#Susanna Ives

[cascadiums]

Nothing gives me a greater sense of pride and validation than bookstore employees telling me they like my choices. I'm going to get a good grade in paperback purchases, which is normal to want and possible to achieve

[dykepaldi]

my coworkers been watching capaldi era for the first time and he didnt really get it or like many of the episodes or like clara very much UNTIL he got to ftr/heaven sent/hell bent and now everythings clicking into place and i am SOOOO VINDICATED

[three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat]

This is like. Fucking gay.

[myimaginaryradio]

Manic Monday - Susanna Hoffs - 1986

[theygotlost]

btw ive been reading piranesi by susanna clarke and this shit is actually crazy. i love the way bits and pieces are revealed. every time i turn a page im like MY REACTION TO THAT INFORMATION

[numberonecodwomenfan]

i am a “soap has like 5 older sisters who (lovingly) bullied him as a child” truther and ive seen a lot of people think the same thing, so here’s what i think their names are.

maryanne isabel mactavish is the oldest and was the least mean to her baby brother. she was twelve when johnny was born and she was mrs mactavish’s little helper (catholic traditional gender roles go brr)

susanna rose mactavish was born a year after maryanne and took great joy in teasing johnny. of course she loved him, but she would never miss a chance to make fun of him for being shorter than her (until he was about 15)

agatha jane mactavish (AGGIE, god help anyone who actually calls her agatha) was born 4 years later and was the biggest tomboy to ever exist. she was so excited when johnny was born because she would finally have someone to roughhouse with her.

beatrice claire mactavish was born 3 yrs later and was almost the complete opposite of aggie, very sweet and sensitive and only mean to johnny every once in a while.

and then the twins, john paul mactavish and joanne catherine mactavish. yes. john and joanne. two names that sound exactly the same. so john became johnny and joanne became jo or jc. jc was VICIOUS to johnny and johnny did not hold back. they basically beat the shit out of each other (lovingly) on a daily basis.

anyway yeah i love the mactavish family

[nadianova]

ive finished more books than ive completed movies and i swear i have read like total 20-30 books at most in my entire life

someone send me an ask about my favorite book

thanks. okay

its Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney and my memory issues are so bad i don't even know what it was about anymore since i read it 15 years ago. i went to the library to get the book wrapped in a protective plastic since i would sometimes carry it with me to places and didn't want it to get ruined

oh also girl, interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. the movie sucks ass don't even bother watching the movie it has nothing to do with the book

i should probably read those two again but sorry i have fate and umineko ahead of me and i know they're better if my adhd ass ever gets tehre

[wulfhall]

the company of wolves, angela carter; sansa iv, a clash of kings; detail of susanna and the elders, pierre van hanselaere (1820); wolf alice (for angela carter), gina litherland; sansa iv, a clash of kings; cold death, ash mckean; winter (january, cycle of the months), master wenceslas (c.1404-07); sansa vii, a storm of swords; the company of wolves, chris hagan

sansa stark + the company of wolves 

She closed the window on the wolves' threnody and took off her scarlet shawl, the colour of poppies, the colour of sacrifices, the colour of her menses, and, since her fear did her no good, she ceased to be afraid.

What shall I do with my shawl?

Throw it on the fire, dear one. You won't need it again.

- the company of wolves, angela carter

She rushed back to the bed and stared in horror at the dark red stain and the tale it told. All she could think was that she had to get rid of it, or else they'd see. She couldn't let them see, or they'd marry her to Joffrey and make her lay with him. Snatching up her knife, Sansa hacked at the sheet, cutting out the stain. [...] She balled up the evidence, stuffed it in the fireplace, drenched it in oil from her bedside lamp, and lit it afire. [...] The bedclothes were burnt, but by the time they carried her off her thighs were bloody again. It was as if her own body had betrayed her to Joffrey, unfurling a banner of Lannister crimson for all the world to see.

- sansa iv, a clash of kings 

[c-kiddo]

hello! have you ever read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke? it seems like it'd be the kind of book you truly would enjoy, it seems to share a lot of its soul with the beautiful art you post about

i think ive heard of it before vaguely but i havent read it. thank u for recommending i will keep it in mind ^_^

[royposting]

8 10 13 🧐

omg hii!!!

8. how many languages do you know?

my mother tongue is swedish, i also speak fluent english and used to speak conversational spanish (since i lived in guatemala for a bit) but its definitely VERY rusty these days. so like, 2.5! i also spent some time living in quebec city so i used to be ok at french but thats definitely mostly gone now unfortunately

10. whats your favourite book?

hmm me n wife actually discussed this just today at the gym, how im suuuper bad at having favourites and stuff! recently though ive read piranesi by susanna clarke as well as please look after mom by kyung-sook shin and i really adored both.

13. how many siblings do you have? are you oldest, middle or youngest?

i technically have an older brother — i say technically because we are no contact and have been for many years. he sucks and i hate him lmao

thank u for sending in some questions ily 💛

[mechwarrior-rose]

Shelter: Wolf's Jaws

UNION DROPSHIP SUMMER LIGHTNING OBERON VI ORBIT CLAN WOLF INVASION CORRIDOR 30 SEPTEMBER 3049

Femme day.

It took a while to come fully to consciousness. Shelter was far too groggy to make sense of any of her thoughts. Everything was loud and angry. She thrummed with a deep, sorrowful ache. She didn't want to wake up. If she woke up, she'd remember what made her so sad.

Eventually her audio sensors came online. It was quiet in the room. Only the soft beep from a medical monitor broke the silence. All the noise was in her head. The sounds of explosions and rending metal.

The War Griffins were dead.

Ariel. Breck. Susanna. Finch. Wallace. Liana. Both Katherines. Shelter went down the list, all twenty-four pilots of the War Griffins, primary and secondary, two for each machine. But she couldn't stop there, could she? Daisy. Chuck. Maribelle. Norton. Evelyn. On through the members of her team, then through the rest of the technicians. Then the support personnel. All almost certainly killed when the enemy had overrun the Dao Sing Plain base. Dead gods, she didn't even know some of the people in administration. She was the only one who could remember them, and she didn't... If she couldn't, then...

Her eyes burned hot. Tears flowed, soaked into bandages on the left side of her face. She lifted her arm to wipe them away and felt the weight of an IV shunt and the tug of more bandages at her shoulder. There was the ghost of agony somewhere beneath the fog as she moved. She must have been put on some serious painkillers.

Her hair. She'd shaved off all her hair.

But the War Griffins were dead. It had been an appropriate sacrifice.

The 1st Oberon Guards, too. Razor Lance had been the last operating unit of 15th Company. If Rieck and Razor Two had made it out, then they and Shelter were likely the only survivors of a massacre.

I hope Hendrik Grimm III and his pirate lordling toadies got stomped flat by a Catamarauder. If there's any justice in the universe, that'll be the end of the Grimm line. But even this thought wasn't enough to cheer her.

The hiss of a door sliding open caught her attention. Shit. She was going to have to open her eyes.

The harsh artificial lights pierced her brain at the first crack of her eyelids. Her involuntary mewl of pain choked off in her throat. A shadow moved from the door to the side of the bed, followed by others. The figures waited while Shelter adjusted to the light. When she opened her eyes, she saw three people in grey jumpsuits. One, a woman with auburn hair tied back in a tight bun, had gold pins with two red stars at each side of her collar. The other two, a tall, blonde woman with a turned-up nose and a short man who wore a short, curly mohawk and a close-trimmed beard, stood a little back. The blonde's pins bore one star each, while the brunet had only the gold squares.

"Shelter, last of his family, quiaff?" the first woman asked.

Shelter's throat clicked as she swallowed. She tried again and finally mustered enough pliability from her larynx to speak. "Last of her family for now. I'm afraid it changes by the day."

"I am Star Captain Mila. With me are Star Commander Chastity and Warrior Hawk. We are three of the warriors you faced in Friday's battle. I have claimed you as a bondsperson of Clan Wolf. From now until your bondcord is severed, you belong to me. Do you understand?"

As Mila spoke, Chastity jotted notes on a handheld compad. Hawk's face was blank. Mila, however, was stern, her brown eyes as impenetrable as ironwood.

"Dress yourselves up with whatever goofy names you like. Still sounds like slavers and pirates to me." Shelter wished she could spit. She could only muster a dry cough.

Mila watched her for a moment before replying. "You speak as though you yourself were not a pirate serving a bandit king. Or perhaps you have not heard the old saying about glass houses and stones?"

"Not a pirate," Shelter growled. "Hate pirates. I hate Grimm."

The man poured water from a small pitcher into a paper cup and set it on the overbed table that sat at the foot of the bed. He placed the control remote for the bed on the table and wheeled it closer to Shelter. She stared, but his face remained impassive. She took the controls, adjusted the bed to a seated tilt, and drank the water greedily. There were only perhaps fifty milliliters in the cup. Shelter reached for the pitcher, but the man put his hand over hers. "Slowly this time," he said, his voice expressionless but warm. He withdrew his hand, and Shelter poured. As she did, she finally noticed the cord tied around her right wrist, loosely enough not to chafe. She drank her second cup more gently, flicking her gaze between the three warriors.

When she finished, Mila spoke again. "Why serve him, then? I am told that you are not a warrior by trade, but rather a technician. What drove you to take up arms to defend pirates?" Mila kept her tone even. The tension underlying her words, however, was plain.

Shelter closed her eyes and let her head drop back against the thin pillow. "I was defending my family. The War Griffins. We're a part of the 1st Guard, but we always wanted to be free again. Used to be mercs. I wanted..." She trailed off. Her head was beginning to throb. The pain meds were wearing off.

"Mercenary service is more honorable to you than piracy, quiaff?" This must have been Chastity. Her voice bore some of the snideness that Mila suppressed.

Shelter groaned. "I don't know what 'quiaff' means. But yeah. Mercs are free to live how they want, and they don't prey on innocent lives." She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her right hand. "Shouldn't I be talking to a doctor now?"

"You are being monitored by our systems and staff. Your injuries are minor. Is there something that needs to be addressed by a physician?" Mila asked.

Shelter winced as the throbbing grew stronger. "Painkillers are wearing off. I could use another dose. Head's killing me."

"If this is the worst of the pain you suffer in the near future, count yourself very fortunate," Mila said. "These questions are a courtesy. There will be more thorough interrogations to come. If you are not a warrior, how did you learn to operate a BattleMech?"

Memories washed over Shelter. Times she was brought into the administrative offices to see where her parents worked. Times she was allowed on her own recognizance, getting into places she shouldn't have, making friends with technicians, pilots, infantry, scouts, anyone who would talk to her. Signing up at sixteen, and how her parents had railed against her decision. They'd hoped to get her out of the Confederation and back to real civilization, back to the Lyran Commonwealth, where she could have a better life. Well, what if she wanted to make sure everyone got out? What if she wanted to save all of the War Griffins, not just one kid from a white-collar family pulling military paychecks?

Her first real boyfriend, a pilot who encouraged her to try out as a MechWarrior. Her first real girlfriend, a 15th Company scout who taught her how to handle sensor equipment and pentaglycerin. The qualifying trials to put her on the waiting list for an alternate pilot slot. She'd done her share of cross-training them, too. Showed them how to splice myomer, use a tech's diagnostic computer, reorient the factory wire harnesses on the Neil 6000 comms units from Defiance Industries because they always came in misassembled and would shake loose after a month and sometimes snap the soldering.

"I made friends," she said.

"Perhaps the caste mobility the other bondsfolk spoke of," Chastity murmured to Mila. "Within their touman, they have fewer barriers between warriors and the lower castes that serve them."

Shelter looked at her, winced again at the light. "Don't mistake us for the Dracs or the Capellans. We don't have castes." Not officially. But Grimm's attempts to legitimize the Oberon Confederation were more about appearances than equity. There were still haves and have-nots, and some of the haves sat on thrones while some of the have-nots performed forced labor in penal camps to which they'd been sentenced by corrupt magistrates.

Mila pursed her lips as she turned Shelter's words over. "You claim there are no castes, and that you, a technician, were trained in warrior's ways and equipment by warrior friends? This is common?"

"I don't know if I'd call it common. But I can't be the only one. I mean, you couldn't get that kind of cross-training if you were a civilian, but I was a corporal in the service. Signed up at the first chance I got."

"To convince your unit to desert the pirates and become mercenaries," Mila said. This time she couldn't keep the hint of a sneer off her face.

Shelter scowled. "To work to free my family, the company that raised me, from service to a tyrant whose grandpa turned coat from the Lyrans, went pirate, and forced the War Griffins to join his army."

Mila opened her mouth, but Shelter pressed on. "And now you've killed what's left of my family, and you're saying I'm your slave. So as far as I'm concerned, you're no better than Hendrik Grimm. In fact, you're lower than pirate scum like him."

The light exploded into fragments, and the room tilted. Something impacted Shelter's ribs. It took a few moments for her to realize that there hadn't been an explosion--she'd simply been struck by the back of Mila's hand. The force of it had flung her against the overbed table, which was now on its side in a pool of spilled water. The Star Captain was saying something, but Shelter's ears were ringing too loudly for her to make it out.

The three warriors filed toward the door. Star Captain Mila stopped, knelt by the fallen table, and picked up the remote. She snapped at Shelter's face to get her attention. "This is how you call a medtech." She stabbed the red button at the top of the remote, then tossed it harshly against Shelter's chest. The new bruise on her ribs screamed in protest.

Shelter slumped against the bed rail and wept as the Wolves left the room.

[fantasybooktournament]

my very biased favoirtes (tm)

kingkiller chronicle baby!! ive been obsessed with this series for half my life now and ive written essays on it for fun. it is deeply special to me.

the tortall books esp the song of the lioness was one of the first books i read on my own that my mom hadnt read. these are my ultimate comfort books and influence the fantasy i read after.

graceling realms by kristin cashore (well the first three at least) is a series i can read over and over. i love the magic system and how it's tied to themes. the main characters are complicated and dynamic, the romances are beautiful .. . absolutely amazing.

the gilded wolves by roshani chokshi is a puzzle book, a historical fantasy. there is a big emphasis on found family, addresses racism and colonialism within europe (esp the upper class), and it is all very cleverly constructed.

legendborn by tracy deonn is worth all the hype is is getting and I hope people continue recognizing its awesomeness. the only book in king arthur canon im attached to. its about grief, it's about legacy, it's about institutional racism, its about parents and children. read for a strong emotional journey, complicated characters, and difficult conversations about king arthur and the united states

in other lands by sarah rees brennan which tbh i read back when it was being published online. perfect for those who love snarky protagonists, commentary on the fantasy genre, you gotta try this book!

the poppy war by rf kuang is one of the few trilogies i have finished in the past few year. its absolutely heart-wrenching. starts as a magic school book, then turns into a magic war book. please look up the trigger warnings beforehand. perfect for those who love epic fantasies tied to historical events.

piranesi by susanna clarke is the strangest book I've read. its not like anything else I've read. you should absolutely try it.

strange the dreamer by laini taylor is beautifully written, clever, and full of amazing themes. i love these characters and worlds and it's very lovely and intense.

elatsoe by darcie little badger is a modern day fantasy and i cannot recommend it enough, it's so clever and kind and theres ghost dogs????

little thieves by margaret owen- my new beloved. this book was written for me, even if the author doesnt know it. sequel comes out in only a few days, perfect time to read it!!

Honorable mentions:

sunshine by robin mckinley- i love robin mckinley's books although this is not my favorite, its a fantastic take on vampires

the bone witch by rin chupeco- amazing world building and beautiful writing, im way overdue to finish the series

nettle and bone by t. kingfisher- a dark, creepy fairy tale feel that has me wanting more from the author

an ember in the ashes by sabaa tahir- another series i absolutely need to finish, has some really interesting morally gray characters.

wayward children by seanan mcguire- these books are so satisfying and i am absolutely the target audience for this series. we love deconstructed portal fantasies

girls made of snow and glass by melissa bashardoust- i will read all fairy tale retellings but this one i bought after because i needed this fantastic version of snow white

the sandsea trilogy by chelsea abdullah- only the first one is out but i am so invested to see where this reimagining of a thousand and one nights goes!

his dark materials by phillip pullman- a classic. your soul is your animal companion. need i say more?

the golem and the jinni by helene wecker- a very recent read but i will be shoving this into peoples hands now. historical fantasy isnt always my jam but when it works, it works.

[glassamphibians]

Top 5 books 👀

impossible to rank bc i have a billion but here r some favorites ive been thinking abt a lot recently

• the master of djinn by p. djèlí clark

• lives of monster dogs by kirstin bakis

• chain-gang all-stars by nana kwame adeji-brenyah

• piranesi by susanna clarke

• sula by toni morrison

[avesrinapproved]

i love gales story, cause you can tell hes a naturally caring person. He loves his family, he stepped up to take care of them and wanted to make sure theyd never have to take out tessera. His dad died in the mines, and he probably has the same hatred and fear of them that katniss did and yet he still went down the first chance he got so he could support his family. He takes care of katniss and prim hes basically part of their family too. And he even takes care of peeta a bit in the books. Because he cares deeply for those hes close too and the people they care about too.

And yeah hes stupid and a dick sometimes but ive never met an 18-19 year old who wasnt, expetually one thats traumatized and probably trying to work out his feelings too. And i deeply feel like he wouldve supported katniss being with peeta and still been her friend. But the problem is war corrupts, he was made into a high ranking soldier at 19, they gave a vengeful kid who wanted to make all those who hurt him pay (which is normal to feel) a way to do that in gruesome horrible ways before he fully understood the nuances of good and evil.

And then his ideas were used to kill someone i believe he cared about. And wither you believe he knew about it and helped decide on it, or that he didnt know/only knew some of the idea doesnt matter because he has to live with the guilt and grief of loosing both prim and katniss. Despite wanting to keep them safe.

Im not saying hes a good person (though hes certainly better than some people make him out to be) im saying susanna is really good at writing complex characters that feel human.

[supercantaloupe]

hi :) sleepover saturday … goodness gracious what is that Thang

who are ur favorite opera characters! i can’t remember if ive ever asked this before and im sorry if i have LMAO.

he's so fucking creature

um!! well admittedly it's difficult in my mind to separate a good character from their opera in my head, like them being a good character/my fondness for them usually is very closely linked to how well written that opera is and their role in it. that said you know i love leporello and elvira, guys of all time. and i truly love tolomeo from giulio cesare in egitto. certified Freak. he sucks so much. i love him. obviously a figaro and susanna fan...hm, who else...the version of rigoletto that exists only in my brain where he's jewish...starbuck from the opera version of moby dick...marie lafilleduregiment. yeah

[ask meme]

[brucequeensteen]

oh and before i go to bed for real i gotta tell you guys about the book im reading its called piranesi by susanna clarke im about halfway through it and im completely obsessed its the most insane and beautiful thing ive ever read. fans of big houses and labyrinths and the unknowableness of the world and of god and fans of autistic protagonists and fans of metaphors for religion will LOVE this book please go look it up check it out its gorgeous. my final message