#Holly ANna book two

[theinquisitxor]

2024 Anticipated Book Releases

I thought I had a lot of anticipated book releases for 2023, but 2024 is also proving to be a year of many books I'm excited about too. These are all the books I'm looking forward to in the first half of the year!

January:

-A Fragile Enchantment by Alison Saft: (Jan 2nd) rom-com fantasy about a dressmaker hired to make the royal wedding dress, but she starts to fall for the prince instead.

-Mislaid in Parts Half-Known Wayward Children 9) by Seanan (Jan 9th) The second to last book in this novella series, this one featuring dinosaurs!

-The Atlas Complex (The Atlas Series #3) by Olive Blake (Jan 9th) the final books to this magical dark academia trilogy, and I've been excited for this one since the ending of book 2.

-Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde 2) by Heather Fawcett (Jan 16th) The second book in this new historical fantasy series, in which Emily and Wendall go on a new adventure in the Austrian Alps. This is one of my most anticipated books of the year.

-City of Stardust by Georgia Summers (Jan 30th) this is a new fantasy debut that sounds similar to The Starless Sea and features a woman descending down into a subterranean world to try and break a generational curse.

-House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City 3) by SJM (Jan 30th) I've been enjoying SJM's crescent city books the most of all her series, and I'm looking forward to this one after how book 2 ended.

February

-The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden (Feb 13th) This is possibly my most anticipated book of the year, and Katherine Arden's newest adult release. A historical fiction (and a little magical realism?) set in Europe during WW1 following a combat nurse trying to find her (presumably) dead brother.

-The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown (Feb 13th) A debut magical realism fantasy set in NYC with books, bookstores, and a mystery book. I've heard many good early reviews of this one.

-What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher (Feb 13th) This is a follow up novella to What Moves the Dead following Alex Easton in a new horror adventure. This one has such a cool cover.

-The Briar Book of the Dead by AG Slatter (Feb 13th) A coven of witches keeps a town and the border between realms safe.

March

-A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft (March 5th) I'm very excited to get two new Allison Saft books in 1 year. This is a dark academia fantasy about two rival scholars trying to figure out who killed their mentor. Sapphic romance too I believe.

-The Prisoner's Throne by Holly Black (March 5th) This is the conclusion to The Stolen Heir, and I'm looking forward to the seeing more of the characters from the original series make an appearance in this one.

-The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (March 19th) This is a spooky queer horror novella set in 1920s Appalachia. Small town religiosity and something sinister creeping in the woods? This just sounds like a novella I'd enjoy.

-Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland (March 21st) A new book from Lucy Holland, also set in magical ancient Briton. A warrior queen falls into trouble and teams up with the Wild Hunt to save her kingdom. Sapphic/queer romance.

-The Hedewitch of Fox Hall by Anna Bright (March 24th) a fantasy romance book set in medieval Wales as a hedge witch and prince team up to help prevent magic from fading away. The cover of this book is so beautiful!

April

-The Familiar by Leigh Barduo (April 9th) I don't really know much about this one, other than it is a new adult novel by Leigh Bardugo set in 1400s Spain. Also one of my most anticipated releases of the year.

-Song of Six Realms by Judy Lin (April 23rd) A young adult fantasy about a musician who goes to the Duke of Dreams's realm and must help stop a disaster.

June

-Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland (June 13th) A new high seas fantasy that was directly inspired by OFMD and Terry Pratchett. This is very queer and seems like it's going to be a lot of fun.

-Foul Days by Genovena Dimova (June 25th) A slavic fantasy story about a witch who has to team up with a detective as she is being hunted by her ex, the Tsar of Monsters. I've heard some very good early reviews of this book too.

-Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Children of Blood and Bone 3) by Tomi Adeyemi (June 25th) I honestly don't know if I'm going to read this anytime soon, but I've been waiting for this final book for almost 4 years now, so I just want to see how the series ends.

I think that's it for now! Release dates tend to change, and I'm sure I will be adding or editing this list as the new year starts. I'd love to hear of any new releases you are excited for!

Second half of 2024/To be determined:

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher (August)

The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey (August)

The Whisper Between Worlds by Amanda Foody (TBD)

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid (TBD)

[liminalmemories21]

9 Books To Read in 2024

tagged by @jesuisici33. Thank you!

In release date order:

1- Holly Black - The Prisoner's Throne

After the shocking events of The Stolen Heir, Prince Oak is in deeper trouble than ever before. As his situation grows more precarious, Oak is desperate to find a way out, before all of Elfhame is caught in the coming storm.

I love pretty much anything Holly Black writes, but I particularly love the Folk of the Air series. I'm a sucker for a good dark faerie court drama.

2 - K Ancrum - Icarus

Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target in revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught.

Hi yes, I am predictable.

3 - EK Johnston - Pretty Furious

In the small town of Eganston, Ontario, five good girls have had enough. They’ve experienced the best of what their community has to offer, but they’ve seen the darker side too. Together, they’ve decided that it’s time for a reckoning and that justice is their privilege to give.

If you have not read her earlier novel Exit Pursued by a Bear, go read it. It is so angry, but also so beautifully about healing and friendship.

4 - Leigh Bardugo - The Familiar

Set in the Spanish Golden Age, during a time of high‑stakes political intrigue and glittering wealth, The Familiar follows Luzia, a servant in the household of an impoverished Spanish nobleman who reveals a talent for little miracles. Her social‑climbing mistress demands Luzia use her gifts to win over Madrid’s most powerful players but what begins as simple amusement takes a dangerous turn. Luzia will need to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even the help of Guillén Santángel, an immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

I like most things Leigh Bardugo writes, so curious about this.

5 - Tess Sharpe - The Girl in Question

Four teens. Three henchmen. Two thousand acres of remote forest. One very bad man. And a whole lot of new secrets to unearth. The unmissable, thrilling follow-up to The Girls I've Been.

First go read The Girls I've Been. Then Five Times We Almost Kissed. Then Barb Wire Heart. Tess Sharpe is such a fantastic writer - and the heart of her books is always people making the best choices they can when none of the choices are good or easy. Also, Barb Wire Heart is kind of like if S2 of Justified had been about the women.

6 - Anna-Marie McLemore - Flawless Girls

The Soler sisters are infamous in polite society—brazen, rebellious, and raised by their fashionable grandmother who couldn’t care less about which fork goes where. But their grandmother also knows the standards that two Latina young ladies will be held to, so she secures them two coveted places at the Alarie House, a prominent finishing school that turns out first ladies, princesses, and socialites.

Younger sister Isla is back home within a day. She refuses to become one of the eerily sweet Alarie girls in their prim white dresses. Older sister Renata stays. When she returns months later, she’s unfailingly pleasant, unnervingly polite, and, Isla discovers, possibly murderous. And the same night she returns home, she vanishes.

I will read anything they write. No questions asked. They're books are always so gorgeous and lush.

7 - Kristin Cashore - There is a Door in This Darkness

Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with the election of Donald Trump and they ended with COVID. Now Wilhelmina, like so many of her peers, is in limbo, having deferred college because of the pandemic. Compounding the national trauma of 2016 to 2020, Wilhelmina has wrestled with the devastating loss of one of her three beloved aunts shortly after the 2016 election. This is a loss she felt so keenly that she’s spent the last years deep in her personal depression, only obscured by the seemingly endless waves of national trauma. Now on the cusp on the most consequential election in living memory, Wilhelmina may have found a door in her darkness and perhaps the courage to pass through it, if she can decipher the bizarre messages that keep appearing in her life.

I love Kristin Cashore's Graceling novels, so I'm curious about this.

8 - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Grandest Game

Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year's game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.

Is this series a little silly? Sure. Is it a lot of fun. Yes. Kind of like a grown up Westing Game.

9 - Margaret Owen - Holy Terrors

third book in the Little Thieves series - which on the surface is a heist story about what if the protagonist of the Goose Girl was the servant not the princess. And at it's heart is about recovering from trauma and loss, and learning how to let yourself be someone different. 

tagging @lemonlyman-dotcom, @ladytessa74, and @strandnreyes

[egoistshye]

tagged by anna !! @taeraenini ily

last song: ive - baddie

favorite colour: lavender

last book: a good girl's guide to murder by holly jackson, i'm still in the middle of reading it though rip....

last movie: the devil wears prada! so so good, i love dramatic films like this lol

last tv show: xo, kitty season 2. cheesy, cringy, but funny 😌

sweet / savoury / spicy: savoury and spicy 😋

relationship status: taken but yves and siyeon im eying u

last thing i searched: jobs in my city....

current obsession: bbno$'s song two </3

looking forward to: having a regular routine with a job. oh, and summer! summer, sunshine and sitting by the beach.

favorite drink: iced americano or cherry coke :)

song playing 24/7: bbno$ - two / aespa - whiplash / charli xcx ft billie eilish - guess

current favorite character: yuri han from xo, kitty. my comfort character rn !!!

fun activity i’d like to get into: i think i'd love to learn how to paint on canvas again, i never properly got into it 😭

last video game: the sims 4 or minecraft i forgot which one lol

last comic: does webtoon count as comics? im gonna say yes. i last read through couple breaker by maenggi ki! very juicy hehe

tagging: @pink-vacancy, @ayeonz, @tae, @jinyoungtual only if you guys want!

[thoughtofstseb]

The reference to The Third Man (1949) is such a good one & really says a lot about season two.

The basic plot of The Third Man is that Holly Martin (Jospeh Cotten) comes to post ww2 Vienna for a job offer by his friend, Harry Lime. As soon as Martin off the plane he's informed that Lime has died. Later in the film he finds himself being followed by a man who turns out to be Harry Lime.

Season two has Louis & Claduia in post war Europe beliving that Lestat is dead. As the final scene of season one established (& we know from the book) Lestat is alive and will turn up in Europe.

Another aspect of The Third Man is that Martin falls in love with Lime's lover Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli) who an actress. As we know Armand, an actor, has a history with Lestat & that Louis & Armand will fall in love.

There's nearly definitely more to this reference but I haven't seen the film in a few years but will add more once I rewatch it.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🗞️📖 Bookish News - February Edition

🦇 Extra, extra. Read all about it! 📖 Good evening, bookish bats! A lot happened in the publishing industry this month, but here are a few highlights you may have missed! Check below the cut for details.

Adaptations: 🗞️ Chloé Zhao will direct a film adaptation of Hamnet (Maggie O'Farrell) starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal 📖 HBO is adapting Dark Places (Gillian Flynn) as a limited series. Flynn will serve as co-creator, writer, and co-showrunner 🗞️ FX has ordered a limited series adaptation of Say Nothing (Patrick Radden Keefe), directed by Michael Lennox 📖 Taika Waititi will direct an adaptation of Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro), potentially starring Amy Adams and Jenna Ortega 🗞️ The Terror will base season 3 on The Devil in Silver (Victor LaValle) 📖 The Man in My Basement (Walter Mosley), directed by Nadia Latif, will star Anna Diop, Corey Hawkins, and Willem Dafoe 🗞️ Dark Matter (Blake Crouch) has a trailer 📖 America Ferrera's feature directorial debut for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Erika Sánchez) is in development 🗞️ The adaptation of Turtles All the Way Down (John Green) will stream on MAX this year 📖 Hook’s Daughter: The Pirate Princess Chronicles (R. V. Bowman) is getting a live-action adaptation 🗞️ Interview with the Vampire (based on Anne Rice's novel) is getting a second season 📖 Percy Jackson and the Olympians is getting a second season 🗞️ Seven Days in June (Tia Williams) is being adapted for Prime Video 📖 The adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow, (Amor Towles) will star Ewan McGregor 🗞️ The Color Purple movie musical will stream on MAX (Feb. 16) 📖 Hulu’s adaptation of A Court of Thorns and Roses was axed 🗞️ The Alex Van Helsing YA books are being adapted for a television series 📖 Ryan Reynolds and Paramount are working on an adaptation of Starter Villain (John Scalzi) 🗞️ A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson) will be adapted as an animated TV series 📖 The trailer for the film adaptation of Wicked is up 🗞️ Netflix renewed Survival of the Thickest for season 2 📖 The cast for Marvel’s Fantastic Four has been announced (July 25, 2025) 🗞️ The trailer for the new X-Men animated series is up (Mar. 20) 📖 The Oscar-nominated animated film Nimona is now available to watch for free on YouTube! 🗞️ Reese Witherspoon is producing a film adaptation of Romantic Comedy (Curtis Sittenfeld) 📖 Photos are up for the adaptation of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Holly Jackson)

Cover Reveals: 🗞️ When Haru Was Here - Dustin Thao (Sept. 3) 📖 Trick or Treat on Scary Street - Lance Bass (July 23) 🗞️ The Bletchley Riddle - Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (Oct. 8) 📖 The Rules of Royalty - Cale Dietrich (Dec. 10) 🗞️ Colored Television - Danzy Senna (July 30) 📖 Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me - Whoopie Goldberg (May 7) 🗞️ House of Bone and Rain - Gabino Iglesias (Aug. 6) 📖 Rani Choudhury Must Die - Adiba Jaigirdar (Nov. 12) 🗞️ Night Owls - A.R. Vishny (Sept. 17) 📖 The Dixon Rule - Elle Kennedy (May 14) 🗞️ A Bánh Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen (Aug. 27) 📖 The Hitchcock Hotel - Stephanie Wrobel (Sept. 24) 🗞️ In Want of a Suspect - Tirzah Price (Nov. 12) 📖 Memorials - Richard Chizmar (Oct. 22) 🗞️ The Empusium - Olga Tokarczuk (Sept. 24) 📖 Unsinkable Cayenne - Jessica Vitalis (Oct. 29) 🗞️ Cue the Sun! - Emily Nussbaum (June 25) 📖 We're Alone - Edwidge Danticat (Sept. 3) 🗞️ The Sherlock Society - James Ponti (Sept. 3) 📖 The Enchanted Hacienda by J.C. Cervantes (May 21) 🗞️ The Baby-sitters Club: Kristy and the Walking Disaster - Ellen T. Crenshaw (Sept.) 📖 The Baby-sitters Litter Sister: Karen’s Grandmothers - DK Yingst (Oct.) 🗞️ The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science - Kate McKinnon (Oct. 1) 📖 The Life Impossible - Matt Haig (Sept. 3) 🗞️ Ruin Road - Lamar Giles (Sept.) 📖 Yours Truly by Katie Shepard (Sept. 3) 🗞️ Wishbone - Justine Pucella Winan (Sep. 17) 📖 Haunt Your Heart Out - Amber Roberts (Oct. 8) 🗞️ The Dividing Sky - Jill Tew (Oct. 8) 📖 Heir - Sabaa Tahir (Oct. 1) 🗞️ Beautiful Dreamers - Minrose Gwin (Aug. 27) 📖 We Solve Murders - Richard Osman (Fall) 🗞️ Till the Last Beat of My Heart - Louangie Bou-Montes (Sept. 10) 📖 Aisle Nine by Ian X (Sept. 24) 🗞️ Warrior of Legend - Kendare Blake (Sept. 17) 📖 The Ancient’s Game - Loni Crittenden (Oct. 29) 🗞️ The Witch of Wol Sin Lake - Lega Jeong (Oct. 29)

Upcoming Releases: 🗞️ Tiny Reparations Books has secured North American rights to two new books by National Book Award–longlisted author LaToya Watkins. The first book, The Book of Chuck, will be published in spring 2026. 📖 Tia Williams has sold North American rights to two new novels to Grand Central. 🗞️ LeVar Burton is releasing two new books

Other News: 🗞️ The Dylan Thomas Prize 2024 longlist is up 📖 The finalists for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced 🗞️ The finalists for the 2024 Audie Awards were announced 📖 Pulitzer-winning author N. Scott Momaday passed away (first Native American author to win a Pulitzer) 🗞️ OCLC has filed a lawsuit against the shadow library search engine Anna’s Archive for allegedly stealing 2.2 TB of data from WorldCat 📖 The St. Paul Public Library launched a laser-eyed loon library card 🗞️ Writers Against the War on Gaza have written an open letter to PEN/America to release an official statement about the “225 poets, playwrights, journalists, scholars, and novelists killed in Gaza” by Israeli forces 📖 Andy Weir released a series of “lost” journal entries from Mark Watney to celebrate The Martian’s 10th anniversary 🗞️ Amazon removed multiple titles about King Charles’ recent cancer diagnoses amid concerns that they were written by AI 📖 This year’s winners and finalists of the Cybils Awards were announced 🗞️ Delacorte is launching a new YA romance imprint

[bookclub4m]

Episode 200 - Library Fiction

It’s episode 200, which means it’s (finally) time for us to discuss Library Fiction! We talk about the stereotypes and tropes of library fiction, unacknowledged work of library workers,and more. Plus: we talk way more about our actual jobs than we usually do.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges 

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore by Paula Guran (below are direct links to many of the stories from this collection)

In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages

In Libres by Elizabeth Bear

Those Who Watch by Ruthanna Emrys

Paper Cuts Scissors by Holly Black

Summer Reading by Ken Liu

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

With Tales in Their Teeth, From the Mountain They Came by A.C. Wise

The Librarian’s Dilemma by E. Saxey

The Green Book by Amal El-Mohtar

A Woman's Best Friend by Robert Reed

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Xia Jia, translated by Ken Liu

The Sigma Structure Symphony by Gregory Benford

The Fort Moxie Branch by Jack McDevitt

The Last Librarian: Or a Short Account of the End of the World by Edoardo Albert

How Can I Help You by Laura Sims

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor 

Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen

Other Media We Mentioned

The Library of Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Empty Crown by Rosemary Edghill 

Meghan meant The Abortion by Richard Brautigan (not Trout Fishing in America)

The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Bookhunter by Jason Shiga

Unshelved by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes

Library Comic by Gene Ambaum and Willow Payne

Welcome to Night Vale

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Abbott Elementary

Pounded In The Butt By My Handsome Sentient Library Card Who Seems Otherworldly But In Reality Is Just A Natural Part Of The Priceless Resources Our Library System Provides by Chuck Tingle

My Librarian Is A Beautiful Lesbian Ice Cream Cone And She Tastes Amazing by Chuck Tingle

Party Girl

Public Enemy - Fight the Power

Fictional Librarians

50 Fictional Librarians, Ranked

Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Barbara Gordon (DC Comics)

The Librarian (Discworld)

Lucien (The Sandman)

Evelyn Carnahan (The Mummy)

Marian Paroo (The Music Man)

Librarians (Welcome to Night Vale)

“While their description is never fully given, minor details of their physical characteristics have been described:”

yellow, gnarled teeth

sharp claws and pincers

Wings

Tentacles

thousands of spiny legs

rattles (that make noise when they move)

thoraxes

Links, Articles, and Things

Two-Fisted Library Stories zines

North Boulder Library is ready to open (there’s a slide in image 6!)

15 Librarian & Library Fiction by POC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts

Cora's Kitchen by Kimberly Garrett Brown

The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez 

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

The Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana

The Plotters by Kim Un-Su

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Bookhunter by Jason Shiga

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group or Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 1st we’ll be getting ready for spooky season with the Weird West! (That’s Supernatural Horror Westerns)

Then on Tuesday, October 15th it’s time for our “We All Read the Same Book” episode as we discuss A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.

[the-forest-library]

January 2023 Reads

Partners in Crime - Alisha Rai

Never Ever Getting Back Together - Sophie Gonzales (thank you, carrie!)

The Key to My Heart - Lia Louis

A Little Bit Country - Brian D. Kennedy

Funny You Should Ask - Elissa Sussman

A Guide to Being Just Friends - Sophie Sullivan

Mysteries of Thorn Manner - Margaret Rogerson

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett

Wildwood Dancing - Juliet Marillier

Really Good, Actually - Monica Heisey

Dead Collections - Isaac Fellman

Ms. Demeanor - Elinor Lipman

They Never Learn - Layne Fargo

Five Survive - Holly Jackson

The Silence Between Us - Alison Gervais

6 Times We Almost Kissed - Tess Sharpe

The Star That Always Stays - Anna Rose Johnson

Illuminations - T. Kingfisher

The Witch Boy - Molly Knox Ostertag

Witchlight - Jessi Zabarsky

Hawkeye, Vol 1 - Matt Fraction

Hawkeye, Vol 2 - Matt Fraction

You Can Do All Things - Kate Allan

Divergent Mind - Jenara Nuremberg

The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly - Margareta Magnusson

Unraveling - Peggy Orenstein

Windfall - Erika Bolstad

Quit - Annie Duke

Portable Magic - Emma Smith

Little Pieces of Hope - Todd Doughty (thanks, kim!)

This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch - Tabitha Carvan

Two Old Broads - Dr M.E. Hecht and Whoopi Goldberg

Year of the Tiger - Alice Wong 

Spare - Prince Harry

Hello, Molly! - Molly Shannon

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love - Yotam Ottolenghi

The Blue Zones American Kitchen - Dan Buettner

Bold = Highly Recommend Italics = Worth It Crossed out = Nope

Thoughts:

This was a really good reading month to start the year with. I was able to get to quite a few of the books on my physical TBR and really enjoyed the two books I was most looking forward to: Mysteries of Thorn Manor and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Goodreads Goal: 37/400 

2017 Reads | 2018 Reads | 2019 Reads | 2020 Reads | 2021 Reads |

2022 Reads | 2023 Reads 

[theladyofbloodshed]

Can you recommend some books that you enjoyed? I'm having a hard time finding ones that don't suck or make me cringe

I have struggled massively this year to find books that I've rated higher than (a generous) 3*, so these are mostly reads from last year

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black - a spin off from the Cruel Prince series about Oak and a girl called Suren

They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera - two guys get a call to say they will die in 24 hours in a futuristic society so spend their last day together

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore - a family of women are never allowed to leave their garden and it steals the men they love until a young man appears in their garden from the past

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - prep boys meet a psychic girl. I loved this but have only read the first in the series

Scythe by Neal Shusterman - the whole series was great. Rowan and Citra get selected as apprentices for a Scythe, someone who must reap lives in the future

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - a sister is promised to the cruel godking but the younger one is sent instead and it focuses on the elder's plot to save her, and the younger discovers the godking is not as she's lead to believe

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo - Grishaverse spinoff focusing on Nikolai, Zoya and Nina

Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard - high fantasy with a found family, i really enjoyed both books in the series but it is still ongoing with the third expected this year I think

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix - fun fantasy set in London in the 80s, woman trying to find her estranged father gets entangled with old magic and book sellers

Year of the Reaper by Lucier Makiia - I am still thinking of this book; after a plague, Cass can see ghosts and he's trying to reunite with his family after being taken prisoner

My book! :) Shameless self promo lmao. The Story of Old by Chelsea Starling - reluctant chosen one taken from secret home to try and defeat the masters of time who have set a purge into motion to destroy Etherlia

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, June 6

Oz: I'm gonna ask you to go out with me tomorrow night. And I'm kinda nervous about it, actually. It's interesting. Willow: Oh. Well, if it helps at all, I'm gonna say yes. Oz: Yeah, it helps. It-it creates a comfort zone.

~~Surprise~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Do better (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by onlyone87

Minnified (Xander, FR15) by samsas

[Chaptered Fiction]

Father Returns, Chapter 1 (Angel/Spike, M) by Amizzadu

A Fresh Start, Chapter 1 (Crossover with Life is Strange, M) by Shisumo

A Slayer's Greatest Weapon - Book one - BTVS, Chapter 2 (Crossover with Wolfblood, T) by KHandE11

Ties to the World, Chapter 35 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by The Danish Bird

Love Lives Here, Chapter 72 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Passion4Spike

Reclaimed, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Holly

Thirty Minutes or Less, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, PG) by Geliot99

Waiting for You, Chapter 7 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

Deliverance from Destiny, Chapter 25 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Ragini

Dawn Before the Sun: The Doomsman's Daughter, Chapter 3 (Crossover with Lord of the Rings, FR15) by Luna

Cross Purposes 4, Chapter 95 (Multiple crossings, FR13) by DianeCastle

To Be a Hero snippets, Chapter 186 (Multiple crossings, FR18) by AntonioCC

Stomping on Butterflies, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, 18+) by Blackoberst

Bruises, Chapter 13 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by hulettwyo

[Images, Audio & Video]

Manip:Bad Slayer by all choseny

Manip:Give Me Everything by loveisntbrains

Manip:Domestic by all choseny

Artwork:WIP Wednesday [Spike] by mistyintherivers

Artwork:started Buffy again by chelseabeecreates

Video: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 1 Trailer - Kinds of Kindness style by Omar KarimZada

[Reviews & Recaps]

Ranking Every Season of Buffy by Past-Throat-6788 and Magneto88

The Hottest Wedding of 2002 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer 6x16 "Hell's Bells" by The Normies

Two to Go: Buffy 6x21 Reaction by Dakara

The Re-Watcher's Council | "Bad Eggs" Buffy the Vampire Slayer S02E12 Spoiler Review by LGRN - Entertainment

This Episode As a Child Terrified Me! - Buffy Episodes Ranked (S1&2) by FrankieNugget

Top 10 Buffy Monster of the Week Episodes by Episodic Analysis

Why Kendra died so tragically!!! by Ryan B Talks TV

Podcast: Episode 30 - Brown Plaid Pants and Couches (Passion) by The Sunnydale Diaries

Podcast: Angel S4E3: The House Always Wins by Booze & Buffy

[Recs & In Search Of]

Buffy Season Noir by Anna S recced by flowspuffy

Dusk Rising by HappyWhenItRains and Not A Monster by Grief Counseling and Dusty recced by flowspuffy

Where Do We Go? by womanaction recced by flowspuffy

[Community Announcements]

Solstice Free-For-All, June 20th-21st by Seasonal Spuffy

[Fandom Discussions]

s3!Buffy's questionable treatment of Faith by lystacre

[Giles lying to Faith in Consequences] by faith-thee-slayer

Thinking about post-Potentials by nicnacsnonsense

Do you think Buffy knows that Willow cast her spell to restore Angel's soul in Becoming a second time after the first attempt didn't work by coraniaid

Rewatching Season 3 Of Buffy... by allchoseny

Why isn't anyone discussing this? by multiple authors

Darla's sacrifice by multiple authors

What are some of the most ungrateful acts in the buffyverse? by multiple authors

Spike's most heroic moment by multiple authors

Did you have any initial theories about Dru & Spike or their roles in BtVS S2? by multiple authors

What are some of your favorite headcanons? by multiple authors

Anya's Ever-changing Hair by multiple authors

Warren/The First - Conversations With Dead People. S7 by multiple authors

Would you have believed this insufferable ponce from BtVS S3 would become the most tragic dark hero of the whole Buffyverse? by multiple authors

what is the deal w Glory's miñones? by multiple authors

Why not make the Buffybot get a job? Boring repetitive tasks are kinda its thing. Solves the money problem. by multiple authors

Becoming Pt. 2 by multiple authors

Team Angel signed contest with W&H, so when they died wouldnt it extend in afterlife like Lilah? Bound to W&F as a ghost? by multiple authors

Some people say that Buffy is self-righteous and hypocritical. by multiple authors

What do you think of the following exchange in Chosen? by multiple authors

On Holtz by multiple authors

Did the monks manipulate Joyce to have a favorite child? by multiple authors

Connor and Jasmine's Spell by multiple authors

Plot hole? by multiple authors

Possible plot hole? Or absent minded team members? by multiple authors

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[bri-to-the-future]

Summer Reading/Writing/Arting

Thanks to @jowritesfanfiction for the tag! :D

Rules: Follow the directions in bold

Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

In April (i think?) i started drawing Doc and Marty together from every decade they visit (including some fandom ones like the 40s or unused ones like the 60s) and I’d like to finish that this summer. I’ll also be finishing McFly July of course!

Recommend a book

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Claire is the first book in my favorite series. It’s about this boy names Cal who’s father used to be a wizard but raised him to be deathly afraid of magic, so when the time comes for essentially an entrance exam for a magic school called the Magisterium (which is what the series is named after) he tries on purpose to fail it, but one of the teachers notice and he gets in anyways. It has a lot of interesting takes on magic, for example the magic is element based so consuming an element makes your magic stronger (ex pricking your finger then sucking the blood for its oxygen before doing air magic, which a student does to cheat at the entrance exam), but if you overdo it you can become an elemental monster. I dont wanna get into too many specifics, but there’s an incredible reveal in this first book that completely shapes the rest of the series and helps it stand out from other fantasy series.

Recommend a fic

If we’re talking BttF I’d probably recommend a bubble, bursting by @penny-anna . It’s not a super long read since it’s a one-shot but it completely altered my brain chemistry (and also made me cry at work so thanks for that lol). Again, i don’t want to say too much, but if you’re interested in seeing some of the darker/sadder implications of time travel or just want some fantastically written McFly family bonding, i 100% think this is the one. Outside of BttF the Pen Pals chapter of Curreeus’ TF2 Valentines Week collection is one I come back to a lot, it made two characters I’ve always been more indifferent towards incredibly fascinating, and the struggle with a second language is one i can’t relate to personally but the way it’s portrayed here is incredibly well done.

Recommend Music

(Please forgive me I just saw BttF the Musical and Book of Mormon the first time this weekend)

1. Hello, is Anybody Home? from Back to the Future the Musical

2. Future Boy from Back to the Future the Musical

3. Hello! from The Book of Mormon

4. Turn it Off from The Book of Mormon

5. Honeybee by Steam Powered Giraffe

Im gonna stop there before I start recommending entire albums, but thanks again for the tag! I’m not gonna tag anyone just cause I’m in a bit of a rush but anyone who wants to do this is welcome to ofc!

[clementinatehasperdido]

My 2023 in books. Part I

Okay. This is going to be long. Sorry. This year was fucking horrible. But I had readings so... here they go. These are all personal opinions, it is worth remembering.

January

Circe -  Madeline Miller   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 

I loved this book, I already knew it because it was a reread. I am a sucker for a good retelling. There is something very deep in Circe's story, her feeling of rejection, her unreceived love, her loneliness, her power. It made me cry, laugh. Sometimes I identify with Circe. I wish I could say more, but sometimes silence fills more space.

“But there was no wound she could give me that I had not already given myself.” 

The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World - Peter Frankopan ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 

It is a non-fiction book. In my daily life I read a lot of academic texts, whether for work or studies, so when it comes to leisure I tend to stay away from these books. But Frankopan does not fail to capture the reader's attention and question the changes that are taking place in the world and where the future is going, especially if we start to analyze our consumption of natural resources. It is an important book.

Anna Karenina -Leo Tolstoy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5 

Ok, they are right in saying that it is one of the best novels in the world. I read it in high school, I didn't give it any importance. This year I read it again. I fell in love. I love this book because it is…human. Each part of the book gives us a lesson about what it means to have defects and isn't there anything more human than that? Each part of the book gives us beauty but also the cruelty of reality, linked to political themes, morality, gender, and social class.

“Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.”

The Cruel Prince - Holly Black  ⭐⭐ 2/5

yeah...

February

The Song of Achilles-  Madeline Miller ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5

I was obviously going to read this book. I arrived late to the hype. But for me, it was worth it. I am a sucker for love stories. I know that many do not like this interpretation. But that's an interpretation, and I like it. It is a story of pain. And love is often pain, although it shouldn't be. Wars are also pain. It is a war story. And as the Pat Benatar song “Love Is a Battlefield” says. So.. yeah.

“Have you no more memories?" I am made of memories. "Speak, then.” 

They Both Die at the End- Adam Silvera ⭐⭐⭐  3/5 

I freaking loved the premise of this book. Made me cry? Yes. I enjoyed it yes. It left a strange void in my heart, yes. But it also left me with a feeling of anticlimax. I think it deals with important themes, found family is one of them, and it was quite unexpected. 

“...stories can make someone immortal as long as someone else is willing to listen.”

After Dark - Haruki Murakami ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5

Ugh. This book. Murakami's damn dual narrative always wins me over. This book squeezed my heart, it is the story of two sisters. Like all Murakami books, it challenges reality in a way that only he can do. The story is a journey of colors through a city at night and takes place between reality and dream. What more could you want?.

 “That people’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel.” 

March

Normal People - Sally Rooney⭐⭐⭐⭐4/5

I really enjoyed this book. Sally is the millennial writer by definition. I love her. It is a book that explores academic privilege, issues of class and social division. But it also explores a frustrating relationship with a lack of communication. Important issues such as substance abuse, family violence emerge. It is a love story at times lonely, at times pretentious. Sally knows how to write characters you love to hate. I ended up crying. The adaptation of the series is very good, in fact at times it is even better than the book itself.

“He has sincerely wanted to die, but he has never sincerely wanted Marianne to forget about him. That’s the only part of himself he wants to protect, the part that exists inside her. ” 

Conversations with friends - Sally Rooney ⭐⭐⭐3/5

I liked. But I couldn't empathize with the characters. Rooney's writing is still very good and I like it. I hate Nick, he makes me want to throw up. Maybe that's the point of the book. The adaptation to the series, as with Normal People, seemed perfect to me, in this case I enjoyed it more than the book, I still hated Nick. I think the dialogues are very intelligent and that makes it an interesting and very bearable text.

"Everyone’s always going through something, aren’t they? That’s life, basically. It’s just more and more things to go through."

Klara and the Sun-  Kazuo Ishiguro ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5

MY FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR. It's obviously by Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro has been one of my favorite authors for several years. It is a dystopian book but one that provides calm. The book is narrated by an Artificial Intelligence. Ishiguro does science fiction like no one else, he brings humanity and mystery to each story. This book reduced me to tears. Every line is intentional. It's a beautiful book.

“Hope,’ he said. ‘Damn thing never leaves you alone.”

“I suppose I’m saying Josie and I will always be together at some level, some deeper one, even if we go out there and don’t see each other any more. I can’t speak for her. But once I’m out there, I know I’ll always keep searching for someone just like her.”

 “Do you believe in the human heart? Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and unique? And if we just suppose that there is. Then don’t you think, in order to truly learn Josie, you’d have to learn not just her mannerisms but what’s deeply inside her? Wouldn’t you have to learn her heart?”

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt⭐⭐⭐ 3/5

I liked it, but when I finished it I felt relieved. It is a book that at the beginning catches you and leaves you breathless. It made me stop for a while and say: ugh, how dense, how strong everything is. How sad, almost poetically beautiful and tragic. But then, I got tired. It made me cry a little (a recurring theme in all the books I read it seems)

“I guess that anything we manage to save from history is a miracle”

[fazilareads]

RABT BOOK TOUR - BOOK BLITZ : MEDIA QUEEN BY MICHELLE PRAK

RABT BOOK TOUR – BOOK BLITZ : MEDIA QUEEN BY MICHELLE PRAK

TITLE : Media Queen (HollyAnna #2)

AUTHOR : Michelle Prak

GENRE : Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Chick-lit

Published: June 2020

Publisher: Independently Published

SYNOPSIS

Jordyn Fairweather has worked hard to reach the top of the magazine world, but now she’s in trouble.

Younger stars are scrambling to steal her crown, and media companies are collapsing around…

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Artemis Fowl headcanons:

-Trans

-You will not catch him dead in a hoodie but once a month he won’t come out of his room for a week and will seemingly only eat chocolate and also Juliet seems to go in and out a lot

-Conveniently this is precisely when Butler washes all his suits

-Has wayyyyy to many stim toys but Juliet keeps buying them for him and he just hoards them

-Their regular texts look like this when she goes to the store

Juliet: Hey prick, you got this one yet *picture of stim toy*

Arty: Yes I do

Juliet:

Juliet: You want me to get it anyways?

Arty: Yes I do

-Artemis only knows what happens everywhere else in the world because Juliet likes telling him about it in over exaggerated stories

-Juliet will bring a friend over and Artemis will surprisingly be the one teasing her the most

-But only in a way that’s obvious to anyone who’s close to him would understand

“Yeah this my friend Anna!”

“Hello Anna. Quick question: Do you happen to be a fan of Emily Dickenson?”

“ARTY-”

“Because Juliet-”

“I WILL TELL HOLLY YOU HAVEN’T TAKEN YOUR BINDER OFF IN TWO DAYS!” (Ps, don’t do that ever)

“…”

“Actually, I just remember, I have important business to attend to upstairs. Have fun you two!”

“…What the fuck was that-“

-They have the best sibling dynamic

-Also Artemis is very bad at remembering to take his binder off

-He fucking loved the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books as a kid but especially Nico Di Angelo and Draco Malfoy

-And he “Did NOT have a crush on Harry Potter I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about Juliet”

-Only curses when he’s flustered

-Like normally rejecting someone he’ll be all “I’m sorry but this courtship is mediocre at best”

-But someone he likes is all “you have a cruuuuush” he’ll be like “I think the FUCK not!”

-The only time he ever had a crush was when this kid was trying to bully him and before he could go all “My father will hear about this!” This other kid jumped in and started beating the shit out of the kid

-To this day he denies that he had (maybe still has) that crush

-Does not bother with bullies but if they bully JULIET? He will threaten to buy their entire existence then burn it to the ground

-Juliet uses she/they and Artemis was the very first person she told

-They like to go to meetings together and if some corporate jackass tries to misgender him Juliet will respond instead

“I believe what she meant is-”

Juliet, eating all the chocolate covered strawberries: Wait what did I say

-Artemis kept his dead name

-He came out to Butler when he was like 8 and only came out to his mother and father when his mother was back in her sane mind and when his father was back home

-He came out to Butler very matter-of-factly

“Butler?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“I want you to call me he now.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“In addition to that, call me sir please.”

“Yes m-sir. Will that be all?”

“Yes. Thank you Butler.”

-Butler was very offended when he found out Artemis told Juliet first

“Butler I was six.”

“I’m off to go tell Holly something first now sir.”

“Butler are you serious right now-”

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Ineffable Con 2020 Fun Facts

Fun facts from the Ineffable Con 2 (2020) guest panels :): 

Neil Gaiman, Douglas Mackinnon and Rob Wilkins

David G. Arnold (the music composer)

Claire Anderson (the costume designer)

Peter Anderson (Peter Anderson Studio created the opening title animation and in-show graphics)

Paul Adeyefa (Disposable Demon)

Jeremy Marshall-Roberts (the owner of Mary the Bentley)

1. Neil Gaiman, Douglas Mackinnon and Rob Wilkins

What do they have from Good Omens:

Rob has the statue from St. Beryls, all four motorbikes from the four horsemen, Crowley’s Devon watch, box signed by David Tennant with Crowley’s sunglasses and Aziraphale’s cocoa mug with Michael Sheen’s DNA :).

Douglas has the playing cards from Episode 1 and heavily annotated Good Omens book they used for filming with inscription by Neil: ‘For Douglas, make us love, make us cry, 3rd August 2017’.

Neil has Aziraphale’s chair from the bookshop that he bought from the BBC and he uses it for Zoom meetings.

What is their favourite thing that was not in the book and was added to the TV show:

Neil: all of the first half of Episode 3 - an absolute joy.

Rob: also the beginning of Episode 3.

Douglas: David Arnold’s music and Peter Anderson’s front titles.

Could Aziraphale get out of the Bastille easily if he wanted to?

Neil: if he could: absolutely. Did he have any conception of the mess he was in: probably not. It’s one of Neil’s favourite pieces of acting - the absolute delight on Aziraphale’s face when he realizes that Crowley’s there and then he turns around and rather petulantly, grumpily goes oh it’s you - that moment of joy on Aziraphale’s face when he realizes that he’s been rescued is one of Neil’s favourite things. 

Neil and yoghurt starter: I had this slightly mad thing where I would explain to everybody that fans were yoghurt starter. And I said, ‘Basically you start out with yoghurt starter and you put it into your warm milk and you leave it, and the yoghurt starter goes off and turns the entire thing into yoghurt. 

Neil realized that there was a cat in his house (Neil doesn’t have a cat :)). After the panel Neil said that he was going to look for the cat with a can of sardines and Douglas joked that he would find Michael Sheen in a cat costume.

What was the best and worst about making the series:

Douglas: the best - the camaraderie, getting to know the people, the cast and crew. 

Rob: the best - realizing that the book could be translated to the screen and watching it happen. The worst - coming to the end of the shoot and saying goodbye to everybody.

Neil: the best - the amount of love from everybody, the worst - fighting budget battles (producers wanted gone all of the cold opening and the death of Agnes Nutter).

Did they expect that Good Omens would attract so many LBGTQ+ people and how they feel about that:

Neil: Yes, absolutely. There are definitely people out there who seem to think that I accidentally wrote a love story with all of the beats of a love story including a break-up halfway through, without somehow noticing that I’d written a love story. And I may not be the brightest candle on the candelabra, but as an author who’s been doing it for a long time, I’m very well aware of when I’m writing a love story, thank you very much. And so from my perspective I knew that the love story would be one of the driving things that would get us from the beginning to the end. And I also made a bunch of decisions about our angels and our demons in terms of casting, in terms of gender that everybody backed me up on, which I loved. You know, the idea that the archangel Michael is played by Doon [Mackichan] is something that is... or Beelzebub is Anna Maxwell Martin, whatever, there’s... it’s not like we are going: these are women, there are men, we are going: these are demons, these are angels. They... this is not a thing. And also doing something like Pollution, where you go in and go: okay  well if we were doing this in... if 1989 was now, if there were they pronouns, we probably would have done that. We didn’t think of it at the time but that’s no reason why we can’t do it now. And we did and I remember having a... not exactly a battle, but a... my very tiny skirmish with one of our execs who was very nice and very bright and was like: ‘Why are you saying they?’, and I’m like... and I... explaining, and he’s like: ‘Well I’ve never heard of that before.’, and I’m like: ‘Oh, okay, but trust me, just trust me, it’s all fine, just trust me.’

Douglas: And you know I have to say, just following on what Neil’s saying, I’ve been directing for quite a while, and I tend to notice if characters are falling in love, I tend to notice a love story happening in front of me, and I think it’s there, and everything is meant, guys, everything is meant.

Neil added: I would just say, there are some things that you do while you’re writing a script intentionally. The fact that... I wanted to do this, well, it was a thing I did that I really enjoyed doing... where whenever people accuse them of being a couple: they don’t deny it, they don’t argue, there’s no flustering on their part. They absolutely… you know, everybody… what I’m trying to say is:  yes, other people in the story are perceiving them as a couple too. And here is Uriel perceiving them as a couple, here is wonderful Dan [Starkey, playing the passerby] …and you know, you do scenes like that because that’s... you are trying to make a point here and you’re trying to make a point on how people are perceived.

Season 2, yes or no [fiends, all three of them!]:

Douglas: What’s that?

Neil: Of what?

Rob: Is it muted for me as is for everyone else?

Neil confirmed that they are going to be Funko Pops. [yay!]

2. David G. Arnold (the music composer)

He didn’t read the book before he was approached to do the music. He was asked to do it by Douglas Mackinnon he knew from the Victorian episode of Sherlock and he said yes before even knowing what it was about because he wanted to work with Douglas again.  

The first piece of music he wrote for the show was the brass band doing the Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon [Episode 6, in the park before the kidnapping].

The second piece of music he wrote was the lullaby that Crowley sings to Warlock. He always liked the lullabies like in Mary Poppins so he said to Neil: Why don’t we do it like Walt Disney, but if Walt Disney was possessed by Satan? That was about 7 months before he needed to write anything again while they were shooting and it kept going round his head the whole time - the melody stuck with him and when it came to the Opening Title of the show, this became the middle bit.

The original opening title was Everyday by Buddy Holly and each episode was supposed to be closed with a different version of it: a death metal version, an angelic choir version, a carmina burana version... and he actually made all those. But he likes to find the musical identity of the show and put it in the opening titles because it’s important and it tells you: ‘This is the word you’re going to experience’, so he wrote his own opening title with the lullaby in the middle and played it to them [probably Neil and Douglas] with Buddy Holly as the backup and: Neil just turned around in his chair and said, ‘That’s Good Omens.’. From that point the instructions were with no rules, just to create whatever he wanted: the further you can go the better, the weirder and the stranger you can think the better. It’s a rare thing to be shown a world like Good Omens and be let free to run around in it. 

His favourite ending title is the Queen one in Episode 1.

One of the reasons he didn’t do a theme for Crowley and a theme for Aziraphale is that the theme of the show is theirs - it’s theirs and they share it and it’s both of theirs and there is no separating in that regard. 

About Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship reflected in the music score: It’s interesting isn’t it, because the relationship changed in a way slightly frequently and majorly infrequently. It seemed right from the start that their relationship was somehow seeded and planted and had begun by the time we saw them even though they may not have realised it themselves, you know, with the pair of them on the wall, considering one is a demon in the Garden of Eden and one is an angel. They act very charitably towards each other and they act with a lot of things you might not expect. And underneath that there is a sort of sense of togetherness and support even though they both know that their paths are going to diverge and they have different responsibilities. So I always felt like, right from that moment, when the wing came up on the wall, that there was something special about their relationship. Three moments that stuck with him: in Episode 3 saving the books in the church when they completely rely on the other for survival in the way that they were very open about, one in the car outside the nightclub in 60s Soho - the Holy Water, you go too fast for me, that genuinely tearing, that there was reluctance in those words that he spoke and that sort of things as a composer is gold, it’s about making those moments more, and in the last episode in a scene they’re not event in when we see Adam and Dog in the fields and Anathema that music there which celebrates Crowley and Aziraphale’s music which is the theme of the show - their shadow has passed over everyone’s emotional journey, and everyone’s emotional journey is theirs as well. The argument in the bandstand was important as well.

His favourite leitmotif from the series is the lullaby.

About the scene in the car in episode 2 when Thomas Tallis changes into Queen: Terry’s favourite piece of classical music was the Thomas Tallis piece [Spem in Alium] so Neil asked if they can go from Thomas Tallis - a choral piece from 16th century - to We Will Rock You, and: ‘You never say no. You don’t say that you can’t do it. What you have to do is to be the first person who solves the problem.’ In the end it was a two-days work just for this little bit and he mentioned that he never had these sorts of challenges anywhere else before.

His favourite non-musical detail in the show - the crucifixion, how the scene was shot, how it was upsetting, and how it was made more effective by Aziraphale and Crowley’s inability to stop it, that they had to observe and watch it, that it had to happen. I remember seeing that at the time and thinking, I wasn’t expecting that level of brutal honesty, in terms of the pictures that I was looking at and what they chose to show. And I think all the more effective for it. 

3. Claire Anderson (the costume designer)

When creating the costumes for the characters she started with mood boards. 

Aziraphale - she knew that he needed to have something winglike in his collar so that’s why there are sweeping lapels very often. Using velvet [for the waistcoat] because that was nice and soft and had all the appropriate qualities. His watch and fob that has little gold wings hanging from it and other tiny bits of symbolism. Tartan bow tie. Beautiful cashmere checkered trousers - not quite tartan but a nod to it. A mid to late Victorian coat, Michael only made his decision on the coat a couple of days before the filming. Aziraphale in the present settled on a ring with angelic symbol and harp cufflinks, earlier his ring in ancient times has got a much more roughly hewn set of wings on it, so before jewellery making became sophisticated he modernised slightly - he magicked it up to be a bit more modern, more gentleman signet type of ring, but he never modernises entirely. His heart is much more in the past.

After they began to define Aziraphale they started to look at how the Heaven army of angels might look - the element of tartan came sort of from Aziraphale and the angels have a not-tartan kilt with a semi military type jacket and a military band across that might hold arms or not, because they are not really violent. She used spats to make them look quite neutral and genderless so hiding fastenings and concealing little details like that seemed a way to do that.

Gabriel doesn’t wear spats because he’s on Earth such a lot. His shoe has a cover with two buckles on the side giving the same neutral element. He wears a cashmere light-as-air suit.

The other angels are all in bastardized versions of what era they may have died in, so they could have died in the 1930s or the 1800s and the costume would have an element of that era about it - though of course as an angel you can change things.

The Quartermaster Angel - the costume is a combination of slightly Indian type military, maharaja pants, longer spats from another era, all combined pieces of military tailored to be magical and slightly nonsensical, as Heaven might be.

Crowley - she felt that he wrapped around like a snake sheds its skin so she wanted something double breasted because that seemed to envelope his snakey charm. David wanted to be more casual than wearing a suit. Under his collar he always has a flash of red like the snake that he comes from - the red belly. They put a red seam into the sole of his boots so always there is a hint of where he came from. The red tie in the blitz. He was more rock and roll than Aziraphale and modernised more to a snakehipped rock and roll star really. His present jacket - the fabric there is quilted, they found an 80s jacket that had elements of things they enjoyed - part of that was that it had a slightly quilted quality to the fabric which was like a textured snakeskin. It took quite a long time to create the fabric and then to make the jacket from that - they quilted some fabric and washed and whooshed it repeatedly to create a bit of puckering in it. He has a snakey scarf around his neck like a chain mail linked scales of skin scarf that he wore that complemented his neck chain. The trousers he wore in Victorian times are the same he wore in the 60s when he meets young Shadwell. His present trousers - slightly waxy denim - we just were looking for a slithery finish. Crowley’s neck chain - there is only one in the world - her tailor has a Gothic church full of interesting stuff like busts and drapes with old things, this chain mail scarf was there and David was looking for something to complete his costume and liked it. 

Hastur and Ligur are her favourite characters - they were so enjoyable to create. She had an amazing book of 1920s and 30s criminals and they used that as a starting point, because they were all quite worn out and bedraggled and poverty stricken and like hell might be ideally. They burnt and decayed the bottom of them as if they were rotting from the Earth and rotting back into the ground - all demons have sort of gators as if they were rotting from the ground up.

One of the most difficult things was the demons - when they realized they had a few days to create hundreds of demons in South Africa (4-5 days for almost 200 demons). It was as if I had been dissolved in holy water when they asked me for another 150 costumes.

The sleeves of Anathema’s coat have been inspired by a Victorian cycling coat. 

The historical costume that Newt’s ancestor wore influenced his and Shadwell’s costumes - they used elements of the historical costume to put a little cape on Newt and Shadwell and their wax coats to give them the quality of that look. Newt's costume has a lot of mustard to make him feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable - it's not the most flattering colour on a northern European complexion.

The nuns’ headdress needed to look a little bit demonic - she bought a whole book on nuns’ headdresses for research. They also used the V in the nurse's apron because that was nicely demonic. The nurses' watch has got this Satanic symbol at the top - a little take on the medical since old nurses’ uniforms used to have watches.

For Madame Tracy she went back into the 70s, slightly Biba-esque makeup and a cape. They had only one pair of her goggles so it was always a nightmare to find them.

Which part of the cold opening is her favourite: I love ancient Rome because there is at least 6 to 12 metre of fabric in a toga and that was quite fun wrapping that around the boys and creating those., and her favourite was the Globe.

The lapels represent wings in every way and every shape and every form. Wings are very important.

4. Peter Anderson (Peter Anderson Studio created the opening title animation and in-show graphics)

The first thing that the director Douglas Mackinnon (with whom he worked on Doctor Who and Sherlock) said to him was: for all the graphics, for all the title sequence, for everything, I want you to promise me one thing, and that is very, very simple, promise that you send me emails that say: ‘this might be absolutely nuts, but my idea is...’.

The opening title it’s full of easter eggs - it’s a type of sequence that’s been designed to watch a thousand times, for example: on the escalator down to Hell there is one character running up deciding that he doesn’t want to go to Hell or the sea is full of plastic bags because we don’t look after the planet.

Every single face in the title sequence is either Crowley’s or Azriphale’s, they are repeated all the way through - inspired by Neil saying that there’s good and evil in all of us, so there is a grand procession of people of all the characters from the story - marching towards Armageddon - but all the characters have been taken over by good or evil. And along the way our two heroes are kind of playing tricks on each other, doing good, doing evil

The opening title combines multiple elements - two dimensional animation elements, three dimensional animation elements, CGI and live action (the people in the procession were created by live action on a travelator). So the result is a kind of strangeness - such as 3D figures with 2D animated tracked heads - which makes it unique.

Their first idea and version of the opening title was based on tapestries of old, subverting them, but then they wanted something more new and fresh.

Both Douglas and Neil were an important part of the opening title creation process.

The opening title sequence took about a year to make from the creative start with four intensive months towards the end.

One of things that inspired him was a Bauhaus theatre image from 1930s.

Question if the hand-drawn font for the graphics will be a purchasable font: no, because it was original and it’s unique and it was created just for this - it was for the love of the show and the story and it will be kept there.

In the scene where there are three photos of witchfinders - Neil and Douglas revealed in the DVD commentaries that two of them are their grandfathers - the third one is Peter’s great uncle.

Originally the signs telling us things like ‘Thursday’ or ‘Mesopotamia’ - were done as if somebody (who was living inside the television screen) ran up close to the screen and showed us the sign. In the end they simplified it, only showing the signs. The one time that it was sort of left in the show was when in Episode 5 a little demon in the video game shows a sign ‘GAME OVER’.

Outside of his work on it, what was his favourite thing on Good Omens: spending time with Douglas and Neil, and also working with Milk VFX - I think I can honestly say it's the best job I've ever worked on with the nicest people. 

5. Paul Adeyefa (Disposable Demon)

He first read the book when preparing for the audition - the character wasn’t in the book but he got into it, loved it and couldn’t put it down.

He didn’t know about the name Eric until the script was published and people started calling the demon that, he really likes the name and thinks it fits.

There was a version of the script where the demon was going to be dressed in different costumes each time he was discorporated (for example one in long hair wearing a dress) - they would be all the same but different incarnations, in one version they had different accents. 

The first scene he shot was the one where the demon goes to Heaven to deliver the Hellfire (and also wants to hit ‘Aziraphale’ which was cut). That first day was also his favourite moment of shooting because there was an immediate welcoming atmosphere and everyone was lovely and in love with the production.

Disposable Demon is like a permanent intern, running errands for the higher ups in Hell.

His favourite part of the costume were the eyelashes (though he loved the whole costume).

If he could change anything about the costume he would also want cool contact lenses - some brightly coloured ones.

Question what animal (like other demons have on their heads) comes to mind when we see the Disposable Demon: he didn’t think about it at the time, but later he saw people talking about his horns as bunny ears and found it interesting, and also the facts that there are so many of him and that he is quite happy and friendly for a demon so the bunny makes sense, so he might be a sort of a rabbit. Or perhaps something goat type because of the horns.

Question if there is another role in Good Omens he would have liked to have played: he always thought that the four horsemen were very cool and Pollution was his favourite so probably Pollution (also was the most jealous of Pollution’s contact lenses). 

If there were a season 2, he would be there in a heartbeat.

Question about Eric’s feelings on Crowley, if he’s a bit of a Crowley fan: I think he might be. There is something about Crowley and how he is somehow a little bit different from the rest of the demons. - and the Disposable Demon has, much like Crowley, interest in the human world. He could well be 6,000 how many years old, the same as everyone else, but he seems to have this younger vibe and I think he thinks that Crowley is quite cool.

Good Omens fandom is his first experience with a fandom of this scale. It speaks a lot, the fact that this kind of very, this minor character, a character who is only on screen for a very short amount of time gets any kind of attention at all, it's quite amazing really, it goes to show how big and enthusiastic the fans are. I never experienced anything like that.

6. Jeremy Marshall-Roberts (the owner of Mary the Bentley)

When Crowley used a miracle to switch off the Bentley lights in Episode 1 at nuns manor it was done by: there was actually a very small guy called Louis turning on and off the switches quickly.

David Tennant was allowed to wear the snake eye contacts for only 3 hours a day otherwise they could damage his eyesight.

For Mary, the Bentley, it was the second time she was ‘blown up’ on film - first being in the Endeavour with Inspector Morse about three years earlier.

He was a bit nervous during filming the bookshop fire scene because the Bentley was so close to a real fire - not wanting the paint to blister. The car was moved off after a few minutes of filming but still.

About the damage to Mary: Unfortunately, we overran, and Rob my stunt driver had already booked a holiday and off he went and so when he returned in January, on the 10th of January, I had this new driver who really had no clue how to drive old cars, so I showed him around, I showed him to go around corners. He came around the corner, the door was not closed properly for some reason and the door flew open as he went around. And instead of slamming on the brakes which is extremely efficient and would stop him straight away he kept on going, hit another car and really smashed the door quite badly. It did take the car off the roads for 10 months. The door was completely remade because of this accident and it cost the total of  £24 000 to rebuild the car to get it back to running as it is today.

The Bentley’s part most difficult to maintain and service is the engine. 

Would Mary be available for a potential season 2: definitely!

[bookclub4m]

Episode 185 - Crafts & Crafting

This episode we’re discussing the non-fiction genre of Crafts and Crafting! We talk about art vs craft, makerspaces vs crafting spaces, the challenges of trying new crafts, academic crafting, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Paper + Craft: 25 Charming Gifts, Accents, and Accessories to Make from Paper by Minhee Cho, Truman Cho, and Randi Brookman Harris

Re-Creative: 50 Projects for Turning Found Items Into Contemporary Design by Steve Dodds

Trash Origami: 25 Paper Folding Projects Reusing Everyday Materials by Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander

Crafting Change: Handmade Activism, Past and Present by Jessica Vitkus

Hand Lettering: Creative Alphabets for Any Occasion by Thy Doan Graves

Mastering Hand-Lettering: Your Practical Guide to Creating and Styling the Alphabet by Mye De Leon

Creepy Cross-Stitch: 25 Spooky Projects to Haunt Your Halls by Lindsay Swearingen

A Crochet World of Creepy Creatures and Cryptids: 40 Amigurumi Patterns for Adorable Monsters, Mythical Beings and More by Rikki Gustafson

Chonky Amigurumi: How to Crochet Amazing Critters & Creatures with Chunky Yarn by Sarah Csiacsek

Simple Hand Sewing: 35 slow stitching and mindful mending projects by Laura Strutt

Boro & Sashiko, Harmonious Imperfection: The Art of Japanese Mending & Stitching by Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby and Jason Mullett-Bowlsby

Wilderness Knits for the Home by Linka Neumann

Other Media We Mentioned

Two Point Hospital (Wikipedia)

Two Point Campus (Wikipedia)

Links, Articles, and Things

Fuse beads (Wikipedia)

Jam’s Tiger Millionaire costume (and their trophy)

Tiger Millionaire (Steven Universe Wiki)

The cross stitch Matthew finished the night before recording

Bone folder (Wikipedia)

Fourth Doctor (the one with the scarf) (Wikipedia)

Creativebug (see if your library provides access)

Creepy halloween mask template

Granny square (Wikipedia)

Creepypasta (Wikipedia)

15 Crafts and Crafting books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands: Dreaming Patterns, Weaving Memories by Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez

The Embroidered Garden: Stitching through the Seasons of a Flower Garden by Kazuko Aoki

asowacikanisa: A Guide to Small Metis Bags by Amy Briley and Gregory Scofield

Knitting for Radical Self-Care: A Modern Guide by Brandi Cheyenne Harper

This Long Thread: Women of Color on Craft, Community, and Connection by Jen Hewett

Print, Pattern, Sew: Block-Printing Basics + Simple Sewing Projects for an Inspired Wardrobe by Jen Hewett 

Embroidered Animals: Wild and Woolly Creatures to Stitch and Sew by Yumiko Higuchi

Super Easy Amigurumi: Crochet Cute Animals by Mitsuki Hoshi

Mini Knitted Woodland by Sachiyo Ishii

The Art of Mi'kmaw Basketry by edited by shalan joudry and Holly Brown Bear

Embroidery: A Modern Guide to Botanical Embroidery by Arounna Khounnoraj

Visible Mending: A Modern Guide to Darning, Stitching and Patching the Clothes You Love by Arounna Khounnoraj

The Tunisian Crochet Handbook: A Beginner's Guide by Toni Lipsey

Literary Yarns: Crochet Projects Inspired by Classic Books by Cindy Wang

The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice by Kristina Wong

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, December 5th we’ll be talking about the genre of Suspense Fiction!

Then on Tuesday, December 19th it’s time for our Favourite Reads of 2023!

[thepaperclip]

FAQish but not really lol

More like “I feel like I should answer some questions no one’s really asking right now but I am concerned abt answering anyways” lmao

Why didn’t the D’arbys use their Stands on the Joestars and just stick to their vampire powers?

The original D’arby battles were challenges rather than outright fights, and all were to do with a wager of some sort. Both were meant to keep the SDC crew away from something (the truth of The World, getting to Dio himself). However, in the Anna Timeline they were both victims of Straizo and their goal was to escape and capitalize on their new powers. Since the SDC crew also didn’t know the way out, the D’arbys couldn’t gain anything from them aside from help getting out, and thus there was nothing of more value for Osiris or Atum to wager for. Too bad the SDC crew were also vampire hunters on top of being Stand Users.

Who was it that Dio was thinking of in chapter one when his inner monologue mentions of Anna, “He hates her, really, she’s too idiotically kind, just like—never mind.”

His mother. Dio at 12 years old doesn’t strike me as someone who would have a lot of women associates aside from his mother, and his mother would probably be the most comparatively kindest and highest in his good books. Thus Dio compares his new stepsister to the only other woman he knew best at that point, and in just as much contempt.

Is Strohiem dead?

Yes. He didn’t even get to turn cyborg, either. Even if he did, it never made a big difference to the end of the Second World War anyway. It probably has something to do with a human sized cyborg being difficult to upkeep in terms of energy, protection from overheating itself from using the various guns in its arsenal as well as must moving in general, protection from extreme weather conditions like in Siberia, the very specifically designed components and parts not having a very established mass production line established, you know, the works. Actually, Franz from Archives lost the blueprints somewhere and it burned down in some firebomb before it could even get to Strohiem in the first place so no getting cyborg technology from the Germans. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure should’ve punched more N*zis.

Did Straizo actually love Anna back?

The short answer is yes, but the long answer is “It’s complicated.” The perfect time and scenario for them to have started a romantic relationship that actually would last would’ve been around when Lisa Lisa was well into her marriage and Joseph may or may not have been on the way; the scenario that would need to happen is that Anna opened up about her true origins to Straizo and have been clear about being willing to Turn Straizo but only with certain requirements and caveats in place. Where things fell apart was Straizo waiting for so long, and Anna keeping important secrets from him. Though, that’s not to say that Anna didn’t have her own reasons for wanting to not mention her reincarnation. That life becomes further and further from her as she continues living, and her concern about future knowledge spreading uncontrollably also play into her habitual silence. Let it be very clearly said that Straizo’s betrayal was very much a betrayal, and had he stayed and let her talk and heard her out things would have also ended better.

Holly can beat people up now???

Holly learned to fight because Caesar, Anna, and Lisa Lisa were around to teach her a thing or two. Joseph was less averse to teaching his daughter such things because Joseph was actively raised by Lisa Lisa who taught him combat and was an example of “girls can definitely kick ass and still be elegant and ladylike”; and Anna, who instilled in him the ethos of a well-rounded and holistic education as well as proper precautionary measures. Ergo, letting Holly live her life as freely and happily as possible also included making sure she was strong enough to save herself if need be. As for her being in a gang, yes. In New York she joined a Greaser gang more because they liked motors and she did too, thanks to Grandpa Georgie showing her airplanes since she was a toddler. Unfortunately fights and gang wars were part of the experience but it did let her put some of her lessons to practical use. Like her grandfather before her, she cannot channel Hamon but that doesn’t make much of a difference if you’ve got a better swing with a wrench. How Holly and Sadao met was that he was in New York for music school and his bike broke while she was on her way out from hanging out with her crew, so she helped him out. He treated her to lunch as repayment and they hit it off very well. But yes, Joseph still pettily dislikes Sadao for taking his daughter away to a foreign land. He’s just better at expressing and focusing his annoyance. And no, if canon Joseph won’t actually kill Sadao for doing all of this then Starsverse Joseph won’t actually kill Sadao for the same reasons. He actually does respect the dude, he just wishes his son-in-law could spend more time with his daughter and son. The ultimate thing about Holly is that she chooses to be a pacifist, and that’s not something someone without a strong will would stick to.

If Jonathan lived longer, as well as Lisa Lisa and Georgie, wouldn’t they have a chance to have more kids? Why don’t we see them and those changes?

The Doylist answer is I don’t wanna make more OCs to juggle and factor in, that’s for a different timeline, thanks. The Watsonian answer is that contraceptives exist, pregnancy doesn’t always happen to some couples even if they’re going at it like rabbits, maybe Hamon is a factor that actually makes this harder, who knows! Although, in regards to Erina and Jonathan, in some ways this question also plays into the question of:

Giorno managed to exist in this universe even though his parentage is different. Are Donatello, Rykiel, and Ungalo in this universe too?

Originally, I thought that the mention of the “other fruits” of the tree thing that birthed Giorno would suffice as reference to Donatello, Rykiel, and Ungalo. Thus they were fruits of the same homunculus-method that made this Giorno, “born” to Anna as their mother, however unlike Giorno they didn’t survive beyond infancy for whatever reason. Another idea was that they would be Erina and Jonathan’s children but then see the previous answer about juggling characters so then nixing them would mean Erina miscarriages multiple times while she and Jonathan try having more children than just Georgie, and that was a pretty depressing thought. Plus I don’t see Erina marrying again after Jonathan and she would’ve been too old to have children by then anyway. The third idea was that they would be born to their original mothers, albeit with different fathers given that Dio is long dead, and since neither Jonathan nor Anna would’ve been involved then Donatello, Rykiel, and Ungalo could live perfectly mundane lives unburdened by the Joestar legacy. Their lives would be better in some ways and lack in other ways. In the end, the “other fruits” stuff made it in, but I can also see the version where their original mothers had them through different fathers and they just grew up normally also existing in the Anna timeline. Both are true, then.

Does Anna still remember the future? The time she came from? Or even canon?

Lmao that’s like 3 in one question lol. Short answer? Yes and no. The memory of Margot and being Margot is around but the information is buried under many, many more years of experience as Anna. I’ve answered in a direct comment before that Anna has the unique experience of time traveling but then returning to her original time the long way around. So in the 1880s, she’d remember iPhones, Jojo canon she’d read, and big world events and even wrote them down to remember. But she wouldn’t have written down certain memes and thus wouldn’t remember unless the meme was very big in her life (“What is love?” And she is tempted to reply with “baby don’t hurt me” vs. seeing a shiba inu and dogecoin not even passing her mind even once). Human memory is only as good as what it prioritizes to preserve, so Anna would slowly forget memes and even 2010s technology and re-learn them while they become released for the first time into the world. As stated at the beginning, the memory is around but there’s too much recent information to prioritize and new memories being made that it’s almost impossible to recall anything she didn’t preserve in books or destroyed. The memory would be overwritten and too corrupted. It’s like searching through a vast archive but the old stuff hasn’t been updated to the new system yet so the information is practically lost. In short, memories of Margot, Jojo canon, and the future is information that Anna can’t access anymore.