We're back, and this time we're featuring an excerpt from Carmen Maria Machado's haunting, emotional, experimental and deeply powerful memoir - In The Dream House, one of my absolute favourite books of all time. It's a little spooky, very scary, and ultimately a painful, harrowing read. Why are we so masochistic? 

Read the excerpt in full here https://www.thecut.com/2019/11/excerpt-in-the-dream-house-by-carmen-maria-machado.html 

Music Featured:

Disasterpeace - Title (It Follows)

Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast - A Deeper Dream

Mount Shrine - Held Breeze

Spc X2x (Unseen Presence) by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/6738-spc-x2x-unseen-presence-

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Hello listeners, we're back after an insanely long hiatus! Today we're reading Charles Yu's speculative short story 'Standard Loneliness Package' from the Nov 2010 issue of Lightspeed Magazine. Known for his work on Westworld and his spectacular novel Interior Chinatown, Yu has always been one heck of an incredible writer, and in Standard Loneliness Package, imagines a world where grief, guilt and pain can be transferred to a shift worker to feel it for you...and the consequences of that, from the worker's perspective. It's sad, it's heartbreaking, and it's better each time I read it. 

Read the full story on Lightspeed Magazine https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/standard-loneliness-package/ 

Music used:

Piano At Midnight - Andrew Holdsworth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G41SDiy00y0&ab_channel=AndrewHoldsworth-Topic

Hello listeners, today we're doing something a little different. Instead of a sci-fi short story, we're reading a non-fiction, longform article instead. This one is about South Korea and the culture of hanjok, or 'alone tribe', where, exhausted by the demands of modern Korean society, some Koreans have chosen to retreat into a den of solitude, reducing societal interaction to a bare minimum, almost as if preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic. How does it all work Find out when you listen.

Read the full article on Rest of World.org here https://restofworld.org/2020/south-korea-honjok-loneliness/

Music used:

Lonely Fish by Sascha Ende

Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4655-lonely-fish

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Welcome back! You're listening to episode 6 of Sometimes I Read, where I'll be reading Sofia Samatar's Selkie Stories Are For Losers, which was nominated for the 2014 Hugo Award For Best Short Story. It's another brown author, and while it's not outrightly sci-fi/fantasy, it takes on the traditional European myths of selkies (seal women) to discuss ideas of absent mothers and the trauma inherited in their daughters. Slightly queer, relatively short, and very digestible. Enjoy!

Read the full story here: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/selkie-stories-are-for-losers/

Music used:

Music for Manatees by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4102-music-for-manatees

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

It's been a while, but here's episode 5, and we seem to be on a trend with authors of South Asian descent. This time we're featuring a really new piece, by Shiv Ramdas, which was written in late 2019 and is up for a Hugo Award for best short story. Hope you're all taking care amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and as always, if you like what you hear, tell your friends and share! 

Read the story in full on Strange Horizons http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/and-now-his-lordship-is-laughing/

Music used:

Deep Relaxation Preview by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5726-deep-relaxation-preview

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

It's not a queer episode at last, but it's about fanfic! And robots writing fanfic! Written by a Singaporean author! Fandom For Robots was nominated for both the 2017 Nebula Award For Best Short Story AND the 2018 Hugo Award For Best Short Story. How cool is that? It's also a shorter story than usual, and a lot more light-hearted. Super fun, and I really enjoyed reading this one. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it!!!

Fandom For Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, published in Uncanny Magazine https://uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/

Music Used:

Inspired by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

It's episode 3! We're reading another queer sci-fi short story! It's got almost dead but not quite women in cryogenically frozen states hoping that a man revives her! Sounds icky? Yes! But has a fantastic ending, and it's completely understandable why this won the 2010 Hugo Award For Best Short Story! Enjoy. 

Music used:

With the Sea by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4638-with-the-sea

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sovereign by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4397-sovereign

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

There is Romance by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4520-there-is-romance

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Today, we're reading The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere by John Chu, winner of the 2014 Hugo Award For Best Short Story. From Tor.com:

In the near future water falls from the sky whenever someone lies (either a mist or a torrential flood depending on the intensity of the lie). This makes life difficult for Matt as he maneuvers the marriage question with his lover and how best to “come out” to his traditional Chinese parents.

Yes, just like Episode 1, this is ALSO a very queer story, but also mostly about families, and truth and lies. It's great honestly. 

Read the full story on Tor.com https://www.tor.com/2013/02/20/the-water-that-falls-on-you-from-nowhere/

“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” copyright © 2012 John Chu

Music used:

Touching Moments One - Pulse by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4537-touching-moments-one---pulse

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We Wish you a Merry Christmas by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4612-we-wish-you-a-merry-christmas

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Scheming Weasel (faster version) by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4326-scheming-weasel-faster-version-

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Holiday Weasel by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5517-holiday-weasel

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Deep Relaxation Preview by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5726-deep-relaxation-preview

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Dark Times by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3611-dark-times

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this very first episode, we read Amal El-Mohtar's 2017 Hugo AND Nebula Award-winning short story about two girls from very different fairytales whose paths just happen to cross, and the circumstances that led to it.

Seasons of Glass and Iron © 2016 by Amal El–Mohtar. Originally published in The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales.

Music by Whitesand - Drops

The beginning of a new personal project where I...well, read. Aloud. 

Music Used:

Life of Riley by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3976-life-of-riley

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/