#ms novik is just Like That

[arospecsyourblockdudes]

I don’t like when a book is trying to do an enemies to friends and/or lovers storyline and then rushes it. Like, I’m reading one rn where the two characters start making up and making friends by chapter 6. Draw it out some more yknow! Make us wonder what could possibly make these two characters ever like each other! Have one try to kill the other! Really sell the enemies part and make it realistic not just done and over with the second you wanna move on from it that’s not how it works

[tyrannuspitch]

every time someone claims they can "always tell" if an author writes fanfiction like it's a mark of shame forever burnt into their soul i think about how naomi novik has a whole career in writing completely typical and well-received fantasy novels and upwards of 95% of the people who pick them up have no idea they're dealing with ms wincest herself

[darlingofdots]

Hello I just finished His Majesty's Dragon and a) I loved it I have immediately started Throne of Jade b) Ms Novik you've can't just write a man-heavy book and then spring Captain Jane Roland on me, and unsuspecting lesbian, like that???

If I accomplish nothing else in this world, at least I will have introduced more people to the joys of the Temeraire series and with it, indeed, Captain Jane Roland

[figmentera]

Just finally finished termeraire series and like. Very iconic of Ms. Novik to devote at least an entire novel and an intricate exploration of dragonish impact to every inhabited continent in the world... except the US, which gets one (1) named dragon who shows up for one (1) scene

[ravelqueen]

I'm reading book 3 of Scholomance and El just killed the Mawmouth in the London enclave and SHE'S SO SAD ABOUT ORION AND SO AM I

MY FEELINGS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE OVER THOSE TWO BECAUSE ORIONS LAST WORDS BEFORE GOING DOWN IN BOOK 2 WERE ABOUT HOW MUCH HE LOVES EL AND EL IS SO DESTROYED WITH NO ONE MOURNING HIM AND BEING UNABLE TO SAVE HIM AND I'M JUST AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

please someone talk to me about scholomance im DESPERATE

(Also this bit obliterated me emotionally like Ms Novik how fucking dare you????

[cornfield-chase]

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros

🫸Revised review🫷

Rating: 4⭐️ (TLDR📌at bottom)

- Did Ms. Rebecca Yarros tailor this book just for me????😭😭😭😭istg i lowkey fantasized about everything in this book and now they’ve been realized and brought to life im WAILING on the floor

- The writing’s fine the romance too, their love is not epic or anything (yet?) we’ll see how it goes in book 2 and honestly, i could do without the smut💆🏻‍♀️💆🏻‍♀️💆🏻‍♀️

- I liked the underdog fmc, as for the mmc, he still has room to grow personality-wise

- On all the dragon fantasy ive come across: Naturally Eragon is brilliant but it lacks romance. Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon has a refreshing concept but plot got out of hand i dnfed. Priory of🍊Tree dragged on for too long and is unmemorable to me. I tried to read A Natural History of Dragons, Seraphina, Joust and Dragonflight etc but I couldn’t get past the first few pages..

💌Now you’re telling me this book i randomly found after a months-long book slump being actually really fucking brilliant and spectacular and addictive and everything i craved and more?!!?!😭😭No way😭😭

🫸(on that note: the fact that i got out of my reading slump miraculously might have blinded me slightly in treating this book fairly with my head)🫷

- Compelling plot, tightly knitted and kept twisting no room for a breather it’s excellent

- Nice world building instead of laborious info dump

- The sequel is coming out in SIX MONTHS instead of the year i originally thought omg ilyilyily😫🕺🏻🥰🥰💃🏻🌋💥💥🫂🫂(going feral)

- 👉👈I did see that plot twist ending coming (it’s a good twist!!) i love it im an old hand at smelling plot directions now

TLDR📌

🐉bamf dragons(riders)

⚡️bamf mcs and side characters

🤎funny yet sensual banter

🏛️cool magic system + academia(war college!!) + politics + family drama

💅🏻enemies idiots to lovers

— all set to a relentless pace that i flew through the 500 pages in a blur i a d o r e this book

[writingwell]

I have read all your Castle fic, some multiple times and need something new to read. I was wondering if you had any favorite Castle fics or authors you love/would recommend?

I'm bad about remembering fic I've read, but I do have some faves marked on my ffnet page, if you want to suss that out.

But authors! I will always hold a few especially dear:

Jennifer Egan (Visit from the Goon Squad, The Keep, etc) - Each of her novels have affected me in different ways, but the consistency of the quality of her writing is what sucks me in each time I start a new one.

NK Jemisin, Naomi Novik, Tracy Deonn, Rachel Yoder - a quick run through of some women in sci-fi/fantasy whose books are STELLAR and who don't get enough play in the usual round-up. For me, I'm not always gonna talk about them because I don't know how formative they've been yet, but damn they have some awesome story-telling, and I am SUCKED IN.

Mary Stewart (Touch Not the Cat, This Rough Magic, Merlin series) - Gothic romance for most of her career, MS wrote a Merlin series which I read grudgingly: they were the last books of hers I hadn't read. And I adored them, lol. She's easier to read than Daphne DuMaurier (Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel) but if you want to jump in, then I would suggest her short stories which are deliciously Gothic.

Edith Wharton (House of Mirth, Glimpses of the Moon, etc) - Gillian Anderson was going to be in HoM, I think, and she was interviewed in Entertainment Weekly magazine back in the day, and she quoted this book. I was perhaps 19? and I snatched it up the first chance I could get, wrote a paper for college, kept reading Wharton. As my twitter and ffnet handles show, Lily Bart, a woman fighting against the strictures of her society, absolutely had my heart. Want to know the quote GA used? "What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath." Holy shit, how can you not be immediately caught?

Madeleine L'Engle (Wrinkle in Time et al, Certain Women, A Severed Wasp) - What most people don't know is that L'Engle wrote adult fiction as well as what is now termed YA (or Children's, depending). Her adult stuff is poignant and devastating and just as hope-filled as her literature written for younger audiences, and I don't think even those books can be said to be just for children. A Swiftly Tilting Planet still makes me think about how righteous is pacifism in this day and age (ie, maybe it's not, and that's horrendous) plus A Wind in the Door is this really beautiful grappling with childhood disease/death/mental health. It's very lovely to have a gentle-handed author shape elemental Truths around your imagination and plant the seeds for both questioning the world and also loving it, flaws and all. And that both of those things can exist.

Chaim Potok (The Gift of Asher Lev, Book of Lights) - I realize I have a lot of women on this list, but Potok is a man who gets the creative experience inexorably tangled with the spiritual one. If you're not of some kind of seeking orientation, I don't know that Potok would resonate with you as it did and does with me, but there's something wholesome and agonizing about a man who knows he is put on this earth to create and yet everything in the earth is an obstacle to that calling. Even God, who ostensibly called him. It's really quite impressive a theme.

Colette (The Vagabond, Cheri, Claudine series) - Like I said, a lot of women, but these are the authors I go back to. The Vagabond, when I read it over again just a few years ago, was this huge light bulb moment for me: oh THIS is why I'm like this. I read it the first time in SF, plucked from my aunt's shelves (she was, I thought, so very cool, and if my aunt had this book, I should be reading it). It was both a book about a single woman writing a book, but also a book about a woman determining her own selfhood, and I latched onto both those concepts. Made for me. This led me to many of her others, but also to Anaïs Nin (also on my aunt's shelves), at about 18 years old, also formative. Delta of Venus is her erotica, and I will admit I skip some of the body violence/horror shorts and the child molesting stories, but others are expansive and sensual forays into women's sexuality that I just had never read before. Not outside of fanfic, anyway. Nin has some short novels that are also in that vein—a woman exploring herself—but I think you'll have seen mostly quotes from her letters and diaries. If you want nonfiction, and something of an epic read, go there.

Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down, About a Boy, High Fidelity, Funny Girl, Just Like You) - I've been reading him since early college, and I can't even remember what got me started first. High Fidelity? Because it was a movie about music and starred John Cusack? Who knows. Anyway, I think his novels stand up against time, and I met him at a book reading once and he was both hilarious and deep. I'd been working with a boy with autism at that point, and I had just read A Long Way Down, and it was evident to me that this author knew what it was to Suffer™ and sure enough, I found out later that he has a child with autism. He just seemed to understand, in both speaking and in print, that life isn't easy for anyone, that we all have a story, and books/stories/music are often the only ways we get any relief. Also he's hilarious. I said that, but it bears repeating. And if you want to understand Brexit at all, Just Like You was eye-opening for me about that. (Being American, I got it in the way of like, oh shit we elected This Cheesehead, but I didn't get it in the way of like, culture and national health care etc).

John Scalzi (Old Man's War, Locked In, Kaiju Preservation Society) - Sci-fi standby. I mean, if I want to read science fiction and I want to laugh and also Get Something Out of It, then I pick up Scalzi. He has a funny twitter presence and a blog and all that, but I don't have much to do with it. I just read his books and laugh and feel like I've managed to escape while also not ingesting something totally bullshit patriarchal. He's aware, he's looking around at the world, and he's imagining a future where that shit, yes, does happen, because we are people, but also like, more and more people or aliens are striving to eradicate that shit. So I like that. Becky Chambers is doing some really good, captivating sci-fi as well, if you want less humor in it (not that she's not funny, she's just not as tongue in cheek or expressly sardonic as Scalzi) and I have one of hers on my TBR shelf.

Ungggg, I feel like this is getting TL;DR and so I need to rattle off a few more names and go: Howard Thurman (meditations), David Maine, Neal Stephenson, Toni Morrison, Larry Niven, Ben Bova, Lucille Clifton (poetry), CS Lewis, Rainbow Rowell, Flannery O'Connor, Maggie Stiefvater, James Baldwin, Celeste Ng, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Richard Castle (lol but not lol, I seriously love those books).

[midrashic]

1, 2, 4, 12, 17!

how many books did you read this year? 59 and a half!

and if you're wondering how many of them are your fault. 13.

did you reread anything? what? honestly, i have a lot of problems rereading things when there's new stuff to be read! i definitely had a few books on my list to reread, as i wanted to finish their series, but i didn't get to any of them. (also, i don't track reread books, so even if i did, i'm not sure i'd know.) hm, does meticulously combing through each book for favorite lines count as rereading? or compulsively rereading your favorite scenes over and over? in which case i read all of the green bone saga and the temeraire series multiple times and three or four books that i'm absolutely not going to admit to here.

did you discover any new authors that you love this year? yes! aside from the entire temeraire series that you made me read (ms. novik, our lady of the ao3), i read mary doria russell, shelley parker-chan, & fonda lee for the first time this year! i'm also suspecting that my current read, by tom lin, is going to kick him straight up to my favorite authors list. anglophone literature of the chinese diaspora: underrated or criminally underrated? discuss.

any books that disappointed you? oof. also plenty. charmaine wilkinson's black cake was hugely hyped but which i found... extremely pat. i've had emily fridlund's history of wolves on my list for years, and while it was very visceral and the characters incredibly distinctive and real, it also just suffered from a particular brand of mfa-cynicism where like. the narrator seems to be made up of 70% intrusive thoughts. i really wanted to like li-young lee, but actually reading the undressing was like shoving my brain through a sieve of everything i don't like about contemporary poetry. the way i forced my way through olga tokarczuk's the books of jacob, although i did finish it and then immediately attempt re-reading it (i haven't given up on it!) this time taking extensive notes. i know i hate julie otsuka, why did i think i would like this julia otsuka novel? (the swimmers) and yet. z"l the extraordinaries. again, i read the whole series. i don't really understand why i did that. the poet must not avert her eyes, i guess.

other books i disliked for reasons i won't get into: obreht's the tiger's wife, harper's the dry, wray's godsend, hoffman's the world that we knew

did any books surprise you with how good they were? comfort me with apples! i mean, it's my favorite author ever, the one the only catherynne m. valente, so i shouldn't have doubted, but the book description is so bad. also elizabeth acevedo's clap when you land, because i really, really hated the poet x, so i was surprised that this novel-in-verse of hers really worked for me! i think it probably helped that it wasn't about something i feel belongs to me, the way poetry does. & probably also rajani larocca's midsummer's mayhem. it's been a while since i've read a middle grade and wasn't sure if i still appreciated it as a genre--but i absolutely do! this was actually a birthday gift from years ago. bella, if you're reading this, i should never have doubted you.

thank you, love! 💛

[ how's my driving? ]

[bucolicbook]

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik US pub date - 9/17/24

I saw this on April 5. 2024; some books I wait a little before requesting - others I don’t, this was definitely one of the latter. The powers that be over at Random House Del Rey smiled upon me and gifted me this ❤️

Naomi Novik is one of those authors whose writing really really works for me. Growing up I loved The Chronicles of Narnia, and then Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon - I’ve loved other fantasy novels and series but those were the original two for me. I still love them (even though I have some issues with TCoN) and Naomi Novik’s work hits me the same way. Discovering her books (the first I read was Spinning Silver) was just like how I felt when I first read the Lewis and King stories - like I had discovered something I would love forever. Reading these short stories I felt all that magic once again. 

Excellent to read through (you might not want to go quickly - these are long enough to really take your time to savor each one individually) - these ranged from fun to funny to heartrendingly beautiful. 

This was a stellar short story collection - Ms Novik’s powerful storytelling talent truly shines in these brightest gems. This has my strongest recommendations. 

Will be preordering the audiobook. 

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the DRC

[snotsloth]

Finished Empire of Ivory! I am distraught! This one took me a bit longer to finish. The initial urge to binge read my latest obsession has abated and I got distracted halfway through by another book, but then I got to the final quarter of the book and Ms. Novik came out swinging with a steel chair!

No symphony but Temeraire did make some comments about wanting to write a book

Lawrence has finally realized that he kind of accidentally an entire daughter with Emily. He's straight up having flights of domestic fancy in his mind to the point of proposing to Jane, which was hilarious!

Still no first naming of Laurence! Either it's never going to happen or it's going to happen in like the last book and I will immediately expire.

No Jolly Cooperation. Instead Laurence and Riley are fighting for most of the book, which was genuinely great character work for both of them.

Temeraire had zero time to write a book but he does have his own sand tables and is seriously considering writing one.

Dragon revolution still pending. We had a plague to cure.

Still have not met the Native American dragon.

The British dragons did tease Temeraire a bit about putting on airs, but they were mostly just sick and miserable

We did indeed go to Africa. No one had a good time, except maybe Dulcia?

We had no major war sections of the book, so Temeraire did not get to show off what a clever strategist he is.

Iskierka did indeed continue to be a chaotic delight. She's Granby's firecracker and he loves her so much. (Also I love the dynamic of grumpy older sibling and annoying, pestering younger sibling that she and Temeraire are developing)

No additional dragon babies yet

Temeraire is definitely closing in on a uniting theory of anti-slavery, and anti-colonialist, pro-universal equality including dragons. He just hasn't fully synthesized it yet

No Tharkay this book. I have been spoiled that de does eventually return, so I will continue to operate under the assumption that his ass will show up in the least likely circumstance

Something had indeed gone VERY AWRY in England.

Arkady and his band were indeed agents of merry chaos and now they have Iskierka as a second ring leader and they are menacing every French ship that dares brave the Channel

Lien did not need to cause problems. There were enough already

Things I Did Not Expect

A FUCKING PLAGUE!!!

Admiral Jane Roland!!!

Genuinely good, period accurate, abolitionist discourse

A nuanced portrayal of black Christians returning to Africa and trying to tease out the difference between culture and religion; and having to figure out how they will reintegrate with the family and society they were violently taken from. And choosing to stay and mostly reintegrate!

Laurence continuing to be vexed and bedevilled by the tension between what is "proper" for women and what is best for the individual women around him, and ultimately always choosing to respect the autonomy of women (including a black woman)!

A full throated acknowledgement of how England and other slaver colonialists permanently damaged not only the West Coast but all of Africa and how no amount of reparations will ever truly make amends for the crimes they committed and the lives that were taken.

Genuinely, I did not go into this series expecting such excellent integration of postcolonial/anti-colonial thought that is so seamlessly and naturally integrated into the narrative. Many historical novels that take place in this period will only pay lip service to the crimes of colonial England or try to ignore it altogether. Instead Naomi Novik deliberately turns the focus of the story directly towards the blood-soaked heart of English colonial power and says, "Look at it. This is the point. This is the engine that drives the whole thing. There is no enjoyment or true understanding of 19th century England without grappling with the grim facts of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism. Also there's dragons, and they are people."

Pirate (privateer) Iskierka and her merry band of ferals! They were so great and offered some much needed levity

We're only on book 4 and Laurence has committed treason! Book 4! There are 5 MORE BOOKS TO GO!!!

A face-to-face meeting between Napoleon and Laurence!

Unhinged Predictions Part 4

More pirate Iskierka, please!

Obviously Laurence is going to live though I have no idea how. Maybe Temeraire stages a rescue? A general strike by the corps? I guess I'll find out.

I think we might stay in Europe this book. I'm not certain.

Temeraire finally gets to show off what a military genius he is.

So. Much. Angst.

More Napoleon being very abnormal about Laurence (I have been spoiled for how intense he is about Laurence through the series)

Dragon strike!

Unhinged Temeraire predictions based on having only read In His Majesty's Service:

Temeraire's Symphony No. 1

Temeraire and Tchaikovsky are going to become best fucking friends mostly based on their shared opinions that artillery belongs in a proper percussion section.

Laurence and Temeraire are DEFINITELY going to mutiny at some point.

Temeraire learns to sing and Lawrence is very soft about it.

At some point in the next 2-3 books, Lawrence will realize he has acquired an entire daughter without intending to. Temeraire and Roland are only surprised it took him so long to notice.

I'm not entirely certain that Temeraire will ever call Lawrence Will, but if he does I will disintegrate.

The Chinese government gets involved.

Temeraire commissions either gigantic books, or some sort of magnification device so he can fucking read when Lawrence isn't there. They continue their evening reading sessions still because it's their thing.

Some good old fashioned JOLLY COOPERATION between the Navy and the Dragon Corps.

Temeraire writes a book. He subsequently causes a paradigm shift in his chosen field of study.

I will keep updating until I start book 2. Please do not confirm or deny my predictions. Let me suffer.

[whatkindofnameisella]

i am trying so hard but the further i go in The Last Graduate the more im like naomi novik WHY

[wellhalesbells]

✨✨ TOP FIVES FOR 2020 ✨✨

2020 was, i think we can all agree, a massively chaotic year but i have never consumed as much media before in my life, so i thought others might benefit from my slothery uh, connoisseur.... ship?  yes, that.  below are the books, comics, shows, and movies that got me through!

B O O K S .

the starless sea, by erin morgenstern - i loooove this book because it loves me back.  it says: ‘oh, you’re a reader, well i have just the thing for you.’  it luxuriates in language and story and riddles and fairy tales and it feels like an entire library in a single tome.

they never learn, by layne fargo - oh fuuuuuck, this was satisfying.  i thought it might feel a little exploitative as it is very aware of the zeitgeist and likely would not exist without the #metoo movement but it never ever did.  this was a fucking ROMP, period.  reading about a woman getting away with murdering skeezy guy after rapey guy after shitty human just made me happier and happier.

moonflower murders, by anthony horowitz - this is the second in the susan ryeland series (and the first was hardcore good fun too) and really feels very classic mystery with the artful twist of catering to the literary community.  mainly because: susan isn’t a detective, she’s an editor and she gets drafted in this time because the clue to what happened to a missing woman is in a book she edited, if she can find it.  both of the books in this series have such an excellent coming together moment that is rare af to find.

the invisible life of addie larue, by v.e. schwab - the writing in this is just so good.  it has that feel to me where i just want to drop the book and open up my own page and let my fingers fly.  it’s that inspiring kind of writing that reminds you of all the things language can do.

crown of feathers/heart of flames, by nicki pau preto - aaahhh, this series is SO FREAKING GOOD!  why is there not more of a fandom for it, why???? it is so many of my favorite tropes all resting perfectly together to the point where you almost forget they’re tropes because they just so naturally evolved there.  ugh, it’s just.... it’s so heart-bursty good.

.... number 5, part 2?  raybearer, by jordan ifueko - this was just so original and i was invested af.  like, what a brilliant idea though and an even better execution??  i loved every character and am so looking forward to the next in the series so i can get to know them even better!!

honorable mentions (sh*t i still liked a whole heckuva lot): you/hidden bodies, by caroline kepnes // writers & lovers, by lily king // i’ll be gone in the dark, by michelle mcnamara // the faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home, by joseph fink & jeffrey cranor // girl, serpent, thorn, by melissa bashardoust // a little life, by hanya yanagihara // the guinevere deception, by kiersten white // obsidio (and the entire illuminae series), by amie kaufman & jay kristoff // the bone houses, by emily lloyd-jones // house of salt and sorrows, by erin a. craig // we hunt the flame, by hafsah faizal // savage legion, by matt wallace // blacktop wasteland, by s.a. cosby // crier’s war, by nina varela // the empress of salt and fortune/when the tiger came down the mountain, by nghi vo // upright women wanted, by sarah gailey // the monster of elendhaven, by jennifer giesbrecht // a deadly education, by naomi novik // you let me in, by camilla bruce // when you ask me where i’m going, by jasmin kaur // the lights go out in lychford/last stand in lychford (and the entire lychford series), by paul cornell // the devil and the dark water, by stuart turton // serpent & dove, by shelby mahurin // one by one, by ruth ware // ruthless gods (this was SUCH an upshot from the first book - it’s worth sticking with if you’re on the fence), by emily a. duncan // cemetery boys, by aiden thomas // the inheritance games, by jennifer lynn barnes // the fortunate ones (2021 release), by ed tarkington

C O M I C S .

cosmoknights, by hannah templer - the art was gorgeous, the gayness was glorious, and just.... hot HOOOOOOOOT lady knights in space?!  a princess winning her own hand?  find something not to love in there, i dare you.

don’t go without me, by rosemary valero-o’connell - wow. wow wow wow wow wow.  the writing was stunning, so lyrical and atmospheric and deep, and rosemary has to be one of my favorite artists but even that managed to come as a beautiful surprise because it was just so freaking bold.

through the woods, by emily carroll - i loooove emily carroll, the convergence of spine-tingling horror and art that feeds into it, that is both visually and aesthetically pleasing, is hard to beat!  p.s. i also read beneath the dead oak tree from her this year and it was also a BANGER.

the impending blindness of billie scott, by zoe thorogood - zoe is someone that i just want to follow.  she’s just starting and i want to be there for every single step.  i love her art style and her ability to tell a story with it.

above the clouds, by melissa pagluica - this was so unique, and such a baller concept, as nearly half the entire book is conveyed only through the art and yet you’re never once lost, never once confused as to what any character is thinking or feeling.  it’s a story within a story and only one of those gets words though they both are chock full of emotion!

um.... number 5, part 2? crowded, by christopher sebela - everything about this series is fun af.  crowd-funded assassination and a hirable bodyguard who’s rated like an uber driver???  and the chemistry between the two mains is so great and gay!!

honorable mentions: monster and the beast, by renji // long exposure, by kam ‘mars’ heyward // fence, by c.s. pacat // invisible kingdom, by g. willow wilson // ms. marvel, by g. willow wilson // heathen, by natasha alterici // not drunk enough, by tess stone // giant days, by john allison // die, by kieron gillen // be prepared, by vera brosgol // ascender (sequel to descender, which is also great), by jeff lemire // the unbeatable squirrel girl, by ryan north // bang! bang! boom!, by melanie schoen // gideon falls, by jeff lemire // life of melody, by mari costa // cry wolf girl, by ariel slamet ries // the tea dragon society, by katie o’neill // ptsd, by guillaume singelin // heartstopper, by alice oseman // solutions and other problems, by allie brosh // finding home, by hari conner // the magic fish, by trung le nguyen // something is killing the children, by james tynion iv // the weight of them, by noelle stevenson // spill zone, by scott westerfeld // skyward, by joe henderson // miles morales, by saladin ahmed

F I L M S.

parasite, dir. bong joon ho - oh it was satisfying, oh it was suspenseful, oh i had to watch some of it through my fingers but i loooooooved it.  such a good story and so well made.

knives out, dir. rian johnson - okay, everything about this movie was amazing.  every single character was fun as hell and i could’ve watched an entire movie about each of them.  what a great fucking mystery!

blindspotting, dir. carlos lopez estrada -  this made my heart hurt so damn much.  what glorious writing, acting, and story!

portrait of a lady on fire, dir. celine sciamma - gooooorgeous cinematography, amazing chemistry, and such a soft, atmospheric film.

the farewell, dir. lulu wang - i cried and my heart felt so full and i love it so so much.

um.... number 5, part 2? someone great, dir. jennifer kaytin robinson - no part of me expected to love a netflix movie this much but it’s a love story that doesn’t get told that often??  the end of a relationship and the true love of friendship and i love these girls and i love jenny and nate’s broken relationship.

honorable mentions: eighth grade, dir. bo burnham // booksmart, dir. olivia wilde // midsommar, dir. ari aster // the curse of la llorona, dir. michael chaves // the secret life of pets 2, dirs. chris renaud & jonathan del val // jojo rabbit, dir. taika waititi // the invisible man, dir. leigh whannell // the favourite, dir. yorgos lanthimos // can you ever forgive me?, dir. marielle heller // troop zero, dirs. bert & bertie // ready or not, dirs. matt bettinelli-olpin & tyler gillett // brave, dirs. mark andrews & brenda chapman & steve purcell // the half of it, dir. alice wu // palm springs, dir. max barbakow // doctor sleep, dir. mike flanaghan // uncut gems, dirs. benny sadfie & josh sadfie // birds of prey, dir. cathy van // bloodshot, dir. dave wilson // the old guard, dir. gina prince-bythewood // enola holmes, dir. harry bradbeer // hocus pocus, dir. kenny ortega // always be my maybe, dir. nahnatchka khan // finding dory, dirs. andrew stanton & angus maclane // die hard, dir. john mctiernan

S H O W S .

black sails (2014) - this show, this shooooooooow.  i cannot, it just makes me want to cry with how good it is.  the characters, the EMOTIONS, the story, the plaaaaaan.  like, the creators clearly had a plan for every single step of this show and it was a gOOD, GOOD PLAN.

the untamed (2019) - truly, cheesy good fun with one of the best gay romances ever.  i love these characters and their relationships to each other and the way it glories in its own ridiculousness.

the righteous gemstones (2019) - one of the things that bothered me about my next choice (the ratio of female to male nudity) was so much more realistic in this one (i mean, we’ve all gotten five thousand dick pics and i know like three people?  so the fact that there is so rarely male nudity in shows when there are tits everywhere..... no, how does that even make a tiny bit of sense?).  this show was such great, wonderful, awful fun.  they’re not great people and the show is under no delusion about that and it’s GLORIOUS!

the witcher (2019) - this was just hella fun, i loved the characters and the fantasy elements.  i’m excited for the next season, it’s just entertaining swashbuckling through and through!

fargo (2014) - all of this was really very enjoyable with the through line being somebody fucks shit up and gets involved in something they really shouldn’t be involved in that’s going to swallow them whole.  season one and season three were my stand-out favorites but they were all so violent, clever, and vicious!

um.... number 5, part 2? central park (2020) - um..... so many of the hamilton actors in a muscial cartoon drawn and written by the bob’s burgers team? WHAT ABOUT THAT DOESN’T SOUND AMAZING?!  it was such a joy to hear daveed diggs and leslie odom jr.’s voices again!!

honorable mentions: schitt’s creek // the mandalorian // mr. robot // broadchurch // mindhunter // jack ryan // the good place // the end of the f***ing world // big little lies // elite // kidding // servant // letterkenny // curb your enthusiasm // i am not okay with this // ozark // buzzfeed unsolved: true crime/supernatural // you // runaways // dear white people // dickinson // brooklyn nine-nine // will & grace // 9-1-1 // dead to me // solar opposites // never have i ever // killing eve // what we do in the shadows // grace and frankie // avenue 5 // roswell, new mexico // the bold type // evil // tuca & bertie // impulse // the umbrella academy // watchmen // infinity train // corporate // search party // on becoming a god in central florida // a.p. bio // criminal: uk // the morning show // mythic quest // last week tonight // prodigal son // the great

[cricketnationrise]

Quarantine Reads Part 7

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

151. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver: one of my mom’s buddy read pick. alternating pov. accidental baby acquisition. road tripping.

152. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik: HOW did I miss that Naomi Novik had a whole dragon series??? HOWMST??? these are seriously right up my alley: dragons can talk and are partners with their riders, some dragons only let LADIES ride them (!!!), alternate history. plus there’s like 9 OF THEM??? amaze.

153. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner: book 4 in the queen’s thief series (now complete!). political intrigue, gods are real and semi-present in people’s lives, greekish adjacent.

154. Heartstopper: Volume Two by Alice Oseman: yes i had already read these panels online, but my print copy came in so obviously it was time to reread (it’s going to be a tv show!) (also its still updating!)

155. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson: meticulously researched, interwoven personal stories, the book is HEFTY but reads pretty quick

156. The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak: really cool story set in the height of the ottoman empire, follows Jahan, the elephant keeper, and how he came to be there and him growing up

157. Longbourn by Jo Baker: a retelling of pride and prejudice from the servants’ point of view, content warning: wickham preying on like a 12 year old, witnessing a whipping, descriptions of starvation, being a soldier in the napoleonic war

158. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks: a ridiculously old Hebrew manuscript thought to be lost is found in Sarajevo, a conservator goes to examine it and finds several clues to the provenance of the text, follows the clues through history and flashes back to the present as the conservator tries to follow up on the clues, based on the true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah; content warning: murder, Holocaust, giving birth, the Inquisition

159. Goalie Interference by Avon Gale: hockey m/m romance between a set of tandem goalies on a fictional professional hockey team, lots o sex

160. What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli: coming of age story set in nyc the summer before college, trying to figure out who you are, missing connections, some bad communication that gives way to good communication

161. Trade Deadline by Avon Gale: a hockey player gets traded after many seasons on the same team to his hometown team that is struggling to bring in fans, he reconnects with a childhood friend (and first kiss) who helps run the local aquarium, cuteness ensues, romance (so there’s sex)

162. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: two slaves manage to escape Georgia on the Underground Railroad, which, in this imagining is a series of safe houses and actual trains, follows their lives after that; content warning: violence, whipping, hunting people with dogs, severe illness, murder, racism

163. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett: 13th in the discworld series, this one explores the makings of a religion and how gods that have fallen out of favor can get a resurgence, very funny, highly ridiculous

164. Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden: graphic novel, Bea is on the run, runs into Lou, they find a cat, strange and dangerous stuff starts happening to them, magical realism, towns appearing and disappearing, haunted by a group of threatening men? creatures? unclear

165. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix: a fun fantasy novel, old gods still exist, demons exist, a special family of booksellers are the main ones in london trying to stop them from wreaking havoc on the mundane population, a girl discovers her father is not what her mom told her

166. Bloom by Kevin Panetta: graphic novel, ya m/m getting together and falling in love, a boy is helping out in his parents’ bakery reluctantly when he is given permission to hang a help wanted flyer and meets the boy who becomes one of his best friends and maybe more

167. The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman: short story, follows a father and son’s relationship

168. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore: non-fiction, follows the author of the original wonder woman comics and his life, he seems like an ass to me though

169. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson: a hacker and his network is targeted after sleeping with/romancing the fiance of the government official tasked with rooting out those people trying to avoid the regime, alif is forced to go on the run with the literal girl next door and manages to accidentally stumble into the world of the djinn; content warning: imprisonment, torture, starvation, riots, murder

170. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig: in the space between life and death, there is a library, full of every what if you can think of and many more that you didn’t, follows the protagonist as she explores her own life many times if she had made different decisions along the way

171. A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: a crew that punches wormholes through space to make travel easier is given a huge contract that would set them up financially, but will take a massively long time to get to, and when they do, all is not as it seems, changing POV throughout the crew of a couple humans, a few differing alien species, and an AI as they go to do this job,

172. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: epistolary novel set just after WW2, juliet ashton is a writer who receives a letter from Guernsey Island in the English Channel and they spark a friendship, after learning more about his experience during the war and his relationship with books, she starts corresponding with others from the island and eventually goes there herself. this is my actual favorite book. the love story is super sweet plus the friendships are A++++

173. Unshelved by Bill Barnes: comic strip collection set in a local library, follow the librarians as they battle loud teenagers, preteens who don’t want to read, and people who think the library is for anything but finding books to read

174. Ms. Marvel, Vol 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson: Ms. Marvel origin story, follows a teenager in Jersey City as she accidentally and suddenly acquires superpowers while trying to still make her curfew and not disappoint her parents and get good grades

175. Feast of Famine by Naomi Novik: short story set in the Temeraire series, won’t make sense unless you’re familiar with the worldbuilding

[notjanine]

2020 in books!

the only kind of new year’s resolution i made as a naive baby last january was to try to read 40 books for the year. (i read 37 in 2019, for context.) well, with all of my commuting time eliminated and an increased need for immersive escapism, i ended up surpassing that goal three times over lmao (thanks library ebooks!)

idk how to summarize my year in books in a way that makes sense but

(f) = fiction, (nf) = nonfiction, (p) = poetry.

books that rewired my fucking brain:

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer (nf)- GOD?!?!?! good. dr. k is right. ostensibly a book about plants, but actually a book about shut up and go outside. consumerism and capitalism are doing their damnedest to fuck you up, but you can just choose to value different things. take care of yourself by taking care of your environment. etc etc.

wasp by richard jones (nf)- lissen. when i got this book, my wasp-phobia was so severe that i had to put it away face down on a high shelf because there are wasps on the cover and i couldn’t bear to RISK even GLIMPSING them. now i am like... a wasp evangelist. (also due to the bugs 101 course on coursera it’s so good.)

wag by zazie todd (nf)- i have a dog, but i am NOT a Dog Person (i.e. i love my dog, but please keep yours away from me, thanks.) this book helped me understand my little guy better, plus it gives actionable tasks and activities to do with and for your pup! plus, y’know, learning about things you’re scared of helps to lessen that fear. i’d recommend this to anyone who has, wants, or regularly interacts with a dog.

a closed and common orbit by becky chambers (f)- is this series complete fluff? absolutely. am i fundamentally different after reading this one? maybe.

the best we could do by thi bui (nf)- this is so far outside of my personal experience but somehow still made me come to peace with my relationship with my mom?? and it’s barely even about that?? idk. this is probably objectively the best book i’ve read this year.

books that were just fun as hell:

mexican gothic by silvia moreno-garcia (f)- this book made me YELL out loud

death on the nile by agatha christie (f)- i grew up on agatha christie shows, but never actually read her before this year! she really was That Bitch. read this before the movie comes out

cosmoknights by hannah templer (f)- i read this in one sitting through the worst headache i’ve had in years. it is a goddamn DELIGHT. this book has everything: spaceships. mech suits. fighting the patriarchy. a perfect otp. fun art in bright colors with clean lines. onomatopoetic WAPs from before the song gave that hilarious context. 800 lesbians. this is an antidepressant in graphic novel form.

stiff by mary roach (nf)- ms. roach is like the 4th most represented author on my bookshelf because she 1. stays writing about shit i’m interested in and 2. manages to talk about gross and ridiculous things without resorting to sensationalism. it takes skill to write a hilarious book about corpses.

black sun by rebecca roanhorse (f)- excellent sexual tension between a horny siren pirate and a hot doomed... monk, kinda? set in the pre-columbian gulf of mexico with magic and shit.

cuisine chinoise by zao dao (? n/f)- this graphic novel about chinese food history/mythology is BEAUTIFUL.

the color of magic by terry pratchett (f)- you’d think a hardcore douglas adams stan would have gotten to this sooner, but no, i had to date a nerdy white boy to get here. it’s fun though! i’m not gonna read them all, but this one was good. bonus: contains one (1) great himbo.

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir (f)- like 500 pages of action and mystery and jokes and space necromancy. harrow the ninth gets a special mention bc it has a meme reference that took me out so hard i had to close the book, lie down, and groan for an entire minute before continuing.

other minds by peter godfrey-smith (nf)- i love octopuses. on one tma bonus ep, jonny sims says that if a creature can choose to do evil, then it’s a Person. octopuses are People. but anyway frfr this has an explanation of the evolution of consciousness that is cool af. (this one is much better than the other recent popsci octo book which i will not name out of politeness.)

the perfect predator by steffanie strathdee and thomas patterson (nf)- i read this bc my microbiology prof recommended it and it’s cool as heck! it’s got adventure, drama, mystery, Science-with-a-capital-S. i’m biased bc i’m a bit of a microbes nerd, but i had a blast with this. (but only bc we know going in that everything works out okay; if i hadn’t known that, i would have been TOO stressed!)

books that were a little less fun but still very readable:

my sister, the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite (f)- i couldn’t find this as funny as other people bc i, too, have a beautiful sister who’s an insufferable narcissist, so it hits a little too close to home, but. it is a wild ride.

piranesi by susanna clarke (f)- idek what to say! i went into this one blind just bc it had a cool cover and title, so i guess i’d recommend that for other people too.

the sixth world series by rebecca roanhorse (f)- monster hunting! a post-apocalyptic take that doesn’t feel tired.

the shades of magic trilogy by v.e. schwab (f)- easy escapism. some ideas feel a little first draft-y, but idk, it’s also a pretty simple premise (which isn’t a bad thing). it’s a decent urban fantasy set in ~georgian?-era london. very actiony. suffers from a bit of i’m-not-like-other-girls disease, but i didn’t even notice until book two or three, so.

the only good indians by stephen graham jones (f)- starts off a little ??? (and reeks of being Written By A Man) but picks up. the pacing’s great and there’s just a super fucking cool monster.

robopocalypse by daniel h. wilson (f)- this reads like a tv miniseries so much that i can’t believe it isn’t one yet.

confessions of the fox by jordy rosenberg (f)- not my usual cup of tea, fiction-wise, but still compelling. a fresh take on the white-male-english-professor-self-insert? but not insufferable. gets weird!

spinning silver by naomi novik (f)- rumplestilstkin, but make it interesting! a great, richly-told fairy tale, but like, large scale. good to read on a cold day while you’re wrapped up in a blanket with some hot tea.

interior chinatown by charles yu (f)- compulsively readable. a couple things bugged me, but not enough to make me dislike it. a fun companion piece to how to live safely in a science fictional universe. i like this guy’s style.

cannibalism by bill schutt (nf)- COOL. mostly covers the animal kingdom (fun), spends too much time on the donner party (less fun), ends with a SPICY take on prions that i cannot get out of my head!!!

buzz, sting, bite by anne sverdrup-thygeson (nf)- BUGS! broad but not overwhelming, neither dumbed down nor overly scientific, short enough to finish in a day or two. recommend this to literally everyone.

books that made me want to read everything else in the author’s ouevre:

the time invariance of snow by e. lily yu (f)- this FUCKS but it’s too short!!!

an unkindness of ghosts by rivers solomon (f)- okay this book is SO good and so well-written and interesting and blah blah blah all the good things, but... the whole time, i was just like?? why???? why is this what you’re choosing to write about??? (i did also read the deep and blood is another word for hunger after this one, and i did like them both, especially the latter, but i think they can do better! like i think they could write a perfect book and i am gonna be *eyes emoji* until then.)

the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (f)- a fine debut novel, but i want to see her do something a little more... idk, refined? i think she overreaches here, like it’s a little... idk looper? this is how you lose the time war? there’s a better comparison, but i can’t think of it, but you get the idea. and then halfway through it shifts gears to mad max. there’s something weird about one of the central relationships, like it’s not complex enough to take as long to resolve as it does. idk idk. there are just a lot of little nitpicky things. it’s not bad! but i think she can do better and i look forward to finding out.

postcolonial love poem by natalie diaz (p)- thinky! like i tried to read this before bed, but it’s not the sort of thing to parse out while you’re falling asleep, it requires more attention than that.

books that Learned Me Somethin:

smoke gets in your eyes by caitlin doughty (nf)- i am a self-professed death obsessed weirdo, fascinated by death and mourning, but i didn’t know all that much about what happens to a body between the dying and the funeral! this book isn’t big, but it covers a lot and doughty’s writing style is engaging and honest. it’s very memorable.

queer by meg-john barker and julia scheele (nf)- i’m gonna be totally honest and say Queer Theory is above my intellectual pay grade, but this book takes you by the hand and explains the basics.

vitamania by catherine price (nf)- LMAO my fellow americans, never take a supplement. this book is great and well-researched, but normal folks don’t need to read it, just listen to season two of the dream podcast, which definitely cribbed from this.

vegetable kingdom by bryant terry (nf)- this is a fine cookbook, my favorite of his that i’ve read so far. gets a special mention bc i had a religious experience just reading one of his kohlrabi recipes. absolutely gutted that i didn’t have an opportunity to try it this year, since the pandemic put the kibosh on all family bbqs.

the best american food writing 2020 edited by j. kenji lopez-alt (nf)- this really is just a great collection.

are prisons obsolete? by angela y. davis (nf)- yes.

i moved to los angeles to work in animation by natalie nourigat (nf)- before reading this, i had basically zero knowledge of how the animation industry works. now i know like three things.

the secret lives of bats by merlin tuttle (nf)- BATS! okay this book is more about the adventures of being a bat scientist than it actually is about bats, but there are bats in there. insectivorous bats basically shit glitter, you should know this.

books from valuable perspectives:

hood feminism by mikki kendall (nf)- a breakdown of who’s getting left out of feminist spaces, why that’s happening, and why it shouldn’t be happening.

all you can ever know by nicole chung (nf)- a (transracial) adoptee’s take on adoption and learning more about her birth family. the personal storytelling of this one really stuck with me.

motherhood so white by nefertiti austin (nf)- a single-mom-by-choice’s take on the foster system/adoption process. walks you through some things i always wondered about and some things i wouldn’t even have thought about.

this place by kateri akiwenzie-damm et al (? n/f)- i, like a lot of non- native americans, only know that history in broad strokes. getting this many highly specific stories in one dense and beautiful book felt like a lucky find. and taking that perspective into the future in the context of that history is v good.

empty by susan burton (nf)- eating disorder stories are important to me bc i care about food so much. this one is so relatable- not in its specificity, but rather its generality. it’s easy to empathize with her perspective because it’s like, Oh, i don’t have that exact problem, but i struggle with different problems in a very similar way. (feels like the opposite of roxane gay’s hunger, in a way.)

obit by victoria chang (p)- this exploration of grief is... woof.

short story collections are hard to evaluate bc you’ll never read one where every single story hits but i generally enjoyed these:

a thousand beginnings and endings edited by ellen oh and elsie chapman (f)

how long til black future month? by n.k. jemisin (f)

her body and other parties by carmen maria machado (f)

books i revisited:

the broken earth trilogy by n.k. jemisin (f)- i read the series backwards this time and like... i can’t really find any faults in these books, man. they’re just the best.

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by jomny sun (f... but is it really?)- half of this book’s sales are from me buying it for other people bc it’s the only way i know how to say i love you. i reread it every time just to make sure it still feels right and it always does.

other honorable mentions:

white is for witching by helen oyeyemi (f)- not to pit two bad bitches against each other, but this book does what akwaeke emezi’s freshwater was trying to do. it’s a little weird, a little haunted, a little of a lot of things. read this only in the dead of winter. (and with stephen rennicks’ score for the little stranger playing in the background.)

homie by danez smith (p)- there’s a lot going on here, but this just made me crack a smile a couple times in a way that no other book of poetry has ever done.

the murder of roger ackroyd and murder in mesopotamia by agatha christie (f)- That Bitch!

blues by nikki giovanni (p)- she sure has some Things To Say

the three-body problem by cixin liu (f)- interesting concepts, but... idk something’s missing? felt weirdly soulless to me. i’m probably not gonna read the sequels. but it did make some points!

the sisters of the winter wood by rena rossner (f)- i’m a slut for shapeshifting, okay. but this is a good fairy tale, it works!

parable of the sower by octavia butler (f)- i read this in march, when the pandemic was just kicking off and boy that was not the right time. def my least favorite of hers so far, but an octavia butler i don’t love is still better than a hell of a lot of other books. no idea when or if i’ll get to a good enough headspace for the sequel.

faves:

saturnino herrán by adriana zapett tapia (nf)- i got to learn new things about my mans and see some of his paintings i’ve never even seen online! GOSH.

on food and cooking by harold mcgee (nf)- yeah yeah, i’ve already mentioned this book half a dozen times on here this year, but i don’t care. this book lives off the shelf in my home bc i reference it like every other fucking day. this book is a part of me now.

[howlsmovinglibrary]

End of the Decade Favorite Book Tag

I was tagged by @bookcub to do this a while back and hadn’t had a chance to complete it, however I think it’s a pretty awesome tag so I’m doing it now. Here is a shout out to my 2010 bookish faves.

1. High fantasy books that are obsession worthy 

Anything by N.K. Jemisin, who I think might genuinely be one of the Authors Of The Decade: the Broken Earth trilogy if you’re up for something heavy, the Inheritance trilogy if not (although it still has its dark moments).

 Other good high fantasies that made my decade: Uprooted by Naomi Novik, The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, The Lady Trent quartet by Marie Brennan.

 2. Urban fantasy books filled with people you want as friends 

The Demon’s Lexicon books by Sarah Rees Brennan, I genuinely would want these people as my friends which, given the group, is saying something.

Other urban fantasies I’ve enjoyed: The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky, The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman, and, because this is a decade meme and I have to be honest: Shadowhunters by Cassandra Clare, my OG fictional obsession.

 3. Portal fantasy you fall in love with multiple times 

Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire – I’m not a huge fan of the other books in this series but this one is very good.

Also The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde, Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty, and all of Holly Black’s faerie books from Tithe to Queen of Nothing (I’m counting them as portal because there are kind of two worlds)

4. Novella that just makes you sigh cause it’s so lovely 

My second-to-last book of the decade, This Is How You Lose the Time War.

Also Martha Wells Murderbot series, because it is wonderful.

5. Historically inaccurate but laugh out loud 

The Falconer trilogy by Elizabeth May. It’s historical Edinburgh! But with fairies! And flying machines! And an apocalypse!

6. Satire that makes you reconsider your whole world view 

Not really satire but Uglies by Scott Westerfeld was the introduction little 2010 me needed for feminism, and Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson was my introduction to notions of colonialism and literary critique.

7. Happy, happy, happy and sad, sad, sad

Howl’s Moving Castle and In Other Lands are both my go-to happy reads. And I’m pretty sure my soul still has scars from where it was ripped out by a) The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly and b) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

8. No, I’m not to old for kids’ books, what are you talking about???

The Varjak Paw books are woefully underappreciated. Warrior Cats walked so Varjak Paw could run and do Mesopotamian martial art magic.

9. I’m also not too old for picture books either and never will be 

I’m going to take this as a graphic novel question and renew my daily plea for everyone, ever, to read the amazing queer urban fantasy splendour that is The Wicked and the Divine.

10. Whoa, never expected that ending and to have that much fun!!!

The answer to this question is just. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

11. Like I’m scared, but I’m happy about it

I very rarely read actual horror but all the creepy shit that Frances Hardinge includes in her (children’s) books is quality, in particular The Lie Tree and Cuckoo’s Song.

12. Classically favorite 

Ugh, I have dedicated too much of this decade to classics. The ones I don’t resent are: Beowulf, As You Like It by Shakespeare, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirelees and The Tomb of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin.

13. Party in your ears 

The Adventure Zone podcast. It got me into podcasts, and D&D.

14. Boom!!! Pow!!! Wham!!! 

Ms. Marvel and The Epic Crush of Genie Lo - both wonderfully written, badass teenager superheroines.

15. Oh wow, that’s me!!

I very rarely see myself in books – I don’t know if that’s part of why I read? Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia is the closest I’ve ever gotten.

16. I can’t stop thinking about this book

Honestly, no one book is this for me. But Cloud Atlas for better or worse was the book that got me into literary studies so I’ll pick that!

17. A book you got from Tumblr that made it to your fave

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie, Peter Darling by Austin Chant, and the basic bitch nomination, Six of Crows.

18. A book you had high expectations for and then the author OVER delivered

Warcross by Marie Lu. The second book is a little more lacklustre but this first book is just fantastic. Also The Cruel Prince – I already loved all of Holly Black’s fairy books but I wasn’t expecting this to be so beautifully ruthless.

I tag: literally anyone. I’ve been out of the booklr loop for about six months. Be brave! Do the tag! Tag me so I can follow ya! 

[skarabrae-stone]

bookhobbit

replied to your

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:

Ah yes, Captain William “Was literally cured of...

@skarabrae-stone I can’t get over “no one can cure me of amnesia, not even my best friend dragon, but the mere MENTION of Tenzing’s name brings back a ghost of memory, which comes pouring back upon seeing him in the flesh” like MS NOVIK WHAT AM I TO THINK OF THIS MA'AM!!

I KNOW! Someday Laurence will have his bi awakening, and Tharkay will just be like, “Took you long enough.”

Laurence: My dear, I need to tell you something. Tenzing and I have decided to pursue a romantic relationship.

Temeraire: Wait... what were you doing BEFORE?