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As a librarian I support this message ☺️

Libraries are the fucking best. You can just go there. And sit. And read. And do other stuff but I'm reading atm so that's my example. And it's free.

#libraries #public libraries #library #librarians #books reading #library reading

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GORGEOUS art created especially for Out of Time by the immeasurably talented Talita Asami!

Out of Time is a 6th/7th year Horcrux hunt rewrite. It's a WIP updating 2x a week.

It's the third in a series, but is the primary work. The prequel works explore Hermione propositioning him to lose her virginity and their subsequent inability to keep their hands off each other. Lots of fun, but not necessary for plot.

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Hermione knew when the war comes, she should have certain boxes checked in advance. She didn't expect to fall for the person she propositioned, someone who only earned the role because he was (a) fit and (b) not a friendship she'd be risking with a good shag. Now they're hiding it from Harry, Ron, and everyone else, while Draco balances his growing obsession with Hermione alongside his mission deadline to allow a Death Eater breach of the castle. Featuring possessive and dangerous Draco, BAMF Hermione, jealous Ron, good friend Ginny, double/triple/quadruple agent Snape, good Slytherins (Theo, Pansy, and Blaise) and very, very bad ones, and a little T.S. Eliot. Still to come: castle invasion, locket retrieval, ill-fated camping, snake encounters, and Horcrux hunting - complete with all the toxic infestation and mental poisoning the Horcruxes bring along for the ride.

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Somebody: Hey, sorry I’m late. I hope you weren’t waiting long

Me, with all the passion of a social media influencer doing a sponsorship: It’s okay, I don’t mind waiting, because I have Libby! Libby is a free app that lets me access my local public library’s entire catalogue of ebooks and audiobooks on my phone for free! Plus, I can upload multiple library cards and compare wait time across networks, so I get the books I want when I want them! My local library network has a deal with other library networks across the state, so with one card I can access over half a dozen collections! Libby also saves my place if I return a book without finishing it and then check it out again later. How convenient!

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Haven't seen this pointed out yet but do you know what you can do if you run out of shows to watch? Read a book.

Do you know where you can get free books (and movies, audiobooks, and cds)? Public libraries.

Do you know what is currently under attack by many parts of our government and could really use your support? Public libraries.

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I’d best be seeing that anti JKR energy for this twilight show too bc Smeyer continuing to profit off the Quileute tribe is not cute

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haunted barbie rollout

ghost bride barbie (released 10/11/2012)

vampire bride barbie (released 10/3/2013)

zombie bride barbie (released 9/28/2015)

mistress of the manor barbie (released 9/15/2014)

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Welp, the Missouri House of Legislatures just voted to defund public libraries.

I’m honestly shocked and dismayed and heartbroken.  Like, I knew things were bad, but I didn’t think it was this bad already.

I’m also quite frankly shocked at how small the state budget for libraries was in the first place ($4.5 million).  I’ve visited so many quality libraries all across Missouri that do so much for their communities.  When I was a social worker, the local library was always the first place I’d visit in the communities I worked in, because I knew they had good services to offer and could help me get connected to other local supports.  Like, even from just a heartless financial standpoint, I can guarantee public libraries are worth the money.

I’m just really sad right now.

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I used to work for a trade book reviewer where I got paid to review people's books, and one of the rules of that review company is one that I think is just super useful to media analysis as a whole, and that is, we were told never to critique media for what it didn't do but only for what it did.

So, for instance, I couldn't say "this book didn't give its characters strong agency or goals". I instead had to say, "the characters in this book acted in ways that often felt misaligned with their characterization as if they were being pulled by the plot."

I think this is really important because a lot of "critiques" people give, if subverted to address what the book does instead of what it doesn't do, actually read pretty nonsensical. For instance, "none of the characters were unique" becomes "all of the characters read like other characters that exist in other media", which like... okay? That's not really a critique. It's just how fiction works. Or "none of the characters were likeable" becomes "all of the characters, at some point or another, did things that I found disagreeable or annoying" which is literally how every book works?

It also keeps you from holding a book to a standard it never sought to meet. "The world building in this book simply wasn't complex enough" becomes "The world building in this book was very simple", which, yes, good, that can actually be a good thing. Many books aspire to this. It's not actually a negative critique. Or "The stakes weren't very high and the climax didn't really offer any major plot twists or turns" becomes "The stakes were low and and the ending was quite predictable", which, if this is a cute romcom is exactly what I'm looking for.

Not to mention, I think this really helps to deconstruct a lot of the biases we carry into fiction. Characters not having strong agency isn't inherently bad. Characters who react to their surroundings can make a good story, so saying "the characters didn't have enough agency" is kind of weak, but when you flip it to say "the characters acted misaligned from their characterization" we can now see that the *real* problem here isn't that they lacked agency but that this lack of agency is inconsistent with the type of character that they are. a character this strong-willed *should* have more agency even if a weak-willed character might not.

So it's just a really simple way of framing the way I critique books that I think has really helped to show the difference between "this book is bad" and "this book didn't meet my personal preferences", but also, as someone talking about books, I think it helps give other people a clearer idea of what the book actually looks like so they can decide for themselves if it's worth their time.

Update: This is literally just a thought exercise to help you be more intentional with how you critique media. I'm not enforcing this as some divine rule that must be followed any time you have an opinion on fiction, and I'm definitely not saying that you have to structure every single sentence in a review to contain zero negative phrases. I'm just saying that I repurposed a rule we had at that specific reviewer to be a helpful tool to check myself when writing critiques now. If you don't want to use the tool, literally no one (especially not me) can or wants to force you to use it. As with all advice, it is a totally reasonable and normal thing to not have use for every piece of it that exists from random strangers on the internet. Use it to whatever extent it helps you or not at all.

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"why are people who do cool things always so weird"

i have a startling truth to keep from you... about the relationship between cool and weird

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kazuki girlbossed his way into literally forgetting that miri had other parents. my man literally said I am the malewife and that means I was the one that carried miri thank you

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18 Cozy Mystery Books by POC (People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. This is our retrospective book list for Episode 007 - Cozy Mysteries.

The Plot Is Murder by V.M. Burns

In the Dog House by V.M. Burns

Murder, Mayhem, and a Fine Man by Claudia Mair Burney

The Noodle Shop Mystery Series by Vivien Chien

A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette

Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis

Mama Solves A Murder by Nora DeLoach

A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint

Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon

Going Nowhere Fast by Gar Anthony Haywood

The Company You Keep by Angela Henry

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (forthcoming, May 2021)

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Mayhem & Mass by Olivia Matthews

Deep Fried Trouble by Tyora Moody

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely

The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu

Aunty Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu

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The Ultimate Dark Academia Book Recommendation Guide Ever

The title of this post is clickbait. I, unfortunately, have not read every book ever. Not all of these books are particularly “dark” either. However, these are my recommendations for your dark academia fix. The quality of each of these books varies. I have limited this list to books that are directly linked to the world of academia and/or which have a vaguely academic setting.

Dark Academia staples:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum

Vita Nostra by Maryna Dyachenko

Dark academia litfic or contemporary:

Bunny by Mona Awad

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

White Ivy by Susie Yang

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates

Attribution by Linda Moore

Dark academia thrillers or horror:

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Dark academia fantasy/sci-fi:

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

Dark academia romance:

Gothikana by RuNyx

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Dark academia YA or MG:

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Crave by Tracy Wolff

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Dark academia miscellaneous:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

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Soup season 🥣

Sweet vegan butternut squash soup

Classic lentil soup

Cream of mushroom soup

Cream of broccoli soup

Classic potato soup

Beer cheese soup

Broccoli cheddar soup

Creamy tomato bisque

Potato leek soup

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Fred and Velma going "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" is a love language.

Velma saying "What a ham" about Scooby and calling him and Shaggy "chickens (affectionate)" is a love language.

Shaggy and Scooby solving mysteries with their friends even though they're constantly scared to death is a love language.

The others being used to Daphne's danger-prone-ness and always coming to her rescue is a love language.

Scooby being a scaredy-cat but always coming to the rescue when his friends are in trouble is a love language.

Fred laughing at Shaggy's jokes and sniping at people for scaring Scooby is a love language.

Velma switching whether she tags along with Fred and Daphne or Shaggy and Scooby is a love language.

Shaggy and Scooby stealing each other's food but always going back for the other when he's in trouble is a love language.

These people just love each other so much and I am emotional about it.