dystopian world, complete with the protagonist explaining that “I need my treatment, it’s tomorrow that they send me/Singing ‘I am an American’/Do you?”

But it’s the framing of the lyrics—all questions—that stand out to me in the context of neurodivergence, and of outsiderness in general. Almost all of them end in either a question (“do you?/did you?”) or an assumption of normalcy (“like you”). The protagonist has lived its life thinking that everything that has happened to it (being grown in a factory and having a heart made of batteries) is normal, and once it interacts with the human world, it slowly realizes that its experience is not a normal human experience, fundamentally out of sync with everyone else. And yeah, they’re robots, but if this isn’t a picture-perfect summation of what it feels like to be neurodivergent, I don’t know what is. I haven’t had this experience to the extent that Numan seems to have, but it’s always such an alienating feeling to realize that the way you interact with the world is fundamentally counter to most of the other people around you. It’s taken a long time for me to realize that I’m just operating on a different code, if you will, but there’s always the lingering feeling, enforced by so many people around you, that the way you interact with the world isn’t correct. Numan’s utterance of “I could learn to be a man/Like you” feeds into that desperation that somehow there’s a way to figure out how to operate neurotypically, what the secret is that they’ve all got down and you were never told. But here Numan is today, still touring in his sixties, gaining all kinds of accolades, and embracing his own autism. Here, he’s turned the outside view of him being inhuman into a way of understanding himself and the world around him, and made an iconic brand out of it—a brand no one could replace.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

The Outside – Ada Hoffman – though I suppose Yasira is less robot and more liquid engineer, this is a similar story of an autistic woman and her quest to put the universe to rights.

Since this posts consists entirely of songs, consider all of them to be today’s song.

That’s it for this week’s Sunday Songs! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Books

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈The Bookish Mutant’s Books for Pride Month (2025 Edition)🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Here in the U.S., June is Pride Month! I usually start off these posts with something about how the world is slowly getting kinder to queer people, but that, as always, the shadows of homophobia and transphobia loom large. Well…Christ, it sure is looming larger than ever. Misinformed voters have decided that they’re perfectly content to return us to an administration that has already required passports to revert to the carrier’s assigned gender at birth and has been emboldened to toy with the idea of repealing the right to same-sex marriage. Of course, here I am sitting on my comfy couch in my comfy blue state of Colorado that thankfully has a) a gay governor (shoutout to Jared Polis), and b) enshrined the right to same-sex marriage in the constitution, but that doesn’t mean that my heart doesn’t constantly ache. All of us in the queer community are deeply interconnected. What hurts one of us hurts all of us.

Book banning across the country has disproportionately targeted queer books, deeming the presence of such subjects in children’s, middle grade, and YA literature as pornography and grooming. And god forbid that a drag queen commits the incredibly sexual and predatory act of…[checks notes] reading picture books to kids at libraries. Republicans have their priorities twisted. That’s old, old news by now. Books and libraries were never meant to be war zones, but fascists have made it their mission, then and now, to declare the right to information and new ideas as the most dangerous threat to their power. This goes for books both queer and non-queer. But the power of queer books can’t be overstated. Even I, who grew up in an incredibly supportive, accepting environment (biggest thank you imaginable to my wonderful family for being that way), was enlightened and comforted when, in the short period when I was closeted, I found bisexual characters in books that reflected my story and my feelings. Queer literature is revelatory, and it saves lives. For queer people, it gives them the comfort that they aren’t alone. For others, it gives them a glimpse into perspectives that they might not have otherwise considered, and compels them to empathize with people who are different than them.

So this pride month, and all year round (as always), when you think of what you can do to support the LGBTQ+ community, consider picking up a book. Support queer authors. Buy from queer-owned bookstores, because they tend to be pretty cool places. Support your local library (because they need it now more than ever)—checking out queer books shows them that they’re in demand, and that encourages librarians to keep on shelving them. For us book bloggers and other social media-oriented folks: keep on reviewing and shouting out books. And for all of us: no president, no government, and no legislation can take away your queerness. No one has that power but you. Your queerness is revolutionary and beautiful. Keep on being queer.

So here is my annual list of great LGBTQ+ reads from all sorts of genres, backgrounds, and identities. If I’ve mistakenly identified something about a book’s representation, please let me know! I’ve mixed YA and Adult books here, and I’ve also added a nonfiction section for the first time, as I’ve done with my other recommendation lists.

A refresher on my key:

MC: Main character

LI: Love interest

SC: Side character(s)

For my posts from previous years, click below:

Let’s begin, shall we?

🌈THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S BOOKS FOR PRIDE MONTH (2025 EDITION)🌈

FANTASY:

Includes paranormal, magical realism, horror, and genre fusion(s)

SCIENCE FICTION:

Includes dystopia, speculative fiction, & genre fusion(s)

REALISTIC FICTION

NONFICTION:

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of these books, and if so, what did you think of them? What are some of your favorite queer books that you’ve read recently? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

lindsey…please tell me this is a sign that you’re cooking something…

That’s it for this year’s pride recommendations! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Monthly Wrap-Ups

March/April Wrap-Up🪻

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Thursday, bibliophiles!

Here’s my favorite flower emoji. Pick it if you like—it’s for everyone to enjoy, but it’s not real, no damage done! Keep it for the road:🪻

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve gone into my finals hibernation. The only reason I’m popping on right now is because this post is mostly pre-written, so I’ll probably be radio silent for another week or so. March and April have been topsy-turvy—despite the veil of illusion that is the internet, I’m always on the verge of freaking out about the news. I’ve had my fair share of spirals. I repeat to myself: I do what I can. I can freak out, but I can never give in to fear. Easier said than done, but I’m trying here. I’m donating when I can. I’m getting the word out. And when I actually have the time, I’m keeping up with reading diversely and reviewing intersectionally. The sun is out, the weather is warmer, and I am trying to soak up as much of it as I can.

Today’s my last official day of my junior year of college. I’ve got finals ahead, but I’ve got the humanities blessing of having no in-person finals, just papers to turn in. They’re all longer than I’d care to write, but thankfully they’re all about things I enjoy. I’ve done a lot of writing about science fiction, especially cozy sci-fi and how it’s a counter to sci-fi convention of how everything has to have the universe at stake. It’s worth it to tell stories where, to take Kurt Vonnegut at his most literally, all the characters want is just a glass of water. Quiet stories of kindness are not naïve—they teach us to dream about worlds where everything around us is kinder.

As I look back on junior year, I see a fishbowl with pebbles strewn across the floor, but the goldfish flopped back into what was left and did its very best to thrive. I took on a hefty workload while juggling a metric ton of anxiety, and it’s been an uphill battle to stay mindful and stay present. But I am learning. I’m getting better. I really think I can see clear signs that I’ve gotten better this semester. Sure, I had the workload, but I was able to, y’know, get out and realize that there are people and places beyond my bed and that the voices in my head are full of shit. I stepped out of my comfort zone…within bounds. I expanded the zone, shall we say. I went to some new restaurants and got a tad more social. Most of all, I tried to embody the joy that I don’t see in the word around me. I know there are plenty of lazy people using “joy as an act of resistance” as an excuse to do absolutely nothing to counteract the hellscape around us, but it’s true. When people are unironically saying things like “the sin of empathy” and not even stopping to think about what the hell they’ve just said, being joyful and showing those in power that you won’t bend to their tactics is as powerful as any protest. So keep on finding and being the joy.

Today, I group-hugged some friends of mine after class. Two of them are graduating seniors, and today was their last ever day in undergrad. In an attempt to adjust my position, I ended up jostled to the center of the hug. It embodied the feeling that I hope to give to myself and others: being surrounded by love on all sides. Junior year’s out the window. Onto better things Thursday.

Let’s begin, shall we?

MARCH READING WRAP-UP:

I read 13 books in March! I focused mainly on books by women for Women’s History Month. I also got into a major sci-fi stint (they never go away, every other reading mood just happens in between them), and read some new greats by familiar authors!

2 – 2.75 stars:

A Children’s Bible

3 – 3.75 stars:

All Systems Red

4 – 4.75 stars:

Bowling with Corpses & Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH – The Last Gifts of the Universe – 4.75 stars, rounded up to 5

The Last Gifts of the Universe

REVIEWS:

BONUS:

SUNDAY SONGS:

APRIL READING WRAP-UP:

I read 16 books in April! Trust me, I have genuinely no clue how that managed to happen. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,” or something? We’ll see if I can actually keep up the momentum. Either way, April was a mixed bag—some absolute hard-hitters, but also my very first DNF of the year. (Sorry, The Phoenix Keeper. I just feel like there’s millions of better ways to describe the pale white MC than having skin like “gossamer.” With all of the mythical creatures, I was starting to think that she was one too, given that word choice…)

1 – 1.75 stars:

The Phoenix Keeper

2 – 2.75 stars:

The Queer Girl Is Going to Be Okay

3 – 3.75 stars:

Roll for Love

4 – 4.75 stars:

You Sexy Thing

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: The River Has Roots – 4.5 stars

The River Has Roots

REVIEWS:

SUNDAY SONGS:

Today’s song:

remembered this song out of nowhere yesterday…this song was on a birthday playlist that my dad made for me, and I had it on my new iPod. it’s still kickin’ to this day, somehow. fond memories abound…

That’s it for the second wrap-up of the year! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!