#2 star reads

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

Quick Review: A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand Rating: 2/5

Okay, this gets points for being gay and for having an amazing audiobook production but there's really no point calling this a Haunting of Hill House sequel or companion or anything.

Literally the only shared feature is Hill House as a setting but Hand's version of Hill House is completely lacking. There's no sense of dread, there's no sense of camaraderie among the characters, and there's no aura of menace. It sucked. 

If you want to read this, don't go in expecting too many callbacks to the original and you might have a better time than I did. But if you're looking for a transformative work of Jackson's masterpiece, look elsewhere. 

#a haunting on the hill #elizabeth hand #the haunting of hill house #shirley jackson #booklr #bookblr #book review #retellings #trcc original #reviews #2 star reads #portraits #lgbt books #wlw reads #not ya

[whitneydaniell]

by: Phyllis Dixon Published: Jul 25, 2023 Genre: Contemporary, Adult, Fiction 320 Pages, E-Book Courtesy of NetGalley

★★

GoodReads Synopsis:

An insightful and dramatic novel of women’s friendship, feuds, and fame as a 1990s pop music group, reminiscent of Destiny’s Child, reunites for a second shot at mega-success and must deal with both the new demands of today’s social media and the same old traps of yesterday. Perfect for fans of Terry McMillan and Sheila Williams.

Angel. Carmen. Doreen. Jade. Talented Memphis girls who had a brush with pop music fame—guided by Carmen's warm-hearted mother. But when she was elbowed out for a bigger manager, Carmen walked too. The bitter breakup shattered the Diamonds' never-easy “sisterhood” —and cost them the big-time Now a reunion offers a fresh start, just as mid-life struggles are pushing all four to the brink.

My Review:

This was a quick and easy read but, the story itself was very predictable and underwhelming.

The story of The Diamonds is told through the point of view of each member, with two (maybe 3) chapters told by them as a group. Jade, Carmen, Doreen, Angel, and Ms. Gloria really give you Xscape, plus Mama Joyce or, Destiny's Child, plus Ms. Tina.

One of my biggest issues with the story is, how quickly the pacing of the chapters - it all seemed rushed and I had no concept of the timing of the story. From what seems like just a few days is really months. There is a car accident and then a few chapters later, it has been a whole year. It feels like so much was put into each storyline but, nothing was really fleshed out. The characters have no substance.

Carmen spends most of the story making rash and immature decisions without thinking of the long-term (or even short-term) implications of her actions. Most of her behavior is not the way I would envision a 40-something-year-old woman.

Doreen has a sordid past with her husband and to their credit, turned their lives around. However, for most of the story her husband, James is selfish, controlling, unhelpful, and rude! I hated that for Doreen and wanted her to stand up for herself.

Jade, oh Jade. Naive as they can be but also, with a husband who is literal trash. Her personal story and journey were much more confusing to me. Again, the pacing just didn't allow for her to be fully fleshed out.

Angela (Angel) is BIG "I just want to be solo" vibes. While she does have some redeeming qualities, it comes late in the story. From the jump, she rubbed me the wrong way.

Another issue is, when we jump to the present-day Diamonds, what year is the present day? The prologue says that the original group got together in 1991, then six years later they were stars and preparing to tour internationally when Carmen quits, this would be 1997. Then 20 years later is 2017 and the story runs for a little over a year, let's say 2 (I think). By my math, if its 2019 and Doreen is 40, then in 1991, she would have been 12! Something about the timeline is throwing me off.

Final thoughts: It reads like a Tyler Perry play or film. Lots of emphasis on God even when it's borderline ridiculous. "God is the best lawyer. We just need to pray," that is a direct quote.

One-Word Summary: Laughable

#Intermission #Phyllis Dixon #books about black women #books i read #tbr 2023 #fiction books #books about music #contemporary books #young women books #2 star reads

[expelliarmus]

#mine #doctor who #dwedit #david tennant #matt smith #peter capaldi #ncuti gatwa #karen gillan #arthur darvill #🫡 #2 gifsets today to make up for me not being able to make any yesterday!! #i think i'm just only gonna be giffing from the giggle until the christmas special is out lol #ok now do i have time to watch the pjo episodes before going to sleep... #OR do i finish reading the star beast and then start on wild blue yonder #DECISIONS #good night friends!!!

[ominouspuff]

handsss

#artists on tumblr #fan art #star wars fanart #star wars: the clone wars #commander fox #Corrie Latte #Fox/Caf #Just some doodling #How to Get In M.C. Fox’s Good Books: #step 1: Introduce Caf into M.C.’s vicinity #step 2: wait to see if M.C. hones in on the aroma/huffs it #step 3: if no #retry step 1 #^read in a David Attenborough documentary narrative #Very faint skeletal-vibes with the lighting

[darthmalewife]

I see so many modern AUs that have Obi-Wan as like a teacher or something and he always reads romance novels and old history stuff and while I absolutely believe that I think we're missing the opportunity to also have him read really fucked up psychological horror and just general horror novels. Like think of the opportunities:

Anakin: what's happening in your book now?

Obi-Wan: the main character has just realised the ring her boyfriend gave her actually has one of her dead sisters teeth in it :]

Anakin: oh, that's fun :/

Or Cody picking up his book to skim over what it's about and he ends up texting Rex

Cody: i think my boyfriends a psychopath

Rex: i told you so, i've seen what kinda bland shit he eats

Cody: he's british leave him alone, i meant the book he's reading, it's about a woman who talks her girlfriend into giving herself a tapeworm because they're long distance lesbians who can't get pregnant

Rex: you do know how to fucking pick them don't you, what are the pros to you staying in this relationship other than you getting murdered

Cody: have you seen the man's legs?!

Rex: stop being gay and go back to your serial killer boyfriend

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #commander cody #codywan #captain rex #cody x obi wan #Cody tries to read 1 of his books #he gets halfway through gives up and never asks again #windu has the same taste so they have a 2 person bookclub where they just talk books bitch and drink wine #mace windu

[gffa]

I... am not... immune to... Aayla Secura and Shaak Ti... gently reaching out... holding hands... like no reason they had to do that... they just casually touch each other.... ok, someone put 50k of this on my desk by Monday morning, because I ship it now..........

#lumi.txt #star wars #aayla secura #shaak ti #comics #meta #reading comics: doctor aphra vol. 2

[darth-memes]

#star wars #sw memes #the bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch season 2 spoilers #the bad batch season 2 #tbb #tbb s2 spoilers #tbb s2 #tbb spoilers #codywan #commander cody #DO YOU KNOW #HOW MANY TIMES #I READ THIS #???? #Also i'm sorry but most of the memes #are just going to be about the clone king #this week #obi-wan kenobi

[spocks-kaathyra]

thoughts about the Cardassian writing system

I've thinking about the Cardassian script as shown on screen and in beta canon and such and like. Is it just me or would it be very difficult to write by hand?? Like.

I traced some of this image for a recent drawing I did and like. The varying line thicknesses?? The little rectangular holes?? It's not at all intuitive to write by hand. Even if you imagine, like, a different writing implement—I suppose a chisel-tip pen would work better—it still seems like it wasn't meant to be handwritten. Which has a few possible explanations.

Like, maybe it's just a fancy font for computers, and handwritten text looks a little different. Times New Roman isn't very easily written by hand either, right? Maybe the line thickness differences are just decorative, and it's totally possible to convey the same orthographic information with the two line thicknesses of a chisel-tip pen, or with no variation in line thickness at all.

A more interesting explanation, though, and the one I thought of first, is that this writing system was never designed to be handwritten. This is a writing system developed in Cardassia's digital age. Maybe the original Cardassian script didn’t digitize well, so they invented a new one specifically for digital use? Like, when they invented coding, they realized that their writing system didn’t work very well for that purpose. I know next to nothing about coding, but I cannot imagine doing it using Chinese characters. So maybe they came up with a new writing system that worked well for that purpose, and when computer use became widespread, they stuck with it. 

Or maybe the script was invented for political reasons! Maybe Cardassia was already fairly technologically advanced when the Cardassian Union was formed, and, to reinforce a cohesive national identity, they developed a new standardized national writing system. Like, y'know, the First Emperor of Qin standardizing hanzi when he unified China, or that Korean king inventing hangul. Except that at this point in Cardassian history, all official records were digital and typing was a lot more common than handwriting, so the new script was designed to be typed and not written. Of course, this reform would be slower to reach the more rural parts of Cardassia, and even in a technologically advanced society, there are people who don't have access to that technology. But I imagine the government would be big on infrastructure and education, and would make sure all good Cardassian citizens become literate. And old regional scripts would stop being taught in schools and be phased out of digital use and all the kids would grow up learning the digital script.

Which is good for the totalitarian government! Imagine you can only write digitally. On computers. That the government can monitor. If you, like, write a physical letter and send it to someone, then it's possible for the contents to stay totally private. But if you send an email, it can be very easily intercepted. Especially if the government is controlling which computers can be manufactured and sold, and what software is in widespread use, etc. 

AND. Historical documents are now only readable for scholars. Remember that Korean king that invented hangul? Before him, Korea used to use Chinese characters too. And don't get me wrong, hangul is a genius writing system! It fits the Korean language so much better than Chinese characters did! It increased literacy at incredible rates! But by switching writing systems, they broke that historical link. The average literate Chinese person can read texts that are thousands of years old. The average literate Korean person can't. They'd have to specifically study that field, learn a whole new writing system. So with the new generation of Cardassian youths unable to read historical texts, it's much easier for the government to revise history. The primary source documents are in a script that most people can't read. You just trust the translation they teach you in school. In ASIT it's literally a crucial plot point that the Cardassian government revised history! Wouldn't it make it soooo much easier for them if only very few people can actually read the historical accounts of what happened.

I guess I am thinking of this like Chinese characters. Like, all the different Chinese "dialects" being written with hanzi, even though otherwise they could barely be considered the same language. And even non-Sinitic languages that historically adopted hanzi, like Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese. Which worked because hanzi is a logography—it encodes meaning, not sound, so the same word in different languages can be written the same. It didn’t work well! Nowadays, Japanese has made significant modifications and Korean has invented a new writing system entirely and Vietnamese has adapted a different foreign writing system, because while hanzi could write their languages, it didn’t do a very good job at it. But the Cardassian government probably cares more about assimilation and national unity than making things easier for speakers of minority languages. So, Cardassia used to have different cultures with different languages, like the Hebitians, and maybe instead of the Union forcing everyone to start speaking the same language, they just made everyone use the same writing system. Though that does seem less likely than them enforcing a standard language like the Federation does. Maybe they enforce a standard language, and invent the new writing system to increase literacy for people who are newly learning it.

And I can imagine it being a kind of purely digital language for some people? Like if you’re living on a colonized planet lightyears away from Cardassia Prime and you never have to speak Cardassian, but your computer’s interface is in Cardassian and if you go online then everyone there uses Cardassian. Like people irl who participate in the anglophone internet but don’t really use English in person because they don’t live in an anglophone country. Except if English were a logographic writing system that you could use to write your own language. And you can’t handwrite it, if for whatever reason you wanted to. Almost a similar idea to a liturgical language? Like, it’s only used in specific contexts and not really in daily life. In daily life you’d still speak your own language, and maybe even handwrite it when needed. I think old writing systems would survive even closer to the imperial core (does it make sense to call it that?), though the government would discourage it. I imagine there’d be a revival movement after the Fire, not only because of the cultural shift away from the old totalitarian Cardassia, but because people realize the importance of having a written communication system that doesn’t rely on everyone having a padd and electricity and wifi.

#if I read over this again I will inevitably want to change and add things so I'm refraining from doing that. enjoy whatever this is #forgive my very crude recounting of chinese and korean history! I am neither a historian nor a linguist #but I will NOT apologize for talking abt china so much. that's my culture and I'm weird abt it bc of my family history #and it's my GOD GIVEN RIGHT to project what little I know abt it onto all my worldbuilding #also I've never actually read abt any of the various cardassian conlangs but I'm curious if this contradicts or coincides with any of them #I still want to make my own someday. starting college as a linguistics major (in 2 weeks!!) so presumably I will learn how to do that #narcissus's echoes #ds9 #asit #star trek #cardassians #cardassian meta #a stitch in time #hebitians

[karda]

nico warmup (◠‿・)👍

#still need 2 read the sun and the star #keep forgetting that book exists #nico di angelo #fanart #doodles #my art

[pup-pee]

SO I MIGHTVE GOTTEN A BIT INSPIRED BY THIS POST

#i drew him in that outfit i sometimes draw him in :3 #the beeg star tank top & skirt w/silly arm warmers & socks #ALSO I GAVE HIM A KNEE BRACE BC I SAID SO #its not a well drawn knee brace but it is 1 ok? ty skjckakkf #ik speedster heal fast blahbkahblah but his knee was bing ripped apart 4 HRS after bing goddamn BLASTED i think its scarred #he wacked some1 w/his cane & broke it #mayb dont wack ur undistructable friends idkkk #i was goinf 2 put stickers on it as well but i got lazy mayb next time lfjfkla #i wrote sm well ok not sm but a good lil bit anout bart & y he would need some type of aid & i just god the fact i didnt think of it b4 is #insane 2 me bc it just makes sm sense in my brain #anyways if u read these tags MWAH 2 u :3 #bart allen #dc #puppee art #also look! i dated & &&&& put my lik username on it!! #ive never done that b4 & ill prolly never do it again bc i always 4get #oh yeah also trans bart #bc yeah y not?

[collophora]

haha I'll never finish this

but hewwo new followers <3

#star wars #star wars the bad batch #the bad batch fanart #but the idea is cool so have this bleurg #today I broke a teeth and I don't know how #got an appointment but not before a week #it's annoying to eat 'cause the sensation is weird #maybe it will motivate me to lose weight tho #so I could finally pass this threshold of 2 pull ups in a row to 3 #and finally go to the gym without my emotional support elastic bands #do strength training with your own bodyweight they say #it will be cheap they said #yeah guess what it's hard when you're afab lol #in the meantime doing legs is easy but eeeh no one do squat competition in party #it's always “hey look how much pull ups I can do” #gnagnagna #hey people who read my tags comment which clone would win a pull up competition if you read this #ok I need to sleep #bye

[vic-does-battlecats]

Minor spoilers for the already revealed chapters of the next A Starless Clan book Wind

#a starless clan #a starless clan spoilers #wind spoilers #asc spoilers #warrior cats spoilers #warriors #warrior cats #tigerheart #tigerheartstar #tigerstar 2 #tigerstar #Squirrelflight #squirrelstar #frostpaw #Nightheart #I’ve been wanting to draw this ever since the chapters were revealed and what better time than like two days til the book comes out #i actually think tigerheartstar is an interesting character in this arc he genuinely thinks he’s doing the right thing and he does honestly #want to help. he just does it by trying to crack dad jokes to lighten the mood while trying to run a group that doesn’t want him there #i also think it’s funny that he’s consistently just chill with taking in cats thrown out of their clans. ESPECIALLY from RiverClan #don’t get me wrong he’s super weird in omen of the stars and avos and I think in his super edition (I haven’t read it in a while) #but he’s also a good dad. he’s such a perplexing character I can’t help but find him interesting. at least he DOES stuff yknow #I’ll eat my words if he does turn out to be completely evil or something. but I’ll hate if he does his behavior really isn’t like Tigerstar #-the first. this guy isn’t out here trying to seize power #but ENOUGH ABOUT HIM!! Nightheart asking squirrelstar if frostpaw could come to thunderclan with him was so sweet #i wish she’d accepted I don’t want them to split up I’m worried the writers will forget the entire last book and they won’t be close again

[naswoop]

A Natural Satellite doodle!

#art #isat #in stars and time #sasasa #start again start again start again #siffrin isat #isat spoilers #in stars and time spoilers #isat act 4 spoilers #in stars and time act 4 spoilers #isat au #in stars and time au #knives #I finally finished reading the last chapter today while snuggling my Two (2) Siffrin plushies #Peace and love on planet Earth

[atomicradiogirl]

here are my favorite quotes from dune messiah cause frank herbert cooked so hard

“save your praise for those who can be swayed by it”

“beloved,” she whispered. “have i troubled you?” her arms enclosed his future as they enclosed him. “not you,” he said. “oh… not you.”

“paul saw the moon become an elongated sphere. it rolled and twisted, hissing — the terrible hissing of a star being quenched in an infinite sea. it was gone. no moon. the earth quaked like an animal shaking its skin.”

“the flesh surrenders itself. eternity takes back its own.”

“they’ve blinded my body, but not my vision”

“awakening, she’d found paul sitting beside her, his eyeless sockets aimed at some formless place beyond. chani stilled a fit of trembling when he aimed those eyeless sockets at her.”

“i was baptized in sand and it cost me the knack of believing. who trades in faiths anymore? who’ll buy? who’ll sell?”

“we have eternity, beloved.” “you may have eternity. i only have now.” “but this is eternity.”

“he felt his body through her touch: dead flesh carried by time eddies. he reeked of memories that had glimpsed eternity. Past and Future became simultaneous.”

“you cannot see!” “i don’t need eyes to see you.”

“if you need something to worship, then worship life—all life, every last crawling bit of it! we’re all in this beauty together!”

“this myth he’d made out of intricate movements and imagination, out of moonlight and love, out of prayers older than Adam, and gray cliffs and crimson shadows, laments and rivers of martyrs—what had it come to at last? when the waves receded, the shores of Time would spread out there clean, empty, shining with infinite grains of memory and little else. was this the golden genesis of man?”

“there are problems in this universe for which there are no answers.”

“people are subordinate to government, but the ruled influence the rulers.”

“he is the fool saint, the golden stranger living forever on the edge of reason.”

#dune #dune messiah #paul atreides #chani kynes #duncan idaho #frank herbert #i read all of dune messiah today #had to type those quotes out manually since i read it on paperback #5 star read #so so good #dune messiah might be the best book sequel ever #so many thoughts #the writing is so good #i’m so locked in for dune part 3 #dune part 2

[dustykneed]

WOMEN 😩

oh ABSOLUTELY.

(based on this f!bones dedicated to @muirmarie in spirit :3333 🩵💙💛)

#star trek #star trek fanart #star trek tos #star trek the original series #fem!trek au #mcspirk #mcspirk fanart #mckirk #spones #mckirk fanart #spock #jim kirk #bones mccoy #leonard mccoy #leonard bones mccoy #let's go lesbians #ugh im eepy ..... if you see any errors in the notes app scribble no you dont (lie) (i did it as quickly as possible bc tired lol) #btw muir if you're reading this know that all of this is dedicated to you in my heart <333333333 #uhhh in terms of context.... maybe a farm planet or something? with a western thing goin on? #look i have a desperate need to see 1. f!jim in nightie and 2. f!spock in sheriff apparel. and also lady bones in overalls obviously #ok night night now hope yalls day treats ya kindly !!!!! #fun fact the bones illustration has been sitting in my finished folder for MONTHS lol #love when adhd. but i was determined to give it the mcspirk bonus i intended and i did it yayyy

[gffa]

ANAKIN BEING HAUNTED BY THE SPECTERS OF QUI-GON, OBI-WAN, PADME, SHMI, YODA, AND AHSOKA, WHILE DENYING THAT THEY'RE GHOSTS THAT LINGER IN HIS SOUL, ALWAYS CUTS ME RIGHT TO THE QUICK. HE WALKS INTO FORCE-STRONG RUINS AND IMMEDIATELY HIS OWN GHOSTS ARE PULLED HIM, HE BROUGHT THEM HERE, AND THEN DENIES THAT THEY MEAN ANYTHING TO WHO HE IS NOW. YOU BROUGHT THEM HERE, ANAKIN!!! THESE ARE WHO HAUNT YOU!!! OF COURSE YOU'RE STILL HIM, BECAUSE THEY'RE HERE SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE YOU BROUGHT THEM HERE WITH YOU. WHAT A CHARACTER, I LOVE HIM, HE'S THE WORST.

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #yoda #ahsoka tano #qui gon jinn #comics #reading comics: doctor aphra vol. 2