#I do not usually review books

[nellasbookplanet]

I recently started reading (and ended up dropping partway through) an m/m retelling of an old legend, and it made me think of this reoccurring thing I've come across a handful of times now in m/m fiction and how they approach women, equality, and world-building.

Let's call it the omegaverse problem, because that's where it seems the most blatant (I've only come across it twice outside of fandom spaces that I can remember). Basically, it's when the writer looks at the unequal and sometimes oppressive roles women serve in society (today and historically), and goes 'this is a good basis for dark romance but there are too many women here' and then just. plops men into the roles traditionally served by women and recreates heteronormative tropes but They're All Men Now, none of those icky women.

Now, completely removing any and all gender based inequality isn't a bad basis for a queer-inclusive fantasy! But thing is, this type of narrative isn't interested in women, so they often read as if women have mysteriously disappeared from society (except for the occassional mom or sister). They don’t bother to include women in traditionally male areas (the book I dropped had plenty of male courtesans, with diplomats and bodyguards and advisors also being male) nor to create new roles for them.

They also generally don’t bother to look critically at the systemic and societal inequalities they're mimicking. The concept 'typically sexist society but they're all men (or all women)' could be used to alienate and deconstruct our ideas of what’s 'normal' and what’s oppressive, a way to compare the intersections of class and gender. Instead, this kind of story is only interested in using inequality as inter-character conflict and set-up for romance. And it sucks.

[bmpmp3]

sorry to be a bit of a hater but i do wish youtubers weren't so scared of making their videos just like, "reviews", whys everything gotta be a "video essay" all the time. every day my recommendations are filled with 40 minute videos titled "_____: An Underrated Masterpiece" where the first like five minutes are reading the wikipedia definition of "masterpiece" in a somber voice with dramatic themed text on screen. please just tell me how good or bad you think something is and use the rest of the runtime to explain why. you dont need to put on all these airs

[a-bass-ist]

Alright, I put down another book: here's my cliff notes review of no country for old men

It was excellent, I enjoyed it, I struggled to understand it at times though. McCarthy had a very, let's say, acquired sense of writing and once I got through the novelty of not having quotation marks or many commas, I realized I just had to focus. He's a good author but if I'm gonna read say, "the road" or "blood meridian" remains to be seen.

The book itself was good, as I said, I liked how completely unnerving the scenes with Chigurh are, I felt tense reading parts because of that. Moss was a good character, but to keep it spoiler free I'd say they did him, unceremoniously dirty. Bell was good, his parts were the hardest to grasp but he was a shaded in character and very interesting. Most of the characters were well written in fact, of the main 3 that is.

Would I recommend this book? I'm not sure, if you want to start reading Cormac McCarthy, yes, it's not at all a bad place to start. If you're just curious or have seen the movie, I don't know, I enjoyed it, but it's (as I've stated like two times) hard to follow a good couple times. I guess you could say, my recommendation, is a coin toss

[bitch-liquorice]

I recently started reading again (very exciting), but I’m seriously experiencing like a culture shock from the lack of fandom for the books I’m reading. Like I’m so used to consuming media with a big dedicated fan base that’s writing fanfics and making art and not having that is insane bc all I wanna do is dedicate my life to this series and I CAN’T.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023: CONVERSATIONS ON WRITING by Ursula K. Le Guin with David Naimon.

Currently dual wielding books, over here--I've never really been big on reading two different fiction books at once, but I can pair fiction with nonfiction just fine.

I haven't read as much nonfiction as I'd hoped to this year (overcorrecting from last year, apparently), so I'm excited to get back into some Writers Writing about Writing stuff while I cool off of my current project before I gear up for NaNo. This one starts with "In Memoriam," though, so I suspect it'll probably break my heart a little bit. This is Fine™.

[14-ds]

Just read "Dog Man: Big Jim Begins" yesterday, and... it was pretty good! Not that good, but good! I liked how we at least got to see Big Jim as more of a character and seeing Grandpa suffer :D but, I wanted to know more about the chosen one and what the ring actually did. Overall, the book's good, but a little weak conflict-wise, but at least we get a sequel book to hopefully resolve everything!

[magpiefngrl]

This is fun! Find it here: https://www.myyearinbooks.com/

Tagging @bloody-wonder @sixappleseeds @trixietricoter @doh-rae-me and @stripedroseandsketchpads if they want to see what their reading vibe is :))

[elletromil]

Take it from someone who can read up to 3-4 books (on top of the fics) a week and usually average at 2 books every week, when people tell you to read stuff you enjoy if you want to read more, well it's true

For the past month i've been reading only one book, the third in a trilogy that i had liked pretty ok so far. Not my usual jam, but the first two books had managed to make me care enough about how the plot would end that i wanted to read it all myself instead of just looking it up. But then the third book... Was good, like it is a very good trilogy, just, like i said, not my jam and didn't manage to engage me as much as the previous two.

Had it been the first book of the trilogy, i would have dropped it. But after about 1800 pages already read in the whole trilogy (last book alone was ~800 pages), well, you know I was invested and it was a matter of pride

But that also had as a result that for the past month i have barely read anything but that book and some days i would just not read anything (in terms of book, fanfic is a different beast) because i was just not really enjoying myself

Could i have been reading other books at the same time? For sure. At any given time i have about 5-6 books on my 'is technically currently reading' pile

But i knew if i was gonna read those books, then i would never finish the 800 pages book and i didn't want to not finish it.

Anyway all this to say that yes- finding books you enjoy is actually one of the best way to make sure you'll read more. It took me about a month to 800 pages. When the rest of tje year, i averaged about 1000/1200 pages a week. And its not because i didn't want to read. I wanted to. I even had a bunch of mangas on my desk i was planning to read, but i wouldnt even touch those because i was just turn off.

And i finally finished the book tonight and the sheer relief to know that tomorrow i can finally read a book i will thoroughly enjoy. Unbelievable.

And like, i did that to myself. Im not mad i powered through finishing the book. Mostly because i'm a big reader and i always find more books i want to read and like a month delay won't really change much on that front.

But yeah. My good peeps. The thing you choose to read do matter. And also if you're not vibing with a book, for any reason, you're never obligated to finish it. I will finish reading maybe 1 out of 3 books i pick up. And you don't have to justify why you put down a book. I've picked up books that seemed to be right up my alley open it on the first page, read one (1) word and then went 'nah' and returned it to the public library without losing sleep about it. And no that is not an exaggeration, sometime, a word is all you need.

And also, it doesn't matter what you actually like to read. 70% of what i read is queer romance because that's what i enjoy. The rest is mostly horror or sci-fi. But if all you enjoy is YA? Go for it. Or even children's books, who cares? I reread children's series from my childhood for nostalgia at least once a year and i'm always having a blast

So yeah this is just me rejoicing that i am finally done with that fucking book and also just encouraging you my good peeps to drop a book you're not enjoying if you're reading for fun

[anonymousdormhacks]

I'm finally reading in 2024, with a fun little goal of 12 books by the end of the year (currently at 3 finished books)

Having said that I'm halfway through the Cold fire Trilogy book #1, and surely the author knows that constantly describing how pretty Gerald Tarrant looks from the perspective of Damien makes the man look like he's pining 24/7

[nostalgia-tblr]

sometimes while reading review of history books on amazon i come across one that seems to think the book is fiction. i don't mean they bought the book in the mistaken belief that it was and now they're complaining about that, i mean they've read the book and they're saying it's quite good but a bit dry and goes off on odd tangents and the characters were poorly-developed so they found it a bit difficult to get into the story.

i'm going to chose to believe this is just people who read almost exclusively fiction failing to adapt their review vocabulary when discussing a work of non-fiction, because the alternative's just a bit much for me to accept.

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread

The Feast Makers

finale to the Scapegracers trilogy.

sideways’ ex is about to be on trial for what she did to them, but they think the witch covens' punishment is too harsh and plan to bail her out. Especially when more witchhunters are gathering in town which could be a much bigger problem

I loved this so so much, this trilogy is so good.

sideways best witch. so complex and flawed and interesting and im so proud of their journey....

I do feel like the pacing was a bit weird, especially it ending so fast? but also I love the characters and the writing so much I don't mind that much

I also just love how this series treats relationships (general sense) - there's no little boxes for [friend] [love interest] [sibling] they just all develop equally and messily but also it doesn't make drama about the mess. and the romance did have me losing my mind a bit

I did miss mr scratch bc his and sideways dynamic 24/7 in the last book was SO GOOD but some things can't last forever. loved every time he showed up tho.

got the arc via netgalley thanks netgalley! it comes out march 2024

[lesbiten]

also, and i feel this way about almost every warrior cats book with a female pov character, but the reasons people hate this book are kind of shitty! i heard a lot about this book trying to "justify leopardstars actions" and about how it made her even more unlikeable to them. and like...maybe its just because im not at the tigerclan section yet, but so far i dont feel like her actions have been justified by the narrative? of course its going to feel like the narration is justifying her actions. because. SHES THE ONE NARRATING IT!!!!! and she thinks shes right in everything she does. duh. but the narrative itself is constantly giving her shit (having all of her loved ones die for her actions) for being reckless and self absorbed. the book knows that shes not a good person but the average man reading it does not know what an unreliable narrator is. why didnt more people talk about the weird random romance forced between her and frogleap to give her something to "choose" between being deputy or not? how this book reinforces the common wc trope of men never having to sacrifice anything for love while the female characters always have to put their careers and lives on the line every single time. also the continued shitty views on adoption and how adopted children are never viewed even remotely close to the same level as biological children. why are we still leaving silverstream out or pointedly separating her when listing sunfish's kits!

[circuslollipop]

sigh. i see a brand new book with a vampire pov character, which i'm incredibly starved for. but it's by an author whose works are...let's just say Not For Me.

[vanessaroades-author]

I read Devil in the Details by @purplepirate123 -- a super sweet novella about a gay boy who summons a demon to take him to the school dance.

It’s such a delightful mix of hilarious demon shenanigans, painful high school experiences, and awkward, adorable crushes, plus a last-third twist that will really tug at your heart. My favourite parts were all the details about demon deals and demon jobs--it’s the best when an author can make something so scary and cliché sound fresh and almost slice-of-life.

(Amazon.com link) (And it’s on Kindle Unlimited!)

[museofvoid]

Finished reading a little book yesterday, only about 150 pages long, took me two days to read. It’s about the life of Keiko Furukura, a 36 year old woman who is unmarried and still only works part time at a convenience store.

So obviously everyone around her is worried and wondering when she will find a husband, and have kids, and get a better job! But she just doesn’t care about that stuff, and the only reason she ever tries to change is because she wants to make other people happy. But the truth is that she loves her job, it makes her feel useful, she is content with her life and she doesn’t understand why she can’t just have it that way!

I also want to point out that, at least to me, Furukura is pretty obviously autistic. She thinks differently than the people around her, and would often get into trouble as a child because of it, so eventually she would stop acting out her thoughts and just copied everyone else around her, because it made other people happy.

She has never been in love or even wanted to be, and while it’s not stated outright, the book even brings up the possibility that she’s asexual! (Which she probably is, cause even though she states that she’s never thought about sexuality, the thought of having sex is uncomfortable and icky to her.)

I just loved this little story and I love Furukura! It’s a kind of funny story that is supposed to make you think about the meaning of life and doing what makes you happy!

I believe the english title is “Convience Store Woman”, by Sayaka Murata, and I do recommend checking it out if you can!

[surpriserose]

So im watching this playlist of a bunch of youtubers reviewing the last decade of goodreads awards winner by genre because i love people rightfully shitting on goodreads but like? One of the ones i watched was romance because yeah obviously and the woman who reviewed was like really into the romance genre and im geniunely not trying to be a cunt but i dont understand how someone can be geniunely into the romance genre like!!!! You like books where nothing fucking happens? And a lot of her criticisms were like there wasnt enough romance because it was just a subplot or there was too much stuff from other genres and like.....yeah? You have to like you cant carry an entire book on one relationship like sure thats an opinion because i literally dont understand romance books but like????? Like idk im not trying to be a cunt but like WHAT is appealing about a pure romance book???