#marchetta ask

[provincara]

damn Froi that’s quite a lot of confidence for someone’s who’s never done this before

[bropunzeling]

39 and 44 for the book meme, or if those have been asked please pick one you haven't answered an want to!!

answered 39 here so:

44. The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup.

oh gosh. hmm. the tamora pierce ouvre but ESPECIALLY the song of the lioness and protector of the small quartets (and daine but specifically when she decides to go apeshit and resurrect some dinosaurs). the collected works of melina marchetta, who i found as a teen and has stuck with me since. sharon shinn books are a particular kind of comforting read, where the beats are a little worn and well-trodden but still lovely each time, like your favorite beat-up blanket. ursula le guin, and specifically earthsea and the left hand of darkness, and specifically the gender of both of those. i'm STILL thinking about the radiant emperor duology and how perfect it is; same for the teixcalaan books. the raven tower by ann leckie is actually the only good use of second person pov ever im so so serious. wolf hall series????? piranesi???? the collected works of jane austen, which i read age 13 and haven't put down. and of course, discworld, because you can be funny and full of rage and joy all at the same time.

35. Least favorite trope in your most favorite book genre.

i would say i am first and foremost a fantasy fucker and so my Hot Take is that romance should be like, the b plot of any fantasy book at the MOST. preferably a c plot tbh. the BEST fantasy romances are the ones that grow on you slowly because you're so busy running around trying to save the world/learn magic/fight a war/blah blah blah and THEN you see your two little guys like oh? are they? but you have other stuff to do! other things to work out -- wait are they having a moment? and so on and so forth, until by 500 pages later you're a mess. perfect formula because you get the fun plottiness/world-building of fantasy AND bonus kissing AND i don't have to read a lot of tedious attempts at sounding horny. triple win.

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

🦘 Booklr Reads Australian - Authors on My Shelves 🐨

so, I’ve been trying to think of a way to recommend a lot of Australian authors really quickly for Booklr Reads Australian. what I came up with was just to give y’all a giant list of all the authors I have at home! 

most of them are YA and/or fantasy authors, and I’ve marked my favourites with an asterisk (*) but if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an ask 😊

1. Sarah Ayoub 2. Eugen Bacon 3. Shirley Barber * 4. AJ Betts 5. Danielle Binks * 6. Cally Black 7. Steph Bowe * 8. Alice Boyle 9. JC Burke 10. Meg Caddy * 11. Frances Chapman 12. Wai Chim * 13. Claire Christian 14. Lyndall Clipstone 15. Claire G Coleman 16. Katherine Collette 17. Harry Cook 18. Cath Crowley 19. Robyn Dennison 20. Cale Dietrich 21. Lauren Draper 22. CG Drews * 23. Michael Earp 24. Kate Emery 25. Sarah Epstein 26. Alison Evans * 27. Fleur Ferris 28. Carly Findlay 29. Helena Fox 30. Lisa Fuller 31. Emily Gale 32. Meg Gatland-Veness 33. Sophie Gonzales 34. Erin Gough * 35. Leanne Hall * 36. Pip Harry 37. Sonya Hartnett 38. Adam Hills 39. Simmone Howell 40. Megan Jacobson 41. Amie Kaufman 42. Melissa Keil 43. Nina Kenwood 44. Sharon Kernot 45. Kay Kerr * 46. Will Kostakis 47. Jay Kristoff 48. Ambelin Kwaymullina 49. Benjamin Law 50. Rebecca Lim 51. Gary Lonesborough * 52. Kathleen Loughnan 53. Miranda Luby 54. Tobias Madden 55. Melina Marchetta 56. Ellie Marney * 57. Freya Marske 58. Jodi McAlister * 59. Margot McGovern * 60. Nikki McWatters 61. Anna Morgan 62. Jaclyn Moriarty 63. Liane Moriarty 64. Garth Nix 65. Lynette Noni 66. Carly Nugent 67. Poppy Nwosu 68. Kate O’Donnell 69. Shivaun Plozza 70. Michael Pryor 71. Alice Pung 72. Emily Rodda * 73. Autumn Royal 74. Omar Sakr 75. Holden Sheppard 76. AG Slatter 77. Jo Spurrier 78. Krystal Sutherland * 79. Jared Thomas 80. Hayli Thompson 81. Gabrielle Tozer 82. Christos Tsiolkas 83. Alicia Tuckerman 84. Ellen van Neerven 85. Marlee Jane Ward 86. Vikki Wakefield 87. Lisa Walker 88. Jessica Watson * 89. Allayne L Webster 90. Anna Whateley * 91. Samantha Wheeler 92. Jen Wilde * 93. Rhiannon Wilde 94. Lili WIlkinson 95. Gabrielle Williams 96. Rhiannon Williams 97. Fiona Wood 98. Leanne Yong 99. Suzy Zail 100. Nevo Zisin 101. Markus Zusak

[myfathersdaughter1]

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.I counted. It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, ‘What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?’ and my father said, ‘Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,’ and that was the last thing he ever said.”

― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

Via myfathersdaughter1) v

(via paige myfathersdaughter1)

[liminalmemories21]

9 Books

tagged by @cha-melodius. Thank you!

I'm 90% sure I've done this, but I'll never be able to find it now. And it's not like I could possibly contain myself in nine books. So, variation - nine authors I will read no questions asked whenever they come out with a new book.

1 - Everina Maxwell Winter's Orbit is just my entire heart. Didn't love Ocean's Echo quite as much, but still devoured it in one big gulp.

2 - Margaret Owen I know I've done PR for the Little Thieves trilogy (Goose Girl told from the POV of the goose girl + a heist - so good). But, the Merciful Crow duology is also just spectacular.

3 - Marissa Meyer The Lunar Chronicles are just astonishing - fairytale retellings in sci-fi future - Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Snow White.

4 - Patrick Ness (see, I do read men, sometimes, under highly selective circumstances) Chaos Walking just blew my entire mind with how smart and nuanced it was (have not seen the movie, do not plan to). But also The Rest of Us Just Live Here, and Release are gorgeous.

5 - Tess Sharpe My love for this author knows no bounds. Her women are never morally white - they're complicated, and they make hard decisions and live with the consequences.

6 - Melina Marchetta Jellicoe Road, and Finniken of the Rock, and Piper's Son. She writes in so many different genres, and I love all of them.

7 - Anna Marie McLemore When the Moon Was Ours, and The Weight of Feathers are just some of my favorite books ever. Their writing is so magical and lyrical.

8 - Maggie Stiefvater I cannot wait to see what she's doing next (also, my mind is still blown by the fact that she wrote the fourth book of the Raven Cycle when she was seriously ill and it was affecting her brain and she could barely think in sentenes).

9 - okay, and cheating here with all my beloved romance authors that make my world go around - Evie Dunmore, and Sarah MacLean, and Lisa Kleypas, and Julia Quinn, and Olivia Dade, and Patricia Briggs, and Ilona Andrews, and probably more that I'm blanking on right this second.

Tagging @rmd-writes, @jesuisici33, and @iboatedhere - 9 authors you will read without thinking twice.

[merlinsbudgiesmugglers]

for the ask game 7, 11 💓

Thanks for the ask, nonny!

For the purposes of this post I'm taking native to refer Australian in general, rather than referring to Indigenous Australians who have their own rich culture. English isn't the native Australian language, but it is my native language and I'm talking about my own experiences here. 7. three words from your native language that you like the most? I feel like Budgie Smugglers has to be on this list even though it's two words, but I don't suggest googling what they are on your work laptop 😉

The next is Mate - not exclusive Australian, but we do have a unique way of using it for bot our very best of friends and a person we'd like to leave lying in a ditch, depending on how we say it.

The last has to be Pash (Our version of snogging someone) - was it really a school dance if there wasn't a drama about who pashed who behind the hall?

11. favourite native writer/poet? There's one Australian writer that came to mind instantly - Melina Marchetta. Looking for Alibrandi is an amazing coming of age novel that I still reread to this day. And then she went on to write one of my favourite fantasy series - The Lumatere Series. I highly recommend everyone check out her work.

hi, i'm not from the US asks

[hmsharmony]

Tagged by @hondagirll to list my top 9 books. Caveat that many other books could have made it on here, and choosing came down to which books caught my eye while scrolling through my five-star reads. The only ones that are permanent fixtures are probably 1., 2., and 5.

1. Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. My ultimate comfort book. When I was 10 or 11 my mom gifted me Ballet Shoes, Theater Shoes (aka Curtains Up), and Dancing Shoes (Wintle’s Wonders). I don’t remember when I first read them, but what I do recall is sixth grade outdoor education, when I was desperately homesick (and actually sick with a bad cold) and would curl up at night in my bunk with Dancing Shoes. Maybe it was because that book was a comfort when I was dealing with my separation anxiety, but as much as I loved the other two books, Dancing Shoes is the one that captured my heart. Rachel Lennox is one of my favorite characters of all time. A ten-year-old girl trying to step up after her mother’s untimely death, convinced she must be the responsible one and keep her sister on track. Sacrificing and sacrificing when no one has asked for it, when no one really wants it, all because she’s convinced herself this is how she does right by her mother. I have read or listened to this story at least 100 times, and it never fails to bring me comfort.

2. Emma by Jane Austen. A self-involved but well-intentioned protagonist! Long time friends turned more! “I cannot make speeches, Emma. If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” All things I love, but the reason this book has stuck with me is probably because it was the subject of a literary criticism paper I wrote in 11th grade. I lived and breathed Emma (both the book and the contemporary criticism of it) for a good two months, and it left an indelible print on my heart.

3. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. The love and care Marchetta gives to her characters. I was a blubbering mess reading this book. It’s one of my favorite coming of age stories, with a focus on Francesca’s relationship with her mother (the latter of whom is suffering from depression) and the friendships Francesca builds at her new school. This is reminding me I need a reread.

4. Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 by Heda Margolius Kovaly. I haven’t read this book since my sophomore modern European history class in college, but I remember how much it meant to see a story about antisemitism in Europe that doesn’t end in 1945. So few people talk about it—the DP camps, the pogroms, the Soviet persecution. Around this same time we watched Life is Beautiful for my Holocaust and Post-Holocaust reflections class, and I remember how angry, how frustrated I was that the ending made it seem like liberation was the end of the suffering. This is one of the books I routinely encourage people to read if their Holocaust education only went through 1945.

5. Night by Elie Wiesel. This is a favorite for a slightly odd reason: this is the book that helped me find my “voice” in academic writing. It was one of the last books we read in 11th grade AP Lang, and my teacher had spent the year pushing us to find our voice, and I had struggled to understand because “I wrote the essay how could it not be in my voice!” Looking back, given my personal connection to the Holocaust, it makes sense that Night would be the book that broke through in that particular way (that said, I wouldn’t realize the extent of the effect of my Holocaust trauma until a year and a half later, when my pop pop died, so at the time I WAS surprised this book turned out to be the key). The struggle to hold onto religion, to believe in a higher power, in the face of genocide is one that I have struggled with almost my entire life, albeit often at an unconscious level. Wiesel’s struggle with the same was the subject of my essay, and I put myself into every word of that paper.

6. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. From my 2015 Goodreads review: “There are those books that, when I reach the end, I smile. Those are the really good ones. And then there are the ones where I'm in tears -- not because of emotional manipulation or because the story was sad, but because the writing is so beautiful, the story so moving, that I'm reduced to tears.“ The deftness with which Morgenstern threaded together the time periods, the second and third person POVs, the seemingly disparate narratives still haunts me.

7. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. Another personal one for me. So much of studying the Holocaust is, understandably, sadness and horror. And when you’re a survivor descendent? It’s knowing your existence comes at the expense of 6 million Jews. It’s looking at your family tree and seeing every branch but one cut off. So to know that there was one family where the branches survived? Against all the odds, in the face of indescribable evil? Again, from my Goodreads review: “I'm not sure there are words for how much this book means to me. To know that an entire Jewish family made it out alive... it's overwhelming to be honest.”

8. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. I don’t know what to say other than this book is a goddamn fucking delight. The trope subversions in this book are perfection, and I grin every time I think of the chaotic, messy trio.

9. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. God, no one does found family like Chambers. Every single book in this series reduced me to tears, but this one resonated with me in particular, perhaps because this installment is entirely character driven, with a focus on the every day. It’s like a fictional popular history take on the future.

Tagging @reasontoshine, @lissomelle, @malinaa, @jamietaylr, @therabbitcatcher and anyone else who wants to do this because it’s nearly 1 am and my brain is blanking

[metamatar]

edelweiss + jasmine (for the ask game)!

edelweiss ⇢ how’d you think of your url/username? what’s it associated with to you?

me - tamatar (tomato) and meta - matar (pea). im a dork. i used to use meta - potato before bc my brother used to call me potato when he was too young to pronounce my name properly.

jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?

a lot of teen ya favourites probably fall into this category? my recently revived goodreads tells me i was in love with on the jellicoe road by melina marchetta in 2014 or something... but i do not remember much of it and don't find it particularly appealing to reread based on the blurb.

emotionally i think i shouldn't reread giovanni's room again but i am a masochist so i probably will.

[roobylavender]

you've made that list of your favourite marchetta quotes before, are there any you would add since then also do you have a list of quotes for talia like you did for bruce?

i had a thread of talia quotes going on my old twt account that i still need to recompile onto my new one but this is a good reminder to do that so i'll have them down for you soon! and i def do have a few new ones bc i'm rereading marchetta all the time but i'd have to go back and cross reference that old ask with the original list to see which ones i haven't already said!

[wizardysseus]

17 and 24 for the book ask.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

a lot of these are young adult novels, because i tend to go into ya with low expectations, regardless of their popularity and hype. actually moreso if they are hyped up to me.

the gilded wolves trilogy by roshani chokshi

lore by alexandra bracken

lumatere chronicles by melina marchetta

memorial by alice oswald (poetry)

we are okay by nina lacour

the stardust thief by chelsea abdullah

cemetery boys by aidan thomas

greywaren by maggie stiefvater

the sandman comics by neil gaiman......... look, i knew it would be good, i just didn't expect it to take over my brain for 4 months

the last unicorn by peter s. beagle - similar to the above, i expected to love it but i really really loved it

the bear and the nightingale by katherine arden - i'm still in the middle of this trilogy, but i've read so many like... Not Very Good russian-folklore-inspired books, i wasn't sure where this one would fall. but i love vasya and morozko and am really looking forward to finding out what happens next

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

not really, i prefer to finish books. i had to return we free the stars before i was done but i'm still planning to finish it.

[jurassicpark1990]

2, 3 & 12 for the book thing !!

2. Did you reread anything? What?

more than i normally would i think so let's go

the lord of the rings by j.r.r tolkien

it had been a good five years since last time and i thoroughly enjoyed this experience. also the first time i have ever successfully listened to an audiobook (in parts)

saving francessca by melina marchetta

queen of aus ya!! just one of my absolute fav reads and held up decently well considering it's 20 years old

vampire academy by richelle mead

this was one of my fav books in high school and while it was still a fun read, i couldn't stomach the rose/dimitri romance and haven't been able to keep reading the series

jade city + jade war by fonda lee

i already touched on how brilliant jade legacy is in my other ask but it is, in my opinion, the weakest of the three. these two are absolutely incredible, the world building, the characters and their dynamics, just ugh, everything about them <3

[3. already answered]

12. Any books that disappointed you?

i kind of answered this in my least fav reads but here are a couple more!

less by andrew sean greer

another bad ending that ruined a book i was really enjoying. the writing in this is so witty, reminded me of both jane austen and e.m forster. but we go on a whole (literal and figurative) journey with this character and then he makes a choice that undoes it all

elektra by jennifer saint

my emotions about this are tricky because there are three protagonists: one is brilliant, one is interesting but could have been executed better, and then the last one sucks and had no character development of any kind. and guess who the book is named for? so, could have been brilliant. i would have liked it more if it had just been called clytemnestra tbh

[pynkhues]

THANKS so much for answering my sisterhood of traveling pants 👖 ✨ask I absolutely love your cast. Your choices are so interesting and fun Lol I love your choice for Lena. I also think Taylor Russell would be really good in that role. Thanks again.💗💗💗💗 W hen I think of movies that really spoke to me as a young girl that definitely is one of them also legally blonde , akeelah and the bee etc and there’s so many more. Is there any movie that you really loved growing up that you would love to see rebooted? And of course would to see your dream cast if you have any. 😊

(x)

You're very welcome, anon! It was a really lovely ask to answer, and unlocked so many good memories as I read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in highschool not long after it came out.

Taylor Russell would be such a great choice for Lena too, and I think maybe Sophie Wilde? I loved her in Talk to Me, and quite enjoyed her in Tom Jones and feel like she could do a lot in that role.

And man, Legally Blonde was definitely very influential for me (I still haven't seen Akeelah and the Bee unfortunately! I'll need to add it to my holiday watchlist!), and I think Clueless and Bring It On too. A lot of my really influential YA stories though are ones that are Australian, so I'm very concsious most people won't have seen or read them, but if I had to mention one, I'd say Looking for Alibrandi is forever absolutely formative to me as a film.

It still guts me, for ways I won't spoil, haha, but I really recommend it as a coming of age film that deals with all the regular teen issues while also looking at parental abandonment, the cultural confusion of being a child of migrants and losing people you don't expect to (full tw, there is a teen suicide in this film). Plus! It's still funny! And fun, and Pia Miranda is forever an underated actress to me.

I don't think I'd remake it, as I think it's a perfect product of its time, but the author of the book it's based on, Melina Marchetta, also wrote a book called On the Jellicoe Road, which I am constantly tapping my watch for an adaptation of. It was so, so formative to me as both a reader and a writer, and I hate that it's kind of been lost to time? Anyway, let me at least share with you the opening paragraph of that book because I still love it a lot:

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted. It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, 'What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?' and my father said, 'Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,' and that was the last thing he ever said.

[chronicleofwastedtime]

rules: list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you 

tagged by @dreamyghostie, thanks

1. David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas (read it several times and a few quotes from it come back to me in certain moments)

2. Andreas Steinhöfel - Die Mitte der Welt (I don’t remember how many times I read this when I was younger, I sometimes open it on a random page and read for however long I need to)

3. Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere (also one I re-read from time to time though I usually start at the beginning. The first few times I felt differently about the ending each time, but recently I always liked it)

4. Patrik Svensson - Ålevangeliet/ the book of eels (I didn’t know anything about eels before I read it and within a couple pages I was extremely fascinated by eels and I have been since)

5. Charlotte Brontë - Villette (impactful emotional experience, I want to read it again but I’m a bit scared of it)

6. Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go (hated it when I first read it seventeen years ago, still think about it occasionally)

7. Melina Marchetta - Saving Francesca (my sister had the german translation when we were younger, some scenes and characters have stayed with me)

8. Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games Trilogy (when these started coming out I felt too old for ya fantasy and when a friend asked me if I had read them, I said I didn’t need to read everything, they replied if someone needed to read everything it was me)

9. Jon Ewo - Sola er et feit gud/ Die Sonne ist eine geniale Göttin (plus the two follow ups. I just loved those weird normal characters and their weird normal lives so much)

10. I thought I head ten. 10. is for all the ones I’m forgetting right now. I know this didn’t require explanations but I realised I never wrote about my thoughts about these books and it felt like a good opportunity.

[lafayetteworld]

hello! i plan on reading the books you rec'd in your recent ask, my 'to read' pile is endless to my utter joy! i wanted to rec the author 'melina marchetta' if you aren't already familiar. her writing is magical with lines that punch you in the gut with its brilliance! her writing reminds me of your writing and worldbuilding a lot at times and I hope you'll enjoy it too. for a brief look at her work, go to roobylavender.tumblr.com/tagged/melina marchetta. it has a lot of her best quotes, enjoy!

I will check her out for sure, thank you for the recommendation! My to be read pile will, one day, bury me alive but I guess its not the worst way to go 😅

[helena-edits-in-real-time]

1, 12 & 14 for the book asks

book you’ve reread the most times?

Tricky one, I've definitely read Harry Potter and The Hunger Games multiple times, since I've had them for so long. But another one I think I've read quite a few times is Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta.

12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

To Kill a Mockingbird changed my life.

14. do you ever mark/dog ear books you own?

Not really, I've got bookmarks for a reason. I may occasionally dog-ear a second-hand book though since it's probably already a little creased.

[merlinsbudgiesmugglers]

For the game, letters B and R

Oooh these are good ones! Thanks for the ask <3

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience? None of the storylines, but my characterisation of Lily Luna definitely gets inspiration from being the youngest of three. I've never stolen a Marauder's Map from my brother, but I have stolen chocolate from him and left him a cheeky note about hiding things better.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence? Oh my gosh, so many. I'm not going to name any individual fanfic writers because I don't want to forget anyone, but there are so many excellent writers out there. I definitely have to say that joining The Three Broomsticks discord server was the best thing for my writing. It's such a great community of writers and readers who really encourage each other. I don't think I would have started writing again if I hadn't joined.

In terms of published authors, I've become obsessed with India Holton's series, starting with The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels. Her writing style is so unique and fun as is the premise of the series. I honestly laugh out loud when I'm reading her books.

I've also devoured every Meg Cabot book that she's published. The Mediator Series was and still is an obsession. Meg Cabot definitely taught me the importance of a interesting female characters who can be interested in their looks and still kick ass, or who are smart, or worried about their weight but that doesn't stop them from being amazing (plus she's so good are writing sexy, brooding leading men who are secret sweethearts).

And I have to mention Melina Marchetta, like most Aussie's I grew up reading Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca, which both tell stories of characters that feel like they could be your best friend or your neighbour in such a grounded and wonderful way. And I'm currently rereading her Lumatere series which is just fantastic, despite being set in a fantasy world with curses and prophecies, it deals with the people and the struggles they face so well.

Fanfic Ask Game