#You need to have read at least their origin and the ellis authority run to make that joke !!!!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ireadyabooks · 4 years ago

Text

Books to Read in 2021

It’s a NEW YEAR, everyone!

We made it through 2020, and whether or not you hit your reading goal this past year, don’t worry! 2021 is a new year for your TBR, and we have an AMAZING line-up of books you should add to your reading list ASAP.

THE LIFE I’M IN

This story of the power of forgiveness and second chances presents the unflinching story of a young woman trapped in the underworld of human trafficking. In Sharon G. Flake's latest and unflinching novel, we follow Charlese Jones, who, with her raw, blistering voice speaks the truths many girls face, offering insight to some of the causes and conditions that make a bully. Turned out of the only home she has known, Char boards a bus to nowhere where she is lured into the dangerous web of human trafficking.

HOLD BACK THE TIDE

A darkly seductive story of murder, betrayal, love, and family secrets in a small town in the Scottish Highlands. Alva knows that her father killed her mother, but she can’t prove it. The more she investigates though, the more she realizes that the truth can be more monstrous than lies/ And while you might be able to outrun anything that emerges from the dark water, you can never escape your past . . .

MUTED

Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean "Mercury" Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights -- plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it. Until they're not. Denver begins to realize that she's trapped in Merc's world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.

THE POETRY OF SECRETS

A lyrical portrait of hidden identities and forbidden love set against the harrowing backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. Isabel’s dreams to pursue poetry and a partner of her own choosing are thrown into jeopardy when the Spanish Inquisition reaches her small town.

SHURI #2: THE VANISHED

Shuri, the Princess of Wakanda (and sister to the Black Panther), sets out to save a group of kidnapped girls in this all-new, original novel by New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone!

BRIDGE OF SOULS

Where there are ghosts, Cassidy Blake follows . . .unless it's the other way around? Cass thinks she might have this ghost-hunting thing down. But nothing can prepare Cass for New Orleans, which wears all of its hauntings on its sleeve. And the city's biggest surprise is a foe Cass never expected to face: a servant of Death itself.

FOLLOW YOUR ARROW

When bisexual influencer CeCe breaks up with her girlfriend, Silvie, she’s devastated. But then she starts falling for a new guy who has no idea she’s internet famous...and CeCe wants to keep it that way. But as her secrets catch up to her, she finds herself in the middle of an online storm, where she'll have to confront the blurriness of public vs. private life, and figure out what it really means to speak her truth.

MIRROR’S EDGE

The danger rises and the deception grows in the heart-stopping third book in the New York Times bestselling Impostors series! Are twins Frey and Rafi on the same side . . . or are they playing to their own agendas? If their father is deposed from Shreve, who will take control? And what other forces may be waiting in the wings?

ZARA HOSSAIN IS HERE

Zara's family has waited years for their visa process to be finalized so that they can officially become US citizens. While dealing with the Islamophobia that she faces at school, Zara has to lay low. But when her tormentor vandalizes her house with racist graffiti, a violent crime puts Zara’s entire future at risk. Now she must pay the ultimate price and choose between fighting to stay in the only place she's ever called home or losing the life she loves and everyone in it.

REMEDY

It's a mystery - why is Cara so sick? It feels like she's been sick all her life . . . but she and her mom have never stayed in one place long enough for doctors to really understand what's happening to her. Now, at fourteen, Cara is tired of being tired, and sick of being sick. Unable to afford the care she needs, Cara's mom starts a Caring for Cara campaign online. The money starts pouring in. But something's not right to Cara. And the harder she looks, the less she understands.

HEARTSTOPPER VOLUME 3

The third volume in the poignant and sweet Heartstopper series, featuring beautiful two-color artwork! Charlie didn't think Nick could ever like him back, but now they're officially boyfriends. Nick has even found the courage to come out to his mom. But coming out isn't something that happens just once, and Nick and Charlie try to figure out when to tell their friends that they're dating. Not being out to their classmates gets even harder during a school trip to Paris. As Nick and Charlie's feelings get more serious, they'll need each other more than ever.

THE BLOCK

In the second book of The Loop trilogy, Luka is trapped in a fate worse than death. But now that he knows the truth about what he and his fellow inmates are being used for, it's more important than ever that he not only escapes, but that he builds an army.

ON THE HOOK

Hector has always minded his own business while he works towards a better life. Until Joey, whose older brother, Chavo, is head of the Discípulos gang, tells Hector that he's going to kill him: maybe not today, or tomorrow, but someday. And Hector, frozen with fear, does nothing. From that day forward, Hector's death is hanging over his head every time he leaves the house. But when a fight between Chavo and Hector's brother escalates, Hector is left with no choice but to take a stand. It's up to Hector to choose whether he's going to lose himself to revenge or get back to the hard work of living.

MISTER IMPOSSIBLE

Do the dreamers need the ley lines to save the world . . . or will their actions end up dooming the world? As Ronan, Hennessy, and Bryde try to make dreamers more powerful, the Moderators are closing in, sure that this power will bring about disaster. In the remarkable second book of The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater pushes her characters to their limits – and shows what happens to them and others when they start to break.

THE GHOSTS WE KEEP

Everything happens for a reason.At least that's what everyone keeps telling Liam Cooper after his older brother Ethan is killed suddenly in a hit-and-run. Feeling more alone and isolated than ever, Liam has to not only learn to face the world without one of the people he loved the most, but also face the fading relationships of his two best friends in the process. Soon, Liam finds themself spending time with Ethan's best friend, Marcus, who might just be the only person that seems to know exactly what they're going through - for better and for worse.

SIMONE BREAKS ALL THE RULES

Simone is shaking things up by making a bucket list of everything she hasn’t been able to do thanks to her strict Haitian immigrant parents. But as the list takes on a life of its own, things get much more complicated than Simone expected. She'll have to discover which rules are worth breaking, and which might save her from heartbreak.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF

Skylar is ready to show everyone that her latest app is brilliant by winning an academic competition. To do that, she's going to use it to win State at the Scholastic Exposition, the nerdiest academic competition around. But when she falls for one of her team members and things get complicated, is her path to greatness over before it begins?

THE GIRL FROM THE SEA

A graphic novel about family, romance, and first love! Morgan's biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl. Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. The two become friends and suddenly life on the island doesn't seem so stifling anymore. But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they're each trying to hide will find its way to the surface...whether Morgan is ready or not.

RISE TO THE SUN

Three days. Two girls. One life-changing music festival. Toni is reeling in the wake of the loss of her roadie father and desperate to figure out where her life will go from here. Olivia is a hopeless romantic whose heart has just taken a beating (again). When the two collide at the Farmland Music and Arts Festival, it feels like kismet. But when something goes wrong and the festival is sent into a panic, Toni and Olivia find that they need each other, and the music, more than they ever imagined.

YOU & ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Hannah Ashton wakes up to silence. The entire city around her is empty, except for one other person: Leo Sterling. Leo might be the hottest boy ever (and not just because he's the only one left), but he's also too charming, too selfish, and too devastating for his own good, let alone Hannah's. Together, they search for answers amid crushing isolation. But while their empty world may appear harmless . . . it's not. Because nothing is quite as it seems, and if Hannah and Leo don't figure out what's going on, they might just be torn apart forever.

IN THE SAME BOAT

Sadie is ready for the race of a lifetime: The Texas River Odyssey. But then her brother ditches her and she has to pair up with her former best friend, Cully. It's irritating enough that he grew up to be so attractive, but once they're on the river it turns out he's ill-prepared for such a dangerous race. But as the miles pass, the pain of the race builds, they uncover the truth about their feuding families, and Sadie's feelings for Cully begin to shift. Could this race change her life more than she ever could have imagined?

THE GREAT DESTROYERS

In this alternate-history novel, Jo joins the Pax Games: an Olympics-style competition that pits pilots of mechas against each other. But when fighters start dying in the arena, Jo is drawn into a deadly political plot. In a global arms race between superpowers, playing out in violent games that only humanity could create, comes a chilling story of clashing titans, ruthless competition, freedom, and the girl caught in the middle of it all.

#I read YA #books to read #booklr #2021 books #tbr #2021 tbr

52 notes · View notes

etherealwaifgoddess · 5 years ago

Text

To Give Him The World, Chpt.1

Main Characters: Thor x Ellie (original female character)

Summary: Valkyrie needs someone to remind Thor of her expectations of him living in New Asgard again and Ellie jumps at the opportunity to reconnect with her childhood friend. Thor is confused but appreciative of her presence in his cottage.

Warnings/ Content: None really in this chapter. Some self consciousness but that’s it.

Word Count: 2k

Author’s Note: Hello lovelies! I am so excited to share this fic with ya'll :) I started writing this back in June 2019, got about four chapters out, and honestly forgot about it in favor of other WIPs I had going at the time. I reconnected with it recently and finally have a mapped out plan for the characters so I wanted to start sharing it with you all while I finish writing it. It should be around six chapters or so and I'm going to try and post every few days, maybe every other if I get lucky. Chapters will also be posted over on my AO3 and I’ll be throwing a Master List up on here shortly to keep track of things.

Love ya'll and thank you for reading! XOXO - Ash

To Give Him The World, Chapter One

Ellie struggled under the weight of the cleaning bucket she carried up the long, winding hill to the cottage. The supplies were packed into the large blue bucket and she hoped it would be enough. She hadn’t stepped foot in the god’s cottage before but she was warned it was in desperate need of help. Valkyrie had put her foot down upon Thor’s return; if he wanted to stay, he needed to keep the place clean and scale back on the drinking. It couldn’t be like the last time. Of course Valkyrie couldn’t be the one to remind him of that herself, no she had sent a messenger. Not that Ellie minded, she had volunteered to be the one to go. The other women who worked in the office were catty and Ellie couldn’t bear the idea of someone being unnecessarily cruel to Thor after already having so much pain in his life.

Ellie’s mother had run the kitchens in the palace back on Asgard and she grew up playing with Thor and Loki. She hadn’t seen Thor in hundreds of years but she had heard the stories. Ellie had heard of his victories, and his great losses over the last few years. She mourned the death of his family as if they were her own. She knew what had become of him after The Decimation and her heart broke for him. Everyone had written Thor off as a lost cause after that but Ellie had hoped he would someday recover. Now that The Blip had occurred, and those lost had returned, Thor was back in Asgard again staying in the same dingy little cottage. Ellie wanted to go to him and offer anything he might need but she didn’t know him well enough anymore to do so. When Valkyrie had asked someone to go remind him of her expectations and help clean, she had jumped at the chance.

Ellie’s muscles were aching by the time she reached the cottage door and she took a moment to steady herself before knocking. Her curly blonde hair whipped around her in the wind and she did her best to tame it and smooth down her sweater where it had ridden up. She wished absently that she had stuck to her last diet. Ellie had never been like the other thin, lithe girls in her classes. She had always been short and rounded where they were tall with sharp angles. In general she tried not to let it bother her too much but now, about to see Thor again after all these years, it added to her nervousness.

Ellie steadied her breathing and knocked twice. After a few seconds with no sounds coming from inside the cottage she tried again, louder this time. Still no response. Ellie thought he might be out and decided she could at least get a jump start on the cleaning. She pushed the old wooden door open with a loud creak and was met by the scent of stale air and old beer. Ellie wrinkled her nose but entered, heading down the short hallway to the main room. She was confused to find the television on but noticed quickly that she was not alone. Slumped into a fading old reclining chair was Thor, fast asleep. His Xbox headset still on and a controller laid in his lap. He must have passed out while playing and based on the number of beer bottles littering the table next to him it was no wonder why.

Ellie tried not to stare at his sleeping form. He was shirtless in only a pair of worn grey sweatpants, his long tangled hair lying all around him. It had grown quite a bit since the last time Ellie had seen him and she was surprised he was letting it get so long. His beard was in need of a trim too and Ellie wondered when the last time he’d showered was. He was clearly not taking care of himself, or the cottage, again.

Feeling like a creep for staring, she pulled her eyes away from him and found her way to the kitchen. She set out her cleaning supplies and grabbed a large black trash bag to start picking up. Ellie did her best to keep quiet as she collected the discarded bottles and wrappers around the cottage and Thor continued to snore lightly in his chair. She found herself peeking over at him often, just to make sure she had not disturbed him or so she told herself. Carefully she crept around the house gathering all the trash that had accumulated amazed at how much there was. Ellie started scrubbing down the kitchen, wanting to get everything else done before she started on the living room since she would most likely wake him once she did.

It took almost three hours but Ellie had the cottage cleaned and a third load of laundry started before Thor woke up. She knew she had made a mistake when she turned off the Xbox. It must have been playing some type of background music because the second it shut off Thor’s eyes snapped open. He looked around startled and confused before his eyes landed on her. “Who are you?” He demanded, his voice gravelly from sleep.

��I’m Ellisandra. Ellie.” She stumbled over her words, nervous under his gaze, “Valkyrie sent me to-“

Thor groaned, “Of course she did. Listen, Lady Ellisandra, you do not need to waste your time here. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of the cottage.”

“It’s Ellie, just Ellie. And with all due respect, I’ve been here since one and have almost finished. I’d rather just finish up and then I’ll get out of your hair.”

Thor looked around the cottage, realizing the accumulation of trash was missing and the windows were opened, the mild October air blowing in.

Ellie started rambling, nervous, “I saved the living room for last. I was trying not to disturb you. Everything else is done. Well, you still have one load of clothes in the dryer yet. But the linens and one load of clothes are all done and put away. If you’d like I can run out once I’m finished and get you some food for the kitchen. I noticed you don’t have much of, well... anything.”

Thor stood up with a groan, rubbing his lower back and stretching. Ellie’s cheeks burned and she tried to look away. She might not be able to control her body’s response to him, but she was raised to be polite. Thor misinterpreted her reaction and the large god seemed to try and pull himself in, wrapping his arms around his middle. “I’m sorry la... Ellie. I know I’m not much to look at anymore. I’ll just go grab something to put on. You don’t have to stay, really.”

“No!” Ellie’s cheeks burned brighter at her unintentional outburst and she rambled despite herself, “You’re fine. You’re stunning.” Thor raised an eyebrow and she realized she probably seemed like a rambling lunatic. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I should be cleaning. I’m so close to being finished it won’t take long. Just ignore me.” Ellie hurried back into the kitchen to grab the duster and avoid further embarrassment. It stung a little that he didn’t remember her but the last time they’d seen each other they were still children, just barely adolescents. She certainly couldn’t blame him.

Thor found himself amused and interested in the flustered woman in his home. Stunning, he mulled over the word. No one had shown any interest in him in years and he was a little thrown off by it. He rubbed a rough hand through his wild beard and down the slope of his rounded stomach. He cursed at his own sloth and headed into the bedroom for a shirt. Amazed, he stood in the doorway taking in the room. He hadn’t realized how messy the cottage had become until it was all cleaned. The bed was made and smelled of crisp linen. There was no clothing or trash to stumble around as he crossed the room. His clothes were put away in the small oak dresser, his few other belongings laid on top with care. Thor pulled on a clean shirt and then noticed how dingy his pants were by comparison. Stripping down he changed into clean blue fleece pants and tossed the dirty ones into the wicker bin that now sat in empty the corner. He scowled at his reflection in the mirror, knowing nothing could be done right then about anything. Pulling his hair back from his face he went to find his unexpected visitor.

He found Ellie stretching as high as she could to run the duster along the top shelf of the bookcase. Thor paused a moment at the doorway to take her in. She was at least a foot shorter than him and her shiny blonde curls cascaded down almost to the top of her jeans. Her cream colored sweater had risen up as she reached, giving Thor a glimpse of the pale, creamy skin of her lower back. He ached for a chance to run his hands down her curves and feel her skin beneath his finger tips. Thor scolded himself for looking at Ellie with need. She was here to help and he was all but leering. There was something about her though, something achingly familiar. Breaking himself from his thoughts he went over to her, taking the duster from her outstretched hand. “Here, allow me to help.” He offered.

Ellie’s breath caught in her throat, only a small gasp escaping her lips. She felt cornered under his reach but not in a bad way. She slipped out of his way with a quiet thank you and watched as he finished the dusting. Ellie noticed he had changed and was glad she had gone ahead and done the laundry. It seemed a little intimate doing someone else’s wash but it needed done and made a huge difference in the bedroom.

“Good as new.” Thor announced handing her back the duster. His smile was warm and it unnerved her a little.

“Thanks for getting that. I’m a little vertically challenged.” Ellie wanted to facepalm herself at the bad joke.

Thor chuckled, seeming to enjoy it.

“I’ll just vacuum in here and then head out. I was going to the grocery store tonight for myself if you want me to pick up a few things for you while I’m there.”

“I appreciate the offer but I do not know how to cook so it would just go to waste.”

“You never did spend much time in the kitchens. Not that my mother would have let you. But you might want to learn if you’re going to be living alone up here. I could show you a few things.”

Thor thought for a moment and realization slowly dawned on him. “Ellie.” He said, the sound of her name on his lips so different than before. “You grew up in the palace with us. Your mother Idria was my mother’s head cook. It's been so long.”

Ellie nodded, glad he finally remembered. “It’s been many years. I’m surprised you remember.”

“How could I forget? The palace was a lonely place but you made it a little brighter.”

Ellie struggled to conceal her joy. Clearing her throat she asked, “So, do you want me to get you a few things? I can teach you a few basics to help you get by.”

He wasn’t particularly interested in learning to cook but more time with Ellie was too tempting to pass up. He nodded finally, “That would be nice. Thank you, Ellie.”

“What kind of things do you like? Anything you hate?”

“I don’t know. Midgard has very different things than Asgard. I’m not picky though.”

“Okay. Let me go to the store and pick up a few things and at least show you how to make dinner.”

“I’ll be here.”

Taglist lovelies: @thorfanficwriter @lancsnerd

If anyone else wants to be added just drop me an ask or message and I’ll include you on the Master List and future chapters :)

25 notes · View notes

davidmann95 · 6 years ago

Note

Reviews?

I assume this is for weekly comics reviews - I got this a bit ago during a week that didn’t have much to offer in terms of things to say, but this past Wednesday most definitely had some stuff worth reflecting on, one in particular. Spoilers, inevitably.

DCeased #3: So people think Superman killed Pa at the end of this one? I just saw him as fusing the lock shut, which admittedly would kill him unless a cure is found, but it’s not like he blew his damn head off the way people are saying. Anyway, fine, but certainly not as good as the first couple issues.

The Adventures of the Super Sons #12: A decent conclusion to a decent book.

Sea of Stars #1: One of the three rare Dark Horse purchases this week, and frankly? Quite a disappointing one. Aaron’s clearly not on scripting duties, and the others involved failed to grab my attention.

No One Left To Fight #1: This one on the other hand? Probably my shock fave for the week, absolutely living up to its high concept. For most of you who probably haven’t heard of it, it’s an unabashed Dragon Ball riff asking what happens to Goku after…well, the title happens, and it’s colorful and energetic and emotional, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing where this goes.

The World of Black Hammer Encyclopedia: I read the first year of this book out of the library some time ago and liked it quite a bit; I grabbed this because my dad’s interested in Black Hammer/Justice League so it’d be good to have a refresher, and because I always enjoy these sorts of infodumps. Couple clever twists with this one and a number of really solid artists involved, so even if you’re not a reader of the title, if you’re as up for a high-concept download as me this one’s worth plopping down a few bucks for.

Justice League #27: Aw shit yeah, gimmie those Final Crisis references and Superman being great bits. And Javier Fernandez is turning out to be a Travel Foreman on Ultimates2-level “I already knew this artist was amazing, but never in a million years would I have guessed this was a type of project they’d be such a perfect fit for” revelation.

Ms. Marvel Annual #1: Decent enough, liked that one guy’s name.

Secret Warps: Soldier Supreme Annual #1: The closest I think I’ve ever seen to Al Ewing phoning it in? It’s still charming as hell, and I suspect this’ll get better as it goes along, but this is one of the only comics I’ve read from him where I get the sense that he’s writing it purely as A Gig rather than something he’ll elevate by sheer force of will.

The Immortal Hulk #20: This, on the other hand, was beautifully true to form. AND THAT ENDING.

Lois Lane #1: Ruled, and in ways I’m surprised DC let Rucka and Perkins get away with.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #46: This is still a functionally perfect comic.

The Wild Storm #24: This felt really sudden and blunt to the point of almost perfunctory, but in a way that Ellis endings often do? And in a way that was considerably more satisfying than usual, especially given there’s more immediately on the horizon between his WildC.A.T.s with Villalobos and an inevitable The Authority relaunch.

The Green Lantern #9: Give me a Superwatch book right this instant.

Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #1: Yeahyeahyeah!!! This feels incredibly different from the first ‘year’, but while I think I preferred the overall vibe of that one, the execution here might be even more up my alley. Very much looking forward to wherever this one’s going.

Superman: Up In The Sky #1: So I didn’t actually pick this up, but that’s because I’ve been grabbing the Walmart giants so I saw these awhile ago. I could have sworn I wrote something on the first half of this when it initially hit shelves, but I dug it just fine, it taps into a bit of Golden Age/80s flavor and feels relatively gritty while still distinctly, iconically Superman. The second half, however, is at least in the running for my favorite Superman story of the last 5 years.

I’ll admit, part of this is probably because, since I saw the first two pages of this in an online preview originally and therefore when I picked up the actual copy I sort of skimmed those and jumped right into it, the trick caught me a little more by surprise than most. But fundamentally, Just Luck is the best answer to the last decade-plus of Superman stories I think we’ve seen, doing everything - to cite the most prominent example - Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice tried and failed to do with him as a character in 12 pages. It’s Superman grappling with the question of whether he realistically does more harm than good in a way that looks like the most unpleasant, gut-churning, Tom King-on-his-worst-days-ish way possible way of exploring the concept, only to turn on its head as it becomes clear this is instead the most Grant Morrison Superman story that guy never wrote. Moreover, it takes the whole detached, stuffy ‘Superman deals with the ramifications of being a god’ borderline-meaningless abstraction that’s gotten so much wind under its sails and grounds it in the struggle we all face to reckon with the imposing scope and complexity of the world we live in and how to do right within it, only for Superman to find helping others to of course be the light that guides him through - because while as noted on the last page, while he might not be infallible, when someone needs him, he’s going to be there. It takes every dumb major Superman story of the 21st century and finally squeezes out the diamond so many others were sure was just waiting to be found within the coal, and it’s because of that I think it’s easily in the top 5 Superman stories since Morrison left Action, and very possibly the best of that lot period.

#Week's Comics #Superman #Tom King #Andy Kubert #Sandra Hope #Brad Anderson #Clayton Cowles

13 notes · View notes

aresaphrodites · 7 years ago

Note

Hey but sorry to bother u but could give me those book recs? Relying on u girl

of course!! sorry bout the long wait, dear x

you said you preferred trilogies or series’ (which i don’t read much of tbh) so here are a few of my favorites: (( some of these will have full on summaries and some… not so much, i got lazy lol ))

The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout : Meet Katy and Daemon! Katy is a funny, down-to-earth book blogger who has just moved to West Virginia. And Daemon? Well, he’s her hot and arrogant next-door neighbor. He’s also an alien. This one is cheesy, yeah, but it’s so FUN! Follow along as Katy and Daemon try to figure out what they mean to each other while trying not to get killed by the Arum; the Lumen’s enemy. In this world, the DOD is well aware that aliens exist and that they live on Earth. However, they are unaware that the aliens known as Luxen actually possess powers that make them.. well… powerful beyond means. This isn’t just a romance story; it focuses on family and friendships and it has a bunch of kick ass action and the entire plot with the DOD is so interesting.

The Pine Deep Series by Jonathan Maberry ; I’m only on the first book but this one is a bit more mature in terms of horror and things like that. If you like scary books or feel like being spooky in time for Halloween, you should definitely check this one out!

The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare : I’m sure you know about this one, but if you don’t! Angels, demons, warlocks, vampires, faeries, werewolves? What more could you want? When Clary Fray discovers she’s actually a Shadowhunter; an appointed warrior of the Angel Raziel and has angel blood coursing through her veins, her life is about to change forever. Join her and the rest of the Shadowhunter gang (and even a few others) as they team up to rescue her mom and stop an all out war from happening.

The Darkest Minds Series by Alexandra Bracken ; I’m only on the first book but I absolutely love it! It’s an intense read that has me on the edge of my seat constantly. I adore Ruby and she’s easily become one of my favorite female characters of all time.

Dorothy Must Die Series by Danielle Paige ; Okay. I know, I know. Really? Dorothy Must Die? Hear me out! This book is FUN. Trashy? Perhaps, but fun! The first book is really fast paced and honestly? I am living for a world where Dorothy is evil. So basically our main character is named Amy and she is the other girl from Kansas. She’s sent to Oz to save it from Dorothy Gale who has become power hungry and is now pure evil along with the Tin-Man, the Lion, and the Scarecrow. The rest of the series doesn’t really live up to the first book, but I would say you should read the first one anyway. It’s a lot of fun.

Did I Mention I Love You Series by Estelle Maskame: Sixteen-year-old Eden Munro decides to spend the summer with her father in Santa Monica as her parents are divorced now. Once there, she meets her father’s new family and that includes Tyler Bruce; her new asshole step brother with a short temper and a huge ego but as she gets to learn more about him, she finds herself falling for him. This trope isn’t for everyone and I know the whole step sibling thing is super taboo but this series is awesome and I read it during a huge reading slump and it really helped me get though it.

Perfect Chemistry Series by Simone Elkeles: When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for―her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more. (Each book in this series focuses on a different Fuentes brother.)

Fighting to Be Free Series by Kirsty Moseley: Jamie Cole has just been released from juvenile detention. Determined to go straight, he tries to cut ties with crime boss Brett Reyes - but Brett has no intention of letting him go. Jamie’s life is already more complicated than it needs to be, yet it’s when he meets a beautiful stranger at a bar that Jamie knows he’s really in over his head. Ellie Pearce has just come out of a terrible relationship and isn’t looking for anything serious; until she meets Jamie. Their attraction is overwhelming and intense - she can’t seem to shake her growing feelings for him, even though she’s trying to keep it casual. But when fate goes horribly wrong and Jamie’s family is faced with ruin, he’s forced to strike a deal with Brett. Despite his struggles, he wants nothing more than a future with Ellie. That’s until Ellie finds out that he’s been hiding more from her than she could ever imagine.

Mind if I drop in a few stand alone’s? I’m trying to read more series’ but I’ve always been more of a stand alone kind of girl, so here are some of my current favs:

#MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil : WELCOME TO THE NEAR FUTURE, where good and honest citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society’s most infamous convicted felons, streaming live on The Postman app from the suburbanized prison island Alcatraz 2.0. When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she’s about to be the next victim of the app. Knowing hardened criminals are getting a taste of their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn’t commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she’s innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman’s cast of executioners kill them off one by one?

One Small Thing by Erin Watt : Meet Beth and Chase. Beth is entering her senior year and is still trying to move on from the death of her older sister three years ago. In a small town with parents who have suddenly become her wardens; that seems nearly impossible. And then she meets the mysterious and hot Chase who immediately draws her in. Their attraction is instant and he’s the first person who makes her feel like Beth Jones and not Lizzie; the young girl who lost a sister and is somehow broken by it. But as she falls harder for Chase, she’s hit with the reality of the part he played in her sister’s death. It’s about forgiveness, love, and moving on. It’s sad and sweet and such a fun, quick read. Definitely good for trying to get out of a slump!

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren : Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community. If you read one book off of this list, PLEASE let it be this one. This book is so… amazing. It’s been months and I still think about it constantly.

Fault Line by C. Desir : Trigger WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS A RAPE. It is not shown, but it’s the main conflict in the book. Over the years I have struggled with if I liked this book because it was good or if I liked it because of how much it fucked me up. I read this book in one sitting and when I finished, I sat in my bed for a good hour and just…. didn’t move or do anything. You will NOT be rooting for the main couple. The narrator is unlikable and you will HATE all the characters in this book. The ending is NOT happy and I don’t know why I’m recommending this but GOD. This book, after so many years, just stuck with me because of how fucked up it was. It deals with the whole “recovery” process in such a dark way that we normally don’t see in YA fiction and I think that’s what makes it stand out so much. If you want something darker, read this. But read it with caution. If this isn’t something you like then please, don’t bother reading it. It’s not happy and it’s sure as shit not fluffy. Summary : Ben could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl—sarcastic free-spirit Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want. But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone. Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame? Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero : If you like Scooby-Doo or Archie’s Weird Mysteries this book is probably for you. 1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club are all grown up and haven’t seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she’s got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter’s been dead for years.The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.

Fatal Throne by Candace Fleming ; A book about Henry VIII and his six wives. If you like historical fiction then this book might be for you! It’s told through the perspective of his six wives (and even Henry himself) and it’s a really fascinating read.

Okay, I think I’m going to stop here. Let me know if none of these speak to you and I’ll give you some more recs! I didn’t know what kind of genres you liked, so I tried to throw in a little bit of everything.

#books n tings

5 notes · View notes

livehealthynewsusa · 4 years ago

Text

10 Ways to Build Mental Toughness

You don’t have to be “tough” to face the real challenges of life. It requires awareness, finesse and knowledge of one’s own mind. We have experts answering the questions we hear most about building mental strength. Use their strategies to improve your grit game. Not a single answer tells you that you are “man up”.

1) Can you get stronger physically without leaving your mental comfort zone?

“The body can only adapt when it faces something new, and new challenges will not always be pleasant,” says MH Fitness Director Ebenezer Samuel, CSCS So basically no. Your mind will also adjust to the discomfort and you will increase both your mental and physical strength. The secret: start small. “Add one to the goal you are pursuing each week,” says Samuel, “whether that means repeating another push-up for each set, adding another minute to your morning run, or holding a plank for another second . “

2) I hate to fail. Is there any way to end your obsession with what went wrong?

Start thinking like Michael Jordan. He considers himself a failure: by his count, he missed more than 9,000 shots. “Twenty-six times I was entrusted with taking the game-winning shot and missed,” he says. “I’ve failed over and over again in my life.” How did he get on? He went forward. “Making a mistake is just a source of feedback letting you know you’ve gone off course,” said Lisa Stephen, Ph.D., career, personal, and athletic performance coach and owner of Ignite Peak Performance in Vermont. “Use this data to focus on the next steps. Then forget about the mistake. You can imagine flushing it down the toilet or releasing it in a balloon. It’s about leaving the mistake behind and building on what you’ve learned. You can’t do your best if you focus on your worst. ”

3) Can I let go of negativity without writing a damn gratitude list?

Yes, by doing something for someone else. “One active approach to eliminating jealousy and negativity is to practice kind actions,” says psychiatrist Tracey Marks, MD, of Marks Psychiatry in Georgia. Start by giving others compliments and positive feedback. If you’re feeling extra generous, pay for it at a coffee shop or drive-through. There is some evidence that generosity is linked to activity in areas of the brain that are responsible for happiness.

However, if giving is frustrating (what about my needs?), Try gratitude without the list, says Dr. Marks. Spend a moment each morning thinking about what you are grateful for.

Jobe Lawrenson

4) My workload is ridiculous. How do I avoid burnout without dropping the pecking order in the office?

Learning to use the word “no” is natural for some of us, but it is slow for others. Many people don’t use it because they fear they will miss out on opportunities or be seen as unwilling by employers or customers. In reality, the opposite may be the case. “My experience is that if I say no, my worth increases,” says Elizabeth Day, creator of How to Fail podcast and author of Failosophy. “If you respect yourself, others will also respect you more.” “I can no longer get on with any other project” is an easier conversation than “I can no longer get along with this job”.

5) I am a hopeless procrastinator. How do I work out more get-up-and-go?

Let go of the concept of creative inspiration or you need to be “in the zone” to do what needs to be done. There will never be a right time to get the job done and if you wait for the mood to beat you will be waiting a long time. James Clear, author of the bestselling Atomic Habits, advocates sticking to a schedule rather than a deadline. If life gets in the way, reduce the size of the task – spend ten minutes instead of the allotted 30 minutes – but always stick to the schedule. Just don’t give yourself the option to skip it.

6. I am grappling with the loss of a loved one, but I need to be strong for my family. What can I do?

Being “strong” doesn’t mean holding back emotions and tears. “The way to show strength is not to be afraid to reveal your pain,” says Dr. Marks. “When everyone is hurt, the people who depend on you will see you as a role model for dealing with themselves.” If you hold everything back, you can telegraph that grief is a shame. To be strong, show how you feel.

Jobe Lawrenson

7. Reading the news often upsets and annoys me. How do I reset?

That is understandable; The news causes stress because it can create feelings of hopelessness and injustice. To process difficult news, try to create boundaries on how you can get it and find people to have meaningful conversations with about it, recommends psychiatrist and MH counselor on mental health Gregory Scott Brown, MD. Flight response in overdrive, do something to cool it down, like meditation or at least watching a fun, non-dramatic show.

Another solution: Swap passive news consumption for active discussion. Using the Black Lives Matter movement as an example, Eugene Ellis, founder and director of the Black, African, and Asian Therapy Network, points out the psychological benefits of talking to others. This can also help you know what action to take. “It’s an antidote to the feeling of powerlessness that many of us experience. When you start getting involved, you discover that beneath hopelessness lies the connection. And when you can find a connection, it’s easier to know what to do. “

Jobe Lawrenson

8. I’m doing an ultra marathon. Is it true that the mind is about the muscle?

“Ultras are likely 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical,” says Michael Wardian, a professional endurance runner who was one of only three people to have completed the Leadville 100-mile / Pikes Peak combined marathon (and the Backyard Ultra as well 2020). intense running mentally and physically). To master an ultra or endurance performance, “you have to have a big why. Don’t just run for social media, run for your kids or to prove something to yourself, ”he says. Also helpful: Rely on “chunking” – set yourself small goals such as reaching the next mailbox or the next refreshment point. You don’t always have to run to build your mental strength. “Get used to doing things that are uncomfortable for you,” he says. Set your alarm clock for 4:00 a.m. – or just do the dang dishes

9. I don’t have the patience to meditate. Can I reduce my stress differently?

“Yoga is an excellent way to reduce stress, and it’s good for people who can’t sit long enough to meditate,” says Dr. Marks. It also brings you stress relief benefits from two directions: As with meditation, focus on breathing, which can help relax the body. “And by stretching tense muscles, you release tension,” she explains. You don’t have to be flexible to do yoga and there are tons of virtual ways to practice it these days. Two of our favorites are Alo Moves and Apple Fitness +. Both offer a wide range of courses, from one-hour stress busters to ten-minute yoga snacks. (A side note: meditation is really worth persevering, so stick with it. Try an app like Calm, Headspace, or Ten Percent Happier to make it less boring.)

10) What should I say to someone who tells me to “get up”?

Read this article here.

This story originally appeared in the July / August 2021 issue of Men’s Health.

This content is created and maintained by a third party and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may find more information on this and similar content at piano.io

source https://livehealthynews.com/10-ways-to-build-mental-toughness/

0 notes

rael-rider · 5 years ago

Text

Having read his whole run from the old Tales of Suspense all the way to modern comics I have to say that around the Secret Wars event (the original one not the Hickman one) that’s when Steve started being elevated more as this great icon and great WWII hero that everyone looked up to and less like one of the other heroes. Marc Gruenwald really held Steve in high esteem to the point that I don’t think he could make a story were Steve himself was in the wrong and that’s partially why I think, after a certain point, Steve became the least interesting character in his run.

Maybe because in the 60′s he was written by actual WWII vets and they treated him like another one of the heroes. But his character there is treated more like a regular hero and characters treat him like one of the rest instead of this living legend which IMO allows him to have some humanization and allows for his flaws to show more and be pointed out note.

I recall one of his flaws that got brought up from time to time in the older comics was the fact that he tended to be very self-centered in his melancholy and full of angst that he overlooked the good things that he had and at times he could be blind to how others felt. In the DeMatteis run his childhood friend, Arnie Roth, calls him out on this because one of Steve’s villains kills Arnie’s boyfriend, Michael, and Steve starts agonizing about how he always hurts the people he loves and Arnie gets frustrated and angry and just lets him have it.

Which BTW is why Steve’s relationships are so good, especially his relationship with Sharon and Sam, because they see Steve the person before everything else and they tend to keep him grounded and call him out when they think he’s being full of shit.

I hate that Civil War was the most popular story with the narrative that went against Cap’s own because that story was atrocious, even Mark Millar agreed that he leaned towards pro-reg (despite showing them doing horrible stuff). But it was a story were Steve saw how his stubbornness and “I’m right” attitude was affecting civilians and in the end he decides to turn himself in because of that. I liked that idea because it shows that when Steve has doubts or thinks that he’s in the wrong he will back off instead of doubling down. I just wish it would have been in a better story and written by someone who cared about Cap.

That’s the thing they should have a writer that is willing to explore Steve’s flaws more and not hold him as this sacred cow without vilifying him (which really happens too when Steve guest stars in other comics and you know the writer just wants to have someone represent the authority figure for their characters to reel against) and without having him act wildly OOC (like when Warren Ellis had him condone torture and look away, like what the fuck).

Also I think some Cap fans need to also be more receptive to these kind of stories were he can be wrong or shown to be in the wrong.

With steve rogers on one hand its like "wow i love how you always stand up for what's right and i love how you're a natural born leader and inspire people" but on the other hand it's like "damn bro i wish a writer gave you a flaw or 2 so that you could be a well rounded character".

But yeah the most interesting thing about steve is his relationships with other people (mainly sharon, bucky, and sam) but other heroes as well

#captain america #my two cents #steve rogers

91 notes · View notes

wanderingandfound · 8 years ago

Text

The Posterchildren: Origins - Issue #1

In which we meet our four protagonists and I rejoice that I am no longer in high school.

Context: This week is the first week of The Posterchildren Book Club. The Posterchildren is a YA series (universe?) about an alternate world where some people have superpowers. It was created by Kitty Burroughs, who is the author of The Posterchildren: Origins, an ebook copy of which can be found here for $5.

Full disclosure: I’ve read this multiple times before so this will probably be a minorly spoilery post. Any actual for-real spoilers will be down at the bottom with a warning.

The introduction to this universe of superheroes occurs at a rainy cemetery. Corbin Underwood, father of point of view character Malek “Mal” Underwood has died. Mal appears to have nothing but contempt for the entire thing. According to Mal nobody liked his dad, and those that did either didn’t really know Corbin, or they are mistaken in their affections.

I’ll admit right now that when I first read this I knew conceptually of the unreliable narrator, but I didn’t actually apply it to what I was reading. Kitty Burroughs does an absolutely amazing job of imbuing all her writing with rich character voices and perspectives and just plain old word choices conveying dialect and origins and personality. And then, by using a third person POV, tricks naive first-time readers like I was into thinking that this is the Absolute Objective Truth.

I really do love Mal, but throughout this issue he reminds me of so many “enlightened” guys from high school who think they have absolutely everything under control and are already adults. But now that I’m a few years out of that I can laugh (somewhat kindly) at quotes like this, from a convo between Mal and his kinda-adopted-older-sister but also kinda-his-crush:

“If you’re attempting to cheer me up, you’re doing a shit job of it.”

“Language, young man. And are you admitting that you need cheered up?”

“I said no such thing,” Mal said, inwardly proud of the imperious ring he managed to plaster over his shaky voice. She probably couldn’t even tell how hard it was getting for him to swallow past the tears in his throat.

-Location 109 on my Kindle

And okay, Mal is definitely an amazingly smart kid. But he also only just turned 14 so I am choosing to believe that Ellie Lark can totally tell he’s on the verge of tears. It is their father’s funeral for goodness’ sake.

Also:

All signs of a bleeding heart had to be cut out and left in the field like the entrails of a kill.

-Location 198

I still don’t know how much wilderness experience (not theory) Mal has had. And while he’s probably right about the cut-throat nature of his school and his world (his dad did just die before he even got to 50), I think he’s also being overdramatic in his language choices. And I know for sure from past experience with teenage guys, that if you told him such he would just look down on you for not being able to see how the world “really works”.

Anyways I love Mal, but getting to June was like a breath of fresh air.

Not that June doesn’t also think that She Knows Everything.

When the airport car service finally pulled into the gravel drive and parked in the field in front of the Academy, June’s first impression of the high-and-mighty Best School in America for Posterchildren was that it had more trees than was strictly necessary. Everywhere she looked, there were trees. Pine trees. Leafy ones. Trees, trees, trees. Clearly, the deforestation myth was yet another lie that the government perpetuated to rile up the conservationists and give the hippies something to do with their time.

Okay, besides the fact that I am from the PNW and love trees with all my soul and so disagree with her opinion on mere principle, it’s been four years since I first read this and I still don’t know if she’s serious or not about the “deforestation myth”. Usually I think she’s joking but sometimes??? I think mostly it’s her personality where her knee-jerk reaction is “everything I don’t like is wrong”. Or maybe that’s me projecting.

So June has no idea what being a superhero entails, but she is going to ace it she’s sure. She’ll even threaten the “built like a linebacker” tour-guide over her apparently contraband candybar. Said tour-guide turns out to be the son of basically Superman and isn’t used to people not recognizing him, but thankfully he takes this well.

So well in fact we see him, Ernest West Wright, asking his father, who just came back from the funeral of his maybe-best-friend and cried so hard Mal was ashamed of him, if John can “pull some strings” and maybe get June as superhero-in-training partner for the next three years. Just a little though. Ernest wouldn’t want to be too much of a bother. He’s a very considerate kid who made his dad spaghetti but neither of them were hungry so he made sure the left-overs were properly stored.

I love Ernest guys. So much.

Dad Wright tells Ernest that he’s the top of the class (?!?!?!) and he’s already been paired with another successful dude. Ernie’s response?

“Dad, listen. June tried to fight me. Me! Maybe she won’t win the fifty yard dash or nothing, but she’s got guts. You can’t grade those.”

-Location 484

Both of the Wright men really do talk like this. It’s unreal. And somehow not cheesy.

Anyways his dad smiles and says maybe and then heads up to bed with a bottle of whiskey. Earlier in this section Ernest notes that both he and his dad are “impervious to extreme temperatures”. During these reviews I’m going to try and figure out what, exactly, are the limits of these Superman/Captain America hybrid “white bread” (June’s words) superheroes. My first question/observation: it looks like the Commander can get drunk. Probably. How long does this last?

Then we get back to Mal. The very first paragraph ends:

He didn’t have to preen or posture to get their attention. His parentage and test scores said all that needed to be said about him.

-Location 498

Oh Mal.

Apparently in the equivalent of Posterkid-elementary school Mal got a perfect 50/50, which had never happened before in the history of this school. He’s just that good (and worked that hard). So now he’s waiting for his Posterkid-middle school grade. He’s nervous, because this will determine who he’s partnered with and also the rest of his life. Because American schools do this to 14 year olds. But still, he is Mal. He’s much better than the average student. He’s got this.

He got a 67/100. 17 points for all of middle school. If you ever fall below 50% you’re kicked out of school. The only reason he hasn’t been is because he was an exceptional kid. He’s in disbelief. He talks back to Mr. John Commander Wright Sir and uh, it turns out it isn’t a mistake. Cue embarrassment.

He hated his father so much in that moment, with forty-seven obnoxious children laughing at him, the heat of his rage made it hard for him to breathe.

-Location 529

Okay, Mal, I don’t think every single other student is laughing at you. Also some are older than you. Also

God, she despised teenagers.

-Location 290, when June is in the tour group.

June and Mal have too much in common their interactions are not gonna go well.

Anyways Mal stays around long enough to hear who is partner is, doesn’t recognize the name and storms out while the assembly is still going on.

He didn’t know who Chance was. He didn’t care. All he knew was that Chance had a combined score of sixty-seven, and for that, Mal hated him more than anyone he’d ever known.

-Location 560

Harsh dude.

So Mal goes to the gym to beat something up and after the assembly ends properly John Wright follows him and is like, this is neither your fault nor your dad’s fault. See, Mal was basically homeschooled for middle school and Dead Dad Underwood gave him a 48/50, saying he was a going to need to learn how to be a team player but was overall a good kid. Mal refrains from lashing out and seems to remember that maybe these adults actually do care about him.

And then we meet Zip Chance. The love of my life. Who does not use he/him pronouns and does not deserve Mal’s deepest hate. However, Mal takes some of his anger out on her and makes her cry. He tells himself to not feel bad about that. She calls him a “jerkwad” and runs away and I love her 5ever.

Then we get darling Zip’s point of view and see that she isn’t going to let a mean partner get her down. She is determinedly optimistic and perfect. She is excited for high school and we find out that when she was little sometimes Zip would run through the screen doors in pursuit of breakfast. Because that’s what Zip does, she runs. And she has run away with my heart (okay I’ll stop now (never)).

Instead of doing what I would do, and avoid Mal until absolutely necessary, Zip decides not only to eat breakfast with her partner, but engage in positive conversation. Mal does not make it easy for her, and there are a few times when she genuinely missteps, but overall they actually part ways with the promise of trying to be good partners for each other and my heart starts to melt at how much I love them.

So ends Issue #1, and wow oh wow did that get long. I’m new to reviewing things so I’ll work on that. Spoilers below ranked in how far away the spoiler is.

Barely a Spoiler:

June to Ernest: “Go for it, champ.” - Location 271. June. June. How did you? Of course Ernest would think you knew who he was if you literally called him Champ.

A Bit of a Spoiler:

The way she saw it, it just wasn’t possible for her to continue in the life track her mother had laid out for her. She wanted her to finish up high school, go to college, get a degree, and then live a nice and/or normal adult life. Now, that plan had been a good one— though June had privately vowed to have at least two or three questionable college experiences, just to keep Marcy on her toes— but it’d belonged to the Old June. Old June was on the slow track to a nice, normal career. New June was a clean slate.

-Location 220

Your mother is a well-to-do sculpture artist who hangs out with the has-beens and up-and-comings. Is this really what she wants for you?

Post Bad Things Happen:

Training had always been an outlet. Whenever he was frustrated by life at large, he fell back on training to wear him out and drain the poison out of him. Sometimes, hitting things was the easiest, simplest way to calm himself down. Logically, he knew that fact didn’t say good things about his psyche, but he didn’t care. He just hit things harder.

-Location 564

Oh Mal. You are so much like your brother you don’t even know.

He didn’t hear the Commander’s approach, but that wasn’t surprising. Mal was good, but not quite that good. Not yet. - Location 566

Well, in some ways at least.

After getting to know Corbin:

That punishment was preferable to being coddled by the man that had cried openly at Rook’s funeral.

-Location 575

He didn’t need a shoulder to cry on. He didn’t need anyone’s help.

-Location 586

Where did this toxic masculinity come from? Because it is surprisingly absent in both Corbin and the very violent Marshal. And I’m pretty sure Amira wouldn’t raise her son to be like this? And even if John maybe has these tendencies (that’s an actual maybe, I don’t know) Ernest definitely doesn’t. Who was your bad role model Mal? Have you even ever watched a TV show? Also calling Ellie’s wings “physical deformities” back at Loc. 71? I mean they might be something but they sure aren’t deformed.

#The Posterchildren #posterchildrenbookclub #mine #thoughts #Look the only reviews I know are Mark Oshiro's older stuff where he read Twilight so we wouldn't have to.#I skipped over so much and this is still so long. Sorry about that.

1 note · View note

wingheadshellhead · 8 years ago

Note

Hi, I love your blog! So I've been reading a lot of 616 stevetony lately, and I've noticed that in both canon and in a lot of fiction, Steve seems to really dislike Extremis (even before superior iron man). Why do you think that is? Even without looking at this with shipper goggles (which I always am), I think it's really strange that Steve has so much disdain for something that essentially saved one of his best friend's lives.

(THIS HAS TAKEN ME 5 BILLION YEARS BUT HERE IT IS FINALLY)

i used to be in the same boat and automatically assumed steve’s dislike of extremis was one of those fandom headcanon things that was so commonly accepted it’d basically become fact, but it’s really, actually, all 100% canon. but the comics that deal with it happen right before civil war so i think many ppl have simply forgotten or skipped over that part of tony’s timeline.

execute program is the 6-issue arc that comes right after extremis and it’s the main thing i tell everyone they have to read if they’re putting themselves thru the ringer that is 616′s civil war. it is so so important to understanding tony’s headspace and where he’s at before the events of civil war occur.

READ EXECUTE PROGRAM. a) bc it’s absolutely crucial to tony’s side of civil war, b) the follow-through from the extremis arc is just… amazing, virtuosic. i really genuinely think it is a fascinating, excellently-written arc, c) when it gets gay it gets very gay. truST ME you do not need your shipper goggles for this at all bc guess which of the following things are canon: the sound of steve saying his voice being the only thing that snaps tony out of (likely a dissociative episode) trying to murder a villain that nearly kills peter, dyeing his hair blond when he’s going on the run, tony stopping his heart to save steve’s life. all of them !!! all canon !!!!!!

extremis is, basically, terrifying. to the average human being, hell even the average superhuman. it’s p much unfathomable the sheer level/magnitude/scope of extremis. extremis allows tony to access and control any piece of technology on earth and even in earth’s atmosphere, he can hear satellites. it’s like having the singularity as a superpower.

so part 1, iron man vol. 4 #7 (2006), opening issue and we have tony stopping a villain with lethal force, all while counting down the milliseconds and bidding on priceless artefacts.

now, avengers don’t kill. and tony doesn’t, he stops the man’s heart, then restarts it, basically performing defibrillation.

and then we get this conversation:

and after tony jets off leaving the new avengers to sort out the aftermath, we get this disturbing reminder:

a proper reread might prove me wrong but i don’t think the writers ever clarify whether this transformation in tony’s personality is due to extremis or outside manipulation (which is the culmination of execute program’s arc as i’ll go into in a bit). but when your brain is literally a machine and you Have Become more machine than human, this is the natural progression of tony’s humanity – the aspects of compassion, empathy, etc. – fading into the background to accomodate for extremis.

extremis brings out everything about tony that steve (and possibly the world) fears most. it makes him cold and calculating, and with a brain like tony stark’s elevated by the superhuman capacity to think and react at the speed of a machine, he’s unstopppable.

part 2, iron man vol. 4 #8, we have tony nearly straight up burning a man alive for almost killing peter and laughing about it.

he’s so deep in Destroy Mode that he doesn’t even register steve’s warning, and here i think he acts entirely out of instinct –– like extremis is thinking for him rather than his brain prompting him to do this.

extremis is also the cause of tension between tony and the newly-formed new avengers (one of my favorite line-ups!!), he almost gets into a fight with logan and jessica has to break them up. it turns out tony is missing time in his memory, which is extremely worrying for someone w/ his level of power…

what’s so fascinating about extremis, and why we have so much to thank warren ellis for (the writer of the extremis arc), is that it is the perfect and the most logical climax of the modern iron man story. tony’s worst villain, as we’ve known since the very beginning really, has never been anyone else but himself. and in the case of extremis, it’s a highly technologically advanced version of himself that can do and be everything he’s ever dreamed of being able to achieve vs. him.

the question extremis asks is at what cost? at what cost does technological advancement, bleeding-edge breakthroughs, and the spirit of human innovation come at? how far would tony go to become the Ideal version of himself that he sees as superior in every way? what would he sacrifice for that?

extremis represents basically the pinnacle of sci-fi tech in iron man comics, it’s why even god awful superior iron man used a 3.0 version of it as the foundation for tony’s sins. it’s the farthest point he’s ever reached, and it’s also the lowest in terms of the damage and fallout that comes from it. because ofc, tony stark can’t have nice things like this, but also bc the hubris + nature of extremis allowing its host to play god can’t exist without there being negative consequences. really b ad consequences.

huge respect to danial & charles knauf, the authors of execute program, too, because they find a way to perfectly bring the arc full circle as ellis did with his extremis. the central villain plot revolves around ho yinsen’s son. the kid hacks extremis and uses it to control tony, sending him to subconsciously assassinate a bunch of people on his kill list, i.e. a list of all the men involved in yinsen’s death. i mean like, HOLY SHIT, an iron man plot where a literal ghost from tony’s past – a direct victim of events tony was involved in, the son of the man that sacrificed his life so iron man could be born and so tony stark could live – shows up, weaponises tony’s own body + technology and uses him to murder people who are scheduled to participate in a peace summit despite the blood on their hands and the human cost of their involvement in the weapons industry.

DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN YINSEN’S LIFE’S WORK AND TONY’S LIKE DEATH AND DYING WOULD BE KINDER. again bc of my memory or even regardless due to constant retcons + reruns of the iron man origin story, i don’t know if it’s ever been explicitly stated before that yinsen also got into the weapons industry in order to get the funding necessary to support his other revolutionary work. but his son literally conflates yinsen with tony here, blending them into one + the same with that final panel and it becomes very obvious that at least a small part of him blames father for entering into weapons design. if he hadn’t, he might never have been captured by the the terrorist group that wanted him and tony to build them missiles.

also, yinsen + villains involving yinsen are a recurring theme in iron man history but can we talk abt the fact that tony has never ever let himself forget the man bc jesus christ

yinsen’s kid is killed by a SHIELD sniper, activating the dead man’s switch and unleashing all the peackeeping units tony built that are now compromised. now, tony’s no jean grey or wanda maximoff but if this arc shows anything it’s not to underestimate him bc intentional or not (lmao) if he put his mind to it there’s literally no limit to the damage he could do.

we see various heroes fighting off the peacekeeping units, and the new avengers are at the peace summit fighting a hulkbuster.

and here it is people !!! the 23989485th time tony kills himself so steve can live.

JUST. THE LOOK ON HIS FACE. AND THEN THIS ABSOLUTE LACK OF HESITATION:

so, yes. extremis was traumatising for pretty much every single person involved. steve has extremely good reasons for HATING extremis, even in the early stages or even if a fic is taking place before the events of execute program.

if you read the full arc, you’ll see tony running himself into the ground with his new abilities (world’s greatest multitasker can now multitask 192483958 things at once? ofc he’s going to use and abuse and exploit that), you see him spiralling and losing his grip on reality (mainly because he’s actually having dissociative episodes and losing time due to being remotely controlled to assassinate ppl but also bc of the Effect extremis is having on him). i brought up wanda and jean earlier as a casual reference but like, to put it in that kind of perspective, people just weren’t made to have this much power.

on a smaller scale, apart from eating up all of tony’s time and attention and mental health in a really bad way, it just Distances him from everyone. especially from the team. it’s Isolating, having this much going on in his brain and no one else in the world to fully understand it.

and on steve’s side, you also have the fact that tony’s genius is both one of the things he loves and lowkey resents most about him. he has this deep-set anxiety about tony with all his brilliance and intelligence leaving him behind in the dust, or worse, laughing at him and how outdated and dim-witted he is in comparison. this is steve’s version of tony’s “i’m never going to be good enough for him”, a sentiment summed up in a quote from him as early as tales of suspense vol. 2 (1995): “yes, tony stark, a man of today and tomorrow is the man i’ll never be.” he’s so afraid of being abandoned + alienated by tony’s mind and the future that tony’s worked so tirelessly to build that might render him irrelevant. he’s scared of a future where he has no purpose, but more or just as importantly, he’s scared of becoming obsolete in tony’s life, of not being needed by tony anymore. one of the things that endeared him so much to tony, and which laid the foundations of their lifelong friendship, was the fact that from Day One (1), tony made him feel At Home. he never let him feel ashamed or isolated as The Man Out Of Time, he actively worked to make steve feel comfortable and to give him the things he needed to acclimatise and to fit himself into this brave new world.

extremis undoes all of that. it propels tony so far and so fast into the future that it makes tony untouchable to steve. all of the ‘i can hear satellites’ stuff renders steve helpless and even more out of his depth than usual. it presses all of steve’s secret buttons and then some.

to sum this all up, and to finish my extra rambling abt tony bc u asked me about extremis and i couldn’t not finish with this:

here we have, ladies and gentlemen, everything u need to understand abt tony going into civil war. and it’s not on any of the official civil war fucking reading lists which really pisses me off because whether or not they did it on purpose the knaufs basically wrote all of execute program as the perfect precursor and characterisation groundwork for an antebellum tony stark.

a tony stark who was just very recently manipulated against his will into assassinating people and causing a world-threatening incident that could have resulted in the deaths of thousands, including his own friends and teammates (and the love of his life), is a very different tony stark to the one ppl see in civil war #1.

what happens in stamford was an accident, too. no one meant for that to happen. tony knows first fucking hand what that means and what it feels like to carry that responsibility and guilt. his position in civil war supporting the SHRA is not only to protect the potential lives that could be lost in another stamford incident but also to protect superhumans and superheroes from ever being exploited against their will by villains to kill and hurt and destroy.

superheroes are inherently susceptible to being used, it’s just part of the narrative convention –– a superhero is brainwashed or mind controlled or otherwise forced against their will to do something awful. and even if it’s not their fault there needs to be accountability for the victims. both the victims that suffer directly because of superhuman incidents but also the superheroes that become victims of ppl who abuse their powers. it’s abt protecting superheroes not just from civilians but from themselves. and if u’ve read a single comic u kno that this kinda shit happens way too often and way too easily.

sO YE S T hIS iS W HY. AND IT Ex PL AINS SO MUC H AND i j UST WISH P PL WOULD GODDAMN REA D THIS. LIKE EVERYONE WHO EVER WANTS TO SAY ANOTHER A GODDAMN THING ABOUT TONY STARK IN CIVIL WAR NEEDS TO FIRST READ EXECUTE PROGRAM FIRST OR PAY ME $10

anyway…………… one last time, i’m so so so sorry this took forever to get to. hope the wait was worth it!

#mod: answer #averageapplepie #stevetony #stony #extremis #text: meta #universe: 616 #comic: iron man v4 #original: meta #i'm so sorry u had to wait so long like #i should warn ppl that ever ask me a meta question that i might take half a yr to reply #......not to deter u tho bc i promise that my answer will be as well thought-out and in-depth as i can make it

321 notes · View notes

dust2dust34 · 8 years ago

Text

Pieces of Always: December 2021 (FICoN ‘verse)

Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows.

by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34

Summary: Oliver and Felicity have some exciting news for their daughters.

An ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. (You do not need to have read FiCoN to enjoy this, but it will spoil the end. Please see the first installment for additional author notes. Thank you @jsevick and @alizziebyanyothername for the amazing beta!)

A/N: Please see the first chapter for an important Author’s Note, as well as under the cut for an additional one.

A/N: I am taking more of a beta role for right now. The effervescent @so-caffeinated is fully in the driver’s seat and she’s kicking all the ass, so please go send her your love!

(read on AO3)

December 2021 - Origin Story

It’s not like it will be a surprise to anyone in their lives when Oliver and Felicity tell them that she’s pregnant. The whole family is well aware that they expect to have a third child, as well as when he will be born and that he’ll be a boy and what his name will be.

Nate.

Their little boy. Felicity absolutely cannot wait for their son. She doesn’t know if the other her had longed for another baby, had planned it out and started taking prenatal vitamins a full month before she’d even conceived him, but she sure did. Oliver had done a double take when he’d found the bottle of oversized vitamins in their medicine cabinet.

“Not yet,” she’d told him before he’d even had a chance to voice his question. “But I’d really like to make another baby with you.”

He had enthusiastically agreed and their afternoon plans had changed on a dime. The timing had been wrong then - they hadn’t conceived him for several more weeks - but… hey, practice makes perfect, right?

And their little boy will be perfect. Felicity knows that with every fiber of her being.

This pregnancy, in some ways, is like a strange mixture of when she’d been expecting Jules and Ellie. With Jules, everything had been such an unknown. She’d been so very unexpected. At the time, Felicity had privately thought her first child might be Ellie, just born sooner. Time finds a way, after all. Right? But a head full of wispy dark hair when her oldest had been born was a dead giveaway that Jules was a very different person from Ellie, their someday child.

Coming to terms with that had been harder than she could have expected. In some ways, it had felt like losing Ellie all over again and it had taken a painfully long time to realize that the hollow sense of loss and inadequacy she felt was actually a rough case of postpartum depression, not any kind of failing on her part.

Her experience with Ellie had been entirely different, but her depression after the birth had not. It had brought all the same feelings of inexplicable hopelessness and exhaustion, the same certainty that she wasn’t good enough, that her children deserved a better mother than her. But she’d known what it was that time, at least. So had Oliver. They’d learned the hard way with Jules, and she knows full well that neither of them will ever forget the day he found her sobbing uncontrollably in the rocking chair in the nursery while Jules gurgled away happily in her crib. And when she’d started down that path again, they’d quickly gotten her the help she’d needed to work through it.

She expects the same thing will happen with Nate, but that doesn’t make her any less excited about her son right now.

Like with Ellie, she has a rough sense of what’s coming. She knows, if things hold true to the other universe, what his birthday will be, that he’ll be healthy. She doesn’t know him, not like she’d known Ellie before her birth, but she’s nowhere near as in the dark as she’d been with Jules and she feels like she has a sense of what’s coming.

The girls, however, do not.

In the last three months, she’s had a ‘stomach bug’ or ‘food poisoning’ almost constantly. Her mom and Moira have both been staring at her midsection more than her face and Thea had not-so-covertly started leaving baby boy clothes in the spare room that they long ago decided would be Nate’s. Her sister-in-law is a lot of things, but subtle is not one of them.

Still, they haven’t told anyone yet. She’d wanted to get through the first trimester before confirming the suspicions of virtually everyone they know - even Samantha had offered saltines and herbal tea when they’d picked up William last weekend. They’re fooling precisely no one.

Except their daughters.

But, that’s going to end today, because today marks the first day of her second trimester and she’s started having to use hair ties to fasten her jeans because she absolutely refuses to switch to maternity pants when she’s only three months pregnant. Honestly, she knows you show earlier if you’ve already had a pregnancy under your belt - so to speak - but come on. How big is this kid gonna be?

“You ready for this?” Oliver asks, coming up behind her and resting his chin on her shoulder as he wraps his arms around her and rests his hands against the barely-there swell of her belly. His inability to keep his hands off her midsection lately would probably be a dead giveaway to the adults in their lives, even if they hadn’t known about their inevitable third child.

“So ready,” she confirms, leaning back against him and running her hands down his forearms to lace her fingers with his over the curve of her stomach. “But do you think they are?”

“Ellie’s going to be thrilled,” he tells her immediately. That’s the easy part, though. Felicity already knew that. “And Jules…”

“She’s a wild card,” Felicity murmurs, because she knows what her husband is thinking. Sometimes their oldest is so hard to read.

“Yeah,” Oliver agrees. “She is. But she adores her big brother so maybe she’ll be excited about a little brother, too.” Felicity tilts her head to look back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Or not,” he acknowledges. “A newborn isn’t the same as a teenager who’s happy to take you to the park and play with you. But she’ll adjust.”

Felicity nods slowly at that, because it’s absolutely true. She’ll adjust. She’ll have to, but Felicity also can’t convince herself that’s going to be a quick or easy process. Jules is very protective of her family, but she’s even more protective of herself. She shares so little of what she’s thinking sometimes and Felicity would give almost anything for her daughter to be just a bit more open, just a little more revealing about what’s going on in her head.

“Well then… I guess she should get started on that,” Felicity ventures. “She’s only got another six months or so to prepare.” If she sounds a bit nervous, that’s because she is. Hormones are a crazy thing and she’s pretty sure she’ll bust out crying if Jules gets angry about having to welcome a baby brother into her home. “Unless you want to wait until next weekend when Will’s here?”

They’ve had this conversation more than once. Felicity still thinks Jules might handle it better if Will’s at her side, excited about yet another sibling. But Oliver’s barely managed to hold to her ‘wait-for-the-second-trimester rule’ as it is and there’s no way he’s putting it off another weekend.

Oliver turns sheepish. “I told Sam we wanted to swing by with pizza and treat them for dinner tonight,” he confesses. That surprises Felicity a little and it must show because he flushes a little and asks, “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No,” she answers right away. “It’d be nice to see Will and I’m sure he’ll be happy. I just didn’t expect that. Did you want to wait and tell the girls along with him?”

“I don’t think so,” Oliver says. “I think we should tell them now.”

Yeah, he doesn’t have a reason for that opinion and she knows it. He’s just bursting at the seams to tell the girls and even waiting a few hours isn’t something he’s willing to do. He kind of wants to tell the whole world, she thinks.

Felicity stares at him. “We have lunch plans with your mom and sister tomorrow, don’t we?” she asks as the idea dawns on her.

“No…” Oliver says, shifting and fidgeting slightly before clearing his throat. “It’s brunch.”

Felicity chuckles and shakes her head at him in disbelief. How is he so adorable about this? It’s sort of blowing her away and she wants to kiss him senseless, drag him to their room and fully illustrate her appreciation of him. But that’s the sudden lack of nausea and the flood of pregnancy hormones talking and right now they’ve got two little girls to clue in on the fact that they’re going to be big sisters.

“Okay, stud,” she grins, letting go of one of his hands to slide her fingers up the back of his neck as she twists a bit to kiss him. “You can shout it from the rooftops all you want… not literally, please. Like, that’s a thing that might be slightly awkward. Especially since usually when you’re on rooftops, you’re dressed all in green and all ‘grrrr you’ve failed this city’ and it would be really problematic to follow up with ‘and by the way I impregnated my wife again.’”

“That might be a big clue to my identity,” he agrees with a laugh as he steps back a bit and tugs her arm to turn her to face him. “But even as the Arrow I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep the grin off my face.” He presses his forehead to hers with a quiet, “Thank you for making me a dad again.”

Felicity smiles. “My pleasure,” she replies. “Like, literally. Super fun times. I enjoyed that process thoroughly.”

The laugh he lets out at that is full-throated and entirely joyful. She loves that sound, loves the abandon he can let go with these days. It’s such a far cry from when they met. She’s not fool enough to think the darkness that’s haunted his life is gone. It’s not. She knows that. But there’s balance now, a life that brings him fulfillment and reason beyond the narrow confines of a mission he inherited from his father. And that’s a beautiful thing to see, but it’s an even more beautiful thing to be a part of.

“Come on,” he says, kissing her softly against and squeezing her hand in his. “Girls in their rooms?”

“Jules is,” Felicity answers. “Ellie was watching tv in the family room.”

He nods and starts toward the stairs, her hand still tucked in his. And, sure enough, they find Ellie flopped in front of the television, lying on her belly with her feet kicked up in the air as she focuses entirely on Rascal the Racoon and his woodland friends.

“Hey kiddo,” Felicity greets. “How much longer is your show?”

“Dunno,” the three-year-old replies.

“Hit pause, Ellie-bug,” Oliver tells her. It takes a moment for the words to register with the toddler, she’s so zoned out on the television, but when they do she sighs and stops the program. It’s almost done, just a few minutes left, and Felicity can’t help but think the timing is just about perfect.

“Don’t start another one and don’t go anywhere, okay?” she requests.

“‘Kay,” Ellie replies. She’s already hit play again and Felicity would bet excellent money that she hadn’t even really heard the words. Her love of this show is absurd. But then Felicity knew it would be. There’d never been a doubt about that; some things in the universe are a constant, it seems, and Ellie’s love of Rascal the Raccoon appears to be one of those things.

This Ellie is not the same as the first one. Oh, they’re very similar and physically are absolutely identical - something that’s become painfully apparent as Ellie closes in on the age she’d been when the first Ellie had burst into their lives. But her life has been different from the start.

She has an older sister, both grandmothers, a chronically ill aunt, and she’ll never have to worry about villains like Zoom and Malcolm Merlyn. Of course she’s different. She’d have to be. And sometimes Felicity finds herself wondering about the other Ellie, the first one. Who she is, what she’s done with her life, if she’s okay… She owes that little girl a lot and she will always love her fiercely. But she’s a wholly different person from the Ellie lying on the floor in front of her, despite appearances.

A tug on her hand brings her mind back to the here and now as Oliver guides them toward Jules’ room. The door’s open and they find the almost-seven-year-old staring intensely at a piece of paper on her art desk as she dips a paintbrush in a murky jar of water to rinse it off. The intensity in her little girl’s eyes is astounding for a first-grader. She’s so very honed in on what she’s doing. But that’s Jules. She plans, she sorts things out, and then she acts. It’s no different with painting than it is with conversation. Everything she shows is precisely what she wants to show. But, unlike in conversation, her painting is so very expressive. That had been a surprise to find, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. She’s always given so much to her dancing, too.

“How’s the painting going?” Oliver asks, leaning against the doorway.

“Good,” Jules says without looking up. She bites her lower lip and Felicity makes a mental note to pick her up some chapstick. She does that far too often when she’s painting and this winter’s been a cold one so far. Jules is prone to chapped lips far more than her sister. “Sorta good,” she amends. “Fur is really hard. I wanted to paint a monkey for Will, ‘cause he’s goofy like a monkey, but it’s real hard.”

“I bet he’ll love it no matter what,” Oliver tells her with absolute certainty. It’s true. Will’s entirely enamored with his siblings and Felicity’s pretty sure they can do no wrong in his eyes. Jules in particular seems to need that. She’s happier when he’s around, more herself. As if Felicity needed yet another reason to wish her stepson were around more. “How about you take a break though?” Oliver continues. “Mom and I wanted to have a family meeting.”

Jules goes entirely still at that, save for the way her eyes dart between her parents with tremendous suspicion. “What’s wrong?” she asks after a moment.

“Nothing,” Oliver laughs. “It’s nothing bad, kiddo. Just leave the paints for a minute and come join us in the family room.”

“Wash your hands first, too, please,” Felicity adds, because she can see wet traces of primary colors on her daughter’s nails even from the doorway.

“Okay,” Jules says, dragging the word out with tremendous hesitation, closing up her paints. She’s so wary sometimes. People who don’t actually know her seem to find it cute, but it just makes Felicity worry. Parenting in general makes her worry. The kids are never far from her thoughts and there’s no shortage of things to bring out her concern.

“I’ll get the sink for you,” Felicity offers, taking a step away from her husband and nodding toward the restroom down the hall. “We don’t want the knobs to the faucet turning red from all that paint.”

“True,” Jules agrees, looking down at her hands as she follows after her mom. Oliver’s stepped away, heading back toward the family room and Ellie.

“Hang on, sweetheart,” Felicity says when she and Jules reach the bathroom. She flips on the light and bends over to push the stepstool Ellie needs away from the sink. Jules is tall enough that it’s more in the way than a help at this point.

“Thanks,” Jules tells her as Felicity stands back up and turns on the water.

“No problem,” Felicity replies as the little girl quietly washes her hands. She’s being so quiet, internalizing so much right now and Felicity knows that’s mostly worry about whatever the family meeting is about, but it’s also been more and more common with Jules. It’s such a gradual thing. Felicity can’t even pinpoint when that all started, but she knows it wasn’t always like that. At least, not to the extent it is now. Jules has always been more reserved than her sister or Will. It’s just part of who she is, it seems, but it also feels like she’s subtly, slowly closed herself off more and more over time. It’s confusing and worrying, but she has no idea what to do about it. She doesn’t even know if she should do anything about it beyond love and accept her little girl.

“All clean,” Felicity announces, handing her daughter a towel and turning off the water. Jules says thanks again, but it’s done absently, more of an automatic reaction than anything else. “We’re having dinner with Will and his mom tonight,” Felicity says. Predictably, Jules perks up immediately.

“Really?” she asks, looking up with a spark of excitement.

“Yup, really,” Felicity confirms, allowing herself to relax some because Jules is showing a sliver of happiness and she knows how to encourage that right now. “We’re bringing over pizza and spending the evening with them.”

“Cool,” Jules says, smiling at her toes through a curtain of dark hair. Felicity can’t help tucking some of it behind her ear.

“Come on, kiddo,” she says. “This shouldn’t take long and then you can get back to your painting. Maybe you can finish it in time for tonight.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jules agrees as the two of them head out to the family room to join Ellie and Oliver.

“No, see, because Chester the Chipmunk took all the nuts and that wasn’t fair,” Ellie’s saying, her little voice drifting down the hall. “It’s a problem, Daddy. He needs to learn to share. Poor Rascal was so hungry!”

Felicity can’t help but smile as she hears Oliver softly reply with, “He does. I bet you could have taught him, Ellie-bug, and I know you would have shared.” Ellie’s huff and, “Daddy… they’re cartoons with cartoon nuts. I can’t be there. It doesn’t work like that,” is maybe the cutest thing she’s heard today. Her grin is blinding by the time she gets to the family room with Jules at her side.

“Hey, ladies,” Oliver greets them where he and Ellie sit on the floor. “Jules, why don’t you have a seat next to Ellie. Mom and I want to tell you something.”

“Are we going to Disney World?” Ellie asks immediately, sitting up straight, her eyes alight at the prospect.

“No, that’s… no,” Felicity says, wondering how her daughter came to this conclusion. Jules is shaking her head at Ellie as she sits next to her on the carpet. Oliver offers Felicity his hand as she moves to sit next to him with their backs to the base of the sofa. She’s barely showing, of course, but her balance is already a touch off-kilter and she almost falls as she tries to sit down.

“Is Mommy okay?” Jules asks, her voice painfully quiet and tremendously worried. Felicity’s eyes snap to her daughter’s immediately and she’s surprised at the honest concern reflected back at her.

“I’m fine, Jules,” she reassures the little girl. “Promise.”

“‘Cause…” Jules starts, swallowing hard and licking her lips. “‘Cause Ginger’s mom threw up lots and got dizzy, too, and she said she was fine but then her doctor said she wasn’t and she had to have the doctors cut her open and they thought she might even die and it got real bad.”

“Oh, Jules, baby… no,” Felicity says, reaching over to her daughter and tugging her close. Jules is tense as anything, but Felicity isn’t about to let up. Not now, not with this. Ellie looks a little panicked all the sudden too, but she gets up on her own and scrambles between her parents. “That’s not it at all. I already went to the doctor and I’m fine. In fact, I’m even better than fine.”

“Momma… throwing up is not better than fine,” Ellie says patiently, patting her thigh. “Throwing up is extra super gross, especially after you’ve just had rice cause then it gets stuck in-”

“Okay, yes, throwing up is gross,” Felicity interrupts because she really doesn’t need to hear the rest of Ellie’s detailed analysis on why rice is the worst. “But I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore.”

“Did the doctor tell you not to cook?” Ellie asks in the most innocent little voice ever.

Oliver tries to hide his face as he laughs, but he’s way too amused for that to work and Felicity can barely work up a half-hearted scowl in his direction anyhow because he’s not exactly wrong.

“No,” Felicity says slowly, raising an eyebrow at her husband until his laughter dims to a light chuckle and a grin. Jules shifts nervously beside her though and she knows the little girl’s worries haven’t faded. “No, he told me that your daddy and I are going to have another baby.”

“Oh!” Ellie says as Oliver wraps an arm around her and hugs her to his side. She looks down to her mother’s midsection before looking back up. “There’s a baby in your tummy? It made you throw up? That’s not very nice of it.”

“There is,” Felicity agrees, bopping Ellie on the nose with her finger. “And you made me throw up when I was pregnant with you too, Ellie-bug. So did Jules. That’s pretty common. Your little brother doesn’t mean to make me feel sick.”

It hasn’t escaped her that Jules has yet to share a reaction and she wants to refocus on her older child, but Ellie jumps in with, “It’s a boy?” just as she’s turning toward Jules.

“Of course it’s a boy,” Jules says. “It’s Nate, dummy.”

“Hey,” Oliver says sharply. “We don’t use that word and it’s not true. Apologize, right now, Julianna.”

“Sorry,” Jules grumbles. Ellie still looks hurt and confused, though, and it’s a little heartbreaking. Jules doesn’t seem to have any clue how deeply she affects her sister. “It’s just… we knew this would happen, right?”

“We knew it could,” Felicity agrees slowly, because surely they could have changed things had they wanted to. But she’s looked forward to this baby boy for years. Maybe it’s that she’s got a few years as a mother under her belt, maybe it’s because she feels a little more prepared for all the challenges an infant brings with them this time, but she’s so very excited about her son that she might burst. It’s different than before. The hint of panic about her first pregnancy is nowhere to be found and the strange set of expectations that came with Ellie are absent this time, too. There’s just… a little boy she can’t wait to meet and welcome into the home and family that’s more than ready for him.

“How’d he get there?” Ellie asks suddenly, quirking her head to the side and leaning forward to stare at her mother’s belly up close.

“Uh…” Oliver starts, flushing and clearing his throat.

“He’s from the other universe, remember?” Jules asks her sister with a deep sigh.

Wait… What?

“He popped into mommy’s belly?” Ellie asks, eyes going wide. “No wonder she felt like falling down! How’d he do that?”

“Same way you did, I guess,” Jules tells her.

“That’s not…” Felicity starts, shaking her head and looking to Oliver who seems every bit as thrown as her. “Honey, that’s not what happened.”

“What do you mean?” Jules asks, lines of deep confusion working their way across her brow. “You were waiting for them from the other timeline, the one we’re not supposed to talk about with other people.”

“No, they aren’t the same, Jules,” Oliver tells her. “It’s like… it’s like… Felicity, help me out here.”

“It’s like cookies,” Felicity says. She’s hardpressed to decide who has the most confused face - her husband or her daughters - but she’s started with this metaphor and by God she’s gonna keep going with it. “Daddy and I were cookie batter but we hadn’t baked yet. And someone else had made cookies with the same sets of ingredients. So we could see that they had some cookies with chocolate chips and some with raisins. And we knew we could be those kinds of cookies too, but not with the same raisins or chocolate chips.”

“I don’t want to be a raisin,” Ellie says with great distress. “Raisins are yucky.”

“I don’t understand,” Jules admits.

“Neither do I and I know what she’s trying to describe,” Oliver tells her.

“How about you try then, Daddy,” Jules suggests. “Because right now I still think Nate popped into Mommy’s tummy from the other universe. It makes more sense.”

“Your mom and I had a very special chance to get a look at what our lives could be like,” Oliver tells her. “Like seeing ourselves on television, I guess. We got to meet the Ellie that another copy of us had. We learned about Nate, too. But we didn’t get to keep that Ellie or take that Nate. We made our own.”

“How’d ya’ do that?” Ellie asks.

“Uh…” Felicity chokes.

“My friend Tara says it’s from storks, but I think that’s silly,” Jules tells Ellie. “I’ve never even seen a stork and I’ve seen loads of babies.”

“Me too,” Ellie agrees. “So, how’d Nate get in there, Momma?”

“There is… a way,” Felicity replies slowly, her voice faltering. “A very special way. When mommies and daddies love each other enough and they want to have a baby then sometimes they… do?”

“Is that a question?” Jules asks, looking at her mother like she’s crazy. “You don’t sound very sure. Maybe you should ask your doctor.”

“I love loads of people and I like babies,” Ellie announces. “Does that mean there’s a baby in my belly, too?”

“No, it doesn’t work that way,” Oliver tells her. He looks a little shellshocked at the question.

“You sound sure, but I don’t think you really know,” Ellie decides aloud.

“This is my fourth child,” Oliver points out, sounding a little affronted. “I think I know how babies are made by now.”

“I think maybe we should ask grandma,” Jules decides, standing up. “She’d know for sure. Or Uncle Digg. He knows everything.”

“He’ll be pleased to hear that,” Felicity supplies with amusement as Oliver says, “Please don’t ask Uncle Digg where babies come from, Jules.”

“When’s he coming out?” Ellie asks, leaning her full weight on her forearms against her mother’s thigh and poking one finger at her belly. “How’s he gonna get out of you? There’s not a door. Does he come out your belly button?”

“June. And… that’s… an excellent question, about how he gets out,” Felicity says, laughing nervously. “How about we have another family meeting after I… look up how to talk to you about all this?”

“You don’t remember?” Ellie questions. “I guess it’s been a long time since I was born. Three and a half whole years.”

“Maybe the baby makes it hard to remember things, too,” Jules suggests. “But you’d think Daddy would remember how it works.”

“Maybe there’s a baby in him, too!” Ellie suggests.

“Don’t be silly, Ellie. That’s what mommies do, not daddies,” Jules tells her.

“But mommy and daddy both love each other so much so maybe they made two babies by mistake,” Ellie insists.

“There’s just the one,” Felicity tells her, trying not to envision the notion of twins and blinking that idea away. She’s utterly thrilled to be having Nate, but wow is she glad there’s just one of him. “The doctor said so. He even gave me a picture. Did you want to see it?”

“Yes!” Ellie declares excitedly. “Come on, Jules! We get to see the baby! We’re going to be very good big sisters, Momma. I promise.”

“I know you will, Ellie-bug,” Felicity tells her, smoothing her fingers through the little girl’s loose curls before reaching for the phone in her pocket. She pulls up the ultrasound photo right away and turns her phone so the girls can see it. Ellie practically has her nose pressed to the phone, but Jules is a few feet away watching on warily. “You will too, Jules. You’re already a great big sister. You will be again. Do you see here? That’s his head and that’s his middle. You can see one of his arms right here and that’s a foot.”

Ellie’s face quirks to the side and she gnaws on her lip as she watches the screen. “Momma… I think your doctor’s wrong. I don’t think that’s a baby. I think it’s a burrito.”

“A burrito?” Oliver laughs. It’s a full-bellied sound and so joyous, so pure that the happiness of it spreads right out over Felicity. He scoots closer to her and wraps an arm around her waist. Ellie’s still between them, but she’s down near Felicity’s knee and there’s enough room that Oliver can kiss Felicity’s shoulder as he laughs. She loves that.

“They can make you throw up, too, Momma,” Ellie says sagely. “You should ask the doctor to double-check.”

“Honey, I promise, it’s not a burrito. It’s a baby. It’s your brother Nate,” Felicity insists.

“I might start calling him burrito, though,” Oliver muses.

“Our son is not a burrito,” Felicity bristles.

“Not a burrito. Burrito,” Oliver corrects with a goofy grin. Pending fatherhood has put him in a tremendously joyous and silly mood. It has every time.

But still…

“No,” Felicity insists.

“Can I talk to him?” Ellie asks, cutting through the silliness.

Felicity’s heart positively skips a beat at that before speeding up to double-time. “What?” she asks.

“I know he can’t hear me yet, but maybe I could pretend?” Ellie suggests. She’s nervous and hopeful and it feels like deja-vu, makes Felicity’s head swim at the echo of a memory playing out in front of her. “I don’t have to,” Ellie says with a little shrug, misreading her mother’s shock as reluctance. “It’s okay.”

“You can,” Felicity tells her. It feels like playing out a script.

“Really?” Ellie asks delightedly.

“Really,” Felicity confirms.

Ellie’s little fingers grab the bottom of her mother’s shirt and push it up, exposing the flat plane of her stomach. She moves so that she’s cross-legged on Felicity’s lap and leans over, speaking directly to her mother’s belly button.

“Hi, baby!” Ellie says in what she seems to think is a whisper. Felicity feels Oliver’s fingers twitch against her side and hears him exhale an unsteady breath. He’s as lost in memories as she is and she knows it.

“It’s Ellie! Your big sister. I’ve never been a big sister before, but I promise I’m gonna be so good at it ‘cause Jules taught me how and I already love you loads.”

There is nothing in the whole world that could make Felicity tear her eyes away from Ellie in this moment. Just as there is nothing that could pull Oliver’s attention away from their younger daughter.

Ellie pats her mother’s stomach, scrunching her fingers against the gentle rounded plane like she’s done this a hundred times before, like she’d done when it wasn’t quite her. An unexpected pang of longing hits Felicity for that other little Ellie, for the first child she’d considered one of her own.

But what follows a moment later deviates from the script of before and it reminds her so very thoroughly that no matter how wonderful that little glimpse into their other life might have been - no matter how much they gained from that experience - the lives they’ve made for themselves are so, so much better.

“You too, Jules,” Ellie says, sitting up on her mother’s lap and reaching toward her sister.

For her part, Jules is a touch hesitant. She’s a little less thrilled about this baby thing than her little sister, but that’s okay. She’s got time to get used to it and this feels like the first step in the right direction. Felicity nods her head in invitation with a smile at her older daughter and Jules shuffles forward until Ellie grabs her by the wrist and pulls her down.

“Baby Nate,” Ellie says, talking into her mother’s belly button like it’s a microphone again. “I am Ellie and I am three-and-a-half years old, so I am big and I know lots. This is Jules and she is seven next month so she knows even more but not as much as Will who is fourteen and very old. They’re your sister and brother, too, just like me.” She pulls back and looks at her sister. “Say hi, Jules!”

Jules looks like she feels silly but everyone is watching her expectantly so she leans forward a little and says, “Hi, Nate.”

Ellie huffs at the lackluster greeting. “Not like that,” she corrects. “He can’t hear you from so far away.” She’s all of maybe a foot from Felicity’s stomach. “You gotta get close like this,” Ellie advises, her mouth brushing the skin of her mother’s tummy. “Hellooooo in there, baby brother!” She leans back and tugs Jules forward more. “Come on. Don’t be shy Jules. He’s gonna love you. You’ve gotta introduce yourself.”

Jules turns bright red at that and swallows hard, looking anxious and self-conscious, but she leans in. “Hi Nate,” she says. Her lips don’t touch her mother’s skin, but her hand does, ever so gently, stroking at the skin like she’s petting a dog. “I’m Jules. And I think it’s… kinda cool to meet you.”

It’s soft-spoken, shy, almost embarrassed that she cares, but it’s such a huge step for Jules, for their family, and it seems to Felicity that all the pieces of their lives are sliding right into place. And the picture it forms is beautiful, perfect - even with its flaws - and it’s not just the pregnancy hormones that make her gather her girls in her arms and kiss them both with tears in her eyes. It’s the realization that she’s living exactly the life she wants with exactly the people she wants in it.

And how amazing a thing is that?

Thank you for reading! Reviews literally feed the soul and muse, so go send some love to @so-caffeinated!

#olicity #olicity fic #olicity fanfic #olicity fanfiction #olicitysquee #oliver queen #felicity smoak #ellie queen #julianna queen #nathaniel queen #ficon #forever is composed of nows #pieces of always #arrow #fanfiction #my fics: cowritten #so-caffeinated #dust2dust34

45 notes · View notes

thesinglesjukebox · 5 years ago

Video

youtube

ELLIE GOULDING - RIVER

[3.88]

It's Canaday, starting with a musician who's not Canadian; however, Ellie Goulding's been a liar, been a thief...

Katie Gill: Honestly, the theories as to how this cover hit #1 in the first place are a lot more interesting than the version itself. It's a bog standard cover of a beautiful song that we've had way too many bog standard covers of already. Goulding is bringing absolutely nothing new to the table here, playing this song straighter than a ruler. As such, a middle of the road song gets a middle of the road score. [5]

Michael Hong: Joni Mitchell's classic was always one of the best breakup songs, and with a line like "I made my baby say goodbye," you could feel that self-blame and regret in her voice. It made the former line where she stretches the word "fly" with such intense longing hurt all the more. Ben Platt's version for last year's The Politician was a solemn showcase of grief, empowered by his powerful voice that trembled with regret. Goulding's voice is far too airy to back the grounded context of the lyrics and it's a shame that a line like "I made my baby say goodbye" is delivered with a sad little whimper. Coupled with the way the track is being released, Ellie Goulding has managed to dim the emotional release of "River." [4]

Brad Shoup: It's easy not to fuck up "River": follow the tracks of Mitchell's blades. And so Goulding does, from the piano that I instinctually let tap on my tear ducts onward. Understandably, she enjoys the thought of flying most. But she can't -- few could -- nail the mixture of regret and fascination Mitchell brings to "I made my baby cry". So yes, a decent routine, but one more faithful to the text than the author. Corinne Bailey Rae and Herbie Hancock executed a better one -- over a decade ago now -- that fully apprehended its creator's jazz leanings. I suppose I should be grateful Goulding didn't attempt the same. [5]

Katherine St Asaph: The coalescing take around Ellie Goulding's cover of Joni Mitchell's "River," is the take I hate most, i.e. that it's just another example of conspiratorial prolefeed served by THE BIG BAD ALGORITHMS, specifically the result of moms who don't want to troubleshoot every speaker in every room of the house asking Amazon's Alexa to play Christmas music, for which this technically qualifies. The culprit here is not "algorithms," probably, but payola -- "River" is an Amazon exclusive, which means Amazon has incentive to hustle it past all its recommender algorithms clamoring for "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Indeed, as payola goes, some tranquil, contemplative Joni Mitchell, even in cover form, is an inspired, even counterintuitive song choice. (And if The Algorithms were truly evil, in their vast data collection they will have learned by now there are better songs to play to troll people with.) What's really interesting, to me at least, is that Ellie Goulding was just on an Andrea Bocelli single sounding studiedly similar to Sarah Brightman, and now she's on a Joni Mitchell cover sounding studiedly -- well, not similar, but closer to her than to Ellie Goulding. Given that a year ago Goulding was giving interviews about how her voice didn't sound like anyone else, where now it sounds rather the opposite, what's the strategy here? An attempt to distinguish herself from the hundreds of Halseys and Bebes who share her vocal style? An exit strategy into adult contemporary (and out of having to record singles with Juice WRLD)? Upcoming pivot to West End (uh, whoops, happened already)? Upset, hopefully not still, she wasn't in Cats? Planning to fake everyone out on the UK Masked Singer? [5]

Scott Mildenhall: Streaming has arguably compelled national charts to better reflect what people are actually listening to, so is it a failure or a victory that a number one single has arisen via gerrymandered inadvertent and passive consumption? It's hard to say if that's more or less legitimate than a 911 CD2 with three free postcards, or a label messenger boy being sent to buy all copies of a 7" from one of the few shops used to measure sales, but it does come with greater possibilities. In a few updates time Alexa will be writing, recording and releasing her own material and playing that to the unsuspecting, at which point the entire top 40 will be full of her, metaphysically straddling all conceivable and as yet inconceivable genres with songs that not only target, but also sample the unwitting utterances of individual users. That, or maybe just note-for-note covers of tasteful classics, who knows. [5]

Iain Mew: I'm pretty sure I was algorithmically treated to "River" over Christmas, and even pleased to have something that wasn't the usual turn up. It was definitely well ahead of the time a few years ago when my parents bought a Christmas compilation of knock-off soundalikes without noticing, and specifically the unique horror visited upon "Fairytale of New York" therein. Listening to "River" now in January it tries hard not to do anything interesting, but can't help but sound more stark than plain, which is something. [5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: If you're going to use your terrifying tech near-monopoly to force a hit, at least make it less boring than this. [1]

Alex Clifton: If you keep the captions on the YouTube video, it begins with "(emotional piano music)", a fine example of subtitle editorializing before the song even starts. It's a bland moment for Ellie, whose normally delicate and distinctive voice falls into generic indie girl territory. At least it's better than this "River." [3]

Alfred Soto: I swear, I published this list of solid Joni Mitchell covers before I endured Ellie Goulding's literalist approach to Blue's most guaranteed tear wringer. Less anxious than Beth Orton's, more okay than Corinne Bailey Rae and Herbie Hancock's. Yet consider: Goulding's matter-of-fact reading teases out Frozen II's queer subtexts. [6]

Nortey Dowuona: Heavy, slipping piano chords are trying to pin down the hem of Ellie's thin, soothing voice, but it slips through and Ellie sees the flowing river, both a little relieved and a little disappointed, settling herself on the riverbanks and thinking about the passed years since "Lights" and wondering how she wound up here, waiting for the river to freeze in the wintertime. Then, Joni Mitchell flies over the river on her way to deliver some presents to kids in Ukraine in a hurry and freezes the river 45 feet deep, with Ellie happily beginning to skate, her future forgotten. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Joni Mitchell's music is striking for many reasons, but one that never fails to impress is how every bit of instrumentation fleshes out ideas presented in her prose. To take a less obvious example from Blue, "A Case of You" is a song suffused with wistfulness and lingering romance, and the guitar chords--swaying rhythmically but nevertheless sturdy--take on the woozy feel she sings of in the lyrics. "River" isn't as understated: it's bookended by the sound of "Jingle Bells" to indicate the longing and sadness she experiences in the middle of enforced, unavoidable holiday cheer. Her desire for a river she "could skate away on" finds motion in arpeggios, but they inevitably find their way back to that variation on "Jingle Bells," signaling her unresolved feelings; the extended outro carries with it something solemn. Goulding's take on this is serviceable, but she doesn't magnify or play on anything that makes the song brilliant and moody and affecting. Its existence is no less meaningful than if you were to sing the song yourself and record it (in fact, doing so would be more personal, more meaningful). Still, the mistakes are glaring: Goulding truncates the ending, stunting the song's emotional heft; her singing is comprised of large gestures, failing to subtly evocate; and there's a sense that in wanting to remain faithful to Mitchell, she's failed to make this song her own. [0]

Thomas Inskeep: I wish Goulding had done something, anything to change up this cover of the Joni Mitchell standard, but she didn't -- she plays it completely straight. So what's the point, if I can listen to the original? A great cover reinvents a song, turns it inside out, finds something new. This does none of that. [3]

Ian Mathers: The backing sounds close enough to the original, so the proposition here is, what? Let's take one of the greatest songs of all time, and instead of having it sung by Joni Mitchell, a legitimate national treasure here in Canada, an absolutely seismic figure in the history of modern popular music and, it should be added, one of the finest vocal performers in the field and replace her with... Ellie Goulding? If anything, you feel bad for her absolutely adequate performance and I'm sure sincere love for the song. But the original didn't somehow fall into a black hole, so why does this exist? [2]

Kylo Nocom: Those runs are rather dry. I witnessed a brilliant rendition of "River" in a talent show tribute last month, so no excuses for a cover so tiring, so lacking in Joni's fragility. A shame Ellie won't even benefit from some Christmas cheer now that it's January. [3]

Will Adams: Charitably, a "faithful" cover; uncharitably, a cover so occupied with replicating the original it's rendered pointless. Perennial cover songs like "Fast Car" or "Hallelujah" or this don't need to be 180'd every time; something simple like the soft rock arrangement Sarah McLachlan gave it works fine. Goulding's version does little more than quantize the vocals and add harsh amounts of treble. [4]

Joshua Copperman: "Ellie, you haven't really changed," I said, "It's just that now you're unrecognizable; sing something else instead." [4]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Ellie Goulding #Joni Mitchell #cover #pop #music #music review

0 notes

fashiontrendin-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The 100 Books Every Man Should Read

http://fashion-trendin.com/the-100-books-every-man-should-read-2/

The 100 Books Every Man Should Read

Groucho Marx once said: “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” We’re not quite sure what he meant either, but what we do know is that books are an essential for any man.

So, whether you’re heading off abroad and need a page-turner, or just want to have something other than Harry Kane’s ankle injury to talk about on a Tinder date next week, here are the 100 books that’ll broaden your horizons (and bulk out your bookshelf).

Classics

Men Without Women – Ernest Hemingway

Best For: Understanding Women Classic Hemingway subjects – bullfighting, war, women, more war – in a collection of short stories proving that masculinity lacking a softer touch is a dangerous thing. If you’ve been dumped, or you’re just missing your mum, then you need this.

A Picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde

Best For: When You’ve Found Another Grey Hair A handsome, innocent young man sells his soul to keep his dashing good looks – and of course it all goes pear-shaped. It’ll make you feel better about the march of time and skipping the gym, plus it’s full of classic Wilde quips you can fire off at the dinner table.

Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut

Best For: Reaffirming War Is Good For Absolutely Nothing Prisoner of war, optometrist, father, time-traveller, plane-crash survivor: Billy Pilgrim is all these and more in a miraculously moving, bitter and blackly hilarious story of innocence faced with apocalypse.

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Best For: The DiCaprio Nod Leo rarely puts a foot wrong, but even he couldn’t capture the magnetic Jay Gatsby as well as Fitzgerald did on page. Set in the summer of 1922, with the Roaring Twenties in full swing, this is a terrific unpicking of decadence, social change and excess.

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

Best For: Bratchnys A merciless satire of state control, in which Burgess imagined a dystopian future of ultraviolence decades before it became a sci-fi standard. Much of it is written in the slang spoken by teen hero, Alex; ‘bratchnys’ are bastards (and so are Alex and his murderous crew.)

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Best For: Intense Moral Conundrum There’s no sugar-coating this one: a man obsessed with the 12-year-old daughter of his landlady and so marries the mother to be near her. From there, the ground only gets dodgier. The most controversial book on this list is a literary hot potato that will never cool down.

Brighton Rock – Graham Greene

Best For: Seaside Sins Brighton wasn’t always cocktail bars and vintage shops. In 1938, a gang war is raging, and ruthless Pinkie has just killed his first victim. In trying to cover his tracks, he only digs himself into a deeper hole.

1984 – George Orwell

Best For: A Jolt Of Future Shock No list of great books would be complete without this influential masterpiece, which gets more prescient year by year. Winston Smith rewrites the past to suit the needs of the ruling party, who run a totalitarian society under the watchful eye of Big Brother.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Raymond Carver

Best For: Toasting Don Draper A collection of brilliant short stories about the lonely men and women of the American Midwest who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time. Along with fellow US short-story master John Cheever, Carver’s words inspired Mad Men.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

Best For: Breaking The Rules You’ve probably seen the film, but this really is a case of ‘the book is better’. Evil Nurse Ratched rules an Oregon mental institution with an iron fist until new arrival McMurphy, who faked madness to dodge hard labour in the joint, brings chaos and hope to his fellow inmates.

The Catcher In The Rye – J.D.Salinger

Best For: Angst In Your Pants Any book about the harshness of teenage life will resonate with anyone who is or has been a teen, but the misadventures of Holden Caulfield have become the set text, and rightly so. He is cynical, jaded, dickishly rebellious. And we have, in ways big and small, all been there.

Meditations – Marcus Aurelius

Best For: Getting Things Done The innermost thoughts of the Roman Emperor from 161-180AD are a genuinely practical and insightful guide to life almost 1,900 years later. Silicon Valley billionaires and their teams love this book and its ideas for the way it helps them to accept the world as it is, then rule it.

The Go-Between – L.P. Hartley

Best For: Keeping Secrets They say “the past is a foreign country”. Well, that’s because it’s the famous opening line of this novel, in which an old man recalls the summer he spent aged 13 at his friend’s country house, as he shipped illicit messages between his chum’s engaged sister and a local farmer.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Best For: Page-Turning And Page-Burning In the America of the future, people are addicted to watching soap-opera-style shows on giant screens in their homes. Books are banned, firemen hunt down illicit volumes and burn them. A book about the magic of reading and how we must never let it fade away.

The Odyssey – Homer

Best For: Original Adventure The original homecoming tale – a king’s decade-long slog home after the Trojan War – contains: witches, monsters, betrayal, drugs, cannibals, disguises, a bit of war and quite a lot of slaughter. Every man-on-a-quest story and road movie owes a debt to this remarkable tale.

Bleak House – Charles Dickens

Best For: Epic Shenanigans To be fair, the Dickens pick on this list could have been one of a dozen. But this Victorian doorstop, with its massive cast (including the murky London underworld), is the most impressive and entertaining. A legal tussle over a will plays havoc with the lives of the potential beneficiaries and those around them.

Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Best For: “The Horror, The Horror!” In 1890, the author captained a steamboat up the Congo River. A decade later, his novel about something very similar became a sensation. In 1979 it was very freely adapted into the epic Vietnam movie Apocalypse Now. Also, at less than 100 pages, you have no excuses not to finish it.

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Best For: The Sum Of Its Parts Yes, everybody now knows that the monster isn’t Frankenstein; that’s the mad scientist who makes him. But did you know that science-fiction was basically invented with this book, written by an 18-year-old girl challenged to come up with a ghost story? Still creepy and relevant despite being 200 years old.

The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler

Best For: Prime Pulp Fiction “The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.” “He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel.” “A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back.” Just a sample of the hardboiled genius on display in this truly great detective yarn.

The Lord of The Rings – JRR Tolkien

Best For: Hobbit-Forming When it comes to fantasy, there is one story to rule them all. The massive success of the film trilogy based on it does not dim the power of the source material. Amazon is spending $1bn making the TV version. For many, though, the original remains the masterpiece.

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

Best For: A Whale Of A Time Sperm whale eats sailor’s lower leg; sailor tricks other sailors into crewing his revenge mission; it doesn’t go well. A tale of obsession, adventure, maritime manliness and beast-slaying that does not get old as it ages.

Modern

Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami

Best For: Brutal Beatlemania When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend, Kizuki. Delving into his student years in Tokyo, Toru dabbles in uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire.

Money: A Suicide Note – Martin Amis

Best For: Learning Restraint Wealthy transatlantic movie executive John Self allows himself whatever he wants whenever he wants it: alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography, a mountain of junk food. It’s never going to end well, is it? A cautionary tale of a life lived without boundaries.

The Road – Cormac McCarthy

Best For: Going Hungry Of the many, many recent stories of survival in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, this one is the toughest, smartest and the one which stays with you the longest. A father and son contrive to survive in the face of cannibalism, starvation and brutality.

The Sportswriter – Richard Ford

Best For: Knowing The Grass Isn’t Greener Frank Bascombe, it seems, is living the dream: a younger girlfriend and a job as a sports writer. But his inner turmoil and private tragedies show all is not always as it seems, even for those who seem to have it all.

The 25th Hour – David Benioff

Best For: Clock Watching Facing a seven-year stretch for dealing, Monty Brogan sets out to make the most of his last night of freedom. His dad wants him to do a runner, his drug-lord boss wants to know if he squealed, his girlfriend is confused and his friends are trying to prepare him for the worst. It’s a lot to fit in.

We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver

Best For: Questioning Yourself The story of Eva, mother of Kevin, who murdered seven of his fellow high-school students and two members of staff. She’s coming to terms with the fact that her maternal instincts could have driven him off the rails. It’s made worse by the fact that he survived and she can’t help visiting him in prison.

American Pastoral – Philip Roth

Best For: Bursting The American Dream The Sixties was a time for sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and, erm, political mayhem. Swede Levov is living the American dream until his daughter Merry becomes involved in political terrorism that drags the family into the underbelly of society. Totally rad.

American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis

Best For: Career Killers The film is a contemporary masterpiece, but Patrick Bateman is even more evil on paper than he is on screen. An outright psychopath partly made by life on Wall Street, this bitterly black comedy is a classic that’ll keep you in line should you become a desk drone.

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

Best For: Murder Most Moral A group of eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a unique way of thinking thanks to their classics professor, which forces them to contemplate how easy it can be to kill someone if they cross you.

The Watchmen – Alan Moore

Best For: Picturing The Scene The most lauded graphic novel of all time concerns a team of superheroes called the Crimebusters, and a plot to kill and discredit them. Packed with symbolism and intelligent political and social commentary, with artwork as brilliant as the text.

The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen

Best For: Mother’s Day Appreciation After 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid wants to have some fun. But as her husband Alfred is losing his grip on reality, and their children have left the nest, she sets her heart on one last family Christmas. Virtue, sexual inhibition, outdated mental healthcare and globalised greed are all under the tree.

A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James

Best For: Shadowy Thrills One evening in December 1976, gunmen burst into Bob Marley’s house in Jamaica, having shot his wife on the driveway, and shot Bob and his manager multiple times. No arrests were made. True story. James imagines what happens to the perpetrators, with appearances by the CIA and a ghost.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon

Best For: Nerd Nirvana The greatest superhero story ever told isn’t about costumed men, but the men who create them. Kavalier & Clay create The Escapist, at the start of comic books’ Golden Age in Thirties New York. He is super-popular; K&C miss out on the big money but can’t avoid the pitfalls of love and war.

Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

Best For: Magical Realism The tots of the title are all born in the first hour of India’s independence – midnight til 1am on August 15, 1947 – and they all have superpowers. One of them, a telepath, tries to find out why while reaching out to the others. Won the Booker Prize, and twice won Booker best-of votes on anniversaries of the award.

Robert Harris – Fatherland

Best For: Wondering What-If A most chillingly plausible alternate history, in which Germany won World War II (Oxford University is an SS Academy, and the Germans are winning the space race) and senior Nazi party officials are being offed in Sixties Berlin. Turns out there’s a conspiracy to silence the ultimate conspiracy…

The Stand – Stephen King

Best For: Good vs Evil The modern master of genre fiction’s magnum opus is the 1990 Complete and Uncut version of his 1978 novel. A virus has all but wiped out humanity. American survivors gravitate to either Las Vegas (the bad lot) or Boulder, Colorado (the goodies), then the two tribes ready for the showdown.

High-Rise – J.G. Ballard

Best For: Block Party Politics When the residents of a posh tower block find their sweet set-up falling apart, the response is feral. Minor social differences lead to floor-versus-floor violence. The well-to-do become savages, and what that nice Dr Laing does with his neighbour’s dog is decidedly un-vegan.

A Perfect Spy – John Le Carré

Best For: The Secret Life David Cornwell worked as a British intelligence officer for almost nine years before adopting the pen name of John Le Carré and quitting spookery. Of his 23 spy novels, this is the best, perhaps because it’s the most autobiographical, although the made-up secret-service bits are first-rate too.

White Teeth – Zadie Smith

Best For: The Modern World A cross-generational saga of North London life rooted in the British immigrant experience that’s much funnier than the first half of this sentence makes out. The dentistry of the title is what everyone here – Bangladeshi, Jamaican, white British or otherwise – have in common.

Spies – Michael Frayn

Best For: Playing Detective You’re trying to get through a wartime summer in London, but you find out your mum is a German spy. You bring one of your classmates in on the surveillance, but, without your knowledge, she enlists him in her mysterious deeds. Not a ‘whodunit’, more an outstandingly original ‘whoisit’?

American Tabloid – James Ellroy

Best For: Solving JFK’s Murder In the messed-up mind of Ellroy, crime fiction’s self-proclaimed demon dog, the CIA, FBI, Mafia and Hollywood are all involved in the assassination of “Bad-Back Jack”. The rat-a-tat-tat of Ellroy’s short, slang-centric sentences boosts what would still be a fine secret-history yarn to be something powerful and electric.

Style, Fitness & Mind-Enhancement

ABC of Men’s Fashion – Hardy Amies

Best For: Wardrobe Rules Classic style is forever – which is 99 per cent true in the case of this pocket encyclopaedia written in 1964 by a Savile Row legend. When you get to ‘B’, you can be amused by 150 words on ‘Bowler Hats’, but skip ‘Beachwear’ at your peril: “A plain navy blue shirt with white linen trousers will always outshine any patterned job.”

Men of Style – Josh Sims

Best For: Brushing Up Style guides can often be more decorative than useful, but this one, by the venerable fashion journalist Sims, profiles the best-dressed men of the past century so that you can steal for your look the things that make them so undeniably well-dressed.

Men and Style – David Coggins

Best For: Excavating Your True Look It is hard to be stylish if you haven’t grasped what ‘style’ means for you. Coggins understands that it stretches beyond clothes (although they are mightily important) to the influence of your father – yes, him! – your school days, your surroundings and more.

Thinking, Fast And Slow – Daniel Kahneman

Best For: Mind Games Why is there more chance we’ll believe something if it’s in a bold typeface? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. This book has practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking, so you can make better decisions at work, home and life in general.

How Not To Be Wrong – Jordan Ellenberg

Best For: Number Crunching If the maths you learned in school has slipped your mind, there’s something to be said for this book helping you to re-grasp numbers: a powerful commodity in a post-truth world. You’ll learn to how to analyse important situations at work and at play – and how early you actually need to get to the airport.

Happiness By Design – Paul Dolan

Best For: Living The Good Life As figures prove, we’re all stretched and stressed. So how can we make it easier to be happy? Using the latest cutting-edge research, Dolan, a professor of behavioural science, reveals that wellbeing isn’t about how we think, it’s about what we do.

The Chimp Paradox – Steve Peters

Best For: Retraining Your Brain Peters helped British Cycling, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and other pro sports stars win more. He says our brains are emotional (the chimp bit), logical (human) and automatically instinctive (like a computer). We can’t shut off the monkey, but with work, the other two parts can control it. Reading this won’t make you World Snooker Champion, but you will be empowered to make more successful choices in life.

Reasons To Stay Alive – Matt Haig

Best For: Mental Wellbeing Aged 24, Haig was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression and contemplating suicide. His memoir of coming back from the brink is an honest, moving and funny exploration of triumph over failing mental health that almost destroyed him.

The World’s Fittest Book – Ross Edgley

Best For: Getting Into The Right Shape Quite the claim in the title there, but ‘fitness adventurer’ Edgley backs it up with straightforward and achievable ways to lose weight, tone up and get shredded. Less about following fitness plans (result) and more about applying basic concepts so you can exercise in the right way.

Feet In The Clouds – Richard Askwith

Best For: Running On Empty If you love exercising, you’ll love this dispatch from the world of fell running. If you don’t, then reading about the people who commit to running up and down mountains will help you understand why they love it, and maybe some of their motivation will rub off on you.

Real Fast Food – Nigel Slater

Best For: Cooking IRL Encouragement to eat out of the pan, ingredients in tins and the secret to a perfect bacon sandwich: Slater has over 350 recipes that take less than 30 minutes and don’t require much cheffing, written so any fool can follow them. His take on bacon? Smoked streaky, nearly crisp, untoasted white bread dipped in the bacon fat, no sauce.

Five Quarters – Rachel Roddy

Best For: Pasta Perfection Italian food done simply and totally authentically. The author moved to Rome from the UK on a whim in 2005 and taught herself how to cook like an Italian nonna. Veggies will find a lot to love in this one, too.

Roast Chicken And Other Stories – Simon Hopkinson

Best For: English Classics A book beloved by chefs and food writers, for good reason: Hopkinson makes everything, even the offal, sound absolutely delicious. He picks 40 ingredients, explains why they’re essential, then gives a few recipes for each. Cooking, he says, is about making food you like to eat, not showing off.

Made In India: Cooked In Britain – Meera Sodha

Best For: Takeaway At Home Totally debunking the ‘it’s too hard to make good curries’ myth, this splendid work also has pictures showing important stages of recipes, not just a food-porn shot of the final dish. Also tons of delicious things even curry-house connoisseurs might not have heard of.

Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker

Best For: Ruling The Land Of Nod Everyone knows that they should get more, better sleep, but actually trying to do so can be stressful enough to cause lack of sleep. This bestseller unpicks exactly what happens when your head hits the pillow. More importantly, it explains why and how to get your head right beforehand.

How To Be A Woman – Caitlin Moran

Best For: Opposite Sex Education Since this is the book that “every woman should read”, according to one of its many, many amazing reviews, then surely every man would benefit from reading it, too? A feminist manifesto disguised as a hilarious memoir (or is it vice versa?) from one of the UK’s funniest writers.

The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle

Best For: Spiritual Enlightenment The author was approaching 30 and borderline suicidal, when he had an epiphany, separating what made him happy real from what was, mostly, the bullshit dragging him down. Years trying to understand how he saw the light meant he can explain it, better than the others who have tried, so you can do the same, too.

Sit Down and Be Quiet – Michael James Wong

Best For: Boosting Body And Mind The genius of this yoga and mindfulness manual for the modern man is in the way it presents those two practices as things you already do in some ways (habits from childhood and sport, mainly). Then, the ways you’re not doing them – physical and mental techniques – are put forth in a non-preachy manner.

Knowledge

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

Best For: Well, Nearly Everything We could have put this in the science section, given it is a scientific history ranging from the Big Bang to mankind. Anyway: now think of your best-ever teacher. Bryson is like that – curious, witty, in love with his subject – and learning along with him is a pleasure.

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari

Best For: A Selfie Of Ourselves Humans came to rule the world, according to this global bestseller, because we mastered fire, gossip, agriculture, mythology, money, contradictions and science. Harari himself is a master of distilling big ideas and concepts, and his book full of them will make your smarter.

Prisoners Of Geography – Tim Marshall

Best For: Mapping It All Out How and why countries do stuff to other countries because of the landscape, the climate, the culture and the natural resources available: that’s geopolitics. And to get a grip on why the world is how it is – no more important time to do that than right now – you read this.

Stasiland – Anna Funder

Best For: Cold War Stories In East Germany, the Stasi was the state security apparatus, which investigated the country’s citizens to an astonishing degree. A few years after the Berlin Wall fell, Funder met with former spies, handlers and resistance operatives, all with incredible tales.

The Plantagenets – Dan Jones

Best For: Past Glory One of the breed of young historians making history TV must-see again, Jones also writes big, juicy, novelistic books. This is the one that takes in 280 years of England and its kings from 1120, including Crusades, Black Death, civil war, war with France, heroes, legends, sacking of cities and all the rest of it. Truly stirring stuff.

Life 3.0 – Max Tegmark

Best For: AI, OK? Artificial intelligence is going to change humanity perhaps more than any other technology, so you kind of owe it to yourself to know what’s coming down the pipe. Tegmark smartly and succinctly puts forward all the arguments for and against the rise of the robots – because rise they will.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli

Best For: Demystifying The World, Quickly As it says on the tin: between six and eight short essays about life, the universe and everything, which will tease and enlarge your brain, not tie it in knots. Perfectly formed into 96 pages that deliver a masterclass in relativity, quantum mechanics and mankind’s place in time in space.

The Sixth Extinction – Elizabeth Kolbert

Best For: Reaching The End Times No prizes for guessing that number six on the list of mass extinction events is happening now, as humankind reduces species diversity on Earth like nothing since the asteroid that finished off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This book, grippingly, reports on what’s happening now, and those times before.

Behave – Robert Sapolsky

Best For: Why We Do What Do Every one of us is a student of human behaviour, so a book that gives you a distinct advantage over our classmates can only be A Good Thing. That it’s written by a scientist with a sense of humour nailing his mission to demystify complex science is a massive bonus also.

The Making Of The Atomic Bomb – Richard Rhodes

Best For: Explosive Insight An epic recollection of how mankind came to harness, then unleash, the power of the atom. From the first nuclear fission to the bombs that dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Rhodes marshals a huge cast of scientists (and spies) and leaves no stone unturned.

Inspiration

Long Walk To Freedom – Nelson Mandela

Best For: Genuine Inspiration The short version of Mandela’s life is widely known, but his detailed and moving autobiography, published in 1994, the year he became president of South Africa, is a never-to-be-forgotten account of his fight against apartheid.

I Am Zlatan – Zlatan Ibrahimovich

Best For: Ego Boosts And Footy Boots He is, by his own account, one of the greatest footballers of the modern age. Whether or not you agree, his life story is fascinating, and he gets stuck in on the page as on the pitch. “If Mourinho lights up a room, Guardiola draws the curtains.”

H Is For Hawk – Helen Macdonald

Best For: Grasping Nature’s Power This multi-award winning memoir has a most unusual premise. The author, when “a kind of madness set in” after the death of her father, drives up to Scotland from Cambridge to buy a goshawk for £800 and spends a year training it.

Do No Harm – Henry Marsh

Best For: Surgical Precision Marsh is a consultant neurosurgeon and this, his first volume of memoirs, is a glimpse inside his mind and, indeed, those of his patients. He has little time for NHS middle management, and is as precise with (literally) cutting remarks and insightful asides as he is with his scalpel.

Touching The Void – Joe Simpson

Best For: Life Or Death Scenarios Picture the scene (it starts on page 68 of this adventure classic, if you need some help): you are up a mountain, in difficult conditions, when you slip and fall. You are hanging from the rope tied to your companion, but he has to decide: if he doesn’t cut the rope, you likely both die. What would you do? A real-life version plays out in this astonishing story.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson

Best For: Madness And Mayhem The inventor of gonzo journalism recalls – lord only knows how – a drugs binge to Vegas with his attorney. In lesser hands, this would have been boring, because reading about other people being high is almost always dull. With Thompson in charge, this trippy travelogue fizzles with mad energy.

Unreasonable Behaviour – Don McCullin

Best For: Life Behind A Lens As life stories go, this one takes some beating. A 15-year-old with no qualifications ends up as one of the great war photographers, taking in Vietnam, Africa and the Middle East. He also takes a bullet in the camera and is pushed to physical and emotional extremes in the theatres of conflict.

Fever Pitch – Nick Hornby

Best For: The Fannish Inquisition The best book ever written about what it’s like to be a football fan, despite the glut of titles that has followed it since it was published in 1992. Hornby’s Arsenal addiction can be mapped onto any club, and his insight and honesty ring so very true.

The Story Of The Streets – Mike Skinner

Best For: Rapper’s Delight It will come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to lyrics by The Streets that the book written by the man behind them displays both a love of words and a refreshingly honest look at the world. Part guide to the highs and lows of fame, part unpicking of hip-hop as an art form, all good.

How Not To Be A Boy – Robert Webb

Best For: The Male Comedians’ memoirs are ten-a-penny, but this one stands out because the star of Peep Show goes deep into the difficulties of being ‘different’ as a boy in the 1970s and 1980s, his complicated early family life and what it means to be a man in today’s world. Of course, it’s very funny, too.

Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson

Best For: Getting To Apple’s Core As well as the amazing tale of the rise, fall and rise again of Apple, and the stories behind its iconic products, Issacson’s official biog of geek god Jobs does one thing few official biogs do: print the negative stuff. Jobs could be, often, a douchebag, and learning that along with the positives makes this a must-read.

Fast Company – Jon Bradshaw

Best For: Taking A Punt Six profiles of legendary gamblers and chancers, including pool legend Minnesota Fats, tennis hustler Bobby Riggs and poker players Pug Pearson and Johnny Moss. “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned,” says Paul Newman as Eddie Felson in The Color Of Money. Here’s proof.

Killing Pablo – Mark Bowden

Best For: Crowning The Kingpin Even if you have watched Narcos on Netflix, this biography of Pablo Escobar will still make your jaw drop. That TV show, as good as it is, only scratched the surface. Bowden, a newspaper reporter, interviewed dozens of sources, allowing him to piece together Escobar’s remarkable ascent and descent.

The Right Stuff – Tom Wolfe

Best For: Reaching For The Stars “This book grew out of some ordinary curiosity,” said its author in 1983, four years after it was published. Yet there is nothing ordinary about it. Wolfe wondered what made a man want to sit on top of a giant tube of fuel and be hurtled into space. In the lives of US Navy test pilots and the Mercury astronauts, he found the answers, and with them wrote an all-time great non-fiction book.

The Lost City of Z – David Grann

Best For: Exploring Your Options One of the reviews called this “the best story in the world, told perfectly” and that’s fair enough, really. In 1925, British explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett went missing in Brazil while searching for a mythical settlement. This book investigates why, and the author embarks on his own Amazonian quest.

Outliers: The Story of Success – Malcolm Gladwell

Best For: Secrets Of Success Gladwell is most well known for The Tipping Point, but this book about what high achievers have in common is a more in-depth and engaging read. A big part of what makes people make it big is the hard yards: doing something for 20 hours a week for a decade, or about 10,000 hours. Start tomorrow? Why not?

Hit Makers – Derek Thompson

Best For: Being In With The In Crowd If you want to know why Star Wars is so popular, and why nothing ever really goes viral, then Thompson is your man. His study of pop culture’s most beloved items ranges from Game Of Thrones and Taylor Swift to Pokémon Go and Spotify.

Factfulness – Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund

Best For: Rebooting Your World Knowledge Bill Gates has a website on which he posts book recommendations, and liked this one so much he paid for every US college graduate in 2018 to get the ebook version. You might want to join those four million ex-students and be delighted to have much of what you know about the world put right by fascinating hard facts.

Bad Blood – John Carreyou

Best For: Fraud Or Flawed? It’s the story of the age: 19-year-old founds a medical start-up; raises $700m on the promise of a blood-testing machine that never really exists; her $10bn company collapses, with $600m of investors’ money gone. Was it just Silicon Valley hot air or a massive, deliberate fraud?

Doughnut Economics – Kate Raworth

Best For: The Future Of Your Money Experts are divided about Raworth’s ring-shaped model of how economics should be – the flow of money and trade keeping humans and Earth in good shape – but they are all talking about it. She recognises systems and effects, such as climate change and social movements, which standard economics ignore. Her argument is powerful.

Distraction

Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris

Best For: First-Person Hilarity The best of several collections of brilliant essays from the American humourist deals partly with his moving to Normandy in France, and partly with his life before that, in rural America and New York City. One of these every morning on the way to work would banish commuter blues immediately.

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People – Toby Young

Best For: Tragic Tragicomedy Young is now a right-leaning columnist and social media ‘star’. In a previous life, he got a job on the American magazine Vanity Fair, and dropped the ball spectacularly. Anyone who’s ever felt like a square peg in a workplace round hole (so, that’ll be everyone, then) will find much to laugh at here.

Our Dumb Century – The Onion

Best For: Mocking The Decades In terms of jokes-that-work-per-page hit rate, this is probably the funniest book in the world. Before social media, The Onion’s parody news site was the funniest thing online (they still do pretty good). This special project magnificently takes the Michael out of news and newspapers from 1900 to 1999. In today’s fake news era, this has become even more hilarious.

Spoiled Brats – Simon Rich

Best For: Eye-Watering Laughs Rich writes the sort of charming and amusing essays that Steve Martin and Woody Allen used to do, and there are a dozen in this volume. But it’s the novella Sell Out that makes this a must-read. A Brooklyn pickle-maker falls into the brine and is fished out 100 years later, to face the hipsters who have taken over his town. Your correspondent cried with laughter.

I, Partridge – Steve Coogan

Best For: Pitch-Perfect Parody A spot-on mocking of celebrity autobiography and a celebration of Britain’s best-loved failed chat-show host and digital radio DJ. Even better than reading this with Partridge’s voice in your head is listening to the audiobook, with Coogan-Partridge in absolutely magnificent form.

The Photo Ark – Joel Sartore

Best For: All Creatures Great And Small As ambitions go, it’s lofty and admirable: take a picture of all 12,000 species living in the world’s wildlife sanctuaries and zoos before an increasing number of them become extinct. As of May 2018, 12 years in, Sartore was two-thirds of the way there. This book covers the first 6,000 species.

Essential Elements – Edward Burtynsky

Best For: Seeing The World Through New Eyes Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer who uses a large camera to take vast-scale images of our changing planet, from seemingly endless rows of workers in Chinese factories to aerial views of oil fields in California. He makes the sort of images you can spend hours finding new things in.

Greatest Of All Time: A Tribute To Muhammad Ali – various

Best For: Knockout Storytelling Anyone saying “print is dead” hasn’t encountered this beautiful object, which has collector’s editions at £11,000 and a regular version 110 times cheaper yet almost as powerful. Ali is still sport’s most celebrated story, and the words and pictures on the 652 foot-square pages here tell that tale in the absolute best possible way.

Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern – various

Best For: Design Classics, UK Style A hero of industrial design as good as his more famous peers at Apple or Braun, Grange devised dozens of iconic products including Kodak cameras, Anglepoise lamps, Wilkinson Sword razors, parking meters and the Intercity 125 train. This catalogue of his career is a beautifully designed book full of beautifully designed things.

The Classic Car Book – Giles Chapman

Best For: Four-Wheeled Nirvana Quite simply a treasure trove of thousands of photos of awesome automobiles from the 1940s to the 1980s, with nerdy spec data and potted histories of cars, marques and makers.

1 note · View note

etherealwaifgoddess · 5 years ago

Text

To Give Him The World - Epilogue

Main Characters: Thor x Ellie (original female character)

Summary: A series of glimpses into Thor and Ellie’s lives over the next year. Master List is HERE if you need to catch up.

Warnings/ Content: Is death by fluff a thing? Because fair warning ya’ll...

Word Count: 442

Author’s Note: Hello lovelies! This is the end of our journey with Thor and Ellie. Trust me, I’m just as sad as you are about it! But now we get to see them off into their amazing life together. I want to say thank you to everyone who has followed this fic here and over on AO3. Ya’ll are so freaking sweet! I honestly geek out over every comment. So thank you, I love you, please enjoy this last little bit of fluff :) XOXO - Ash

To Give Him The World - Epilogue

- Thor discovers memes and loves sending them to Ellie while she works.

- Halfway through his second week Thor has a bad brain day but pulls through after a long talk with Bruce, and Ellie spending the night despite it being a Wednesday. The next day Thor adopts an enormous Newfoundland puppy to keep him company and to ensure he has to get up even on his bad days.

- Thor sends Steve pictures of the puppy every day and the older man couldn’t be happier.

- Ellie does her best to keep their relationship from rushing ahead too fast but after a month she’s moved into the cottage and is too happy to even feel guilty about it. She admits to Thor that New Asgard had never really felt like home until she had reconnected with him.

- Thor learns how to cook on his own, liking to have dinner on the table when Ellie gets home from work. He’s a menace with Amazon Prime though and has no less than six new kitchen appliances after he discovers Pinterest.

- Thor enjoys cooking so much that after a few months he starts up a YouTube channel devoted to teaching men how to cook, insisting everyone should know their way around the kitchen. He becomes the #1 cooking show on YouTube within a month.

- He never gets around to losing the weight he’d gained, especially not with running a cooking channel. He begrudgingly admits he actually gained a little more too, when he goes to buy new clothes. He makes his peace with it though and finds support in the body positive movement on Instagram. He’s healthy and happy and genuinely loves his life regardless of what he weighs.

- Thor and Ellie spend Christmas in California where the Avengers have all gathered to celebrate with Pepper and Morgan at the compound. Being around Morgan sets off Thor’s paternal instincts something fierce and he makes several less than subtle hints about what a wonderful mother Ellie will make some day. He finally relents when Ellie makes him promise to wait at least until they’re married. Thor proposes the very next day.

- In the spring Thor finally plants the garden of his dreams and even features it on his cooking channel, showing how easy it is to grow your own food.

- Ellie and Thor get married in the summer surrounded by all of their friends and the New Asgard community. Thor is so happy he cries through the entire ceremony.

- Almost a year to the day of Ellie coming back into Thor’s life she gets the best possible news. Thor wakes up a few days later to an anniversary card signed by Ellie and “baby Odinson”. He’s never been happier.

That’s the end my darlings! Thank you so much for reading!! Love you all ❤

Taglist lovelies: @thorfanficwriter @lancsnerd @avengers-fixation

#thor #Thor Odinson #fat thor #thicc thor #chubby thor #Thor x original character #Thor x Original Female Character #original female character #plus size original female character #marvel #marvel fandom #marvel fanfic #marvel fanfiction #Marvel fangirl #post endgame #cannon divergent #To Give Him The World

20 notes · View notes

techscopic · 7 years ago

Text

How to Build a Kubernetes Cluster with ARM Raspberry Pi then run .NET Core on OpenFaas

First, why would you do this? Why not. It’s awesome. It’s a learning experience. It’s cheaper to get 6 pis than six “real computers.” It’s somewhat portable. While you can certainly quickly and easily build a Kubernetes Cluster in the cloud within your browser using a Cloud Shell, there’s something more visceral about learning it this way, IMHO. Additionally, it’s a non-trivial little bit of power you’ve got here. This is also a great little development cluster for experimenting. I’m very happy with the result.

By the end of this blog post you’ll have not just Hello World but you’ll have Cloud Native Distributed Containerized RESTful microservice based on ARMv7 w/ k8s Hello World! as a service. (original Tweet).

Not familiar with why Kubernetes is cool? Check out Julia Evans’ blog and read her K8s posts and you’ll be convinced!

Hardware List (scroll down for Software)

Here’s your shopping list. You may have a bunch of this stuff already. I had the Raspberry Pis and SD Cards already.

6 – Raspberry Pi 3 – I picked 6, but you should have at least 3 or 4.

One Boss/Master and n workers. I did 6 because it’s perfect for the power supply, perfect for the 8-port hub, AND it’s a big but not unruly number.

6 – Samsung 32Gb Micro SDHC cards – Don’t be too cheap.

Faster SD cards are better.

2×6 – 1ft flat Ethernet cables – Flat is the key here.

They are WAY more flexible. If you try to do this with regular 1ft cables you’ll find them inflexible and frustrating. Get extras.

1 – Anker PowerPort 6 Port USB Charging Hub – Regardless of this entire blog post, this product is amazing.

It’s almost the same physical size as a Raspberry Pi, so it fits perfect at the bottom of your stack. It puts out 2.4a per port AND (wait for it) it includes SIX 1ft Micro USB cables…perfect for running 6 Raspberry Pis with a single power adapter.

1 – 7 layer Raspberry Pi Clear Case Enclosure – I only used 6 of these, which is cool.

I love this case, and it looks fantastic.

1 – Black Box USB-Powered 8-Port Switch – This is another amazing and AFAIK unique product.

An overarching goal for this little stack is that it be easy to move around and set up but also to power. We have power to spare, so I’d like to avoid a bunch of “wall warts” or power adapters. This is an 8 port switch that can be powered over a Raspberry Pi’s USB. Because I’m given up to 2.4A to each micro USB, I just plugged this hub into one of the Pis and it worked no problem. It’s also…wait for it…the size of a Pi. It also include magnets for mounting.

1 – Some Small Router – This one is a little tricky and somewhat optional.

You can just put these Pis on your own Wifi and access them that way, but you need to think about how they get their IP address. Who doles out IPs via DHCP? Static Leases? Static IPs completely?

The root question is – How portable do you want this stack to be? I propose you give them their own address space and their own router that you then use to bridge to other places. Easiest way is with another router (you likely have one lying around, as I did. Could be any router…and remember hub/switch != router.

Here is a bad network diagram that makes the point, I think. The idea is that I should be able to go to a hotel or another place and just plug the little router into whatever external internet is available and the cluster will just work. Again, not needed unless portability matters to you as it does to me.

You could ALSO possibly get this to work with a Travel Router but then the external internet it consumed would be just Wifi and your other clients would get on your network subnet via Wifi as well. I wanted the relative predictability of wired.

What I WISH existed was a small router – similar to that little 8 port hub – that was powered off USB and had an internal and external Ethernet port. This ZyXEL Travel Router is very close…hm…

Optional – Pelican Case if you want portability. I’ll see what airport security thinks. O_O

Optional – Tiny Keyboard and Mouse – Raspberry Pis can put out about 500mA per port for mice and keyboards. The number one problem I see with Pis is not giving them enough power and/or then having an external device take too much and then destabilize the system. This little keyboard is also a touchpad mouse and can be used to debug your Pi when you can’t get remote access to it. You’ll also want an HMDI cable occasionally.

You’re Rich – If you have money to burn, get the 7″ Touchscreen Display and a Case for it, just to show off htop in color on one of the Pis.

Dodgey Network Diagram

Disclaimer

OK, first things first, a few disclaimers.

The software in this space is moving fast. There’s a non-zero chance that some of this software will have a new version out before I finish this blog post. In fact, when I was setting up Kubernetes, I created a few nodes, went to bed for 6 hours, came back and made a few more nodes and a new version had come out. Try to keep track, keep notes, and be aware of what works with what.

Next, I’m just learning this stuff. I may get some of this wrong. While I’ve built (very) large distributed systems before, my experience with large orchestrators (primarily in banks) was with large proprietary ones in Java, C++, COM, and later in C#, .NET 1.x,2.0, and WCF. It’s been really fascinating to see how Kubernetes thinks about these things and comparing it to how we thought about these things in the 90s and very early 2000s. A lot of best practices that were HUGE challenges many years ago are now being codified and soon, I hope, will “just work” for a new generation of developer. At least another full page of my resume is being marked [Obsolete] and I’m here for it. Things change and they are getting better.

Software

Get your Raspberry PIs and SD cards together. Also bookmark and subscribe to Alex Ellis’ blog as you’re going to find yourself there a lot. He’s the author of OpenFaas, which I’ll be using today and he’s done a LOT of work making this experiment possible. So thank you Alex for being awesome! He has a great post on how Multi-stage Docker files make it possible to effectively use .NET Core on a Raspberry Pi while still building on your main machine. He and I spent a few late nights going around and around to make this easy.

Alex has put together a Gist we iterated on and I’ll summarize here. You’ll do these instructions n times for all machines.

You’ll do special stuff for the ONE master/boss node and different stuff for the some number of worker nodes.

ADVANCED TIP! If you know what you’re doing Linux-wise, you should save this excellent prep.sh shell script that Alex made, then SKIP to the node-specific instructions below. If you want to learn more, do it step by step.

ALL NODES

Burn Jessie to a SD Card

You’re going to want to get a copy of Raspbian Jesse Lite and burn it to your SD Cards with Etcher, which is the only SD Card Burner you need. It’s WAY better than the competition and it’s open source.

You can also try out Hypriot and their “optimized docker image for Raspberry Pi” but I personally tried to get it working reliably for a two days and went back to Jesse. No disrespect.

Creating an empty file called “ssh” before you put the card in the Raspberry Pi

SSH into the new Pi

I’m on Windows so I used WSL (Ubuntu) for Windows that lets me SSH and do run Linux natively.

ssh pi@raspberrypi

Change the Hostname

I ran

rasbpi-config

then immediately reboot with “sudo reboot”

Install Docker

curl -sSL get.docker.com | sh && \ sudo usermod pi -aG docker

Disable Swap. Important, you’ll get errors in Kuberenetes otherwise

sudo dphys-swapfile swapoff && \ sudo dphys-swapfile uninstall && \ sudo update-rc.d dphys-swapfile remove

Go edit /boot/cmdline.txt with your favorite editor, or use

sudo nano /boot/cmdline

and add this at the very end. Don’t press enter.

cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_enable=memory

Install Kubernetes

curl -s http://ift.tt/22fimui | sudo apt-key add - && \ echo "deb http://ift.tt/2f7PUy5 kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list && \ sudo apt-get update -q && \ sudo apt-get install -qy kubeadm

MASTER/BOSS NODE

After ssh’ing into my main node, I used /ifconfig eth0 to figure out what the IP adresss was. Ideally you want this to be static (not changing) or at least a static lease. I logged into my router and set it as a static lease, so my main node ended up being 192.168.170.2, and .1 is the router itself.

Then I initialized this main node

sudo kubeadm init --apiserver-advertise-address=192.168.170.2

This took a WHILE. Like 10-15 min, so be patient.

Kubernetes uses this admin.conf for a ton of stuff, so you’re going to want a copy in your $HOME folder so you can call “kubectl” easily later, copy it and take ownership.

mkdir -p $HOME/.kube sudo cp -i /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf $HOME/.kube/config sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) $HOME/.kube/config

When this is done, you’ll get a nice print out with a ton of info and a token you have to save. Save it all. I took a screenshot.

WORKER NODES

Ssh into your worker nodes and join them each to the main node. This line is the line you needed to have saved above when you did a kubectl init.

kubeadm join --token d758dc.059e9693bfa5 192.168.170.2:6443 --discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:c66cb9deebfc58800a4afbedf0e70b93c086d02426f6175a716ee2f4d

Did it work?

While ssh’ed into the main node – or from any networked machine that has the admin.conf on it – try a few commands.

Here I’m trying “kubectl get nodes” and “kubectl get pods.”

Note that I already have some stuff installed, so you’ll want try “kubectl get pods –namespace kube-system” to see stuff running. If everything is “Running” then you can finish setting up networking. Kubernetes has fifty-eleven choices for networking and I’m not qualified to pick one. I tried Flannel and gave up and then tried Weave and it just worked. YMMV. Again, double check Alex’s Gist if this changes.

kubectl apply -f http://ift.tt/2qJxB6N

At this point you should be ready to run some code!

Hello World…with Markdown

Back to Alex’s gist, I’ll try this “markdownrender” app. It will take some Markdown and return HTML.

Go get the function.yml from here and create the new app on your new cluster.

$ kubectl create -f function.yml $ curl -4 http://localhost:31118 -d "# test" <p><h1>test</h1></p>

This part can be tricky – it was for me. You need to understand what you’re doing here. How do we know the ports? A few ways. First, it’s listed as nodePort in the function.yml that represents the desired state of the application.

We can also run “kubectl get svc” and see the ports for various services.

pi@hanselboss1:~ $ kubectl get svc NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE alertmanager NodePort 10.103.43.130 <none> 9093:31113/TCP 1d dotnet-ping ClusterIP 10.100.153.185 <none> 8080/TCP 1d faas-netesd NodePort 10.103.9.25 <none> 8080:31111/TCP 2d gateway NodePort 10.111.130.61 <none> 8080:31112/TCP 2d http-ping ClusterIP 10.102.150.8 <none> 8080/TCP 1d kubernetes ClusterIP 10.96.0.1 <none> 443/TCP 2d markdownrender NodePort 10.104.121.82 <none> 8080:31118/TCP 1d nodeinfo ClusterIP 10.106.2.233 <none> 8080/TCP 1d prometheus NodePort 10.98.110.232 <none> 9090:31119/TCP 2d

See those ports that are outside:insider? You can get to markdownrender directly from 31118 on an internal IP like localhost, or the main/master IP. Those 10.x.x.x are all software networking, you can not worry about them. See?

pi@hanselboss1:~ $ curl -4 http://ift.tt/2zWjCfR -d "# test" <h1>test</h1> pi@hanselboss1:~ $ curl -4 http://ift.tt/2xuMdHf -d "# test" curl: (7) Failed to connect to 10.104.121.82 port 31118: Network is unreachable

Can we access this cluster from another machine? My Windows laptop, perhaps?

Access your Raspberry Pi Kubernetes Cluster from your Windows Machine (or elsewhere)

I put KubeCtl on my local Windows machine put it in the PATH.

I copied the admin.conf over from my Raspberry Pi. You will likely use scp or WinSCP.

I made a little local batch file like this. I may end up with multiple clusters and I want it easy to switch between them.

SET KUBECONFIG=”C:\users\scott\desktop\k8s for pi\admin.conf

Once you have Kubectl on another machine that isn’t your Pi, try running “kubectl proxy” and see if you can hit your cluster like this. Remember you’ll get weird “Connection refused” if kubectl thinks you’re talking to a local cluster.

Here you can get to localhost:8001/api and move around, then you’ve successfully punched a hole over to your cluster (proxied) and you can treat localhost:8001 as your cluster. So “kubectl proxy” made that possible.

If you have WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) – and you should – then you could also do this and TUNNEL to the API. But I’m going to get cert errors and generally get frustrated. However, tunneling like this to other apps from Windows or elsewhere IS super useful. What about the Kubernetes Dashboard?

~ $ sudo ssh -L 8001:10.96.0.1:443 [email protected]

I’m going to install the Kubernetes Dashboard like this:

kubectl apply -f http://ift.tt/2xudwS6

Pay close attention to that URL! There are several sites out there that may point to older URLs, non ARM dashboard, or use shortened URLs. Make sure you’re applying the ARM dashboard. I looked here http://ift.tt/2zWjCMT.

Notice I’m using the “alternative” dashboard. That’s for development and I’m saying I don’t care at all about security when accessing it. Be aware.

I can see where my Dashboard is running, the port and the IP address.

pi@hanselboss1:~ $ kubectl get svc --namespace kube-system NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE kube-dns ClusterIP 10.96.0.10 <none> 53/UDP,53/TCP 2d kubernetes-dashboard ClusterIP 10.98.2.15 <none> 80/TCP 2d

NOW I can punch a hole with that nice ssh tunnel…

~ $ sudo ssh -L 8080:10.98.2.15:80 [email protected]

I can access the Kubernetes Dashboard now from my Windows machine at http://localhost:8080 and hit Skip to login.

Do note the Namespace dropdown and think about what you’re viewing. There’s the kube-system stuff that manages the cluster

Adding OpenFaas and calling a serverless function

Let’s go to the next level. We’ll install OpenFaas – think Azure Functions or Amazon Lambda, except for your own Docker and Kubernetes cluster. To be clear, OpenFaas is an Application that we will run on Kubernetes, and it will make it easier to run other apps. Then we’ll run other stuff on it…just some simple apps like Hello World in Python and .NET Core. OpenFaas is one of several open source “Serverless” solutions.

Do you need to use OpenFaas? No. But if your goal is to write a DoIt() function and put it on your little cluster easily and scale it out, it’s pretty fabulous.

Remember my definition of Serverless…there ARE servers, you just don’t think about them.

Serverless Computing is like this – Your code, a slider bar, and your credit card.

Let’s go.

.NET Core on OpenFaas on Kubernetes on Raspberry Pi

I ssh’ed into my main/master cluster Pi and set up OpenFaas:

git clone http://ift.tt/2eHgAFS && cd faas-netes kubectl apply -f faas.armhf.yml,rbac.yml,monitoring.armhf.yml

Once OpenFaas is installed on your cluster, here’s Alex’s great instructions on how to setup your first OpenFaas Python function, so give that a try first and test it. Once we’ve installed that Python function, we can also hit http://ift.tt/2zWjFIz (where that’s your main Boss/Master’s IP) and see it the OpenFaas UI.

OpenFaas and the “faas-netes” we setup above automates the build and deployment of our apps as Docker Images to Kuberetes. It makes the “Developer’s Inner Loop” simpler. I’m going to make my .NET app, build, deploy, then change, build, deploy and I want it to “just work” on my cluster. And later, and I want it to scale.

I’m doing .NET Core, and since there is a runtime for .NET Core for Raspberry Pi (and ARM system) but no SDK, I need to do the build on my Windows machine and deploy from there.

Quick Aside: There are docker images for ARM/Raspberry PI for running .NET Core. However, you can’t build .NET Core apps (yet?) directly ON the ARM machine. You have to build them on an x86/x64 machine and then get them over to the ARM machine. That can be SCP/FTPing them, or it can be making a docker container and then pushing that new docker image up to a container registry, then telling Kubernetes about that image. K8s (cool abbv) will then bring that ARM image down and run it. The technical trick that Alex and I noticed was of course that since you’re building the Docker image on your x86/x64 machine, you can’t RUN any stuff on it. You can build the image but you can’t run stuff within it. It’s an unfortunate limitation for now until there’s a .NET Core SDK on ARM.

What’s required on my development machine (not my Raspberry Pis?

I installed KubeCtl (see above) in the PATH

I installed OpenFaas’s Faas-CLI command line and put it in the PATH

I installed Docker for Windows. You’ll want to make sure your machine has some flavor of Docker if you have a Mac or Linux machine.

I ran docker login at least once.

I installed .NET Core from http://dot.net/core

Here’s the gist we came up with, again thanks Alex! I’m going to do it from Windows.

I’ll use the faas-cli to make a new function with charp. I’m calling mine dotnet-ping.

faas-cli new --lang csharp dotnet-ping

I’ll edit the FunctionHandler.cs to add a little more. I’d like to know the machine name so I can see the scaling happen when it does.

using System; using System.Text; namespace Function { public class FunctionHandler { public void Handle(string input) { Console.WriteLine("Hi your input was: "+ input + " on " + System.Environment.MachineName); } } }

Check out the .yml file for your new OpenFaas function. Note the gateway IP should be your main Pi, and the port is 31112 which is OpenFaas.

I also changed the image to include “shanselman/” which is my Docker Hub. You could also use a local Container Registry if you like.

provider: name: faas gateway: http://ift.tt/2xtjend functions: dotnet-ping: lang: csharp handler: ./dotnet-ping image: shanselman/dotnet-ping

Head over to the ./template/csharp/Dockerfile and we’re going to change it. Ordinarily it’s fine if you are publishing from x64 to x64 but since we are doing a little dance, we are going to build and publish the .NET apps as linux-arm from our x64 machine, THEN push it, we’ll use a multi stage docker file. Change the default Docker file to this:

FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.0-sdk as builder ENV DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT 1 # Optimize for Docker builder caching by adding projects first. RUN mkdir -p /root/src/function WORKDIR /root/src/function COPY ./function/Function.csproj . WORKDIR /root/src/ COPY ./root.csproj . RUN dotnet restore ./root.csproj COPY . . RUN dotnet publish -c release -o published -r linux-arm ADD http://ift.tt/2zVAP98 /usr/bin/fwatchdog RUN chmod +x /usr/bin/fwatchdog FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.0.0-runtime-stretch-arm32v7 WORKDIR /root/ COPY --from=builder /root/src/published . COPY --from=builder /usr/bin/fwatchdog / ENV fprocess="dotnet ./root.dll" EXPOSE 8080 CMD ["/fwatchdog"]

Notice a few things. All the RUN commands are above the second FROM where we take the results of the first container and use its output to build the second ARM-based one. We can’t RUN stuff because we aren’t on ARM, right?

We use the Faas-Cli to build the app, build the docker container, AND publish the result to Kubernetes.

faas-cli build -f dotnet-ping.yml --parallel=1 faas-cli push -f dotnet-ping.yml faas-cli deploy -f dotnet-ping.yml --gateway http://ift.tt/2xtjend

And here is the dotnet-ping command running on the pi, as seen within the Kubernetes Dashboard.

I can then scale them out like this:

kubectl scale deploy/dotnet-ping --replicas=6

And if I hit it multiple times – either via curl or via the dashboard, I see it’s hitting different pods:

If I want to get super fancy, I can install Grafana – a dashboard manager by running locally in my machine on port 3000

docker run -p 3000:3000 -d grafana/grafana

Then I can add OpenFaas a datasource by pointing Grafana to http://ift.tt/2zVaKqu which is where the Prometheus metrics app is already running, then import the OpenFaas dashboard from the grafana.json file that is in the I cloned it from.

Super cool. I’m going to keep using this little Raspberry Pi Kubernetes Cluster to learn as I get ready to do real K8s in Azure! Thanks to Alex Ellis for his kindness and patience and to Jessie Frazelle for making me love both Windows AND Linux!

* If you like this blog, please do use my Amazon links as they help pay for projects like this! They don’t make me rich, but a few dollars here and there can pay for Raspberry Pis!

Sponsor: Check out JetBrains Rider: a new cross-platform .NET IDE. Edit, refactor, test and debug ASP.NET, .NET Framework, .NET Core, Xamarin or Unity applications. Learn more and download a 30-day trial!

How to Build a Kubernetes Cluster with ARM Raspberry Pi then run .NET Core on OpenFaas syndicated from http://ift.tt/2wBRU5Z

0 notes