#loving that my TBR pile keeps growing

[helloliriels]

Ty for the tag! @anyawen @totallysilvergirl @raina-at @topsyturvy-turtely & @dragonnan ! Love seeing what everyone's been writing! 💕 Currently working insane hours and no time to write (but hopefully soon! 🤞🙃🫰)

💌 FIRST LINE TAG 💌

*rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to ao3. if you have less than 10 fics, post first line of all your fics.*

It Belongs In A Museum

“John … I thought you said this was a library?”

(a little surprise tribute to the fluffbruary crowd)

My Bloody Valentine

Sherlock dusted his knuckles ... pulled back and struck with all of the force he could muster ...

Sleepless in London

“What’s your name?” The radio host asked, encouragingly, “you sound younger than our usual callers?”

A Place to Call Home

Sherlock stared at the postcard … It was not every day you received a 'Happy Holidays' from a stranger … ? on a postcard … ? from across the pond ... !

The Shape of Us

It had devastated John …seeing Janine go in to share a bath with Sherlock. Why it still bothered him a year later … he didn't know.

The Picture of Baker Street Gay

“Stand still! Why-? Haha … Why are you fidgeting?” John couldn’t help laughing, as Sherlock looked almost physically pained to be holding still.

Remember Me

Mummy was walking too fast. Sherlock tugged on her sleeve. Once. Twice. Three times. Then stopped and stomped his little foot, with a huff.

(A fic for Remembrance Day & the WWI knitted soldier)

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, DETECTIVES & DATES

“He called me a twink? I’m not a twink, John. My gear is top tier raid lvl, BiS … all except for my staff?! I don’t understand."

(Not So) Fake Fic Titles

Sherlock missed this. The smell of old books. Paper. Dust. Memories. And John … John just standing there … (last march, this got out of hand. Technically, it's 125 ficlets or thereabouts)

I Can't Feel My Face When I'm With You

"I must be in love," the younger man stated plainly, eyes bleary and unfocused as John pulled him off the dump heap he was calling a bed …

Hop on in! @fluffbyday-smutbynight @7-percent @thelazyecrivain @fuckyeahfightlock @momma2boys @khorazir @janetm74 @john-smiths-jawline @myriath @fawnhickory

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #55 – The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

Introduction

The Spear Cuts Through Water was one of my favorite reads of last year, and I’ve been meaning to get around to Jimenez’ other work basically since I finished it. Months and months later, my TBR pile and the library’s hold queue cooperated and I finally got around to it. Of the two, you can definitely tell Birds is the debut novel, but despite the roughness I can’t help feeling like it's also the one I prefer. I do have complaints (of which, more below), and the story certainly has issues with structure and allocation of wordcount, but this really is the rare book where I feel no compunctions whatsoever giving five stars.

Knowing myself, this isn’t entirely unrelated to how fucking heartbreaking it is at points.

Synopsis

To brutally over-summarize, the book follows Nia, a starship captain hauling crops on a freight route from a ‘resource world’ to Pelican Station, one of the great centers of human civilization and Allied Space. Due to the peculiarities of faster than light travel, the round trip that is for her and her crew experienced as a span of months is for the people at both endpoints an absence of fifteen years – a convenient way for her to keep making the same mistakes as far as personal connections and relationships go. On the last loop of the route before her contract is completed, she finds herself taking care of a mute, deeply traumatized young boy discovered miraculously unharmed by the locals in what seemed like a fiery wreck. The boy – at first nonverbal, inexplicably a musical savant, deeply traumatized and mysterious in a hundred different ways – finds his way into her heart to the point that even after they return to Pelican and he’s been turned over to the security services, she can’t stop trying to find out what happened to him and making sure he’s alright.

It’s at this point that the two of them come to the attention of Fumiko Nakajima, the Millennium Woman – designer of the five great stations at the heart of Allied Space, and (thanks to the magic of cryo-sleep and FTL time differentials) one of the last survivors of long-dead Earth. She sees in the boy the possibility of something miraculous – truly instant interstellar travel – and so hires Nia and a few reliable agents to take him into Fringe Space, safely out of view of any of her ‘friends and colleagues’ who might take a similar interest in him. For fifteen years. The story then reveals itself to be one of, basically, child-rearing and coming of age – at least until the moment where the child’s miraculous abilities really do reveal themselves, and all at once things get much, much deadlier.

Structure

The book is – not quite incoherent (the thesis is very clear), but certainly unfocused. At first I thought that was rather the point – the first three chapters are each incredibly effective, melancholic short stories in their own rights'; each leapfrogging into the perspective of a character whose actions or legacy shaped the previous, but with dramatically different casts, setting and plots. These are almost certainly the most aesthetically successful and artistically disciplined sections of the book, and as I read them I assumed it would continue in the same vein for the entire book.

It does not – the book settles very firmly into being the story of Nia and the boy who is later named Ahro. The middle of the book is an almost light-hearted coming of age story, spread across the years Ahro spends growing up in the Galactic fringe with his ragtag accidental family. The final act then dramatically shifts tone again, becoming largely about recovering from betrayal and the destruction of your life, and of striving in defiance of all sense and reason to reconnect with someone you love.

There are, then, three very different vibes here, and I can’t say the shifts between them are handled with the most grace in the world. The book absolutely never stops experimenting with style either, shifting voice, perspective, level of detail, and even format (several chapters are relayed as diary entries) basically whenever the mood strikes it. It absolutely feels like an incredibly talented author showing off a bit beyond their limits – you can see the seams, the allocation of effort between the parts is...questionable, and there are a couple vital characters/subplots who just needed another chapter or two of focus – but it’s the sort of messiness that leaves me incredibly endeared.

Love, and its Discontents

Those first three chapters are essentially short stories connected by setting and a character or two – but most of all they’re connected by theme. Each is, one way or another, the story of the protagonist falling in love – the sort of love that defines a life, that cuts you to the core whenever you remember it – and then having that love fail, leaving the lover damaged or lessened in a way that never quite heals.

Things do not stay quite so melancholic, but for a story whose whole climax is centered around the quite literally metaphysical and reality-shaking power of pure love this book has a bracingly tragic sensibility of it. Love is hopelessly one-sided, or turns rancid with resentment for just long enough to make sure it can never be restored again. Romances end in betrayal and murder, bonds both sororial and paternal in half-thoughtless abandonment, soul-deep friendships in vicious arguments and a severing of ties. Love, the book says, is deeply contingent and often more transitory than it seems – and if it isn’t, that can do far more harm than good.

Nia as a protagonist has plenty of baggage about this. She’s introduced as a woman with deep abandonment issues – that is, she keeps abandoning people and then feeling bad about it (her ship is the Debby, after the kid sister who lived and died seeing her for a few days every fifteen years due to the time lag of interstellar shipping). She latches onto protecting and caring for Ahro almost more as an attempt at redemption for herself as anything about the boy himself, it’s only over time she really grows to love him as more than a talisman.

I can’t say it was particularly well-spent time, but the book does something I love at least the idea of. Nia’s crew is introduced in the second chapter with a fair amount of detail and personality, each of them having little idiosyncrasies and distinguishing habits and virtues; one is a best friend she found stranded on a wrecked hulk and nursed back to health. The whole dynamic is that of the grumbling and bickering but affectionate found family crew you’ve seen in a thousand other stories. So when she commits to spend up to fifteen years of her life taking care of Ahro on the galactic fringe in exchange for truly unbelievable amounts of money, she sits down with them, tells them the score, and asks them if they trust her enough to come with her.

And all but one of them say no, and never show up in the story again. Which is possibly the first time I have ever seen that kind of scene not end with re-commitment and affirmations of trust from at least most of the real characters that were asked.

This makes the whole found family situation with Nia, Ahro and (most of) the second crew that do spend years in the outskirts of ‘civilized’ space with them works for me far, far better than these things usually do. Because, unlike functionally every piece of fiction I can think of that’s ever been promoted as being about found families, this one really does sell it as something precious and exceptional, rare and worth fighting to preserve.

It also gets all but three of the people involved killed, of course, and of those three one’s permanently crippled and death would probably have been kinder for the second. The book’s really big on stretching ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ to the absolute breaking point – right up to someone choosing not to die despite an existence of nothing but torture and pain just for the infinitesimal bit of hope and connection of a loved one singing through the prison bars.

The Banality of Evil

The villain of the piece is, without question, the monolithic and monopolistic Umbai Corporation, something between a neocolonialist conglomerate and a sovereign, expansionist empire in the classic sense with a few affectations from its earthborn roots (the specifics of the politics of Allied Space are vague and in any case more impressionistic than anything like a detailed speculative political economy). Which is kind of fascinating, in that it is specifically the Corporation as a corporate body that is the villain – agency and responsibility are spread across whole bodies of Allied nobility and corporate Judiciary officials, armored Yellowjacket thugs and career-minded techs and surgeons. There’s no CEO or President, no Board of Directors who set the agenda and bear ultimate responsibility – there’s no face to it at all, really. I’m fairly sure no agent of the company ever even appears twice. Which is just interesting on its own terms, given Umbai as an entity defines both the setting and the plot to dramatic degrees.

The world of the Vanished Birds is a horrifying dystopia in a hundred different ways, but until the very end of the book this just isn’t really something any of the characters particularly care about. It’s in the incidental details and the little asides in the exposition – that there is a great apparatus of censorship on every Allied world dedicated to controlling and slowing the rate of linguistic drift to ease the flow of time-shifted commerce, that the culture and economy of Umbai ‘Resource Worlds’ are societies deliberately starved of information and culturally engineered to be easily managed and quiescent single-commodity resource exporters. Even in the distant past, Umbai and institutions like it used their control over the Ark Ships escaping earth to filter the species – denying berths to (among a great many other things) anyone of ‘problematic’ politics or who seemed likely to be an economic burden.

It’s a universe where this system seems to spread inevitably and irresistibly, everything valuable bought up and parceled out for the benefit of the system’s functionaries diligent enough to save for occasional vacations, and the nobles and officials in the vaunted heights of far-off stations and City-Planets (the allegorical applicability is left as an exercise for the reader, a bit of restraint I did appreciate).

It is, again, not a system that’s worth analyzing as a speculative political economy or technical exploration of neocolonialism either present or future – but it’s not trying to be, either. And it works very well at seeming like a real, functioning world that the characters are just trying to live in.

The Anthropocene

Going off where most of its wordcount is spent, I’m not sure you could really call Birds climate fiction. But if someone was making that argument, I’m not sure you have too much ground to stand on arguing you shouldn’t either.

Fumiko’s first chapter, read as a stand-alone short story, absolutely is – the story of a love affair between genius savant designing the great orbital habitats which will sustain a lucky slice of humanity in the stars, and a talented but less world-shaping scientist doing what she can to lighten the burden of the remaining four fifths of the species being left behind upon the increasingly uninhabitable earth. This is where the book’s title comes from – the gradual disappearance of the birds Fumiko loved as a child, even from the sanctuary trying so ferociously to preserve them.

The world presented in that chapter feels just barely familiar enough to be unsettling, a scarred and fortified world that’s still on a clear and irreversible decline – which might be either chicken or egg to the fact that the commanding heights of government and industry have given up trying to save it entirely to focus on an escape to the stars.

For the rest of the book, environmental collapse isn’t really a topic that much comes up – though the human shaping of and impact on the environment certainly does. It’s just largely a matter of deliberate engineering.

There is, however, a very easy allegorical reading of the fact that on discovery of a way to travel instantaneously between stars, Umbai ruthlessly exploits and monopolizes it to attain unprecedented degrees of power and wealth as they reshape the entire galactic economy – all of galactic civilization, really – around the new technology. All without the slightest thought or care that this new technology is based on harvesting a specific and finite resource and their brave new world will collapse entirely without it. Omelas-child instead of oil but still – not exactly subtle, but I do appreciate the book restraining itself from directly and explicitly pointing it out.

Fumiko

The ‘millennium woman’ is probably the most interesting single character in the book, and also almost certainly the biggest structural weakness in the whole thing. Which is annoying to me, personally. She simultaneously has some of the best chapters of the book and also ends up feeling like a ball being tossed around as the plot requires.

Her Methuselah existence is only vaguely justified and explained, and it’s entirely unclear just how exceptional she is (beyond the fact she isn’t unique, anyway) – the story never even gestures to the existence of any of her peers beyond vague mentions of the Umbai executive class or Allied nobility. She’s an oligarch-savant with nigh-infinite resources and cadres of loyalists installed in every institution worth owning – until a single mistake is made and the powers that be unite in a perfectly coordinated strike to kill them all and leave her stranded in the torn up ruins of her private research colonies among the corpses of two thousand executed minions.

A character being ruthlessly crushed without warning or chance of contesting it by the powers that be rings more true when the character isn’t one of them, I suppose? As it was, it felt like being dropped into the climax of a story without any of the rising action.

The effect is, I think, at least mostly intentional. The entire chapter is about Fumiko being so distracted with the failures of her memory and a complete preoccupation with her latest project (Ahro) that she cannot even pretend to remember or care about this whole vast infrastructure she has built up for her own advancement and curiosity, or the hundreds of followers who treat her as a living saint (to the point of not even remembering her friend, confidant and second in command until the moment before he’s executed for, in essence, her failing to consider the consequences of breaking a minion’s heart). The fact that there’s a battlecruiser en route to bury everything she’s built in napalm and she just forgot to do anything to prepare is actually very plausible. In which case, I just wish it had been ore dwelt upon and made a point of. Or just – it felt like she really needed another chapter or two from her POV before things go horribly wrong, I suppose?

Her chapters are very well-done and affecting, to be clear. And her mirrored character arc with Nia – both women who get a certain pleasure out of other people caring about and being more invested in them than they are in return, both dealing cosmically poorly with rejection, both forever decorating their life in half-conscious memory of someone they left behind – is both well done and compelling (Nia gets better, Fumiko’s story in an elaborate murder-suicide/terrorist attack).

Too Long; Didn’t Read

Beautiful, emotionally affecting book. Very much a debut work from a talented author – experimenting and showing off a bit more than be supported, some fundamental structural weaknesses – but nothing I found detracted from the experience. Actually one of the quite rare books where sitting down and writing out a review has made me like it more rather than less.

[golden-flute]

I’ve got Hualian brain rot and have to rant about one smaller part from book 3 that, for some reason, ended up being one of the most memorable moments in the series for me. (Spoilers for tgcf books 3 and on)

.

.

Remember when Xie Lian was hunting Cuocuo down and got the needle embedded in his foot? And then after Hua Cheng gave him their first “kiss of life,” he realized Xie Lian was wounded and took him home to perform minor surgery?

I. Love. That. Moment???

I’ve seen others talk about it too, and I think what I loved most about it is it’s such an intimate scene. Xie Lian isn’t used to being cared for in this way, at least not anymore, so it really is challenging for him to accept help, especially since he’s also battling his growing feelings for the guy who just kissed him and is now handling his injured foot (an arguably intimate gesture).

I love all the implications this moment brings. I love how gentle and understanding Hua Cheng is, and how receptive he is to Xie Lian’s discomfort about the whole situation.

Other fans have mentioned this too, but I also found it interesting that Xie Lian, who is known for his inhumanly high pain tolerance, actually expressed pain in this scene. Bai Wuxiang, Qi Rong, and others had reveled for so long in his physical and mental suffering that it became ingrained in him to keep a stiff upper lip to avoid fanning the flames of their hatred. Trusting Hua Cheng with his pain as well as his injury turned this little scene into a beautiful moment where Xie Lian learned he could actually express himself without fear of punishment.

It’s romantic and sweet, yes, but it also explores Xie Lian’s inability to accept help and Hua Cheng’s desire to show him that he’s worthy of asking for help when he needs it.

I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS SCENE. 💕 If they green-light more TGCF donghua seasons, I imagine we might get this moment in season 4. At least, I hope we can. I feel like it would be possible to avoid censorship by taking advantage of the already baked-in subtext.

I finished reading the novels like a month and a half ago now, but I already want to re-read them. My TBR pile is giving me anxiety. 😬 😭

Ugh, I love this series so much. 💕

[richincolor]

New Releases

All of these books look interesting to me. I don't even know which book I want to add to my TBR reading list first. 

Gita Desai Is Not Here to Shut Up by Sonia Patel Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books

It’s eighteen-year-old Gita Desai’s first year at Stanford University, and it’s a miracle she’s here and not already married off by her traditional Gujarati parents. She’s determined to death-grip her good-girl, model-student rep all the way to medical school, which means no social life or standing out in any way. Should be easy: If there’s one thing she’s learned from her family it’s how to chup-re—to “shut up,” fade into the background.

But when childhood memories of her aunt’s desertion and her then-uncle’s best friend resurface, Gita ditches the books night after night in favor of partying and hooking up with strangers. Still, nothing can stop the nagging voice in her head that’s growing louder and louder, insisting something’s wrong… and the only way she can burst forward is to stop shutting-up about the past.

Click below to read about all of this week's new releases.

Ida, in Love and in Trouble by Veronica Chambers Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Before she became a warrior, Ida B. Wells was an incomparable flirt with a quick wit and a dream of becoming a renowned writer. The first child of newly freed parents who thrived in a community that pulsated with hope and possibility after the Civil War, Ida had a big heart, big ambitions, and even bigger questions: How to be a good big sister when her beloved parents perish in a yellow fever epidemic? How to launch her career as a teacher? How to make and keep friends in a society that seems to have no place for a woman who speaks her own mind? And – always top of mind for Ida – how to find a love that will let her be the woman she dreams of becoming?

Ahead of her time by decades, Ida B. Wells pioneered the field of investigative journalism with her powerful reporting on violence against African Americans. Her name became synonymous with courage and an unflinching demand for racial and gender equality. But there were so many facets to Ida Bell and critically acclaimed writer Veronica Chamber unspools her full and colorful life as Ida comes of age in the rapidly changing South, filled with lavish society dances and parties, swoon-worthy gentleman callers, and a world ripe for the taking.

Till the Last Beat of My Heart by Louangie Bou-Montes HarperCollins

When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for sixteen-year-old Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it’s also part of his family’s legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob’s Barrow wind up at Jaxon’s house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn’t usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon’s world is turned upside down.

There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian’s running on borrowed time—and it’s almost out.

As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good.

The Rez Doctor written by Gitz Crazyboy & illustrated by Veronika Barinova HighWater Press

Young Ryan Fox gets good grades, but he’s not sure what he wants to be when he grows up. It isn’t until he meets a Blackfoot doctor during a school assembly that he starts to dream big.

However, becoming a doctor isn’t easy. University takes Ryan away from his family and the Siksikaitsitapi community, and without their support, he begins to struggle. Faced with more stress than he’s ever experienced, he turns to partying. Distracted from his responsibilities, his grades start to slip. His bills pile up. Getting into med school feels impossible. And now his beloved uncle is in jail. Can Ryan regain his footing to walk the path he saw so clearly as a boy?

Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian HarperCollins

From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns.

Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship—and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.

Desert Echoes is a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection.

Between the Pipes Story by Albert McLeod with Elaine Mordoch and Sonya Ballantyne (Contributor) & illustrated by Alice RL HighWater Press

Thirteen-year-old Chase’s life and identity should be simple. He’s the goalie for his hockey team, the Eagles. He’s a friend to Kevin and Jade. He’s Kookum’s youngest grandchild. He’s a boy. He should like girls.

But it’s not that simple. Chase doesn’t like girls the way that the other boys do. It’s scary being so different from his peers. Scarier still is the feeling that his teammates can tell who he is—and that they hate him for it. If he pretends hard enough, maybe he can hide the truth.

Real strength and change can’t come from a place of shame. Chase’s dreams are troubled by visions of a bear spirit, and the more he tries to hide, the more everything falls apart. With the help of an Elder, and a Two-Spirit mentor, can Chase find the strength to be proud of who he is?

“Between the Pipes” explores toxic masculinity in hockey through the experiences of an Indigenous teen.

They Thought They Buried Us by NoNieqa Ramos Carolrhoda Lab

Horror fan and aspiring film director Yuiza gets a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As one of the few students of color at Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy, Yuiza immediately feels out of place. A brutal work-study schedule makes it impossible to keep up with the actual classes. Every expense, from textbooks to laundry, puts Yuiza into debt. And the behavior of students and faculty is… unsettling.

Yuiza starts having disturbing dreams about the school’s past and discovers clues about the fate of other scholarship students. It’ll take all Yuiza’s knowledge of the horror genre to escape from Our Lady’s grasp.

How to Lose a Best Friend by Jordan K. Casomar MTV Books

For as long as anyone can remember, Zeke Ladoja and Imogen Parker have been best friends. Their classmates, their parents, and even the school custodian think that they’re meant to be together. And that’s exactly what Zeke wants: for Gen to be his girlfriend. Now that she’s about to be sixteen (and allowed to date), Zeke is finally going to tell her how he feels—in front of everyone at her birthday party.

Imogen loves Zeke with all her heart, but only as a friend. The pressure to be with Zeke has sometimes been overwhelming, but up to this point, she’s been able to manage it. Then she falls for the new boy, Trevor Cook, and she knows the news will devastate Zeke. The last thing she wants to do is hurt her best friend, but she also resents the fact that no one seems to care about what she wants.

The night of Gen’s party, everything goes wrong. There’s backlash, most of it directed at Gen, and Zeke feels emboldened. He isn’t about to give up on his feelings, and he’ll do whatever it takes to prove that she made the wrong choice…even if it means destroying their friendship. But Gen isn’t about to give up on fighting for herself and the freedom to love the boy she wants, not the boy she’s expected to be with.

[raccoonfallsharder]

When I saw the first guardians film in middle school, my love of our favorite raccoon began. Finding a community of Rocket lovers after keeping it silently inside for so long is special (in a way I can't articulate without sounding goofy bc it's an anthropomorphic raccoon we're talking about here). I graduate from college this weekend and want to thank you for your stories getting me through hard times and motivationless days. It's given me a knew way to enjoy the movies I've watched so many times :) What was the media that got you super into Rocket and inspired your fiction writing? Much love!!

first and foremost, i want to congratulate you. school is not easy, and i swear it gets harder and feels more high-pressure/high-stakes every year. i hope that your time at college has given you more learning experiences than all-nighters, more opportunities than stressors, and more joy than hardship. and i hope that you are able to take everything you’ve earned and enjoy your freedom from university surrounded by good people, with plenty of time and resources to do the things you love. if you haven’t yet, please take time to sit and breathe and really soak up the fact that you did this. be proud of yourself. you fucken deserve it.

secondly, i read this while walking to the parking garage at 11pm after helping at an event for my college students (i work at a university) and i had to sit in my car and wait till i stopped tearing up so i could drive home. this truly made me so happy and im so glad my silly stories made things even just a little easier for you. ♡

so, my falling in love with rocket was a process. (cue me narrating this for three paragraphs like a schoolgirl with her first crush)

when we first saw rocket’s back in gotg1 i was like, oh. he’s in so much pain. between that + his fucken sarcasm, i complained afterward that the movie would’ve been so much better if he was the main character (lol). i started lazily dabbling in comics content then. i hadn’t been big into marvel comics before (more of a dc/image comics kid) but rocket and groot were becoming my faves. i loved gotg2. so much more focus on rocket, and yondu’s arc had me bawling like a baby. gotg2 made me like gotg1 more, which is part of how i judge the quality of a narrative series tbh (and why i think series are so hard to make). when the first gotg3 trailer came out and it was clear this was rocket’s story, i was obsessed. i didnt watch any additional trailers or read any more comics — rare for me. i wanted to go in completely blank. then i went back to the theatre to rewatch it three additional times (i have never before gone to see a movie more than once in the theatre). i was like… almost bursting with love for this stupid raccoon at this point.

then i got around to reading his grounded comic arc, and it was like — the dam burst. i hadn’t written fanfiction since 2017ish, and hadn’t been on tumblr since 2016, but i was like — i have to write about this fucken raccoon. i need to take care of him lol.

so when you ask what media - i guess all of it? in increments? because of course now ive watched most of his various cartoon incarnations, read probably 70% of the comics content, halfway through a stream of the 2021 game, have one of the novels (sitting on the tbr pile) and frankly the love just continues to grow.

now that ive taken up thirty-two years of your life, i just want to say im so glad you found this fandom and this community. he may be an anthropomorphic raccoon but he’s meaningful to people, in so many ways. im so very very glad that he could be that for you, and that you’re here.

congrats again, nonnie. i hope post-graduation life rewards you with supportive people who love and understand you, with joyful new experiences, good health, and everything you need to live happily and fully.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Batty About Books' September Recap

🦇 Good afternoon, my bookish bats, and welcome to the end of September! This year is rushing by, but my TBR pile just keeps growing! Is that my own fault because I keep grabbing ARCs and ignoring my buying freeze? Why yes, yes it is!

❓ What was your favorite book for the month?

📚 This month, I read 10 books! September's reads included:

✨ A Crown So Cursed by L.L. McKinney @ll_mckinney ✨ Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis @kayvionclewis ✨ Persephone Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer @tristamateer ✨ A Pretty Implausible Premise by Karen Rivers @karenrivers ✨ She-Hulk Vol. 1: Jen, Again by Rainbow Rowell @rainbowrowell 💜 Lies and Other Love Languages by Sonali Dev @sonali.dev ✨ Kween by Vichet Chum @vichetchum ✨ The Hidden Language of Cats by Dr. Sarah Brown @drsarahbrown ✨ Sleepless in Dubai by Sajni Patel @sajnipatelbooks 💜 Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey @rachelslacey

🦇 I'm 83% into my reading goal of 100 books for the year!

🦇 What book are you looking forward to most for October? Here's to another amazing month of enchanting, spell-binding reads (gimme all the spooky vibes and witchy reads)!

[9thbutterfly]

Tiny book reviews:

(trying to read more again, and to ease myself back into reviewing the books, too)

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

finished Dec. 28, 2023

I know everyone loves Neil, but I honestly spent most of the time going, "yeah, but what's the *point*?" Like, okay, it's sad for the gods if they die, but does it have any impact on the rest of the world?

All about Green, by ?

finished Dec. 29, 2023

I had no idea why this was in my tbr pile or where it came from, but it was a quick read, so whatever. The last page revealed that it was distributed by one of my wholesalers.

It was ridiculous. Various bloggers - or probably, "influencers", these days - introducing themselves, and talking about how much they love plants. "Oooh, I love houseplants so much, I have so many" And you look at the photos of their house and you need a magnifying glass to find any plants. "Yeah, we grow so many vegetables, one year we even had 9 different tomatoes" Ma'am, I could introduce you to five people who grow more than a hundred without even thinking very hard. Ridiculous.

Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal

finished Dec. 30, 2023

Also meh. Constantly waiting for some proper conflict. The blurb said something like, "when her family comes under threat", and I kept waiting for a threat and there just wasn't one.

I was going to put it in the donation box, but it looks like the sequels might have higher stakes, so I guess I'll keep it for a while and give those a chance.

[m34gs]

Reader ask meme: A2, B5, C10, D10!

Thanks for the ask, friend! (from this post) Very excited to answer these! I love reading :D

A.2: How did you find your first fic?

So first fanfic; I actually was personally shown it by the author. I didn't have a lot of internet access growing up (and absolutely no unsupervised internet access until much closer to high school than I want to admit). My cousin wrote a self-insert fanfic for a popular band and read it out to me when we visited her at her house. I thought it was fantastic and so creative and am super proud of her always!

B.5: Which story have you read more than any other? How many times?

Ok, so let me preface this with: It takes a lot of time for me to reread something, because I have a very very very good memory when it comes to books and stories, so to relive the story often all I have to do is just think about it. That being said, when enough time passes or if I want the exact wording because it just really struck me, I will then reread things. Not rereading something is not an indication that I don't enjoy it, it just means likely enough time hasn't passed for me to feel the need to read it again. I can still enjoy it by thinking about it and 'rotating it in my mind' as we say.

The question here doesn't seem to be specific to fanfic, so my honest answer would have to be: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I have read it 5 times so far.

C.10: What book could you just never get into, no matter how hard you tried?

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Vern. I think the concept is great. I love stories about the ocean. I love sea creatures and sea monsters and the like. But the opening is just so dry (yes, pun intended, sorry not sorry).

It might also have to do with the fact the first time I tried to read it I was 12. Then again when I was 15. I just couldn't get past the first couple of paragraphs. It's more than a little wordy. Though, perhaps I would feel differently now that I've read "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens (my expectations were great, but I was sorely disappointed. Just not my type of story I suppose. Read it for school.) but I have no desire to really pick it up at this point and I already have a TBR list a mile and a half long that I keep adding to.

D.10: What is one story idea you really want to read but no one has written yet?

Hmm, I don't know if there's a story idea I want that absolutely no one has written yet...but there are many I want to read that I've been unable to find. I mean, just take a look at my own writing, it's full of stuff I want to read but can't find; of course with some more common things mixed in. Basically, I've gotten to the point where if I want to read it and it doesn't exist or I can't find it, I add it to my pile of WIPs (both fanfic and original works) and carry on.

If you'd like an example, I'd say Kalim/Idia with a yandere Kalim trying to keep Idia and Idia trying to escape. I think that'd be fun. And it's in my WIPs, but just as a concept right now.

Thanks again for the ask! I had fun answering these :)

[joe-moi]

Hi!

It's quiet and a little ... Meh so... I wanna know shit about my fellow 🥥 lovers. Pretty please? Tell me something guys!!! Talk to meeee.

🍹what's your go to order at the bar? Are there any drinks you're drinking on the regular I should try?

✍🏼what's your favorite pen? This is a very important question.

🤦🏼‍♀️I did something super embarrassing this week and now I'm fixated on thinking about it and need toWhat stupid embarassing shit did you do recently? (that you're only willing to admit because this is anon with strangers who just nerd out about the same cute guy)

👟what shoes/sneakers are everyone wearing these days? Tell me tell me!

👙 calling all girlies lurking with big knockers!!!! What suits do you fit those suckers in? What about big knockers and squishy bellies? I'm desperate for new suits but finding them is like pulling out teeth.

🧢 we all know JK has like...SO many hats. If your a hat wearer ..what's your FAV hat? What's on it?

📖 recommend a book. As if I need more to read, but....I gotta know. Summer is coming and I wanna grow my TBR pile.

Love, 🦩

I love thisssss!!

🍹- blue moon! If they don’t have that Michelob ultra. I’m beer girl. ✍🏻 - for me it doesn’t matter as long as it’s a brown ink ballpoint pen. It could be a gel pen or a bic, just as long as the ink is brown

🤦🏼‍♀️- I cried at family Easter because my sibling was mean to me. And I’m 30 years old. I also have amazing stories from being on the dating apps that are always embarrassing.

👟 - Reeboks! Old school Reeboks! I everybody’s into those like fancy tennis shoes. But I am 100% a 1980s classic Reebok sneaker girl. If you saw the ones that Joe Quinn wore last year and then everybody bought, I pretty much wear those. But I had them before him.

👙-I would also like to know the answer to what are you guys wearing to keep your tig ole biddies strapped up. I’ve had some luck with aerie. I stay far away from Victoria’s Secret and target. Most of the time I will do a one piece because it keeps everything high and tight. 🧢- I love my djo hat. I also have one for my college team, my NFL team and my MLB team, and one for my NHL team. I also have one that I got from Etsy and one for my sorority that I can no longer wear because it’s red. All of them are black. That is a must for me. 📖- if you’re into memoirs, I highly recommend how to murder your life, the things they carried, into thin air… I could go on with memoirs

[readbooksovermygrave]

Rob has spent her life running from Sundial, the family’s ranch deep in the Mojave Desert, and her childhood memories. But she’s worried about her daughter, Callie, who collects animal bones and whispers to imaginary friends. It reminds her of a darkness that runs in her family, and Rob knows it’s time to return. Callie is terrified of her mother. Rob digs holes in the backyard late at night, and tells disturbing stories about growing up on the ranch. Soon Callie begins to fear that only one of them will leave Sundial alive...

Happy New Year, everyone! Hopefully you all had a fun NYE. I spent mine finishing up this doozy. This is my first interaction with author Catriona Ward's work. I have another one of her novels, The Last House on Needless Street, in my TBR pile (and it is always being checked out from my local library before I can get my hands on it). It was a ride, and I look forward to reading her other works. Let's get in to the review, shall we? As always, the DTDD link will be here for you to check for trigger warnings.

I will be completely honest. I did not like this book at first. The primary protagonist, Rob, is a character I found to be insufferable. There weren't really any characters that I liked enough to keep me reading, but the plot was interesting enough to where I continued on. And boy am I glad I did.

What I did like, though, was how Ward sets the tone for Sundial as a setting. Few stories can make me feel like I'm in the location they take place in, but Sundial drew me in. Another thing I found enjoyable was the twists. I love a good twist, especially when I think I see it coming from a mile away and end up completely wrong (my annotations were a mess from start to finish). Ward told a great main story. However, there is a tiny gripe I have about the "secondary" plot.

Rob writes a story called Arrowood in her free time, and those stories take up chapters in the book that I personally feel bring nothing to the table in the grand scheme of things. Ward could've omitted these chapters from the book and it wouldn't have hurt it in the slightest.

Overall, I had a good time with Sundial. It was an interesting read, and the characters were painfully human. There's so much more I want to say about it, but that would spoil things and I want future readers to go into this novel with as little information as possible so that they can form their own opinions. I will say this, though: I recommend it if you like dark stories, because believe me, there are some huge shadows looming over Sundial.

Rating: 💀💀💀💀/5

[mythsyourteacherhated]

I just love going on a shopping spree at the used book store with holiday gift cards. My daunting TBR pile just keeps growing…

[thediaryofareader]

📚2023 Bookish Goals📚 My reading goal has always been on the more simple side of things. I typically set a goal of each book I want to read for the month, and because I am a mood reader it gets shot to hell and I end up reading what I feel like in that moment. While I don't necessarily want to change that, I love reading with my mood, this year I’m challenging myself (and you) to go beyond the confines of your usual goal setting and expand the goals you set #newyearsbookishresolution 🌟Resolutions 🌟 ⭐️Be more selective on NetGalley requests. 🚫DNF more books. If I'm not enjoying it to the DNF pile it goes. The DNF monster 👾 won't attack me 📌Tackle my physical tbr, restricting my buying (not incl. box boxes) to when I finish a book I can get a new book. 📖Reading lots more ARCs. I really enjoy ARCs and reviewing them for my blog and insta 📚Read more new to me authors 📖Booksta Goals📖 🚨Keep better track of my Goodreads reviews 🚨Attend my first ever author signing 🚨Attend a book conference 🚨Work with more publishers and businesses 🚨Growing by Insta by 75% by the end of the year QOTD: Happy New Year! What bookish goals are you setting for 2023? 💡credit: @what_manda_reads #2023goals #readinggoals #readinggoal2023 #readerlife #bookishlife #iamareader #booksaremylife #booksaremagic #bookstalife #readersofinstagram #booklover #bookwormlife #bookdragons #bookstababes #bookishgoals #booksarelife #bestyearyet #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #romanstagram #goalsetter #newyeargoals https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm26buRLTQn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[private-bryan]

Cheers for the tag, Coco!

1)The last book I read?

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady. It's a great autobiography of her growing up autistic and the troubles lack of support/belief she had during her teenage years and early 20s. Very funny but also very stark at the same time

2)A book I recommend?

If you're into fantasy, and you don't mind a long commitment, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is a masterpiece (excluding book 10, possibly). Specifically, my favourite is book 9, Winter's Heart.

3)A book I couldn't put down?

Barefoot Soldier by Johnson Beharry VC. Another autobiography, detailing the life of one of the few post-war Victoria Cross recipients. It's compelling, showing his childhood in Grenada up to the action in Iraq that earned him the medal saving his unit. I read it in an afternoon.

4)A book I've read twice (or more)?

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I love me a good techno-thriller, and Crichton has some masterpieces in that respect. I enjoyed The Andromeda Strain and Timeline too, but my childhood obsession with Dinosaurs (and aborted plans to be a palaeontologist) mean I keep rereading what I consider his best work, JP.

5)A book on my TBR?

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I picked it up in a charity shop last weekend, and haven't made time to read it yet.

6)A book I've put down?

Ulysses by Hames Joyce. I tried, I really did, but it just didn't grab me. Maybe I'll try it again soon when I can dedicate more time to trying to absorb it.

7)A book on my wish list?

Angel Fire East by Terry Brooks. I've read the other Word vs Void books (Running with the Demon and A Knight of the Word), but I've yet to read the final one in the series.

8)A favourite book from childhood?

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. A classic adventure story, full of pirates and lost treasure; what more is there to love?

9)A book you would give to a friend?

Hogfather, by the late, great Terry Pratchett. Any of the Discworld novels would be suitable, especially the later ones, but Hogfather is really something special, especially around Christmas. Despite being a later book in the Death series, it stands alone really well too, and is chock full of PTerry's trademark wit and humour.

[10)Take a moment and rest. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now, you may continue]

11)A nonfiction book you own?

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. It's an amazing tome, and quite weighty (which is the mark of all good books); it's a listing of all sorts of idioms, fairy tails, phrases, fables, slang, facts, and little known information. I highly recommend having a copy on your shelf, especially as a writer.

12)What are you currently reading?

On Bloody Sunday by Julieann Campbell. I picked it up at the Museum of Free Derry when I went to the city, and it's an emotional but important read. It's the story of Bloody Sunday, told by the people who were there and involved.

13)What are you planning on reading next?

Aside from the Life of Pi above, I want to read some more classic fantasy, so I've got The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin upstairs on the pile ready to go afterwards.

Tagging @areseebee, @imstressedx, and @soratobukujira as I'm curious as to your book picks too :)

13 books!

I was tagged by @consistantly-changing (thanks!) to answer these 13 questions, tag 13 people and, if desired, add a shelfie! I looove this one!

1) The last book I read:

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, which is a departure from my usual fare; I just wanted something fun and cozy. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

2) A book I recommend:

Ugh, so so many. uhhh how about The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (that whole series, really)

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

5) A book on my TBR:

A new one I'm excited about that I'm on the hold list for at the library is The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden.

6) A book I’ve put down:

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I don't know if I wasn't in the right headspace for it, or if I'm just too dumb. Probably both. I would like to try it again sometime, though.

7) A book on my wish list:

The Handbook of Bird Biology by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

8) A favorite book from childhood:

The Secret Garden. I had a really pretty illustrated copy. I still have it, actually!

9) A book you would give to a friend:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

[There is no No. 10 I guess?]

11) A nonfiction book you own:

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson ugggh it's so good

12) What are you currently reading:

Waiting by Ha Jin and The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

13) What are you planning on reading next?

I won't actually know until I get to that point. My reading mood changes with the wind. :P

And a shelfie! It's a couple months old, but I don't feel like taking a new one. (fwiw, a LOT of these are used or gifted, and I prune/donate them regularly)

Tagging @glassprism @musicalhell @bogglebabbles @les-gnossiennes-fantomatiques @rjdaae @ladystormcrow @forestscribe4 @a-partofthenarrative @jennyfair7 @pianomanblaine @lucy-ghoul @dying-suffering-french-stalkers @lestatslestits

[foreverindreamlandd]

Hey friends! So this holiday season is going to be a bit of a bummer for me (which will be pretty blatantly explained in a personal fix-it fic I plan on writing in December lol....who's ready for some Lumberjack Bucky??), and decided to do a month-long sleepover to ignore my issues in the real world! Yay!!!!

LOL for real though, I do love the holidays and watching Christmas movies and reading cheesy winter-related fics so I thought it would be fun to do this! It'll be a mix of inbox-related shenanigans as well as a writing challenge-ish type thing (aren't I amazing at explaining things? Lol).

Here is all the fun stuff I have planned

Inbox Shenanigans!

🎄 fic recs: Send me recommendations of your favorite fics to add to my ever growing TBR pile!

🎅🏼 secret santa: Anonymously write a little love letter to another blog and I'll tag them in it!

☃️ christmas cards: Send me some winter-themed asks!

🧣no context ships: Send me a random fact and I’ll ship you with a marvel/stranger things character or bucky barnes au (please tell me which you would prefer in the ask!) ((oh and if you ever wanted to ship ME with someone I’d be the happiest little bean 🥺👉👈))

🌿 mistletoe: Send me 3 people/mutuals/characters and we’ll play classic kmk (kiss, marry, kill...sorry fam but we keep it mostly PG on this blog lol).

🍪 holiday faves: Tell me your favorite holiday/winter books, movies, tv shows, foods, all the things you love about this time of year!

Winter/Holiday-Themed Writing Challenge!

Masterlist

Obviously this is a no pressure thing, it's just that I low(high)-key love holiday fics and want to read any of the ones y'all come up with ;) You're also welcome to share an old one that you wrote and just want it to get some extra love!

Here are a few ideas below! Feel free to use any of them or write something totally different that's winter or holiday themed! I will be creating a separate ongoing masterlist for submissions and will read/share as many as I can!

My only rule on this is that it cannot contain any smut in order for it to be shared on my blog. 💖

Prompt Ideas:

prompt list 1

prompt list 2

The sleepover will last for the entire month of December! Feel free to participate as much or as little as you'd like! Thank you for being so supportive of me and my blog these last 18 months <3 I'm sorry I've been a little MIA but I'm excited to spend the holidays with you all :)

No-pressure tagging some moots:

@sweetascanbee @sweetdreamsbuck @treatbuckywkisses @imaginearyparties @itistimeforusalltodecidewhoweare @rodrikstark @fandoms-writings @writing-for-marvel @carrotfantasimp @traitorjoelite @pellucid-constellations @navybrat817 @simmerandcry

Divider by @firefly-graphics

[numberonedragonmagazine]

This December, or starting November, actually, I'm going to try to make a dent in my TBR book pile. I haven't read probably half of my books and bought four more today, so it's time to get reading.

I don't have as many books as someone who likes reading probably should have, I only started collecting books after high school so it's a fast growing pile.

This is a list of all the books I have. I marked the ones I did read with ✅, the ones I have to read with ❌, and the ones I started reading but didn't finish yet with 🔶.

I'm restarting this blog to post updates, talk about the books, and hopefully get some encouragement to keep reading.

Listing Rick Riordan's stuff first because I have most of the books and read nearly all of them.

Percy Jackson

✅ The Lightning Thief

✅ Sea of Monsters

✅ Titan's Curse.

✅Battle of the Labyrinth

✅ The Last Olympian

✅ Greek Gods

🔶 Greek Heroes

Heroes of Olympus

✅ The Lost Hero

✅ The Son of Neptune

✅ The Mark of Athena

✅ House of Hades

✅ Blood of Olympus

Magnus Chase

✅ Sword of Summer

✅ Hammer of Thor

✅ Ship of the Dead

❌ 9 From the Nine Worlds (Shorts)

The Trials of Apollo

✅ The Hidden Oracle

✅ The Dark Prophecy

✅ The Burning Maze

🔶 The Tyrant's Tomb

❌ The Tower of Nero

That's it for Uncle Rick. I want to finish Apollo's series first, because of the new books releasing next year. I will add the Kane Chronicles to my collection at some point, but because of them being so unpopular, they're very hard to find.

Divergent

✅ Divergent

✅ Insurgent

❌ Allegiant

❌ Four

Stopped reading because at the end of Insurgent the book kind of went into a totally new direction. It felt like I was starting to read a different story and everything just fell apart so quickly. I did enjoy the story up until then, just never felt the need to continue reading. But I'll finish the series. Sometime.

The Hunger Games

✅ The Hunger Games

✅ Catching Fire

✅ Mockingjay

Loved it. Will read again. I know there are more books by Suzanne Collins that need to be bought, but I need to get through my TBR pile first.

Gone

✅ Gone

🔶 Hunger

Absolutely loved the first book. Read it within one weekend, which is great since I'm a pretty slow reader. I stopped reading Hunger because I wanted to buy the rest of the series before I continued but I could never find a store that sold them all and now it seems they're off the shelves. I'll have to buy the full box set and just donate the two books I have.

Alex Rider

✅ Stormbreaker

✅ Point Blanc

✅ Skeleton Key

✅ Eagle Strike

🔶 Scorpia

❌ Ark Angel

❌ Snakehead

❌ Crocodile Tears

❌ Scorpia Rising

❌ Russian Roulette

Love this series too, not as much as others but it did inspire a book I wrote in lockdown. Going to finish it. There are more books now. I think there are three or four new ones, I don't know, but I'll get them (My grocery list is getting LONG. How am I to afford all this?)

Poison Study

❌ Magic Study

❌ Fire Study

❌ Shadow Study

❌ Night Study

❌ Dawn Study

Those who are familiar with this series will notice that the first book is missing. I bought this set in a thrift store, brand new, not even a crack in the spines, but the first book is missing and I can't find it anywhere. There is one at our local version of Amazon, but the cover doesn't match the others.

Death Note

❌ I

❌III

Watched the anime until L's final appearance. These books are basically just a collection.

Game of Thrones

✅ A Game of Thrones

✅ A Clash of Kings

🔶 A Storm of Swords: 1

❌ A Storm of Swords: 2

❌ A Feast for Crows

❌ A Dance with Dragons: 1

❌ A Dance with Dragons: 2

❌ A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

❌ Fire and Blood

Making my way through these books at a snail's pace. I only read them in December because that's the only time I have enough free time to really sit down and read them. There are so many characters and plot lines that I can't keep track if I read just a few chapters at a time.

Dragon Blood (Kindle)

❌ Balanced on the Blade's Edge

❌ Deathmaker

❌ Blood Charged

Snatched when it went on sale. Free or almost free, I don't remember.

That's it for the series's.

🔶 Merde in Europe

Very funny. Loaned it to a friend who loaned it to his uncle who loaned it to a friend. By the time I got it back I was already reading something else.

✅ Good Omens

Everybody loves Good Omens. Whoever doesn't like it is a liar.

🔶 The Hobbit

I know this is a children's bedtime story, I just didn't know it's as childlike as it is. Need to finish it so I can get the rest of the series.

🔶 Dark Lover

Part of a series. Don't like. Won't finish. Will Donate.

❌ 1000 Years of Annoying the French

A history book written by the same man who wrote Merde in Europe. I paged through it before buying but haven't gotten to reading it yet.

❌ Monstrous Devices

No idea what it's about. Bought it today on clearance. Something about a magic robot.

❌ Reaper of Souls

Bought today because I've seen it around stores and kept on thinking that I should buy it someday.

❌ The Language of Thorns

Bought today. No idea what it's about. My mom showed it to me when I was at the front of the line to pay, it looked like the kind of thing I would buy. It's a hard cover and it was really cheap.

❌ Some TikTok book about some kind of trial. A navy blue book with constellations on the cover. My sister wanted to read it. She never wants to read anything so I bought it so she can borrow it.

✅ Travelling Without Moving (Kindle)

Was a good book, very imaginative. Not the kind of thing I would normally read.

❌ The Oath and Blood Price (Kindle)

Used to be Twitter friends with the author. He's pretty cool. Read the first few pages, we have a very similar writing style.

These are the books I have. I used to read a lot as a kid, but I don't have those books anymore. Read mostly Wattpad stuff as a teenager, it's what we could afford at the time.

A few books I did read but don't own:

Maze Runner. Book one.

A School for Good and Evil. Halfway through book one, trying to ignore Netflix's prompts to watch the series (movie?) instead.

The Last Five Swords. A new release. I was one of the late beta readers but unfortunately didn't have enough time to finish. It's an amazing book and part of my TBR pile now.

Harry Potter 1-3

A few more I can't think of right now.

Then there are the books I said I would buy at a later stage.

Lord of the Rings

The Silmarillion

The rest of the Gone series

Rest of the Alex Rider series

The Kane Chronicles

Poison Study

Rest of the Death Note books

How to successfully rob a bank

That last GoT book to finish the collection

Maze Runner, probably

Those assassin books by Robin Hobb

Something by Suzanne Collins

I need to write a paper list that I can check.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🦇 Batty Abut Books' November Recap

🦇 Good afternoon, my bookish bats, and happy December! This year is nearly over, but my TBR pile just keeps growing (seriously, I never want it to stop, but make it stop)! I really need to stay off Netgalley.

❓ What was your favorite book for the month?

📚 This month, I read 6 books! November's reads included:

💜 The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur a.m.bellefleur ✨ Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa @erinlarosalit ✨ For Never & Always by Helena Greer @blumagaincurios ✨ Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto @jesseqsutanto ✨ Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher @lexcanroar ✨ Coconut Drop Dead by Olivia Matthews ✨ Don't Want You Like a Best Friend By Emma R. Alban @eraofemma

🦇 I'm 97% into my reading goal of 100 books for the year!

💜 What book are you looking forward to most for December? Here's to another amazing month of awe-inspiring, entertaining, romantic reads!