#i've rated 129 books

[whereimfeminine]

wait here's a fun game i haven't seen here before what's yall's average rating on goodreads

[bi-bats]

just barely holding back from sending you the entire list lmaooo. once again, feel free to pick and choose

1, 3, 5, 15, 24, 37, 42, 54, 77, 85, 100, 129, 131

Bean, my beloved. Hello dear thank you for always coming through 💖

A book that is close to your heart

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. If I had to pick a favorite book, it's probably this one. My original copy of this book is SO fucked up lmaoo

3. A stand-alone that you wish was a part of a series

OH Wilder Girls by Rory Power. What a phenomenal fucking book. It had an open ending that left me satisfied, but also really thinking about what was going to happen and wishing that I knew. I still think about this book and I read it like... four years ago?

5. Something in fiction that reads like poetry

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR BY AMAL EL-MOHTAR AND MAX GLADSTONE HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK I FUCKING LOVE THIS BOOK AND I HAVE FOR A LONG TIME AND ITS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKS I'VE EVER READ I'M ABOUT TO READ IT FOR A FOURTH AND PROBABLY FIFTH TIME

15. A book rec you really enjoyed

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley!! This book has something for literally everyone, I'm actually in the process of re-reading it because I didn't know it was a part of a series when I first read it and my therapist keeps telling me that the way that she puts the overall plot of the series together is one of the most interesting things he's ever read

24. A book on your nightstand

The Cabinet by Un-Su Kim, The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin, The Martian by Andy Weir, Vicious by VE Schwab, I'll stop there because I'm not typing out like 20 titles for this and I wish I was joking

37. Your favorite heist book

I'm actually not entirely sure that this counts, but Anxious People by Frederick Backman. I have a bunch of heist books that I want to read, but I haven't gotten around to yet. This is one of my all time favorite recs though! I love Frederick Backman fr he's such a great author

42. A book that made you want to scream by the time you got to the end

Lost Boy by Christina Henry oh my god. Ohhhh my god. Oh my sweet lord. Everything by Christina Henry is phenomenal, but this one in particular fucked me up. This was one of those books that leaves you feeling raw and hollow at the end. It will stomp on you. It will shred your heart. It will be worth it.

54. A book with the best opening line

Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket. The opening line is literally "This morning I ate poison for breakfast." Full disclosure, if you go into that book expecting a full plot, you won't enjoy it as much. It's really a very wandery story without much plot, but I had a good time and normally I hate stuff like that. There's just something that's really so lovely about Lemony Snicket's way of writing though. Also, the audiobook is narrated by Patrick Warburton my beloved

77. A book so useless that you could use it as a coaster

Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith. This is the only book I've ever given a zero star rating to. I've never read fanfiction as bad as this book. This is comparable to my wattpad writing when I was 12. Maybe worse. I wouldn't even use it as a coaster, because I returned it.

85. Your favorite book about magical realism

Right now it's probably Even Though We Knew The End by C.L. Polk. This book was so beautiful, and so quick, and the vibes of it were absolutely impeccable. It's a queer, noir, magical realism murder mystery. It was also slightly devastating, but in a really beautiful, hopeful, satisfying way.

100. Your favorite gothic novel

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and it's definitely my favorite haunted house story of all time! The plot is just phenomenal and Shirley Jackson is SO incredible. Also it's far superior to The Haunting of Hill House (which she also wrote)

129. A book with beautiful prose

Gallant by V.E. Schwab. She couldn't just have one book on this list. She's my favorite author by FAR. I just. kdfharughu. I don't know how she does it. There are always SO many banger lines in her books. The way she writes is just so. SO. Idk man. If you like my stuff, read her stuff, she's such a huge inspiration to me.

131. Recommend any book you like!

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers OR The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. Literally any book by either of them is phenomenal, but those are two of my favorites! They do have VASTLY different vibes though. A psalm for the wild built is like. a solar-punk utopian book about happiness and existence and success not being defined externally. And the echo wife is like. a sci-fi character study of two (three?) horribly fucked up people and also murder and also becoming the thing you fear the most and losing your humanity and rguahrgur. They're both amazing books though!

book rec ask game

[dankzombiereviews]

Book thoughts: Illuminae

DNF at 21%

is this another project hail mary situation? am I missing something? why does this have such a high average rating on goodreads?

art from jay kristoff's facebook

I got 129 pages into this book and not only do I have no idea what's going on, I don't care. everything is just go! go! go!, i know there's a plague and a war and not much else. the characters are shallow, and other than our main two, there's a few others that are thrown around and I don't know whether we're supposed to pay attention to them because they seem like important side characters but they're mentioned once? idk

I also HATE jay kristoff's writing. He's so terrible at writing teenagers, and I know it's possible to write teenagers well because brandon sanderson and rick riordan excel at it. I had the same issue with aurora rising - also have heard he's a terrible person so I'm content to never read one of his books again.

the mixed media is cool but I don't know if it's used as effectively as it could be. I've heard this series kinda goes to shit anyways so I don't think i'm missing much.

[semper-legens]

129. Divine Madness, by Robert Muchamore

Owned: No, library Page count: 360 My summary: James, Lauren, and Dana are on their most dangerous mission yet - to infiltrate a religious cult suspected of hoarding weapons and hosting terrorists. They'll need to play the role of brainwashed little cultists, believing they are 'angels' in a world full of 'devils', the only ones who will be saved when the Rapture comes. But there's more at play under the surface here. And soon they'll find themselves in more danger than they could have anticipated... My rating: 3/5 My commentary:

Of all the CHERUB books, this is the one I was most looking forward to rereading. I don't know what it says about me that I've always been interested in cults and reading about cults, both real and fictional, but that's how it is! I remember that this was one of my favourites when I was a kid, so I was very interested to read it again as an adult, give it a fresh pair of eyes. After all, I know a lot more about real-life religious cults these days than I used to. And how did it hold up? …weirdly.

I'm gonna preface this by saying that it's gonna seem like a lot of complaining about this book down here under the cut. I had some very serious misgivings about it, but I did ultimately enjoy it and recognise what it was trying to do. That said, the misgivings are what I want to discuss. First…I know I've spoken before about the copaganda (or, I suppose, military propaganda) present in these books. So far, this is the worst one for being hypocritical and seemingly not even realising it. At one point, an explicit comparison is drawn between CHERUB as an organisation and the cult in the book. The difference, the kids say indignantly, is that everyone in CHERUB knows what they're getting into, and has the ability to pull out if they need to. They can turn down missions, they have agency.

Which…earlier in the book a mission controller proudly makes the point that no CHERUB ever turns down a mission, and the kids point out that if you refuse a high-profile mission, you'll basically be doing baby jobs through your whole career. There absolutely is pressure on these kids to do dangerous stuff, and the process of recruiting smart, fit kids with no family ties is more than a little shady. Not to mention that CHERUB kids younger than ten are brought up in CHERUB and taught with the expectation that they'd enter the hell that is basic training as soon as they can. Eve, the cult teen, makes a decision at the end to do a terrorism after all and winds up dead because of it, and that's a tragedy. There isn't a lot of difference between her and the CHERUB kids though. They, also, go through with the missions at all costs, and think they're acting for the greater good. But the book doesn't seem to want to explore any of these ideas. CHERUB isn't a cult. CHERUB is a good organisation fighting the bad guys.

My other main issue was Dana. James and Lauren are joined on this mission by Dana, a slightly older mouthy Australian girl who has been mentioned before, but never really shown up. She…really doesn't get a lot of character development in the earlier parts of this book. It's the James and Lauren show - James is the one who gets them an in to the cult compound they're trying to infiltrate, Lauren gets in with important kids, while Dana just kind of exists. True, later she plays a bigger role, but you'd think that if a new character is joining the cast then the narrative would spend some time with her so we can get to know her. She's just standoffish and grumpy through the start of the book, and like, that's all there is to her. It's just a weird choice.

But yeah, I do have to give this book some credit for how it handles its subject matter. None of the cult people are really portrayed as being inherently evil, a lot of them are obviously misguided or brainwashed. The climax, in which the government comes in to crack down on the compound and meets a lot of armed resistance, is wildly reminiscent of the Waco siege. The military and police ignore the mission controller's intelligence that there are armed people inside the compound, and that leads to devastation as the cult, convinced that the 'devils' are coming for them, respond by blowing up most of the compound. And everyone inside it. James and Lauren are caught in the crossfire, trying their best to get out. Initially, James is against taking all the kids that have been sheltering in the same room with them, but Lauren insists - and good thing too, because when the bombs blow, the room they were in is obliterated. That gets her the black shirt, the highest CHERUB rank. But it's also a really sympathetic situation - I don't think the cult members (outside of the higher ups) are ever really demonised for what happens, it's more just a tragedy that they've been brainwashed into thinking they know what's right, and then the police agitate the situation until people die. It's horrible, but it's sadly realistic.

Next up, a graphic novel, and a young girl changes her identity to help her family.

[emachinescat]

A Year in (Book) Review: My 2024 Reading Journey 📚

#9 - The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

Fantasy / Chronicles of Narnia #7 / 129 pages / published 1956 / Finished Jan. 16 (reread)

One Sentence Review: The fact that C.S. Lewis was able to write a terrifying but beautiful allegory of the book of Revelation that is not too difficult to understand is impressive enough, let alone that he wrote it for children - a thoroughly impressive feat!

Favorite Quotes

"But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan."

*

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now."

*

"'The dream is ended: this is the morning.' And as he spoke he no longer looked to them as a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were as great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning."

*

"There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes."

My rating: 4/5

A Few More Thoughts (Spoilers)

It was so much better than I remembered, and easier to understand as well - though still quite dense and complex. Although there are some aspects relating to Calormen that absolutely did not age well - hence my rating - the bulk of the book is incredibly rich allegory.

Although the last part of the book - the judgment and the final battle and the destruction of Narnia - were terrifying, they were followed by some of the most beautiful writing of Lewis's that I've read as the followers of Aslan are taken to the new Narnia - the allegory is so stunning in this book!

What sticks with me the most is the joy and beauty of the new Narnia - though the old Narnia died, the new one was the true Narnia. Lewis himself alludes to Plato in his book, cementing the idea that heaven is our true home and the earth is a mere shadow or reflection of the joy and beauty to come.

[libertyreads]

Book Review #129 of 2023--

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne. Rating: 3.25 stars.

Read from November 5th to 10th.

This was my first John Gwynne and...maybe it was a mistake? It's the first series of his that actually intrigued me. This is a kind of retelling of Norse mythology and that has always been my jam. But most of the time I just didn't care. Reading something this dense over the course of 6 days actually took a lot out of me mentally. Part of that is probably that I haven't been reading a lot of dense stuff lately. Part of that is probably that I just transferred with my job and my new location is both physically and mentally draining. (Probably spiritually as well because I almost lost it today.) Part of it is that I haven't taken 6 days to read a book in the longest time. Which is actually a good thing. I've been saying for years now that I want to slow down with my reading and get more in the 52-104 books a year range instead of 130-175. But, in making that a goal, my intention was to take time to read things I like slower. And, while the ending probably jumped the rating up a bit, I just didn't really like this one.

I think the author did the world building moderately well (some parts could have used some work but was overall pretty good) and I think he obviously put a lot of thought and time into plotting out the story. I think this was probably the best I've seen someone take three different perspectives and storylines and bring them together. But...I just didn't care? For the most part, I wasn't attached to the characters so I didn't really care when someone died suddenly or someone else betrayed one of our characters. The only character that I felt any sort of attachment to was Elvar. (And that's probably only because she's the daughter of a rich land owner who decided to run off and join a war band instead of getting married to the son of a rich land owner.) I think the story just gets lost in the weeds for me. Which is a common complaint within epic Fantasy, I know. I just think there needed to be more humanity here for me to get out of the story what the author intended.

The author obviously wrote a book that was well plotted, well developed, and so on. People love his work. He's constantly being brought up in the Fantasy circles. But I think it's just that he's not an author for me. Which is okay. Not everything is meant for everyone. I think if you're someone who enjoys epic Fantasy novels and getting into the little details then I'm sure you'd enjoy this one. If you haven't already devoured this author's backlist.

[alexjaypg]

Social Media Management & Digital Marketing for Cronin Plumbing and Heating.

About the brand: Cronin Plumbing & Heating is a small, family-owned contractor business that operates locally within Hudson County. Their brand identity aims to reflect a white-glove level of service, fast and attentive customer service, and a solution-driven methodology. They maintain a 5-star rating on Google Maps, and want to reflect their dedication to providing premium service in their marketing.

Website: croninplumbingandheating.com

Instagram: @croninplumbing

Goals for this ongoing project: - Increase social media presence locally, to drive up local leads. I am accomplishing this by posting informative content, business updates, and community engagement across different social media outlets. I began with strengthening the company's presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Nextdoor after identifying those as leading outlets within the industry.

Under my management, the Instagram has seen significant improvement across all metrics. Over the last 90 days, 'accounts reached' has gone up 58%, 'accounts engaged' has gone up 132%, and followers have increased by 16%. Of total accounts reached, there has been a 29% increase in locality to Hoboken, and 24% increase in locality to Jersey City, the two main cities served.

- Narrow in the location radius of leads in order to increase workflow efficiency. I am accomplishing this by doing search engine optimization on the company's website and Google business profile. I assessed the best keywords for not only the industry, but also the target demographic, taking into consideration age range, location, and home ownership status.

As a result of my optimization, over 90 days business profile interactions increased by 51% and clicks-to-contact increased by 129%. The radius of traffic by location shrunk significantly, while still seeing a 22% increase in overall traffic via google.

- Maintaining a general brand awareness amongst existing clientele. This includes sending out email newsletters, designed by myself, posting social media content that guides clients to book specific services, and implementing a referral plan.

- Future marketing efforts planning consist of partnered advertising with local blogs and influencers, paid Google and Meta advertisements, and designing printed advertising materials.

Shown are some social media assets I've created for the company's Instagram.