#I was EXTREMELY obsessed with wallachia

[eastgermandictator]

Fixation anniversary?! (Yes it's vlad the impaler and che Guevara as countryballs)

[amikartest]

One of the commission I had done for, from Instagram, thank you ❤️

English

I translated into english from Wikipedia

(b. April 1438 - 1479) was a beautiful young woman of Saxon origin of humble origins. She is known to be the most important mistress of the prince of Wallachia: Vlad Tepes (1431-1476).

She was the daughter of an artisan, Thomas Siegel, who belonged to the weavers' guild, and lived with his family in the town of Brașov. In a fire, she and her family lost everything. Katharina was forced to work and, one morning carrying provisions on a sleigh, Vlad Tepes saw her and quickly ran to help her. At that time, she was 17 and Vlad 25. Vlad fell madly in love with her. The young woman was impressed by the gesture, and Vlad resorted to various strategies to continue conquering her, obsessing over her and forgetting the rest of her lovers.

Young with blue eyes and blond hair, she was one of the most courted in Brașov. She had 5 children with Vlad (Vladislav, Katharina, Christian, Hanna and Sigismund), although they never got married because the prince was already married to a noble of the court. It is said that on one occasion the families of some merchants whom Vlad had impaled attacked Katharina and cut her braids. Vlad threatened to burn down the entire city if anyone touched her again, and managed to recover the braids. He kept them in his castle under lock and key as if it were a treasure. Until that extreme the young Katharina Siegel was taking effect.

Romanian/română

(b. 1438 – 1479 aprilie) a fost o tânără frumoasă de origine săsească de origine umilă. Este cunoscută ca fiind cea mai importantă stăpână a domnitorului țării românești: Vlad Țepeș (1431-1476).

A fost fiica unui artizan, Thomas Siegel, care a aparținut breslei țesătorilor, și a locuit cu familia sa în orașul Brașov. Într-un incendiu, ea și familia ei au pierdut totul. Katharina a fost forțată să muncească și, într-o dimineață, purtând provizii pe o sanie, Vlad Țepeș a văzut-o și a fugit repede să o ajute. La acea vreme, avea 17 ani, iar Vlad 25. Vlad s-a îndrăgostit nebunește de ea. Tânăra a fost impresionată de gest, iar Vlad a recurs la diverse strategii pentru a continua să o cucerească, obsedându-se de ea și uitând de restul iubiților ei.

Tânără cu ochi albaștri și păr blond, a fost una dintre cele mai curtate din Brașov. Ea a avut 5 copii cu Vlad (Vladislav, Katharina, Christian, Hanna și Sigismund), deși nu s-au căsătorit niciodată, deoarece prințul era deja căsătorit cu un nobil de la curte. Se spune că, odată, familiile unor negustori pe care Vlad i-a tras în țeapă au atacat-o pe Katharina și i-au tăiat împletiturile. Vlad a amenințat că va arde întregul oraș dacă cineva o va atinge din nou și a reușit să recupereze împletiturile. Le ținea în castelul său sub cheie și încuietoare, ca și cum ar fi fost o comoară. Până la acea extremă, tânăra Katharina Siegel a început să-și facă efectul.

Russian/российский

(Б. Апрель 1438 - 1479) - красивая девушка саксонского происхождения скромного происхождения. Она известна как самая важная хозяйка принца Валахии: Влад Тепес (1431-1476).Она была дочерью ремесленника Томаса Сигела, который принадлежал к гильдии ткачей и жил с его семьей в городе Брашов. В пожаре она и её семья потеряли всё. Катарина была вынуждена работать, и однажды утром, держа еду на санях, Влад Цепеш увидел её и быстро побежал ей на помощь. В то время ей было 17, а Владу 25. Влад безумно влюбился в нее. Молодая женщина была впечатлена этим жестом, и Влад прибег к различным стратегиям, чтобы продолжить покорять её, одержимо ею и забывая остальных своих любовников.Молодая с голубыми глазами и светлыми волосами, она была одной из самых восторженных в Брашове. У неё было 5 детей от Влада (Владислав, Катарина, Кристиан, Ханна и Сигизмунд), хотя они так и не поженились, потому что принц уже был женат на дворянине. Говорят, что однажды семьи купцов, которых Влад заколол, напали на Катарину и порезали ей косы. Влад угрожал сжечь весь город, если кто-нибудь дотронется до неё, и ему удалось вернуть косички. Он держал их в своем замке под замком и ключом, как будто это было сокровище. До этого момента молодая Катарина Сигел действовала.

Spanish/español

(b. Abril 1438 - 1479) fue una hermosa joven de origen sajón de orígenes humildes. Es conocida por ser la amante más importante del príncipe de Valaquia: Vlad Tepes (1431-1476).

Era hija de un artesano, Thomas Siegel, que pertenecía al gremio de tejedores, y vivía con su familia en la ciudad de Braşov. En un incendio, ella y su familia perdieron todo. Katharina se vio obligada a trabajar y, una mañana llevando provisiones en un trineo, Vlad Tepes la vio y rápidamente corrió a ayudarla. En ese momento, tenía 17 años y Vlad 25. Vlad se enamoró locamente de ella. La joven quedó impresionada por el gesto, y Vlad recurrió a varias estrategias para seguir conquistándola, obsesionándose con ella y olvidando al resto de sus amantes.

Joven de ojos azules y pelo rubio, fue una de las más cortejadas de Braşov. Tuvo 5 hijos con Vlad (Vladislav, Catalina, Cristián, Hanna y Segismundo), aunque nunca se casaron porque el príncipe ya estaba casado con un noble de la corte. Se dice que en una ocasión las familias de algunos comerciantes que Vlad había empalado atacaron a Katharina y le cortaron las trenzas. Vlad amenazó con quemar toda la ciudad si alguien la tocaba de nuevo, y logró recuperar las trenzas. Los guardaba en su castillo bajo llave como si fuera un tesoro. Hasta ese momento la joven Katharina Siegel estaba haciendo efecto.

Arabic/عربية

(ب) أبريل 1438 - 1479) كانت شابة جميلة من أصل سكسوني ذات أصول متواضعة. وهي معروفة بكونها أهم عشيقة لأمير والاشيا: فلاد تيبس (1431-1476). كانت ابنة الحرفي توماس سيجل، الذي ينتمي إلى نقابة النساجين�� وعاشت مع عائلتها في مدينة براشوف. في حريق، فقدت هي وعائلتها كل شيء. أُجبرت كاتارينا على العمل، وذات صباح كانت تحمل مؤن على زلاجة ؛ رآها فلاد تيبس وركض بسرعة لمساعدتها. في ذلك الوقت، كانت تبلغ من العمر 17 عامًا وفلاد 25 عامًا. وقع فلاد في حبها بجنون. أعجبت الشابة بهذه الإيماءة، ولجأ فلاد إلى استراتيجيات مختلفة لمواصلة غزوها، واستحوذ عليها ونسيان بقية عشاقه. كانت شابة ذات عيون زرقاء وشعر أشقر، وكانت واحدة من أكثر الناس توددًا في براشوف. كان لديها خمسة أطفال من فلاد (فلاديسلاف وكاثرينا وكريستيان وحنا وسيغيسموند)، على الرغم من أنهما لم يتزوجا أبدًا لأن الأمير كان متزوجًا بالفعل من نبيلة في المحكمة. في إحدى المرات، هاجمت عائلات التجار الذين خوزقهم فلاد كاثرينا وقطعوا ضفائرها. هدد فلاد بإشعال النار في المدينة بأكملها إذا لمسها أي شخص مرة أخرى وتمكن من استعادة الضفائر. احتفظ بهم في قلعته تحت القفل والمفتاح كما لو كان كنزًا. إلى هذا الحد، كانت الشابة كاتارينا سيجل فعالة.

[tainbocuailnge]

What class would a playable Zepia/Wallachia be? Bonus points for skill and NP ideas

its gotta be berserker, that kind of desperate obsession can only belong to a berserker. 

lorewise his abilities + reality marble can be carried over pretty much 1:1 as skills and np so i’m assuming you’re talking about skills in terms of fgo implementation. ideally he can copy other servants’ skills with replicant coordinator but that sounds tough to implement and balance... or maybe something like being able to use your other servants’ cards as if they were his own so he can for example borrow someone else’s buster to complete his brave chain or just straight up take the support caster’s arts brave chain for himself to compensate for shit zerker np gain. you’d probably have to give it a pretty hefty cooldown to make it fair but it’d be a cool unique mechanic without breaking the game with insane shit like triple merlin (as much as I’d want to try that). that being said it sounds like kind of a nightmare to implement animation wise lol you’d have to program so many more sequences of animation than servants normally have

it’d be cool if he could somehow adapt to the enemy as well since his whole thing is that he changes depending on the local rumors he has to work with but that sounds like even more of a nightmare... maybe something like a passive giving him various extremely minor buffs depending on the classes on the field, like he gets 1% atk up for every saber currently on the screen and 1% arts from casters and so on. not so much that it makes him function significantly different against different classes but enough to give flavour.

overall I’d build his kit around inflicting stacks of curse and then giving his np bonus damage depending on how many layers of curse are on the enemy to symbolise spreading and growing stronger from malicious rumors. he also curses the rest of the party and passively decreases everyone’s debuff resist because he’s just a massive nuisance to be around. maybe he even steals their hp or something, like a skill that drains hp from everyone on the field. i want this guy to be a fucking pain to use even if he’s strong as hell and also completely fall apart if there’s noone else on the team with him because night of wallachia cannot exist without others.

being quick based feels like it suits him because all the prominent curse clowns are quick, limbo and dantes and van gogh and so on. being the first berserker with only 1 buster would be funny as hell but zepia is fucking shredded so that’d just be plain inaccurate, QQABB(aoe Q) would be best i think

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

I just had a thought cho dampire daughter coming after alucard to avenge her mother but them both falling in love bouns points if alucard gets obsessed with her

A/N: So I got this ask twice but slightly different the 2nd time around, but because the endings of what I envisioned for both scenarios were so different, I’m going to keep them separate. This is the first one with a more happy ending. :) 

Alucard Falling for Cho’s Daughter (Who Initially Resents Him) 

Initially, he assumes the visitor who stops at his front door is another foolish traveler looking to plunder his castle for great treasures, that is until he senses the stranger isn't human.

‘Well, that’s… odd.’ He muses.

Not a single vampire had bothered to scope out Dracula’s castle since he, Trevor, and Sypha took down his father’s generals and armies. He knows that a small sect of vampires, who had formerly been in his father’s company, marched from Braila all the way to Styria; but he demonstrates little concern for them. At the moment, he could not find any willingness to bother with the existent power vacuum Dracula’s death had created.

But then this mysterious vampire shows up on his doorstep, clearly having some sort of bone to pick with him. She appears to have come from far away, her makeup and manner of dress considerably different from anything he’s seen in Wallachia. As it happens, she reminds him of…

“You’re here about one of my father’s generals, aren’t you?” He asks. “You dress similar to her.” But then a second thought crosses his mind. “Or perhaps,” he gestures back to the rotting corpses behind her, “You’re here for them?”

The stranger makes no move to look back, but from her change in expression, he gathers it’s the later. “I am here to take my revenge on those responsible for the death of my mother.”

‘So then,’ he thinks, ‘She is Cho’s daughter. But what is she doing here?’

She’s not all that impressed or deterred by his presence. But still, she respects his position enough to not outright assault him. She isn't certain who's to blame for the sudden absence of her mother, but she intends to discover the truth before she attacks. Her mother was a very calculating woman and so is she.

“I’m afraid they’re not here,” Alucard confesses.

“Do not lie to me, half-breed,” she practically spits. “I had been in communication with her up until she arrived here. I come home and find everyone either dead or gone. And those two are the ones who freed her other human pets.” She invites herself in. “So, inform me, why are they strung up outside your door?”

“They betrayed me,” he replies modestly. “Their defiance cost them. And now they exist as a warning to others who may try the same.”

She inspects him curiously. “So, even after freeing my Mother’s captives and betraying you, you seem to believe they are of no interest to me. Why is that?” She asks.

“Because you seek who was responsible for the death of your mother. And as I communicated before, they are not here.”

“Where have they gone?”

Alucard shrugs. “They’ve been gone a little over a month now. I haven't kept in contact with them.” There’s a sudden melancholy in his voice.

“But you wish to be, don’t you?” Her superior stature fades into one of a more relaxed status. “You have been abandoned as well.”

Alucard scoffs at her suggestion. “I am part vampire. The sheer combined lengths of their lives will be no longer than a second compared to the entirety of mine. It makes no sense to feel lonely.”

“But you are,” she counters.

“Vampires are solitary creatures,” he speaks more to himself. He pays her no mind as she wanders further in. 

“Indeed,” the closeness of her voice startles him. “But you are not fully vampire and even full vampires were human once.” At her admittance, Alucard’s brows furrow.

“You are not Cho’s daughter, then?” He inquires.

“Not by birth, no.”

Alucard nods.

He supposed she could have been related to Cho by blood. While exceedingly rare and extremely dangerous, a female vampire giving birth was not unheard of. But being a general of such power and importance, it did make more sense for Cho to not put herself in such a vulnerable position. After all, humans reproduced all the time. It would have been considerably easy to kidnap one and cultivate them as her own. What's more, Cho certainly had a large enough entourage of human, um, breeders to choose from, if Sumi and Taka’s stories were true.

“How long since you’ve been turned?” He asks.

She merely shrugs. “A few years perhaps. It’s as you said. Time moves slower once you’re one of us.”

They stay like that for a moment, in the silence, secretly enjoying the proximity of each other’s company. It had been years since Cho’s daughter had felt such human emotions. As for Alucard, it had been a long time since he felt more himself in the presence of a vampire than he did a human.

“I came here to kill you, you know?” She whispers, afraid to break the flimsy wave of peace between them. “But I find myself...” she trails off. “You say you are not the one responsible, yet you are the only one here. My entire journey has been for nothing.”

Alucard examined her a moment. “You truly forged all this way to avenge the woman who snatched you away from your family? The woman who cursed you to live like…”

“Like what?”

‘Like me,’ he wants to say. But he couldn’t. Even though both were dead and gone, he knew it would wound his parents’ hearts for him to refer to his life, to his very existence, in such a manner. His mother had called him ‘their miracle’; his father, ‘the greatest gift he’s ever received.’ To despise himself would be to spit in the faces of their sacrifices, their hopes, and dreams for him. No, he wouldn't, no he couldn’t declare such a thing.

“Some might deem it a curse, to live as a vampire.” Is what he settles on instead.

The full vampire reaches her hand out, her long nails just daintily scraping against the leather of his gloves. “It’s only a curse if you’re alone. And we are not alone, anymore.”

Alucard regards her suspiciously. “A moment ago you were intent on slaying me, and now you expect us to be companions?”

“Yes,” she answers plainly. “What I was struggling to say earlier, was, while initially, I wanted to hate you, to blame you, to kill you, and avenge my mother… I find myself thankful for you. My mother,” she starts, then shakes her head. “No, Cho wanted a legacy. A loyal servant, one as powerful as her. She preferred having human honor guards because it amused her. But she required someone to entrust with territory meetings and border negotiations. She couldn’t send a human to do it and didn't trust her vampire armies not to double-cross her. I was the solution.” She explains.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re thanking me,” Alucard points out. “What's more, I told you, I was not the one who finished off Cho.”

The woman hums in agreement. “I know, but I believe you had a part in her demise,” she prods.

Alucard nods.

The stranger walks past Alucard, into the foyer. She stops at fallen chandelier, taking the time to admire the welding work.

“Do you know what she called me?” She inquires. “What she named me?”

This time Alucard is the one who shakes his head ‘no.’

This makes the stranger vampire laugh. “It’s odd. I’ve heard so much about you, it’s as if I know you.”

“Is that so?” Alucard challenges.

The stranger laughs again.

“Oh yes,” she says, using a finger to trace the patterns in the lighting fixture's brass. “I’ve heard all about the infamous Alucard: son of Dracula and a mortal woman. How you were raised as both a human and a vampire. How you’re a legendary savior to the people of Lupu, how you were to represent the antithesis of your father. I’ve heard all the stories.” She pauses at the tip of a particular chandelier arm. “Would you like to hear mine?”

“I do feel I’m at an awful disadvantage,” Alucard muses. “You know so much of me, yet I know so little of you.” He gestures for her to continue.

“I am called Tsuna,” the stranger presents him with a mournful look. “It means ‘bond.’ I have been bound to Cho all these years. She snatched me, raised me, turned me, and as a result, I was a loyal fledgling to her.”

“But now she’s dead,” Alucard finishes for her. “And you are no longer bound to her.”

“For the first time in my life, I’m not sure what to do. She would be angry with me if she were here. ‘An unsure character represents a weak character’, that’s what she’d always say.”

“Character is what you do despite orders,” Alucard counters. “Anyone can blindly follow the fool off a cliff. It’s the wise man, who does not.”

Tsuna offers him a humorous look. “Are you certain you’re not saying that simply because you’re relieved I no longer have any intention of executing you?”

Alucard smirked. “Perhaps.” He beckons her to follow him. “Furthermore, I’d doubt you’d find my blood tasty. My Father stored canisters of all different blood types in the cellars of the castle. I’m sure we can find something down there more suited to your tastes.”

Tsuna extends her hand out once more, this time, in a friendly manner. “Deal. But if we don’t,” she jokes, “I’m devouring you.”

And for the first time in a long time, Alucard laughs.

“Deal,” he says, as they walk hand-in-hand towards the cellars.

[narcissusneverknewme]

Since I first learned about his existence, my interest in Radu III of Wallachia has verged on obsessive:

Why is he not part of popular narrative? Why doesn’t he have a role in the myth? Why can you find book after book about his father, brother, or his lover, but not him? Why is everything you learn about Radu the Beautiful through accounts of other people’s lives? Why does his creep brother live on in legend while he has faded into footnotes?  

He was said to be gentle, intelligent, compassionate, and extremely handsome. He was given as a child to a people he’s been indoctrinated to hate. He adapted, gained favor, navigated court. He fought battles, ruled a country, stabbed Mehmed the Conqueror in the thigh, and lead the military defeat of Vlad III. He saw the forest of the dead, chased his brother across the scorched lands Vlad left in his wake, and recruited help from people that should have been his enemy in order to push Vlad out of Romania.

Where is his place in history, in myth, in culture? WHERE IS HE?

[bluethepaladin]

This is probably a really weird ask but, do you have any book recommendations?

ooooOOOOOOoooo boy, oh buddy oh pal, this is the best ask I’ve ever gotten. Little do any of you know, I am an extreme book geek, I haunt all the book festivals, I regularly maintain my relationships with the publishing houses, and I frequent author’s conferences and writer’s workshops. Partly because I’m prepping my own manuscript and partly because I love books so much.

I real a lot, like 200 books a year on a bad year, so if you’re looking for something more specific, you just have to say so!

Here are some top ones that I think are great reads that I recommend from a variety of genres in no particular order.

And I Darken by Kiersten White

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

In the final days of a falling Saigon, The Lotus Eaters unfolds the story of three remarkable photographers brought together under the impossible umbrella of war: Helen Adams, a once-naïve ingénue whose ambition conflicts with her desire over the course of the fighting; Linh, the mysterious Vietnamese man who loves her, but is torn between conflicting loyalties to his homeland and his heart; and Sam Darrow, a man addicted to the narcotic of violence, to his intoxicating affair with Helen and to the ever-increasing danger of his job. All three become transformed by the conflict they have risked everything to record.

In this much-heralded debut, Tatjana Soli creates a searing portrait of three souls trapped by their impossible passions, contrasting the wrenching horror of combat and the treachery of obsession with the redemptive power of love.

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, didn’t expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.As Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she’s never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Magic, adventure, mystery, and romance combine in this epic debut in which a young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler—and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her.On her nineteenth birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa. But though she may be inexperienced and sheltered, Kelsea is not defenseless: Around her neck hangs the Tearling sapphire, a jewel of immense magical power; and accompanying her is the Queen’s Guard, a cadre of brave knights led by the enigmatic and dedicated Lazarus. Kelsea will need them all to survive a cabal of enemies who will use every weapon—from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic—to prevent her from wearing the crown.Despite her royal blood, Kelsea feels like nothing so much as an insecure girl, a child called upon to lead a people and a kingdom about which she knows almost nothing. But what she discovers in the capital will change everything, confronting her with horrors she never imagined. An act of singular daring will throw Kelsea’s kingdom into tumult, unleashing the vengeance of the tyrannical ruler of neighboring Mortmesne: the Red Queen, a sorceress possessed of the darkest magic. Now Kelsea will begin to discover whom among the servants, aristocracy, and her own guard she can trust.But the quest to save her kingdom and meet her destiny has only just begun—a wondrous journey of self-discovery and a trial by fire that will make her a legend … if she can survive.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Allire Saenz

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it’s barely begun.When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called “a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel” in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks,” son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods’ wrath.They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military’s purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine’s abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

In this enchanting tale about the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening, two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote mountain village for reeducation during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution. There they meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, they find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined.

La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman

Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them, a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua …

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. Exit West follows these characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

A searing and profound Southern odyssey.In Jesmyn Ward’s first novel since her National Book Award winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi’s past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. Ward is a major American writer, multiply awarded and universally lauded, and in Sing, Unburied, Sing she is at the height of her powers.Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.Sing, Unburied, Sing grapples with the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power, and limitations, of the bonds of family. Rich with Ward’s distinctive, musical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing is a majestic new work and an essential contribution to American literature.

Artemis by Andy Weir

Jazz Bashara is a criminal.Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.But some can never stop searching for answers.Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?An inventive debut in the tradition of World War Z and The Martian, told in interviews, journal entries, transcripts, and news articles, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by a quest for truth—and a fight for control of earthshaking power.

American War by Omar El Akkad

Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. Telling her story is her nephew, Benjamin Chestnut, born during war – part of the Miraculous Generation – now an old man confronting the dark secret of his past, his family’s role in the conflict and, in particular, that of his aunt, a woman who saved his life while destroying untold others.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrasse Tyson

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her.With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.” But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It’s the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away–and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.This powerful debut is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

These are just some good ones that I’ve read or reread recently! Let me know if you need more, or are looking for something from a more specific genre! Chances are I can find you something good to read!