#iz blogs about books

[bibliophileiz]

2023 in Books, Part 2

(posting a day late, oops)

This was a pretty great literary year for me. Even the books at the end of this list I enjoyed reading. I left out an anthology I read for class (Peach Pit is ... interesting) and a book of poetry written by someone I know, just because I don't know anything about poetry and don't want my personal feelings about the poet (she's great) to muddle it even further. I also already posted a separate list ranking the six children's/YA books I read. That still leaves thirty-one books to rank, though.

As usual, this is based entirely on personal preference/enjoyment and not necessarily on quality of writing or story. I reserve the right to change my mind about this ranking as soon as I post it because I am fickle like that. (Although I don't think I'm going to change my mind about my number 1 choice.) Here ya go.

31. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling Dates Read: Dec. 12-13 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: A witch accidentally curses her ex-boyfriend, and by extension her small magical Georgia town. She and her ex have to lift the curse without falling in love (which of course they do anyway). One-sentence review: (directly from my GR review) Cute and witchy, just the thing to get you through finals week.

30. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Dates Read: April 28-May 7 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: A musician and comedy writer seem to hit it off when the musician guest stars on the comedy writer’s late-night show, only for the writer to blow it by assuming the musician is a shallow womanizer. A few years later, they rekindle their connection during pandemic lockdowns. One-sentence review: I liked the characters, but as usual Sittenfeld is more interested in commenting on whatever she saw on Twitter while she was writing this then she was on, like, writing a dramatic plot.

29. The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray Dates Read: Aug. 19-27 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: All of Jane Austen’s beloved couples (except the Tilneys), plus the Darcys’ son and the Tilneys’ daughter, attend a house party at the Knightleys’ where Mr. Wickham turns up and is immediately murdered. One-sentence review: This is what P.D. James’ Death Comes to Pemberley SHOULD have been.

28. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Dates Read: May 24-27 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: It’s the 1960s, and chemist Elizabeth Zott was kicked out of her Ph.D. program for reporting her supervisor for rape, and then loses her job after she becomes pregnant outside wedlock, and ends up starting her own STEM cooking show and some other stuff happens, look, I know you already read the reviews of this one. One-sentence review: It was fine, I just thought it was overrated.

27. The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull Dates Read: Aug. 23-Sept. 7 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: Two women immersed in the French art world in the 1930s and ‘40s defy their German occupiers by hiding, documenting, and sometimes copying “degenerate” art to keep it from the hands of high-ranking Nazi officials and sympathizers, or to keep it from being destroyed. One-sentence review:  The main characters were great and I really like the focus on protecting art and culture from extermination, but the constant time jumps drove me nuts.

26. Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid Dates Read: April 3-5 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: Less than two weeks into her marriage, a young woman is widowed and only meets her mother-in-law at the hospital. The two strangers find a way to navigate their grief together. One-sentence review: While the grief could be gut-wrenching due to Reid’s fantastic writing, the characters were nothing spectacular.

25. Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, America’s First Serial Killer Family by Susan Jonusas Dates Read: Jan. 29-31 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: The Benders were a creepy family in late 19th Century Kansas who murdered people who stayed at their boarding house and then disappeared before they could be arrested. One-sentence review: I’m not super into true crime—it has to be historical for me to even start it--but I did like the look at life in the Midwest.

24. Galatea by Madeline Miller Dates Read: Jan. 6 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: Madeline Miller retells the Pygmalion myth in a way that doesn’t suck. One-sentence review: Miller smartly skips the gender misery by making this a short story and then delivers an extremely satisfying ending.

23. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Dates Read: July 26 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: Korede and Ayoola are sisters who fall for the same man. Ayoola is hot and a serial killer, and Korede is getting pretty tired of covering for her. One-sentence review: Despite (or perhaps because) all the characters are awful, this book STAYS with you, and I feel like it would be a blast to talk about in a drunken book club. Note: I listened to the audiobook and want to give narrator Adepero Oduye a shout out.

22. The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec Dates Read: July 24-Aug. 17 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: Three friends in Medieval Scandinavia find themselves in the middle of a Game of Thrones-esque rivalry for the crown and a deadly battle between supernatural forces. One-sentence review: Good story and I liked the characters, but it moved too slowly sometimes.

21. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan Dates Read: May 7-10 GoodReads Rating: Four stars (I was feeling more generous about Grace marrying Hugh than I am right now) Summary: A sewing circle in a small English village in the 1940s decide to pool their talents and resources to help English brides wear the perfect white gown to their weddings, clothing rations be damned. One-sentence review: Ryan excels at writing about women and civilians in wartime, and I would have ranked this so much higher if it hadn’t ended with the best character marrying the worst one.

20. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid Dates Read: Jan. 31-Feb. 8 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: Aging actress Evelyn Hugo (who is not Elizabeth Taylor, by which I mean she absolutely is Elizabeth Taylor) invites a young journalist to write her life story. One-sentence review: The plot was engaging and thought-provoking, but I never could decide how I felt about Evelyn.

19. A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher Dates Read: Oct. 28-Nov. 1 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: An archaeologist visits her mother at the family home in North Carolina only to find that her grandmother’s ghost is haunting it. But how do you banish a ghost once you learn it’s keeping something far worse at bay? One-sentence review: Of all the haunted house books I read this year, this one was the worst, and yet it was still great.

19. To Swoon and to Spar by Martha Waters (That’s right, I ranked a trashy Regency romance above both Romantic Comedy AND Lessons in Chemistry) Dates Read: May 17-24 GoodReads Rating: Four stars (Objectively, this was too many, but I also don’t care.) Summary: When Viscount Penvale’s uncle promises to sell him back the family estate for a steal if Penvale marries his uncle’s ward Jane, Penvale reluctantly agrees. He and Jane make an agreement to leave each other alone, but Penvale didn’t expect to fall in love with her. Nor did he expect his family house to be haunted. One-sentence review: The Regency Vows series just keeps getting better, honestly.

17. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson Dates Read: Aug. 31-Oct. 13 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: Humor writer Bill Bryson and his on-again-off-again friend Katz decide to hike the Appalachian Trail, and Bryson tells you all about its history and natural resources along the way. There are moose, but no (confirmed) bears. One-sentence review: This book got me really into nature and hiking again.

16. The Shining by Stephen King Dates Read: Dec. 1-4 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: I know you know what this book’s about. One-sentence review: Super tense, riveting look into the mind of a toxic, self-absorbed abuser who doesn’t need to be anywhere near blizzards, haunted houses, or children.

15. Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid Dates Read: July 12-23 GoodReads Rating: Five stars (Objectively, this book probably deserves that. Subjectively, I like Regency romances and journalists better than sports stars.) Summary: A retired tennis star full of rage and ambition makes a comeback to keep a younger player from breaking her record. One-sentence review: An absorbing, balanced take on the pressures women athletes face, plus a heart-warming father-daughter story, with some romance and female friendships to round it out.

14. Swamp Story by Dave Barry Dates Read: Dec. 30 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: There is actually too much going on to summarize this book, but suffice to say it involves a desperate single mom, her shirtless fame-hounding ex-boyfriend, a failed journalist with a drinking problem, and a lot of people in the Florida Everglades looking for a cryptid OR Confederate gold OR pythons. One-sentence review: Dave Barry writes about Florida like it’s a drunk, eccentric relative who everyone hangs around at the family reunion even though he smells bad, because he has the best stories.

13. Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas Dates Read: Oct. 15-28 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: During the Mexican-American War, a Wuthering Heights-esque couple learn their homeland is being stalked by vampires. One-sentence review: You root for the couple, you root for the Mexicans, you even root for the vampires once or twice, but you never root for the Texas Rangers. Note: The couple is Wuthering Heights-esque in the sense that he is poor, she is rich, they were childhood sweethearts, and then they were separated—not in the toxic incest way.

12. A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall Dates Read: July 12-23 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: A trans woman believed to be dead at the Battle of Waterloo reinvents herself and returns home to England, only to find that her best friend has been consumed by grief over her death. As she helps him heal—and he slowly falls for her—she battles with whether to tell him who she really is. One-sentence review: I'm a sucker for love stories in which the couple are torn asunder, believe they will never see each other again, and then are reunited unexpectedly. Note: This actually would have ranked a lot higher if all the main couple’s angst wasn’t basically resolved in the first half. The second half is fine but not as good.

11. The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Dates Read: Dec. 26 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: A young woman must choose between two potential “lovers” who come from the woods in this dark fairy tale novella. One-sentence review: Finally, a good werewolf book.

10. The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak Dates Read: April 4-14 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: Puhak writes about the feud between rival Merovingian queens Fredegund and Brunhild in sixth century western Europe. One-sentence review: It’s like Game of Thrones, but real, shorter, and with more women and less sexual assault.

9. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell Dates Read: Dec. 14-25 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: Vowell writes Lafayette’s biography, focusing on his and the larger French role in the American Revolution, all while musing on our country’s inability to agree on anything. One-sentence review: Vowell’s irreverent essay style is just the tone needed to tackle the oft-romanticized American Revolution.

8. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas Dates Read: July 23-26 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: In the aftermath of the Mexican War for Independence, a young bride moves to her landed husband’s country estate, only to find that the house is super haunted and her new in-laws super racist. One-sentence review: Your standard haunted house story, except the ghost is colonialism.

7. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune Dates Read: Oct. 29-31 GoodReads Rating: Five stars (was probably generous, but the ending had just made me cry, so) Summary: When workaholic Wallace dies, his spirit is sent to a teashop for transition to the afterlife. But after a few weeks of hanging around teashop owner and “ferryman” Hugo, his reaper, and the ghosts of Hugo’s dog and grandfather, Wallace realizes he doesn’t want to leave what he’s coming to think of as his family. One-sentence review: A lovely mixture of funny and sad, this book is a nuanced look at death and found family.

6. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Dates Read: Nov. 1-6 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: A debutante from Mexico City visits her cousin’s haunted house in the countryside where she’s pulled into a mystery surrounding her cousin’s eugenics-obsessed in-laws. One-sentence review: Noemi is a fantastic character, and the plot is engrossing, which is good because you will hate all the other characters.

5. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Dates Read: Aug. 9-29 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: In 1996, Outside magazine sent Jon Krakauer to cover the burgeoning commercialization of Mount Everest. When Krakauer climbed the mountain himself, he and his team got caught in a freak snowstorm that resulted in what was then the worst disaster in the history of the mountain. One-sentence review: Apart from being a really tense and riveting account of a brutal natural disaster in an already brutal environment, Krakauer’s account of the 1996 storm on Everest raises questions about who should be on the world’s highest mountain and whether money and fame have blinded guides and climbers to the risks of tackling the summit.

4. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty Dates Read: Nov. 20-30 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: Amina al-Sirafi, a retired smuggler and single mom on the Arabian peninsula, has to get her old band crew back together for the promise of more money than they’ve ever dreamed of when wealthy grandmother hires Amina to rescue her kidnapped granddaughter. But things go awry when the crew learns the girl is with an evil crusader with plans to unleash dark magic and monsters on the world. Inspired by the rich mythology, religions, and history of the Middle East, East Africa, and the Indian Ocean. One-sentence review:  I have not had so much fun reading a fantasy novel since I was a kid reading Harry Potter and I can’t wait for the sequel.

3. Lone Women by Victor LaValle Dates Read: Oct. 5-12 GoodReads Rating: Four stars Summary: In the early 1900s, a woman burns her parents’ mangled bodies in their California farmhouse and flees to Montana with a secret locked in a heavy trunk. One-sentence review: Frankenstein meets Calamity Jane in this horror Western about race and female friendships.

2. We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian Dates Read: Oct. 28-Nov. 9 GoodReads Rating: Five stars Summary: Two men reporting for a progressive newspaper in 1950s New York fall in love. One-sentence review: I mean, it’s journalists in love in the 1950s, and one of them is investigating police corruption and the other covered a Civil Rights meeting in DC, so of course I loved this book.

1. The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II by Judith Mackrell Dates Read: Nov. 27-Dec. 26 (during finals and holidays with family—I don’t think I could have finished the book if it wasn’t so good) GoodReads Rating: Five stars Summary: Mackrell covers the WWII careers of six journalists—a correspondent in Berlin who ingratiated herself in the Nazi Party to tell America about Hitler’s plans for world domination; a photojournalist for Vogue who took pictures from the Blitz to Dachau; a young American whose coverage of both sides of the Spanish Civil War catapulted her to journalistic stardom; Martha Gellhorn whose fury at her husband (you’ve heard of him) compelled her to illegally stow away on board a hospital ship and cover the invasion of Normandy from Omaha Beach while helping wounded soldiers; a rogue freelancer who broke the story of the invasion of Poland and whose thrill-chasing career took her from there to Greece to North Africa and beyond; and Helen Kirkpatrick, who covered the liberation of Paris while Hemingway was getting plastered at the Ritz.

Review: There is too much to say about this book. Mackrell did an incredible job. These journalists’ triumphs and tragedies play out alongside the triumphs and tragedies of the world’s biggest conflict. Each woman had different motivations and goals, from thrill-seeking to career-making, from spite to idealism to simply a love of journalism and dogged search for the truth. While Sigrid Schultz’s Chicago editor applauded Hitler’s control of Germany, Sigrid warned his readers of Hitler’s ambition. When the world turned a blind eye to Hitler’s military build-up and annexation of half of Europe, Virginia Cowles and Helen Kirkpatrick wrote furiously against Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. And while the rest of the world celebrated the end of the war in Europe, Lee Miller swept through Dachau taking pictures and refusing to ignore the human cost of fascism and war.

All of this was at great personal risk. The Nazis tapped Sigrid’s phone and searched her house until she was finally forced to flee to America in the early 1940s (where her editor promptly benched her for three and a half years). Virginia dodged bombs in Madrid, and Helen dodged bullets in Paris. And Lee Miller defiantly washed off the stink of Dachau in Hitler’s own bath, which was immortalized in a photo her equally defiant boyfriend took in the days after the Fuhrer’s death. Mackrell’s prose also gets into the nitty gritty of correspondent life, how the reporters all camped out in hotels and spent their days chasing stories and their nights drinking whiskey. She discusses the friendships and rivalries—Marth and Virginia became great friends in Spain and eventually wrote a play together satirizing the misogyny they faced during the war. And while the stars are the six I mentioned above, cameos include Mary Welch (Hemingway’s wife after Martha), Dorothy Thompson, Vogue editor Audrey Withers, and “Maggie the indestructible” who convinced an American commander to let her go on a bombing mission over North Africa, paving the way for other women correspondents on the front line after the US entered the war. Plus there are appearances from Picasso, both Randolph and Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, David Lloyd George, the Duke of Windsor after he abdicated, Hemingway of course, and half the Nazi high command. Mackrell uses the women’s own words to describe the bombing of Madrid, the mass evacuation from Paris, the refugee crises in Eastern Europe, and the Night of Long Knives in Germany. Every moment is riveting as Mackrell and the women she writes about pull you into Europe of the 1940s.

[bibliophileiz]

Reading a book called An Immense World by Ed Yong that's all about how animals use their senses to perceive their world and the first part of the first chapter is about dogs' olfactory sense. Dogs' noses and nostrils are shaped in such a way as to waft chemicals into their noses even when they're exhaling, and they capture and hold onto those chemicals so they can (if you'll excuse the human-centered visual language) paint a picture of their environment. It's super interesting, and I highly recommend it if you want a broader understanding of how animals interact with the world. Also, this puppy is fuckin cute.

Didn’t even open his eyes

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I finished Songs for the Missing today. It’s really fucking bleak. I can’t quite call it cathartic; just dull and empty in a very, painfully Midwestern kind of way.

[mrsway]

intro post !! >.<

hai!! my name’s izzy, but you can call me iz for short. i’m fifteen.. which of course makes me a minor so please don’t be a freakzoid!! i go by she/her pronouns, or she/they if you like. i have two other side blogs - @raisedbyemos and @ssharedtrauma , i spam a lot on there fyi.

about me !! :3

name - izzy/iz

age - 15

pronouns - she/her or she/they

sexuality - bisexual

likes - guitar, music, food, baking, writing stories and music, comics, sleeping

dislikes - sports, school, emo haters, homophobes and transphobes

single? - yes, unfortunately

bands i like !! :0

i loooove emo/metal/punk genres of music, but i also enjoy dad rock and indie bands aswell! for example:

- my chemical romance

- pierce the veil

- sleeping w sirens

- falling in reverse

- arctic monkeys

- korn

- slipknot

- bizkit

- catfish and the bottlemen

- bring me the horizon

+ loaaadss more!!

my favourites !! :]

- books: five feet apart, the fault in our stars, submarine, shatter me

- comics: umbrella academy, killjoys novels, marvel & DC

- films: fight club, submarine, corpse bride, coraline, beetlejuice, edward scissorhands, the breakfast club

- albums:

the black parade - mcr

the balance - catbm

popular monster - fir

misadventures - ptv

hesitant alien - gee way <3

madness - sws

best kind of mess - get scared

- people: i <3 @mrsfuentes, @betty41 and @geewayisepic

that should be all!! my messages are always open, give me a shout if you’re interested in socials or something. other than that, enjoy stalking my bizarre and utterly boring life! >w<

[bibliophileiz]

I love A Canticle for Leibowitz (author Walter M. Miller)! Also great is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, in which a troupe of musicians and Shakespearean actors travel post-apocalyptic North America performing for different communities.

Apocalyptic literature needs to be weirder. Too many psychopath lone wanderers and machine-worshipping cults, not enough people devoted to copying fanfic by hand in fandomonasteries.

[mutantceri]

Research Note 101 - Learning

The labs have opened up intern positions. And it looks like there are plenty more of us who aren't just here because it's cool.

I was able to join and be a part of this program because of my time working on the mechanics of the particle beam apparatus. But on the gene side of things, it takes a bit of an internship to understand how to make cells do cell stuff, especially when the cells are fixing creatures instead of humans.

And cells doing cell stuff is about as much as I know about it.

I sat down at a table for lunch with one of the interns today, and they were excited to talk to me! New staff always are a bit put off by my... form not being formed. But she didn't care! She wanted to go by Sprout, "for now." (There's an egg that's gonna crack in there).

I took the opportunity to get more education on the process of gene editing. Quizzed her on the bits I knew, and she would almost too excitedly fire back how the opposite side worked. As if she wants more than just a job from this.

"If a proton improperly hits a cell, what's the recovery process?" "Well, if the beam isn't fired again to 'mop up' the area, then usually the modified cells replicate and effectively eat the remains of the formerly human cell."

"Fascinating. So the cells can't just eat each other, to begin with?" "Haha, no, that's how you break down body parts. You really, really don't want healthy cells going after healthy cells."

"Fair enough! I never really thought of it like that."

"Don't you do this full-time? You've done the treatment even? But you don't understand it?"

"I don't need to fully understand it to know what the risks, and rewards are. I know there are dedicated scientists and engineers on the teams that care about the patients, including me."

"That makes sense. Doctor Ott has made sure we always think of the patient." She looked down at her books, ones of magic, alchemy, and dark arts. "I'm probably going back to university and keep learning about the other ways this can be done, just to know, you know?"

"I get that. Why are you so interested in all of this?"

The sudden question threw her off pretty bad. She studdered, trying to find an answer. I took my malformed hand, laid it on the table to get her attention, and softly said, "I absolutely understand." (There it is.)

We finished lunch, and I got her access into the accelerator/targeting room.

"This is why I was interested to start" Computers fired off actuators, and the sounds of small machinery whirred around us as the new age cyclotron whirred in an idle.

"Knowing that machines built by hands and paws; and medical technology created by hearts and minds; that gave me comfort to become this." I pointed at my anthro-ized body and smiled.

She returned to the gene development side of the laboratories, and said she would stay in touch. Add another friend to discord! Yay.

She'll never be the same after today. Maybe one day, on a cellular level. I hope the rest of her time goes well. In all of her studies.

-Ceri

[part of a collab with https://www.tumblr.com/blog/brothrbear

https://x.com/PricklyBehr pricklybehr.bsky.social ]

[fluffbeast7]

Welcome to my in development info post! This will change over time cuz im still organizing my blog ^w^'

Heya, im Bug/Fluff (choose whatever name you want, i love both :3), im a 19 year old genderfluid artist artist who's trying their best. Learning, currently learning graphic design and 3D

my dream is to illustrate a children's book one day! I love designing creatures and I'm known for being a bit of an owl lover ( but i also love mustelids!)

I have ADHD and ASD, im Brazilian 🇧🇷 and i may have trouble speaking English sometimes.

my interests: Dungeon meshi, TADC, FNAF/DCA fandom, Bugsnax, NITW, LOZ, Outer Wilds, Stray, IZ, undertale, dhmis, guardians of ga'hoole, gravity falls.

MY LINKTREE! where you will find my other socials and other stuff like refs of my ocs (that i have to update) and artfight

Tags:

My art: all my art in general

Celestial monsters AU: AU where sun and moon are part owl and part snake

Green star, red star: AU about my oc's in the fnaf security breach game

Commissions are currently closed.

my other blog for rambling and reblogging

(dividers made by strangergraphics-archive)

[bibliophileiz]

Ok, so I have a system. It seems arbitrary but I set it up very specifically.

In my bedroom is a (mostly) fiction bookshelf (but not my only mostly fiction bookshelf). The top shelf has many of my favorite books on it like Station Eleven, A Lady for a Duke, We Could Be So Good, and multiple books by some of my favorite authors like Kate Quinn, Madeline Miller, TJ Klune, Tamora Pierce, and Emily Henry. Some of the books are a little less sentimental than others but I still shelved them there for aesthetic purposes--for example, I don't love The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec as much as I love Circe by Madeline Miller, but I still love it and it seems like the two go together on the shelf. And then from there it's not a big leap to shelve Gornichec's other book, The Weaver and the Witch Queen, there as well even if I didn't like it as much as the other two (but still liked it). I also shelved the Good Omens script book on that shelf, so it made sense to put my two other screenplays there as well.

The shelf right below that is the shelf for signed copies, special editions, and memoirs. There's a tad bit extra room after that, so I slide in my four science books (An Immense World, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived--which is about DNA--The Sixth Extinction, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife) on the other side.

In the two bottom shelves, I've got a bunch of adult fiction, mostly romance and fantasy, shelved alphabetically by author.

Any books I've borrowed, either from the library or from people I know, I keep on my bed stand so I don't lose them and also so that they're in my face and I'll actually read them.

The headboard of my bed makes a little shelf, so I have more books there. They are many of my favorites, like Lord of the Rings, Good Omens, and anything by Jane Austen, but crucially they are also quite small, most of them mass market size, because much bigger and they won't fit. It's a shelf for small but special books, books I might slide out and read a random chapter of before bed.

In my living room is my History bookshelf. Most of it is taken up with nonfiction, organized by time period. The bottom shelf and a half or so is historical fiction (including historical romance) shelved alphabetically by author.

Then I have a squat bookshelf with square cubbies that make great niches for something that I don't have much of or tends to be very slim, like books of poetry. The top of it is covered in franchises, box sets, and those classics with fancy covers (I'm going to honest, they're just differently decorated versions of the Complete Works of Jane Austen). Cubbies below contain, in this order, books of mythology, then poetry, then plays, then a classic or two that didn't fit anywhere else. (A lot of myth comes to us in epic poems, and then you have the blending of playwright and poet with Shakespeare, so this seemed a logical flow to me.) In the cubbies below THOSE are my YA books, plus a couple of hardcover mythology-inspired novels. Below THOSE are some hardcover books that didn't fit anywhere else and, in the last cubby, my Royal Diaries and Dear America books that I was obsessed with as a kid.

I have a couple of slender shelves holding up a makeshift bar by my kitchen that contain magazines, books on writing and writing prompts, and popular romance novels with really cute, colorful covers. My logic here is those are the types of things a visitor may want to flip through while sitting at the bar waiting on me to finish breakfast. (Worth noting that literally no one has ever done this.)

My last bookshelf is a big one by my front door that holds a lot more than books, like my bike helmet--things I might need to grab while walking out the door. (Also, since my washer and dryer are in a closet right by it, it ends up being a way station for clean-but-not-folded clothes a lot.) But it has books as well, specifically tall and/or heavy ones--tabletop books, children's books, books with lots of pictures, etc. It also holds some hardcover books with really fun covers, like David Barry's Swamp Story.

My cookbooks are in an unorganized stack in my kitchen pantry because I never cook.

[bibliophileiz]

Ranking the Books I read in 2022

I feel really good about my bottom two and top four, but some of the middle ones may be more smushed. Also if my Goodreads stars don't always seem to line up with my rankings, it's because I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

26. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. Date reviewed: Jan. 25, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 (apparently i averaged it bc i thought the writing was good, though now i can't remember why) 1-sentence review: Every time I read a thriller, I'm like Jason Bateman pulling the bag labelled dead dove out the freezer, looking at it, and going, "I don't know what I expected."

25. Royal Diaries: Isabel: Jewel of Castilla by Carolyn Meyer Date reviewed: Jan. 11, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3, but 2.5 were for Beatriz de Bombadilla 1-sentence reivew: Isabel is insufferable and I want a biography about Beatriz de Bombadilla.

24. Love, Hate, and Clickbait by Liz Bowery Date reviewed: Nov. 9, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: The characters are terrible but it's still a good way to pass election night.

23. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske Date reviewed: June 2, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: Main couple great, sex scnes are steamy, plot reasonably creative, but overall moves slowly and most of the side characters are terrible.

22. Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton Date reviewed: Nov. 8, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: Hollywood is TOXIC and I hope Tom's living his best life in England with his brothers and his dog.

21: The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney Date reviewed: March 1, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: Hatshepsut was a boss, but Cooney's writing style could be livelier.

20. Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero by Michael Hingson Date reviewed: Sept. 27, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 (was probably generous) 1-sentence review: Super interesting memoir that taught me way more about blindness and guide dogs than about 9/11 (which is fine).

19. Husband Material by Alexis Hall Date reviewed: Aug. 16, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: Same hilarity, more emotional maturity, but Luc and Oliver didn't seem happy with each other's friends and somewhat traitorously (because I know this is the exact OPPOSITE of the point of the book) I kind of wish they'd gotten married.

18. Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey Date reviewed: April 20, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: We stan one leading lady. (Dude was ... fine I guess.)

17. Graphic Classics Romeo and Julie by Gareth Hinds Date reviewed: Oct. 25, 2022 Goodread stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Turns out graphic novels are a good way to read Shakespeare plays.

16: Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone Date reviewed: March 15, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: Goldstone's historical writing is great as always, but she should have written about French queen Blanche of Castile instead.

15. Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall Date reviewed: April 25, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Here's to the book that made me silent-laugh so hard in a restaurant that I had to put my mask back on to keep the other customers from staring at me.

14. If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy Date reviewed: April 22, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Adored everything except the love interest, who seemed to have misplaced his personality.

13. To Marry and to Meddle by Martha Waters (audio book) Date reviewed: May 5, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: My favorite so far of the Regency Vows series and I didn't even get embarassed listening to an actor read the sex scenes aloud. (admittedly i was alone in my car, but still)

12. Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake Date reviewed: June 21, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: A lovely little w/w romance with great supporting characters and a fantastic sister-subplot that was arguably as engaging as the love story.

11. Lore Olympus Volume 1 by Rachel Smythe Date reviewed: Jan. 24, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence review: Greek mythology and breathtaking artwork -- what's not to love?

10. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Date reviewed: Aug. 10, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence reivew: If you're like me and you love dark, eerie fairy tales, then this is the book for you.

9. The Bodyguard by Katherine Center Date reviewed: July 27, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 3 1-sentence reivew: I liked Wilbur and corgi-breeding stalker better than I liked Robby, which I think is what God and Katherine Center intended.

8. I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston Date reviewed: Sept. 16, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: What starts out as a seeming scathing take-down of certain John Green novels with shades of gay Mean Girls thrown in turns into something completely unexpected and wonderful and warm and welcoming.

7. Royal Diaries: Cleopatra: Daughter of the Nile by Kristiana Gregory Date reviewed: Jan. 19, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Yes, I am being indulgent ranking this so high, but she has a pet leopard and insults Roman officials in their own language.

6. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell Date reviewed: Sept. 23, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: A thoughtful and engaging take on how language shapes cultures within communities, with sometimes insidious intent.

5. Book Lovers by Emily Henry Date reviewed: July 23, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Hallmark villains in love with NYC to the point of delusion make the best protagonists.

4. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna Date reviewed: Sept. 23, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Reading this is like walking into a sunlit room on a Sunday morning. (Note: I actually switched this to rank above Book Lovers, which is a VERY big deal for me because I love Emily Henry.)

3. Signal Moon by Kate Quinn Date reviewed: Aug. 20, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 4 1-sentence review: Combining World War II AND time travel (sort of) is like hitting all my tragic romance buttons at once.

2. The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn Date reviewed: June 16, 2022 (I don't think GR has this right -- I got an advanced copy and reviewed it not long after reading it. I posted a review on Facebook on Feb. 28, 2022) Goodreads stars I gave it: 5 1-sentence review: Amazing writing, a bombshell of a heroine, and a story that makes me see, smell and hear the Eastern front -- I'm not kidding when I say this is Quinn's best book so far. (Note: I wrote that line when I hadn't read No. 1 on the list yet.)

and finally....

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn Date reviewed: July 4, 2022 Goodreads stars I gave it: 5 Entire review because I have no self-control:

Earlier this year, I said I thought The Diamond Eye may be Kate Quinn's best book. I am revising my opinion. THIS may be Kate Quinn's best book. I read it in one day, basically didn't put it down except to do work. I think the last time I did something like that, I was reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the day it came out. And I was 13.

The Rose Code has all the usual Kate Quinn Hallmarks -- great heroines, wartime stakes, swoonworthy love interests, engaging side characters, and cameos from real life historical figures (in this case folks like Alan Turing and Winston Churchill, plus a snide reference about Ian Fleming's womanizing) -- while also having a tighter story (unlike in, say, The Huntress, Quinn isn't having to juggle multiple flashbacks in this book) and what I felt was a slightly less over-the-top climax though ... it was still pretty over-the-top. I think by the time I got to it I was just in a jubilant state.

Anyway, just read this book.

Also, for a spoiler that will make you happy (but is a spoiler nonetheless) ... yes, Beth reunites with the dog.

[moonrevolutions]

🔥 for literature/books, 🔥 for movies, 🔥 for rp, 🔥 your choice—i enjoy seeing you be a hater

‧₊˚ ☾. ⋅ @guttersniper. meme. still accepting!

🔥 for literature/books.

i am a goth at heart... therefore......... let uz tawk bout edgar allen poe. ' tell-tale heart ' is supa overrated. it's v nice, it really iz, and it's studied 4 good reason but idk gorl. let it go. storywise i muchly prefer ' masque of the red death ' . which is popularr too but still lol. ' the raven ' is also overrated but in a way that like.. muhfuckas wanna wear a black turtleneck and listen to the cure and then. suddenly they think theyre deep in the subculture. bleeeeeeh.

also my real name is raven so i got teased a lot in my circle with references. not me saying a single sentence and ppl saying QUOTH THE RAVEN. shut the fuck up!!!!! ill kill you! to this day my friends tease me.

🔥 for movies.

I Don't Even Care About David Lynch Like That .

🔥 for rp.

im going to be honest. if ur one of those ppl that just rps w. ur clique while ignoring mostly anyone else? deactivate your blog and leave the rest of us the fuck alone. just leave us alone. rp with your stupid fucking clique and leave us alone. stop leaving people hanging because they dont lick ur ass 24 / 7. i hate being mutuals w. someone, seeing they have a clique or a group of lame ass friends, and then trying to squeeze in. just delete your blog.

🔥 omakase—choice of tha chef.

discord is such a shitty, janky ass app. and its so easy to infiltrate. im following several internet dramas and a lot of them stem from like.... hacked discords. why are we using this shit? why? i dont care about rp servers and shit. im from the 90s and 2000s, i can para rp and then (OOC TALK LAWL) at the same time because im not a pussy.

it's clunky, bloated, and has 0 security. can we move to WIRE? or Kakaotalk? Or Line? this discord shit is tired. maybe its the kpop stan in me but asian corpo owned message services with heavy security are superior. sorry.

why the fuck are we still using discord as the standard.

download KKT and LINE and grow up.

[goodluckdetective]

Welcome back to “Iz blogs about the original Sherlock Holmes stories” on main. I want to talk about foils!

Moriarty, of course, is Holmes foil. While Doyle invented him up solely to kill off his protagonist, he did a solid job at making Moriarty feel like a worthy villian despite his first mention and death being in the same story. Later adaptations have sought to increase his presence in the narrative to strengthen this hero-villian dichotomy: sometimes to great success and sometimes to the point of being rather overdone.

In turn, some adaptations and fans have sought to find a foil for Watson. The most common answer to who to use as a foil is Moran (Richie films, some books) which makes sense: Moran is also ex military, a good shot and has a gambling problem. It’s a solid match up and I generally agree it’s the most logical choice.

However, were I to pick someone else to serve as a Watson foil to mix it up, I’d go for Culverton Smith. The only thing him and Watson have in common is their profession, but I do think it could be a really interesting little foil if only for the fact it plays off two Watson traits: loyalty and being a doctor. Smith is a traitor of the highest order and I think that could be very interesting.

[gamesception]

It's Results Time

There was way more activity on the poll than I expected, but now that it's closed, the results are:

Cass Cain: 5 votes Morrowind: 1 votes Hollow Knight: 5 votes Sekiro: 4 votes Disco Elysium: 10 votes

Disco Elysium is way out in the lead so far, but that's just the boring old regular votes. We still have to hand out the Bonus Votes!

Yes, just like in Mario Party, here comes Toad and Koopa Troopa to invalidate all your hard work with a bunch of arbitrary bullshit!

First off, we'd like to thank each of the projects that didn't get any votes for participating, but unfortunately you can't get Bonus Votes if you didn't get any regular votes. Better luck next time!

As for our remaining projects, you're in for a special, honey-sweet treat, because we've invited our good friend Queen Bee to present her very own specialty: the Buzzy Bonus Votes! These votes are for the projects that have the most 'buzz' about them!

The first Buzzy Bonus Vote is the 'Reply Buzz' vote! It goes to the project that generated the most buzz in the poll's replies!

With a total of one reply, the Reply Buzz bonus vote goes to Cass Cain, courtesy of fellow comic book drama aficionado, Lobac! Thanks, Lobac!

...

The second Buzzy Bonus Vote is the 'Reblog Buzz' vote! It goes to the project that generated he most buzz in the poll's reblogs!

With a total of one reblog, the Reblog Buzz bonus vote goes to Hollow Knight, courtesy of fellow project idea accumulator, Red! Thanks, Red!

...

The final Buzzy Bonus Vote is the 'Dash Buzz' vote! It goes to the project with the subject that most recently organically appeared on Sception's dashboard!

With a most recent Dash appearance of 7 minutes ago, the Dash Buzz bonus vote goes to Cassandra Cain, courtesy of fellow Cass fan, aingeal98! Thanks Aingeal!

Now, zome of you might be thinking the Dash Buzz bonuz vote iz a bit unfair, zinze Zzeption followz the 'Cazzandra Cain' tag, and doezn't follow any tagz for the other project ideaz in thiz poll. But poztz wouldn't be showing up on hiz dash 'organically' if he had zkewed the resultz by following extra tagz juzt for the poll, right? Bezidez, Mario Par..., um, This Poll iz just a game! It'z not worth getting upzet about it! We're juzt having zome fun here!

...

So with the Buzzy Bonus Votes all distributed our final vote total comes to OH NO, IT'S BOWSER!!!!

Grawr! Yes, it's me, Bowser! King of the Koopas! If there's one thing I hate as an absolute monarch, it's extreme inequality! And in my opinion the results of this poll were way too extremely in-equal! So now it's time for some Bowser Brand Bonus Equality!

In the name of Bonus Equality, I'm going to give One Vote from the project that got the most votes to EACH of the other projects that got any votes at all! So that's Minus Four votes from Disco Elysium, and Plus One vote to each other Project that's still in the running! Now THOSE results are looking WAY more equal!

YOU'RE WELCOME!

...

Oh, wow. That Bowser sure does know a thing or two about fairness and equality. So, after Queen Bee's Buzzy Bonus Votes AND Bowser's Bonus Equality, the final results of the poll are as follows:

Cassandra Cain: 8 votes

Morrowind: 2 votes

Hollow Knight: 7 votes

Sekiro: 5 votes

Disco Elysium: 6 votes

Wow! What a close poll!

But we have our winner, fair and square. Sception's next blogging project is going to be reviving and continuing the long sidelined Cassandra Cain Re-read!

...

If you voted for one of the other projects, though, don't worry! I don't stick to anything for too long, so I'm sure the other projects here, particularly Disco Elysium and Hollow Knight, will get their turn sooner rather than later! Though Hollow Knight might get superseded by its sequel if Silksong is released before I get to it.

And while I may have (intentionally) obfuscated this up front, the real goal of this poll wasn't to see which project generated the most interest among my followers - as I've said in the past, I'm more than happy performing for an audience of only one. Rather, what I really wanted was to see which projects generated no interest at all. Thanks to this poll, I can put four potential projects to bed before I even started them, significantly reducing my overall backlog. I can also safely play those games on my own time without feeling any pressure to make a whole thing about it.

[all-things-skylanders]

There are two main things I'll be doing here other than just posting about Skylanders:

I make characters into Skylanders!

On this Gimmick Blog, I will take characters I like, and make Skylanders stats and learnsets! (I will not make Skylander-ized designs for them, that would be a LOT of effort to do every post).

Feel free to Ask characters to be made as well! If I know them or if I can figure out their capabilities easy enough, I'll do it! Please don't submit any majorly controversial characters, but otherwise I don't have any specific don'ts.

Stats will be done using the pre-Imaginators system of: Health, Power, Speed, Critical Hit and Elemental Power.

I make Skylanders headcanons!

It's important to note that I own very few Skylanders books, and I don't have any of the comics, but if you request headcanons of characters, then I will gladly read their wiki pages to be certain that I know everything possible. Though, I generally believe that Vibes matter more than anything. There's some cool stuff from the canon, but Skylanders was also not a franchise designed to have a lot of deep content, so very few characters are what I would consider "compelling" in their base states. (Other than Ghost Roaster, goddam does that dude have a lot on his plate)

So feel free to tell me your favorite characters, and I'll give them some fully fleshed out pasts and personalities!

I'm making a custom Skylanders game!

I won't go in depth, because there are lots of ways to find out more (Use the Skylanders: Twin Skies tag, or join the Discord), but I'm designing Skylanders: Twin Skies with the help of the community! We even have a Discord Server:

Featured Tags to Search on my Profile With: Custom Skylanders, Skylanders Headcanons, Other Skylanders Stuff, Mod Stuff, Skylanders: Twin Skies, Twin Skies Skylander

[acrazybayernfan]

Five awesome things that i discovered in this year (2022) - Tagged by @gxtzeizm. thank you so much my dear Iz <33 love y

1) I discovered a lot of new great musics, and singers, and books, and paintings, and art in general

2) I learnt how to bake brioche, epiphany cake (galette des rois) and a few more sweets. I also established the recipe of my new signature cake : le gateau de Surmain

3) I discovered some new blorbos (who I already new but without having any real interest for them before) : Jai Hindley and my three other little Aussie (Chris, Michael and Robert), Esteban Ocon and Hubert Hurkacz

4) I discovered what it is to be part of Tumblr and not only to look at some posts from the exterior, in this occasion I met you all and i'm really glad about it

5) I discovered that I'm able to overcome some of my boundaries

I'm tagging @fedalev, @pancsaa, @miasanmuller, @tam-is-blogging, @game-set-canet, @de-ligts, @lukabby (if you want of course, feel free to ignore this otherwise)

[ave-atque-vale-herondale]

honestly i’m not too sure? i read the shadow market stories as they were coming out and i low key skipped a few cause they were a little boring. i did read the last two stories that way and it was fine (i did miss parts of jessa development tho). i don’t completely remember but i think it should be fine to read them without all the other stories? as long as you read the last two in order

also omg this is iz btw!! i’m the anon from before but i’m un-anoning myself <3 i barely use my account (you can probably tell by my old username) but i’ve had nothing to do this summer and it’s bringing my tsc obsession back. feel free to message me about the books if you’d like!!

omg hey! welcome out of the confines of anonymity! I'm Wren (just realized my name isn't even in my bio, whoopsies). This blog goes in and out of service all of the time so I fully feel you

good to know. I didn't want to mess it up. I think I'm just gonna read those two tonight then and peruse the others at another time. I truly need to get my hands on TFSA anyway cause I miss Simon. Oh and TLH boxset is arriving tomorrow!

[galaxythreads]

I've started IF (chapter 3) and so far I'm in love with Isabella and Hazel ~

They are smol little kitties who need to be adopted and comforted as soon as possible

😭😭😭😭 tysm. Also DO NOT go onto my side blog for this story because is riddled with spoilers and you will regret it. My entire reading group is on book 2, so that's what I talk about. (Of which Im trying to get another chapter out soon, I promise)

Anyway yes. Hazel and Iz are smol. Very smol. And I can't stop beating them up 😭 <- the author is not sad about this