#Teo and Bel

[livros-para-nick]

"Mas a verdade é que, por mais que fique mais fácil a cada dia que passa, ainda dói muito, muito mesmo"

— A mecânica do amor

[bidoofenergy]

my mechanical romance is fucking incredible already and im not just saying that because im a mechanical engineer but also because alexene farol follmuth is hilarious and incredible

[booklovershouse]

Oi oi, booklovers!

Já chegamos no final de outubro e, com isso, aqui estão minhas leituras do mês! Felizmente, outubro foi tão "produtivo" quanto setembro, então tenho mais quatro livrinhos para falar sobre 🤠✨

🍂| Morte, doce Morte - Craig Rice (4★)

É um cozy mistery gostosinho e divertido. Todo o mistério é investigado pelo trio Carstairs, composto pelos filhos de uma ex-repórter e atual escritora de romances policiais.

As crianças tentam resolver o assassinato da vizinha de caráter duvidoso para deixar os livros da mãe famosos - além de arrumar um encontro para ela, é claro.

Dinah, a mais velha é bastante racional e responsável; April, do meio, poderia facilmente se passar por uma atriz de Hollywood; já Archie é o "banco" e mestre em criar distrações. Juntos, os três realizam uma investigação perfeita.

Gostei muito da história, apesar de achar o final meio acelerado. É uma boa opção pra quem quer sair da ressaca literária.

🍁| Os Davenport - Krystal Marquis (2,5★)

Confesso que não tinha expectativas tããão altas, considerando que não gostei muito da dinâmica de "alternar entre 4 histórias" em Realeza Americana, mas enfim.

O livro foca em Olivia e Hellen, as duas filhas da família Davenport, além de Ruby (bff de Olívia) e Amy-Rose, empregada da família. Também fala um pouco da luta racial, já que todos os personagens são negros, mas não abordou esse ponto com tanta profundidade.

Achei os romances muito arrastados, detestei um mocinho em específico, o contexto histórico foi meio fraco e ainda recebi um final aberto. Não leio a continuação nem se a Alt me pagar.

🍂| Os Clãs da Lua - Sara Gusella (5★)

Esse daqui foi o primeiro favoritado do ano (sim, é outubro e só favoritei um livro até agora 🥲). Os Clãs da Lua é uma distopia cristã baseada no livro de Êxodo então, em vários momentos, vc vai lembrar da história de Moisés.

Basicamente, há muitos e muitos anos, a Terra foi considerada inabitável e os humanos tiveram que buscar abrigo em outro lugar: a Lua. Ao chegarem lá, eles descobriram que existia vida ali e conviveram com os lunares pacificamente por um tempo até que, de repente, se tornaram seus escravos.

Taluya é a princesa mais nova do Império Lunar e está prestes a ter seu baile dos clãs, onde escolherá seu marido. Entretanto, nada sai como o planejado e a princesa passa a questionar se o seu lugar é mesmo na Lua.

Apesar das diversas semelhanças com a história de Moisés (afinal, é praticamente uma releitura), a autora ainda conseguiu me surpreender e surtar em alguns momentos. Foi muito legal, realmente amei todas as reflexões e também a possibilidade de ver como Moisés deve ter se sentido - às vezes a gente esquece que os personagens da Bíblia são humanos e têm sentimentos. Já imaginou a loucura que seria viver na pele deles?

Li pela Biblion (biblioteca digital gratuita de SP - e não, não precisa ser de São Paulo pra usar, pq eu não moro lá e até hoje funciona pra mim), mas pretendo comprar o físico depois, a edição parece muito bonita.

🍁| A Mecânica do Amor - Alexene Farol (3,5★)

E se eu disser que tinha grandes expectativas pra esse livro? Já deu pra ver minha decepção pela nota, né? Kkkkkkkkrying

Bel é uma estudante do terceiro ano que não sabe muito bem o que fazer da vida. Por causa de um trabalho mal feito, ela acaba se inscrevendo para a equipe de robótica por livre e espontânea pressão de sua professora. Com o tempo, Bel passa a gostar do assunto, mas ainda precisa superar os benefícios dados aos garotos e, em especial, Teo Luna, o gênio que "manda em tudo" por lá.

Sinceramente, eu sabia que o tema da robótica/física/engenharia não fazia muito o meu tipo, mas esse bem foi o problema maior. Eu detestei o Teo. Passei uns 80% do livro achando o garoto insuportável e foram raros os momentos em que consegui não ter raiva dele. Ok, o cara é inteligente mesmo, muito legal, mas ele é tão metido. Acho que só gostei mesmo das batalhas entre os robôs pq, já que eu não fui com a cara do mocinho, nem achei o romance legal.

Mas enfim, o post de hoje tá quilométrico kkkkk Lembrando que amanhã temos o Reforme seu Kindle!!!! ~ morta de ansiedadeeeee

Bjs e boas leiturassss <3333

[olivieblake]

hi i just finished my mechanical romance (the audiobook which is BRILLIANT) and then i found you on tumblr and i wanted to say your book is glorious and hit me in such a deeply personal way.

im also biracial and a mechanical engineer. like teo, i was insanely competitive in high school and had a close relationship with a physics teacher who's definitely a bit sexist but trying his best. like bel, i wasn't sure i fit in engineering and i love building things and got rejected from MIT. like neelam, i was a mean and moody teen and constantly fighting to get robotics guys to take me seriously. this book threw me back into every horrible group project i had in college, especially the tiny pool filter baby i made for senior design with a team of guys and one woman who didn't like me. every deep conversation in a car, i felt like i was there, having it with myself or my sister or my best friend.

i don't often see myself so directly reflected in books. i wish i had something like this in high school. im so glad to have it now, and even happier for all the kids in high school that get to read it now.

also you're really funny and teo and bel are adorable

omg!!!! I love this. not just you saying I'm funny (although thank you very much). I am so honored to have written something that spoke to you in this way. I'm so touched that it felt that real and right to you. I'm so glad in general that you enjoyed the book and thank you so much for sharing this, because I know there's a lot of the old me in there too and I'm happy we could share it asynchronously together in the ether like this

[noveltyreads]

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really should've known better than to judge a book by its cover, but I really couldn't help that this book looked so cute. 

This book is a romance book, yes. But at its core it's more so about STEM and empowering women to go into science, tech, engineering and mathematics based fields. Bel doesn't think she has what it takes to do engineering. She enjoys it but she can't imagine doing it as a job or what she could do in the future. This book was quite empowering, showing that girls do belong in STEM. I loved the steminist message. 

But while I loved the women's empowerment in this book, a few things fell a bit flat for me. For starters, it took me a while to get into this book. I mainly blame writing style for this and I felt like I got used to the writing style too late to really absorb the story. Not to mention, the physics and engineering jargon. Because Bel and Teo talked (and flirted) in engineering and robotics terms, I struggled to understand a lot of things due to my complete and utter lack of understanding of anything physics related. 

I think it was mainly due to the physics banter that it took me a while to get into the relationship of this book which was a shame because this book got me cheesy grinning at the end. There were times when I was questioning if I was shipping them or not because there were things Bel and Teo were doing that I sort of raised an eyebrow about. I'm glad they communicated and helped fix things together. 

All in all, a cute book but the writing style got the better of me at times.

[rockislandadultreads]

STEM Romances: A reading list

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon

Successful pediatric surgeon London Kelley just needs to find some balance and de-stress. According to her friends Samiah and Taylor, what London really needs is a casual hookup. A night of fun with no strings. But no one—least of all London—expected it to go down at her high school reunion with Drew Sullivan, millionaire, owner of delicious abs, and oh yes, her archnemesis. Now London is certain the road to hell is paved with good sex. Because she’s found out the real reason Drew’s back in Austin: to decide whether her beloved hospital remains open. Worse, Drew is doing everything he can to show her that he’s a decent guy who actually cares. But London’s not falling for it. Because while sleeping with the enemy is one thing, falling for him is definitely not part of the plan.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either. Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with. Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they'd met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin's better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night. What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

Ms Voss is such an angel, and I really hope bel does end up thinking abt engineering seriously! Also rlly hoping that teo expedites his whole actually-listening-to-bel thing lol 😅

[justsophiiee]

matteo professione, ernia, teo grana padana, il duca, matteo bonifico duca, king qt, il bel mattè, the best italian rapper born after the 1990s ma anche mio padre

[pm973]

hii new book review: my mechanical romance this book was ADORABLE and ad a woman in stem, i deem it #phanapproved :) the relationship between bel and teo was just so sweet and i loved seeing both of them grow. i appreciated that there weren’t completely unrealistic “happy endings,” but that the author decided to just keep it real but still cute. i loved the ending and just the book as a whole. great read, 5/5⭐️! #mymechanicalromance #bookreview #bookstagram (at Robotics) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmUOkGMLJSO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ismahanescorner]

My Mechanical Romance | Book Review

Author: Alexene Farol Follmuth

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Macmillan 

Release Date: 23/06/2022

Rating: 3.75/5 🌟🌟🌟💫

Synopsis:

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either. Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

Review:

TW//: misogyny

I quite enjoyed this novel, but in all honesty it isn’t anything to wax on about! It is your typical run of the mill contemporary YA coming of age story with a romantic side plot!

I like the fact that the story for the most part focuses primarily on engineering and robotics than the romance. I also liked the honest depiction of female friendship dynamics, and that it wasn’t fodder for the “not like the other girls” trope! The “slow-burn” camaraderie between Bel and Neelam was so heartwarming to witness!!

Overall, it’s a very short, sweet, and wholesome story about a girl navigating her way through stem (and love)!

nb: I listened to the audiobook and the narrators did a phenomenal work. definitely recommend checking out the audiobook if that’s your preferred reading choice/if your library has it!

[rothjasmine]

my mechanical romance headers

like/reblog if you like © reganchariotte on twitter

[sunny-deejee]

i just finished my mechanical romance, and the robotics part was wayyyy more interesting that i thought? the robot fights were always interesting, and while i didnt quite understand the physics part of it, it was very fun to read. 

[julesdevarona]

“Hey, sailor,” she says seductively.

“Weirdo.”

“You like it.”

“I do.”

bel maier & teo luna

my mechanical romance by alexene farol follmuth

[book-waas]

My Mechanical Romance

Title: My Mechanical Romance Author: Alexene Farol Follmuth Date Finished: June 4, 2022 Goodreads Links: [Book] [Review]

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Thank you NetGalley and Holiday House for providing this ARC to me in exchange for an honest review.]

Review:

Sign me up for more STEM based books like this!!

Bel is a new transfer student whose coming off a bad year, and is kind of looking for a place to belong. While all her classmates at this new school have high plans for college and their life, Bel finds herself blank when she thinks about her future — especially when she's asked directly about it.

Teo Luna was raised with very specific expectations as the son of a tech whiz, and those expectations as his father's son seem to have followed him into high school as well, where they're all waiting for Teo to be that stand-up guy, available for everything, a master of all trades, involved in every extracurricular under the sun.

Bel and Teo are thrown together when a teacher spots Bel's innate talent for design, and leads her straight to the robotics team that Teo captains. Bel doesn't have a lick of expectation of being accepted onto the team, but Teo spots her sketching out a better, near-flawless design for the audition problem, and he's sold.

They get off to a rough start, obviously.

To Bel, Teo is nothing but a rich, stuck-up boy who doesn't know how to take criticism and feedback, and just wants everyone to agree to everything he says. To Teo, Bel is infuriating because she's standoffish, and doesn't play as a team — and she's a threat to his life plan because he'd never counted on someone like her in his life.

They're both right and wrong, obviously.

The best part of this book was undoubtedly that these kids were allowed to be kids, and make stupid decisions, and get in trouble with their parents. Bel and Teo come from very different backgrounds but a lot of the flaws they have are similar, and they manage to strike a balance between themselves.

Bel's relationship with her family was a cornerstone of this, and while I do wish there had been a little bit more resolution on that front, it wasn't necessary for the purpose of the story so I don't think the book was lacking anything. Teo came off as someone who comes from privilege, and a lot of his flaws came from the fact that his privilege is rooted with his dad's expectations of him. I like that the author didn't shy away from those two co-existing statements.

I loved watching Bel and Teo's relationship develop through the book, through their common ground, and while I don't understand a lick of whatever was explained here besides the basic physics, I love that both of them got a change to feed off and balance each other's goals and help support each other — even if they hit a few major roadblocks along the way!

I also think that because these are high schoolers, some of the plot choices make sense. They are inevitably going to mess up in ways that are embarrassing because at that age, you don't know what you're doing, so you do stupid things, learn a lesson and then hopefully not do it again.

It wouldn't be a true review of this book if I didn't talk about the very real element of women in STEM that the author put in there. We have side characters who, in my opinion, are representative of the two extremes of approaching the misogyny — Neelam, who will push harder to try to get a spot to the point of bitterness, and Lora, who might just defer to the norm in a bid for honey instead of vinegar.

As a STEM major myself (particularly a woman of color!), I've been through the exact dilemma that Bel and the other girls were going through. Never being seen, always watching it be "a boy's world," watching teachers shower praise and accolades on the male students and never anyone else, etc etc. These are things that were familiar to me in high school and college, and are still familiar now, and I loved that we could get the representation for that. Because when I was in school, no one ever talked about it. You were expected to keep your head down, because if praise didn't turn your way, wrath and blame certainly did.

This book isn't as serious as that, but it's just as serious as you'd expect a book about 17 and 18 year old high schoolers to be. They're learning lessons as the book goes on, while falling in love with each other, and I think that was done fantastically.

Honestly, I just love the way the characters were crafted. I swung back and forth on a lot of them before realizing that was the point! They're finding things out about themselves, and somewhere, it dragged up all my stuff from high school, too, about being the overachieving student trying to score a spot to go to medical school.

(Also let's be real, I love seeing nerds being celebrated because I, too, am a nerd.)

This book was a great read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the academic-rivals-to-lovers trope, dual POV, a snarky girl just trying to find her way, a spread-too-thin boy trying to do it all, and to anyone who’s ever felt like they don't belong!

[waterbendingwaves]

hi im halfway done w my mechanical romance but this is the cutest high school book ever and i cannot wait to finish it omg i already know jm going to be obsessed w this book

update: im obSESSED

[diceriadelluntore]

Storia Di Musica #233 - Franco Mussida, Racconti Della Tenda Rossa, 1991

Il luglio dedicato ai chitarristi lo vorrei chiudere con un omaggio ad un grandissimo musicista italiano. Il suo nome dà i brividi di piacere ad una generazione musicale, quella del prog italiano, che come raramente è capitato poteva guardare a testa altissima i colleghi stranieri in quegli anni. Tra i chitarristi prog italiani, voglio ricordare tre nomi. Il primo, Nico Di Palo, dei New Trolls, agli inizi degli anni ’70 fu inserito in una classifica del prestigiosissimo magazine musicale inglese Melody Maker (all’epoca una Istituzione) tra i dieci migliori chitarristi europei; il secondo, Marcello Todaro, chitarrista del Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, capace di disegnare la via mediterranea al prog con la sua chitarra vibrante e visionaria, e personalmente trovo una delle sue migliori performance nel disco omonimo dei Crystals, il super gruppo nato dalla sua uscita dal BMS e composto da Giorgio ”Fico” Piazza della Premiata Forneria Marconi al basso, Nanni Civitenga della Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno / Samādhi alle chitarre, Giorgio Santandrea degli Alphataurus alla batteria e Carlo Degani alla voce con Paolo Tofani degli Area, anche lui mitico chitarrista, a produrre (un disco prodotto nel 1974 che è rarissimo, dato che la Cramps non lo pubblicò mai, e vide la luce solo su Cd a fine anni ’90); il terzo è Alberto Radius, che ha attraversato 40 anni di musica italiana, segnando un traccia profondissima con i Formula 3 e il sodalizio “indiretto” con Lucio Battisti. Proprio la storia di Radius si intreccia con quella che ho deciso di raccontare oggi: a Milano nel 1965 una band, che si chiamava Quelli, il cui cantante è Antonio Teocoli, poi divenuto famoso comico con il nome di Teo, il cui batterista è Franz Di Cioccio, pubblicano il loro secondo singolo, Una Bambolina Che Fa No No No (cover in italiano di La Poupée Qui Fait Non del cantautore francese Michel Polnareff): hanno un buon successo e Alberto Radius è chiamato a sostituire il chitarrista e autore della band, chiamato al servizio di leva, Franco Mussida. Mussida dopo il servizio militare tornerà nei Quelli, alternandosi a suonare in alcuni tra i più importanti dischi italiani: ricordo tra gli altri le collaborazioni con Fabrizio De André, con Lucio Battisti, la sua chitarra è quella de La Canzone Del Sole, Paolo Conte, Francesco Guccini. Nel 1971, con l’ingresso di Mauro Pagani, la band dei Quelli diventerà la Premiata Forneria Marconi, che segnerà un’epoca, suonando nei più grandi palcoscenici del mondo, in tour negli USA 50 anni prima dei Maneskin, disco considerati dei capolavori anche dalla stampa estera, con milioni di copie vendute nel mondo. A quel suono contribuì non poco l’estro compositivo ed esecutivo di Mussida, il suo tocco elegante e delicato, in alcuni dei passaggi chitarristici più famosi del periodo. Più che a quel periodo, vorrei però ricordarlo da un altro punto di vista: impegnatissimo nel sociale (l'insegnamento all'interno di carceri e nelle comunità di recupero della Lombardia), Mussida nel 1984 fondò a Milano il Centro Professione Musica, una scuola di musica popolare contemporanea che recentemente è stata riconosciuta Centro di Alta Formazione Musicale, scuola a cui si deve la formazione di moltissimi artisti, ultimo dei quali Mahmood. Solo nel 1991 pubblica il primo disco solista: Racconti Della Tenda Rossa. La Tenda Rossa del titolo era la tenda all'interno della quale trovarono rifugio i superstiti dell'incidente del dirigibile Italia del Comandante Umberto Nobile da quando caddero sul pack della banchisa polare artica alle ore 10:33 del 25 maggio 1928 sino al momento del loro salvataggio operato il 12 luglio dal rompighiaccio sovietico Krasin. Il disco è composto da 14 brani, caratterizzati dalla sua chitarra jazz con accenni di musica etnica (sono gli anni dell’esplosione della world music). Mussida in alcune canta anche, sfoggiando un bel timbro dolce ed elegante: Voci, Orizzonti Del Cuore, uno strumentale delicatissimo per chitarra e pianoforte, Radici Di Terra sono piccole gemme intrise di smooth jazz, contrappunti di strumenti particolari, tra cui i flauti indiani, tabla, sezioni di fiati come il bel sax di La Cava Di Sabbia. Himalaya e la piccola serie di strumentali come La Tempesta, Porti Lontani, Piani Paralleli potrebbero passare per una musica scovata in qualche disco perduto della ECM; Caffé Concerto, che sa di bossa nova, ha in sottofondo il brusio delle voci di una clientela di un bar. Prodotto dalla Virgin, Mussida si avvale di una foltissima schiera di musicisti di grande qualità, tra cui spiccano i nomi di Tino Tracanna al sassofono, le voci di Angelo Branduardi e Fabio Concato in Radici Di Terra. Mussida dopo 4 anni pubblicherà un secondo disco, Accordi, e nel 1997 uno dei suoi progetti più visionari: Sinfonia Popolare Per 1000 Chitarre, un’opera rock in tre atti che in un memorabile concerto in Piazza Duomo a Milano venne eseguita da una mega orchestra di 1350 componenti tra chitarre, fiati e coro. Rimane un mito per la sua sconfinata cultura musicale, per il ruolo di maestro e insegnante e perchè si leva il tocco delle sue dita sulle corde ad alcuni dei momenti più belli del rock di questo paese, e non solo.