#North Carolina Reads

[frombehindthepen]

Brendan Slocumb Makes Classical Magic in His Book, The Violin Conspiracy

Brendan Slocumb Makes Classical Magic in His Book, The Violin Conspiracy #Music #Reading #NCHumanities

Oh my goodness, this is the fourth book I read for the 2024 North Carolina Reads statewide book club from NC Humanities. I fell in love with and was so inspired by the character Ray McMillan in this book. His colorful story opened up a whole new world in my understanding of violins and classical music while introducing us to the famous Stradivarius violin. Yet throughout this book, Brendan…

[honeyfizzly]

Sometimes I like looking at negative reviews for games I like simply because it's interesting to check what dosent click for others when it clicked for me.

However one of the funniest negative reviews I've read when it came to scarlet hollow was that it's "obviously written by americans" (something along those lines), as the reviewer began to complain about the usage of phrases like "PB&J" and other southern colloquialisms as if the game set in deep south north Carolina wasn't meant to read as from that place?

Like should the characters call it peanut butter and jam? Should the characters in the south talk with posh brittish accents? Would you like to order Winnie's famous bread rolls?

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

Thank you so much @rebel-revenant for tagging me so I can share my 9 books I plan to read in 2025, and share with you all a little bit about what kinds of literature interests me, deeply, queerly, and wholeheartedly.

My 9 books of 2025

The Vampire Chronicles hosting Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and my beloved Queen of the Damned, out of the book series.

Well, need I explain? I think most of you know what these are about.

I'm going to be unfair and count this as 1 book, but technically, it is 3 books. I'll post my own of this one, I'm so proud of it! I own all these books also, though too.

Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Quin

The world of Earthsea is one of sea and islands: a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by mostly uncharted ocean. Earthsea contains no large continents.

Magic is a central part of life in most of Earthsea; the exception being the Kargish lands, where it is forbidden. There are weather workers on ships, fixers who repair boats and buildings, entertainers, and court sorcerers. Magic is an inborn talent which can be refined with training. The most gifted are sent to the school on Roke, where, if their skill and discipline prove sufficient, they can become staff-carrying wizards.

Le Guin has stated that the idea of the Dry Land came from the "Greco-Roman idea of Hades' realm.

Dragons dragons dragons.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

18-year-old Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters living in Market Chipping, a town in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where fairytale tropes are accepted ways of life, including that the eldest of three will never be successful.

As the eldest, Sophie is resigned to a dull future running the family hat shop. Unbeknownst to her, she is able to talk life into objects. When the powerful Witch of the Waste considers her a threat and turns her into an old crone, Sophie leaves the shop and finds work as a cleaning lady for the notorious wizard Howl. She strikes a bargain with Howl's fire demon, Calcifer: if she can break the contract between Howl and Calcifer, then Calcifer will return her to her original youthful form. Part of the contract, however, stipulates that neither Howl nor Calcifer can disclose the main clause, leaving Sophie to figure it out on her own.

Sophie learns that Howl, a rather self-absorbed and fickle but ultimately good-natured person, spreads malicious rumours about himself to avoid work and responsibility. The door to his castle is actually a portal that opens onto four places: Market Chipping, the seaside city of Porthaven, the royal capital of Kingsbury, and Howl's boyhood home in modern day Wales where he was named Howell Jenkins. Howl's apprentice Michael Fisher runs most of the day-to-day affairs of Howl's business, while Howl chases his ever-changing paramours.

Also, you may not know this, but Howl owns his own Welsh Rugby shirt aside from all the other magical clothes he is known to wear, a personal funny of mine I discovered the first time I read it.

Castle In The Air by Diana Wynne Jones

Castle in the Air follows the adventures of Abdullah, a handsome young carpet salesman from Zanzib, who daydreams constantly about being a stolen prince. One day a strange traveler comes to his stand to sell a magic carpet.

The carpet takes them up to Howl's castle, where they meet abducted princesses and plot with them to escape the flying moving castle. Led by Abdullah, they overpower the two Djinn, freeing Hasruel, who banishes his brother. Flower-in-the-Night had by then wished the Genie free, who turned out to be Sophie's husband and little Morgan's father, the topmost-level wizard Howl Pendragon.

House Of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

When Charmain is caught up in an intense royal search to remedy the kingdom's financial troubles, she encounters Sophie Pendragon, her son Morgan, a beautiful child named Twinkle, and their fire demon Calcifer. One of the messes Twinkle gets Charmain into results in Twinkle climbing onto the roof of the Royal Mansion. She is soon involved in curing the kingdom of its ills and rediscovering the long-lost mystical Elfgift.

Brother to the Sun King: Philippe duc d'Orléans by Nancy Nichols Barker

"In battle, he fought with legendary valour . . . At court, dressed in silks and ribbons, he openly favoured his male lovers . . . Despised but feared by his brother, he was the perpetual loser in a lifelong sibling rivalry . . . "Philippe, brother of Louis XIV, might have been a prince of great renown in the service of the king―had the king only shown him his faith and trust. . . . This is an excellent book. I congratulate the author on a work that is objective and of high quality." Henry, Count of Paris

Robert Sheehan: Disappearing Act

Informed by the author's peripatetic life, Disappearing Act reflects on the absurdity of human behaviour. Sheehan delves deep into his characters' streams of self-talk and self-imposed delusions, exploring the dark impulses that lurk below the shiny surfaces of many outwardly normal lives.

Spooky North Carolina retold by S. E. Schlosser

The spirit of a railroad flagman shines his lantern along the tracks near Maco, where he lost his head in a train accident. The ghost of a girl haunts the grave robbers who stole her corpse to use in a college medical department. And in a swamp outside Smithfield, a grisly mass hanging is re-created on dark nights. All this and much more!

-

And because one of my cats was very cute to this particular book, I'll share another photo as it was near enough for me to just grab:

Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Once a proud Senator in Imperial Rome, kidnapped and made a blood god by the Druids, Marius becomes the embittered protector of Akasha and Enkil, Queen and King of the vampires, in whom the core of the supernatural race resides. We follow him through his heartbreaking abandonment of the vampire Pandora.

No pressure tags: @heroinecomplication @bitchywillgraham @lestatmonamour @sarcastic-clapping @gnc-lestat @lestatmonamour @xxdrowninglessonsxx @capricornsun-queen @monsterfucker-molloy @lestatbratposting @lestats-groupie @louisdulac @devilsminionworlddomination

[billionbrilliantstars]

For those out there who genuinely want to understand Kamala Harris better, she wrote a memoir that allows you to understand her values and character. It’s called The Truths We Hold

[keefechambers]

“My definition of success is a child who is respectful, responsible, and fun to be around.”

SHARE ME ON TWITTER.

[cheezyratz]

Could you write something were casey is a caregiver to one of the turtles

Of course! (Idk what version of the turtles you’re talking about so I’ll just write for 2012)

“This one!” Donnie exclaims, pulling a thick book off of his bookshelf. He ran to Casey, rushing to sit down next to the lanky teen, crossing his legs as he placed the book in Casey’s lap. “Ok, ok!” Casey chuckled as Donnie shook him, eager to start reading the book. “But if you make fun of me for messin’ up a word, I’m putting you in timeout for a million gazillion years, understand?” Donnie rolled his eyes. “Just read already!” Casey gave Donnie his best Leo stare (trademarked by Mikey). “Uh… please?” Casey smiled, patting Donnie on the head before opening the book. “Chemistry is a science based on observation and experimentation.” Casey read. Donnie laid his head on Casey’s shoulder. “Doing chemistry involves attempting to answer questions and explain observations in terms of the laws and theories of chemistry…” Casey continued to read, putting Donnie to ease. Have they read this book a thousand times? Probably. Did it still make Donnie happy? Of course. Chemistry, biology, astronomy, etc., as long as Casey was reading, Donnie would listen, and be the happiest turtle in the world.

[starryvomit]

“the notebook” - nicholas sparks.

[honeyrosepetals]

bought 4 poetry books and they just got hereeee im excited to read them and get inspired

i got catalog of unabashed gratitude by ross gay, the complete poems of anne sexton, crush by richard siken, and come the slumberless to the land of nod by traci brimhall

[cuntwrap--supreme]

Finally, some delicious fucking news

[magdaclaire]

maybe i'll never see you in person but i can hold your art in my hands and that's pretty close

[maddie-grove]

I still think it’s funny that my dad’s aunt really, really loved Cold Mountain in the late nineties and gave copies to:

Her daughter, who loved it so much that she named a kid after one of the characters;

My aunt (her niece-in-law) who pretended to be interested but didn’t read it because it was too serious and later she became a TwiMom; and

My mom (another niece-in-law) who thanked her but did not read it because she’s an intellectual snob (affectionate) who thought it looked too middlebrow and also kind of condescending to mountain-dwelling North Carolinians.

Mom gave the book to her own sister during a game of Dirty Santa, but she never read it because she doesn’t really read for fun.

[frombehindthepen]

NC Reads Kickoff with "Beyond Innocence" by Phoebe Zerwick

Image Source: Amazon February began with the kickoff of North Carolina Humanities hosting a virtual monthly book club discussion of 5 books to engage in. We were asked to read the first 70 pages of Beyond Innocence (The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt) by Phoebe Zerwick between February 1-8, 2024. This non-fiction book is about a young Black man who is falsely accused of murdering a white woman in…

[aurorawest]

Reading update

Best Men by Sidney Karger - 3.5/5 stars

Man. When I started reading this, I was positive I was going to rate it 5 stars. The first third or so was hysterical, often to the point of me not being able to breathe because I was laughing so hard. Ultimately though, the romance fell extremely flat. There wasn't really enough development for it, and I don't think it boils down to a marketing issue—the romance is too big of a focus to say, "Oh, this was just general fiction they wanted to market as a romcom." It really was an issue with the romance just not being very well written. Another issue I had was that at times, the writing was very...cringey. Like, I couldn't tell if the author was trying to keep Max's voice (which was funny) or if he just can't write genuinely heartfelt scenes. The big, romantic sex scene could probably be added to that one post with the collection of horribly written sex scenes.

There were also some weird inaccuracies about Midwesterners that of course bugged me as a Midwesterner. We call soda "Coke?" No we don't. It's pop. Maybe there's some southern creep into the Midwest but I've N E V E R heard anyone say Coke when they meant pop generally. Also, Midwesterners like pools? I mean I guess, but we learn to swim in lakes (as opposed to the ocean).

In case you're wondering, I knocked an entire star off for the Midwest inaccuracies.

Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina, edited by Randy Russell and Janet Barnett - 3.5/5 stars

I picked this up at one of the visitor centers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on our trip there last fall. Most of these are more like folk stories than ghost stories.

Timberdark by Darren Charlton - 5/5 stars

What if the real dystopia isn't the zombie apocalypse, but "normal" life?

I was going to leave it at that but NO, I have more to say. Why aren't these books more popular? Why isn't everyone screaming about how gorgeous they are and how this is what YA should be? Why do they not have a US publisher? Why are they not all over freaking BookTok tables at bookstores?

I honestly don't even want to say that much about the Wranglestone duology because I want everyone to read them and experience them. Wranglestone and Timberdark are genuinely a couple of the most gorgeous books I've ever read, Timberdark in particular.

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden - 3.25/5

Immaculate vibes and incredible setting. Not much more to it than that.

Ravensong by Carla Fay - DNF

At 4 pages in. I hated everything about this book immediately and I don't have a good reason.

Maelstrom by Jordan L Hawk - 4.5/5 stars

BODY SWAP.

A Pocketful of Lies: Collected Stories by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

5/5 stars for Masters in This Hall alone.

If I See You Again Tomorrow by Robby Couch - 4.25/5 stars

Considering this is billed and marketed as a romance, there was surprisingly little romance in it. It was good, though. Robby Couch is one of my favorite queer YA romance writers.

Eleventh Hour by Elin Gregory - 3.75/5 stars

OMG they were mission partners! Interwar period gay spies in London, hard to go wrong.

Out in the Open by AJ Truman - 3.75/5 stars

Truman has this habit of describing sex scenes in bizarre and not particularly sexy ways ("I sucked his cock a thousand times harder than a vacuum cleaner" is an actual real comparison from this book), but his books are funny with endearing characters, so I give him a pass. I also think it MIGHT be something he does when he's writing younger characters, because the other time it was really pronounced was in The Barkeep and the Bro, where one of the characters was in his mid 20s (Out in the Open is a college romance).

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell - 5/5 stars (reread)

This book was as good, if not better, the second time around. Kiem is so funny and lovable and Jainan's history made me even more sad. I really love how well Maxwell handles the fact that Jainan was in an abusive marriage for five years while still writing a slow burn romance that doesn't span multiple books. This book is an inspiration to me and is pretty much my perfect book—gay and sci-fi. On this reread I could really see its influence on my own writing, haha. Which is cool to know that I can still be influenced in a major way even this far into my writing life!

Anyway if you haven't read this book, I honestly don't know what you're waiting for. Read it read it reeeeead ittttt.

A Veil of Gods and Kings by Nicole Bailey - DNF

DNF at 15 pages. The main character was annoying and the author took 'show don't tell' a little too far. Everything was described in flowery, overwrought purple prose. Seriously, it's a road. You can just say it's a road. Also I never want to see 'Artemis' shortened to 'Temi' ever again. Please just no.

[nameofjones]

"What would become known as hip-­hop sprang from a foundation of DJs with powerful sound systems who operated around the same time as DJ Kool Herc in the early 1970s. Disco King Mario, who lived one floor above Paradise Gray, who would himself go on to help create X Clan, in the Bronxdale Houses projects, threw some of hip-­hop’s earliest jams with his Chuck Chuck City crew. Disco King Mario and Afrika Bambaataa were both members of the Black Spades gang.” and Mario lent equipment for some of Bambaataa’s earliest sets."

"Pete DJ Jones, a transplant from North Carolina, was popular in Manhattan club circles. He was the first DJ who many, including Kurtis Blow, ever witnessed working two turntables and duplicate copies of the same record, which become the foundation for DJing, extending the breaks of funk and soul songs. Pete DJ Jones also served as a mentor to Grandmaster Flash."

"Brooklyn’s Grandmaster Flowers is recognized as one of the earliest pioneers of hip-­hop for mixing funk and disco records in sequence and throwing massive block parties. Flowers even opened for James Brown at Yankee Stadium in 1969."

"DJ Mister Cee (producer): That was the time when a lot of DJs was getting into the craft of DJing and buying them big kick-­ass speakers—and I’m saying “kick-­ass” because there used to be a sticker on the speaker that said “Kick Ass.” That was around that time that DJs would play outside and break into a lamppost. Nowadays, there’s an outlet in there. Back then, we would break into the lamppost and splice the wires up and connect to an extension cord. That’s how we would power up."

[caroline-loves-reading]

aesthetic drive to asheville, north carolina ⛰️

[sarkophagi]

Hi apparently its Costas Mandylor's birthday today... Happy Birthday to him, but more importantly, Hbd to my dog :)