#keith donohue

[judgingbooksbycovers]

The Girl in the Bog

By Keith Donohue.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

Tagged by Docholligay and Automatuck

2024 Reading Reflections

Best three books i read this year, that are new to me. In no real order. In so far as I think they have craft, in addition to me enjoying them. 

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why by Amanda Ripley

Book I expected to love and hated: Autumn at the Willow River Guesthouse by C.P. Ward. Saying I expected to love it is a little strong. I went in for some solid autumn vibes only and knew the story would be less down my alley. The story just was not good AND it really let me down in the department of fall vibes and imagery. Like I guess it was there, but like blink and you miss it. And you know what? I'm absolutely not opposed to the romantic leads falling in love 'through letters,' but like show me any that actually build any chemistry? And don't let me spend far more time with the love interest's mom than the love interest and barely make the relationship with the mom relevant by the end. Bleh Disaster. XD

Three recommendations for when you’re drinking on a plane:

You Made a Fool out of Death with your Beauty - Awaeke Emezi (for romance readers)

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (for sci-fi/adventure readers)

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle (for horror readers

Honorary mention for western readers - Passin' Through by Luis L'Amour XD

Book I will absolutely reread: The Will to Change by Bell Hooks

Book I found overhyped: 12 Days at Bleakley Manor by Michelle Greip. Definitely wasn't worth 4 stars but I barely saw any reviews lower than that.

Author I read the most this year: Martha Wells

Favorite author I discovered: Awaeke Emezi. I sort of found them between the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, but I read two books by them this year and my most read author this year was three books sooo yeah. I think that counts XD

Reread that was better than I remembered: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark. I understood what was going on better this time. Though I still want to know what's up with Childermas. When I couldn't remember exactly how things went down, I was like 'did they reveal he was The Raven King?' but nope XD

Reread that was worse than I remembered: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. It really didn't change my opinion on the book, but while getting to catch all the hints and tells the second time was fun, it didn't make up for having to deal with an insufferable character all over again XD

Favorite nonfiction: UGH THIS ISN'T FAIR. I'm going to go with the one that was easiest/most fascinating/fun to read for this one to help me narrow down and that means I'm going to go with, today: From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Dougherty

The worst three books I read this year:

Autumn at the Willow River Guesthouse by C.P. Ward

The Last Days of the Romanovs:Tragedy at Ekaterinburg - Helen Rappaport (sorry but this was soured by then listening to a podcast that focused on the emperor's politics and seeing how much the book glossed over that so deceptively so as to seem like maybe he was just a chill guy actually who just was kind of bad at politics XD)

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue (This probably isn't totally fair but for a book that didn't make me like the characters all that much, that ending just didn't land for me)

I'M CHOOSING TO TREAT THIS LIKE A TAG GAME OBVIOUSLY. Because it's a super solid series of book questions!!

No pressure: @once-a-polecat @ecouter-bien @rosepetalrevolution

[empress-of-snark]

25 Books to Read in 2025!

For the past two years, this challenge has gotten me to finally read several books that had been collecting dust on my shelves, and while not all of them were great, I felt satisfied in getting to check them off the list.

Now for next year!

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Talking it Over by Julian Barnes

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill

The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë by James Tully

A Death in Live Oak by James Grippando

The Savage Girl by Alex Shakar

The Poisoned Pilgrim by Oliver Pötzsch

Joe Gould’s Teeth by Jill Lepore

Noises Off by Michael Fran

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

Sherlock Holmes in Dallas by Edmund Aubrey

As with the past two years, I'll be regularly editing this post and crossing off the books I've read to keep count of my progress. Wish me luck!

[retromania4ever]

Drivers who lost their lives in Formula 1 cars (🙏RIP🕯️)

Cameron Earl 🇬🇧

Chet Miller 🇺🇲

Carl Scarborough 🇺🇲

Charles De Tornaco 🇧🇪

Onofre Marimón 🇦🇷

Mario Alborghetti 🇮🇹

Manny Ayulo 🇺🇲

Bill Vukovich 🇺🇲

Eugênio Castellotti 🇮🇹

Keith Andrews 🇺🇲

Pat O'connor 🇺🇲

Luigi Musso 🇮🇹

Peter Collins 🇬🇧

Stuart Lewis Evans 🇬🇧

Jerry Unser 🇺🇲

Bob Cortner 🇺🇲

Ivor Bueb 🇬🇧

Harry Schell 🇺🇲

Chris Bristow 🇬🇧

Alan Stacey 🇬🇧

Shane Summers 🇬🇧

Giulio Cabianca 🇮🇹

Wolfgang Von Trips 🇩🇪

Ricardo Rodriguez 🇲🇽

Carel Godin De Beaufort 🇳🇱

John Taylor 🇬🇧

Lorenzo Bandini 🇮🇹

Bob Anderson 🇬🇧

Joseph Schlesser 🇨🇵

Piers Courage 🇬🇧

Jochen Rindt 🇦🇹

Jo Siffert 🇨🇭

Roger Williamson 🇬🇧

François Cevert 🇨🇵

Peter Revson 🇺🇲

Helmuth Koinigg 🇦🇹

Mark Donohue 🇺🇲

Tom Pryce 🇬🇧

Ronnie Peterson 🇸🇪

Patrick Depailler 🇨🇵

Gilles Villeneuve 🇨🇦

Riccardo Paletti 🇮🇹

Elio de Angelis 🇮🇹

Roland Ratzenberger 🇦🇹

Ayrton Senna 🇧🇷

Jules Bianchi 🇨🇵

[chavisory]

I need to try to do a JSTOR deep dive on whether anyone has done any scholarly writing on the portrayal of autism in Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child, but I can't sign in because my NYPL card is expired and I can only renew it by getting it scanned at a library branch in person and I'm out of town until October...

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Bill Maher - "This is what I believe." Yeah, you believe it, and I'm going to say why it's dumb (2008)

Larry King: Back with Bill Maher. Catholic League President William Donohue says that you really have it out against Christians, and he'd love to duke it out with you in the ring. He's a very, very passionate Catholic, as you know.

Bill Maher: Oh yes, aren't they all? I used to be a Catholic. Yes, I saw that on Keith Olbermann's show. I thought he had the right response after the man threatened to beat me up: "just as Jesus would handle it."

Well, you know, I hope we can avoid a fight. If I'm attacked, I will defend myself.

King: You expect when "Religulous" comes out to get a lot of flack?

Maher: Yeah, but I get a lot of flack anyway. But, you know, that's been their trick for hundreds of years. They say the word "faith" and somehow we all have to back off and pretend that what they believe is not destructive. And, I won't do that. And there are millions of people who won't do that. The minority that is, what I would call rationalists, that is people who don't believe in something supernatural, something that was obviously fables that were written by men before men knew what a germ or an atom was. Okay, yes we're rationalist, that's like 20% of people under 30. That's a bigger minority than lots of minorities. They just don't speak up.

I'm hoping this movie and this movement will encourage people to speak up about this. They accuse me of being a Catholic bigot. First of all, I don't have it out especially for the Catholics. I think all religions are cuckoo, okay. It's not just the Catholics. But I'm not a bigot.

Just because I wish for the demise of an organization that I think is entirely destructive to the human race, that doesn't make me a bigot. I also wish for the demise of Hamas and the KKK. Not that on every score the Catholic Church is the same as those two organizations, but to me, they are destructive organizations and I'm not a bigot because I root for their downfall.

King: But you can't offend them.

Maher: I've been doing it for 15 years and they're perfectly within their rights to be offended. But they're not going to shut me up. And they're not going to do it by saying the magic word "faith.""

This is what I believe." Yeah, you believe it. And I'm going to say why it's dumb.

[psychax]

„Najbardziej bezlitosną rzeczą na świecie jest miłość. Kiedy jej zabraknie, pustki, która po niej zostaje, nic nie może wypełnić, nawet wspomnienia.”

– Keith Donohue

[jxrm]

book log - 2016

[the year my danny was born]

what to expect when you're expected by david javerbaum

seconds by bryan lee o'malley

choose your own autobiography by neil patrick harris

the beast within by serena valentino

the secret life of marilyn monroe by j. randy taraborrelli

brave new world by aldous huxley

fantastic beasts and where to find them by j.k. rowling

harry potter: the prequel by j.k. rowling

start here by scarlett macdougal

the lake house by kate morton

84, charing cross road by helene hanff

she went all the way by meg cabot

too late by colleen hoover

november 9 by colleen hoover

confess by colleen hoover

the motion of puppets by keith donohue

the regulars by georgia clark

life of pi by yann martel

mr. penumbra's 24-hour bookstore by robin sloan

all the missing girls by megan miranda

the singles game by lauren weisberger

emails from an asshole by john lindsay

dark lover by j.r. ward

the nest by cynthia d'aprix sweeney

queen of babble by meg cabot

harry potter and the cursed child by john tiffany

after dark by haruki murakami

one hundred names by cecelia ahern

they left us everything by plum johnson

what is not yours is not yours by helen oyeyemi

boo by neil smith

the royal we by heather cocks

made you up by francesca zappia

the magic strings of frankie presto by mitch albom

the book of awesome by neil pasricha

furiously happy by jenny lawson

the miseducation of cameron post by emily m. danforth

fresh off the boat by eddia huang

everything, everything by nicola yoon

why not me? by mindy kaling

humans of new york: stories by brandon stanton

the heart goes last by margaret atwood

devil may care by sebastian faulks

the book of you by claire kendall

dirty rush by taylor bell

if i was here by gayle forman

yaqui delgado wants to kick your ass by meg medina

let's pretend this never happened by jenny lawson

people i want to punch in the throat by jen mann

something real by heather demetrios

words and their meanings by kate bassett

don't look back by jennifer l. armentrout

reality boy by a.s. king

station eleven by emily st. john mandel

revival by stephen king

please look after mom by shin kyung-sook

please ignore vera dietz by a.s. king

the yorkshire pudding club by milly johnson

52 reasons to hate my father by jessica brody

i wrote this for you by pleasefindthis

what you wish for by kerry reichs

necessary lies by diane chamberlain

the girl with all the gifts by m.r. carey

china rich girlfriend by kevin kwan

the universe verus alex woods by gavin extence

half broke horses by jeannette walls

the book of bunny suicides by andy riley

godmother: the secret cinderella story by carolyn turgeon

harry potter and the philosopher's stone by j.k. rowling

lord of the flies by william golding

[islandofmuses]

𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒏  .   ♡

tagged  by  : @reveriemxses

tagging  : whoever would like to do this!!

𝐃𝐀𝐒𝐇 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄.

⋆   what’s your phone’s wallpaper ? Its actually a wallpaper from one of those paint by nunber apps xD

⋆   the last song you listened to ? just now, my childhood boy’sband made a new version of an old song I got curious and had to listen xD

⋆   currently reading ? Angels Of Destruction by Keith Donohue

⋆   last movie you saw ? Honestly don’t rememeber, I more of tv show kinda gal xD

⋆   last show you watched ? Cold Case, I’m re-warching the show :D

⋆  what are you wearing right now ?  black leggings and an oversized tshirt 

⋆  how tall are you ? 1,62 m, I think

⋆  piercings / tattoos ? one tattoo of a heart with musical notes on my right inner arm

⋆   glasses / contacts ? As of about 2 mounts, glasses 

⋆   last thing you ate ?  eggs 

⋆  favorite color(s) ?  black and pink

⋆   current obsession ? Paint by number apps for the phone, I guess lmao

⋆  do you have a crush right now ?  I’m a long term going on 7 years relationship, so I guess yes? xD

⋆   favorite fictional character ? Oh boy, let’s see, Lorne from Angel The Series, John Carter, Lucien Dubenko & Archie Morris from ER, love Larry Underwood from Stephen’s King book The Stand, I’m sure there are more I can’t remember right now.

⋆   last place you visited ? I haven’t traveled in a while, I’m going to Porto next week, though xD

[arbitraryregistry]

Excerpt 05

Prompt: It looks different from the other side

I looked out the tinted window to rows of flowers along the narrow stone paths curling all around the area. Sparse trees were planted for customers to sit on while having a picnic, or whatever those people do when they visit this place. I could almost see the garden’s sign from up here, “Wonderflower, Relaxation Garden”. The irony of it all. If only those smiling visitors knew of the horror house standing before them. As aesthetically pleasing as the house is from the outside, the truth inside it was far from joyful.

Laying down on the bed, I willed myself into not thinking about the amount of time I had been lifelessly spread on top of it, like some kind of ragdoll. The barren walls bore themselves into my mind, while my eyes wander from the tightly shut door to the door of a wooden wardrobe containing all of my worldly possessions. There was a table and a simple chair in the corner next to my bed, of the same wooden color as everything in this suffocating room. The food tray brought a small vase of flowers with it today, a soft sweet smell reminding me of its presence all morning.

Reflection:

I made this piece after I read The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton and/or The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue. Both texts contained this sense of foreboding and uneasy anticipation surrounding them, which I tried to emulate in this short piece. In the textbook this prompt came from, there was a short piece about a beige, boring room which led me to use a similar setting.

Since this piece was for classwork, I was not able to be too explicit in my use of euphemisms. If I were to rewrite it. I would be more upfront about the protagonist's feelings, how flashes of horrifying images slip through their mind even as they will themselves to not think about their circumstances. How the sound and smell of that very room are triggering for them, and how they hate looking out the windows to happy couples and clueless children.

There are many things to note when one is deprived of certain societal sensations. In isolation, every little thing is significant, each creak and scratches seem momentous, even if it is just mice lining up the attic. The protagonist is fully aware of their situation, and so I feel if they had more room to explain themselves, we would be able to see the deep hatred festering inside of this particular character.

[rozdarte-serce]

Najbardziej bezlitosną rzeczą na świecie jest miłość. Kiedy jej zabraknie, pustki, która po niej zostaje, nic nie może wypełnić, nawet wspomnienia.

Keith Donohue, Skradzione dziecko

[cytaatyzksiazek]

Co dziecko, którym byłeś, pomyślałoby o dorosłym, którym się stałeś?

[first--lines]

Don't call me a fairy. We don't like to be called fairies anymore. Once upon a time, fairy was a perfectly acceptable catchall for a variety of creatures, but now it has taken on too many associations. Etymologically speaking, a fairy is something quite particular, related in kind to the naiads, or water nymphs, and while of the genus, we are sui generis. The word fairy is drawn from fay (Old French fee), which itself comes from the Latin Fata, the goddess of fate. The fay lived in groups called the faerie, between the heavenly and earthly realms.

  —  The Stolen Child (Keith Donohue)

[moon-mahina]

Fui só eu?

Vocês já leram "O menino que desenhava monstros"? Porque eu realmente quero saber se só eu achei ele ruim.

A história se passa em um lugar com uma pequena população onde uma família começa a ser assombrada por monstros e seu filho estranho gosta de desenha-los. Não li muito, mas o que eu parei eu realmente não gostei, esperava tanto do livro e acabei achando tão chato a leitura. A capa e linda e maravilhosa como todos os livros da Darkside, mas eu realmente não consegui ler a história que estava tão empolgada. Nem sei se melhora, só sei que flopei por não conseguir engolir os personagens e narrativa. Parecia que estava lendo novamente "Til" que era uma leitura cansativa de mais pra mim.

[chavisory]

When you're actually in Pittsburgh for the first time, if you haven't been before, you really start to understand the vibe Keith Donohue was going for in Stolen Child...

Because being up in the hills in the evening is both very beautiful, and...very fundamentally unsettling.

[reading-of-ongoing-life-crisis]

This was a really good book 9/10 it’s about a changeling and the kid he switched with, it follows both of their lives. The child becoming a changeling and the changeling learning how to be human again.