#The unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

[fictionadventurer]

"My true love is the evening walk, that last hour of daylight that has its way with sunlight, shadow, and soul."

-The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Volume 1, by Beth Brower

[lululawrence]

Okay who else out there has read or at least heard of the unselected journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower?

I just might be obsessed and I want all the things and to talk to all the people about them, but because the books are almost impossible to get ahold of without purchasing them, there’s just not much content out there.

[cultivating-wildflowers]

2024 Reading - September

Another productive month. Which I know would rub some readers the wrong way, and sometimes that mindset isn't great for me either, but as a girlie who likes her lists? I'm happy getting to check off stuff.

The biggest accomplishment this month was FINALLY finishing The Disorderly Knights. It took me so long that by the end of the story, I'd already forgotten what happened at the beginning. But it's done, and I have the next book on my shelf. For next year. Maybe.

Total books: 10  |  New reads: 9  |   2024 TBR completed: 2 (1 DNF) / 29/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 63/100

August | October

potential reading list from September 1st

#1 - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown - 5/5 stars

After hearing people rave about the movie and then the book, I snagged a cheap copy from my local used bookstore and decided to check it out.

It was so so worth it. Absolutely breathtaking. All of the assorted narratives--the different characters, the historical background, the technical details--came together so perfectly and resulted in a captivating story. I love every bit of it. I cried.

#2 - In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A. McKillip - 5/5 stars ('24 TBR)

This is exactly the sort of story I was craving. Absolutely spellbinding.

More like this: I had the sense this story reminded me of something else I've read, but I'm blanking on it just now. If I remember, I'll come back here. It might have been a fairy tale kind of story. It's a bit like the first Earthsea book. Perhaps Robin McKinley, Patricia C. Wrede, Madeleine L'Engel, Shannon Hale.... Diana Wynne Jones. It feels like a Ghibli movie.

#3 - The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol 2 by Beth Brower - 4/5 stars

A fun installment! I am quickly losing track of the cast, but I can totally see the author's vision of this being a delightful period drama.

#4 - The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett - 4/5 stars

Note to anyone I've recommended this series to: I unfortunately have to retract that hearty recommendation and replace it with...several caveats.

I finished! Honestly, I don't know why it took so long, because once I made myself sit still and read it was easy-ish going; I just had trouble sitting still.

Ok, so "easy" is not the right word. With this series, the first half of each book tends to be a slow build-up, while the end careens rapidly downhill to the conclusion and the ever-brilliant (and painful) reveal.

And, uh.... This got much darker and more intense than I was prepared for. (If I made a habit of reading more in this line, I might have seen that coming, but epics aren't my usual fare.) Narratively, it all worked very well, but it was right on the edge of what I can tolerate.

Still, with 200 pages left to go, I absolutely planned to keep reading the series, well aware that it would be...an experience. Then I saw a blurb for both Book Four and Book Five, skimmed some super vague reviews for Book Four ("Five Stars. owowowowowowowowowowww") and freaked out. And, against all my usual inclinations, hunted for spoilers. And now I'm scared. (But, weirdly, less stressed about the conclusion? Which is an odd experience.)

#5 - Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip - 3/5 stars (audio)

This confirms my suspicion that McKillip is one of those hit-or-miss authors for me. The first book of hers that I read was The Changeling Sea, six years ago, and I remember absolutely nothing about it. Then In the Forests of Serre blew me away. Od Magic? Another middling story.

Don't get me wrong; McKillip's writing is gorgeous. It immediately draws you in, connects you to living, breathing characters, and paints the most vivid pictures. But the story here just kind of...wanders along. It's a pleasant journey, but not very exciting.

Note: I didn't dive into "Od Magic" because of how much I loved "In the Forests of Serre". I needed an "O" title, and realized McKillip had a few. 😅

#6 - Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - 5/5 stars (reread, audio)

We all know I love this. 'Nuff said.

#7 - Yours From the Tower by Sally Nicholls - 4/5 stars

Another Tumblr rec! And a read that had the unfortunate pressure of me getting to it on the heels of 1) a so-so fantasy and 2) a historical fiction adventure that wrung me out. I did my best not to go into it with any expectations outside of being pleasantly charmed, and charmed I was. 90% of it was a fun, light read with just a touch of drama, but my stars, the end had me rolling. There's something so fun about epistolary novels when it comes to twists and big reveals.

#8 - Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher - 5/5 stars (audio)

A gorgeous little story.

#9 - Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher - 4/5 stars (audio)

Largely enjoyable, but the ending felt rushed.

#10 - The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke - 4/5 stars

An impulse pick from the library. I wanted something short and sweet and discovered this after finishing Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. As is becoming a habit with Clarke's writing, I enjoyed this book. I loved the variety of styles and tones within the collection.

DNF*

The Element of Fire by Martha Wells - Not a bad story, but by the 15% mark I remained bored and vaguely confused and unable to pay attention, so I gave up. I like Wells's writing style (obviously), but this was evidently her debut and is a bit dull around the edges. For some reason it reminded me vaguely of The Curse of Chalion, which I love, so might be worth checking out if you enjoy Lois McMaster Bujold. Goodreads also shows that fans of T. Kingfisher might enjoy this one as well. (Note: Paladin's Grace [below] also had the same general feel as The Element of Fire and The Curse of Chalion)

The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Meloy ('24 TBR) - I was hoping for a more scientific exploration of color. Instead, this book is a collection of (in my and my friends' opinions) weirdly stuffy, stilted essays. I don't usually mind slow, descriptive/lyrical writing, but this is something else. If you don't mind a deeply personal and conversational writing style and a book you can sit with for several months, definitely check this one out, because it has merit; it's just not for me.

Zao's Tales by J.A. Sommer - I'm still vaguely unclear on how this book arrived on my shelf (it was a gift from my mother and she bought it to support someone?). Decidedly not for me. Also...now I don't have a "Z" title for my alphabet challenge lol.

just kidding, I found another one that was kind of on my radar and ordered it from the library, whoo

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher - I'm learning that Kingfisher really straddles the line on what I'm willing to tolerate content-wise. This one was a "no" based on that.

The Sea at the End of Everything by Emily McCosh - The writing style was not for me. Sorry, Ruby.

*I'm starting to wonder if I should bother recording books I DNF.... They make up fully a third of the books I've picked up this year.

Currently Reading:

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks - just started

[clarythericebot]

On the friendships in Emma M. Lion

The way Emma M. Lion deals with friends is so delightful and makes me so happy. My thoughts are running around, so let me try to concretize it:

I appreciate that she has friends from her past. Her existence doesn't start at the beginning of the novel, and while portraying the growth of a relationship from conception is a valid writer choice to do to get readers very invested, I appreciate that Emma has vibrant friendships that spring from the rich life she's already lived before our own acquaintance with her begins.

She's friends with family. She's affectionate towards her older cousin, Arabella, and while there doesn't seem to be Affection with her aunt, it's pretty clear that her aunt is looking out for her. (I appreciate this because I feel like there is a strict divide between friends and family in many of the stories I read, and this one highlights that you can have fun relationships with your kin.)

The friends from her past aren't introduced all at once. Definitely keeps things from being overwhelming. But more than that--we can see how, even in their absence, her friends affect Emma. She loves and thinks fondly of them. So, by the time they're officially introduced, you love and are fond of them too.

Her past relationships grow and change. For example, Emma enters an event and encounters her childhood nemesis, who she remembers hating and who hated her. But he's grown up, and after a little bit of reluctance, Emma accepts the fact and rejoices in it.

It's very refreshing that the chemistry that Emma has with multiple male friends doesn't mean her swooning over them or the narrative pushing a romantic arc. I mean, I love romantic arcs, and I believe that we'll probably get one for Emma in the future. But it's impressive to me that whichever potential love interest actually comes forward (and it's impressive to me that I can't say with certainty which one will--as of the beginning of the third book, there's no one male character that is marked out as Emma's One True Love), nothing supercedes that they're all interesting characters that have genuine and interesting relationships with Emma, and bring out different sides of her. In other words, I love that the writer doesn't skimp on the friends part of friends to lovers.

Emma doesn't have 'a group of friends'. She has friends from different contexts in her life. Can I just say how marvelous and lovely this is? I don't know, I think modern stories romanticize One True Group of Friends almost as much as One True Love. Emma doesn't have a specific pack of people that all have relationships to one another. She's friends with her maid, her cousins, childhood people she interacted with, someone she's met in a ball, her tenant, her vicar, her schoolmates, and the people she's encountered in St Crispian's. Sometimes these people intersect. Sometimes they don't. Emma doesn't feel the need to get them together in one place and she sometimes outright states she doesn't want them to, considering how markedly different those characters are. But the fact that Emma can be friends with this fun diversity of people is very cool.

She makes friends with her friends' friends and it introduces interesting new dynamics. Like, I just said that it's cool that Emma has disparate friendships, but it is also interesting when a new friend provides insight to aspects of an old one's life Emma didn't know. (Spoiler Alert: I'm talking about Mary and Jack. The pair are fascinating, and his hints that there's something going on with Mary intrigue me.)

[protagonistspub]

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion vol. 2 by Beth Brower

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion vo. 2 by Beth Brower is the second installment in the series. This is an epistolary series based in an alternate reality of Victorian London. All volumes currently released are available on Kindle Unlimited. Astute readers will know that volume 1 in this series left me wanting more, and generally dissatisfied with the story. However, I know that several…

[daonedaonlysk]

DOES ANYOEN KNOW OF THE UNSELECTED JOURNALS EMMA M LION BY BETH BROWER??? IM DESPERATELY TRYING TO FIND FANART BC THEY’RE MY GF’S FAVORITE! IF ANYONE KNOWS OF ANY PLS PLS PLS LMK!!!!!!

[theinfernalqueens]

I have fallen in LOVE with The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion! Finishing up 8 this week and I just have been ENRAPTURED! If you have yet to start these, I highly suggest you do!

You can purchase them on Amazon or find them for free on KU!

[valiantarcher]

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion?

Thank you!

added to TBR | on my TBR | couldn’t finish it | did not enjoy | it was OK | liked it | loved it | favorite | not interested

I know you've really enjoyed the series overall, but I remember it being at least a mixed recommendation at the beginning; combine that with it being an e-book and a suspicion the protagonist might rub me wrong, and I have not tried to hunt it down.

[fictionadventurer]

The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder. One of my favorite indie fantasies and entirely clean.

The Galleries of Stone trilogy by C.J. Milbrandt is a cozy, clean middle-grade (but in the classic lit kind of way where there's also a lot of good plotlines for adults) domestic fantasy with great characters and worldbuilding (if you can get past some stylistic awkwardness).

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower are 1880s historical fiction with some light fantasy elements. The later couple of books have some kissing and thinking-about-kissing but that's as far as it goes.

Unseen Beauty by Amity Thompson is a good Beauty and the Beast retelling from the POV of one of the invisible servants.

Any of you have recommendations for fantasy or sci-fi without much sexual content?

Self-published or Christian works welcome but only if they're high quality (i.e. not worse than general market fiction).

And, of course, I have to add I've read everything by Tolkien and Lewis.

[fictionadventurer]

If you're still taking them: 7 & 14-16 for Emma M. Lion; 3, 10, & 20 for The Hunger Games; and 3, 4, and 7-10 for the Victorian (Edwardian?) novel about the sisters who get jobs whose title I cannot remember, please?

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

7. how does the story compare to your initial impressions of it? has it surprised you yet? how?

I was surprised that it lived up to the hype. When reading The Q, a large chunk of the reviews were like, "I love Emma M. Lion so I started reading this." I expected to find something fun and frothy but ultimately forgettable. I didn't expect such a sprawling and detailed cast and world, or to love exploring it that much.

14. how likely do you think this story is to break a reader's heart? If you're not done with the story, just guess.

Already answered. Pretty likely to get mildly broken in several ways.

15. what time are you most likely to be found reading/watching this story? (time of year, time of day, season of life, whatever makes sense to you)

July through September, because that's when I first discovered this author's books.

16. do you think this story has broad appeal, or is it meant for a very specific audience? if it's more "niche", what kind of person would most enjoy this story?

Broad appeal within a very specific niche? That niche being people who like vintage light fiction. If you like Austen, Wodehouse, Jean Webster, Oscar Wilde, etc., love novels-in-diary form, slice-of-life, and humor, or are in to the late Victorian era, there's a pretty good chance that you'll like these stories.

The Hunger Games

3. quickly list 3 things you like about the story!

The pro-life message, the family bonds, the love story

10. if you made an amv about this, what song would you set it to?

Something from the soundtrack?

20. what's the WORST thing about this story, in your opinion? (feel free to be positive, e.g. "it's not longer", if you want!)

That scene in Catching Fire when the force field stops Peeta's heart, Finnick does CPR for like, two minutes, and Peeta gets up and walks away and is totally fine like nothing has happened.

The Romance of a Shop (I assume that's what you're talking about?)

3. quickly list 3 things you like about the story!

The sisterly relationship, all the details about the photography business in the 1880s, how fun and easy it was to read

4. assign this story a hyper-specific genre name

Victorian slice-of-life domestic drama social commentary romance

7. how does the story compare to your initial impressions of it? has it surprised you yet? how?

I did not expect such a light, humorous family atmosphere (these girls were much more modern than expected), and there was a plot twist in the end that (coming with Austen expectations) shocked me with the direction it took.

8. what questions are or were you most excited to learn the answers to while experiencing the story for the first time?

I liked learning about the characters of the various love interests and getting the resolution to the romances, but honestly, I just liked learning all the daily-life details of running a photography studio.

9. give the most UNHELPFUL and/or SILLY summary possible.

Climbing down the social ladder works out pretty well if you're in a Levy novel.

10. if you made an amv about this, what song would you set it to?

I'm sorry, my brain just doesn't work in that direction.

[lululawrence]

I was interested in reading The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion after I saw your post so I looked them up on Amazon since I usually read everything on my Kindle and saw that they are free on Kindle Unlimited if anyone else is interested. You have to pay $11.99 a month for Kindle Unlimited but there are 7 Journals in the series and each one seems to be between $8 and $16 a piece if you buy the physical book so $11.99 isn't bad to read them all. Thanks for the rec btw, they look interesting!

Ohhh yes, we were talking about the kindle unlimited option over the weekend and none of us have it currently (nor would I use it enough to make it worth it, but for a month of reading Emma while my sister has the physical books?? Perhaps… hahaha)

Eeeee you are SO welcome!! I bought all of them without having read a word since I’d just gotten some birthday money and I do not regret it. My sisters on the other side of the country currently have the first four books split between them and I’m shipping out the other three today 😂 I do hope you enjoy them though, and come back and scream and laugh about them with me as you read through!! I’m hoping to read through the series once more before book 8 comes out, but whether I can manage that timing or not will depend on how quickly they can get through them and send them back to me so we will see lol

[cultivating-wildflowers]

2024 Reading - August

There I was at the beginning of the month all worried about my potential page count for August, and then I went and read well beyond that. It's fine. I'm just a baby. The good news is that I seem to have caught my reading stride again--I actually wanted to spend my evenings reading a physical book, and didn't feel like reading was a slog. And even though I'm only halfway toward my original reading goal for the year, I've made good progress through my digital TBR.

Total books: 9  |  New reads: 8  |   2024 TBR completed: 1 (0 DNF) / 27/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 53/100

July | September

potential reading list from August 1st

First of all, please admire this graph:

I haven't read this many pages in a month in like two years. (This does count pages and hours I read for books I ultimately DNF.)

Moving on.

#1 - The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol 1 by Beth Brower - 5/5 stars

A quick, charming read with surprising depth. I actually cried at one point. And I definitely want to read more. It’s a pity each volume is so small and that none are available through any library in the state.

Note from end-of-the-month Phoebe: I bought Volume 2. And another book by the same author.

#2 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 5/5 stars ('24 TBR)

Expertly crafted historical setting effortlessly blended with the dangerously fantastical. Rich, complex characters who are people of their time. A totally engrossing writing style with asides and footnotes and sharp dialogue that left me laughing with delight. So many tiny elements that combined to make up exactly the sort of story I crave. I wasn't expecting to be enthralled, but I was from the first page. Maybe it rewired my brain a little bit.

I will grant it's not for everyone, but it was PERFECT for me. Just don't ask me what the plot is.

Reasons you may not like it: 1) It's huge and a bit of a time investment. 2) It is largely character-driven and, while well-paced, doesn't have a lot of external pressure to keep the story exciting. 3) It's somewhat verbose, in a Tolkien sort of way. 4) Something of an open ending (which, weirdly, didn't bother me?). 5) As the magic tips from human to fairy, it develops a dark and occult flavor. This is nice for people who like their fairies to remain distinctly wicked within the narrative (rather than roguishly morally gray), but there are decidedly dark elements. I tried to watch the show a few years ago and didn't make it through the first episode, and as I recall it was because the fairies came off a tad too dark for me. Somehow it was better on the page.

#3 - Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden - 4/5 stars

This is both the biography of a man who escaped the North Korean prison camp where he was born, and also a biography of North Korea itself over the past 50-odd years. Sparse and somewhat stilted, full of facts and figures, it reads more like an article than a story. I'll say it's an important story, despite the surrounding controversy, but the writing style didn't do it any favors.

Note regarding the peculiar controversy surrounding this book: A few years after the book was published, Shin Dong-hyuk contacted Harden and revised his story as told here. The base details remained the same, but timelines and locations had changed. Yeonmi Park faced the same controversy following the publication of her memoir of her childhood in North Korea (In Order to Live; which, weirdly, I read in August of last year), which to me says less about the veracity at the heart of both individuals' histories and more about how trauma, in particular that brought about by political violence, can impact emotions and memory. If you're interested in reading this book, definitely check out Harden's updated forward examining Shin's altered account. Harden himself repeatedly acknowledges Shin as "an unreliable narrator of his own life".

More like this: "In Order to Live" by Yeonmi Park with Maryanne Vollers; "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah; "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

#4 - Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford - 4/5 stars (audio)

If you couldn't tell, I'm desperately trying to fill in some of the missing letters for my second year of a self-imposed alphabet titles challenge. This is my fifth attempt at a "T". Attempts three and four are below in the DNFs. I decided to bank on an extreme change of pace with this one.

A solid middle grade adventure, and one I'll definitely recommend in future. Fun and unpredictable and my head hurts, because time travel always does that to me. Ridiculously short chapters, for some reason.

More like this: A bit like "A Wrinkle in Time", a bit like "Meet the Robinsons" (the movie; haven't read the books).

#5 - The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud - 4/5 stars

I DNF'd this last year after trying and failing for a month to get into it. I had definitely been in the perfect mood when I started the series last year, but for some reason The Empty Grave gave me no end of trouble, and I gave it up about a quarter of the way through.

Not so this time. This time it took me all of four days to finish.

Thankfully this follows the tradition of refreshing the reader's memory of previous events in the series, because I'd forgotten some of the pertinent details. Either because of my foggy memory or because of something else in the story, the ending fell kind of flat for me, like it was missing an element to deliver a good emotional conclusion, or like it didn’t fully satisfy the stakes set up at the start of the book. I consider this series more young adult than middle grade, but the way it wrapped up definitely felt middle grade in style.

Still a solid ending for sure, just a little confusing.

#6 - A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle - 5/5 stars (reread) - 50th read of the year!

Comfort book my belovéd.

#7 - The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller - 4/5 stars (audio)

Francis Marion is one of my dad's favorite figures of the Revolutionary War, and man, I can see why.

The writing itself is somewhat dry, crammed full of names and dates technical details of battles; but Oller manages to weave a solid narrative as he combs through the legends surrounding Marion and picks out the facts.

More like this: "Lion of Liberty" by Harlow Giles Unger.

#8 - Heidi by Johanna Spyri - 4/5 stars (audio)

"Heidi" was one of the movies I watched on repeat as a kid. Not the Shirley Temple version, but the 1968 made-for-TV version that apparently took some liberties with the plot. (But according to Wikipedia, it's most memorable for interrupting a football game for its premier.)

The book is a cozy classic children's book, plain and simple. It feels a bit like The Secret Garden with an orphan coming to an unfamiliar place and thriving there (plus helping an invalid thrive as well); and a bit like L.M. Montgomery pushing all of us to get outside and breathe some fresh air.

#9 - The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany - 4/5 stars (audio)

Absolutely gorgeous.

You might like this is you like: The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton; or the narrative style of the legends told by characters in the Queen's Thief series.

Useless fun fact: Lord Dunsany's name was Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett.

DNF

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell - Hilarious two-star reviews proved it's not something worth finishing and it doesn't deliver on the premise. (It's not even about Hamnet. It's a "re-imagining" of Anne/Agnes Hathaway-Shakespeare and guess what. She's a strong, wild woman who practices witchcraft in late 16th century England. Groundbreaking. I need to stop skimming summaries.)

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert - Got about a third of the way through this one before I realized...I just didn't care. The premise was good, and the delivery was kind of meh but not bad--which, considering how rarely I read newer YA these days, was actually a point in its favor. But then we got to the reveal and I went "Wait. That's it?" and lost interest. I don't think magical realism is for me. Also, it didn't affect my decision to stop reading, but I didn't like the audiobook narrator.

Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert - A companion book to the Hazel Wood duology, presented as the book-within-a-book that the Hazel Wood revolves around. I read a couple of the stories out of curiosity, but the allure of that book-within-a-book is gone when it's told in the same voice as the actual story.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - I...have no idea. What is this? I got a little over halfway through it before it got to be too much and I gave up. I liked the writing voice well enough but the story meandered along a plodding, darkly sentimental route and I got lost. And a little disgusted.

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart - I wanted to like it, but it was too bawdy for me.

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley - Robin is such a hit-or-miss author for me, and this one was a solid miss. The premise was too absurd for me to stick it out. I might have given it another chapter, but none of the characters were really grabbing me, and I wasn't fond of how McKinley chose to portray Marian.

Currently Reading:

The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett - I swear I'll have finished this by the end of the year.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown - I'll finish this one pretty quickly.

[jerry-the-leech]

"The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion" by Beth Brower. ITS SO GOOD

how much do you like drama, romance, and the 1880s classically style written fiction because boy do I have a book recommendation for you

Shoot. I like all of em

[protagonistspub]

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion vol. 1 by Beth Brower

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion vol. 1 by Beth Brower was a Kindle Unlimited read. It is hard to categorize this slim volume, it fits in best somewhere between magical realism and alternative history. This is purely epistolary book is the journal entries of a 20-year-old Emma M. Lion recently returned to London and taking up residence in the house she will regain ownership upon her…

[fictionadventurer]

Thanks for tagging!

last song: I've got "Fernando" by ABBA stuck in my head for unknown reasons

last movie: Last complete movie is still The Super Mario Brothers Movie

currently watching: Nothing, really

currently reading: Liar Temptress Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott and The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1 by Beth Brower

last thing researched for writing purposes: If writing tumblr posts counts, last thing I researched was how many different kinds of bears there are. (The answer is eight).

tagging: @siena-sevenwits, @isfjmel-phleg, @scarvenartist, @freenarnian, @thatscarletflycatcher, @theamiableanachronism, @why-bless-your-heart, @cuppatealove, @lady-merian, if you feel like playing

9 People Tag

tagged by the always-fabulous @arijensineink!

Last song: Epiphany by BTS

Last movie: My Neighbor Totoro

Currently watching: Like @arijensineink I don't really/haven’t watched TV in a while… do Yoongi’s tour vlogs count?

Currently reading: Killing Commendatore, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Your Brain On Art, and just finished I Work Like a Gardener about an interview with artist Joan Miró (not very lengthy at all but so interesting, highly recommend it + his work)

Last thing researched for writing purposes: Uncommon mental illnesses/disorders

tagging @toribookworm22 @words-after-midnight @pandoras-comment-box @chickensarentcheap @marigoldispeculiar @somniphobicfox @vsnotresponding @royal1asset-if @imdefnotvanessa and I know this is a 9 people tag but whatever, open tag