#summer 2019 book recs

[heavenlyyshecomes]

recs directory

all my book / articles / film recs !! please check before sending an ask for recs <3 (this are mostly from 2020-22 so don't hesitate to ask for newer recs)

last updated: 13.04.2024

books

essay collections

short books for a reading slump

old wlw books

on generational trauma

social media accs for book recs women in translation MET art books on loneliness / pt. 2 lithub syllabi arthurian + atmospheric on internet culture gentle books underrated favs 2022 reads fav prose quarterly book recs summer reading list: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 monsoon reading list: 2022 yearly tbr: 2022, 2023 random fiction, pt. 2, pt. 3*, pt. 4*, pt. 5*, nonfiction yearly fav reads: 2019*, 2021 on colour theory* drive link to books*

sff recs related tags: ref: mine, ref, book recs, book log

articles

misc readings tag random recs

places to read articles related tags: readings, articles

films

short films horror films random recs fav first watches: 2022 related tags: movie log

[a-sunset-outside-my-window]

fic recs of the month

this is just a collection of my recs of the last month, have fun <3

Astronomia Nova

by sreka ( @smodernlife )on Ao3

Sirius Black is almost thirty, almost always alone, and almost always stressed out. For the past four and a half years he's been raising his late best friends' son, just trying to keep himself afloat.

But his exhausting life of school drop-offs and staff meetings is interrupted when he runs into a gorgeous librarian - literally - destroying a priceless book in the process. As the men continue to meet - by chance or by design - they become more drawn to one another. Soon Sirius will have to make a choice: risk throwing a wrench into his already-chaotic life and threaten the stability he's work so hard to create for Harry, or risk losing the exquisite man who's slowly but surely captured his heart.

Go East

by @xinasvoice on Ao3

Remus has been running for a long time. Eventually, he runs into a strange castle built by a wizard and his young apprentice. The longer he stays, the more secrets he uncovers...and the less he wants to leave.

This is a novel-length adventure story that loosely follows the plot of Howl's Moving Castle. It does not require knowledge of the HMC book or movie to enjoy it.

Regulus Black and the What the Hell

by @gonzoclock on Ao3

Four-year-old Luna has been able to see lights her whole life- and when both of her parents die in an explosive magical accident, she decides to grab on to one of the lights and follow it.

Meanwhile, Regulus Black has never really thought of himself as the parental sort- he's hardly interacted with a child in his life, much less raised one. But when two magically inexplicable orphans show up and somehow resurrect him- well, what else was he supposed to do? Not immediately adopt them? Yeah, right.

(Features little Luna and Harry adopting each other as siblings and Regulus being in way, way over his head)

Not If It's You

by estas_absentis on Ao3

In 1985, Remus Lupin is getting by, raising Harry, and trying not to think about the past. When Sirius gets a new trial, that past becomes impossible to ignore.

[Wolfstar Big Bang 2019 fic]

Speaking with Serpents

by heliantheae @overpricedpeonies on Ao3

In which Harry would like nothing more than to become a world-renowned herpetologist, and he won't let a little thing like the existence of magic get in his way. If that means attending a school called Hogwarts—and really, how is he supposed to frame that on his college applications—then so be it.

By Moonlight

by Eiiri on Ao3

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Remus recognizes something familiar in Draco Malfoy and offers him sanctuary. With nowhere else to turn--his parents in prison, his home a crime scene--Draco reluctantly accepts and becomes a tolerated, if not welcome, member of his schoolyard rivals' and wartime adversaries' family of choice. As pages of the lunar calendar turn and the summer wears on, Draco and the others begin to see each other in a different light.

that's it for the months of december and january ^^ hope you have an amazing rest of your day and happy reading!

[fuckyeahgoodomensfanfic]

Good Omens Fic Rec: Old Vines

A.Z. Fell, one of the most respected names in wine and food blogging, has been sent on assignment with his assistant Warlock Dowling to spend six months in California Wine Country. Under direction (by his boss, Gabriel) to use this experience to double his blog followers and write a novel, Aziraphale is both excited and anxious about the opportunity. Anthony J. Crowley is the owner and viticulturalist of Ecdyses, a winery that unexpectedly fell into his lap eleven years ago when he hit rock bottom. He may be in debt, yeah, but he’s paying off his loans — and despite pressure from his lenders and their team of inspectors, Crowley has found a kind of contentment tending his little corner of terroir and producing extraordinary wine. Crowley’s old vines are the heart of his vineyard, and he’s never let anyone in. Crowley finds Aziraphale intriguing; Aziraphale finds Crowley enthralling. Turns out a famous wine expert and an experienced viticulturalist can still learn things from each other. The summer of 2019 unfolds.

Length: 189,706 words

AO3 Rating: Explicit / Spice Level 🔥🔥

Best for: Mostly Safe in Public, Human AU, Romance

Triggers: None

Read it here, fic by sevdrag (seventhe)

*Minor Spoilers* Now this is one well researched AU! This is wine blogger/winery owner human AU. As someone who knows absolutely nothing about wine (nor likes the taste sorry), I was blown away over the amount of detail in this story. The author clearly knows what they're talking about, and uses this knowledge to actually direct the plot not just as neat side info. This level of detail is a feature of this story and stands on it's own outside of the Good Omens backdrop. This story also has an excellent grasp on who Aziraphale and Crowley truly are, what makes them tick, what their insecurities and motivations are. It understands that what makes them so compatible is the way they push and surprise each other. They fall in love not just because they're surface level compatible, it's that they keep each other on their toes. This story also has a line that I booked marked for myself, describing Crowley as, "arrogant and yet somehow pleading for feedback," that's definitely Crowley to me.

Every 6 chapters we get a perspective flight tasting. It brings a small sampling of what everyone else in this story is thinking. I loved these chapters. There's only 3 of them so it never stops the plot, and doesn't take over the flow. It's just small interludes that are pleasant to read but also add a lot of context. We have Warlock, Adam and The Them, Anathema, Newt, and Gabriel as reoccurring main characters. I liked their inclusion a lot, particularly Adam and Warlock. Their plot line was very unexpected in a good way. It really takes a village to keep the winery running and they make a very believable sort of family.

Safe for public I'd say, there is sex in it but it's not very graphic and they're pretty short scenes. They are a part of the story, but not the highlight. This is something very casual to read, something where you want romance but nothing heavy. I highly recommend the pinterest board the author put together for this. It really helped me set the stage and understand the wine stuff better. It's a jargon heavy AU, and I found it fascinating. Who knows, maybe I'll give wine another shot after this!

Read it here, fic by sevdrag (seventhe)

[i-am-grell]

Grell's Anime List

Hello! If you're new here, every now and then I'll post a poll to let the people of Tumblr choose which anime series I watch since I'm terrible at starting series, finishing series, and making decisions.

I figured I'd compile the list of what I've seen, what I haven't finished, and what I want to watch so you can keep up, get to know me, or offer recommendations. If you don't see your favourite on here and think I might like it, feel free to send a rec my way! Keep watch for the polls!

Currently Watching: Banana Fish

Finished (Not Expecting More Seasons)

Ace Attorney / Angel Beats! / Assassination Classroom / Attack on Titan / Buddy Daddies / The Case Study of Vanitas / Castlevania / Cute High Earth Defense Club Love! / Daily Lives of High School Boys / Danganronpa: The Animation + Danganronpa 3 / Death Note / The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. + The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Reawakened / DRAMAtical Murder / Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood / Fruits Basket (2001) / Gakuen Babysitters / Hetalia: Axis Powers, World Series, Beautiful World, The World Twinkle, World Stars, Paint It White / Horimiya + Horimiya: The Missing Pieces / Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan / Love Stage!! / Mob Psycho 100 / Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun / Moriarty the Patriot / Ouran High School Host Club / Sasaki and Miyano + Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation Arc / Soul Eater / Tribe Nine / Yuri!! On ICE

Caught Up (Waiting For New Content)

Beastars / Black Butler / Bungo Stray Dogs / Chainsaw Man / Dandadan / Delicious in Dungeon / Haikyuu!! / Jujutsu Kaisen / Komi Can't Communicate / Mashle / My Hero Academia / SK8 the Infinity / Spy x Family / Zombie Land Saga + Zombie Land Saga Revenge

Have To Finish

*[] Brackets used to specify what I need to watch next.

Blue Exorcist [Season 4] / Fairy Tail [Season 3 onward] / Free! / Fruits Basket 2019 / One Piece [Season 7 onward] / Pokemon [Black & White onward] / Sailor Moon [R onward] / Voltron: Legendary Defender

Want to Watch

Angels of Death / Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day / Another / The Apothecary Diaries / Attack on Titan: Junior High / Baban Baban Ban Vampire (2025) / Bakuman / Black Clover / Bleach / Bloom Into You / Blue Lock / Blue Period / Bocchi the Rock! / Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! / Cardcaptor Sakura / Castlevania: Nocturne / Cells at Work! / Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! / Code:Breaker / Cowboy Bebop / Deadman Wonderland / Death Parade / Demon Slayer / Devils' Line / Fire Force / Frieren: Beyond Journey's End / Food Wars! / Girlfriend, Girlfriend / Girls Band Cry / Given / Go for It, Nakamura! (2025) / Grand Blue Dreaming / Great Pretender / Gushing over Magical Girls / Heaven Official's Blessing / Hunter x Hunter / Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night / Kamisama Kiss / Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You / KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! / Koro Sensei Quest! / Kuroko's Basketball / The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya / Mr. Villain's Day Off / My Happy Marriage / Nana / Naruto / Natsume's Book of Friends / Nichijou - My Ordinary Life / Noragami / One Punch Man / Orange / Parasyte / Psycho-Pass / Puella Magi Madoka Magica / Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions / See You Tomorrow at the Food Court (2025) / Senpai is an Otokonoko / Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie / A Sign of Affection / Soul Eater Not! / The Summer Hikaru Died (2025) / Terror in Resonance / Tokyo Ghoul / Tokyo Revengers / Twilight Out of Focus / Violet Evergarden / The Way of the Househusband / Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun / Whisper Me a Love Song / Wind Breaker / Witch Watch (2025) / Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku / Yakuza Fiance / Your Lie in April / Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

[vksieversrightwaytowriteit]

An Introduction?

Hello there! The name's V.K. Sievers, but that's a mouthful, so feel free to call me Ronnie. I'm a 19-year-old writer from the (good?) old U.S. of A, currently hard at work editing her first book. I love books, music, and live theater, and used to swim competitively.

My current WIP is called Out of the Park, a book about loss, belonging, and small-town baseball (among other things). It's a contemporary sports drama with hints of romance, and you'll hear all about it in another post.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Who is this 'Ronnie'?"

In answer... all I know how to do is list things.

Assorted Likes:

Cats and some dogs

Country music

Classic rock and oldies

Character development

Seafoam green

Chocolate (all kinds)

Rom-coms

Funny and spooky podcasts

History

Musicals

YA novels

Baseball (lowkey)

Breakfast food

Assorted Dislikes:

AI

Anxiety

Coffee

Most EDM music

Spiders and most creepy crawlies

Trying to function on social media

Current BIG Interests (aka things I can obsess over):

Flanagan-verse horror shows

Becky Albertalli books/characters

Bridgerton (show)

How I Met Your Mother

EPIC the musical

Music by Zach Bryan, Kacey Musgraves, and Megan Moroney

Spider-Man movies (all iterations)

Percy Jackson (all things)

The Summer I Turned Pretty (books and show)

The Outsiders (book and musical)

My own characters tbh

Three Random Recommendations:

Movie: Yesterday (2019)

Show: The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix original)

Book: Far From the Tree (by Robin Benway)

So... yeah. That's basically me. And what am I doing here?

Hopefully going to post writing advice, and probably some random fandom thoughts. (Maybe book recs/reviews?) If I can stick to a schedule, posts will go up on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays (plus intermittently on my character birthdays).

Other than that, I'm looking for a platform to talk about my book, and hoping Tumblr will do in wake of Instagram's AI messiness. We'll see.

I'm also on Instagram (@vksievers_rightwaytowriteit) but not incredibly active.

Consider sticking around here if you're interested in hearing about the book I'm working on! Or just for vibes. Vibes are great too. :D

[delshorrorlist]

My Horror List

-Here is a list of my finished horror movies. The first portion is in an unknown order, and the second portion is when I started documenting the order-

1408 (2007)

#Alive (2020)

•REC (2007)

13 Ghosts (2001)

28 Days Later… (2002)

30 Days of Night (2007)

A Classic Horror Story (2021)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Quiet Place (2018)

Anaconda (1997)

Annabelle (2014)

Army of the Dead (2021)

As Above, So Below (2014)

Banana Splits Movie (2019)

Before I Awake (2016)

Bird Box (2018)

Black Sheep (2006)

Blood Red Sky (2021)

Brainscan (1994)

Butchers (2020)

Cadaver (2020)

Cargo (2017)

Carrie (1976)

Carrie (2013)

Child’s Play (1988)

Child’s Play (2019)

Children of the Corn (1984)

Christine (1983)

Color Out of Space (2019)

Cube (1997)

Dave Made a Maze (2017)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Day of the Dead (2008)

Death of Me (2020)

Devil (2010)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Don’t Breathe (2016)

Eli (2019)

Escape Room (2019)

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)

Evil Ed (1995)

Fear Street: Part 1 - 1994 (2021)

Fear Street: Part 2 - 1978 (2021)

Fear Street: Part 3 - 1666 (2021)

Final Destination (2000)

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 3 (2006)

The Final Destination (2009)

Final Destination 5 (2011)

Friday the 13th (2009)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Get Out (2017)

Grave Encounters (2011)

Grave Encounters 2 (2012)

Graveyard Shift (1990)

Gremlins (1984)

Halloween (1978)

Hellraiser (1987)

Hereditary (2018)

His House (2020)

Hostel (2005)

Housebound (2014)

Hush (2016)

Idle Hands (1999)

In the Tall Grass (2019)

Incantation (2022)

Insidious (2010)

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

IT (2017)

IT: Chapter Two (2019)

Jaws (1975)

Jigsaw (2017)

Krampus (2015)

Lake Placid (1999)

Leatherface (2017)

Legion (2010)

Life (2017)

Lights Out (2016)

Little Evil (2017)

Ma (2019)

Mama (2013)

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Midsommar (2019)

Monster House (2006)

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

No Escape Room (2018)

Nope (2022)

Oculus (2013)

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Peninsula (2020)

Pet Sematary (1989)

Pet Sematary (2019)

Poltergeist (1982)

Psycho (1960)

Purge (2013)

Purge II (2014)

Purge III (2016)

Purge IV (2018)

Purge V (2021)

Ready or Not (2019)

Saw (2004)

Saw II (2005)

Saw III (2006)

Saw IV (2007)

Saw V (2008)

Saw VI (2009)

Saw VII (2010)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Scream (1996)

Scream 2 (1997)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Silver Bullet (1985)

Sinister (2012)

Society (1989)

Spiral (2019)

Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)

Splice (2009)

Summer of Fear (1978)

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

Texas Chainsaw (2013)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

The Babadook (2014)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

The Conjuring (2013)

The Craft (1996)

The Crazies (2010)

The Darkness (2016)

The Descent (2005)

The Empty Man (2020)

The Endless (2017)

The Escape Room (2018)

The Evil Dead (1981)

The Final Girls (2015)

The Forest (2016)

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

The Ice Cream Truck (2017)

The Lazarus Effect (2015)

The Lost Boys (1987)

The Mist (2007)

The Nun (2018)

The Platform (2019)

The Possession (2012)

The Resort (2021)

The Ring (2002)

The Ritual (2018)

The Ruins (2008)

The Shining (1980)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Strangers (2008)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Thing (1982)

The Void (2016)

The Woman in Black (2012)

There’s Someone Inside Your House (2021)

Train to Busan (2016)

Tremors (1990)

Truth or Dare (2018)

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Tusk (2014)

Unfriended (2014)

Us (2019)

Uzumaki (2000)

Vivarium (2019)

Warm Bodies (2013)

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Willy’s Wonderland (2021)

Winchester (2018)

Wish Upon (2017)

Would You Rather? (2012)

Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

Dated Movies

-From this point on I have the date and order I watched these movies, everything above I watched before everything below-

Drag Me to Hell (2009) - October 4th 2022, #176

The Privilege (2022) - October 12th 2022, #177

Halloween Ends (2022) - October 15th 2022, #178

The Witches of Eastwick (1987) - October 24th 2022, #179

The Perfection (2019) - October 25th 2022, #180

Barbarian (2021) - October 25th 2022, #181

The Faculty (1998) - October 30th 2022, #182

The Exorcist (1973) - October 31th 2022, #183

Smile (2022) - November 27th 2022, #184

The Menu (2022) - January 8th 2023, #185

Ghostwatch (1992) - January 28th 2023, #186

Skinamarink (2023) - February 2nd 2023, #187

The Collection (2012) - February 4th 2023, #188

The Innocents (2021) - February 7th 2023, #189

Deadstream (2022) - February 7th 2023, #190

The Dark and the Wicked (2020) - February 7th 2023, #191

Kolobos (1999) - February 8th 2023, #192

Scare Package (2019) - February 9th 2023, #193

Re-Animator (1985) - February 10th 2023, #194

The Boy (2016) - February 15th 2023, #197

The Invitation (2022) - February 18th 2023, #198

Grizzly (1976) - February 18th 2023, #199

C.O.R.N.: Field of Screams (2021) - March 2nd 2023, #200

Slumber Party Masscare II (1987) - March 2nd 2023, #201

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) - March 3rd 2023, #202

The Silence (2019) - March 5th 2023, #203

Once Upon a Time at Christmas (2017) - March 5th 2023, #204

Evil Toons (1991) - March 15th 2023, #205

Sleepaway Camp (1983) - March 15th 2023, #206

Prom Night (1980) - March 15th 2023, #207

Cooties (2014) - March 19th 2023, #208

House (1985) - March 20th 2023, #209

House of Wax (2005) - March 25th 2023, #210

Prom Night (2008) - March 25th 2023, #211

Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory (1961) - March 31st 2023, #212

Wolf Creek (2005) - April 2nd 2023, #213

Body Melt (1993) - April 2nd 2023, #214

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) - April 5th 2023, #215

Death Becomes Her (1992) - April 18th 2023, #216

Stigmata (1999) - April 19th 2023, #217

Dead Silence (2007) - April 19th 2023, #218

Elevator (2012) - April 20th 2023, #219

Bad Hair (2020) - April 22nd 2023, #220

We Need to Do Something (2021) - 25th 2023, #221

Good Boy (2020) - April 25th 2023, #222

Pilgrim (2019) - April 27th 2023, #223

Piggy (2022) - April 28th 2023, #224

They Come Knocking (2019) - April 28th 2023, #225

Death Spa (1989) - April 30th 2023, #226

The Naked Witch (1961) - April 30th 2023, #227

I'm Just Fucking With You (2019) - May 2nd 2023, #228

Critters (1986) - May 3rd 2023, #229

Chopping Mall (1986) - May 5th 2023, #230

The Farm (2018) - May 12th 2023, #231

Motel Hell (1980) - May 12th 2023, #232

Jeepers Creepers (2001) - May 14th 2023, #233

Mother's Day (1980) - May 15th 2023, #234

Slaxx (2020) - May 15th 2023, #235

Slaughterhouse (1987) - May 16th 2023, #236

One Missed Call (2008) - May 19th 2023, #237

Mayhem (2017) - May 19th 2023, #238

Boar (2017) - May 19th 2023, #239

Pieces (1983) - May 22nd 2023, #240

Pandamonium (2020) - May 24th 2023, #241

All Cheerleaders Die (2014) - May 27th 2023, #242

Waxwork (1985) - May 28th 2023, #243

They Look Like People (2015) - May 28th 2023, #244

Class of Nuke'em High (1986) - May 28th 2023, #245

Fear PHarm (2020) - May 29th 2023, #246

The Stuff (1985) - June 1st 2023, #247

Planet Terror (2007) - June 2nd 2023, #248

Fear PHarm 2 (2021) - June 5th 2023, #249

Mom and Dad (2018) - June 8th 2023, #250

Renfield (2023) - June 11th 2023, #251

After Dark: The Task (2011) - June 12th 2023, #252

Terrifier (2016) - June 19th 2023, #253

It Follows (2015) - June 20th 2023, #254

Choose Or Die (2022) - June 20th 2023, #255

31 (2016) - June 21st 2023, #256

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) - June 22nd 2023, #257

Apollo 18 (2011) - June 22nd 2023, #258

Triangle (2009) - June 23rd 2023, #259

Sorority House Massacre (1986) - June 23rd 2023, #260

Braid (2018) - June 24th 2023, #261

Await Further Instructions (2018) - June 26th 2023, #262

Ghost Ship (2002) - July 9th 2023, #263

Annihilation (2018) - July 11th 2023, #264

Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (2018) - July 13th 2023, #265

Scare BNB (2019) - July 19th 2023, #266

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) - July 20th 2023, #267

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989) - July 20th 2023, #268

The Bunnyman Massacre (2014) - July 26th 2023, #269

House (1977) - July 26th 2023, #270

Night of the Comet (1983) - August 3rd 2023, #271

Phantasm (1979) - August 8th 2023, #272

Evil Dead 2 (1987) - August 8th 2023, #273

Battle Royale (2000) - August 8th 2023, #274

Trucks (1998) - August 8th 2023, #275

247F (2011) - August 15th 2023, #276

2001 Maniacs (2005) - August 15th 2023, #277

The Video Dead (1987) - August 17th 2023, #278

Human Resources (2021) - August 17th 2023, #279

Parents (1989) - August 18th 2023, #280

Urban Legend (1998) - September 8th 2023, #281

You’re Next (2011) - November 21st 2023, #282

Frogs (1972) - November 21st 2023, #283

Jennifer’s Body (2009) - January 8th 2024, #284

The Hunt (2020) - January 8th 2024, #285

The Amusement Park (1975) - January 21st 202;, #286

Diary of the Dead (2007) - February 2nd 2024, #287

Corporate Animals (2019) - February 7th, 2024, #288

The Vampire Bat (1933) - February 7th 2024, #289

Blades (1989) - February 7th 2024, #290

Martyrs (2008) - February 7th 2024, #291

Game of Death (2017) - February 14th 2024, #292

Night Swim (2024) - February 16th 2024, #293

976-EVIL (1988) - February 18th 2024, #294

Microwave Massacre (1979) - February 18th 2024, #295

Street Trash (1987) - February 20th 2024, #296

Escape the Field (2022) - February 21st 2024, #297

Auntie Lee’s Meat Pies (1992) - March 3rd 2024, #298

Return to Horror High (1987) - March 23rd 2024, #299

The Beach House (2019) - April 14th 2024, #300

[village-skeptic]

Hello! Do you have any book recs?

BELOVED ANON. Thanks for this ask, and for your patience in waiting for an answer. I do, in fact, have some book recs for you! 

Fiction:

If you haven’t read Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet (My Brilliant Friend + the sequels), you should. They’re a wonderful depiction of female friendship, devotion, and competition, set against the background of a vibrant neighborhood life and a country undergoing the vast transformation of the second half of the c20, and Ferrante’s language is just SO absorbing.

Another novel that takes female friendship as a main theme, but also investigates creative partnership, childhood trauma + art, and class mobility, is Kayla Rae Whitaker’s The Animators. I read this one almost a year ago, and I still keep thinking about it!Anon, if you haven’t read The Secret History, you should read The Secret History. Then, if you’re like “hmmm, I liked that, and I would like more stories of close groups of friends doing passionate, stupid, wildly ill-destined shit, based on their own idealistic convictions” - then you should pick up Caite Dolan-Leach’s We Went To The Woods, which embraces the whole “I want to start a commune with my friends” trope head-on. (This isn’t a perfect novel - but I still enjoyed it.) Alternatively, if you were like, “hmmm, I liked that, and I would like another emotionally-tense campus novel set in the 1990s,” try Elaine Choi’s My Education. If you want a campus novel, but one that will simply make you laugh your head off, try Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members, which is written entirely in the form of recommendation letters from an increasingly-unhinged English professor. (The male POV character is hardly free from sin, though, so keep that in mind if that’s a problem for you.)

Anything that Miriam Toews has written, particularly if you’re interested in gender, family, rural life, religion, mental illness, grief... etc etc etc. Trigger warning a mile long on most of her books, so do your research, but she’s SUCH a good writer.

Think that short stories might be more to your preference? I cordially invite you to pick up any one of Karen Russell’s collections and get your mind blown - I can vouch for Vampires in the Lemon Grove and Orange World personally. If you’re into the magical realism that Russell brings, but want a slightly different tone, Alice Hoffman’s many, many, MANY novels (including Practical Magic) might be your cup of tea. And if you like magical realism, and love the “school story” genre of Harry Potter... but want it crossed with a noir murder mystery and the themes of grief and dysfunctional family - I really, really enjoyed Sarah Dailey’s Magic for Liars.

Do you like (and/or are willing to tolerate) queer themes, tragedy, nostalgia, snobbery, and Catholicism? You should read Brideshead Revisited. Evelyn Waugh was a total ass, but a beautiful writer nonetheless. If you were with me on the queer themes, but would really rather do without all the rest of the stuff I named above - try Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, and Royal Blue for the delightful fluffy escapism of a contemporary queer romance that takes place in a political AU where Trump doesn’t seem to exist, and that is CLEARLY written by someone with a lot of experience in fandom. 

Non-Fiction:

If you were into the whole female friendship angle that I was pitching above, and want to follow that into the realm of non-fiction - pick up Deborah Tannen’s You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships. Tannen is a sociolinguist specializing in gender, among other things, and all of her work is so good and so interesting! And if linguistics is your thing, I would encourage you to pick up Gretchen McCullough, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language - but if you get your hands on it straight away, you’re going to have to let me know how it is, because my copy hasn’t gotten into the library yet!

Charles King, Gods of the Upper Air: How A Circle of Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century is a great account of the emergence of the modern discipline of anthropology, centering on the circle around Franz Boas at Columbia that included Margaret Mead and also (I had not realized this!) Zora Neal Hurston. King does a great job charting the intellectual history here, but also charting these individuals’ fascinating lives and complicated relationships.

The two books that have taught me the most about the birth of the modern conservative movement culture in the US (1960s onward) are Bethany Moreton, To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise, and Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. 

And finally, anon and others, if you want to read along *with* me, two books of feminist cultural criticism in late capitalism that are either literally in my book pile or in my holds queue: Darcy Lockman, All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership, and Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion.Hope you find something that interests you here - please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think if you pick any of these up!

[teslagrams]

Summer 2019 Reading List

“If I was wrong in yielding to persuasion once,... I thought it was to duty.”

Jane Austen, Persuasion

[sitp-recs]

Hi Liv! I know you're still on a fandom break, but your rec lists are the best and I really need some Harry pov fics—think Away Childish Things, Nice Things, and Here's the Pencil Make it Work all of which which I've already reread too many times in the past six months for me to describe accurately myself as "okay" so if you know of any other similar fics I'd much appreciate it!

Tysm and hope ur having a lovely evening 💜

Hello friend, happy to help! I haven’t read a lot recently so I apologize for not reccing any new fics here. I’m assuming you already know Turn by SG which has an iconic Harry POV, so I have listed other titles with a focus on pining!Harry. I hope you find some exciting new reads here!

Still Life, orphaned (M, 3k)

in a rambling way by @fw00shy (T, 7.5k)

Ron knocked Hermione up, and now Harry's got to figure out how to clone himself so that his friends don't split up fighting over him. Falling for Draco again was never part of the plan.

Clear As Mud by scoradh (M, 9k)

Set post-war and post-Harry's-conscience...

Poppiholla by @moonflower-rose (M, 12k)

Harry had accepted that he would pine silently for Malfoy forever, but one, humid summer might change that.

Take These Lies by @pennygalleon (E, 20k)

There’s a portrait of his godfather in Draco Malfoy’s potions shop and Harry needs to know why. But that’s not why he keeps coming back.

Faint Indirections by ignatiustrout (2019, T, 29k)

Draco Malfoy is the last person Harry expects to turn up in Boston, Massachussetts. But now he's here, and he won't stop requesting books from the library where Harry works.

On Your Shore by @xanthippe74 (M, 35k)

Clearing out a remote house full of cursed collectibles in the Outer Hebrides? Not a problem for an experienced curse breaker like Harry Potter. Spending a week with the straight, happily-married man that he’s starting to have feelings for? And sharing a bed with him at night? Surely Harry can handle that, too.

Rush (For A Gap That Exists) by @sleepstxtic-drarry (M, 42k) - F1 AU

A story of love and loss that grew amidst the most infamous rivalry in Formula One history: the story of Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

Modern Love by @tackytigerfic (E, 61k)

Harry Potter, of all people, knows that life isn’t always fair. And no one gets to be happy all of the time. But surely there’s something more—something better—than a rubbish Ministry job, and a lonely old house, and that feeling that everyone out there is doing a better job of living than Harry is.

The Beauty of Thestrals and Other Unseen Things by @writcraft (E, 63k)

Harry has terrific friends, an amazing girlfriend and his job as Head Auror enables him to work on challenging cases and Ministry reform. He just wishes he could work out why he’s been so out of sorts.

The Promise of Summer by Omi_Ohmy (M, 66k)

How was Harry supposed to know that coming back for eighth year would be so confusing? Everything is the same, and yet not the same. And nowhere is this more obvious than with Draco Malfoy. Harry finds himself once more watching and following Malfoy, trying to work him out.

Home Truths by @skeptiquewrites, art by @fantalfart (E, 67k)

In the off-season Harry decided to fix up Grimmauld Place and found that Draco Malfoy was the only person who could help him. A demanding career and unrelenting press scrutiny were enough to deal with before Harry added a house with a mind of its own, family history, and a tense, flirty, complicated relationship with his childhood nemesis to the mix.

Little Deaths and How to Avoid Them (or Draco Malfoy's Guide to Stop Dying and Start Living Instead) by nerakrose and dustmouth (T, 96k)

Malfoy is way too interested in coroner reports for somebody who's definitely not looking for ways to die, Harry wants to be friends with him, and Ginny wants to break up with Harry.

Grounds for Divorce by Tepre (E, 122k)

Malfoy finds a coin. Harry finds a letter.

By the Grace by lettered (T, 140k)

Harry is an Auror instructor. Malfoy wants to be an Auror.

[tatooineknights]

Hiii I want to get into expanded Star Wars materials such as books, comics etc, what media would you suggest that is Luke centric besides movie/tv show content? Thanks in advance for any recs 😄

In terms of the canon content, I think the new Star Wars mainline comic that launched in 2020 is really good. It’s pretty serious and has sections dealing with Luke’s trauma following the end of Empire. The original comic run from 2015-2019 is good too, you just have to suffer through some tragic art for a lot of it. It’s a bit more fun, being set between ANH and ESB. If you want to know a deep dive that isn’t exactly canon, they did an expanded radio versions of the Star Wars movies. Mark voiced Luke in the first two. They give Luke a lot of backstory on Tatooine, it’s really awesome.

I’m still honestly surprised there has been such little Luke content since the buyout. I know part of that is because Luke was MIA for The Force Awakens and they had to wait until The Last Jedi to explain why.. but it’s been years since then! There is a new book coming out this summer with Luke and Lando as the main characters. I’m very excited for it!

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hullo hullo, shippers & readers!

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck! The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week. After taking an arduous foray into a multichapter read that took us on a quiet and careful journey into the prolific prose of one of this fandom's authors, we thought it only fitting to get back on the train with a fic that had been written in the last six months. So while we had a huge catalogue to choose from, we found our one. HOWEVER, the other two to reach our Final Three Poll really would have been a treat all the same. if we've got any surprises for each other - denimwrapped | G, 4.5k, Complete

He thinks it was early in the summer, when they stared deep into each other’s eyes on a long and grueling night, that he fell in love with Shane a little bit. Or maybe it was already there, or always there, and it was just that moment that Ryan suddenly became conscious of it. When he realized that whatever happened, he wanted Shane right there with him. ~ Or, it's 2019, and Ryan's nervous about a lot of things.

love put a gun in my hand - bodhirookes | E, 20k, Complete

“Evening,” Shane says, though it’s leaning closer to midnight than to dinnertime. “Heard from my deputy that somethin’ was afoot down here.”  TJ carefully tips his head, gesturing at the table of men. “They rolled in about an hour ago. It took me until now to recognize them—Bergara and his boys.”  Shane looks at the table again, and this time, one of the men is looking back. Even across the room, his eyes are fierce and devastating to gaze upon, like taking a pair of bullets to the gut. Messy black hair escapes the brim of his hat, brushing the top of a long, vivid scar that runs from forehead to cheek over his right eye, and the expression on his handsome face is as arrogant as it is enticing, like he’s inviting anyone who seeks him out to start a fistfight and end it with a good, hard fuck. Shane would know that face anywhere, and has seen it on more WANTED posters than he could ever hope to count. Or, Shane is the sheriff of a town that infamous bounty hunter-disguised-criminal Ryan Bergara has set his sights on, and will do whatever it takes to keep Bergara from burning it to the ground

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

[tma-ficrec]

Five All Time Mod Recs

To start off this blog, we decided to submit ourselves to the mortifying ordeal of being known and show y’all our TMA top fic recs!

These are fics of very different premises and categories that stayed with us and soothed our souls. Feel free to ask for more recs (or more specific stuff) because we’re definitely not done. Enjoy!

Mod Ami:

Statement Ends  by @martivist 4k words. Jonmartin. Angst. Post-canon AU. Ending Speculation. Lore speculation. S5 AU.

"Final statement of Jonathan Sims. The Archivist. Statement given… I think it’s June? We haven’t done very well counting time since the days stopped. Summer 2019, call it that. Statement begins.

We’ve found a way to send them back where they came from. All of them."

Forty-some years after the apocalypse abruptly ends, the final acts of Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood come to light.

Mod note: This fic... goddamit this fic. I read it halfway through s5 and I genuinely think this is one of the best endings the show could have had. It hit all the points Jonny made and then some. This fic is pain, yes, but the best kind.

Ninety Feet To Home by @judesstfrancis 33k words. Jonmartin. No Powers AU. Baseball Players AU. Fluff. Pining.

Jon isn’t really Martin Blackwood’s biggest fan. And he knows it’s a him problem, because it’s not like Blackwood is a terrible person or like he loses on purposes just to ruin Jon’s life, but he can’t help it. In his defense, if you were on a hot streak and the same person kept coming in and ruining it for you every single time, you'd harbor a bit of resentment towards them, too.

Mod note: I’m so obsessed with this AU that I broke my vow of not making fanart for TMA and made fanart of it. Yeah. Sue me. It’s the perfect levels of pining, ridiculousness and it brought me (an argentinian whose only baseball reference is the HSM musical number) tremendous joy. As the us-statians would say: home fucking run. ALSO, MARTIN BLACKWOOD IS LATINOOOOO.

Maybe not the stuff of legend by imperfectcircle. 14k words. Jonmartin. Post-canon AU. S5 AU. Ending Speculation. Lore speculation. Angst with a Happy Ending.

Martin forgets slowly at first, and then all at once. One moment he's grasping at memories, desperate without knowing why to retain even a single image of an angry, scarred stranger saying incomprehensible things about eyes, and the next, nothing. He can't even remember what had him so anxious just now. A car alarm, probably, or a dog barking in the distance. He's always startled easily.

Mod note: I still quote it to myself from time to time. ‘’Martin, you ate the megalodon’’ makes me giggle and also terribly sad. This is an excellent way of exploring entities lore, as well as grief and hope. 

the garden of forking paths by @bibliocratic. 49k words. Jonmartin. Post-canon AU. Ending Speculation. Angst with a Happy Ending. Use of Spiral Doors.

Whatever he had predicted might happen, Jon wasn't expecting to survive upon demolishing the Panopticon. He certainly wasn't expecting to be rescued.

Instead, he wakes up in an alternative universe where he's never been the Archivist, and Martin Blackwood doesn't exist.

Martin Blackwood wakes up somewhere else entirely.

Mod note: I’m argentinian and the major element in this story is a Borgues book. OF COURSE IT’S HERE. This fic is an absolute ride and so so so beautiful - multiple universes and Jon and Martin doing the same thing over and over and over again, with hope of finding each other.

Family, Found  by Dribbledscribbles. Gen fic. 9k words. S4 Divergent. Canon Divergence. 

It’s Basira who catches onto it.

The collective shift that seems to come over them when heading in or out of the Institute. Not just the oppressive sensation of being observed, their every move catalogued for the voyeuristic cravings of some unseen Eye(s). That feeling remained with them even when they left the Institute these days, but it was always stronger inside its walls. That wasn’t the change. Nor was it the point.

The point was: making life worse for Jonathan Sims.

Mod note: Do you want to hit the Eye? Do you want all the Entities’s plans to be twarted by the power of found family? Do you want everyone who blamed Jon for everything in S4 to sit down and apologise? This is your fic.

Mod Ebby:

the apple of the eye by  gocrazygostupid. 2.8k words. Fluff. Lore speculation.

TELL ME, ARCHIVIST

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG?

i'm not sure. i don't really get the chance to listen to music

if i told you, what would you do with it?

Mod note: I am absolutely weak towards any fic that gives the Entities some form of sentience, no matter what canon said. Especially when these interactions are so surprisingly soft. 

I WOULD PLAY IT

I WOULD LISTEN

in the chillest land and on the strangest sea by  imperfectcircle and raven (singlecrow). 19k words. S4 Divergent. Canon divergence, in the space between 159-160

Jon remembers a statement he read years ago given by a Jesuit priest, who said that the shortest prayer he knew was, just, fuck it, as in fuck it; it's in God's hands. He takes Daisy's hand and trails on after her.

or; hope is a thing with feathers.

Mod note: Everytime I read this fic, I end up at least a little teary eyed. It’s not exactly happy, more bittersweet, considering, but I still love it.

Come Love This World (Come Hate It, Too) by cedarbranch. 3.3k words. Character Study, fluff and angst, spans s1-5. Canon Compliant. 

Jon never liked poetry, until Martin.

Mod note: Yes I am picking fics that personally came for my heart one way or another, not much else to say, besides that “it feels like loving you” haunts me still to this day, in a good way.

i love you, i'm glad i exist by kissyourlocalmoth. 1.7k words. Scottish safehouse period. Fluff.  Established relationship.

Martin was thinking of a poem. It’s name sat on the tip of his tongue, aching to get out. It was a lovely one, too: something about how life felt easy now, at peace; how the small things felt like everything, a poem about… the importance of the little moments. These last few days had been like that, he thought. He couldn’t stop smiling to himself recently, and even Jon teased him about it sometimes, though he was hardly less giddy. He thought of the immense joy the little things brought him now, the mugs of tea they made for each other, how he would lay in their bed late at night staring at the ceiling, his love nestled against his chest, overflowing with so much contentment and fondness he did not know what to make of himself.

Mod note: Short and sweet, it was the first time I read that particular poem, and now it’s forever intertwined in my head with little scenes of jon and martin in the scottish safehouse before 160 happens.

exit wound by autoclaves. 3.1k words. Post-canon AU. Ending speculation.

Suppose there is a house on a hilltop. Suppose there is a story. There is always a story, and every universe is always expanding.

Mod note: I would’ve liked to tag this more, but it would probably spoil the twist it has. Reading back on it, the narration reminds me of the statement from 196, which I find fitting and a funny coincidence, considering. 

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

Fic Writer Questions! (you can find me here on AO3 if you're interested!)

tagged by dear @theburialofstrawberries mwah!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

112 yowza!

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

750,421 kinda tempted to go delete one word so it can be 750420 which is a far more Pleasing number

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

12ish but some of them overlap: BBCS/Sherlock Holmes/ACD (these are all different bc my bbcs fics are not the same as my own modern fem Sherlock Holmes adaptation are not the same as my ACD Holmes fic; Good Omens; Harry Potter/The Werewolf Draco Malfoy Cinematic Universe; Captive Prince; The Hobbit; Fleabag (it was a crossover with BBCS but Fleabag is the perspective character so it still counts as a separate fandom imo); Doctor Who; The Office; Parks and Rec; Broad City (one a piece for those last 5 but I AM going to write a Parks and Rec polycule fic for @gaykagome)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're all Good Omens fics from the 2019 Summer of Good Omens! Susceptible to Summer, Fragments Shored Against My Ruin, Something So Magic, Enter Serpent, and Anything We Like

All of those have over 2k except the last one, but average engagement for me is like 400 kudos or so

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try! It depends on what's going on with me. Sometimes I just don't have the energy, and I figure people would rather I spend my brain power on writing new fics than on writing replies to comments. Wish I had a fave button tho so I could let people know I read and reread comments, because I do!

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh I wrote this ficlet series called A Chemical Defect about John and Sherlock's relationship in s3 of BBCS, and it's WILDLY unpopular. People don't read my fic to cry sad tears I guess! John and Sherlock are having an affair in the story, and it ends with the implication that their relationship is unsustainable and that Mary knows about it anyway. I intended to come back to it after s4 and write a more optimistic ending but LOL! Didn't have the heart.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I know this answer is kinda up my own ass, but like. I think stories that feel true to life sort of feel like they end on a beginning if you know what I mean? You don't really consider a chapter of your life closed until you look back on it from the next? SO that said, I think I'd have to say that it's my big BBCS serial The Only One in the World. I spent 2 years writing it, and it ends with John retiring from medicine to solve crimes and write books full time.

Could also be my WDMCU (werewolf Draco Malfoy cinematic universe) series Moonrise, which starts with Draco isolated in his abusive mother's house, trying to cope with lycanthropy essentially alone and ends with him in love and surrounded by found family in a cozy cottage in Hogsmeade, having gotten some lycanthrope rights legislation passed after working at it for years and talking to Harry about whether they want to have kids. Oh man I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written one crossover. It's BBCS/Fleabag, because me and @loudest-subtext-in-tv were laughing about how John seems like one of the horrible guys Fleabag sleeps with basically out of self loathing, so I wrote this fic to make Nattie laugh, and you should read it bc it's so good and so underrated.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really, but people don't seem to know that authors can read bookmark tags unless you private the bookmark, and someone once put in the bookmark tag on one of my fics 'writing was meh but it was okay.' Okay so why bookmark it then??

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Fuck yes! I'm not sure what 'what kind?' means? People fucking? Sloppy, silly, and awkward, with lots of laughing. I also really like writing afterglow scenes which are even sillier and gigglier and often involve one character cooking for another. Food as love language is a very distinct pattern of mine tbh

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of, but occasionally I'll write a post on here where I make some elaborate head canon, and I'll see people in the tags talking about how they want to write fic of it, and it makes me breathe fire out of my nose like a dragon like PLEASE DON'T. The WDMCU came out of a ficlet post I made on here like a year before I actually wrote the 60k series so like!!! Please don't do that!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! To Russian and I believe Chinese. Not my entire oeuvre but a handful of BBCS and Good Omens fics

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I wrote a fic inspired by an RP I did with my gf right around when we met (actually now that I think about it, it's two fics), and I waaaaaaanna do a WDMCU collab with my beloved Sally @clytemenestras at some point if he has time bc he inspired me to even write werewolf draco with his original lesbian werewolf story

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

favorites are hard for me? I always think I'm currently doing my best writing lol so I'll say drarry

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don't post fics unless theyre finished, so I don't have any WIP up on AO3, but I did intend to continue with my fem Sherlock Holmes series, Your Many Tendencies. I just haven't been in a Holmes mood for a long time. Maybe I'll come back to it idk. This particular series is honestly very unpopular? People will just straight up say they don't read femslash, and it hurts a lot. This series feels really personal too, bc it's about a Black autistic nonbinary lesbian, so it does hurt my feelings that no one seems to care, yknow? I mean the people who read it are extremely kind and thoughtful in their engagement with it, but it has vastly less engagement than my m/m fic, and that's painful. It gets literally 1/10 the attention my fics usually get.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Almost all of my writing is romance, but I tend to write concurrently about recovery and found family, and I think I'm very good at doing that in a way that connects with my audience. I once had someone ask if they could use my words in their wedding vows, and I've had people tell me they started doing things with their spouse that my characters do with their partners in order to express love. I think about that all the time. My Impact. It makes me feel like I have a real duty to my audience yknow?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

This question is hard for me like I've been writing so long and so much that I'm literally always happy with my final draft! It's always exactly to my taste, yknow? I suppose I could say that my fics tend not to be terribly plotty but so WHAT? That's beside the fuckn point for me. Plot who? I don't know Her. Also honestly like. Stories feel more True to me when they aren't ruthlessly devoted to plot bc like life isn't like that yknow?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If you're not fluent in that language, get a beta who is!!!!! That said, I have written scraps of very simple dialogue in French using mostly Google Translate (sometimes I check w Sally bc he speaks French but I am usually too impatient), and I am perfectly well aware that I take my life in my hands each time!!! Also don't do that bullshit thing where it's in italics? That shit is weird and exoticizing. Just write it in quotation marks like normal dialogue.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

BBCS babey back in 2012. Ended a 5 year dry spell for me after I got my writing degree.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Hmmmm I think it's probably gonna be the fic I'm working on now that I haven't posted yet, but I know it's called Names for a House, and here's a tiny bit of it

Thanks again Shreya for asking me to do this bc I really love talking about myself. I tag @the-moon-loves-the-sea, @clytemenestras, @tomiano, @gaykagome and @totallysilvergirl

No pressure <3

[experiment-000]

My Top 10 Ships of 2020

It's been a weird year but I've seen other people doing this. Plus this year I've been way more into gen fics (love a bit of found family especially in clone wars and marvel) than anything shippy. So I genuinely don't know what imma put on here aside from two ships for sure. Sorry this post is super long idk how to do the below the cut thing and I've had this app for 5 years...

10) Viktor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki - Yuri!!! On Ice

It was a real toss up between this, supercorp, kanera and wolfstar cos they're all very integral ships to my fan heart but this son because of the Yuri on Ice fandom's rebirth this year. I've never stopped shipping this, never stopped reading fanfic of them for any extended period of time, they're still my most bookmarked ship on ao3 (although I think now star wars - all media types may have overtaken them for fandom). They were one of the first things I watched where the queer ship I loved became canon and I can't wait for the film (and hopefully someday a season 2). Heck I even made my mum watch Yuri on Ice with me so I think that says it all.

9) Edelgard Von Hresvelg and female Byleth - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

My first fire emblem game was fates when I was like 14 (and finally gay awake lol). I was so disappointed that I had to be with a guy character because the only female option was kinda creepy and also I wouldn't get the character of kana. So when three houses came out I was so happy because finally there were beautiful incredible female characters my female byleth could romance (I'm so sorry mlm you deserved so much more than you got). I got the game as soon as it came out (had to search a lot of shops let me tell you) and started on black eagles. I was actually kinda disappointed back in 2019. I didn't like the explore the monastery bit (still find it kinda tedious) and the battle mechanics weren't quite the same as fates (no pairing up?! Aka my main battle technique for protecting the weaker units). So I got like 20 hours in and put it down. Came back to it in lockdown and finally finished it! I'm so proud of myself I virtually never finish games. And I fully fell in love with the useless lesbian edelgard in the process. When I started back playing in 2020 I was like eh I wish I'd picked a different character to romance (like shes an emperor that's morally very shady) but then the romance stuff started with edelgard and I fell the heck in love.

8) Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter (and Topanga Lawrence) - Boy Meets World

Disney+ was released in the UK this year and I finally got the opportunity to watch boy meets world in its best quality (aka not on YouTube). I watched it back when I was like 12 or 13 and it's such a nostalgic show for me. Watching it again I still absolutely adore it (and my bi ass was low-key crushing on Shawn especially in chick like me - I'm 18 btw and I got so scared for a sec but rider strong was 18 when chick like me came out so it's fine woah). And of course now I see the possibilities of the beautiful Cory and Shawn relationship like they were so bromance it was basically romance and throw in topanga it's the perfect ot3 (but I'm also fine with just Cory and Shawn or just Cory and Topanga). Read some good fanfic for them this year. My favourite was one about Shawn stealing makeup and stuff and exploring gender (need more fics like this I'm biiii).

7) Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes - Marvel Cinematic Universe

I rewatched all the MCU films this year too. And got really into Peter parker whump and irondad. Plus my eternal obsession with identity and relationship reveals of course led me from Spiderman identity reveals (and found family cuteness) to stucky coming out. Especially when it involves the internet and social media. Not my favourite ship but it's been significant to my year due to the sheer amount of marvel stuff I've read.

6) Satine Kryze and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I rewatched clone wars in prep for season 7 and wow Satine's death was sad and sudden. She first appeared in S2 E13 I think and just the sheer sexual tension of their bickering. "The sarcasm of a soldier. The delusion of a dreamer." Just ugnnhhh my bi ass can't take much more of this. And Anakin just sipping his wine in the background grinning. And I fully believe korkie is a Kenobi.

5) Commander Cody and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I am very much an Obi wan multishipper. I don't really have a favourite but I fully believe he was with satine and Quinlan in his life. I don't think be would've actually done anything with Cody because of the whole superior officer thing. And this probably isn't even my favourite Obi wan ship - that honour probably goes to quinobi or obitine. However the most popular ships in the fandom are codywan, quiobi and obikin. No offence to anyone who ships these they're just personally not to my taste, but I can't stand quiobi, and obikin I find only slightly more tolerable and I think that's just because there's so much obikin content so if I like the concept of a fic that happens to be obikin I'll read it. I'm just not a fan of the mentor/student relationships. So I generally favoured the codywan fics when there was shipping involved meaning I read a lot of them this year. Needed that nice fix it content post season 7.

4) Zuko and Katara - Avatar: the Last Airbender

Again I am a multishipper I have nothing against zukka it's cute. But I'm a zutara shipper first and foremost because when I first watched avatar I was like 13 and denying my gayness and gayness in general so I shipped the straight things and the straight things only. Most of these ships I stopped shipping - dramione, spuffy, some my little pony ones which we don't talk about. Zutara stayed. (I have nothing against any of the things I used to ship I just stopped shipping them so much/shipped new things more). I've continuously shipped zutara since I first watched avatar even if I didn't necessarily spend that much time on it it has always been here as one of my favourite ships. It has such good fanfic I swear including my favourite ever fanfic from any fandom - love thy enemy. Plus like the black games (reread this for the millionth time this year), a delicate subterfuge (which I read for the first time this year and damn it's so good) and so many more. With the avatar resurgence this year I haven't actually rewatched avatar aside from my normal random episode every now and then when I feel like it. But there's been a lot of avatar on my dash from people I follow getting into it and people I followed for avatar returning so naturally I returned to the fandom and read quite a lot of fanfic. I also read just a lot of avatar gen fics which were great at the whole found family thing I've been so obsessed with this year.

3) Catra and Adora - She Ra and the Princesses of Power

Catradora is canon! They kissed! What more is there to say. Arguably they should've been top but I never shipped them that much since I was always very much a multishipper when it came to she ra so yes I was very happy it became canon because we actually won for once but also I've never read much fanfic for them etc. But they are very much a dynamic I love and watching she ra all again in prep for season 5 I really enjoyed the build up of their relationship. The other two only go above because Buffy is my favourite show ever and damn there's some good fuffy fanfic and Aphra and Tolvan is both fresh in my mind and star wars owns me. Would love some catradora fic recs btw if anyone has them tho.

2) Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I didn't realise it was last year that I got super into them but according to my ao3 bookmarks it was lol. 2020 I swear it's lasted an eternity. I got into them about a month before lockdown (which feels like another lifetime). I've loved Buffy since I first watched it when I was 13. It's arguably still my favourite TV show. I've been through a lot of ships for Buffy - bangel to spuffy and now fuffy. I still think angel and her were a beautiful ship back in season 2 and especially in the angel episode I will remember you. But faith and Buffy had so much chemistry in season 3 - she would've been a fresh start for Buffy and the amount of fix it fics I read I swear. My favourite has to be one where they met in LA during Anne and how that changed everything feat Buffy's internal homophobia.

1) Cheili Lona Aphra and Magna Tolvan - Star Wars

I read Darth Vader (2015) and Doctor Aphra (2016) for the first time at the end of 2020 (got a comic subscription which has served me very well already I've nearly finished the star wars canon comics). Just to see canon queer ladies in star wars was so magical for me as a queer lady. I didn't think star wars would be so overt yet as to have a queer kiss in canon (even if it's in the comics) and especially not with the main character of arguably their main comic series. Now we just gotta hope that we'll get it in live action someday soon. They weren't the ship I consumed the most content of in 2020 but they were the highlight of my 2020 because star wars did that and I finally found out about it

Honourable mentions: Vivian and Elle - Legally Blonde, Candace and Vanessa - Phineas and Ferb, Stevie and Alex - Wizards of Waverly Place, Xander and Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I actually don't ship this but damn some authors are good - this was the ship that made me realise I don't need to like a ship if the author is good enough to write it well), Eli Vanto and Mitth'raw'nuruodo - Star Wars (started reading the books last year but finished this year and only started with fanfic this year), Villanelle and Eve - Killing Eve, Kanan and Hera - Star Wars, Barriss and Ahsoka - Star Wars, Remus and Sirius - Harry Potter, Kara and Lena - Supergirl (let's hope this becomes canon next year!) (Those last four are ones I've shipped forever some of my og ships but nothing particularly big has happened for me this year with them so)

I got Disney+ this year so rewatched a fair few things from my youth and though hey my obsession with that character may have been a little gay.

[gameofdrarry]

Wizards Hearts Recs: Holiday Fic

Wizards Hearts was a four-month-long Drarry reading fest. Players were given a playing deck of 52 tropes, and were asked to find 52 different fics to read and comment on to fill their decks. To prevent the same few fics from being read, fics were restricted to only being used for the game three times before being considered ineligible for further points. The tropes and submissions list can be found here.

Check out the masterlist of fics for this trope below the cut!

📜 East of Eden by  WriteSprite Rated:  Explicit Words:  41,122 Tags:  Explicit Sexual Content, Explicit Language, Parseltongue, Dirty Talk, Rimming, Biting, Drinking Games Summary:  When Harry receives a dodgy brochure for an island vacation, he isn't sure he should attend. After a bit of a push, he decides to go for it and winds up spending the week in paradise. At least it would be, if it weren't for that pesky blond git. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Take My Hand by daisymondays Rated:  Explicit Words:  12814 Tags: Summer, Summer Romance, Pining, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, First Kiss, Drinking Games, Harry Potter Has Dimples, Draco Malfoy Can't Cope, Fluff, Sharing a Bed, Auror Partners, Draco Has Feels To Spare, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Meddling Friends, Touching, Soooo Much Touching, HP: EWE Summary:  Draco has long resigned himself to pining after Harry... that is until an invite on the annual Ministry holiday gives him a chance to change everything. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 December Never Felt So Wrong by MaesterChill Rated:  Explicit Words:  50001 Tags: Post-Hogwarts, Angst, Mystery, time skip, 00's Music Sung Badly, Fluff, Amnesia, A niffler, 25 Days of Draco and Harry 2018, curse magic, Knitting, Sex, Cuddles, Blow Jobs, First Time Sex, wanking, Advent Fic, Christmas, Magical Artifacts, Falling In Love, Magical Theory, drarry dads, Rimming, Memory Loss, A tiny bell, Sharing a Bed, Dad Jokes, Cursed objects Summary:  'Twas the month before Christmas and sixteen year old Draco Malfoy had never felt worse. His attempts to kill Dumbledore were failing and, as usual, Harry Fucking Potter was a constant thorn in his side. All that suddenly changed when Draco woke up 15 years in the future and discovered that not only was he allegedly shagging Harry Fucking Potter, he also had thinning hair and a five year old son, and no fucking clue how he got there. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Tell Me the End at the Beginning by harryromper Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  36591 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, St Mungo's Hospital, Healer Draco Malfoy, Auror Harry Potter, Auror Hermione Granger, Christmas, Christmas Tree, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Christmas Presents, Christmas Decorations, 25 Days of Harry and Draco, Food Hall Turkeys, Advent Calendar, Healer Luna Lovegood, Kreacher, Minor Neville Longbottom/Ginny Weasley, Yule Logs, Misheard Christmas carols Summary:  St Mungo’s is the last place anyone wants to spend the festive season. Harry finds himself there anyway. Or: Harry's an Auror suspended from duty, Malfoy's wearing the hell out of three-piece suits, Hermione is entirely over everything, and Kreacher just wants to be left alone to decorate for Christmas. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Too Cold Outside (For Angels to Fly) by gracerene Rated:  Explicit Words:  62688 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Post-Hogwarts, Creature Fic, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Veela Draco Malfoy, Veela (Harry Potter), Auror Partners, Auror Harry Potter, Auror Draco Malfoy, Aurors, Case Fic, Murder Mystery, Mild Gore, Advent Calendar, Christmas, Drinking, Scotland, United Kingdom, Muggle London, POV Alternating, Coffee Shops, Past Character Death, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Minor Dean Thomas/Ginny Weasley, Crime Fighting, Duelling, Burns, Blood and Injury, Bars and Pubs, Getting Together, Romance, Light Angst, Happy Ending, Bisexual Harry Potter, Gay Draco Malfoy, Anal Sex, Riding, Shower Sex, Hand Jobs, 25 Days of Harry and Draco, 25 Days of Harry and Draco 2019, Switching, Wings, Wing Kink, Veela Mates, Mating Bond, Anal Fingering, Bonding, Dirty Talk Summary:  The Auror Department and the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures are working to create a new division partnering human wizards and Magical Beings in order to more effectively police crime involving any and all classifications of Magical Creature. Auror Harry Potter jumps at the chance to join the pilot programme, but he starts to regret his rashness when he discovers who he's to be partnered with: Draco Malfoy. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 If the Fates Allow by Saras_Girl Rated:  Mature Words:  80957 Tags: N/A Summary:  What's that crackling in the walls? Harry has no clue at all. He'll eat some cake and drink some wine Because he is completely FINE. --A story about life's disregard for our plans. [2017 advent story] ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 A New Peace by MalenkayaCherepakha Rated:  Explicit Words:  5566 Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Semi-Public Sex Summary:  Of all the people Draco expected to walk into his cafe in Muggle London, Harry Potter was not one of them. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 flashback, warm nights by warmfoothills Rated:  Mature Words:  13068 Tags: Deathly Hallows AU, or more specifically, the godric’s hollow christmas shitshow of 1997, but with ron and draco!, and no snake-animated corpses!, instead:, Grand theft auto, a lot of blood, teenage fugitives, a time loop, Horcrux Hunting, one psychopathic quinquagenarian, Bodily Injuries, the ~power of love, Breaking and Entering, hospital food, questionable headwear, kissing in the backseat, kissing in the freezer aisle, Kissing in the Snow Summary:  “What’s killing me is that I actually quite fucking like Christmas, festival-for-a-personally-irrelevant-religion-turned-commercialised-garbage-holiday though it may be, and now I’m stuck in the perpetual almost-there of it all with an idiot who gets himself cut up every time no matter how differently I try and do things!” “Killing you?” Potter asks. “I thought I was the one who’s about to get my torso sliced into?” ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 All Must Draw Near by Saras_Girl Rated:  Mature Words:  61080 Tags: N/A Summary:  Harry doesn't have time for rumours; he has a shop to run. Which is just as well, really. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 With A Little Help From Hermione by naarna Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  6983 Tags: N/A Summary:  Secret Santa at Hogwarts with every House participating in the name of unity... And Hermione suddenly finds herself in the position of a matchmaker. ❤️ Read on Fanfiction.net

📜 Faint Indirections  by ignatiustrout Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  29793 Tags: University, Wizarding World of the United States of America, Americans, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Librarian Harry Potter, Harry Potter Has a Pet Snake, Parselmouth Harry Potter, College Student Draco Malfoy, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Anxious Harry Potter, Baby Gay Draco Malfoy, Bisexual Harry Potter, Friendship, Family Dinners, Halloween parties, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Romance, Misunderstandings, Internalized Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, H/D Fan Fair 2019, Secondary Theme: Book Fair Summary: Draco Malfoy is the last person Harry expects to turn up in Boston, Massachussetts. But now he's here, and he won't stop requesting books from the library where Harry works. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The 12 Dates of Draco  by Drarryismymuse (Hatchersn) Rated:  Explicit Words:  16808 Tags: 12 Days of Christmas, Light Angst, Christmas Smut, Anal Sex Summary:  Holiday dialing, desperate attempts at reconciliation, and 12 blind dates with Draco Malfoy... oh my! OR The day Harry just can't seem to get past. But what is the universe trying to tell him? And when did Draco Malfoy get so bloody fit? He's got 12 days to figure it out. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Christmas Is For Sex (and Love), So Give It To Me by GoldenTruth813 Rated:  Explicit Words:  53218 Tags: PWP, Established Relationship, Christmas, Bondage, misuse of frosting, making gingerbread houses, coming without touching, Blowjobs, Fingering, anal penetration, Rimming, misuse of fairy lights, Praise Kink, Nipple Clamps, erotic massages, Lingerie, Harry in Lingerie, Butt Plugs, Masterbation, Dirty Talk, Overstimulation, Topping from the Bottom, Ice Play, misuse of snowballs, misuse of brandy custard, veritasium, Public Sex, misuse of christmas candles, Wax Play, floating blow jobs, bubble baths, Candy Canes, misuse of candy canes, sex with feelings, Clubbing, naughty letters, babysitting teddy, Edging, healing past trauma, really so much more than sex, but lots of sex too, spiked hot cocoa, Drunk confessions, Anal penetration with a foreign object, french!draco, Switching Summary:  Draco buys Harry an Advent House, intent on helping Harry create all new holiday memories, and have a lot of great sex in the process. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 As it Should Be by leo_draconis Rated:  Mature Words:  5670 Tags: N/A Summary:  It's Christmas Eve, and Draco's world has just shattered around him. Will a Christmas miracle give him a second chance? ❤️ Read on LJ

📜 Dream by the Fire  by GallifreyisBurning Rated:  Mature Words:  11431 Tags: Fluff, Christmas Fluff, Non-Explicit Sex, No Angst, seriously no angst whatsoever, Getting to Know Each Other, Getting Together, Coffee Shop Owner Harry Potter, Writer Draco Malfoy, Tattooed Draco Malfoy, Magical Tattoos, Memory Magic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Wizarding History (Harry Potter), Friends to Lovers Summary:  When Draco Malfoy resurfaces in England after eight years abroad—tattooed, pierced, and wanting to take over a corner of Harry's coffee shop to work on a writing project—Harry can't help but be intrigued. Where has he been? What is he working on? Why here? And why does he have to look so stupidly hot with all those tattoos? ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The best Christmas he ever had by gnarf Rated:  Teen And Up Words:  1965 Tags: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Post-War, Fred Weasley Lives, Christmas at the Burrow (Harry Potter), Mutual Pining, Drinking, Dancing, Family Feels Summary:  Christmas had never been less appealing to him than this year. That was until Arthur Weasley showed up at his door, dressed as Santa, inviting him to the Burrow. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The One Where Ginny Keeps a Secret, Sort of  by Theartfulldodger Rated:  Teen And Up Words:  4039 Tags:  Fluff, Christmas, Established Relationship, Non-Linear Narrative, Group Vacation Summary:  Harry is determined to have a good time with Ginny and Pansy for a trip to NYC over the winter holidays, even if Draco can't join them. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Adventures in Truth and Texting by fluxweed Rated:  Explicit Words:  7981 Tags: Texting, Drunk Texting, Sexting, Veritaserum, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Auror Harry Potter, Drinking, Christmas, Advent Fic, Awkwardness, everyone has phones, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE Summary:  Former Death Eaters are being targeted with a Veritaserum curse – it’s permanent, and makes victims speak aloud their every thought. Luckily, it’s easier to control when writing – and Hermione is trying to introduce Muggle technology to the wizarding world. An advent fic featuring texting, identity struggles, and a Draco Malfoy who will literally not stop talking. ❤️ Read on AO3

[village-skeptic]

Thank you so much for the recs!! Haven’t heard of many of those, looking forward to reading them!

It was my pleasure, lovely anon! Hope you find at least one that you enjoy.