#S: Discworld

[incorrecttendershippingquotes]

Ryou: You can’t give her that! It’s not safe!

Bakura: It’s a knife. They’re not meant to be safe.

Ryou, exasperated: She’s a child!

Bakura: It will be educational!

Ryou: What if she cuts herself?

Bakura: That will be an important lesson.

[harveywritings92]

[Random magic au: Witch! Reader summons Reaper! Ghost to give a brief  explanation about immortals after Soap showed up at her door panicked, Simon appears in her livingroom looking sheepish while holding a cookie.]

Ghost: I was at a party y’know

R/n: oh, sorry. We’ll be quick, I need your help.

[Ghost perks up as Soap explains a theory that a former enemy of his, Graves; who he thought was dead. May be immortal and wandering the earth after supposedly seeing him around town the night before...]

Ghost, to Soap: There’s no such thing as true immortality, for humans anyways, He’d have to be very well versed in the old magic, or have some sort of pact with a god or demon….(to R/n) May I go now?

R/n: Oh, er, yes! I hope it’s a good party.

Ghost, gives her his cookie: Hmm, I think it might go downhill at about midnight…

R/n, nibbling on said cookie: Why?

Ghost: that’s when they’ll be taking my mask off…

(He calmly lifts his mask up and there’s flash of lighting showing Simon’s true skeletal face under the glamor spell he’s wearing, R/n nods and snaps her fingers teleporting Ghost away.)

====================

{R/n and Ghost have such a pact, Apparently contracting with a god or demon has both it’s perks and consequences. While under the god of death’s protection they’re essentially un-killable and can use high leveled magic. The down side? If she gets hurt severely then the pain from said injury is much worst than average. Let’s say that R/n broke her legs? Well good news! It’ll heal almost instantly, Bad news? Every step she takes after that feels like the bones in her legs are breaking all over again. So, yeah.. She needs to be very careful when out doing jobs. ]    

[dimity-lawn]

Friendly reminder for tomorrow!

[helendamnationx]

The thing about Equal Rites is, it's not just a book about how girls can do anything boys can do, and the only thing trying to stop her is meanie old men. It's about how girls can do anything boys can do, I suppose, if she really must, though I* can't see why she wants to.

It's about shaking off gender essentialism, not deciding who someone can and can't be as soon as you see their newborn baby genitals, and adults not telling kids to be who they "should" be instead of who they really are... while also being really super clear that the traditionally male-dominated path isn't inherently better, it's just better paid.

It explores Granny's position of trying to hold Esk back from becoming a wizard, stemming not from thinking that girls aren't smart enough or that they should only be wives and mothers, but from a contempt for the flashy and self-important ways of wizards and belief that the more domestic and practical sphere of witchcraft is more important and better. It's a pretty accurate depiction of the way some older women enforcing gender roles think.

I suppose the book is more of a critique of the whole women's intuition/men's intelligence nonsense dichotomy, as well as a reminder not to cling too eagerly to the patriarchy's priorities in the search for equality.

Men aren't better at "jommetry" than women. But "jommetry" isn't more difficult or important than Granny Weatherwax's practical, rural skills - herbcraft, midwifery, caring for and understanding goats and bees, managing people, and so on.

Sir Terry never got on with the assembly lines of formal education, which is probably an important thing to bear in mind when reading this book.

*Granny Weatherwax

[coffeeastronaut]

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Dir. Daniels | Witches Abroad, GNU Sir Terry Pratchett | Severance, 1x01 - Good News About Hell / 1x09 - The We We Are | Good Omens, GNU Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman | We Are Lady Parts, 1x06 - Sparta

Self-determinism baby!!

[lileiv]

no worries

[windsroad]

i'm like. OBSESSED with moist von lipwig. he's a smart handsome charming young man. he's a total charlatan. he sees conartistry as... well an art. he seems to be well-educated. he threw it all away to scam people. he honest to god just wants to make the postal service work. he wants to date a mean scary lady. he danced with her in the ashes his burned post office. he saved a cat from the fire because the look of the thing was what a hero would do. he killed the banshee and didn't tell anyone.

[tuilere]

I finished Going Postal!!

[harveybwabbit92]

Gento, about Akari's ax: You can't give her that! It's not safe!

Seven: It's an ax. It's not meant to be safe.

Gento: She's a kid!

Seven: It's educational.

Gento: What if she cuts herself?

Seven: That will be an important lesson.

[andromeda3116]

"One day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald, I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."

--Lord Vetinari, Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

[noahsbookhoard]

📚December 2024 Book Review📚

Happy New Year everyone! And to end it up with only one day of delay here's the last reviews for 2024!

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

It was interesting but not my favorite Atwood so far. Grace's point of view was sometimes hard to follow, but the change of writing style to mark the difference of class and education between her and the doctor was a meaningful choice. I liked the mystery, the contradicting versions of what happened and the confusion of the poor doctor trying to unravel all this.

I am not opposed to open endings so the lack of answers at the end was not a problem to me but I understand that it can bother others. When you write about real events it's delicate to whether someone is or isn't guilty, better to let the readers judge by themselves.

Le Père Porcher (Chroniques du Disque-Monde #20) by Terry Pratchett

I wanted to reread it for Christmas season and, for a twist, to read the french translation by Patrice Couton. I don't credit translator enough but I always heard the highest praise for his work on the Discworld Novels. They are well deserved, the translation is amazing! Incredible work on the names, hilarious translations of the puns, it works so well! The story itself is just as good as I remembered, Death is really an amazing character.

Soie by Alessandro Baricco

I don't see the appeal. There is some nice writing, the repetitive aspects give it a nice fairy tale vibe but that's it. It barely mention the journey to Japan, barely mention silk. Which is the damn title. Instead you have a guy that travels across Europe and Asia to cheat on his wife. This wasn't was I hoped for from the title and blurb, I am just disappointed.

A Day of Fallen Night (Root of Chaos #0) by Samantha Shannon

I loved The Priory of the Orange Tree when I read it three years ago so I was excited to read the prequel. If you are like me and picked if long after reading book 1, I strongly recommend catching up on the lore before reading and if you haven't read book 1 yet DO NOT start with A Day of Fallen Night: this might be a prequel but it is not an introduction.

That said I loved it, convoluted and lore heavy as it is: it brings back all the places I loved in book 1 with even more details put on the world building and tradition. The multiple point of views are well used and they come together in really satisfying ways. Even if the threat is more or less the same as in The Priory of the Orange Tree the way they figure a solution and the fight was so good!

Retour à St Mary (Cosy Christmas Mystery #1) by Carine Pitocchi

Plain bad, and that's not the just me saying it, that's 100% of my local book club. Don't hope for a whodunit, the mystery barely qualifies as a police novel, the investigation is confusing and the culprit, obvious. This is also half of a Christmas cheesy hallmark romance. The bad half that is, because at the end Unsufferable Female Lead takes a train and just leaves behind Secretly In Love Childhood Best Friend Who Happens To Be An Anglican Priest For Some Reason Male Love Interest. It just sucks. Don't bother.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

I really liked it, the main character spiralling down pulled me down two and at several moments I was genuinely spooked. I read it a little too quickly to fully appreciate it tho I think, I will need to reread it again!

Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Niania #02) by C S Lewis

I don't really have much too say. Just like the first book I had watched the movie a hundred times before and I was just too old for it. It is a cute story tho, I love the talking animals, especially Reepicheep.

Winter Spirits short story collection

Overall a nice read: this is an anthology featuring 12 different authors which means 12 different spin on the spooky christmas ghost story. There's only one I actively didn't like and four where I went to check what else the author had done because I needed to study how their brain worked. I originally picked the book because it features a story by Stuart Turton, who wrote The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. His story is good but I especially loved those by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Andrew Michael Hurley, and Natashe Pulley.

The Agatha Christie Book Club #1 by C A Larmer

This was fun but not as good as reading an Agatha Christie novel. The investigation is a little convoluted, with clues that aren't really clear to the reader. And honestly if I were the characters being interviewed by the book club member twenty seven times in one week I too would have been annoyed and slammed the door. It was a bit frustrating that the pay off required to have biographical knowledge of Christie's life. It was all explained in the end but you couldn't really follow along. The book is good but my expectations were miscalculated, I'll adjust when reading the rest of the series.

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

This wouldn't be enough to call it Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade In Space but this is very much what it is. And more. It has some really cool element of world building and alien species with complex history and dynamics. The characters were very good too, the relationship between Uncle and Maia I was especially fond of, medic is touching too, I just took most of the book to warm up to Will. Emotional, action packed, full of twist and investigation and museum heist. Very warm recommendation.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Gut punches galore. It had been a long time since I read a horror novel that genuinely scared me and boy was I scared. I have next to zero knowledge of the US South but the description were so vivid I could feel the heat. Also a gold star for most fucked up gay relationship to Andrew and Eddy, this should be so hot but somehow it is, good luck to Sam unpacking this mess.

A Local Habitation (October Daye #2) by Seanan McGuire

This. Was. Wild. Never saw so many deaths and especially main characters narrowly avoiding death I was SO SURE I had figured it out and in the end I was barking at the wrong tree. What a ride. I am growing very fond of October Daye and I hope we get to see more of Quentin too because he's a good kid. I was promised by

[harveywritings92]

R/n: What’re your squad up to?

Price: I don't know.

R/n: You're the Captain though?

Price: I don't like to ask them questions.

R/n: Why not?

Price: They might give me answers.

[dimity-lawn]

[2readiscworld]

I'm doing crazy things to Colon and Nobbs in my Spotify playlists

[dashiellqvverty]

love to check the ao3 for something on a whim and find out that plenty of other people ARE wearing the same goggles as me. anyway.

🫡🫡🫡

[deborahocarroll]

Wrapup! March Magics 2024

(Gandalf gif: A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor is he early. He arrives *precisely* when he means to.) Yeah. Um. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. *cough* Okay, it might be a liiittle much posting a wrapup about March in August, but hey, at least I’m doing it?? It’s more for my own personal look-back since I enjoy having it in my blog archives. 😛 I got real busy and not very…