#July 2021 tbr
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Using this to justify my irrational hold-requesting
#ive done very well in Short Books June!#knocked 4 books off the TBR and read 2 manga#working on book 5#next month is going to be Fuck the TBR List July i guess. which may or may not be a bad thing#i just kinda feel like i want to reread all the books i read in spring of 2021?#like you couldn't pay me to go back in time to then but i did read a bunch of bangers in a row and i want to reread all of em now lol#also i just discovered bookoutlet has some of them...and my birthday is coming up...#anyway reminding myself that i can always send books back unread if too many come out at once 😌 libraries are the best
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So I like Kate Quinn. I love the way she writes unsung women in history—not just that she writes them, but that she takes the time to flesh out their historical context. Women (people) don't just wake up and suddenly find out that they're a spy or a code breaker or an opera singer, after all. They're shaped by their time and their culture and their upbringing, and they have to navigate their present, at its best and its worst. Quinn makes sure that's true for her novels.
I also love that Quinn has a way of pulling you gently along so that suddenly you look up and you've finished the entire book. Her prose is strong, her plots are great, and her characters are compelling, but they never feel fast. There's time taken to build things up and build them up, to give small details and day-to-day lives. It's immersive without being grim. And yet, like I said, I get addicted. The longest I think I've taken to read one of her books is three days. Usually it's two.
Which is why you should listen when I say this is one of her best.* The vibrancy of the characters is a notch up. The topics she's tackling are wider ranging and so the research feels deeper. Her ability to look at the 1950s, see how complicated they were, and encapsulate that in the boarding house setting was marvelous. The structure was a step up too. And the way she spun the characters off each other and developed their friendships? She's always been good at that but again….
The basic plot, for those who haven't had this on their TBR for six months, which is probably most of you: it's 1950 in Washington, D.C., and a new woman has moved into a depressing boardinghouse in a seedy neighbourhood. Over the next few years, she brings the residents together through a secret dinner club, and then somebody is killed. (They all have secrets; it could be anyone, and anyone might have done it.)
The other boarders shine light on facets of the era: the British army wife, the Hungarian refugee, the pro-McCarthy Texan, the athlete, the plus-sized secretary who grew up in a Hooverville, the cop's daughter who's turned her back on her family, the imaginative teen son of the landlady and his kid sister, the young widow. (Not to mention the side characters who all drift in and out of the women's lives.) They shouldn't have anything in common and they shouldn't like each other, and yet there is so much found family in this. So much wholesome comfort and people helping each other fix problems. So much arguing and so much unity.
(It surprises me not at all that this book was Quinn's reaction to the fear and anger that was 2020–2021.)
And I've waxed on enough. Quinn's hit a home run, to use one of Bea's sports metaphors, not only in terms of setting and character and plot, but also in general everything else. It balances the darker parts of the 1950s with their hopefulness for the future and the found family of the house. It talks about a lot of stuff that gets glossed over in the standard pop culture '50s, and while it doesn't dig as deep into some (marginalization) issues as it could, I understand why Quinn left the depth of those tales to people with lived experience.
If I say more, I'll be truly spoiling the experience of reading this, so please, if you're going to read a Kate Quinn book this summer, make it this one.
Out July 9.
*Of her 20th century novels; I haven't read her Romans and Borgias.
#book reviews#book recommendations#book covers#adult booklr#booklr#historical fiction#upcoming releases#2024 releases#the briar club#kate quinn#my photos#read in 2024
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Reading guide Ghostmaker
First Appearance: Batman (Vol. 3) #100
Created by: James Tynion IV (writer), Jorge Jiménez (artist)
Batman: The Knight
All this saga is Batman and Ghostmaker past/love/break up story/training arc
BTK 1-3
BTK #4 April 19, 2022
BTK #5 May 17, 2022
BTK #6 June 21, 2022
BTK #7
BTK #8 August 16, 2022
BTK #9 September 20, 2022
BTK #10 to be released
Joker war Finale
Batman (Vol. 3) #100 October 06, 2020
GHOST STORIES
#102 November 03, 2020
#103 November 17, 2020
#104 December 01, 2020
#105 December 15, 2020
The Cowardly Lot
#106 March 02, 2021
#107 April 06, 2021
#108 May 04, 2021
#109 June 01, 2021
#110 July 06, 2021
#111 August 03, 2021
Batman 2021 Annual November 30, 2021
Fear State
#112 September 07, 2021
#113 September 21, 2021
#114 October 05, 2021
#115 October 19, 2021
#116 November 02, 2021
#117 November 16, 2021
With the Tie ins: NO GHOSTMAKER IN THIS NUMBER
Batman: Fear State Alpha #1 August 2021
Batman: Fear State Omega #1 December 2021
Batman #112-117 (MAIN) September 2021–November 2021
Batman Secret Files: Miracle Molly #1 September 22, 2021
Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 #1 October 2021
Batman Secret Files: The Gardener #1 November 2021
Batman: Urban Legends #8-9 October 2021–November 2021
Catwoman (vol. 5) #34-37 August 2021–November 2021-->Khoa in catwoman #36-37
Detective Comics (vol. 1) #1043-1045 September 2021–November 2021
Harley Quinn (vol. 4) #7-9 August 2021–November 2021
I Am Batman #2-3 August 2021-November 2021
Nightwing (vol. 4) #84-86 September 2021–November 2021
Not to be confuse with Future State: The Next Batman #1-4; Future State: Dark Detective #1-3; Future State: Nightwing #1-2. Similar to fear state not the same.
The Abyss
Joshua Williamson (writer)
#118 December 07, 2021
#119-120
#121 March 01, 2022
#124 June 07, 2022 -> it happens after Shadow war.
Batman 2022 Annual by Ed Brisson May 31, 2022
Shadow War
Shadow War: Alpha #1 March 29, 2022
Batman #122 April 5, 2022
Deathstroke Inc. #8 April 26, 2022
Robin #13 April 26, 2022
Batman #123 May 3, 2022
Shadow War Zone #1 May 17, 2022
Deathstroke Inc. #9 May 24, 2022
Robin #14 May 24, 2022
Shadow War: Omega #1 May 31, 2022
BATMAN INC
Batman Incorporated #1 TBR on October 11, 2022 (by Ed Brisson)
others: (I havent read them yet)
Death of the Justice League (Justice League #75)
DC pride 2021 and 2022
Catwoman #38
Batman: Urban Legends #11-13
Infinite frontier #0 (goes before The Cowardly Lot)
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hello - don’t feel like you have to answer this - i really admire how much you read and the variety of books you review. i am trying to read more in 2023, but i have a hard time finding things i like and an even harder time finishing books that don’t grab me by the 70ish page mark. do you mind sharing bit of insight on how you find what you like and, more to the point, how you get yourself to finish a book that you know is going to be a 2 star review maximum well before you’re done?
anon i am SO sorry for letting this rot in my inbox for over a month, i genuinely have not had the time to give you the answer you deserve. this is going to be long, so i'm going to divide it into two main parts
part i: how to find things you like.
the easiest advice i can give is just to think about books you like and what you enjoy about them. my favourite genre is historical fiction, but i like a very specific type of historical fiction that i have difficulty explaining bc it's vibes-based. largely queer historical fiction that interrogates its setting rather than using it as a backdrop for modern characters in period clothing; i'm not huge on historical family sagas, but i do love when the style is a little fucky. i like reading classics, mainly mid-late 19th century and mid-20th century ones as historical artifacts, i like comparing and contrasting similar texts like i'm writing a book report, and i like purple prose. i like some fantasy and sci-fi but not a lot because i'm a big dumb-dumb with complex worldbuilding and think that some genres, like urban fantasy are just a little silly, this is my subjective taste. think about what you don't like and why you don't like it with the same amount of thought. that's step 1.
so, you've figured out what you do and do not like. now, to find more of the same. if your author is alive and has a web presence, check out what they recommend on social media, check out books they've blurbed. you may not have the same taste as the authors you like and god knows i've read at least 3 books because alison epstein recommended them and i really liked her debut novel only to find that her taste and mine don't always align. do the same with your friends, even if they may not have the same taste. ask them what a five-star read is to them. ask the little tumblr people in your phone. it's okay to have caveats. whenever i ask for book recs on here, i clarify that i am not interested in reading a little life and i probably never will be.
if you look for book recs everywhere, like i do, you will find them. try something your favourite podcast host recommends! read lists of new releases in a genre of your choice!
anon i don't know what your local library sitch is. mine has a great website for finding similar books. the example i'm using here is my fave read of 2021, the flight portfolio by julie orringer
if you click on the covers it will tell you why these titles are recommended, mostly for shared subject matter and setting, occasionally for stylistic or thematic similarities. none of these books appeal to me, but if i scroll down a little more...
fucking bingo. so, because i am me, i am going to select "lgbtqia" and "historical fiction", maybe "stylistically complex" if i want to narrow it down
it gave me 12 books total that are available at my local library. of the first four, i have read three (adored one, points if you guess which one), and the remaining book is on my tbr.
the storygraph is also fantastic for recommendations, though like all recommendations, they're hit-or-miss. if you have an account, which i recommend, and i also recommend you add me if you do @/kitnotmarlowe because that way you can keep up with the saga of me unintentionally reading books where lesbians have threesomes and a ghost is involved somehow. but if you have an account, you get recommendations right on your homepage that you can filter by length, genre, mood etc
sorry this is 5 px i had to zoom out to get all the available options. you can also sort your reading preferences including fave genres (up to 5), the kind of books you like reading (open-ended and comma separated), characteristics you appreciate most (up to 3), genres you aren't currently interested in (as many as you want, i currently have 26), things that turn you off books the most (up to 3), and books that you're never in the mood for (as many as you want, the only one i have marked is 'relaxing'). you can ask for specific recommendations without changing your preferences if you want something specific NOW and you have the option of browsing similar books for any of the books in their database
now that that's out of the way, onto...
part ii: how do you finish books that aren't good
here's the secret: you don't have to. life is too short to commit to finishing something you aren't interested in or upset by or simply not vibing with. as a kid i used to be really bad with this and finished every single book i read even if it scared the absolute shit out of me (wuthering high by cara lockwood) or accidentally exposed me to baby's first sex scene (have been trying to remember what book this is for YEARS). if something isn't gripping you by the 70 page mark, put it down. unless you're reading it for school or being paid to review it. sometimes you just don't vibe with a book! maybe you'll pick it up later, maybe you won't and that's fine. i tried reading a historical romance last year but got so distressed by the politics and stupid understanding of suffrage that i quit before i was halfway.
"how you get yourself to finish a book that you know is going to be a 2 star review maximum well before you’re done"
if you look at my worst books of 2022, you'll see that over half of them are dogshit historical mysteries that i finished solely to try and solve the mystery, even if they were written with all the poise and skill of a fast food receipt or utterly nonsensical or colonial in a way i didn't expect to find in the 21st century. i am a hater at heart. i have an entire tag devoted to books i've finished out of spite. sometimes you finish a book you think is dogshit so that you can Tell The World (or at least your friends) that it is dogshit and get all your feelings out and once you have achieved catharsis you can read something new. sometimes you think a book is dogshit and nobody else really agrees and you feel like you're in the twilight zone so you write out your thoughts and release them unto the internet.
i'm of the opinion that a bad book can be as instructive as a great one. you can take apart a bad book and figure out what works (for you personally and for the book from a craft standpoint). this is a pro-litcrit blog even if it's just you writing a 2000 word review of a book approximately 5 people have read JUST so you can send it to a friend and have them empathize with your suffering. taking literature apart is fun! sometimes you have to power through an awful book before you can read a great one
sorry that this is so long but i hope it was a bit helpful. my inbox is always open to requests for recommendations no matter how niche. go forth and read widely!
#anonymous#answered#long post#lit#i wanted to include a section about finding smaller publishers you like and combing through their wares but this is long enough#if you want that separate post on publishers...hmu
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Date Read: July 2021
“Sometimes reality comes crashing down on you. Other times reality simply waits, patiently, for you to run out of the energy it takes to deny it.“
•
I’m usually pretty cautious around books with a ton of hype, but Evelyn Hugo lives up to it all! This read kept me guessing the whole time, and I looked forward to every new twist the plot took. If you don’t already have this on your TBR list, add it expeditiously! This is one you won’t be able to put down.
I’m a huge fan of stories with dual timelines and unreliable narrators, which Evelyn Hugo definitely is. She reveals truth after truth about her scandalous life, while saving her darkest secrets to be revealed at the end. It’s impossible not to be invested in the stakes of her past, even though you know much of how her life turns out. Some interesting style choices, including a whole chapter in second person. I would’ve liked to see more of certain side characters, and maybe a peek further into Monique’s future to tie up some loose plot points. Overall, one of my best reads of the year!
•
E’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
#booklover#books#bookish#bookobsessed#bookaddict#booklr#books and reading#book reactions#book review#romance#seven husbands of evelyn hugo#taylor jenkins reid
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I posted 564 times in 2022
That's 564 more posts than 2021!
257 posts created (46%)
307 posts reblogged (54%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@dracereads
@therefugeofbooks
@thecasualbookreviewer
@yourneighborhoodbibliophile
@paperbackpropensity
I tagged 507 of my posts in 2022
Only 10% of my posts had no tags
#booklr - 191 posts
#favorite quotes - 140 posts
#book quotes - 118 posts
#adam silvera - 64 posts
#replies - 53 posts
#book talk - 44 posts
#book review - 38 posts
#alexis hall - 35 posts
#book photography - 31 posts
#book quote - 30 posts
Longest Tag: 136 characters
#and if you excuse me im gonna take the rest of the month to re read rwarb and boyfriend material to cheer me up after all this sad books
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
Currently reading:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
40 notes - Posted October 7, 2022
#4
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Another case of a book that I couldn't put down once I picked it up.
It's fun, it's witty, it's touching and it has one of my favorite tropes, the Fake Dating to Lovers, both characters are deeply flawded and they complement each other very well; the story is so well written and has such fun dinamics between their main and side characters and touching moments that will stay with you for a long time.
As soon as I was done reading it I wanted to read it all over again, and when I found out there was sequel coming out in August I couldn't be happier!
If you're a fan of romantic comedy and queer books, this is a must read.
43 notes - Posted May 17, 2022
#3
💖❤️ HAPPY 🧡💛💚 PRIDE 💙💜
I tried my best to make a rainbow out of my queer books 😅
Red, White and Royal Blue 💖💖💖💖💖
What if it’s us 🧡🧡🧡🧡
Here’s to us 💛💛💛💛💛
The Song of Achilles 💚💚💚💚💚
Boyfriend Material 💙💙💙💙💙
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World 💙💙💙💙💙
If this Gets Out 💜TBR💜
I’ll take any recs you might have of LGTBQ+ books!
43 notes - Posted June 1, 2022
#2
Sunny reading tag!
(I took some questions from @lyralit ‘s sunny reading asks and made it a tag)
🥞 favourite book? and why
Stardust by Neil Gaiman.
it was the first book by this author that I bought, and it immediately made me fall in love with his style and storytelling, it's been on my top ever since.
🌾 tropes that make you go "asfgrthgj"
Enemies to lovers, fake dating is just *chef kiss*
🌻 comfort book
The Vampire Diaries, Awakening by LJ Smith.
Not much because of the contents of the book, but it brings me back to a nostalgic part of my life that I miss sometimes.
🌙 death in a book you would take back
Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries, The Return by LJ Smith.
I cried, hard, and after all the growth he had gone through
💡 book you wish you could read again for the first time
Red, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuinston
I wanna experience all that joy for the first time all over again, I had such a great time reading this book.
Tagging: (If they wanna do it of course) @yourneighborhoodbibliophile @profiterole-reads @therefugeofbooks @livinginsideabookshelf @dracereads @shallwehaveteanow
48 notes - Posted July 6, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
It was odd. As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarrassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. She found that a great relief.
Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
2,237 notes - Posted June 9, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
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End of Year Wrap-up:
Another year down! This year, I read 171 books and DNF’d 24 for a total of 195 books, which is my largest reading year since I started tracking carefully! I’m slightly flabbergasted. I read a bunch of awesome books - the Storygraph says that I read 37 5-star books!! (And that’s even being more discerning about which books I give 5-stars to...) Despite that, my average rating this year was 3.94/5, which is worse than last year but not by a ton. I think that reflects the large proportion of DNFs I had this year (12.3% of my reads in 2022 vs. 4.1% in 2021).
As my charts show above, I read mostly female authors (77%), while my non-binary and genderqueer author percentage decreased slightly to 4%. Roughly 35% of the books I read were by authors of color, and 56% were queer in some fashion. This is roughly the same as it was last year, and while I’d still like to increase the number of books I read by authors of color, I’m pretty happy all the same.
I’m really loving the mood map that the Storygraph generated this year - my reads slowly but consistently got lighter in tone over the course of the year, probably due to the amount of romance I’ve been reading! I’m really loving both contemporary/historical romances as well as genre romances, and they tend to be lighter than the rest of what I read.
As far as genres go, my top 3 are fantasy, romance, and fantasy romance! The biggest surprise is that nonfiction beat out science fiction romances, but that makes sense because I read quite a few science and conservation nonfiction books this year, a genre I plan to keep reading next year. However, my highest rated genre (with more than one book!) was science fiction thrillers, which I’ve been getting really into lately! My lowest rated genre this year was mysteries - I only read duds in the mystery genre this year.
Finally, a few misc stats:
I re-read 10 books
My books were on average 327 pages long
The difference between me and the average reader on ratings was 3/4 of a star
The books I read this year were on my TBR for an average of 402 days
For more detail on the books I read this year, feel free to check out my monthly recaps, linked below!
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
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Smorgasbord Posts from my Archives - Previous Reviews 2021 - #Paranormal, #UrbanFantasy, #Shortstories -Things Old and Forgotten by Mae Clair
Smorgasbord Posts from my Archives – Previous Reviews 2021 – #Paranormal, #UrbanFantasy, #Shortstories -Things Old and Forgotten by Mae Clair
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing my reviews for books I posted between July and December 2021.
Good books deserve to be showcased on a regular basis and I hope that it might entice you to either move the books up your groaning TBR’s or add the books to its burden!
Very pleased to share my review from December 2021 for the short story collection by Mae Clair – Things Old and…
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I posted 2,378 times in 2022
57 posts created (2%)
2,321 posts reblogged (98%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@rinezha
@satellitesunset
@justasmallbloginabigklainefandom
@blog-carmex
@backslashdelta
I tagged 1,469 of my posts in 2022
Only 38% of my posts had no tags
#heartstopper - 136 posts
#fanart - 96 posts
#klaine - 61 posts
#taylor swift - 58 posts
#kurt hummel - 52 posts
#kurtbastian - 37 posts
#a little life - 34 posts
#glee - 33 posts
#blaine anderson - 33 posts
#heartstopper spoilers - 31 posts
Longest Tag: 141 characters
#i’m going to listen to smooth criminal gcv (it’s the only way i can ever listen to a mj song again now that i know some of mj’s backstory 😬)
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
Mid year book freak out tag:
Best book you’ve read so far in 2022?
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I made both my mother and sister read this book, that’s how much I loved it. I love a morally grey bisexual disaster and I adore TJR’s writing! It was one of the first dual POV books I’ve read where the voices were very distinct, which is telling of great writing.
Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022:
Heartstopper Volume 2 by Alice Oseman. The Paris Trip is still my favourite part of Heartstopper and I’m looking forward to the day that mess of a trip will be displayed on screen!
New release you haven’t read yet, but want to:
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong. It’s a poetry collection and it’s gay and I want to get my hands on a copy soon. It’s also my only 2022 release on my tbr 😭.
Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’m 🤏🏻 close to preordering a copy. Also the reviews that have been coming through of people who’ve already read the book are giving high praise so that’s getting me more excited.
Biggest disappointment:
I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman. But also I knew the premise (boy bands and fans) wasn’t something I really enjoy so it wasn’t a surprise I didn’t love this book. Also I read this right after A Little Life so Alice Oseman had no chance sorry.
Biggest surprise:
The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. I put off reading this book for years after buying it on a whim in Canada and it was genuinely great! Also I started it in 2021 and couldn’t get into it but once I pushed past chapter 2 and the adventure begun it was very interesting. It also went in a different direction to what I expected which was a nice surprise. Also I hadn’t heard a lot about the book, but in the end I gave it 4.5 stars.
Favourite new author (debut or new to you):
Brit Bennet - I LOVED The Vanishing Half and I want to read more of her books! So far this year I’ve mostly read from authors I’ve read before this year.
Newest fictional crush:
See the full post
11 notes - Posted June 16, 2022
#4
I’m experiencing so much joy rereading this fic and I’ve forgotten that reading can make me so happy.
11 notes - Posted March 21, 2022
#3
I will be in the US so soon!!!!!!!!
11 notes - Posted July 13, 2022
#2
I have officially finished Uni 😅🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
12 notes - Posted June 4, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
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I posted 3,047 times in 2022
That's 22 more posts than 2021!
132 posts created (4%)
2,915 posts reblogged (96%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@a-ramblinrose
@therefugeofbooks
@leer-reading-lire
@mostlyghostie
@stefito0o
I tagged 3,045 of my posts in 2022
#who queue? - 2,870 posts
#book covers - 915 posts
#stacks of books - 652 posts
#bookshelves - 601 posts
#cover art - 432 posts
#spines - 386 posts
#open books - 333 posts
#book recommendations - 295 posts
#mugs - 209 posts
#bookstores - 203 posts
Longest Tag: 112 characters
#lords noodle and doodle came back and there was the most spectacular collective accident scene i've read in ages
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
2022 Release TBR
Where the Drowned Girls Go - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - January 4
Heartstopper, Volume Four - Alice Oseman (YA romance) - January 4 🏳️🌈
Battle of the Linguist Mages - Scotto Moore (contemporary fantasy) - January 11 friend says it’s probably not my thing
Anatomy - Dana Schwartz (YA historical fantasy) - January 18
The Servant Mage - Kate Elliott (fantasy) - January 18 🏳️🌈
Love and Other Disasters - Anita Kelly (romance) - January 18 🏳️🌈
Some by Virtue Fall - Alexandra Rowland (fantasy) - January 25 🏳️🌈
Hot and Sour Suspects - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) - January 25 BIPOC
The Christie Affair - Nina de Gramont (historical fiction) - February 1
Bluebird - Ciel Pierlot (science fiction) - February 8 🏳️🌈
Dead Silence - S.A. Barnes (science fiction/horror) - February 8
Age of Ash - Daniel Abraham (fantasy) - February 15
Carolina Built - Kianna Alexander (historical fiction) - February 22 BIPOC
Gallant - V.E. Schwab (YA fantasy) - March 1
The River of Silver - S.A. Chakraborty (historical fantasy) - March 1 BIPOC
Spelunking Through Hell - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - March 1
Umboi Island - J.J. Dupuis (mystery) - March 8 🇨🇦
Memory's Legion - James S.A. Corey (science fiction) - March 15 I’m three books behind on the series, no way am I getting to this this year
When We Were Birds - Ayanna Llord Banwo (fabulism) - March 15 BIPOC
The Cartographers - Peng Shepherd (mystery) - March 15
How to Take Over the World - Ryan North (science/humour) March 15 🇨🇦
Comeuppance Served Cold - Marion Deeds (historical fantasy) - March 22
The Diamond Eye - Kate Quinn (historical fiction) - March 29
The Wolf Den - Elodie Harper (historical fiction) - March 29
Conversations with People Who Hate Me - Dylan Marron (memoir) - March 29
Portrait of a Thief - Grace C. Li (thriller) - April 5 BIPOC
Shadows of Berlin - David R. Gillham (historical fiction) - April 5
Amongst Our Weapons - Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy) - April 12 BIPOC
Persians - Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (history) - April 12
See the full post
97 notes - Posted January 1, 2022
#4
A couple weeks ago I was blessed with a reading copy of A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows, and let me tell you, it should be on every fantasy lover’s TBR for this summer. This is a story about kind, sensible, competent people dealing with assassins and intrigues, about finding love in unexpected places, about healing and unlearning unconscious biases. The writing and the setting are both lush and to be sunk into. It’s a beautiful queer love story, full of gentleness, wonderfully escapist in general, and gave me serious Marvellous Light vibes the whole way through. It’s not without darkness—there’s a very notable rape early on, for instance—but gosh, I need people to read this just so I can squee about it with them.
Out July 26, 2022.
108 notes - Posted May 16, 2022
#3
My dad unhauled a bunch of books before Christmas and let me have my pick of them. A pic of the full stack will be coming, probably in my February wrap-up, but I just had to share this one! Don’t have a date for it, but it was awarded to a technical school student in 1910.
116 notes - Posted February 25, 2022
#2
The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper is a refreshing take on historical fiction. Not only is it set in Roman Pompeii rather than northwestern Europe in the 19th or 20th centuries, but it’s centered on enslaved sex workers and told in modern language. (No thou’s or attempts to mimic Latin here!) The author has done a great job of bringing the ancient world to life and making it feel nearer than it is.
The book focuses on Amara, born into a middle-class Greek family and sold into slavery after family tragedy. As she does her best to better her circumstances at any cost, we get not only a portrait of a living Roman city with its pubs, parties, clothing stores, food stalls, and everyday injustices, but also a wonderful sense of the friendships and competition within the brothel she works in. I loved seeing how the women there formed a community among themselves, and how they fit into the wider society (or didn’t). I got the real sense that Harper had not only delved deep into how Roman society would’ve worked at the street level, but had done her diligence regarding the lives of (modern) sex workers too.
I also thought that Harper did a good job portraying the characters as complex, fallible, and human. She gives her female characters, especially Amara, the full range of emotions and all are believably imperfect. The worst of the men get sympathetic moments and the best of them, damning ones. They all feel of their time too—relatable or familiar, but also holding attitudes and beliefs that remind you this isn’t a modern story. (For instance, it’s clear that Amara knows slavery sucks for all enslaved people, but she never quite questions why slavery is even a thing.)
All in all, reading this felt like reading about real people leading real lives much more often than it felt like reading a novel. It’s a slowish read that feels at times like it’s digressing or offering up set pieces of Pompeiian life, but those moments all get woven back in neatly by the end. (It’s also slowish because of emotional drain. I couldn’t binge-read because bad things kept happening.) I found the ethical dilemmas compelling, though—if you’d damned no matter what, what’s the right option?—and enjoyed both how Harper told this story and woven in her themes and critiques. It’s definitely been one of the highlights of my reading month and I hope it gets a lot of attention once it’s out.
Note: while this book is definitely pro-sex work and has a lot of sympathy for those who find themselves forced into that life or exploited, it’s still set within an incredibly misogynistic society that saw no problem with degrading or harming women. If harassment, issues with consent or boundaries, or sexual violence are things you don’t want to read about, this might not be the book for you. They’re rarely graphic, but definitely prevalent.
122 notes - Posted February 21, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
Hello! I saw your 2022 Release TBR come across my dash, and I don't know if the Pride flags are to denote that the author or that the book itself is queer, but in either case, Seanan McGuire can absolutely have a flag :-)
Thanks! The flags are to denote queer characters here, not queer authors (for brevity and minimal confusion). I'm trying to be responsible and not put flags on books I'm not 100% sure of. For instance, I know Where the Drowned Girls Go is Cora's book, but I don't remember if Cora is canonically queer? Same goes for the characters in Seasonal Fears and for Alice in Spelunking Through Hell. If they're confirmed, I'll be adding that flag during my wrap-up, for sure.
129 notes - Posted January 15, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
Tagged by @aliteraryprincess and @franticvampirereads, thank you!
Tagging @lizziethereader @thelivebookproject @rae-reads @thesheepthewolf @doughtah @howlsmovinglibrary
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Added to tbr 2-29-2024
Love Novel by Ivana Sajko (Pub. July 2015)
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Pub. March 2021)
The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Ruști (Pub. February 2017)
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2024 Reading List
January:
A Court of Hearts & Hunger- Rebecca F Kenney
A City of Emeralds & Envy- Rebecca F Kenney
A Hunt so Wild & Cruel- Rebecca F Kenney
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February:
4. Viciously Yours- Jamie Applegate Hunter
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March:
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April:
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May:
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June:
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July:
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August:
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September:
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October:
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November:
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December:
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Reading Goals: 50-75 books
Reading Challenges: Read complete series by Sarah J Maas, Rebecca F. Kenney, R.A. Salvatore, and Grace Draven.
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I've decided to go rogue this year and not set up a pre read tbr since I deviated from it pretty hardcore in 2023. I want to read what I want to read without feeling strained or pressured by a list. Now, that being said I will have a tbr in my drafts of books I want to read and pick them off as I see fit. Otherwise, I'm going hog wild this year.
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2023 Reading List and Reviews- 23
2021-2023- 83 books
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Smorgasbord Posts from my Archives - Previous Reviews 2021 - #Paranormal, #UrbanFantasy, #Shortstories -Things Old and Forgotten by Mae Clair
Smorgasbord Posts from my Archives – Previous Reviews 2021 – #Paranormal, #UrbanFantasy, #Shortstories -Things Old and Forgotten by Mae Clair
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing my reviews for books I posted between July and December 2021.
Good books deserve to be showcased on a regular basis and I hope that it might entice you to either move the books up your groaning TBR’s or add the books to its burden!
Very pleased to share my review from December 2021 for the short story collection by Mae Clair – Things Old and…
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I posted 3,571 times in 2022
That's 3,333 more posts than 2021!
27 posts created (1%)
3,544 posts reblogged (99%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@kvothbloodless
@domi-de-sade
@little-olliepop
@honeysuckle-venom
@kylorentamovie
I tagged 90 of my posts in 2022
#star stuff - 26 posts
#gideon the ninth - 3 posts
#bp:wf spoilers - 3 posts
#black panther - 3 posts
#black panther: wakanda forever - 2 posts
#to bring to therapy - 2 posts
#black panther wakanda forever - 2 posts
#tlt - 2 posts
#wakanda forever - 2 posts
#the locked tomb - 2 posts
Longest Tag: 124 characters
#oh mine is having to take a super important final for a class i didnt know i was registered in and didnt attend all semester
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
I'm feeling the big lonely and sad tonight. My ex's (whom I live with as a sort of roommate situation) new partner is over and I can hear them laughing. I don't want to hear them doing anything.
3 notes - Posted April 27, 2022
#4
July Readathon
Much like so many others, I too have been inspired by @logarithmicpanda to do a readathon! I'm super excited as I have not had time to read like this in like forever.
I'm going to do a mix of fiction and nonfiction, crossing books off of my TBR (collected over the last four years of grad school) left and right.
My list is as follows (in no particular order & many of these books are quite short):
Workshops of Empire by Eric Bennett (I started and finished it today)
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction edited by Sumaya Awad and brian bean
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins
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I can't wait to get started!
4 notes - Posted June 27, 2022
#3
Ik people say that Dead Cells doesn't get really hard until about 2BC or even 3BC, but fucking a, man. 1BC is kicking my ass! I can BARELY make it to the first boss again.
5 notes - Posted August 16, 2022
#2
If you put "do not cry" on your daily to-do list, you know it'll be a rough one
5 notes - Posted May 12, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
I started reading Harrow the Ninth and I'm feeling very confused about what's happening. Maybe I need to read Gideon again?? Or should I just keep pushing through? I don't know how much confusion is normal for people lol
114 notes - Posted September 2, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
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TBR Pile Review: Blood of the Chosen, b y Django Wexler
TBR Pile Review: Blood of the Chosen, b y Django Wexler
Paperback, 480 pagesPublished July 7th 2022 by Head of Zeus (first published October 5th 2021) ISBN13: 9781788543248Edition Language: EnglishSeries: Burningblade & Silvereye #2
Blurb
Standing on opposite sides of a looming civil war, two siblings discover that not even ties of blood will keep them from splitting the world in two.
Four hundred years ago, a cataclysmic war cracked the world open…
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#Blood of the CHosen#Book review#Burningblade & Silvereye book 2#Django Wexler#fantasy#science fiction
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July 2021 TBR (Part Two)
Don't know why, but this new BETA system isn't allowing me to post as many photos as I used to. So here's Part Two of the post:
Here we go again! I don't know why, but June has gone by so slow for me. But hey, next week is July already! We're almost halfway through 2021, which is crazy, isn't it?? So, I thought since I'm on here posting reviews, that I would post my (very hopeful) July TBR. I hope to get to all these books, but we'll see what happens. So, here we go, in no particular order, as per usual.
11. The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
12. Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee
13. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
14. Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
15. If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
16. Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent
17. Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi
18. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
19. Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
So there you go! My hefty hopes of a TBR for July! I hope you have a good month, stay healthy and safe, and happy reading!
#July 2021 tbr#July 2021 tbr part one#the wolf and the woodsman#outrun the moon#the lost apothecary#six crimson cranes#if we were villains#red wolf#kojiki#the essex serpent#half sick of shadows#so so so many books#lets get to it
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