#miles roanhorse

[night-dark-woods]

the problem with reading sff short story collections is sometimes there are stories written by men who clearly do not think women are people and think the epitome of Interesting Character Work is like. Nice Guy Divorce. and sometimes its a 2-for-1 deal and its a james s a corey story so its written by not One but Two men who love nothing more than to jack each other off about how well they write their excruciatingly boring and misogynist main characters.

[magpiefngrl]

mid-year book tag

Thanks for tagging me, @bloody-wonder! It's become a fun tradition to do this every year and I've been eagerly anticipating it :)

This hasn't been as prolific a year for me as the last several years have been. I've read 34 books by end of June, so about 10-20 less than I used to, and a lot of these have been rereads. The past couple of months have been super busy and I read a lot of fic, but struggled to finish novels. Fingers crossed for a better reading summer.

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2024?  I haven't read a book that blew me away so far. I've mentioned some of my faves here. I did enjoy most of my reads this year, but there isn't one book that stands out. (a fic, does, though. More on that later)

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2024? Dark Heir by Pacat. I was very invested, went back to read it again a week later, and it's made me very excited about the last novel.

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To? The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo is definitely on my list (this will wait for 2025). There's also a new fantasy novel called Foul Days by a Bulgarian author that I'm curious about. Finally, Rebecca Roanhorse's Mirrored Heavens comes out soon but I still haven't read the second one in the series, so it'll also have to wait.

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2024? Like you, KJ Charles's The Duke at Hazard is the one I'm most eagerly waiting.

5. Biggest Disappointment? I've been reading The Master and Margarita for two months now, forcibly stopping myself from DNFing it these days, because I don't actually hate it, it's just I can't bring myself to read it. But I also want to have read it, to be done with it. Idk why I'm struggling so much. Perhaps I'm not in the mood for it and would appreciate it at a later date. Based on the title and the positive reviews, I expected something more fascinating.

6. Biggest Surprise? The above, I guess.

7. Favourite New Author? Somehow, the only new authors I've read this year are Aliette de Bodard and Lois McMaster Bujold, and Bujold is the better one of the two. (The rest of the authors were people I've read before and I knew what their writing was like.)

8. Newest Favourite Character? Miles Vorkosigan, for his cleverness and his ability to always get in trouble and then to get creatively out of it.

9. Newest Fictional Crush? Not quite a crush, but my latest obsession is Bucky Barnes, entirely because of the fic I mentioned above (Out of the Dead Land, orphaned) which gave me the worst fic hangover. It's a stucky fic, a ship that never interested me, and it gave me feral feels about Bucky; it made me go back and rewatch a few Marvel films (and I had to torrent them since I'd ended my disney subscription; in other words, I had to go to some trouble); and it was a fic I kept thinking for days after I finished it. I'm actively stopping myself from rewatching Winter Soldier again today. And yes, not a book character, but the obsession is based on a fic and he's fictional so I say he counts :)

💕Best Ship💕 I loved Asmodeus and Thuan in de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen series. Asmodeus is a Fallen Angel who likes stabbing and torture, Thuan is a dragon prince who tries to temper down his stabby husband. Will and James from Dark Rise are also a ship I enjoyed, though I'm more interested in their past selves.

10. Book That Made You Cry? There hasn't been one this year so far. And I cry easily, and I consider books that make me cry Superior. This tells you how mid the year has been.

12. Favourite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year? I really liked Dune II but haven't read the book yet so don't know if it was a good adaptation. It was definitely a great film.

13. Favourite Review You’ve Written This Year? Have written a couple of longer reviews on GR but nothing that stands out as more creative or unique. I've been thinking about posting reviews on my website and I'd like to figure out a unique or unusual or at least a me way to do them.

14. Most Beautiful Cover? I read almost exclusively on my Kobo and pay scant attention to covers.

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year? Many!

The Master and Margarita! hahah sobs :((

Finish a Lymond reread

reread tgcf now that I got all the novels

Harrow the Ninth

Some more Vorkosigan novels

Vita Nostra, which I've just begun

a couple of novels I bought YEARS ago and still haven't finished

and if I can read at least one of my 60-odd unread physical books I'll consider it a triumph

Tagging anyone who wants to do this! Perhaps @skeptiquex @hoko-onchi-writes @wolfpants @lettersbyelise and @gracerene might want to get the ball rolling?

2022 mid year post

2023 mid year post

[mollysharpharrison]

2024 A Year in Review:

Baja buddies trip in January//surfing is still hard

Powder La Sal days//mini-ramp night sessions//virgin earlobes taken

Cali romance skate-surf//Maddie's building a house//Hallie gives the best desert friend time

Manti-La Sal Dark Canyon crew//place and people//a lifetime ode to landscape

Hammond ramble with Zoe and Olivia + pups //overenthusiastic Muddy Creek day trip + bike shuttle and long drive home in the dark

American Packrafting Association volunteer board member year II // summertime swimming holes// Dolores float'em//Orville Peck drag show// River surf bums

Ranger ragers// Lucas and Meadow get married//friends that turn into a far-away fond memory

DIY skate spot is finding teenage angst in your 30s//long live the DIY//flood stage, open the gates, watch the falls

Grand Gulch first peeks//Cataract Canyon big wave big mile days on foot//flat water geriatric dog trip//gettin' the x-mas tree

Baja to begin and end the year//ocean is healing and heartbreaking//can finally go sideways

Books Read:

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler

"A Dialogue on Love" by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

"American Journal- Fifty Poems for our Time" poetry collection selected by Tracy K Smith

"Maroons" by adrienne maree brown

"In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado

"Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain

"Finding Beauty in a Broken World" Terry Tempest Williams

"Bad Sex" by Nona Willis Aronowitz

"The Land of Little Rain" by Mary Austin

"Field Notes- The Grace Note of the Canyon Wren" by Barry Lopez

"PolySecure" by Jessica Fern

"The Sound of Mountain Water" by Wallace Stegner

"Life After Dead Pool" and "Confluence" by Zak Podmore

"We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories" by Margaret Killjoy

"The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories" by Stacie Shannon Denetsosie

"The Night Watchman" by Louise Erdrich

"The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder Through Science and Poetry" selected poems by Maria Popova

"Fevered Star" and "Mirrored Heavens" by Rebecca Roanhorse

[imdeane]

Big Sky Country  Appreciation Week (Day 7): Free Day

Yes, it’s late. I’m procrastinating and I’m a piece of trash. But I really want to make this edit done because these characters deserve it. Have some photo group and wedding.

“It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.” ― Sarah Dessen

For @bsc-appreciation-week​ hosted by @storm-holt​

[storyofmychoices]

You are beautiful. You are loved. You are needed. You are strong. You are the only you there is. You are enough.

Enough : @choicesjunechallenge ; day 3:BSC @choicescocappreciationweek;   or Day 80! of spreading positivity with Choices characters and quotes.

[saintfourr]

Big Sky Country Appreciation Week - Day 6: Side-Characters; @bsc-appreciation-week and @storm-holt.

[choicesmonthlychallenge]

day twelve

[June Challenge Masterlist]

⟢Big Sky Country:⟢

You Are Enough [Miles Edit] by @storyofmychoices​​​

⟢Perfect Match:⟢

Enough Emoji Talk - Mini fic! [Damien x MC] by @ethanramseysrookiexox​​​

⟢The Royal Romance:⟢

Wanderlust Pt.4: Once Upon a Time [Drake x MC] by @ravenpuff02​​​

[laurenlollypop93]

[julia-highstorms]

I couldn’t agree with Asha more, BROOKLYNNE AND MILES ARE ADORABLE 💖💖💖💖

[jensvisualnoveladventures]

On a different note, I always enjoy the group photos like these.

That said, with the exception of Endless Summer’s group photo, I think they either need to stick with everyone just having sprites or everyone slightly redrawn because while the styles are close, they don’t always mesh enough >>

It’s still cute though.

I wanted everyone to carve their names into the tree too though.

[griffinshoodie]

i wonder if, at this point, there could be literally anyway to convince some of you that Sweetridge would not be a trump supporting place

EVERYONE WE’VE MET SO FAR IS BI AS FUCK

[ninja-muse]

Slowly chipping away at my TBR pile this month! As in I read two instead of my  usual one, and both of those last week, when I realized I’d yet to tick that goal off for the month. Plus I managed to read four things off my ARC stack and cross a few anticipated releases off my list as well! Feeling pretty good about all of that, honestly, but also a little burned out on reading. I’m hoping The River Ki will be the reset I need!

And as always, in order of how glad I am to have read them:

Passing - Nella Larsen Irene reconnects with an old friend who does as she pleases. A study of identity, belonging, and how best to be Black in America. - Black cast, Black author,  #ownvoices - warning: colourism, racism including slurs, death

Seasonal Fears - Seanan McGuire The old monarchs of the seasons have died, sparking a competition for the thrones. Melanie and Harry do not want to be part of it, and yet. - protagonist with heart condition, Latin secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author - warning: murder

The Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison Thara Celehar is petitioned to solve the murder of an elderly noblewoman, which leads to all manner of other dark secrets. - 🏳️‍🌈 protagonist - warning: references to child sexual abuse and abuse materials

Love in the Time of Serial Killers - Alicia Thompson Phoebe is a spiky loner writing a dissertation on true crime while packing up her father’s house. Sam, the guy next door, is really nice—but maybe that’s just what he wants people to think. - fat protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character, Indian- and Korean-American secondary characters - warning: references to dysfunctional/abusive family dynamics, body shaming

The Sandman, Vol. 4 - Neil Gaiman with various illustrators Morpheus must return to Hell to free a woman he once imprisoned. This cannot end well. - 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters, Black and Japanese secondary characters

The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell At fifteen, Lucrezia is married to the Duke of Ferrara against her will. At sixteen, she dies mysteriously. This is her life. Out in September. - warning: child abuse and neglect; domestic abuse, including gaslighting, physical violence, confinement, and less-than-consensual sex

A Lady for a Duke - Alexis Hall When Viola reconnects with her best childhood friend, she finds him broken and grieving her death. Clearly she must help him back to himself, but that threatens to awaken feelings better left alone. Women like her cannot marry dukes, after all. - 🏳️‍🌈 protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 author

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals - Steve Brusatte The evolution of mammals, from the Triassic to the present day.

The River of Silver - S.A. Chakraborty Deleted scenes and other side stories from the Daevabad Trilogy. Out in October. - Middle Eastern and Egyptian cast, Muslim author

Witchmark - C.L. Polk When a witch-in-hiding dies in his care, Miles is drawn back to the world of magic he fought hard to escape. Meanwhile, his solider patients are exhibiting disturbing and violent symptoms. - 🏳️‍🌈 protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 love interest, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 and Black author, 🇨🇦 - warning: family annihilation, mild homophobia

Aces Wild - Amanda DeWitt Jack and his asexual friends decide to take down the casino owner who put Jack’s mom in jail. Out in September. - 🏳️‍🌈 main character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters, Deaf secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices

The Carpet People - Terry Pratchett When the force Fray destroys their village, the Munrungs must cross the Carpet to find safety. There are mouls in the hairs, though, and they’re up to something.

Tread of Angels - Rebecca Roanhorse When her sister is accused of murder, Celeste has two days to prove her innocence. Out in November. - 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters, Black and Pueblo author - warning: racism, classism, colonialism

Mint Chocolate Murder - Meri Allen Riley’s hired to serve ice cream at a gallery opening at a local estate, only for the star photographer to be found dead in the dungeon. - major Black secondary character

Currently reading:

Rogues - Patrick Radden Keefe Long-form true crime journalism. - warning: mass shooting, plane bombing

The River Ki - Sawako Ariyoshi with Mildred Tahara (Translator)    The lives of three women living along a Japanese river during the first half of the 20th century. - Japanese cast, Japanese author, #ownvoices

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories - major disabled character

 - warning: colonialism, racism

Stats


Monthly total: 14
 Yearly total: 104 + 1
 Queer books: 4
 Authors of colour: 3 
Books by women: 9 
Canadian authors: 1
 Off the TBR shelves: 2 
DNFs: 0

January February March April May June July

[mollysharpharrison]

2023 A Year in Review:

Skating on Ken's Lake // pickup hockey // brisk mornings

Work at Mill Creek Animal Hospital // puppy kisses and sad times

Trashion show // all the friend makeouts

Lake Powell trip- North Wash to Trachyte with Hannah, Jeff C and Mike C // mud tussocks and giggles

Bad box bleach set + teal manic panic beauty school drop out with Nara

Jerp art performance at Jeep Week with Sam N + Moab crew

Julie visits Moab in the spring - surprise Jocelyn addition // San Rafael packraft with pups on spring's first flows

Hallie visit to Comb Ridge with Ryland // quiet nights and pottery sherds

Dolores River flowing! First overnight trip with Hannah, Jeff C and extended Alpacka crew. Euro fondu pot // dogs are angels

Solo Escalante float with Sprocket dog // four days of peaceful low flow jubilation

Learning from strange crushes // rejection is sexy and toxic

Ongoing plant identification in the La Sals // superbloom!

A wonderful season of work: Hammond Canyon with Wilderness Volunteers// SUWA projects// two long bridges// Trail Mix buddies// not enough alone time// all the log outs - Luke, Jacob, Rachel and Isaac

Muddy Creek with Zoe, Maddie and Olivia // slot canyon babes

Long solo and friend gravel rides

Sold the house // feelings of loss and longing, but also relief

APA RoundUp paddle trip to California with Duncan// feeling obsolete in the packraft ww world//solo hike in Trinity Alps to granite heaven

Muumuus and Mimosas- my 6th annual?

SLC city weekend seeing Remember Sports, thrifting, and mountain biking with Maddie, Audrey and Rachel

Sold the Toyota Pickup // lost identity

Montana Red Meadow Pass bikepacking loop with Maddie and Olivia // perfect temps and champagne gravel// fill your belly of berries

Birthday backpack in the Weminuche// 15 miles in 5 days with the old furball// learn to enjoy the pace and place// anniversary photos

Julie returns to Moab for late summer! Hot hot biking//water daze

Mom and pop visit in the early fall//coworker end of season farewell bbq//beautiful mountain colors//comb ridge camping

Elk packet with Jamie and Sam H // 24 mile roundtrip with a rear quarter // humans are meant to do this

Solo trip of favorite landscape linkup // Dark Canyon -> Cataract Canyon -> Henry Mountains -> Lake Powell -> Bears Ears hike/packraft/bikepack/bikeraft linkup

San Juan packraft trip with Hannah and Jeff C + his college buddies// Han's bad back and chilly temps// good company

A quick shot to the very rainy PNW coast// surfin', soggy and splashin' with jellyfish//Julie, Will, Pete, Nara, Xander and pups

Early backcountry ice at Clark Lake! Jonny and Ian hike-in mission

RAR intro to bikepacking weekend was a smash hit// new SLC bike buddies//love the feeling of teaching and sharing knowledge

Home right before Thanksgiving, off to Costa Rica! Solo bikepack along the Nicoya Peninsula surfing all along the way.

Christmas in Detroit to the New Year

Books Read:

"Grievers" by adrienne maree brown

"Black Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse

"The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich

"Teaching a Stone to Talk" by Annie Dillard

"Fire on the Mountain" by Terry Bisson

"Earth Apples" collection of poetry by Ed Abbey

"Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky

"Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

"Let My People Go Surfing" by Yvon Chounard

"You Just Need to Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths About Fat People" by Aubrey Gordon

"Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer

[whatisthiswitchcraft]

books I read in 2019 (not including rereads, favorites are bolded!)

Come Close - Sappho

Shanghai Baby - Wei Hui

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda

Bad Feminist: Essays - Roxane Gay

The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir - Jenifer Lewis

Sula - Toni Morrison

Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writings of North America - ed. Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel - Alexander Chee

Night Sky With Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong

If They Come For Us - Fatimah Asghar

Heart Berries: A Memoir - Terese Marie Mailhot

Less - Andrew Sean Greer

The Astonishing Color of After - Emily X.R. Pan

Goodbye, Vitamin - Rachel Khong

Darius the Great is Not Okay - Adib Khorram

Exit West - Mohsin Hamid

Homegirls and Handgrenades - Sonia Sanchez

Heavy: An American Memoir - Keise Laymon

All You Can Ever Know - Nicole Chung

Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri

The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Way You Make Me Feel - Maureen Goo

A Very Large Expanse of Sea - Tahereh Mafi

Water By the Spoonful - Quiara Alegría Hudes

I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé - Michael Arceneaux

Bury It - Sam Sax

White Dancing Elephants - Chaya Bhuvaneswar

Pulp - Robin Talley

Shit is Real - Aisha Franz

Silencer - Marcus Wicker

Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale - Belle Yang

Bestiary: Poems - Donika Kelly

Monster Portraits - Sofia Samatar

No Matter the Wreckage - Sarah Kay

Violet Energy Ingots - Hoa Nguyen

Olio - Tyehimba Jess

The Kane Chronicles: The Serpent’s Shadow - Rick Riordan

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé - Morgan Parker

Nylon Road: A Graphic Memoir of Coming of Age in Iran - Parsua Bashi

The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory

Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Ingrid Rojas Contreras

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

Family Trust - Kathy Wang

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture - ed. Roxane Gay

Little & Lion - Brandy Colbert

A Girl Like That - Tanaz Bhathena

Suicide Club: A Novel About Living - Rachel Heng

The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary - NoNieqa Ramos

My Old Faithful: Stories - Yang Huang

Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan

Girls Burn Brighter - Shobha Rao

Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

Kingdom Animalia - Aracelis Girmay

Happiness - Aminatta Forna

Devotions - Mary Oliver

The Proposal - Jasmine Guillory

The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang

When Katie Met Cassidy - Camille Perri

Heads of the Colored People - Nafissa Thompson-Spires

Friday Black: Stories - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz

Miles from Nowhere - Nami Mun

The Lost Ones - Sheena Kamal

All the Names They Used for God - Anjali Sachdeva

Confessions of the Fox - Jordy Rosenberg

Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir - Padma Lakshmi

On the Come Up - Angie Thomas

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali - Sabina Khan

See What I Have Done - Sarah Schmitt

Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika Sánchez

For Today I Am A Boy - Kim Fu

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings - Joy Harjo

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us - Hanif Abdurraqib

Mongrels - Stephen Graham Jones

If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin

Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America - Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson

The Gilded Wolves - Roshani Chokshi

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before - Jenny Han

The Perfect Nanny - Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor

The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel

Things We Lost in the Fire - Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

Sunburn - Laura Lippman

The House of Impossible Beauties - Joseph Cassara

Freshwater - Akwaeke Emezi

A Private Life - Chen Ran, translated by John Howard-Gibbon

Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster - Stephen L. Carter

Undead Girl Gang - Lily Anderson

They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera

The Friend - Sigrid Nunez

Severance - Ling Ma

Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery & Murder - ed. Licoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto

Mapping the Interior - Stephen Graham Jones

Give Me Some Truth - Eric Gansworth

How to Love a Jamaican - Alexia Arthurs

All of This is True - Lygia Day Peñaflor

Swimmer Among the Stars - Kanishk Tharoor

The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 7: Mothering Invention - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

This is Kind of an Epic Love Story - Kheryn Callender

Gingerbread - Helen Oyeyemi

Where the Dead Sit Talking - Brandon Hobson

The Ensemble - Aja Gabel

My Education - Susan Choi

More Happy than Not - Adam Silvera

Nobody Cares: Essays - Anne T. Donahue

Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22 - Marinaomi

Oculus: Poems - Sally Wen Mao

Let’s Talk About Love - Claire Kann

History is All You Left Me - Adam Silvera

Opposite of Always - Justin A. Reynolds

The Crown Ain’t Worth Much - Hanif Abdurraqib

The Weight of Our Sky - Hanna Alkaf

If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi - Neel Patel

Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan

What if It’s Us - Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

The Map of Salt and Stars - Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard - Lesléa Newman

The Big Smoke - Adrian Matejka

Dissolve - Sherwin Bitsui

The Woman Next Door - Yewande Omotoso

The Refugees - Viet Thanh Nguyen

White Tears - Hari Kunzru

Electric Arches - Eve Ewing

The Black Maria - Aracelis Girmay

Bloodchild and Other Stories - Octavia Butler

Soft Science - Franny Choi

The White Card - Claudia Rankine

Mad Honey Symposium - Sally Wen Mao

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls - Anissa Gray

Next: New Poems - Lucille Clifton

The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance: Poems 1987-1992 - Audre Lorde

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems - Nikki Giovanni

The Arab of the Future - Riad Sattouf

Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side - Eve L. Ewing

Gruel - Bunkong Tuon

Marriage of a Thousand Lies - SJ Sindu

Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler

Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning - Alice Walker

That Kind of Mother - Rumaan Alam

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows - Balli Kaur Jaswal

Hera Lindsay Bird - Hera Lindsay Bird

Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams

And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou

The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead - Chanelle Benz

Everyone Knows You Go Home - Natalia Sylvester

Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems - June Jordan

The 100* Best African American Poems (*But I Cheated) - ed. Nikki Giovanni

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 - P. Djèlí Clark

Bury My Clothes - Roger Bonair-Agard

Selected Poems - Langston Hughes

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Sonata Mulattica - Rita Dove

Winnie - Gwendolyn Brooks

Bicycles: Love Poems - Nikki Giovanni

The Black God’s Drums -  P. Djèlí Clark

Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos - Lucy Knisley

Annie Allen - Gwendolyn Brooks

Parable of the Talents  - Octavia Butler

After Disasters - Viet Dinh

Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir - Liana Finck

Teeth - Aracelis Girmay

A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life & Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks - Angela Jackson

Peluda - Melissa Lozada-Oliva

A Map to the Next World - Joy Harjo

Magical Negro - Morgan Parker

Corpse Whale - dg nanouk okpik

Hawkeye: Volume 1 - Matt Fraction

Cenzontle - Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine

Selected Poems - Gwendolyn Brooks

She Had Some Horses - Joy Harjo

The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hope - ed. Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall

Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories - Nichelle Nichols

The Past and Other Things that Should Stay Buried - Shaun David Hutchinson

Difficult Women - Roxane Gay

The Woman Who Fell From the Sky - Joy Harjo

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays - Esmé Weijun Wang

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest - Hanif Abdurraqib

The Frolic of the Beasts - Yukio Mishima

Hawkeye Omnibus - Matt Fraction

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations - Mira Jacob

Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope - Karamo Brown

Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

When My Brother Was an Aztec - Natalie Diaz

Toxic Flora: Poems - Kimiko Hahn

Virgin - Analicia Sotelo

Easy Prey - Catherine Lo

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Saints and Misfits - S.K. Ali

Intercepted - Alexa Martin

Love from A to Z - S.K. Ali

Gemini - Sonya Mukherjee

The Atlas of Reds and Blues - Devi S. Laskar

My Brother’s Husband Vol. II - Gengoroh Tagame

Black Queer Hoe - Britteney Black Rose Kapri

Internment - Samira Ahmed

Dothead: Poems - Amit Majmudar

With the Fire On High - Elizabeth Acevedo

Sabrina & Corina: Stories - Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Milk and Filth - Carmen Giménez Smith

The Key to Happily Ever After - Tif Marcelo

If You’re Out There - Katy Loutzenhiser

Farewell to Manzanar - Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

New Poets of Native Nations - ed. Heid E. Erdrich

Bodymap: Poems - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Wolf by Wolf - Ryan Graudin

Tell Me How It Ends - Valeria Luiselli

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah

Down and Across - Arvin Ahmadi

The Tradition - Jericho Brown

About Betty’s Boob - Vero Cazot and Julie Rocheleau

Fake It Till You Break It - Jenn P. Nguyen

Storm of Locusts - Rebecca Roanhorse

Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors - Sonali Dev

Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes, Pranks - Justin Chin

When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities - Chen Chen

The New Testament - Jericho Brown

Fumbled - Alexa Martin

If It Makes You Happy - Claire Kann

Brave Face - Shaun David Hutchinson

Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley

Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Anger is a Gift - Mark Oshiro

The Bride Test - Helen Hoang

Not Your Backup - C.B. Lee

Prelude to Bruise - Saeed Jones

The Night Wanderer: A Graphic Novel - Drew Hayden Taylor and Michael Wyatt

Naturally Tan - Tan France

Bloom - Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Like a Love Story - Abdi Nazemian

I’m Afraid of Men - Vivek Shraya

Juliet Takes a Breath - Gabby Rivera

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

Let Me Hear a Rhyme - Tiffany D. Jackson

I Wanna Be Where You Are - Kristina Forest

Hurricane Season - Nicole Melleby

Split Tooth - Tanya Tagaq

Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Love and Food - ed. Elsie Chapman and Caroline Tung Richmond

The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls - T Kira Madden

Miracle Creek - Angie Kim

Ayesha at Last - Uzma Jalaluddin

Shout - Laurie Halse Anderson

The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal if You Hear Me - ed. Fatimah Asghar and Safia Elhillo

The Tenth Muse - Catherine Chung

This Place: 150 Years Retold - various authors

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens - Tanya Boteju

Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For) - Ella Risbridger

Library of Small Catastrophes - Alison C. Rollins

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune - Roselle Lim

No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America - Darnell L. Moore

The Book of Delights - Ross Gay

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton

Speak No Evil - Uzodinma Iweala

How We Fight White Supremacy - Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend - Emily Horner

Here and Now and Then - Mike Chen 

The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo

Red White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

Becoming - Michelle Obama

The Wedding Party - Jasmine Guillory

Magic for Liars - Sarah Gailey

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - Michelle McNamara

Brain Fever - Kimiko Hahn

Life on Mars - Tracy K. Smith

Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler - Juan Felipe Herrera

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude - Ross Gay

Tentacle - Rita Indiana

Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Memoir About the Mixed Race Hawai’i That I Never Knew - Sharon Chang

Loose Woman - Sandra Cisneros

Duende - Tracy K. Smith

Mostly Dead Things - Kristen Arnett

1919 - Eve L. Ewing

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge

Negroland - Margo Jefferson

For Black Girls Like Me - Mariama J. Lockington

Super Extra Grande - Yoss

Home Remedies - Xuan Juliana Wang

You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain - Phoebe Robinson

An Anonymous Girl - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Abundance - Amit Majmudar

I Shall Not Be Moved - Maya Angelou

Helium - Rudy Francisco

Teaching My Mother to Give Birth - Warsan Shire

Tomie - Junji Ito

Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay - Phoebe Robinson

This Time Will Be Different - Misa Sugiura

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu - Junji Ito

Stag’s Leap - Sharon Olds

Black Card - Chris L. Terry

It’s Not Like It’s A Secret - Misa Sugiura

Washington Black - Esi Edugyan

From Here To Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death - Caitlin Doughty

I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying: Essays - Bassey Ikpi

A House of My Own: Stories from my Life - Sandra Cisneros

The Terrible - Yrsa Daley-Ward

The Black Tides of Heaven - JY Yang

The Red Threads of Fortune - JY Yang

Little Fish - Casey Plett

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion - Jia Tolentino

The Black Condition ft. Narcissus - Jayy Dodd

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

Dealing in Dreams - Lilliam Rivera

The Tiger Flu - Larissa Lai

The Island of Sea Women - Lisa See

America is Not the Heart - Elaine Castillo

Feel Free - Zadie Smith

Walking on the Ceiling - Aysegul Savas

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education - Jennine Capo Crucet

The Unpassing - Chia-Chia Lin

Maurice - E.M. Forster

Permanent Record - Mary H.K. Choi

The Downstairs Girl - Stacey Lee

Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey - Jackie Kay

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You - Dina Nayeri

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up - Naoko Kodama

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI - David Grann

Ordinary Light - Tracy K. Smith

Cantoras - Carolina De Robertis

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness - Susannah Cahalan

How to Be Remy Cameron - Julian Winters

The Marriage Clock - Zara Raheem

Moon: Letters, Maps, Poems - Jennifer S. Cheng

Where Reasons End - Yiyun Li

Pet - Akwaeke Emezi

Meddling Kids - Edgar Cantero

A Lucky Man - Jamel Brinkley

Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes - ed. Gwen Benaway

What is Obscenity? The Story of a Good for Nothing Artist and her Pussy - Rokudenashiko

The Umbrella Academy Vol. III: Hotel Oblivion - Gerard Way

Who Put This Song On? - Morgan Parker

The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays - Wesley Yang

Wave - Sonali Deraniyagala

Love War Stories - Ivelisse Rodriguez

Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage

A Fortune for Your Disaster - Hanif Abdurraqib

Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers - Jake Skeets

Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen - Jose Antonio Vargas

The Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline

Polite Society - Mahesh Rao

Patron Saints of Nothing - Randy Ribay

The Body Papers: A Memoir - Grace Talusan

A Woman is No Man - Etaf Rum

Travelers - Helon Habila

Trust Exercise - Susan Choi

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

The Intuitionist - Colson Whitehead

A People’s History of Heaven - Mathangi Subramanian

The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi

This is Paradise: Stories - Kristiana Kahakauwila

Brood - Kimiko Hahn

Don’t Look Now - Daphne du Maurier

How We Fight for Our Lives - Saeed Jones

I Hope You Get This Message - Farah Naz Rishi

Unmarriageable - Soniah Kamal

Bad Endings - Carleigh Baker

The Water Dancer - Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick - Mallory O’Meara

Shapes of Native Nonficton: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers - ed. Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass - Mariko Tamaki

Even the Saints Audition - Rachel Jackson

Slay - Britney Morris

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women - ed. Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale

The Starlet and the Spy - Ji-min Lee

North of Dawn - Nuruddin Farah

Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water - Cameron Barnett

They Called Us Enemy - George Takei

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life - Ali Wong

The Right Swipe - Alisha Rai

Full Disclosure - Camryn Garrett

Searching for Sylvie Lee - Jean Kwok

Gideon the Ninth - Tasmyn Muir

Stubborn Archivist - Yara Rodrigues Fowler

The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 8: Old is the New New - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Never Grow Up - Jackie Chan

“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans - Roxanna Dunbar-Ortiz

In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

Blame This on the Boogie - Rina Ayuyang

It - Stephen King

Sea Monsters - Chloe Aridjis

My Fate According to the Butterfly - Gail D. Villanueva

The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 9: “Okay” - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

The Deep - Rivers Solomon

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World - Kai Cheng Thom

Mooncakes - Suzanne Walker

BTTM FDRS - Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore

Hot Comb - Ebony Flowers

Notes from a Young Black Chef - Kwame Onwuachi

Bunny - Mona Awad

The Twisted Ones - T. Kingfisher

Shuri, Vol. 1: The Search for Black Panther - Nnedi Okorafor

I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir - Malaka Gharib

Thick: And Other Essays - Tressie McMillan Cottom

Royal Holiday - Jasmine Guillory

Boxers - Gene Luen Yang

Saints - Gene Luen Yang

Fox 8 - George Saunders

The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

Last Day - Domenica Ruta

Wakanda Forever - Nnedi Okorafor

The Revisioners - Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir - Samra Habib

Somewhere in the Middle: A Journey to the Phillipines in Search of Roots, Belonging, and Identity - Deborah Francisco Douglas

Crier’s War - Nina Varela

Something in Between - Melissa de la Cruz

The Secrets We Kept - Lara Prescott

The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir - Ernestine Hayes

One of Us is Lying - Karen M. McManus

Piecing Me Together - Renee Watson

Binti - Nnedi Okorafor

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Recursion - Blake Crouch

Supper Club - Lara Williams

[himluv]

This last week was a blur. I’m trying to think of what all I did, and honestly I can’t tell you much. The weekend was full with hiking, family get-togethers, and yard work in the decent weather. We also watched a couple movies and spent the holiday relaxing together, a rare occurrence these days.

Last Week

Publish two blog posts

Write 500 words/day on Tavi

Finish reading A Conjuring of Light

How’d I Do?

Publish two blog posts

Yep! Including two book reviews.

Write 500 words/day on Tavi

YES! Writing went very very well this week.

Finish reading A Conjuring of Light

…yes. I am so sad because of it. What the hell do I do now?

Weekly Word Count: 4,980

I think it’s safe to say that the novel is officially in the third act and things are rolling downhill and gathering steam. Every time I sat down to write I wrote almost double of what I’d hoped to. I’d exceeded my word count goal by one hundred words by Saturday, and so rewarded myself with a writing-free Sunday. I also wrote about 1300 words hammering out a 500 word story for PodCastle’s Flash Fiction Contest. It was a real challenge, which was the point, but I’m pretty proud of what I came up with. I’ll have more details about this over the summer, once voting on the stories begins.

Book reviews for both Trail of Lightning and A Gathering of Shadows are out now, so check those out!

Thursday was a four mile Walk ‘n’ Talk with Madhu, where we mostly commiserated over waiting to hear about submissions. After that, since it was such a lovely day, I found a patio, had a beer and some french fries, and got some good writing time in.

I went on a lovely hike this weekend at Opal Creek, one of Oregon’s most popular hikes. It was a cool and misty morning that broke into a gorgeous day. The water was gushing with fresh snowmelt, the roar of the river never-ending. We packed a lunch of tuna salad, hard-boiled eggs, dolmas, cheesy bread, and dried coconut and apple chips. The picnic at the middle of the hike is always my favorite part.

And then Sunday was a chill day, watching movies, making good food, and enjoying the peace and quiet. I finished reading A Conjuring of Light last night, I cried a good deal, and then moped in bed because what else could I do? I have a serious case of book hangover right now.

So, What’s Next?

Publish two blog posts

Write 500 words/day on Tavi

Finish reading The Light Brigade

This straightforward approach has worked the rest of the month, so why not keep it going? I’ve got the review for A Conjuring Light to post this week, and will probably have another post later in the week as well. Writing continues to progress at a steady pace, so I’m confident that I’ll make my goal for the week. I’m working a little bit less this week too, so I have more time for writing.

I’ll also have some more time for reading, which is good because I haven’t even started The Light Brigade yet! It’s not too long, and all the press and reviews I’ve seen about it promise a fast-paced and gripping story. So, I should be able to finish it this week. I’m slowly, but surely, catching up to my reading goal.

This week is a busy one otherwise. I’m going to Portland on Thursday for the SFWA’s Reading series, where both Rebecca Roanhorse (Trail of Lightning) and Sam J. Miller (Blackfish City) will be reading and speaking! I am so stupid excited for this event and Trevor’s even going to come with me!

Then Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. Each year The Book Bin does a big daylong celebration with panels and authors, and usually ends the day with a release party for the newest issue of The Audient Void. This year is no exception, with issue #7 final proofs returned to Obadiah today. So, if you want to come down, support a local bookstore, and grab your issue, hot off the press! If you don’t live near Salem, you should still visit your local indie Bookstore and give them some love.

No hikes for the next couple of weeks, there’s just too much going on. So I’ll be home or at writing/book events, getting work done. That’s the plan. I’ll see you soon with a review, Bloggos.

Until then,

  BZ

  Goals Summary 2019 – Wk #16 This last week was a blur. I'm trying to think of what all I did, and honestly I can't tell you much.

[deanpinterester]

i was tagged by @atollon !! wow i haven’t done one of these in a while

Rules: Tag 9 people with excellent taste

Colours I’m currently wearing: mustard yellow, black, orange, brown, blue, white

Last band t-shirt I bought: i don’t remember but the last clothing item i bought was a mustard yellow hoodie for my friend

Last band I saw live: AIR SUPPLY!!!!!!!!!!

Lipstick or chapstick: chapstick usually, but my friend recently got me my v first liquid lipstick and im so excited to wear it more often

Last song I listened to: danzon no. 2 by arturo marquez

Last movie I watched: 22 miles

Last three TV shows I watched: d/aredevil, the l/ast a/irbender, and i think the first half of i/ron f/ist season 2

Last three characters I identified with: oh golly i don’t rly find myself identifying w characters recently but uhhhhhh i rly liked adora, catra, and glimmer from sh/e ra!

Books I’m reading right now: tr/ail of l/ightning by re/becca roanhorse

tagging (i honestly havent seen these ask games on my dash in a while so idk who wants to do them?) @dorknewton @honeymoonparker