#i actually dislike a lot of what's considered ''indie'' but i think that's partially because i used to listen to it a LOT in like 2020

[walterdecourceys]

does anybody want to recommend me some new music by the way... some artists i already listen to a lot are the magnetic fields, simon & garfunkle, peter paul and mary, the mountain goats, they might be giants, autoheart, vampire weekend, etc if you want a sense of my general music taste. but i'm also really not picky i'll try almost anything..

[northwest-cryptid]

oh mann. squeaking of music. you got any artists with slow relaxy type music you like? and what's your favorite instrument? and what are your top 3 video game ost's? ...three questions at once, the terrible tripler... but as a beast who loves music, i am always ravenous for music opinions...

Not gonna lie this is kind of a hard ask not only because it's a lot to answer about a topic I tend not to talk about much but because I don't really know artists so much as I know songs, and to top it all off I don't really do "top" stuff, or "favorite" stuff; it's hard for me to pick or rank a lot of the things I like, I use the term "one of my favorite" or "among the best of" when I talk about things I really like because more often than not I'd say that about ANYTHING I really like, I don't really have a favorite artist or a top OST or anything.

Most of my music consumption is random, I'll listen to playlists on youtube or soundcloud or bandcamp and such. A lot of the time an artist is less of a concern to me because majority of my experience has been that they have one song I really like, followed by about 12 more in the album that are kinda just okay but lack the style that I enjoyed so much.

That being said I'll do my best to answer since I do enjoy getting asks and you actually took the time to send me this so I will respect that by taking the time to answer it :D

Let's start with the chill relaxing stuff!

As far as Artists go if you don't mind some more kinda weird tones in your relaxing music I think Monster Rally is a great artist.

A few core examples of their vibe can be heard in Lovely You:

as well as one I really enjoy, Color Sky:

They have a very unique sound in my opinion and I have a lot of interest in this kind of music since it hits a weird spot for me somewhere between acoustic jam session and weird vaporwave-y daydream music.

Almost all their music is between 1 and 2 minutes and contains these short loops and layered instrumentals with occasional lyrical influences. It's pretty fun and keeps my ADHD at bay with no song being too long.

For something a little more pop-ish I also enjoy TV Girl though I don't know if their music counts entirely as "Relaxed" since it can be a little faster. I've listened to them for years, a lot of their music reminds me a lot of my time in an indie band. They play a lot of the "soft punk sad boy" type music I'd see a lot in the indie scene. I often find myself singing or humming along to these whenever I'm cleaning the house or cooking dinner.

A few tracks I like a lot are Birds Don't Sing:

Lovers Rock:

and The Blonde:

Though to be honest I like a good bit of TV Girl's music so I'm trying to not list entire albums here lol. I try not to get hipster about it because for whatever reason it became oddly popular as of the last couple of years and I heard someone refer to it as "weirdcore" once and nearly died on the spot. I don't even dislike Weirdcore I just have a lot of thoughts on the idea of what the hell a genre is at this point.

Important note I am also 100% the sort of person who chills out and relaxes to Happy Hardcore and Eurobeat. So please consider the fact that my idea of relaxed varies wildly from like lounge jazz to club hardcore depending on the day. (There's literally a song that came out 7 years ago called Chillcore and it summarizes my thoughts on the subject perfectly I'd have been 21 when that song came out and I still occasionally hear it and go "yea" to this day.)

As far as favorite instrument goes I'm very partial to drums, drums of any kind. I think they're overlooked so much but then I'm bias because I'm a drummer so like of course I love drums. Any song that makes good use of drums is okay in my book. I will never forget how hard I cringed when the Bassist in my band once said "Bass is more important than Drums any day of the week, I mean literally who has ever heard of a drum solo?" I just sat there like "dude why are we even in the same band if you don't value my contribution" though she was something else in terms of like... superiority complexes. Regardless!

I may not have a top 3 Video Game OSTs since there's so many good ones out there and so many good options depending on your mood, but I will list a ton of good ones depending on the kind of mood you're in.

To keep with the theme of chill tunes let's start with a banger and one of my favorite game OSTs as to also kind of answer top 3.

VA-11 Hall-A has an amazing OST and I'm going to do the really basic bitch thing of saying you gotta listen to Every Day Is Night:

I used to listen to this a lot whenever I worked my night shift, it gave the title a very literal meaning to me. The synth jazz was the perfect companion for long nights on the job when I needed to chill out and vibe for a bit.

Keeping in line with the relaxed but perhaps a bit more anxiety inducing; I've spoken about it a lot, you know it; you love it, it's Lobotomy Corporation's very own No Warning:

Lob Corps whole OST has some absolutely beautiful tracks, everything from techy synths and chimes to entirely orchestral sweeping performances. I have a soft spot for this game and it's OST, as well as the OST of Library of Ruina, it's sequel, for which I'd like to highlight Malkuth's Battle Theme:

Specifically the third tier emotion level of this song, never before have I heard "battle jazz" done so well, not only is it classy; but it KICKS ASS. There's so much I could say about this game and it's OST in terms of themes and such but I digress, for now we'll move on because I got a lot to go through.

Next up we're looking at a more fantastical setting with Mabinogi's OST, which has a ton of genuinely amazing music, but one I want to highlight is the major main theme of the game which will always give me chills and make me cry a bit from nostalgia. More specifically the version performed by the FILMharmonic Orchestra:

This song means more to me than I can properly explain, there's so much emotion behind it for me as someone who has played this game for half my life, who met my partner through this game; and who's life has no joke been absolutely changed by this game. The OST has always been a part of my life, we even play music from this game while decorating the house for various seasons. The entire OST is so varied and expansive and there's almost always something to fit my mood.

However when I'm looking for something more upbeat, and I need to get my blood pumping I turn to a bit more action oriented music, which is where games like ULTRAKILL absolutely fit the bill. I cannot warn you enough this song is the musical equivalent of shoving shrapnel in your ears, and I mean that in the most admirable way possible.

Heavy techno and metal vibes, you got electric guitar that's basically fighting the synth lead for the spotlight despite the two working in perfect harmony to encapsulate this absolutely disgusting rhythm.

However sometimes I want to be upbeat without the sensory overload which is when I turn to Xenoblade (takes place on Earth) to fill the niche. I've been really vibing to the jazzy upbeat nature of XC3's OST lately, and the game has been pretty fun too :D

Now see this is why I dislike answering all this in one ask, I can only post 10 videos per post. So now I just gotta link things like this:

Xenoblade 3 OST - Brilliant Wings AKA This Jazz Band Is Fighting For Their Life

I'll cut this short since Tumblr is an ass and won't let me keep posting videos, but I cannot stress enough that when it comes to music with me there are no "top 3" OSTs, or favorites. Music is a mood setter, it's a tone; it's a vibe. I gotta listen to the right music at the right time, if I'm not feeling up for it then I won't like it.

To me there's so much out there I love, and to limit myself to a top 3 is hard because it depends entirely on the day. If I'm going through a chill phase then I'm going to favor tracks with more relaxed and chilled out influences, if I've been mowing down hoards of demons in ULTRAKILL for the last 5 days straight you better believe I'm not listening to anything other than like DOOM OST and extremely thrashy techno.

I hope this answer is satisfactory regardless!

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Hi! I hope you’ll answer this question bc it bothers me quite a lot.. https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-now-that-BTS-are-partial-owners-of-Big-Hit-Entertainment do you think it is true what the second person (Christine Herman) said? After reading this, i started to wonder…what if BTS does really have only profit in mind while doing new projects these days? Maybe they don’t really care anymore about creative and meaningful lyrics and sound? With Butter and PTD…all this generic music sung in English. Of course they say “we wanted to make fans feel good”, “butter and ptd represent who we are” and all these things fans want to hear but.. do you really think it’s true? moreover, don’t get me wrong, i don’t find product placement in their reality shows as something terrible, i believe this is a normal thing, however, nowadays the members really film ads and do marketing a lot. so yeah, for some reason i began to question their integrity dhsjjss i hope you will understand from where my concerns come from and won’t find this ask stupid sjdjjdjd

After reading that persons answer I can immediately tell you that I basically don't agree with an overwhelming majority of what she said (even more so since a lot of it just makes her sound like a manti that hates the company and basically would want them to make music for free or something). Generally I don’t agree with most of the opinions this person holds, and also Quora really isn’t a good source for info or good opinions, most of it is written by mantis, haters, and toxic shippers with an agenda so most ARMY will tell you to stay as far away from that website as possible.

Anyway, her focus in that answer was on money, since BTS are shareholders (and how that’s a conflict of interest despite other artists doing the exact thing but no one really cares or ever thinks about it), but what she failed to consider and note was that Big Hit Music, so BTS' label, isn't part of HYBE in the sense that shareholding has no baring on it since BHM is private. So while BTS profit off of HYBE doing well, and have a small percentage of a voice as shareholders, that has nothing to do with BHM in the classical sense, even if BHM's earnings reflect well on HYBE numbers and the shareholder money. 

BHM was made private to ensure their artistry would remain untouched, that was the whole point of that.

Even if they weren't HYBE shareholders, take Namjoon as example. He has more than 170 KOMCA credits, is among the top 3 Korean artists with the most credits and is also the youngest of them all. It is said that his earnings from that alone can sustain his family for 3 generations over. Look at Hobi and Chicken Noodle Soup, that song was a hit and he paid the original creator of that song 2 million dollars upfront and earned a lot back due to how successful it was. Same goes for Hope World which, again, was and is still immensely successful. Look at Yoongi and his work both as prod. SUGA, featuring artist SUGA, and as Agust D, as well as the credits he holds for his work on BTS songs (giving him as well a total of over 100 KOMCA credits, just like Hobi). Bangtan have worked and continue to work extremely hard for their music, put their heart and souls into it, and it shows even if their style changed as they grew older and more mature.

Yes, money is a major motivator, but looking at the above paragraph, do you really peg the members as these corrupt money hungry sellouts with no music related integrity? Who would need to sign major deals and would throw away their passion to just release empty shells of music for the sole reason of money? Am I naive enough to believe that they don't care about money? Of course not, we live in a capitalist society and even if BTS wouldn't care about money anymore at this point, HYBE very much does, and yet still I can't find it in me to agree with any of what was said in that answer that person wrote.

More below the cut:

And that point about how Hyundai cars were sold out because of BTS, isn't that the point why literally any company ever hires celebrities to advertise and endorse their product? And sure, again, I'm certain they earned a lot on these deals, they aren't the first or last or only ones in the history of ever to do so. Besides, look at JK and what he's done for small companies, or Tae who wore a brooch made my a small creator at the airport which catapulted that creator into the eyes of millions of ARMYs enough so that they could move to a proper studio and earn money with their work. Or the modern hanboks JK wore which led to the brand being able to move into actual stores in malls because of their sudden new popularity and demand. Or him wearing a bracelet that helps whales with a percentage of the money from the sales of said bracelet. And for all of that JK and Tae didn't earn any money at all. JK himself said that he's more conscious of the brand he wears now because he wants to help smaller businesses in these trying times, not because they pay him to do so (especially since they would never be able to afford that), but because he's aware of the influence he has and how he can use it to help others. Sound very much like a capitalistic villain, right?

As for the product placement bit, have you been on YouTube recently? Have you noticed that many, if not most, YouTube videos by “bigger” creators (and by that I mean even people who are around the 100k subscriber mark) begin with them thanking whoever sponsored that particular video and give you a scripted minute to two minute long ad before getting into the actual topic of the video? And In The SOOP featuring Chilsung Cider, FILA clothes and the random mention of how good Samsung phones are isn’t much different from it, though really, if you’re not someone interested in fashion much, would you really notice or care that they wore FILA? It’s just...clothes? If it weren’t a BTS related show, would you even notice it much? And it’s not even like they mentioned those brands every five minutes or anything, just a few times, which sure sounded a bit out of place at times, but personally I thought it was easy to look past. That’s just how things work nowadays and it’s odd for people to behave like somehow BTS are the first and only ones to use product placements despite literally every movie and show doing it in subtle and less so manners.

The answer by that person you sent also mentioned the Hyundai song for their car IONIQ and, unsurprisingly, that person wrote it off as just some commercial jingle but I’d actually disagree with that. Not to sound like a Hyundai and Samsung stan, which I am neither of, but I actually think those two knew best how to utilize the artist they have spent millions on signing a deal with. Hyundai didn’t just write them off as pretty faces with a millions strong fan army behind them and that’s it, they remembered that they are musicians so they gave them a song and made a whole music video for it as well. And say what you will, it is a good song. Then, just a few days ago, Samsung stepped up their game and we were given Over The Horizon Prod by SUGA of BTS. For those who aren’t Samsung users, Over The Horizon is their signature ringtone and basically their company sound, and over the years different artists were asked to make their own version of it. And this time they reached out to Yoongi and asked if he’d like to do it as well. It’s kind of a big deal. Sure, Butter is used in one of their commercials much the way Dynamite was last year, but that’s beside the point. Would that person make the same claim about Imagine Dragons whose song Believer is also part of the ads for the new Samsung phones? I have my doubts.

Furthermore, and I don't want this to come across as mean toward you but, I think it is uncalled for to question their artistic integrity based on a total of 3 (three) English songs when last year alone we received 50+ songs, most of which were in Korean, among them the entirety of BE which was, according to the members, the album they were most involved in ever when it comes to both music and everything around it.

You can dislike their English songs, that’s more than fine, they have a very extensive discography you can listen to instead, but questioning their integrity based on them doing something that most, if not every, artist on their level does (as in sign ad deals with brands etc) is a bit much if you ask me. Does that mean indie artists whose songs get picked up for commercials (or for Netflix shows or movies) and thus it catapults them into the mainstream are also just money hungry people with no integrity and ones who don’t care about their music? Or is that, again, just a standard Bangtan is held to (as in that their integrity is questioned based on everything, even the most trivial/normal things) that only applies to them and no one else?

In the recent Weverse Magazine article about how Permission to Dance came to be there is a lot of talk about not only that song but also Butter and Dynamite, among the things being discussed and talked about they mentioned how the original lyrics for Butter were much more materialistic but that the members didn't like that so they asked for that to be changed. Likewise the original lyrics for Permission to Dance, as you'd expect from the penmanship of Ed Sheeran, were much more romantic, almost proposal like, which wasn't what the members wanted either so it was, again, adjusted in a way that would fit what they, as well as the A&R team, wanted. While you may not like these songs, they still had a say in them to a certain degree, could say yes or no and ask for adjustments. Why else would PTD take eight months?

While they might outsource their English songs, their main focus, so their Korean (as well as Japanese) discography is still centered around them, their lyrics, their songs, their sound. Of course you’ll also find outside producers and some lyricists on those as well, because that’s how music works these days, as in collaboratively, that doesn’t change anything at large. Their integrity is still very much there, their hearts are still in it, what other reason would any of them have to say that they want to continue for a long time, for Yoongi to say they want to figure out how to make their career last as long as possible, for JK to say that he wants to sing forever?

Admin 2 also wanted me to add that in their opinion, to a certain degree (though not fully of course), their English songs are like a way to laugh at and expose how shallow the English-centric music industry is. As in, while they made music in Korean with deep and meaningful lyrics, the US industry didn’t care but once they switched to easy to listen to sound with easy to understand English lyrics, they suddenly paid attention, are played on the radio, and even received a Grammy nomination which they wouldn’t have gotten for a Korean song ( A1: regardless how much Black Swan or Spring Day really would’ve deserved it...). 

[mermaidsirennikita]

June 2017 Book Roundup

This month, I read thirteen books, some of which were total disappointments, one of which really surprised me, and one of which was easily among the best followups I’ve read in a while.  That was my favorite book of the month, Kiersten White’s Now I Rise, the second in her Conqueror’s Saga.  As that is a sequel and definitely requires reading of the first book, And I Darken, I also want to recommend The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  A sweeping historical fiction novel, it tells the tale of a glamorous Hollywood icon with plenty of secrets, and showcases a unique romance that surprised me--but also made me very happy.  Hopefully, I’ll find something just as good next month!

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.  4/5.  When Starr and her childhood friend Khalil are pulled over by a cop, the worst happens: the unarmed--innocent--Khalil is killed.  Starr is the only witness, and she’s torn in several different directions.  Her parents are worried about her safety, and her father’s gangster past makes things a bit more complicated; protesters want Starr to come forward and defend Khalil, who is being labeled a drug dealer and a “thug” by the media; and Starr herself goes to a predominantly white private school, and isn’t sure what her friends would think.  Obviously, “The Hate U Give” deals with a lot of content that I as a white girl really can’t properly comment on, and that’s one of the reasons why I gave it four out of five stars--I can’t speak to its accuracy.  But from what I’ve heard from friends who can, it’s viewed very positively, and it seems to reflect much of what we see in cases involved unarmed black men being shot by cops--with a personal spin.  Starr is a deeply relatable, human character.  I felt empathy for her, while at the same time not feeling like she was too perfect.  The story is written so lovingly, and Starr’s entire family felt like people I would actually meet.  The conflict of the book isn’t just surrounding the main plot, but Starr’s parents’ differing views on what their children need, and Starr’s father’s past. Starr’s dad, Mav, was a GREAT character. He’s exactly the kind of person that people uneducated about these issues need to see: an innately good person with a rough past, trying to do right by his family while at the same time dealing with some understandable demons.  The only thing I can complain about is Starr’s boyfriend, who struck me as the most annoying type of white boy.  And she deserved better, no questions asked.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux.  4/5.  This romance novels sees schoolteacher Dougless crying in an English church right after being dumped and abandoned by her boyfriend.  Her tears seem to bring Lord Nicholas Stafford from the sixteenth century--though he’s not quite the knight in shining armor she expected.  Nicholas is remembered not for his accomplishments, but his many affairs and his eventual execution; and he wants to go back to his time, but not before figuring out how to prevent all of that.  Dougless agrees to help him, but like... you can guess about what ensues.  This book is considered a classic in the romance genre.  It was written in the late 80s, and that does show; while Dougless isn’t anti-feminist, she’s definitely a product of an adjustment to feminism.  She wants her boyfriend to take care of her WITHIN REASON, and he’s such a tool that you can understand why.  The thing is that the book has a fluffy, wish fulfillment quality that is impossible to resist.  Deveraux makes Nicholas sexy, but isn’t above making fun of him, and critiquing him for that matter.  Dougless experiences noticeable character development, and while the book is imperfect, it’s highly enjoyable.

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon.  4/5.  Teenage coder Dimple isn’t planning on following her mother’s plans and settling down anytime soon.  So she’s thrilled when her parents pay for her to go to Insomnia Con, a coding contest with a prize that involves her idol.  Little does she know that Rishi is also going to Insomnia Con--and though she has no idea who he is, their parents have been planning on the two of them getting married for years.  Traditional, dreamy, artistic Rishi knows that he’s supposed to get to know Dimple and someday marry her; and he thinks she knows that too.  (She does not.)  So when the two meet, there isn’t exactly the instant connection he expected.  But after they become partners for the contest, they get to know each other--and understand each other.  This YA romance was adorable, and probably one of the best I’ve read in a long time.  Sandhya Menon is writing about what she knows, and it shows.  Rishi and Dimple are able to bond over their shared cultural backgrounds, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same person--the expectations Rishi’s parents have for him are different because he’s a boy, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.  He reacts to his parents by embracing his culture and putting aside his dreams, while Dimple becomes aggressively rebellious.  Their chemistry is perfect, and I became invested in their relationship very quickly.  This is a great approach to the “arranged marriage” genre, and is a bit more lighthearted than other recent versions I’ve seen.

The Breakdown by B.A. Paris.  2/5.  While driving late one night, Rachel sees a young woman pulled over on the side of the road.  Soon after, she hears about a murder--and realizes that not only did she see the woman just before she was killed, but that she knew her.  Then Rachel begins forgetting small things on a daily basis, apparently having a breakdown; but the specter of her mother’s demise from early-onset dementia hangs over her as she grows increasingly paranoid and sure that the killer is after her.  This book was profoundly disappointing.  It had the makings of a good domestic thriller, but I called almost every single thing that happened, and the pathos of it all weren’t that deep.  Even when it seemed as if it was going to get interesting for a minute, it didn’t.

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen.  3/5.  Louna (omg Sarah Dessen protagonist names) is the daughter of a famous wedding planner, jaded about love both due to her cynical mother’s outlook and the tragic ending of her first real relationship.  Then she meets Ambrose, the outgoing son of one of her mother’s clients.  In order to keep him out of his bride-to-be sister’s hair, Louna’s mother gives him a job for the summer, and as Louna and Ambrose bond, they begin to challenge each other in unexpected ways.  Honestly, this was a feel-good book and it was cute in the way that Sarah Dessen books always are, and cheesy in the way they always are (lol her protagonist names I mean...).  But while I remember “Saint Anything” being good, I honestly disliked “The Moon and More” and I feel as if nothing of hers has really hit me since books like “Just Listen”, “The Truth About Forever”, and of course “This Lullaby”, which is one of my all-time favorites.  Ambrose was really cute, but his conflicts with Louna seemed super contrived--and for that matter, at times he seemed like a Dexter (”This Lullaby”) rip-off.  Louna had a sad backstory, but it never connected with me partially because she never connected.  Again, it’s cute but I wasn’t super invested, and the investment in the main relationship--or at least the main characters--are key to really loving a Dessen book.  I also feel like Dessen usually benefits from building a romantic relationship between the characters ahead of the last 25% of the book (see: “This Lullaby” and “Just Listen”).  Otherwise, she needs to amp up the sexual tension in a palpable way to get people invested faster (see: “The Truth About Forever”).  The tension between Ambrose and Louna just wasn’t there.  Hope this author gets her mojo back soon.

The Forger’s Spell by Edward Dolnick.  4/5.  This non-fiction book takes on the story of Han Van Meegeren--a failed artist who managed to dupe the world with his forged “Vemeer” paintings.  Most notably, Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right-hand man, was a buyer of one the fakes.  Really, Van Meegeren’s story is the backdrop for a deeper investigation about how forgeries happen in the art world.  Dolnick does a good job, though I didn’t agree with all of his assertions--he describes the famed art critic’s “eye” as something that does exist, albeit after a lot of training.  Really, the “eye” seems to be dismissed by many today, whether or not you’ve been trained.  He also seems to go along with a lot of ideas that are those of a connoisseur, and applies them to art critics and art historians in general.  While some art historians specialize in connoisseurship, not all connoisseurs are art historians; in fact, connoisseurship seems to be falling out of style, and my school didn’t bother much with it.  I also feel that he could have done a better job of differentiating between the historian and the critic.  Overall, the book is a good examination of the psychological aspects that go into forgery, but this is very much a book about history.  Today, Van Meegeren probably couldn’t have pulled this off--not simply because the art market has more resources now in terms of scientific testing, but because it seems to me that art historians are now being trained in a very different way in a post-Panofsky, post-Schapiro world.  We’re told to be highly skeptical at all times, and while it’s possible that the old guard would have still fallen for a fake Vermeer, I think that many younger art historians would have been more inherently skeptical.  Anyway, I clearly geeked out over this book and found it highly interesting.

The Warrior Queen by Lavinia Collins.  2/5.  An Arthurian retelling and the first of a trilogy, this book focuses on Guinevere’s early marriage to King Arthur following his defeat of her father’s forces.  Pretty sure this was self-published or published by a small indie publisher, and it showed.  This book is quite short (it’s bound in an omnibus as part I with the rest of the trilogy, but it seems that it’s listed on Goodreads as an individual novel too) and while it’s not terribly written, there is some repetition that an editor would have (or should have) caught.  It’s not a bad book and I think that if you’re looking for more of a simple romance, it’s okay.  But as it is, it runs extremely quickly and the character development suffers.  For that matter, while the Lancelot romance is very present, Kay takes Lancelot’s role in places where he shouldn’t, and Morgan le Fay seems to be a typical schemer.  Not for me.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  5/5.  Aging Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo calls upon Monique Grant, a no-name journalist, to write her biography out of nowhere.  Monique understandably wants to focus on Evelyn’s seven marriages--which one was the love of her life, anyway?  Evelyn reveals herself to be much tougher--and much more scheming--than she initially might have seemed.  And there are plenty of secrets to be revealed, including her connection to Monique.  I really, really liked this book.  It had elements of grand romance and tragedy, while at the same time retaining the feel of a tell-all.  The reveal of Evelyn’s greatest love was well-done, and I believed in the ups and downs of the relationship.  You can definitely choose the starlets from whose lives Reid drew.  It’s well worth the read, and I plan on trying Reid’s other books soon.  

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu.  2/5.  Lucky (short for Lakshmi) is a part of a traditional Tamil family, and as such has married Krishna to please her mother.  The thing is that both Lucky and Krishni are gay, and simply protecting each other’s (and their families’) reputations through their sham marriage.  Then Lucky learns that Nisha, her childhood friend and first love, is getting married.  As Nisha and Lucky reenter each other’s lives, they find themselves unable to resist each other, while Lucky’s life implodes around her. This is a short read and the prose is very pretty, but I found Lucky to be pretty dull.  Krishna was the character I wanted to know more about, to be honest; or even Nisha.  It felt pretty paint by numbers, but perhaps that’s because I’m not from the same cultural background as Lucky.  Not a bad book, but I just didn’t connect to it.

Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser.  1/5.  Caro is descended from generations of river sailors, all of whom worship the river god.  After her father refuses to transport a crate--who knows what’s in it?--Caro agrees to do the task in order to gain his freedom.  Aaaand so on.  I think I hated this book so much in part because it could have been a lot more.  But it was so slow.  And there was cliche after cliche.  And there were frog people; listen, I know that some of y’all are probably down for actual green frog people who catch flies with their tongues, but I don’t play D&D and I’m not there yet in terms of geekdom.  Also, the romance was insufferable, and tongues actually tangled. This book was published by Bloomsbury, I assume there an editor involved, and THEIR TONGUES STILL TANGLED.  That was when I knew this was a one star book. 

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone.  3/5.  This non-fiction book tells the story of four sisters of Provence--Marguerite, Eleanor, Sanchia, and Beatrice.  Marguerite was married off to Louis IX of France, which in turn led to Eleanor becoming Henry III of England’s bride--Sanchia and Beatrice’s queenships would come later down the road.  So to call them the sisters who ruled Europe is a bit misleading, but it makes for a great title; and it truly is remarkable that a fairly unassuming noble family would produce four girls who would all become queens.  As you might imagine, the fact that this all took place during the thirteenth century means that Goldstone has to make some leaps in logic based on her research, especially in regards to the comparatively minor Sanchia and Beatrice.  I know little about the subject so I can’t speak to Goldstone’s accuracy, but all in all it was a nice pop history read.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.  2/5.  Shortly after the end of World War II, American Charlie St. Clair travels to Europe with her mother to take care of a “little problem”--her out of wedlock pregnancy.  At the same time, however, she wants to figure out what happened to her beloved cousin Rose, who went missing during the war.  During her search, she meets Eve--a woman who served as a spy during World War I.  The story takes on their alternating perspectives, as Charlie struggles to find Rose and Eve grapples with her past.  This kind of crushed me, as I am such a big fan of Kate Quinn’s Mistress of Rome series.  I never really bothered with her Giulia Farnese books, because I knew that through no fault of Quinn’s they wouldn’t work for me; but this disappointed me.  I’m not the hugest fan of World War I and II as historical eras, and I certainly love Ancient Rome a lot more.  But this could have  been so compelling.  It takes so long to start, however, and Eve’s perspective was less interesting than Charlie’s, to the point that I kept wishing that I could skip Eve’s chapters entirely. By the time the action and romance really began, I was so zoned out that it didn’t matter anymore.

Now I Rise by Kiersten White.  5/5.  The followup to the already-great start that was “And I Darken”, “Now I Rise” continues the dual stories of Lada (the fictionalized female equivalent of Vlad Tepes/Vlad the Impaler) and her brother Radu.  While Lada is struggling to reclaim her throne in Wallachia, Radu remains a servant of the Ottoman Empire and its sultan, Mehmed--the man he secretly loves.  Of course, Mehmed is obsessed with Lada--almost as much as he’s obsessed with Constantinople--and Lada is sort of obsessed with him back, but not as much as she’s obsessed with her birthright.  This book sees the incredibly twisted trio get even darker.  I really appreciate that Lada, Radu, and Mehmed aren’t super great people; Radu is less blood/power-thirsty than his sister and friend, but he is very manipulative and at times places his desire for Mehmed above loyalty to his sister.  (Which is fucked up, as Mehmed would probably sell Radu to Satan for one corn chip if that corn chip was Lada, who in turn never knows how to feel about Mehmed because boy is hot but boy is also about as twisted as she is.)  I love this series so much because of the moral grayness and dualities of all of these characters.  Even when they did things that I really didn’t agree with, I still understood why they did them.  For that matter, the supporting characters (especially Nazira, Radu’s equally gay wife) really upped the game of this book.  This series is an absolute must-read.