The Memory Librarian

 The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae (2022) 321 pages

This could almost be called a short story collection, except the stories are loosely linked. There are five contributors listed on Goodreads that helped Janelle Monae put each part of the story on paper. I listened to the audiobook with the first part narrated by Janelle Monae and the rest narrated by Bahni Turpin. Fans of The Handmaids' Tale would probably enjoy this. The stories take place in a near-future totalitarian state. Even though there is less overt religious involvement in the regulations of public and private life, all the main characters are labeled "Dirty Computers." Janelle Monae's third album was titled Dirty Computer. I had seen their series of music videos that form an "emotion picture" for this album when it was released about five years ago. In this world, Dirty Computers have there memories erased to force conformity. This totalitarian state targets queer people of color. Concepts of Intersectionality are explored in each story. It is suggested, but not made completely clear, that each story advances in time and involves characters from the previous story living their re-invented life after their memory wipe. There is sci-fi tech controlled by the state for surveying the population and very little power left to the ordinary person. I don't read short stories very often. Just as you get invested in one, it is over. I wish the separate stories were more connected like chapters of a whole. I became a bit frustrated trying to guess how each connected to the previous one. And I wish there was more world building description that referenced the visual design of the music videos.

Sister Outsider

 Sister Outsider:Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, 192 pages.

This collection contains essays and speeches by poet Audre Lorde. Most of the collection is about intersectional feminism, especially relating to Lorde's identity as a black woman and a woman attracted to women. As with any social commentary 30-40 years out of date, some parts hold up better than others. Parts of what Lorde says are still dishearteningly relevant, and parts (like a travelogue/defense of the Soviet Union) are really more relevant to the 80s, when the collection was published. I found some of her arguments a little simplistic and gender essentialist, but others were very compelling and complex. Regardless, it is really interesting to read this snapshot of social issues.