#also got like.. way too many audiobooks so im listening to music then im in harry potter

[inniave]

after surgery i'm buying myself pentiment goddamnit

[chobani-flip]

so... I've been tagged by @newtkelly (WHO HAS A WIP IN THE WORKS WHICH IS GONNA BE SO AWESOME OMG GO READ ALL THE FICS I LOOOOOOVE) and @alchemistc (THE AMAZING ALCHEMISTIC MAGE OF AWESOME WRITERY POWERS WHO WRITES TRULY EXCELLENT FICS ????DAILY????? GO READ) to put my music on shuffle & list the first 10 songs + tag 10 people

but

the thing is... i... kinda don't listen to music? 👀👀👀 i know, i know, believe me.

like, i am not an alien, i have heard music before, but i don't go out of my way to listen to music in my regular day to day life.

so rather than just not taking part, or trying hard to come up with songs i really love a lot (which, they totally exist! but i can never think of one until i hear it on the radio or in a shop or as background song on a show or something) im gonna tell you about the audiobooks i found really fucking cool and my one podcast i adore:

the podcast AKA the only reason i have spotify on my laptop :

Ridiculous Crime (iHeartRadio) -

Zaron Burnett and Elizabeth Dutton talk about "outlandish capers, heists and cons" to "shine a light on the absurd side of criminality". "Always 99% murder-free and 100% ridiculous". i adore this podcast so fucking much, i am willing to 15sec+ manually skip the embedded ads that appear in LOOOONG chunks at the start, at the 20 minute mark, at the 40 minute mark and at the end of the episodes. also, Elizabeth Dutton is a 911 fan and she's the one whose endorsement finally made me decide to give the show another try. like, srsly, if you've gone off true crime because while you enjoy listening to RL stories and mysteries but all the sensationalizing of brutal crimes just got too much made it impossible to consume? THIS IS THE PODCAST FOR YOU (just srsly, skip the ads, they're fucking annoying

⬆is one of my favourite episodes

the audiobooks:

Vital Organs - Suzie Edge

this is a book full of extremely interesting stories from history connected to various bodyparts.

this is the tagline: From Napoleon's penis to Van Gogh's ear, from Marie Antoinette's teeth to Marie Curie's bone marrow, this book brings together the remarkable stories of body parts that have made history. and you might get the impression that it's going to be a bunch of kings and queens and famous people from that (and like yeah, they're there obviously) but there are so many fascinating stories about people you've never heard of? it's really cool. the one that really stuck with me was about the creator of the Braille writing system, Louis Braille.

Ask A Historian: 50 Surprising Answers To Things You Always Wanted To Know - Greg Jenner

(he also has a podcast, my friend loves it - that's how i found out about the book - but i have space for only one podcast in my heart)

abso-fucking-lutely excellent and interesting and hilarious. remember the tumblr post about the corpse pope put on trial? well, that one was one of the questions Greg Jenner got asked and he talks about the Cadaver Synod in great detail. Mansa Musa, ever heard of him? No? well, google the name and you'll be just as outraged as i was when you realise just how massive and influential he and his Mali Empire was and how your (generally really good) history classes and textbooks never fucking mentioned him. you'll also find out when the first monday was, and why the devil is a goat, and what the Flintstones ot right about Stone Age

A Curious History of Sex - Kate Lister

(also has a podcast apparently, but like i said i can only manage one)

It's a really really cool and interesting book 😁 here's the tagline:

This is not a comprehensive study of every sexual quirk, kink and ritual across all cultures throughout time, as that would entail writing an encyclopaedia. Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless.

Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime and Obsession - Rachel Monroe

so this isn't true crime, but it's about true crime, it explores why people, and women especially, are fascinated by it. it's not particularly accusatory or judgemental since the author is interrogating her own fascination, but it doesn't shy away from the nastier implications and sides of being enthralled by true crime.

honestly, this describes it really well: Combining personal narrative, reportage, and a sociological examination of violence and media in the 20th and 21st centuries, Savage Appetites is a "corrective to the genre it interrogates" (The New Statesman), scrupulously exploring empathy, justice, and the persistent appeal of crime.

currently listening to: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

did you know that the word salacious comes from salt? because people believed that salt made you horny and virile? and also that it protected you from evil spirits so in some places in the world (like France and others) in the middle ages, infants would be bathed in brine and salted before a baptism? and that salad is a salad and also from salt because the Romans loved to salt their assorted veggies, when they weren't making garum, the salty stinky fermented fishsauce? AND THAT SOLDIER IS A SOLDIER BECAUSE IN SOME PARTS THEY USED TO BE PAID IN SALT AND SOL AND SALT AND AAAAA i love it so much

ok 🤣 im done. now, i am aware that this was very much not the assignment if the assignment was getting recommendations for music, but if the assignment was finding out more about the person behind the blog, well, here you are 😁 these are the things i find cool and interesting

__

no pressure tagging: @wakeupnew @tiltingheartand @26-cats-in-a-trenchcoat

@kinard-buckley @bugboybuck @mistmarauder

@jackmichaela @do-androids-dream-ao3acc @so-that-was-okay

@apartmentsmoke

[jamietarttownsmyheart]

please i need colinjamie headcanons or prompts i’ve been deprived of them for too long

i am. so so sorry for how late this is. and how uncoordinated the rest of this will probably end up being, but, just, ima unleash random colinjamie thoughts on u and hope it makes sense lol and that you enjoy them, but since idk how long it'll end up ima put everything under the cut

random hcs

colinjamie have definitely watched the owl house at some point. maybe this is fresh in my head since the final episode just came out a few days ago, but i definitely see colinjamie watching the owl house together. two options:

maybe colin was chilling with his niece (i want colin to have a niece or a nephew so bad, he gives uncle vibes and also i want jamie to interact with the kid at some point too) and she was watching it and he got invested. and then jamie got invested via colin. OR. henry was visiting the stadium on spring break and mentioned the owl house to jamie, who was curious, watched and episode, and then got invested. flash forward to colinjamie fwb era and colin dropping by one day and finding jamie losing his shit over the episode hollow mind. jamie needs to lose his shit with someone and colin is the poor soul who came over for a hook up but ended up having to watch two seasons of a disney cartoon.

that being said, i also think that jamie, if he ever watched avatar the last airbender as a kid, only ever watched until mid season 2. life got more complicated and he was more concerned with playing well than "lazy" things like cartoons. he never got to zuko standing up to his dad. he'll get there someday, it's gonna be great

colinjamie have a unique sense of style that they somehow make work, it drives so many people mad

colin had a crush on lightning mcqueen when he was a kid. (11 years old? idk how old colin is, so im putting him at 28 in s3, making him 11 when cars came out) he thinks about this childhood crush and figures its pretty telling that he's got a speedy car and a cocky but talented boyfriend

jamie is dyslexic, and when he realized audiobooks existed, he was thrilled. still, his favorite way to experience books is to have colin read them out to him.

that being said, his favorite way to enjoy drake is to have colin rapping along

colin takes jamie along to theater performances, musicals, and the ballet.

jamie found the "whose the worm now" moment so hot. he can't let colin find out

random prompt

prompt #1

so this might be because i just re read the seven husbands of evelyn hugo, daisy jones and the six, and carrie soto is back, as well as binging all of the daisy jones and the six show, and have been listening to taylor swift all month, but i am craving something specific?

like, i am so here for an au with actor or pop star jamie (have y'all heard phil dunster's voice?) and richmond player colin hughes. its giving posh spice and david beckham.

just the different flavors of it all. if we have it in modern times, as in, the time ted lasso is set in the show, we can do so much. (we can also have a colin who is not actually a fan of his bf's music. it's not that he hates it, it's just not his style. jamie knows this, and writes songs about colin anyways. colin loves listening to these songs regardless of them not being his style.)

then of course there is the other option--i am so bad at timelines and math, so dont come for me when this is all wrong, but i, on my 7 husband of eh kick, was like omg?? give me hollywood star jamie tartt and football player colin hughes who are "roommates."

prompt #2

im a sucker for vampires and vampire hunters. i think it can go either way for them in terms of whose the vampire and whose the vampire hunters.

prompt #3

a canon divergence au where colinjamie were dating s1. jamie and keeley were dating prior to his loan to richmond and stayed friends after their breakup. he really did love her, but still hadn't learned to be accountable yet. keeley still comes around to the club bc she's jamie's best friend and wants to test the playing field with roy.

[edenslostwallflower]

you can tell a lot about someone by the type of music they listen to 🎵🎶 make a new post, hit shuffle on your media player and write down the first 10 songs , then tag 10 people . No skipping !!!

1.  Tala Returns - Moana 2. Resurrection  - Percy Jackson  Sea of Monsters 3.  Triple Laser Phase - Portal 2 Soundtrack  4.  Malta’s Destiny - The Sea Prince and the Fire Child 5.  First Meeting - Splash; the Movie 6.  Happy Synethesizer - Luka & Gumi 7. Officially Missing You - Akmu 8.  Rush Over Me- Seven Lions x Illenium x Said The Sky 9.  Eris Steals the Book - Sinbad 10.  New Rules - TXT I don’t know what this says about me but I do know I have 2k tracks and about 95% of them are soundtracks. 

tagged by: @cavusvitae (u consciously decide to tag me in stuff and i cry tears of joy) tagging: @strawberrycolaaa @designerfai (HII!!) @fearlessandchaotic @makubes @itsbeyondthepale

[transmasc-wizard]

autism? autism! me too!!! wanna rant about your special interests? go for it!

hello fellow autistic individual

be warned im about to talk a FUCK TON, specifically about the raven cycle. this post will very much need a "readmore" to keep it from clogging dashes

ANYWAY

the raven cycle is a YA urban fantasy quartet by maggie stiefvater published between 2012 and 2016, which also has a spinoff series "the dreamer trilogy" but ive only read the first Dreamer so far; i have a signed copy of the 2nd and am mildly worried ill ruin it. i first read TRC last year in july and am actually currently doing my 3rd read (via audiobook this time). So what is it about, you ask??? WELL

TRC stars 5 teenagers--Adam Parish, Ronan Lynch, Richard Gansey, Blue Sargent, and Noah Czerny. the boys meet blue at a restaurant and somehow drag her into their "quest"--find the body of Owen Glendower in the hills of virginia and wake him up. They want to do this because when gansey was 10 he died via wasp stings and was brought back to life with the voice of glendower talking to him and now he's OBSESSED with finding glendower. Along the way we find out Blue is gonna kill her true love, and that guy probably is gansey (who only has a year to live).

u may be thinking, 'alright, cool plot, but why special interest-worthy?" and i shall gently yell BECAUSE ITS THE BEST WRITING AND CHARACTERIZATION IVE EVER COME ACROSS

Maggie stiefvater knows how to make the best characters, like, ever, because she doesnt do the typical YA thing of "oh uwu here are their flaws: theyre too nice, too sweet, too naive". she's got shit like "purposely failing school" & "stupid about money and insensitive to friends about it" and "refuses to ask for help" and "drinks to cope", y'know, things that are actually flaws to overcome.

they've also all got amazing little traits just-to-them; blue really likes trees, layers her clothing, loves yogurt, is the only non-psychic in a family of them, & shreds her shirts to make them look more interesting. Ronan races cars, knows how to farm, LOVES his little pet bird (named Chainsaw btw), and grapples with being religious (catholic) vs being gay. Noah is quiet and "smudgy" and doesn't eat enough (because he doesnt. actually. have a stomach or like an actual brain really thats another thing tho). Gansey loves his journal and is terrified of wasps and eats avacado on his pizza and is really good at finding things. Adam wears a coca-cola shirt and is super focused around money (bc he Has None) and lives above a church and helps ronan do stupid shit. like, this is the stuff i thought of within 30 seconds for each character, and most of that alone is in the 1st book. like, it gets even more thorough as it goes on.

and the WRITING. i know exactly what the inside of gansey's car looks like and it wasnt boring to learn that. like, i still remember that stiefvater described that there's CDs in the backseat and beef jerky thats long expired and too many receipts. I remember 300 fox way (blue's house) doesnt have a single man living there and that there's a sewing-phone-cat room. I remember monmouth (gansey's house) was a factory but it's unknown what it produced but there's scorch marks on the walls and really high ceilings. I know blue adores the stars and trees and i know persephone (blue's mother's friend) listens to angry PHD music. Like, this was all peppered in casually but written in such a gripping way that its lodged in my brain. i was never once bored reading TRC, and ive gotten bored reading almost every other book, even the ones i love.

and the MAGIC is so cool, there's psychics and trees that speak (but only in latin!) and dragons made of fire that came out of people's heads and demon bugs and weird sticky stuff that tears apart the world. it's not all explained, and i love that, because it's explained enough that i'm satisfied but i don't somehow know more than all the characters combined.

... anyway i realize ive practically written an essay, and also i have to do my nano shit now cause theres not a ton of hours left in the day, but!!! soul is doing the smiley emote!! because raven cycle!!

anyway everyone should read it, it's very very cool

(also i will be posting my Autistic Gansey Theory at some point)

good day to all

[dontmesswithnoheroin]

ok so im binging 3% because it’s a great Brazilian series and honestly you should watch it too, and there is this beautiful credit song (s04e05 credit scene) which i immediately want to add to my playlist on spotify and so i search for “3% ost” and “3% soundtrack” on spotify and google, but nothing sensible really shows up in the search and this is where my troubles begin. for the past hour i’ve been looking for this song and now i’m just too deep to stop, but im also tired...

the english cc captions i always use on netflix sometimes will give you the title of the song, and this is indeed the case here. however! they simply gave the wrong title. the song:

is groovy and all, and bless the artist’s heart, but it is a remix which only samples the original song that i am looking for. great. i take a minute here to question netflix and their quality standard for captions, then decide i can not simply stop here, the song is good, i want to listen to it on loop until i can’t stand it anymore and nothing’s gonna stop me.

i figure im probably searching in the wrong language. i look up the word soundtrack in Portugese (trilha sonora according to google translate???) and look up spotify playlists “tres por cento trihla sonora”. success! there are many good fan made ones, it seems. so i dive in. the best part about this whole experience is that i realize that Brazilian music slaps my dudes. they always write come to Brazil, but tbh no please Brazil come to Europe. i will pay money for this. anyway, so i decide im gonna find the song by listening to excerpts of the songs on the playlists. although i come across many bops, i dont not recognize my beloved song. i did save the playlist though:

ok so then i remember Portugese captions also exist. i search after the lyrics and finally - FINALLY - i have the song. 

Último Desejo by Noel Rosa

i search it, play it and... it sounds like an old ass song and nothing like the one im looking for. ok it’s a cover. no worries. i go on spotify again and search for ultimo desejo

and of course - of course

it’s one of those songs. the one that has hundreds of covers. and so i go through like the first 20. and man is it an experience. but i find it! i finally get the right fucking song:

I say to myself, now finally you can listen to the whole song. and so i do. the beginning is as i remember it from the series. the scene right before credits is quite gloomy, and so the song has this nostalgic, sad vibe... except for when it transforms the mood completely into upbeat, dance song. im surprised, but i only remember the part they used in the series, which didnt (obviously) express the whole range of the song. in any case, it won me over in the end and landed in my favorites.

satisfied, i came back to the series and played it. the credits played again. and. well. you know what happened.

i got the wrong song. i listened to so many that i forgot how the original sounded like. back to the drawing board.

well, not really. im hella distracted all the time and instead of trying an app to find the tune, i decided to listen to all songs called Ultimo Desejo on spotify. and also look up the lyrics, their english meaning (it’s a love song i think?) and other Brazilian music. anyway, my dive into Ultimo Desejo was the real introduction to how varied and amazing Brazilian music can be. here are some of my personal favorites:

although i must say, they get better after the wall of what seems to be the Portugese Witcher audiobooks:

including but not limited to pearls such as these two:

anyway so after i got sucked out of the hyperfixation again, i ran the song through a tune search app and it had no matches, of course. so i used googles music search and that one disappointed me too. seems like the only way for me to enjoy this song will be rewatching the credits again and again. which you know, is not so bad. but if you are Brazilian and can help me and tell me what song they used, you will be saving my life and sanity. also, I love u. 

[dnprenaissance]

mel @bourgeoix tagged me in the "Tell Me Good Things That Happened This Year" meme thing so here we go ! here r my top 5:

movies i watched

perks of being a wallflower (ive already seen this b4 this year but i also havent watched it since then so. i cried real hard)

rocky horror picture show

just mercy

the wrong missy (im only including this bc i (accurately) guessed the plot and the ending bc its just a bad fanfic/romcom and my dad got angry bc he thought id looked up the movie. like no i just saw what they did there. also i regretably like david spade movies)

hot rod (those of u that pay attention may know that i almost exclusively watch this when im under an influence but its actually really good)

tv shows i watched

dead to me

parks and rec and the good place share a spot bc i watch them on repeat near constantly

criminal minds (i finished it this year and got hatecrimed by reid x jj)

the witcher (technically i started watching it last year w a group of people but then a few weeks later i found out they had finished it w/o me so i watched it later)

i mean. tiger king. i wish i could watch it for the first time again.

songs i listened to

heart of glass (cover) by miley cyrus

4 morant by doja cat (unreleases, on soundcloud/yt only :/)

superbloom by ashton irwin (the whole album. like it dominated by spotify wrapped and it only existed for like a week while they were collecting data)

danke schoen (the first one from the parade in ferris buellers day off)

i cant think of another song bc my brain is stuck on danke schoen now but id just like to give a shoutout to my discover weekly and to kj for consistenly recommending me good music that i like

books i read

i actually managed to read some non-fanfiction books this year so here they are !

brave new world by adolus huxley (fun fact i "read" this with the audiobook and i had to stop bc its ... a lot. like dense made up words. too long, just in general. anyways i only give this a 4/10 but i did finally finish it. so.)

13 minutes by sarah pinborough (ya thriller; im obsessed; 11/10 def reccomend)

the female of the species by mindy mcginnis (another ya "thriller;" beginning and middle way more interesting than end; 6/10, read it if u like being disappointed)

hollow by rhonda parrish (a ya thriller/supernatural mystery; huge rape tw; 5/10, interesting concept but the execution was weird and the end wasnt satisfying)

ive run out of books that ive read. oh dear. i bought the goldfinch at a used bookstore and ive seen the movie so that counts, right? (it doesnt. 10/10 gay as hell)

good things that happened to me

i got a pay raise and position change at work and i dont dread work as much anymore !

i have learned how to make space for myself and not say yes to everything all the time

ive made so many lovely friends here on tumblr ! if u dont think im talking about u i am <3

i got the strawberry milkshake cow pillow pet <3<3

i used my planner for most of the year, i didnt completly abandon it the second my classes were over

thank u mel <3

i am tagging @5sosofficial @elliotjonesss @wrappeditmyslf @1-800-klaushargreeves @soccer-kate-22 @drybranmuffin @lirry @triangleankle and anyone that wants to/hasnt done this yet ! <3

[gayregis]

OK whoa before i even react to the second episode.

FUCKING TRIGGER WARNING FOR THE INTRODUCTION to the second episode. i mean . just what the fuck what the fuck man

that intro made me literally nauseous and disgusted what the fuck. i GET its yennefer’s Terrible Backstory but did they really need to do that? REALLY? also i thought it was her d*d that did that stuff to her, not otehr kids

i like how they make istredd a more likable guy in this :) i really hated the biased perspective from geralt in the books lol

LOL TISSAIA ROLLIN’ UP.......... does this mean we dont have to see much of the abuse? i hope to hell not i cant stomach any more

okay officially crying! that feel when when your “family” betrays you!

also oh no yennefer ... i know in the books she attempted suicide many times though right.. OH THANK YOU FOR NOT SHOWING THAT thank god

did ciri get scratched? by the RAT?

HE HAS THIS BIG BIRD ON HIS HEAD LMAOOOOOOOOOO

please instead of calling cahir nilfgaardian to make him mad can we please call him big bird? thank you

LUTE MUSIC?????????????

this doesnt look like gulet, I KNEW THEY CUT GULET OUT! but someone is singing :)

OH IM SO TORN RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! dandelion is supposed to be actually good at his job but also the way THAT JOEY LEANED ON THE POLE? TH. OK. and THE FACT THAT HES PICKING UP THE FOOD THAT THEY THREW AT HIM.................................... classic dandelion. well actually okay hes supposed to be like, you know, mid-20s right now, this dandelion isnt a MASTER OF POETRY yet. he needs to evolve , like a pokemon. ... i like this scene just for the leaning on the wooden support and the fact that hes picking up. the food they threw at him. ALSO WAS HE GETTING PAID FOR THAT OR JUST ANNOYING PEOPLE???

h. he. APPROACHETH THE WITCHER. okay i like this, i like joey, i like cavill, lets see how this plays out. try not to throw up, geralt.

THE MOVEMENTS??????????? THE HAND GESTURE................ this is invoking the “i hate how camp straight dandelion is” emotion in me

JOEY STOP LEANING ON THINGS LIKE T HAT IM GONNA HAVE AN ANYEURISM. HE REALLY ACTS WITH HIS WHOLE BODY HUH

you can tell he loves this stupid fucking role huh. hes having fun you can tell.

ohhhhhh hes not blonde but they got the perfect fucking man for this

obviously not feeling too good about that punch because literally isnt geralts thing that he doesnt hurt the vulnerable? that was VERY out of character . also it was out of character for dandelion because dandelion would have CRIED or VOMITED you know how he is. 

ARE WE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT FRINGILLA’S FUCKING HAND?????? TISSAIA??? YOURE GONNA HEAL HER RIGHT... RIGHT

oh yennefer... ME IN ALGEBRA II WHEN I COULDNT FIGURE OUT A MATH PROBLEMMMM

LMAOOOOO FIONA ... ARE WE REALLY JUST GONNA GO THROUGH CIRI’S ENTIRE NAME UNTIL WE GET TO HER BLOODLINE AND THEN SHE USES FALKA??? LMAOOOO the time of contempt VIBES right now

we’re moving SO fast through edge of the world........ ughhhhhh pain... what about the smart quote from geralt about why humans invent monsters? ill listen to the audiobook tomorrow to quell my sadness

this is what i predicted though, fantastic acting on joey’s part, but the writers just said fuck friendship HJGDJKLS:

ugh the heterosexualisms.......

im predicting right now we’re not gonna get any ill set the world against you fun action huh

“is he a knight” wait a few books

wow yennefer and geralt really had the SAME ASS CHILDHOOD huh. lovely mentor figure but really really harsh schooling

tissaia explaining why shes harsh... oof but also can you please give yennefer a hug or something

ugh this edge of the world is so emotionally void.... i dread to think what its like if you didnt read the books. fans are legit gonna think that geralt despises dandelion, and its gonna be netflix’s fault!

also dandelion knows elder speech??? didnt he... only just learn that in time of contempt?

also watch out, lute!

[zvaigzdelasas]

Hey, how's it going? was just wondering what resources do you use for learning languages?

it’s goin, that’s for sure! I’ve got a couple go-to methods -

SRS (Spaced Repitition Software - fancy flashcard applications which track how well u do on each card, & decides when to show it to you again based upon it. Very powerful for vocab & any other object of study w relatively clear right/wrong answers (im using it to study for a computer networking exam, for example). Not necessarily great for grammar/natural use)

Anki (Free for desktop & android, paid for iOS - manual scoring)

Memrise (Freemium - automatic scoring)

TinyCards (Free - automatic scoring, integrated w duoling)

Duolingo (Freemium) - the notorius green owl. Such structured courses (Babbel, Drops, R*settaStone) can be great to build a familiarity with a language & its grammar, but many rely on it & get dispirited when after completing a tree they still can’t converse fluently.

Book & Audio courses - (Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, Assimil, Teach Yourself, etc) varying qualities, can be good for structure

Conversation - The biggest hurdles in learning any language is learning how it feels on your body - your mouth, your hands, your ears, your eyes. There’s no way to overcome this outside of training, like with any muscles. Ideally, find a relatively local place where native speakers congregate (stores, restaurants, community centers…) & get through the stage of making a fool of yourself by stuttering out a three word sentence early. Everyone does, it’s just that native speakers go through that stage while still wearing diapers. If you for sure can’t find anyone near you, there are services like Italki where people videochat & converse & teach, most are paid some are free. Also, we live in the age of social networking (tee em), so find some blogs to follow ya silly.

Music - find artists you enjoy in your target lang & find favorite songs to listen to over & over. Look up the lyrics online & practice singing along (if yr starting out, 0.5x-.075x speed is great). Sing it in the shower again & again until you’ve got the lyrics down, regardless of if you can understand more than a single word - as you progress in the lang, you’ll eventually figure out more of the vocab & when you do, you’ll have something more substantial than a flashcard translation to hook it onto. I tend to go towards finding rap in the lang to help w rapid comprehension, but most any genre is fine!

Podcasts/Audiobooks - Helps with audio comprehension, but in a more conversational way rather than the more idiomatic mode that music helps with. Finding a translation of a book you’re already familiar with can be good, but it can also impede you - it’s training wheels.

Texts - Generic, but find books, newspapers, blogs, etc in yr target language. Using a database wrapper like LearningWithTexts can help keep things organized as yr collection grows larger, but not strictly necessary.

Language B -> Language C - if you’ve already learned one language to a roughly middle-school level, it can be a great boost to learn another language in a course designed for speakers of that first one. Not only does it help pad out a lot of natural vocab that many courses overlook, but it also helps decenter your native tongue (Language A) & helps u build more abstract models in your mind instead of just translating.

(although i default to “speak”, most of this translates to sign languages as well - sans the audio, for the most part (sign language translations of songs are good study tools too!))

Any other questions just lmk :) I’ll leave you with this vid that helped me get started, i still like going back to it time to time for motivation

[filmtrash]

from then to now,

the end of the year is a time for reflection. there’s a lot i could look back on from this past year, but more than anything, i want to focus on the happiest, best thing.  

although my presence on this platform may be temporary, i am certain that what it has brought me will be a forever kind of thing. this time last year i was meant to be revising for my year thirteen mock exams, but i was in curled up in the only empty space in my bedroom (revision everywhere!) literally unable to put down my copy of call me by your name. i watched the movie again shortly after that and well....i don’t have to describe what that’s like because y’all know. i also remember lying in my bed listening to visions of gideon an unhealthy number of times. all these experiences were so important for me, so pivotal, so transformative and it’s only now a year on i can understand why that’s the case.

this isn’t meant to be a backstory of my life but i have always been a completely lost soul. although i am certain i have not found myself yet, this last year i’ve found something that offers me stability and security. something i’m not sure i truly had before that. call me by your name is undeniably at the centre of it all, but it has brought me so much more than i ever expected. it seems far-fetched and not really believable but it’s the absolute truth. 

i’ve said it many times and i’ll say it again; reading the book, watching the film, listening to the music, listening to the audiobook made some sort of wall come down and made me in touch with my emotions and made me feel so much. not only did it provide escapism (andré’s descriptions and luca’s visuals are so PERFECT for that) but i remember thinking ‘i think i may have just found my purpose. to make people feel how this makes me feel.’ 

to put it simply, here’s a list of things that have happened to me and/or came into my life because of this film: 

i’d never been interested in the oscars before but when i heard call me by your name was nominated i wanted to see what its chances of winning were. i also thought any film in competition must be worth watching. i lived at the cinema after that, trying to watch as many oscar nominated films as i could. this in turn introduced me to so many incredible films, actors, directors. when oscar night came, me and my friends gathered round the tv and we basically regarded it as the event of the year. 

similarly, because i held the cast of cmbyn in such high regard, i wanted to watch everything they were in. truthfully, timmy was the initial reason why i wanted to watch lady bird, but i’m so glad he brought me to that theatre. i literally adore lady bird, saoirse, greta, lucas. i literally have such a strong connection to that film and i wouldn’t have that without cmbyn. and the pattern goes on and on. the reach of this film is never ending. now i have a long list of actors and actresses i hold in high regard and an even longer list of films. that’s endless hours of pure fuckin joy. 

music has always been central to my life, but cmbyn opened up a wide expanse of new artists for me. not just sufjan stevens, but artists featured on fan edits and songs you guys recommended me that remind you of the movie. sometimes my playlist will be on shuffle and one of those songs will come on and it doesn’t matter where i am or what mood i’m in, im immediately transported back to the couple months of my life where i felt like i was wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket. 

i travelled round italy! to visit the locations where cmbyn were filmed! i wouldn’t have had that INSANE experience without this movie. it was so surreal being there. elio and oliver truly felt like two tangible people. the corners where they filmed in bergamo were so void of other tourists that you could almost the two singing and dancing. i know they’re not real, but what they brought to my life is and being there is something i’ll never forget. 

friendships! it brought me so much closer to my friends, as we all found a mutual love and interest (some in cmbyn specifically, some just in film). i am so blessed to have 3 people that love what i love and share so many amazing viewing experiences and discussions with me! along with our love for each other, film truly does bind us together. it also was the talking point between me and a work colleague and now she’s one of my best friends and even came to the beautiful boy premiere with me. AND ALL OF YOU !!! lovely supportive people that have so many bright ideas and wonderful talents. you have taught me so much. 

and now for the big one........literally it changed the course of my whole damn life. a year later im sat in the same spot, home for my christmas break....from university where im a freakin’ film student! my whole life is immersed in film and my whole future will be much the same way. WITHOUT CALL ME BY YOUR NAME WHERE WOULD I BE RIGHT NOW? so when people ask me what my favourite film is, they have NO IDEA how much of a loaded question is. they’re the lucky ones if i just mention the title. when sat in my flat in london, writing my essay on tarantino, i’ll glance up at my copy of cmbyn like.......this is all because of you buddy.

cmbyn also brought me here. i’ve had this account since like...2011? but i rebirthed this bitch when i was searching for cmbyn content. it started by me posting quotes from the book and i could see in the notes there were accounts dedicated to timmy etc, and i was thinking ..... wait! there’s people out there that love it as much as me !??!?!? i started to post more and more until i got brave enough to analyse a part of the movie. the response i got was so unexpected but again, did wonders in adding to my sense of purpose. even if people disagreed with me, i welcomed the discussion, i welcomed the communication. in a world where you feel no one understands you, when you find this beautiful thing that connects you to beautiful people, it’s a wonderful thing. tumblr can be whatever, but it’s made what it is by the people who use it. whatever has become of it since then, it provided me with so much. i have been educated, i have been accepted, i have been listened to. without posts on here i wouldn’t have known of some events that i’ve gone to, and that have been some of my favourite experiences of my life. i can’t thank you all enough, wherever you may be, for providing me with a temporary bliss where i truly felt on top of the world. 

i talked about this the other day but i’m serious. timothée is a wonderful human being and i feel honoured to support him. this boy is going to be so powerful and trust me, his feet are not going to leave the ground once. i truly was a fandom kid, moving to support one celebrity after another but i can say that (other than hs) it’s never ran deeper than this. i don’t feel like im a crazy fangirl!!!!!!! over timothée, i feel like i have such a weird admiration for him like i would have for a best friend (we can only hope). he’s just so GOOD. he’s so talented but so smart and so refreshing and beyond his physical looks, his mind is beautiful. if everyone else was able to have that in perfect balance too, the world would be a better place. i also sometimes see parts of myself reflected in him too. not that i’ve ever done an interview or anything, but the way he carries himself etc just reminds me of me. i hope this isn’t me complimenting myself, i’m merely saying we’re both bumbling idiots. (also happy birthday. u fuckin rule)

so that’s where i am now, and there’s all the reasons why i wouldn’t be here without call me by your name. i’m here to testify that yes film is great entertainment and a good evening trip out, but its power should never be underestimated. call me by your name in particular has wormed its way into so many parts of my life, and those parts are the only bits i like. 

so thank you if you’re still reading this, because you’re a part of it too. i am very grateful. 

[drfronkensteen]

I am not a theater fan, #ratherdiethanbeatheaterkid, but I like listening to musicals during my workouts because my brain is able to process them better than audiobooks and also because they are cheap ways to make me feel INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED. so this is me, ranking all the musical albums I have on my phone right now 

current favorites (aka, I listen to them constantly throughout the day/week):

Beetlejuice - no cast album yet but hypothetically if there was some copy I was listening to then it is great and my favorite tracks are any of the ones that feature my dude bjuice.

School of Rock - aka I want to live in alex brightman’s pocket like a trembling teacup chihuahua

The Lightning Thief  - HE’S A GOOD KID the entire album is a bop. lots of energy and emotions. perfect for a run, or a singalong during SoCal traffic.

Sweeney Todd - it gets an automatic fav due to the cannibalistic subject matter. im weak.

In the Heights - every song is filled with feelings and I am enough of an adult to admit that champagne is my top 3 played song of all time in my iTunes.

Legally Blonde - it took a while for me to warm up to this album but now I would fight to the death for elle woods and her squeaky little voice. also it’s got a couple of decent motivational songs, which makes for a good treadmill soundtrack.

past favorites (aka USED to be in constant rotation but now are a tad dusty):

Hamilton - don't get me wrong this is still a Flawless album for basically any mood. I’ve just listened to it so many times that now I've got to ration it out otherwise I’ll get bored.

Wicked - I used to really like it but I tried listening to it this last weekend and I couldn’t even get through Defying Gravity. I think I watched too many videos critical of Idina Menzel on youtube.

Les Miserables - classic, iconic, my man Javert was in the right. no real reason for not playing this one, it just isn’t happening right now.

Hairspray - Good sound by the story is cringe x 10.

Heathers - paging @rambling-and-fangirling​ the blue balls song makes me laugh every time. it’s a fast food musical, tasty but empty. I snack on it every once in a while but it is not an all the time thing.

okay:

Hadestown - the vibe is SO GOOD. but the story is difficult to follow via the music alone and it doesn’t hold me too much.

SpongeBob - don't @ me but hero is my middle name and chop to the top are both great work out songs. infinite points taken off however because of the stupid plankton rap.

The Color Purple - it makes me too sad.

Fiddler on the Roof - I've listened to a few times through and I can only remember the matchmaker song and the rich man song.

Hunchback of Notre Dame - I can’t listen to it without thinking of my college roommate’s lice. @rambling-and-fangirling​ u know the story.

bad (aka why do I still have this on my phone I hate it and it is garbage):

Dracula - boring and bad. if I had testicles they would have retracted into my body by the third song.

Dear Evan Hansen - have I listened to this multiple times? yes. do I sometimes get a little misty eyed while listening to You Will Be Found? yes. this musical is still garbage.

Newsies - I couldn’t bring myself to care about this musical even when I was an IDEALISTIC EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FOR A COLLEGE PUBLICATION (beaten down by the establishment and constantly tired). Why do I have this on my phone? I don’t know. 

[thenugking]

gayspacejew said: Please…i need details??

I mean I am always happy to go off on “what the fuck even was dragon age legends?” so sure. Its a flash based game that was originally available on facebook, around the time da2 came out. It got shut down because it was Terrible and is now available to download for free online. I never played it when it was on facebook but from what Ive heard, it was Even Worse back then. You have a large party of companions to help you fight countless enemies on map after map and apparently, when it was a facebook game, you were only allowed to use them once before they went on a long cooldown, and the rest of the time you had to get your friends to help you fight. I can;t imagine playing it back then because Id rather not lose all my friends, and honestly? constantly trying to get your friends to play dragon age legends with you is a recipe for losing all your friends.

Anyway the actual game is primarily a turn based combat game as you travel to save this guys son from, idk, something I guess, and occasionally make decisions which have no lasting impact on anything along the way. Also sometimes the game tells you “well if you go one way you can save that village, if you go the other way you can rush onwards” or whatever, but?? doesn't actually tell you which way is which?? But the vast majority of the game is just fighting through maps that get bigger and bigger, with more and more waves of stronger and stronger enemies. Which like, on the plus side, almost every time  plot comes up it breaks lore or contradicts canon but I really cannot stress enough quite how long and tedious this game is.

I mean, look. I expected to get through this game in a couple of days at most. And I enjoy turn based combat so that was cool. And since theres not that much plot I can turn on music while I play! After many hours when it was getting really tedious and I realised I still had a Lot more I began listening to the audiobook of Harry potter and the order of the phoenix while i played. And then to Half Blood Prince. By the time i finished Deathly Hallows, the end was almost in sight. It took maybe ten more hours to get it finished. And I gave up completing 100% of the maps somewhere in order of the phoenix.

So, moving on to the premise of the game, I guess. At the start, theres a little video of a boss fight against the Viscount of the city state of Kaiten, who turned out to be an abomination, that happened 12 years ago, with the main characters of the game. And like. I am fairly certain that these characters started off as someones rpg party, and then they went and made a flash game out of them. These characters are:

Ravi. The nephew of Viscount Abomination Guy and the current Viscount of Kaiten. Hes a templar, apparently. Except he never uses templar powers, despite that being a specialization in the game and shows zero interest in ever controlling mages. Several of the  party members are mages who just have their own little castles and towers, and at least one is canonicaly an apostate. Also Ravi is meant to be your mentor, which I didn't realise until a character said it  part way through the game.

Iselle. A Dalish blood mage who is dating Ravi. Like, he was dating her and then decided to become a templar and?? Ravi do you actually understand what templars are meant to do?? I have no idea what they saw in each other at All. I think the writers just wanted them to have a Forbidden Romance. Anyway, Iselle is the only member of the original party not to appear in the game because she got fridged and died giving birth to Ravis son. Shes also the only woman in the original party. Their son Eiton is tranquil from birth, which is Not A Thing in dragon age. (It turns out later that theres more going on than being tranquil, but spoilers if you're ever actually interested in playing this hell game. The stuff going on still breaks Dragon Age lore though.)

Sendis. The one good thing about this game; Sendis spends all his time snarking about Ravi and I love him. Hes Iselles brother and spied on her and Ravi to make sure Ravi wasn't hurting her, because he is aware that humans suck and templars in particular suck. When you first meet him, you have to kill his possessed clan, because apparently “genocide a dalish clan” is the one bit of Dragon Age “canon” Legends did decide to stick to. Sendis reminds you these are his family and friends you're killing, but theres no option to actually stop or like, comfort him at all. Also neither he nor Iselle have vallaslin. The random dalish elves you have to kill do, but not the two main Dalish characters.

Lukesh. The Wise Old Mage Mentor stereotype, complete with long white beard. He lives in a hut in the wood with Eiton to keep him save. Why did Ravi decide his son would be safer living in a hut in a forest rather than his big defensible castle, with only a mage whos probably an apostate Ravi should have arrested by now for company? Fuck if I know.

Tovez. Tovez is a ginger dwarf who fights with a two handed axe, has the battle cry “meet my axe!”, loves alcohol, is a bit of a dick but a good guy Deep Down, is disliked by a lot of Orzammar, and is the only person there who wants to go to the deep roads to find a missing paragon who went to find the anvil of the void, which they became obsessed with. I honestly dont know how bioware even let Legends do that.

Other companions sometimes get introductions when they turn up and sometimes just appear in your party with no explanation. They include a friendly talking darkspawn called the prankster and who I can only assume is Avelines evil twin, who is pretty much identical to her but left the Kirkwall Guard because she was too Edgy or something, and now hates them. Also if you buy rooms for them in your castle, you get Morrigan, Shale, whitewashed Isabela, Barkspawn, and a Drake as companions, and the downloadable game gives you default male warrior hawke. Theyre all just?? There for some reason.

Later in the game it turns out that the city state of Kaiten is???  part of the city state of Kirkwall. And Im fairly sure someones castle teleports. Theres another Circle in Ferelden thats full of Dragon cultists. At the start of the game, you get two potential companions who want to kill each other (one might be based on Sebastian??) and you have to Choose One, but later on you just have them both and they just?? snark at each other a bit. Some companions are always just several levels above others so theres no point ever using some of them. Theres a load of Novelty costumes your character can find or buy with in game money, like “dress in a gorilla suit” and “just fucking go into battle with a darkspawn sitting on the shoulders”. Idk man, this game is a fucking trip.

[nightandstarlight]

Demeter, Apollo, Ares, Centaur, Siren, Nymph, Agamemnon, Jason, Sun Chariot, Caduceus, Aegis, Golden Fleece, Olympus, Tartarus, Elysium, Ogygia, The Labyrinth? :3c

Asdfghjkdhslñ so many omfg why iLY ((I have to say tho i didnt really think about having to answer more than one of these at a time before i rbed the qs and since im on mobile and theres no way im gonna remember all of them im probsbly gonna do one first and then like edit this post to add the rest or something so it might take a while))

‡Demeter: do you have any pets?

>Unfortunately i dont my dad never wanted us to have any :// last time i had an actual pet living in my house i think it was when i was like 10 y/o or so and they were a couple of turtles who used to escape all the goddamn time like we would literally find them on the street trying to get away from our house even tho we had a enormous backyard and we treated them as well as we possibly could?? idk they prolly hated us so my parents mightve given them away i dont even remember,,, and thenn like two years ago i think i got a pet sheep called peter.. Peter the sheep was only around for a week tho and he wasnt even officially my pet but i loved him as if he were i still miss him and think about him often.. basically that summer when we went to visit my dads brother in misiones we took him with us from my dads farm ? (not really my dads farm but i dont wanna get too sidetracked here lmao) to my uncles farm for breeding or whatever so it was a solid 6-7 drive with him in the bed of our truck and me just starting at him and trying to get attention goD i never thought id care about a sheep that much anyway once we got to misiones we couldnt take him straight away to my uncles farm for whatever logistics reason i never asked about because all it meant was that he would have to stay in my uncles backyard for a couple of days and i would get to spend more time with him !! so thats what happened !! I took tons of pics and recorded him doing nothing and loved him from afar and then i was there when we dropped him off at my uncles farm.. and then i never saw him again.. the saddest part is that weeks later when we were all back home my uncled called my dad to let him know that Peter wasnt even fit for breeding bc rumour has it he had a third testicule lmao so he was technically useless rip peter the sheep ,,, aaaand now that i live alone i really wanna get like a cat or something but i never learned how to take care of anything so im scared i wont know how to if i have to do it all by myself

if i could add tags to this on mobile id apologize for talking so much about peter instead of just answering the question but i cant soz

‡Apollo: What kind of music are you into?

>alt/pop/rock/indie/pop punk,, i dont really like defining it by genres because who knows for sure what do they even mean anymore but the second best way i have to describe my music taste is ~basic white girl who thinks shes special~ and that makes me feel even weirder,, if you want i could try to make a playlist once im back in my apartment like next week or so lmk

‡Ares: whats a big pet peeve of yours?

>probably when people dont listen,, (u mean deaf people?? thats pretty fucked up dude) no lmao i mean people who pretend to listen but dont care about what you have to say or even worse when theyre so self absorbed that they dont even try to act like theyre paying attention and just straight up talk on top of you or interrup you constantly and not even bc they have something important to say but just because they can like whyy ohh or even worse when they do all that and then have the nerve get angry/offended if you dont pay enough attention to them??? Boyyy oh boy i hate that but i *cough love my parents i love themm

‡Centaur: Last book you read?

>all the bright places by jennifer niven,, didnt actually read it but i listened to the audiobook a week ago so i think that counts,, and if audiobooks dont count i read Evenfall by Santino Hassel back in march

‡Siren: Last song you listened to?

>((when i answered this (at 3:30am) i wasnt listening to anything but)) spotify says it was devil in me by halsey,, rn (13:40) im listening to alone by halsey

‡Nymph: Last dream you remember?

>i cant remember any recent ones atm but a couple of weeks ago i dreamt i was dating veronica from riverdale?? I probably posted something on here about that and it was so sweeett other than that idk maybe something about my classmates i see some of them pretty often in my dreams and theyre usually really nice cause i almost never remember any bad dreams/nightmares

‡Agamemnon: whats an achievement that youre proud of?

>i cant think of anything rn maybe getting into uni or coming out to my mom

‡Jason: have you ever travelled abroad?

>nope,, the closest i was to leaving the country was in 2014 when i was gonna go with my english teacher and class to nyc i got my papers and everything ready but then everyone started to come up with reasons why they couldnt go so i was gonna have to go completly alone/with friends of my teacher and their students which i didnt know at all so i got scared and decided not to 3 i know (hope) i’ll get another chance to go tho

‡Sun Chariot: whats your favorite mythological creature

>umm maybe sirens or gorgons im not 100%sure

‡Caduceus: whats your favorite color

>too many for different purposes but mostly purple?

‡Aegis: whats your favorite book or series?

>all for the game by nora sakavic atm

‡Golden Fleece: whats your favorite animal?

>ive loved dolphins since i was a kid but felines are too perfect in too many ways they make me weak at the knees

‡Olympus: describe your dream job

>so i know id looove to have an office job really stable and monotonous and everything like translating books but i also know that im terrified of getting stuck? And i feel like a job like that doesnt really leave much room to grow professionally so even if at the time im happy with just doing that the idea of looking back one day and realizing i sat at a desk and did the same thing for 20 years is not the best (which is ironic bc im wasting my youth ™ doing exsclty that for free basically but yea idk ) Dream job as in actually ~dream~ job would have to be like whatever people did on that show extreme makeover home edition?? I used to be obsessed with that show when i was a kid and i still think its a great idea even if its not as extra and over the top like that was id love to help people that way i could also make this longer but its lowkey too personal

‡Tartarus: Whats a short term goal you hope to achieve?

>going back to therapy and not quitting this time? making friends? Id say improving myself as a person but i feel like thats more of a long term goal but not hating myself rn would be nice,, also something tangible would have to be passing my calc II final that i shouldve taken a year ago and didnt cause i got scared + too depressed to study properly lmaao

‡Elysium: if you could have a superpower, what would it be?

>telekinesis and or being able to teletransport sounds cool

‡Ogygia: describe your dream husband/wife/life partner?

>patient, better at comunication than i am, respectful but that should be obvious, loves puns and bad/dad jokes, loves me? Also loves kids and is okay with adopting cause i definitely wanna adopt childrepn someday

‡The Labyrinth: have you ever died and came back as a vampire?

>not sure if im allowed to talk about this but i bet no one is gonna read all this cause its wayy too long lmao also i dont care anyway so yes, yes i have

half a day later im done!!! i know its a lot I hope its not too boring tho lmao

[gardenplow3-blog]

Reading Recap: October 2018

At the end of every month, I take a look back at my reading journal and share the books and my thoughts on them here. The comments below are excerpts from my full reviews on Goodreads; you can always keep up with my reading in real-time over there.

The books I read in October were all over the place—a lyrical, lovely historical novel; a thrilling fantasy-adventure; a collection of moody short stories of the English countryside; two dark and spooky novels, an elegant investigation with Miss Phryne Fisher—plus two thoroughly engrossing audiobooks.

I’m still thinking about the Tiger’s Wife.

In fact, I gave it 4 1/2 stars, but maybe it’s 5. Maybe it will eventually be bumped to my all-time favorites list because I keep thinking about it.

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht | 4 1/2 stars I don’t want to give too much away about the events of this book because the way it unspools as you read is so… perfect. And it’s a difficult book to explain because it’s definitely a novel, but it’s also a collection of beautifully told, interconnected stories.

The basics are in the flap copy: Natalia is a young doctor in an unnamed Balkan country; from the descriptions, you can sort of figure out that it’s Serbia. She’s dealing with the aftermath of the civil wars when her beloved grandfather dies. As she’s trying to understand the circumstances surrounding his death, she tells stories: about herself, about her grandfather and retells stories that he’s told her… about a magical tiger and the tiger’s wife. As Natalia eventually learns, the stories her grandfather has been telling her are not fairy tales, but true stories of his life and the other villagers in Galina. Just as her grandfather’s youth was shaped by war, so was Natalia’s and her reality as a teenager during the Balkan wars echo the fable-like stories of his past.

This books takes you directly into Balkan villages—to WWI, WWII, as well as the fraught 1990s—and casts a spell while it explores the different kinds of love, secrets and dreams, the way the fallout of war spirals from the past into the present.

Favorite highlight: “Like everyone in the village, he had faith in the rituals of superstition. He gave money to beggars before traveling, put pennies in the shrines of the Virgin at crossroads, spat on his children when they were born. But, unlike his fellow villagers, he was renowned for having a deficit. He had been born in a lean year, without a ducat under his pillow. To make matters worse, an estranged aunt had once allegedly lifted him from his crib and praised heaven for what a beautiful baby, what a gorgeous, fat, blessed, rosy child he was—forever sealing his destiny to be impoverished, crippled, struck down and taken by the devil at some unexpected time, in some terrifying way.”

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss | 4 stars This is a rollicking adventure with lots of feels thrown in along the way, which is my very favorite kind of story. It picks up where The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter left off. Our five kickass heroines, aka, The Athena Club—all the offspring of literary characters who are… SURPRISE!… real people in this alternate version of London—are off on a mission to rescue Lucinda Van Helsing from an insane asylum. The action involves, in no particular order, a daring asylum escape, sleeper cars on the Orient Express, hiding in a traveling circus, crashing a meeting of the Alchemical Society, and eating cake in the art nouveau cafes of Budapest. I love the Saturday-afternoon-serial feel of the narrative—coupled with lovely writing and characters I want to spend my time getting to know.

There are genuine emotions here among all the action, too. The girls, all technically monsters in their own way, struggle with their humanity and wrestle with what it means to do the right thing, how to find balance between toughness and tenderness, and making peace with themselves and the found-family they’ve formed together.

This would be a fantastic read-along with Dracula because there are plenty of smart, sly references to that novel. I read them back-to-back unintentionally, and it was a brilliant experience.

Favorite highlight: “If you have been up all night, escaping from a burning mental asylum or fighting men who refuse to die when you shoot them in the forehead, or both, coffee is the perfect beverage.”

Help the Witch by Tom Cox | 4 stars This is a collection of short stories from one of my favorite nonfiction writers. Tom Cox is the author of books about cats that are not books about cats—they’re about nature and living in the country and the power of walking and family and basically everything that makes life good. Now he’s written a collection of spooky and eerie, unsettling—not scary—stories that put you right there in the moody Peak District of central England. The writing on his web site is also brilliant.

Favorite highlight: “Outside, the dark is very dark. But in the day, the whiteness is very dark too, sometimes ever darker.”

Melmoth by Sarah Perry | 3 1/2 stars I’ve been thinking about this book since I turned the last page, and here’s where I’ve landed: It has a perfectly spooky gothic tone that I was super into. Throughout there’s some very moody, supernatural-ish stuff going on that was spine-tingly. I read this book in one day because I couldn’t put it down. It was an ignore-everything marathon of reading because I needed to know how it would all play out.

This novel is a series of stories told by different characters about the darkest times in their lives, and the stories they share are DARK, but not in the virginal-maiden-locked-in-a-castle way. They’re dark in a peoples’-lives-were-ruined way that was not fun at all. It was horribly sad. And I feel like that kind of serious subject matter is in direct contrast with the isn’t-it-spooky tone of the novel. Ultimately, I found the whole thing really depressing and when I closed the book, I was sorry that I’d devoted an entire day to it. But it’s so well crafted and well plotted, I feel like a jerk with my criticisms.

And there you have it. I still don’t really know how I feel about this book except that I for-sure won’t be reading it again. But also, I will never forgot some of its scenes.

Favorite highlight: “The Silence is something more than the absence of noise. If it is possible to hear silence, Helen hears it: a thick, soft sensation against the drums of her ears.”

Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood | 4 stars I adore Phryne Fisher—in print and in the TV series ‘Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries—because she’s a super feminist and her politics—and the politics of the book—are very progressive. The juxtaposition of 1920s slang and fashion with ultra-modern opinions is irresistible, and I cannot resist a found-family. Phryne has created a lovely family for herself with her assistant Dot and her housekeepers, Mr and Mrs Butler. In this particular book, there’s a murder at a manor house, which is like catnip for me: lots of listening through doors, scampering to lovers’ bedrooms in the middle of the night, forced cocktail hour… it’s fab.

Favorite highlight: “It took determination to be really strange. That, or absinthe before breakfast every day.”

The Witch Elm by Tana French | 3 stars I think Tana French is excellent at what she does—I couldn’t put this down because I needed to know what was going to happen, and I had no idea how it was all going to resolve itself. Really, the writing craft should get 5 stars.

But man! this was really not for me. Even though I compulsively turned the pages, I didn’t enjoy the experience or the characters at all. The only character I liked died.  I thought everyone else was horrible: duplicitous, selfish, whiny, untrustworthy. I am grateful I don’t know people like this in real life, and I don’t enjoy spending time with them, even if it’s pretend and on paper.

Favorite highlight: “Hugo’s road has that effect; it gives the impression of being there only on alternate Thursday or to people with they mysterious talisman in their pockets, invisible the rest of the time and instantly forgotten when you leave.”

Dracula by Bram Stoker (audiobook) | 5 stars

I’m a sucker for epistolary novels, so before even opening the pages the first time I read this book, I was pretty much on board. Then when I got to know Mina and Jonathan, Dr. Seward and Van Helsing—I was smitten. This is a big, sweeping adventure story, and although it was published in 1897, it’s surprisingly modern. Unlike, say, the Brontës, which require a little work sometimes to get through the prose, this is very readable and the action moves at a good clip. But it’s not all desperate carriage rides and stake stabbings; there are a lot of genuine emotional moments in this book, and I love the way Mina turns out to be the heroine of the whole enterprise.

This audiobook version is fantastic. The voice work is very compelling and really brings the story to life.

Favorite highlight: “It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come, and like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again, and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.”

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova (audiobook) | 5 stars I’ve read this book in print at least once, maybe twice? And I loved it for the reasons the NYTimes review didn’t… the beginning, before it gets into the heart of the story from the past, is a travelogue/love letter to Bulgaria—and that voice is part of what I loved so much about Elizabeth Kostova’s first book The Historian. This one has so many things I love: a mystery, foreign travel, a little romance, the love of a found-family, things that are not what they seem, shocking revelations over food, and regular people following mysterious clues to dangerous conclusions. At every moment I thought, “This is exactly what it would be like if *I* found myself caught up in a mystery” and since I’m always secretly hoping that will happen, I loved this story. There are plenty of surprises—I actually gasped a few times and shed a few tears. The big reveals aren’t obvious, but when they happened, I was, like, “Oh, yeah… that makes sense.”

The voice acting in this audiobook is awesome. Each character gets its own voice and is immediately recognizable. This is particularly effective when a character tells a story from the past—the accents, the aging voices, the emotion… it’s lush and moving and all-together engrossing.

Favorite highlight: “Always thinking. Thinking too much, and then sometimes not enough. You read a lot of books, yes?”

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What have you been reading recently?

Source: https://meljoulwan.com/2018/11/29/reading-recap-october-2018/