#tiny books bang 2024

[merlinmausi]

Finally setting up this blog so I just wanna say thanks to @zhalfirin again for binding this for me! This remains as one of the coolest gifts I've ever received, it has a place of honor on my bookshelf 😍

The Crown of the Summer Court - Astolat

This is the second book I made for Renegade Guild's Tiny Books Bang event.

Typeset provided by merlinmausi.

Cork veneer half-binding with inset thaumatrope. (not sure it qualifies as a 'half-binding', because it actually is one piece of cork veneer... with huge cut outs.)

And if you're wondering what a thaumatrope is... it's an optical toy. On a disk are 2 separate pictures on each side. Strings are attached to the sides of the disk and when twirling the strings, the pictures seem to merge into one.

Materials used

case construction cover - layered grey board and cardboard and inset magnet spine stiffener - cardboard covering material - handmade paste papers, cork veneer title - gold foiled onlays - paper, laser printed

thaumatrope grey board with inset magnet, covered with laser printed paper cords - braided sewing thread

inner book book body - Schleipen Fly 05, 115gsm endpapers - lokta paper endbands - button hole silk

Size ~ A7 (7,2cm x 10,5cm)

[kulapti]

Bookbinding of Wires got the best of him by TheBigCat @perfectlynormalbooks, June 2024.

Tiny book one for this year's Renegade Tiny Books Bang! Typesetting by the author, who collaborated with me to choose the colors and cover design for the book, which I bound. Lovely to work with you :D

Materials: Text laser printed on Hammermill "cream" archival printer paper. Covers and tapes made of two different colors of blue Verona bookcloth, with cover design painted on with gold metallic nail polish. The binding uses cotton thread coated in beeswax and archival PVA glue. Endpapers are marbled Italian paper by London-based artist Stephan Parenti (Peacock Paper studio).

I have successfully used non-structural endpapers on this, I forget what it's formally called, but anyway the pages are held to the cover by the tapes and stitching. Compare this to modern mass-produced hardbacks, which are usually held in by the endpapers: that's why many books can be accidentally torn completely out of their covers, especially if the book is thick.

[glassheadcanon]

The Battle of the Frogs and Mice (octavo) [Tiny Books Bang 2024]

Title: The Battle of the Frogs and Mice, attributed to Pigres of Halicarnassus

The Batrachomyomachia or The Battle of the Frogs and Mice is an ancient Greek parody of the Homeric epics. The armies of the frogs and mice go to war over a misunderstanding, mighty deeds are performed by warriors on both sides, the gods become involved and great slaughter ensues before the resolution. There have been several translations from Chapman onwards; our version is in Draytonian stanzas by Jane Barlow in 1894, with splendid decorations by Francis D. Bedford.

For the Renegade Publishing Tiny Books Bang 2024 event Typesetter: @zhalfirin

Case construction:

Covers: 50 pt (1.3 mm) board

Spine stiffener: Japanese kozo (mulberry) paper

Quarter bound covering: Pristine bookcloth + my own handmade marbled mulberry paper

Title: handpainted Inner Book:

Text block: Cougar Natural Digital Smooth, 89 gsm

Endbands: Pristine bookcloth + hemp cord

Endpapers: my own handmade marbled mulberry paper

Edge gilding: handpainted Dimensions: 7 cm w, 12 cm h, 1 cm d

Earlier progress pics under the cut:

[canon-in-too-deep]

Flowers We Pick Typeset

Aaaand another event typeset! Renegade Bindery had a Tiny Books Bang that I did a few typesets for, and one of the works I did was my own Hades/Persephone fic, The Flowers We Pick & The Fruits We Choose . Kiiiiind of went crazy with the flower and fruits theme, but it was a really fun event to participate in! I'm rooky typesetter, so it was a real honor to get to join in alongside so many way more awesome folks. (This one was bound by deisderium, a super talented bookbinder on the Renegade discord server.) The typeset itself is sized for letter octavo (smol book!), and if you're interested in using the typeset feel free to dm me. More pics below the break:

[wolfsbanesparks]

Tiny Book Bang 2024

I wanted to share the books I made for this year's Tiny Book Bang with @renegadeguild! (A couple months late lol) If any of these authors/typesetting have tumblrs let me know so I can tag them!

First up: An Easy Death by YouAreInAComaWakeUp

Typeset by: bluebs

And second: We Might Just Get Away With It by callmeshakesqueer

Typeset by: Nate

And bonus! The books I typeset for this event!

Wayne Family Exclusive by wolfsbanesparks

Brilliant (like a confession) by Kathkin aka @penny-anna

Bound by: DerpestBlueSky

Bound by: Madame_Hook

More about this bind:

[astralis-ortus]

weighted blankets and projector

✱ a bang chan headcanon

— as long as you're happy, then chan is happy too.

w.count → 0.6k genre → fluff. very soft fluff. warning → none! a.n → originally wanted this to be a single post with streetlights and warm nights, but the fluff would be out of control (and i got too delirious to actually continue writing lol) sooo here's the second part! ⋆ see masterlist

although chan loves adventures, he also doesn’t mind spending your date nights inside.

foods and games would be the most important factor chan takes into consideration. your pool of dinner choices might be a little more limited when you’re bound to a certain location, but that’s what his little games are for.

you’re feeling like having some fried chicken? of course he’ll get them for you, but make sure you win the rounds of truth or dare or you might not be able to get even a single bite of those golden goodness (who are you kidding—he’ll definitely cave once you put on your puppy eyes, just like how seungmin taught you). hot pot night? no worries, his uno cards will help you two determine whether your dinner of the night follows his mild tastebuds or your daring ones. chan will get your every dinner requests, and put a fun twist on them just to see your smile.

when all the food is gone, chan would then pull out the weighted blanket he bought and kept especially for your date nights, all under the pretense of ‘i heard it’s good for you’ (when in actuality, he just needed wanted a tiny extra help in keeping you glued to his side).

what you’ll be doing from then on is a free arena—there are days where you’d just talk for hours on end, laughing at whatever silly things each other would say. on other days, you’d spin a wheel and let fate choose which of your all time favorite movies will you be rewatching that night (which, oddly enough, mostly fell to either the deadpool series or a few ghibli movies). there are also days where both of you decided to just melt next to each other while doing your own thing—chan with his laptop, while you, on the other hand, finishes the book you’ve been dying to read all throughout the week.

just as you’re about to feel drowsy after all fully digesting your dinner, chan would then draw a warm bath for you to relax in, bath bombs and all. he’d always tell you to take your time when you’re having your bath; he needed the extra time to pick out your set of matching pajamas set (yes, he wears one too), as well as setting up the candles and the new galaxy light projector he just bought a couple days ago. you once told him it looked pretty, and being the good boyfriend and devoted astrophile he is, of course he remembered it.

if your bath was chan’s way of taking care of you, then you doing his skin and hair care routine is your way of taking care of chan. you always treasure every opportunities you have to be so up close with him, taking note of his features while he’s surrendered under your gentle touch. you’d note every single speck of his freckles, every stray curls on his forehead, every faint smile lines he had etched over the years on the surface of his skin, which only grew in definition after he met you.

and you fall in love again.

maybe a little bit harder,

maybe a lot deeper.

now all warm and cuddled up under the layer of comfy duvet, you finally snuggled close to chan, allowing his body heat to entirely encapsulate you. the echo of his heartbeat is loud and clear, turning you all blush and giggly while sleep gently knocks on your eyelids. chan would say a couple things—noting how nice your new shampoo smelled, or how soft the layer of pajama is over your skin, but when he noticed your absence of reply, his smile would soften as he watches your sleeping face. chan would place a kiss on your forehead and held you tighter, wishing that even in his dream, the only person he would see is you.

©️ astralisortus, 2024. | likes and reblogs are highly appreciated♡

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Harley Quinn #38 by Tini Howard, Natacha Bustos and Brandt & Stein. Cover by Sweeney Boo. Variant covers by (2) Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson, (3) Elizabeth Torque and (4) Giulio Rincione. Out in March 2024.

"Rub the sleep outta yer eyebulbs, ya lazy berks! It’s the start of a whole new arc of my book, and it’s off to a bang! After dealing with multiversal shenanigans for so long, a girl has got to get back to her roots (by which I mean taking her nontalking hyenas on walkies, bagging up their poops, and then having a superbo birthday party with her girlfriend and best pals). It’s the start of a whole new arc!

Plus-ola: You like cartoons? I’ll give ya some dang goshed toonz! My disbarred personal trainers Brandt & Stein present the Troo Harleywood Story™ of th’ time I got embroiled in a battle of wills and wits with Gotham’s foremost high-flyin’ kite aficionado Kite-Man!"

[simply-sithel]

and when you move, I'm moved by Catja [link]

A wee 60 pages- true mini, bound for the @renegadepublishing Tiny Book Bang. Typeset by Indoor Cat Press.

.

...this book was so tiny, I lost it in my Drafts! Sharing now, almost a year later, as the 2024 Tiny Books Bang nears it's 2nd typeset reveal

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT WAS BEFORE THE BIG BANG??

Blog#407

Wednesday, June 5th, 2024.

Welcome back,

The Universe has not existed forever. It was born. Around 13.82 billion years ago, matter, energy, space – and time – erupted into being in a fireball called the Big Bang. It expanded and, from the cooling debris, there congealed galaxies – islands of stars of which our Milky Way is one among about two trillion. This is the Big Bang theory.

A universe popping into existence out of nothing is so bonkers that scientists had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the idea. But the evidence is compelling. The galaxies are flying apart like pieces of cosmic shrapnel. And the heat of the Big Bang is still around us. Greatly cooled by cosmic expansion, this ‘afterglow’ appears not as visible light but principally as microwave radiation – the ‘cosmic background radiation’, which was discovered by radio astronomers in 1965.

When a stick of dynamite explodes, the detonation occurs in one place and shrapnel flies into the void. In the Big Bang, there was no centre and no pre-existing void, so it didn’t happen at any ‘location’. Space itself popped into existence and began expanding everywhere at once.

Astronomy books often liken the Universe to a rising cake, with raisins representing galaxies. As the cake grows, raisins recede from each other, with no centre of expansion – just like the Big Bang. But of course, a cake has an edge, unlike the Universe, which may go on forever. No analogy is perfect!

In the beginning of the Big Bang there was the inflationary vacuum. When it doubled its volume, it doubled its energy; when it tripled its volume, it tripled its energy. If banknotes were like this and you pulled apart a stack, ever more would appear. Physicists call inflation the ‘ultimate free lunch’!

The inflationary vacuum expanded ever faster. But it was a ‘quantum’ thing. And quantum things are fundamentally unpredictable. Randomly, all over the inflationary vacuum, parts of it ‘decayed’ into ordinary, everyday vacuum.

Think of tiny bubbles forming in a vast ocean. In each bubble, the inflationary vacuum disappeared, but its enormous energy had to go somewhere. It went into creating matter and heating it. It went into creating a Big Bang. Our Big Bang Universe is merely one such bubble among a possible infinity of other Big Bang universes in the ever-expanding inflationary vacuum!

To start all this, a chunk of inflationary vacuum of only a kilogram was needed. Incredibly, the laws of quantum theory permit this to pop into existence out of nothing.

The basic idea – that the Universe began hot and dense and has been expanding and cooling ever since – is incontrovertible. But cosmologists have had to make tweaks to the theory, to account for certain observations.

First, in the standard Big Bang model, galaxies grow by gravitationally pulling in matter. But if this were the only thing going on, it would take much longer than 13.82 billion years for them to form. Astronomers fix this by postulating that the visible stars and galaxies are outweighed by a factor of six by invisible ‘dark matter’, the extra gravity of which speeds up galaxy formation.

Second, the basic Big Bang predicts that the gravitational attraction between the galaxies acts like a web of elastic, slowing cosmic expansion. However, in 1998, astronomers discovered that the Universe’s expansion is speeding up.

They fix this by postulating the existence of ‘dark energy’, which is invisible, fills space and has repulsive gravity.

A final tweak to the basic theory is needed to explain why the Universe has the same temperature everywhere. To account for this, astronomers think that the Universe early on was smaller than expected, then underwent a super-fast expansion in its first split-second – an ‘inflation’. This was driven by an ‘inflationary vacuum’, a high-energy version of the vacuum that exists in space today.

Originally published on www.sciencefocus.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, June 8th, 2024)

"A COSMIC GLITCH IN GRAVITY??"

[zhalfirin]

Wheels within Wheels - Frank Lantz

My contribution as a binder for the Renegade Guild's Tiny Books Bang 2024 The idea is to split typesetter and bookbinder so I got the chance to bind 2 copies of this text. One for the wonderful @simply-sithel as the typesetter, one for myself.

materials used

case cover - binders board, 1,5 spine stiffener - cardboard leveling material - cardboard covering material - wallaby leather detail painted with acrylic paint) and goat leather cover decoration - hot tooled and partially painted with methylcellulose glue and gouache colours

inner book book body - Schleipen Fly 05, 115gsm endpapers - satogami paper (3 colours) endbands - button hole silk

format: 4,7 cm x 7,2 cm

(See WIP pictures here)

[kulapti]

Bookbinding (2 copies) of Palimpsest by @azzandra, June 2024.

Typesetting by @admiraltypress! She helped brainstorm the cover design with me and we came up with the grey and green color scheme and bamboo image to reference the two main characters (YQY and SJ/SQQ). I chose to use the typesetter's title page design ("Palimpsest" in a box) and add the author's name in red as a reference to Chinese ink paintings with the bright red artist's chop signature. It's fun when the cover turns out exactly how I pictured it. :D

Materials: Scrapbooking paper, Verona bookcloth, acrylic paint, black ink, archival PVA glue, Chiyogami endpapers, text laser printed on archival paper, and cotton thread & beeswax. One copy was mailed to the typesetter and one copy was mailed to the author.

[pommedepersephone]

007 Fest 2024 Master Post

NAME: Rin Rigg

PRIMARY DUTIES (Fics)

crimson touched by blue

Am I the ghost at the end of the song?

never did run smooth

A Quartermaster Bi Any Other Name

ON THE COMMS (Immersive)

Glass Animals ILYSFM Illustrated Lyrics series:

Lost in the Ocean

On the Run

Tear in Space (Airlock)

How I Learned to Love the Bomb

White Roses

Scavenger Hunt items featured in crimson touched by blue:

Report to the Quartermaster on MI6 employee social media accounts

Scavenger Hunt items featured in Am I the ghost at the end of the song?:

Double-0 Old Fashioned cocktail recipe

A garden for Madeleine

Black out poem from The Once and Future King

Bond for Children (sort of) in the style of Goodnight Moon

INTERDEPARTMENTAL COOPERATION (Social)

Joined the watch parties for The Fourth Protocol and Richard II

ADDITIONAL DUTIES (Making it a Family Affair)

Family Watch Party List:

Paddington, Paddington 2, Logan Lucky, Passages, Knives Out, Glass Onion, Bright Star, Bond movies from Dr. No to The World is Not Enough

Book List (with links):

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming

For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming + James Bond by Ben Macintyre

Quantum of Solace by Ian Fleming

Superspy Science: Science, Death and Tech in the World of James Bond by Kathryn Harkup

Bond Movies: A Retrospective by Ho Lin

This was my first Fest, and it was so awesome to stretch myself a bit, and spent time working with colleagues - thanks especially to @anyawen for all your support, and to @l219tj and @emiliasilverova for your contributions towards the Care and Feeding of Alec. A big thanks to my ETERNAL cheerleader @murphysscribe who I have forced to put up with my Bond obsession.

(and for those who shared, commented, etc thaaaank you @foxsoulcourt , @ato-the-bean , @luminiferocity @amongthejumbledheap @aching-arc-reactor @celandinebergerac @spiritofcamelot @tales-of-whales @boffin1710 @castillon02 @thestalwartheart @dude-watchin-with-the-brontes @crewman-penelope @bludelivers @tsubame17 @myndelling @kmk1701d @emerald-truth @cicerfics @tiny-tardis @phinniastuff @kitten-kin )

[gwennafran]

Hogwarts Thirteenth – Pale Lights Intermission 2024

Fanart for the online book Pale Lights. And Harry Potter, I guess.

One final kid’s themed intermission piece. Made before there’s more than four people in the group (the top banner says it’ll happen).

I had fun trying to update the hairstyles of 11-year-old versions of Thirteenth Brigade into something more modern. Mostly I added bangs. Against all odds, I ignored the big hats. They’d take up too much room, hide character expressions, and I liked the visual joke of Maryam using the hood in the cloak.

Angharad is *that* well-meaning Gryffindor idiot jock. On the plus side everyone will expect her to fail all her wisdom checks, so she’ll probably do great. Most likely to join a quidditch team. In her first year.

Tristan probably tried to trade places with Maryam. Or at least talk her into letting him have a Hufflepuff disguise. Song stopped them, pointing out Maryam probably would not survive wearing Slytherin colours without actually being one.

Maryam could fit into several houses. If not for the tiny little fact that nobody would want a “half-hollow”. And while it would be hilarious for the Hufflepuff house to reject her for not living up to their ideals, they’re foremost known for accepting *everyone*. Yes. Everyone.

Song is still cursed. The real question is if her curse is particularly worse than what is pretty common to happen at least every other year at Hogwarts.

[kiwiana-writes]

4, 6, 9 and 19- or any combination of those if that's too much!

4. Do you write original stories as well?

2024 is the year of the original novel, baby! I may have done more, like, setting up a website/Substack/Airtable writing tracker/etc than actual writing at the moment, but in my defence I'm still wrapping up my freelancing obligations this month lmao

6. What is a fandom you will never write for?

You know, it's hard to say 'never' because... I never know what's going to grip me. I never would have predicted that I'd write a fic for the TV adaption of The Last of Us, or that I'd walk out of the theatre after going to see a queer Christmas movie and rage-write an alternate ending in three hours.

So I'll take a slightly different approach to this question and instead say a fandom I'll never write for again, and that's HP. I respect the hell out of the authors who have gone full death of the author about it and reclaimed the world they love to make it better, I really fucking do. But I pulled my HP fics down from AO3 when I realised that seeing the author's name on my fandoms list, on my profile, was just... really fucking with my little trans non binary head.

9. What are your favorite fanfics?

This question is cruel. CRUEL. I have never picked a favourite anything in my life. Here's a few things I'm vibing with RIGHT NOW, but the answer may change in a month or a week or an hour lol.

Going Platinum by @cricketnationrise - always, but especially now as cricket works through the sequel. I feel very taken care of by this fic and have reread it a truly embarrassing number of times.

I really hope I can get him alone by @clottedcreamfudge - the Henry POV of Kinda think that I might be his type aka Alex and Bea fake date. I am just. iu4oqhurfriehngfuqernugoenuogre.

In His Wildest Dreams by @myheartalivewrites - I bang on about Oxford Days by this author a lot (and for good reason) but FUCK this one is beautiful. I am forever a sucker for the psychology of kink.

Noble Blood by @orchidscript - currently a WIP, somewhat based on The King's Assassin by Benjamin Wooley which is the book Mary & George is based on. And like... here's the thing. I picked up pretty quickly coming into this fandom that The Thing Orchid Is Known For is researching the absolute living fuck out of her fics, and like... I respect it, but I also didn't really think about it much, because while deep-dive knowledge is fun, as long as something's plausible enough that it doesn't pull me out of the story I'm along for the ride, you know? But this fic. THIS FIC is based in a time period I am very familiar with (my focus was always Tudor England, but you don't study that time period without picking up a lot of knowledge of the decades either side of it) and like... I get it now. Reading a historical fic where you know so much about the time period, and seeing all these tiny little details sprinkled throughout that, like, aren't actually required for the plot but are just weaving the tapestry of the world... fuck me, it's an entire different experience.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue by @anincompletelist - currently a WIP, I believe it's due to be completely posted by the end of January? But y'all it's so fucking engaging and I am loving the journey so much.

When I Met You (I Could Not Speak) by @sparklepocalypse - forever on my fairytale bullshit as y'all know and this one is EXCELLENT.

You love me! You love me? by anarchyat4am - god. GOD. I don't even know what to say about this one other than PLEASE READ IT. Trans Alex and one of my favourite tropes, quietly falling into a relationship.

19. Dead or overused tropes?

I am an extremely firm believer that there is in fact no such thing. People are forever coming up with new twists on tropes, and even fics that play tropes totally straight are infused with the author's voice or experience or whatever. If I didn't want to enjoy the comfort of the familiar, I would probably not be engaging with fic in the first place 🤣

[Ask game for fanfic writers]

[piratekane]

i got an ask in my email that never showed up in my inbox that was basically looking for book recs and since only one person asked for my opinion and because this was the year i fell back in love with reading, i'm going to do a myspace Top 8 books i loved this year, in no particular order:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein this is basically a love story. it's a love story and you won't change my mind. i don't mean romantic love except that i mean best friends loving each other to and through the end of the world can be romantic and we should say that more often. because this a book about war and its terrors but it's also the love story between two best friends and what they'll do to get back to each other. it has probably one of my favorite protagonists ever - actually, two of my favorites. Wein tells a devastatingly perfect story and i promise your heart will swell and sink and tie itself into tiny knots. kiss me, hardy! kiss me quick! 5 stars, i cried at the end

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo i was late to the SoC books and boy am i glad i finally showed up to the party. this book was perfection. i immediately fell in love with each crow and spent the whole book screaming that if nina and matthias didn't kiss ASAP that i was going to throw something. i also was yelling about kaz and inez, do not think i was not doing that. kex brekker you deserve love you street rat. @dealanexmachina had to deal with the screaming through this. and i think it's going to be a repeat read in 2024 just so i can experience the care and craftsmanship that went into each character, their nuances, and how it wove perfectly together into kaz's brilliant plan. 5 stars, i immediately read the sequel like a hungry jaugar hunting down a person wearing that calvin klein scent

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson brando sando is... prolific. and it was overwhelming to jump in, but i started with tress and not any of his other books (a problem i have rectified) and what a bang it was. this book is, in a word, hilarious. the narrator is a fantastical being with an aversion to linear thought and a predilection for hilarity. the humor in this book is unlike any of sandos other work and really shows that he has the ability to stretch. the premise is very clever and very cool and just very fun. tress is brave and smart and that's celebrated, not punished. plus who doesn't love a talking rat? i'm looking forward to his other secret projects 4.5 stars, the narrator is my favorite sando character

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak okay, this is billed as horror, but i wouldn't really say horror and would lean more into the mystery billing than anything. maybe thriller. and it's outside my usual genre and is definitely more suited to my wife's tastes but she finished this book in three days (and usually takes 3 weeks-to-months to finish books) and when she said i had to read it, i said yes dear and picked it up. i'm glad i did. it's an illustrated mystery and as the author writes in the notes, those who pay attention will be rewarded. the ending was a twist i didn't see coming, like, at all. and it was clever. but once the ending started to unfold it was a mad dash to the finish. 5 stars, my wife recommends this

The Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff now, i know. this is actually 3 books, not 1. but hear me out - they must all be read. it's nonnegotiable. these books were recommended by tumblr user @fiddleabout and am i so very glad they were. mia is unhinged. there's no other way to put that. the girl is fucking off. her. rocker. and no one in her life is any better. they're all just as freaking crazy. but they're my crazy comfort killers. i went on for hours about mia and ash, to the point that my wife shut the bathroom door in my face because i tried to follow her in there talking about them. this series is bloody and more than once i was like, he can't possibly make this any bloodier but he CAN and i think this book is better for it. found family, check. unhinged teenage protagonist, double check. endless fun, check in triplicate. 4.5 stars, i am never not thinking of ash and her vision of a house on a lake and softness

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon obviously i read priory first and obviously i loved it but ADoFN was... mind-blowing. maybe because priory enriched the world of ADoFN and i was already familiar with all the intricacies of it (though there was certainly more to learn) but reading this just... the bridging Shannon did, the connections she made between priory and ADoFN and how we ultimately saw the way ADoFN threaded some of the loops we saw closing in priory, it blew my mind. the utter romance of it all, my god. i read this monster book in a single day, i couldn't put it down. i emerged from my ADoFN cocoon like andy samberg in that one SNL skit where he plays a teenager who just woke up. i was changed(TM) 5 stars, i was a changed man

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo i immediately jumped into the rest of the Leigh's work (i went through SaB first but she's so strong at the end of this Grishaverse) and while i love all my SoC babes, nina was a favorite and honestly i'd recommend both King of Scars and this book. tumblr user fiddleabout was blessed to follow along with my completely unhinged livestream of this book and when (spoiler) zoya and nikolai finally got over themselves and K I S S E D, i put the book down and took a lap. then i picked it up and screamed again as nina's arc unfolded. 5 stars, i have a lot of thoughts about the kind of man nikolai is (peg)

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty i'm a bit of a sucker for a pirate book. even more of a sucker about a woman pirate, and amina is a woman pirate of the highest caliber. this book is either intentionally funny or unintentionally hilarious. amina's biggest flaw is that she's constantly ogling her demon ex-husband's cute butt - honest to god. otherwise, she's perfection. badass, scrappy, jacked. amina is all of those things and then some. so she has a bit of a past that winds up coming back to bite her in the ass and then she's thrust back onto a ship where she has to chase down an old crewmate's daughter - can you blame a girl for being the most kickass pirate in all of the seas? no! should you? absolutely not! just let amina live out her life ogling ass and sailing leisurely, please. 4.5 stars, i want to sail on amina's ship even though i'm afraid of boats. and the ocean. and things living in the ocean. and generally the water.

( ͡❛ ᴗ ͡❛)👍 and now you know, cause it's mike's pirate's super short show! ( ͡❛ ᴗ ͡❛)👍

[glowluminance]

autumn '23 bucket list inspo!! (for northern hemisphere)

in honor of autumn equinox let’s start creating a cozy season🍂🎃

visit a local pumpkin patch

hike or explore a trail outside (park, forest, meadow)

walk, hike, or climb and watch a sunset

treat a friend to try a sauna or steam room for relaxation

crochet or knit a cardigan/sweater (you’ll finish in time for the cooler weather!)

watch a movie and listen to the accompanying soundtrack

thrift an autumnal print and paint on ghosts and pumpkins (you can do this to the glass if you don’t want to damage the print)

learn something new and take physical notes (whether you’re in school/uni or not)

decorate taper candles with tea light wax with friends

bored of horror? watch an afro-surrealist film (Sorry to Bother You, Get Out)

try a new guided workout (gym class, youtube tutorial)

squeeze fresh juice and mix mimosas with friends (if of age)

repot a plant that’s too big for its home (and give away cuttings)

send a letter

curate a photo book online and enjoy the printed photos

make spiced hot tea/coffee (maple cinnamon cloud coffee, lemon honey tea, apple cider [recipe])

practice a new recipe to bring to thanksgiving/upcoming gatherings (rec: PlantYou, Vegan100,)

pick a director and watch all their filmography (rec: Jordan Peele, Chloe Zhao)

try a 6 or 8 week self improvement challenge so you start 2024 in a good place

pick+cook seasonal vegetables (pumpkin, squash, etc)

clear out your daily purse/tote/backpack, wash it, only put back the necessities

go forest bathing (existing in nature with only your thoughts and the ambient sounds)

make chai spice pancakes (use chai masala to flavor them basically, these are so good!!)

host an afternoon tea (plus savory snacks, desserts or both!)

find your perfect moisturizer

try a fringe/bangs hairstyle now that the weather is cooler

burn an incense cone or heat a wax melt for a more intense scent

enjoy an instrumental playlist

visit a local or regional library to see what’s new

be (micro)creative (paint a tiny matchbox, write a 2 line poem, anything low stress)

source: Ashley Kruse and Elisa Amadori via unsplash