#these book club books are wild

[wreckitremy]

He kissed her, hilariously

.....

Hey

Hey author from 1918

What the fuck does this mean???

[moodymisty]

Roboute being a dad in the 31st millennium is such a sweet idea. But now I’m imagining him bringing that topic up in the 41st millennium.

Roboute: I must ask, would you want to have children with me?

Beloved: *looks at the ultramarines legion*

Beloved: *looks at the ultramarines successor chapters*

Beloved: *looks at the successor chapters that might even be from a completely different primarch but are still counted as ultramarines succesors*

Beloved: *counts up those numbers in their head*

Beloved: Babe.. don’t you think you have enough already?

Roboute: They... Don't count.

Beloved: Because they didn't come out of me?

Roboute: ...........................Yes?

[desdasiwrites]

– Amanda DeWitt, Aces Wild: A Heist

[highabovethecloudssomewhere]

Bi-Yearly Book Catalogue (2024)

Every book I’ve read the past six months and what I thought, told as briefly as I can manage.

One Star Books:

Loveless by Alice Oseman

I understand that this book was helpful for a lot of people. It was the opposite of helpful for me.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

My gripes with this can be whittled down into: this writer does not understand depression but really, really wants to cure it. Also, if you do decide to give this book a try, please mind the subject material. It really, really isn’t for everyone.

Two Star Books:

N/A

Three Star Books:

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A simple book about an old man learning to want to live again. Where ‘The Midnight Library’ failed for me, this one succeeded. If you plan to read this one, be mindful of the content warnings. It also isn’t for everyone.

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowely

It’s about a dog who has cancer. I think that says it all. There were parts of this book I really liked and parts I really didn’t like. It lost me halfway through and I stopped caring about the stakes, which is really upsetting when the stakes are a dog. But the good parts are really, really good. Just be mindful of the premise going into it.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

I liked the character work, loved the world building and on a technical level the writing was well-done. My gripes have to do with the story’s internal contradictions and how the only character traits I can think of for the main character are “asexual” and “inventor,” neither of which are explored properly (emphasis on asexual here). I didn’t like that despite being 21, the main character was narratively treated like a child, often involving his sexuality. I had to google how old he was multiple times because I couldn’t believe he wasn’t in his mid-teens given how he reacted to the story and how the story treated him. Loved the writing on a technical level, though, and I do plan to read more from this author.

Four Star Books:

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

A COFFEE shop AU? In MY high fantasy? If you like DnD, low-stakes high-fantasy and fun character work, give this one a read. It’s very cozy.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

It’s a book about a nonbinary tea monk and a robot who lives in the mountains. Slow-paced with good vibes and great world building. I read it in an evening and came away from it feeling warm.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Achilles and Patroclus’ relationship breaks my heart again. This was incredibly well-written and appropriately devastating. I just wanted them to be happy.

Countdown to Countdown by Kong Xiao Tong (graphic novel)

I bought a physical copy of this because I’ve always loved the artist’s work and wanted to support, and I enjoyed it a LOT. Beautiful art, fantastic characters. I know not everyone can avoid a physical copy, but the webcomic is available to read for free online and I highly recommend giving it a try.

Our Dining Table by Ori Mita (manga)

Learning to enjoy mealtime with loved ones again after childhood trauma? Y’all. It’s a single-volume manga and it’s well worth your time.

Five Star Books:

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

This was the most devastating book I’ve ever read. If you are interested in reading it: find a list of content warnings first. I went in blind. It is hauntingly real and the author handled the material so, so well. I can’t recommend this book without that caveat. But it’s one of the best-written books I’ve read.

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

This book is about a man looking back on his life as a boy - the friends he made and the misadventurous ghost-hunts his uncle dragged them into. It’s just the right amount of campy with fun characters and a brilliant use of prose. If you’re a less experienced reader and want a book that is easily digestible while also being extraordinarily well-written, I’d recommend this book in a heartbeat, and it’s every bit as entertaining for more advanced readers.

What you are looking for is in the library by Aoyama Michiko

Five stories about five people, all in different stages of life, and their unique experiences with the same librarian and the same library. Individually, each character in each story has their unsatisfying lives changed in an unexpectedly simple way, thanks to the library. There’s nothing wild about this book, but it is wildly impactful. The library is for everyone!

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Heroine travels the treacherous seas to save the man she loves. It’s a book about perspectives and joy and making unlikely friends, breaking curses through clever means and never, ever giving up. It has all the whimsy of a classic fairytale, yet not once could I predict how it was going to end. It’s fast-paced and hard to put down. The world is intriguing and the characters are wonderful.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This book is utterly mind-bending and I loved it. Two time-travelers chase each other through reality on opposing sides of the Time War and gradually fall in love. It’s great. The biggest complaint I see leveled at this book comes from less experienced readers who struggle to follow the narrative - and I do agree, if you’re just getting into reading for fun this might be a book to save for later. But don’t let me stop you. I loved this book.

Conclusion:

Reading is great. Libraries are your friend. I always love book recommendations and I’m on GoodReads as BeyondTheClouds777, predictably. If any of y’all take a stab at these books (or have taken stabs in the past), I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’m back in my bookworm era and thriving.

[raycatz]

I'm not including a situation where someone might be injured because in that case I'm thinking the bed goes to them by default or they are nominated for it. anyone who wants to be chatty goes to join the living room floor gang.

What are your thoughts and headcanons? Do you have thoughts on how the boys tend to approach assigning beds in inns? Who do the chain choose to sleep near when camping and why? What are their dynamics like when settling down for the night and getting ready for the day?

In "Mirror Vs Open Closet Door: Fight!" by Gintrinsic (here) Four refers to the chain's decision on how to split up between inn rooms as the "Link-per-room ratio" which I find very funny. He, Sky, and Time also talk about their thought process behind why they do or don't want to sleep in a room with some of the others which I find fun and interesting.

So! If you have thoughts and want to share them! *gestures to the post!*

[stone-stars]

Transcript:

Caldwell: So, turn to page 114. [Pages rustle. Caldwell clears his throat.] Emily: And this is where we win! Caldwell: Mhm. I-- Can mommy take a quick wine break? Murph: Uhh-- Emily: Yeah. Murph: Yeah. Caldwell: (audibly drinking) Mmm. Emily: Oooh, does mommy need a bath to go with that wine? Does mommy need a bubble bath to go with that wine? Caldwell: (laughs) Mommy needs some bubbles! Take the kids, uh-- Emily: (laughs) Does mommy need to bring the iPad into the bubble bath? Caldwell: Ohhhh, I'm so behind on Good Wife. The kids are at the church lock in… and I'm gonna go hog wild. [Murph and Emily laugh.] Caldwell: Drink a whole bottle of wine and light four candles from different seasons. Emily: Oh, that sounds terrible. Just a fucking hot bath and a f-- a full bottle of wine. [Caldwell laughs.] Murph: A hot bath, a full bottle of wine, and a candle that smells like leaves, one that smells like trees, one that smells like the beach, and one that smells like….. snow? Emily: Awww. Caldwell: Snow. (exaggerated) Snow? Emily: Just all of them going at the same time? So it's just confusing your nostrils? Caldwell: Yeah. It's just a seasonal deluge. Emily: This just sounds sick. Murph: Go on, Caldwell. Caldwell: (reading) "The garage door--" um, yeap. "The garage door is embedded in the hillside. Strange sounds come from the other side."

[bellasbookclub]

Reccer Spotlight: G!

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

In Other Lands

Witch King

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain

My Heart is a Chainsaw

Prosper's Demon

Demons and tigers and faeries, oh my! From harpies to murderous ghosts, G's recs are bringing you all kinds of Creatures. Full text available in their tab of the Bella’s Book Club Summer Reading ‘24 Reclist.

more info on BBC Summer Reading 2024

more Reccer Spotlights

[testingcheatsenabletrue]

this is how pretty much every conversation ive written for them goes

either that or:

[bidotorg]

BOTD: Oscar Wilde (#Bi2)

Oscar Wilde, known for his wit and flamboyance, also had a taste for the supernatural and the eerie. One of his most famous works with a spooky edge is The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The novel centers around Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who remains eternally youthful while a portrait of him, hidden away, ages grotesquely and reflects the corruption of his soul. This Gothic novel explores themes of vanity, moral decay, and the consequences of unchecked hedonism, giving it a chilling, almost supernatural feel.

In Wilde’s personal life, he was also fascinated by the occult and spiritualism, which were popular in Victorian society. He reportedly attended séances and had a curiosity about ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. Though Wilde approached these with his characteristic wit and skepticism, there was a genuine fascination with the idea of the afterlife and spirits.

Some even claim that Wilde's final resting place, the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, is haunted. His tomb is famously adorned with lipstick kisses from admirers, and some visitors have reported feeling strange sensations or seeing fleeting shadows nearby. Wilde's witty and rebellious spirit seems to linger, giving his legacy a spooky edge.

[communistkenobi]

I think adorno is best when he’s being forced to write about actual research being done. like his essays about how auto-locking doors are fascist are great and everything but the methodology chapter he wrote in authoritarian personality is one of the most interesting things I’ve read in a while and it’s because he’s doing theory through the otherwise banal process of survey construction. like he talks about the way you need to phrase survey questions to capture fascist sentiment discreetly, because very few people are going to respond to a survey saying “yes I’m a huge racist and hate minorities.” a lot of space in the methods chapter is dedicated to how the researchers understand fascism, not just as an ideology but a psychological disposition, and the way reactionaries relate to their own beliefs about the world. A lot of the really interesting interview material he works through highlights how often fascists will deny any animosity towards minorities and then literally in the next sentence express an explicit desire to violently destroy various minority groups. He highlighted how methodological choices themselves are ideological, pointing to past research attempts to capture fascist sentiment as insufficient because the researchers used a liberal conception of fascism, ie, as just another normal set of beliefs a person can have that should be taken at face value (for a more modern example im thinking in particular of that one infamous NYT article that does hagiographical work to ‘understand’ and ‘sympathise with’ the neo-Nazis that the journalist was following). It made me think a lot about the value of methodology as an over-arching framework for research, not just a small section in a paper where you describe the statistical methods you use for analysis or what tools you use to capture information. there are a lot of problems with auth personality as a text but one of the most enduring valuable things I took from it is that methods sections are where you actually build a lot of your theory

[my-52-weeks-with-christie]

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 36 Thoughts

Chapter 36 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

We’ve got creatures galore this time around!

Why can’t you give us the slice of life, huh? Why can’t you, the people want to read fluff too! I know I’d love to.

So as I’m attempting to keep track of the passage of time stated in the text there seems to have been a timeskip of multiple years. The changing of seasons up until last chapter only indicated around one and a half years passing, so either Tang Sanzang is exaggerating and only half a year to one year passes, so definitely one Winter since the narration mentioned frost, or it’s really been a couple of years.

Deer, deer, deer! No fallow deer, those are muntjac deer in the Chinese Original. Cute in the silliest way.

River deer basically yes, our lovely goofy Chinese Water Deer.

Now hold it! Those are not wolves! In the Chinese Original they are either Dholes or a kind of jackal. All three are in the family of Canidae. The wolf shares the Canis genus with jackals, while dholes and jackals are of the same tribe Canini.

I’m leaning more towards Cuon Alpinus so Dholes, which range throughout Asia and are also called Red Wolf or Mountain Wolf, but that might also be personal bias for I watched the Wild Kratts episode on them.

They are really social even more so than wolves and just overall very sweet. However they are classed as endangered!

They also come in a fluffy variant.

Jackals are really neat too though, here it might specifically be the Canis Aureus commonly known as Golden Jackal, which are native to Eurasia.

From Anthony C. Yu’s notes I concur the Vajra-guardians definitely do not look like cherubs neither the modern version nor the biblically accurate one. But they might be somewhat similar in function! Cherubim are assigned to protect special places as one of their jobs, so that guardian function might be the similarity that led to the comparison.

Tang Sanzang getting pouty is so endearing, much more than any ‘scared of demon’ instance.

Though in my opinion the monastery should have been able to kick out those guys that were causing needless trouble over multiple years. Give aid to fellow people yes, but if they knowingly and wilfully act out like that they rescind their right to stay.

Again with the property damage, Sun Wukong might have already cut down on violence against people, but no door is safe from him still.

[oatmealnebraska]

They had had a little quarrel after that night when Gay had left Noel and Nan on the steps. Gay found herself put in the wrong. Noel was very angry over the way she had acted. A nice position she had put him in

[journeythroughjourneytothewest]

Now that we are halfway through this Journey, what are your thoughts on this project so far?

I'm honestly pretty happy with the way things are going @pompomqt! It's been great having consistent submissions every week and seeing what people are getting out of their own journeys through Journey to the West. And believe it or not but this group has now gathered nearly 300 followers, which I'm assuming means we must be doing something right XD

It also really can't be stated enough that for as much as Journey to the West is a very fun and culturally important epic (and for as much as people should actually read the book before making claims about what happens in the og classic instead of relying only on summaries and/or contemporary retellings), this is a very long fiction and can be a pretty intimidating text to get through not only because of its length but because of the culturally and historically specific details that can be pretty easy to misinterpret. As such, it is my hope that by giving people some structure to approach Xiyouji in low-key weekly bite-sized chunks and share their thoughts with others that they feel this is helping to make the pilgrim's adventures something fun, interesting, and even educational. God knows that besides some of the extra research followers have provided the Yu translation comes with an abundance of footnotes!

I have gotten the sense at this point that people mostly want to use this reading group specifically to post their thoughts about Journey to the West as they make their way through it, so moving forward I don't think I'll try to put together any kind of contest of film watching event again unless requested. And as both group moderator and someone who hopes more people give Xiyouji a try, I'd say at least right now that's probably for the best. It's never fun to feel like you HAVE to do something or summon enthusiasm for something you're not interested in doing as a member of a group, after all! I'd just like to remind all followers both new and old that you can start the work whenever you want and move at your own pace, and that if you want to submit something inspired by your reading experience I'm happy to accept it as long as it doesn't contain any spoilers from chapters we've yet to read.

Finally, I'd like to end this midpoint contemplation with a few words of gratitude, first, of course, to @journeytothewestresearch for providing the PDFs of all four volumes of the Yu translation that made this book club possible in the first place. And, naturally, I need to give a big thanks to @pompomqt, @nikofortuna, and @loyaltykask for so consistently submitting to this group and having such great ways to relate what you got from your pilgrimages through the same work. It's you guys who are making Journey Through Journey to the West a pleasure to run!

[notbecauseofvictories]

Weirdly, I think I’m getting more responsible and thoughtful as I age? Not on purpose (hah, no.) just for the same mysterious reasons that have guided my actions for the last few years. But yesterday I caught up on work and today I did a bunch of boring stuff like “fulfill requirements to stay a lawyer” and “write a letter to my best friend” and “answer a bunch of emails” and it was pretty easy, so in conclusion, I’m thirty-something and adult, everybody please clap.

[bellasbookclub]

Reccer Spotlight: Shannon!

The Vanishing Half

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands

Shannon may have been grinding too hard to do much reading (non-academic) this year, but she still has impeccable taste! Full text available in their tab of the Bella’s Book Club Summer Reading ‘24 Reclist.

more info on BBC Summer Reading 2024

more Reccer Spotlights