The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

4.6 | 527 ratings

Price: 22.04

Last update: 07-02-2024

Top reviews from the United States

Connects Afrofuturism to Queerness.. loved it

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2024

It took me a while to get through this book because I usually read short stories in between the novels that I read. This is a great contribution to the Afrofuturist genre. I read anything Sheree contributes too. I loved every story as they were so different from many things I read. Other great science fiction black female authors include Leah Vernon, Nicky Drayden, NK Jemison , Nnedi Okarafor…I loved diving into the universe the book created…

Shannon Clark

a collection that is much more than the individual stories

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2022

Written in collaboration with some amazing co-authors this book is a series of short stories, each set in the same world but not sharing characters. But even so the stories inform each other, craft a creative and haunting vision of the future and the future’s future. Hope in the face of what could easily be a dystopian vision is a powerful thread in these stories. As is being true to yourself and accepting of other’s authentic selves.

These stories also read as if they are part of a large project, as if they are echoes from an ongoing real place with language and references that seem to be assumed to be known even as they are introduced for the first time in the text.

I’m a fan of Janelle Monáe’s music but not so serious a fan as to know her lyrics by heart (I’ve even had the fortune of getting to see her perform years ago for a very small private crowd at a tech industry party in SF) but I suspect that having read this I’ll catch echoes and references from her songs in this book.

Highly recommended as a powerful piece of collaborative art and as a collection of visions of a better future, one we may just be able to build together if we can maintain optimism and hope and our unique authentic selves in the face of pressure to forget and to conform.

Anakin

Good but not great

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2022

While these 5 stories weren't page-turners and could get boring from time to time, they all made me think and will all stick with me. It was worth the read especially if you are a fan of the Dirty Computer album. The book enhances the album and I like the album even more than I did before reading the book. The album I absolutely love.

Edwin K.

Introduced to a different world than I have lived in, compelling me to adjust my thinking about that.

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2022

As a white male whose parents raised me to respect my teachers and influencers, accepting their viewpoints as deepening my education, Ms Monáe and her collaborators gave me a new and challenging perspective to digest. I have never understood why racial animosity is so prevalent in US societies, as I have been mentored in my career by people of color, both enriching my knowledge and prompting my career advancement. My empathetic life-partner and the two brilliant daughters burnished me in kind, as they are quite accepting of everyone regardless of politic, status or wealth (we are well off, but not wealthy). I have been a sci-fi fan since 5th grade across a wide spectrum of the form, but found the Memory Librarian newly challenging and thought provoking. I look forward to more from Ms Monáe Ann her collaborators! By the way, I was first acquainted with Ms Monáe via her excellent music releases.

Uranus2

Wildly imaginative!

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2023

Can’t wait for a sequel!

Mtbecker

The world we live in doesn't always match the world we see.

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2022

I give Janelle Monae and her collaborators a ton of credit. Writing a book with another person is a very difficult thing to do. It takes so much patience, respect, and acceptance of new opinions. Nice work, I look forward to reading the next anthology. M.T. Becker: author of Zinger In The Woods

Sea Love

Sci-Fi LGBTQ+ stories

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023

Book Condition:
I'm giving 3 stars because the book came in excellent condition.

Book Review:
Not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this. To be fair, I'm not super into Sci-Fi, but I had to read this book for my Book Club. The book is broken up into multiple stories all surrounding the same theme and time frame. You definitely have to get your brain ready because it's not an "easy" read. Frustrating at times to understand what's going on with the pronouns being used in some of the stories. Very progressive book highliting the disparities in society for female minorities in the LGBTQ+ community. Too much of the same story over and over for me. The girls at the book club had mixed reviews. Some say they were extremely exhausted reading this book. (It was definitely a chore to get through!) I will say this though! We definitely had a very lively discussion with differing view points in book club, so I guess the book/author did what it was supposed to. I just wish there was more diversity with the characters and not so complicated I had to stop every few sentences to look up a word.

Monique

Young Alt Black Girls---THIS IS A MUST READ

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2022

I'm not alone. And this book proves it.

There's a place for us, the bullied, the hurt, the "never enoughs". The different.

If you listened to any of Mx. Janelle's music, this book is for you.

My heart is whole because I'm not alone.

If you like page turners, you're in for a treat. ☺

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