Jake Casella Brookins
@casella.bsky.social
Appalachian in the big city. Editor at Ancillary Review, host of A Meal of Thorns, bookseller, coffee pro, SF reviewer & scholar. He/him.
https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
well this post is still up so raw sexual content was definitely not the reason for my short banishment
November 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
well this post is still up so raw sexual content was definitely not the reason for my short banishment
each new piece of info about the Nuzzi/RFK story is a level of Macdonald's "Now this might strike some viewers as harsh" previously unknown to science
November 26, 2025 at 11:20 PM
each new piece of info about the Nuzzi/RFK story is a level of Macdonald's "Now this might strike some viewers as harsh" previously unknown to science
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
This is a very good and important thread
THREAD.
3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead.
We decided to call him Jim.
This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.
3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead.
We decided to call him Jim.
This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.
November 26, 2025 at 9:25 PM
This is a very good and important thread
This is easily one of the best books I've read this year: haunting, smart, funny. Highly recommended.
Never-Ebbing Story: @casella.bsky.social reviews Eva Meijer's SEA NOW, translated by Anne Thompson Melo (@catransitnerd.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
Never-Ebbing Story: Review of Eva Meijer’s Sea Now
Jake Casella Brookins Under Review:Sea Now. Eva Meijer, translated by Anne Thompson Melo. Two Lines Press, October 2025. Ironically, it’s the very dry humor of Eva Meijer’s Sea Now—a story entirely…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:49 PM
This is easily one of the best books I've read this year: haunting, smart, funny. Highly recommended.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Hey @bsky.app @safety.bsky.app @support.bsky.team please unsuspend Goran immediately.
Goran is a great person, a great artist, and the whole anti-Palestine thing youre on is one of those "Ford funding Hitler" disasters you remember being shocked and dismayed by when you learned of in middle school.
Goran is a great person, a great artist, and the whole anti-Palestine thing youre on is one of those "Ford funding Hitler" disasters you remember being shocked and dismayed by when you learned of in middle school.
November 26, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Hey @bsky.app @safety.bsky.app @support.bsky.team please unsuspend Goran immediately.
Goran is a great person, a great artist, and the whole anti-Palestine thing youre on is one of those "Ford funding Hitler" disasters you remember being shocked and dismayed by when you learned of in middle school.
Goran is a great person, a great artist, and the whole anti-Palestine thing youre on is one of those "Ford funding Hitler" disasters you remember being shocked and dismayed by when you learned of in middle school.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
it is crazy that Logan square is lowkey a food desert
you can immediately tell by the responses who has never lived in a grocery desert and cannot even conceive of the problem
November 26, 2025 at 2:15 PM
it is crazy that Logan square is lowkey a food desert
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Talking extinction, climate apocalypse, the horrors of the wounded earth, and the importance of dodging eco-fascism with @ckunzelman.bsky.social next Monday. Probably important you have this context:
Cyclopterus lumpus | Lumpsucker | Lumpfish
YouTube video by Siamdive
youtu.be
November 25, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Talking extinction, climate apocalypse, the horrors of the wounded earth, and the importance of dodging eco-fascism with @ckunzelman.bsky.social next Monday. Probably important you have this context:
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
I have a feeling this is the week Wile E. Coyote finally kills Jürgen Habermas
November 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
I have a feeling this is the week Wile E. Coyote finally kills Jürgen Habermas
three people buying a book we didn't really have on our radar at my old bookstore was instant "order more, face it out, somebody on staff read it and write a talker for it" territory
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:16 PM
three people buying a book we didn't really have on our radar at my old bookstore was instant "order more, face it out, somebody on staff read it and write a talker for it" territory
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
The American left isn't going to be able to handle an extremely hot smart funny guy with decent politics in an important office with national exposure and constant media. We need to ease into this with a sewer socialist who reminds you of Columbo
November 25, 2025 at 10:11 PM
The American left isn't going to be able to handle an extremely hot smart funny guy with decent politics in an important office with national exposure and constant media. We need to ease into this with a sewer socialist who reminds you of Columbo
to be clear, if there is a war on pie I will join it on the side of pie. However, I've never been able to unhear a coworker sarcastically asking "How often have you said to yourself 'gosh, I really wish I had some hot fruit right now!'"
November 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
to be clear, if there is a war on pie I will join it on the side of pie. However, I've never been able to unhear a coworker sarcastically asking "How often have you said to yourself 'gosh, I really wish I had some hot fruit right now!'"
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Simon is such a beast
CITIZEN ONE - an immortal class traitor, a cadre of coup plotters, and the fate of a communist utopia (now available to buy as pdf)
November 18, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Simon is such a beast
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
[Werner Herzog voice]: you must never see this
November 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM
[Werner Herzog voice]: you must never see this
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
No email from a library system stirs the imagination like a notice my scan is ready to download through WORLDCAT. The great cat that surrounds the world? That nuzzles the roots of the world-scratching-tree? The great world cat who is and was and shall be? That cat???
November 25, 2025 at 8:19 AM
No email from a library system stirs the imagination like a notice my scan is ready to download through WORLDCAT. The great cat that surrounds the world? That nuzzles the roots of the world-scratching-tree? The great world cat who is and was and shall be? That cat???
a lot of people think you can save a few bucks and skip the rotoscoped lightning bolts arcing all over the place, but listen: this is your special day
Thinking about going here and having the final confrontation with my arch nemesis. Sparks, squibs, explosions, the whole nine yards.
"there are no third spaces anymore" wrong. blast furnace
November 25, 2025 at 3:55 AM
a lot of people think you can save a few bucks and skip the rotoscoped lightning bolts arcing all over the place, but listen: this is your special day
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
every star wars property for some reason
November 24, 2025 at 9:02 PM
every star wars property for some reason
i don't think they'd ever admit to it, but I still give the Andor team immense credit for slowly dropping the quality over the course of S2 so that it's not too jarring when you follow it up with a Rogue One rewatch
yes i have seen ANDOR, no it does not “make it better” because any given film should be evaluated on its own as a standalone text.
November 24, 2025 at 8:49 PM
i don't think they'd ever admit to it, but I still give the Andor team immense credit for slowly dropping the quality over the course of S2 so that it's not too jarring when you follow it up with a Rogue One rewatch
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
When the prison guards went on strike, many inmates said they were doing so to preserve their ability to do things like this.
A @nytimes.com investigation has found that state prison guards have been credibly accused of engaging in such behavior — putting inmates in restraints and then assaulting them — far more often than was previously known.
Restrained, Beaten, Asphyxiated: New York Prison Guards’ Brutality Grows
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
When the prison guards went on strike, many inmates said they were doing so to preserve their ability to do things like this.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Do you realise Sivraj backwards is Jarvis? DO YOU?
November 24, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Do you realise Sivraj backwards is Jarvis? DO YOU?
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
The one thing I really miss about the 'older world' is browsing library stacks, and card catalogues. However much I appreciate databases and retrieving what I want in moments, the serendipity of 'the book next to the one I wanted' and 'the article in the same issue' cannot be replicated. #Libraries
November 24, 2025 at 11:39 AM
The one thing I really miss about the 'older world' is browsing library stacks, and card catalogues. However much I appreciate databases and retrieving what I want in moments, the serendipity of 'the book next to the one I wanted' and 'the article in the same issue' cannot be replicated. #Libraries
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Doesn't feel real that Udo Kier will never again turn up in a ludicrously terrible film and make it watchable while he's onscreen. Irreplaceable.
November 24, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Doesn't feel real that Udo Kier will never again turn up in a ludicrously terrible film and make it watchable while he's onscreen. Irreplaceable.
good name for an international detective tbh
November 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
good name for an international detective tbh
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
If you're an author being published by small and tiny presses, please shamelessly promote your work, however much your temperament might militate against it. I've seen many wonderful authors at this level so quickly forgotten when they die, you deserve all the readers you can get while you're alive.
November 23, 2025 at 6:49 AM
If you're an author being published by small and tiny presses, please shamelessly promote your work, however much your temperament might militate against it. I've seen many wonderful authors at this level so quickly forgotten when they die, you deserve all the readers you can get while you're alive.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Good Morning Blue Sky! Hope you’re all ok? Once I get some work admin out of the way I am very much looking forward to curling up with Slow Gods by Claire North for some SF in my life. What are you reading at the moment?
November 23, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Good Morning Blue Sky! Hope you’re all ok? Once I get some work admin out of the way I am very much looking forward to curling up with Slow Gods by Claire North for some SF in my life. What are you reading at the moment?
