#second book of July

[annmariemo]

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the peak of the British colonial era, a visiting English schoolteacher and her traveling companion express a desire to see a more authentic side of India. One of their new friends, a young Muslim doctor, arranges a trip to a natural wonder, the Marabar Caves—a disastrous excursion that concludes with the schoolteacher accusing the doctor of attempting to rape her. His arrest and trial divide an already troubled Indian community, bringing its racial and sexual tensions to a boil.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, A Passage to India reflects the country's rising nationalism. E. M. Forster's 1924 tale offers a stirring condemnation of the abuses of British colonialism. Written at the height of Forster's career, the book recaptures a heated political atmosphere and offers a foreigner's view of India as a place of mystery and exotic beauty, inhabited by a people unknowable to outsiders.

[ch1zzie]

HES HERE

LOOOOK

Barnaby now has two of his pals

[why-the-heck-not]

02.07.23, sunday

rainy <3

[solitarelee]

I'm curious what book series that is tbh, the one described as a lighthearted comedy, but with corpses??? I'm intrigued.

It's honestly my favorite series right at this moment, it's a 33-volume light novel series called Ascendance of a Bookworm. There's also a three season anime that covers the first eight-ish books, and a manga, though I haven't read the manga.

It's a pretty classic isekai except (1) the person transported is a weird-ass librarian who cares about nothing other than books and (2) she's transported into the body of an extremely disabled and chronically ill five year old. It follows her journey to get her hands on some fucking books.

For some reason it gets billed as a light-hearted comedy, and it definitely DOES have those moments, but trigger warnings for child death, mentions of and reference to sexual abuse of women and children, and also it will make you cry until you have a headache.

I do really recommend it. The translated books can be a little tricky to find sometimes, but if you're okay with eBooks they're all available through Amazon and J-Novel.

[fictionadventurer]

So many types of books that have strong summertime associations that I spend all my time cycling through cravings for certain genres or books.

Within the last month, I have wanted to read/reread:

Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery

The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder

Valiant by Sarah McGuire

Retellings in general (especially Cinderella retellings)

Golden Age mysteries, especially Josephine Tey and Agatha Christie

The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart

Books set in locations that are not America or England, especially warm climates

Books set in wintery/cold weather settings

Science fiction/space opera

Superhero stories

Civil War history/Presidential history

D.E. Stevenson books (and other mid-tier vintage light fiction)

Wilkie Collins books

Graphic novels

And I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting

[zombeesknees]

had to drop $812 at Midas today for all new tires/a realignment, and then i got home to find wimsey bleeding like a stuck pig from a giant gash across the underside of his neck (not sure if one of the other cats literally went for the throat, or if he just clawed all the fur and skin off), and then i had to work an extra two hours to make up for the Midas jaunt, so today has just been A Day.

picture of the recuperating, grompy patient:

[eleventeenratsinaflannelsuit]

telling the psychiatrist who gets me my adhd medication that i dont have abnormal anxiety except now im pulling another anxiety-driven all nighter because every time i close my eyes i feel slightly like im going to die from thoughts

the moral of this story is dual enrollment sucks

[jessread-s]

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

✩🪻💍 Review:

Julie Soto’s debut novel is guaranteed to give you all the feels.

“Forget Me Not” is a second chance romance starring Ama Torres, a wedding planner, and Elliot Bloom, a grumpy florist. When Ama is hired to plan the largest wedding of her career, she quickly discovers that it won’t be all sunshine and roses. Elliot Bloom, her ex, has been contracted as the wedding floral designer and there is no working around him. Left with no choice but to put their complicated pasts behind them, the pair attempt to plan the perfect wedding. With love in the air, however, it’s hard for both Ama and Elliot to deny the chemistry between them.

From the very beginning I was rooting for Ama and Elliot to rekindle their romance and live out their happily ever after! Their alternating viewpoints allow the reader to piece together how they first met, the moment their workplace relationship turned into something more, and what ultimately led to their separation. Despite the rift between them, Soto makes it clear that the two still feel deeply for one another no matter how hard they try to limit their interactions during the planning of the wedding. I appreciated how Soto naturally intensified these feelings over the months they spent in proximity to each other. Though I was an emotional wreck while they slowly learned to love each other again, it was worth it just to read the epilogue!

Aside from Ama and Elliot’s romance, I enjoyed exploring Ama’s complex feelings about marriage. Soto adds depth to her character by slowly revealing that Ama, a wedding planer, believes that love does not last. Through Ama’s point-of-view, the reader traces this belief back to her mother, who has been married sixteen different times and views love the same way. This detail adds intrigue and gives much needed insight into the thought behind Ama’s every decision. I appreciate Soto taking her time with Ama’s character development as she changes her perceptions of love. Even more so I appreciate Elliot for telling Ama that she did not need to change everything about herself just to be with him.

I cannot wait to read Soto’s next book in 2024!

➤ 4.5 stars

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[saintbuffy]

got some new books at the library today 😈 hehehe

[deanncastiel]

2024 Book #144

Title: Godly Heathens Author: H.E. Edgmon Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBTQIA+ Series: The Ouroboros, Book 1

Maybe I have always just been bad at being human because I’m not one. Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in the tiny town of Gracie, Georgia. Known for being their peers’ queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who’s a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn. But even Enzo doesn’t know about Gem’s dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how the hell does Willa Mae Hardy? The strange new girl in town acts like she and Gem are old companions, and seems to know things about them they’ve never told anyone else. When Gem is attacked by a stranger claiming to be the Goddess of Death, Willa Mae saves their life and finally offers some answers. She and Gem are reincarnated gods who’ve known and loved each other across lifetimes. But Gem – or at least who Gem used to be - hasn’t always been the most benevolent deity. They’ve made a lot of enemies in the pantheon—enemies who, like the Goddess of Death, will keep coming. It’s a good thing they’ve still got Enzo. But as worlds collide and the past catches up with the present, Gem will discover that everyone has something to hide. 

Rating: 4.5 ⭐

Quick thoughts: that ending holy jesus. that bumped it up to a 4.5 ⭐, i was going to rate it 4.25 ⭐ (astounding difference lol). Fascinating concept, interesting characters, love the dynamic between the main three, i love enzo way too much. the MCs felt a tad too teenager-y to me, especially in the beginning, but it is YA so 🤷🤷🤷

[foulbearobservation]

In other news, I just finished reading Leviathan Wakes and holy shit what a book. Miller,,, the strange little wet dog of a detective that you are,,,, he's the worst man on earth* but damn it he's MY man

the audiobook narrated by jefferson mays is quite possibly the best audiobook I've ever heard, genuinely listen to it if you get the chance

[ashleybenlove]

Meatlug eats a flaming boulder. Dragons are awesome.

[leapingthroughworlds]

i just finished watching good omens and good lord is it wonderful!!!! i can finally get it why tumblr is all over the ineffable husbands they truly are something else entirely

[zerolostwalks]

Oh hell, while I'm here. Trope bingo prompt almost/interrupted confession, rulie

Julie couldn’t wait to get to the combined kitchens and dining hall. The hard labor of tending the fields felt extra exhausting today. It probably had something to do with her most recent brush with death. 

Sure she was mostly healed now, only some scarring and minor bruises left. But for the past month she hadn’t really been able to do much more than sleep. She couldn’t even comfortably walk on her own until a week ago.

“You ok?” Reggie asked, one of his hands came up to rest on her shoulder. A comforting weight and warmth she was accustomed to by now. 

“I’m fine.” Julie said but as usual even the small lie was very noticeable even to her own ears. Reggie leveled her with the usual look he reserved for when he thought she was pushing herself too far.

“Why don’t you go sit down,” Reggie suggested, before she could say anything else, his look softened into a small smile. “I'll get us both some food? Ok?”

Julie really wanted to argue, but even if she had the energy for it Reggie didn’t give her the option. He spun her around towards the makeshift tables and ran off.

‘I don’t like him,’ Carrie snarked suddenly in the back of Julie’s mind as she sat them back in the corner where Julie always chose to sit. 

‘What? Why? Not that long ago you were saying how good of a friend he is.’

‘Not like that, not like a friend. I meant like, how we like Nick.’

‘Why does that matter?’ Julie’s confusion at Carrie was drowned out by the subtle joy she felt seeing the return of Reggie’s bright smile as he happily chatted with Willie and Flynn who were tasked with running the kitchen today.

‘Because! Uuugh, I swear you are so dense sometimes.’

Julie tried to not roll her eyes at the statement. Half of what Carrie said never made any sense, at least initially. Almost like Carrie purposefully forgot Julie had exponentially less experience on earth and with humans than she did.

‘I don’t purposefully forget, you are just too naive for your own good. He is starting to act like he likes you, like Nick likes us-me. Likes me.‘

‘I highly doubt that,’ Julie grimaced at the frustration radiating off Carrie and building in the depths of their mind. 

“Everything ok in there?” Reggie asked, wearing a bemused smile as he sat down, sliding Julie the usual bread roll and soup. He’d been one of the first to believe Carrie was still alive, one of the few that could tell when she was talking to Julie. 

“Carrie’s frustrated.”

‘TELL HIM I DON’T LIKE HIM’

With an exasperated sigh Julie did as Carrie asked, only to be met by Reggie’s confused, furrowed brow. 

“Wha? Why?” Reggie sputtered as he shook his head, like he was trying to shake his thoughts in order. “Where’d that come from?”

“Carrie thinks you like us.” 

‘Not US, You.’

“She thinks you like me.” Julie corrected with another sigh and tore at her bread.

Reggie chuckled as he sat up straighter, “Well, of course I like you. You’re my friend.”

‘See?’ Julie threw the thought almost triumphantly toward Carrie.

‘No. He might be just as dense as you are or-’

‘How could someone not be aware of their own feelings?’ Julie interrupted Carrie, remembering how intense even just the memories of certain emotions could be. It didn’t seem feasible to not be aware of them.

‘A few months ago you didn’t know what jealousy was’

‘That’s different, I don’t know what a lot of feelings are. Surely he’d be able to tell something as intense as attraction’

‘You’d be surprised, everyone feels things differently. Plus, he might be fully aware and putting up a front.’

‘What does any of that mean?’

Carrie was interrupted again, this time by Reggie, though he didn’t know it. “She still frustrated?”

“She’s trying to convince me that you like me, like Nick likes her.” Julie mumbled, keeping her focus on her soup. “Which is ridiculous.”

“It is?”

“Of course it is.” Julie said with a shake of her head, “No one here could actually like me like that.”

Reggie went silent for a long moment, longer than he’d been around her in a long time. The silence was what made Julie finally look at him again. He was slouched over his food and avoided looking at her. 

Something inexplicably twisted uncomfortably in her stomach even though she didn’t think she was sick. 

The smug confidence Carrie had been radiating also shifted. There was more of that usual exasperation but it was laced with something, almost defensive. Or maybe it was aggressive?

Before Julie could even begin to sort through the emotional bombardment Reggie sat up straighter, face scrunched up in confusion and something else Julie couldn’t name, “wait, why?”

“What?” Julie was still distracted by the inner turmoil, not aided by Carrie’s sudden stubborn silence.

Reggie leaned forward, his food seemingly forgotten, “why do you think someone couldn’t like you like that?”

“Because,” Julie began, trying to find the correct words, “human attraction is so dependent on physical appearance. And this face, this body, it’s not mine. It's not me. It’s never been me and it’s never going to be me.

“But no one can separate us like that. Separate me from this appearance like that. So any attraction they might feel wouldn’t be for me. It’d be for this body.”

Reggie frowned and his hand slid the slightest bit closer to her before he pulled it back, “Hypothetically, what if someone could separate you like that?”

“Reggie,” Julie exhaled.

“Wait, just hear me out?” He waited for her to nod before he continued on. “Right, so as pretty as Carrie is. That’s not what makes you, you, right?”

Julie tried to push past the temperamental mix of emotions that washed over her and radiated off Carrie when he called her pretty, and focused on the words he was saying. Even if she wasn’t sure where he was going with them. “Right?” 

“Right,” his grin was growing broader again, “For some people, looks aren’t what attracts them to a person. It’s the personality, or the bonds they build with somebody that sparks attraction.”

Julie chewed it over, “Ok, so in your hypothetical, this person isn’t attracted to appearance. So it wouldn’t matter what I looked like, even if I looked like Willie or even Magnolia?”

“Exactly,” he bounced slightly in his seat, “it doesn’t matter what you look like. It matters what kind of person you are. And you’re pretty amazing.”

“I’m not all that great.” Julie mumbled a little sardonically, which shocked Carrie and made Reggie deflate a little. “Besides, it doesn’t matter, because Carrie and I are trapped like this and your hypothetical person doesn’t exist.”

“Jul-”

“Reggie!” Luke’s voice rang out, drawing his and Julie’s attention to the entrance of the room where he stood frantically pointing at his wrist, “Dude, what are you doing?”

“Damn it,” Reggie muttered under his breath, before he turned back around with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, looks like I gotta go. We’ll talk more about this later, k?”

“Ok.” Julie tried her best to return his smile with a small nod and watched him run off, shoving as much of his bread roll in his mouth as he did so.

Carrie groaned, ‘You two are going to be absolutely insufferable soon, aren’t you?’

[ritahayworrth]

me vs. the two other people commenting “mine” at the same time for the same book on facebook

[emawinslow]

not to be dramatic but I literally feel like I’m going insane lol