eli-is-reading

[eli-is-reading]

be pro-aging but wear sun screen. sun protection is not beauty industry propaganda it will save you. wear it. or else.

#i should

[eli-is-reading]

may wanted me to write smth for her so here you go

slow dancing

she runs into me full force

she pushes me to the ground then up again.

lifts me high into the air and twirls my senses into blurry silhouettes of movement.

she's excited and never stops tiring.

sometimes i feel the urge to go to the benches and breathe. but she sntaches my arm. "you're not getting rid of me."

i sigh and come back to her,

angrier,

faster,

i push back when she tries to throw me off

i stop

i breathe

i start letting go.

"im not getting rid of you"

i come back to the dance.

slower now, like molasses, like peat, like plants.

it's less attractive, less powerful,

but i can breathe now.

i can move with the rhythm

we're not getting rid of each other yet.

#poems #eliwrites #this is about moving and the last few years and life and all the other fancy adjectives you give poems

[eli-is-reading]

ok so! i finished two books recently and haven't gotten to talk about them

Gideon The Ninth was the first i finished this week (review coming soon!!)

and "A Psalm For The Wild Built" was a lil novella i started monday and finished today while i was sick and had no energy for big stuff. (review also coming soo!!!)

today a friend lent me the goldfinch so I'm trying it out, but I'll probably try to continue and hopefully finish harrow the ninth and the milkyway book! anyways. wish me luck!

#eliread #elirambles

[eli-is-reading]

finished gideon the ninth! reviews and a piece coming soon!

[eli-is-reading]

gideon update: WE DO BONES, MOTHERFUCKER.

#gideon the ninth #books #elirambles #misc

[eli-is-reading]

guys nobody told me this book is sad!!! FUCK

#elirambles

[eli-is-reading]

lasses lads and lards, i bring you:

lesbian necromancers in space

to be continued...

#books #gideon the ninth #queer fiction #i love them so much ok #harrowhark #magnus the fifth #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #i can't wait when they get together they're so funny #gideon the ninth spoilers #eliread #misc #elirambles

[eli-is-reading]

hey! if you want a book for me to read and review and maybe write smth about, you're wlecome to send me asks for future books to read! :)

#elirambles #eliread #books

[eli-is-reading]

a poem about the Book Weyward by Emilia Hart

written by me.

angelica:

she blooms in summer, she

grows by the beck, white specks

on ink-black crows,

feathered quill on parchment

telling stories to your kids,

you try to save them,

held back by coward men,

they try to take your

honor, your power

but you live and die a fighter.

you are womanborn

you are far from home

you sit close by the fire and dance to the moon

and the leaves and the mayflies swarm you,

hold you tight, your baby is here with

you, your guilt too

you do not let either of them go until

you do.

it lives and dies a fighter.

you are medicine, you are

poison poised on a pedestal, your feet nailed on the stone

by a man who doesn't understand what it means to be a fighter,

he lives and dies a coward.

you are crone and mother and maiden

and you crow to you mother who made you

you say she is gone but she is

never far.

she's the mayflies

she's the beck

she's the crows

she's a prologue in your

play, you are the lead,

you work the cast,

your act is almost done, the next up is coming on

and you live and die a fighter.

those who seek to harm

you never let them have the final

word. when mayflies, crows

wings batter them

you let them go

you're sure they won't come back

because they know that

you live and die a fighter.

angelica grows by the beck, she blooms in summer, she is speckled white,

when she

dries, her seeds fall and wait their turn

and she lives and dies a fighter.

#eliwrites #poem #book poem #poetry #angelica plant #weyward #weyward book #weyward emilia hart #emilia hart #crowsbeck #witches

[eli-is-reading]

lil poem from a few months ago:

To The Garlic Sprout In My Windowbox

Red ink

On an oil painted notebook.

Soft cream paper bending

To a hard-pressed ball-point pen.

A trembling hand trying to keep steady.

Earlier;

Screaming nothing

In my head, i opened a window

To find you

growing out. Your newborn-red stalk

Reaching out into a world

That can't wait to love you.

#sidenote: the garlic died a bit ago #but it was a nice companion for me for a few months #hopefully this autumn I'll get to plant it at the actual correct time #eliwrites

[eli-is-reading]

alright, time to try talking about weyward cus i finished it like a we k ago.

SPOILERS ABOUND!!

weyward for anyone who isn't aware is a novel about three generations of witches from the weyward lineage.

altha weyward- a witch on trial in 1619 for the accusation of murdering a man by way of making his cows go insane

violet ayres - the daughter of a viscount, growing up in the midst of the second world war, and her struggle with an abusive father, a younger brother fighting to get their father's affection, and her cousin, a manipulative creepy british army soldier, on temporary leave from libya.

kate ayres - violet's great niece, a young woman who escaped her abusive boyfriend's house in London to her late great aunt's small ancestral cabin in the countryside, named weyward cottage.

these women navigate through their complicated lives in a patriarchal society full of abusive men who try to hurt them as they slowly discover their powers and as we slowly find out about the history of the weyward family along with them.

now, the things I've loved about weyward:

-a LOT

so the word weyward is in reference to the original name for the three witch sisters in macbeth, and the references to their theater origin SHOWS.

the story takes place in and nearby the old town of crow's beck. a lot of the people living there have roots in the town going back to at LEAST the 17th century. that part makes it so that even when we go through different times, we hear the same family names, making a callback to theatrical plays where there is usually a small cast of actors playing multiple characters and joining the chorhses at certain points. it is even mentioned in the book: when kate goes to the village cemetery, she finds the graves have all the same names and thinks of them as a cast of players in a show.

this makes me REALLY want to watch a play based on this book, and i hope as it's getting pretty big online it might actually happen!!

- i loved their concepts of witches and the way they are women from the beginning of humanity with abilities tied to nature and understanding of medicine that help humanity survive. i especially love their connection to insects and the way they even use their connection to animals for sometimes nefarious means that are honestly always pretty well deserved, and creepy in the best sense.

i honestly loved so many things about this book that I can't say everything right now but these two things were some of my faves.

things i would've changed or wish to have seen more of:

- there are motifs of crows all over the book (i mean, the town is literally called crow's beck) and there is even am idea that the family have been raising crows for years and each woman has a specific crow with white specks that is connected to them and follows them around; think familiars - although that name is mentioned as a negative view made by the patriarchy, that's actually also about the name witches and the idea of a "witch's mark" as a symbol of evil.

i really wish they were to talk more about these crows, the idea was super cool and I'd love to have it expanded and the relationship between the weywards and crows to be further examined.

- i honestly have no idea right now of what else I'd change. it was really a great book

final thoughts:

weyward is a lovely book about female empowerment, nature, the problems with the patriarchy, and the way women with strength are treated by a society and men that wish to see themselves at the top of the food chain. it is a book worth reading till the end, because even when it seems everything is painful and bad, it has a fantastic conclusion and a gratifying power take-back for every woman there.

I'm excited to see what emilia hart comes up with next and it is obvious how great of a writer she is, her prose is absolutely beautiful and feels easy to read even when it waxes into poetic.

10 crow feathers out of 10.

#weyward #weyward book #weyward review #book review #emilia hart #review #books #book #novels #witches #feminism #feminist book #elireviews

[eli-is-reading]

hello! my name's eli (he/she) i like to read, i like to write, and i decided i want to do rbbook reviews, live reactions to things i read and see, and post my writing :)

my tags are:

#eliwrites - for when i write

#elireviews - for book reviews and such

#elirambles - for live reactions and thoughts of things

#eliread - for lists of things i read recently and such and so

#misc - offhanded things i find funny

#pinned post #eliwrites #elireviews #elirambles #eliread #misc