#new book review is up!

[autumnrose11]

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[neverlearnedtoread]

Spinning Silver

⭐⭐⭐⭐; the staryk king and mirnatius with the word 'wife' on the board: there's only one thing more horrible than a wife.... *rips off paper* MY wife

Oh?? 👌😉😏

women are fucking amazing and wonderful and terrifying and unequivocal badasses. especially to their husbands. it's about the fantasy of a marriage you have no control over being perfectly suited to you in ways you didn't even know it could

inhuman fae creatures that actually have a separate culture and set of rules they are governed by. they're much more powerful than humans, of course, but they are bound to their laws, and if you're smart you can work with that

fairytale-esque magic system that relies heavily on (1) trickery (2) Having Audacity and (3) the rule of threes 😉. we love a soft magic system that rewards big swings and BDE!

not one, but TWO separate arranged marriages engaged in HEATED pvp AKA two people bound in hostile matrimony trying to kill each other while having 'wait, are they hot? fuck!' moments

you can be cold and practical and still be a good person. you can be strong enough to protect yourself without sacrificing others. with a good enough grasp of contracts you can force a demon to leave your kingdom AND husband unharmed in a 2-for-1 deal

No.. ❌🤢🤮

multiple POVs with no names for chapter titles so you have to figure out who it is from context clues - if you're like me and love a little puzzle to go with your reading time, you'll really enjoy it (Novik does it VERY well) but if you get confused easily or don't wanna put in the brainpower its annoying and overly complicated

if you don't like enemies-to-lovers where they actually argue and are ideologically opposed, you're not gonna enjoy the romance subplots. this is not a 'forbidden-lovers' kinda enemies-to-lovers. this is firmly in the 'my husband misses me a lot - but his aim is getting better!' zone

really quick wrap up - it gets tied up a little too fast after the final confrontation with the Big Bad. i wouldve liked at least to have irina POV at the end because her side of things just. gets left hanging

Summary: Miryem is a daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, and though her father doesn't have the hardheartedness to be a good one, she'd rather be despised for what she's owed than starve. Her knack for the trade, coupled with her sharp tongue, draws the ire of her village, and even more alarmingly, the Staryk's attentions; faerie creatures who only covet gold, they take her offhanded boast that she can turn silver into gold quite literally, and show up at her door to hold her true to her careless words - which, honestly, kind of backfires on them when she rises to the challenge and upends their realm into complete disarray, so maybe there's a lesson there for the next group of nonhumans to learn: don't bet the house against a human girl whose Had Enough Of All This Bullshit. She might win.

Concept: 💭💭💭 I don't know Rumpelstiltskin's story very well, and Ice Kingdom aesthetics aren't my favourite (you can blame it on my residual dislike of Frozen), but I DID read Uprooted before this. I wasn't as into the book blurb as I was with Uprooted, but I'm an experienced (and opinionated) enough reader to know when to trust my gut - if I find an author's writing style easy to read, and I enjoy how they handle their themes, I'm not afraid of diving into deep waters. If it's that bad, I can always DNF

Execution: 💥💥💥💥 As I've come to expect with Novik's writing, a wonderfully easy read; the storytelling voice flows smoothly and makes me want to keep on reading. No slogging through difficult to understand passages and too slow pacing for me! I instantly wanted to collect every POV character like puppies in a basket, no matter how brief their sections were. I will say the ending does forget what it wants to say and simply ends on a happy note, instead of a complete thought. It doesn't tie in the POV characters together strongly enough - I would've loved to see an epilogue scenes with the 3 main female characters supporting each other, or at least being three distinct Bad Bitches!

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤❤❤ Mostly because of Irina and Miryem (and Wanda)'s absolute BDE. They truly brought their stories to life and felt very dynamic, constantly driving the story forward through their actions, especially because their personalities and characteristics were so well-suited to the challenges they faced (Miryem rules-lawyering the Staryk, Irina taking to politics, Wanda keeping faith despite all the shit she's been through). Honorary shoutout to the complete hilarity of Mirnatius's POV (though ultimately it IS more indulgence than necessity, I respect Novik for it) - may he spend the rest of his life desperately drawing his wife in vain search of her bad angles!

Favourite Moment: the running gag of mirnatius losing his fucking mind trying to prove irina isn't hot. you know that post that's like 'find a blorbo to draw and your art skills will start improving so much faster'? irina is his blorbo. special mention of the scene he gets jealous realizing a random guard has a crush on his behated wife and immediately jumps to the conclusion that irina would want to fuck the guard for the sake of the kingdom. babygirl the hoops you are jumping........where is this gymnastics routine even going 😭 this man is not beating the meow meow allegations..

Favourite Character: It's really a tie between Miryem and Irina, who are both so similar yet different at the same time. Miryem's BDE was enjoyably explosive - she throws it in everyone's face, which is perfect to play off of the Staryk's otherworldly impassiveness. Irina's BDE was a lot more...steely. Quietly coming into her own as she realized how adept she was at politics, and how perfectly well-suited that made her to being tsarina - and when they finally met each other? it was so funny when were like 'hey...why dont we kill our husbands via pokemon battle??'

[garrettwrites]

I am so tired of how Quotev/Wattpad level fanfiction, written by what reads as a 15 year old getting into their first fandom, gets pushed up the book ratings in the gay romance genre (m/m). Why is Red White and Royal Blue always at the top. Why is Boyfriend Material. Why must I suffer. Where are the standards. Why is a 30/40 year old recommending me, a grown adult man, stories that feel like they were written for highschoolers who don't like to read so they pick up the trashiest, most easily digestible shit in order to have the bare minimum of fun while doing their reading interpretation project for class.

This is coming from someone who had fun reading goddamn Twilight by the way. I'm not a book snob. I can enjoy objectively bad media if it's fun. My favourite book series with LGBT main characters is All For The Game, and that's a shitshow! But at least there's passion in it! There's fun!

I am going insane!!!!!

[millylouedward]

Spotify Wrapped, but for my books <3

[freshthoughts2020]

[focsle]

Hate when I judge a book by its cover cos the cover design is Cool As Hell and I end up contemplating a dnf once I get 100 pages inside.

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Ink Blood Sister Scribe

adult low fantasy

follows two sisters who grew up guarding a collection of magical and dangerous books, keeping them safe from a shadowy organisation

one is on the run across the world, staying one step ahead of the magic that killed her mother, but after deciding to stay longer at the Antarctic research base with her girlfriend quickly discovers that even there is not far enough away from the people tracking her

and the other is at home, the sole protector of the books, desperate to find out their secrets

plus a young man who’s lived his life within the Library used for his talent of writing the books

Latine & Jewish MCs, bi MCs

[bargainsleuthbooks]

Book Reviews Children's Edition: Manga Biographies: Charles M. Schulz; Halfway There: A Memoir; The Terrifying Tales of Vivian Vance; How to Explain Climate Science to a Grown-Up #GraphicNovels #Manga #NetGalley #ChildrensBooks

Time for another round-up of book reviews: this time I tackled some manga, graphic novels, and a children's book about climate science. Read about the history of the Peanuts comic book, a memoir about being mixed-race, and a YA horror story. #ARCReviews

I have been connecting to my kids more with their reading. The two youngest adore manga books and the reason I have a Barnes & Noble membership is because the county library and school library do not carry the series’ they are interested in. I’ve also been picking up some graphic novels and manga, including some ARCs. Here are some reviews of my most recent finds: Most books can be found at the…

[fitzrove]

I want to write a romance subplot (in [original project]) but I have this problem where I straight-up disagree with most people online on what is appealing in a romance story or romantic subplot (ie. a lot of common tropes are unappealing to me, I usually need it to be Full of Symbolism And Themes [but only like... wider themes, usually sexual liberation and self-discovery which are pretty common ones arent really my cup of tea ajks], I don't usually find much appeal in a mundane romance being at the center of the narrative & it has to be wlw OR i have to delusion it into being so in my head...)

Like legit the target audience for the kind of relationship I would write would just be me and like 3.5 of my gay friends rip

[autumnrose11]

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[tariqha]

[street-corner-felines]

Zero Day Director commentary - With actor Andre Keuck

[elletromil]

Take it from someone who can read up to 3-4 books (on top of the fics) a week and usually average at 2 books every week, when people tell you to read stuff you enjoy if you want to read more, well it's true

For the past month i've been reading only one book, the third in a trilogy that i had liked pretty ok so far. Not my usual jam, but the first two books had managed to make me care enough about how the plot would end that i wanted to read it all myself instead of just looking it up. But then the third book... Was good, like it is a very good trilogy, just, like i said, not my jam and didn't manage to engage me as much as the previous two.

Had it been the first book of the trilogy, i would have dropped it. But after about 1800 pages already read in the whole trilogy (last book alone was ~800 pages), well, you know I was invested and it was a matter of pride

But that also had as a result that for the past month i have barely read anything but that book and some days i would just not read anything (in terms of book, fanfic is a different beast) because i was just not really enjoying myself

Could i have been reading other books at the same time? For sure. At any given time i have about 5-6 books on my 'is technically currently reading' pile

But i knew if i was gonna read those books, then i would never finish the 800 pages book and i didn't want to not finish it.

Anyway all this to say that yes- finding books you enjoy is actually one of the best way to make sure you'll read more. It took me about a month to 800 pages. When the rest of tje year, i averaged about 1000/1200 pages a week. And its not because i didn't want to read. I wanted to. I even had a bunch of mangas on my desk i was planning to read, but i wouldnt even touch those because i was just turn off.

And i finally finished the book tonight and the sheer relief to know that tomorrow i can finally read a book i will thoroughly enjoy. Unbelievable.

And like, i did that to myself. Im not mad i powered through finishing the book. Mostly because i'm a big reader and i always find more books i want to read and like a month delay won't really change much on that front.

But yeah. My good peeps. The thing you choose to read do matter. And also if you're not vibing with a book, for any reason, you're never obligated to finish it. I will finish reading maybe 1 out of 3 books i pick up. And you don't have to justify why you put down a book. I've picked up books that seemed to be right up my alley open it on the first page, read one (1) word and then went 'nah' and returned it to the public library without losing sleep about it. And no that is not an exaggeration, sometime, a word is all you need.

And also, it doesn't matter what you actually like to read. 70% of what i read is queer romance because that's what i enjoy. The rest is mostly horror or sci-fi. But if all you enjoy is YA? Go for it. Or even children's books, who cares? I reread children's series from my childhood for nostalgia at least once a year and i'm always having a blast

So yeah this is just me rejoicing that i am finally done with that fucking book and also just encouraging you my good peeps to drop a book you're not enjoying if you're reading for fun

[aarzi-rzz]

If tomorrow starts without me,

Would I be relieved or blame myself for not giving me a chance to see what's going to happen?

[slowthinkingreader]

The Shadow of The Torturer - Gene Wolfe

(Started May 14th, finished May 25th, 2024)

Takes a long drag of my cigarette. OKAY. I really didn't intend to start another long series of books this year. I've already started my read of Proust. How much have I read of Lost Time? Don't ask me that right now. This book, I'm coming to know, is basically like reading Proust, except instead of following along with the minutia of high-society France in the 20th century, we're somewhere in the far distant future, where the sun has dimmed in the sky and society is contrived in such a way that the ruling powers depend on a guild of Torturers to blindly carry out the punishment they're ordered. There's also fantasy medieval towns and fantasy logic; duels, mythology, time travel, JRPG characters... I could sooner fit what doesn't appear in this book rather than what doesn't.

Full disclosure, the ^ cover art above is not the actual art of the book I own, as I would otherwise put, because I don't own the book, I'm reading this series on my phone, and the cover art that Apple Books supplies to all their books are so ugly I couldn't in good conscience put that shit here for other people to fry their eyes with. Thank me.

Another disclosure; I'm listening to the Shelved by Genre podcast as a companion as I read along. It's really good! It's what got me interested in reading these books to begin with. I'd heard of the Book of the New Sun series before, in a "this series is a classic but the books look very intimidating on the sci fi shelves" sense, but never felt compelled to read them myself until now. I listened to the first episode and realized I would have a lot more fun if I read the chapters myself and then compared my observations as I went along.

In fact, this first book was not that long of a read, but it's very, very dense with information. Not in the sense that the worldbuilding or the plot is especially strange, though it is; the prose itself is so evasive in what it's describing that several times I've had to backtrack to make sure I'm understanding what's even transpiring on the page. You're frequently introduced to foreign expressions and concepts with no explanation as to what it means, and sometimes you're introduced to things that should be familiar, but that are mystified and made foreign.

It makes for a confusing review, but I don't know if I would have enjoyed this book without the podcast as a companion. And I'm not saying that as a complaint. Maybe this speaks more about my own patience and taste, but in a way I feel like the book presents itself so much as a game rather than a singular reading experience. Things of interest are obscured from you; the narrator obscures the truth from you; your ability to parse and identify patterns reveals different things every time you read something, depending on what you seek out. Any one interpretation is bound to be different. I'm trying to imagine myself reading this book alone and finding myself very bored at the prospect. I understand why New Sun has such an involved fanbase; you could hold infinite debate over every detail in this book. I'll keep myself more limited in this review than I could be.

Severian— I love Severian. Awesome, never lies, wise beyond his years, shredded and shirtless all the time, and his sword is huge. May or may not be embellishing his own biography.

Okay I actually don't have much to say about him yet. The book is such that it doesn't exactly resolve anything. I imagine by the end of the series I will be able to formulate something much more like an "opinion" about the "contents", which will hopefully make more sense by then. Until I finish, I have a few thoughts and predictions:

I love the way this book plays with scale. I love how unabashedly *huge* everything is. Can't get enough of massive women and mountains and galactic empires and ocean monsters. Not enough of this in any genre, I say!!!

I honestly have no idea where the book is going wrt misogyny and gender. It's certainly grappling with a lot of interesting thoughts on gender roles and bioessentialism... but to what end, I really can't predict. I wonder how Severian would react to somebody challenging him? If a woman did? If Vodalus did?

What memory could Vodalus possibly be trying to get out of eating corpses. Just any corpses, too? Nobody's crypt in specific you're trying to pilfer? Why is memory something you can extract from eating corpses too I... whatever. Whatever. I'm normal. It's fine.

Maybe I'm too Lord of the Rings-brained, but when I read this, my immediate impression was that he was looking into an eye, with a sharp sclera surrounded by fire:

For the first book of the Book of the New Sun series, The Shadow of the Torturer was intriguing, and enjoyable if only to appreciate the prose, but it hasn't completely sold me yet. 6/10.

[thereasonsimbroke]

Warner Bros.' Creative Freedom Vs Disney's Producer Control

In Ep. 597, Millennial Mike and I discuss how Hollywood studios like Warner Brothers and Disney navigate changing dynamics, the evolving director-producer relationship, the impact of visionary filmmakers, cinematic storytelling's future amidst trends like AI-driven filmmaking, and more! Chapters 3:12 The Changing Landscape of Hollywood Studios 18:24 Impact of Directorial Vision 35:55 Nolan's Creative License 37:09 Pushing Boundaries with Batman 37:32 Spectacle and Elevation 39:40 Reimagining Batman's Mythology 49:06 Tim Burton's Dark Influence 51:35 Planning a Saga 55:58 Directorial Vision vs. Studio Interference 59:30 Zack Snyder: An Antidote to Disney 1:01:45 Zack's Five-Movie Arc 1:04:10 Built-in Reset Point 1:08:48 Changing Plans and Geoff Johns' Influence 1:49:50 Expectations and Studio Strategies 2:00:36 The Redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog 2:08:00 The True Value of Art 2:12:37 Looking Forward and Optimism

FOLLOW/SUPPORT MILLENNIAL MIKE: @millennialmike (Mike's Vero) @TheExilesNet (Mike's X) The Ronin Council (YouTube) Millenial's Substack As always, we appreciate your constructive Feedback, Suggestions, and Questions. You can also leave us an audio question on SpeakPipe. Thank you for your continued love and support! Enjoy the show. Daniel Podcast Awards 2019 || Games & Hobbies (Winner) Podcast Awards 2017 - 2018, 2020 - 2022 || Games & Hobbies (Nominated) Official Site FOLLOW US: - X | @ReasonsImBroke and @TRIBPod - Instagram - Threads - Pinterest - Tumblr - Discord Lounge - YouTube Channel SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / iHeartRadio / TuneIn / Overcast SPREAD THE WORD: If you're enjoying the show, please head over to iTunes and leave us a rating and a review! Each one helps new Brokettes discover the podcast. Contribute to the Hero Initiative to offer assistance to comic creators facing difficulties. Show your support for the AFSP's efforts by donating to the Autumn Snyder Tribute Fund. CREDITS: Opening/Closing Jingles - Alex Scott Show Logo By - Opanaldiova

The latest episode of The Reasons I'm Broke Podcast!