Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LJ Pemberton

@ljabouttown.bsky.social

1.7K followers 460 following 3K posts

Writer's writer's writer. 📚 STILL ALIVE (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. https://tinyurl.com/y8mt536j

tinyurl.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · Jul 22

Periodic reminder that if you read my book and messaged me or made a bluesky posting about it, I'm eternally grateful, and would also be really appreciative of a quick review drop on Goodreads, Amazon, or LibraryThing. I wish these things didn't make such a difference, but they do!

2 7 18

Reposted by LJ Pemberton

LittlePuss Press @littlepuss.net · 1d

"I can’t imagine I will read a better novel this year, it is just that brilliant."
—David Demchuk (@daviddemchuk.com)

PRE-ORDER 2DAY 🔥

PERSONA by Aoife Josie Clements — Debut trans horror — LittlePuss Press

"The best book I've read in years." —Gretchen Felker-Martin

www.littlepuss.net

1 1 22

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 4m

fall morning / summer afternoon

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 13h

this—theater of the herd

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 15h

you really get the impression that congress resented having a job at all

1 2

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 16h

i thought the lesson of middle school was that people who don’t like you aren’t worth your time

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 16h

it’s been weird to grow up and discover other adults didn’t respond to bullying by being like, oh your opinions are irrelevant, and instead are still chasing some kind of precarious group belonging

1 1

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 17h

jesus i can’t stand the writing of tina fey

it’s like hot topic for christians—only passes as rebellious or quirky for people who are obsessed with normalcy

Reposted by LJ Pemberton

Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 19h

Are you fucking kidding me.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

140 470 2K

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

tbf there are two drive up spots too but you can’t marinate there

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

we have one coffee shop in town that plays christian music and makes really expensive but delicious coffee and another that employs queer kids and makes cheaper decent coffee but they share a space with a video gambling lounge.

what i’m saying is: there’s a market for a coffee shop that has *vibes*

1 1

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

i’ll post pics of the side by side when it’s done

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

so next we’re gonna paint it probably using special paint for bricks but until then it’ll look icky

1 1

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

but the brick wall started leaning and needed all this mortar repair and so i repaired the mortar but i got mortar all over the bricks

1 1

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

our stairs had to get ripped out last year to repair a sewer (!) problem which was insanely expensive and so we got a guy to put in new concrete stairs that kinda attach to the brick wall

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 19h

have been slowly repairing this exterior brick wall by our kitchen stairs and i know it will eventually look good but right now it looks like dogshit and it’s making me crazy

1 3

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

honestly this fact is always quite disorienting to me, given empire’s consistent allegiance towards white cis hetero patriarchy but human beings are complicated and hypocritical and some even prefer having a rule to break than the freedom to be

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

friendly reminder that a person’s sexual orientation is not a guarantee of someone having a suspicious posture or stance towards empire

there are quite a few empire apologists in the lgbtq spectrum

1 1

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

FOR NO GOOD REASON

Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 1d

Then again, the entire country is being run into the ground right now for no good reason. So I'm not super confident CBS News will be any different.

1 3

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

🥰📚😘

Picket Fire @picketfire.bsky.social · 1d

Coming from the excellent LJ Pemberton, this is very high praise. LJ is a writer to be read, so when she says something is good, you should probably listen.

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 16d

READ. THIS. BOOK.

The protagonist is a close-to-pro skater who gets a traumatic brain injury and has to give it up. He takes up his camera and enters the Arizona party scene, where he semi-makes it, while also getting embroiled in a love quadrangle that ends very badly. Really thoughtfully done.

Reposted by LJ Pemberton

Dorothy Parker Fucks @dorothyparkerfucks.bsky.social · 1d

Tweet from @dril: turning a big dial taht says "Racism" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right

5 130 440

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

also peter thiel is batshit insane — this extratheological antichrist theory is the stuff religious psychosis is made of

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 1d

What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright:

"I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you."

This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.

2 1 6

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

If you work a job where you have to be on for hours and hours with no break, peanuts will keep you going like nothing else. Literally nothing else comes close.

Also, blue emu cream for muscle and tendon soreness is insane. I don’t understand how it works but it works.

Reposted by LJ Pemberton

Elad Nehorai @eladn.bsky.social · 1d

"The administration is doing dumb things, this proves they will fail."

1. They are not as dumb as you think in the areas that matter to them: grabbing power.

2. Being dumb is a feature, not a bug, of authoritarianism. Hiring based on loyalty does that.

3. This thinking is what leads to inaction.

13 96 350

Reposted by LJ Pemberton

Picket Fire @picketfire.bsky.social · 1d

John F Duffy, author of "Where When It Rains," will be at the Louisville Book Festival this Saturday. Come say hi.

1 1

LJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 1d

🥰😘