#but i'm currently reading outlander

[the-shadowsingers-whore]

"a man should pay tribute to your body, for you are beautiful, and that is your right" -voyager p.174

james alexander malcom mackenzie fraser the man that you are

[desperationandgin]

logging back onto tumblr after time away is like walking into your old highschool after 20 years and everything's different but vaguely familiar.

[itsybitsybluesy]

THE PERFECT ROMANTIC GETAWAY: ONE WEEK FOR TWO AT SCENIC, LAKESIDE MOUNTAIN LODGE

CHAPTER 1 / ELUCIEN / EXPLICIT / 1 OF 3

There was simply so much they’d had to extricate themselves from in the middle of Solstice season, Elain thought several times that they should really just call the whole thing off. “It’s never a good time for a vacation,” Lucien told her. “Which is why you have to take them.”

🎁  🎁  🎁 

LMAO HAPPY ACOTAR GIFT EXCHANGE @huntquinlan!!! surprise surprise, i accidentally revealed myself as your secret santa AND THEN TURNED AROUND AND DOUBLE-CROSSED YA BY PRETENDING I WAS YOUR NEW, DIFFERENT SECRET SANTA... did you guess? i am selfishly super happy i didn't have to switch, because i loved writing this and i also loved getting to discover your wonderful art! my only regret is that i couldn't write you asks in gossip girl speak the entire time.

thank you @temperedink for the generous beta read and thank you @acotargiftexchange for dealing with my mistake... i'm told at least once a year someone spoils the surprise and i am not that shocked that i did it my first time. just too excitable i guess!

have a wonderful holiday season, and i really hope you like this! i tried to take your Outlander hot springs suggestion and go somewhere new on the Continent (that is, ahem, quite obviously a lakeside town in japan i once visited in my early 20s). there will be three chapters total, sprinkled somewhat evenly over the next few days of the event!

LOVE U BESTIE!

xoxo,

itsy <3

(read it on AO3!)

preview under the cut:

ELAIN

She was slightly anxious the whole carriage ride as town streets turned to farms and fields and then to hills and valleys. There was simply so much they’d had to extricate themselves from in the middle of Solstice season, Elain had thought several times that they should really call the whole thing off. Nesta was just a few months pregnant and horribly sick in the mornings, sometimes only able to keep down the soothing bone broths Elain made her from scratch; Nyx was going through his first few challenges with his schooling and consequently driving court tutors to madness; Feyre and Rhys had their hands full and heads spinning with a squabbling pack of High Lords and uneasy, bickering detente with the human queens. 

Elain had been soothing and tending and chipping in and charming her ass off anyone that needed it. “I just don’t know if it’s such a good idea for us to leave now ,” she’d said to her mate, though it pained her to rain on his parade. 

Lucien was still splitting his time between Day and the apartment they were renting in Velaris, though Elain knew the constant winnowing didn’t always help with the question of what, exactly, to do about his inheritance: the title of Day Court Prince, Helion’s pride and joy, the golden boy he would have been, had he been allowed to grow up by his father’s side. The High Lord of Day seemed to have an endless fount of ideas on what Lucien should learn about in Day’s libraries, or why it was very important for him to accompany Helion to a trade meeting, or any number of other reasons to invite the current emissary of Night to stay another day, week, month. 

Elain knew there was no reason Lucien needed to keep going on Rhys’s nosy little reconnaissance missions or put up with the polite friendlessness that faced him in Velaris - just as she knew her mate still could not take the final step into the place Helion offered to him, the path that seemed to be open after so many decades thinking he deserved so little. It was Lucien who perhaps needed to spend more time communicating with his relatives and trusted friends this Solstice, and of course it was Lucien most convinced they should leave, Cauldron boil them all, because they wanted to and because they could. 

“It’s never a good time for a vacation,” Lucien told her before they left. “Which is why you have to take them.” 

“That’s not an answer,” Elain said loftily. “I think it’s you trying to avoid a Solstice visit with Helion.” 

“Forget Helion,” her mate said. “It’s me trying to whisk my gorgeous mate away for some actual peace and quiet.” 

And in the end, she’d agreed with him, in her heart of hearts so craving a day or two to just themselves. Lucien spared no expense or comfort, ever gallant and also very dramatic about his holiday plans; he worked with court engineers to spell their carriage against the winter cold so that he and Elain could enjoy a cozy, comfortable ride to their destination, laden with trunks of likely unnecessary furs and blankets and books and tea. He knew Elain still preferred real-time travel to winnowing, and he also knew it was a simple pleasure for her to not have to pack light. Across from her in the carriage, he sat with one hand stroking her own, eyes bright as he peered out the window. 

“Tell me again,” Elain said softly, “what this place is like.” 

“I don’t want to build your hopes too high,” Lucien said gaily, clearly proud of what he’d planned anyway. “After all, it was a suggestion from Eris, of all people.” It was his brooding, severe half-brother who’d told Lucien about the town and the inn, the mountain and the springs before it, about a day’s ride Northeast into the Continent. Only the Mother knew how, exactly, Eris had acquired this information, but Eris had heard about Elain’s dreamy musings on travel, exploring beautiful places and getting to know new people. Lucien expected it was ultimately fondness for Elain and not himself that had so inspired this exclusive recommendation. 

“That’s why I know it’ll be just perfect,” Elain countered. “Any place on the Continent notable enough for Eris Vanserra must be pretty breathtaking.” 

“It’s only a town,” Lucien said, grinning. “A town he happened to know, by a mountain, populated by quiet mountain people he probably terrified.” 

Elain curled closer to him and sighed. “Quiet people, how lovely,” she said. “What if I never want to return?” 

Lucien dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I’m sure I could handle your correspondence, be your emissary.” 

“No, I’ll make sure you’re enchanted into following my every step,” his mate replied. “So you can never leave my side.” 

He turned and let himself take a deep whiff of her hair and pearled, soft skin. “No enchantment needed, mate.”

[samsheughan]

Confession I guess?

I figured it's time I was honest with y'all. (below the cut; feel free to skip if it's not your preferred cuppa)

I know I don't owe anyone an explanation of any kind, but as I've always said and stood by, I hold what audience I have with the highest regard and respect and I feel y'all deserve more from me than just the occasional "thanks for reading!" you know?

That being said, I want to let everyone know that, it's official: I am writing an original novel that I do plan to have published as soon as possible. I am planning on this novel being a trilogy of sorts, so there will be multiple books coming from me! :D

I have been writing fanfiction since I was 12 years old. What started on a floppy disk has flourished into a passion that I will always be proud of and grateful for. Writing fanfiction has spared my life more than once, and in the process of writing fanfiction, I have made friends that I know I will have for the rest of my life. I am so SO so grateful to y'all.

However, as time has gone on, and especially in the last few years or so, writing fanfiction felt more like an obligation rather than the hobby it's supposed to be. And that's no fun. But trying to bridge the gap between fanfiction and actual fiction (aka, the kind you can get paid for) has also been a struggle. I had a hard time trying to detach the ideas I had for fics from their respective fandoms and convert them into something that could be an original novel.

I have tried to adapt some of my more popular fanfiction stories into original ones, but a lot of the fandoms I've been in just don't make that an easy prospect (even my Modern AUs are hard to adapt since what makes them Modern AUs is deeply embedded in their respective fandom). But lately, the fog from that cloud seems to have lifted, and I am currently working on the manuscript for my very first novel!

All that aside, you might be wondering: "but Liz! You promised us you'd finished your fic! You promised, you promised, you promised!!" And you're right. I did promise. A promise I still intend to fulfill. I am a woman of my word. Sutures will be finished.

Someday.

But the timeline for that finale is now offcially on an indefinite hiatus. I could wake up tomorrow morning and finish it all and then post it that evening. Or it could be 10 years before I'm able to get back to it. Who can say? I sure as hell cannot. And while I hope I won't have to make y'all wait that long, like Claire, I have a glass face and cannot lie. But I also have to live in reality: I am my family's primary breadwinner. We are all disabled in some form and I am no longer capable of working outside our home. Wolf hasn't been for some time, so us staying home with The Pup just makes more sense now that we have officially pulled him from public school to homeschool him ourselves. Doing something working from home is now my chief focus, and I have to do what I need to do to facilitate that. We are good for the time being though (so much so that I closed the gfm I started a few months ago, so thank you to everyone who helped us out in our time of need 💜)

It has been a lifelong dream of mine to become a published author. A writer of love stories, in every romance genre I can get my wee fingers on! xD I am now in a position to chase that exact dream, and I cannot wait to be able to share what I've been doing!

To the Outlander fandom: my heart is yours from the moment I saw y'all. You've held my spirit with your two hands, and kept it safe (hey, jammf would be proud of me for channeling him here, be quiet :P) I have had many ups and downs with fandoms but I am eternally grateful for the love and appreciation this fandom has showered me with and I hope y'all will continue to stick around to see what else I got up my sleeve!

Stay tuned! Good shit is coming xx

[lovemyromance]

"SJM is a fated mates author, y'all don't know SJM like we do"

I'm sorry - are any of you secretly SJM? Because that's the only way you'd be able to 100% predict what SJM is going to without acknowledging what is printed in the books.

Even SJM's friend Steph or Ava or whatever tf her name is was told to PIPE DOWN about her theories bc SJM DID NOT ENDORSE her running her mouth about Gwynriel on every social media platform.

Fun fact: You can read every SJM book. You can read every romance book. It STILL wouldn't give you any more clue into what is going to happen in the next book of ACOTAR, unless you are picking up on the clues and setup currently happening in the books.

Like why are y'all out here using SJM liking Jamie from Outlander and outdated Pinterest posts instead of actually what is printed on the page?? Why are y'all using deleted Facebook comments from a decade ago instead of the words SJM has written in her book?

There are patterns that exist in writing, yes. But not every book, not every story is going to be 100% the same. Someone has an equal chance of breaking a pattern as well as conforming to it.

And at this point in the ACOTAR series, SJM has laid out more groundwork and setup for Elain to break her mating bond rather than accept it.

That's it. That's the difference.

It doesn't matter what SJM has done in the past. Elriel is no exception to the rule of building up to a plot twist. Elriel is not an exception to SJM's "true love and choices prevails" theme.

At any point, an author can change their mind. What they cannot change, is the setup they have already laid out, the existing plot development they have already written.

SJM is not going to change all the setup she has carefully laid out for Elriel, just for Elain to decide "actually yk what, I'm going to do what everyone expects of me and accept my mating bond with Lucien like a dutiful lil mate, even though I have feelings for someone else and I can't stand being in the same room as my mate."

Eluciens are arguing that "fated mates will prevail because SJM always writes fated mates" when

1. no she doesn't ALWAYS do that

2. The setup we have seen so far has showed Elriel, NOT Elucien

Like I'm sorry but I'm not holding a mating bond Elain has explicitly said she doesn't want, a mating bond Lucien doesn't even seem to care about, over the fact that SJM has written canon Elriel moments instead. Nearly every important moment concerning Elain has been tied to Azriel, NOT her mate.

"But SJM is a fated mates author she would never-"

She. Just. Did.

It's not her fault or Elriels fault that y'all can't see it and have chosen to put your faith in some misplaced belief that you know SJM better than herself ig.

[thewramblingwebcomicreview]

Wow, for whatever reason Kique decided to put the entirety of Asmundr on ComicFury. I enjoyed this comic when it was active, and it was one of the fateful reasons why I decided to give Home a chance. Pushing that enjoyment aside, Asmundr is an a average story at best. That still puts it heads and shoulders above what its sequel would become. The irony in Kique's disclaimer for the comic is something else, as he's become worse as a storyteller.

That said, yes Asmundr is heavily traced. The story was ripped off from 2008's Outlander, and there are swaths of the story that were never explained or ended on a confusing note.

Yet, when I go back I still find myself enjoying the story. And I'm marveling at how Kique is now so lazy with Home when he actually put effort into his first comic despite its flaws.

Characters that can actually be friends. Better yet, Niita asks Kainan to clarify his feelings for her, and comes out and says they're just friends. No weird sexual undertones. Just two dogs being friends.

A man stepping down from a position of power to make room for women leaders? It's more likely than you think in Asmundr! In theory this doesn't work out for Niita and Lifa, but I can't see this happening in Home. Plus, some of the women in this comic actually have agency and don't seem lost without a man telling them what to do. Mind-blowing given how the sequel would treat its female cast.

Remember when speech bubbles actually indicated if a character was shouting? Yeah, I miss those days too.

We actually had characters who weren't bland doing interesting things. Poor Vilda, she never got to say a single word in Home. Given how everyone's character has been ruined, that's probably for the best.

It's kind of a shame that given the last time I read Asmundr, that it's surprising to see common practices that Kique used to do in his older comic, but stopped doing for his current comic. I wonder how many Home fans who never read the original will go back to it, and see how much Kique enjoyed Asmundr, versus the lack of care or interest that plagues Home. It's telling that comments have been turned off for his OG comic.

[permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88]

Hey there, darlings! And welcome to my little corner of the interwebs! Currently obsessed with Rings of Power in this house, though I won't exclude the possibility of other fandoms creeping in here and there as well (for instance, you may notice Top Gun and House of the Dragon making a reappearance, currently). Feel free to join in the fun, if you are so inclined? I don't bite (though I am rather feral over fictional men at times. It can't be helped!)

Masterlist is below the cut! I'm currently only writing for RoP (OC fics), and due to real life and health, updates may be somewhat sporadic at times, but I'd love for you to take a look and maybe let me know what you think? All I ask is that you don't plagiarize or translate my work in any way, shape, form, or utilize it with AI, chatGPT, or any robot. I'm not ready for the robot over-lords to take my things just yet, thank you very much. 😅

And for those who may prefer to read on a site other than Tumblr, here are links to my profiles on both fanfiction.net and A03 😊

fanfiction.net

ao3

Dividers by @cafekitsune (thank you so very much!)

Rings of Power

-The Wanderer Series Masterlist (Halbrand|Sauron/OC)

-Old Town Road Series Masterlist->Yellowstone-ish AU (Halbrand/OC)

-The Abhorred Series Masterlist (Adar/OC)

-The Scars On Our Hearts Series Masterlist->Marvel-ish AU (Adar/OC)

-The Unraveling Masterlist->Outlander-ish AU (Adar/OC)

[lost-technology]

Laughing through the Decades with Immortal Plants

So, in re-reading one of my reblogs - regarding Vash finding the little joys in life and relating it to happiness index, generational angst and proving something to someone with the top musical style of my generation (and yet how we who are alive and remain have found our ways out of darkness...) This lead me to thinking about the running joke in Bojack Horseman (video-ed in someone's Youtube video above, cut together out of context) about different decades' music and landscapes and how much I'd laughed at these various pardoies of musical styles and the "stereotypical decades" of the Hollywood street-shops and advertisements when I'd watched the show because I HAVE LIVED THROUGH EACH OF THESE DECADES. Yes, I'm old. I get the joke (as do most viewers of Bojack, I expect, given its target demographic) because they are parodies of worlds I've been in. The running gag here works best if you remember the 1980s, the 1990s and the early 2000s. (At least, if you are American - the gag is American culture). I just had the thought: Is there anything with Vash like this? He's been engaging with the culture of Planet Gunsmoke / No Man's Land for the last 150 years. Surely, he's watched the human culture grow and change and it couldn't have been "wild west" all the time. There, canonically, is a bit of Mad Max and Star Wars thrown in (and maybe even a bit of Fallout). There was definitely a survivor-scrapper culture in the beginning and it leveled out into more stable communities, cities. That might have been when the more "western-frontier revival" culture came in. In Trigun Stampede there is definitely a more urban culture with Jul-Ai being very Blade Runner looking (I have not seen that movie, but that style-influence is all over pop culture), leaving the "wild west" to the outlands, rural culture. But there's gotta be other stuff, little things - like various musical styles through the decades, various fashions, something in the distinctions between decade-cultures, cultural evolution, all those things you don't notice passed you by until you see something that makes you nostalgic, or someone's doing a parody of it or is just so out of place to current times. In other words, I'm wondering if Vash ever watches some kind of No Man's Land play or something in which he winds up laughing his ass off at either the *inaccuracy* of a period-piece because he lived through that decade that no one's alive to have been in anymore or, like me, finds himself laughing his ass off at something in parody of decades he's lived in, but it stretches out waaaaay farther for him? I can imagine Vash nodding and going "Yep, that was the Stardate 080s alright! I can't remember why everyone was wearing legwarmers then, it was just a thing!"

[stevethehairington]

9 people i want to get to know better

i was tagged by @puppy-steve, ty friend!! 💕

last song i listened to: hahahahah compress/repress by trent reznor and atticus ross, iykyk

currently watching: like. a MILLION things at once lol. i started outlander a little bit ago and i'm on s3 now! i just finally gave in and started watching 911 slkfds and i'm like halfway through s2! i also casually watch abbott elementary as it airs, and rpdr as it airs too, and also the new season of doctor who!

sweet/savory/spicy?: ooooh all of the above yes please!! haha. honestly depends on my mood which one is my favorite!

relationship status: hah. single.

current obsession: if it hasn't been ridiculously, abundantly, preposterously clear challengers is probably number one on this list rn adlkfjs. but also still vibing with the terror brainrot and stranger things is still there too! alsooo i'm holding out to read fic for 911 until i'm caught up bc i don't want spoilers (well, more than what i've seen already lol) but i KNOW as soon as i do i WILL spiral down that rabbit hole too.

tagging: @codenameindigo @saintirulan @heybluechild @withacapitalp @strawberryspence @skeliiix @henderdads @theheadlessphilosopher @jurassic-cunt 💕

[sircarolyn]

tagged by the lovely @stoppablethetramstory

last song i listened to: black by pale waves. i love you pale waves!!! this website bangs on about queer artists yet sleeps on pale waves smh. though i can only listen to them in bursts bc they write songs so good about my life that i explode and i can't listen to she without crying LOL

favourite colours: blueeeeeeeee

currently watching: my friend and i are watching outlander right now and that shit is sooooo compelling. i am also listened to benny!!!! i just started the boxset epoch :)

last movie i watched: was going to say don't know but then i remembered my friend made me watch my girl the other day and it made me cry :(

currently reading: on earth as it is on television by emily jane. i am enjoying it

sweet/savoury/spicy: prev so true all depending on what the vibe is. i probably tend towards savoury though

last thing i googled: it was actually my book bc i forgot who wrote it but before that it was 'romana city of death' because i love her and i needed a picture of her

current obsession: i'm too tired for obsession rn :( i want it to be gallifrey but my heart isn't in it rn

currently working on: powerplant license. god please i want to be certified already i'm so tireddddddddddd

tagging: @natequarter @gotyouanyway @riversofmars @thebraxiatelcollection @meluisart <3

[sirnlish]

Tag Game Questionnaire

I was tagged by @xotelaine

Last Song I've Listened To: In The Closet by Michael Jackson Favourite Place: Probs home I'm negl Favourite Book(s): of all time would be Sam's Letters To Jennifer by James Patterson Currently Reading: about to start While The Baby Sleeps by Stephanie Hazeltine (I saw it on booktok and it seems good so) Favourite TV Show: Outlander 100%. Runner ups are: Supernatural & Buffy The Vampire Slayer Favourite Food: definitely pavlova omggggg

Tagging @shmoodlet @matchalovertrait @fallincloversims

[janeturenne]

Hey so I'm that weirdo who turns up on the internet once every two years and then vanishes again into the ether...

Okay, first things first: I'm gonna be at Big Finish Day in London tomorrow. If you're there, please say hi! I'll be in CIA-Ace cosplay, complete with Docs and bomber jacket.

The big thing, tho, is that, after 15-odd years of ficwriting, I have finally gone "...these literal millions of words of fiction that I've written probably at some point began to constitute the kind of thing that even late-stage capitalism would recognize as Labor, huh." So when my husband and I started toying around with a premise based on our RP characters, I went - fuck it. Imma polish this up, put it on Wattpad and see if I can't take a crack at actually making a living from my writing. I've only wanted to be a writer since I was, y'know, five. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, yeah?

And so I've posted the first two chapters of a new original novel - not the one that some of you may have heard me talk about before (which I'm still being a bit precious about and trying to save for a publisher), but one that, if you've read and enjoyed anything else I've ever written, I hope you might like. It's Victorian and fluffy and romantic and, I hope, sexy, but it's also full of literary allusions, banter and female characters who absolutely will not be fucked with. Mostly it exists, in fact, as a giant middle finger to Leo Tolstoy, because I hate Anna Karenina on such a visceral level that it takes 60,000 words to say how much. Also, if you look at some of the characters, squint and go "...they look familiar," you're probably right. The main stately house is called Longbarrow Hall, that's all I'm gonna say about that.

So! If you've ever read and enjoyed anything I've ever written, can I please ask you to at least take a look, and consider sharing this post? Even if you find it's not really your thing, it would be so helpful to me to get eyes on it, especially early on. It's 100% written at this point, and is posting in 20 chapters. The first two are up today, and the subsequent ones will post every Friday hereafter.

Thank you very much! If you'd like to learn more, a full description is under the cut below.

No Doom But Bliss, by Jane Turenne, on Wattpad

A story of hard-won second chances, No Doom But Bliss is for fans of Bridgerton, Downton Abbey and Outlander, or anyone who likes their bodice-ripping grown-up, feminist, and a little messy.

Lady Tess Keighley has long since realised, too late, that her husband's interest in her is political rather than personal. Edmund got exactly what he wanted from marriage into her family: the office of Prime Minister. Tess, on the other hand, got a decade of neglect and cruelty that has left her believing herself wholly undesirable.

But that isn't what Kantor Mamblestone - Scotsman, ex-soldier, and currently her husband's secretary - sees when he looks at Tess. Her beauty, brains and sweetness are enough to leave his previously respectable Victorian soul in no little degree of torment. And, sweet though she may be, Tess has more fight in her than it seems…

[zykamiliah]

Tag game!

I was tagged by @absolmon (thank you! sorry for the wait lol)

3 ships: I have A LOT, how do you expect me to choose? Well, one per fandom, i guess. As of now I'm obsessed with the ineffable husbands (good omens); bingqiu (svsss) is my all time favorite, and i've been thinking a lot about mercelot lately (bbc merlin). Honorary mention to damen and laurent from captive prince.

first ever ship: eh, i think that was tulio and miguel from The Road to El Dorado. I loooved them when I was growing up. But my actual first ship as a teenager was (sighs) jacobella.

last song: Warrior of the Mind, caleb hyles and annapantsu's version

last movie: Fright Night (2011). Obsessed with David Tennant's Peter Vincent. This was the video that compelled me to see the movie.

currently reading: good omens fanfiction 😆

currently watching: i'm in that face where i'm watching a bunch of stuff simultaneously. i'm occasionally watching lucifer, watched the first ep of the one piece live action, rewatching good omens ad infinitum, watched half a season of outlander last week, and also finishing s3 and starting on s4 of the handmaid's tale. watched an episode of torchwood to know what was it about, too. as for anime, i watched the first episodes of Undead Girl Murder Farce and AI no Idenshi.

currently consuming: ginger tea with honey and lemon.

currently craving: not feeling sleepy

tagging my mutuals if they're up to it~ @cum-villain, @fireandgrimstone, @furbygoblinxiv @stardust-falling @alyikav

[dykevirgo]

i was tagged by @aromanticmara <3

last song: she calls me back by noah kahan

currently watching: outlander! it's so good omg

currently reading: romantic comedy by curtis sittenfeld

current obsession: good omens :) but all my obsessions never really go away

i'm probably double tagging but @zukkas, @koheletgirl, @meloneta, @katocaster, @basilica-gel, @cherrylavendertea, @cursedandoutforblood, @dawn-the-rithmatist, @farore-or-less, @lesmiserablol, @strawberrycircuits, @seagullcharmer, and anyone else <3

[yuzu-all-the-way]

I want to read Malazan so bad, I don't own the books, but I do own the Wheel of Time books, yet I'm not ready for that big of a commitment just now, not until I finish Outlander (currently on book 6/9), and I'm not actually reading Outlander #6 because I need to recharge and read smaller-sized books for a bit/standalones, so I'm reading Dostoevsky

[mercurygray]

Currently Reading - November 2023

Gosh, it's been a little while since I did one of these!

The Year of Peril: America in 1942 - Tracey Campbell . Found this one at the library booksale just after I finished the 1942 podcast series. The book is excellent so far and really flipping some interesting issues over.

Just Finished Reading:

Millions Like Us: Women's Lives during the Second World War by Virgina Nicolson - This was excellent and I strongly recommend it. I got a lot of inspiration for the end of TDS in it and there's a lot of material that I think will come in handy for MOTA.

Sisters in Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story, by Nicola Tyrer - Another super excellent book that filled in a serious knowledge gap I had about British nursing. Might come in handy for future SAS:RH productions.

An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I by Chris Dubbs - This was an impulse purchase on thriftbooks and was very interesting.

The Call of the Wrens, by Jenni Walsh. Fiction. Glad this was only a library book - it was just okay. I'm not a big fan of time jumps as a narrative device - it feels thin.

Cassiel's Servant, by Jacqueline Carey. Fiction. It was really fun to go back to Terre D'Ange for this one, and interesting to see Joscelin's side of things. Realized Joscelin may be why/how I write Dick the way I do.

Ashes under water : the SS Eastland and the shipwreck that shook America, by Michael McCarthy. This was a book club pick that I ended up not being able to join discussion on. A really interesting story, if you're into maritime disasters.

Prisoners of the castle : an epic story of survival and escape from Colditz, the Nazis' fortress prison, by Ben Macintyre. This was on the shelf at the library and I was reading mostly for mentions of David Stirling. Still - very interesting, especially when paired with...

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat, by Giles Milton. This book was fascinating. A lot of backstory behind the stuff that made the war work.

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. A book club pick that I'm really glad I read.

Just Finished Watching:

Our Miracle Years (Unsere wunderbaren Jahre, Das Erste/PBS) - follows the life of one family in the post-war period. Some good food for thought here.

A Place to Call Home, Season 1 (Foxtel/ Hoopla) - More post-war, this time in Australia, which I started just as something to watch and am now very embroiled in. (Fair warning, this show contains conversation therapy, a miscarriage, and antisemitism, and may probably be triggering for some.)

World On Fire, Season 2 (BBC/PBS) - I came, I brought my Passport subscription, I tried...and after all six episodes I still don't like this show. I don't feel like we spend enough time with any of the characters to really appreciate them. It feels like everyone's there to make a point.

Outlander Season 7 (STARZ) - This was just fun. I'm not a huge fan of the books, but the TV series is really enjoyable for me.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) - This has been on my list for a while and it popped up recently on Hoopla. I like Peck's nervousness in the role.

Dalgliesh, Season 2 (Acorn/Hoopla) - Bertie Carvel continues to do great in this role. I kind of wish there was a crossover involving him and Morse.

To Walk Invisible (BBC/ PBS)- It was really fun to watch this back to back with Emily.

Emily (2022) - Getting two mostly recent takes on the Bronte sisters so close together was really interesting.

Farewell My Queen (2012) - watched this while on vacation in Williamsburg. A nice 18th century drama.