#read recently

[bookishfreedom]

may & june wrap up 📚

may was a fabulous reading month, in both quantity and quality of books. june was, unfortunately, lacking in both. here’s hoping july takes after may 🤞

Books read in May, * for new favorites:

✨Transcendent Kingdom (library book)

✨Immortal Longings* (library book)

✨The Miseducation of Cameron Post

✨Falling

✨In Five Years

✨Girl Gone Viral

✨title not included due to the SMP boycott*

✨The Honeymoon Crashers* (audiobook, not pictured)

✨The Deal (ebook, not pictured)

Books read in June:

✨Outrun the Wind

✨The Hunting Party

✨My Body

[bibliophilecats]

Read recently: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

What I was looking for: Because I enjoyed Legends & Lattes, I had not really planned on reading this book. I was sure it could not compare. But then I saw it at my library and could not resist.

What I liked: I enjoyed the friendships in this book a lot. Especially between Viv and Fern.

What I did not like: The love story felt underdeveloped to me. I would not have noticed or minded if it had been left out. Or explored more.

Conclusion: I think if I had read this one first, I would not have liked Legends & Lattes as much as I did. While not high stakes, there is some more plot and excitement in this novel. If you are looking for a more calm fantasy novel but still with a villain to defeat but also with a focus on reading good books and eating good food, then this is the book for you.

[readrenard]

When you die you'll lie dead. No memory of you, no desire will survive, since you've no share in the Pieran roses. But once you've flown away you'll wander among the obscure dead, invisible even in the house of Hades.

[humming-fly]

They seem like the kind of guys who would keep count

Bonus:

[ahsokalegend]

One of my favorite choices the Apothecary Diaries made was making the Emperor a “normal guy” (as far as I know as an anime-only). He’s not evil. He’s not hindering Mao Mao’s journey. He respects the concubines.

If anything his lack of autonomy and presence as the most powerful person in the country further enhances the show’s themes of working within the confines of class and gender inequality.

The previous emperor was a horrible, horrible pervert. Okay, then this emperor only weds women of age… Until he’s forced to take his father’s precious wife due to politics. The current emperor reasonably avoids her.

Eunuchs exist? Bam! now the surgery is outlawed, but this will create a reduction in male labor around the palace.

The emperor clearly favors few women. Well, now he must recognize a concubine with a powerful politician father playing the system.

He supports Mao Mao toeing the line of social expectations for women, but hasn’t removed the law against women preparing medicine. It makes one think, if he wanted to, could he make the change at all? For every two steps forward, he’s forced to take one step back.

In this universe even the Emperor is limited by social pressure and the expectations of his station. His life and that of his children is out of his control, and if that isn’t such a compelling piece of world building I don’t know what is.

If that’s how the author twists the narrative of the Emperor you better believe her female characters dealing with women’s issues in this society are even better written.

[sunlitsoil]

there is always tomorrow

[mediashadowreads]

WWW WEDNESDAY - 29TH MAY

Formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and now at home with Sam at Taking on a World of Words, WWW Wednesday is a simple weekly meme, all you have to do is answer the 3 questions below! What are you currently reading?What did you recently finish reading?What do you think you’ll read next? Continue reading WWW WEDNESDAY – 29TH MAY

[autumnillustration]

"Perhaps a lesser-known gift of Kenobi's was his ability to listen."

(AU where post-banishment Ahsoka gets zapped back to TPM, strapped with a fundamental distrust of the Jedi, an apocalyptic vision of the future, and a mandate to help Anakin Skywalker. So, in all this, it's nice to have a confidant.)

edit: link to the fic

[onomatapeanut]

Stranger

/strayn-jr/

noun. A person whom one does not know or with whom one is not familiar.

[physicsgoblin]

to all artists painting the same thing over and over and to all writers writing the same story over and over

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

HOT, SINGLE, UNSTUDIED SPONGES. 3000 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY. Come sail the distance and read Tiger Tiger!

[mimimar]

carmilla and laura

(art prints)

[bibliophilecats]

Read recently: Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

What I was looking for: I was hesitant to continue the series because the first book felt (and I think initially was intended to be) like a single novel. But someone I trusts said it was good.

What I liked:  Simon’s struggles with life after being the Chosen One felt real and believable. And I still love R. Rowell’s take on the magical world. I think it was perfect to have a completely different take on magic in the US compared to the small UK.

What I did not like: There wasn’t too much character development in this one. However, it does take place over the span of two weeks, so realistically, people don’t change that much in a handful of days.

Conclusion: A great continuation of the first book. I am definitely looking forward to the last book.

[batbabydamian]

older Damian and Maya!! Damian's ranting about art school's allocation of funds and resources lol

Maya is from critically acclaimed comic Robin: Son of Batman (2015) :)

[rsmrnn]

Pathologic x Morphine (Bulgakov)

Inspired by this fic!!