#bella's book club

[bellasbookclub]

O Canada,

Where the lake is shining, the birds are singing, flowers are getting kissed and child labour doesn't exist.

Join us on the Aussie 18th of January (or American 17th!), for our read along of Anne of Green Gables! We'll be reading from Chapter 15, at 11 in the morning for some, and comfortably after dinner for others!

Join us here

How does the readalong work? ⬇️

Jump onto the Bella's Book Club Discord

2. Just here to listen? Go to our voice channels (at the bottom of channel list with a speaker icon🔊)

3. Connect your audio (we suggest joining muted by clicking on the mute button)

4. Want to take a turn reading? Let the mods know in the #read-along-chat channel before you click on over to the voice channels and join in the chin wagging!

5. Reader turns are usually approx. 10 minutes each (mods will keep track and ping you at the 1 minute mark.) Read along from your own copy or keep track via our livestream of the text.

Put on an accent, throw some roses for any brave soul that takes a turn reading! Have fun!

[gashousegables]

Ms best of: Murder on A Racist Train

Another stella bookclub missed due to library activities!

Didn't even touch the (evergreen) subject of Poirot's continual bachelor status, Old Man Yaoi or the mundane horror of being on a train without a cellphone.

Did you know: you, yes you! Can join in the fun here, on the Bella's Book Club discord!

Memes curtesy of Cinnia & Ioco

[volturialice]

Do you have any dark gothic/horror book recs? I’m trying to get out of thrillers at the moment. also looking for some dark classics. any ideas?

I was waiting to answer this until after the Bella's Book Club summer reading reclist went live and now it's live!! and I must say, full of some Choice gothic recs. But I'll list my personal faves here!

Dark™ things from my part of the BBC reclist:

Jamaica Inn (and My Cousin Rachel) by Daphne du Maurier - iirc I described Jamaica Inn as gothic + adventure in my recs, and yep, that's what it is. definitely part of the specific "the book cover shows a woman in a nightgown running from a scary building" gothic heroine tradition. I also gave a brief nod to My Cousin Rachel because it's another of du Maurier's works which I think is underrated (that one's more of a slow-burning gothic mystery featuring a hero of the 'little wet babygirl' variety.)

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Also as I said in my recs, it's very like Jamaica Inn in structure and genre, though of course the writing, the specific characters, and the central mysteries are different. But MG is (of course) Mexican and has more fun Get Out/Ready or Not vibes with its themes of class and ethnicity.

Girls Running from Houses by tanaudel on redbubble

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind - Villain protagonist villain protagonist! This one I love mostly for its flowery prose and sheer aesthetic commitment. You're telling me this 18th-century French serial killer turns his victims into perfume?? Say more

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey - Seriously the most underrated YA series of all time. Also so gory and terrifying I sometimes cannot believe it's YA. To this day some of the scariest written horror my eyes have beheld, not to mention it's got banger prose. Most people know Rick Yancey from The 5th Wave which is such bland cookiecutter 2010s YA dystopia love triangle nonsense that I just want to shake everyone and go NO, READ THIS BRILLIANCE INSTEAD! ngl the last book in the series is Not Good (you can 100% tell he had switched all his energies to 5th Wave, which is a shame) but the first 3 are absolutely good enough to make up for it.

Other people's reclist recs that I too have read and enjoyed: Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson), Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

More classics: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (short and easy read!), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (a must-read for aesthete gays everywhere. I mean cmon it's Oscar)

Extremely melodramatic "classics:' I loved reading Louisa May Alcott's little known "flops" A Long Fatal Love Chase and Behind a Mask (short story collection.) I might make Book Club read Love Chase at some point because I think we'd have way too much fun with it. We'll see.

My personal favorite that I think everyone should read: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (short story collection of gothic fairytale retellings!)

Not exactly what you think of when you hear 'gothic' per se but definitely Dark and it's my OTHER favorite: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (I never shut up about this book and it's for a reason. Very different from the movie, which I also love!)

My favorite gothic/horror authors:

Shirley Jackson - I've definitely talked about her before but both The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are straight bangers (and short, easy reads to boot!) Do NOT think you can watch the Mike Fl*nagan Hill House show of the same name and call it a day—they're completely different stories. (also let the record show I'm censoring his name out of personal dislike he hasn't done anything 'problematic' afaik calm down)

Stephen Graham Jones - Insanely good writing oh my god. I have so far only read the My Heart is a Chainsaw books but his entire oeuvre is on my TBR because he cannot lose. Also he lives in my town and I'm starstruck just knowing this fact. Indigenous (Blackfoot) author who writes about indigenous characters!

Kelly Link - Writer of banger short fiction. I particularly enjoy Pretty Monsters because it's 100% written for the Twilight girlies and clearly made with love and silliness

Grady Hendrix - I didn't loooove Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but I adored Hörrorstör and especially My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is a total masterpiece IMO. Another writer whose entire oeuvre is on my TBR.

[threebooksoneplot]

Hey y’all, big fan of your pod! I have a question about discord (new user) do you guys have one and if so how can I join it? I need more chaotic twilight fun pls also pleeeeeeaseee I beg of you create more podcasts!!!! 10/10 I live for this podcast I need it

thanks so much; we appreciate it! we do not have a discord for the podcast, but we DO have a discord for @bellasbookclub, which is a 3B1P project mainly run by G and M (@gashousegables) (I just follow along after them like a dumb little puppy)

over there we do reading, movie nights, book recommendations/discussions, Share Memes, etc. but if you're looking for something podcast specific, this account is really it! if that ever changes, we'll def let y'all know—shannon

yep, what shannon said! we're working on Season 2 right now so we should have more shenanigans coming your way soon. in the meantime, you can always come hang on the book club discord! it's a pretty chill vibe where anything goes. activity should pick up next week when we get back to regularly scheduled reading! we're also planning at least one movie night in September so stay tuned for that —G

[helenofblackthorns]

new tumblr community feature... maybe this is the solution to my "where to hold my book club" problem....

[anakintwinkletoes]

me: yeah, our book club decided to reread twilight because it's our comfort book

mom: (genuinely confused) how is that a comfort book...?

me:

[peonyblossom]

Bella is the MC I am going to be using for the @choicesbookclub playthrough of ILITW! Thank you @lovealexhunt for creating this template for us!! Let me know if you want me to fill it out for any of my other ILITW MCs because I would totally love to lol. Also feel free to send me asks about Bella! I literally already love her so much :D

[crazykuroneko]

Just watched Poor Things last night, and I think Bella Baxter and AMC Claudia could bond over the men who have exploited them and stole their freedom

[flores-desyatov]

I read Icebreakers, that’s how I found Isabella’s page because it came up on my “for you” page.

Has anyone read From Lukov With Love by Mariana Zapata. I am half way through and I feel like it is so long winded. I know it is a slow burn but does it get better?

I haven't read it. I almost did but it didn't seem that interesting to me 😅

Anyone wanna chime in?? 📖 ⛸️

[book--brackets]

[bellasbookclub]

Reccer Spotlight: G!

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Mexican Gothic

Jamaica Inn

The Monstrumologist

A River Enchanted

The Importance of Being Earnest

G tried to think of genre-ly diverse recs and they came out Oops, All Gothic (ok, except for the last two.) Full text available in their tab of the Bella’s Book Club Summer Reading ‘23 Reclist!

more info on BBC Summer Reading 2023

more Reccer Spotlights

[gashousegables]

Ms Best Of: Wuthering Heights

Of course, these are the best that work out of context for those unlucky enough to have missed our last month's bookclub! The block of black is pop sensation Maybe (@flowerslut) having ducked in for a moment during work.

Want to join in?

[volturialice]

so this past summer I read a bunch of eligible books in order to decide if they would work for @bellasbookclub or not, including Emily of New Moon in like, July/August. usually I'll just reread the BBC book along with everyone else so it's fresh in my mind for discussion day, but I read Emily of New Moon so recently that that felt unnecessary, so I decided to read Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest instead. and damn, I was not expecting this level of sheer DRAMA. these kids are a fucking MESS it's like LM Montgomery Does Gossip Girl over here. completely delicious. also not to be a Side Character Bitch for the millionth time but. perry and ilse though

[threebooksoneplot]

So I really want to participate in the summer reading, but I just got back into reading and I’m afraid my list of book Recs kinda suck and are of the same genre 😂

That's very much allowed! we're big Genre girlies ourselves (G has been Struggling to come up with a list that's not just all-one-note gothic horror.) and not to spoil but Shannon also just got back into reading and decided she only felt comfortable reccing two books! The "5 books" thing is more of a benchmark than anything else—of course everyone's welcome to read more or fewer books as they choose (and you can still participate in the read & review part even if you didn't rec anything—though we are greedy for any and all recs.) you can also think outside the box and rec a graphic novel/webcomic, a poem, or a screenplay if you've been reading any of those!

[fazcinatingblog]

200 chapter fanfiction on what really happened the night of 26th January 2019 at a house party in Richmond

[books-in-a-storm]

Flirt Club: Risque Royals

Royally Taught