#best books in 2020

[macrolit]

According to the New York Times, these are the best fiction books of the 2020s. Do you agree? What's missing?

[nadiajustbe]

We don't talk enough about what a painfully small chance Prince Justin had against the Witch of The Waste, a literal magic holder. There was particularly no chance he could do anything to her, no matter how strong he was. There was a huge chance he would just get himself killed. But he did it anyway, hoping it would lead him to Wizard Suliman.

He knew it was connected to the Wastes. He argued about how he the King shouldn't have let Ben do anything there in the first place, argued to the point he wouldn't even listen anymore, just do whatever he needs and go away.

He bought way more than one searching spell to find him — a dozens from Howl, at least two from Lettie and ms. Fairfax. And he didn't stop until he found something that looked the most right, even though it still missed. Everyone, almost everyone including his own brother and Ben's mentor believed his was long dead at this point, but Justin still spend loads of money and power at the really smart chance he could find him. He was searching for months.

He had to go there himself, clearly, without any additional help from the Royal, because no one believed him — because Howl mentioned that Suliman might be alive along the lines and that made things worse. He went to this scary place miles away from Kingsbury, the spells were leading him the wrong way and the Witch had to use her own magic to show him the right one, but he still knew where he was going.

The Witch used Ben as a bait to lure Justin right to her hands — the exact same strategy she used with Sophie to lure Howl — and it worked perfectly, to the point when ever King himself acknowledged this?

The fact that the first time they actually became separate people and saw each other aftee all this horror with dogs and servants, they were smiling at each other, shaking hand and basically hugging?

The fact that Ben was almost able to recognise Justin, saying he "reminds him of someone he knows" without a doubt, — the same way Midnight were able to recognise something familiar in gennie's bottle — even though the Prince was under a spell and the room was in a horrible haos?

And you're telling me the only fanfiction there is about them is mine?

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Re: moomin fandom

I don't want to get all old man yells at cloud in here but I agree wholeheartedly. Finding community in something you enjoy is great and all but there's something about fandoms in particular that puts me off, particularly the flattening of characters into simple tropes and the misinterpretation issue you mentioned. (<- those two go pretty much hand in hand anyway)

This is an INCREDIBLY first world problem and I often just keep my thoughts to myself because it does not matter one bit but 🤝 you are not alone.

Oh phew, good thing I'm not that out of touch! Yeah there's something about fandom that does that. Perhaps fandom jokes that start out small eventually spiral in the fandom echo chamber into large exaggerations, which slowly go and replace whatever happens in the source material? Err, maybe. That's how I feel it happens in some fandoms. Perhaps I'm only nostalgic because there really were no Moomin fanworks back in the day (besides heavily satirical ones, Moomin YTP I love you), so there could be no major misunderstandings, and if there had been more in the past then they would've contained just as many as there now are ^^'

Fortunately there is a solution, which is not interacting with the fandom at all! It usually works for me very nicely, people in fandom can enjoy their interpretations and I can enjoy the source material and the fanworks I wish to consume UU

[deadandphilgames]

oversharing in the tags time :)

[maddy-ferguson]

talking to new people again is making me realize that (this is gonna sound dramatic) i haven't lived in five years but what i have done is watch a lot of movies and read a bunch of books and believe it or not that actually makes me an interesting conversationalist in some ways (?)

[yangscowlick]

I’m also sick of the “fuck your feeling, snowflake” crowd pretending their feewings were hurt by being rightfully called nazis and thaaaaatss why they feel alienated from the dems. They are LYING and only saying it to dunk and be smug because they love seeing dems trip over themselves to apologize.

We were so close to not playing their game with the “weird” bit. Sigh.

[cottoncandywhispers]

[navramanan]

I was at my peak when i would go to the local book store, browse through the books, read their backs and buy the one that appealed the most to me only to years later discover what significance they have for literature

[thebest-medicine]

Listen. I have always been a dino kid at heart. I fucking love dinosaurs.

> so I was listening to a dino podcast and they interviewed the author of some dinosaur shapeshifter series.

> I’m like. This sounds ridiculous but I need to see if it’s on my library app.

> got the audiobook which is read by Kirt Graves who does a bunch of excellent MM romance audiobook readings

> just listened to the entire first book of the 5 book series and I honestly fucking loved it. It was like listening to a fanfiction trope romance novel but also with dinosaur animorphs.

> fucking in love with the main two characters.. went onto ao3 and there’s only 1 fic for the entire series / fandom

> I’m about to make it my problem to make more works for this because jesussususjs is the switch / teasing energy strong with these boys

> the series is called RELIC by Maz Maddox and the first book is called Smash & Grab

> for more good dinosaur related recommendations hit me up 😝

[aintgottaprayforme]

i finished the first draft of my poetry book tonight! i’m still not 100% on the ordering of the poems, punctuation throughout, and if it feels truly done, but i think it’s ready for another set of eyes. if anyone would be interested in reading it and offering thoughts, edits, and or critiques send me a dm!

[lamphous]

just finished my library spreadsheet in time to find out that my 380th book will definitively forever be the vonda m mcintyre novelization of voyage home....I don't believe in signs and portents but I have some observations

[e-b-reads]

Books of the month: March + April 2023

Failed to do any post like this for March, so now I am catching up all at once! For new followers/those who do not know, I am both a part-time PhD student and work at a summer camp (which is a retreat center in the off-season, but summer is the really busy time of year). Anyway, between the end of the semester and getting prepped for camp, the busy season has started earlier for me than usual. Doesn't mean I'm not reading! Just means I'm posting less about it. Here's books I read in March and April that I would recommend:

The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud): Had one of those impulses to use inter-library loan and reread a series I last read sometime in middle or high school. This time it's the Bartimaeus triology. (I also reread The Golem's Eye in the past two months; waiting on the third.) Anyway, I remember the books as engaging and funny, which they are; this time around I'm spending more time thinking about all the political and ethical questions raised by this fantasy society that's like our world except magicians rule everything. (i.e. I'm spending more time admiring Stroud's worldbuilding.) A series worth reading/rereading!

The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 (C.J. Box, Ed.): These were fun and fascinating, sometimes at the same time and sometimes by turns. When busy, it can be nice to have some short stories to dip into, and I always like mysteries. I especially spent time considering what exactly makes a "mystery" - some of these are more whodunnits (occasionally with a twist), others are mysterious but the reader knows what happened, others have crime and/or action but no one's solving anything. All good in different ways!

A Free Man of Color or One Extra Corpse (Barbara Hambly): Right, so I have already written about my love of the Benjamin January mystery series at least in passing. A Free Man of Color is the first in that series: 1830s New Orleans, very focused on the slave/free colored (the term at the time) community, murder mystery. I keep hesitating to recommend the series outright because it is 19 books long and, at this point, full of my blorbos, so I'm not sure I'm totally objective about it. However! One Extra Corpse is the second in a new historical murder mystery series by the same author, this one set in inter-war Hollywood but with a transplanted English protagonist. Reading this one, full of likeable characters but not the ones I feel unreasonably affectionate about, I realized: actually, I do think that Hambly's attention to historical detail, flawed but human characters, sense of humor, detail-driven mystery plots, etc., make for good books. So I do recommend either of these mystery series to anyone who likes that kind of thing! They are not flawless, but they are lots of fun.

[shitty-check-please-aus]

do you ever hear a take so rancid that you desperately hope that the person who said that has changed their mind entirely

[a-flickering-soul]

Well, to be fair there absolutely are mushrooms you can ID by tasting, and there is no mushroom that will kill you as long as you spit out your bite quickly. Russulas are quantified by edibility on whether they're spicy or not, as are I believe a few boletes (am at work currently and can't research to confirm). However, I do not believe that these AI-generated foraging guides would tell you "HEY TAKE A TINY NIBBLE THEN SPIT IT IMMEDIATELY OUT AND RINSE YOUR MOUTH", nor would they give you the ability to safely identify the families of mushrooms this is a good practice for.

Everything else is shit though.

Today I learned that there are mushroom picking manuals written and illustrated by AI

And they have the potential to kill people because they encourage people to identify wild plants by taste.

[tendercoretroglodyke]

please give me book recommendations of books that are both fun and good

[buddydacote]

The 2000s was a time of partying and counter culture. The 2010s was sort of the hangover and now the 2020s will be known for oligarchical dominance. Hell of a jump