Jeff VanderMeer
LightNews LightNews
banner
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Jeff VanderMeer
@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
70K followers 1.5K following 9.2K posts
NYT bestselling author of the Southern Reach series, including Absolution. Repped by Joe Veltre at Gersh. he/him
Posts Replies Media Videos
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Premee Mohamed Eighty-Five Murders in One Night: A True Story below a fucked up copy of Selected Cicero currently languishing on a Portland, OR street and crying out for its momma. Eighty-Five crossed out with 86 substituted on account of: comments.
December 1, 2025 at 12:34 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
My latest holiday book choice is WEAK IN COMPARISON TO DREAMS. A tour de force of philosophical literature that is also hilarious, mordant, fiercely defensive of animal rights, and sometimes beautiful in the best possible ways. (So far, also rec the sequel, A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO ANNELIESE.) 5/?
The beige black and white totally boring covers to two extraordinary novels by James Elkins, the first with a fire in a forest and the second with a bird cage in the middle of the boringest cover in the history of boring covers, yet still it caught my eye. WEAK IN COMPARISON TO DREAMS description: For years, Samuel Emmer has monitored bacteria levels in drinking water for the small city of Guelph. He is content to focus on dangerous life-threatening single-celled organisms as his grasp on his own life recedes—and with it, family and friends. To be sure, it is more than a little surprising when Samuel learns that he has been appointed to the city’s Zoo Feasibility Committee. Even more so, that he is being tasked with interacting not just with animals, but human beings. His assignment: travel to zoos around the world and gather information on the stereotypical behavior of animals in their enclosures—the city of Guelph aspiring commendably, if naively, to a cruelty-free habitat for its animals. It is in Tallinn, Estonia, that the dreams start for Samuel. He is in a vast wooded landscape; there is a fire burning in the distance; and it is coming his way… 

 Weak in Comparison to Dreams, by the historian and art critic James Elkins, is like no other novel you have ever read, even as certain inspirations, from Sebald to Tokarczuk, are clear. With an astounding breadth of knowledge and playful courage, Weak in Comparison to Dreams reignites our love for the ambitious novel with experimentation that never lacks intention, and whose empathetic scope explores the deepest aspects of our individual humanity. A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO ANNELIESE description: When Samuel Emmer meets unemployed biologist Anneliese Glur for dinner during his stopover in Frankfurt, he has no notion of what to expect. Anneliese is an old friend and former colleague of his boss, and he agrees to dinner for no other reason than he has nothing better to do. As it turns out, Anneliese is a torrent of ob…
December 1, 2025 at 12:21 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Met a Sri Lankan American whose wife just wrote a novel and we chatted about Sri Lanka and Portland. I broke a bottle in a cafe and the owner cheerily joked about it to settle my nerves. I talked books with a barrista + agreed w a guy who shouted at me that I am a dumbass, which made him smile 2/2
another cool bridge from well below, with trees, the riverwalk was wonderful and inviting side of Books With Pictures, showing the Mad Hatter's Tea Party Amazing mural on Division street with beautifully grotesque human and animal faces along with flowers, in an array of blues and reds and yellows and greens The epitome of Portland? The Spirit of Portland river cruise ship on the river to the left, the pedestrian bridge going across, and the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry center far bank, with gorgeous Mount Hood to the left.
December 1, 2025 at 12:01 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Around Portland, during a very long jaunt from southwest 23rd into downtown, then riverwalk to the pedestrian bridge, back southeast along division street. Absolutely zippo "war-ravaged" stuff. Just so many nice, thoughtful, creative people met in casual conversation along the way. 1/2
the downtown christmas tree flanked by white tall buildings with tiny windows and blue sky metal bear eating fish sculpture a bridge over the river, one of many with very nice filigree purple iris in a riverwalk garden
November 30, 2025 at 11:51 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
for the taker, cicero between se grant court and grant street on 37th ave, portland oregon
selected works of cicero to title page, cover ripped off
November 30, 2025 at 11:30 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Am I in a mood? Oh yeah, cause I just discovered there's new Portugal the Man, SHISH, and I can't stop listening . At their best, Portugal the Man is a bit of dark magic, like embers flashing across a night sky that get bigger and pierce your skull and then you're a flame flashing across a night sky
SHISH in blood script crawling and a scene of a hunger hunched a bit in a parka and snow shoes dragging dead seals across an arctic landscape.
November 30, 2025 at 6:31 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
nobody told me interview with a vampire had a raccoon in it
raccoon in cluttered house
November 30, 2025 at 4:21 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
For today's holiday pick, why not put a little lighthouse in your soul? LIGHTHOUSE: AN ILLUMINATING HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S COASTAL SENTINELS by R.G. GRANT is a fascinating, comprehensive coffee table book w lavish diagrams, photos, illos that you can lose yourself in. 10 outta 10 tower tunnels 4/?
A beige cover with two narrow, long lighthouse schematics to the left and center with words from center to lower right: Lighthouse An Illuminating history of the world's coastal sentinels RG Grant schematics and drawings of various lighthouses with text Photo of a steel cylinder lighthouse and opposite a page of dense text the inside stairs of a lighthouse dramatic in black and amber on left and table of contents on right Prologue: The Saga of the Eddystone Light 1 Wonders of the World: A Brief History of Lighthouses 2 Defying the Elements: The Perilous Business of Lighthouse Building 3 A Light in the Darkness: The Evolution of Lights and Lenses 4 Keepers of the Light: Splendors and Miseries of the Lighthouse Crews Epilogue: The End of an Era
November 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
For Black Friday, a two-fer of great story collections from opposite coasts as holiday gift recs: HELLIONS by the atlantic southeast's JULIA ELLIOTT and NEAR FLESH by the pacific northwest's Katherine Dunn. Totally different in tone, but both great, evocative, insightful, imaginative! 3/?
Hellions by Julia Elliott: bright dark pink flowers with electric green gator entangled Near Flesh by Katherine Dunn, authot of Geek Love, gray bavkdrop for white hand, palm open
November 28, 2025 at 6:35 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Also rereading Musil, via this incredibly tawdry old paperback set lol. Seems like it will make the task less formidable.
Three-volume 70s paperback set of THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES by Robert Musil, with white backgrounds to character montage cut-outs in subdued hues.
November 28, 2025 at 4:55 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
If you're looking for a sincere, nicely written and improv'd holiday movie, The Baltimorons is a great, sweet and surprisingly deep movie. A nice antidote to the hyper-commercial holiday film.
the two leads at the end of a pier, man in brown overcoat and woman in red, against a white backdrop.
November 28, 2025 at 4:12 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
happy, um, thanks giving?
November 27, 2025 The "infamous scene of Lowry [redacting] [Redacted]" reminded me to take my Thanksgiving roast out of the freezer to defrost. a smell that had always been there. It was an amazing smell, like vanilla and lavender but not fru- fucking- fru cloyfucking. No, wait, it was a savory smell, like chicken in a pot of spices, the simmering scent of that, rising from the stove, curling into the living room on a cold fall day. A taste- bud- tingling smell . . .  coming from the dead- skin husk fucking cast- off wax- dribbling fi gure fucker hidden inside that improbable possible jacket. Se- cret, self- contained, solitary as an oyster. Shit. It smelled so good and nary a fucking small woodland creature he’d manage to bag, even since free of the Southern Reach’s fucked- up policy on the matter. A good broth on a winter’s day. The way the broth would bubble with those golden bubbles, each one on the surface breaking open to add to a salivating scent. If the pile smelled that good . . .  maybe it would taste fucking great, too, and any texture infi rmities just the price to be fucking paid for, fi nally, getting a good meal in this hovel, this shithole, this bed- and- breakfast from hell he would not be fucking recom- mending to anyone. His mouth watered and he teared up. Oh, it was such a fuck- ing succulent smell, it would have to be a taste of manna. It would taste like moist chicken breast or slow- marinated pork, where the meat just fell off the bone. It could be the chicken from the fi rst- fi rst expedition, Whitby’s chicken, and he would still eat the fuck out of it. Yes, just think of it as a fowl. A fattened fowl could be a lighthouse and a delicious gorge. Don’t be disgruntled or discouraged by what it looked like— if a thing camoufl aged itself, that was nothing to do with him. He reached his hand out and touched the remembered ac- cordion fl ubber- sweat of the foot part, the tangled shank- of- leg part . . .  and found that now it had the perfect crispy texture of the skin on a perfectly cooked turkey. That golden glazed mag- nifi cence …
November 28, 2025 at 4:19 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
oh sure ❤️
orange jellyfish
November 28, 2025 at 3:08 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
I really love sandhill cranes. I enjoyed watching these ones kind of, well, crane their necks and look around.
three sandhill cranes by a lake bank, two peering low to the right and one high to the right. two cranes looking left and one looking kind of down the middle two cranes looking in opposite directions if two cranes look in the opposite direction but stand still while a third crane out of view runs a marathon that takes the crane twelve miles to the north and then the rest of the way to the east, then flies 30 leagues west, but circles back to a position 15 miles southeast, then calls his mom to check in for thanksgiving and then takes a train 5 miles north... how far is that crane from the other two cranes? and what direction are the other two cranes now looking once the third crane reaches that last position?
November 28, 2025 at 2:55 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
More from Ridgefield wildlife refuge. Wonderful place.
two tundra swans i believe, but def swans three endangered deer, some white-tailed subspecies blue heron hunting voles cackling goose
November 28, 2025 at 2:50 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
My kestrel photographs, on the other hand, are just so-so. LOL. Very gray day.
kestrel on a stump kestrel in silhouette on bare branches kestrel as round boi borb flufferuppered from the winds kestrel as kestrel again, on branches with orange leaves, half fluffed and half puffed with tail feathers willy nilly ish.
November 28, 2025 at 2:45 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Your third moment of calm: Sandhill cranes walking along the edge of marsh...
November 28, 2025 at 2:08 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
From Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge today, with @sarahlovesbirds.bsky.social
blue heron sandhill crane red tailed hawk in silhouette
November 28, 2025 at 2:01 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
your second moment of calm
November 28, 2025 at 1:41 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Two sandhill cranes, seen on an expedition with @sarahlovesbirds.bsky.social
November 28, 2025 at 1:34 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Your moment of calm: kestrel on a fence post. Out at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge with @sarahlovesbirds.bsky.social
November 28, 2025 at 1:29 AM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
I have a lot of new long, immersive reads ahead this holiday season, but I do also plan to revisit three favorites I haven't read in some time, which I highly recommend: THE KILLS by RICHARD HOUSE (terribly underrated), Roberto Bolano's 2666, and Thomas Pynchon's V.
Orange cover of The Kills by Richard House, all typography, Robert Bolano 2666 slipcased three book set, and Thomas Pynchon's V in the vintage trade paperback cover white white and gray with V in green in a circle.
November 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Really thrilled to have an advance copy of HOMESICK FOR A WORLD UNKNOWN, a biography of one of our most important and iconic field biologists and environmentalists, George Schaller. He never seemed to have much use for the limelight, so a little underrated and hopefully this book will help. 1/2
HOMESICK FOR A WORLD UNKNOWN: The Life of George B. Schaller, advance uncorrected proofs, not for resale by Miriam Horn Text mostly in white on a black background with a photo of Schaller from behind sitting on a rock with a backpack looking out at far distant mountains.
November 27, 2025 at 5:45 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Today's holiday rec is ART WORK by Sally Mann, a great collection of essays/memoir about creativity from one of our best photographers. With copious photos, images, and the great first lines "This is a book about how to get shit done. Or, more particularly, how I got it done. Or didn't." 2/?
photo in black and white of Mann at a table, working, with title On The Creative Life in black below and Art Work in black above next to Sally Mann in white. Against a biege background.
November 27, 2025 at 5:01 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
PS Who could forget the otter and the elk, the juvie bald eagle and the tiny snapper, though?!
elk looking back at camera baby snapper on path otter on vancouver island Sooke bald eagle
November 26, 2025 at 11:40 PM