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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 2 years ago

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Black Sails: 13 Facts About The Starz Hit Worth More Than Stolen Treasure

BY ERICH B. ANDERSON/DEC. 31, 2022 1:15 PM EST

With contemporary series like "Vikings" and "Game of Thrones," "Black Sails" may often be overlooked when compared to other epic dramas of the 2010s, which makes it one of the most underrated shows of the decade. Not only is the scale of the pirate adventure immense with many scenes taking place upon impressive naval vessels, but the political intrigue and intimate interactions of the characters make it an entertaining watch for several different audiences.

The show as a whole does a brilliant job of mixing fiction with historical figures like the notorious pirate captains Blackbeard (Ray Stevenson) and Charles Vane (Zach McGowan) whose lives were so legendary that they verge on fantasy. But at its core, the story centers on the complicated friendship between its two main characters, Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his deviously clever quartermaster, Long John Silver, in the years before their sagas are continued in the later tale of "Treasure Island." For a series devoted to such larger-than-life individuals, the making of it also had its fair share of epic details and moments as well, which you can enjoy reading below.

The series is an unofficial prequel to Treasure Island

Although "Black Sails" is its own story for the most part, from the very beginning it was always meant to show the events building up to the classic work of fiction "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. More than anything, the creators of the series wanted to tie up loose ends to the famous tale and give their explanation to who the characters were up to in the years before, as showrunner Jonathan Steinberg explained to Entertainment Weekly: "At the end of the book, it's recounted by other people that Captain Flint died in Savannah alone, which begs a lot of questions."

Flint's origin is certainly not the only one covered with both Long John Silver's and Billy Bones' backstories explained thoroughly as well. For Billy especially, his situation in the finale of the series gives all new meaning to what happens to him later in the novel. Steinberg added: "It is clear we are suggesting he is on 'Treasure Island,' which I think has a number of implications if you go back and read the book."

After four seasons, it is clear the showrunner was pleased with how the series handled the continuity, saying: "It felt like we had finished the argument a little bit, in terms of connecting it not just to 'Treasure Island,' but to our contemporary understanding of what piracy was, about what Caribbean piracy was."

2. The opening credits features the hurdy-gurdy

Several aspects of "Black Sails" make it stand out as a particularly fascinating TV series, with one of the top being its unique theme music in the opening credits. Not only is the memorable tune composed by the talented Bear McCreary who is well known for his work on "The Walking Dead" and "Battlestar Galactica," but it also features quite an unusual instrument known as a hurdy-gurdy, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Also known as a wheel fiddle, the hurdy-gurdy is a folk instrument that has existed for around 1,000 years and is played to this day all over Western Europe, from Italy to England. In a 2010 TED Talk, musician Caroline Phillips explained that the complex and bulky device originally required two people to operate it until the design was improved a few centuries later, so it could be used by a single performer. Although a fundamental part of the instrument is the strings, akin to a violin, the sound produced can also be compared to bagpipes.

3. The show was filmed in South Africa

While "Black Sails" takes place predominantly in the Caribbean, that was not the place chosen to film the epic pirate drama. Instead, the Starz network went with the fairly new Cape Town Studios for the production, and needless to say that the South African-based company was ecstatic over the decision. Ahead of filming Season 1, Film Afrika producer Vlokkie Gordon said: "We are delighted to have been awarded ['Black Sails'] and it is further proof of South Africa's international reputation for outstanding production skill and expertise" (via The Location Guide). Gordon continued: "A production of this scope provides not only employment for South Africans, but also skills transfer which is in line with Film Afrika's policy of supporting growth and development of the South African film and television industry."

The swashbuckling series was then added to the growing list of productions shot out of Cape Town, including "Safe House," "Chronicle," and "Mad Max: Fury Road," as per the Cape Town Film Studios website. Plus, another Starz series benefited greatly from the elaborate ship sets built there, with "Outlander" using the Jamaican landscapes in its third season, according to Entertainment Weekly.

4. 300 people worked on the pirate ship

The impressive sailing vessels featured in "Black Sails" are almost as important to the story as the characters themselves. Therefore, a ton of work was put into the construction of the sets in order to make the maritime setting feel real for the cast, and more importantly, the audience. In a behind-the-scenes clip shared by Starz, senior rigger Joel Yates explained: "The carpenters building the boat it took them, I think, four or five months. They want it to look as authentic as possible because what we've built is a very accurate replica of a sailing ship."

The end product, called The Walrus in the show, was massive as well, as Yates revealed that the full ship is approximately 140 feet long. And to pull off such an incredible feat, it took a gigantic crew with various skill sets, as construction coordinator Clive Pollack shared: "There are 300 people working on the boat. There are carpenters, sculptors, painters, riggers, sailmakers."

5. There were no bathrooms for cast and crew on the ship

For as grand as the prominent pirate ship is in "Black Sails," it does have its faults as it also serves as the set of a modern TV production. In a 2016 interview with Den of Geek, actor Zach McGowan revealed the biggest problem for the cast and crew on set: "The hardest thing about the ships, most people don't realize, is just when you're on the ship at the top of the deck somewhere, it's very far to the nearest bathroom. There's no bathroom on the ships."

Even with that minor complaint, McGowan went on to stress that being on the deck of the ship at sea was such a great experience that the actor wished he had more of those scenes. It's also his opinion that most of the cast felt the same way, except possibly the ones who spent the most time on board, such as Toby Stephens.

6. The actors went through pirate boot camp

Like most epic dramas featured on premium channels, "Black Sails" is filled with massive battle sequences, in this case often between rival pirate clans, or against the relentless forces of the British and Spanish empires. While the nature of naval warfare means that a good amount of these conflicts are long distance, yet devastating, as cannonballs attempt to rip enemy vessels apart, much of the brutal combat is at close quarters.

All of the fight scenes in the series are quite impressive, so it makes sense that many cast members received special training. In a Q&A with a few of the main actors, shared by Starz in 2015, Luke Arnold revealed: "We all went through a three-week pirate boot camp. Well, the pirates of the crew did at the beginning of shooting." And it was a good thing that they did because when asked if they could survive the rough conditions of the time period, the general consensus was an adamant no. Toby Stephens then elaborated with a laugh: "The real trouble, I'd be ok on Nasau, it was as soon as I'd get on a boat and I had to sail anywhere."

7. Clara Paget came up with Anne Bonny's distinctive look

From Charles Vane, Edward Teach, and Jack Rackham to Captain Flint, Long John Silver, and Billy Bones, "Black Sails" has all sorts of characters based on either historic people or from the famous fictional tale, "Treasure Island." Therefore, both the writers of the show and the actors who portrayed these popular figures had to work with what was already known about them. But at the same time, there was a lot of creative freedom as well.

A somewhat minor, though fascinating aspect of another one of these real characters in the series, Anne Bonny, was thought up by actress Clara Paget. In a 2016 interview with Den of Geek, when asked what she contributed to the role, the actress replied: "I suppose the hat. That came completely organically. I tried on this hat and then I was pulling it down in an almost jokey way, like an old-school Western. Then it became who she is, hiding behind this hat. It really works for the character because, as I said, it shows this vulnerable side at the same time as being a badass through one side or the other. Like schizophrenic, bipolar."

8. Zack McGowan broke a stuntman's jaw by accident

A major reason that the fight scenes in "Black Sails" are so good is because of the enthusiasm of the cast and crew when filming, yet there was one time that may have gone a little too far. When a stuntman on set named Daryl was to be hit with the butt of a rifle by Zach McGowan, the dedicated performer showed no fear and encouraged the actor to strike him square in the face. The veteran stuntman figured it was no big deal since the thing was only made of rubber. Since Daryl seemed more than fine with the idea, McGowan went along with the idea.

In a 2017 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Toby Stephens recalled the disastrous, though somewhat funny result: "Zach, who's brilliant at this kind of thing, whacked him straight in the jaw, as the guy asked, and totally broke his jaw. It looks fantastic, it actually made the cut, and it looked absolutely brilliant. At the end of it, I just remember Daryl going, 'No, it's fine. It's okay, don't worry about it.'" Fortunately, the stuntman was not seriously harmed, so they were able to joke about it a bit.

9. Zack McGowan climbed the balconies of a building to get rum

"Black Sails" is filled with many incredible exploits of pirate warriors as they battle on the high seas, but a behind-the-scenes achievement by one of the actors was almost as impressive as what was shown on screen. During a break in filming, the cast was having a good time together but needed some rum, so Zach McGowan went to rather extreme lengths to remedy the situation.

In order to gain access to the prized liquor in a room several floors up, the actor literally scaled the side of the building all on his own. When talking with Rotten Tomatoes, cast member Hannah New described the amazing sight, saying: "He did this like Spider-Man kind of thing where he climbed up these balconies … it's incredible, he does like, God knows how many chin-ups every day. So, he can just chin up these balconies."

After McGowan successfully got the rum and then made the way back down with it in his front pocket, the cast waiting down below were too awestruck to do anything but tensely watch. Fellow actress Jessica Parker Kennedy added: "And none of us videotaped it. I think we were all in such shock, it was so scary, I thought he was going to fall and break his neck and we would have to explain it to our producers the next day."

10. It took all season to film Luke Arnold's underwater scene

In the fourth season of "Black Sails," Long John Silver nearly perishes in the sea as he struggles to escape his sinking ship. Actor Luke Arnold must have been pleased that his character ultimately survived the harrowing experience, but filming the scenes was definitely not easy for the actor. Even though he was confident in the comprehensive training he received beforehand, Arnold still had to overcome a major fear of performing in those conditions.

When asked specifically about those tense underwater moments, he told Collider in a 2017 interview: "That was the beginning of hell that kept getting crazier as it went along. That took all season to shoot. We were in the water tank, from the beginning of the season, stuck underwater, all day." To his dismay, Arnold was right when he assumed it would take longer to finish than the filmmakers first thought, yet it was all worth it, as he added: "Right until the last couple of weeks, I was doing bits of the underwater stuff to make that whole sequence as spectacular as it is."

11. Luke Arnold received a special gift from a producer

Luke Arnold was one of several major cast members of "Black Sails" who was in the show from the very beginning all the way through to the climactic finale. The actor very much enjoyed his time filming the series, so when he found a cherished memento from the early days, it was a big deal. In the same interview with Collider, he revealed: "We were shooting a scene in Season 4 that was back in Eleanor's office, and I found the piece of paper that I was writing the directions to find the Urca de Lima on, which was the very first scene we shot in Episode 103. Nina Jack, who was one of our producers on Season 4, got it framed and gave it to me as a gift, so I've gone away with that. That was amazing!"

On the other hand, there were parts of the series that Arnold did not remember so fondly, mostly from the difficulties that arose in pretending to have lost a leg. In this endeavor, he was able to use a crutch on screen, but the prop caused him so much discomfort that he grew to despise it.

12. Luke Arnold had a legless stunt double

Once Long John Silver tragically loses his leg in "Black Sails," Luke Arnold had some difficulty filming scenes as the character, so he was grateful to have help from a stuntman named Ben de Jager who is also missing the limb. The actor told Collider: "It was great to have somebody who's gone through the experience of losing a leg. He did step in for a lot of stuff, mainly because it was so much easier to have him there. If you're shooting from behind or you're focusing on the foot, it's easier to have someone in who's missing the leg than to do it with me and spend a fortune on visual effects to change things."

Though Arnold certainly got along with de Jager, there also seemed to have been a little jealousy in sharing screen time for the role. The actor admitted that a downside for him was his absence in some major Long John Silver moments of the show.

13. The writers gradually decided to bring back Flint's lover, Thomas

For as dark as "Black Sails" can be throughout the series, it ended on a fairly happy note as the main character, Captain Flint, is finally reunited with the love of his life, Thomas Hamilton (Rupert Penry-Jones). Both men are sentenced to imprisonment on a plantation, yet all that matters to the pair is that they are together again. Viewers may have been somewhat surprised that Thomas had returned to the show given the fact that he was thought to be dead, but over time the writers decided that was not going to be his fate.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Jonathan Steinberg explained: "We had a sense in Season 2 when he died off-screen, that any character who dies off-screen, you're taking the word of the messenger as to whether or not it actually happened. We knew we weren't finished with him. And then at some point in Season 3, we realized it would be reasonably late in the series when he came back, so in Season 4 it felt right."

Source: Looper

#luke arnold #zach mcgowan #clara paget #black sails #lovely article

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fatehbaz · 2 years ago

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“Many years ago,” began a story in a Singapore-based newspaper in 1899, “it used to be customary to transport convicts from India to this Colony.” That article profiled a courthouse scene of fisticuffs between two old men. According to the newspaper, these two ex-convicts opted “to settle their slight differences” with violence, resulting in the “junior” of the pair having “both his arms broken.” [...] Amused by the scene, the writer cast these men as relics from another time.

Convicts from South Asia were once a conspicuous presence in Southeast Asia, their handiwork visible everywhere, particularly in the built environment of Singapore.

In the twenty-first century, public acknowledgment of their achievements barely exists, elided by many in the Indian community who would rather not trace their origins to convict ancestors and erased by postcolonial governments that would rather not see their shining cities and states shaped by coerced labor. As for the roads, bridges, and buildings constructed by “servants” of the East India Company, as Indian convicts understood themselves, many have been leveled to make room for new monuments.

Convicts had a significant role in forging empires across the world. Penal transportation was a key strategy of British imperial rule, notably in the case of Australia, from the eighteenth century onward. However, the British also established penal settlements in Southeast Asia where they sent women and men from South Asia convicted of heinous crimes, including political offenses. [...]

Empire of Convicts: Indian Penal Labor in Colonial Southeast Asia tells the stories of convicts journeying across kala pani (black waters) and making their homes in Bengkulu, Penang, and Singapore, where they served extended sentences.

Despite finding themselves in novel and precarious situations, many prisoners exercised considerable agency and resisted colonial authorities, in some cases even becoming “their own warders.” Such are the tales of Fateh Khan of Banaras who emerged as the sahib and leader of the Indian convicts and soldiers in Bengkulu or Jallia who escaped from Penang and made his way back home to Gujarat or the many women and men who labored in Singapore for decades and never returned to India.

Political prisoners from South Asia lived alongside other convicts in the insular prisons of Southeast Asia. My book’s cover features the belongings of the Sikh rebel, Bhai Maharaj Singh, who fought the British in India and was held captive in Singapore in the early 1850s. These objects -- a conch shell, a finger ring, a knife, two steel quoits, a sewing needle and thread, and a religious text -- attest to persons and things dispersed across an Indian Ocean world. Empire of Convicts serves as a counterpart to well-known stories of law, crime, punishment, and prisons, and to an ongoing story of prisoners, particularly in the United States, being used for their labor and exploited by racist structures in liberal democracies.

---

All text above by: Anand A. Yang. “Forgotten Histories of Indian Convicts in Colonial Southeast Asia.” UC Press Blog (published by University of California Press). 22 January 2021. [Some paragraph breaks added by me. Image shows a portion of the cover of Yang’s book.]

#abolition #ecology #colonial #imperial

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uispeccoll · 2 years ago

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Anything but Silent: Lobby Card for Swing

Last year, Special Collections and Archives at the University of Iowa Libraries acquired items to form a new collection: the Black Film and Television Collection. In honor of Black History Month, we’re shining a spotlight on a different item from this collection.

In last week’s installment, we took a closer look at the poster for 1919’s The Green-Eyed Monster. Now we’re picking up 20 years later, with the spotlight on a lobby card from Oscar Micheaux’s 1938 film Swing, part of the Black Film and Television Collection. Starring Cora Green, Swing is notable as an example of two overlapping genres: race film and musical film.

Like many of Micheaux’s films, Swing it is also a tale centered around Black characters with grand aspirations. And like Micheaux himself, these women are pioneers, willing to make a path through the unknown.

Swing is a story born of the Harlem Renaissance, which by 1938 was declining in the wake of the Great Depression. The movie follows Eloise Jackson (Hazel Diaz) and Mandy Jenkins (Cora Green), two young women from Birmingham, Alabama. Mandy catches her husband (Larry Seymour) having an affair with Eloise, and Eloise flees to start over as a singer in Harlem. Her past catches up with her, however, and through a series of mishaps, it ends up being Mandy who succeeds as a performer on Broadway.

Who was Oscar Micheaux?

Last week’s blog touched on the work of Micheaux, but it’s worth digging deeper into the life of this singular talent.

Micheaux was born in 1884 and grew up with his 12 siblings on a farm in a small town in Illinois. His parents had been born into slavery in Kentucky, but neither emancipation nor a move north could create distance from the realities of structural racism.

The debts Micheaux’s parents had undertaken to keep the farm afloat became more burdensome over time and had educational repercussions for their fifth-eldest child. For a while, they were able to send Oscar to a school in a neighboring town, but financial difficulties eventually forced them to bring him back to work on the farm. This adjustment was difficult for an intelligent, ambitious teen to process, and Micheaux rebelled. Frustrated, Oscar’s father sent him to his older brother in Chicago, where he took work as a porter.

During this stint in the city, Micheaux set his hopes on homesteading to the west. He saved the earnings from his job until he could buy farmland in South Dakota and worked this land for years, a Black man surrounded by a community of white homesteaders. His experience in South Dakota came to an end when a drought withered his crops and his first marriage began to deteriorate. Micheaux committed these experiences to the page, emerging in 1913 with an anonymous, self-published book titled The Conquest, and a new ambition: to make his living as a storyteller.

In 1918, Micheaux would turn much of the material from The Conquest into a new, more fictionalized project, a novel he would call The Homesteader (both books can be found in the UI Libraries Special Collections & Archives). It was this work that caught the eye of the Lincoln Film Company’s George Johnson, who contacted Micheaux and offered to adapt the novel. However, the two couldn’t agree on a direction for the project, and the deal was scrapped. It became clear to Micheaux that if he wanted narrative control over a film based on his story, he’d have to make it himself. And in 1919, the new, Sioux City-based Micheaux Book & Film Company released the silent film The Homesteader.

Swing came almost 20 years after The Homesteader. By the time it was released, Micheaux had made nearly forty movies, both silent films and “talkies.” His contributions had defined the art of the race film and brought the experiences of Black Americans to the screen. As one might expect given the climate of his day, Micheaux was no stranger to controversy and censorship; his stories confronted racism directly, in ways the white establishment found “political” and therefore threatening. As an independent filmmaker in a burgeoning studio system, Micheaux’s budget was often tightly constrained. In 1928, he had to declare bankruptcy, but he continued filmmaking afterward with the same tenacity that had led him to that parcel of land in South Dakota.

Micheaux only made four more films after this one, and by his death in 1951 he had declared bankruptcy again. But in recent years, his contributions to film history have received more attention. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures features an exhibit on Micheaux’s work, and in 2010 the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp in his honor.

Swing and Cora Green

Since Swing was a musical film, it also gave Cora Green a new opportunity to showcase the singing voice that had already made her a star. Green performs two of Swing’s four musical numbers, “Bei Mir Bist di Schön” and “Heaven Help This Heart of Mine.”

Though she was only in two feature films (Swing in 1938 and Moon Over Harlem in 1939), her decades as a vaudeville performer had earned her the distinction of “the highest-paid colored woman in vaudeville,” according to one contemporary newspaper. She was popular enough that during World War II, she toured with the United Service Organizations (USO) to the Persian Gulf, performing for Black troops. Unfortunately, we don’t know what direction Green’s life took after the war, since she vanishes from the record in 1949.

What Green left behind was a limited but unique body of work, and this lobby card is a small piece of her story. In Swing, her voice carries to us through the years, the sound of a new art form just hitting its stride.

Next week, we’ll explore another distinct genre of Black filmmaking: the Blaxploitation film

---Natalee Dawson, Communication Coordinator at UIowa Libraries, with assistance from Liz Riordan, Anne Bassett, and Jerome Kirby

#black history #black history month #Swing #Cora Green #oscar micheaux #black film #film #black history matters #libraries #musical film

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year ago

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The four books pictured below are essentially the same collection of short fantasy and science fiction short stories. All that changes is the cover and the format—and the title:

In 1970, the original publisher who purchased the collection was New American Library (aka Signet Books). It contained two award-winning stories, "Aye, and Gomorrah," which had received a Nebula award, and "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones," which had taken both a Hugo Hugo Award in Heidelberg and a Nebula in Berkeley.

My very clever then-agent, Henry Morrison, suggested: "Why don't you back sell it to a shadow hard-cover company, who will do a hardcover version that will get a few reviews that you can then use to sell the paperback.

So a hardcover company was drawn up on paper—Nelson Doubleday—who published the first edition, with cover art by Frank Wilcox, shown on the lower right. Also all the tales carry place/date subscriptions (the place and date the story was completed), which I think is particularly important for SF stories.

One of the things the early hardcover is notable for is that, on the title page, they actually misspell my last name.

Fortunately, that has only happened once.

Initially, however, I wanted to name the collection "*Aye, and Gomorrah* and Other Stories," but I was told, well, we're going change it to something else, because everybody will think it's a book about religion. Thus it became *Driftglass: Ten Tales of Speculative Fiction,* with Bob Pepper's cover art, till eventually Vintage brought it out.

By that time they were quite willing to let me put the original title on it—which is what it bears today.

It just shows you how the world changes.

Reading over the tales, I saw that there was a shared them to them all: I think it was given to me by the Southern diaspora that had brought so many blacks from the south and moved folks around in the endless wars: very few people die, it would seem, in the same town in which they were born. And that is meaning of the little but of prose poetry at the head of all four volumes, which I wrote contemplating the fact that in his entire life Shakespeare only traveled, that we know, one hundred and six miles—and back.

[Samuel Delany]

#Samuel R. Delany #Driftglass #words and writing #stories #short stories #quotes #Aye and Gomorrah #how the world changes

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hiddenbysuccubi · 1 month ago

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I watch things a normal amount

(Mostly) Adventure Romance (Syfy or Fantasy):

Labyrinth Willow Legend Dark Crystal Pan’s Labyrinth NeverEnding Story Princess Bride Zorro The Mummy

Ever After Ladyhawke Stardust The Princess Bride Inkheart Australia La La Land Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Lost in Austen The Fall Mirrormask Alice Syfy Beetlejuice (& x2) Drop Dead Fred Sleepy Hollow HEX, Buffy, Supernatural, MIB Fifth Element Serenity Tank Girl Mad Max (Fury Road) Waterworld My Demon Lover Your Monster Dinotopia Argyle The Company of Wolves Valerie and her week of Wonders The Lure Love Witch Edward Scissorhands Blue Lagoon Pirates, Indiana Jones, Librarians, Firefly The Imaginarium of Dr. Pernassus (Yes you watched this you were just high on mushrooms) 10th Kingdom Slumberland Interstellar 5555

Fun Romps/Romance:

Decoy Bride Happy Ever Afters The Holiday Holiday in Handcuffs Hot Frosty The Abduction Club A Knight’s Tale Wild Child You Instead 27 Dresses Leap Year Robin Hood: Men in Tights Once Upon a Mattress

Old Flicks: I Was a Male War Bride Some Like it Hot Calamity Jane M.A.S.H

Pregnancy movies: For Keeps Mrs. Winterbourne Making Mr. Right

Revenge fun: First Wives Club Legally Blonde Down With Love

Psychotic Teenage Movies: Drop Dead Gorgeous Heathers Saved! Insatiable (not a movie)

Bad comedy: Out Cold Euro Trip Captain Ron Sundown Dirty Love Romancing the Stone Exit to Eden

Gay romps: The Gay Pretenders The Curious Female But I’m a Cheerleader

British comedy: Black Books Fawlty Towers Over The Top Jeeves and Wooster Miranda Red Dwarf Seize Them!

Dark:

Abigail Interview With the Vampire Daybreakers I, Robot Red Kingdom Rising Perfume Let The Right One In Obscure Animated: Sita Sings The Blues Fantastic Planet Paprika Persepolis Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs Wild Robot The Good Dinosaur (I will only ever rewatch this high with company wtf) I mean obviously Secret of Nimh and all the classics here too. Don Bluth, Disney, Pixar, Ghibli, but those aren't obscure

Dramas:

Pride and Prejudice Kate & Leopold North & South Bridgerton The Buccaneers Outlander (sort of) Poldark Sanditon Aschenputtel 2010 Der Froschkönig 2008 Die Salzprinzessin 2015 Die kleine Meerjungfrau 2013 Das Märchen von der Prinzessin, die unbedingt in einem Märchen vorkommen wollte 2013 Rusalochka 1976 Malá Morská Víla 1976 Ruslan and Ludmila 1972 (Does My Crazy Ex Girlfriend count? Fuck it it's on the list) Shows that might as well be movies now that we only get 6-8 episode series:

Anthracite The Artful Dodger Lessons in Chemistry Renegade Nell Dick Turpin Vampire Academy Emerald City The Decameron

Cult/Comedy: What We Do In The Shadows Clue Shaun of the Dead Lost Boys Beetlejuice My Demon Lover Frogs Dead Before Dawn Death Becomes Her Dance of the Vampires Cabin in the Woods The Babysitter Heathers Drop Dead Gorgeous Saved! Totally Killer

For the more scared-prone crowd I have :

Less Scare more Fun: Matilda Buffy (the movie) Teen Witch Casper Book of Life Nightmare Before Christmas Alvin and the Chipmunks: Meet the Wolfman Hotel Transylvania Addams Family Practical Magic Warm Bodies Monster House Corpse Bride Halloweentown Sleepy Hollow CoCo

More plot-based I’ve got:

More Scare, More Plot: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Interview With the Vampire Babadook Crimson Peak The Craft Daybreakers Let The Right One In Perfume The Skeleton Key

More Classic Horror: The Thing (1982) The Fly (1986) Poltergeist (1982) The Man Who Laughs (1928) Alien (1979) It Follows (2014) The Ritual (2017)

And for a good old musical romp there’s always: Musical Horror: Rocky Horror Repo! The Genetic Opera Evil Dead: The Musical Little Shop Of Horrors Heathers: The Musical. Reefer Madness the Musical Beetlejuice the Musical Sweeney Todd Tanz der Vampire

#movies

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musingsofmonica · 2 months ago

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August 2024 Diverse Reads:

•”There Are Rivers in the Sky” by Elif Shafak, August 20, Knopf Publishing Group, Literary/Historical, World Literature/Ancient Nineveh/Mesopotamia/Turkey/Iraq/London/Multiple Timelines

•“House of Bone and Rain” by Gabino Iglesias, August 06, Mulholland Books, Horror/Mystery & Detective/Thriller/Coming of Age/Crime/World Literature/Puerto Rico

•”I Want to Die But I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki” by Baek Sehee, translated by Anton Hur, August 06, Bloomsbury Publishing, Memoir/Self Help/Psychotherapy/Mood Disorders/Cultural, Ethnic & Regional/World Literature/Korea

•”And So I Roar” by Abi Daré, August 06, Dutton, Literary/Coming of Age/Women/World Literature/Nigeria

•”The Truth According to Ember” by Danica Nava, August 06, Berkley Books, Contemporary/Romance/Romantic Comedy/Workplace/Cultural Heritage/Native American & Aboriginal

•”The Seventh Veil of Salome” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, August 06, Del Rey Books, Literary/Historical/Women/20th Century/Golden Age Hollywood/Multiple Timelines

.”The Girl with No Reflection” by Keshe Chow, August 06, Delacorte Press, Fairy Tale/Folklore/Fantasy/Dark Fantasy/Horror/Romance

•”The Volcano Daughters” by Gina María Balibrera, August 20, Pantheon Books, Historical/Mythology/Magical Realism/20th Century/Cultural Heritage/Hispanic & Latino/World Literature/El Salvador/

•”Silken Gazelles” by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth, August 13, Catapult, Contemporary/Women/Family Life/Marriage & Divorce/World Literature/Middle East/Arabian Peninsula/Oman

•”The Rich People Have Gone Away” by Regina Porter, August 06, Hogarth Press, Literary/Thriller/Psychological/Family Life/Pandemic/New York

.”The Unicorn Woman” by Gayl Jones, August 20, Beacon Press, Historical/Magical Realism/Cultural Heritage/African American & Black/Southern/WWII South/Jim Croe

.”Five-Star Stranger” by Kat Tang, August 06, Scribner Book Company, Literary/Psychological/Family Life/Modern Connectivity

.”Everything We Never Had” by Randy Ribay, August 27, Kokila, Contemporary/Historical/Family/Multigenerational/Cultural Heritage/Filipino American

.”The Friend Zone Experiment” by Zen Cho, August 06, Bramble, Contemporary/Romance/Romantic Comedy/Family Life/World Literature/London/Singapore/SE Asia

.”I'll Have What He's Having” by Adib Khorram, August 27, Forever, Contemporary/Romance/Romantic Comedy/Own Voices/LGBTQ

.”The Full Moon Coffee Shop” by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, August 20, Ballantine Books, Contemporary/Fantasy/Magical Realism/World Literature/Japan

•”Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian's Journey Home” by Chris La Tray, August 20, Milkweed Editions, Memoir/Historical/Family History & Genealogy/Ethnic Studies/Native American Studies/Indigenous Identity//Cultural, Ethnic & Regional/Native American & Aboriginal

•”Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, August 20, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishing, Biography/Literary Figure/Women/Feminist/Ethnic Studies/Cultural/Ethnic & Regional/African American & Black

.”The Italy Letters” by VI Khi Nao, August 13, Melville House Publishing, Epistolary/Asian American/LGBTQ

•”The Fertile Earth” by Ruthvika Rao, August 13, Flatiron Books, Literary/Historical/Political/20th Century/World Literature/India/

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whitepolaris · 5 months ago

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The Purported Perils of Polybius

While early video games like Space Invaders, Pong, and Pac-Man are familiar to most people, hardly anyone remembers Polybius.

A scant few descriptions of the game have turned up over the years. Most amount to little more than vague memories of an abstract shooting game released in 1981. The graphics, cutting-edge at the time, should have garnered it more recognition, but the games appeared in only a few Portland-area arcades (possibly in Beaverton and Hillsboro). Official-looking men in black suits were said to stand silently within sight of the machines, observing players. On occasion, they would access the machines to collect data rather than quarters-precisely what kind of data, nobody seems to know.

Why was a possibly state-of-the-art game so poorly distributed, and why were mysterious agents keeping watch over it?

Whispers soon circulated that Polybius was an experimental mind-control device. A few minutes of zapping enemies would trigger a special strobe of light and/or on-screen activity designed to disrupt the player's brain waves. Teenagers allegedly became unwitting guinea pigs for some sort of conspiratorial psi-war research. Many wound up, it was said, either amnesic, catatonic, or hopelessly insane.

Rational explanations were offered: Polybius was really a prototype of Tempest, a game that fits the hazy descriptions of Polybius rather well. Tempest was released by Atari in 1981, using a new video technology composed of strange, angular objects flipping and crawling at a furious pace across geometric playing fields.

The theory went that, while playing Tempest supposed prototype, an epileptic youth had a seizure from starting at the colorful video mayhem. This speculation is valid only insofar as strong visual stimuli are indeed known to trigger epileptic seizures. Word of the incident may have spread, eventually developing into the rumors of a mind-control experiment.

A few years ago, a person calling Steven Roach offered another explanation via the Internet. He claimed to have cofounded a German software company, hired by a South American firm, to develop a video game that would showcase an advanced proprietary graphics technology. According to Roach, the game was test-marketed in the Portland area because of demographics. Company representatives briefly hung around to evaluate player reactions to Polybius, explaining where the stories of "men in black" came from.

It's highly doubtful that a game developer would release a prototype to arcades for "testing" purposes. And why would South American and German business partners test-market a game in Portland instead of somewhere closer to home?

Rare and mysterious-and possibly nonexistent-Polybius has captured the imaginations of many gamers over the years. Pictures of a purported arcade cabinet and a single image of the supposed title screen have made the rounds but have been met with some skepticism. At least one independent Polybius "remake" has been produced, either from memory or the creators' own inspired a low-budget independent film titled VectorZone.

Maybe Polybius really existed. Maybe it really was a sinister mind-control device. On the other hand, maybe it's just a fictional cautionary tale devised by some misguided crusader, the video game equivalent of heavy metal music leading to teen suicide, or comic books causing juvenile delinquency.

The overriding message of the legend is clear though: Video games will fry your brain.

#weird oregon #type read

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biglisbonnews · 2 years ago

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7 Unforgettable Stories for Black History Month In the Atlas Obscura archives you'll find hundreds and hundreds of stories of Black history—unforgettable tales of resistance, inspiration, ingenuity, and joy. But as we celebrate Black History Month 2023, we don't want to overlook the people rediscovering and preserving this vital history, from the researcher who unearthed a missing moment in film history to the descendant documenting the legacy of Oregon's Black loggers and the foundation keeping Zora Neale Hurston's memory alive in a small Florida city. How 20 Seconds of Film Changed Movie History By Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing, Atlas Obscura editorial fellow While looking through a box of unidentified film reels in 2017, Dino Everett, a film archivist from the University of Southern California, did not expect to unfurl a section of film showing a Black couple dressed in costumes typical of minstrel shows locked in a romantic embrace. The short, only 20 seconds long, showed the pair kissing, swaying, kissing again and just smiling at each other. Everett had rediscovered a lost moment in film history: William N. Selig’s 1898 short film Something Good-Negro Kiss, the earliest known depiction of black intimacy on screen. The Hidden History of the First Black Women to Serve in the U.S. Navy By Giulia Heyward When Jerri Bell first wrote about the Golden Fourteen, their story only took up a sentence. These 14 Black women were the first to serve in the U.S. Navy, and Bell, a former naval officer and historian with the Veterans Writing Project, included them in a book about women’s contributions in every American war. But even after the book was published, Bell couldn’t get their story out of her head. Now she's writing another book detailing the lives of the Fourteen who somehow found employment in the muster roll unit of the U.S. Navy in Washington DC during World War I. A Stunning Archive of the Work of Early Black Photographers By April White, Atlas Obscura senior writer and editor The names James P. Ball, Glenalvin Goodridge, and Augustus Washington may not be widely known, but each man was a pioneer from the dawn of the photographic era, and each produced images that tell a story of Black life before the Civil War, as well as the role artists played in abolition. The Smithsonian American Art Museum recently acquired a 283-piece collection of their work and that of other Black artists from the mid 1800s, which includes one-of-a-kind images of abolitionists and early examples of photographic jewelry. Were Black GIs Killed in a World War II–Era Race Riot? By Benoît Morenne In the aftermath of a 1942 race riot in Alexandria, Louisiana, the U.S. military reported that 33 Black servicemen had been injured and none had been killed in an altercation with predominantly the white military police force. But eyewitnesses to the event claimed that about 20 or more Black men had died. Now, the Black community and local historians are reckoning with what might have been one of the bloodiest racial conflicts in World War II America. Meet the Woman Preserving the History of Oregon’s Black Loggers By Michelle Harris In the early 1900s Maxville, a logging town in Oregon, was a thriving community of a few hundred people—and it was unusually diverse for a state which excluded Black people from settling within its boundaries until 1926. Bowman-Hicks, the Missouri company that owned the town, like other lumber companies in the area, recruited skilled loggers from the South, regardless of race. Today the site is a ghost town but Gwen Trice, who discovered her father worked as a logger in Maxville, has committed herself to documenting Oregon’s Black logging history. Podcast: Women of the Black Panther Mural By the Podcast Team In the days after the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020, Jilchristina Vest watched murals bloom on the plywood fortifications in her West Oakland neighborhood. They were beautiful images of tragedy, each a tribute to a Black person who had died at the hands of law enforcement. Those memorials inspired Vest to commission a different kind of mural on the side of her home. This artwork was “going to be about Black joy,” a 30-foot-tall celebration of the women of the Black Panther Party. Keeping the Memory of Zora Neale Hurston Alive in a Small Florida City By Tunika Onnekikami As far as Marjorie Harrell knew, her sophomore English teacher in 1958 was just an old woman—quiet, tired, a bit sick. It was only after the teacher died a couple of years later that Harrell learned that she had been one of the most unique, critical figures in Black literature and culture during the 20th century. Harrell, a historian who grew up and still lives in Fort Pierce, Florida, a small coastal city halfway between Miami and Daytona Beach, realized years later that her teacher was Zora Neale Hurston, the world-renowned author of Their Eyes Were Watching God—a 1937 novel considered a classic of both the Harlem Renaissance and the American South. For Harrell, that belated realization was a spark that led to the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-history-month-2023

#April White #Atlas Obscura

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istumpysk · 2 years ago

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Operation Stumpy Re-Read

A FEAST FOR CROWS

Summary & Foreshadowing Smorgasbord (Part III)

The epic conclusion of the blockbuster trilogy.

AFFC PART III: UNDER THE CUT

Chapter Transitions

JONSA 🐺❤️❄️

AFFC Part I: CLICK

Sansa Stark, Queen in the North

Jon Snow, King in the North

Jon (Aemon?) Snow

Ahoy Matey! Arya Stark Sails the Ocean Blue

Bran the Broken, King of Westeros

High Septon Rickon?

Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Bowels of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing

Younger and More Beautiful Cersei

AFFC PART II: CLICK

Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs

Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ

A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪

The Usurper's Knife

Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉

Squid Game

Previous books:

AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK

ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II

ASOS Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II / PART III / PART IV

Stumpy note:

If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂

CHAPTER TRANSITIONS

Damn that man for breaking up this book, and ruining the chapter transition foreshadowing.

Prologue -> <- The Prophet

The storm is coming.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

"No," said Alleras. "It was Prince Rhaegar's young son Aegon whose head was dashed against the wall by the Lion of Lannister's brave men. We speak of Rhaegar's sister, born on Dragonstone before its fall. The one they called Daenerys."

"The Stormborn. I recall her now." - Prologue, AFFC

A storm was brewing, he could hear it in the waves, and storms brought naught but evil.

[...]

He was born a lord's son and died a king, murdered by a jealous god, Aeron thought, and now the storm is coming, a storm such as these isles have never known.

[...]

Aeron tugged his beard, and thought. I have seen the storm, and its name is Euron Crow's Eye. - The Prophet, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne I -> <- Samwell I

Two protagonists want to live up to their swords.

"A sword is only as good as the man who wields it."

[...]

When she slid Oathkeeper from the ornate scabbard, Brienne's breath caught in her throat. Black and red the ripples ran, deep within the steel. Valyrian steel, spell-forged. It was a sword fit for a hero. When she was small, her nurse had filled her ears with tales of valor, regaling her with the noble exploits of Ser Galladon of Morne, Florian the Fool, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, and other champions. Each man bore a famous sword, and surely Oathkeeper belonged in their company, even if she herself did not. - Brienne I, AFFC

Once, when Jon came to consult with Maester Aemon, Sam had asked him why he spent so much time at swordplay. "The Old Bear never trained much when he was Lord Commander," he had pointed out. In answer, Jon had pressed Longclaw into Sam's hand. He let him feel the lightness, the balance, had him turn the blade so that ripples gleamed in the smoke-dark metal. "Valyrian steel," he said, "spell-forged and razor-sharp, nigh on indestructible. A swordsman should be as good as his sword, Sam. Longclaw is Valyrian steel, but I'm not. The Halfhand could have killed me as easy as you swat a bug." - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne I -> <- Samwell I

Encounters with mice.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

"Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen. Some call me the Mad Mouse." He turned his shield to show her his sigil, a large white mouse with fierce red eyes, on bendy brown and blue. - Brienne I, AFFC

Sam was reading about the Others when he saw the mouse. - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Samwell I -> <- Arya I

Three characters are on a collision course.

Dareon will join you at Eastwatch. My hope is that his songs will win some men for us in the south. The Blackbird will deliver you to Braavos. From there you'll arrange your own passage to Oldtown. - Samwell I, AFFC

Braavos might not be so bad. Syrio was from Braavos, and Jaqen might be there as well. - Arya I, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei II -> <- Jaime I

Play-by-play on the state of Tywin Lannister's rotting corpse.

+.+.+

Jaime I -> <- Brienne II

Royal blood in back-to-back chapters.

"I see you wonder, what sort of name is that?" the man had cackled when Jaime went to question him. "It is an old name, 'tis true. I am not one to boast, but there is royal blood in my veins. I am descended from a princess. My father told me the tale when I was a tad of a lad." Longwaters had not been a tad of a lad for many a year, to judge from his spotted head and the white hairs growing from his chin. - Jaime I, AFFC

"Well, there's Darkes, I'm one myself. My husband says I was Darke before we wed, and darker afterward." She laughed. "Can't throw a stone in Duskendale without you hit some Darke or Darkwood or Dargood, but the lordly Darklyns are all gone. Lord Denys was the last o' them, the sweet young fool. Did you know the Darklyns were kings in Duskendale before the Andals come? You'd never know t'look at me, but I got me royal blood. Can you see it? 'Your Grace, another cup of ale,' I ought to make them say. 'Your Grace, the chamber pot needs emptying, and fetch in some fresh faggots, Your Bloody Grace, the fire's going out.'" She laughed again and shook the last drops from the pail. - Brienne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime I -> <- Brienne II

Crows are feasting.

On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? There were crows circling the seven towers and great dome of Baelor's Sept even now, Jaime suspected, their black wings beating against the night air as they searched for a way inside. Every crow in the Seven Kingdoms should pay homage to you, Father. From Castamere to the Blackwater, you fed them well. - Jaime I, AFFC

The looters come with the carrion crows after every battle.

[...]

Lord Tarly's own striding huntsman appeared on many a badge and brooch and doublet. Friend or foe, the crows care not. - Brienne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne II -> <- Sansa I

Blood calls to blood. Somebody is noticeably missing the second time we get the rundown.

Or would she seek her own blood instead? Though all of her siblings had been slain, Brienne knew that Sansa still had an uncle and a bastard half brother on the Wall, serving in the Night's Watch. Another uncle, Edmure Tully, was a captive at the Twins, but his uncle Ser Brynden still held Riverrun. And Lady Catelyn's younger sister ruled the Vale. Blood calls to blood. Sansa might well have run to one of them. Which one, though? - Brienne II, AFFC

She would have fled them both, perhaps, but there was nowhere for her to go. Winterfell was burned and desolate, Bran and Rickon dead and cold. Robb had been betrayed and murdered at the Twins, along with their lady mother. Tyrion had been put to death for killing Joffrey, and if she ever returned to King's Landing the queen would have her head as well. The aunt she'd hoped would keep her safe had tried to murder her instead. Her uncle Edmure was a captive of the Freys, while her great-uncle the Blackfish was under siege at Riverrun. I have no place but here, Sansa thought miserably, and no true friend but Petyr. - Sansa I, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne II -> <- Sansa I

Sansa's hoarding gods.

But when Brienne asked about Sansa, she said, "I'll tell you what I told Lord Tywin. That girl was always praying. She'd go to sept and light her candles like a proper lady, but near every night she went off to the godswood. She's gone back north, she has. That's where her gods are." - Brienne II, AFFC

They hadn't, though, not for a year or more. Sansa had prayed to the Seven in their sept and old gods of the heart tree, asking them to bring the old man back, or better still to send another singer, young and handsome. But the gods never answered, and the halls of Winterfell stayed silent. - Sansa I, AFFC

+.+.+

Sansa I <- The Kraken's Daughter

Asha's hilarious reunion with a fostered ghost from her past.

"Asha?" A shadow stepped out from behind the well.

Her hand went to her dirk at once . . . until the moonlight transformed the dark shape into a man in a sealskin cloak. Another ghost. "Tris. I'd thought to find you in the hall."

"I wanted to see you."

"What part of me, I wonder?" She grinned. "Well, here I stand, all grown up. Look all you like."

"A woman." He moved closer. "And beautiful."

Tristifer Botley had filled out since last she'd seen him, but he had the same unruly hair that she remembered, and eyes as large and trusting as a seal's. Sweet eyes, truly. That was the trouble with poor Tristifer; he was too sweet for the Iron Islands. His face has grown comely, she thought.

[...]

"If you like. It's nought to me. You look so lovely in the moonlight, Asha. A woman grown now, but I remember when you were a skinny girl with a face all full of pimples."

Why must they always mention the pimples? "I remember that as well." Though not as fondly as you do. Of the five boys her mother had brought to Pyke to foster after Ned Stark had taken her last living son as hostage, Tris had been closest to Asha in age. He had not been the first boy she had ever kissed, but he was the first to undo the laces of her jerkin and slip a sweaty hand beneath to feel her budding breasts.

I would have let him feel more than that if he'd been bold enough. Her first flowering had come upon her during the war and wakened her desire, but even before that Asha had been curious. He was there, he was mine own age, and he was willing, that was all it was . . . that, and the moon blood. Even so, she'd called it love, till Tris began to go on about the children she would bear him; a dozen sons at least, and oh, some daughters too. - The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne III <- Samwell II

Someone gets an escort to Eastwatch with one of Brienne's ancestors.

He sent me north aboard the Golden Dragon, and insisted that his friend Ser Duncan see me safe to Eastwatch. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne III -> <- Samwell II

Where's little Dickon Tarly? Not at Horn Hill.

"Mooton's daughter, she's a maid," the man went on. "Till the bedding, anyways. These eggs, they're for her wedding. Her and Tarly's son. The cooks will need eggs for cakes."

"They will." Lord Tarly's son. Young Dickon's to be wed. She tried to recall how old he was; eight or ten, she thought. - Brienne III, AFFC

"I am a man now, Mother," I could tell her, "a steward, and a man of the Night's Watch. My brothers call me Sam the Slayer sometimes." He would see his brother Dickon too, and his sisters. "See," I could tell them, "see, I was good for something after all." - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne III -> <- Samwell II

Two sides of Hyle Hunt.

They had a wager.

Three of the younger knights had started it, he told her: Ambrose, Bushy, and Hyle Hunt, of his own household. As word spread through the camp, however, others had joined the game. Each man was required to buy into the contest with a golden dragon, the whole sum to go to whoever claimed her maidenhead. - Brienne III, AFFC

Looking at the water only made him think of drowning. When he was small his lord father had tried to teach him how to swim by throwing him into the pond beneath Horn Hill. The water had gotten in his nose and in his mouth and in his lungs, and he coughed and wheezed for hours after Ser Hyle pulled him out. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime II -> Cersei IV

Kingsguard having affairs with their queen.

"Who?" Ser Loras craned his head around to see. "Ten black pellets on a scarlet field. I do not know those arms."

"They belonged to Criston Cole, who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon." Jaime closed the White Book. "They called him Kingmaker." - Jaime II, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei IV -> <- The Iron Captain -> <- The Drowned Man

Who is smart enough to give Asha some land for her help?

"Could we make use of the ironmen?" asked Orton Merryweather. "The enemy of our enemy? What would the Seastone Chair want of us as the price of an alliance?"

"They want the north," Grand Maester Pycelle said, "which our queen's noble father promised to House Bolton."

"How inconvenient," said Merryweather. "Still, the north is large. The lands could be divided. It need not be a permanent arrangement. Bolton might consent, so long as we assure him that our strength will be his once Stannis is destroyed." - Cersei IV, AFFC

"To end this war before this war ends us. We have won all that we are like to win . . . and stand to lose all just as quick, unless we make a peace. I have shown Lady Glover every courtesy, and she swears her lord will treat with me. If we hand back Deepwood Motte, Torrhen's Square, and Moat Cailin, she says, the northmen will cede us Sea Dragon Point and all the Stony Shore. Those lands are thinly peopled, yet ten times larger than all the isles put together. An exchange of hostages will seal the pact, and each side will agree to make common cause with the other should the Iron Throne—" - The Iron Captain, AFFC

"Peace," said Asha. "Land. Victory. I'll give you Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore, black earth and tall trees and stones enough for every younger son to build a hall. We'll have the northmen too . . . as friends, to stand with us against the Iron Throne. Your choice is simple. Crown me, for peace and victory. Or crown my nuncle, for more war and more defeat." She sheathed her dirk again. "What will you have, ironmen?" - The Drowned Man, AFFC

+.+.+

The Iron Captain -> <- The Drowned Man

Fun times at the kingsmoot.

+.+.+

Arya II -> <- Alayne I

Two sisters have new names.

She bit her lip. "Could I be Cat?"

"Cat." He considered. "Yes. Braavos is full of cats. One more will not be noticed. You are Cat, an orphan of . . ." - Arya II, AFFC

As the rising sun came streaming through the windows, Alayne sat up in bed and stretched. - Alayne I, AFFC

+.+.+

Alayne I -> <- Cersei V

Time to pluck the roses.

"How old are you, child?" asked Lady Waynwood.

"Four-fourteen, my lady." For a moment she forgot how old Alayne should be. "And I am no child, but a maiden flowered."

"But not deflowered, one can hope." Young Lord Hunter's bushy mustache hid his mouth entirely.

"Yet," said Lyn Corbray, as if she were not there. "But ripe for plucking soon, I'd say." - Alayne I, AFFC

"Only?" The queen let a hint of anger edge her words. "I must confess, I am running short of patience with dear Osney. It is past time he broke in that little filly. I named him Tommen's sworn shield so he could spend part of every day in Margaery's company. He should have plucked the rose by now. Is the little queen blind to his charms?" - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Samwell IV -> <- Cersei IV

Summer Islanders and the Faith have very different views on sex.

"You do not understand. Last night we . . ."

". . . honored your dead, and the gods who made you both. Xhondo did the same. I had the child, else I would have been with him. All you Westerosi make a shame of loving. There is no shame in loving. If your septons say there is, your seven gods must be demons. In the isles we know better. Our gods gave us legs to run with, noses to smell with, hands to touch and feel. What mad cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must forever keep them shut, and never look at all the beauty in the world? Only a monster god, a demon of the darkness." Kojja put her hand between Sam's legs. "The gods gave you this for a reason too, for . . . what is your Westerosi word?"

"Fucking," Xhondo offered helpfully. - Samwell IV, AFFC

Septon Raynard assumed a regretful tone. "His High Holiness sent me in his stead, and bade me tell Your Grace that the Seven have sent him forth to battle wickedness."

"How? By preaching chastity along the Street of Silk? Does he think praying over whores will turn them back to virgins?"

"Our bodies were shaped by our Father and Mother so we might join male to female and beget trueborn children," Raynard replied. "It is base and sinful for women to sell their holy parts for coin." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne VII -> <- Jaime VI

Talk of diverting the Trident.

The innkeep never hung another sign, so men forgot the dragon and took to calling the place the River Inn. In those days, the Trident flowed beneath its back door, and half its rooms were built out over the water. Guests could throw a line out their window and catch trout, it's said. There was a ferry landing here as well, so travelers could cross to Lord Harroway's Town and Whitewalls."

"We left the Trident south of here, and have been riding north and west . . . not toward the river but away from it."

"Aye, my lady," the septon said. "The river moved. Seventy years ago, it was. Or was it eighty? - Brenne VII, AFFC

When the castle falls, all those inside will be put to the sword. Your herds will be butchered, your godswood will be felled, your keeps and towers will burn. I'll pull your walls down, and divert the Tumblestone over the ruins. - Jaime VI, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime VI -> <- Cersei IX

Cersei's titles.

On her head a circlet of hammered bronze sat askew, graven with runes and ringed with small black swords. When she saw Jaime, she laughed. "Who in seven hells is this one?"

"The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard," Jaime returned with cold courtesy. "I might ask the same of you, my lady."

"Lady? I'm no lady. I'm the queen."

"My sister will be surprised to hear that."

"Lord Ryman crowned me his very self." She gave a shake of her ample hips. "I'm the queen o' whores."

No, Jaime thought, my sweet sister holds that title too. - Jaime VI, AFFC

"We waited long enough." He thrust his fingers inside the bodice of her gown and yanked, and the silk parted with a ripping sound so loud that Cersei was afraid that half of the Red Keep must have heard it. "Take off the rest before I tear that too," he said. "You can keep the crown on. I like you in the crown." - Cersei IX, AFFC

+.+.+

Alayne II -> <- Brienne VIII

Brienne won't show her fear.

And yet the thought of leaving frightened her almost as much as it frightened Robert. She only hid it better. Her father said there was no shame in being afraid, only in showing your fear. "All men live with fear," he said. Alayne was not certain she believed that. Nothing frightened Petyr Baelish. - Alayne II, AFFC

I will not be afraid, she told herself, but it was too late for that. I will not let them see my fear, she promised herself instead. - Brienne VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei X -> <- Jaime VII

Cersei's ripping up her clothes.

I will teach them what it means to put a lion in a cage, Cersei thought. She tore the shift into a hundred pieces, found a ewer of water and smashed it against the wall, then did the same with the chamber pot. - Cersei X, AFFC

Jeyne never saw him at all. The widow rode with downcast eyes, huddled beneath a hooded cloak. Underneath its heavy folds, her clothes were finely made, but torn. She ripped them herself, as a mark of mourning, Jaime realized. That could not have pleased her mother. He found himself wondering if Cersei would tear her gown if she should ever hear that he was dead. - Jaime VII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei X -> <- Jaime VII

Right before walking into a disaster (a book delays Jaime), the twins are cold as ice.

Cersei could feel the eyes of the Seven staring at her, eyes of jade and malachite and onyx, and a sudden shiver of fear went through her, cold as ice. I am the queen, she told herself. Lord Tywin's daughter. Reluctantly, she followed. - Cersei X, AFFC

He woke in darkness, shivering. The room had grown cold as ice. Jaime flung aside the covers with the stump of his sword hand. The fire in the hearth had died, he saw, and the window had blown open. He crossed the pitch-dark chamber to fumble with the shutters, but when he reached the window his bare foot came down in something wet. Jaime recoiled, startled for a moment. His first thought was of blood, but blood would not have been so cold.

It was snow, drifting through the window. - Jaime VII, AFFC

+.+.+

Prologue -> <- Samwell V

AGOT

Prologue: ice threat introduction.

Final chapter: fire threat introduction.

ACOK

Prologue: cold-hearted King Stannis with his dying maester.

Final chapter: kindhearted King Bran with his dying maester.

ASOS

Prologue: Cursed snowflakes, and Jon Snow.

Sansa VII: Drifting snowflakes, and Jon Snow.

AFFC

Prologue: Pig boy Pate.

Samwell V: Pig boy Pate, back from the dead.

The alchemist pulled his hood down.

He was just a man, and his face was just a face. A young man's face, ordinary, with full cheeks and the shadow of a beard. A scar showed faintly on his right cheek. He had a hooked nose, and a mat of dense black hair that curled tightly around his ears. It was not a face Pate recognized. "I do not know you."

"Nor I you."

"Who are you?"

"A stranger. No one. Truly."

[...]

The cobblestones rushed up to kiss him. Pate tried to cry for help, but his voice was failing too.

His last thought was of Rosey. - Prologue, AFFC

"My thanks." There was something about the pale, soft youth that he misliked, but he did not want to seem discourteous, so he added, "My name's not Slayer, truly. I'm Sam. Samwell Tarly."

"I'm Pate," the other said, "like the pig boy." - Samwell V, AFFC

+.+.+

JONSA 🐺❤️❄️

Once again, thank you to @ladyofasoiaf for making the manual on all things jonsa. I heavily rely on it when making these posts. :)

Where would a girl in grey go?

If Dontos and this northern girl helped murder our sweet king, it seems to me that they would want to put as many leagues as they could betwixt themselves and justice. Look for them in Oldtown, if you must, or across the narrow sea. Look for them in Dorne, or on the Wall. Look elsewhere. - Brienne II, AFFC

As they were making their way to the next pier, Podrick shuffled his feet, and said, "Ser? My lady? What if my lady did go home? My other lady, I mean. Ser. Lady Sansa."

"They burned her home."

"Still. That's where her gods are. And gods can't die." - Brienne V, AFFC

+.+.+

Coming after a Brienne chapter, we learn Brienne's ancestor once escorted a royal to Eastwatch.

He sent me north aboard the Golden Dragon, and insisted that his friend Ser Duncan see me safe to Eastwatch. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Not yet.

She's a clean ship, 'Strider, not so many rats as most, and we'll have fresh eggs and new-churned butter aboard. Is m'lady seeking passage north?"

"No." Not yet. She was tempted, but . . . - Brienne V, AFFC

+.+.+

The same breakdown appears in back-to-back chapters, only Sansa forgets someone.

+.+.+

A stag won't find Sansa, but a dragon might.

"Where?" Brienne slapped another silver stag down.

He flicked the coin back at her with his forefinger. "Someplace no stag ever found . . . though a dragon might." - Brienne III, AFFC

+.+.+

Of course it could never be.

There's a new High Septon, did you know? Oh, and the Night's Watch has a boy commander, some bastard son of Eddard Stark's."

"Jon Snow?" she blurted out, surprised.

"Snow? Yes, it would be Snow, I suppose."

She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still . . . with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again. But of course that could never be. Alayne Stone had no brothers, baseborn or otherwise. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Someday a man will drown in her eyes.

Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." - Sansa I, AFFC

The man kept staring at him, with eyes as big and black as wells. I will fall into those eyes and drown. - Jon V, ASOS

+.+.+

Coming after a Sansa chapter, Asha has an amusing reunion with an old ghost who was fostered at Pyke.

"Asha?" A shadow stepped out from behind the well.

Her hand went to her dirk at once . . . until the moonlight transformed the dark shape into a man in a sealskin cloak. Another ghost. "Tris. I'd thought to find you in the hall."

"I wanted to see you."

"What part of me, I wonder?" She grinned. "Well, here I stand, all grown up. Look all you like."

"A woman." He moved closer. "And beautiful."

[...]

"If you like. It's nought to me. You look so lovely in the moonlight, Asha. A woman grown now, but I remember when you were a skinny girl with a face all full of pimples."

+.+.+

Newly flowered Asha had an awakening during the war.

Her first flowering had come upon her during the war and wakened her desire, but even before that Asha had been curious. He was there, he was mine own age, and he was willing, that was all it was . . . that, and the moon blood. - The Kraken's Daughter's, AFFC

+.+.+

Fourteen-year-old Arianne loses her maidenhead to a bastard.

My father is many things, but no one has ever said he was a fool. The Bastard of Godsgrace had my maidenhead when we were both fourteen. - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

+.+.+

Experienced but still green after taking the black white.

It was her turn to flush. Her seduction of Ser Arys had required half a year. Though he claimed to have known other women before taking the white, she would never have known that from the way he acted. His caresses had been clumsy, his kisses nervous, and the first time they were abed together he spent his seed on her thigh as she was guiding him inside her with her hand. - The Princess in the Tower, AFFC

+.+.+

The Dornish (Aegon), the ironborn (Daenerys), and the north (Jon) are wedding dragons.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

Oh, but they must, or see the realm riven once more, as it was before we wed the dragons. - The Captain of the Guards, AFFC

None is fit to sit the Seastone Chair, much less the Iron Throne. No, to make an heir that's worthy of him, I need a different woman. When the kraken weds the dragon, brother, let all the world beware. - The Reaver, AFFC

"Why shouldn't we rule ourselves again? It was the dragons we married, and the dragons are all dead!" - Catelyn XI, AGOT

+.+.+

The blood of Winterfell.

I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. - Sansa I, AFFC

Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn't, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night's Watch. - Jon VI, ASOS

+.+.+

She likes them bold.

If not for Petyr Baelish it would have been Sansa who went spinning through a cold blue sky to stony death six hundred feet below, instead of Lysa Arryn. He is so bold. Sansa wished she had his courage. - Sansa I, AFFC

Surprisingly, Stannis smiled at that. "You're bold enough to be a Stark. Yes, I should have come sooner. If not for my Hand, I might not have come at all. - Jon XI, ASOS

+.+.+

Sister and brother, Maiden and Warrior (more).

"Why would Cersei need the Warrior? She has me." Jaime turned his horse about, his white cloak snapping in the wind. - Jaime II, AFFC

I thought that I was the Warrior and Cersei was the Maid, but all the time she was the Stranger, hiding her true face from my gaze. - Jaime IV, AFFC

The Maiden lay athwart the Warrior, her arms widespread as if to embrace him. - Davos I, ACOK

+.+.+

Radiant sisters.

"How is Cersei? As beautiful as ever?"

"Radiant." Fickle. - Jaime V, AFFC

He was twelve, younger than Jon or Robb, but taller than either, to Jon's vast dismay. Prince Joffrey had his sister's hair and his mother's deep green eyes. A thick tangle of blond curls dripped down past his golden choker and high velvet collar. Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him, but Jon did not like Joffrey's pouty lips or the bored, disdainful way he looked at Winterfell's Great Hall. - Jon I, AGOT

+.+.+

The author gives Snow & Stone some space.

She could see Sky six hundred feet below, and the stone steps carved into the mountain, the winding way that led past Snow and Stone all the way down to the valley floor. - Alayne I, AFFC

Steep stone steps crept up the mountainside past the waycastles Stone and Snow, but they came to an end at Sky. - Alayne I, AFFC

+.+.+

Jon's heart is all Stone.

Thank you, @winkydinkle!

He could not blame Gilly for her grief. Instead, he blamed Jon Snow and wondered when Jon's heart had turned to stone. - Samwell III, AFFC

+.+.+

Sansa has a crush.

"Bronze Yohn knows me," she reminded him. "He was a guest at Winterfell when his son rode north to take the black." She had fallen wildly in love with Ser Waymar, she remembered dimly, but that was a lifetime ago, when she was a stupid little girl. - Alayne I, AFFC

Ser Waymar Royce was the youngest son of an ancient house with too many heirs. He was a handsome youth of eighteen, grey-eyed and graceful and slender as a knife. - Prologue, AFFC

Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.

[...]

Jon's eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. - Bran I, AGOT

+.+.+

The princess in the tower wishes she had wings.

A falcon soared above the frozen waterfall, blue wings spread wide against the morning sky. Would that I had wings as well. - Alayne I, AFFC

"The little bird thinks she has wings, does she? Or do you mean to end up crippled like that brother of yours?" - Sansa IV, ACOK

The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. - Arya XIII, ASOS

+.+.+

Sansa gets the head, but still needs flowers.

One of the Mountain's men had tried to rape the girl at Harrenhal, and had seemed honestly perplexed when Jaime commanded Ilyn Payne to take his head off. "I had her before, a hunnerd times," he kept saying as they forced him to his knees. "A hunnerd times, m'lord. We all had her." When Ser Ilyn presented Pia with his head, she had smiled through her ruined teeth. - Jaime IV, AFFC

"Ser Harwyn says those tales are lies." Lady Amerei wound a braid around her finger. "He has promised me Lord Beric's head. He's very gallant." She was blushing beneath her tears.

Jaime thought back on the head he'd given to Pia. He could almost hear his little brother chuckle. Whatever became of giving women flowers? Tyrion might have asked. - Jaime IV, AFFC

Frog-faced Lord Slynt sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet doublet and a shiny cloth-of-gold cape, nodding with approval every time the king pronounced a sentence. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. - Sansa VI, AGOT

The smile that Lord Janos Slynt smiled then had all the sweetness of rancid butter. Until Jon said, "Edd, fetch me a block," and unsheathed Longclaw. - Jon II, ADWD

"What's wrong with flowers?" - Jon V, ASOS

+.+.+

A ghost wolf.

There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Roses kissed by frost.

"When he is a man grown," said Cersei.

Their smiles withered like roses kissed by frost. - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Children of the mountain.

Thank you, @butterflies-dragons!

She pushed her hair back. "Then one day he wasn't. Men come and go. They lie, or die, or leave you. A mountain is not a man, though, and a stone is a mountain's daughter. I trust my father, and I trust my mules. I won't fall." - Alayne II, AFFC

"The mountain is your mother," Stonesnake had told him during an easier climb a few days past. "Cling to her, press your face up against her teats, and she won't drop you." Jon had made a joke of it, saying how he'd always wondered who his mother was, but never thought to find her in the Frostfangs. - Jon VI, ACOK

+.+.+

Ser Byron enters Sansa's story.

"Dutiful and beautiful," said an elegant young knight whose thick blond mane cascaded down well past his shoulders.

[...]

"Knights they are," said Petyr. "Their gallantry has yet to be demonstrated, but we may hope. Allow me to present Ser Byron, Ser Morgarth, and Ser Shadrich. Sers, the Lady Alayne, my natural and very clever daughter . . . with whom I must needs confer, if you will be so good as to excuse us."

The three knights bowed and withdrew, though the tall one with the blond hair kissed her hand before taking his leave. - Alayne II, AFFC

The character I'm probably most like in real life is Samwell Tarly. Good old Sam. And the character I'd want to be? Well who wouldn't want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love. - George R. R. Martin

+.+.+

A fool or a knight?

"Ser Galladon was a champion of such valor that the Maiden herself lost her heart to him. She gave him an enchanted sword as a token of her love. The Just Maid, it was called. No common sword could check her, nor any shield withstand her kiss. Ser Galladon bore the Just Maid proudly, but only thrice did he unsheathe her. He would not use the Maid against a mortal man, for she was so potent as to make any fight unfair."

Crabb thought that was hilarious. "The Perfect Knight? The Perfect Fool, he sounds like. - Brienne IV, AFFC

"A fool and a knight?" said Jonquil. "I have never heard of such a thing."

"Sweet lady," said Florian, "all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned." - The Hedge Knight

+.+.+

Who's the pig boy?

Thank you, @fedonciadale!

Spotted Pate the pig boy was the hero of a thousand ribald stories: a good-hearted, empty-headed lout who always managed to best the fat lordlings, haughty knights, and pompous septons who beset him. Somehow his stupidity would turn out to have been a sort of uncouth cunning; the tales always ended with Spotted Pate sitting on a lord's high seat or bedding some knight's daughter. But those were stories. In the real world pig boys never fared so well. - Prologue, AFFC

His face darkened. "I am. I'm your father, and I can marry you to whoever I like. To anyone. You'll marry the pig boy if I say so, and bed down with him in the sty." His green eyes glittered with amusement. - Sansa III, ACOK

+.+.+

Jon and Sansa know the power of song.

Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!

Dareon will join you at Eastwatch. My hope is that his songs will win some men for us in the south. - Samwell I, AFFC

A harp can be as dangerous as a sword, in the right hands. - Sansa VI, ASOS

+.+.+

King Robert liked to play with his cousin.

There had been a female cousin too, a chunky little widow with breasts as big as melons whose husband and father had both died at Storm's End during the siege. "Her father was good to me," Robert told her, "and she and I would play together when the two of us were small." It did not take him long to start playing with her again. - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Sansa wants to dance.

What would she do when the music began to play? It was a vexing question, to which her heart and head gave different answers. Sansa loved to dance, but Alayne . . . - Alayne II, AFFC

When the musicians began to play, she timidly laid her hand on Tyrion's and said, "My lord, should we lead the dance?"

[...]

Perhaps she ought to have remained beside her husband, but she wanted to dance so badly . . . - Sansa III, ASOS

"You could dance with me, you know. It would be only courteous. You danced with me anon."

"Anon?" teased Jon.

"When we were children." She tore off a bit of bread and threw it at him. "As you know well."

"My lady should dance with her husband." - Jon X, ADWD

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon. - Jon XII, ADWD

+.+.+

Prince Aemon's back.

"And the Dragonknight?" She flung the bedclothes aside and swung her legs to the floor. "The noblest knight who ever lived, you said, and he took his queen to bed and got her with child." - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

+.+.+

Who could ever love a bastard?

Ser Loras had given Sansa Stark a red rose once, but he had never kissed her . . . and no Tyrell would ever kiss Alayne Stone. Pretty as she was, she had been born on the wrong side of the blanket. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Poisoned gifts.

Petyr arched an eyebrow. "When Robert dies. Our poor brave Sweetrobin is such a sickly boy, it is only a matter of time. When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon . . . and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back . . . why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa . . . Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell. That's worth another kiss now, don't you think?" - Alayne II, AFFC

"Jon." Melisandre was so close he could feel the warmth of her breath. "R'hllor is the only true god. A vow sworn to a tree has no more power than one sworn to your shoes. Open your heart and let the light of the Lord come in. Burn these weirwoods, and accept Winterfell as a gift of the Lord of Light."

[...]

Stannis gave him a measuring look. "Does this mean you will not wed the girl? I warn you, she is part of the price you must pay, if you want your father's name and your father's castle. This match is necessary, to help assure the loyalty of our new subjects. Are you refusing me, Jon Snow?"

[...]

Stannis put a thin, fleshless hand on Jon's shoulder. "Say nothing of what we've discussed here today. To anyone. But when you return, you need only bend your knee, lay your sword at my feet, and pledge yourself to my service, and you shall rise again as Jon Stark, the Lord of Winterfell." - Jon XI, ASOS

+.+.+

Lancel Lannister's story continues to raise eyebrows.

Lancel had taken to quartering the lion of Lannister with the Darry plowman, it would seem. He saw his uncle's hand in that, as in Lancel's choice of bride. House Darry had ruled these lands since the Andals cast down the First Men. No doubt Ser Kevan realized that his son would have an easier time of it if the peasants saw him as a continuation of the old line, holding these lands by right of marriage rather than royal decree. - Jaime IV, AFFC

Maybe he is praying for his cock to harden. In King's Landing it had been rumored that Lancel's wounds had left him incapable. Still, he ought to have sense enough to try. His cousin's hold on his new lands would not be secure until he fathered a son on his half-Darry wife. - Jaime IV, AFFC

When his coz did not answer, Jaime sighed. "You should be sleeping with your wife, not with the Maid. You need a son with Darry blood if you want to keep this castle." - Jaime IV, AFFC

+.+.+

More men marrying into houses.

When he was not singing, Nimble Dick would talk, regaling them with tales of Crackclaw Point. Every gloomy valley had its lord, he said, the lot of them united only by their mistrust of outsiders. In their veins the blood of the First Men ran dark and strong. "The Andals tried t' take Crackclaw, but we bled them in the valleys and drowned them in the bogs. Only what their sons couldn't win with swords, their pretty daughters won with kisses. They married into the houses they couldn't conquer, aye." - Brienne IV, AFFC

+.+.+

Val does cosplay. Again.

King Stannis had plans for Val, he knew; she was the mortar with which he meant to seal the peace between the northmen and the free folk. - Samwell I, AFFC

"Whoever?" Stannis gave him a measuring look. "Does this mean you will not wed the girl? I warn you, she is part of the price you must pay, if you want your father's name and your father's castle. This match is necessary, to help assure the loyalty of our new subjects. Are you refusing me, Jon Snow?" - Jon XI, ASOS

"The girl's happiness is not my purpose, nor should it be yours. Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark." - Tyrion III, ASOS

+.+.+

Sansa -> Bolton requires a Stark daughter to claim Winterfell -> Jon.

"Your Grace has forgotten the Lady Sansa," said Pycelle.

The queen bristled. "I most certainly have not forgotten that little she-wolf." She refused to say the girl's name. "I ought to have shown her to the black cells as the daughter of a traitor, but instead I made her part of mine own household. She shared my hearth and hall, played with my own children. I fed her, dressed her, tried to make her a little less ignorant about the world, and how did she repay me for my kindness? She helped murder my son. When we find the Imp, we will find the Lady Sansa too. She is not dead . . . but before I am done with her, I promise you, she will be singing to the Stranger, begging for his kiss."

An awkward silence followed. Have they all swallowed their tongues? Cersei thought, with irritation. It was enough to make her wonder why she bothered with a council.

"In any case," the queen went on, "Lord Eddard's younger daughter is with Lord Bolton, and will be wed to his son Ramsay as soon as Moat Cailin has fallen." So long as the girl played her role well enough to cement their claim to Winterfell, neither of the Boltons would much care that she was actually some steward's whelp tricked up by Littlefinger. "If the north must have a Stark, we'll give them one." She let Lord Merryweather fill her cup once again. "Another problem has arisen on the Wall, however. The brothers of the Night's Watch have taken leave of their wits and chosen Ned Stark's bastard son to be their Lord Commander." - Cersei IV, AFFC

+.+.+

The author's constant reminder.

Jaime sighed. "Then let them wed. It will be years before Tommen is old enough to consummate the marriage. And until he does, the union can always be set aside. Give Tyrell his wedding and send him off to play at war." - Jaime I, AFFC

"I said some words and gave her a red cloak, but only to please Father. Marriage requires consummation. King Baelor was made to wed his sister Daena, but they never lived as man and wife, and he put her aside as soon as he was crowned." - Jaime IV, AFFC

"She is old enough to be Lady of Winterfell once her brother is dead. Claim her maidenhood and you will be one step closer to claiming the north. Get her with child, and the prize is all but won. Do I need to remind you that a marriage that has not been consummated can be set aside?" - Tyrion IV, ASOS

+.+.+

Jon vs. Tyrion Pregame.

"Well," said Sam, "he will not want it said that Stannis rode to the defense of the realm whilst King Tommen was playing with his toys. That would bring scorn down upon House Lannister."

"It's death and destruction I want to bring down upon House Lannister, not scorn." Jon lifted up the letter. - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Big brothers.

My betrothal was announced at a feast with half the west in attendance. Ellyn Tarbeck laughed and the Red Lion went angry from the hall. The rest sat on their tongues. Only Tywin dared speak against the match. A boy of ten. Father turned as white as mare's milk, and Walder Frey was quivering." She smiled. "How could I not love him, after that? That is not to say that I approved of all he did, or much enjoyed the company of the man that he became . . . but every little girl needs a big brother to protect her. Tywin was big even when he was little." - Jaime V, AFFC

+.+.+

That uncomfortable subject.

"How old are you, child?" asked Lady Waynwood.

"Four-fourteen, my lady." For a moment she forgot how old Alayne should be. "And I am no child, but a maiden flowered."

"But not deflowered, one can hope." Young Lord Hunter's bushy mustache hid his mouth entirely.

"Yet," said Lyn Corbray, as if she were not there. "But ripe for plucking soon, I'd say." - Alayne I, AFFC

___

"A child?" said Sansa, uncertainly.

Lysa waved a hand negligently. "Not for many years. You are too young to be a mother. One day you shall want children, though. Just as you will want to marry." - Sansa VI, ASOS

"I will." He cuddled close and laid his head between her breasts. "Alayne? Are you my mother now?"

"I suppose I am," she said. If a lie was kindly meant, there was no harm in it. - Sansa I, AFFC

___

She studied Alayne's face and chest. "You are prettier than me, but my breasts are larger. The maesters say large breasts produce no more milk than small ones, but I do not believe it. Have you ever known a wet nurse with small teats? Yours are ample for a girl your age, but as they are bastard breasts, I shan't concern myself with them." - Alayne II, AFFC

___

"The gods made men to fight, and women to bear children," said Randyll Tarly. "A woman's war is in the birthing bed." - Brienne III, AFFC

"How apt. The men will bleed out there, and you in here." The queen signaled for the first course to be served. - Sansa V, ACOK

___

Jeyne Westerling had been Robb Stark's queen, the girl who cost him everything. With a wolf in her belly, she could have proved more dangerous than the Blackfish. - Jaime VI, AFFC

"A child born of traitor's seed will find that betrayal comes naturally to her," said Grand Maester Pycelle. "She is a sweet thing now, but in ten years, who can say what treasons she may hatch?" - Sansa IV, AGOT

___

To break her fast the queen sent to the kitchens for two boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pot of honey. But when she cracked the first egg and found a bloody half-formed chick inside, her stomach roiled. - Cersei III, AFFC

vs.

An immense round fat man, as big as three Moon Boys, he came cartwheeling into the hall, vaulted onto the table, and laid a gigantic egg right in front of Sansa. "Break it, my lady," he commanded. When she did, a dozen yellow chicks escaped and began running in all directions. - Sansa I, ASOS

+.+.+

A king must have an heir.

And Cersei … I have Jon Arryn to thank for her. I had no wish to marry after Lyanna was taken from me, but Jon said the realm needed an heir. - Eddard VII, AGOT

"Jeyne," she called after, "there's one more thing Robb needs from you, though he may not know it yet himself. A king must have an heir." - Catelyn III, ASOS

"Young, and a king," he said. "A king must have an heir. If I should die in my next battle, the kingdom must not die with me. - Catelyn V, ASOS

He had not touched another woman since he gave her to the crabs. I will need to take a wife when I am king. A true wife, to be my queen and bear me sons. A king must have an heir. - The Iron Captain, AFFC

Victarion was turning to go when the Crow's Eye said, "A king must have a wife, to give him heirs. - The Reaver, AFFC

Many promised him their voices: Fralegg the Strong, clever Alvyn Sharp, humpbacked Hotho Harlaw. Hotho offered him a daughter for his queen. "I have no luck with wives," Victarion told him. His first wife died in childbed, giving him a stillborn daughter. His second had been stricken by a pox. And his third . . .

"A king must have an heir," Hotho insisted. "The Crow's Eye brings three sons to show before the kingsmoot."

"Bastards and mongrels. How old is this daughter?"

"Twelve," said Hotho. "Fair and fertile, newly flowered, with hair the color of honey. Her breasts are small as yet, but she has good hips. She takes after her mother, more than me." – The Iron Captain, AFFC

+.+.+

Does the moon tea have anything to do with jonsa? I'll include it, and let you decide.

She had surrendered her virtue at six-and-ten, to a beautiful blond-haired sailor on a trading galley up from Lys. He only knew six words of the Common Tongue, but "fuck" was one of them—the very word she'd hoped to hear. Afterward, Asha had the sense to find a woods witch, who showed her how to brew moon tea to keep her belly flat. - The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC

"I swore a vow . . ."

". . . not to wed or father children. Well, I have drunk my moon tea, and you know I cannot marry you." She smiled. "Though I might be persuaded to keep you for my paramour." - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

"The little queen has appetites that Tommen is as yet too young to satisfy." That was always a danger, when a grown woman was married to a child. Even more so with a widow. She may claim that Renly never touched her, but I will not believe it. Women only drank moon tea for one reason; maidens had no need for it at all. - Cersei IX, AFFC

"As you will." Jaime turned to the daughter. "I am sorry for your loss. The boy had courage, I'll give him that. There is a question I must ask you. Are you carrying his child, my lady?"

Jeyne burst from her chair and would have fled the room if the guard at the door had not seized her by the arm. "She is not," said Lady Sybell, as her daughter struggled to escape. "I made certain of that, as your lord father bid me." - Jaime VII, AFFC

"You're bastard-born yourself. And if Ygritte does not want a child, she will go to some woods witch and drink a cup o' moon tea. You do not come into it, once the seed is planted." - Jon II, ASOS

Tears ran down her aunt's puffy red face. "I gave you my maiden's gift. I would have given you a son too, but they murdered him with moon tea, with tansy and mint and wormwood, a spoon of honey and a drop of pennyroyal. It wasn't me, I never knew, I only drank what Father gave me . . ." - Sansa VII, ASOS

+.+.+

Two prophetic conversations have Sansa and Cersei on the same path.

"When will I wed the prince?" she asked.

"Never. You will wed the king." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

"No," Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. "Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon."

[...]

Arya cocked her head to one side. "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?"

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."

Arya screwed up her face. "No," she said, "that's Sansa." - Eddard V, AGOT

+.+.+

Ashford Tournament!

Thank you @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly for the theory! (lol)

Thank you @butterflies-dragons for the additional parallels!

"Will there be another champion in Ser Humfrey's [Hardyng] place?"

"Lord Ashford had a mind to grant the place to Lord Caron, or perhaps the other Ser Humfrey, the one who gave Hardyng such a splendid match, but Prince Baelor told him that it would not be seemly to remove Ser Humfrey's shield and pavilion under the circumstances. I believe they will continue with four champions in place of five."

Four champions, Dunk thought. Leo Tyrell, Lyonel Baratheon, Tybolt Lannister, and Prince Valarr [Targaryen]. - The Hedge Knight

___

Lyonel Baratheon

Sansa must wed Joffrey, that is clear now, we must give them no grounds to suspect our devotion. - Catelyn II, AGOT

___

Leo Tyrell

The words came tumbling out of her. "Yes. I will. I would like that more than anything. To wed Ser Loras, to love him . . ." "Loras?" Lady Olenna sounded annoyed. "Don't be foolish, child. Kingsguard never wed. Didn't they teach you anything in Winterfell? We were speaking of my grandson Willas. He is a bit old for you, to be sure, but a dear boy for all that. Not the least bit oafish, and heir to Highgarden besides." - Sansa I, ASOS

Willas Tyrell was green as his surcoat and had no business riding in such company. The Fat Flower thrust him into tourneys at too tender an age, just as he did with the other two. He wanted another Leo Longthorn, and made himself a cripple. - Tyrion V, ASOS

___

Tybolt Lannister

"Yes. You are a ward of the crown. The king stands in your father's place, since your brother is an attainted traitor. That means he has every right to dispose of your hand. You are to marry my brother Tyrion." - Sansa III, ASOS

The Baratheon and Lannister defeat the maiden's brother(s).

Tybolt Lannister and Androw Ashford rode against each other thrice more before Ser Androw finally lost shield, seat, and match all at once. The younger Ashford lasted even longer, breaking no less than nine lances against Ser Lyonel Baratheon, the Laughing Storm. Champion and challenger both lost their saddles on their tenth course, only to rise together to fight on, sword against mace. Finally a battered Ser Robert Ashford admitted defeat, but on the viewing stand his father looked anything but dejected. Both Lord Ashford's Sons had been ushered from the ranks of the champions, it was true, but they had acquitted themselves nobly against two of the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms. - The Hedge Knight

___

Humfrey Hardyng

When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon . . . and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back . . . why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa . . . Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell. - Alayne II, AFFC

A lady's armor is her courtesy. Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face. No tears, she prayed. Please, please, I must not cry. "As you wish, ser. And now if you will excuse me, Littlefinger's bastard must find her lord father and let him know that you have come, so we can begin the tourney on the morrow." And may your horse stumble, Harry the Heir, so you fall on your stupid head in your first tilt. - Alayne I, TWOW

At the last possible instant, Ser Humfrey's stallion reared away from the oncoming point, eyes rolling in terror, but too late, Aerion's lance took the animal just above the armor that protected his breastbone, and exploded out of the back of his neck in a gout of bright blood. Screaming, the horse crashed sideways, knocking the wooden barrier to pieces as he fell. Ser Humfrey tried to leap free, but a foot caught in a stirrup and they heard his shriek as his leg was crushed between the splintered fence and falling horse. - The Hedge Knight

___

Prince Valarr Targaryen

Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again. - Alayne II, AFFC

But they were all dead now, even Arya, everyone but her half-brother, Jon. Some nights she heard talk of him, in the taverns and brothels of the Ragman's Harbor. The Black Bastard of the Wall, one man had called him. - The Blind Girl, ADWD

Six pups they'd found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow. - Jon XII, ASOS

He was a shorter, slimmer, handsomer version of his sire, without the twice-broken nose that had made Baelor seem more human than royal. Valarr's hair was brown, but a bright streak of silver-gold ran through it. - The Hedge Knight

The last pavilion was Prince Valarr's. Of black silk it was, with a line of pointed scarlet pennons hanging from its roof like long red flames. The shield on its stand was glossy black, emblazoned with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen. One of the Kingsguard knights stood beside it, his shining white armor stark against the black of the tentcloth.

[...]

And the black-and-white knight, Lord Gawen Swann, challenged the black prince with the white guardian. - The Hedge Knight

+.+.+

#operation stumpy re-read #foreshadowing smorgasbord #affc summary #chapter transitions #jonsa #jon x sansa #sansa stark #jon snow

92 notes · View notes

kcrabb88 · 2 years ago

Text

I posted 1,927 times in 2022

That's 165 more posts than 2021!

382 posts created (20%)

1,545 posts reblogged (80%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@pilferingapples

@rosesutherlandwrites

@amarguerite

@thegreatblondebalrogslayer

@kcrabb88

I tagged 1,925 of my posts in 2022

#les mis - 334 posts

#fanart - 320 posts

#gifs - 303 posts

#star wars tag - 231 posts

#kcrabb rambles - 219 posts

#obi-wan kenobi - 198 posts

#pirates tag - 188 posts

#sea tag - 144 posts

#the constellation trilogy - 139 posts

#black sails - 131 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#god i remember casual fans being like oh dominic west was good in this and i'm like he couldn't be because the script did valjean no justice

My Top Posts in 2022:

Les Mis meets Black Sails + Robin Hood in Sailing by Orion’s Star (The Constellation Trilogy, #1), out TODAY!

In the 18th century West Indies, stories hold the ultimate power. Sailors spin yarns about pirates. Newspapers tell tales full of half-truths. Myths spread like whispered wildfire.

East India Company sailor Nicholas Jerome has no patience for pirates, determined to leave his father's thieving past behind. After a convict and an enslaved woman escape his grasp with the aid of an aristocrat's mysterious wife, he faces one last chance to save his career. Finding an unexpected home with a new crew, he gains a chosen younger brother in René Delacroix, the son of his wealthy captain and the grandson of Jamaica's cruel governor.

But there's a storm brewing in the Delacroix household. For René and his best friend Frantz, the Robin Hood tales about legendary pirate Ajani Danso and his famed female quartermaster are a lifeline amidst the governor's abuse. Danso robs greedy merchants, frees slaves, and shelters queer sailors, inspiring the downtrodden across the New World.

When death and betrayal shatter the lives they knew, René and Jerome each face a choice: obey, or rebel.

A war for history's favor begins, and as an uprising against colonialism erupts on the ocean, everyone must choose a story to believe in.

You can order here (paperback or e-book from several retailers) or here (for readers outside the US who want to order a paperback from a non-Amazon retailer).

135 notes - Posted April 26, 2022

Sailing by Orion’s Star Cover Reveal!

I am so EXTREMELY excited to reveal the cover for Sailing by Orion’s Star! This gorgeous artwork was done by the wonderful Abby Gavit, whose work you can check out here. @prosodi

I’ve spent a long time thinking about what this cover would look like, and I honestly could not be more pleased with this. Truly, it is a dream cover. I want to give a special shout out to the Les Mis fandom, who have been with me on this project since its very early days, when I didn’t know what it would be. <3

Sailing by Orion’s Star will release on April 26th!

Also, check out the full wrap cover (and the blurb!) for the print edition. Don’t miss the skull in the clouds!

See the full post

150 notes - Posted February 22, 2022

Do you like Les Mis, Black Sails, Robin Hood tales, queer pirates, found families and epics? Paperback pre-orders for Sailing by Orion’s Star (The Constellation Trilogy, #1) are live! Release is set for 4/26.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Book Depository (Sometimes if you’re using Chrome the cover doesn’t pop up, so if you don’t see it, it is the right listing and you can still pre-order! The cover has popped up on all other browsers)

Bookshop (US friends, if you haven’t used this website before, you can choose a digital “storefront” for participating indie bookstores, and they will profit off the sale. If you’re near the DC area, I tend to choose Kramer’s or East City Books. And hey, if enough folks buy from particular indies, maybe they’ll consider stocking it in store!)

International friends: you should be able to buy paperbacks from Amazon if it’s available in your country, and Book Depository (above) ships to something like 160 countries (The UK, pretty much all of Europe, some parts of Asia and South America, etc.)

Interested in e-books? I have those too! You can get it on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and others. (Kobo is easy for international folks!)

Add the book on Goodreads!

Subscribe to my newsletter for fun pirate facts and updates!

For content warnings, check out my website

Book trailer!

240 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

The 2012 Les Mis movie surely has its issues, but god, that transition from Stars to Look Down (Paris) is just *chef’s kiss*

344 notes - Posted June 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Okay so here’s the thing. If I see one more “who cares about historical accuracy in a historical piece of media” I am truly going to lose my entire mind. I’m not asking for TOTAL accuracy down to the detail (I don’t strive for that, and things should connect with a modern reader) but I AM asking that books and shows and movies ENGAGE WITH THE PERIOD THEY’RE SUPPOSEDLY SET IN. The new Persuasion is just the newest (and one of the most egregious) instances of this, but I��ve seen this sentiment a lot, recently. If you don’t care about historical stuff, then why create or engage with historical media? The goal should not be to “modernize” historical fiction, but to create and engage with more diverse historical media. Different settings and periods! More stories about queer and BIPOC folks! Historical fiction has so so much to offer without stripping it of all historical context. I’m tired.

1,793 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #WOW THIS IS ALL SO ON BRAND I'M LAUGHING

9 notes · View notes

casxmorgan · 4 years ago

Text

Books Books Books

100 Years of Solitude

11.22.63

120 Days of Sodom

1491

1984

A Brief History of Time

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Child Called It

A Clockwork Orange

A Confederacy of Dunces

A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters

A Land Fit for Heroes Trilogy

A Little Life

A Naked Singularity

A People's History of the United States

A Scanner Darkly

A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Short History of Nearly Everything

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Storm of Swords

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Walk in the Woods

A World Lit Only by Fire

Accursed Kings

Alice in Wonderland

All Quiet on the Western Front

All the Light We Cannot See

All the Pretty Horses

America, the Book

American Gods

American Psycho

And then There Were None

Angela’s Ashes

Animal Farm

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Anna Karenina

Anything Terry Pratchett, But, Mort is My Favorite

Anything Written by Robin Hobb

Apt Pupil

Artemis Fowl

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

Asoiaf

Atlas Shrugged

Bartimeaus

Batman: the Long Halloween

Battle Royale

Beat the Turtle Drum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Belgariad Series

Beloved

Berserk

Bestiario

Black Company

Blankets/habibi

Blind Faith

Blindness

Blood Meridian

Blood and Guts: a History of Surgery

Bluest Eye

Brandon Sanderson

Brave New World

Breakfast of Champions

Bridge to Terabithia

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West

Calvin and Hobbs

Candide

Carrie

Cat's Cradle

Catch 22

Cats Cradle

Chaos

Child of God

Choke

Chuck Palahniuk

City of Ember

City of Thieves

Cloud

Collapse

Come Closer

Complaint

Confessions of a Mask

Contact

Conversation in the Cathedral

Cosmos

Crime and Punishment

Dan Brown

David

Dead Birds Singing

Dead Mountain: the Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Delta Venus

Die Räuber (the Robbers)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Don Quixote

Dragonlance

Dune

Dying of the Light

East of Eden

Educated

Empire of Sin: a Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans

Enders Game

Enders Shadow

Escape from Camp 14

Ever Since Darwin

Every Man Dies Alone

Everybody Poops

Everything is Illuminated

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Fahrenheit 451

Far from the Madding Crowd

Faust

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

Feet of Clay

Fight Club

First Law

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers in the Attic

Foundation

Foundation Series

Foundation Trilogy

Frankenstein

Freakonomics

Fun Home

Galapagos

Geek Love

Gerald’s Game

Ghost Story

Go Ask Alice

Go Dog Go

Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

Goldfinch

Gone Girl

Gone with the Wind

Good Omens

Grapes of Wrath

Great Expectations

Greg Egan

Guards! Guards!

Guns Germs and Steel

Guts (short Story)

Half a World

Ham on Rye

Hannibal Rising

Hard Boiled Wonderland

Hatchet

Haunted

Hawaii

Heart Shaped Box

Heart of Darkness

Hellbound Heart

Hellraiser

Hell’s Angels

Helter Skelter

His Dark Materials

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hogg

Holocaust by Bullets

House of Leaves

How to Cook for Fourty Humans

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Huckleberry Finn

Hyperion

I Am America, and So Can You

I Am the Messenger

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

I Was Dr. Mengele’s Assistant

In Cold Blood

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens

Independent People

Infinite Jest

Into Thin Air

Into the Wild

Introduction to Linear Algebra

Invisible Monsters

Ishmael

Jacques Le Fataliste

Jane Eyre

Jaunt

Job: a Comedy of Justice

John Dies at the End

John Grisham

Johnathan Livingston Seagull

Johnny Got His Gun

Jon Ronson

Journal of a Novel

Jurassic Park

Justine

L'histoire D'o

Lamb

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Les Miserables

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Life of Pi

Limits and Renewals

Little House in the Big Woods

Lockwood & Co.

Lolita

Looking for Trouble

Lord Foul’s Bane

Lord of the Flies

Lyddie

Malazan Book of the Fallen

Maldoror

Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media

Man’s Search for Meaning

Mark Twain’s Autobiography

Maus

Meditations

Megamorphs (series)

Mein Kampf

Memnooch the Devil

Metro 2033

Michael Crichton

Middlesex

Mindhunter

Misery

Mistborn

Moby Dick

Mrs. Dalloway

My Side of the Mountain

My Sweet Audrina

Nacht über Der Prärie (night over the Prairie)

Naked Lunch

Name of the Wind

Neuromancer

Never Let Me Go

Neverwhere

New York

Night

Night Shift

Norwegian Wood

Notes from Underground

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea

Of Mice and Men

Of Nightingales That Weep

Ohio

Old Mans War

Old Mother West Wind

On Heroes and Tombs

On Laughter and Forgetting

On the Road

One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One of Us

Painted Bird

Patrick Rothfuss

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer

Persepolis

Pet Sematary

Peter Pan

Pillars of the Earth

Poisonwood Bible

Pride and Predjudice

Ready Player One

Rebecca

Red Mars

Red Night (series)

Red Shirts

Red Storm Rising

Redwall

Replay

Requiem for a Dream

Revenge

Riftwar Saga

Ringworld

Roald Dahl

Rolls of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Round Ireland with a Fridge

Running with Scissors

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind

Scary Stories to Read in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Schindler’s List

Sein Und Zeit

Shades of Grey

Sharp Objects

Shattered Dreams

Sherlock Holmes

Sho-gun

Siddhartha

Sisypho

Skin and Other Stories

Slaughterhouse Five

Smoke & Mirrors

Snow Crash

Soldier Son

Sometimes a Great Notion

Sphere

Starship Troopers

Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Storied Life of A.j. Fikry

Stormlight Archives

Story of the Eye

Stranger in a Strange Land

Surely, You're Joking

Survivor Type (short Story)

Suttree

Swan Song

Tale of Two Cities

Tales of the South Pacific

The Alchemist

The Altered Carbon Trilogy

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Art of Deception

The Art of Fielding

The Art of War

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation

The Autobiography of Henry Viii

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Beach

The Bell Jar

The Bible

The Bloody Chamber

The Book Thief

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brothers Karamazov

The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories

The Cask of Amontillado (short Story)

The Catcher in the Rye

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Clown

The Color out of Space

The Communist Manifesto

The Complete Fiction of H.p. Lovecraft

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

The Dagger and the Coin

The Damage Done

The Dark Tower

The Declaration of Independence, the Us Constitution, and the Bill of Rights

The Devil in the White City

The Dharma Bums

The Diamond Age

The Dice Man

The Discworld Series

The Dresden Files

The Elegant Universe

The First Law Trilogy

The Forever War

The Foundation Trilogy

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence

The Geography of Nowhere

The Girl Next Door

The Girl on the Milk Carton

The Giver

The Giving Tree

The God of Small Things

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Hagakure

The Half a World Trilogy

The Handmaid’s Tale

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Hiding Place

The History of Love

The Hobbit

The Hot Zone

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hyperion Cantos

The Jaunt

The Jungle

The Key to Midnight

The Killing Star

The Kingkiller Chronicles

The Kite Runner

The Last Question (short Story)

The Lies of Lock Lamora

The Little Prince

The Long Walk

The Lord of the Rings

The Lottery (short Story)

The Lovely Bones

The Magicians

The Magus

The Martian

The Master and Margarita

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

The Monster at the End of This Book

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Music of Eric Zahn (short Story)

The Name of the Wind & the Wise Man's Fear

The Necronomicon

The New Age of Adventure: Ten Years of Great Writing

The Night Circus

The Nightmare Box

The Odyssey

The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Orphan Master’s Son

The Outsiders

The Painted Bird

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Plague

The Prince

The Prince of Tides

The Princess Bride

The Prophet

The Queen’s Gambit

The Rape of Nanking

The Red Dwarf

The Republic

The Rifter Saga

The Road

The Satanic Verses

The Screwtape Letters

The Secret History

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

The Selfish Gene

The Shining

The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer

The Silmarillion

The Sirens of Titan

The Six Wives of Henry the 8th

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The Speaker of the Dead

The Stars My Destination

The Stormlight Archive

The Story of My Tits

The Stranger

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

The Suspicions of Mr. Witcher

The Tao of Pooh

The Things They Carried

The Time Machine

The Time Traveller’s Wife

The Tin Drum

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green

The Wasp Factory

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

The World According to Garp

The Yellow Wallpaper

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Things Fall Apart

Thirsty

This Blinding Absence of Light

Tiger!

Time Enough for Love

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Toni Morrison

Too Many Magicians

Traumnovelle

Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuf Voyaging

Undeniable

Under Plum Lake

Universe in a Nutshell

Unwind

Uzumaki

Various

Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia

Walden

War & Peace

War and Peace

Warriors: Bluestar’s Prophecy

Watchers

Water for Elephants

Watership Down

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Wheel of Time

When Rabbit Howls

Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Why I Am Not a Christian

Why People Believe Weird Things

Wizards First Rule

Wool

World War Z

Worm

Wuthering Heights

You Can Choose to Be Happy

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

#some of these are fucked up #but #all the better

158 notes · View notes

nellygwyn · 4 years ago

Text

BOOK RECS

Okay, so lots of people wanted this and so, I am compiling a list of my favourite books (both fiction and non-fiction), books that I recommend you read as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime, I’ll be pinning this post to the top of my blog (once I work out how to do that lmao) so it will be accessible for old and new followers. I’m going to order this list thematically, I think, just to keep everything tidy and orderly. Of course, a lot of this list will consist of historical fiction and historical non-fiction because that’s what I read primarily and thus, that’s where my bias is, but I promise to try and spice it up just a little bit.

Favourite fiction books of all time:

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock // Imogen Hermes Gowar

Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen

Slammerkin // Emma Donoghue

Remarkable Creatures // Tracy Chevalier

Life Mask // Emma Donoghue

His Dark Materials // Philip Pullman (this includes the follow-up series The Book of Dust)

Emma // Jane Austen

The Miniaturist // Jessie Burton

Girl, Woman, Other // Bernadine Evaristo

Jane Eyre // Charlotte Brontë

Persuasion // Jane Austen

Girl with a Pearl Earring // Tracy Chevalier

The Silent Companions // Laura Purcell

Tess of the d’Urbervilles // Thomas Hardy

Northanger Abbey // Jane Austen

The Chronicles of Narnia // C.S. Lewis

Pride and Prejudice // Jane Austen

Goodnight, Mr Tom // Michelle Magorian

The French Lieutenant’s Woman // John Fowles

The Butcher’s Hook // Janet Ellis

Mansfield Park // Jane Austen

The All Souls Trilogy // Deborah Harkness

The Railway Children // Edith Nesbit

Favourite non-fiction books of all time

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman // Robert Massie

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King // Antonia Fraser

Madame de Pompadour // Nancy Mitford

The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach // Matthew Dennison

Black and British: A Forgotten History // David Olusoga

Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court // Lucy Worsley

Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Katherine Howard, the Fifth Wife of Henry VIII // Gareth Russell

King Charles II // Antonia Fraser

Casanova’s Women // Judith Summers

Marie Antoinette: The Journey // Antonia Fraser

Mrs. Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King // Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen at Home // Lucy Worsley

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames // Lara Maiklem

The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth // Anna Keay

The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill // Christopher Hibbert

Nell Gwynn: A Biography // Charles Beauclerk

Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters // Patricia Pierce

Georgian London: Into the Streets // Lucy Inglis

The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart // Sarah Fraser

Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match // Wendy Moore

Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from the Stone Age to the Silver Screen // Greg Jenner

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum // Kathryn Hughes

Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey // Nicola Tallis

Favourite books about the history of sex and/or sex work

The Origins of Sex: A History of First Sexual Revolution // Faramerz Dabhoiwala

Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris // Nina Kushner

Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore // Julie Peakman

Courtesans // Katie Hickman

The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in mid-Nineteenth Century England

Madams, Bawds, and Brothel Keepers // Fergus Linnane

The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital // Dan Cruickshank

A Curious History of Sex // Kate Lister

Sex and Punishment: 4000 Years of Judging Desire // Eric Berkowitz

Queen of the Courtesans: Fanny Murray // Barbara White

Rent Boys: A History from Ancient Times to Present // Michael Hone

Celeste // Roland Perry

Sex and the Gender Revolution // Randolph Trumbach

The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex // Julie Peakman

LGBT+ fiction I love*

The Confessions of the Fox // Jordy Rosenberg

As Meat Loves Salt // Maria Mccann

Bone China // Laura Purcell

Brideshead Revisited // Evelyn Waugh

The Confessions of Frannie Langton // Sara Collins

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle // Neil Blackmore

Orlando // Virginia Woolf

Tipping the Velvet // Sarah Waters

She Rises // Kate Worsley

The Mercies // Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit // Jeanette Winterson

Maurice // E.M Forster

Frankisstein: A Love Story // Jeanette Winterson

If I Was Your Girl // Meredith Russo

The Well of Loneliness // Radclyffe Hall

* fyi, Life Mask and Girl, Woman, Other are also LGBT+ fiction

Classics I haven’t already mentioned (including children’s classics)

Far From the Madding Crowd // Thomas Hardy

I Capture the Castle // Dodie Smith

Vanity Fair // William Makepeace Thackeray

Wuthering Heights // Emily Brontë

The Blazing World // Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Murder on the Orient Express // Agatha Christie

Great Expectations // Charles Dickens

North and South // Elizabeth Gaskell

Evelina // Frances Burney

Death on the Nile // Agatha Christie

The Monk // Matthew Lewis

Frankenstein // Mary Shelley

Vilette // Charlotte Brontë

The Mayor of Casterbridge // Thomas Hardy

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall // Anne Brontë

Vile Bodies // Evelyn Waugh

Beloved // Toni Morrison

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd // Agatha Christie

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling // Henry Fielding

A Room With a View // E.M. Forster

Silas Marner // George Eliot

Jude the Obscure // Thomas Hardy

My Man Jeeves // P.G. Wodehouse

Lady Audley’s Secret // Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Middlemarch // George Eliot

Little Women // Louisa May Alcott

Children of the New Forest // Frederick Marryat

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings // Maya Angelou

Rebecca // Daphne du Maurier

Alice in Wonderland // Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows // Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina // Leo Tolstoy

Howard’s End // E.M. Forster

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 // Sue Townsend

Even more fiction recommendations

The Darling Strumpet // Gillian Bagwell

The Wolf Hall trilogy // Hilary Mantel

The Illumination of Ursula Flight // Anne-Marie Crowhurst

Queenie // Candace Carty-Williams

Forever Amber // Kathleen Winsor

The Corset // Laura Purcell

Love in Colour // Bolu Babalola

Artemisia // Alexandra Lapierre

Blackberry and Wild Rose // Sonia Velton

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories // Angela Carter

The Languedoc trilogy // Kate Mosse

Longbourn // Jo Baker

A Skinful of Shadows // Frances Hardinge

The Black Moth // Georgette Heyer

The Far Pavilions // M.M Kaye

The Essex Serpent // Sarah Perry

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cavalier Queen // Fiona Mountain

The Winter Palace // Eva Stachniak

Friday’s Child // Georgette Heyer

Falling Angels // Tracy Chevalier

Little // Edward Carey

Chocolat // Joanne Harris

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street // Natasha Pulley

My Sister, the Serial Killer // Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Convenient Marriage // Georgette Heyer

Katie Mulholland // Catherine Cookson

Restoration // Rose Tremain

Meat Market // Juno Dawson

Lady on the Coin // Margaret Campbell Bowes

In the Company of the Courtesan // Sarah Dunant

The Crimson Petal and the White // Michel Faber

A Place of Greater Safety // Hilary Mantel

The Little Shop of Found Things // Paula Brackston

The Improbability of Love // Hannah Rothschild

The Murder Most Unladylike series // Robin Stevens

Dark Angels // Karleen Koen

The Words in My Hand // Guinevere Glasfurd

Time’s Convert // Deborah Harkness

The Collector // John Fowles

Vivaldi’s Virgins // Barbara Quick

The Foundling // Stacey Halls

The Phantom Tree // Nicola Cornick

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle // Stuart Turton

Golden Hill // Francis Spufford

Assorted non-fiction not yet mentioned

The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World // Deborah Cadbury

The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History to the Italian Renaissance // Catherine Fletcher

All the King's Women: Love, Sex, and Politics in the life of Charles II // Derek Jackson

Mozart’s Women // Jane Glover

Scandalous Liaisons: Charles II and His Court // R.E. Pritchard

Matilda: Queen, Empress, Warrior // Catherine Hanley

Black Tudors // Miranda Kaufman

To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape // Charles Spencer

1666: Plague, War and Hellfire // Rebecca Rideal

Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen // Alison Plowden

Catherine of Braganza: Charles II's Restoration Queen // Sarah-Beth Watkins

Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses // Helen Rappaport

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 // Stella Tillyard

The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir // Michael Bundock

Black London: Life Before Emancipation // Gretchen Gerzina

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815

The King’s Mistress: Scandal, Intrigue and the True Story of the Woman who Stole the Heart of George I // Claudia Gold

Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson // Paula Byrne

The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England // Amanda Vickery

Terms and Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding School, 1939-1979 // Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Fanny Burney: A Biography // Claire Harman

Aphra Behn: A Secret Life // Janet Todd

The Imperial Harem: Women and the Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire // Leslie Peirce

The Fall of the House of Byron // Emily Brand

The Favourite: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough // Ophelia Field

Night-Walking: A Nocturnal History of London // Matthew Beaumont, Will Self

Jane Austen: A Life // Claire Tomalin

Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton // Flora Fraser

Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the 18th Century // John Brewer

Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant // Tracy Borman

City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London // Tom Almeroth-Williams

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion // Anne Somerset

Charlotte Brontë: A Life // Claire Harman

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe // Anthony Summers

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day // Peter Ackroyd

Elizabeth I and Her Circle // Susan Doran

African Europeans: An Untold History // Olivette Otele

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives // Daisy Hay

How to Create the Perfect Wife // Wendy Moore

The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough // Hugo Vickers

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn // Eric Ives

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy // Barbara Ehrenreich

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie // Kathryn Harkup

Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II // Linda Porter

Female Husbands: A Trans History // Jen Manion

Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day // Anne Somerset

Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country // Edward Parnell

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles // Ned Palmer

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine // Lindsey Fitzharris

Medieval Woman: Village Life in the Middle Ages // Ann Baer

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York // Anne de Courcy

The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc // Suzannah Lipscomb

The Daughters of the Winter Queen // Nancy Goldstone

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency // Bea Koch

Bess of Hardwick // Mary S. Lovell

The Royal Art of Poison // Eleanor Herman

The Strangest Family: The Private Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte, and the Hanoverians // Janice Hadlow

Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football; How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment // Lee Jackson

Favourite books about current social/political issues (?? for lack of a better term)

Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power // Lola Olufemi

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Worker Rights // Molly Smith, Juno Mac

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race // Reni Eddo-Lodge

Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows // Christine Burns

Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism // Alison Phipps

Trans Like Me: A Journey For All Of Us // C.N Lester

Brit(Ish): On Race, Identity, and Belonging // Afua Hirsch

The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution // Dan Hicks

Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living // Jes M. Baker

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot // Mikki Kendall

Denial: Holocaust History on Trial // Deborah Lipstadt

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape // Jessica Valenti, Jaclyn Friedman

Don’t Touch My Hair // Emma Dabiri

Sister Outsider // Audre Lorde

Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen // Amrou Al-Kadhi

Trans Power // Juno Roche

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons // Imani Perry

The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment // Amelia Gentleman

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You // Sofie Hagen

Diaries, memoirs & letters

The Diary of a Young Girl // Anne Frank

Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust // Renia Spiegel

Writing Home // Alan Bennett

The Diary of Samuel Pepys // Samuel Pepys

Histoire de Ma Vie // Giacomo Casanova

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger // Nigel Slater

London Journal, 1762-1763 // James Boswell

The Diary of a Bookseller // Shaun Blythell

Jane Austen’s Letters // edited by Deidre la Faye

H is for Hawk // Helen Mcdonald

The Salt Path // Raynor Winn

The Glitter and the Gold // Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough

Journals and Letters // Fanny Burney

Educated // Tara Westover

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading // Lucy Mangan

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? // Jeanette Winterson

A Dutiful Boy // Mohsin Zaidi

Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler // Christine Keeler

800 Years of Women’s Letters // edited by Olga Kenyon

Istanbul // Orhan Pamuk

Henry and June // Anaïs Nin

Historical romance (this is a short list because I’m still fairly new to this genre)

The Bridgerton series // Julia Quinn

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover // Sarah Mclean

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake // Sarah Mclean

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics // Olivia Waite

That Could Be Enough // Alyssa Cole

Unveiled // Courtney Milan

The Craft of Love // EE Ottoman

The Maiden Lane series // Elizabeth Hoyt

An Extraordinary Union // Alyssa Cole

Slightly Dangerous // Mary Balogh

Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance // Jennieke Cohen

A Fashionable Indulgence // KJ Charles

#the only categories not on here are plays and poetry #just bc this post would be even longer!#you can ask me for my favourite playwrights/poets separately tho

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