#i love you like lydia wang

[edwinspaynes]

After having ranted about the last book I read, I'd like to share another book I just finished and LOVED: Here for the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang!

If you like The Bachelor and have ever wondered what it would be like for two contestants to fall in love, this sapphic romcom is the book for you. I hope yall will give it a whirl!

[libraryleopard]

Libraries are cool! Anyone want to hear about the books I have on hold at the library right now? Just kidding, you don't have a choice.

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron. Adult historical fiction about a Haitian-French, queer woman who becomes a pirate in the 17th-century Caribbean. As a Black Sails fan, I have high hopes for this one.

The Tower by Flora Carr. Adult historical fiction novel about the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, prior to her execution–supposed to be very character-driven and claustrophobic, also queer I think?

Experienced by Kate Young. Adult romantic comedy about a newly-out lesbian in her thirties whose first serious girlfriend tells her she should go out and explore the queer dating scene she missed out on in her twenties; I've heard it's both funny and heartfelt.

Here For the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang: Adult romantic comedy about two women on a Bachelor-type dating show for fall for each other instead of the male star. I don't watch dating shows, but this is a great premise for a rom com.

A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins. Black sapphic romance about a music producer and a dancer at a strip club. I like queer friends-to-lovers and the cover for this is cute (fat Black masc lesbian on the cover, also!)

How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly. I have grown to love Anita Kelly this year so I'm excited to read their F/F romance! There's basketball and a sort of fake-dating/relationship lessons scheme between the leads.

Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg. Adult lit fic about two queer roommates and artists from Philadelphia who go on a roadtrip to photograph rural Pennsylvania. Reviews promise messy yet loveable characters and an exploration of the power of art.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Adult science fiction novel about a British civil servant offered a job to monitor people plucked from history and brought to the modern times to see how they adjust to the present–specifically Arctic explorer Graham Gore. And falls in love with him? This is a really wild premise for a book but I've seen some very positive reviews and apparently the novel has an interesting exploration of history and colonialism, so I've decided to give it a whirl.

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. Nonfiction about Palestinian history.

[hyunrun]

my thoughts on asy ep 04 😋 live react !! (warning: I can never remember anyone's names bear with me + lots and lots of spoilers ahead)

Where is zhengting I'm partially here for his face card 🤲🤲

I keep forgetting how much I dislike Rain and then I see him and I am reminded but Rainism is rlly too good of a song 😭

1. PHANTOM

Okay first team up 😎 Phantom Galaxy I'm loving their concept

Albert is looking gorgeous as always HIS EYE MAKEUP?

All their voices slayed omg WHOEVER HAS THAT DEEP ASS VOICE IN THE CHORUS AYOOO

Blond's high notes... I see u

My vote would go to Albert (with ponytail) or blond dude or black hair dude with the silver makeup (Axinran?)

OKAYY team two flying to the dining hall (WHAT IS THIS NAME LMAO)

This group is somehow just better...

But blond here is a bit soulless idk I'm not liking him 😨

My vote would 100% go to Skye idk if he's one of the already debuted ones but he was INSANE I loved his stage presence rn he's stolen me, he's my fave in the whole show

But I also really liked the pink hair guy 😭 (is his name really John... I need to learn their Chinese names I cannot be calling this gorgeous man John 😭)

KENNY NOOOOOOOOOOO his hands shaking stop 😭 I hate this pls no

Not surprised Team 2 won, it was expected.

2. ONE AND ONLY (I'm so excited)

Pure Love Warrior is such a queer team name HAHA One is looking so fine today tho

They're STRUTTING onto the stage I love the energy

Not them recreating the iconic finger touch painting 😭 rlly about that pure love

Maybe I'm feeling disappointed because this is one of my favourite songs but they didn't do it justice at all 😭 the only one who caught my eyes was One. However I appreciate that they tried to bring out the silly goofy concepts while keeping it kinda mature to fit themselves.

ORENDA CALLING THEIR COSTUME UGLY 💀💀 real

My vote would go for One 🤞

Idk anyone from this Magic Cube group but I have hopes (OH WAIT IK WALKER I LIKE HIM his pink eye shadow makes me RAA I LOVE)

Every opinion Orenda has matches mine and that means we're soulmates basically 🤞

I'm liking this

PINK GUY IS SO CUTE

Whoever did the high note failed but it's ok 😭😭

YELLOW JACKET DUDE IS GOOD TOO HOLD UPPP

Red dude is making me kick my feet why is he giving like cool football player (?? Idk I'm tryna think of the American cliche) at school YK 😭😭 hes so masculine in a yum way

Okay I love everyone in this group except black and white jacket

WALKER BEING CALLED PAPA STOP NAWWW

Oh pink dude is Wang Muqing? My vote goes to him !!!!

SERVICE WHAT ARE YOU SAYING HE ATE SNOT ??? 😭😭 taking back his cool footballer status but tbh I didn't even know he missed the lyrics

okay I'm sorry how did One's group win 😭😭 I'm glad for them but the other boys were way better imo

3. LYDIA

First group is Deep Hidden yum

I'm looking forward to Archie

Vocals slayed as expected and they did better than I thought they would tbh

Hoodie guy was by far my favourite tho but Kingsley was rlly good too

Group 2 Daily Quest ee

Thier concept was really nice

The guy who opened the song had such a soulful voice I liked that

I liked everyone tbh not much to say

Sky's eye makeup is very pretty

Group 2 won as expected !!!! Gemini is so cute

Icb they're making me wait till next week for Ely and Ollie but alr 😭😭

[hellostarrynightblr]

highlights of February

1. Favourite movies: House of Strangers (1949), The Changeling (1980). 2. Decent movies I liked / appreciated but not loved: The Night Stalker (1972), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023). 3. wtf movie/ending: Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023). Just an overall impression. Literally WTF. 4. Best scenes: the alleyway break-up / 'She left me two hours ago' (House of Strangers, 1949); confronting the senator (The Changeling, 1980); Those You've Known / The Dark I Know Well (Spring Awakening, 2022). 5. Favourite genres: drama, fantasy, mystery. 6. Favourite directors: Peter Medak (The Changeling, 1980). I also like  John Llewellyn Moxey for The Night Stalker (1972) (surprisingly), Joseph L. Mankiewicz for House of Strangers (1949) and  Daniel Kwan + Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). 7. Favourite actors: George C. Scott (The Changeling, 1980); Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte (House of Strangers, 1949); Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022); 8. Least favourite performances: anybody in Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023). I reiterate, what the fuck? 9. The most wasted cast: Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023). They brought almost everyone back and made this abomination? How was this even allowed to happen? Let's count. Tyler Posey, Crystal, Holland Roden, Shelley Hennig, JR Bourne, Ian Bohen, Colton Haynes, Linden Ashby, Melissa Ponzio, Ryan Kelley, Seth Gilliam, Orny Adams, Dylan Sprayberry, Khylin Rhambo, Tyler Hoechlin. There are so many just baffling choices as well. Bringing back Stiles' dad without Stiles and their dynamic. Bringing back the Nogitsune without Stiles, Kira or her family. Bringing back Liam and Mason, but not having them interact at all. Revivng Alison (a wtf moment in itself) and not having her reunite with Lydia. Breaking up Stiles and Lydia off-screen for the dumbest of reaons. Not having Scott and Liam exchange a single line. Getting Alison and Scott back together. Everything to do with Derek (not having him interact with either Peter or Malia (who themselves don't interact at all), introducing his son whose existance doesn't even make sense, killing him off). I could go on and on. This film is an insult and a nightmare. Moving on. 10. The best wasted premise: Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023). The idea of bringing back this show for one last adventure is cool, but you need to have, you know, a script before you do that. 11. Best premise: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1952). 12. Favourite cast: House of Strangers (1949). Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler, Paul Valentine, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Esther Minciotti. 13. Favourite on-screen duos:  George C. Scott x Melvyn Douglas (The Changeling, 1980);  Jonathan Groff x Lea Michele (Spring Awakening, 2022);  Edward G. Robinson x Richard Conte; Susan Hayward x Richard Conte (House of Strangers, 1949);  Michelle Yeoh, x Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022). 14. Favourite on-screen relationships: Max Monetti x Irene Bennett (House of Strangers, 1949). She gives as good as she gets. 15. Favourite characters: Max Monetti (House of Strangers, 1949); John Russell (The Changeling, 1980); Waymond Wang (Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022). 15. Favourite quote: Can't remember anything... 16. Favourite fact discovered in 2023: Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele are best friends in real life and he supported her when she went back to Broadway to play the lead in Funny Girl. 17. The most overrated film: I kind of think that  Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is a tad overrated. I like it, just not nearly as much as everyone else seems to. 18. The most disappointing film: Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023). 19. The biggest surprise: The Changeling (1980). 20. Best cinematography: John Coquillon (The Changeling, 1980). 21. Best set design: Keith Pepper (The Changeling, 1980). 22. Best costume design: Shirley Kurata (Everything, Everywhere All at Once, 2022). 23. Best music: The Changeling (1980). 24. Best prooduction choice: casting Richard Conte to be a tough, but ultimately good guy. He's great at playing villains, but his overwhelming charisma makes for pretty interesting good guys as well. 25. Worst production choice: releasing Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023). Absolute atrocity this film is. 26. Film of the month: The Changeling (1980) with House of Strangers (1949) a close second.

[daughter-of-melpomene]

oc masterlist — supernatural/horror media

𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐬.

name: lucille “luci” evans. fic: i want to break free. species: human. pronouns: she/her. ship: aziraphale + crowley. faceclaim: gugu mbatha-raw.

name: zazzadon. fic: like real people do. species: demon. pronouns: any (primarily uses she/her). ship: muriel. faceclaim: ruth negga.

𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦.

name: molly perbesi. fic: twisted. species: human. pronouns: she/her. ship: billy loomis (sort of), sidney prescott. faceclaim: lulu antariksa.

𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥.

name: olivia “via” winchester. fic: losing my religion. species: human (hunter). pronouns: she/her. ship: eleleth (oc). faceclaim: katherine langford.

𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐥𝐟.

name: tabitha “tabby” aquino. fic: out of the woods. species: witch. pronouns: she/her. ship: allison argent. faceclaim: olivia rodrigo.

name: marina azevedo. fic: out of the woods. species: water nymph. pronouns: they/them. ship: stiles stilinski. faceclaim: barbie ferreira.

name: lucinda “hale”. fic: out of the woods. species: fairy. pronouns: she/they. ship: jackson whittemore. faceclaim: rachel zegler.

name: april hannigan. fic: out of the woods. species: human. pronouns: she/her. ship: lydia martin. faceclaim: maude apatow.

name: alex wan-stilinski. fic: out of the woods. species: human. pronouns: he/him. ship: derek hale. faceclaim: harry shum jr.

name: anubis “andy” zhao. fic: out of the woods. species: reaper. pronouns: he/him. ship: scott mccall. faceclaim: wang ziyi.

𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

name: avi chawla. fic: ghost of you. species: vampire. pronouns: he/him. ship: emmett cullen. faceclaim: dev patel.

name: hecate “catie” greer. fic: season of the witch. species: witch. pronouns: she/her. ship: seth clearwater. faceclaim: madison bailey.

name: isaac holliday. fic: you are in love. species: human. pronouns: he/him. ship: charlie swan. faceclaim: paul rudd.

𝐰𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲.

name: esther st. claire. fic: liability. species: nephilim. pronouns: she/her. ship: wedneday addams + enid sinclair. faceclaim: sofia wylie.

[thelazywitchphotographer]

thnx for the tag, darling 💜

last song: currently listening to Love Me Like You Mean It by Kelsea Ballerini

favorite color: pink, like the pink in pinkie pies hair

last movie/show: non sports related, Wednesday

sweet/savory/spicy: if you were to ask me last year, i would’ve said sweet. Now? probably savory.

last thing i googled: top 25 2025 mystery releases

last book: currently reading Of Loyalty & Wreckage by Lou Wilham, and just finished Here For The Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang

relationship: single af (irl)

current obsessions: The 100, sports, and pretty little liars

no pressure tags: @creweemmaeec11 @laffy-taffy-creations @kitsunesakii @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @starlit-hopes-and-dreams @fa1rie @matchavisuals @samblerambles

People you want to get to know better

i've been tagged in this by the lovely @valentinaonthemoon (i think you might've tagged me in one of these 1000 years ago. i'm so sorry if you did - it clearly escaped me) thank you!! <3

last song: NISSAN ALTIMA by doechii (bangerrrr)

favourite colour: emerald green. i may be basic but i have good taste

last film / show: Ancient Apocolypse (again) cause an archaeologist i like on youtube has a series tearing it to shreds so ofc i gotta study the material before i watch it

sweet / savoury / spicy: spicyyyy - my sweet tooth is nonexistent and savoury food makes me sad :(

last thing i googled: book publishing agents! theyre all in london though and i am decidedly Not

last book: i literally just finished The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern last night and frankly im going a little feral over it

relationship status: lmao

current obsession(s): ..... my own ocs. BUT in my defence, in line with my last google search, i am tryna make my ocs everyone else's problem and i can only do that by being the ultimate blorbo lover. that and terraria. i am playing that game so much atm and i do not know why

tagging: @celeluwhenfics @18nth @surplus-of-sarcasm (as always, no pressure!)

thanks again for tagging me! always love reading these from everyone :D

[liriorosado]

i love you like dark rain muddy feet

like melting to sleep and into nightmares in which

you are here and not here and either way it hurts

love you like gas stations at 2 am and coca cola

that only tastes like home when it is washing down

rum or gin and i’m thinking about skeletons

love you like deciding to jump before looking at the ground

like how it only takes three minutes for the sky to change from purple to black

love you like tea that burns my tongue but i drink anyway

and fireworks too close to the ground and something exhilarating and horrifying

and unreal love you like moving out and spicy dishes with names

i can’t pronounce like screaming at the car wash touching like you’ll

never let go love like smiles and excuses love like

bullshit apologies and cold eyes love like

walking away from you.

love like walking toward something better

Lydia Wang "I love you like"

[dearevanhansenofficial]

“YOU WILL BE FOUND” NATIONAL COLLEGE ESSAY WRITING CHALLENGE 2021 | DEAR EVAN HANSEN

DEAR EVAN HANSEN “You Will Be Found” National College Essay Writing Challenge 2021

In partnership with Gotham Writers Workshop and the Broadway Education Alliance, DEAR EVAN HANSEN invited 11th-grade and 12th-grade students across the country to write a college-application style essay that describes how they channeled “You Will Be Found” to ensure those around them were a little less alone over the last year, or, alternatively, a moment where they found comfort in connection.

WINNER: Nearly 4,000 high school students across America wrote about impactful ways they stayed connected with others over the last year and we're delighted to announce Maxwell Silverman of Chicago, IL as the winner of the 2021 "You Will Be Found" National College Essay Writing Challenge and the $10,000 scholarship.

In June 2021, Maxwell graduated from Lane Tech High School in Chicago with plans to attend Boston Conservatory at Berklee, focusing on a degree in Musical Theatre.

FINALISTS: Seth Gorelik, Bellmore, NY Mira Kwon, Los Angeles, CA Anna Cappella, Pittsburgh, PA Semira Abdus-Salam, Rosedale, NY Filgey Borgard, Brooklyn, NY Lauren Escarcha, Orlando, FL Kacey Feth, Union, MO Paige Foltz, Stephens City, VA Sarah George, Chesterfield, MO Vincent Gerardi, Hauppauge, NY Ariane Lee, Syosset, NY Allison Lierz, Omaha, NE Megan Luong, New York, NY Kimberly Manyanga, Billerica, MA Orla Grace McCoy, Raleigh, NC Lucy Meola, New York, NY Sunaya DasGupta Mueller, Palisades, NY Liv Ollestad, Issaquah, WA Liana O'Rourke, Downers Grove, IL Isaiah Register, New York, NY Sydney Schneider, Los Angeles CA Ysanne Sterling, Centreville, VA Madeline Wiest, Peoria, AZ Samantha Williams, Providence, RI Laura Yee, New York, NY

FINAL ROUND JUDGES: Kelly Caldwell, Dean of Faculty, Gotham Writers' Workshop Logan Culwell-Block, Director of PLAYBILLder Operations and Community Engagement, Playbill Will Roland, Actor, Dear Evan Hansen Original Broadway Cast Member Crystal Su, Program Manager, The Jed Foundation Ekele Ukegbu, 2019 Jimmy Award Winner

READ MAXWELL’S FULL ESSAY:

Gram·pun·cle [geram-puhn-cuul] n. A gay man who formerly dated your grandmother only to later come to terms with his sexuality but still stay in the family to take care of your mother and aunt growing up.

Alan Palmer was my Grampuncle. When my cousins and I were younger, we couldn’t figure out what to call him. He was our grandpa in terms of age and raising our mothers, but he functioned more as the classic “fun gay uncle”, so we settled on a combination, Grampuncle. While we all had amazing relationships with Alan, mine was special. I have known Alan and his husband, Bill, since birth (making them the first ever gay couple I knew in my life).

Growing up and struggling with my sexuality, I was always able to look up to them to show me that true love really does have no boundaries. I will never forget, in 2015, standing inside the Michigan courthouse beside Alan as he and Bill exchanged vows and got married. They showed me, a young, insecure gay boy, that there was a place for me in the world and that I had a future to look forward to filled with love and joy.

Along with that joy, there eventually came some pain. Alan was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in the early spring of 2020. A week or so after the diagnosis, the world fell into a global pandemic. Those first few months were intense. I heard the horror stories from Alan of how scary it was going into the hospital for rounds of chemotherapy with people who had the Coronavirus sitting in the next wing over. Being constantly in and out of the hospital he was a risk to others, and the lung cancer made almost everyone else a risk to him. With the exception of his husband, he was fully alone.

Alan did not admit to his loneliness and pain. He did not want to feel like a burden, but after talking with Bill and hearing how Alan was truly feeling, my family began to make the hour and a half drive from Chicago to Michigan almost every other week to visit. We brought Alan a pop-up gazebo and some fancy sun hats to protect him (with the radiation he could not be in the sun for more than a few minutes at a time), and we would sit in the backyard just talking and laughing for hours until Alan’s body would give in to the exhaustion and he had to go inside.

As his birthday approached, I racked my brain thinking of something special to do for him. I thought back to a video I saw online toward the beginning of the pandemic and decided to make a “hug shield”. What better gift to give than a loved one’s embrace during the pandemic? Using a clear painter’s tarp, I cut arm holes and taped together closed arm sleeves. It took a good few hours, but I finally figured out a design that allowed for full protection on either side of the hug. On the day of his birthday, we packed up the car and headed to Michigan.

After talking and eating cake, it was time for the surprise. As we pulled the shield out and hung it from the gazebo, Alan did something I had only seen at the courthouse; he cried. I had the honor of the first hug, and as I slipped my arms into the sleeves Alan and I held each other and cried together. He pressed his forehead against mine through the plastic and in between sobs he said to me, “I am so proud of you.��� I knew this was our final goodbye. When Alan died the next week, I knew he went in peace. He had felt my embrace through the shield of love.

SEMI-FINALISTS: Bailey Andera, Thousand Oaks, CA Arianna Arroyo, Brooklyn, NY Alexis (Lexi) Berganio, Honolulu, HI Avery Bielski, Los Angeles, CA Henry Boemer, Villa Rica, GA Isabelle Bulmahn, Imperial, MO Jane Butera, Phoenixville, PA Mia Cashin, Norwell, MA Sean Choo, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA Zuri Clarno, Columbus, OH Lydia Corcoran, Apalachin, NY Cody Coyle, Winter Park, FL Anna Dai-Liu, San Diego, CA Alexander Guerrero Diaz, Richmond, VA Isabella Dufault, Irvine, CA Edwin Ellis, Atlanta, GA Laurel Emanuel, Raleigh, NC Aubrey Fisher, Cobden, IL Sunny Fong, Brooklyn, NY Sarah Galatoire, Houston, TX Zhao Gu Gammage, Wyncote, PA Sarah Gomez, Anaheim, CA Rachel Gray, Cleveland, OH Jameson Huge, Chicago, IL Sarah Grace Hutchinson, Alpharetta, GA Catheryn Ibegbu, Dearborn, MI Nicole Jo, Andover, MA Kelsey Johnston, Prince George, VA Gabrielle Kashorek, Avon, NY Samantha Kern, Akron, NY Nicole Kowalewski, Sykesville, MD Anne Lee, Edison, NJ Amelia Lin, Mukilteo, WA Judianne Meredith, River Vale, NJ Rabi Michael-Crushshon, Minneapolis, MN Geneva Millikan, Maumelle, AR Samantha Moy, Long Island, NY Shaakirah Nazim-Harris, Amityville, NY Eleanor Neal, Springfield, VA Sofia Ochoa, Camarillo, CA Basilia Oferbia, Brooklyn, NY Annika Olson, Rathdrum, ID Kaden Polt, Osmond, NE Shreeyamsa Poudel, Federal Way, WA Noah Robie, South Berwick, ME Zainely A. Sandoval Martinez, Dorado, PR Devyn Schoen, Eldred, PA Yusra Shaikh, Edison, NJ Gabrielle Shockley, Egg Harbor Township, NJ Ava Sklar, Brooklyn, NY Mia Sunday, Sammamish, WA Christina Unkenholz, Smithtown, NY Emilia Valencia, Portland, OR Brianna Wallace, Fredericksburg, VA Charles Wang, West Hartford, CT Daniel Joseph Weispfenning, Ridgewood, NJ Jennifer Wheeler, Reading, MA Virginia Zanella, Collierville, TN Alessandra Zepeda Ortiz, Los Angeles, CA Anna Zhang, New York, NY Daniel Zhang, Cortland, NY

[dangermousie]

Hello Dangermousie ! Longtime no see ! I used to follow your wordpress until I fell out of dramas in genera cause of life. Now I am back in full since the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi is in a drama now. My question is about Monarch industry. In your opinion what made mature Xiao Qi fall for a spoiled and a kid princess like Wang Xuan at 1st sight other than her beauty ?

Hi! Yeah, dramas is about the longest I’ve been obsessed over anything specific but I’ve come in and out over the years. I’ve had a couple years’ stretch a few years back I didn’t watch any. Shocking :P

Moving on the question...

First of all, in my opinion, she is neither spoiled nor a kid. She is 15 when the story opens and when she meets Xiao Qi. Now to a person living in most parts of the world in the 21st century, that’s a kid. However, for period China, or for that matter most period societies world over, this is a marriageable young lady, a full adult and the story treats her as such. Most Chinese period web novels I read have the heroine be 15. This is sort of an equivalent of a Regency romance novels having 19 or 20 year old heroines or modern chick lit ones having twenty-somethings. (To use a very different but oddly appropriate example, think of Pride and Prejudice - Lydia is 15 when she runs off with Wickham and marries him. This is considered on the younger side but not weirdly young; the fact that she was “ruined” and her seducer had to be bribed to marry her is the scandal, not that she’s 15.)

Granted, Xiao Qi is not 15 though I have no idea how old he’s supposed to be (I mean, we can’t go by the actor ages since Zhang Ziyi was 41 when she filmed it and Zhou Yi Wei was 36) but he’s at least in his 20s, and probably on the latter side of that decade. BUT once again, that is normal age difference for that time period. Xiao Qi is not looking for a wife but if he was, any wife he’d be offered or find himself be around Awu’s age. He would not be marrying an, e.g., 27 year old barring some weird circumstances. So she is straight in the age range for someone for him to check out.

As to spoiled, I do not think she is spoiled, not even in the beginning, not from anything he sees (he only saw her three times before their wedding, and all brief) but also not in general. As a survivor of many a shrill fluffy period romcom with supposedly charming but shrill and spoiled heroines, Awu is in another universe. She is immature and sheltered, but that is it. Also, the three times he sees her prior to the wedding are (a) at the puppet show where she rails about the General which is not spoiled to me, just immature and goofy, (b) when he saves her life and there is nothing immature; she’s just recovering from almost being killed; (c ) and when she falls off a roof into his arms, asks “why is it you?” and faints. None of this is spoiled behavior.

But of course, all the above demonstrates merely that she is a normal enough young lady who is in eligible age range. “Unexeptionable,” as a period romance novel would say. None of it answers why he falls for her.  

And here is my answer to that one. Beauty certainly plays a huge part in it. Zhang Ziyi is stunning as Awu. I mean, she is so beautiful I myself stop and stare and I am not sexually attracted to women. Xiao Qi obviously is, so imagine how much greater the effect must be on him. But beauty is not all - even from their limited encounters prior to the wedding, he sees that she is fun and brimming with life (and her joie de vivre IS irresistible; he has a lovely if dry sense of humor that I think makes him extra into that), adventurous and brave. And they do have charged chemistry, which is surprisingly sexual, from their first encounter. BUT!!! He was wryly wistful but perfectly able to leave her to go to the war/not marry her at all and leave her to Zitan. Prior to their re-encounter in ep 11, what he had could be at most described as a crush, exacerbated by the fact that where would he see such elegant beauty on the border, she’s probably the first. He liked her but he was hardly pining.

And then they meet again and honestly, I think this is where it turns into love, not before. Because let’s see what changes in between - first of all, he feels guilty for ditching her on their wedding night and then her being kidnapped because of him and guilt/debt certainly would have someone with his personality think kinder of the person he owes things to (some others would be resentful but for him it’s the opposite.) And then he finds out how resourceful she is - sending his people to warn him. And how brave and unflinching and selfless - she is literally screaming for him to get away even if it’s the only chance to save her life because she is worried he will be blown up. And he sees her brave with her wounds but also hurt (and once again, guilt/responsibility/protectiveness kick in), and how smart she is when they are talking, how she is not gullible but willing to trust him at his word etc. Not to mention she is still beautiful and their sexual chemistry is still off the charts. Like what straight man wouldn’t fall for that combo?

So anyway, this is mega long so I am gonna wrap it up.

[senlinyu]

Hi! First of all I'd like to say that I'm a big, HUGE fan of your writing. I am particularly in love with Manacled, especially with the character arcs for and the amazing world building you did. About this (sorry beforehand because I'm sure you've probably had tons of asks about this) I'd like to know which elements apart from The Handmaiden's Tale were an inspiration to you and how. I think I read a post somewhere about Manacled being also inspired by Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo?

Honestly, the Handmaid’s Tale part was all mostly a red herring to keep readers and Hermione preoccupied while I was lining up of all the flashback details and laying out how precariously Voldemort’s power was post-war.

I got the original idea from starting to watch the TV show and thinking that Lydia reminded me of Umbridge during Deathly Hallows, and then contemplating the popularity of forced marriage laws for repopulation in a lot of HP fics.

I saw Moon Lovers the year before and it left me with a lot of feelings, especially the idea that certain kinds of power trap you far more than they set you free. Draco’s character had a lot of Wang So parallels where with every inch he climbs in order keep Soo safe by accumulating power, he’s locking another collar around his throat. Even when he’s technically the most powerful person of all, in order to keep it, he’s forced to give up the entire reason he pursued it in the first place. And then with Hermione and So, the stress of always walking this incredibly tenuous line where there’s no room to make a mistake, “walking on thin ice” and having to keep everything inside until the anxiety begins to just eat her alive.

[hayingsang]

What I read in 2020

2020 wasn’t a vintage year for reading. I only finished 66 books – my lowest count in recent years – and I didn’t discover anything startlingly new. But I was pleased that for the second year in a row half the books I read were by women and that I came close to hitting my target of six books in Chinese. I would have hit my Chinese target if I hadn’t started a 600-page book in October, but as that’s already going to be one of the top books of 2021, I’m not too upset about missing that goal.

Upping my Chinese reading was probably part of reason for the low overall count – one page typically takes around 10-15 minutes – though also responsible was over-reading during two weeks in home quarantine in March put me off books for a while.

As usual, I mainly read older books – ones not released in 2020 – and for once the amount of fiction I read comfortably exceeded the non-fiction. Of that fiction the highlights were Lydia Davis’s Collected Stories, Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains and the second volume of The Plum in the Golden Vase.

Davis’s work is short – often very short (many of her tales are less than a page). Prose poetry? Sometimes, but not always. A lot of playfulness. But also with a power that builds as you keep reading, a few pieces one day, a few more the next, and the one after, and so on. Also her repeated determination to experiment, sometime using traditional forms, sometimes with new ones.

Carter’s book, from the late 1960s, moved through much the same collapsed-society territory as Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood, but far more elegantly and to a more satisfying ending. I didn’t like her fairy stories, but this was tremendous.

The Plum in the Golden Vase, Volume Two: The Rivals – as good as the first volume. Better maybe. The best sprawling novel ever?

Aeschylus’s The Oresteia was another standout – read following last year’s Aeneid and Odyssey after consulting Richard Jenkyns’ excellent Classical Literature (an invaluable source of recommendations about what to read from Greece and Rome). No surprise that Aeschylus’s work has survived two-and-a-half millennia with its poking around matters that still bother human beings (families, states, etc).

Of the various books I read on Hong Kong, Kong Tsung-gan’s Liberate Hong Kong: Stories from the Freedom Struggle was the one I found most satisfying. Partly for its exploration of some of the darker, more violent aspects of 2019’s protests, but most of all for capturing the importance of what happened and so why it will be hard for the forces of repression to succeed in the long run. The only problem with this book is that it now seems to be almost impossible to get hold of.

Of the five books I read in Chinese, my favourite was in Cantonese (and so arguably not in Chinese): 麥花臣金將軍與白龍的對談 by  並明. An extraordinary piece of work, mainly about two young men from Hong Kong in Oxford talking about Hong Kong and philosophy, but also including voluminous footnotes on matters such as why certain characters had been chosen to represent words used in Cantonese that don’t occur in standard Chinese. If you have any interest in Cantonese I would say it’s a must-read – it’s the first time I’ve come across a sustained piece of writing using Cantonese as it’s spoken.

I also enjoyed 像我這樣的一個女子 by 西西 (Xi Xi, A Girl Like Me). I had read a couple of her books in English, and thought they were so-so. Actually, the problem was the translation. In English, her stories look simple; in Chinese, even I can tell that there’s a lot more going on, even if I’m not sure what it is.

What pointed me to Lydia Davis was her translation of Swan’s Way, my third version. My first reading was in 1984, when I thought it was amazing. Then, after reading the first two or three books, I decided to save the rest for some special occasion. That never came, so in the early 2000s, I read those first few books for a second time – again finding them amazing. This time round, however, I was rather less compelled.  I enjoyed it, but didn’t care for it. I’m now thinking I will never get round to finishing the whole thing.

The list in full:

Anita Brookner, A Friend from England

Peter Gray, Free to Learn

Richard Baldwin, The Globotics Upheaval

Stendhal, Scarlet and Black

Anita Brookner, Latecomers

Daniel H Wilson, Robopocalypse

Tim Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth

並明, 麥花臣金將軍與白龍的對談

Anonymous, Bhagavad Gita

Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age

Wang Anyi, Love in a Small Town

Nina Bawden, Walking Naked

Anita Brookner, Family and Friends

Anita Brookner, A Start in Life

Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains

Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein, “They Say, I Say”

Mario Vargas Llosa, The Neighborhood

Marcel Proust, Swan’s Way

Ruth Kassinger, Slime

Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee, Machine, Platform, Crowd

Aeschylus, The Oresteia

Stanley SK Kwan, The Dragon and the Crown

陶傑, 香港政局的50個關鍵詞

CS Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

Felicia Nay, Red Affairs, White Affairs

Anonymous, The Plum in the Golden Vase, Volume Two: The Rivals

Julia Lovell, The Opium War

Various, Aftershock

Bruce Aitken, The Cleaner

青永屍, 你個教育制度壞咗呀

Kong Tsung-gan, Liberate Hong Kong

Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal

Octavia Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

Deborah Levy, The Unloved

Daniel Levitin, The Organized Mind

Elias Canetti, The Play of the Eyes

Martha Nussbaum, The Monarchy of Fear

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Vigil

Ursula Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

西西, 像我這樣的一個女子

Ursula Le Guin, Tehanu

Lydia Davis, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

Antony Dapiran, City of Protest

Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma

Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

Lydia Fitzpatrick, Lights All Night Long

Michael Taylor, Community, Anarchy, Liberty

Jean Rhys, Quartet

Toni Morrison, Home

Ursula Le Guin, The Telling

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

譚劍, 人形軟件

Adair Turner, Between Debt and the Devil

Amos Oz, Judas

JS Sharman, The Despot’s Guide to Wealth Management

Ursula Le Guin, Tales of Earthsea

Ursula Le Guin, The Other Wind

Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Felix Dennis, How to Get Rich

Martha Nussbaum, Woman and Human Development

Alice Munro, Dear Life

Sally Rooney, Normal People

David Grossman, To the End of the Land

Natalia Ginzburg, All Our Yesterdays

Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood

Charles Taylor, Hegel

[jynzandtonic]

Your bookshelf is beautiful!! Could you list some of your favorite books please? 💖

D’aww! Thank you, friend!  This... was the ask that ended me last night. I got down to the poetry bit, then drunk me decided it was extremely important to read “Maithuna” by Paz. RIP me. So, anyway. Here’s way more than you want!

I tend to read a lot of polysci/sociology and theory, but I’m going to ~avoid~ being like, “Ah! yes, my favorite books include Masculine Domination by Pierre Bordieu and all of this other completely insufferable bullshit!” 

Some all-time faves

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Collected Schizophrenias - Esme Weijun Wang

aint i a woman - bell hooks

The Bhagavad Gita - I really like Easwaran’s translation

When Women Were Birds - Terry Tempest Williams

The Chronology of Water - Lydia Yuknavitch 

Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde

Uses of the Erotic - Audre Lorde

AH FUCK I should put some fiction in here

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - ZZ Packer

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Babette’s Feast - Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

I have a metric fuckload of poetry recs, so I won’t get too deep into it BUT

Selected Poems (1984) - Octavio Paz 

Spring and All - William Carlos Williams

Deaf Republic - Ilya Kaminsky

100 Love Sonnets: Cien Sonetos de Amor - Pablo Neruda (IMPORTANT: get the ENGLISH AND SPANISH EDITION translated by Stephen Tapscott, do not fuck around with other versions, the ISBN is 0292760280)

[queenofangrymoths]

Book Log of 2019

I kept a record of how many books I read in 2019. I liked most of them so I would recommend you give any of them or read.

So on with the list! If it has an X next to it then it means I didn’t finish reading it. 

#1: Warcross by Marie Lu.

#2: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

#3: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.

#4: Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova.

#5: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Roshani Chokshi, Alyssa Wong, Lori M. Lee, Sona Charaipotra, Aliette De Bodard, E. C. Myres, Aisha Saeed, Preeti Chhibber, Renée Ahdieh, Rahul Kanakia, Melissa De La Cruz, Elsie Chapman, Shveta Thakrar, Cindy Pon, and Julie Kagawa.

#6: The 57 Bus by Daska Slater

#7: The Dark Descent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kristen White.

#8: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

9#: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver.

10# The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

11# A Study In Charlotte by Arthur Doyle

12# Simon Vs The Homo sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli

13# The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

14# Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

15# The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

16# Carry On by Rainbow Rowel

17# Teen Trailblazers, 30 fearless girls who changed the world before they were 20 by Jennifer Calvert

18# Evermore by Sara Holland

19# The White Stag by Kara Barbieri

20# One Dark Throne by Kendra’s Blake

21# Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

22# A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

23# King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo X

24# Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

25# The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

26# Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

27# Mythology by Edith Hamilton

28# Percy Jackson Greek Gods by Rick Riordan 

29# Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M McManus

30# The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

31# Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

32# Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt De La Peña

33# The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux

34# Roseblood by A.G Howard X

35# Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J Maas

36# Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

37# Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown

38# Through The Woods by Emily Caroll

39# The Wicked Deep by Shes Ernshaw

40# Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

41# Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

42# Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward

43# Modern Herstory: Stories Of Women and non binary people rewriting history by Blair Imani

44# White Rabbits by Caleb Roehrig

45# To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Adapted by Fred Fordham

46# Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

47# Ever The Hunted by Erin Summeril

48# Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

49# Lost Souls, Be At Peace by Maggie Thrash

50# Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

51# The Giver by Lois Lowry adapted by P.Craig Russell

52# My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand. Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

53# What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera X

54# An Assassin’s Guide to Love & Treason by Virginia Boecker

55# The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas adapted by Nokman Poon and Crystal S. Chan

56# The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R Tolkien

57# What is someone I know is gay? By Eric Marcus X

58# Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

59# The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien

60# The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien X

61# The Return of The King by J.R.R Tolkien

62# Lafayette by Nathan Hale

63# Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

64# We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

65# The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

66# Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

67# Norton Volume Of English Literature

68# Beowulf by Unknown

69# The General Prologue by Chaucer

70# 20/20 by Linda Brewer

71# Always in Spanish by Agosim

72# The First Day by Edward P. Jones

73# Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff

74# Writing Fiction by Burroway

75# Murderers by Leonard Michaels

76# Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases by Lars Gustaffson

77# Cathedral by Raymond Carver

78# A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley

79# Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov

80# The Lives of the Dead by Tim O’Brien

81# Head, Heart by Lydia Davis

82# Richard Cody by Edwin Arlington Robinson

83# “Out- Out-“ by Robert Frost

84# The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy

85# I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth

86# Poem by Frank O’Hara

87# On being brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley

88# On her loving two equally by Aphra Behn

89# Because you asked about the line between Prose and Poetry by Howard Nemerov

90# Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish

91# Ars Poetica? By Czeslaw Milosz

92# Ars Poetica #100: I believe by Elizabeth Alexander

93# Poetry by Marianne Moode

94# “Poetry makes nothing happen”? By Julia Alvarez

95# Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

96# In Memory Of W.B. Yates by W. H. Auden

97# The kind of man I am at the DMV by Stacey Waite

98# The Changeling by Judith Oritez Carer

99# Going to war by Richard Lovelace

100# To the Ladies by Mary, Lady Chudleigh

101# Exchanging Hats by Elizabeth Bishop

102# History Of Ireland Volume 1 by Lecky X

103# A Modern History of Ireland by E. Norman X

104# The Tempest by William Shakespeare

105# Gender by Lisa Wade & Myra Marx Ferree

106# Trifles by Susan Glaspell

107# The Shroud by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

108# King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison

109# Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

110# Fences by August Wilson

111# Where are you going, where have you been? By Joyce Carol Oates

112# Daddy by Sylvia Plath

113# What is our life? By Walter Raleigh

114# May I compare thee to a midsummer day? By William Shakespeare

115# The love song of J. Alfred Prufruock by T. S. Eliot

116# À unr passante by Charles Baudelaire

117# In a station of the metro by Ezra Pound

118# The Fog by Carl Sandburg

119# The Yellow Fog by T.S. Eliot

120# On first looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats

121# the Road Not Taken by Robert Frisr

122# Paradise Lost  Book 1 & 10 by John Milton X

123# The Victory Lap by George Saunders

124# The Tempest by William Shakespeare

125# The Vanity Of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson

126# Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

127# When to Her Lute Corinna Sings by Thomas Campion

128# Sir Patrick Spens by Anonymous

129# Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

130# A Prayer, Living and Dying by Augustus Montague Toplady

131# Homage to the Empress of the Blues by Robert Hayden

132# The Times They Are A-Changin’ *

133# Listening to Bob Dylan, 2005!by Linda Pastan

134# Hip Hop by Mos Deff

135# Elvis in the Inner City by Jose B. Gonzalez

136# Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost*

137# Terza Roma by Richard Wilbur

138# Stanza from The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats

139# Stanza from His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

140# Stanza from Sound and Sense by Alexander’s Pope

141# Stanza from The Word Plum by Helen Chasin

142# Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas

143# Myth by Natasha Trethewey

144# Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop

145# Sestina: Like by A.E. Stallings

146# l)a by E.E Cummings

147# Buffalo Bill by E.E Cummings

148# Easter Wings by George Herbert

149# Women by May Swenson

150# Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair by Franceso Petrarch

151# My lady’s presence makes the roses red by Henry Constance

152# My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare

153# Not marble, nor the gilded monuments by William Shakespeare

154# Let me no to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare

155# When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton

156# Nuns Fret Not by William Wordsworth

157# The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth

158# Do I love thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

159# In an Artist’s Studio by Christina Rossetti

160# What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay

161# Women have loved before as I love now by Edna St. Vincent Millay

162# I, being born a woman and distressed by Edna St. Vincent Millay

163# I will put Chaos in fourteen lines by Edna St. Vincent Millay

164# First Fight. Then Fiddle by Gwendolyn Brooks

165# In the Park by Gwen Harwood

166# Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley by June Jordan

167# Sonnet by Billy Collins

168# Dim Lights by Harryette Mullen

169# Redefininy Realmess by Janet Mock

170# Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood

171# The House Of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges

172# Death Fuge by Michael Hamburger

173# Clifford’s Place by Jamel Bickerly

174# We are seven by William Wordsworth

175# Lines written in early spring by William Wordsworth

176# Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth

177# The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth

178# Lines by William Wordsworth

179# Recitatif by Toni Morrison

180# Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer

181# The Management Of Grief by Bharati Mukherjee

182# Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

183# Jesus Saves by David Sedaris

184# Disabled by Wilfred Owen

185# My Father’s Garden by David Wagoner

186# Practicing by Marie Howe

187# O my pa-pa by Bob Hicok

189# Mr. T- by Terrance Hayes

190# Late Aubade by James Richardson

191# Carp Poem by Terrance Hayes

192# Pilgrimage by Natasha Trethewey

193# Tu Do Street by Yuaef Lomunyakaa

194# Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich

195# Elena by Pat Mora

196# Gentle Communion by Pat Mora

197# Mothers & Daughters by Pat Mora

198# La Migra by Pat Mora

199# Ode to Adobe by Pat Mora

200# Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

201# The Silken Tent by Robert Frost

202# Metaphors by Sylvia Plath

203# The Vine by James Thomsen

204# Questions by May Swenson

205# A Just Man by Attila József

206# the norton anthology of world literature

207# Pan’s Labyrinth by Gullernio de Toro and Cornelia Funke Xw

208# The prince and the dressmaker by Jen Wang

209# Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath

210# The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

[sixtyfivehundredinvisiblebirds]

What I Read in 2019

Florida- Lauren Groff The Collected Schizophrenias- Esmé Weijun Wang Severance- Ling Ma When Brooklyn was Queer- Hugh Ryan American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin- Terrance Hayes The Crying Book- Heather Cristle The Fat Sonnets- Samantha Zighelboim Odes to Lithium- Shira Erlichman The Man Who Spoke Snakish- Andrus Kivirähk Milk- Dorothea Lasky Crow With No Mouth: Ikkyū, 15th Century Zen Master- versions by Stephen Berg Circe- Madeleine Miller Ongoingness: The End of a Diary- Sarah Manguso A Fortune for Your Disaster- Hanif Abdurraqib Lincoln in the Bardo- George Saunders Madness- sam sax There, There- Tommy Orange Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequity, Polarization, & the Decline of Civic Life- Eric Klinenberg Matadora- Sarah Gambito Dept. of Speculation- Jenny Offil Station Eleven- Emily St. John Mandel Loving- Henry Green The Women- Hilton Als The Mars Room- Rachel Kushner Deaf Republic- Ilya Kaminsky The Möbius Strip Club of Grief- Bianca Stone I Like To Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution- Emily Nussbaum Hera Lindsay Bird- Hera Lindsay Bird The Story of My Teeth- Valeria Luiselli Overpour- Jane Wong Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places- Colin Dickey How to Cook a Wolf- MFK Fisher Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life- Yiyun Li Bel Canto- Ann Patchett Pachinko- Min Jin Lee How To Do Nothing- Jenny Odell Black Leopard, Red Wolf- Marlon James Little Labors- Rivka Galchen The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers-Bhanu Kapil The Tiger’s Wife- Téa Obreht Umami- Laia Jufresa Homesick for Another World- Ottessa Moshfegh Sag Harbor- Colson Whitehead Salt Houses- Hala Alyan Ugly Music- Diannely Antigua Citizen Illegal-José Olivarez Barbie Chang- Victoria Chang The Bialy Eaters- Mimi Sheraton Under the 82nd Airborne- Deborah Eisenberg The Stone Sky- N.K. Jemisin The Obelisk Gate- N.K. Jemisin Moon: Letters, Maps, Poems- Jennifer S. Cheng Not Here- Hieu Minh Nguyen The Fifth Season- N.K. Jemisin Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit- Jeanette Winterson Engine Empire- Cathy Park Hong My Brother’s Husband vol 2- Gengoroh Tagame Human Hours- Catherine Barnett My Brother’s Husband vol 1- Gengoroh Tagame Kingdom Animalia- Aracelis Girmay Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert, tr. Lydia Davis My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness- Nagata Kabi The Abundance- Annie Dillard White Trash: The 400-year untold history of class in America- Nancy Isenberg

[bulltruearchive]

what 80s blogs would you like to see?

this  is,  uh,  gonna  be  a  biased  list  ,,,,  most  of  my  favourite  films  are  made  in  the  80s.  but  !!  i’m  also  not  big  in  the  80srp  comm  so,  like  ,,,,,  there  may  be  some  of  these  around,  i  have  no  idea  !

honestly  this  list  is  Awful  because  i  am  Not  a  john  hughes  teen  movie  fan  so  !!!  & i  don’t  have  footloose  or  anything  because  i,  uh,  actively  dislike  those  films  personally  shdghsdhg  but  !!!! u  do  whom  u  wanna  do  ! this  list  is  just  ‘  films  made  in  the  80s  ’  tbh  so  it’s  incomplete  !  i’m  also  happy  to  help  w  fc  ideas  for  modernising  things  or  making  this  less,  uh,  overwhelmingly  white  so  !!!  feel  free  to  hmu  !  :)

the  breakfast  club  :

allison  reynolds

andrew  clark

stand  by  me  (  sure,,,,,  i’m  50s  based  but  Technically,,,  )  :

vern  tessio

ace  merrill  (  i’m  thinking  about  :/  remaking  him  Again  tbh  ,,  )

labyrinth  :

sarah  williams

ludo

jareth,  the  goblin  king

toby

sir  didymus

indiana  jones  (  again,,  40s  &  50s  but  shh  )  :

indiana  ,,,,  jones  (  &  watch  chris  &  i  cry  )

marion  ravenswood

short  round

willie  scott

henry  ‘mutt’  williams

the  goonies  :

michael  ‘  mikey  ’  walsh

clarke  ‘  mouth  ’  devereaux

andrea  ‘  andy  ’  carmichael

stephanie  ‘  stef  ’  steinbrenner

richard  ‘  data  ’  wang

brandon  ‘  brand  ’  walsh

ferris  bueller’s  day  off  :

ferris  bueller

cameron  frye

sloane  peterson

back  to  the  future

jennifer  parker

marty  mcfly

doc  brown

einstein  :/

the  lost  boys  :

u hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh  idk  who’s  not  being  played  so

dwayne

paul

lucy  emerson,,,,,,

lucas :

maggie

rina

et  :

,,,  et  ,,,,,

elliott

gertie

the  terminator  :

john  connor

sarah  connor

the  princess  bride  :

princess  buttercup

wesley

the  karate  kid  :

daniel  larusso

ali  mills

kumiko  ,,,

beetlejuice  :

lydia  deetz

beetlejuice

adam  maitland

barbara  maitland

indiana  jones  (  again,,  40s  &  50s  but  shh  )  :

indiana  ,,,,  jones  (  &  watch  chris  &  i  cry  )

marion  ravenwood

short  round

willie  scott

henry  ‘mutt’  williams

aliens  :

ellen  ripley

the  neverending  story  :

 a  t   r  e  y  u

the  child-like  empress

bastian  bux

a  nightmare  on  elm  st  :

nancy  thompson

freddy  kreuger

phillip  anderson

anyone  tbh  ,,

bill  &  ted  :

princess  elizabeth

rufus

death

willow  :

willow

queen  bavmorda

madmartigan

sorsha

summer  of  ‘84  (  it’s  set  in  the  80s  )  :

dale  ‘  woody  ’  woodworth  (  i  Love  Him  )

curtis  farraday

davey  armstrong

nikki  kaszuba

&  ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,  that’s  all  i  can  think  of  rn  ,,,  ill  kick  myself  later  i  can  feel  it

[rabonghee]

was tagged by @lavenderbyun​ to do Ten Shipping Questions (she actually made a tag game??? call the cops this isn’t anisah)

Ultimate otp: from kdrama probably my tragic lovers wang yeo and sunny :(((((

from other things mmmhmmmm??? OH BISH STILES AND LYDIA HOW TF DID I FORGE THEM!! (i know why its because i didn’t watch the last season i hate myself)

Ship you’ll always love: lol barney and robin from himym and i’M STILL SUPER PISSED ABOUT THAT ENDING OKAY I WILL NEVER!!! GET OVER IT

Current obsession: mm nothing really since im not watching anything lol, but ugh the brothers in i love yoo have me weak i dont know whom to ship her with anymore :(

Ship you never thought you’d like: lol probs ron and hermione cos I never thought i would ever like harry potter but then I watched the movies like five years ago and love at first sight :’( (okay maybe not at first sight probs at like the fifth movie i don’t remember them anymore lol)

Ship you liked but don’t anymore: what about “ship that your friend put down your throat until you ended up kinda liking it but then realized what the actual heck am I shipping” because khal drogo and daenerys then

Ship that should be canon: soo ji and se joo :( (i mean they did had a last scene where they met in japan but also??? give me more content u assholes)

Canon ship you hate: uhh now that ithink about it i don’t have any canon ship I hate?? probably that cheap ass guy and the secretary from whats wrong with secretary kim because like, girl u deserve something better..

Pair I’ve been shipping for years: i guess jake and amy since I started watching b99 like two/three years ago lol

Ship everyone loves but you don’t: idk tbh?? probs the one from school 2017 but it’s not that I don’t like the ship?? is that I don’t like the drama as a whole lol :(

Fav rare pair: @championamjoon​ and namjoon <3 (i’m gonna be the one that holds the bat at their wedding)