#the last book I read was good omens. in spring of 2019

[neighbourskid]

2020

What a year, huh? Surely not anything anyone has expected to happen when we woke up on this day a year ago. I certainly haven’t. I’m not even sure, now, where to begin to sum up this year like I’ve done years prior. But then again... I may just as well just dive right into all the media I consumed this year, as I have done every year. I haven’t kept track as detailed as I have last year, but my year was definitely punctuated by pieces of entertainment that have come into my life.

Continuing on from 2019, my obsession with Good Omens was still going strong. Which was ideal, since I was gonna spend the first half of the year writing my Bachelor thesis on it. The intensity of the obsession may have waned a bit since, but I still love that show and book dearly and hold it close to my heart, and I don’t think that will ever stop. But while Good Omens was certainly an overall theme throughout my year, there were some other things that actually stood out.

With January came new episodes of Doctor Who, and having returned to that particular bandwagon the year prior, I was all about that. Jodie’s second season finally brought what I had longed for in her first--a darker kind of Doctor. She wasn’t quite as bubbly anymore, you could finally see some of the depths in the character that I loved so in the previous regenerations, which made me love Peter’s Doctor so incredibly much. In this season, I felt, Jodie was finally becoming the Doctor. Overall, that season catered to me personally every single episode. So many of the time periods they visited were of people I loved, and the introduction of Sacha Dhawan as the Master was absolutely....well, masterful. Sacha is brilliant in that role and I am utterly stunned by his talent. Although both John Simm and Michelle Gomez brought things to the Master that I liked, it’s Sacha’s completely unhinged take on it that made me finally like the character. He’s a madman and I love it.

The next major thing was The Good Place. I tend to have a talent of getting into shows just as they either ended their entire show, or the final season is just coming up. It’s happened quite a bit, and it was the same with this. I finally binged the show early in January and it would end its final season at the end of the month. True to form, I was completely obsessed with it for about a month, before I only occasionally thought about it again. But, thinking back now, I get this incredibly fond feeling for this show, and I remember that the finale absolutely wrecked me and I basically ugly sobbed through the entirety of it. Also very true to form, actually. I want to rewatch it again some time, but honestly preferably with someone who has never seen it before. Which, obviously, is a difficult thing to do given, well, everything.

Next up is something that surprised me a lot. In the middle of having to write my BA thesis, my procrastination thought it would be a great idea to rewatch and catch up on the entirety of Criminal Minds. And so I binged 15 seasons of that instead of writing my thesis. Which, coincidentally, had also just aired its final season not long before I started my binge in March. Rewatching this, I realised just how little I took in of the actual, like, stuff in the show when I first watched it as a teen. Although I mostly cared about the characters and their found family this time around--although I do find the cases really fascinating most of the time too--I noticed just how much I am not watching this for the fact that they are in the FBI. I was hyperaware of how often they shot at people before doing anything else, how many of the suspects died before ever being questioned or being brought in, and it made my skin crawl. I am aware how fucked up the criminal justice system is, and especially in the US, how the police functions and how incredibly glorified they are in the media. But rewatching this show, I realised how little I actually paid attention to anything when I was younger. Big yikes. Still, I remembered my love for these characters, and I really enjoyed that rewatch a whole lot. Found family will always get to me.

Once I finished writing my thesis and handed it in early in July, I then found my next momentary obsession: Community. The show had finally come to Netflix earlier in the year and a friend of mine had watched it then. I remember watching that pilot episode back then and being completely uninterested in watching it. The comedy felt like it wasn’t quite up my street, the characters were entirely unlikeable, and I especially disliked Jeff who the show was more or less centred around. I binged Criminal Minds instead, but then decided to give it another try. And, well, I watched it twice through without taking a break to watch something else in-between. Ironically, and maybe actually unsurprisingly, Jeff ended up being my favourite and I found myself relating a lot to him and his arc throughout the series. I even found myself writing some short ficlet-like things in the notes app on my phone. I made an attempt at starting a third watch, but I guess then the month was up, and my brain decided it was time for something else. My hyperfixations usually tend to die out after about a month. Which is why my complete devotion to Good Omens was a pleasant surprise. I did, however, end up watching quite a bit of Joel McHale and Ken Jeong’s The Darkest Timeline podcast throughout August. 

Early in September, while already preparing for the new term at uni, and my first semester in my Master’s studies, I then turned to New Girl. Friends of mine had seen it and recommended it, and I remember watching probably the entire first season on TV while I was in San Diego the first time around back in 2016. Or at least I think it was the entire first season. Either way, I binged that whole thing, realised through Nick Miller that the go-to character I am drawn to and tend to project on in any piece of media is usually what I like to call “the garbage man,” which Nick is a prime example of. And although I spent a month watching the show in-between starting university again and volunteering at a film festival, I didn’t spend much time afterward thinking about it and moved on to other things rather quickly. I enjoyed watching it, that much I remember, and I’m pretty sure I cried at the finale because it was done wonderfully, but seeing as another month was up, my brain was probably like “okay fine that’s enough”.

I then spent most of fall and early winter watching every single bad Christmas movie available on Netflix, which was quite fun. In that moment of festivity, I also watched a movie I found absolutely brilliant and fell in love with immediately. It’s a beautiful movie called Jingle Jangle, it has a magnificent soundtrack and is absolutely incredible. I had no idea Forest Whitaker could sing and he completely blew me away. If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t matter that Christmas is already over, it’s beautiful either way.

By the time December finally rolled around, I was already over the whole Christmas thing, to be honest and I turned away from festive movies or shows, and eventually ended up finally picking up a gem I had heard much about and had been meaning to watch for a while. A show which, as it were, also aired its final season earlier this year. This little show is Schitt’s Creek. I will be going on about what this show means to me probably in another post at length, but for now just let me say: if you haven’t seen it, find some place to watch it, and put this beautiful show in your eyeballs. I am on my second run through already (although I’ve seen the second half of the show a second time already while watching it with a friend on their first run through), and it brings me so much fucking joy. It’s a gift, this show. And it will likely stay with me for a very, very long time.

That’s about it for the big things. I also watched a whole lot of other stuff, including entirely new things, or just newly released seasons of things I was already watching. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:

Charlie’s Angels (2020). The Night Manager. The Witcher. Dolittle (2020). The Librarians (rewatch). Harley Quinn (2020). Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). The Chef Show (S1 part 3, S2 part 1). Avenue 5. Money Heist (part 4). The Good Fight (S4). Brooklyn Nine-Nine (S7). DuckTales (2017 reboot). Frankenstein live. Staged (2020). Hamilton. Sense8. Julie and the Phantoms. The Boys in the Band. One Night in Miami. Enola Holmes. Supernova. His Dark Materials (S2). Happiest Season. The Great Canadian Baking Show.

I also got some reading done in-between what I had to read for my thesis in spring, and then for regular university courses in fall. Here’s some of what I can remember:

Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk. Ramona Meisel, Sunblind. Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Good Omens novel and script book. Matt Forbeck, Leverage: The Con Job. Keith R.A. Decandido, Leverage: The Zoo Job. Greg Cox, Leverage: The Bestseller Job. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Pot of Gold. Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602. Christina Henry, The Lost Boy. Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology. John Green, An Abundance of Katherines. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh. Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game. 

Having mulled over all this entertainment I consumed in 2020, there are also some non-tv or book things I need to point out. As many, many other people around the globe, I have also spent a large amount of time this year on my Nintendo Switch, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is a game I have waited for since the Switch was first announced, and I fell in love with it from the moment the first trailer dropped. It has brought me great joy in this weird fucking year, and I have more or less consistently played it since it came out in March. I ended this year with the in-game New Year’s Eve celebration and I feel like that summed up this year quite neatly and appropriately.

This year also brought with it another game very close to my heart: Super Mario Sunshine. With their release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars in September, Nintendo finally brought my all-time favourite Mario game to my all-time favourite console, and I played the entire game through in the first week of owning it, in-between university courses and volunteering at the film festival. Also contained in that package was Super Mario Galaxy which I have also played through in its entirety since. All that’s left for me now is Super Mario 64, which I am excited to play through in the coming year.

And to round off my year of entertainment, there are two more things I would like to mention. First, David Tennant Does A Podcast With..., which released its second season this summer. It is one of the only, if not the only podcast I keep up to date with and listen to immediately whenever a new episode drops. I’ve loved the first season dearly, and David came back with some incredibly fantastic guests for the second season as well. I can’t wait for what the podcast will bring in the future, but I will wait patiently until it is time. I can highly recommend it for everyone who likes interesting conversations between lovely people who clearly adore each other a whole lot.

And finally, while this year brought a whole lot of bullshit with it, it also gave me something I never thought possible and did not even dare to imagine in my wildest dreams. My all-time favourite show announced that it would be rebooted with the same main cast (minus one), a new wonderful member, and involvement of the original creators, and even started filming already in summer. Leverage is coming back. I still cannot believe it. I hoped for a movie, always. That maybe one day, they might bring the gang back together, for one last job, just one more encore. But to get a whole new tv-show with Aldis, Christian, Gina and Beth returning? With the addition of Noah Wyle? I can’t wrap my head around it. I am so excited for this. I predict that I will ugly sob through the entirety of the pilot episode, if not the first season, and will have to rewatch every episode because of it, but I have no doubt that it will be brilliant and wonderful.

True to form, I have now gone on about tv shows and movies for far too long, and haven’t really said anything about this year at all. 2020 was fucking weird. And I don’t think 2021 will be much different quite yet. I wrote an entire BA thesis in 2020. I successfully finished by Bachelor’s degree and started my Master’s studies and even got some excellent first grades in as well. I was lucky enough to be able to see some friends and family throughout the year, and even celebrate my birthday with a small circle of friends. I’ve become closer with friends, shared experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world, and, I think, maybe also grown a bit as a person.

I started this year excited to finally be able to start taking testosterone in February, and to finish the first part of my studies by summer. Although I did both of these things, they didn’t happen quite how I imagined them, but I am glad that I could do these things nevertheless.

2020 was a hell year, for sure. But there were some moments in there that I wouldn’t want to lose.

I’ve tried very hard to not be optimistic about this upcoming year, and rather take a more realistic, even pessimistic approach. But I can’t help but be hopeful. Hopeful that this year will be kind to us, and if it isn’t, that at least, we’ll be kind to ourselves and each other. It won’t be easy, and not much will change, I think. But we have to approach the coming time with kindness and compassion. That’s where I’m at currently. And I think that’s all for now.

Be well, friends, and take care.

#2020 #end of year round up #personal #blog post #good omens #the good place #criminal minds #community #new girl #schitt's creek #schitts creek #jingle jangle #his dark materials #doctor who #leverage #leverage reboot #leverage 2 #super mario 3d all stars #super mario sunshine #nintendo #nintendo switch #switch #super mario galaxy #super mario 64 #university #david tennant #david tennant does a podcast with #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #acnh

[televinita]

Books Read In 2020: The Why

In a tradition I accidentally started for myself in 2016 and now quite enjoy, at the end of the year I look back at my reading list and answer the question, why did you read this particular book?

Below, my 100 reads of 2020 are split into groups by target readership age, plus nonfiction at the end, now with a bonus note about how I heard of it. Which I probably won’t continue to do next year, but it was fun to try.

ADULT FICTION

I read each of these books because...

A Glitter of Gold - Liz Johnson. 2019. It had me at "her pirate tour business," but between the shipwreck & the museum-director love interest it was like BLOOD & TREASURE ROMANCE AU LET'S GOOO.

How I heard of it: a book blog

The Last Woman in the Forest - Diane Les Becquets. 2019.   Recommended by a dog lover; I'm down for a thriller about a woman who has a dream dog-inclusive job like this.

How I heard of it: a book blog

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. 1990. I really enjoyed the miniseries and wanted to see if the book everyone loved so much was as good (for the record: it was not. at least not if you’ve seen the miniseries first; otherwise they are probably equal).

This Is Home - Lisa Duffy. 2019. Attractive cover + I flipped it open to a random page and just liked the writing style.

How I heard of it: library

Dear Mr. Knightley - Katherine Reay. 2013. I'd had this on the back burner for a while because the MC sounded like me, and one day I got sick of not being able to find any fluffy contemporary romances with beta male heroes and decided Matthew Gray Gubler was gonna star in this one. (spoiler alert: it is a good book but that did not work)

How I heard of it: a book blog

Rubbernecker - Belinda Bauer. 2013. Criminal Minds sent me into a tailspin so I went hunting for books to cast Spencer Reid in again; the Asperger's/case-solving/difficult relationship with mother combo sounded promising. (spoiler alert: the med-student element + his social cluelessness proved too strong and I was only able to picture the kid from The Good Doctor)

How I heard of it: Googling keywords

The Swiss Affair - Emylia Hall. 2013. I got a random hankering for a student/teacher novel, and after scrutinizing the library catalog this was the only one that fit my parameters for gender, lack of adultery, and focus on romance over sex.

How I heard of it: library

Love At First Bark - Debbie Burns. 2019. I was trying to cast Wes/Jules [Dollface] in a romance novel, so I browsed through a Goodreads friend's "dog-romance" shelf and accidentally landed in a Jeid AU [Criminal Minds]. Which may or may not have been a large part of what turned me into a Jeid shipper (outside canon only).

The Mermaids Singing - Val McDermid. 1995. One final attempt to cast Reid in a novel -- a user in a Reddit post asking for this very thing suggested this, and "profiler with idiosyncracies" certainly fit.

The Wire in the Blood [and 9 subsequent novels] - Val McDermid, spanning 1997-2019. Turns out aside from being British, Reid paints onto Tony Hill EXCEPTIONALLY well, and I accidentally found myself with a little Jeid AU in the process, so obviously I read the entire series. Good crime-solving fun and all that.

Horse - Talley English. 2018. Random library pull because I connected with the writing style and it appeared to actually focus on horses.

How I heard of it: library

A Sparkle of Silver - Liz Johnson. 2018. I liked the author's other book and this was pretty much a remix of the same story, but now with a cool mansion/estate setting.

How I heard of it: looking up other books by this author

Everyone Is Beautiful - Katherine Center. 2009. Went looking for stories about strong marriages, found this on a Goodreads list of "second chance marriage" books, tripped into something like a season 9 Jim/Pam scenario. How I heard of it: Googling keywords

The Lost Husband - Katherine Center. 2013. Loved the previous book of hers I read, and the "starting life over on a goat farm" angle sounded like an ideal life to try on.

How I heard of it: looking up more from this author

The Shadow Year - Hannah Richell. 2013. Fixing up an old house?? I am THERE. Doing this in two timelines, one of which involves off-the-grid homesteading, is even better.

How I heard of it: used book sale

Mandrake Root - Janet Diebold. 1946. I needed a non-library book to bring on vacation, and after spinning in circles over what I thought would appeal to my mood in that setting, my brain randomly said "reread this one."

How I heard of it: estate sale

Path of the Jaguar - Vickie Britton & Loretta Jackson. 1989. Bought cheap for cheap thrills: a Yucatan adventure/mystery. Read now so I could get rid of it. How I heard of it: library sale

Burying Water - K.A. Tucker. 2014. The library didn't have The Simple Wild, but they DID have a book w/ an equally pretty cover that talked about a badly beaten young amnesiac (!) recovering on a horse farm (!!). What is: my top romance trope (hurt/comfort, bonus points for animals and rural setting).

How I heard of it: library

Happiness for Beginners - Katherine Center. Established quality author + summertime hiking inspiration.

How I heard of it: looking up more from this author

The Visitors - Simon Sylvester. Cool cover + setting, and a teenage protagonist usually makes adult fiction more accessible. How I heard of it: Goodreads

Becoming Rain - K.A. Tucker. 2014. I was in this companion novel solely for mentions of Alex and any people by the last name of Wells, but figured I might as well read all of it to ensure I didn't miss any. How I heard of it: looking up more from this author

The Guest List - Lucy Foley. 2020. Honestly, it just sounded like a cool thriller (and cool setting). How I heard of it: a book blog

You Deserve Nothing - Alexander Maksik. 2011. Fell down a Will/Rachel [Glee] rabbit hole and ravaged the student/teacher keyword in my library catalog again to scratch the itch.

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson. 1959. Mom's been trying to get me to read this for years, and this time when it came up in conversation it was the right time of year, so I randomly decided to give it a shot. How I heard of it: Mom

The Walker in Shadows - Barbara Michaels. 1979. Gothic ghost story + beautiful architectural details in a historic house = yeah!

How I heard of it: Goodwill

YOUNG ADULT

People Like Us - Dane Mele. 2018. Needed an audiobook; a girls' boarding school murder mystery seemed most likely to hold my attention of the limited options. How I heard of it: Library

The Possibility of Now - Kim Culbertson. 2016. I will read anything by this author, and girl having a meltdown over a test = me. How I heard of it: looking up other books by this author

Rob&Sara.com - P.J. Petersen & Ivy Ruckman. 2004. Mostly I wanted to go back to my high school days and enjoy the format of a novel written in emails, but also, I like Ruckman. How I heard of it: used book sale

For Real - Alison Cherry. 2014. Fictional Amazing Race!! + awesome summery cover + sisters How I heard of it: library sale

The Summer After You + Me - Jennifer Salvato Doktorski. 2015. The awesome summery cover, mostly. How I heard of it: a book blog

You'd Be Mine - Erin Hahn. 2019. Gorgeous cover + the chance to vicariously follow a budding young country music star on tour for the summer.

How I heard of it: a book blog

Juniors - Kaui Hart Hemmings. 2015. The neat setting(s): a live-in guest on a wealthy estate in Hawaii. How I heard of it: Dollar store

Lion Boy's White Brother - Alden G. Stevens. 1951. Bought cheap because vintage juvenile book in a unique setting. Read now to see if I could get rid of it (NOPE).

How I heard of it: used bookstore

The O.C.: Spring Break - Aury Wallington. 2005. I keep meaning to finish this short series, and it was an easy title to count for my Mount TBR challenge.

How I heard of it: used book sale

Echo Island - Edward Karlow. 2017. Bought cheap because of the beautiful summery cover; easy read for Mount TBR so I could get rid of it. How I heard of it: library sale

Confessions of a High School Disaster - Emma Chastain. 2017. Read because of THE SUPER CUTE SUMMERY COVER (and diary format).

How I heard of it: Dollar store

Kentucky Daughter - Carol J. Scott. 1985. Working my way down the “Inappropriate Student/Teacher Relationships in YA" list because I'm in that kind of mood this year; chose this because 80s books tend to deliver the subject best*, the character reminded me of the girl in Send No Blessings, and Open Library had it. *this one was just blatant sexual harassment, though, and belonged very literally on that list

How I heard of it: Goodreads

What They Always Tell Us - Martin Wilson. 2008. I sorted the library catalog to see the oldest contemporary YA novels they still have before they get weeded, and "loner being taken under the wing of his older brother's (male) friend and falling in love with him" hit a couple of good tropes. How I heard of it: library

Bobby's Watching - Ted Pickford. 1993. Browsing around on OpenLibrary and saw they FINALLY had a copy of this book that scared me too much to finish as a kid, and which I've wanted to revisit ever since I remembered what it's called (Interlibrary Loan doesn't have it and it's Not Cheap to buy).

How I heard of it: library

Powwow Summer - Nahanni Shingoose. 2019. Always interested in modern-day Indigenous girls connecting w/ their heritage, especially if they're from my home state's tribe.

How I heard of it: a book blog

The Princesses of Iowa - M. Molly Backes. 2012. Appealing cover + heft suggesting a solid Midwestern contemporary, plus I liked the student teacher element (without a slash this time, as in "college student who is almost a teacher")

How I heard of it: library

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares. 2001. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood - Ann Brashares. 2003.

Long-intended reread of a college fave because I wanted see Mike Vogel in the movie, and it was summer so the stars aligned. Continued because the first book was as good as I remembered. (I would have kept going but Life distracted me for a bit and by the time I was back on track, it was no longer summer) How I heard of it: I...can't remember. Am the worst!

The Distance From Me To You - Marina Gessner a.k.a. Nina de Gramont. 2015. Hiking inspiration + an appealing-sounding romance. How I heard of it: Goodreads

Where Have All the Tigers Gone? - Lynn Hall. 1989. Will read any of her books, but specifically read this one because it seemed fairly autobiographical, and I read it NOW because it seemed durable enough to take on vacation. How I heard of it: looking up books by this author

And Both Were Young - Madeline L'Engle. 1949 (text of 1983 edition w/ material from original manuscript added back). Something reminded me of its existence and I requested it because it was the only non-animal-focused vintage teen novel I could physically get my hands on before Interlibrary Loan opened back up, and I had a craving for just that.

How I heard of it: library

The Other Side of Lost - Jessi Kirby. 2018. Established quality author + throw me ALL the thru-hike novels!

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Vow - Jessica Martinez. 2013. Perfect scenario to run an Abed/Annie [Community] AU!

How I heard of it: I want to say...an article on a book website (not personal blog this time) back in 2013.

Moon and Me - Hadley Irwin. 1981. Was just in the mood to read an 80s teen novel and this one helped me knock off a title for the Mount TBR challenge. From an author I like, w/ bonus horse content.

How I heard of it: used book sale.

Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls - Lynn Weingarten. 2015. I bought a blind bag at the library sale and this was one of the only contemporary YA novels in it; figured I might as well read it since I'd liked a previous book of hers.

How I heard of it: Library

History Is All You Left Me - Adam Silvera. 2016.

With the Glee rabbit hole came a Klaine spiral; this was my season 4 Tragic AU dream for them and I've been saving it for a Klainey day ever since it was published. (No I am not sorry for that horrid pun.)

How I heard of it: googling keywords

The Museum of Heartbreak - Meg Leder. 2016. The cool cover/concept of a "museum" of items reeled me in; I bought a copy a while ago 'cause the library didn't have it. Read now to see if I could get rid of it (NOPE).

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Me & Mr. J - Rachel McIntyre. 2015. Student/teacher novel that looked especially appealingly tame so I'd been saving it, but then Open Library notified me it was now only available in 1-hour increments, and I got paranoid it would disappear altogether (it's not cheap to buy or available via ILL), so I wanted it in my brain.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Dear Evan Hansen - Val Emmich w/ Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. 2018. Fell in love with the DEH soundtrack. Play's summary sounded good -- getting to experience it in YA novel form?? Amazing.

How I heard of it: Wikipedia

Saddle a Thunderbolt - Jo Sykes. 1967

Bought a while ago because vintage horse story. Read now specifically to alleviate my pre-homesickness about moving by imagining living in an even more beautiful place than home.

How I heard of it: either a used book sale or a used bookstore...

Learning to Breathe - Janice Lynn Mather. 2018. This was mentioned on a lost-book forum and "girl with unplanned pregnancy supports herself by getting a job cleaning" piqued my interest; the setting (Bahamas) and cover made it better.

How I heard of it: Reddit

Everglades Adventure - James Ralph Johnson. 1970. Standard vintage boys' adventure-in-nature story; I like those.

How I heard of it: Goodwill

CHILDREN’S/MIDDLE GRADE

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott. 1868. Seeing the new movie and falling head over heels was what it took to FINALLY convince me to reread this childhood fave.

How I heard of it: can't remember; I was a kid

A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett. 1905. I was perusing a lot of books about classic children's books and it started to bug me that I had skipped this appealing-sounding one as a kid.

How I heard of it: can't remember; I was a kid

Little Men - Louisa May Alcott. 1871. LW sparked a fandom revival and I wanted more detail about the Marches' adult lives (esp. Jo & Bhaer), even on the fringes.

How I heard of it: library

Lady and the Tramp - Ward Greene. I saw a quote from the new movie under a gifset on Tumblr that sounded like it came from a book, and upon Googling out that one existed, I obviously could not allow the book version of a beloved childhood animal-movie fave to go unread. Especially after finding out it was super rare so reading it would be a privilege.

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. 1910. Read for the same reason as A Little Princess. Can’t have one without the other, you know.

How I heard of it: was a kid; can't remember

The Mother-Daughter Book Club - Heather Vogel Fredericks. 2007. Much Ado About Anne - Heather Vogel Fredericks. 2008.

Always thought the series looked cute/reminded me of The Teashop Girls, but the fact that the first book they read is Little Women gave me the impetus to finally read this one. First book was darling so I continued to the next (but failed to continue beyond because COVID shut the library down until I was out of the mood).

How I heard of it: library

Nature Girl - Jane Kelley. 2010. I wanted walking inspiration.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

From You to Me - K.A. Holt. 2018. Mistook it for a similar-looking book I'd seen at the same time (See You On A Starry Night), but figured I'd give the 8th grade bucket list idea a shot once I had it. How I heard of it: Goodreads

Semiprecious - D. Anne Love. 2006. Cute cover + I'm starting to be a big fan of what I call "contemporary historical," for stories set mid-20th century.

How I heard of it: library

Dandy's Mountain - Thomas Fall. 1967. Vintage horse-inclusive children's book in a rural setting, I'm sold. Not to mention, love reading a summer setting in summer.

How I heard of it: used book sale

Littler Women: A Modern Retelling - Laura Schaefer. 2017. The only way to make the Little Women MORE magical is to make them younger, modern, and written by a proven quality author.

How I heard of it: a book blog

Behind The Attic Wall - Sylvia Cassedy. 315 pg/1983.

A Goodreads friend strongly recommended it as similar to but better than Mandy, and reading about it in 100 Best Books For Children sealed the deal. Read now for the Mount TBR challenge.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

The Jigsaw Jungle - Kristin Levine. 2018. I am a COMPLETE sucker for books told in non-traditional/scrapbook-esque format.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Runt - Marion Dane Bauer. 2002. Wolf story by a quality author. Read now after owning it for a decade to see if I could get rid of it.

How I heard of it: used book sale

The King of the Cats - Rene Guillot. 1959. Bought cheap for a quick read because vintage animal story. Read now so I could get rid of it.

How I heard of it: used book sale

Just The Beginning - Betty Miles. 1976. Found cheap; always down to read a vintage book about an average girl (and I wanted to know how she'd cope with her mom being "a cleaning lady in a town full of classmates who HAVE cleaning ladies").

How I heard of it: used book sale

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling. 1997. Been meaning to reread the series for a while now; finally got motivation to check out the illustrated edition 'cause Christmastime.

How I heard of it: originally Mom; a book blog for this edition

Echo Mountain - Lauren Wolk. 2020. Almost entirely because of the incredible clipart cover, promising me nature and a dog (and because I could get it as an e-audiobook from the library).

How I heard of it: a book blog

Knock Three Times - Cressida Cowell. 2019. I needed another audiobook for bedtime/walks and I know that David Tennant will provide.

How I heard of it: more by this author (more accurately, narrator)

NONFICTION

The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming A Life Through The Pages Of A Lost Journal - Lily Koppel. 2008. I'm kind of obsessed with the concept of historical 5-year diaries -- and finding one like this is The Dream.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life - Anne Bogel. 2018. Attractive and compact book about the pleasures of being a reader? A headspace I want to be in.

How I heard of it: library

100 Best Books for Children - Anita Silvey. 2004. I'm big on looking at lists of books for children this year. These are the kind of books I know, love, and want to hear people talk about, now that I know books about these books exist.

How I heard of it: library

The Coming of Saska - Doreen Tovey Originally bought because it was cheap and featured animals, I needed a non-library book to bring on vacation, and this one is a durable ex-library copy in plastic wrap that featured a similar setting to where I was going, so: thematic.

Cats in the Belfry - Doreen Tovey. 1957. Wanted more of her books, and lo and behold the library had the first one.

How I heard of it: more by this author

Sorry Not Sorry - Naya Rivera. 2016. I'll read anything the Glee kids write, and this doubled as an easy number for the Mount TBR challenge.

How I heard of it: entertainment news websites

Living Large in Our Little House - Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell. 2016. I love tiny houses. And this one specifically mentioned living with dogs. And had color photographs.

How I heard of it: used bookstore

I'm Your Biggest Fan: Awkward Encounters and Assorted Misadventures in Celebrity Journalism. - Kate Coyne. 2016. Found cheap at a library sale -- loved the chapter headings and the fact that they were all about celebrities I knew.

Adrift - Tami Oldham Ashcraft w/ Suesea McGearheart. 1998/2018 edition. The movie was so awesome that I couldn't wait for more details about the real story in her own words.

I'll Be Gone In The Dark [NF] - Michelle McNamara. 2018. Been reading a lot of true crime write-ups on Reddit lately; decided it was time to pick up this well-received one.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

Dear Evan Hansen: Waving Through A Window - Steven Levenson. 2017. Much like The Grimmerie for Wicked, once I fell in love with the DEH soundtrack and looked up the plot summary, I wanted to read the musical's detailed background/behind the scenes story + libretto before I watched it.

How I heard of it: Wikipedia

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune - Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell. 2013. Love me a story about a mansion (or three). Or the reclusive and insanely wealth heiress who owns them, that works too.

How I heard of it: Goodreads

JUVENILE NONFICTION Mascots: Military Mascots from Ancient Egypt to Modern Korea - Fairfax Downey. 1954. Animal book from an author I like; read now to see if I could get rid of it (yes).

How I heard of it: secondhand bookstore

Come on, Seabiscuit - Ralph Moody. 1963. Bought because vintage kids' horse book; read now to see if I could get rid of it (and to count it towards my Mount TBR challenge 'cause it was short).

How I heard of it: secondhand bookstore

#why i read

[vecieminde]

In The Beginning

How it all started for me? Well, it started with a certain teaser trailer that randomly popped up on my YouTube feed just a day after it was posted.

Angels, demons, British actors and already snippets of great dialogue - I was intrigued.

And then I forgot about it.

Until...

In January 2019 my friend started reading the book and told me that it was just brilliant and I must read it.

So I did and I simply fell in love. The drunken dialogue part has been one of the only instances when I laughed out loud while reading a book. Has never happened before and hasn’t happened ever since.

The memory of the teaser resurfaced and I started to eagerly wait for the TV show. I was already in the book fandom and I ate up all the new content that GO creators gave us. I even learnt the trailer’s and teaser’s dialogues by heart. I probably watched them too many times.

“Good Omens” was something very new for me. I have always come late into the fandoms. For example, I started watching Game of Thrones only last spring; joined the Sherlock fandom after season two was released. For Good Omens it was very exciting to wait alongside with all the other fans for the release.

And then it finally came. I waited probably for a week before breathing deeply in and clicking on the play button. I binged all six episodes in one go.

What did I think?

It was everything I had hoped for and even more than that. I loved everything about it, somethings even slightly more than I did in the book.

Now I haven’t managed to shut up about it ever since.

Another thing that GO changed about my life was my part in the fandom. Never before have I been so invested or inspired by the content. I own two copies of the book, the script book, the TV companion and the DVD.

My first ever cosplay was for “Good Omens”, but one of the biggest aspects that GO has influenced is my writing.

I started to write for GO and I have had grand projects that I actually have managed to finish, continue to edit and can’t wait to share with the fandom. Writing for GO has also made me realize that this is exactly what I want to do. That it feels so right to sit down and begin creating my own story.

One of the things I love most about GO is the positivity and humanism that it has. After reading a book or watching the series you are much more elevated and genuinely happy. It is uplifting and inspiring. And I adore the fandom which is full of amazing and talented creators and people. Also, it is fantastic to see that GO creators are equally invested in this world that they have created.

I feel like the fandom has managed to encapsulate the spirit of Good Omens very well and I am excited to keep on being part of it.

Happy 30th anniversary and thank you for Good Omens and all the joy it has brought!

Thank you @neil-gaiman and Sir Terry Pratchett!

Thank you all!

#goc2020 #good omens #good omens 30th anniversary

[fourteenacross]

end of 2019

I've done this survey every year since like, 2006 and then missed it last year because I was on a social media break. Whoops! My shitty memory makes it fairly important as a way to track the passage of time, so I'm back on the horse this year.

What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before? I'm sure there's some specific thing, but nothing's coming to me immediately. Oh, I guess I started cross stitching? Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I'm not sure what my resolutions were for last year because I did not write them anywhere because I did not do this meme /o\ Next year: + Set up some kind of writing schedule + Finish my mg novel + Survive moving + Get a new job + Go on more dates

eta: Outside of these sort of concrete, 2do-list type goals, I set some more nebulous personal goals on Twitter: - See my local friends outside of the BFC more often - Do weird, dumb shit - Be nicer to myself - Fix my meds - Bake something fancy(Okay, that last one is kind of 2do-listy.) Did anyone close to you give birth? YES!! @caphairdadbeard had a baby and he's perfect and I love him and it kills me that he's so far away and I only get to see him a few times a year, even more so than it usually kills me having Sarah so far away. Did anyone close to you die? My former roommate's father. I did a lot of family stuff with her over the decade that we lived together and spent a lot of time with her parents and he was super loved and admired by his community. A real shitty loss all around. What countries did you visit? Just the US, but I visited Seattle and Mississippi for the first time! What would you like to have in 2020 that you lacked in 2019? ~*~Financial security~*~ What dates from 2019 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I'm so terrible with actual dates. May 9 was Max's birthday, so there's that? We did a lovely, successful live show on April 18. OH we went to Rent Live and had our wild weekend in LA on January 26. We watched a lot of wild movie musicals at Grace and Jesse's in July. I saw Blair Witch in the woods. I went down to the city to see Octet and Hadestown. Lisa moved in with me. Moby-Dick happened. Now I'm just listing events and not dates, but there you go. What was your biggest achievement of the year? God, do I even have one? I'm not dead, so that's probably something. Oh, I guess we had a really good WBS month where we were interviewed by Forbes.com, had one of our crossovers with IDEOTV, guest edited TBD, and had our live show. That was a really satisfying few weeks. What was your biggest failure? I'm haunted by this work thing I fucked up, even though everyone has told me it wasn't a big deal. I really crash and burned out for NaNo because SAD hit me way harder and faster this year than it has in the past. Did you suffer illness or injury? Lots of brain stuff, as per usual. A couple minor colds. My FAMILY on the other hand.... What was the best thing you bought? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Tickets to Octet, maybe. It was probably my favorite show of the year. The new chair/loveseat is also very good. Whose behavior merited celebration? Some of my friends. A lot of excellent activists. Sarah's baby (he's very good). Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Like, the whole government? Where did most of your money go? Grown-up type stuff (rent, utilities, groceries), cons, and travel. What did you get really, really, really excited about? LA, Octet, Max, DragonCon, Moby-Dick. Galentine's! What song will always remind you of 2019? Probably music from Octet? I don't like.....listen to the radio. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? Probably about the same? Maybe more stressed out by family stuff going on and money stuff. b) thinner or fatter? Same. Also, I hate this question. 2020 Kaitlyn, delete it plz. c) richer or poorer? About to be poorer. What do you wish you’d done more of? Writing. Sleeping. Going on dates. Hanging out with people. What do you wish you’d done less of? Being depressed. Being stressed. Did you fall in love in 2019? Nope. What was your favorite TV program? If we're talking "currently airing" and not "things I bingewatch that are very old," probably The Good Place--OH I almost forgot Good Omens was this year!!! Also that! And I started watching Schitt's Creek and watched all of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oh, and I started watching some videos on the Bon Appetit YouTube channel, mostly Gourmet Makes and Making Perfect and Reverse Engineering. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Mostly just like...........people I don't actually know who are terrible humans. What was the best book you read? Coming soon to a podcast feed near you! What was your greatest musical discovery? Probably Octet? I don't think I listened to a lot of new music this year. OH WAIT, The Highwomen!!! What a good album!!! (Also in doing the theatre section I just remembered Six was this year too!) What did you want and get? Mostly material things--clothes, cons, travel, seeing people, tickets to things, etc. Impeachment. Got that. That was nice. What did you want and not get? Financial security. A new job. Emotional stability. A relationship. More sleep. What was your favorite film of this year? Captain Marvel, although Us, Charlie's Angels, and The Wind were very good too. What was your favorite theatrical event of the year? Probably Octet! The broadway version of Hadestown was kind of disappointing compared to the 2016 NYTW version and Moby-Dick is great fun, but still pretty rough in places. Octet is just.....very good.  Oh, or SIX, that was great too! Octet or Six. Oh, and, jesus, this year was a hundred years long, I totally forgot we saw Denee as Eliza this year!! She was very good!! And I got to see Daniel Breaker as Burr again and I fucking love him. What was your favorite podcast of the year? The Empty Bowl, a meditative podcast about cereal. It is so good for zoning out and being calm. TAZ has been killing it with the one-shots and the Amnesty arc, too, and this was the first year I listened to MBMBaM weekly and also I mainlined all of Sawbones after listening to half of it, then not listening to any for six months, then deciding to start from the beginning again. Unwell is a really good show that I recommend, and Mabel. The Magnus Archives killed it with season four, which was tailored to my exact narrative tastes. MFM and Criminal are perpetual faves. American Hysteria was super interesting to go through and Bear Brook and In the Dark both obviously had fucking fantastic years. Oh, and Who the Hell is Hamish? that was fun too. And I’ll stop now.

I.....listen to a lot of podcasts. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 34! On the day, I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends. That weekend, I bought a bunch of children's Captain Marvel birthday supplies and we played Jackbox games and ate cake! What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Any sort of fix to our current political mess. And/or financial stability. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019? The "Whimsical" section on eShakti. What kept you sane? Friends! Podcasts! Anti-depressants! Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Brie Larson and Starr Busby are the first that spring to mind. What political issue stirred you the most? It’s hard to pick just one when the whole country is on fire. Who did you miss? Pretty much everyone when they are not right next to me. Sarah Bay, a lot, but I feel weird singling one person out. [This is exactly what I wrote for the last four years, but I’m keeping it because it’s still true.] Who was the best new person you met? Did I meet new people this year? I know I internet-met a couple people, but I'm not sure if I in-person made any new friends? We hung out with this girl Jenn at con a bunch, she was pretty cool! edit: oh my god MAX I met MAX this year because he did not exist last year!!! Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019: Do not invite folks to sit on a panel unless you know they'll stick to the goddamn topic agreed on in advance. Quote a song that sums up your year: And no one grew into anything new / we just became the worse of what we were

(I think this is the third year in a row that Dave Malloy has been my lyric of the year.)

Anyway, that’s 2019 for me. I can’t say I’m sorry to see it go. The last half, in particular, was super rough. Hell, the last week was super rough--guess how many members of my family have been in the hospital in December! If you guessed “six” you would be correct!! (Everyone is more or less fine.) 

But, hey, it also brought me my tiny nephew and two Dave Malloy musicals, so it wasn’t all bad! 

I hope 2020 treats you all well, friends!

#stuff about me #2019 #meme

[wifeofbath]

A Short Timeline of my Fandoms Through the Decade

The 2010s (wow what a thought) have brought a lot of new interests, so I thought it would be fun to do a little run-down of them year by year.

2010: I had gotten into Doctor Who the year before, but this year brought the arrival of Eleven with a fun, twisty, debut season. Summer 2010 saw the premiere of Sherlock, which immediately hooked me in with its update of A Study in Scarlet.

2011: Hello Tumblr! Hetalia slowly creeped into my life early in the year and became fully entrenched by late spring. Black Butler soon followed, and then Loki and Tom Hiddleston kicked down the door when I saw Thor in August.

2012: A big year for fandoms! Sherlock began the year strong with its much longed for second season. I read Good Omens for the first time. After knowing about it for years, I finally took the plunge and watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was love at first sight and was followed by Legend of Korra’s premiere. Loki and co. continued to make themselves at home with The Avengers. At @midnightinjapan‘s recommendation, I watched Death Note, which reeled me in as soon as that Latin chorus started singing. Merlin concluded its final season. The year’s end brought the first Hobbit and all its dwarven shenanigans. I also graduated.

2013: In comparison to 2012, 2013 was deceptively quiet, except for Hannibal, which burst on the scene with its cannibal puns and flower crowns.  We got two lost stories from Two’s era, which was huge news, and DW’s 50th Anniversary, as well as the announcement of Capaldi as Twelve. I also saw Madoka Magica on @jenna-darknight‘s recommendation. Although I didn’t delve into that one like my other fandoms, I love the soundtrack and the gorgeous fanart.

2014: Black Butler: Book of Circus created some fun Sunday evenings during the summer while I was finishing my master’s thesis. Although Loki had been my primary draw to the MCU, The Winter Solider pulled me in all the way. Twelve made his debut, and it was love at first sight. 2014 saw the conclusion of The Hobbit, which required many fix-it fics and The Legend of Korra (a canon ship!).

2015: The end of Hannibal (for now) and another canon ship! On another recommendation from @jenna-darknight, I watched Fate: Zero, which immediately pulled me in with its music, art style, and historical heroes fighting to the death. Then welcome to Gravity Falls that fall.

2016: Well that year started off rough and kept on going. On the plus side, I started my Ph.D., Gravity Falls concluded with a bang and Civil War was appropriately dramatic and angsty. My parents watching A-Team reruns brought back memories of watching the show as a kid, resulting in getting attached to the wild, fascinating H.M. Murdock.

2017: Another rough year, but we got through it. Also another quiet one fandom-wise. Sherlock did that. Anastasia made its premiere on Broadway and took me by surprise by how it wove history into the movie’s plot. Twelve had a strong conclusion for his final season. I watched The Living and the Dead for Halloween, and that show continues to be horribly underrated (check it out, it’s awesome and spooky!). Ragnarok was fun with its awesome music and visuals until the last scene.

2018: This was the year of German musicals, Infinity War, and quals. After knowing about it for years, I finally watched Elisabeth and immediately fell in love. Tanz der Vampire soon followed. Preparing and taking a certain exam took up most of my brain and nerves for the rest of the year.

2019: Here, Terror! I had first heard about the series last year while I was doing my Horatio Hornblower rewatch, found out there was a book, began the book, and had to put it down because of quals. I finished it in late March, started the series right after, and you know the rest. Good Omens provided some necessary joy and laughs between the pingpong of feels courtesy of Mr. Jared Harris.

Looking at the list, wow, that’s a lot. What a decade.

[storytime-reviews]

Mid-Year Book Freakout

Tagged by @flamingmirrorbookish​ and @thelivebookproject​ Thanks lovelies! 

1. The Best Book of the Year So Far

This is a little hard for me mostly because I’ve spent most of my time trying to get out of a book slump and finish The Romanovs! But my only 5 star read this year so far is Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening by Manal al-Shariff. It’s an incredible autobiography about an activist who truly paved the way for women to drive in Saudi!

2. Best Sequel of the Year So Far

I haven’t read any sequels, unless you count collections of short stories for popular series. In that case, I can’t really choose between 9 From the Nine Worlds: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan and The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm: Tales from Alagaësia Volume 1: Eragon by Christopher Paolini. 

3. A New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To

Red, White & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuinston. I know a lot of people have been freaking out about needing to read it, including @thelivebookproject​ and @thereadingchallengechallenge​ recently finished it...everyone is reading it or trying to, but my library has a waitlist of about 6 months :(

4. Most Anticipated Release for Autumn/Winter

I’m assuming this is for the northern hemisphere, so more like Spring/Summer for me? I’m really looking forward to The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) by Brent Weeks. It’s the last of what has been a series full of incredible plot twists! Also I believe Matthew Reilly has another book coming out at the end of the year.

5. Your Biggest Disappointment of the Year So Far

Maybe Good Omens? Like I enjoyed it well enough, but found a lot of the middle parts boring.

6. Your Biggest Surprise of the Year So Far

That I actually managed to finish The Romanovs lol!

7. New Favourite Author

None.

8. Your Newest Favourite Character

Probably Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens!

9. Your Newest Fictional Crush

Don’t get these tbh. But I am really loving Crowley!

10. A Book that Has Made You Cry

I don’t really cry but I would have to say that Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening by Manal al-Shariff made me super emotional. Her book is so raw and honest, yet both incredibly devastating and uplifting. 

11. A Book that Has Made You Happy

Again, like @thelivebookproject I would have to say The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick. 

12. The Most Beautiful Book of the Year So Far 

I’m assuming aesthetics of one of the ones I’ve read? I guess The Romanovs.

13. Some Books You Need to Read Before 2019 Ends

Too many tbh. I have a bunch of books out of the library that I need to read first. Then I’ll finally be able to get to read recent Rick Riordan, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Matthew Reilly novels, and finally read Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha novels!

I’ve seen lots of people being tagged in this, so I’ll just tag a few but I wanna open it up to everyone that hasn’t done this yet and would love to :)

@literaery-me, @beautifulpaxielreads, @myownlittlebookcorner, @thereadingchallengechallenge 

Just ignore if you’ve already done it! It’s so hard to keep track of who has done these challenges!

#booklr #mid year book freak out #book tag #tag game #personal

[iplacedajar]

2019

It seems impossible that I was offered a job eight months ago, that I moved in with Eddy four months ago, that the end of 2019 is already here. Post-college years continue to speed by at an alarming pace.

It was a good year, though, and I was especially grateful for all the unique opportunities I had to travel--to Switzerland and Italy, Saratoga Springs,  Provincetown. I went up to New York for the last weekend in June, and spent two magical autumn weekends in the woods--Vermont in October, New Hampshire in November.

I made friends with a sweet fluffy homebody, and I took still more steps toward building a satisfying, adult life for myself. I was in Houston last week, and felt more peace there than I’ve been able to find in a long time. I think part of it is that I finally feel secure and stable in my life in Boston--I finished school, found a permanent job that I love--and so I’m able to “visit”  without any underlying anxiety about my precarious position in life.

Books

It was a really good year for books--no pictures because many of them were library books but here’s the list of favorites:

Caroline by Sarah Miller

This is a retelling of Little House on the Prairie from the perspective of Laura’s Ma. The author was inspired to write it after realizing that, although Laura changes the timeline in her fictional retellings, Ma had actually been pregnant with Baby Carrie during their journey from Wisconsin to Kansas. It’s the kind of historical fiction I have always wanted, covering the unique hardships of pioneer life for women and including details like the oilcloth rags Caroline prepared to line her underwear after Carrie’s birth, and her swollen breasts bouncing painfully in the wagon after she leaves the top two hooks of her corset open.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

I’ve watched Hank’s videos for years, and I loved his debut novel about navigating unexpected fame and the responsibilities of having an audience through the perspective of a young woman in her 20s. Also, it’s really, really funny.

The Signature of All Things by Liz Gilbert

I . . . adored this book. And I’ve definitely recommended it the absolute most of any book I’ve read this year. It has the voice and the humor and the warmth and the wisdom I’d expect from Liz Gilbert, as well as an exhaustively researched and utterly immersive period setting (19th century Philadelphia). It truly feels epic in scope, and if I try to describe it for too long I sound like a lunatic but it’s about botany and about sexual longing and I think about it every single day.

City of Girls by Liz Gilbert

I was fortunate enough hear Liz talk about this book in person when she went on tour! See the above--this book is amazingly funny and wise and smart and just so fun to read. It’s about showgirls in New York in the 1940s. (On tour, Liz talked about interviewing a bunch of nonagenarian former showgirls for research and wondering beforehand, “Oh God, how am I going to get these grandmotherly old ladies to talk about sex?” and then wondering after, “Oh god, how am I going to get these ladies to talk about anything other than sex?”)

Circe by Madeline Miller

This book is so precious to me. Madeline Miller’s take on Circe is the best rendering of a divine/immortal character as narrator that I’ve ever read. And she does it in first-person. Also, if you ever have an opportunity to hear this author speak publicly, you should take it. She is so smart and well-read, and so steeped in this mythology, and strikes an amazing and refreshing balance between reverence and irreverence for the source material (when writing for the character of Medea, for example, she explained that she was having difficulty understanding her, “until I realized what a bozo Jason was”).

Dune by Frank Herbert

Haha. I read the first four books of this classic sci-fi series this year alongside Eddy. The weirdness chart for this series is an exponential curve and I found the fourth book so deeply weird as to be borderline unreadable, but all of them are special and the first one, in particular, sticks in your brain.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I’ve been waiting for the author of The Night Circus to publish a new book for a long time, and this one was worth the wait. I love love love Erin Morgenstern’s eye for details and aesthetics, and the way she builds story around setting.

Television

I watched and enjoyed more TV shows in 2019 than any year in recent memory, but I think it's partly just the alignment of streaming service releases and my taste than any other factor. Eddy and I finished watching FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood at the beginning of this year. There was one weekend in May where all I did was watch Good Omens and bake a rhubarb cake (both very good). I binged all of Fleabag in two days and then I made Eddy watch it, and we're both completely captivated by it. July 5 was officially "Stranger Things Day", and Danielle, Eddy, and I woke up at 9 am, ate donuts, and watched the entire new season in one day (and then went to Veggie Galaxy for emotional recovery). The third season of The Crown dropped a few weeks ago and I spiraled even further into my Olivia Colman obsession, and Eddy and I finished the first season of The Good Place right before we left town for the holidays.

Movies

My movie-watching has declined significantly since I graduated and left behind my Film Boy pals, but I managed a short list of favorites: I adored BOOKSMART, and it immediately jumped to the special place in my heart where coming-of-age stories about smart young women live. I watched THE FAVORITE on a plane and it was fantastic. And then a few nights ago Danielle and I went to see the new Greta Gerwig-directed LITTLE WOMEN and predictably adored it, and it was basically the highlight of my trip home. But I didn't see much in theaters, and I don't feel like I missed out.

Games

Another surprise for me this year was how many games I played and enjoyed. I grew up playing video games and watching my siblings play, but when I moved to Boston for college all I had was a 3DS, and my consumption of games, with the noticeable exceptions of Stardew Valley and Pokémon Go, went into hibernation. That all changed this year, when Eddy bought me a Nintendo Switch for my birthday, and I spent January playing many blissful hours of Let’s Go Pikachu. Other favorites include:

OXENFREE - Branching storylines! Choose-your-own-adventure sans cutscenes so that it all feels totally immersive and high-stakes! And a creepy, existential, Arrival-esque mystery to boot.

THE FLAME IN THE FLOOD - All of my favorite books growing up were about kids who run away to live in the woods à la My Side of the Mountain, so this post-apocalypse survival adventure story featuring our hero, Scout, brewing dandelion tea to cure her snakebites, making snares out of saplings, and using cattail tubers to make braided cord was right in my wheelhouse.

UNTITLED GOOSE GAME - needs no introduction

In Conclusion

Happy new year, all--I hope 2020 brings us all joy and truth.

#shut up olivia

[ifuckinglovestvincent]

Switching Lanes With St. Vincent

By Molly Young

January 22, 2019

Jacket (men’s), $4,900, pants (men’s), $2,300, by Dior / Men shoes, by Christian Louboutin / Rings (throughout) by Cartier

On a cold recent night in Brooklyn, St. Vincent appeared onstage in a Saint Laurent smoking jacket to much clapping and hooting, gave the crowd a deadpan look, and said, ��Without being reductive, I'd like to say that we haven't actually done anything yet.” Pause. “So let's do something.”

She launched into a cover of Lou Reed's “Perfect Day”: an arty torch-song version that made you really wonder whom she was thinking about when she sang it. This was the elusive chanteuse version of St. Vincent, at least 80 percent leg, with slicked-back hair and pale, pale skin. She belted, sipped from a tumbler of tequila (“Oh, Christ on a cracker, that's strong”), executed little feints and pounces, flung the mic cord away from herself like a filthy sock, and spat on the stage a bunch of times. Nine parts Judy Garland, one part GG Allin.

If the Garland-Allin combination suggests that St. Vincent is an acquired taste, she's one that has been acquired by a wide range of fans. The crowd in Brooklyn included young women with Haircuts in pastel fur and guys with beards of widely varying intentionality. There was a woman of at least 90 years and a Hasidic guy in a tall hat, which was too bad for whoever sat behind him. There were models, full nuclear families, and even a solitary frat bro. St. Vincent brings people together.

If you chart the career of Annie Clark, which is St. Vincent's civilian name, you will see what start-up founders and venture capitalists call “hockey-stick growth.” That is, a line that moves steadily in a northeast direction until it hits an “inflection point” and shoots steeply upward. It's called hockey-stick growth because…it looks like a hockey stick.

Dress, by Balmain

The toe of the stick starts with Marry Me, Clark's debut solo album, which came out a decade ago and established a few things that would become essential St. Vincent traits: her ability to play a zillion instruments (she's credited on the album with everything from dulcimer to vibraphone), her highbrow streak (Shakespeare citations), her goofy streak (“Marry me!” is an Arrested Development bit), and her oceanic library of musical references (Kate Bush, Steve Reich, uh…D'Angelo!). The blade of the stick is her next four albums, one of them a collaboration with David Byrne, all of them confirming her presence as an enigma of indie pop and a guitar genius. The stick of the stick took a non-musical detour in 2016, when Clark was photographed canoodling with (now ex-) girlfriend Cara Delevingne at Taylor Swift's mansion, followed a few months later by pictures of Clark holding hands with Kristen Stewart. That brought her to the realm of mainstream paparazzi-pictures-in-the-Daily-Mail celebrity. Finally, the top of the stick is Masseduction, the 2017 album she co-produced with Jack Antonoff, which revealed St. Vincent to be not only experimental and beguiling but capable of turning out incorrigible bangers.

Masseduction made the case that Clark could be as much a pop star as someone like Sia or Nicki Minaj—a performer whose idiosyncrasies didn't have to be tamped down for mainstream success but could actually be amplified. The artist Bruce Nauman once said he made work that was like “going up the stairs in the dark and either having an extra stair that you didn't expect or not having one that you thought was going to be there.” The idea applies to Masseduction: Into the familiar form of a pop song Clark introduces surprising missteps, unexpected additions and subtractions. The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200. The David Bowie comparisons got louder.

This past fall, she released MassEducation (not quite the same title; note the addition of the letter a), which turned a dozen of the tracks into stripped-down piano songs. Although technically off duty after being on tour for nearly all of 2018, Clark has been performing the reduced songs here and there in small venues with her collaborator, the composer and pianist Thomas Bartlett. Whereas the Masseduction tour involved a lot of latex, neon, choreographed sex-robot dance moves, and LED screens, these recent shows have been comparatively austere. When she performed in Brooklyn, the stage was empty, aside from a piano and a side table. There were blue lights, a little piped-in fog for atmosphere, and that was it. It looked like an early-'90s magazine ad for premium liquor: art-directed, yes, but not to the degree that it Pinterested itself.

Coat, (men’s) $8,475, by Versace / Shoes, by Christian Louboutin / Tights, by Wolford

The performance was similarly informal. Midway through one song, Clark forgot the lyrics and halted. “It takes a different energy to be performing [than] to sit in your sweatpants watching Babylon Berlin,” she said. “Wherever I am, I completely forget the past, and I'm like. ‘This is now.’ And sometimes this means forgetting song lyrics. So, if you will…tell me what the second fucking verse is.”

Clark has only a decade in the public eye behind her, but she's accomplished a good amount of shape-shifting. An openness to the full range of human expression, in fact, is kind of a requirement for being a St. Vincent fan. This is a person who has appeared in the front row at Chanel and also a person who played a gig dressed as a toilet, a person profiled in Vogue and on the cover of Guitar World.

The day before her Brooklyn show, I sat with Clark to find out what it's like to be utterly unstructured, time-wise, after a long stretch of knowing a year in advance that she had to be in, like, Denmark on July 4 and couldn't make plans with friends.

“I've been off tour now for three weeks,” she said. “When I say ‘off,’ I mean I didn't have to travel.”

This doesn't mean she hasn't traveled—she went to L.A. to get in the studio with Sleater-Kinney and also hopped down to Texas, where she grew up—just that she hasn't been contractually obligated to travel. What else did she do on her mini-vacation?

“I had the best weekend last weekend. I woke up and did hot Pilates, and then I got a bunch of new modular synths, and I set 'em up, and I spent ten hours with modular synths. Plugging things in. What happens when I do this? I'm unburdened by a full understanding of what's going on, so I'm very willing to experiment.”

Coat, by Boss

Jacket, and coat, by Boss / Necklace, by Cartier

Like a child?

“Exactly. Did you ever get those electronics kits as a kid for like 20 bucks from RadioShack? Where you connect this wire to that one and a light bulb turns on? It's very much like that.”

There's an element of chaos, she said, that makes synth noodling a neat way to stumble on melodies that she might not have consciously assembled. She played with the synths by herself all day. “I don't stop, necessarily,” she said, reflecting on what the idea of “vacation” means to someone for whom “job” and “things I love to do” happen to overlap more or less exactly. “I just get to do other things that are really fun. I'm in control of my time.” She had plans to see a show at the New Museum, read books, play music and see movies alone, always sitting on the aisle so she could make a quick escape if necessary. But she will probably keep working. St. Vincent doesn't have hobbies.

When it manifests in a person, this synergy between life and work is an almost physically perceptible quality, like having brown eyes or one leg or being beautiful. Like beauty, it's a result of luck, and a quality that can invoke total despair in people who aren't themselves allotted it. This isn't to say that Clark's career is a stroke of unearned fortune but that her skills and character and era and influences have collided into a perfect storm of realized talent. And to have talent and realize that talent and then be beloved by thousands for exactly the thing that is most special about you: Is there anything a person could possibly want more? Is this why Annie Clark glows? Or is it because she's super pale? Or was it because there was a sound coming through the window where we sat that sounded thrillingly familiar?

“Is Amy Sedaris running by?” Clark asked, her spine straightening. A man with a boom mic was visible on the sidewalk outside. Another guy in a baseball cap issued instructions to someone beyond the window. Someone said “Action!” and a figure in vampire makeup and a clown wig streaked across the sidewalk. Someone said “Cut!” and Clark zipped over for a look. It was, in fact, Amy Sedaris, her clown wig bobbing in the 44-degree breeze. The mic operator was gagging with laughter. It seemed like a good omen, this sighting, like the New York City version of Groundhog Day: If an Amy Sedaris streaks across your sight line in vampire makeup, spring will arrive early.

Blazer (men’s) $1,125, by Paul Smith

Another thing Clark does when off tour is absorb all the input that she misses when she's locked into performance mode. On a Monday afternoon, she met artist Lisa Yuskavage at an exhibition of her paintings at the David Zwirner gallery in Chelsea. Yuskavage was part of a mini-boom of figurative painting in the '90s, turning out portraits of Penthouse centerfolds and giant-jugged babes with Rembrandt-esque skill. It made sense that Clark wanted to meet her: Both women make art about the inner lives of female figures, both are sorcerers of technique, both are theatrical but introspective, both have incendiary style. The gallery was a white cube, skylit, with paintings around the perimeter. Yuskavage and Clark wandered through at a pace exclusive to walking tours of cultural spaces, which is to say a few steps every 10 to 15 seconds with pauses between for the proper amount of motionless appreciation.

The paintings were small, all about the size of a human head, and featured a lot of nipples, tufted pudenda, tan lines, majestic asses, and protruding tongues. “I like the idea of possessing something by painting it,” Yuskavage said. “That's the way I understand the world. Like a dog licking something.”

Clark looked at the works with the expression people make when they're meditating. She was wearing elfin boots, black pants, and a shirt with a print that I can only describe as “funky”—“funky” being an adjective that looks good on very few people, St. Vincent being one of them—and sipped from a cup of espresso furnished by a gallery minion. After she finished the drink, there was a moment when she looked blankly at the saucer, unsure what to do with it, and then stuck it in the breast pocket of her funky shirt for the rest of the tour.

A painting called Sweetpuss featured a bubble-butted blonde in beaded panties with nipples so upwardly erect they actually resembled little boners. Yuskavage based the underwear on a pair of real underwear that she'd constructed herself from colored balls and string. “I've got the beaded panties if you ever need 'em,” she said to Clark. “They might fit you. They're tiny.”

Earrings, by Erickson Beamon

“I'm picturing you going to the Garment District,” Clark said.

“There was a lot of going to the Garment District.”

As they completed their lap around the white cube, Clark interjected with questions—what year was this? were you considering getting into film? how long did these sittings take? what does “mise-en-scène” mean?—but mainly listened. And she is a good listener: an inquisitive head tilter, an encouraging nodder, a non-fidgeter, a maker of eye contact. She found analogues between painting and music. When Yuskavage mourned the death of lead white paint (due to its poisonous qualities, although, as the artist pointed out, “It's not that big a deal to not get lead poisoning; just don't eat the paint”), Clark compared it to recording's transition from tape to digital.

“Back in the day, if you wanted to hear something really reverberant”—she clapped; it reverberated—“you'd have to be in a room like this and record it, or make a reverb chamber,” Clark said. “Now we have digital plug-ins where you can say, ‘Oh, I want the acoustic resonance of the Sistine Chapel.’ Great. Somebody's gone and sampled that and created an algorithm that sounds like you're in the Sistine Chapel.”

Lately, she said, she's been way more into devices that betray their imperfections. That are slightly out of tune, or capable of messing up, or less forgiving of human intervention. “Air moving through a room,” Clark said. “That's what's interesting to me.”

They kept pacing. The paintings on the wall evolved. Conversation turned to what happens when you grow as an artist and people respond by flipping out.

“I always find it interesting when someone wants you to go back to ‘when you were good,’ ” Yuskavage said. “This is why we liked you.”

“I can't think of anybody where I go, ‘What's great about that artist is their consistency, ” Clark said. “Anything that stays the same for too long dies. It fails to capture people's imagination.”

Coat (mens), $1,150, by Acne Studios

They were identifying a problem with fans, of course, not with themselves. It was an implicit identification, because performers aren't permitted to critique their audiences, and it was definitely the artistic equivalent of a First World problem—an issue that arises only when you're so resplendent with talent that you not only nail something enough to attract adoration but nail it hard enough to get personally bored and move on—but it was still valid. They were talking about the kind of fan who clings to a specific tree when he or she could be roaming through a whole forest. In St. Vincent's case, a forest of prog-rock thickets and jazzy roots and orchestral brambles and mournful-ballad underlayers, all of it sprouting and molting under a prodigious pop canopy. They were talking about the strange phenomenon of people getting mad at you for surprising them. Even if the surprise is great.

Molly Young is a writer living in New York City. She wrote about Donatella Versace in the April 2018 issue of GQ.

A version of this story originally appeared in the February 2019 issue with the title "Switching Lanes With St. Vincent."

#st vincent #annie clark #gq #interviews #shakespeare citations #christ on a cracker #lmao

[earlyspringtranscendence]

ok so my girl needed some book recs and my ass was like oh i’ll know what i’ll do i’ll type up all 150+ books i’ve read in the last 3 1/2 years and obvi now im gonna like. post them here so that y’all can enjoy this too (plus i dont have a goodreads so) 

this is a little bit edited to avoid repetitions and/or books i don’t wanna talk about but this is fairly accurate of what ive read since 2016 till now!! faves have asterisks, also the links stopped working halfway thru 2016 so uh my bad

2016:

the foxhole court, the raven king and the kings men by nora sakavic* the secret history by donna tartt aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire saenz su1c1de notes by michael thomas ford (the title is the regular word but i’ve spent so much time on this that i’m not gonna get my post eaten for a Bad Word)  chaos walking trilogy by patrick ness  six of crows & crooked kingdom by leigh bardugo  ill give you the sun by jandy nelson city of bones, city of ashes, city of glass & city of fallen angels by cassandra clare the darkest minds, never fade and in the afterlight by alexandra bracken the raven king by maggie stiefvater sharp objects by gillian flynn gone girl by gillian flynn everything leads to you by nina lacour the night circus by erin morgenstern miss peregrines home for peculiar children by Ransom riggs Battle royale by Koushun Takami the unbecoming of mara dyer by michelle hodkin american gods by neil gaiman* shadow and bone, siege and storm and ruin and rising by leigh bardugo the rest of us just live here by patrick ness on the other side by carrie hope fletcher a monster calls by patrick ness we are the ants by shaun david hutchinson  simon vs the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli proxy and guardian by alex london kill your boss by shane kuhn the curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon more than this by patrick ness (reread) two boys kissing by david levithan a darker shade of magic and a gathering of shadows by ve schwab forgive me leonard peacock by matthew quick good omens by neil gaiman and terry pratchet my heart and other black holes by jasmine warga the miseducation of cameron post by emily danforth the sky is everywhere by jandy nelson   the darkest part of the forest by holly black a collection of sappho poems you by caroline kepnes

2017

all the bright places by jennifer niven the regulars by georgia clark the ocean at the end of the lane by neil gaiman coraline by neil gaiman crush by richard siken the magician’s nephew by cs lewis blankets by craig thompson room by emma donoghue red dragon*, silence of the lambs, hannibal and hannibal rising by thomas harris hidden bodies by caroline kepnes* the girl on the train by paula hawkins vicious by ve schwab 13 reasons why by jay asher dare me by megan abott* turn of mind by alice laplante the lightning thief by rick riordan if i was your girl by meredith russo* the dead house by dawn kurtagich release by patrick ness*  norse mythology by neil gaiman caraval by stephanie garber the upside of unrequited by becky albertalli dark places by gillian flynn unearthly & hallowed by cynthia hand fangirl by rainbow rowell the hunger games trilogy by suzanne colins the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams avi cantor has 6 months to live by sacha lamb the gentlemans guide to vice and virtue by mackenzi lee beautiful music for ugly children by kirstin cronn mills the hate u give by angie thomas warcross by marie lu every exquisite thing by matthew quick peter darling by austin chant***** the goldfinch by donna tartt wild beauty by anne-marie mclemore seconds by bryan lee o'malley call me by your name by andré aciman

2018

spring’s awakening by frank wedekind translated by Framin ziegler, and then again translated and adapted by anya reiss  de profundis by oscar wilde spellbook of the lost and found by maria fowley the rook by daniel o'malley interview with the vampire by anne rice fight club by chuck palanhuik maurice by em forster*  picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde pacific rim by alex irvine ill be gone in the dark by michelle mcnamara*  all the light we cannot see by anthony doer the summer that melted everything by tiffany mcdaniel edinburgh by alexander chee***********!!!!** very good book hp 1 waiting for godot by samuel becket the art of being normal by lisa williamsen flowers for algernon by daniel keyes autoboyography by christina lauren the woman in the window by aj finn the lava in my bones by barry webster and the ocean was our sky by patrick ness mio my son by astrid lindgren a lite too bright by samuel miller autobiography of red by anne carson the crash of hennington by patrick ness****** sadie by courtney summers war of the foxes by richard siken sea prayer by khaled hosseini three dark crowns, one dark throne, two dark reigns and the oracle queen by kendare blake*

2019 (so far)

rooftoppers by katherine rundell at the edge of the universe by shaun david hutchinson warbreaker by brandon sanderson slaughterhouse 5 by kurt vonnegut skyward by brandon sanderson* the crane wife by patrick ness the magicians trilogy by lev grossman* marie by marc de bel (dutch book) neverworld wake by marisha pessl the original mistborn trilogy by brandon sanderson red, white and royal blue by casey mcquiston havemercy & shadow magic by jaida jones and danielle bennet my lovely wife by samantha downing a midsummer night’s dream by shakespeare the silence of murder by dandi daley mackall cloud atlas by david mitchell le petit prince by antoine de saint-exupery (french book) the binding by bridget collins* the sun is also a star by nicola yoon (i read it in french but it’s in english originally) you wouldn’t have known about me by calvin gimplevich hp 1 but in french

#ladies. issa lot #i by no means would recommend every single one of these books but theyre just the ones that ive read #some i found amazing others abhorrent most were alright

[panic-flavored]

Get to Know Me Questions

I was asked by the lovely @vital-veriko to do this Get to Know Me thing, so here it is!

1. What is your full name?

Jessica Rowden

2. What is your nickname?

Jesse. (no one, NO ONE calls me Jessica.) online it’s Musa or Ostrich usually

3. What is your zodiac sign?  

Scorpio

4. What is your favorite book series?

oohhh hm. Honestly, the Wizard of Oz books by Frank Baum. It’s been a long time since I’ve read them but I just really love those weird old books

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts?

Aliens yes, (it’s more of a ‘I’m sure there is other intelligent life out there’ kind of thing, I don’t think they’re probing us or anything) ghosts ehhhhh not really (love the idea of them tho)

6. Who is your favorite author?

Jonathan Stroud / J.M. Barrie

7. What is your favorite radio station?

I’m gonna be real with you, I haven’t listened to the radio since I was a kid

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything?

Of anything?? ummmm probably chocolate

9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful?

Amaaaazing

10. What is your current favorite song?

“Speechless” by Naomi Scott

11. What is your favorite word?

Do people have favorite words??

12. What was the last song you listened to?

probably “Speechless” by Naomi Scott lmao

13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch?

Star Trek TNG/DS9

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down?

I don’t usually watch movies when I’m feeling down... It’s weird but I typically  watch lets plays to cheer myself up. Undertale and horror games are my go-tos

15. Do you play video games?

Oh yes. Almost every day

16. What is your biggest fear?

Pregnancy, or dying early/violently

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion?

My ability to retain information

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion?

Overthinking. EVERYTHING. Getting easily overwhelmed.

19. Do you like cats or dogs better?

I’m a dog trainer, so I pretty much have to say dogs. But cats are great too!

20. What is your favorite season?

Spring

21. Are you in a relationship?

married to my amazing husband for 13 years :)

22. What is something you miss from your childhood?

exploring. everything was an adventure, everything was so new and fascinating 

23. Who is your best friend?

@trash-cardassian

24. What is your eye color?

Brown

25. What is your hair color?

Brown

26. Who is someone you love?

my hubby! I love a lot of people tho tbh

27. Who is someone you trust?

I trust all of my friends, but obviously I trust my husband the most

28. Who is someone you think about often?

if you guessed ‘my husband’, you guessed right

29. Are you currently excited about/for something?

I just binged Good Omens, so I guess I’m back in Crowley/Aziraphale hell for a little while. But I’m still not over DBH even a little bit

30. What is your biggest obsession?

My current obsessions change like the seasons but my most aggressive one is probably Star Trek

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child?

Star Trek lol specifically Voyager

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone?

*insert husband answer here*

33. Are you superstitious?

not really

34. Do you have any unusual phobias?

although I certainly don’t think it’s unusual, I suppose most people would find ‘fear of pregnancy’ to be a strange phobia.

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it?

BEHIND IT. Trying to get better about that.

36. What is your favorite hobby?

Writing & drawing

37. What was the last book you read?

“Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered” by Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark

38. What was the last movie you watched?

Aladdin (2019)

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any?

I used to play trombone, piano and clarinet when I was a kid

40. What is your favorite animal?

the majestic wolf! but I am also so weak for tortoises and elephants. and dolphins. and all animals really

41. What are your top 5 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow?

oh gosh listen I don’t keep track of that stuff

42. What superpower do you wish you had?

invisibility

43. When and where do you feel most at peace?

calm evenings at home with my husband and fur babies

44. What makes you smile?

husband and fur babies! and anything gay

45. What sports do you play, if any?

I used to play basketball, volleyball and recreational football. Now a days I play tennis on occasion, whenever we can get out to a court

46. What is your favorite drink?

shirley temple, because I still have the taste buds of a child

47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody?

oh gosh, I have no idea. Maybe in the last year or so to one of my clients.  

48. Are you afraid of heights?

Yep!

49. What is your biggest pet peeve?

One-uppers. 

50. Have you ever been to a concert?

Yep.

51. Are you vegan/vegetarian?

I was vegan for a while, it was awesome. I wouldn’t mind going back to that.

52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

First a paleontologist, then a vet, then a comic book artist. But mostly I just wanted to work with animals. Dream achieved! 

53. What fictional world would you like to live in?

POKEMONNNNN

54. What is something you worry about?

what is something that I, a person with anxiety and a tendency to overthink everything, worry about? HA

55. Are you scared of the dark?

Nope, I prefer it 

56. Do you like to sing?

Only for fun!

57. Have you ever skipped school?

OH yes. That’s pretty much how I spent my freshman year of highschool.

58. What is your favorite place on the planet?

in my own home with my family :)

59. Where would you like to live?

well, I’m not really picky but honestly I’d just love to get out of the US right about now

60. Do you have any pets?

Yes! A dog named Ayana, two cats, Genavieve and Jadzia, and a tortoise named Ozzy

61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?

night owl

62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better?

well I’m never up for the sunrise so sunset I suppose

63. Do you know how to drive?

yes, but I don’t drive. Oh crap, more phobias I forgot about!

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones?

earbuds

65. Have you ever had braces?

nope

66. What is your favorite genre of music?

literally anything but country

67. Who is your hero?

I honestly don’t really have one. Maybe Jonathan Van Ness?

68. Do you read comic books?

Yep. well, I used to

69. What makes you the most angry?

Nazis, racists, misogynists. The state of the world right now.

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book?

real book. Not for hipster reasons, I just have a lot of physical books and I accidentally keep buying more

71. What is your favorite subject in school?

Science, writing

72. Do you have any siblings?

nope

73. What was the last thing you bought?

A summer jacket. It’s so breezy!

74. How tall are you?

5′7

75. Can you cook?

I do almost every day!

76. What are three things that you love?

animals, sushi, true crime

77. What are three things that you hate?

trump, people who like trump, people who voted for trump

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends?

throughout my life I’ve always had more male friends than female, I think right now it’s about the same

79. What is your sexual orientation?

ace/demi/bi

80. Where do you currently live?

Nebraska

81. Who was the last person you texted?

Funny story, I MEANT to text my husband but I accidentally texted one of my clients. So my client got sent a screenshot from the show ‘Lucifer’ with an all-caps caption about a Star Trek actor who I spotted in it. She was understandably confused. 

82. When was the last time you cried?

A week ago to the day, actually. Just general anxiety and self-loathing.

83. Who is your favorite YouTuber?

I know it isn’t a singular person but my favorite channel is Achievement Hunter

84. Do you like to take selfies?

sometimes

85. What is your favorite app?

??? people have favorite apps??

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like?

HA. I’ve never had a dad in my life and my mother was really, really cool when I was a kid and is really, really psycho now.

87. What is your favorite foreign accent?

Scottish

88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit?

Japan or Ireland

89. What is your favorite number?

91

90. Can you juggle?

nope

91. Are you religious?

nope

92. Do you find outer space of the deep ocean to be more interesting?

honestly? I am scared shitless of both (but probably space)

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil?

oh HELL no lol

94. Are you allergic to anything?

not that I know of, but my mother is terribly allergic to bees and I’ve never been stung, so

95. Can you curl your tongue?

yep

96. Can you wiggle your ears?

yep

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something?

I used to be terrible at this, but in recent years I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the concept. I do it when necessary

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach?

forest

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you?

ummmm I’m gonna be real with you, I have no idea. My mom really drilled into me to never let a man control me or do anything I wasn’t comfortable with, and because of that I more than likely avoided lots and lots of unpleasantness in my youth, so there’s that.

100. Are you a good liar?

Yes. When I was younger I loved to lie, almost to a sociopathic degree. It was so easy and people were so gullible, but at some point I grew a conscious, realized my actions had consequences and even more importantly, that I risked losing the trust of people I cared about, and stopped all that.

101. What is your Hogwarts House?

Gryffindor

102. Do you talk to yourself?

too often to be healthy, probably

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

introvert, absolutely

104. Do you keep a journal/diary?

I try to

105. Do you believe in second chances?

of course

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do?

take it to some person of authority that could find the owner, or contact the owner myself if there was contact info in the wallet

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change?

yes, but I don’t think it’s as common as some people claim

108. Are you ticklish?

yes

109. Have you ever been on a plane?

yes

110. Do you have any piercings?

I used to have two piercings in each ear. I’ve let them grow over

111. What fictional character do you wish was real?

literally too many to count. 

112. Do you have any tattoos?

noooo

113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far

when I was a kid I never did anything I didn’t want to do, and I was pretty good and identifying toxic/dangerous people, and I’m forever glad that I stuck to my guns

114. Do you believe in karma?

yes... and no? I don’t really see karma as some kind of spiritual force, I think that people shape their own karma by their decisions and lifestyles.

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts?

miraculously, no.

116. Do you want children?

that’s a BIIIIG no. Neither does my husband so I’m all set

117. Who is the smartest person you know?

Probably my friend Fiona, she’s just... a FOUNTAIN of crazy information and environmental science

118. What is your most embarrassing memory?

I have a few, none that I feel super comfortable sharing. 

119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter?

oh yes

120. What color are most of you clothes?

I try to keep a varied color spectrum in my closet but I still end up with mostly blacks and greys

121. Do you like adventures?

heck yeah!

122. Have you ever been on TV?

once when I was a kid I was interviewed by the local news about ‘stranger danger’. I think I may have been on TV one other time but I don’t remember why

123. How old are you?

31

124. What is your favorite quote?

“I'm not young enough to know everything.” - J.M. Barrie

125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods?

Depends on my mood, but I am pretty much addicted to desserts

...

I’m tagging @vital-veriko, since this was all her idea! <3 

#get to know me #personal #long post

[signourneybooks]

April was another weird month to be honest. The car was acting up. My body was being weird (but what is new on that account). The weather was going up and down. But reading wise it all went super!

The Numbers

# Read 60 Books Read this month: 15 Total: 51/60

Night Shift by Debi Gliori / 5 stars

Little Witches: Magic in Concord / 3 stars // ARC

The Copper Promise (The Copper Cat 1) by Jen williams / 5 stars // Reread

Career OWLS. Other OWLS.

Slayer (Slayer 1) by Kierstin White / 3 stars // OWLS / Ancient Runes // ARC

Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan / 4 stars // OWLS / Transfiguration // ARC

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1) by Mark Lawrence / 4,5 stars // OWLS / Defence Against the Dark Arts

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann / 4 stars // OWLS / Charms // ARC

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman / 4 stars // OWLS / History of Magic

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings. Edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman / 4 stars // OWLS / Arithmancy

Nyphon Rising (The Riyria Revelations 3) by Michael J. Sullivan / 3,5 stars //  OWLS / Herbology

Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries 2) by Martha Wells / 4 stars // OWLS / Potions

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews / 4 stars // OWLS / Muggle Studies

All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder (All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder vol. 1) /  2,5 stars // OWLS / Astronomy // Graphic Novel

The Abyss Surrounds Us (The Abyss Surrounds Us 1) by Emily Skrutskie / 3 stars // OWLS / Care of Magical Creatures

Holiday in Death (In Death 7) by J.D. Robb / 4 stars // OWLS / Divination

I managed to finish all OWLS needed for my career AND I read the 4 extra owls. I am best pleased!

AVERAGE: 3,53

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Fire Breathing Dragon: 12/20 Prompts Completed This Month: Warrior / Uncommon Fantasy Creatures / Pirates

Complete Alien: 6/20 Prompts Completed This Month: Space Creatures / Space Ship

Generic Robot: 7/12 Prompts Completed This Month: Under 500 Pages / Satire

Total: 24/52

Read more about my own reading challenge here.

Level: Elemental Witch  (11-15 retellings) Read This Month: 2 Total: 13/15

I’ll show and update with the bingo card every 3 months here.

⌘ So instead of health problems at the start of the month I now had car problems. My car had its yearly check up at the end of February. In March I had to return to fix a shake while driving. And in April I seemed to have problems with my cooling system. It was not fun.  I gave me a lot of stress and sadness. I tried very hard not to let it rule me. It got fixed and as we were driving back from my parents at Easter, another light went on. Grr.

⌘ The change of the clock at the end of March messed a bit with Merijn’s sense of bed time and he keeps coming out of bed for 30 minutes. I hope he’ll get used to it again because it being light when he goes to bed is just going to get worse.

⌘ We got some fun bits for our garden to cheer it up.

⌘ We took Merijn to a fairytale theme park more geared towards his age with a very large playground as well. He loved it. He was so tired but he loved it.

⌘ Then a few days later Merijn got the sixth disease/roseola. He broke out in bumps and red splots over night, ended up with a high fever for 24 hours and then his temperature went back to normal. The break out took a few days longer to go away, een more so with some of the warmer days we had. He was better in time for Easter

⌘ For Easter we went to my parents. Which was fine. We had some great weather. Merijn stayed the week with my parents and we went back on King’s Day.

⌘ For some reason I got a bad case of hayfever? And then I woke up the last weekend of April and I had a swollen, stiff and sometimes painful knee. Who even knows what I did…

Reviews

⌘ The Unicorn Anthology. Edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weissman // ARC ⌘ The Beauty and the Beast by Gabriella-Suzanna Barbot de Villeneuve ⌘ Slayer (Slayer 1) by Kierstin White // ARC ⌘ Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1) by Mark Lawrence ⌘ Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Top Ten Tuesday Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book  / Older Books I Don’t Want You to Forget About! / Ten Rainy Day Reads  / Eight Blog Posts I Think Give You the Best Glimpse of Me

Other Posts Dancing out of March 2019 / Best of the Bunch // March 2019 / Dancing Versus – The Passage / Snapping Those Bookish Pictures / Why Do I Seem to Have So Many Reading Goals but Rarely Any Personal Goals? / Buying Full Series Before Reading the First Book: How Has That Been Working Out for Me? / Is Limited Third Person Point of View Still My Favorite? / Book Haul #42 / In Which Spring Arrived with Sequels / With Which Characters Would I Describe Myself?

⌘ The Lost City of Z / Movie / DNF I watched a good portion of this but it was a bit boring and I couldn’t really care about any of the characters.

⌘ The Warrior’s Gate / Movie / DNF I couldn’t do it. This screamed white savior all over it. Also why in hells name would a chinese man give a white teenage boy that works for him a family heirloom?

⌘ Spirited Away / Movie / Rewatch

⌘ Goosebumps / Movie I was excited to see they were showing this here and I liked the humor at the start. Then it kind of dwindled and I think Jack Black was trying a bit too hard to be honest.

⌘ Inspector Lewis / Season 1 / Ep 1-4 / Rewatch / COMPLETED

⌘ Game of Thrones / Season 6 / Ep 1-8 Well I finally started this season now everyone is watching the final season, lol.

In April I participated in Anderwereld’s #aprilmeetthebookworm photo challenge so here you can see the picture I took for that.

You and your shelf / What are you currently reading / Golden Oldie Favorite Reread / How long have you been reading? / First Fantasy Book Favorite Writer / TBR / Reading Spot

Reading Buddy / Favorite Fantasy World / Biggest Book on Your Shelf Special Book to You / Favorite Bookish Item / Most Fun Reading Memory Your Reading Goal / Favorite Bookish Quote / A Genre You Still Want to Try

Favorite Drink / Pleasant Surprise Bookmarks / Your Biggest Treasure Best Meeting in the Bookish World / Your Favorite Book Store

Your Favorite Series / Your Favorite Blog/Site Favorite Reading Snack / Favorite Character April Book Haul / April Wrap Up

Blogs

⌘ Cait from Paper Fury talks about what it is like to write an own voices book. She also shares a collab post with other autistic bloggers/authors about what they would like to see more in books regarding autism. And here was a book shelf tour! ⌘ Fadwa from Word Wonders recommends books based on the twelve zodiac signs. ⌘ Vicky from Vicky Who Reads created a tutorial about DIY sprayed edges. ⌘ Krysta from Pages Unbound asks where the ya books for younger teens are. ⌘ Lindsey from Lindsey Reads shared ten inspirational quotes for introverts.

Dutch Blogs

⌘ I wrote a guest blog in Dutch for Anderwereld about why second-hand books are fun too. ⌘ Emmy from Zon en Maan did another compliments for book bloggers survey and has posted the results with the compliments.

⌘ It is WYRD AND WONDER TIME! I’ve already started on May 1st with some posts for this fantasy themed month and of course so shall be my reading.

⌘ Other than that I don’t really know. I guess I’ll be working on the blog some. And I kind of really need to get on those pictures. But that might be more of a Summer evening task. You know, those nights that you can’t sleep on time anyway because its so hot?

This monthly wrap up will be linked up with the monthly one by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. This so we can blog hop to each others wrap ups easier.

Dancing out of April 2019 April was another weird month to be honest. The car was acting up. My body was being weird (but what is new on that account).

#Monthly Wrap Up #Personal #reading challenges #Wrap up april 2019

[yahoonews7]

The coronavirus continues to fan out around the world, sickening thousands of people along the way.Source: Shutterstock The deadly epidemic, which first appeared in the city of Wuhan, has now spread to all 31 Chinese provinces and 25 other countries, including the United States.Not surprisingly, world stock markets have become rather sickly as well.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsSo is this the end? Does the Wuhan coronavirus spell the end of the decade-long bull market we've been enjoying?Probably not.But here's the thing …Every flood begins with a trickle.And every bear market begins with warning signs that most financial experts ignore.Today, for example, investment capital is trickling out of small-cap stocks, even though many large-cap stocks are still climbing to all-time highs. If this trickle from the small-cap sector becomes a flood, most investors may quickly find themselves underwater.Deep underwater.Not every trickle leads to a flood, of course. But a trickle that springs from the foundation of an intensely pressurized structure -- such as a financial market -- deserves attention. Springing a LeakAt a glance, this immense $31 trillion market seems as robust as it is colossal. It is, after all, the largest and most liquid financial market on the planet. But on closer inspection, this market may be resting on a feeble foundation.The small-cap sector, for example, has sprung a leak. The S&P SmallCap 600 index topped out in August 2018 and has slipped 7% since then, even though the S&P 500 has continued moving higher and making new all-time highs.The failure of small-cap stocks to advance in unison with their large-cap counterparts is not always a bad sign, but it is never a good one. Technical analysts describe this phenomenon as a "bearish divergence" that often portends overall stock market weakness.Another sort of bearish divergence is also signaling trouble ahead: The "new highs" list has been contracting for nearly two years. The "new highs" list tracks the weekly tally of stocks on U.S. exchanges that are hitting new 52-week highs.Generally speaking, a "healthy" stock market produces a rising number of new highs as it marches higher, whereas an unhealthy stock market produces a contracting number of new highs.Technical analysts refer to the latter phenomenon as "narrow participation"… and it is never a positive sign.Source: InvestorPlace The contracting new highs list and the capital flight from the small-cap sector are not the only troubling signs for the stock market. A few other ominous omens include: * An inverted yield curve. That's when short-term bonds are yielding more than long-term bonds. This rare configuration, which often signals a coming recession, developed early in 2019 for the first time since the 2007-08 crisis. It remains inverted today. * A poorly performing transportation sector. According to Dow theory -- and more than 135 years of market history -- a weak transportation sector often portends a broad market downtrend. After topping out in September 2018, the Dow Jones Transportation Average is down 7% from that high. * A reviving precious metals sector. As the ultimate anti-stock asset, precious metals often strengthen when stock prices stumble. It is somewhat concerning, therefore, that the price of gold, and gold stocks, both started making a major move higher in the summer of 2018 -- the exact same moment when the S&P SmallCap 600 and the Dow Transportation Average hit their all-time highs. Since mid-August 2018, gold has produced double the gains of the S&P 500, while gold stocks have produced triple the gain.Source: InvestorPlace Moving away from the financial markets to the real economy, warning signs are also proliferating. Let's take a look at just one of them, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Index, which measures manufacturing activity in the U.S.Readings from this index topped out one year ago and have been falling sharply ever since. The ISM Manufacturing Index has tumbled 21% since August 2018. Drops of this speed and magnitude tend to precede or coincide with steep stock market selloffs, as occurred in 2000 and 2008.Source: InvestorPlace And yet, even when warning signs like these accumulate, investors tend to dismiss them as harmless, "normal" features of a healthy financial market. Most of us never see a bear market coming until it has already launched its initial attack on our portfolios. In fact, professional investors are often just as blind to risk as novice investors.As investing legend Peter Lynch once observed, "I don't remember anybody predicting the market right more than once."Today's accepted wisdom embraces the belief that stock prices are likely to keep moving higher. Investors might not be wildly in love with stocks, but they certainly like-like them … a whole bunch.And generally speaking, they harbor little fear of a major selloff. After all, the stock market has been rising for the last 10 years.So what's to fear? When Cash Is KingThe chart below provides a partial answer. Based on price-to-EBITDA (that is, gross earnings), the S&P 500 is trading close to a record-high level. That's not a good sign, as richly valued stocks tend to produce sub-par investment results.Source: InvestorPlace For example, if the S&P 500 merely dipped from its current valuation to its average price-to-EBITDA valuation of the last three decades, it would fall more than 30%.But once a stock market begins a major decline, it rarely stops falling at the "average" level. Instead, it continues to fall and overshoots on the downside.In other words, when stocks become this pricey, good things rarely happen. Conversely, good things often happen to lowly valued stocks. The chart below illustrates this inverse relationship.Source: InvestorPlace For example, in 1994, the blue line shows that U.S. stocks were selling for only 5.2 times EBITDA -- or less than half today's valuation. From that low starting point, the orange line shows that the S&P 500 delivered a total return of 247% during the ensuing five years (from 1994 to 1999).But as U.S. stocks soared toward their 1999 highs, they reached a rich valuation of 11.2 times EBITDA. That was the record-high reading on this indicator … until recently.Not surprisingly, from that lofty starting point, the next five years in the stock market were a complete bust. The S&P 500 produced a loss of 11%. In fact, even 10 years after that high-valuation reading of 1999, the S&P 500 was still 9% underwater.In other words, after one entire decade of investment, the stock market turned $100 into $91.Clearly, the starting price matters when making an investment. That's why buying U.S. stocks at their current lofty valuations could be a risky bet. Today's high price-to-EBITDA reading is certainly a warning sign -- a sign to lighten up on stocks and build up your cash holdings.Cash is the only asset that truly protects your capital during a market selloff.As I pointed out in my book, Bear Market 2020: The Survival Blueprint, cash occupies a unique place in the world of investing.That's why I suggest raising modest amounts of cash at moments like these, when warning signs are multiplying and valuations are hovering near historically high levels.But even as you raise some cash and boost your exposure to precious metals, you should not abandon your core long-term investments.Reducing exposure to stocks doesn't mean eliminating exposure to them. As we guard against bear market losses, we must remain focused on our long-term investment objectives.Cash is just one of the tactics I go over in Bear Market 2020: The Survival Blueprint. In it, I outline what I believe are the seven essential tactics every American should take right now, before things take a turn for the worse. To find out how to get my book, click here.P.S. Folks spend their entire lives saving for retirement, but very few ever spend time thinking about how to protect their capital when things go south. Even a relatively minor decline of 20% could set your retirement back several years or more. That's why, for a limited time, I'd like to rush you a copy of my new book, Bear Market 2020: The Survival Blueprint.When it comes to the stock market, the biggest mistake most people are making right now is … doing nothing. Don't wait for the news media to tell you the stock market has fallen by 20%. By then it will be too late. Learn how to claim your copy of Bear Market 2020 by clicking here.Eric Fry is an award-winning stock picker with numerous "10-bagger" calls -- in good markets AND bad. How? By finding potent global megatrends … before they take off. And when it comes to bear markets, you'll want to have his "blueprint" in hand before stocks go south. Eric does not own the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 Utility Stocks to Buy That Offer Juicy Dividends * 10 Gold and Silver Stocks to Profit Off 2020's Fear Trade * 3 Top Companies That Should Be More Careful With Your Data The post How the Smart Money Is Preparing for the Next Financial Storm appeared first on InvestorPlace.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3bjhi5f

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