#and so i can just check out audiobooks whenever i want

[nightfurmoon]

Interview about Black Hat’s completely harmless books with Alan Ituriel!!

Check it out and make sure to leave a like on the livestream! Following Penguinlibros will also help support these books and show the editorial we want more!

Here are some of the interesting things said in the interview:

In the livestream they say that the book’s available in Buscalibre. So far I haven’t found it there yet, but if they said that it’s because it will soon, so stay tuned!

The whole story of Kaleb in Black Hat’s book was meant to be just one book, but they had to split it in two as the story was too long for the publishing house.

The Tears of Cempasúchil are based off the Day of the Dead, where the spirits of the deceased return to the world for one day, but with a twist, as these tears can bring the spirit of someone back whenever.

The second book has one of Alan’s genuine fears.

Alan’s planning on drawing and posting some of the book’s characters! He has some already drawn like Fuego, but hasn’t posted it yet (he’s awfully busy, and rightfully so, writing 4 books in less than a year).

Why’s Kaleb a human if there are many other characters that aren’t? Because Alan wants him vulnerable, like an actual human without superpowers or a hybrid, so we can also relate to him and are drawn to help him.

Alan really liked writing the ending of book 1, because it shows us how someone external from BHO sees Black Hat. This will be explored again in book 2.

Alan listens to soundtracks to help him write the scenes. They may create a playlist that goes along with the book so you can read while listening to music that fits the scenes.

We will see more of Black Hat in book 2. In Lino’s words, he gets ‘meaner’ there.

The Huachi language is based off the náhuatl language and how an amphibian would sound like, with a lot of ‘o’ and ‘u’ sounds that imitate bubbles or water. @titansteph helped a lot here!

Next week the new book will come out in physical stores.

They do not know if the characters of the book will be seen in episodes.

The 1st book is more about Black Hat’s prisons. The 2nd book will have something different; it isn’t a prison anymore. We will see another face of BHO, and he referenced a character that, much like Kaleb, got too curious and disappeared.

There’s an important character in the 2nd book that doesn’t show up a lot and we haven’t seen before, but if we do find them, we’ll know who they are.

The 1st book has few things that we knew beforehand, but the 2nd has more, like the Hatbots for example. Alan yet again said that the 1st book is a prison, the 2nd is the outside and more connected to the episodes/Flug’s logbook.

WE WILL HAVE A DIRECT INTERACTION WITH BLACK HAT IN THE 2nd BOOK. OMG

The 2nd book has more horror.

Audiobooks of Black Hat’s books are planned!!

On another note, they’ll be publishing exclusive content of the books here!! https://villanos.penguinlibros.com/

Sign up to download it!

#villainous #cartoon #livestream #villains #villanos #villainous livestream #ai animation studios #ai animation livestream #black hat #dr flug #flug #demencia #505 #official villainous

[lizardinkart]

Ok so confession time, I read Worm through the fan-made audiobook, and may I just say that I truly treasure Rein and all the work this guy did.

Like, I have mourned my ability to read books for years, so me and my ADHD-ass could not have sat down and read anything, much less all million+ words of Worm. So this was really the first audiobook that I tried because hey, my friends wanted me to read Worm and this seemed like a painless way to do it. I do audio stuff a lot in addition to the art and whatnot, and the entire time I was listening to this I was just so proud of the growth of the quality of content that these people produced. Their honest love for the story and the creation process was infectious, and made me kind of sad that I found this so late where I couldn’t be a part of their process!

But yeah, it was really nice to have something fan-made really have an impact on me and my ability to love a story. Rein and all the other readers brought Taylor and the world of Worm to life with so much character that whenever I think of Taylor, all I can hear is their voices. And I think that’s pretty neat.

Anyway if you guys know where Rein is, in this distant year of 2022, would love to let him know that his work was seen and appreciated and made a new Worm fan out of me :) Check it out here on Spotify (they also exist on apple I think, as well as an audiobook for Ward that I plan to listen to here) if you’re interested in revisiting Worm with some cool people who love this story a whole heck of a lot.

#the farewell message at the end of Interlude: End has me mad emotional #174 hours of content my guys #worm #worm parahumans #parahumans #wildbow #worm web serial #worm audiobook #taylor hebert

[dorkassghostwriter]

Unova E4 ship headcanons!!

Okay so I love all of these dorks and I love pairing them together (even in a polycule) so I compiled some of my headcanons, with the pairings listed in order of preference. Feel free to use on your fics or art or whatever

GRIMSLEY/SHAUNTAL (OTP) -Weirdos; they are a bit too intense for their own good -Expensive restaurant dates, almost exclusively at night -Grims is always looking for ways to make Shauntal blush -She teases back but that only entices him further -But when they join together to fuck with other people they're invincible -She got him into her nerdy board games, he's too proud to admit he likes them -He loves beta-reading her novels -When making out, she always tries to mess up his hair in hopes he'll get a better haircut -Yes they are kinky, more than any other pairing in here, and Grimsley usually takes the lead

SHAUNTAL/CAITLIN -Caitlin is clingy and Shauntal lets her; she loves having her follow her like a puppy -Shauntal likes to tease Cait about being inexperienced with romance -Darach and Shauntal love to talk about Cait in ways that utterly embarrass the poor girl -Coffee dates; Shauntal needs the caffeine and Cait needs to quench her sweet tooth -Shauntal is exceptional at calming Cait down wheneve her psychic powers flare up -They love swapping outfits and trying out the other's style -Shauntal reads her short stories to Cait aloud -Caitlin's general naiveté brings Shauntal's dommy side in the bed -Still, they like to switch a lot

GRIMSLEY/CAITLIN -"M'lady," "m'lord" -They bicker about trivial stuff in a way that makes you want to scream "get a room already!" -Very extra, even when they aren't trying -They shop around expensive clothing stores and give (sometimes too) honest opinions about the other's outfits -Outdoor chess games! (she cheats at card games so it's all they can do) -They're the most coordinated out of everyone here when doing double battles -Grimsley is a service top to Cait's pillow princess -Though she also likes to dom after he's been particularly annoying

MARSHALL/GRIMSLEY -You'd never guess they're dating until Grims starts acting clingy -Marshall is bad at picking up sarcasm and flirting, and Grimsley loves to fuck with him -Sometimes Grims goes to the gym with him just to watch him and ocassionally go "that's my boyfriend" -Marshall is awkward at formal dates, so Grimsley just takes him to clubs to get shots and fool around -Grims taught him traditional card games and Marshall got too good at them, too quickly -The second Marshall shows any kind of physical dominance, Grims instantly melts -So Marshall obviously tops most of the time; Grims is just that bad at talking back to stronger men

CAITLIN/MARSHALL -These two are stuck together with glue -He used to treat her like she was going to shatter at any moment, but is now way more comfortable around her -They do focus training together so she gets even better at controlling her powers -He's very patient and understanding of her psychic issues, and is very proud of her ability to keep them in check -They love to travel together! -Cait takes the lead in bed, but they usually switch roles pretty quickly

SHAUNTAL/MARSHALL -She's the quirky counterpart to his stoic, awkward self -Shauntal loves recommending him audiobooks to listen to while he trains -She's too good with words for him, who usually gets flustered whenever she snarks at him -Marshall likes picking her up, and she admits it's not much different to flying on Golurk -Their dates often consist of long strolls across Victory Road and other places across Unova -Marshall is pretty vanilla, so Shauntal gets to have a fun time showing him kinky stuff

#pokemon #pokemon black and white #grimsley #shauntal #caitlin #marshall #cait and grims are literally just jeff and annie from community #i dont hate marshall i just like him less than the rest i promise #elite four

[femmespoiled]

tips for reading more frequently and managing time for it? I admire how much you read and love looking through your book tag. I've also just started Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader! how did you like it? I'm really enjoying it so far

Mostly anxiety tbh, I've been digging deep into a couple psychology books and I'm just so stressed out 🙃 but I found that being able to get audiobooks to listen to while I read really helps keep me focused on the book, that's how I got so far into rereading the locked tomb (I'm halfway through Harrow now, took a bit of a break, got distracted listening to the Nona audiobook), so if you're able to get that, I'd definitely recommend it. Also reading one chapter before bed each day, or just overall one chapter a day whenever you get the time, I'm kinda big on setting goals for my day/week when I have time or letting it consume me when I have time too, sometimes I get stuck reading lol

Make it a comfortable time for you! For me, getting a Kindle was seriously the biggest factor in me reading more, because I get really impatient and really uncomfortable having to shift position to hold a book and turning the pages, my wrist is really fucked up and it gets tiring and painful for my wrist and back when reading a physical book and having a Kindle has made it so so so much easier, I can take it anywhere and all my books are there and the case helps it stand by itself and I'm honestly really happy I was able to get it. But even before that, just reading on my phone was still easier but maybe it's just my disabled body influencing this , point is, find the most comfortable way for you to read, make it enjoyable, a relaxing experience, not an uncomfortable one. It took me a really long time to admit that my body was in the way of me reading the traditional way, but once I admitted that and found a better way to accommodate myself, that really helped me read more

But yeah I'm sorry I don't have a lot of good tips for reading, I'm kind of chaotic with that. If my followers do, please add here ♥️

I'm glad you like the tag!🥰 also you remind me, I badly need to update my book tag. Oh, that's one of my favourite books about butch/femme history, I loved reading it, I'm really interested in knowing more about butch/femme history and the changing contexts of our community and that book does a really good job of that, specially because it has so many different contributors and perspectives, but my favourite so far still is Butch is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman, though I'm really enjoying My Lesbian Husband by Barrie Jean Borich, definitely do recommend (uh, all of these are in the drive that I have in my book tag that I'll put here too if you want to check it out)

Tldr.: Uh, audiobooks to listen while you read, setting goals for your day/week of reading - do achievable, specific, objective goals, start light just any reading is already amazing -, make it a comfortable time for you, it could be if you're able to get a Kindle/read on your phone or just finding a nice place to read etc/accommodate yourself physically if possible, because it can be a bit taxing physically unfortunately

Tldr.2: Bella displaying neurodivergency, heavy on the ADHD, and physical disabilities

#ask #bellas books #bellas butch/femme tag #bella rambles #dsb

[markantonys]

crossroads of twilight prologue-chapter 14

the opening prophecy says that mankind will come to the crossroads of twilight “when the right hand falters and the left hand strays” i’m thinking the right hand is perrin and the left hand is mat

i listened to the prologue on audiobook bc it was so boring and i wanted to play sims at the same time (i always do this for perrin’s chapters as well), and the prologue was 3 hours out of 26. that is almost 1/8th of the book. the PROLOGUE is ONE EIGHTH of the ENTIRE BOOK!! ENOUGH!!! wot prologues my DETESTED........

........except for when they give me a glimpse of gawyn! recalled as shouting thank god it is my boy! i paused the audiobook and picked up the hard copy to read his portion with my full attention. a book or two ago egwene was wondering if he was well and if he was warm, and tragically he is neither. he and the younglings have been banned from tar valon but they didn’t leave quickly enough and are now stuck living in a barn due to the winter and the besieging army, which little does gawyn know belongs to egwene. “he did not know where egwene was, or whether she was alive. or whether she could forgive him.” forgive him? she already knows he sided with elaida, so forgive him for dumai’s wells and the box maybe? since she made him promise not to hurt rand, and he didn’t, but he didn’t stop him from being hurt either.

i am looking forward to egwyn? gawene? reunion, whenever it might happen. i think they’re cute! it’s just a shame that rj didn’t decide he wanted them to be together until like 1 chapter before they got together lmao but the premise of the ship is good. huge girlboss/malewife rights.

gawyn also worries about elayne and hopes that her being only accepted will prevent her from being held accountable for having become “entangled” with siuan. he doesn’t know whether she’s in tar valon or heading for caemlyn (confirmed that elayne’s attempts to send him messages in tar valon have failed, since he’s been kicked out of the city). “she always dove into a pond without checking the depth” that’s my girl!

“he was mired in a hopeless snarl” gawyn: a summary. now i am going to list some quotes of gawyn being mired in a hopeless snarl that i find very sexy.

“‘why would elaida send me orders? why should i obey if she did? she disowned me, and the younglings.’ ...the younglings did not share gawyn’s belief. aes sedai did what they did, and no man could know why until a sister told him. the younglings had cast their lots with the white tower wholeheartedly, embracing fate.”

“‘elayne is sealed to the white tower. so are you, for all your talk of disowning. the history of andor seals you to the tower.’”

“the younglings were sealed to the white tower. no one would ever forget that they had fought, on the very grounds of the tower, to stop the rescue of a deposed amyrlin. for good or ill, the tale would follow them to their graves. he was marked by that, as well, and by his own secrets. after all that bloodshed, he was the man who had let siuan sanche walk free. more importantly, though, elayne bound him to the white tower, and so did egwene al’vere, and he did not know which tied the tighter knot, the love of his sister or the love of his heart. to abandon one was to abandon all three, and while he breathed, he could not abandon elayne or egwene. ‘you have my word that i will do all i can,’ he said wearily. ‘what does elaida want of me?’”

aaaaaahhh gawyn you’re so trapped and alone and conflicted and sexy aha

no for real i LOVE conflicted characters and i am absolutely feasting on this! there have not been nearly enough sexy conflicted characters in WOT thus far, everyone is always so certain of what side to take since most conflicts our mains face are Obvious Good vs. Obvious Evil and not gawyn’s more nebulous conflict between two sides that both want to fight the shadow yet still oppose each other (i’m hoping galad might face a similar conflict among the whitecloaks if we ever fuckin see him again. homeboy’s been missing for 5 books.) once gawyn finds out egwene is the rebel amyrlin and is leading the besieging army, i know he will betray elaida to side with her. i am planting that seed and i will see the harvest. surely the fact that he’s the most universally hated WOT character means nothing. this can’t possibly end badly.

“elayne trakand would not like that, bael, and if you’ve forgotten what it’s like being a young man, that means rand al’thor won’t like it.” thank you bashere for providing me a scrap of randlayne content! elayne’s like “no one can know i’m dating rand!” but apparently Everybody knows jkfgh or at least bashere and bael do.

“[bashere] knew [deira] would die one day - they both would - but the only thing he feared was living without her.” bashere loves his wife, he is a short king, he is a dilf, he truly has it all. he, rhuarc, and lan are in a deadlock over the WOT dilf crown (and will soon face a new challenger now that rand is a dilf-to-be)

in general, and i can’t commit to this because there are so many characters so there’s probably ones i’m forgetting, but off the top of my head i would say that bashere and lini are the only characters who were introduced after tfoh who are valid and whom i care about. they just managed to squeeze in before i reached my full capacity of Characters I Can Be Invested In and closed my doors.

i forgot that women in cairhien are falling over themselves to wear tight pants and fancy coats and heeled boots to imitate min. words cannot express how much annoyance and secondhand embarrassment that brings me.

if only elayne already had the throne secured so that she could reveal close ties with rand without seeming to be his puppet. i want ELAYNE to be rand’s Public Girlfriend, not min! the queen of andor and the dragon reborn dating and expecting a baby together would be THE hottest gossip topic in randland! randland social media would blow up about #RandLayne on the daily! everybody would be extremely scared of and/or desperately horny over their relationship! the bisexual population would be in shambles! they would be a phenomenal Power Couple, but they never get the chance to be one!

mat has successfully escaped ebou dar (at least the city itself), but for some godforsaken reason we did not get to actually see him do it (aside from a brief flashback later in the chapter). that same night, there was a big battle between the seanchan and the escaped sea folk, during which hundreds of people were killed, but for some godforsaken reason, we did not see this onscreen either. rj really just went “i’m gonna make all the actual action happen offscreen so that there will be plenty of screentime available for brooding and worrying.” like, mat’s entire plotline in the last book was building towards getting out of ebou dar and freeing the sea folk, and we just?? don’t actually see the climax??? make it make sense.

noal is doing a great job carrying out the age-old literary trope, What If Some Weird Guy Just Showed Up

from what little we know so far, seanchan sei’mosiev seems like an interesting similarity to aiel toh

mat is in ebou dar being egeanin’s fake boyfriend when he could be in caemlyn being elayne’s fake babydaddy 😤 why would you waste fake dating on characters who aren’t going to end up real dating? a crime.

in our brief flashback to the escape we learn that tuon was smuggled out rolled up in a tapestry! cleopatra vibes!!!!

mat keeps going “aaaahh i don’t want to marry her” my brother in the light YOU chose to bring her along. you could’ve just left her there and never seen her again.

later in the chapter he explains his decision to bring her to someone else by saying that she would’ve raised the alarm if left behind, which is fair enough, but in the actual moment that was definitely not the reason he decided to bring her. if he had already decided to bring her bc leaving her would be a risk and then found out she was the daughter of the nine moons AFTER having already made that decision for unrelated reasons (and after they’d made it far enough that it was too late to ditch her) i would’ve been fine with that because it wouldn’t have violated his established “as soon as i find out who the daughter of the nine moons is i’m running as fast as i can in the opposite direction” characterization.

“his luck really was still with him. at times he thought that was all that kept him from bawling like a baby.“ 😭😭😭 i am picking up mat, rand, and gawyn, wrapping them in warm blankets, and depositing them gently into the palace of caemlyn where elayne will care for them.

juilin’s girlfriend is amathera the panarch of tarabon. whom he met for like an hour 6 books ago yet apparently fell madly in love with. you know those days where you’re like “this might as well happen, WOT romances are already so goddamn weird.” also why is this relationship between a secondary character and an extremely minor tertiary character even necessary jkjfg what kind of pair the spares shit! rj cannot see a character without needing to find a nice heterosexual relationship for them!

“‘and put your coat on, it’s cold,’ [mat] added as [olver] ducked past thera into the tent...for all the care anybody but mat cauthon took, the boy could catch his death.” mat is SUCH a dad.

our first scene between mat and tuon this book is her throwing pottery at his head and spending the entire conversation calling him Toy, ignoring the three (3) times he tells her his name is mat 🙄

and mistress anan gives tuon another cup to throw at mat if she wants to???? and spends the scene “behaving as though she were guarding [tuon] from him.” robert i’m sorry but Women Having Solidarity Against Men just does not extend to a woman taking the evil tyrant who invaded her homeland’s side over her friend’s. it just doesn’t. real women do not behave like this.

the saga of “people hogging all the seats and forcing mat to stay standing when he is injured, limping, and in chronic pain” continues

when mat seals a bargain by spitting into his hand and holding it out: “‘your customs are...earthy,’ tuon said in a dry voice, but she spat on her own palm and clasped his hand.” pleasantly surprised she Lowered Herself to partaking in mat’s (extremely unhygienic yuck) customs, 1 point for tuon

“just because he did not want to get married did not mean he wanted his future wife to think him a fool” okay that was cute and made me laugh jkdfg

thom brings the news that tylin was killed by the gholam. woohoo! completely understandable for mat to feel guilty, since he’d tied her up and the gholam only got her bc she associated with him and he’s the true target, but “did you care for tylin so deeply?” “yes. no. burn me, i liked her!” ..........ugh

tuon says “i’m very happy that you show loyalty to tylin” and sounds jealous that a woman (joline) wants to see mat. she DEFS had a prophecy that he would become her husband and has been scoping him out all this time.

“besides, the [rainy] weather fit his spirits” gave me an INSTANT flashback to “rand chose the black coat to suit his mood” which was way back in tgh but still has to be one of my top 10 funniest WOT lines jskdjfg we love 2 emo melodramatic bisexuals

“this time he had not thought of either of his friends, but the colors had suddenly been there, a fan of a thousand rainbows. this time they had almost formed an image, a vague impression that might have been a man and a woman seated on the ground facing one another. it was gone in an instant, but he knew as surely as he knew his own name. not the forsaken. rand. and he could not help wondering, what had rand been doing when the dice stopped?” okay now in addition to seeing rainbows mat is having visions of rand and seeing what he’s doing at the current moment? FELLAS

much as i love mat having a psychic connection to rand, he wouldn’t NEED to have magic vision of rand’s activities if he was physically with him 😤

tuon once faked her own death and allowed it to get as far as funeral preparations purely as some sort of political power move LMAO queen shit. she’s been facing assassination attempts since the day she was born and at age 6ish she gave her doll to the guard who saved her to thank him 🥺 my feelings for tuon are that meme of the metronome with its pendulum swinging violently from side to side.

“it was a fault aram had, looking after him too much, unasked” “selande or any of her ridiculous friends” perrin is constantly so mean and judgmental about the people who are willingly serving him (granted i also think the cairhienin wannabe aiel are ridiculous, and granted perrin is not exactly in a positive mindset right now, but still, even before faile was kidnapped he was always like this)

“as always, thought of rand brought colors whirling through perrin’s head, more vividly than usual this time, but anger melted them to vapor” jhkdjg perrin has SUCH an easy time ignoring rand and the colors meanwhile mat’s like AAAAAAHHH RAND AND THE COLORS I GOTTA STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM for an entire paragraph every time it happens

mat upon seeing the vision of rand and nynaeve: “he knew as surely as he knew his own name. not the forsaken. rand. and he could not help wondering, what had rand been doing when the dice stopped?”

perrin upon seeing it: “he had no time for rand, not now. not now!” “‘it’s rand. his business. he’ll take care of it, whatever it is.’” jkdjfgkh get fucked rand (by mat, since perrin has no time for you)

perrin was supposed to be dealing with masema and mat was supposed to be helping elayne get to caemlyn and then helping rand with military matters. i feel like both of them are just stuck dicking around in books-long sidequests and being forced to avoid the main quest, even with the pattern sending them psychic visions of rand desperately trying to get them to go back to him.

the pattern trying to corral mat and perrin back into the main plot is like when you get up from your sims game but forget to pause it and then you come back and your sims have all gotten themselves killed and burned the house down.

faile pov: “someryn’s over-large bosom, plump sun-dark cleavage” rj pulling r/menwritingwomen shit so strongly that his female characters end up sounding gay as hell is my favorite thing

the city of MALDEN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i am a massachusetts resident and i am absolutely delighted by this. will be hooting and hollering every single time this oh-so-exotic fantasy city name is mentioned.

“perhaps he did not like women in that way” is this the first acknowledgement that gay men exist in wotworld?? nice! i mean, it’s in the context of faile thinking “if this aiel guy who captured me didn’t check me out while i was naked then maybe he’s gay” so let’s not get too excited

elayne pov, thank god! “[the maid] stepped back breathing heavily, though whether from the effort of concentration or just from being in the presence of the daughter-heir was hard to tell” i too would breathe heavily in elayne’s presence

i love elayne being so aware of the power of clothes and the different messages various outfit choices could send, and crafting her own image accordingly. we love to see soft (and stereotypically feminine) power treated as legitimate and effective in fantasy books!

elayne describes the maid as “plump-bosomed” that’s gay elayne

“[elayne and avi] would have shared a room if not for the implication that matherin could not provide adequately for two visitors of note” they want to share a bed so bad! even when there are other options! and they’re sad about having to sleep in separate rooms! they’re married!

we learn that avi is 1 year older than elayne, interesting. from what i've heard of specific ages, elayne is 18, avi and tuon and i THINK egwene 19, the boys 21, and nynaeve 25-6 (i forget exactly what number she said), although i’m not sure when it was in the series that elayne and mat gave their ages as 18 and 21 so they could have turned a year older by now. literally insane to think that elayne is a pregnant almost-queen at EIGHTEEN lmao i assume the show will age her up a few years as it did egwene (who in the books is 2 years younger than the boys) which i’ll be glad about.

“everyone in the royal palace knew she was pregnant - a good many had known before she did, courtesy of min’s viewing and min being too free with her tongue” so apparently min can tell everyone BUT rand that elayne is pregnant 😒 min really did violate elayne’s privacy all over the place by blabbing even just to avi and birgitte about that viewing (before elayne herself had any idea), and she hadn’t yet drunk a single sip of alcohol at the time of telling those two so that’s no excuse. and drunk as they got, avi and birgitte did still remember elayne was pregnant if not the details, so i don’t buy that min got too drunk to remember any of it. i just bet that she does remember but isn’t telling rand bc she doesn’t want elayne to have a greater hold on him than she herself does.

“shaking with mirth, [elayne and avi] hugged one another and hung on. life was very strange. had anyone told her a few years ago that she would share a man with another woman - with two other women! - she would have called them mad.” Oh, And Min instance #1. “but she loved aviendha every bit as much as she did rand, only in a different way” no homo, of course “and aviendha loved rand as much as she did. denying that meant denying aviendha, and she could as easily step out of her skin.” they are literally the PERFECT throuple and min is so shoehorned in and contributes nothing positive to the relationship, and i’ll die mad about it. “aiel women, sisters or close friends, often married the same man and seldom gave him any say in the matter.” that’s not the truth, elayne. women give the bridal wreath but the man can say no. although granted i’m not sure if that’s the case for taking a second wife, i feel like i remember with melaine that they said bael didn’t have a say in it as long as dorindha wanted melaine as her sister-wife. anyway, once again rand is being left out of decisions about his own relationship smh. “she was going to marry rand, and so was aviendha, and so was min.” Oh, And Min instance #2.

“‘he is well, and he will be well,’ aviendha whispered fiercely, as if she intended to assure his survival by killing anything that threatened him. with the tips of her fingers, elayne brushed a tear from her sister’s cheek. ‘he is well, and he will be well,’ she agreed softly.” THE PERFECT THROUPLE!!! GODDAMMIT

also, it’s so sad and shitty to see how much elayne thinks about rand in her pov vs. how little he thinks about her or avi in his. granted rand is not in his prime of mental or emotional health right now and has other matters weighing on his mind (as does elayne though), but still. min’s thoughts are nothing but rand, elayne has a respectable paragraph of thoughts about him every so often, but rand thinks about her and avi for like, a dispassionate half a sentence mentioning all 3 women together.

“[when the door opened] they quickly moved a little apart, just holding hands.” and elayne worries about the rumors if someone were to see “the daughter-heir huddling in the arms of her companion” because it would make her appear weak and cowardly. but also because her ““companion”“ is actually her wife and andor is not ready for that, you can’t change my mind.

“[master ros] included aviendha in his courtesy. he had been startled by her at first, but surprisingly quick to catch their friendship, and if he did not entirely trust an aiel, it meant he accepted her.” master ros said gay rights!

“she did not insult matherin, and [master ros], by promising to remember [their loyalty] or offering rewards...matherin would receive rewards, if they were earned, but they could not be held out as if offering to buy a horse.” again, elayne is so smart about maintaining the proper appearances and understanding how various actions of hers would be perceived! she would have been such an enormous help to rand if they were allowed to interact!

“women were uncommon in jobs that required using weapons, just the occasional merchants’ guard or a rare woman who turned up in an army during time of war” this is just such a weird worldbuilding thing, especially since it seems pretty much universal across all cultures, aside from aiel maidens and saldeans (but even then warrior women are an exception rather than the rule) and seanchan. you’d think that since men are the ones who broke the world, in the ensuing 3000 years there would’ve been a cultural shift towards not trusting ANY man with weapons, not just men who can channel. i’ve seen some readers argue that randland is a matriarchy, but it really isn’t. female channelers having the power and a small number of nations having SOME matriarchal customs (andor’s succession, far madding’s women-only rules for trade and banking, and whatever the hell ebou dar has going on) hasn’t trickled down to other aspects of society at all, and the other “matriarchal” things are just men going “ugh my wife is so mean and doesn’t let me do fun stuff!” which doesn’t count. what do you want to bet that the “randland is a matriarchy” takes just come from male readers unused to seeing women have equal power in a fantasy setting rather than less power lmao

“smiling, aviendha touched elayne’s cheek. ‘i think i will learn a great deal about being a wise one from you.’ to her mortification, elayne blushed in embarrassment. her cheeks felt on fire! maybe the swings in humor were worse than the cosseting.” elayne getting blushy and flustered when avi compliments her and touches her cheek: it’s just the pregnancy mood swings, obviously.

“let him [rand] dart from giddy to weepy every other hour and see how he liked it!” i would pay all my money to see rand near enough to elayne to experience pregnancy effects via the bond 😭😭 it’s not faaaaaaiiiiir

elayne wondering if channeling could harm her baby: “surely one of the aes sedai in the palace would have said something if channeling was to be avoided in pregnancy. then again, very few aes sedai ever bore children. they might not know...it seemed very strange that they might be ignorant of something so important to most women.” a sad parallel to the poor understanding of basic aspects of women’s health throughout much of history (and still today) in our own world. thinking about ancient greek Wandering Womb lmao. and yet another example of how randland definitely isn’t a matriarchy.

elayne and avi sense nynaeve’s massive channeling to cleanse saidin and are both certain rand’s involved (and possibly under attack by black ajah or female forsaken), elayne wants to rush to his side but avi persuades her that it’s too risky since they don’t know what they might be walking into and could end up distracting/harming him rather than helping, and that from what she can recall of her visions in rhuidean she has a sense something bad will happen if the pair of them go to him now. a convenient way to keep rand in only min’s clutches, if you ask me! it’s so frustrating and shitty that rand didn’t even tell the two of them what his plan was. if they’d known he was going to cleanse saidin, they’d be able to guess that was what was going on right now and would be less worried and in the dark and would know that it would be dangerous for them to interfere. rand’s relationships with all 3 are supposed to be equal, yet he takes min everywhere and tells her everything but sneaks out on elayne and avi in the night and doesn’t tell them jack shit about where he’s going or what he’s doing. does he think they would’ve tried to go with him and Be Endangered if they knew? if so he doesn’t know them at all, because elayne has her duties to andor and avi to the wise ones that they would never just up and leave, even for him. unlike min who has nothing better to do than follow him everywhere.

“‘i don’t have anything to teach you about being a wise one, aviendha,’ she said quietly. ‘you are already much wiser than i. not to mention braver and more coolheaded.’ aviendha colored faintly under the praise - she could be very sensitive at times” aviendha praise kink? lmao. instead of blushing at every compliment from each other why don’t you two just make out and maybe you’ll calm down.

“birgitte had a headache and a sour stomach, not unusual occurrences of late, but they suited elayne’s mood all too well” elayne completing mat and rand’s holy trinity of emo melodramatic bisexuals

“i must leave him to take care of himself, she thought as she rode through. light, how often had she thought that? no matter. rand was the love of her heart and the joy of her life, but andor was her duty.” elayne and rand, my dutiful babies 😭😭😭

i really feel for elayne’s frustration over avi, birgitte, and others in her life fussing so much over her pregnancy and dictating what she does and eats and making decisions together about her behind her back and generally seeing Person With Babies In Her rather than Person when they look at her. that must feel pretty dehumanizing and condescending (and i would imagine people who’ve been pregnant irl can relate to it, unfortunately)

“she and birgitte all too often mirrored one another, physically and emotionally...she thought the mirroring must occur because they were both women.” it makes absolutely ZERO fucking sense that a warder bond would be different depending on the people’s genders!

when mellar appears: “aviendha gripped the hilt of her belt knife” she is soooo jealous of him being elayne’s fake babydaddy

“aviendha tried to wrap the towel around her own head three times, and only after the construction collapsed down her neck for the third time did she allow naris to do it, muttering about getting so soft that she soon would need someone to lace up her boots until elayne began laughing and she joined in, throwing her head back so that naris had to start over again” PURE!!!

and so we get to elayne’s infamous multi-page bath. i have absolutely 0 problems with this scene and cannot believe it’s lambasted so much lmao fandom really does love to hate anything elayne does! on the contrary, i actually really liked this scene because a) elayne has been so stressed that getting to watch her have a nice bath was very satisfying, b) she had lots of interesting thoughts about various things that are going on, and c) i find How People Bathe In Randland a much more interesting bit of worldbuilding than some other tangents rj likes to go on. it’s helpful for fics! and we learn that a) the word and concept of shampoo exists in randland and b) aiel make shampoo out of a certain plant in the waste. that’s interesting, you guys! i’d wondered before if aiel had a way to wash their hair besides sweat tents!

the most interesting of elayne’s thoughts are about her brothers! i’ve been hoping for a long time to see her think about them more. “it would be the cruelest spinning of fate for gawyn to be caught between his oaths to defend the tower and his love for egwene.” oh, wouldn’t it be, elayne? “elayne did not resent his decision to aid elaida; he could not have known enough then to make any other choice. a good many sisters had been confused over what was happening too. a good many still seemed to be. how could she ask gawyn to see what aes sedai could not?” yes! that is near verbatim EXACTLY what i’ve been thinking and saying this whole time! vindication! if no one else has got me and gawyn i know elayne’s got us.

“she had grown up unable to like [galad], sure he must resent her, and resent gawyn most of all. galad had to have thought he would be first prince of the sword one day, until gawyn was born...she remembered [in her earliest childhood memories] being afraid he would break open gawyn’s head with the practice blade.” interesting to get some more insight into elayne’s deep-seated mistrust of galad. and a small parallel to tuon being plotted against by her own siblings, tho ofc galad would never actually do any harm to elayne or gawyn and so elayne’s worries aren’t justified. still, royal families are complicated!

“galad fancied nynaeve, or had for a time” HOLD UP WHAT let’s play a game called “am i misremembering again, is rj relationship retconning again, or is our narrating character misinterpreting someone else’s romantic situation again” jfkgjh

“she could not condone him being a child of the light, she could not like him, yet she hoped that he was safe and well. she hoped he found his way home to caemlyn too. news of him would have been nearly as welcome as news of gawyn. that surprised her, but it was true.” ❤️❤️ trakand family reunion when??

“[some sisters were] waiting to see whether egwene or elaida would end with the amyrlin seat before they declared themselves. that was wrong - an aes sedai should stand for what she thought was right without worrying over whether she was choosing the winning side!” elayne! baby! ❤️❤️ she is so good and principled and courageous!

“not that elayne had concerns about rand and any aes sedai” oh boy elayne lmao this poor woman has been given 0 information about her boyfriend’s life and it hurts me so bad!

the sea folk interrupt their baths and aviendha just stays naked for the entire meeting with them jdkfjg queen shit

“i was taking a bath. i will be taking a bath again as soon as you go. i will speak with you when i have finished taking my bath. if it pleases the light.” let elayne take her bath 2k22

“‘my sister has you by the ear, zaida din parede,’ aviendha chortled, slapping her thigh. ‘hung up by the ankles, in fact.’” and after elayne successfully out-bargained zaida (that’s my girl!) “aviendha grinned, obviously impressed.” aviendha is such a THAT’S MY WIFE sort of person, bless her!

awwww aviendha drinks a cup of elayne’s pregnancy-mandated gross weak bitter tea in solidarity with her and later on sneaks honey into elayne’s tea behind birgitte’s back ❤️❤️ wife behavior!

elayne’s mad because the bathwater’s gone cold and it would take too long to get new hot water. can’t she just channel it to heat it back up??

we have another maid Breathing Heavily in elayne’s presence, nice, mood

aviendha wears a wetlander silk dress to accompany elayne to meet with high seats as a favor to elayne and so she’ll help elayne make a good first impression 🥺 wife behavior! [elayne speaking] “‘those colors look beautiful on you.’ it was true, but aviendha blushed. compliment her on how well she shot a bow or how fast she could run, and she took it as no more than her due, but she had difficulty coming to grips with the fact that she was beautiful. that was a part of herself she had managed to ignore, till recently.” a) aviendha Once Again blushing at compliments from elayne, b) elayne canonically thinks avi is beautiful, c) this is fueling my demi aviendha headcanon (in a previous book elayne had mentioned how she had to teach avi about flirting and romance since avi Didn’t Understand Those Things and had never had any interest in them before rand. wait a minute i am just now realizing the implications of elayne teaching avi about flirting and romance jkdfjg LADIES)

“[dyelin] was bemused by aviendha and elayne adopting one another as sisters, by elayne having an aiel friend in the first place. that elayne chose to include that friend in their counsels was something she tolerated. though not without letting her toleration show.” dyelin did not say gay rights

“‘one of the men he hands his reports to left the city and hasn’t returned yet, while it appears the other broke his leg. the streets are always icy where a fire has been put out.’ she said that so blandly, it seemed more than likely she had engineered the man’s fall somehow. hard times uncovered hard talents in the most surprising people.” GODDAMN MISTRESS HARFOR she’s joining verin, lini, and sorilea on the list of Iconic Old Ladies Who Get Shit Done (cadsuane is excluded)

“tracing that gold back to arymilla or elenia or naean would require mat cauthon’s luck.” elayne thought about mat! if only he were here to contribute his luck to her cause.

“sometimes you had to laugh if only to keep from crying” and now elayne is showing some Mat Life Philosophy :’)

“elayne reached out and took her sister’s hand, and when aviendha tried to let go after one squeeze, she held on. after a brief hesitation, aviendha clung, too. in a strange way, having aviendha there had comforted elayne for the loss of rand; she was not only a sister but a sister who also loved him. they could share strength and make each other laugh when they wanted to cry, and they could cry together when that was needed.” THE PERFECT THROUPLEEEEEEEEE also, i don’t know how many layers of sand someone would have to bury their head under to see avilayne’s relationship as entirely platonic and heterosexual at this point like good GOD and also #2, it’s SUCH a glaring contrast to their relationships with min, and a sad one.

monaelle the wise one comes in and conducts a magic ultrasound on elayne. good to know that prenatal care does exist in wotworld, if only among wise ones. and elayne finds out she’s having twins! “two! elayne shared a wide smile with aviendha. she could almost feel her sister’s delight. she was going to have twins. rand’s babies.” 🥺🥺❤️❤️

i’m at the point where i feel like i’m experiencing homophobia every time rj calls them sisters jfkgjh

apparently the ability to channel protects you from morning sickness? that is very weird and just feels like Plot Convenience so that elayne can be pregnant while still carrying out her plotline unencumbered by morning sickness lmao

“sumeko’s massive bosom heaved as she drew a deep breath” elayne notices bosoms almost as much as mat i swear to god. and that’s the end of elayne’s portion, so i will leave you with that observation hfgjh

#wot #wot book spoilers

[mermaidsirennikita]

I have so many books on my tbr and so many books checked out on Libby but now all I want to do is reread Duke of Midnight and revel in Maximus and Artemis (their names are just perfect) and their craziness I hope you're happy with yourself...

I mean?? I'm doing a selective Maiden Lane reread on audiobook (I didn't listen to any of them on audio the first go and it's a good way to cover time and get 'er done) and I can't wait for Duke of Midnight. And because of my shock and horror at the Duke of Midnight prejudice Target seems to have... I did reread the sex scenes in that book today. And honestly? Some of the most lit Elizabeth Hoyt has written?

In part because, like, obviously... Maximus... lets loose... during sex in a way that he can't during his everyday life, which of course aligns well with the book's primary conflict, which is that he has done a lot to preserve and maintain his status and appearance... But he actually doesn't *like* any of it, and he's only really himself with Artemis OR when he's doing his crazy Georgian Batman shit. He's dead inside whenever he's being the Duke of Wakefield, but he's so committed to it. And while it's easy to pitch this as a cold, stern duke book, when you reread especially it's so clear that he is IN LOVE with Artemis really early on. Like, boyishly besotted with her. Like, he thinks that everything she does is the most adorable bullshit ever, and she's A Goddess, and he's here to worship her, and it's FAB. The scene where they have sex for the first time is one I remember initially reading and being like, oh okay, he's getting her off but once it's time to put it in he's being a little rough with her, and like... It is a little rough, and I initially read that as pure kinky vibes~ but when I reread it? He's actually pretty careful with her despite being all worked up, but when he starts to put it in he looks at her to check in and she looks back and RAISES HER EYEBROW IN CHALLENGE LMAO. And that's when he grins at her and starts going the fuck in harder. It's their weird little game! Their weird crazy one-upmanship thing!

And honestly, why wouldn't he be in love with her? Artemis is a great heroine. Quiet and very dignified, but also like... driven to reunite with Apollo, and so ready to just let herself enjoy something. The fact that she just waltzes up to Maximus in the middle of the night basically like "oh no, well I guess you might as well fuck me while we're here" is just... the kind of thing I love in a heroine. And while she's very impressed with him and wants to have him and so on, I feel like... There's this thing you see with virgin heroines especially where they're like, "oh, I'm actually not good enough for him, how did I get this man to worship me". While Artemis just ACCEPTS HIS WORSHIP. Like the scene where he like, sits down in front of her chair and just... goes to town lmao. She's very excited by this development, but there's really no maidenly "omg what's he doing" or "Dear Penthouse, I can't believe this happened to me" shit. I think from her POV she actually is like "he's not gonna scare me into stopping this" or something. She's just basking in his adoration because Artemis! Deserves! Anyway, definitely one of the best pussy-eating scenes I've ever read, he's described as "a priest worshipping at an altar" and I dig that shit.

And then they move to the floor so that she can ride him and he's freaking out and she's all "would u like some help w your pants uwu". It's LIT.

Anyway, it's a great book, and honestly criminally underrated as most Elizabeth Hoyt masterpieces are, and I'm gonna reread it in full soon.

#romance novel blogging #like artemis breathes in this book and maximus is all ''FASCINATING''

[yaworldchallenge]

About the YA World Challenge

This blog combines my fondness for YA fantasy with the geography geek in me. Add a little Virgo list-making obsessiveness, and the YA(ish) Book World List was born.

You can find the full list on this Google spreadsheet:

The Master List

The list consists of 197 countries of the world, plus 8 territories, and separate entries for England, Scotland and Wales. For each entry, I selected up to 4 YA (young adult)-ish books. I chose native authors when possible, though it was not always possible to find works in English.

Ebooks

I attempted to only find books with ebooks available since that’s my reading preference, though availability of some may come and go (as I found even while I was constructing the list). The spreadsheet has links to Kindle and OpenLibrary where available, but you should also check your local library's ebooks.

I now link to Bookshop.org with each book post, which has audiobooks and sometimes ebooks, and more importantly, supports small indie book stores!

Ish?

You'll notice that "ish" on YA-ish. The books vary from middle grade to teen to early 20s coming-of-age stories. With an occasional adult book thrown in when nothing else was available. Books and genres are as varied as the countries they come from, so it was impossible to be too strict.

Genres

I favored fantasy whenever possible, just because that's my preference. The list has a huge range of genres, however, including romance and adventures, memoirs and mysteries. Find the tag list here, that is ever growing as I add individual country entries to the blog.

Contribute

I am always looking for suggestions! If you know a great book to represent a particular country, including new stuff coming out, send me a message!

Challenge

"How do I do the challenge?" Any way that you want! There are no rules. Pick 10, 30, or 100 books, and read around the world! You don't have to choose a particular order. Your books don't have to be the same as my list. You can post your updates and reviews with the tag #YA world challenge which I’ll (try to) check once in a while.

Have fun and read with me! :D

#about #ya books #book tumblr #reading challenge #ya world challenge #updates

[monsterlibrarian]

Title: Storm Front (Audiobook)

Author: Jim Butcher

Genres: fantasy, mystery

Source: libby ebook (audiobook)

Rating: ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️

Comments: i wasn't sure how best to get the photo for this post, since even though i checked the audiobook out on my phone i ended up listening through the libby site on my computer instead. another reason to hate libby since it was so unresponsive and took ages to play or pause whenever i clicked the button. anyway, i figured the phone version is easier to read and has less wasted width space than the computer version, so i'll slide by on this technicality since it ultimately looks nicer. as for the book, it served its purpose of being something to listen to while minecraft tunneling pretty well. i liked that the magic seemed so large and that there was more to how it all worked than what was shown. alluding to the other parts in motion made the depth of it feel realistic. i thought the description of the crime scenes was cool (in a kind of gross horror way) and though i got lost at a point or two, i was still able to follow the investigation of the mystery pretty well. i felt kind of disappointed overall about the characters; the ones i liked the most or wanted to see more of were given rather little time in the spotlight and got harsh treatment. i wasn't really a fan of the main character even by the end of the book. every time i started to come around on thinking maybe he wasn't so bad, he'd go out of his way to say or do something sexist, homophobic, or just generally kind of creepy. he's clever and skilled with his magic, so it's interesting to see how he confronts problems, but when he's spending time with any of the many attractive women he encounters during the investigation he can't seem to go a single conversation without being a sleaze. the double standard of harry saying/doing sexual things or describing these women in a very sexualized way and this is supposed to read as him being cool or suave or an otherwise generally good character trait compared to the women characters who pursue sexuality being attacked or shamed or straight up killed throughout the story... this is the point in my review where i grab the author by the shoulders and shout as loud as i can, "be normal about women!!!!!!" i was told recently that the series starts getting good around the third book, and i really hope that also includes this aspect. it has the potential to be cool and has good enough worldbuilding bones that i kept forgetting it was set in chicago. i do plan on continuing to listen since i've still got more tunnels to dig, but i don't know that i'd recommend this book based on the standalone experience i've had with it. if the rest of the series improves or otherwise earns my trust, then yes. if every sympathy point earned contiues to be quickly redeemed for a grating yuck moment, then no. we'll see! i will say that it was fun to listen to as an audiobook though, and i got a smile whenever the reader (actor?) took a word at an unusual pace or mispronounced something or at one point creaked a chair in the background. it just made it feel very human and like the story was being told to me rather than beamed into my brain. it's a nice sense of connection that isn't a part of visually reading a text and i wasn't expecting to find here!

[alfpogz]

Introduction, Currently Reading, Links etc.

Introduction:

Hello! I'm alfpogz, and this is my new booklr! I've started it because I want to get into the habit of reading, and I feel like recording my reading activity and blogging about the books I'm reading will hold me accountable to actually read and finish books, and make me want to do it more. It's not that I dislike reading; I actually really like books and analysing them, because I'm a lover of stories in general. I studied A level English literature, and I plan on studying English literature at university when I end up going (whenever that may be), so I must like reading enough. I've just found it really difficult to make reading into a consistent habit. There have been times where I've read like 50 pages of a book in one night, then I won't pick up the book for another few months, then I'll feel like I'll have to reread the pages I've already read, which makes me really not want to read if it means losing the progress I've made (I've started RWRB like three times and still haven't finished it because it's too long for my feeble brain).

I have 50+ (approx.) books on my shelf that I've bought but have not yet read or finished. So, I'm aiming to get through at least 15 of those in 2024, and read at least 30 books in total. There are also some books I want to reread.

Another main reading goal of mine next year is to find a favourite book, or a group of books I can consider favourites. There are definitely contenders for that title, like the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (basic, I know), but honestly I haven't read enough books for me to say for sure.

Finally, I actually want to get around to (re)starting and finishing Red White and Royal Blue. I swear to god I'll finish it in 2024. If I read 30 books and not one of them is Red White and Royal Blue I will be a failure (that's mostly a joke).

Anyway, here's a few facts about me. I'm 18, use they/he/she pronouns, and I'm from England. I really like watching movies and TV shows (check out my Letterboxd, also alfpogz). I'm way more interesting on my main blog (mx-piggy), I promise!

Reading goal progress:

Books read

1/30

Impulse buys gathering dust read

0/15

Have I finished Red, White and Royal Blue yet?

No!

Contenders for my favourite book

TBD

Currently reading:

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle (narrated by Stephen Fry)

Chapter 5 (of A Study in Scarlet)

Started: 7th December 2023

Listening to audiobook, not from library.

Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama (and various poets)

Page 54

Started: 4th February 2023

Book is borrowed from library, eBook.

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

Chapter 4

Started: 7th February

Book is borrowed from library, eBook.

Reading logs:

2023 reading log

2024 reading log

2024 fanfic reading log

#bookblr #booklr #books #reading #books and reading

[rainyblue]

1/5/2023

I decided to start a little reading journal to keep track of my thoughts about all the books I plan to read this year. My goal is pretty hefty - 50 books over 365 days. At present, I feel pretty good about this goal. Last year, I read 37 books, not counting the ones that I DNF'd halfway through.

But I don't want books to become just something to get through in order to reach a quota, words and meanings fading away as soon as a book has fulfilled its purpose of being counted toward my yearly goal. Hence, a reading journal, to remind me of why I read in the first place - for fun, to learn something new, to connect, and learn to think more deeply.

So, here are some of my most recent reads and my thoughts on them:

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese (dec 17-20, 2022)

This was my pick for The Afictionados for the month of December. I have mixed thoughts about it.

Oh btw, this reading journal gon' have spoilers. Spoiler alert.

My favorite part of the book was the developmental journey of the main character, Isobel. At the start of the book, she is quite naïve and unsure of herself, which gets her into some bad situations, like getting married to a deadbeat 16th-century-equivalent of a Doterra salesman who steals her money and then disappears, leaving her alone in a brand new country. She ends up supporting herself using her talents as an embroiderer and seamstress, although that situation is also pretty sketchy. She also winds up in an affair with fictional Nathaniel Hawthorne, portrayed here as an emo fuckboy. He gets Isobel knocked up and then won't take responsibility for the child, even threatening to expose her synesthesia (which would have gotten her labeled a witch back in the day) to keep her silent.

As shitty as her situation is, Isobel learns an important but hard lesson, which is: men ain't shit and the only person you can trust is yourself and your Sisters from Other Misters. And Captain Darling *swoon*

The parts that I didn't enjoy so much: all the chapters about the Salem witch trials (which I felt had a very hazy connection to the central storyline, witch mania aside), and the chapters told from the POV of Isobel's ancestress, her namesake, Isobel Gowdie. I honestly can't remember that much of the book since I found them quite boring and I mentally checked out whenever the book got to those parts.

Another thing that got me was the predictability of the storyline, which I guess is just par for the course for a book that is a reimagining of The Scarlet Letter. Having already read that book and knowing the story of Hester Prynne, there was zero shock that Nat decided not to marry Isobel when she got pregnant. I found the writing to be very beautiful, and this was a very moody, atmospheric novel, but at times, I felt tired following the book's slow march toward a climax that I already knew about.

Still, any book is fun to read when I read it with The Afictionados. 3.5/5

Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang (dec 20-25, 2022)

Well, what I can say. My good sis Rebecca has done it again.

I will say, though, that this one was a bit tougher to get through for me, mainly just because of how big it was. I'm a big fan of 300-page fantasy, but this one was over 500 pages and nearly 24 hours long on audiobook. An adjustment for me, for sure.

But, having finished reading it now, I do feel like the emotional payoff would not have been as effective if the book were shorter, if any of the scenes had been cut.

There were a lot of parts in this book that resonated with me as I recalled my own time as a woman-of-color in college, studying English Literature. Colonialism was a big topic that came up in a lot of my classes, both as an English Lit student and an Asian Studies student, but I think the way that the topic is tackled in Babel really brought the evils of empire-building to life for me in a way that reading a bunch of essays in school didn't.

I especially remember a moment in my Asian History class when we were examining Japanese colonialism in Korea in the early 20th century, when we were reading an article about how the Japanese improved roads and infrastructure in Korea after they annexed the country in 1910 and literacy rates increased and all this other "good" stuff. At the time, I thought it was good that the Koreans got some better roads and better buildings, infrastructure and educations and all that, but then as we examined the situation some more, we got to see how all the "good" that Korea got out of colonization was only to further strengthen Japanese encroachment on the country.

The same kind of nuance is examined in Babel, too. The main character, Robin, loves his idyllic life at Oxford, studying, having tea, hanging out with friends, living the dark academia dream, yet because he is Chinese, this institution will never really see him as a legitimate Oxfordian (or even really human, tbh), and robin recognizes that although he's been given the privilege to live and work there and get an amazing education, everything he's gained from Oxford - his education, his career - has only ever been a way to make him a tool for even further colonization.

Maybe I should've seen the sad ending coming, having just finishing The Burning God, but it still made me emotional. Thinking about it now, though, any sort of happy ending would have felt unrealistic or too easy given everything that Robin would've had to do in order to get the ending he wanted.

Anyway, R. F. Kuang is one of my favorite authors. 5/5.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (dec 28-30, 2022)

Magical realism isn't my favorite genre, but I think it's done pretty well in this book. Although I feel like it dragged a bit in the middle, I thought it was, overall, a very cute, heart-warming read about an octopus that helps a long lost grandmother and grandson find each other.

A very sweet time. 4/5.

Lobizona by Romina Garber (jan 3-4, 2022)

I'm also doing The Storygraph's Read the World Challenge, and one of the prompts is to read a book set in/from Argentina. I picked this YA book about an undocumented teen who discovers that she has a rare magical ability - she is a lobizona, a werewolf. She gets whisked off to a magical summer camp/Hogwarts-esque type of place where she learns to control her powers and unlock the secret of her parentage.

I do still love YA books, but I do find a lot of them corny nowadays. I did feel that way about this one at some points throughout the book, but maybe that's just because I am finding myself leaning away from anything with romance recently. Being that this book is about teenagers, you can bet that there's a lot of romancing and horniness going on.

One thing that I did like about this book, however, was the way it handled the plight of undocumented people. In the book, the main character Manu has had to live a shrunken existence in order to not be discovered, either by ICE or by the cazadores, because she's both an undocumented person living in the US and a hybrid human-lobizona. The parts of the book where Manu reflects on this experience were the parts that I felt were the most moving.

Overall, I liked it, but maybe I am outgrowing the YA genre. 3.75/5.

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (jan 4-5, 2022)

Man, I need to read more books in which women have good sex lol.

This was another book that I read for the Read the World Challenge, this one being from Norway. It's set in 16th century Norway and follows two women. Maren Magnusdatter lost her brother, father, and fiance in a freak storm that also killed all the men in the village, leaving the women to fend for themselves. Ursa is the wife of the village's new commissioner who is hell bent on ridding the village of witchcraft by any means necessary. Witch mania ensues, and also, lesbians.

I normally don't shy away from dark, depressing stories, but this one just got me for some reason. Of course, awful things happen, like neighbors accusing each other of witchcraft and women being branded with hot irons, dunked naked into freezing oceans, strangled with rope, and burnt at the stake for wearing trousers instead of skirts. But it's Ursa, trapped in a suffocating marriage with an ultra-radical Christian man 20 years her senior, who depresses me the most.

Still, I was curious about how the events would unfold, and if Ursa and Maren would finally get together. The neighbor characters were infuriating, and it was scary recognizing their hysteria and righteousness from my own many years of going to church.

This one's a 3.75/5 for me.

Up next, we've got The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix, and I am still slowly making my way through Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I'll also be reading Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven at some point this month. More bookish thoughts coming soon.

Also, maybe I should read fewer witchy books? They can be fun, but also depressing. Who knows?

[greysrocks]

Alexa daily volume reset

#ALEXA DAILY VOLUME RESET FULL#

You can resume the audio book by saying, “Alexa, resume“. You can replace “A Game of Thrones” with the name of the audio book you want to listen to.Īudiobooks are usually quite long, and if you need to pause your audiobook, you can simply say, “Alexa, pause“, and Echo will pause the audio book. If you have purchased an audio book from Audible, you can ask Alexa to read it out to you by saying, “Alexa, Play A Game of Thrones on Audible“. Play Audiobooks from AudibleĪudible is an audiobook service from Amazon, and they have a wide collection of audiobooks that you can play through your Alexa enabled devices. Note: While the Echo can add items to your to-do list, you will have to go into the Alexa app to actually remove the items from your to-do list.Īnother variation of this command is “Alexa, read my shopping list“.Īlexa Commands for Audiobooks 1. You can replace “create website backup” with the task that you want to add to your to-do list. If you want to add tasks to your to-do list, simply say, “Add create website backup to my to-do list“, and Echo will add it to your to-do list. Add Tasks to Your To-Do ListĪlexa can also create to-do list for you. Just say, “Alexa, remind me to buy milk, 4 PM tomorrow.” To-Do and Shopping Lists 1. Just say, “Alexa, what am I doing tomorrow?” Or “Alexa, What’s on my calendar for on Tuesday” and it will show you the events for that particular day.Īlexa can also create reminders for you. I also love the fact that not only I can see my schedule for today but also see the forecast for the following days it I want to. For example, I can say, “Alexa, add dentist appointment on Monday 4 PM to my calendar” and it will create an event called dentist appointment at the exact time and date that I just dictated. You can even dictate specific time and date, and Alexa will make the event at the exact time and date that you dictate. Just say, “Alexa, add “this event” to my calendar”. You can either manually add things to your calendar or just Alexa to do it for you. Of course, to be able to see your schedules, you will need to add events and meetings to your calendar. Other variations of this command are “Alexa, what time is it?“, “Alexa, tell me the time“ and more. This can prove useful in a variety of situations, and if you want to use this command, simply say, “Alexa, what’s the time?“, and Echo will speak out the current time. Get the Current TimeĪmazon Echo devices can tell you the time as well. Other variations of this command are: “Alexa, set volume to 5“, “Alexa, change volume to 50%“, etc. You can use a value between 0-10 in the command to go from 0% to 100%. In such situations, you can simply say, “Alexa, volume 5” to set the volume to 50% of the maximum value. If you use the commands given above, you might have to repeat them multiple times. Increasing or decreasing the volume by the commands given might suffice for some situations, but what if you want to increase the volume to a particular value. Other variations of this command are: “Alexa, lower volume“, “Alexa less sound“ etc. For example, I can say, “Alexa, play Jazz playlist on Spotify” and it will do that. You can also ask Alexa to play specific playlists. Just say commands like, “Alexa, play “insert song name” or “Alexa, play “song” on Spotify” and it will do that. Whether you are using Amazon Music or a third-party streaming service like Spotify, you can use your voice to play songs with Alexa. Using Alexa to play songs is the easiest thing to do with Alexa. Let us start our list with the command that you are going to use the most and that is playing music on your Echo speakers. Check your country’s status by clicking on the links provided in the article. Note : Some of these features are restricted to US only. So, whenever you are ready, here are 70 best Alexa commands you can use to get the most out of Amazon Echo speakers: That’s why we are bringing you a curated list of the best Alexa commands which you can use to get the most out of your Amazon Echo speakers. However, it’s easier said than done as there are just unlimited commands out there.

#ALEXA DAILY VOLUME RESET FULL#

If you want to take full advantage of your Alexa speaker you will need to keep with the new commands. For me, one of the best things about Alexa is that it’s constantly evolving, with new features and commands being added every other week.

#Alexa daily volume reset

[corystssides]

What I’ve learned from four years of college is mostly that I’m actually kind of a minimalist and I feel most comfortable when I have few enough things that I can move out of a place in two hours.

#cory chats #college stuff #the biggest conflict i have is between owning few things and also loving clothes and books lmao #like yeah i could live with a capsule wardrobe but i also like having costumes #the good news about books is i have overdrive and a library cars #*card #and so i can just check out audiobooks whenever i want #and that helps keep the number of books i have down #cuz im not really the kind of person who reads books multiple times #there’s exceptions #but probably 95% of the books i read are a 1 time deal

[adhd-attention-deficit-dumbass]

I don't know if this has been asked before but how do you deal with school subjects that require a ton of reading? I tend to space out and forget what I just read or read without really understanding anything, and screen readers don't really work for me. It's even harder when the subject in question has so many time-sensitive assignments 😭 so I really wanna know if you have tips for this

Ask a university student with ADHD: ”Reading tips and tricks”

You can check out this post for some general study advice but I’ll focus a little bit more on reading lots of texts in this one!

Luckily for you buddy I happen to be an expert on cramming lots of reading with the brain capacity of a 1980s fax machine! I'll do my best to help!

1. Look up some helpful tools 🛠

You can search for dyslexic aids even if you’re not dyslexic (though it’s very common with ADHD so consider it a possibility if you haven’t already). There a lots of different tools that can make reading feel easier. Keep trying different ones if it’s not working for you.

A few examples are:

Reading strips/reading rulers - I find these to work 50% of the time and the other 50% they are more distracting than helpful, it depends on my mood and the formating of the text.

Print your texts - You mentioned screen readers don’t work for you, well let me tell you I find text to be especially difficult to read if it’s on a screen, but the same text printed on paper? Totally fine. Consider borrowing a printer at the library or school to test if reading on paper is easier or not. 

Audiobooks - Here’s something most teachers won’t tell you: Audiobooks are totally fine! I have used audiobooks for over 70% of my work, as long as you can get a digital/physical copy for when you need to cite your sources/quotes, it’s all good in the hood. You don’t even have to tell the teacher in case they make a big deal out of it. There are lots of good places to get free audiobooks on the internet such as;

Youtube - (no, really! It’s saved me so many times!)

Librivox.org - (they also got an App!)

Remember to check with your school/institution if they have any accomodations available! My university offers text reading programs, digital texts, computer rooms, small quiet study rooms for people who get easily distracted. Have a look about, not just at your school, but your local library/area, there are so many things available you might never have thought of. the key here is finding out what works for you.

2. Timers ⏱

One thing I do is set timers every 30-60 minutes depending on how I’m feeling that day. If reading feels super hard one day, I might only set a 15 min timer, and after it runs out I can take a break if I want to - but what usually happens is that I actually want to keep reading because I’m in the zone. It’s one of the most helpful things I do. Getting started is usually the hardest part

3. Learn how to skim

Depending on your teachers, you may have been told skimming is bad - well I'll tell ya it's not. Skimming is a valuable skill that my university teachers have been encouraging us to learn. Now personally I find skimming really hard because I can’t really focus on the text and focus on how i'm reading at the same time. Again, this is a skill you have to build, but it will be a major help once you get the hang of it, it will give you an overlook of the text and once you've skimmed it once, you can go back and take notes on the important bits.

A trick my mentor taught me is to read the beginnings and ends of paragraphs because they usually give an overview of or summarise the content.

4. How to take notes? 📝

I love taking notes and making my notebooks all neat and organised, its fun for me so it doesnt feel like work, however I can't do all that when I've got a short deadline because reading a single page and taking notes can take up to 30 minutes if i'm not catreful.

This depends on what works for you, but I've tried two methods to combat this.

The first is really easy. Whenever you read something you feel like you should take note of, just take one of these bad boys

(picture: info index/those small sticky notes you put in books)

And put it right there, now you know where you need to look later for important information. (Dont overdo it though! It gets expensive real quick! )

Remember "important" and "interesting" is not always the same thing. If you have the energy for it, you can even use different colours for different things.

A few cathegory examples:

Important themes/topics/people

definitions

examples

random stuff that really stuck with me,

things I want to ask questions about

explainations that really helped me understand the subject better

It's by no means neccessary but nevertheless, the sticky notes will help you note important passages without having to spend lots of time taking notes.

Method #2 Is to limit the amount of notes you take.

For example say you can only take one note per page or every three pages, this will prevent you from getting stuck in note-taking swampland like I usually do because you can't write down everything like you might want to.

Some general tips include exercising before you study/exercise more in general, practice meditation/mindfullness and learn some CBT. 

That’s all for now! I hope it was helpful to you in some way! Again make sure to check my other posts for more study tips.

Good luck reading ADHD peeps! 📖

#adhd #adhdblr #adhd post #adhd advice #adhd study tips #ADHD studyblr #study with adhd #study tips

[heywriters]

hiya! im a retired bookworm that’s become mentally exhausted by reading more than 2 paragraphs at a time, but i still enjoy writing poetry and want to improve and expand my vocabulary. i’ve tried reading more but with where my life is at, i don’t rly have enough justification to burn myself out for the day bc i’d been reading for too long. if u have any advice for me i’d greatly appreciate it. thank u sm!!

Hello! Regrettably, I have the same problem. I picked up some nonfiction the other day, liked it, but probably won't finish it. There are simply too may other things to do.

My best advice is, get into audiobooks. Don't spend money on rentals or downloads, just go to your local library's website. They usually have audiobook download services. My mother has used the apps Hoopla and Overdrive to listen to books while she works from home. You can also check out books on CD and upload them into your computer library, so you never have to worry about expiration/return dates.

As for expanding your vocabulary, naturally it depends on the author. I found myself keeping a dictionary nearby while reading Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" series. I also appreciate international authors for using regional and cultural terms that I have to look up. Any novel where I'm entertained and learning something new is a plus!

Whenever you're not reading, I hope you can find other things to keep your imagination busy, like music and movies. Also, make a list of books for later. Read reviews and ask friends for suggestions on what to read for your next "rainy day." Even if you never get back into the bookworm habit, a good book every now and then will still feel refreshing!

—

+ Please review my pinned Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you.

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee!

#reading #answer

[hunxi-after-hours]

O Soul, have you watched the SVSSS donghua? If so (or whenever you do), can you talk about it? (and oi, not just about Wu Lei's Wu Lei-ness, 'kay? Ofc, that too! But More 'cuz I adore your posts!)

sldkfjsldjkf ANON I can't believe you called me out and dragged me like that in a public forum because......... you're completely right............ I definitely would have made this entire post about Wu Lei if you hadn't intervened........................................

okay but listen, Wu Lei really makes this show work because the entirety of SVSSS pivots around the central character of Shen Qingqiu, so you have to, you absolutely have to get someone who can pull off the range of "internal disaster constantly in the middle of a metafictional meltdown" and "external badass who's a bit of a bitch but consistently cool as a cucumber" (one might even say, a peerless cucumber, great okay I'll see myself out now)

the POINT I'm trying to make is that a lesser voice actor might not have been able to conduct those hairpin-reversals at the speed of incredulity as well as Wu Lei does, but he has such an incredible range (as well as like, pitch and breath control, and crisp yet expressive high-speed enunciation, and — I'll stop now). the number of times I've idly pulled up the first episode to just re-listen to the opening monologue... many. many times. never fails to bring a smile to my face. I don't even watch the sequence I just put it on in the background while, like, kneading dough or whatever

okay, but credit where credit is due — the voice director, naturally, but also the scriptwriter! I feel like SVSSS is a particularly challenging text to adapt because honestly? I'd say a solid 70% of it resides in Shen Qingqiu's wackass internal narration, which is wildly difficult to translate into a visual medium. so for the scriptwriter to go at the original text with, well, a handsaw and select only the choicest of his 吐槽 roasts is quite the feat since there is SUCH a wealth to choose from

what else, let's see... ahahaha I guess we can talk about the animation, which for the record I am quite fond of! pre-February of this year, I was skeptical of 3D wuxia/xianxia animation, but SHJX completely sold me on it so I was game for the SVSSS donghua. and honestly, 3D animation works super well for SVSSS because they can really lean into the ways 3D animation is reminiscent of video games, and, well (waves vaguely) System. even the endearingly cringey elements of it (bless their hearts, they tried on their fight choreography but they certainly did not have the budget of SHJX sdlkfjsdklf) played into the overall irreverent tone of SVSSS. these lines are stereotypical/awkward/flat-out dumb? satire! the design/animation/movement choreography is mediocre? satire! they really can't lose here, which makes it a manic kind of delightful

my main gripe with the donghua I guess would be the pacing because... sldkfjsldkj yeah it's, uh, terrible. also they clearly ran out of money partway through? again, bless their hearts — I suspect that their original outline took season 1 through the abyss-yeet (thus, the fact that they had the designs and recordings necessary for the post-credits stinger) , and if my suspicions are correct, season 2 will cover everything up to chapter 43 because... c'mon, it's the perfect moment for a season break. well, I shan't hold their shoestring budget against them because they really got quite far on it, and also got renewed for season 2!!! go them!!!

tl;dr the SVSSS donghua is fun!!! I'm hype for season 2!!! I desperately want an audiodrama of SVSSS with 原班人马!!! but in the meantime I've found the audiobook just like, on YouTube, which is 1) a slightly different brand of batshit wild and 2) I mean... (checks audiobook queue) yeah I can jettison all of my library books in favor of this, right? right then what could possibly go wrong

#跪求完结FT啊 #what can I say I'm a simple person I just want to hear voice actors talk shit about their characters #hunxi thinks about SVSSS #okay well technically this should be 'hunxi thinks about CYZJZN' #I kinda love the donghua title it's fun #anyway 毛毛老师。。。。。。请受我一拜

[bookaddict24-7]

I said at the beginning of the year that I would share my reviews more on my blog instead of just on Instagram and Goodreads. I’ve been reading a lot so far this year, so my reviews will be delayed on here. I upped it to 10 reviews per post so I can do most of the reviews before the end of the year!

Friend me on Goodreads here to read my reviews in real-time!

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156. The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was craving a re-read of this because I never finished the series and I loved it just as much as the first time! I'm always recommending this series to fans of the I Am Number Four readers, and anyone who loves books that feature a ragtag group of teens fighting the evil corporation (plus, they have powers and travel around the world.) Such a great re-read!

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157. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland--⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

While I enjoyed this book, I think it was a little TOO hyped up for me. I'm part of a book club and everyone loved it and ya'll know how I am with expectations (if you've been reading my reviews for a while). I think I expected a higher level of WTF, but it was still entertaining for what it was! I enjoyed seeing the relationship between the sisters, despite their mother being hesitant about them seeing each other. The mystery was intriguing and definitely worthy of being a Reddit mystery (as referenced in the book.) I was left with a few questions about why they can do the things they do, and I think a lot of it is left for the reader's imagination. I think this could even have the potential for a sequel, since the world introduced and the multitude of characters and experiences could be expanded. It also gave me really strong Wayward Children vibes (especially with one of the items mentioned). I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a spoopy read with a super atmospheric setting. If you want a conclusion that will leave you wondering wtf did I just read? This one is the one for you!

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158. A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was so adorable! I've been meaning to check it out for a while, so when I saw that the library had the audiobook, I immediately borrowed it. I loved reading about brujeria from the perspective of a younger character and also in a more whimsical storyline. I'm really intrigued by the siblings concept and kind of want to follow this series until the MC is 15 so we can finally learn what her specialty is! There's a scene at the end between the MC and her mom that was the cutest thing ever and reminded me of my mom and me whenever I was in trouble and I did the whole, "I love you, mami" thing. I also appreciated that the MC knew that what she was doing wasn't exactly right and her conscience was quietly warning her of the fact. If you want to read a cute story about brujeria and practice your Spanish, you should pick this up! I was so happy and excited to hear the voice actress speaking in Spanish as she read out recipe lists and other dialogues. Though I was thrown off a bit with how she pronounced azucar.

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159. Honey So Sweet Vol. 2 by Amu Meguro--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a cute volume with how the two MCs are growing closer—I do think one thing was done rather quickly, but I’m also glad it was dwelled on. I can already see a love rival coming and the first hurdle this young couple will have to overcome! Can’t wait to pick up the next volume!

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160. I Cannot Reach You Vol. 1 by Mika--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SO GOOD. Omg. These two. And when the author started showing us both perspectives?? Dead. Those short bonus stories at the end? Ridiculously adorable and sweet. I just...I need the second volume. I can already tell this is going to be a slow burn that destroys me. Also that cover art and the cover art for the second volume 😍

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161. The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ah, the plot thickens! Knowing some of the things we know from this book, the next book in the series should be interesting. I feel really bad for these kids. Not only do they have a murderous jerk after them, but now the world believes a lie about them and no matter how much they explain themselves, no one believes them. It just shows an interesting perspective of how kids might view the adult world around them.

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162. The Deal by Elle Kennedy--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow, it’s been six years since I read this book! I enjoyed it for the most part—there were just a few instances that either showed this book’s age, or showed how important communication would have been. I’m doing this re-read because I recently purchased the whole series and want to actually finish it (the nostalgia hit me hard in April.) Will be starting the sequel in June!

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163. Komi Can’t Communicate Vol. 11 by Tomohito Oda--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This slow burn!!!! I love the cute scene at the beginning because it clearly shows that others see what’s happening, but these two are just being adorable and unaware. I always laugh when I’m reading this series because it’s either really silly, or really freaking cute.

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164. The Way of the House husband Vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono & Sheldon Drzka  --

This was such a fun read and so different from other mangas I’ve read! This was more a collection of events per chapter rather than one linear story. The art was alright in some scenes, but the dialogue was great and funny. Also, the househusband is lowkey kind of fine af, so that was fun—especially the opening panels.

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165. White Night by Jim Butcher--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was always told, before starting this series, that it got better as the series progressed and wow...they were right! I’m really enjoying this series and so happy I kept going past the slightly awkward first few books. I loved some of the twists and the moments between Harry and a side character I can’t mention because spoilers. I also just want these two characters to just...smooch. Ugh. Slow af burn, I tell you. Anyway, this was great and there were some pretty cool scenes where Harry just sounded like a complete badass.

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Have you read any of these titles? Would you recommend them? 

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Happy reading!

#books #bookish #booklr #bookworm #bookaholic #book blog #book blogger #Features #on books #on reading #read #reading #reader #reco #review #book review #my opinions #my writing #reviews