#Recs.

[pennyserenade]

i’m aware i have a wide range of individuals from many fandoms here, but i believe there’s a cary grant movie for everyone, so here are my recommendations:

for the x-files fans who enjoy the film noir energy: notorious (suspense, tension, the best chemistry you ever did see between two people aside from mulder & scully)

for the x-files fans who enjoy episodes like bad blood: arsenic & old lace (do NOT look anything up about this film before you see it. go into it with zero ideas about what’s going to happen and you’ll have so much fun), bringing up baby

for the x-files fans who love fox mulder because he is impassioned and stubborn and always getting himself into trouble: talk of the town, north by northwest, suspicion

for the javier peña lovers: people will talk (i know you love a good man who’s trying to protect a woman), north by northwest (i also know you love a man who can’t seem to stop getting himself into bad situations)

for dieter bravo lovers: the awful truth, the philadelphia story, his girl friday (all part of what i lovingly refer to as the cary grant ‘husband to ex-husband to husband again’ universe. what is dieter bravo not, if a man that annoys you so bad you divorce him but then charms you again so you remarry him?)

the hunger games fans: the eagle and the hawk (this is what they call a pre-code film, which means it was allowed to be a bit more like the films we have today. it’s deeply sad but incredibly powerful movie about the dangers of war and it what it does to people), holiday (much less serious but very anti-rich people), the talk of the town (i know you all love a good rebel)

[leyendolibros]

MY TOP FIVE FAVORITE READS OF 2022

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Cary Grant: A Beautiful Disguise by Scott Eyman 

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdich 

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 

Euphoria by Lily King 

read under the cut for more information about books + my personal opinions.

TRUST BY HERNAN DIAZ 

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth--all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Although this book takes a bit to really get invested in, once you are invested, you’re in for a treat. This story is split into four separate parts, with each part representing a different narrative on the same couple. You’ll find similarities between each story but ultimately it is up to you, the reader, to figure out what is real and what is not. Not only is this masterfully written, but the entire concept of it genius and I’ve never quite read a novel like it before. I think if you enjoy books like The Great Gatsby, you’ll really take a liking to this. I read this book many nights until 2am because I could not get enough of it.

CARY GRANT: A BEAUTIFUL DISGUISE BY SCOTT EYMAN

Born Archibald Leach in 1904, he came to America as a teenaged acrobat to find fame and fortune, but he was always haunted by his past. His father was a feckless alcoholic, and his mother was committed to an asylum when Archie was eleven years old. He believed her to be dead until he was informed she was alive when he was thirty-one years old. Because of this experience Grant would have difficulty forming close attachments throughout his life. He married five times and had numerous affairs.

Despite a remarkable degree of success, Grant remained deeply conflicted about his past, his present, his basic identity, and even the public that worshipped him in movies such as Gunga Din, Notorious, and North by Northwest.

Drawing on Grant’s own papers, extensive archival research, and interviews with family and friends, this is the definitive portrait of a movie immortal.

I picked this up after watching Bringing Up Baby in early February and it successfully plunged me into Old Hollywood like nothing else could. I’ve always found it a bit hard to rate biographies but I think it’s safe to say that Eyman did a fantastic job at speaking about the man that was Cary Grant. For anyone worried that they might not enjoy it because you don’t know much about Cary or Old Hollywood, worry not. I went into this blind and it genuinely was one of the finest pieces of writing that I read this year. This about so much more than a movie star and his career; it’s about a man, his dreams, his desire, and all the  bumps along the way. I believe it’s good to throw in a couple non-fiction reads each year and I definitely recommend this one.

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN BY LOUISE ERDRICH 

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

I had to read this book for school but it became something that I genuinely enjoyed. Erdrich is a masterful writer that uses multiple perspectives to tell a story of a community being threatened in the 1950s. It is funny and witty, but also incredibly sad at times. It can get a bit heavy so I would take a look at the trigger warning before you plunge into this, but I do think everyone should consider reading it. I loved so many characters in this and I just think the way Erdrich writes is such a treat. She weaves these incredible tales with such humanity and she’s able to create such a feeling of community within her pages.

SEA OF TRANQUILITY BY EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL

St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core. Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe. A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.'

Sea of Tranquility is a bit of a genre outlier for me. I don’t really stick to any one specific genre but I’ve never really read anything from the sci-fi category before this. It took me a little over a day to finish this book and let me tell you, I greatly regret not diving into this genre sooner because of it. This book is so insanely good and it uses the concept of time travel in a way that is so neat. The narrative spans over something like 300 years and though I will admit it did take me a little to get into the story, I really enjoyed it once I did. This is one of those novels were you have to commit to the ride and let the author take you were you need to go with trust, but you won’t regret it if you do. It was incredibly beautiful and it touched down on things like the pandemic in a way that wasn’t cheesy or cringe-worthy. In fact, it was quite insightful. 

EUPHORIA BY LILY KING

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives...

I’m a huge, huge lover of Lily King and have been ever since I picked up Writers and Lovers in 2021, so I can say this is a bit of different thing for Lily King as a writer. The book is based off the anthropologist Margaret Mead and this love triangle she was involved in with her husband and the man who would go on to become her second husband. It isn’t a re-telling of that situation, because there isn’t enough information about the time to be able to recreate it; this is just what came to King after she had read a biography of Mead. I think it was a wonderful, griping story from nearly the beginning. It’s sad and funny and it gives a rich look at these three deeply human people in their very unique settings. It’s a unique concept and I think King really executed it well.

[timotey]

(Source)

A chance meeting between Julien Cohen and the 10-year-old prodigy Yeonah Kim at an airport. Magic happens.

[behindviolettwrites]

😭😭😭

came across this screenshot of a tweet on pinterest and i couldn’t help but headcanon making it through the twd apocalypse because of a painfully obvious crush on daryl.

twd headcanon: obviously crushing on an oblivious daryl dixon.

giggling in the distance while daryl dixon is in the middle of killing walkers, “ugh he’s so cute when he does that”

kicking your feet sitting up in a tree going “hiiiii daryllllll! <3 whatcha doinnn” and he’s like “???” cause you’re legitimately surrounded by now dead walkers and covered in blood

very sunshine x grumpy coded

whispering to maggie “oh my god do you think he was checking me out?” in the middle of a battle

“does this top look cute on me?” “what do you think is his type?” “should i maybe start smoking so we can go on smoke breaks together”

reminding yourself you’re a grown woman with composure and dignity when you find yourself wanting to scream into your pillow, because this daryl crush is so frustrating and he’s just so hot and his arms are so perfect and the way his voice makes you want to climb him right then and there-

wanting to be all mysterious and cool around him but it’s like the spirit of your teenage self possesses you whenever he’s around

subtly standing riiigghhhtttt behind him so rick pairs you together for supply runs then fist-pumping to yourself when it works

rick pretends not to notice. he pairs both of you up on purpose everytime

if he helps you up, you hold on to his hand for longer than you need to, in what you think is a subtle way but everyone notices

while almost dying, “fuck, can someone make sure my hair looks good before daryl sees me? rosita PLEASE im your FRIEND stop messing with my wound and fix my HAIRhdhwhrjue”

“maggie if i pass out can you please do me a favour and make sure daryl is the one who carries me? <3 oooh do you think he knows how to do cpr-“

*in the middle of killing walkers* wow daryl!!! *slash* that was *stab* a great shot!

daryl being ultimately clueless about your flirting and genuinely just thinks you’re being friendly

carol having to tell him “daryl she’s in love with you it’s so obvious”

and he denies it “nah she acts that way towards everyone” even if he secretly wishes it was true

carol wanting to smack him on the head because everyone knows you’re head over heels for daryl dixon except for daryl dixon

when you’re caught in a herd, you force yourself to keep going because there’s no way in hell you’re going to die surrounded by walkers. in your dazed state you’re thinking “fuck this shit im tracking dixon down and im gonna use my last breath to tell him i love him”

and maybe dying in his arms sounds better than being ripped apart by reanimated corpses so you keep pushing yourself

when you make it home you basically just throw yourself at the gates and everyone rushes over to get you to the infirmary

you could’ve sworn you heard maggie yell at daryl to carry you but you’re too out of it to process the thought

bleeding out and feeling yourself fading but then you hear daryl’s voice

“come on, y/n, you’re a fighter. you gotta make it through this. i know you can. please, you have to.”

it’s a miracle how instantly that makes you open your eyes when you were seconds away from death just before that

bringing you flowers and random little gifts while you’re healing up in bed but only putting them next to you when you’re asleep because he’s too shy

him not used to the days being so quiet without you being two steps behind him

finding himself missing your ridiculous quips when he’s on a supply run killing walkers and having to fill the silence with your voice in his head, recalling all the things you regularly say to him, because it feels too weird without you

being so attentive to your needs when you feel good enough to be out and about

daryl feeling much, much better when you’re back to being yourself and the days feel normal again with you going “hiiiiii darryyylllll <3”

carol: she’s in love with you.

daryl: she ain’t. stop it.

carol: fine! but you can’t deny you’re in love with her

whole thing is very reminiscent of a high school crush; innocent, bashful, endearing. everyone’s so entertained by The Daryl and Y/N Show

they have a bet going on to see who asks who out first

daryl asking maggie if what carol tells him is true, trying and failing to be casual about it

very shrill “he WHAT?!?” scream heard from your room, just minutes after the exchange

“TELLMEEVERYTHINGHESAID-“

[sarahmackattack]

One last talent show to save the rec center

Ok everybody here's the deal.

My science education nonprofit, Skype a Scientist (you might know her, creator of the squid facts hotline and matcher of classrooms + scientists) has secured absolutely no grants to support general operations for 2025. But! We're selling advent calendars to fund our program! They absolutely rule. They can save our nonprofit asses. If we sell 5000, which I realize, is so many, we can fund our program for 2025. Then I can offer a bunch of programming for free. Running a nonprofit is a weird job.

Every day, counting down to frankly whatever you want (it's usually Christmas, but man, maybe you want to count down to Halloween, that's fine by me) scratch off the sparkly sparkly iridescence and reveal a fact about frogs! We have 24 top-notch frog facts here.

You should get one for every kid in your life, then get one for all the adults who still let themselves access joy in critters.

Get 'em here: https://squidfacts.bigcartel.com/

[animentality]

kicking a hornets nest.

[bugbuoyx]

i made tumblr pride flags! feel free to ask for more edits

[innerenigma]

•Normalize Fanart for Fanfics Again You Fools•

It's not cringe anymore (it SHOULDN'T be cringe anymore), just do it. You're doing something you enjoy, who cares what anybody else says! So spread the words my fellow internet brethren.

Spread the Word :)

[gayofficial]

weird freak mutual to weird freak mutual connection

[pennyserenade]

i think its safe to say that i consume more movies and books than the average person (lol) and this year i’m trying to make an effort to make my watchlist and reading list much more diverse than years past. as you are all probably aware, this month is black history month and i thought i’d share some movies and books i love/plan to read this month and this year in case any of you are looking for recommendations!

for movies i plan to watch:

carmen jones (1954) starring dorothy dandridge, harry belafonte 

no way out (1950) starring sidney poitier

nothing but a man (1964) starring ivan dixon, abbey lincoln

anna lucasta (1958) starring eartha kitt

cane river (1982) starring tommye myrick, richard romain

losing ground (1982) starring seret scott

paris blues (1961) starring sidney poitier, diahann carrol

if beale street could talk (2018) starring kiki layne, stephan james

a raisin in the sun (1961) starring sidney poitier, ruby dee, claudia mcneil, diana sands

movies i recommend:

spider-man: into the spider verse (2018) starring shameik moore

a patch of blue (1965) starring sidney poitier 

do the right thing (1989) starring spike lee, giancarlo esposito, ossie davis, ruby dee

the defiant ones (1958) starring sidney poitier 

sorry to bother you (2018) starring lakeith stanfield, tessa thompson

nope (2022) starring keke palmer, daniel kaluuya 

the books intend to read:

kindred by octavia e. butler

parable of the sower by octavia e. butler

beloved by toni morrison 

incidents in the life of a slave girl: written by herself (non-fiction) by harriet jacobs*

narrative of the life of fredick douglas: an american slave (non-fiction) by frederick douglass*

girl, woman, other by bernardine evaristo

books i want to read/have seen other people recommend

maame by jessica george

post-traumatic by chantal v. johnson

jackal by erine e. adams

the fifth season n.k. jemisin 

caste: the origins of our discontents (non-fiction) by isabel wilkerson 

they were her property (non-fiction) by stephanie jones roger

all about love: new visions (non-fiction) by bell hooks 

the secret lives of church ladies by deesha philyaw

seven days in june by tia williams

honey & spice by bolu babalola

luster by raven leilani 

*i’m reading these for one of my school courses but i still think they are definitely worth noting 

[wowwforever]

if parks and rec was still being made they’d do a bit where ron swanson has to wear a pronouns name tag and it’d just be “???/???” And it’d cut to a talking head of him going

“I’ve been a fool all this time. It’s bad enough the government knows my name, but now they want to know my gender? So I’m not letting them know my preferred pronouns. As far as I’m concerned, no one in this building should refer to me at all.”

[samwisethewitch]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[ashrayus]

absolutely lost it over this fic by @neuro-psyche so. have this comic o(- (

go read it rn if u also love some Good identity reveal fic!!!!

[lakecountylibrary]

Just the essentials!

Music credit: "Cinema Blockbuster Trailer 7" by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/329-cinema-blockbuster-trailer-7 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license (CC BY 4.0)

[Video Description: A 26 second video. Orchestral, cinematic music plays. Text reads The library is on fire! Grab the most important things!

A librarian at her computer spins around in her chair in slow motion, a look of horror on her face. Video cuts between various librarians frantically rescuing items. Each scene is labeled with the item:

The South Shore Posters: A librarian completely obscured by a framed South Shore Line poster she is carrying backs out of a room.

The hand chair: A librarian hauls away a large red plastic chair shaped like a hand.

Patron holds: A librarian shovels patron holds off the holds shelf onto a cart.

Benny the library skeleton: A librarian princess-carrying a large skeleton dressed in an oversized t-shirt frantically looks around for an exit before dashing away

The cardigan pile: A librarian almost completely obscured by the pile of cardigans in her arms runs toward the camera.

3D printer: A librarian dashes up to a large 3D printer and attempts to lift it off the table

Cecily the giraffe: A librarian pats a life size baby giraffe statue and then grabs it by the leg and begins slowwwly scooting backward to slide it across the carpet

The library tree: A librarian grips an enormous planter out of which springs an entire tree and pulls with all her might. It doesn't move.

James Patterson books? : The librarian carrying Benny sprints into frame between shelves loaded with endless Patterson books. Record scratch. The sound of a clock ticking as he considers the books for maybe two seconds.

Text changes to "Not enough hands". The dramatic music resumes as he sprints off frame with Benny.

End card with the library logo. The words 'Not actually on fire. Everything is fine.' are typed across the screen. End description]

[arrja]

Sukuna finds a strange creature in the forest and decides to bring it home

Fanart inspired by- The Child With Marks on AO3 (Make sure to check it out!)