#an ode to alice oseman

[person4924]

there are no happy people.

One of the main themes of Alice’s books is that there are no happy people. In Solitaire, Tori says it and thinks it throughout the book, and Alice continues with that theme throughout all of their books. In solitaire, there are no happy people. Micheal isn’t happy, Charlie isn’t happy, Lucas isn’t happy, Becky isn’t happy, Tori isn’t happy. There are no happy people. Radio silence, there are no happy people. Aled isn't happy, Frances isn't happy, Dan isn't happy, Carys isn't happy. There are no happy people. Loveless, there are no happy people. Pip isn't happy, Rooney isn't happy, Sunil isn't happy, Jason isn’t happy, Georgia isn’t happy. There are no happy people. In I was born for this, there are no happy people. Rowan isn't happy, Juliet isn't happy, Angel isn't happy, Lister isn't happy, Jimmy isn't happy. There are no happy people. Heartstopper, there are no happy people. Nick isn't happy, Tao isn't happy, Elle isn't happy, Tara isn't happy, Darcy isn't happy, Charlie isn’t happy. There are no happy people. In every one of Alice’s novels, she starts with a character who isn't happy and knows it, who isn't happy and doesn’t know what to do about it or how to help it. And then throughout the novels, the character learns more about the people around them and realizes that, there are no happy people. Everyone they thought was happy and had perfect lives, doesn’t. And then towards the end of the novel, the character feels less alone in their sadness because they realize they are not the only one. There are no happy people, and that’s what can make the not-happy people happy again.

#im obsessed and cant sleep and on the verge of a mental breakdown #what do you expect #i also wrote this with grammarly so its grammatically correct #an ode to alice oseman #i love you so much #alice oseman #osemanverse #radio silence #i was born for this #loveless #heartstopper #solitaire

[alextbphotography]

"I like to think we would find each other in any universe." –Alice Oseman, Nick and Charlie 💓 // all photos are mine 🌙

#an ode to my new fav series <3 #book quotes #books #books aesthetic #books and reading #reader aesthetic #reading aesthetic #reading #book academia #heartstopper #heartstopper alice oseman #heartstopper series #nick and charlie #photography #my photos #aesthetic #photoset #aesthetic photoset #cozycore #cozy vibes #cozy space #cozy #cozy aesthetic #warmcore #hopecore #autumncore #autumnal #autumn #cozy autumn #autumn cozy

[posi-pan]

pansexual characters that have stayed with me, are favorites, or i think about often 💗💛💙🌈

i don’t know if any other character will be able to come close to the impact of my beloved david rose (schitt’s creek). it was the first time i heard the word pansexual used on screen and the wine analogy is iconic at this point. harry (the thing about harry) is also a big one because name another on-screen pan lead of a new adult m/m romcom. i’ll wait.

while pansexual isn’t used on page in the “ode to pansexuality” all of the above (juno dawson), it represents a conceptualization of pansexuality as an anti-identity/label or an attitude of not wanting or needing the strict, neat boxes that society forces on and expects of us. it speaks to the time when before learning of pansexuality, i had that mindset, and kinda still do. (and that cover?!)

miss meteor (tehlor kay mejia and anna-marie mclemore) has probably the only instance of love being expressed for the word pansexual. so often pan rep is a shoulder shrug situation, where the character doesn’t feel strongly about the word. but this mc says she loved pansexual the moment she heard it. and that’s really important to me, as is her journey of accepting her pansexuality and coming out.

loveless (alice oseman) has a side pansexual discovery storyline, which i always love. the mc’s sexuality arc in our way (t.l. swan) is the only thing i like about the book. a man who was only attracted to men for 30+ years finds himself attracted to women, and through a journey of analyzing his attraction/feelings and dealing with the assumptions/pressures of other people, he realizes and accepts his pansexuality.

honorable mentions: while amy raudenfeld (faking it) and the mc of black iris (elliot wake) aren’t canon pan, they’re mspec characters i read as pan and relate to the portrayal of their sexualities. amy is the first tv character i saw express that sort of label reluctancy and not viewing attraction based in gender. black iris (elliot wake) is one of the first queer books i actively sought out and the mc’s sexuality has that “fuck gender, fuck labels” vibe.

feel free to share what pan or queer characters have spoken to you or stayed with you!

#pansexual #pansexuality #pan pride #pan positivity #pictures #mine #long post #david rose #harry turpin #black iris #amy raudenfeld #miss meteor #our way #all of the above #loveless

[orlamccools]

tagged by the awesome @demerzelolivaw !!

last song- its cringe but ode to sleep by twenty one pilots!

last show- there is this spectacular new show on travel channel called Alaskan Killer Bigfoot and i am unironically obsessed with it. the first season just ended a few weeks ago and i am eagerly awaiting season two

currently reading- right now im currently reading radio silence by alice oseman and the lost village by camilla sten! two very different vibes for sure but im enjoying them both :)

tagging: @claired3lune @cryptidjeepers @officialsimonandgarfunkel

#maddie mumbles #tag game

[britomart]

ok helloo i wasn’t sure if i was going to post this but i listed them out anyway so here it is,,,, more or less every book i read in 2021 (under the cut for ridiculous length)

a study in scarlet by arthur conan doyle, slouching towards bethlehem, the miniaturist by jessie burton, the stranger by albert camus, dirk gently’s holistic detective agency by douglas adams, the double by fyodor dostoevsky, the kite runner by khaled hosseini, the empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo, one day in the life of ivan denisovich by aleksandr solzhenitsyn, rhubaiyat of omar khayyam, say nothing by patrick radden keefe, the martian by andy weir, my sister the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite, the last wish by andrzej spakowski, the martian by andy weir, flowers for algernon by daniel keyes, night sky with exit wounds by ocean vuong, the sailor who fell with grace from the sea by yukio mishima, the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman, the adventures of sherlock holmes by arthur conan doyle, crush by richard siken, stoner by john williams, the buried giant by kazuo ishiguro, frog and toad are friends by arnold lobel, ruin and rising by leigh bardugo, the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky, the communist manifesto by marx and engels, never let me go by kazuo ishiguro, always human by ari north, heartstopper by alice oseman, red white and royal blue by casey mcquiston, perceval by chretien de troyes, these witches don’t burn by isabel sterling, princess princess ever after by kay o’neill, lord of the flies by william golding, legendborn by tracy deonn, the lais of marie de france, diary of a cricket god by shamini flint, if not winter: fragments of sappho translated by anne carson, bloom by kevin panetta, kiki’s delivery service by eiko kadono, something to talk about by meryl wilsner, normal people by sally rooney, useless magic by florence welch, giovanni’s room by james baldwin, letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke, interior chinatown by charles yu, the umbrella academy by gerard way, king artus translated by curt leviant, solitaire by alice oseman, the tea dragon society by kay o’neill, let all the children boogie by sam j. miller, sir gawain and the green knight (various translations), dutch romances iii: five interpolated romances from the lancelot compilation, morien translated by jessie weston, watchmen by alan moore, growing up aboriginal in australia edited by anita heiss, the borrowed by chan ho-kei, the tale of two lovers by aeneas sylvius piccolomini, love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez, the complete poems of william blake, the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger, the waves by virginia woolf, the scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne, oscar wilde and a death of no importance by gyles brandreth, a portrait of the artist as a young man by james joyce, the wind in the willows by kenneth grahame, odes to common things by pablo neruda, the promised neverland by kaiu shirai, fifth sun by camilla townsend, the poetry of pablo neruda, are you listening? by tillie walden, if beale street could talk by james baldwin, the color purple by alice walker, this one summer by mariko tamaki, a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers, the years by virginia woolf, lore olympus by rachel smythe, the mysterious affair at styles by agatha christie, le lai de lanval by marie de france, murder on the links by agatha christie, mary ventura and the ninth kingdom by sylvia plath, the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera, the last unicorn by peter s. beagle, post-laureate idyls by oscar fay adams, complete poems and selected letters of john keats, if they come for us by fatimah asghar, white tears/brown scars by ruby hamad, thousand cranes by yasunari kawabata, sonnets from the portuguese by elizabeth barrett browing, simon vs the homo sapiens agenda, in the blood by melbourne tapper, kairo-ko by natsume soseki, the arthurian handbook by norris j. lacy, passing by nella larsen, minor feelings by cathy park hong, carol by patricia highsmith, jews dont count by david baddiel, picnic at hanging rock by joan lindsay, black cats and four leaf clovers by harry oliver, because the internet by gretchen mcculloch, strangers on a train by patricia highsmith, wolf children by mamoru hosoda, richard iii by william shakespeare, 2001: a space odyssey by arthur c. clarke, the time machine by h.g. wells, gone with the wind by margaret mitchell, norse mythology by neil gaiman, howl’s moving castle by diane wynne jones, ziggy stardust and me by james brandon, the boy the mole the fox and the horse by charlie murray, the secret world of arriety by hiromasa yonebayashi, loveless by alice oseman, mrs dalloway by virginia woolf, the crucible by arthur miller, the day of the triffids by john wyndham, where angels fear to tread by e.m. forster, lancelot and the lord of the distant isles by patricia terry, summer of salt by katrina leno, go tell it on the mountain by james baldwin, pride and prejudice by janes austen, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs by steve brusatte, the bell jar by sylvia plath, the little prince by antoine de saint-exupery, oliver twist by charles dickens, the song remains the same by andrew ford and anni heino, the post office girl by stefan zweig, moll flanders by daniel defoe, a room with a view by e.m. forster, of mice and men by john steinbeck, rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption by stephen king, willow by mariko tamaki, at the clinic by sally rooney, fierce femmes and notorious liars by kai cheng thom, an artist of the floating world by kazuo ishiguro, close range by annie proulx, fear by stefan zweig, much ado about nothing by william shakespeare, call me by your name by andre aciman, six of crows by leigh bardugo, clap when you land by elizabeth acevedo, the joy luck club by amy tan, between the acts by virginia woolf, the narrative of john smith by arthur conan doyle, we need to talk about kevin by lionel shriver, the way of the househusband by kousuke oono, the fourteenth letter by claire evans, selected stories by stefan zweig, nick and charlie by alice oseman, the fellowship of the ring by j.r.r. tolkien, the humans by matt haig, no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood, the age of innocence by edith wharton, on a sunbeam by tillie walden, my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh, wonder by r.j. palacio, reasons to stay alive by matt haig, the well of loneliness by radclyffe hall, how to do nothing by jenny odell, the charioteer by mary renault, the henna wars by adiba jaigirdar, darkness at noon by arthur koestler, a wizard of earthsea by ursula k. le guin, the story of galahad by mary blackwell sterling, the tombs of atuan by ursula k le guin, david copperfield by charles dickens, such a fun age by kiley reid, lancelot by giles kristian, carry on by rainbow rowell, scoop by evelyn waugh, the story of hong gildong, a handful of dust by evelyn waugh, a little life by hanya yanagihara, the necessary arthur by garth nix, the arthurian legends by richard barber, romeo and juliet by william shakespeare, stamped from the beginning by ibram x kendi, when breath becomes air by paul kalanthi, the fire never goes out by noelle stevenson, kafka on the shore by haruki murakami, kokoro by natsume soseki, delayed rays of a star by amanda lee koe, radio silence by alice oseman, by gaslight by steven price, perfect little world by kevin wilson, wayward son by rainbow rowell, blind willow sleeping woman by haruki murakami, hani and ishu’s guide to fake dating by adiba jaigirdar, taproot by keezy young, ready player one by ernest cline, the gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue by mackenzi lee, le morte d’arthur by thomas malory, nocturnes by kazuo ishiguro, lucky’s by andrew pippos, the magic fish by trung le nguyen, swimming in the dark by tomasz jedrowski, love by roddy doyle, only mostly devastated by sophie gonzales, i was born for this by alice oseman, the invisible man by h.g. wells, spinning by tillie walden, the three musketeers by alexandre dumas, all quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque, perfect on paper by sophie gonzales, parsnips buttered by joe lycett, we were liars by e. lockart, the farthest shore by ursula k. le guin, convenience store woman by sayaka murata, arsene lupin by maurice leblanc, scott pilgrim by bryan lee o’malley, miss carter’s war by sheila hancock, selected letters of virginia woolf, the prophet by kahlil gibran, siddhartha by herman hesse, less by andrew sean greer, reservoir dogs screenplay by quentin tarantino, peta lyre’s rating normal by anna whateley, the hound of the baskerville by arthur conan doyle, inherit the wind by jerome lawrence and robert e lee, the nine cloud dream by kim man-jung, trainspotting by irvine welsh, withnail and i screenplay by bruce robinson, america is in the heart by carlos bulosan, beach read by emily henry, steppenwolf by herman hesse, balzac and the little chinese seamstress by dai sijie, true history of the kelly gang by peter carey, one last stop by casey mcquiston, speaker for the dead by orson scott card, klara and the sun by kazuo ishiguro, the eye of the world by robert jordan, the autobiography of malcolm x as told by alex haley, the two towers by j.r.r tolkien, arsene lupin vs herlock sholmes by maurice leblanc, layamon’s arthur, all systems red by martha wells, mucha by patrick bade, macbeth by shakespeare, perfume by patrick suskind, the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck, collisions: a liminal anthology, the hours by michael cunningham, growing up disabled in australia edited by carly findlay, the betrayals by bridget collins, live and let die by ian fleming, crazy rich asians by kevin kwan, good omens by terry pratchett and neil gaiman, this train is being held by ismee williams, the shape of water by andrea camilleri, the war in the air by h.g. wells, the end of men by christina sweeney-baird, the terracotta dog by andrew camilleri, the moon and sixpence by w somerset maugham, girl woman other by bernadine evaristo, ace of spades by faridah abike-iyimide, sir launfal by thomas chestre, androcles and the lion by bernard shaw, absalom absalom! by william faulkner, crooked kingdom by leigh bardugo, one of us is lying by karen m mcmanus, honeybee by craig silvey, anywhere but earth edited by keith stevenson, first love and other stories by ivan turgenev, no country for old men by cormac mccarthy, annihilation by jeff vandermeer, the road by cormac mccarthy, the duel by aleksandr kuprin, the awakening by kate chopin, the fall by albert camus, a new day yesterday by mike barnes, mort by terry pratchett, view with a grain of sand by wislawa szymborska, no exit and other plays by jean-paul satre, the godfather by mario puzo, tomorrow when the war began by john marsden, the faerie queene by edmund spenser, this poison heart by kalynn bayron, sunlight and seaweed by tim falnnery, aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire saenz, robinson crusoe by daniel defoe, the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers, the great hunt by robert jordan, scythe by neal shusterman, collected poems of w.b. yeats, dead souls by nikolai gogol, the happiest refugee by anh do, yvain the knight with the lion by chretien de troyes, pachinko by min jin lee, she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan, the memory police by yoko ogawa, the last days of judas iscariot by stephen adly guirgis, moby dick by herman melville, selected stories of anton chekhov, sailor moon by naoko takeuchi, king arthur’s death edited by larry d benson, the brothers karamazov by fyodor dostoevsky, the silmarillioin by jrr tolkien, kim jiyoung by cho nam-koo, lady susan by jane austen, cranford by elizabeth gaskell, dune by frank herbert, the divine comedy by dante aligheri, silas marner by george eliot, brute by emily skaja, the old man and the sea by ernest hemingway, the lowland by jhumpa lahiri, slaughterhouse-five by kurt vonnegut, relativity the special and general theory by albert einstein, the end of everything by katie mack, lancelot the knight of the cart by chretien de troyes, eugene onegin by alexander pushkin, bonds of brass by emily skrutskie, murders in the rue morgue by edgar allan poe, the lair of the white worm by bram stoker, the legend of sleepy hollow and other stories by washington irving, the perilous cemetery edited by nancy b black, the call of cthulu and other weird stories by h.p. lovecraft, the princess bride by william goldman, the love hypothesis by ali hazelwood, hamlet by william shakespeare, illuminations by arthur rimbaud, the sign of four by arthur conan doyle, the castle of otranto by horace walpole, the other black girl by zakiya dalila harris, malory’s contemporary audience by thomas h crofts, fight club by chuck palahniuk, french romance medieval sweden and the europeanisation of culture by sofia loden, pale fire by vladimir nabokov, speak okinawa by elizabeth miki brina, james acaster’s classic scrapes, tears sighs and laughter: expressions of emotions in the middle ages edited by per fornegard, the queen’s gambit by walter tevis, the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay by michael chabon, in deeper waters by f.t. lukens, darius the great is not okay by adib khorram, enemy of all mankind by steven johnson, blue period by tsubasa yamaguchi, slow days fast company by eve babitz, middlemarch by george eliot, the stone rose by jacqueline rayner, goblin market by christina rossetti, legends of camelot by jacqueline rayner, the grand inquisitor by fyodor dostoevsky, the lady of shalott by alfred lord tennyosn, the krillitane storm by christopher cooper, grit by silas denver melvin, the ones who walk away from omelas by ursula k le guin, scientific autobriography and other papers by max planck, the forged coupon and other stories by leo tolstoy, rose by russell t davies, brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh, if cats disappeared from the world by genki kawamura, the mill on the floss by george eliot, priestdaddy by patricia lockwood, the hidden reality by brian greene, the memoirs of sherlock holmes by arthur conan doyle, classic mechanics by leonard susskind and george hrabovksy, the raven boys by maggie stiefvater,  the ruby’s curse by alex kingston, the borgias by paul strathern, north and south by elizabeth gaskell, jane eyre by charlotte bronte, how music works by david byrne, far from the madding crowd by thomas hardy, anxious people by frederik backman, journey’s end by r.c. sherriff, le chevalier as deus espees edited by paul vincent rockwell, dune messiah by frank herbert, gone girl by gillian flynn, white noise by don delillo, blood of elves by andrzej sapkowski, the highlanders by gerry davis, the underwater menace by nigel robinson, either/or by soren kierkegaard, doctor who and the cybermen by gerry davis, piranesi by susanna clarke, breasts and eggs by mieko kawakami, rendezvous with rama by arthur c clarke, the sea by john banville, the basketball diaries by jim carroll, the dry heart by natalia ginzburg, there is confusion by jessie redmon fauset, wiating for godot by samuel beckett, babette’s feast by isak dinesen, & ms ice sandwich by mieko kawakami

aand that’s it! ! thanks for reading? thanks for reading my reading? idk hnjrnjjs

#v.txt #i had no idea how long the actual list was oh my god #putting my whole taste in literature on blast this is only somewhat mortifying but it's okay #also i say 'more or less' bc i've condensed some series (esp graphic novels&manga) into just their title and i think i excluded some more #random ones but this is it this is basically all of them #all 451 uhh #bookshelf

[smalltownfae]

Priority TBR

I’ve been thinking about how I want to read an entire fantasy and scifi series because I grasp the story better and I am more invested in the world and characters if I spend more time there. So, I will try to do that next year instead of starting unfinished series (also this makes my tbr shorter :D). Except for Discworld because the books kind of stand on their own and can be read whenever I feel like it. For that series I am planning one book a month.

Fantasy:

Tensorate series by Neon Yang

The Queen’s Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner

Riddle-Master (2 books) by Patricia A. McKillip

Cygnet by Patricia A. McKillip

Winter Rose (2 books) by Patricia A. McKillip

Sevenwaters Series by Juliet Marillier

 The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee

Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin

Magids Series by Diana Wynne Jones

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabth Moon

Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade by Jennifer Fallon

World of the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden

“Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice

“Lonely Castle in the Mirror” by Mizuki Tsujimura

“The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” by Natasha Pulley

“Alphabet of Thorn” by Patricia A. McKillip

“Ombria in Shadow” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“Od Magic” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“The Book of Atrix Wolfe” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“In the Forests of Serre” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“The Bell at Sealey Head” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“Song for the Basilisk” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“The Bards of Bone Plain” by Patricia A. McKillip

“The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia A. McKillip

“Wonders of the Invisible World” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“Dreams of Distant Shores” by Patricia A. McKillip

“Something Rich and Strange” by Patricia A. McKillip

“Tigana” by Guy Gavriel Kay

“Kiki’s Delivery Service” by Eiko Kadono

“The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro

Science Fiction:

Xenogenesis by Octavia E. Butler

Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler 

“Fledgling” by Octavia E. Butler 

“Bloodchild and Other Stories” by Octavia E. Butler

“Cage of Souls” by Adrian Tchaikovsky

“Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell

“Moon-Flash” by Patricia A. McKillip

“Kingfisher” by Patricia A. McKillip 

“Fool’s Run” by Patricia A. McKillip

“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

“The Space Between Worlds” by Micaiah Johnson

“The Stone Sky” by N.K. Jemisin

“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“This is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

“To the Warm Horizon” by Jin-Young Choi

Classics:

“Middlemarch” by Middlemarch

“North and South” by Elizabeth Gaskell

“Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert

“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte

“Emma” by Jane Austen

“Persuasion” by Jane Austen

“Lady Susan” by Jane Austen

“The Sundial” by Shirley Jackson

“The Bird’s Nest” by Shirley Jackson 

“Hangsaman” by Shirley Jackson 

“The Road Through the Wall” by Shirley Jackson 

“The Lottery and Other Stories” by Shirley Jackson

“The Mayor of Casterbridge” by Thomas Hardy

“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier

Contemporary:

“There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job” by Kikuko Tsumura

“Radio Silence” by Alice Oseman

“Nocturnes” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“The Unconsoled” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises” by Friedrik Backman

Magical Realism:

“The Chosen and the Beautiful” by Nghi Vo

“A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki

“Earthlings” by Sayaka Murata

“Elatsoe” by Darcie Little Badger

Historical Fiction:

“Affinity” by Sarah Waters

“Tipping the Velvet” by Sarah Waters

“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield

“The Mercies” by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

“Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee

“An Artist of the Floating World” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“When we Were Orphans” by Kazuo Ishiguro

Mystery/Thriller:

“Out” by Natsuo Kirino

“The Decagon House Murders” by Yukito Ayatsuji

“The Good Daughter” by Karin Slaughter

Comics/Manga:

Yuureitou by Nogizaka Tarou

“Our Dreams at Dusk” by Yuhki Kamatani

“Shiver” by Junji Ito

“Through the Woods” by Emily Carroll

#tbr #yay one more list #but I can refer to this one for a particular genre #for next year and obviously will not get to even half of these

[muffinsandpages]

A bit late, but my February wrap up is here! Solitaire really messed me up, and after that, and with a war going on, I didn’t feel like reading anything for a week. I’m slowly triyng to find my balance again. Hopefully, better times are ahead of us. Have a safe March xx

Here’s what I read:

The Seven Husbands od Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkind Reid

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland + Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

#february wrap up #reading #bookblr #i am reading #shelf #drawing #doodle #book #clip studio paint #solitaire #alice oseman #The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo #neil gaiman #alice in wonderland #carroll #lewis carroll #shelfie

[lgbt-ya]

Recent ace-spectrum reads

Loveless by Alice Oseman* -  Spectacularly emotional and intense, this is a coming out story unlike anything I've read before. This covers all kinds of love - platonic, romantic and toxic - as well as being an ode to Shakespeare, university life and Scooby Doo. I'm so proud of Alice for this (I might be slightly biased as I helped brainstorm and edit it) and I think this book will help so many people accept themselves. The writing is so authentically teenage that it jumps off the page. It's inherently readable and realistic in a way that comes across as effortless but requires so much writing talent. Also: Sunil is an angel.

Read with Pride (The Paper & Hearts Society #2) by Lucy Powrie -  A warm-hearted, intensely compassionate look at a group of queer teenager bookworms fighting for equality in their school library. This is aimed at ages 12+, and is going to help so many people learn about sexuality and diversity. I love the book club so much, and it was so nice to see how far they've come since the first book in the series (though this can be read as a standalone). Ed is my favourite character, and I'm so excited to see where they all go next. Lucy is a star of UKYA.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London* -  This was lovely! A body positive, diverse take on The Bachelor, this features all kinds of LGBT+ rep, including asexuality. It's also very heartwarming despite the difficult topics of cyberbulling and sexism. I really loved Bea and her motley crew of suitors, and the epistolary storytelling, with tweets, slack chats, news articles and emails was such a lot of fun in a romance novel - so funny!

* gifted by publisher

#asexual #aromantic #demisexual

[ninja-muse]

My Decade in Books

The rules: respond to the prompt “my decade in books” however you want, & then tag some ppl! I chose a book or series to define each year of the decade, some w/a little description. You can do that, or make up your own response

Tagged by @brightbeautifulthings, @lizziethereader, and @magnetarmaddaboutbooks. Thank you!

2009 - My first full year of bookstore work! My second year of having very little self-control about book purchases! And yet somehow I don’t seem to have very many books logged as having been read this year, which I can kind of put down to not having much of a commute and spending more down-time writing, but I suspect I just plain forgot to log stuff too. In any case, this is the year I first read Austen (because P&P&Zombies had just come out and it looked horrible-awesome but I had to read the original first), and the year I discovered Seanan McGuire, and wow, it’s been 10 years since I read Ender’s Game, I could’ve sworn…. Apart from that, it doesn’t look like it was a great reading year. Lots of bad books on the list. (32 books for the year.)

2010 - The year of Jane Eyre and The Book Thief and Jonathan Strange (also, wow, that long?), so a good reading year overall even though I also had a lot of “this was fine” reads. This was also the first year I read a Connie Willis novel. I’m also fairly sure this is the year a coworker moved and sold me his bookcase for $20. (60 books for the year.)

2011 - Read this year: Ben Aaronovitch for the first time, Cloud Atlas. This was clearly near the height of my urban fantasy phase and also the year I was “nearly finished” The Trunk Novel because I was also reading lots of superhero stuff for comparisons. (60 books for the year.)

2012 - The year I seriously ODed on British settings/steampunk and resolved never to read so much of the same stuff back to back again. (Fifteen books.) I also burned through Blackout/All Clear and the Hunger Games novels (movie out!) and Amanda Hocking’s Trylle books, and reread LOTR, and went to England which did not help my OD problem whatsoever. This is the year of Howl’s Moving Castle and The Iliad and the year I really got into graphic novels, and also the year where the store I was working at closed and I moved locations, which means I obviously had to buy all the discount books I’d stashed in the staff room. I still hadn’t read a lot of those. Also I scored two bookcases for $20 during the store close. (68 books for the year.)

2013 - Read: The Years of Rice and Salt, A Canticle for Leibowitz, London Falling, Vanished KIngdoms, Saga Vol. 1, Fangirl, Sandman Vol. 1, my first cozy mystery. Nothing else really stands out as a highlight of the year, though by now I know I’d pretty much scrapped The Trunk Novel. Might be the year I gave my writing-brain a rest? I think this was the last year I was involved in book-Twitter and it was seriously getting me down. (71 books for the year.)

2014 - Hild, The Girl with All the Gifts, binged the Daughter of Smoke and Bone books, and ooh, yep, this is the year I got inspired for The Novel and started reading folklore and stuff for research. Also the year where I was going off urban fantasy in a big way, which is somewhat related to why I got inspired for writing again. (Also the year I said, “no more Thursday Next boos, they’re annoying you, stop.”) I went back to England for a longer visit, got an email from work about a David Mitchell meet-and-greet, and bought a copy of The Bone Clocks at a Waterstones in order to get it signed back in Canada. Mark Oshiro started his read-through of Discworld and I joined in, sort of, by counting his live readings as rereads. (80 books for the year.)

2015 - Lots of high ratings this year! The Martian! The Watchmaker of Filigree Street! A Darker Shade of Magic! The Golem and the Jinni! Leviathan Wakes! All the Light We Cannot See! Uprooted! Ms. Marvel! I waded through The Travels of Marco Polo for research purposes, and read a good handful of books that looked great but wound up disappointing. I joined Tumblr/booklr in November. (101 books for the year.)

2016 - Read The Canterbury Tales in Middle English and fell in love with it all over again! Also The Dark Lord of Derkholm and A Time of Gifts on my dad’s recommendation and POSSESSION and Yiddish for Pirates and The Untold Tale, which I discovered here on booklr. I also seem to have binged on a reread of the Vorkosigan Saga. And I found, bought, and read Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats because I hadn’t read it since I was a kid and had a plot bunny related to it. Also had a lot of disappointing reads, by the looks of it. (88 books for the year; wrap-up post.)

2017 - Discovered Curtis Craddock and Alice Oseman and Bob Proehl and S.A. Chakraborty and Eden Robinson, who I read as a possible comp-title. Read A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and If We Were Villains (both from Tumblr.) Lots of rereads and a decent reading year all round, because I have a lot of 3-stars and higher. Some major disappointments too, though, like The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (96 books for the year; wrap-up post.)

2018 - Discovered my local library no longer seems to have the complete Chaucer that I’d borrowed for The Canterbury Tales read, because I really wanted to finish all his lesser poems and prose. I discovered Vivian Shaw and R.E. Stearns and Shaun Bythell and Rebecca Roanhorse, and true crime in the form of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. This was the year of ace rep and YA! Had to do some major library rearranging and bought three IKEA bookcases which a friend helped me assemble. (91 books for the year; wrap-up post)

2019 - Alyssa Cole! Ruth Goodman! Sarah Waters! The Wolf in the Whale! Middlegame! A good chunk of which I read waiting for a Mumford and Sons concert to start. Reread Gulliver’s Travels and The Secret Garden and Good Omens (and then watched the show and got a bit back into the fandom). Also reread a bunch of Seanan McGuire and Ben Aaronovitch stuff. This was clearly a year of rereads and light reading in general, but that balanced out the true crime (5) and some really heavy, dense books. (96 books for the year; wrap-up post)

No idea who’s done this and who hasn’t, so if you want to do it, you’re tagged!

#decade in books #booklr #about me #tag memes