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balioc · 10 months ago

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BALIOC'S READING LIST, 2023 EDITION

This list counts only published books, consumed in published-book format, that I read for the first time and finished. No rereads, nothing abandoned halfway through, no Internet detritus of any kind, etc. Also no children’s picture books.

(There were so many children's picture books.)

Hand of the Sun King, J. T. Greathouse

Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Circus of Dr. Lao, Charles G. Finney

When the Angels Left the Old Country, Sacha Lamb

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us, Rachel Aviv

Elder Race, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Yamada Monogatari: Troubled Spirits, Richard Parks

Victory City, Salman Rushdie

Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America, Richard Rorty

Cage of Souls, Adrian Tchaikovsky

A Morbid Taste for Bones, Ellis Peters

One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters

Priest of Bones, Peter McLean

Priest of Lies, Peter McLean

Demon Summoner: Apprentice, Greg Walters

By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions, Richard Cohen

Tsalmoth, Steven Brust

Priest of Gallows, Peter McLean

Priest of Crowns, Peter McLean

Waybound, Will Wight

Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata

The Tatami Galaxy, Tomihiko Morimi

These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong

Death in Venice, Thomas Mann

Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, Rory Sutherland

The Man Who Was Thursday, G. K. Chesterton

Storming Heaven, Miles Cameron

Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations: Essays on History, Narrative and Game Design, Alexis Kennedy

From Ritual to Romance, Jessie L. Weston

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

Rats and Gargoyles, Mary Gentle

Labyrinth's Heart, M. A. Carrick

Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships, Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

The Long, Long Goodbye of "The Last Bookstore," Mizuki Nomura

The Last Sun, K. D. Edwards

The Hanged Man, K. D. Edwards

The Hourglass Throne, K. D. Edwards

Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi

The Thirteen Petalled Rose: A Discourse on the Essence of Jewish Existence and Belief, Adin Steinsaltz

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee

The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius

The Star-Child, Oscar Wilde

Monk's Hood, Ellis Peters

St. Peter's Fair, Ellis Peters

The Leper of St. Giles, Ellis Peters

The Virgin in the Ice, Ellis Peters

The Nutcracker, E. T. A. Hoffman and Alexandre Dumas

The Sanctuary Sparrow, Ellis Peters

Child of God, Cormac McCarthy

The Devil's Novice, Ellis Peters

Dead Man's Ransom, Cormac McCarthy

Plausible works of improving nonfiction consumed in 2023: 10

["plausible" and "improving" are being defined very liberally here]

Balioc's Choice Award, Fiction Division: The Circus of Dr. Lao, Charles G. Finney

>>>> Honorable Mention: Rats and Gargoyles, Mary Gentle

[This seems like the correct place to point out that, for the Balioc's Choice Awards, I consider only works that were first published with the last 100 years. Otherwise it would just be "surprise, old classics are often classics for a reason."]

Balioc's Choice Award, Nonfiction Division: The Thirteen Petalled Rose: A Discourse on the Essence of Jewish Existence and Belief, Adin Steinsaltz

>>>> Honorable Mention: A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

The Roscommon Princess Award for Luminous Trembling Beauty in the Face of a Bleakly Mundane World: The Star-Child, Oscar Wilde

The Anguished Howl Award for Somehow Making Me Regret Reading a Book About a Demon Summoner in the Thirty Years' War: Demon Summoner: Apprentice, Greg Walters

The Tamsyn Muir Award for Demonstrating that Popularity Really, Really, Really is Not the Same Thing as Quality: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

The G. K. Chesterton Award for Being G. K. Chesterton, I Mean, to Whom Else Could I Compare Him, For Someone So Avowedly Stodgy He is the Ballsiest Motherfucker I Have Ever Read: The Man Who Was Thursday, G. K. Chesterton

**********

...this year was much like the last several years, only somehow even more so. Not in a good way, I fear. My current lifestyle continues not to be super-conducive to reading, and writing a weekendlong LARP kind of knocked the wind out of me, both during and after. If it weren't for a massive silly-fun historical-mystery binge in December, my numbers here would be shameful. And you will notice that a whole lot of the things on that list are very short.

Most of the contemporary fiction was pretty much what I expected it to be. There were few real standouts. Things by good authors continued to be mostly good; things by shlocky authors continued to be shlock.

I should probably drive less for my various solitary recreational jaunts, just so that I can spend more of that time with a book. I should definitely read more old stuff, because old stuff continues to be the most reliably rewarding. (The cream of the cream of the old stuff, anyway, which is...what you read.)

I continue to be Extremely In the Market for recommendations of really good, deeply-informative nonfiction.

#yearly reading list

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wappingtowestminster · 7 years ago

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Soho - Gibbet Street

Soho is an area in central London between Trafalgar Square and Oxford Street, Regent Street and the Charing Cross Road. Historically famed for its sex industry, it is now more known for its nightlife and LGBT* community. It's prime location has made it increasingly attractive to property developers in recent years, with many old and loved clubs and bars being lost to increasing rents and transformation into luxury housing. Bartimaeus travels from the edge of Soho along Gibbet Street in order to get back to Seven Dials and, ultimately, the British Museum. Gibbet Street doesn't exist in modern-day London, however I did find record of one in a 19th Century guide to London. In trying to find out more, it was suggested to me that it doesn't actually exist, and is simply more of a metaphor for the road criminals travel down on their way to capital punishment. Regardless, Saint Giles Circus, currently (2015) one big building site for the redeveloping Tottenham Court tube station, did use to be the site of a major gallows, and is positioned in roughly the right place to fit in with the narrative. He also mentions that the nearest spirit in their group was a foloit stationed somewhere near Charing Cross.

Tube stations For Soho: Leicester Square For Gibbet Street/St. Giles Circus: Tottenham Court Road

#The Bartimaeus Trilogy #the golem's eye #jonathan stroud #st. giles circus #london

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venetianwindow · 2 years ago

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220520 • 1:23pm 🏙

Touring Nairn’s City of London: northern and western edges. I seized a sunny day to go see some of Ian Nairn’s destinations and more.

The Barbican is a good first stop, a lovely bit of City Brutalism (though maze-like). I find Brutalist buildings so attractive when complemented by sunshine. Enjoyed visiting the book fair at St Giles-without-Cripplegate! Wonderful prices and selection with new stock coming in, plus it’s in a sweet little church.

Depending on how you leave the Barbican, you may come across St Alphege London Wall. I’m quite fond of ruins - there is a wistful charm to the fragmented identity of what once was. Broadgate has an amusing (and inadvertent?) modern homage to St Alphege.

Following Nairn, we head to Finsbury Circus for Lutyens’ Britannic House. Coming from Broadgate, the keen eye might notice a commemoration plaque for the old St Mary Moorfields. I’ve probably seen Lutyens around, but this is the first time I’ve consciously visited one of his works; don’t know much about him but the statues and classical details were charming.

We now come to a blooper in my tour. When I mapped out Nairn’s route, I erroneously put down Sun Street rather than Sun St Passage. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to walk down; you fancy the yellow bricks quiver in the face of One Crown Pl.

Exchange Square is a good place to stop and spend a sunny afternoon in. From there, the actual destination of Sun St Passage leads to Liverpool St station. Bit disappointed when I couldn’t find the peek at Hawksmoor’s Christ Church as Nairn described - a consequence of the City’s endless expansion perhaps? The City bleeds further into its surroundings, melting old boundaries with its ever increasing strength of commerce. Is it for better or worse? Maybe only time will tell. Those clusters of glass towers certainly feel a little menacing sometimes.

As I caught my bus, a view of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate concludes the trip. It’s one of the 3 St Botolphs in the area; there’s also Aldgate and Aldersgate. Whew! Church names amirite. (City church tour eventually, I promise.)

☞ studygram

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luzfosca · 4 years ago

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Wolfgang Suschitzky. St. Giles Circus, Charing Cross Road, 1937.

#wolfgang suschitzky #photography #street #street photography #black and white photography #black and white #vintage photography #vintage #art #history #1930s

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aslanjadecarlyle · 4 years ago

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Master List of Black Creators, Owners, & Public Figures

DISCLAIMER: I am fucking whiter than white. I compiled this list to boost black creators and public figures, but if I am overstepping at all PLEASE let me know!

Also, I tried to research these in a timely manner. If anyone in these lists is problematic or should not be supported, let me know. :)

(Of course, this is only a TINY portion! Feel free to add more names, businesses, and creators!)

——

Activists:

•Naomi Anderson

•Maya Angelou

•James Baldwin

•Lillie Mae Bradford

•Mari Copeny

•Frederick Douglass

•Ruth Ellis

•Erica Garner

•Alicia Garza

•Ernest Green

•Fannie Lou Hamer

•Frances Harper

•Langston Hughes

•Marsha P. Johnson

•Alberta Odell Jones

•Quincy Jones

•Martin Luther King Jr.

•Audre Lorde

•Bree Newsome

•Huey P. Newton

•Rosa Parks

-Bayard Rustin

•Sojourner Truth

•Harriet Tubman

•Madam C.J. Walker

•Ida B. Wells

•Malcolm X

Actors/Actresses & Directors:

•Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

•James Avery

•Angela Bassett

•Halle Berry

•John Boyega

•Levar Burton

•Nick Cannon

•Michael Clarke Duncan

•Zendaya Coleman

•Terry Crews

•Viola Davis

•Idris Elba

•Jamie Foxx

•Morgan Freeman

•Whoopi Goldberg

•Tiffany Haddish

•Skai Jackson

•William Jackson Harper

•Kevin Hart

•Steve Harvey

•Jennifer Hudson

•Ice Cube

•Spike Lee

•Phill Lewis

•Bernie Mac

•Eddie Murphy

•Keke Palmer

•James Pickens Jr.

•Chris Rock

•Will Smith

•Raven Symonè

•Denzel Washington

•Jesse Williams

•Chandra Wilson

•Oprah Winfrey

•John Witherspoon

Authors & Poets:

•Elizabeth Acevedo

•Tomi Adeyemi

•Kwame Alexander

•Maya Angelou

•Rena Barron

•Paula Chase

•Dhonielle Clayton

•Brandy Colbert

•Jay Coles

•Dana Davis

•Tanita S. Davis

•Sharon M. Draper

•Paul Laurence Dunbar

•Akwaeke Emezi

•Sharon G. Flake

•Kristina Forest

•L.R. Giles

•Whitney D. Grandison

•Nikki Grimes

•Justina Ireland

•Tiffany D. Jackson

•Kimberly Jones

•Claire Kann

•Kekla Magoon

•Janice Lynn Mather

•Tony Medina

•Candice Montgomery

•David Barclay Moore

•Britney Morris

•Bethany C. Morrow

•Greg Neri

•Nnedi Okorafor

•Tochi Onyebuchi

•Morgan Parker

•Junauda Petrus

•Ben Philippe

•Jason Reynolds

•Debbie Rigaud

•Ilyasah Shabazz

•Nic Stone

•Liara Tamani

•Mildred D. Taylor

•Angie Thomas

•Brian F. Walker

•Booker T. Washington

•Renée Watson

•Alicia Williams

•August Wilson

•C.E. Wilson

•Ashley Woodfolk

•Jacqueline Woodson

•Nicola Yoon

•Ibi Aanu Zoboi

Black-Owned Bookstores:

•Grassrootz Bookstore (Phoenix, AZ)

•Eso Won Books (Los Angeles, CA)

•Malik Books (Los Angeles, CA)

•Marcus Books (Oakland, CA)

•Shades of Afrika (Long Beach, CA)

•Shop At Matter (Denver, CO)

•Pyramid Books (Boynton Beach, FL)

•For Keeps Books (Atlanta, GA)

•Bunnie Hillard (Decatur, GA)

•Challenges Games & Comics (Decatur, GA)

•Semicolon (Chicago, IL)

•Wild Fig Books (Lexington, KY)

•Frugal Bookstore (Boston, MA)

•Loyalty Books (Silver Springs, MD)

•Loving Me Books (Detroit, MI)

•Source Booksellers (Detroit, MI)

•Mind’s Eye Comics (Burnsville, MN)

•Eye See Me (St. Louis, MO)

•Source of Knowledge (Newark, NJ)

•The Lit Bar (The Bronx, NY)

•Cafe Con Libros (Brooklyn, NY)

•Megabrain Comics (Rhinebeck, NY)

•The Schomburg Shop (Harlem, NY)

•Sister’s Uptown (New York, NY)

•Fulton Street Books (Tulsa, OK)

•Third Eye Bag (Portland, OR)

•Amalgam Comics (Philadelphia, PA)

•Harriett’s Bookshop (Philadelphia, PA)

•Uncle Bobbie’s (Philadelphia, PA)

•Turning Page Bookshop (Goose Creek, SC)

•Black Pearl Books (Austin, TX)

•The Dock (Fort Worth, TX)

•Loyalty Books (Washington DC)

•MahoganyBooks (Washington DC)

Other Black-Owned Businesses:

•228 Grant Street Candle Company (228grantstreet.com)

•Aamir Graphics (jaizthedesigner.mystrikingly.com)

•Ailey Extension (aileyextension.com)

•Aminah Abdul Jillil (aminahabdujillil.com)

•Anya Lust (anyalust.com)

•AphroChic (aphrochic.com)

•Basbaas Foods (basbaassauce.com)

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•BedStuyFly (bedstuyfly.com)

•Bel Lumière (thebellumiereco.com)

•Beneath Your Mask (beneathyourmask.com)

•Black Enterprise (blackenterprise.com)

•Black Girl Sunscreen (blackgirlsunscreen.com)

•Black Girls Run (blackgirlsrun.com)

•The Black Home (theblackhome.com)

•Black Pepper Paperie Company (shopbpco.com)

•Blavity (blavity.com)

•BLK MKT Vintage (blkmktvintage.com)

•Body Space Fitness (bodyspacefitness.com)

•Bold Xchange (boldxchange.com)

•Bolé Road Textiles (boleroadtextiles.com)

•Briogeo (briogeohair.com)

•Brooklyn Circus (thebkcircus.com)

•Brooklyn Tea (brooklyntea.com)

•Brother Vellies (brothervellies.com)

•Camille Rose (camillerose.com)

•Carlis Design Studio LLC (carlisdesignstudio.net)

•Castamira (castamira.com)

•CBAAF (comebackasaflower.com)

•Celsious (celsious.com)

•Cherry Blossom Intimates (cherryblossomintimates.com)

•Clare (clare.com)

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•People of Color Beauty (peopleofcolorbeauty.com)

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•Post-Imperial (post-imperial.com)

•Pottery by Osa (potterybyosa.com)

•Rebecca Allen (rebecca-allen.com)

•Red Bay Coffee (redbaycoffee.com)

•Reparations Club (rep.club)

•Riot Swim (riotswim.com)

•Rochelle Porter (rochelleporter.com)

•See Line Ceramics (seelineceramics.com)

•Sheila Bridges (sheilabridges.com)

•Sincerely, Tommy (sincerelytommy.com)

•The Sip (thesipsociety.com)

•The Sixes (thesixes.com)

•Slashed by Tia (slashedbytia.net)

•Sol Cacao (solcacao.com)

•Sol Sips (solsipsnyc.com)

•Something Unique Accessories (shopsomethingunique.com)

•T.A. (shop-ta.com)

•Tackussanu Senegal (tackussanusenegal.com)

•Tactile Matter (tactilematter.com)

•T&C Management Tax & Financial Services (https://xu625-feb5c6.pages.infusionsoft.net )

•Telfar (telfar.net)

•TLZ L’FEMME (tlzlf.com)

•Total Resistance (thetotalresistance.com)

•Tree Fairfax (treefairfax.com)

•UniBuyz (unibuyz.com)

•Unlimited Treasures Chest (utchest.com)

•Unsun (unsuncosmetics.com)

•Unwrp (unwrp.com)

•Uoma Beauty (uomabeauty.com)

•Urban One Inc. (urban1.com)

•Victor Glemaud (glemaud.com)

•Wales Bonner (walesbonner.com)

•Whetstone Magazine (whetstonemagazine.com)

•The Wrap Life (thewrap.life)

•Yam (yamnyc.com)

•xN Studio (osxnasozi.com)

•Yowie (shopyowie.com)

•Zafa Wines (zafawines.com)

•Zou Xou Shoes (zouxou.com)

Book Reviewers:

•Black & Bookish

•Black Books Matter

•Bookaddict4real

•Brazen Babe Reviews

•Doddy About Books

•Fine Point Scribbles

•Kaybee’s Bookshelf, A Literary Blog

•Literally Black

•Ms. Shabria Gxo

•Sometimes Leelynn Reads

Models:

•Adwoa Aboah

•Adesuwa Aighewi

•J. Alexander

•Karen Alexander

•Leomie Anderson

•Alanna Arrington

•Yasmine Arrington

•Tyra Banks

•Corey Baptiste

•Tyson Beckford

•Yasmin Benoit

•Akech Bior

•Minah Ogbenyealu Bird

•Maria Borges

•Adonis Bosso

•Cindy Bruna

•Naomi Campbell

•Dorothea Church

•Yaya DaCosta

•Agbani Darego

•Bruce Darnell

•Khoudia Diop

•Nadège du Bospertus

•Jourdan Dunn

•Selita Ebanks

•Paloma Elsesser

•Cora Emmanuel

•Staniel Ferreira

•Malaika Firth

•Diandra Forrest

•Imaan Hammam

•Winnie Harlow

•Beverley Heath-Hoyland

•Marsha A. Hunt

•Broderick Hunter

•Chanel Iman

•Beverly Johnson

•Toccara Jones

•Grace Jones

•Liya Kebede

•Jayne Kennedy

•Janet Langhart

•Shakara Ledard

•Precious Lee

•Noémie Lenoir

•Damaris Lewis

•Sessilee Lopez

•Donyale Luna

•Anais Mali

•Eva Marcille

•Denny Mèndez

•Jillian Mercado

•Ariel Meredith

•Lineisy Montero

•Muna

•Katoucha Niane

•Mayowa Nicholas

•Emanuela de Paula

•Lais Ribeiro

•Valentine Rontez

•Shaun Ross

•Kimora Lee Simmons

•Naomi Sims

•Joan Smalls

•B. Smith

•Arlenis Sosa

•Sal Stowers

•Duckie Thot

•Jasmine Tookes

•Eugena Washington

•Veronica Webb

•Alek Wek

•Jessica White

•Slick Woods

•Kara Young

Musicians:

•Aaliyah

•Akon

•Louis Armstrong

•Pearl Bailey

•Harry Belafonte

•Chuck Berry

•Beyoncé

•The Black Eyed Peas

•Blackstreet

•B.o.B.

•The Bobettes

•Soulja Boy

•50 Cent

•Chance the Rapper

•Ray Charles

•Chubby Checker

•The Chords

•Ciara

•The Clovers

•The Coasters

•Nat ‘King’ Cole

•Zendaya Coleman

•The Contours

•Sam Cooke

•Taio Cruz

•Andra Day

•Bobby Day

•The Del-Vikings

•Jason Derulo

•Destiny’s Child

•The Diamonds

•Bo Diddley

•Daveed Diggs

•DMX

•Fats Domino

•Dr. Dre

•The Drifters

•Earth, Wind, & Fire

•Missy Elliott

•Flo Rida

•The Four Tops

•Aretha Franklin

•Bobby Freeman

•Marvin Gaye

•Gloria Gaynor

•CeeLo Green

•Billie Holiday

•Whitney Houston

•Ice-T

•Sharaya J

•Janet Jackson

•Michael Jackson/The Jackson 5

•Kamille

•Alicia Keys

•Khalid

•Sean Kingston

•Eartha Kitt

•Lenny Kravitz

•Patti LaBelle

•John Legend

•Leona Lewis

•Lizzo

•The Marcels

•The Masqueraders

•M.I.A.

•Mickey & Sylvia

•MKTO

•The Monotones

•Nelly

•Ne-Yo

•The Penguins

•Leigh-Anne Pinnock (of the girl group Little Mix)

•The Platters

•Prince

•Otis Redding

•Little Richard

•Rihanna

•The Ronettes

•Diana Ross

•Darius Rucker

•Run-DMC

•Travis Scott

•Shaggy

•Tupac Shakur

•Nina Simone

•Shirley & Lee

•The Silhouettes

•Snoop Dogg

•Jimmy Soul

•Jordin Sparks

•The Supremes

•The Temptations

•TLC

•T-Pain

•Ty Dolla Sign

•Usher

•Bill Withers

YouTubers:

Jackie Aina

Alissa Ashley

Yasmin Benoit

Berleezy

Raye Boyce

Patricia Bright

Marques Brownlee

Alyssa Forever

GlamTwinz

GloZell

Bri Hall

Todrick Hall

Aysha Harun

Alonzo Lerone

Oneika the Traveller

Shanna Malcolm

Shameless Maya

MakeupShayla

Chris Smoove

Nyma Tang

TheAjayII

AdrianXpression

#black lives matter #blm #black creators #black owned #black businesses #black authors #black actors #black activists

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archoptical · 4 years ago

Photo

The Outernet, St Giles Circus, by Orms Architects

#theouternet #stgilescircus #ormsarchitects #tottenhamcourtroad #architecture #photography

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aisphoto-posts · 4 years ago

Video

"Rush Hour @ High Holborn" by Adam Swaine Via Flickr: High Holborn is a street in Holborn and Farringdon.. It starts in the west as a turn off Charing Cross Road, near St Giles Circus, and runs past the Kingsway and Southampton Row, becoming Holborn at its eastern junction with Gray's Inn Road

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nellygwyn · 6 years ago

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It is half past noon, or it appeared to be so when the chairman let you alight at Covent Garden Piazza and gestured vaguely at the church clock, and you, a stranger to this time and place, walking briskly, nervously and with no apparent direction or purpose observe suddenly that you have come to a junction. It is unlike any other you have yet seen. Seven roads are converging, and crowning them all in the centre is a tall, Doric pillar, supported on a plinth and stretching up and up. It is the only thing that appears to be escaping to the sky and to the light: every other building in your immediate sight appears to be obscuring its neighbour, leaning into it, and vice versa. What is this pillar for? Something sits atop of it but you cannot see it, lest the afternoon mid-summer glare of the sun blind you.

‘La Pyramide.’

Frenchified tones, coming from a finely dressed middle aged man, with a meticulously powdered bag-wig who loiters near the plinth and twists paper around the stem of a clay-pipe.

‘Teez La Pyramide’ he says again.

‘But what is it?’ you ask, for this is certainly no pyramid, no matter what the gentleman says.

‘Teez a sundial. The sundial of Seven Dials’

Seven Dials. You know it. You were here before. Or rather, you have been here after, in the future. However such a thing works. It lies, or at least WILL lie, near Shaftesbury Avenue and Piccadilly Circus.

‘Where are you going? Are you lost, mademoiselle?’ he continues.

‘I don’t know. No. Or...yes. Where should I go from here? I need a room at an inn.’

‘Teez no fit place for a lady, teez no fit place for a stranger’

‘Even so...’

And he points you in the direction of an inn he knows and trusts, up through Mercer Street onto Monmouth Street, and near enough to the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. But he urges caution.

‘Teez the rookery of St. Giles that way, comprende? Nothing but cutpurses and whores.’

Rookery. What does he mean? Is that not a nest for birds?

‘Teez a slum. Teez London’s shame. They call it New Rome, its depravity stretches like empire’

He is right about the slum part and how it stretches like an empire, never-ending. As you move up Monmouth Street and into what the ragged stone street marking calls ‘Lyons Court,’ it is the rancid smell that hits you first and then the never-ending dilapidation. The cobbles are drenched in piss and shit, and perhaps, if you stood to make closer inspection, vomit and the leftovers of disembowelment. Houses fall into each other, seemingly suspended by nothing, but somehow standing anyway. And everything looks the same, street upon street, alley upon alley. The rooftops lean in so the sunlight, which seemed so pleasant, so bright before, does not and cannot reach you. In a word, it is dingy, it seems that it is where ‘dinginess’ came from. There are windows, glass hatches, everywhere, as if...as if every room of every house is occupied to bursting, as if every inch is taken up by someone who clamours for the window’s passage to putrid air.

And it is eerily quiet. You slow your pace out of fear, curiosity and vague confusion, but you merely observe a few shabby dressed tenants moving between their dwellings, the public house and back again. You wonder if it is the sort of place that comes alive at night, when its imperfections are blurred and its hackles are up. But then again, if one wanted to commit a crime here, who could stop it? Who would see?

As if on cue, you feel a tugging at your elbow. You turn like a flash, expecting to see the glint of a knife. Are you being robbed? Are you being hurt?

But it is only a young woman, only mildly pretty and dressed shabby but done up to the nines with stark white paint and red rouge and blush, who, now she has your attention, holds her palm outstretched. Every exposed piece of skin is made up in this painted way, and covered in tiny black patches, many shaped like stars, though she has a moon near the left corner of her mouth and two dainty hearts resting symmetrically on each ample breast. If you look close enough, you can see where she has forgotten to conceal her many hairpieces.

‘Not to bother ya, miss, but I needs a nip of gin. Steady my nerves, as it goes. Spare us some bobstick, will’ee?’

You don’t know what bobstick is but you assume she’s after money. You reach for the pocket attached inside your skirts and fish her some change you got from the chair journey. You pray its enough for the drink.

‘Tis right proper nice of thee, that. My thanks. I’d earn it meself but it ain’t half dead today. Not a pintle in sight.’

It appears to be alright. She slides it into her own pocket. You watch her.

‘Steady your nerves for what?’ you ask, rather suddenly and surprising even yourself. As if it’s any of your business. But she shares cheerfully.

‘Well, ‘tis nearly an hour till the hanging cart comes this way, for Tyburn. I’ve a dear friend on it, do’ee see? She’ll get her St. Giles Bowl. I’d wager at the Cock and Pye. And then off to the hangman.’

She does not look sad, only mildly troubled, as if her dear friend is merely off on a long holiday, and not about to drop into oblivion. This throws you.

'Hangman?' you splutter out. It is all you can manage.

The woman.....no, the girl raises an eyebrow, her powder wrinkling. But she does not change tack.

'Indeed. Thievery from a cull.'

She slides an enamelled tin through the slit in her skirts, opens it, pinches her fingertips inside it and inhales a substance. She takes your look of bewilderment for one of expectation and offers you her 'jaded snuff.' One proper whiff of it and you realise it’s somehow more insufferable than the constant sweet & putrid tang of animal shit in the air. And now, your head's all askance, so you politely decline.

'Just as well' she says, 'Don't want to end up nuzzled in the stuff like Snuffy Queen Charlotte.'

'What did she steal? Your friend, I mean' you continue.

'A pair of shoe-buckles. Or so he says, though I never took her for a handsy one. And why covet a gent's buckles?'

Horror.

'But that's nothing!'

'Believe me, you'll swing for a lot less than that here.'

Even amongst the degradation up until this point, there was an air of mystery, of excitement, of a secret waiting to be unspooled, of newfangled pleasures and the thrill of the unseen. It's why you came here in the first place. But now, inch by inch, the mask of glamour slips and you realise now that it is, and perhaps always was, only bedazzled with paste jewels.

#i wrote this short piece ages ago but only decided to share now sjdiaojdao #i thought it sucked at first and then i was like 'no........this is gud'#kinda inspired by john gay's trivia but also??????????????#my writing #long post #might make this a choose your own story thing #where do you (the protag) wanna go next?#do you want the nice snuff-addicted young girl to accompany you?

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vintage-london-images · 3 years ago

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Here is a pleasant little film titled 'Sunshine in Soho' from 1956.

In it we see Oxford Circus, St Giles Circus, Cambridge Circus, and Piccadilly Circus. We also see Soho Square Gardens which hasn't changed much at all, and I have myself enjoyed my lunch break there in recent years .

This film is 66 years old, and to most it would appear quite old fashioned and quaint in this day and age, but it shows us interesting scenes of traffic and people going about their daily business in a time some would call a gentler age.

Please check out other posts with hashtag #video on @vintage-london-images

#piccadilly #st giles circus #oxford circus #cambridge circus #soho square #soho #street scene #london life #london history #video

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 6 years ago

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What other fandoms are you familiar enough with to use as an AU prompt? Pokemon Trainer AU? Homestuck AU (they'd still probably die but at least there are lots of ways to come back to life)?

I’m not that familiar with Homestuck, definitely not enough to do an AU. I read the novelizations of the Pokemon show as a kid but never saw the show or played any of the video games. I did play the super-obscure Pokemon board game, but most of my trading cards were printed in Japanese (I had a strange childhood), so my experience there is, uh, probably not quite overlapping with everyone else’s.

Anyway, if you want list of all my fandoms… Boy howdy. I don’t think I can come up with them all. However, I can list everything that comes to mind between now and ~20 minutes from now when I have to end my procrastination break and go back to dissertating. So here it is, below the cut:

Okay, there is no way in hell I’ll be able to make an exhaustive list. But off the top of my head, the fandoms I’m most familiar/comfortable with are as follows:

Authors (as in, I’ve read all or most of their books)

Patricia Briggs

Megan Whalen Turner

Michael Crichton

Marge Piercy

Stephenie Meyer

Dean Koontz

Stephen King

Neil Gaiman

K.A. Applegate

Ernest Hemingway

Tamora Pierce

Roald Dahl

Short Stories/Anthologies

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

Dubliners, James Joyce

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

Who Goes There? John W. Campbell

The Man Who Bridged the Mist, Kij Johnson

Flatland, Edwin Abbott

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison

To Build a Fire, Jack London

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bier

At the Mountains of Madness/Cthulu mythos, H.P. Lovecraft

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

Close Range: Wyoming Stories, E. Annie Proulx

The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

Bartleby the Scrivener (and a bunch of others), Herman Melville

Books (Classics)

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

The Secret Annex, Anne Frank

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

The Stranger, Albert Camus

The Call of the Wild, Jack London

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Atonement, Ian McEwan

1984, George Orwell

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

The Iliad/The Odyssey, Homer

Metamorphoses, Ovid

Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne

The Time-Machine, H.G. Wells

The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, MacBeth, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Thomas Stoppard

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Books (YA SF)

Young Wizards series, Diane Duane

Redwall, Brian Jaques

The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Diana Wynne Jones

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix

The Giver series, Lois Lowry

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Uglies series, Scott Westerfeld

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle

Unwind, Neal Shusterman

The Maze Runner series, James Dashner

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede

Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

Coraline, Neil Gaiman

Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

Poppy series, Avi

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Tithe, Holly Black

Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause

Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Haunted, Gregory Maguire

Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block

Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White

East, Edith Pattou

Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O’Brien

The Looking-Glass Wars, Frank Beddor

The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

The Landry News, Andrew Clements

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson

Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer

The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warner

A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb

Generation Dead, Daniel Waters

Pendragon series, D.J. MacHale

Silverwing, Kenneth Oppel

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Define Normal, Julie Anne Peters

Hawksong, Ameila Atwater Rhodes

Heir Apparent, Vivian Vande Velde

Running Out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Keys to the Kingdom series, Garth Nix

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken

The Seer and the Sword, Victoria Hanley

My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George

Daughters of the Moon series, Lynne Ewing

The Midwife’s Apprentice, Karen Cushman

Island of the Aunts, Eva Ibbotson

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Nancy Farmer

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray

A School for Sorcery, E. Rose Sabin

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs

The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Hope was Here, Joan Bauer

Bunnicula, James Howe

Wise Child, Monica Furlong

Silent to the Bone, E.L. Konigsburg

The Twenty-One Balloons, William Pene du Bois

Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, Gail Giles

The Supernaturalist, Eoin Colfer

Blue is for Nightmares, Laurie Faria Stolarz

Mystery of the Blue Gowned Ghost, Linda Wirkner

Wait Till Helen Comes, Mary Downing Hahn

I was a Teenage Fairy, Francesca Lia Block

City of the Beasts series, Isabelle Allende

Summerland, Michael Chabon

The Geography Club, Brent Hartinger

The Last Safe Place on Earth, Richard Peck

Liar, Justine Larbalestier

The Doll People, Ann M. Martin

The Lost Years of Merlin, T.A. Barron

Matilda Bone, Karen Cushman

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

The Tiger Rising, Kate DiCamillo

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

In the Forests of the Night, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

My Teacher is an Alien, Bruce Coville

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Julie Andrews Edwards

Storytime, Edward Bloor

Magic Shop series, Bruce Coville

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket

Veritas Project series, Frank Peretti

The Once and Future King, T.H. White

Raven’s Strike, Patricia Briggs

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy, Gregory Maguire

The Wind Singer, William Nicholson

Sweetblood, Pete Hautman

The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White

Half Magic, Edward Eager

A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle

The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan

Maximum Ride series, James Patterson

The Edge on the Sword, Rebecca Tingle

World War Z, Max Brooks

Adaline Falling Star, Mary Pope Osborne

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi

Parable of the Sower series, Octavia Butler

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov

Neuomancer, William Gibson

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth

The Martian, Andy Weir

Skeleton Man, Joseph Bruchac

Comics/Manga

Marvel 616 (most of the major titles)

Marvel 1610/Ultimates

Persepolis

This One Summer

Nimona

Death Note

Ouran High School Host Club

Vampire Knight

Emily Carroll comics

Watchmen

Fun Home

From Hell

American Born Chinese

Smile

The Eternal Smile

The Sandman

Calvin and Hobbes

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

TV Shows

Fullmetal Alchemist

Avatar the Last Airbender

Teen Titans (2003)

Luke Cage/Jessica Jones/Iron Fist/Defenders/Daredevil/The Punisher

Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter

Supernatural

Sherlock

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Firefly

American Horror Story

Ouran High School Host Club

Orange is the New Black

Black Sails

Stranger Things

Westworld

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Movies

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Jurassic Park/Lost World/Jurassic World/Lost Park?

The Breakfast Club

Cloverfield/10 Cloverfield Lane/The Cloverfield Paradox

Attack the Block

The Prestige

Moon

Ferris Bueler’s Day Off

Django Unchained/Kill Bill/Inglourious Basterds/Hateful 8/Pulp Fiction/etcetera

Primer

THX 1138/Akira/How I Live Now/Lost World/[anything I’ve named a fic after]

Star Wars

The Meg

A Quiet Place

Baby Driver

Mother!

Alien/Aliens/Prometheus

X-Men (et al.)

10 Things I Hate About You

The Lost Boys

Teen Wolf

Juno

Pirates of the Caribbean (et al.)

Die Hard

Most Disney classics: Toy Story, Mulan, Treasure Planet, Emperor’s New Groove, etc.

Most Pixar classics: Up, Wall-E, The Incredibles

The Matrix

Dark Knight trilogy

Halloween

Friday the 13th

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Descent

Ghostbusters

Ocean’s Eight/11/12/13

King Kong

The Conjuring

Fantastic Four

Minority Report/Blade Runner/Adjustment Bureau/Total Recall

Fight Club

Spirited Away

Disturbing Behavior

The Faculty

Poets

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Marge Piercy

Thomas Hardy

Sigfried Sassoon

W. B. Yeats

Edgar Allan Poe

Ogden Nash

Margaret Atwood

Maya Angelou

Emily Dickinson

Matthew Dickman

Karen Skolfield

Kwame Alexander

Ellen Hopkins

Shel Silverstein

Musicals/Stage Plays

Les Miserables

Repo: The Genetic Opera

The Lion King

The Phantom of the Opera

Rent

The Prince of Egypt

Pippin

Into the Woods

A Chorus Line

Hairspray

Evita

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Fiddler on the Roof

Annie

Fun Home

Spring Awakening

Chicago

Cabaret

The Miser

The Importance of Being Earnest

South Pacific

Godspell

Wicked

The Wiz

The Wizard of Oz

Man of La Mancha

The Sound of Music

West Side Story

Matilda

Sweeney Todd

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Nunsense

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown/Snoopy

1776

Something Rotten

A Very Potter Musical

Babes in Toyland

Carrie: The Musical

Amadeus

Annie Get Your Gun

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The Final Battle

Rock of Ages

Cinderella

Moulin Rouge

Honk

Labyrinth

The Secret Garden

Reefer Madness

Bang Bang You’re Dead

NSFW

War Horse

Peter Pan

Suessical

Sister Act

The Secret Annex

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Disclaimer 1: Like a lot of people who went to high school in the American South, my education in literature is pretty shamefully lacking in a lot of areas. (As in, during our African American History unit in ninth grade we read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn… and that was it. As in, our twelfth-grade US History class, I shit you not, covered Gone With the Wind.) There were a lot of good teachers in with the *ahem* Less Woke ones (how I read Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bluest Eye) and college definitely set me on the path to trying to find books written/published outside the WASP-ier parts of the U.S., but the overall list is still embarrassingly hegemonic.

Disclaimer 2: There are a crapton of errors — typos, misspelled names, misattributions, questionable genre classifications, etc. — in here. If you genuinely have no idea what a title is supposed to be, ask me. Otherwise, please don’t bother letting me know about my mistakes.

Disclaimer 3: I am not looking for recommendations. My Goodreads “To Read” list is already a good 700 items long, and people telling me “if you like X, then you’ll love Y!” genuinely stresses me the fuck out.

Disclaimer 4: There are no unproblematic faves on this list. I love Supernatural, and I know that Supernatural is hella misogynistic. On the flip side: I don’t love The Lord of the Rings at all, partially because LOTR is hella misogynistic, but I also don’t think that should stop anyone else from loving LOTR if they’re willing to love it and also acknowledge its flaws.

#literature #fandom #booklist #about the blogger #long post #long ass post #books #nothing to do with animorphs #Anonymous #asks

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thespoonplayer · 6 years ago

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(DJ) Spoon’s Review of 2018

This year I haven’t listened to much music at all, at least not in comparison to previous years and I certainly haven’t been to many gigs. I’m sure this won’t last but this year I’ve been busier at work so less likely to plug in, I’ve stuck to the radio in the car just to keep up with how messy Brexit really is (ooer a bit of politics) and my runs have been 100% fueled by podcasts so music has just taken a backseat. However, I couldn’t let the year go past without some kind of list...so here is a pot pourri of my favourite discoveries of 2018.

1. Podcasts

Seeing as these have been so important this year I’ll start here...and cheat slightly by bigging up some oldies, but good enough to bang on about again.

Old favourites : Running Commentary (Comedians Paul Tonkinson and Rob Deering take you on their runs and chat sometimes about running, but always about life, kids, comedy and anything that pops into their heads), Adam Buxton (always entertaining ramble chat from Dr Buckles whoever is on, I’ve learnt stuff and I’ve laughed a lot), My Dad Wrote a Porno (Sheer filth as ever but genuinely caused me to LOL during my runs, wondering if people can hear that I’m listening to chat about vaginal lids).

New entries : Off Menu (Ed Gamble and James Acaster opened their genie run fantasy restaurant a month ago and it has quickly become one of my favourite podcasts ever. Eclectic guests pick their fantasy 3 course meals, simple premise and it works. The Scroobius Pip episode was a perfect clash of two excellent pods), Blank (another late entry into 2018 from Jim Daly and Giles Paley-Phillips ostensibly about blank moments in life but just rammed with infotaining chat from ‘non standard’ guests including a jaw dropping episode with Michael Rosen and fun with Gary Lineker and Susie Dent), Poddin’ on the Ritz (sadly now finished with maybe its only series) this pod recorded backstage at Young Frankenstein by Hadley Fraser and the sublime Ross Noble made me laugh more than any other in 2018, it might be about musicals but their search for Kenneth Branagh’s snowglobes and Lesley Joseph adoration was a joy.

2. Board games

They say a family that plays together, stays together. Well we are together more than you can imagine. We’ve played over 220 games this year! Here are our favourite new games into our collection:

The game of the year is Azul, a seemingly simple tile grab and place game, building up a mosaic prettier than anyone else, is full of strategy and a little (but not too much) shafting of others. If you really want to shaft your fellow players though then pick up Unstable Unicorns, a card game where you aim to grow your stable of unicorns, whilst stopping others filling theirs. SO many different cards, tactics and ways to mess it up, you will swear at some point. Discovered in the excellent new board game cafe The Dice Box in Leamington, we bought Meeple Circus before we left, it’s that much fun. Rehearse and perform the best tiny wooden meeple circus performance, accompanied by a bespoke playlist. Stack the acrobats, balance the lions and raise the bar. Another board game cafe, Chance & Counters in Bristol introduced us to the frantic game of Klask, a cross between air hockey, pool and table football. Slide the magnets around to flick a ball into your opponents hole, avoid the magnetic biscuits and don’t KLASK! When is a game not a game? another game of the year has been played a lot in our house, and it’s The Mind. 100 cards numbered 1-100, no words between players and a tense task to lay cards in ascending order. Simple? yes? possible? nope! but it’s sure to cause fun and arguments. The final two of MY favourite sadly aren’t quite as loved by my family, but I’ll get them there. Sagrada is a similar game to Azul with you attempting to build a beautiful stained glass window with coloured dice. More variations and thinking needed than Azul which adds to the challenge. And finally and lovely chess like 2 player game which transports you to the sun dappled Greek island of Santorini. Take the powers of a god and build the traditional blue domed white houses of the island whilst trying to stop your opponent climbing onto a roof. A lot of ‘aha, you’ve stopped me’ moments.

3. TV

It’s been a long old year at work, and in the world of parenting so we’ve found ourselves flopped on the settee many evenings just soaking up great drama, comedy and chilling ;o)

We are very late to the party with Suits but that means we have 8 series to wade through! Really neat writing, bants and relationships between characters, a ‘don’t worry they will always win’ calmness about it and you get to see the Queen in her knickers...ish. Another Netflix treat this year was Magic for Humans with Justin Willman, a hugely likeable and funny magician pulling off tricks that constantly make me smirk with a huge dollop of WTF? amazing. A huge recommendation. A late entry to my TV highlights of 2018 is from the warped warped mind of Charlie Brooker...of course with Bandersnatch. An interactive choose your own adventure TV ‘event’ (I know) that had us hooked for the full 90 minutes (only if you want to see how much bloodshed you can invoke!). Completely on the other end of the spectrum was the sublime and minimalistic Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. I don’t like fishing and why would I find two old mates just teasing each other for half an hour entertaining? No idea but it was beautiful. Like Radio 4, comforting and perfect. Then a few suspenseful dramas that got us on the edge of the settee, Killing Eve (quirky AF), Bodyguard (did they really kill Keely Hawes that early?) and Informer (bleak bleak bleak) and sweaty bullocks in ‘should be in the next section really’ Bird Box (made Informer seem like a giggle fest).

4. Films

Really haven’t been to the cinema much in the last 12 months and only once to see a ‘grown up’ film I think but kid’s films are SO good at the moment that’s ok. A few stand out films for me were:

Ralph Breaks the Internet, much better than the first one, lots of #lolz internet jokes and more than a little heart. Wrap me up in a duvet and give me a hot cocoa and Paddington 2 any day, tears at the end. A little more sighing but just as much emotion in Christopher Robin, not sure why Eeyore had an American accent but the characters were spot on and nicely faithful to the original concepts. The one time I did venture out for an adult (it’s a 12 so almost ;o) and saw Ready Player One I was delighted, yeah it might not be a) as good as or b) anything like the book but a visual treat and an enjoyable romp.

5. Books

I read A LOT, until my Kindle donks me on the head in bed anyway...literally a tiny selection of books that have kept me awake.

The Secret Lives of Colour - Kassia St Clair. They say never judge a book by its cover. Well that didn’t work...I bought this purely because it is a beautiful package, the hardback a lot more pleasing imho. Simply 2 coloured pages about how each colour was discovered, invented and introduced throughout history. I never really gave it a thought that colours were...made. Weird and fascinating.

This Is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay. A hilarious ‘secret’ diary of a junior doctor that horrifies at the same time. I think we all knew it was a hard life but bloody hell, if you didn’t love the NHS before you will after this. A thoroughly enjoyable and insightful story of Adam’s journey through medicine. And that ending...wooof.

Moose Allain - I Wonder What I’m Thinking About. I love Moose, I love his colour-me-advent calendars, I love his tweet threads that show the best in Twitter, I love his cartoons and this book is all of those wrapped up in one. And a certain Mr Spoon is to thank for the publication, find me in the back of Unbound funders! An inspiring book for anyone who loves art, creativity and childish humour.

Factfulness : Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World - Hans Rosling. A brilliantly clever and educational book about why the world is NOT as shit as it might seem some times. It’s all backed up by real data and lovely lovely graphs!

Lee Child and Ian Rankin. A highlight of the year is the next Reacher and Rebus novels and these two didn’t disappoint. Rebus’ latest adventure Past Tense, is a self-contained story that could introduce anyone to the man machine that is Jack Reacher. Rebus however is back, retired but won’t lie down, in In A House of Lies, an old case comes back to haunt him and will this finally be his downfall? I doubt it!

6. Music

As mentioned, I haven’t ‘been into music’ as much in 2018 for various reasons but I’ve still enjoyed some great new discoveries:

Barns Courtney - The Attractions of Youth, discovered via the use of Glitter and Gold for the theme tune of Netflix’s Safe. An album of ‘cheesy, commercially viable blues and folk rock’ apparently. I just liked the visceral nature of some of the tracks and it always fired me up at work on slow days.

Isaac Gracie - Isaac Gracie, a rare listened to recommendation from my wife. Isaac is everything I claim to like, fragile thin sensitive boys with acoustic guitars....and I do very much with this. Painful screeched out tales of heartbreak. Sublime.

R.E.M. - Live at the BBC, 104 rare and live tracks from arguably one of the best bands ever. Some of the tracks I haven’t heard since my bootleg cassette buying days at Sheffield Uni, when the world was in black and white. Not all tracks are of the greatest audio quality but bliss for a fanboy like me.

Creep Show - Mr Dynamite, a spin off project for Mr John Grant and even from the eclectic crooner this is an odd one. Glitchy electronica with vocoders all over the place. Weird and very Marmite.

Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley and everything else. The latest offering from the other PSB was a trip through the miner’s crisis and Thatcher years. Bleak? yup but fascinating snippets of well, public service broadcasting and guest stars including the obligatory Welsh rockers the Manics. This album is perfect by itself but it ‘forced’ me to go back and really discover all the PSB albums. The Live at Brixton release is a huge recommendation, I wish I was there.

Rex Orange County - Apricot Princess, maybe I just added this in to seem cool as Rex, aka Alexander O’Conner, was ‘one to watch in 2018′ from the BBC. A multi-instrumentalist that dabbles with hippity hop, R&B and piano pop. The first track alone contains about three musical styles if you wait.

7. Food & Drink

I run, because I really like food. And thankfully I’ve run a lot in 2018 so I got to enjoy a lot.

I was introduced to the weird fermented tea monstrosity that is kombucha by my sister-in-law. Vinegar tasting drink that may or may not help your gut that grows in your living room. WTAF? However, health benefits aside the LA Brewery Strawberry and Black Pepper drink is something, alongside my pilgrimage to Leon, worth going to London for. I’ve heard it’s also for sale in Solihull but I don’t often travel that far beyond my class ;o) I’d say, try it...but I suspect 9/10 people with hate the flavour.

I suspect 10/10 people that try the Aldi Black Forest Mince Pies would love them, but you won’t get a chance as I’ve bought them ALL. Aldi are a bugger for getting you hooked then never restocking. I only managed 10 boxes in 2018 and we’ve rationed well so have 12 left to get us through the bleak January weather. Cherries, Dark Chocolate, Chocolate pastry and a smidge of mincemeat. Perfect!

There are many ingredient delivery services available and I’ve only tried Gousto but I don’t know why you’d go anywhere else. 33 recipes tried and 32 of them I’d have again, with the one not so good one was still far better than anything I’d cook by myself. So easy, so tasty and if you want to try it I can give you a big discount that will help us buy another box, a tad expensive without a discount but worth a treat every so often.

Genuinely I traveled to London just to visit Max’s Sandwich Shop...kinda. It was certainly the deciding factor in a day out at the Summer Exhibition (see below). I downloaded the Kindle version of this book when it was promoted in an email, I bought some Scampi Fries and made a Fish Finger sandwich, I crumbled up some Ginger Nuts into a Mascarpone and Jam sandwich and I made a Fried Egg, Shoestring Fried and Gammon sandwich then I NEEDED to go and see how it’s really done. Amazing over the top sandwiches in a rough little hipster cafe in Stroud Green (no me neither and it’s a long walk from the tube!). So good I had to a) buy the hard copy of the book and b) carry half the sandwich home as even I couldn’t manage it all...not with deep fried macaroni balls filling me up ;o)

8. Places

A family that plays together, stays together as a great man once said. And we don’t just play inside, we love adventures so adventures we had.

I’d never been to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, as it’s in that there London which often seems hundreds of miles away...but I’m so glad that I visited this year. A trip with a good friend with neither of us knowing quite what to expect. We saw, and laughed, and marveled at, paintings, sculptures, videos, photos, models, and weirdness by Banksy next to Joe Lycett next to Grayson Perry next to Harry Hill, next to me mate Lorsen Camps from Coventry. The SA allows ANYONE to submit artwork for consideration and anyone can be accepted. I think this has to become a yearly visit, awesome.

My parents have been wanting to take our kids, and their big kid, to The Forbidden Corner in North Yorkshire for a few years now...and I’m so happy we finally got round to going. Started as a folly to entertain his children this huge labyrinthine site is crammed with strange sculptures, mazes, tricks and squirting fountains. Many hours were spent squeezing through holes, getting lost and getting wet. Beautifully eccentric.

A family holiday to Brittany meant we could visit the loopy city (it’s their phrase!) of Nantes and more importantly Les Machines d’Ile. Ostensibly the workshop of a group of engineers and artists that make huge animatronic machines and animals...that you can ride on! Needs to be seen to be believed, the Elephant brings out the big kid in everyone...and we can’t wait to go back in a few years when they’ve built a huge forest over the river with ride on caterpillars and dragonfly. Incredible. The city itself is dotted with crazy art and interactive pieces encouraging play, I know a city closer to home that should be the UK Loopy City of Culture!

Luckily Tilly is a Harry Potter obsessive AND it was her birthday last year so it gave us the excuse we didn’t need to visit the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour. Wow, just wow. The incredible detail in everything made for the film, the engineering, the amount of artists involved and the presentation of the exhibition blew us away. I’ve enjoyed everything in this list but this maybe was the most magical in the best way.

Many many amazing experiences warrant a mention, but I just don’t have enough words, include Talking Birds - Walk with Me, Print Manufactory Darkroom Workshop, Ludic Rooms Random String Festival, Go Karting with Tilly, some dancing balloons in Broadgate, Godiva Festival with Tony Christie et al, Bristol Gromit trail, Disc Golfing with my girls, Edinburgh Fringe with Dick and Dom and with another wonderful dick from Coventry starring in Bon Jovi musical We’ve Got Each Other, Pandas! at Edinburgh Zoo, Matilda the Musical with Tilly at last, running the Coventry Mile with the girls’ school, Dippy the Dinosaur in Brum, Wicksteed Park (amazing family fun theme park like what they used to be), Cycling on Stratford Greenway in the sun, Autotesting at MotoFest, Bourton-on-the-Water (it’s just a shame 3 million other people know about this gorgeous village), Giant Pac Man in the city centre, Pork Pie making with a good friend, CET several times, Novelty Automation in London and being on The One Show, a couple of Hope & Social gigs and much much much more fun with my wonderful fam and friends. Roll on 2019!

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