#Judith Bowen

[willstafford]

Moor is Less

OTHELLO Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Thursday 24th October 2024 The first thing I want to say about this new production is that it’s a good-looking show.  The costumes, designed by Judith Bowden, are exquisite, transporting us to Venice and Cyprus in 1605.  Bowden’s set is a different story.  It’s all abstract and sparse.  We could be anywhere and anywhen.  Director Tim…

[todaysdocument]

Telegram to President Woodrow Wilson from Jane Addams and Other Women Regarding the Deportation of Emmeline Pankhurst

Record Group 85: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service Series: Subject and Policy Files File Unit: Appeal of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst for admittance for visit, English Suffragette

This telegram petitioned the Department of Labor and their decision to deport Emmeline Pankhurst, a British suffragette. The authors wanted the board to reconsider and maintain "America's devotion to liberty."

Telegram The White House, Washington 6 PO.FD. 283 139 extra 10:25 p.m. Sa, Chicago, Ill., October 18, 1913. The President. Whereas, the Associated Press reports to the American public that Mrs. Pankhurst's deportation has been ordered by the board of inquiry at Ellis Island and, Whereas, such action is in direct violation of the traditions and customs of the United States which has always been hospitable to the political offenders and revolutionists of all nations, and, Whereas, our sister republic, France, is at the present moment sheltering Christabel Pankhurst, Now, therefore, be it resolved: That we, the undersigned women of Chicago, protest against this flagrant violation of our long established public policy, and, Be it further resolved: That we respectively petition the Department of Labor in reviewing the case of this distinguished English woman to reconsider the decision of the Board of Inquiry and to admit Mrs. Pankhurst; thus maintaining the high traditions of America's devotion to liberty and right of free speech. (Signed) Jane Addams, Louise DeKoven Bowen, Mary Rozette Smith, Mary McDowell, Margaret Dreier Robins, Harriet Taylor Treadwell, President Chicago Political Equality League; Margaret A. Haley, Business Representative Chicago Teachers' Federation; Ida L. M. Furstman, President Chicago Teachers' Federation; Mrs. Harriet S. Thompson, Director Chicago Political Equality League; Edith A. Phelps, Anna Nichols, Laura Dainty Pelham,

Telegram The White House, Washington 6 PO. Sheet 2- Chicago, Ill., Octo. 18, 1913. to the President. Stella Miles Franklin, Kathleen Hamill, Mary Foulke Morrisson, Anna Monroe, Edith Wyatt, Caroline Packard, Leonora Pease, Secretary Socialist Women's League; Mrs. L. Brackett Bishop, Marion M. Griffin, Margaret B. Dobyne, Mary E. Galvin, Judith W. Loewenthal, Agnes Nestor, E. Beatrix Dauchy, Belle Squire, Anna Willard Timneus, Emma Steghagen, Grace Wilbur Trout, Florence Holbrook, Catharine Goggin, Mary Anderson, Sophonisba Breckinridge, Edith Abbott, Esther Dresden, President Young Women's Suffrage Association; Amy Walker, Francis Harden, Anna Harden, Catharine Goggin, Mary V. Donoghue, Wilma Rhinesmith, Julia Donoghue, Serina Hayes, May E. Brown.

[somediyprojects]

Designs from the 2023 Ornament Issue of Just CrossStitch magazine.

Comfort & Joy designed by Deborah Booth of My Big Toe Designs

Christmas Eve designed by Elizabeth Talledo of damesoftheneedle

Festive Ball designed by Sara Louise Greer of wickhamcottage

Gentle Glow designed by Cissy Bailey Smith of gentle_pursuit

Gingerbread Row designed by Susan Powell of ardithdesign

Happy Holiday Sampler, designed by Wendy Peatross of From the Heart - NeedleArt by Wendy (wendypeatross)

Winter Wonderland designed by Patricia Bage of Patricia Ann Designs

Simple Joys designed by Kristen Stoltzfus Clay of verityvintagestudio

White Christmas designed by Julia Rosenberg of cottonpixels 

Time for Christmas designed by Corina Ciocanu of happyxcraft

Christmas Chaos designed by Maria Warmke of stitcherhood_cross_stitch

Woodland Holiday designed by Nicole LaBranche of spot_colors

Have a Mod Christmas designed by Sunny Lofstrom of three_tiny_owls

Poinsettia Fairy designed by Kathleen Berlew of kberlew

Making Christmas Bright designed by Karen Bowen of kebstudiocreations

Decorating the Tree designed by Judith Kringle

Snow Deer designed by Karen Kirk of foxandrabbitdesigns

Mr. & Mrs. designed by Annie Craft of dirtyanniex

Frost Snow Globe designed by Laure Fontaine of Laine et Eau

Ready for Christmas designed by durenejonescrossstitch

Pink Poinsettia designed by Cyndy Young of luhustitches

Painted Leaves designed by Kate Spiridonova of katestitcher

Believe designed by Karen Kluba (kare.kluba) of Rosewood Manor

A Star for the Tree designed by Cassandra Cavalca Conforti of cassandra_fairywoolinthewood

Blackwork Christmas designed by Liz Almond of Blackwork Journey

Gingerbread Row, designed by Susan Powel of Laurel Susan Studio LLC

Vintage Trees, designed by Allison Petersen of cozycabinstitching

Joy to the World, designed by Olena Khirkh-Yalan of living.on.the.rainbow

Ice Skating Joy designed by Susan O'Bryant of sweetwingstudio

Be Merry designed by Eirinn Norrie of tangled.threads.and.things

[hiddenpxpercuts]

HERE IS A STARTER CALL for after the event...Not limit for now, just let me know who you want with who!!!!!!

Marina Nunier Osuana | 19 | Elite | Aware

Jennifer Honey | 43 | Matilda | Aware

Alexander Lightwood | 28 | Shadowhunters | Aware

Patrick Blanco-Commerford | 19 | Elite | Unaware

Evan Buckley | 28 | Oliver Stark | 911 | Aware

T.K Strand | 28 | Ronen Rubenstein | 911 Lone Star | Aware

Jed Tein | 19 | Ben Levin | Legacies | Aware

Richie Tozier | 24 | Alberto Rosende | IT | Aware

Reggie Peters | 19 | Jeremy Shada | JATP | Aware

Max Mayfield | 23 | Samantha Logan | Stranger Things | Aware

Nick Scratch | 23 | Gavin Leatherwood | CAOS | Aware

Wade Wilson | 40 | Ryan Reynolds | Marvel | Aware

Judith Grimes | 19 | Zendaya | TWD | Aware

T.J Kippen | 21 | Tom Holland | Andi Mack | Aware

Chloe Decker | 40 | Lauren German | Lucifer | Aware

Harry Hook | 23 | Thomas Dogherty | Descendants | Aware

Marco Del Rossi | 21 | Jordan Fisher | Degrassi | Aware

Ben Hargreeves | 30 | Justin H. Min | TUA | Aware

Max Baker | 19 | Sara Waisglass | Ginny and Georgia | Aware

Matthew Murdock | 35 | Charlie Cox | Marvel | Aware

Derek Hale | 25 | Darren Barnet | Teen Wolf | Aware

Dean Winchester | 38 | Henry Cavill | Supernatural | Aware

Emily Fitch | 19 | Jospehine Langford | Skins | Aware

Nick Nelson | 18 | Froy Gutierrez | Heartstopper | Aware

Simon Spier | 19 | Nick Robinson | 19 | Love, Simon | Aware

Josette Saltzman | 19 | Kaylee Bryant | TVD/Legacies | Aware

Yuuri Katsuki | 21 | Kento Tamazaki | Yuuri on Ice | Aware

Katherine Pierce | Over 500 | Nina Dobrev |TVD | Aware

Blaine Anderson | 22 | Dominic Fike | Glee | Aware

Ginny Weasley | 21 | Madelyn Cline | Harry Potter | Aware

Lillian Deville | 24 | Camille Mendes | Rugrats | Aware

Maria Vasquez | 25 | Melissa Collazo | West Side Story | Aware

Heather Chandler | 23 | Valentina Zenere | Heathers | Aware

Akeno Menzies | 22 | Evan Nock | Gossip Girl | Aware

Viscount Tewksbury | 19 | Aron Piper | Enola Holmes | Aware

Morgan Stark | 19 | Lili Reinhart | Marvel | Aware 

Jacob Hill | 28 | Bill Skarsgard | Abbot Elementary | Aware

Gabriel Boutin | 25 | Emilien Vekemans | Half Bad | Aware

Penelope Featherington | 21 | Nicola Coughlan | Bridgerton| Aware 

Shawn Hunter | 21 | Thimothee Chalamet | BMW | Aware

Veronica Fisher | 31 | Tika Sumpter | Shameless |Aware

Ricky Bowen | 19 | Charlie Gillespie | HSMTMTS | Aware

Orihime Inoue | 21 | Momo | Bleach |Aware

Chishiya Shuntaro | 21 | Nijiro Murakami | Alice in Borderland | Aware

Morticia Addams | 38 | Maite Perroni | Wednesday/Addams Family | Unaware

Mason Hewitt | 21 | Quincy Fouse | Teen Wolf | Aware

David Rose | 35 | Dan Levy | Schitt’s Creek | Aware

Stephanie Blake | 21 | Katie Douglas | Teen Wolf OC | Aware

Nikki Mendoza | 19 | Kathyrn Mendoza | That 90′s Show | Aware

Darren Rivers | 21 | Justice Smith | HeartBreak High | Aware

Barney Stinson | 25 | Jacob Anderson | HIMYM | Aware

Zay Babineaux | 18 | Jonathan Davis | GMW | Aware

[mediaevalmusereads]

2022 Reading Wrap-Up: the Good, the Bad, and the Meh

Below is a list of books that I read in 2022. I've sorted them into 3 categories: the good (books I loved), the bad (books I didn't like), and the meh (books I thought were just ok). Other than these categories, the books aren't listed in any special order or ranking.

The Good

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Witches by Brenda Lozano (trans. Heather Cleary)

How the Dukes Stole Christmas by Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, Sophie Jordan, and Joanna Shupe

A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

A Kiss for Midwinter by Courtney Milan

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ni Ghriofa

Possession by AS Byatt

The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes by Eva Leigh

Foote by Tom Bredehoft

The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews

Supersex Ed. Anna Peppard

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

A Rogue by Night by Kelly Bowen

The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

Would I Lie to the Duke by Eva Leigh

Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh

The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

The Meh

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Not All Supermen by Tim Hanley

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian

Witchy, Vol. 1 by Ariel Slamet Reis

The End Games by T. Michael Martin

The Companion by EE Ottoman

Grit by Angela Duckworth

The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

Last Night with the Earl by Kelly Bowen

A Duke in the Night by Kelly Bowen

Waiting for a Scot Like You by Eva Leigh

Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourne

The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Widow of Rose House by Dianna Biller

I'm Only Wicked with You by Julie Ann Long

Dangerous Women by Hope Adams

The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The Bad

Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare

Aphrodite and the Duke by JJ McAvoy

The Arctic Fury by Grace McAllister

The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

Born to be Wilde by Eloisa James

[spicebiter]

Reading List (Latest Update Nov. 6, 2024)

The full list of books I'm interested in reading. Spoiler before you open the read-more: This list has 500+ entries so it's a tad long.

I'm pretty much constantly adding things to all of my lists- hence why I'm amending when this was last updated to the title itself- and will update this post anytime I update the wheel I use to randomize my next choice, which usually happens after I've added or subtracted a significant number of options.

Beowulf

Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism; Third Edition

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

Andersen’s Fairy Tales by H.C Andersen

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Animorphs Series by K.A Applegate

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Emma by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Oracle Night by Paul Auster

Bunny by Mona Awad

Borderline by Mishell Baker

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Just Above My Head by James Baldwin

Crash by J.G Ballard

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud

Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

I’m With the Band by Pamela Des Barres

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron

Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M. Bartlett

Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear

Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone De Beauvoir

The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir

Art of Fiction by Walter Besant and Henry James

Pushkin; A Biography by T.J Binyon

The Etched City by K.J Bishop

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette De Bodard

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

Sonnets From The Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

The Serpent and the Rose by Kathleen Bryan

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

Notes of a Dirty old Man by Charles Bukowski

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess

Song of the Simple Truth by Julia de Burgos

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler

American Predator by Maureen Callahan

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

Through the Woods by Emily Carrol

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Vorrh by B. Catling

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Moliere Biography by H.C Chatfield-Taylor

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Journey to the West by Wu Cheng-en

Wicket Fox by Kat Cho

The Awakening by Kat Chopin

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Finna by Nino Cipri

The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark

Pranesi by Susanne Clarke

Parasite by Darcy Coates

The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Swimming With Giants by Anne Collet

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Inherit the Wind by Linda Cushman

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Dreadnought by April Daniels

The Devourers by Indra Das

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

The Collected Stories by Welty Eudora

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Introducing Evolutionary Psychology by Dylan Evans and Oscar Zarate

A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Sanctuary by William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

It Devours! by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Time and Again by Jack Finney

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

A Passage to India by E.M Forster

The Diary of Anne Frank

Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) by Al Franken

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

At Fear’s Altar by Richard Gavin

Count Zero by William Gibson

The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

The Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Marathon Man by William Goldman

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin

Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

My Life in Orange by Tim Guest

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J Hackwith

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

Empire of Light by Alex Harrow

The Little Locksmith by Katherine Butler Hathaway

City of Lies by Sam Hawke

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

Dune Series by Frank Herbert

Cover-Up by Seymour M. Hersh

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Rule of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman

The Iliad by Homer

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Songbook by Nick Hornby

To Escape the Stars by Robert Hoskins

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Warrior Cats Series by Erin Hunter

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Daisy Miller by Henry James

False Bingo by Jac Jemc

The City We Became by N.K Jemisin

The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin

Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson

Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan

The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan

The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

Out of Control by Kevin Kelly

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Liu Ken

Ironweed by William Kennedy

You By Caroline Kepnes

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Very Best of Caitlin R Kiernan

Carrie by Stephen King

Christine by Stephen King

Cujo by Stephen King

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

The Shining by Stephen King

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Sir James Knowles and Sir Thomas Malory

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Gidget by Frederick Kohner

The Cipher by Kathe Koja

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Extravagance by Gary Krist

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

Babel by R.F Kuang

The Poppy War by R.F Kuang

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

False Hearts by Laura Lam

The Wide, Carnivorous Sky by John Langan

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Changeling by Victor Lavelle

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by David Herbert Lawrence

Lies of the Fae by M.J Lawrie

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Jade City by Fonda Lee

Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee

The Dirt; Confessions of the Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin

Human Errors by Nathan H. Lents

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

Small Island by Andrea Levy

A Ruin of Shadows by L.D Lewis

Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Let the Right One In by John Lindquist

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The Hike by Drew Magary

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Gregory Rabassa

A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin

Property by Valerie Martin

The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy

The Group by Mary McCarthy

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Rapture by Claire McGlasson

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Quattrocento by James McKean

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin

Terms of Endearment Larry McMurtry

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi

A Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L Mencken

My Life as Author and Editor by H.L Mencken

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyer

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

The Life of Edna by St. Vincent Millay

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Sexus by Henry Miller

Slade House by David Mitchell

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Barrington Moore Jr.

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Jazz by Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Vurt by Jeff Noon

Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W Ocker

Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Flowers of the Sea by Reggie Oliver

Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen

How To Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Certain Dark Things by M.J Pack

The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Complete Stories of Dorothy Parker

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

Gormenghast Series by Mervyn Peake

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

How the Light Gets In by Jolina Petersheim

The Song the Owl God Sang by Benjamin Peterson

A Mankind Beyond Earth by Claude A. Piantadosi

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodie Piccoult

We Owe You Nothing by Punk Planet

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe

Witchmark by C.L Polk

Complete Novels by Dawn Powell

Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Truth and Beauty by Ann Pratchett

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

High Moor by Graeme Reynolds

Sybil by Schreiber Flora Rheta

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Stiff by Mary Roach

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry M. Robert

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson

The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder

The Planet Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder

The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful by Milo Rossi

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Lisa and David by Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D

The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Sallinger

Franny and Zooey by J.D Sallinger

The Man Who Collected Machen by Mark Samuels

Ariah by B.R Sanders

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Shane by Jack Schaefer

Vicious by V.E Schwab

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Bhagavad Gita by Graham M. Schweig

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Love Story by Erich Segal

The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Unless by Carol Shields

City Come A-Walkin’ by John Shirley

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Crush by Richard Siken

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Terror by Dan Simmons

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Oil! by Upton Sinclair

Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Flinch by Julien Smith

Chlorine by Jade Song

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

Last Breath by Peter Stark

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

City Under the Moon Hugh Sterbakov

Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susane

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Walden by Henry D. Thoreau

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley

Secrets of the Flesh by Judith Thurman

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Sisyphean by Dempow Torishima

The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

The Last Empire- Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal

Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Candide by Voltaire

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Fire in the Sky; The Walton Experience by Travis Walton

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L Wang

The Graduate by Charles Webb

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

The Invisible Man by H.G Wells

The Time Machine by H.G Wells

The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Prophesy Deliverance by Cornel West

Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

The Code of the Woosters by P.G Wodehouse

Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

The Electric Koolaid Test by Tom Wolfe

Old School by Tobias Wolff

John Dies at the End by David Wong

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dolloway by Virginia Woolf

Bitch; In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

The Black Tides of Heaven by Jy Yang

Negative Space by B.R Yeager

Beneath the Moon by Yoshi Yoshitani

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Tomorrow, and Tommorow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

[smithlibrary]

Read More 2023 Very English Muuurder

Mystery  Death in the English Countryside by Sara Rosett  London Bridge is Falling Down by Christopher Fowler The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander Anatomy of a Murder by Imogen Robertson The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood  The Witches Tree by M. C. Beaton Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet The Yard by Alex Grecian The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Murder at Blackburn Hall by Sara Rosett Murder at Wedgefield Manor by Erica Ruth Neubauer Felicity Carrol and the Perilous Pursuit by Patricia Santos Marcantonio In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn A Test of Wills by Charles Todd A Bed of Scorpions by Judith Flanders Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley

Thriller The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton

Romance Duke of My Heart by Kelly Bowen

Religious The Nightingale Gallery by Paul Doherty

Non-fiction The Real Inspector Hound and Other Plays by Tom Stoppard

[old-romance-covers]

The Doctor's Daughter by Judith Bowen Illustrator: ??? Harlequin Superromance 835 - May 1999

[wheredreamshavenoend98]

⚠️ Come join us in our #NashvilleMovie campaign every Friday (in all timezones) ⚠️ on Twitter, Instagram or even on Tumblr when you don't have the other social media (we're mainly on Twitter). We're tweeting @LionsgateTV to get a proper ending for the series with Rayna alive.

Fiction is great, so Rayna CAN be alive and the things of season 5 can be forgotten. There are many ways. For example a witness protection program, or it could all be a dream of Rayna what would be if she weren't here, or even the quiet intimate tour of season one of Rayna and Deacon after the wedding/after season 4,... You see, there really ARE ways. Fiction is a wonderful thing.

We want a #NashvilleMovie to get the things right. To get that what the fans were campaigning for, when they were asking for a season 5. A Movie with the original cast and the way it was in earlier seasons. Strong women, music, touring and so on.

You get more information on twitter.com/nashvillemovie. We need every help we can get! So come join us!

Reblog this, tweet it, make noise and get as much people together as you can!

[godzilla-reads]

The Big List of Cat Literature

Nonfiction Books About Cats

“The Tribe of Tiger” by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

“On Cats” by Doris Lessing

“Cat Sense” by John Bradshaw

“The Cat: A Natural History” by Sarah Brown

“Secrets of the Cat” by Barbara Holland

“Cathedral Cats” by Richard Surman

“Cat Confidential” by Vicky Halls

Catty Children’s Books

“Splat the Cat” by Rob Scotton

“Six Dinner Sid” by Inga Moore

“Millions of Cats” by  Wanda Gág

“Comet’s Nine Lives” by Jan Brett

“The Tale of Tom Kitten” by Beatrix Potter

“Kitten’s First Full Moon” by Kevin Henkes

“Pete the Cat” by Eric Litwin and James Dean

“They All Saw a Cat” by Brendan Wenzel

“Mog the Forgetful Cat” by Judith Kerr

“The Chinese Siamese Cat” by Amy Tan

Middle Reader Books for Cat Lovers

“Warriors: Into the Wild” by Erin Hunter

“Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl” by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

“Travels of Suki the Adventure Cat” by Martina Gutfreund and Leigh-Anne Ingram

“Royal Rescues: The Naughty Kitten” by Paula Harrison

“Varjak Paw” by S.F. Said

“The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof” by Annie M.G. Schmidt

“Catlantis” by Anna Starobinets 

“Crenshaw” by Katherine Applegate

“Catwings” by Ursula K. Le Guin

“The Witches of Worm” by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

“Carbonel: The King of the Cats” by Barbara Sleigh

Feline Classics

“Classic Cat Stories” edited by Becky Brown

“The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss

“Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Eliot

“The Guest Cat” by Takashi Hiraide

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe

“The Cats of Ulthar” by H.P. Lovecraft

“Jenny and the Cat Club” by Esther Averill

Cat Literature

“Tailchaser’s Song” by Tad Williams

“Felidae” by Akif  Pirinçci

“Thomasina: The Cat Who Thought She Was God” by Paul Gallico

“How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You” by The Oatmeal

“The Cat Who Could Read Backwards” by Lilian Jackson Braun

“The Book of Night With Moon” by Diane Duane

“Catfantastic” edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Andre Norton

“The Incredible Journey” by Sheila Burnford

“Alfie” by Rachel Wells

“Of Cats and Men” by Sam Kalda

True Cat Stories

“Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale” by Gwen Cooper

“Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter

“The Dalai Lama’s Cat” by David Michie

“A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope On the Streets” by James Bowen

“Cat Stories” by James Herriot

“Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” by David Dosa

“Casper the Commuting Cat: The True Story of the Cat Who Rode the Bus and Stole Our Hearts” by Susan Finden

“Oscar the Bionic Cat” by Kate Allan

“The Cat Inside” by William S. Burroughs

Cat Poetry

“Hate That Cat” by Shannon Creech

“The Owl and the Pussy Cat” by Edward Lear

“I’m Not Sorry: Poems by Cats” by Rosa Silva

“Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse” by Henry Beard

“Cat Poems” by Elizabeth Bishop

“The Great Cat: Poems About Cats” edited by Emily Fragos

“On Cats” by Charles Bukowski

Three Cat Documentaries on Netflix

The Tigers of Scotland (2017)

Catwalk: Tales From the Cat Show Circuit (2018)

#CATS_The_Mewvie (2020)

Famous Authors’ Cats

Mark Twain and Bambino

Ernest Hemingway and Snowball

Stephen King and Smucky

Alice Walker and Frida Kahlo

Doris Lessing and El Magnifico

William S. Burroughs and Smoke

Haruki Murakami and Sundance

[justforbooks]

Judith Jones was born on March 10, 1924. She was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued The Diary of Anne Frank from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She retired as senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf in 2011. Jones was also a cookbook author and memoirist. She won multiple lifetime achievement awards, including the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Jones joined Knopf in 1957 as an assistant to Blanche Knopf and editor working mainly on translations of French writers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Before that she worked for Doubleday, first in New York City and then in Paris, where she read and recommended The Diary of Anne Frank, pulling it out of the rejection pile. Jones recalled that she came across Frank's work in a slush pile of material that had been rejected by other publishers; she was struck by a photograph of the girl on the cover of an advance copy of the French edition. "I read it all day," she noted. "When my boss returned, I told him, 'We have to publish this book.' He said, 'What? That book by that kid?'" She brought the diary to the attention of Doubleday's New York office. "I made the book quite important because I was so taken with it, and I felt it would have a real market in America. It’s one of those seminal books that will never be forgotten," Jones said.

Jones's relationship with Julia Child similarly began when Jones became interested in Child's manuscript Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which had been rejected by a publishing house. After her years in Paris, Jones had moved to New York, where she was frustrated with the ingredients and recipes commonly available in the U.S. Jones said of the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, "This was the book I had been searching for," and she got it published. In America's postwar years, home cooking was dominated by packaged and frozen food, with an emphasis on ease and speed.

After the success of Child's cookbook, Jones continued to expand the resource options for American home cooks. "I got so excited by Julia's book and what it did for making people better cooks, and the tools that you needed to make it really work in an American city or small town, and I thought, If we could do this for French food, for heavens' sake, let's start doing it for other exotic cuisines!" Jones recalled. "I used the word "exotic," and that meant the Middle East with Claudia Roden, it meant better Indian cooking with Madhur Jaffrey."

After working with Edna Lewis on The Taste of Country Cooking, Jones focused more on American regional cooking.

Major culinary authors Jones brought into print include Julia Child, Lidia Bastianich, James Beard, Marion Cunningham, Rosie Daley, Edward Giobbi, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey, Irene Kuo, Edna Lewis, Joan Nathan, Scott Peacock, Jacques Pépin, Claudia Roden, and Nina Simonds. The 18-book Knopf Cooks American series was Jones' creation.

Jones was also the longtime editor of noted authors John Updike, Anne Tyler, John Hersey, Elizabeth Bowen, Peter Taylor, and William Maxwell. Other major authors whom Jones edited include Langston Hughes, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jones wrote three books with her husband Evan, and wrote three on her own since his death: one on cooking for one person; a memoir of her life and food; and a cookbook for food that can be shared with dogs.

Jones contributed to Vogue, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Departures, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

She was portrayed by American actress Erin Dilly in the 2009 film, Julie & Julia.

“Learning to like cooking alone is an ongoing process. But the alternative is worse.”

"For a long time, the women — and they were usually women — who wrote about food were treated as second-class citizens. All because they cook! I think that's opened up. A good writer gets some good assignments, and they're treated better somehow. It just takes time."

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[ninja-muse]

i’m trying to branch out and read outside my genre (fantasy) do you have any book recs for someone whose heart is in fantasy but needs to see what else is out there?

Hi anon! Thanks for the ask! Fantasy’s such a wide genre, and this is such an open ask, that I’m mostly going to be recommending books with similar feels or themes from other genres, to push you a little outside the fantasy bubble and introducing you to different genres and types of storytelling. If you have a favourite subgenre or trope or author, I can maybe get a little more specific or offer read-alikes.

Also, I don’t know if you knew this before asking, but fantasy is my favourite genre too, so some of these recs are books that pushed me out of the genre as well, or that I found familiar-but-different.

And this is getting long, so I’m going to throw it under a cut to save everyone scrolling.

Science fiction

the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold - This is space opera, which means it’ll have fairly familiar plots except with science-y things instead of magic. There’s an heir with something to prove, heists, cons, and mysteries, attempted coups and assassinations, long-suffering sidekicks, and a homeworld that’s basically turn-of-the-century Russia but with fewer serfs. It was one of the first adult sci-fi books I read and genuinely liked.

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey - I finished this recently, and the second book of the trilogy just came out. This is post-apocalyptic sci-fi, but not grim or particularly complex. (Some SF gets really into the nuts and bolts of the science elements; this isn’t that.) Basically, Koli’s a teenager who wants more than his quasi-medieval life’s given him, and finds himself in conflict with his village (and then exile) because of it. I could see where the story was going pretty much from the start, but I loved the journey anyway.

The Martian by Andy Weir - This doesn’t have much in common with fantasy, but it’s my go-to rec for anyone who’s never read science fiction before, because it’s funny, explains the science well, and has a hero and a plot you get behind right away. In case you haven’t heard of it (or the film), it’s about an astronaut stranded on Mars, trying to survive long enough to be rescued.

Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh - This is an alien first contact story, about a colony of humans in permanent quarantine on an alien planet. The MC is the sole social liaison and translator, explaining his culture to the aliens and the aliens to the human, and working to keep the peace—until politics and assassins get involved. It’s been over a decade since I read this, so my memory’s blurred, but I remember the same sort of political intrigue vibes as the Daevabad trilogy, just with fewer POVs.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - One from my TBR. It looks like dark fiction about women, outcasts, and revenge, which sounds very fantastic and the MC can apparently do magic—but it’s post-apocalyptic Africa.

Speaking of political intrigue and sweeping epic plots, the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey has both in spades. Rebellions, alien technology, corrupt businesses, heroes doing good things and getting bad consequences, all that good stuff. It takes the science fairly seriously, without getting very dense with it, and will probably register as “more sci-fi” than my recs in the genre so far.

Oh, and Dune by Frank Herbert is such a classic chosen-one epic that it barely registers as science fiction at all.

Graphic novels

It’s technically fantasy, but assuming you’ve never picked up a graphic novel before, you should read Monstress by Marjorie Liu. Asian-inspired, with steampunk aesthetics, and rebellions and quests and so many female characters. It’s an absolutely fantastic graphic novel, if you want a taste of what those can do.

I’d highly recommend Saga by Brian K. Vaughan. It’s an epic science fiction story about a family caught between sides of a centuries-long war. (Dad’s from one side, Mom’s from the other, everyone wants to capture them, their kid is narrating.) It’s a blast to read, exciting and tense, with hard questions and gorgeous tender moments, and the world-building somehow manages to include weaponized magic, spaceship trees, ghosts, half-spider assassins, and all-important pulp romance novels without anything feeling out of place.

Historical fiction

Hild by Nicola Griffith - Very rich and detailed novel following a girl growing up in an early medieval English court. It’s very fantasy-esque, with battles and politics and changes of religion, and Hild gets positioned early on to be the king’s seer, so there’s “magic” of a sort as well.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry - A widow goes to the Victorian seaside to heal and reawaken her interest in biology. Slow, gentle, lovely writing and atmosphere, interesting characters and turns of plot. Doesn’t actually deliver on the sea monster, but still has a lot to recommend it to fantasy readers, I think.

Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin - The late-medieval Jewish pirate adventure you didn’t know you wanted. It’s funny and literary, full of tropes and set pieces like “small-town kid in the big city” and “jail break”, and features the Spanish Inquisition, Columbus, the Fountain of Youth, and talking parrots, among other things.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - A thousand pages about the building of a cathedral in England, mostly focusing on the master builder, the monk who spearheads the project, and a noblewoman who’s been kicked off her family’s land, but has several other plots going on, including a deacon with political ambitions, a war, and a boy who’s trying so hard to fit in and do right.

Sharon Kay Penman - This is an author on my TBR, who comes highly recommended for her novels about the War of the Roses and the Plantagenets. Should appeal to you if you liked Game of Thrones. I’m planning to start with The Sunne in Splendour.

Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson - Either a Robin Hood retelling that’s also a romance, or a romance that’s also a Robin Hood retelling.

Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O’Farrell - A novel of the Shakespeare family, mostly focused on his wife and son. Lovely writing and a very gentle feel though it heads into dark and complex subjects fairly often. A good portrait of Early Modern family life.

Mystery

There’s not a lot of mystery that reads like high, epic, or even contemporary fantasy, but if you’re a fan of urban fantasy, which is basically mystery with magic in, then I’d rec:

Cozy mysteries as a general subgenre, especially if you like the Sookie Stackhouse end of urban fantasy, which has romance and quirky plots; there are plenty of series where the detective’s a witch or the sidekick’s a ghost but they’re solving non-magical mysteries, and the genre in general full of heroines who are good at solving crimes without formal training, and the plots feel very similar but with slightly lower stakes. Cozies have become one of my comfort-reading genres (along with UF) the last few years. My intros were the Royal Spyness novels by Rhys Bowen and the Fairy Tale Fatale books by Maia Chance.

If you like your urban fantasy darker and more serious, and your heroines more complicated, try Kathy Reichs and her Temperance Brennan novels. Brennan’s a forensic anthropologist, strong and complicated in the same ways of my fave UF heroines, and the mysteries are already interesting, with a good dash of thriller and a smidge of romance.

Two other recs:

Haunted Ground by Erin Hart - The first of four books about a forensic anthropologist in Ireland, who’s called in when the Garda find bodies in the peat bogs and need to know how long they’ve been there. They’re very atmospheric—I can almost smell the bog—and give great portraits of rural Ireland and small-town secrets, and since not all the bodies found in each book are recent, they also bring interesting slices of the past to life as well.

A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger - This is essentially a medieval thriller about a seditious book that’s turned up in London. I liked the mystery in it and that it’s much more focused on the lives of average people than the rich and famous (for all that recognizable people also show up).

Classics

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift - I swear this is actually one of the first fantasy novels but few people ever really class it as such. Basically, Gulliver’s a ship’s doctor who keeps getting shipwrecked—in a country of tiny people, a country of giants, a country of mad scientists, a country of talking horses, etc. It’s social satire and a spoof of travelogues from Swift’s time, but it’s easily enough read without that context.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - Another, slightly later, fantasy and satire! Even more amusing situations than in Gulliver’s Travels and, while it’s been a while* since I read it, I think it’ll be a decent read-alike for authors like Jasper Fforde, Genevieve Cogman, and that brand of light British comic fantasy.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare - Also technically a fantasy! I mean, there are fairies and enchantments, for all it’s a romantic comedy written entirely in old-fashioned poetry. It’s a pretty good play to start you off on Shakespeare, if you’re interested in going that direction.

On the subject of Shakespeare, I would also recommend Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, and King Lear, the first because it’s my favourite comedy, the others because they’re fantasy read-alikes imo as well (witches! coups! drama!).

the Arthurian mythos. Le Morte D’arthur, Crétien de Troyes, The Once and Future King by T.H. White, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, etc. - I’ve read bits and pieces of the first two, am about 80% sure I read the third as a kid (or at least The Sword in the Stone), and have the last on my TBR. Basically, these stories are going to give you an exaggeratedly medieval setting, knights, quests, wizards, fairies, high drama, romantic entanglements, and monsters, and the medieval ones especially have different kinds of plots than you’ll be used to (and maybe open the door to more medieval lit?) **

Beowulf and/or The Odyssey - Two epics that inspired a lot of fiction that came later. (There’s an especial connection between Beowulf and Tolkien.) They’re not the easiest of reads because they’re in poetry and non-linear narratives, but both have a hero facing off against a series of monsters and/or magical creatures as their core story.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - The first real science fiction novel. It’s about the ethics of science and the consequences of one’s actions, and I loved seeing the Creature find himself and Frankenstein descend into … that. It’s also full of sweeping, gothic scenes and tension and doom and drama.

* 25 years, give or take

** There are plenty of more recent people using King Arthur and associated characters too, if this "subgenre” interests you.

Other fiction

Vicious by V.E. Schwab - I don’t know if you classify superheroes as science fiction or fantasy or its own genre (for me it depends on the day) but this is an excellent take on the subject, full of moral greyness and revenge.

David Mitchell - A literary fiction writer who has both a sense of humour and an interest in the fantastic and science fictional. He writes ordinary people and average lives marvelously well, keeps me turning pages, plays with form and timelines, and reliably throws in either recurring, possibly-immortal characters, good-vs-evil psychic battles, or other SF/F-y elements. I’d start with either Slade House, a ghost story, or Utopia Avenue, about a ‘60s rock band. Or possible The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I fully admit to not having read yet.

Devolution by Max Brooks - A horror movie in book form, full of tension and desperation and jump scares and the problems with relying on modern technology. The monsters are Bigfeet. Reccing this one in the same way I’m reccing The Martian—it’s an accessible intro to its genre.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson - Contemporary fiction with a slight literary bent, that doesn’t pull its punches about Indigenous life but also has a sense of humour about the same. Follows a teen dealing with poverty and a bad home life and drugs and hormones—and the fact that his bio-dad might actually be the trickster Raven. Also features witches, magic, and other spirit-beings, so I generally pitch this as magic realism.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones - Another Indigenous rec, this time a horror novel about ghosts and racism and trying to do the right thing. This’ll give you a taste of the more psychological end of the horror spectrum.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia - A good example of contemporary YA and how it handles the complexities of life, love, and growing up. Follows the writer of a fantasy webcomic who makes a friend who turns out to write fic of her story and who suddenly has to really balance online and offline life, among other pressures. Realistic portrait of mental health problems.

Non-fiction

The Book of Margery Kempe - The first English-language autobiography. Margery was very devout but also very badass, in a medieval sort of way. She went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, was possibly epileptic, frequently “saw” Christ and Mary and demons, basically became a nun in middle age while staying married to her husband, and wound up on trial for heresy, before talking a monk into writing down her life story. It’s a fascinating window into the time period.

The Hammer and the Cross by Robert Ferguson - A history of medieval Norse people and how their explorations and trade shaped both their culture and the world.

A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor - Travel writing that was recommended to me by someone who raved about the prose and was totally right. Fermor’s looking back, with the aid of journals, on a walking trip he took across Europe in the 1930s. It’s a fascinating look at the era and an old way of life, and pretty much every “entry” has something of interest in it. He met all sorts of people.

Tim Severin and/or Thor Heyerdahl - More travel writing, this time by people recreating historical voyages (or what they believe to be historical voyages, ymmv) in period ships. Severin focuses on mythology (I’ve read The Ulysses Voyage and The Jason Voyage) and Heyerdahl’s known for Kon-Tiki, which is him “proving” that Polynesians made contact with South America. They both go into the history of the sailing and areas they’re travelling through, while also describing their surroundings and daily life, and, yes, running into storms and things.

Hope this helps you!

[agent-daniel-galoyan]

👤👤👤

Three for one, you say? Well, lets go with FOUR for one with the GALOYAN SISTERS!

Judith "Jude" Bowen-Galoyan, second-oldest Galoyan. Film art director and mother of three, twin girls and a baby boy. She's upbeat and practical, with strong mom vibes, even since they were kids. Jude and her husband were both blipped, though their kids were not.

Rebekah "Becky" Galoyan, older-middlest sister. International shipping manager with Pym Tech, recently married. Becky is smart, analytical, and very dry in her sense of humor. Becky's fiance Ravi was blipped three days before their wedding.

Sharon "Shay" Galoyan, PhD, younger-middlest sister. Shay was a thinker of the highest degree, getting her PhD in Theoretical Physics, while also being deeply in tune with her religion. She believed in the connection between the secular and the spiritual, and that the science of this world was in itself divine and magical. Shay battled cancer three times, and passed away from it, three years into the blip. Dan was closest with Shay out of all his siblings. Her passing was maybe the saddest moment of Dan's life.

Miriam "Miri" Galoyan, second-youngest Galoyan. College student, feeling lost and confused and trying to figure her life out. Bubbly and social, but also highly anxious. Miri was blipped during her freshman year of college.

[hiddenpxpercuts]

Hi! Below I have all of my muses listed so you can see who is paired and who isn’t. If you’d like me to make the starter for us, just reply and say. If you want someone else that you aren’t paired, that is fine too! Just let me know what starters y’all would like from me, thank you!!! -Britt.

VALENTINE’S EVENT PAIRS…

antonia dreykov & jacob hill (MOON) arcueid brunestud & prince wilhelm (min & britt) bela malhotra & patrick blanco-commerford (amber & britt) cassandra dimitrescu & derek hale (jodie & britt) catra & emily fitch (moon & britt) chloe decker & emma swan (britt & swan) commander jack shephard & orihimie inoue (sara & britt) daniela dimitrescu & viscount tewkesbury (maig & britt) david rose & janine teagues (britt & aria) doom & ricky bowen (atlas & britt) eloise bridgerton & katherine pierce (annie & britt) gabriela campos & lydia (britt & kirie) heather chandler & markl (britt & amber) ines thorpe & mason hewitt (amber & britt) jason todd & shawn hunter (sara & britt) jed tien & lyanna mormont (britt & kirie) jem carstairs & marco del rossi (atlas & britt) jennifer honey & lucrecia montesinos hendrich (britt & moon) jinx & morticia addams (risa & britt) justin russo & reggie peters (moon & britt) light yagami & robin buckley (britt & amber) lillian deville & thea queen (britt & alex) marina nunier osana & saturn palpatine (britt & amber) morgan stark & noah foster (britt & maria) mr salt & penelope featherington (aria & britt)

Shippy Pairs

Gabriel Boutin and Josh Washington (Bloo) Maria Vasquez and Tony (Maria) Richie Tozier and Eddie K. (Salsa) Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bame (Salsa) Maxine Mayfield and Alice K. (CiCi) Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter (CiCI) Dean Winchester and Johanna (CiCi) Veronica Fisher and Sam Winchester (CiCi) Tk and Poe (cici) Nick S. and Sabrina (cici) Matthew and Sydney (cici) Wade and Queenie (cici) Ben and Eleven (cici) Blaine and Klaus (cici) Simon Spier and Bram G. (Atlas) Harry and Uma (Atlas) T.J and Cyrus (Atlas) Josie and Penelope (moon) Max Baker and A.J Campos (moon) Nick N. and Charlie (amber) Yuuri and Viktor (irresistiibles) Aki and Max ( misteriios )

NOT PAIRED

Stephanie Blake Evan Buckley Judith Grimes Nikki Mendoza

[dougrobyngoold]

More Tucson Memories - Tucson, AZ

We are getting ready to head out of Tucson tomorrow.  It has been another wonderful winter season in this area.  We had the unexpected gift of getting to spend time with our nephew, Grant, and his partner, Bridget - he is here visiting her for a few months while she is in law school at the U of A.  We had a few happy hours with them and I went on a few hikes with Grant.  What a pleasure it has been to get to know the two of them!

One of our hikes was up to Seven Falls after a little snow hit the area - it was awesome to see water in the canyon!

Another hike with Grant, this one up to Ernie’s Falls.

Grant and I saw a coati on our way to the trailhead for Ernie’s Falls - my first sighting, Grant’s second.

One last hike with Grant in Tucson Mountain Park.

Grant and Bridget also came over one night to perform for us and a few of our friends.  It was a wonderful evening!  Going to miss hanging out with them!

Our friends, Terry and Judith, came to visit for a couple of nights.  We took a walk along the wash and then had a beer tasting on our patio.  Always fun to hang out with these two crazy kids!

We made our annual trek up to Bridal Wreath Falls - our friends, Ray and Cheri, joined us for the hike and then for margaritas on the patio at El Molinito!

We hiked the Sarasota Trail out to the Bowen House with our friends, John & Charmaine.

Doug and I hiked on the Arizona Trail by Patagonia - can’t wait to go back and do more hiking along this trail next year!

More margaritas on the patio at El Molinito, this time with our friends, Jay and Shelly.  We enjoyed some wonderful happy hours and dinners with these awesome people during our time in Tucson this year.

A great hike at Sweetwater Preserve with John and Charmaine.  Wonderful saguaro forest on this hike!

Catching up with our friends, John and Charmaine, at a nearby park after our hike in Sweetwater Preserve.

Unfortunately, my phone was in “portrait” mode, so Tom came out a little blurry....but this photo made me laugh and I just have to include it - this was after we had enjoyed our last margaritas for this season on the patio at El Molinito - with our sweet friends, Tom and Marie!

One last hike with John and Charmaine on the Arizona Trail - we will miss seeing them.  Hopefully, our paths will cross this summer or fall during our travels.

Looking forward to our travels this spring, summer, and fall - we are heading west and northwest, before arriving in Colorado for a Labor Day Weekend wedding.  See you next season, Tucson!